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There are but a few authors who have their own universes within the modern television landscape. Agatha Christie, of course, gets a new adaptation every Christmas. There’s also David Nicholls and Kate Atkinson, or any number of thriller writers, from Gillian Flynn to the indefatigable Harlan Coben. But none have made quite the impression, in recent years, of Australian author Liane Moriarty, whose books have spawned a number of blockbuster sagas, the latest of which, Apples Never Fall, turns up this week on BBC One.

Joy Delaney (Annette Bening) has gone missing. She has recently retired from the tennis academy she ran with her volatile husband Stan (Sam Neill), and her disappearance sparks the concern of her children: anxious Amy (Alison Brie), macho Troy (Jake Lacy), disenchanted Logan (Conor Merrigan Turner), and unreliable Brooke (Essie Randles). Has somebody murdered their mother? And is that “somebody” their father, given that Joy may have been seeking a divorce? Or is Joy’s vanishing somehow linked to the sudden appearance, many months earlier, of a mysterious young woman, Savannah (Georgia Flood), who becomes a cuckoo in the Delaney nest?

If you know Moriarty’s work, you’ll know where this is going. Twists and turns, misdirection and obfuscation, not to mention lashings of family drama. This is the third big-budget adaptation of Moriarty’s work, beginning with 2017’s Big Little Lies, and followed up by Amazon’s Nine Perfect Strangers as the meat in this hammy sandwich. Though they are unified by A-list talent and high production values, the creative ambitions have been progressively stifled. Where Big Little Lies was shot with a vaguely artistic eye, Apples Never Fall is your run-of-the-mill sepia-infused thriller. Even the title is clunky, and the dialogue is often similarly stilted. “Everyone says they want a doctor in the family,” the sibylline Savannah observes. “But I think having someone in the geosciences around is way more interesting.”

All the same, how bad can a show with Annette Bening, Sam Neill and Alison Brie really be? And that is the key to Apples Never Fall. Each episode follows a different Delaney as they navigate both the family dynamics and the muckraking presence who will resurface long-buried secrets. They all glow in the south-Florida light (a relocation from the novel’s Australian setting, though the series is still filmed there), looking preternaturally beautiful. But that’s something that unifies the Moriartiverse: glamorous people, in glamorous settings, behaving slightly repulsively towards one another. And while no one is departing much from their established archetypes – Lacy is now the go-to Hollywood bro, while Brie has played every bug-eyed neurotic going – it all fits together neatly, like a puzzle.

“It kind of felt easy being a martyr,” Joy confesses, in flashback. “Maybe I let myself down.” And for all that Apples Never Fall delivers reliable tropes – the missing woman, the mysterious stranger, the rival from the past who’s back on the scene – its core concern is how a dysfunctional marriage begets a dysfunctional family. The script, from showrunner Melanie Marnich, is frequently heavy-handed, but there’s enough in the material to keep viewers’ interest for seven episodes. And while it doesn’t stick the landing in the same way as Big Little Lies, the rug-pull in the seventh chapter manages, in tennis terms, to be a comfortable put-away, even if it’s not quite a smash.

Apples Never Fall exists in the middle of a Venn diagram between full-blown murder mystery thrillerdom, and an almost soap operatic depiction of crumbling dynasties. It is an emerging portmanteau genre, designed to unite men and women, young and old, in something mildly exciting, mildly titillating and mildly relatable. The result is a show that lacks the crunch of a Pink Lady, but still has the mellow tones and summer flavourings of a Golden Delicious.

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Chris McCausland has detailed a mishap he and Strictly Come Dancing’s Dianne Buswell suffered ahead of the series’ first live show.

The comedian, 47, who is the show’s first blind contestant, performed a cha cha with his professional partner to “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles on Saturday night (21 September).

Strictly’s judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke, were in awe of what McCausland had achieved and scored the performance 23 out of 40 points.

But McCausland, who lost his sight aged 22 due to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, later revealed to the Strictly presenter Claudia Winkleman that training had not been without its difficulties.

“[Dianne] kicked me in the head one day,” he admitted. “I did not avoid or anticipate it. I stood there and took a foot right to the face.”

Detailing how she has been teaching McCausland their Strictly routines, Buswell explained ahead of their performance: “I can’t show [Chris] what something needs to look like.

“But I’ve found that Chris places his hand on my body or he feels what my arms are doing and then he instantly gets an idea of what he should be doing.”

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McCausland added: “Working with Diane, her energy never wavers. She’s really really patient and she’s definitely bringing the best out of me.”

He continued: “It’s a good partnership and I couldn’t be happier.”

The comedian told The Independent ahead of his first Strictly performance that he and Buswell are “winging it” when it comes to their training technique.

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“We’re just gonna have to figure it out as we go along,” he said.

“The production team are just being really flexible. My dance partner is figuring out how to teach me. And we are winging it. That’s the best way I think.”

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McCausland received a standing ovation from Strictly’s studio audience for his first performance on the show on Saturday night.

“It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” judge Anton Du Beke praised. “Just brilliant.”

Meanwhile, Shirley Ballas added: “I didn’t know what to expect… you had great skills listening to your partner.

“I’m quite shocked and very emotional.”

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Week one of Strictly Come Dancing was packed with impressive performances that rocketed up the leaderboard.

On Saturday (21 September) all 15 couples performed live for the first time before the voting – and first elimination of the series – happens next weekend.

At the top of the leaderboard this week is JB Gill and Amy Dowden, who made a triumphant return to Strictly after being too ill to compete in last year’s series as she recovered from treatment for stage three breast cancer.

Their classic Waltz to “When I Need You” by Leo Sayer received a standing ovation from the studio audiences. The performance also impressed all four judges, and saw them receive 31 points out of a possible 40.

Closely behind them is Love Island star Tasha Ghouri who stunned the judges with a celebrated Cha Cha to Sabrina Carpenter’s summer anthem “Espresso”. The influencer was left ecstatic after receiving a score of 30.

Miranda actor Sarah Hadland also receives a score of 30 for her Quickstep to “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton – the highest mark a Quickstep has ever received in week one of the competition.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale is punk-rock singer Toyah Willcox, with 12 out of 40, and former Arsenal player Paul Merson receiving just 17 for his American Smooth to the football anthem “Vindaloo”.

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Here is this week’s leaderboard in full, with the individual marks from judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke:

JB Gill and Amy Dowden (7+8+8+8) = 31

Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec (8+8+7+7) = 30

Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola (8+8+7+7) = 30

Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe (6+7+6+7) = 26

Wynne Evans and Katya Jones (6+6+7+7) = 26

Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell (4+6+6+7) = 23

Sam Quek and Nikita Kuzmin (6+6+6+5) = 23

Tom Dean and Nadiya Bychkova (5+6+6+6) = 23

Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas (6+6+5+6) = 23

Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu (4+6+5+6) = 21

Punam Krishan and Gorka Márquez (4+5+5+5) = 19

Nick Knowles and Luba Mushtuk (3+5+5+5) = 18

Paul Merson and Karen Hauer (2+4+5+6) = 17

Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystał (4+5+3+5) = 17

Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones (2+4+2+4) = 12