Charlie Brooker's second Black Mirror drama 'White Bear' is another work of dark and twisted genius

The second drama in Charlie Brooker’s new series doesn’t have the same instant emotional tug as last week’s Be Right Back.

In fact, I’ll admit that about a third of the way through I found myself thinking it really wasn’t up to his usual sky-high standards.

I thought the acting was unbelievable, the script was riddled with horror-film cliches, the violence was a bit over the top and that Lenora Crichlow’s talent was wasted by a script that required her to do little more than pant in breathless terror.

I was reasonably certain this was how it would pan out. But I’m also not afraid to admit that I turned out to be absolutely dead wrong on every single count.

So, please, please stick with this and let yourself be taken on a journey to somewhere totally ­unexpected. Because I want to give away as little as possible, all I will tell you is that it opens with a young woman (Crichlow) waking up with no memory of who she is or her past life.

Then, when she steps outside, she discovers she’s being hunted down by a complete nutter in a ski-mask and that the rest of the human race is behaving as though they’ve had their brains scooped out with a spoon.

And no it’s not yet another zombie apocalypse story, thankfully.

It’s another work of dark and twisted genius from Mr Brooker.

* Black Mirror is on Channel 4 tonight at 10pm