We're a few seconds into Inside Men (BBC 1, 9pm), and it's all kicking off, writes Sian Brewis. Masked men with shotguns burst into a counting house, terrified staff cower under their desks and an ashen-faced manager (Steven Mackintosh) is forced to unlock the vault stacked with cash.

A security guard is bleeding and there's screaming everywhere.

It's a gripping start, but you need to pay attention because, as the programme goes on, you realise from this short, action-packed sequence just how ruthless some of the characters have been.

From the bombastic opener we're suddenly hurtled into life nine months before.

I've always liked stories with a twist in their tail, and where people are not as they seem and Steven Mackintosh's performance is nuanced and, if you'll excuse the phrase, on the money.

At first glance, John, the new manager at an anonymous counting house, seems as a wet as a haddock's bathing costume, unable to talk to staff and look them in the eye, nervous and eager to please. He has a lovely home with a lovely wife (the always watchable Nicola Walker) and they're about to become foster parents.

But appearances can be deceiving. After catching security guard Chris and shift worker Marcus red- handed after they nick £50,000 from the company, he doesn't call the police. Instead, coolly and calmly, he counts out the stolen money on the table as the shame-faced pair eye each other up, unsure about where this will go.

"All that risk, for this?" he says softly. "If you are going to do it, if you are going to cross the line … what if you took the lot?"

As it turns out, everyone in this is a crook, really, just by different degrees: boss John is cheating by topping up the shortfall from his own bank account to balance the books and win the manager of the month award; Chris is in love with a thief; and Marcus is in debt up to his eyes and trying to sell a map of the layout at work to pay off the moneylenders.

Although when he comes into money, the first thing he buys is a deep fat chip pan.

Each to their own.

The who, how and why are yet to come, but this is a smartly-told tale. It's like Columbo, in a way: you know whodunnit, but you don't know how it will pan out.

Intriguing.

French food still has a certain cache, doesn't it? If someone came round to mine and I served up a bowl of potatoes with a mountain of boiled sausage on the top, I'm pretty sure it would raise eyebrows.

In the hands of Raymond Blanc, however, it would be mouthwatering meal.

That was the exception to The Very Hungry Frenchman (BBC 2, 8pm) – the rest of the food left you salivating. Especially the fondue for one, being served in a giant cauldron.