Set in a present-day London, in a ‘this could happen tomorrow’ kind of way, The Fades is a supernatural youth drama comedy...thing. Our hero is Paul, a 17 year-old geek who wets the bed, gets bullied by his twin sister and has only one friend in the world. He also keeps having these weird dreams, that have started coming true.

While The Fades might not have the most original concept (the geek shall inherit the Earth) it is nicely executed. We find out, after a lot of confusion, that the titular fades are the spirits of the dead, who have ‘failed to ascend’. But not to Heaven, because apparently it isn’t about Heaven or Hell, it’s just about death. The un-ascended just hang around the Earth, getting angrier and shittier, and now they’re threatening to break through into the real world, which they shouldn’t be able to touch. 

If it feels like a Dr Who plot, it won’t surprise you that the series is executive produced by Caro Skinner, and the first episode directed by Farren Blackburn, both of whom are on board for the Dr Who Christmas special. 

One thing we cannot fault with this show, is the production values. It is very well put together, though it does occasionally feel a little too well-oiled, like a cut-scene from a really good computer game, especially in the dream sequences and the ill-lit, dank interiors. The fades themselves are a little disappointing. Part Voldemort, part I Am Legend, they’re wholly derivative and not actually very scary.

The cast of this show is pretty much faultless, from Tom Ellis as hapless teacher Mark, to Daniela Nardini as a magical vicar, to Paul’s cheeky, pop-culture obsessed friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya). Ian de Caestecker is great as geeky, messed up Paul, and it’s nice to see that writer Jack Thorne didn’t bring along any of the Skins crowd to play the part.

We’ll be watching at least one more episode, to give it a fair chance and, with two big new Dr Who names on the production team, we feel like it could easily find its way. We would kind of prefer that zombies-in-hospital thriller Pulse had been given a full series, after a promising pilot last year, but we’ll make do with this at least until Being Human comes back.

The Fades is on BBC3, Wednesdays at 10pm, and you can watch the first episode on iPlayer now.