The BBC's five-night First World War drama The Passing Bells (BBC One, Monday-Friday, 7pm) was created by a soap opera writer and it shows. It froths and bubbles with the conventions of the genre, including a dumb musical soundtrack that tells us when to feel SAD and HAPPY.

The programme, which stars Paddy Gibson and Jack Lowden as two young soldiers, one British, one German, also appears to be constantly impressed by what it thinks is its own ingenuity.

It features a shot of red poppy on a battlefield, for example, as if it is the most original idea in the world instead of No 1 in the list of hackneyed images of the First World War in fiction.

The only thing that's surprising about the programme is that its writer, Tony Jordan, who is well known for EastEnders, says he set out to avoid the First World War clichés.

"When I was first asked to do this, I looked at the war films that had been done before," he said. "It struck me that they'd all done the same thing and I wanted to do something different."

So why is The Passing Bells full of all the usual tick-box First World War references? As well as the poppies, there were characters saying that "it will be all over by Christmas", there was the no-man's-land football match between the British and Germans, there is the poetry of Wilfred Owen, and so on and so on. It is grimly, tiresomely familiar and unsurprising, even more so this year when the centenary of the Great War has reminded us of the best-known stories.

And why show The Passing Bells at 7pm on a weeknight? On the face of it, it looks like a good experiment because the slot is usually reserved for bland blancmange telly: shows that are not quite daytime enough for daytime but are certainly not serious enough to be shown any later. It is the safe zone where nothing exciting happens before bedtime.

In principle, drama in this safe zone is a good idea, and The Passing Bells is not entirely without some strong moments - the image of the young British soldier who once loved to draw birds struggling to draw one in the rain and mud of the trenches is a striking image.

But a war drama at 7pm is not a good choice.

The trend now is to show conflict for what it is - gory and horrible - but none of that is possible at 7pm which leaves us in the middle of a weird, bloodless, clean and tidy war. If The Passing Bells is supposed to have a message for a family audience, that is not the one to send.