Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Episode 3: Recap and Review

Oh my. Three episodes in and a sharp turn into dark labyrinthine corridors with disturbing, Dante-esque scenes. Fake flowers and fluffy bunnies this is not.

What doesn't kill you makes you stranger. Who said that? The Joker, to whom the Gentleman bears more than a passing resemblance, even though he cuts more of a dash. Bored of Lady Pole and "her dreary disposition" he has set his sights on Arabella, but she is about the only person wise to him. When he makes a play for her she sends him packing: “[I]f it is in your power to help then for the love of God, do it. But do not make a bargain of my friend. You will forgive me, sir. We should not meet again without my husband present.”

I'll remember that one. As she walks away, he picks up her tear-stained handkerchief. The perv.

Arabella is the only person allowed to see Lady Pole and, keen to keep the secret of Lady Pole's resurrection hidden, Norrell has Drawlight and Childermass trailing Arabella for information. "If you're done with me relieving folks of letters, I'll be off to see a man about a school," says Childermass.

Odd. I thought he said 'skull', which would have been much more interesting than Segundus and Honeyfoot's school for magicians enterprise. Bless them, they are dear men but I'm with Childermass: sounds far too Harry Potter for my liking.

Anyway, out in Portugal Strange is trying to help Lord Wellington and his men, who ask him not for spells but to read their baffling mail. "I have spoiled our wedding china by spilling a pan of jam on it," writes one wife. Is that a euphemism? And I can't have been the only one to think that Strange was going to magic a banquet in that campfire scene.

But perhaps that was superfluous to plot requirements. Let's get down to serious business. "Can a magician kill a man by magic?" enquires Lord Wellington. "A magician might, but a gentleman never could," says Strange.

But this is war and normal rules don't apply. Road-conjuring and forest-moving (sort of) are all very well – if you're David Copperfield – but what really cuts it in war zones is the ancient magic (the kind spelt with a 'k') of the Raven King.

This is stuff Norrell and Strange don't like to mess with but with Lord Wellington and the British government breathing down your neck, what else can you do? Wellington is used to demanding the impossible and getting it, and when he wants three dead Neapolitans brought back to life to re-enact Michael Jackson's Thriller video, that's what you do.

Actually it was a superb scene, brilliant, moving and Dante-esque. "You did not think to come to war for jokes and picnics, Mr Strange?" asks Major Grant. Quite.

Despite earning the admiration of the soldiers, however, it all proves too much for Strange, who heads back home to England minus Norrell's precious volumes, and kind of begging the question: why not just magic them back?

Perhaps he will. For now though, Norrell is still preoccupied with Lady Pole who, after slitting her wrists, has been moved from her sumptuously-decorated bedroom and confined to a stark white cell at the top of the house. Tied to a bed, she is now the 19th Century hysterical 'mad woman', driven insane as much by those who won't listen to her, as by the illness itself.

"You have murdered me!" shouts she, lunging at Norrell in another amazing, superbly acted scene. He never quite thought that one through, did he? 

Bringing people back from the dead must be intoxicating. But after Lady Pole stages her own vanishing act – Stephen enters her room to find it empty – she's out to make Norrell disappear too, with a pistol.

But oh! The best laid plans. Lovely gruff Childermass – Ross Poldark the delux northern version, harder and infinitely more preferable – in the line of fire as he tries to save his master, lying on the pavement, crimson spilling from him.

Please let this not be the end. Maybe we ought to know by now that in the world of this story, dead people aren't necessarily 'dead'.

Shudder. And what about Stephen? Over at the Gentleman's house, which is worryingly called 'Lost Hope' (Dante again?), he is king, or at least within a hair's breadth of being. Cue another hellish Dante-esque scene as the Gentleman shows him scenes of his mother – a shackled slave on a ship – giving birth to him, before he as a screaming newborn is ripped from her.

The Gentleman knows how to do it, and it is heartbreaking. I'm normally averse to too much darkness, and there was a lot of heavy plot here. But there was enough humour, smart dialogue and great acting to sugar the pill. Like Lady Pole's tapestry, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is richly visual, weaving its diverse storylines into a satisfying, spellbinding whole.