There are some actors you come across that you just know are going to be in your viewing life for some time. Whatever it is, a look, an attitude, an ability to spot great material, they have “it”. Daisy Haggard, star of Boat Story (BBC1, Sunday-Monday, 9pm), fits that bill for me.

Boat Story is written by Harry Williams, Jack Williams, and Sophie Goodhart. The Williams brothers, writers of The Tourist, Missing and Liar and many another drama, are two more names that stand out in the ever more crowded schedules.

So, Haggard plus the Williams brothers, plus the chance to see again Tcheky Karyo, the Istanbul-born French actor who found fame with UK audiences by playing soulful investigator Julien Baptiste in Missing - who could resist?

It is just as well Boat Story has a lot going for it in the name recognition stakes because this is not your run-of-the-mill comedy thriller. A six-part series set in the fictional coastal town of Applebury, its eccentricities are displayed proudly from the off.

The narrator, played by Icelandic actor Olafur Darri Olafsson, starts the ball rolling in a straightforward enough fashion. “This is a story about a boat, a boat that washed up on a beach and changed a lot of lives.” Immediately one thinks of Whisky Galore, with shades of Fargo maybe. It’s on the right track but a long way from the final answer.

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Among the first people to see the boat are Janet and Samuel, two strangers who meet while walking their dogs. Janet (Haggard) was a factory worker and is local to the town. Samuel (Paterson Joseph, a lawyer, has recently moved to Applebury from London.

Next to spy the vessel is Pat Tooh (Joanna Scanlon), who speaks to the 999 operator like someone who knows their way around an emergency, but how? The pile of questions is already pretty high by the time Karyo turns up as a character named “The Tailor”, and we are only just getting started. One note of caution: Boat Story doesn’t skimp on violence.

As should be evident by now, Boat Story is a Marmite commodity, which viewers will either take to instantly, or they’ll switch over to I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! (STV, Sunday, 9pm), which is on at the same time on ITV1 (but hey, no pressure Boat Story).

Such is the wonder of catch-up you can have the best of both. I will definitely stick with Haggard, who made such a startling first impression with Back to Life in 2019. Haggard, who co-wrote the comedy drama with Laura Solon, played Miri, a woman recently released from prison after an 18-year stretch. Both series are on BBC iPlayer and highly recommended.

As is Breeders (Sky Comedy/catch-up on Now) in which Haggard plays Ally, the parent of two teenagers alongside husband Paul (Martin Freeman). A no-holds-barred take on family life, Breeders manages to be shockingly bleak but curiously hopeful at the same time.

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Also recommended is the four-part documentary series Wonderland: Gothic (Sky Arts, free to view, Tuesday, 9pm). If the title seems familiar it’s because there was a similar series last year, that one looking at children’s literature.

Written, directed and produced by Adrian Munsey (who I see also did the music), these beautifully shot and illustrated films mix interviews with academics with clips and readings. And if you think no exploration of the Gothic would be complete without Tim Burton, I’m delighted to say he turns up too.

It is left to Professor David Punter (whose name suggests a Charlie Brooker creation but isn’t), to make the introduction to all things gothic.

“We believe now that the dead are the dead, but we have a curious sense that maybe they aren’t,” says the author of The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fiction.

The term gothic has been affixed to many art forms, covering everything from Wuthering Heights and The Hound of the Baskervilles to the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and Hitchcock’s Rebecca. It’s a style, a mood, that we think we know, but do we really?

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The first episode takes the viewer from slavery’s impact on the gothic to modern day novels, via Mary Shelley, Macbeth, and today’s war in Ukraine. It’s a fascinating mix in which connections are made, and defended, by academics at the top of their game. The section on Gothic romance is particularly lively, with one commentator reminding us that Heathcliff may be the template for many a romantic hero to come, but essentially he was a stalker, wife abuser and kidnapper.

Like last year’s Wonderland, this one will have you returning to the books and films for another look. Maybe not one to watch just before sleep, though.

How do you turn a hit drama about a competition in which losers are killed into a reality show with real, live people? All will be revealed on Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix, from Wednesday). See you there.