Is The Living and the Dead the spookiest show on TV?

Summer might be heating up, but the BBC's supernatural drama The Living and the Dead has been giving viewers plenty of chills in the notorious TV dead zone.

The series was created by Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, the writers behind sci-fi police dramas Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, and they sum it up as "Thomas Hardy with ghosts". It is set in late 19th-century Somerset as the power of science is on the rise, although the old ways and superstitions of rural folk linger.

Colin Morgan stars as pioneering psychologist Nathan Appleby and Charlotte Spencer plays his photographer wife, Charlotte. The couple inherited a farm in the isolated community of Shepzoy, but find their plans for a new life are threatened by unsettling supernatural phenomena.

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The Guardian calls it "six hours of spooky fun", while the Daily Telegraph dubs it "Poldark with poltergeists" and "crackling sexual chemistry".

The six-part series, which started late in June, has had its share of twists to keep fans guessing – and jumping out of their seats as the tension and disturbing atmosphere escalates.

Twitter fans watching episode four on BBC1 last night called it "total hairs rising on the back of your neck, spine-chilling stuff" and warned it was "not a show to watch on your own in the dark".

Sara Wallis in the Daily Mirror advises viewers to keep a "cushion at the ready to hide behind" and "prepare to leap off your sofa more than once" as the eerie series continues its run.

As if it wasn't bad enough that there was "spooky candlelight, ­whispering and mounting dread", the latest episode also featured a woman wandering around the woods in a vivid scarlet dress, calling out to ask if there is anyone there as she heard twigs snapping nearby, adds Wallis.

With tension building in every plotline, "the result is some ­fantastically stressful viewing", continues the critic: "Just don't hold any hot drinks."

There are some genuine "jump-out-of-your skin moments", says Claudia Connell in the Daily Mail, even though some of them are "rather sign-posted" - whenever anyone looked in a mirror or investigated a mysterious noise, "no good ever came of it".

But this is an atmospheric, well-acted show with a brilliant soundtrack, she adds, and at a time when most broadcasters are waiting until autumn to screen new dramas, "it fills a hole in the scheduling very nicely indeed".

The Living and the Dead is on BBC1 at 9pm and all six episodes are also available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.