The Feud review: This silly tale of warring neighbours and planning applications verges on parody

This odd drama – a cross between a domestic thriller and a particularly difficult planning application – saw Emma (Jill Halfpenny) and John (Rupert Penry-Jones) attempt to build an extension to their kitchen without irking the neighbours.

Unfortunately, their neighbours happen to be harbouring some deep, dark secrets - possibly involving a missing son buried under an ornamental maple, extramarital affairs and dodgy deals with even dodgier builders.

On one side are Derek (James Fleet) and Barbara (Tessa Peake Jones), an older couple whose only son has left home in mysterious circumstances. Barbara spends a lot of her time sobbing in the garden, while Derek bullies and berates her.

On the other side are younger, child-free couple Alan (Ray Fearon) and Sonia (Amy Nuttall). Alan is one of those people who 'has a job', but you're never entirely sure what it is, or what the working hours are, given he always seems to be around.

Similarly, Sonia is a teacher but her job mostly revolves around hanging about the house or sulkily putting the bins out.

Sonia and Alan and Emma and John are supposed to be best mates, regularly inviting each other for a pint, and pulling moonies in the street after a night out.

You'd be forgiven for thinking they'd only just met, however, given the stilted nature of the dialogue and way their relationship seems to mostly revolve around clunky exposition.

Solicitor Jill is the bread-winner of the family, as John has resigned for his job for unspecified stress reasons, so Jill is paying for the extension.

“Until he's in employment, I'm the one earning the money,” she tells Sonia, as if it all need reinforcing.

Meanwhile, there's some clumsy opening lines, as a prospective buyer looks around the Jill and John's half-finished renovations, all bare plaster and dried blood.

“Is it true they were killed? The person who was here? I heard they were murdered, is that true?”

Cue the by-now customary Channel 5 flashback and we're away, or we would be if much of the first episode wasn't taken up with talk of planning permission, party wall agreements and cashflow problems.

By the time the builders start digging the foundations, they unearth all sorts of stereotypes, from the stroppy teenage daughter, to the weird neighbour across the street with an unhealthy obsession with CCTV and the small print on parking permits, and the vengeful copper who has been stitched up in court by Emma.

Then there is the builder himself (Coronation Street's Chris Gascoyne) who may as well have entered riding a horse and wearing a stetson, given he's an obvious cowboy – cash in hand, no questions asked.

Complicating this mix is Larry Lamb as Emma's dad, who seems to be a property developer and part-time borough council planning fixer.

He has borrowed some money from Emma and John and hasn't paid it back, but Emma seems perfectly okay with that, and the undoubtedly illegal means by which her dad fixed her planning application.

In fact, for a solicitor, she seems remarkably naïve about the law.

The Feud constantly teeters on the edge of parody, with CCTV neighbour being oilier than a refinery with his nose permanently stitched to his net curtains, and the vengeful copper (Jamie Lee O'Donnell) using the stroppy teenager to get back at Jill.

And everyone hides a secret, but in such a way that only Emma seems oblivious to the fact.

Everyone claims to have a job, but never seems to work, there is recurring motif featuring magpies, bricks are thrown through windows with notes attached – notes made by cutting out letters from newspapers.

I mean, who even buys newspapers these days? Right?

And then there's the plinky-plonky piano, which intrudes into every scene, it's only saving grace being it takes your mind off the dialogue.

At one point, Emma tells John: “An extension. That could be exciting.”

And, to be honest, she's right – anything is more exciting than The Feud.