Moonfleet: episode 1, Sky1, review Moonfleet (Sky One), J Meade Falkner's story about smugglers and excise-men on the Dorset coast, isn't a particularly long novel, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it must be a doorstopper, given the breakneck pace of this adaptation. The thing sped along like a whippet running late for an appointment. The story even seemed to continue, hidden from view, during the ad breaks; you would return from boiling the kettle to discover that enmities had been patched up and romances had blossomed. Our hero, John Trenchard (Aneurin Barnard) hurtled forth in search of adventure. His dream - realised by the episode's end - was to join a band of smugglers led by Elzevir Block, a part played by that most courtly of thugs, Ray Winstone. Block's nemesis was Mahoun, the dastardly, whip-wielding head of the local excise, a sneering Ben Chaplin. Not only were they natural enemies, the poacher and the gamekeeper, but Mahoun had killed Block's son. As they sparred over kegs of stolen rum, young John decided to embark upon an ill-advised and whirlwind courtship of Mahoun's comely daughter, Grace (Sophie Cookson). Most of the scenes seemed to play out in milliseconds, as we chased frenetically from crypt to inn to seashore on the promise of a lost diamond which had belonged to Mahoun's duplicitous ancestor Blackbeard - himself now a bothersome ghost. There was something of the pantomime about it, with lots of scenes of people having strenuously rowdy fun, and some less than first-rate quips. "I'll see you in Hell, Mahoun!," cried a smuggler on the gallows; "Yes," replied Chaplin, "but you will arrive there first. Save me a seat by the fire. And then there were the night-time scenes, lots of them, which were very obviously shot during the day. It looked almost like sunglasses and T-shirt weather, clouds scudding across the bright and starless sky, people screwing up their eyes against the glare. I admired it for its energy, but it whirled a little too wildly for me. Younger thrill-seekers may have found enough to send them back for the second part.