Having survived their short time at the Austere Academy, the Beaudelaires are taken in by some wealthy socialites, while still trying to locate the missing Quagmires.

This is more like it. After their rather ordinary term at school (it’s a premise that’s been done to death) there’s far more invention in this two-part adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s Book the Sixth, helped in no small part by a great cast. Sitting in the penthouse atop a skyscraper are the shallow Esmé and Jerome Squalor (Lucy Punch – Into the Woods and Tony Hale – Arrested Development). With a vast fortune at their disposal, thus vacuous twosome only adopt the children because orphans are in.

Bo Welch (The Cat in the Hat), the series’ production designer, directs this story, and it’s a handsome-looking one with some beautiful Art Deco design. Neil Patrick Harris’ Olaf disguise of the week is Gunther, a foreign auctioneer, and he walks freely while under the gaze of the many wanted posters plastered around the city – ‘A very good likeness of a very bad person.’

I won’t tell you how or where, but we discover where the other siblings have been imprisoned, as well as the meaning of the word ersatz. Red herrings abound (literally) and there’s some lovely wordplay in the competing fish restaurants Cafe Salmonella – it has an all-salmon menu –  and Herring Houdini.

Nathan Fillion’s Jacques Snicket and the school’s librarian return for bigger roles, teaming up to help locate the children, but the show’s biggest delight is an auction where everyone is desperate to place the winning bid on the mysterious cardboard crate with V.F.D. etched on the side.

Verdict: Musical number ‘Keep Chasing Your Schemes’ perfectly embodies what this show does best – clever, fun punnery, mild peril and a reassuring sense that the idiots will always get what’s coming. Perfect family fayre. 9/10

Nick Joy