The interviewee, mockery in her voice, asks the observant Jew: where should I put my cup of tea, which has milk in it? Is on the floor OK? Yes, says the OJ, I don’t eat off the floor. Can I put it on the table? Yes, it’s OK now, because it has a milk tablecloth on it. And if it had a meat tablecloth? Rather you didn’t.

This conversation featured in an episode of Jews, a three-part series now airing on BBC4. It demonstrates that television can be a medium for aiding reflection – but only if attended to carefully. The last part of the series, to be broadcast on July 2, does this best. Taking as its central narrative the actions of Jonathan Faith, who sold Faith Shoes for £65m and now seeks to preserve the Jewish community, it circles insistently round daft observances: the rigid separation of meat and milk in the kosher home; the reluctance of a man to shake a woman’s hand, or vice-versa; the injunction to say a long prayer after relieving oneself.