Cheat, UTV, Monday, 9pm
THINKING back to our old school or university days, I'm sure we all could recall the odd occasion of copying.
Perhaps best not to admit anything publicly, but nowadays with the increasing use of the internet, incidents of plagiarism must be one of the biggest issues teachers and lecturers face.
For university academic Leah Dale, played by former Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly, a suspected case of plagiarism has unexpected consequences she could never have foreseen.
From the exterior, she's living the dream.
She's on the verge of a permanent academic position, resides in an English countryside village with husband Adam, cycles to work every day, keeps fit playing tennis, wears tasteful clothes - she appears to have it all going for her.
But it's not long before that happy existence and the wonderfully neat set-up she has created is about to go horribly wrong and her life slowly begins to unravel.
In the first episode of the four-part drama Cheat, Leah suspects one of her students, Rose Vaughan, of cheating in her dissertation.
The disgruntled final-year student, played by Molly Windsor, appears in the lecture theatre in the dying minutes of the lesson and is completely at odds to the work ethic required of a student at the plush college in leafy Cambridge.
Buoyed by the fact that her father's financial contribution has built a substantial part of the university library, work-shy Rose believes her presence is enough to see her through her degree.
So when she hands in her essay and sociology lecturer Leah fails her on the assumption that it is not her own work, it sets the wheels in motion for a chain of tragic events that see the two women embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Rose soon becomes a chilling, threatening character, who begins a vendetta against Leah of epic proportions.
It's not long before Rose, with the help of university employee Ben Jarvis, has tracked down where Leah lives, found out when her tennis sessions are held and has even stroked her pet cat.
And more significantly, it's not long before she's on Leah's doorstep flirting with her husband Adam.
Like a domino effect, from then on Leah's life begins to fall apart and it would seem it was not as idyllic as first thought.
At work, she remains in the shadow of her lecturer father, while at home she is unsure she wants a baby as she questions her marriage.
The episode ends with a great cliffhanger when it is revealed that Adam has been murdered, his body seen lying in the morgue.
But how did he meet his fate and which of the leading females had a hand in his tragic demise?
With fast forward flashes to the two women sitting opposite each other in a prison, it would suggest one of them is responsible for his death.
But the scene is dangerously vague with the jail set-up and the clever dialogue meaning it is unclear who is the prisoner and who is the visitor.
It's a bit of a slow-build, which in part is annoying, yet intriguing at the same time. But if a good drama is meant to make you feel uneasy, then Cheat has that element in abundance.
The closing scene bring us back to the present, where it is clear that the escalating feud seems to have ended in murder.
But have the police charged the right woman? And which one?
"They both look so innocent. Rose Vaughan and Leah Dale," says the detective in charge of the case, looking from photograph to photograph.
He is not convinced they have arrested the right one.
