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Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell join Emma Vardy to review ‘Down Cemetery Road’ - an eight-part series on Apple TV.
The show is based on the novel by Mick Herron, who wrote the Slow Horses books.

It stars Emma Thompson as Zoë, a private investigator who is hired by Sarah, played by Ruth Wilson, after a house explodes on her street and a young girl goes missing. Zoë and Sarah suddenly find themselves in a complex conspiracy…

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of it?

Emma: “Is it a Must Watch Scott?”

Scott: “It is for me. It's very much in the vein of Slow Horses. It starts with this conventional, typical, quite agonising dinner with some friends, business acquaintances, neighbours and such. And then unexpectedly, just when somebody lights a cigar, a building at the end of the road suddenly blows up.

“There's this assumption that it's down to a gas explosion but then Sarah (Ruth Wilson) who plays Sarah, starts to notice that things don’t stack up: a child survives the explosion but it isn’t clear who is going to be looking after her, She then turns up at the hospital to see her, but she’s not allowed to, which only makes her more suspicious.

“She then goes and meets ZoÑ‘, who is a private investigator played by the absolutely delightful Emma Thompson, and from that point onward it's dark, I think darker than Slow Horses.”

Scott: “I've seen some of the reactions and to some people it can seem rather all over the place, I don't have that problem. I think it is dark but is quite off beat with its humour.

“The best bit is the dynamic between Sarah and ZoÑ‘, played by Ruth Wilson and Emma Thompson, is a delight. Even though I wish there were more scenes of them together. Due to circumstances, they are quite separated.

“But overall I felt quite lucky as a reviewer that we were able to block watch episodes because so far you can only watch two [on Apple TV] whilst I watched about five over the course of the weekend because it was a real page-turner.

“It wasn't necessarily believable but I don't think it was meant to be. Overall I found it an absolutely perfect thing for this time of year. It was superb.”

Emma: “The plot really ticks along, doesn't it? And I always find that I don’t have enough hours in the day for anything. So when I sit down and watch something, I really want it to get on with the story. And I know there are some opening episodes of things where people say, “stick with it, it's laying the foundations”. I haven't got time for foundations, tell me a story.”

Emma: “Hayley, what did you make of it?”

Hayley: “I thought this was a Must Watch. I agree with everything Scott said. Although I will say the plot gets increasingly quite silly, but I didn't really care because it was all about the interplay between the characters, which is loads of fun. And the cast is incredible. There's Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson but also Adeel Akhtar who is one of those actors who when he turns up I'm thrilled.

“I don't think it's as dark as you say it is. It’s not a highbrow dark detective thriller. It's more of a funny one.”

Scott: “It is. I'm thinking tonally, in terms of maybe the subject matter and what happens to
some of the lead characters, some of the situations they're put in, they try to make fun of it
but the context is certainly darker than Slow Horses. Even though Slow Horses does have some dark moments in itself.”

Hayley: “Yeah, but it's mostly got farts.”

Hayley: “Emma Thompson gets some great lines. I think everyone gets some great lines in this. And on top of that there are also shockingly emotional, split second moments thrown in.

“There's a bit where Thompson's character walks into a room where something terrible happened and there's this split second look that she gives that is just perfect.

“The show was developed by Morwenna Banks who was one of the writers on Slow Horses and a few other things we've reviewed over the years. Also Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley wrote the fourth episode. They both won Emmys years ago for working on Veep.

“We agree this one's definitely worth a go.”

Scott: “What a coup for Apple TV. I would say they have had more consistent hits than some of their streaming rivals. I guess it comes down to whether people want to pay for another streaming service.”

The first two episodes of Down Cemetery Road are available to watch on Apple TV with a new episode on Wednesday 5th November.

This week the team reviewed 'Girlbands Forever' and 'Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter'.

But before all that, why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.