It’s the 1980s, and the O’Haras are leaving their suburban American setting to live in the UK, where father Rory (Jude Law) was born. His American wife Alison (Carrie Coon) is unsure, having moved four times in the past 10 years, but he’s convinced there are financial opportunities they simply can’t afford to turn down. He works as a commodities broker but is driven by an ambition to do and make more, and as they settle into their new lives at a grandiose country mansion in Surrey, his excitement for what lies ahead starts to unravel.

Rory is a convincingly cocksure smooth-talker whose embrace of the American dream has returned him to England with a different, more daring worldview. He’s hungry and wants to give his family more, even if they might already have enough. His background was one of limited means and so his idea of happiness is somewhat skewed, forever trying to play the part of a man he never thought he could become, tirelessly constructing an extravagant self-image to mask his working-class origins. But it means he’s often blinded to what his family really needs, and so as he pushes them further and further into a financial bracket they cannot easily sustain, cracks start to appear.

There’s a deftly controlled interplay between a man who wants to be in control in a traditional sense and a quietly strong-willed wife who wants to allow him this but fears for the price his reckless decision-making might have on their family. Alison is constantly told she doesn’t need to concern herself with the bigger picture but she’s smart enough to know something is awry.

It’s elegantly constructed and precisely composed, with Durkin painstakingly recreating an era without falling into nostalgic overload. But it’s also a drama about a family that keeps us at a distance for the most part. It’s intriguing without always being involving and while the lethargic narrative might speed up in the final act, it’s only by a fraction and we wanted just a little bit more of something to grasp on to at the end, having spent so much time with characters we found so fascinating. We feel as though The Nest will haunt us though with its eerie portrait of a family falling apart without ever being sure if they can put themselves back together again.