THEY really moved fast in the old days. Within five minutes of the start of Sunday's new BBC1 period drama 'He Knew He Was Right', English gentleman Louis Trevelyan had met beautiful wife-to-be Emily Rowley in the Mandarin Islands, whisked her and her sister off to London and produced an instant toddler son - one way to avoid the inconvenience of nappies, I suppose.

This adaptation by Andrew Davies of an Anthony Trollope novel was pre-sold as the tale of an idyllic marriage torn apart by jealousy, a theme already growing whiskers by the time Shakespeare tackled it (so much better!) in 'Othello'.

The trouble with the Trollope tale is that the main protagonists - Louis of the unflattering hairstyle and Emily of the too-red lipstick - were hardly enjoying an idyllic marriage in the first place.

Even the soft focus camerawork and sumptuous costumes could not disguise the fact that they were a couple of little substance with no communication skills at all, spending most of their brief courtship throwing things at each other, giggling and running away.

Bereft of anything as time-consuming as a job to occupy him, Louis starts to believe his young wife is having an affair with the rakish Colonel Osborne, a friend of her father and a 'distinguished Member of Parliament'. Enough said!

Osborne is played as a top-hatted Leslie Phillips style character by the incomparable Bill Nighy, who effortlessly steals every scene he graces.

There are several sub-plots, involving Emily's sister Nora and her suitors and the family of Louis' friend Hugh, a radical journalist with a sister who looks like Olive Oyl and an aunt who says obtuse things like 'I can't bear false hair on a girl'.

The 'dialogue straight to camera' interludes just jar in this type of historical drama. I always think this is a lazy way of conveying a character's reaction to situations anyway. Let the actors do what they are paid to do - Bill Nighy, for example, does not need to open his mouth most of the time to communicate his thoughts.

There are three more parts to this tedious tale, and I suspect that by the end I may be able to say of my initial unfavourable impression: 'I knew I was right'.

SOAP POSER:

SO Mark has ridden into Bikers' Heaven in his leather jacket with 'Walford' on the back. But he couldn't have had cancer, said 'little' brother Martin. Why? Because 'he didn't smoke...and he sold fruit and vegetables' apparently! Who's writing the scripts at EastEnders these days - Peter Kay?