Aidan Smith's TV week: Wolf (BBC1), Enemy of the People (Channel 4), Heartstoppers (Netflix)

For a brief moment in the BBC’s big, bad Wolf I don’t really mind if big, bad things happen to Juliet Stevenson and her family.

A prisoner in her own home, Juliet Stevenson in Wolf.

It’s the same impulse that made The White Lotus so enjoyable, also the movie Triangle of Sadness: rich people having a horrible time.

I mean, why do Stevenson’s Matilda and her husband Oliver, played by Owen Teale, have to keep mentioning that this vast country pile in Monmouthshire or, who knows, maybe Mammothshire isn’t their only residence as there’s a flat in London as well?

A recent headline from the Daily Telegraph springs to mind. “When did we become the bad guys? Second home owners braced for council tax assault.” Yes, this couple are to be punished for being wealthy.

Kansan Vihollinen, kausi 1, jakso 8, Katja (Kreeta Salminen)

But, whoa! I never said handcuff Matilda to a table leg! (The table will be heavy and well-made - none of your common, flatpacked rubbish - and, fiendishly, has been nailed to the floor).

And I never said chain Oliver to the Aga! (Just as unbudgeable, I can confirm, for - woops - I have one. But I don’t own a second home).

Well, The White Lotus and Triangle of Sadness were satires. Wolf (BBC1) is horror. Animal intestines have been draped across a bush in the enormous garden - possibly half of Mammothshire - on the fifth anniversary of a gruesome double murder locally. Just then, two detectives happen by, which is a relief, because the phone line has been cut. Isn’t it great that the police, much criticised, are back regularly patrolling? Except, this pair are a bit odd, helping themselves to Matilda’s syrup sponge without being offered any.

Wolf is based on one of the Jack Caffery detective novels by the late Mo Hayder. Some of you will know these books - they’re hugely popular among fans of gory crime - but the writer’s own story is more fascinating than fiction. In a previous life she was a Page 3 girl, Miss Nude 1982, played Miss Exotica Stormtrooper for The Two Ronnies and Mr Rumbold’s secretary in Are You Being Served? It was while working as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub, and seeing the lives of three strangers snuffed out in quick succession, that sparked her fascination with death.

Joe Locke and Kit Connor in Heartstopper.

I think I’d be very interested in a documentary about Hayder who passed away two years ago from motor neurone disease; probably more so indeed than the rest of Wolf. I mean, the comedy between the poshos’ hostage-takers is disturbing. Possibly even more than what they do to the family (and their pet dog).

Hayder’s hero Caffery, a real detective and played by Ukweli Roach, comes from Central Casting: sombre, moody, difficult. I’m not saying he doesn’t have his problems, what with a creepy neighbour who he’s convinced was behind the disappearance of his younger brother years before. His girlfriend and his boss attempt to bring him out of himself. When he spurns a night out with colleagues saying he doesn’t drink, the latter sighs: “Detectives have dedicated years to cultivating an image of the downtrodden alcoholic and you millennials are just going to throw it all away.”

That seems like an acknowledgement by Hayder of the cliched nature of characters in fictionalised crime. Well, she’s done her best with Wolf to turn the genre on its head. I’ve paused at the moment when Matilda is turned on her head, as the chief tormentor begins to mime opera dementedly. Dare I watch any more?

Televisually, what does Finland mean to you? I had to think about this for a while before remembering a fantastic race, the 10,000 metres final at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki. It was supposed to be a long-distance event. Britain’s David Bedford was supposed to win it. But a whiskery primary school teacher called Juha Vaatainen was challenged to a sprint on the last lap and triumphed for the host nation in front of a berserk crowd and a self-combusting David Coleman in the commentary-box.

Beyond that? Finland missed the great wave of Nordic noir dominated by Denmark and Sweden. Here, though, is Enemy of the People (Channel 4), a crime drama although not with a cop doing the investigating and instead a journalist.

Her colleagues aren’t impressed by this: “While you are out there playing detective the rest of us are covering the real news.” But real news for Katja Salonen (Kreeta Salminen) tends to be the fluff, such as which flavour ice cream is going to be the most popular come summer. This time she has stumbled across a proper story.

It involves sauna parties, an ex-beauty queen, six million euros missing from municipal funds and a retired football idol who, like little Davie Beckham, continues to inspire an insane degree of awe. Now, I’ve just read that bit back and it makes Enemy of the People sound racy. I’m intrigued by the show but, in the Scandi style, the action is slow-moving, the dialogue minimal, the mood melancholic and clearly there’s a power issue with everyone required to use low-watt lightbulbs.

I’m enjoying the newsroom scenes. What’s “human interest” in Finnish? You’ll never guess, it’s “human interest”. Hard to believe but the editor-in-chief is dodgy. And like papers everywhere, Katja’s has invited the readership to air their views via the internet and been confronted by a seething mob who doubtless post at 3am in their underpants. “Do us a favour and kill yourself” is one of the kinder comments aimed at her after, ahem, the Katja is put among the pigeons with the reporter’s latest exclusive. A cynical colleague - there are one or two in this profession, honest - remarks: “On the bright side, your piece got the most clicks online.” But our heroine is not about to run back to the safety - and tedium - of ice cream.

After all the horror, and the horrible reactions, some sweetness doesn’t go amiss. Heartstopper (Netflix) has been dubbed “possibly the loveliest show on TV” and here’s the second season, all heart emojis and flowers and sunshiney optimism for the boy-meets-boy high school romance.

For a different set of teenagers in America’s Euphoria there is always fighting and cheating and the very real threat that someone will kill or be killed. Here, in the opening minutes, Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) snog in a storeroom, in a bedroom and, when the screen splits, in four other locations simultaneously. But Heartstopper is that very unusual teen drama for having no sex, drugs, booze or violence, and yet still be able to find a way to be bold.

Charlie is already out and Nick, with a few jitters, joins him by telling his mum, played by Olivia Colman (“That’s nice, dear”), and then his mates (“Oh, we knew!”). That’s not to say that everyone will approve. Charlie is intent on playing rugby and the teacher supervising exam study-time is a bit of a brute.

My favourite character is probably Charlie’s sister Tori. She’s forced to chastise their father, who thinks himself quite cool, for using phrases like “hanky-panky” and does it from underneath a thick-set fringe. Is she emo? Crikey, who knows. Being a teenager nowadays seems awfully tricky. Thank goodness I’m well out of it.