Our House (ITV) starts with a tantalisingly universal nightmare. Fi (Tuppence Middleton) returns home from a weekend away, spots a removal van outside her house and steps aside to let the movers pass – only for them to turn and walk right up her path. Her house has been emptied of her belongings, and a couple she has never met are moving in. They seem as baffled as she is. They tell her they picked up the keys this morning and show her a contract that bears her signature. The idea is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Only last year, a man returned to his house in Luton after working away after neighbours reported seeing someone inside; he found it gutted and in the middle of renovations because it had been sold without his knowledge. In such an impossible situation, what would you do?
It’s a good question, but one the opening episode doesn’t really try to answer. Instead, this four-parter, an adaptation of Louise Candlish’s 2018 novel, is standard ITV thriller territory, perfectly watchable, basically functional, if not particularly fresh. Whatever the TV equivalent of landfill indie is, this is it. It’s the kind of song that gets stuck in your head, because the first time you hear it, you feel as if you’ve heard it a hundred times before. Fi walks around her empty former home repeating “This is my house”, and, given that I watched every single episode of the surprise BBC gameshow hit of that name, I couldn’t help but start to sing its theme tune.
