A pattern is developing with Channel 5’s week-long dramas. First come the red-top titles like Cold Call, Intruder, Too Good to be True, and The Ex-Wife.

Second, the lead character is female and overwrought to the point she fears madness taking hold. Her tormentors are invariably men who are fully paid up members of the Terry Thomas Absolute Shower Club.

Third, said woman is played by Sally Lindsay, as seen in Cold Call, Intruder, and now Love Rat (Channel 5, Monday-Thursday), the latest offering in what I hereby name the second Mrs de Winter/mad woman slot.

Am I right or am I too going mad, mad I tell you, gaslit by Channel 5’s drama commissioners?

You could tell early doors that Emma (Lindsay) was in for a hard time because she was divorced and looking too happy about it. With the lioness’s share of the house money in her account, and her whiny ex (Neil Morrissey) finally out the door, she got on a plane to Cyprus for a holiday.

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Barely pausing to unpack, our Shirley Valentine found a handsome local charmer, slept with a handsome local charmer (same one), and transferred all her money to him. Something about a bridging loan on a swish villa he was buying. By the time the penny finally dropped the money had gone and he had skedaddled.

Our Emma could have fled home, hurt and embarrassed like the other victims of the scam, but she opted instead to become Liam Neeson. Like the hero of Taken, she used her very particular set of skills - which in her case included running very slowly and dispensing good hard shoves - to get her money back.

Love Rat was preposterous, but it knew it was preposterous, so that’s okay, isn’t it? Up to a point. You had to admire the sheer number of twists crammed in, even if one was dafter than the next.

But some honourable exceptions aside there was some dodgy acting on display here. While it was a neat touch to make Emma an anti-Shirley Valentine, the way she fell so easily into the trap left the character with too much credibility to recover in the short time available.

You didn’t have to be mad to stay up half the night to watch The Oscars Live (ITV1/ITVX/STV Player, Sunday-Monday), but you probably had to strain a fair few sinews.

Taking over the event from Sky was a big deal for ITV. Not that you would have known it. In London, Jonathan Ross and his panel of far from A-list guests were broadcasting from what looked and sounded like an empty warehouse. Jonathan Ross did his best, as did panel member Fay Ripley, but there was no disguising the absence of atmosphere.

The producers were so terrified of people losing interest and switching off they came up with all sorts of increasingly desperate ways to fill the airtime, including a name that film quiz involving a flip chart and comic illustrations. Just as things were taking a turn for The Shining territory, the broadcast switched to LA and our host for the night, Jimmy Kimmel.

“This is the latest I’ve been up in years,” said Ripley as the clock showed 2.35am and the end finally arrived. Well done all for effort, but no cigars, and definitely no Oscars.

Accused: the Hampstead Paedophile Hoax (Channel 4, Monday) was introduced as “a true story based on a lie”. Over 90 minutes the documentary charted what happened after a mother of two children at a primary school in the wealthy London suburb accused other parents of being satanic paedophiles. This happened nine years ago, but it was only recently that four of those accused had chosen to speak publicly. Their words were lip-synched by actors.

The claims were so absurd one would have thought the matter would have been cleared up by the police immediately, end of story. But that didn’t allow for the worldwide web of weirdo conspiracy theorists who sent the allegations viral.

That the mothers who fought back were so confident and capable only made the tale more shocking. If it could happen to these people, went the subtext, what chance did others have against such trolls? Emily Turner and Tomasz Frymorgen’s film was occasionally on the nose (mum seen hitting a punch ball, etc) but utterly gripping throughout.

Back for a second series was The Dry (ITVX/STV Player). Nancy Harris’s Dublin-set comedy-drama about a thirtysomething alcoholic trying to hang on to her sobriety was a sleeper hit first time around.

Picking up six months after a major fall off the wagon, life continues to be a trial for Shiv (Roisin Gallagher). If anything, it is more difficult now her ma has a new boyfriend who is taking over the roost. Gallagher is terrific in a cast that also includes Ciaran Hinds and Pom Boyd as Shiv’s parents. And guess who turned up as a “hot barista” in the mould of Fleabag’s “hot priest”? Only Eric Kinsella (Sam Keeley) from Kin. Don’t worry, he’s nice this time. I think.