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ITV’s new drama about notorious 1980s jewel thief Joan Hannington has been heavily trailed as one of the small screen highlights of the autumn. There are reasons for excitement: Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner takes the lead role, her first since true crime thriller The Staircase in 2022. There’s a glorious Eighties soundtrack, spanning Soft Cell to “Club Tropicana”. And there are oh so many fabulous, flammable-looking wigs, not to mention all the shimmering diamonds. So why does it often feel as middle-of-the-road as a Sunday morning stroll around H Samuel?

The opening moments tell us that Joan is a trickster, but one who has weathered trauma: she sits in a swanky hotel in her bra, glamming herself up, her back covered in scars. Peering at a jewellery box chock-full of rolled-up banknotes, she answers the phone in a classy American accent, then drops a sparkly gem on the floor. “F***’s sake, where did that go?” Joan mutters, suddenly revealing herself to be unaffectedly cockney. It’s an introductory mise-en-scene that suggests twists and turns, but Joan quickly settles into something less surprising and more soap opera-ish.

From here, the timeline skips back to Joan at her pokey flat on the Kent coast, looking after her daughter Kelly while her deadbeat criminal husband Gary behaves erratically. One minute he’s turning up in a sports car with gifts such as a fancy fur coat, the next he’s gone awol and Joan has shifty blokes turning up at her house in the middle of the night asking where he is. (Lots of scenes are VERY dark, and by that I literally just mean the lighting.) Quickly Joan realises she needs to make a dash for it, with Gary’s dodgy dealings endangering her and their daughter: she drops Kelly off at social services – a system that played a large part in her own childhood – and heads to London to try to find a job and somewhere else to live.

Soon she’s found a gig at a jeweller’s, where her sleazy boss is very keen to do a “stock take” in a room with no cameras. Instead, this becomes the scene of Joan’s first act of thievery: she gollops a bunch of expensive jewels, before later heading to the ladies with a crystal bowl full of gin ready to sterilise them. You’ll never look at Bombay Sapphire the same way again. In the interval in which she’s waiting for nature to do its course, Joan meets Boise (Frank Dillane), an antiques dealer with a side gig in stealing: he takes a shine to her and recruits her as a sidekick.

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The team behind the drama – it is written by creator Anna Symon and Helen Black, and directed by Richard Laxton – have already made it clear in interviews that they felt a duty to the real-life Hannington in telling her story. And the show does have good intentions. By showing Joan’s love for her daughter to be her central motivation, the drama points to a fundamental desperation beneath her criminal activities. It also underlines how it is the unpleasant men around her – from the abusive husband to the pervy boss – who push her further into taking matters into her own hands, in the only way that seems available to her.

But there’s a pedestrian tone to the script that makes this all less compelling than it should be. “What do you want, Joan?” one cipher-like male character asks her. “You’ve got some balls, gewl,” Boise declares. Turner brings warmth to the main role, and a poignancy to Joan’s devotion to her daughter, but it’s also a curiously humourless performance. The star is unable to locate the magnetism that would make the role truly memorable.

Only the first two episodes were available to reviewers, but from a quick Google it’s clear that Hannington’s life didn’t get any easier or less dramatic. She is obviously a fascinating figure, with the kind of life that makes a TV commissioner’s eyes light up. It’s a shame, then, that the nuances of her story sometimes feel lost here, with a portrait that falls between “victim” and “girl boss” without the gritty grey areas in between. It could have been 10 carat, but the result is something more cubic zirconia.

‘Joan’ is on ITV1 and ITVX

CORONATION Street star John Thomson has teased a dramatic storyline for his return to the cobbles.

The actor is returning for Helen Worth’s exit storyline after Sean Wilson was axed from the show.

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Cold Feet and Fast Show star John, 55, is set to have a romance plotline with Sean’s character Martin Platt’s ex-wife.

He played children’s entertainer Jesse Chadwick from 2008 to 2010.

Helen Worth, 73, who plays Gail, is leaving after 50 years on the show.

Due to Sean’s sudden departure from the show, the writers had to conjure up a quick storyline.

Comedian John’s character is set to roll into town just as his ex Eileen Grimshaw returns to Weatherfield from Thailand.

She is shocked to see him, but soon discovers he wasn’t looking for her – instead he’s got his eye on her neighbour and nemesis Gail.

And the surprises keep coming when Gail and Jesse reveal that they met each other when Gail was travelling a few years ago and have kept in touch. 

Jesse has heard about Gail’s granddaughter Bethany’s Turkish cosmetic surgery nightmare and, worried about his friend, decides to pay a visit.

“It’s a joy to be given stuff that’s sometimes dramatic and sometimes humorous, it’s really nice to get to play both sides.”

“The Platts are totally baffled by Jesse’s arrival, how do they react to him suddenly appearing and showing concern?

“So two like him and two hate him! Shona and Nick are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, whereas David and Sarah are absolutely not, it’s just total mistrust from the start,” he added.

“There is the thinking that they need a decent man in their lives, but as soon as David lists all Gail’s previous it’s no wonder that there is a mistrust, because Gail’s sense of judgement over men has been very poor.

“Really Shona and Nick are very generous in their offer to wipe the slate clean and see what Jesse might be like given Gail’s history.

“Jesse’s going to have to work really hard to get David and Sarah on his side and see he is just a friend who cares about Gail because there’s a real sense of mistrust about his motives.”

Cast and crew were ­baffled by Sean’s leaving.

A spokeswoman said he “stepped down for personal reasons”.

A source said of John’s return: “It’s been an absolutely frantic, incredibly stressful past couple of weeks for Corrie bosses and scriptwriters.”

Speaking of thee quick turnaround, John said: “I was a bit shell shocked when I first came in because I’d forgotten the speed of the turnaround so it was an absolute baptism of fire.”

Speaking about being reunited with Helen, he said: “Helen and I are absolutely thrilled to be working together, everyone’s good company and there’s always fun to be had on set with the Platts which is great.”

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Strictly Come Dancing has eliminated its first celebrity contestant from the 2024 series.

After two weeks without any public voting, everything changed on Saturday night (28 September) when viewers at home were allowed to pick up their phones and cast their votes for the first time this year.

After the scores were tallied, it was announced that singer Toyah Willcox and Olympic swimmer Tom Dean would be facing the dreaded dance-off.

As they danced again on Sunday night (29 September), Willcox and her partner Neil Jones performed their Jive to “Nutbush City Limits” by Ike & Tina Turner, while Dean danced and his partner Nadiya Bychkova danced a Cha Cha to “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind and Fire, the judges ultimately decided to save Toyah for her most improved performance.

It was over to the judges to decided who would go home, with Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse voting to save the singer, while Anton Du Beke was in the minority when he voted to save Dean and Bychkova.

Asked by host Tess Daly about his time on the show, Dean said he had the “best time” and wished he could have gone further in the competition.

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“I’ve had the best time the last few weeks and getting to work with Nadiya has been incredible,” he said.

“I’ve had the most fun and I wish we could keep going longer and longer. We’ll still go out for loads of brunches I’m sure.”

Bychkova added: “To get to know him, he’s not just a three-time Olympic champion he’s a true gentleman and he taught me how to work really hard and how to put everything in. And you know what? On this programme, sometimes to win, you don’t need to win, and that’s how I feel this year.”

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In week one, Dean performed a Tango to “Golden” by Harry Styles and received an overall score of 23 out of a possible 40, with judges saying he needed to improve his posture and flow.

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Sunday’s results show also featured a routine from the judges and professional dancers to “When Doves Cry” by Prince. Plus, there was an electric musical performance of God “Gave Me Feet for Dancing” from Ezra Collective featuring Yazmin Lacey.

During Saturday night’s show, Love Island star Tasha Ghouri and her pro partner Aljaž Škorjanec topped the leaderboard after receiving the first nine of the series.

Ghouri, who has previous dance experience, moved her dad in the audience to tears with her delicate Viennese Waltz to “Misty Blue” by Dorothy Moore. Their score, 35, was the highest ever for a Viennese Waltz in week two of the competition in Strictly history.

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Miranda star Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola, who stunned the audience with their intense and heated Paso Doble to “Freed From Desire” by Gala, came second on the leaderboard, following behind by three points with 32.

Shayne Ward and his partner Nancy Xu pleasantly surprised the judges as they crept up the leaderboard from last week with their sensual Tango to “The Door” by Teddy Swims. They were awarded an impressive score of 31, up 10 points from last week’s score of 21.

Next week, the remaining 14 couples will take to the dancefloor next week in a Movie Week special, where each couple will channel a different film.