Ratings
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Reviews
Brian and Maggie (2025)
Engaging but not completely convincing
Harriet Walter doesn't try to mimic Thatcher's accent very closely, which leads to a more natural, less strangulated performance than those of Meryl Streep and Gillian Anderson. She looks too old, but is otherwise fairly convincing. As for Steve Coogan, I agree with another reviewer who says he often just seems to be playing himself. This is sadly true. Despite slight touches of the voice and diction, he doesn't capture Walden's manner as I remember it (and as we see it in those few seconds at the end.) Also I'd have liked more about the 1989 situation and less of the back story that took up episode 1.
Out There (2025)
Above average thriller
Martin Clunes is very good in this, as is Gerran Howell (playing much younger than his real age) as the drug-dealing friend of Clunes' son. Carly-Sophia Davies as the girfriend is also quite a lot older than her role suggests and she performs it well, though she perhaps doesn't look quite as young as her character should. Louis Serkis is closest to the right age for his character as Clunes's son and is adequate. He is supposed to be traumatised for most of the story, but I could imagine someone else doing a better job. As with most of such serials, it is stretched out over too many episodes (by about two) and the ending is not satisfying. I won't say more, so as to avoid spoilers. Nevertheless, it kept me engaged right through.
Dalgliesh: Devices and Desires - Part 2 (2024)
Better than Death in Holy Orders
...but that's not saying a lot. It might not to so bad if we couldn't compare it on YouTube with episode 1 of the 1991 Anglia TV version (sadly only that one episode). This is of such low quality in comparison. For one thing it's more cheaply made with about a third of the cast, according to IMDB. That was set in the P D James setting of Norfolk with local accents and atmosphere. Now we have moved to an unconvincing generic location which is described af Kent. (If it was really Kent, Dungeness would have been the place to set it.) Roy Marsden was a slightly sad but also human and likeable Dalgliesh. Bertie Carvel's is mainly just grim and glum. Now we have goodies and baddies, much like in a children's story. Back then there was actual nuance. Take for instance the caravan-dwelling protesters, Neil and Amy. Now they are just angry caricatures. In 1991, Robert Hines and Nicola Cowper included a gentle, touching, human quality to the roles. There was Gemma Craven and Suzanna York and various other excellent actors of the period. Nuff said. Why did they bother with this inferior remake?
Dalgliesh: Death in Holy Orders - Part 2 (2024)
A bit lame
This was an adaptation we didn't need. It had been pretty well done in 2003 with Martin Shaw as Dalgleish and Robert Hardy was great value, as always. Jesse Spencer shone as the troubled ordinand. The college was on the edge of a dangerous cliff by the sea. The adaptation stayed close to the book, which had only recently come out. The cast was twice the size of this rather cut-price version. There is very little atmosphere at all - the college is deserted for one thing - it's the holidays - with literally no one there apart from the small group of suspects. Just about every character is unpleasant. There is no one to root for. Have they forgotten it's meant to be entertaining? Bertie C is just terrible as Dalgleish. He has pretty much reduced the character down to grim and miserable austerity. He is boring. Roy Marsden was by far the best Dalgleish, because, for one thing, he added just a touch of human warmth. Martin Shaw was physically a bit ox-like, which he couldn't help, but otherwise OK. The sidekick, played by Alistair Brammer, is boring as well. To be charitable, the part as written probably gives him little chance to be anything else. As I write, I'm waiting to see what they do with Devices and Desires, which also was good in its previous incarnation.
Moonflower Murders (2024)
Very enjoyable but too long
I really enjoyed this, but I'm glad I watched it on BBC iPlayer, as it meant I could stop, start and go back a bit to check things I might have missed. You really need your wits about you with the different timelines and actors playing two roles. That was a fun aspect of the series. What wasn't so much fun was Susan's private life and her completely irrelevant sister and nephew. Crete provided some pretty pictures and it meant they got some funding from the Greek government, but it was also unnecessary. This should really have been a four-part serial. There was no need for six episodes. Horowitz is a clever man and the plot - while not totally convincing (others have spotted holes) is full of interesting touches. On a more mundane level, there are some anachronisms, such as "gotten" in the mouth of an 1950s' character. Also the fact that Ireland was used to stand in for England shows through at times - most crassly in the form of a bright yellow "road narrows" sign (Ireland has American-style road signs). The fact that it was Ireland was probably the reason that Susan was mostly seen driving down unmarked single-track roads. Other roads would have had markings and street furniture that gave away the true location.
Hit Man (2023)
Starts well, but then...
Glen Powell shows that he is a versatile actor who can play comedy well. The first section of the film in which he is a kind Clark-Kent-ish mild-mannered professor who becomes a completely different person in the fight for law and order - or rather a whole succession of different people - is great fun, as he dons his various disguises and personas. The parts in court when he has to defend his conduct in what is more-or-less entrapment cases are also good - they add a necessary touch of seriousness to the fun stuff. However - and it's a huge however - the film soon veers off into a very, very dull rom-com. It's only about one-third through when it becomes boring and the boredom only deepens. Towards the end it goes off the rails altogether and the ending is horrible, as others have noted. Ardria Arjona is OK in this - but a thousand other actresses could have filled this role without making much difference. Apart from Powell, the standout actor is Austin Amelio as Jasper.
Made in Finland (2022)
Starts OK, goes downhill
How baffling are the AI (?) written rave reviews, which are very short and not even 50 words. The box I'm writing in demands a minimum of 600 characters. There's something fishy going on! Anyway, to the series itself: it started as (what seemed to me) a comedy drama and it was quite fun. Then it got more and more bogged down in long-drawn-out legal and technical stuff, lightened just a little by the antics of Aki. Six episodes were far too many. Towards the end it melted down into patriotic Finnishness. I suspect that you need to be a Finn to appreciate all this - I expect there are lots of nuances closed to me as an outsider. It's also cheaply made. The 80s are there in the cars and technology, but they could have made much more of the era. The Berlin Wall falls, unmentioned, as far as I can recall. The scenes outside the American courthouse are just terrible. It's impossible to believe for a second that the actors ever left Finland in the making of this. This series was not really fit for export.
Capital (2015)
Partly realistic
This more of a (mostly) comedy soap opera than anything. It has elements of realism in its premise: the social mix created in London streets because of exploding property prices - but there is also over-the-top parody and slightly cloying sentimentality. The comedy Pakistani grandmother is a case in point. The story of the postcards is weak and a bit baffling. The Detective Inspector (yes, that's the drip's rank) who endlessly visits the street on this rather trivial matter certainly isn't realistic. I have my doubts, too, about the church which entirely consists of a large wonderfully disciplined choir. We're in a dream world, except perhaps for Gemma Jones's story. And then there's the sadly all-too realistic tale of the Home Office relentlessly persecuting an immigrant. A strange mix, but overall it is fun to watch and the acting is mostly excellent.
Ludwig (2024)
Lovely, comforting TV
"David Mitchell wants to do a series in which he solves crimes like Inspector Morse or Miss Marple. We'll go with Morse - complete with puzzles - swap Oxford for Cambridge and build in the loveable fogeyishness that Mitchell has made a career of." That's what they thought and and it was a great idea. They were on to a winner. It's completely daft, bears little or no relation to actual police work, but it doesn't matter a jot. Mitchell is great, Anna Maxwell Martin is a delight - she is great at portraying really nice people (I remember Esther Summerson from 19 years ago) - and Dipo Ola is great as the sidekick (what a great voice he has). What's not so great is casting Dylan Hughes as 15 year old. It's laughable. He is likeable and can act OK (except not as a schoolboy. Really, can't they find any decent teenage actors? I know they exist.) I watched the whole series while laid low with a virus. It was just the right thing.
Apples Never Fall (2024)
Well, I thought it was good!
I'm surprised at the general negativity in the comments. I am someone who often lacks patience in serials, but I was completely absorbed. I thought it never flagged and I wasn't tempted to skip episodes. What made it was the acting, which was almost all great. There was a lot of individual and family psychology to explore and they did a good job of it. Annette Bening was absolutely excellent and the star of the show. Sam Neill was maybe coasting somewhat, but still good. Why he had to growl all his lines was a bit of a mystery, however. Their grown-up children were interesting characters, well differentiated. Jake Lacy had the dullest role, but I thought he made the best of it. The ending was satisfying in my opinion. I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on the adaption, nor on the fact that it was an Australian story, filmed in Australia, but Americanised and pretending to be in Florida. I can well understand that that is galling for Australian viewers.
Timeless: Party at Castle Varlar (2016)
Terrible travesties of the German language
Wow - this is beyond cringe. The attempt to construct a wartime German setting is laughably terrible and is around the level of a 1950s comic. Matt Lanter's German is awful and wouldn't food a native speaker for a millisecond - and that's not even considering the fact that he chucks in the English word "sir" at frequent intervals. Some of the supposed native Germans are not much better. Sean Maguire as a Nazi officer! How did he fall from the heights of Grange Hill to this farrago of rubbish? Going back to Matt Lanter: has anyone else noticed that he has the exact same designer stubble in every era? It never gets any past era, that stubble would mark him out as dishevelled at best and more likely as disreputable - quite possibly a homeless person. Until recent decades you were either clean shaven or you had a beard. And if you were working as a waiter in a hotel, you did your tie up properly, too.
Ripley (2024)
Drab acting
It's intrinsically a gripping story and in this version this kicks in after a long, long time, when Scott and Flynn finally go on the boat trip. After that, the plot kept me watching. However - and it's a big however - the script is flat and the acting flatter. Andrew Scott barely moves a facial muscle throughout. Whatever makes Ripley of any interest to Greenleaf? He's a total bore. There is no sign even so much as lively conversation between them. Johnny Flynn is equally bland. He affects a semi-growling monotone. Playboy glamour? Next to none. As has been noted elsewhere, they are both far, far too old for their parts - in Scott's case by about 20 years! A 27-year-old actor might have prsented us with a "hungrier" and at least livelier Ripley. A very strange feature of the plot near the end is that the American detective correctly works out (guesses?) what's what and asks the key question (which I won't give away here) but promptly drops it. Why? It's not the only puzzling and convenient feature of the plot, but I won't say more.
Clean Sweep (2023)
Kept me watching
I enjoyed this, partly, I think, because I'd never seen an Irish police thriller before. The main plot was gripping and well acted. I thought the ending was very well executed and certainly doesn't need to imply a second series, as some reviewers have said.
On the negative side, I found the family soap opera a bit tedious. The stories with the three children had nothing to do with the main plot. It's as if there were two competing programme ideas and someone had the not-so-bright idea of putting them both into one.
The English police scenes did not ring true at all and the histrionic outburst near the end was bizarre. Why was the superintendent (?) in charge of the case referred to as the "commissioner". It made no sense. The accents weren't always quite right either.
The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies (2023)
Pleasantly surprised
I liked it, which surprised me a bit, as I wouldn't have thought it my cup of tea. The premise was good and interesting from the start.
I don't agree with the various reviewers who have criticised the acting. It's great. I'm not entirely sure about all of the casting, though. Alistair Petrie is a very capable actor and he certainly gives it all he's got, but was he really right for the role? Sorry Alistair, but I found it hard to imagine all those women falling for him as they did.
On the negative side, it is spun out to fill five episodes. There is no particular reason for that length. Three would have been fine. The series treads water at bit in the middle, as such serials so often do. We could easily have been told of fewer of Robbie's past crimes and he could have been brought down sooner - it presumably just depended on how much the BBC wanted to spend or how many evenings it wanted to fill.
It all goes a bit haywire in the last episode and completely takes leave of reality. It's a pantomime ending, really, but fun.
Without Sin (2022)
Gripping, twisty, believable
This is a top class serial.
The acting is excellent from everybody, even if Vicky McClure always seems a bit the same in everything she is in (i.e. Downbeat with always the same accent in whatever I've seen her in).
The story is believable, since the situation with the drug culture and the associated criminality is so prevalent in many parts of the country. Also convincing is the extreme youth of some of those who get emmeshed in it.
The plot had me totally gripped and the ending came as a surprise. Admittedly it was a bit far-fetched that Vicky McClure's character so quickly and easily became a fearless detective, but, hey, it's a thriller.
Malpractice (2023)
Starts well...
It's a truism that it's easier to start an interesting story than it is to finish it. I found this one gripping in the first couple of episodes. By episode 3 I was looking up how many more episodes there were left to go.
The story and the predicament of the lead character got more and more fraught, but it might have been hurried along, in my opinion.
In episode 5, not surprisingly it all reaches a crescendo - but then rather lamely, too smoothly and quickly comes to the conclusion.
I think it's almost a rule now that TV drama serials have one or two episodes too many. I presume it's somehow cheaper to spin out one series out than to generate two.
There are some clichés, for example those TV drama disputes where characters have an argument lasting one minute, which ends when one of them simply leaves the room.
Bank of Dave (2023)
Highly fictionalised and saccharine
I sort of enjoyed this, even though it was a bit like eating too much sugary food. I know it's difficult making a film when the real people are still alive, but surely the reverential sentimentality doesn't have to be laid on this thick. The local people are saintly and are pitted against made-up evil scheming bankers.
The true story behind the film is great, but quite complex. It's easy to read up on, e.g. Channel 4 did a good documentary a few years ago. This film doesn't worry too much about niceties like facts. In reality the bank had to be called "Bank ON Dave", because it was not approved as a fully-fledged bank and to this day is called Burnley Savings and Loans. The film throws in a fictitious rock concert and a rather half-hearted rom com subplot. Roy Kinnear is excellent. Joel Fry is good, too, but he's great at comedy (see him in Yesterday) and I think he could have acted a bit bigger here. Perhaps the director didn't let him.
Dalgliesh (2021)
Down in the dumps
Bertie Carvel doesn't seem to be doing much at all in the first story (the first two episodes of the six). He has to get a bit more demonstrative later, especially in the second one. The character of Dalgliesh is indeed glum, taciturn, lugubrious - that is how P D James created it. Sadly this doesn't tend to make for entertaining viewing, as it is difficult to identify with a hero who shows so little warmth and doesn't try to be likable. My mind went back to the1990s Dalgliesh series with Roy Marsden and I re-watched him in the first episode of Devices and Desires, available on YouTube. In my opinion Marsden does a better job. He is also taciturn, etc, etc, as per the job description, but through it all he conveys a greater sense of Dalgliesh's underlying humanity. There is just a hint of lightness and warmth in his portrayal, which we don't get here. Bertie Carvel's Dalgliesh is fair, concerned for justice, even indulgent (excessively so towards Jeremy Irvine's character ) - but he's glum, he's grim and he's grey.
The Control Room (2022)
Starts off well...
This has an interesting premise and starts well. But, as so often, a good premise is not enough. There are far too many flashbacks, many or most of which could have been cut with no loss to the story. But there were three episodes to fill and I expect those repetitive scenes with the two children were quite cheap. The plot is unconvincing to put it mildly. It is one of those where a leading character continually fails to do an obvious action, thus prolonging the story to fill its allotted hours. I can't say more without introducing spoilers. And what about the control room? Isn't the ambulance service very busy? Erm, not in this case. The working hours seem extremely flexible, too. The one saving grace of the show is the acting of Iain de Caestecker. He does a good job as a well-meaning man going through extreme stress.
Maigret (1960)
TV drama from a golden age
Nowadays TV drama is mostly the same as cinema drama, just with a smaller budget, and apart from news and current affairs, TV stations just play pre-recorded items. How different it was when this series was made. I'm not sure if the programmes went out live, but even if they didn't, they were made "as if" live, since editing early video tape was extremely difficult and expensive. So what you get with these shows is similar to what you get when you go to a live theatre performance: a company of actors working together in real time to present a story. Fabulous! And, yes, there are going to be the odd little errors, just as in the theatre. The only difference from live theatre is that, in this series, we have the addition of wonderfully evocative filmed sequences made in Paris in an era when it looked extremely Parisian. It's exciting. I don't mind at all about the small and rather cheap sets.
Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary (2016)
Whole show plus great reunion
This is terrific - you get a good filmed version of the whole show (in its revised - but certainly not improved - form of 2014) and also a moving reunion of the original 1989 cast. Lea Salonga and Simon Bowman, the first Kim and Chris, sing The Last Night of the World, showing up the inferiority of the performance earlier in the evening. Alistair Brammer in particular cannot compare with Simon Bowman. Brammer's voice has a kind of whiny drone in it. Probably no one has ever surpassed Bowman on tenderness in the love duets of the show (see the videos on Youtube of him and Lea performing them when the show was new). He seems actually to have improved his voice since then, losing the (IMO) excessive vibrato. The new Kim is good, but Lea Salonga is impossible to beat. Her excellent voice has become richer and more mature over the years, less suitable for the role of teenage Kim, but that's not a criticism.
Endeavour: Striker (2021)
Shoddy
This was once quite a high-grade series, but what's happened?
I thought something might be amiss when I noticed early on a tiny thing: a totally anachronistic payphone. Very odd, when the rest of the set-dressing is meticulous. But that was nothing. The footballing was appalling. Production values close to zero. There was fog and floodlights shining into the camera to try to hide the fact that there were only about half a dozen players and hardly any spectators. The "stadium" was a sort of down-at-heel little amateur affair field suitable for perhaps a Sunday league. These were supposed to be sixth-round FA Cup matches with a player so famous that he is featured on This is Your Life and has a flashy lifestyle. Also there's some terrible hammy acting and the plot is a run-of-the-mill Morse-Lewis-Endeavour one with no redeeming features. I could go on.
The Dig (2021)
Interesting but also dull
I have never liked the words "Based on a true story". Either give us a story as true as can be, or just give us a story. Here it's a bit like the Railway Children - exciting incidents at intervals. Realising that archeology might seem dull, it was decided there should be a couple of dramatic accidents and a love affair, neatly spaced through the running time. If only they could really have devoted themselves to transmitting the fascination of the archeology involved. It would have been a big challenge, but great if it had come off. (By the way, it's weird that we are not properly shown the treasure - not even in the end credits.) Instead we have a hefty dose of the dreamy "last summer before war" trope, admittedly with the odd downpour. I'm getting round to saying it's a bit boring. The actors: Carey Mulligan is too young, but otherwise wonderful (as is the boy playing her son). Ralph Fiennes is excellent. Lily James is wearing oversized modern designer glasses, lest we forget that she's a beautiful young actress of the 21st century. Johnny Flynn is too old, but gets away with it and really inhabits the period, especially in his manner of speech.
Fallet (2017)
It just about works
This spoof of The Killing and The Bridge (along with a few other references) is good in parts. There are some funny moments, but there aren't enough of them for so many episodes. We get the basic joke in episode one. With satire, less is more. It should have been no more than half the length. Also, bringing in an English policeman is out of place in Scandi Noir. The references to Midsomer Murders and Inspector Morse are dull, Adam Godley fails to evoke those detectives anyway and is boring in the part. The Bill Wall character is an unfunny flop, too. It's a bit cheap: the scenes in St Ives are all too obviously filmed in Sweden and the car is left-hand drive.
October Sky (1999)
Billy Elliot, but with rockets
That says it all, more or less. Here were are again: a plucky young hero, striking coal miners, an unsympathetic macho father and older brother, an inspirational female teacher, community support and a well-signposted fairytale ending. Sadly this film doesn't have Billy's dancing. Homer's rockets are good, but not as much fun. But the film works, mainly because of Jake G's performance. He is winsome without becoming cloying, he carries the film and seems to do it with ease.