I’d been looking forward to Pushing Daisies since I first heard about it – months ago – in some gushing article about Anna Friel’s renaissance. Last night, ITV’s continuity woman described it as an enchanting fairy tale of romance, crime, feel-good comedy and pie making. And she wasn’t wrong. But I’m not sure she was entirely right either. At least, not yet.

The Pie Maker is Ned, who, as a child, found he could touch dead things and bring them back to life, but only as long as he doesn’t touch them again. For example, his dog was hit by a car, Ned touched it and brought it back to life. He’s still got it years later, but he has to stroke it using a backscratcher-style hand on a stick rather than his own hand. Otherwise Digby’s going straight back to doggie heaven. Right?

To sum up: First touch, life. Second touch, dead again … forever.

But that’s not all. When Ned’s mother dropped dead of an aneurysm, he touched her and she came back to life, but then, moments later, the father of the girl next door (who he was, of course, in love with) dropped dead. And that is how Ned learned that he can only bring the dead back to life for one minute – any longer and someone else has to die (but the original dead person stays alive … as long as he doesn’t touch them again). Still with me?

To sum up: First touch, life. No second touch, someone else dies.

Of course, Ned’s mother gave him a goodnight kiss, as mothers are wont to do, and found herself dead again … forever. So both Ned and next door’s Charlotte Charles, known to him as Chuck, were down a parent.

That’s all. I think. For now.

So adult Ned has his own pie shop and a sideline in crime-solving. Along with a partner, Emerson Cod, he touches a murder victim, asks them who killed them, they tell him, he touches them again and then he and Cod report the murderer and collect any reward. How they explain to the police knowing something only the murder victim could know I’m not sure.

And then Ned hears that his childhood crush, Chuck, has been murdered. He visits her dead body to find out who did it, but she’s so pretty and sweet that he can’t bring himself to, you know, re-deaden her, so he doesn’t. After the minute is up, the undertaker dies instead, but that’s okay, because he wasn’t a very nice man. So now Chuck is alive again, but only as long as Ned doesn’t touch her, which is going to be a problem, because he likes her. And she likes him.

You may have noticed by now that there is a certain suspension of disbelief required by Pushing Daisies, but that’s okay: you already know this isn’t reality because it looks like Amelie. All colour-drenched and whimsical details. Plus there’s a knowing voiceover by Jim (“Carry On”) Dale (and, yes, it’s definitely Jim Dale, not Alan “Jim Robinson” Dale, I checked). Even the direction (by Hollywood heavyweight Barry “Men in Black” Sonnenfeld) is Amelie-esque.

And because Pushing Daisies is so hyper-real, I really could have done without the adverts. To be suddenly hoiked out of it and into one of those infernal Halifax abominations was startling. Later there was even an ad for Tena Lady. I don’t know about you, but nothing brings me back to earth quicker than the words “bladder sensitivity”.

Incontinence aside, I did enjoy Pushing Daisies, but perhaps not quite as much as I thought I would. Like so many main characters, Ned (Lee Pace) is a bit dull (at least so far), but the supporting characters – particularly Chuck and Olive (played by the fabulous Kristen Chenoweth) are great (as is Friel’s American accent).

It was charming, sweet and gently funny, but at the same time it was so self-consciously charming, sweet and gently funny that it bugged me a little. Just as a quick illustration: before watching, I thought it was fabulous that the first episode was called “Pie-lette”, but now I find it gratingly twee. And only a little bit cool. See. I’m undecided.

Anyway, you can’t judge a show on its first episode – so much back-story, scene setting, etc. – and I’ll definitely be watching again next week. Plus I read that the pilot (sorry, pie-lette) cost millions and later episodes … didn’t, so maybe what they lose in production values, they’ll gain in heart.

I hope so, because I really want this show to knock me dead. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)