I got used to the narration after a while, although I think there may be less of it later on. I think that ITV may have made a mistake in leaving out ep2. There may not have been a lot of plot movement in it, but IIRC, it does do give some explanations of their backgrounds.

I think I looked on it as something a bit quirky and different and filtered out the bits that irritated me. But I think watching it with adverts may slow things down enough to make the irritations more noticeable.

If you want to try it again, I think I have them all and can send you copies.