Stephen Graham plays Andy Jones, the already rattled head chef whose world is teetering on the brink of chaos. In the restaurant kitchen where his arrival is overdue, stalwart team leader Carly (Vinette Robinson) and her exasperated colleague Freeman (Ray Panthaki) are holding the fort, something that’s clearly become an increasingly common situation of late – another deftly delivered detail.

Andy is overwrought and swearily takes his stress out on others, his anxiety levels stoked by a visit from a patronisingly pernickety environmental health officer. Meanwhile, out in the restaurant, a rogues gallery of customers must be served. They range from a gaggle of social media influencers who are indulged rather than ejected, to an irate, racist patriarch performatively throwing his weight around on table seven. As for the soon-to-be engaged couple on table 13, they’ve flagged up a nut allergy that needs to be prioritised by the already overworked staff.

And then there is Alistair Skye, a celebrity chef to whom Andy is uncomfortably indebted, played with brilliantly passive-aggressive smarm by Jason Flemyng. On the surface, Alistair is all smiles, assuring Andy that “we’re here to support you”, and insisting that he needn’t worry about the feared food critic with whom he has arrived. Yet soon enough, Alistair is taking credit for Andy’s menu and offering smug serving suggestions while making increasingly threatening noises that reveal a deeper, more desperate purpose.

Bifa-winning director of photography Matthew Lewis leads us with superbly unobtrusive skill through this wholly believable hectic world. It’s a world in which everyone has a story, from the nervous young saucier hiding his forearms beneath untucked sleeves, to the game-faced head waiter weepily phoning her father from the toilets, and the cocky chancer indulging in covert backstreet liaisons by the bins. Subplots about overdue pay increases and overstretched ambitions swirl amid the cacophony of standoffs and service bells, each thread skillfully interwoven into a complex mosaic of individual voices, all rising to a single scream.

The result is a spicy nerve-jangler served with a chargrilled side order of jet-black gallows humour – a divine comedy barrelling towards inevitable tragedy, played out in hell’s kitchen where someone is bound to get burned.