Fleet is ideal for a Squire Allworthy written here as a wet liberal, essentially good-hearted but too morally weak to fight the cruel iniquities of a society that has given him prestige as a lawman. The supporting players are a plush repertory of familiar names, many of them perfectly cast.

None of this means Tom Jones is without its pleasures.

We do on occasion see how her skin colour affects her life as a woman of means – intrigued stares thrown in her direction at a garden party overt disgust from the staff of a roadside inn – but it is an issue that feels as if it’s being picked up and put down again on a whim.

In this adaptation, she’s also Black, the daughter of a slave and a plantation owner who, upon the death of her slaver father, was sent from Jamaica to England to be raised by her rich white grandfather. She’s the narrator of the piece, a conceit the dramatisation doesn’t fully commit to, perhaps because her lack of agency means there isn’t a lot for her to say. That Sophia is a moping wally is unfortunate, given the efforts made to beef her character up. Neither protagonist seems capable of a rush of blood, to the heart or anywhere else: when they talk, flirt or even kiss, there’s nothing there. As Sophia, meanwhile, Wilde comes across as wet-eyed and childish, spending much of her time wailing, daydreaming or impotently stamping her foot. McLeod is too reserved a performer to pull this off: his Tom seems awfully sensible from the start. The leading man here is meant to be rakish and roguish, ultimately an upstanding hero but one who needs to get a lot of crass mistakes out of his system before that goodness fully emerges. They both end up in London, where Tom, separated from Sophia, is drawn into sexy adventures. The resulting row leads to Tom being banished and Sophia taking flight. Sophia is urged to marry the monobrowed inadequate Blifil instead. But when he is reacquainted as an adult with childhood friend Sophia Western (Sophie Wilde), the girl from the stately home next door, his life changes: they want to marry and cannot, because Tom is a bastard.

Tom is happy enough firing his catapult, running through woodland and, when he comes of age, lifting up the many petticoats of a poacher’s daughter.

What Daddy Did Today by Walter Wally