Television is difficult. No really, it is. A 22 episode series has to keep you entertained for almost sixteen hours and that is fraught with dangers. What if you miss an episode? What if you accidentally get spoiled half way through by someone who has seen the entire thing unfold? What if you get bored around episode six, give up on it and then find out that someone has voted episode eleven the ‘best 43 minutes of television ever in the universe’? These are all very real concerns for fragile TV viewers.

Films are simpler. You have a limited amount if time to see it cinemas, people generally don’t rush to spoil them for you, and you only have to sit through it for two hours or so. The answer to the TV conundrum seems to be to make four slasher movies and string them all together as a series. This is what Harper’s Island has done.

The trailers made no bones (excuse the pun) about it – lots and lots of people are going to die. They have the standard slasher ingredients; an isolated and slightly sinister location, a great raft of characters to pick off, a mystery killer and a chilling legacy. Harper’s Island has all of these – the establishing aerial shots in episode one drain the place of its colour, making it appear foreboding and cold. There are dense, foggy woods and rotting boathouses, and the only places of comfort – the hotels and bars – have their sanctuary status ripped from them early on in the shape of violent brawls and animal heads in the bathrooms.

The plot centres on a wedding party making their way to Harper’s – the groom’s childhood home – for the perfect week of celebration. The first victim bites it as soon as the propeller on the pleasure boat starts up, he’s been pinned under the boat with breathing apparatus so he can panic and scream for the cameras just before his death in a sadistic touch. Before the end of episode two there are four more victims, and we’re no closer to guessing who the villain might be.

Stock characters are the order of the day here and they make HI an easy watch. Trish the bride (Kate Cassidy) is a rich socialite, Henry the groom (Christopher Gorham) is ‘not good enough for her’ according to Daddy. Of course Henry has his old school pal Abby there (Elaine Cassidy), her family were slaughtered by a maniac called Jack Wakefield a decade or so ago but now she’s back to the Island to see him get married, even though it’s PLAINLY OBVIOUS THEY SHOULD BE TOGETHER!

There’s an assortment of family members, old college buddies, couples about to get engaged, police officers one day away from retirement and other red shirts there ready to be dispatched in inventive ways. There’s something quite attractive about a series which has a short end date and is willing to murder a lot of characters once they start to get interesting, and of course there’s the added fun of trying to guess which one will be next to have their guts pulled out or their dog set on fire. It’s not the most intelligent show ever but come on, can’t we have a few weeks off from having to think about things?

Harper’s Island is on BBC 3 , Sundays at 9pm and on iPlayer