With ITV shooting themselves up the arse by not commissioning any, there has been a dearth of well written non-american drama mini-series on TV for bloody ages. Thank god Rupert chose to spend a few quid on The Take - it really is quite very good.

An adaptation of the Martina Cole novel, The Take follows the lives of two East End families embroiled in crime, booze, drugs, sex, death, betrayal and jealousy. 'Wild at Heart' this is not.

Spanning across 10 years, we meet Freddie Jackson (Potential BAFTA winning role from Tom Hardy) and his cousin Jimmy (Shaun Evans) and watch the creation of their crime empire and tangled web of deception. The crime though is incidental - as Freddy's simmering jealousy over Jimmy's seemingly perfect life boils into a pretty horrific finale.

Episode one takes a bit of time to get going, some moments seem forced (as often happens with book adaptations - no luxury of 50 page character introductions here!) and a few plot changes were not great decisions, but by the time you're mid way through Episode 2 you are hooked.

HM VERDICT: Fucking brilliant (Expect to see that quote on a billboard somewhere on the A4 soon).

Four broken bottles to the throat out of five.

Wednesday July 17th 9pm Sky1 HD.