User Reviews

A look at The UK Government's handling of The Covid 19 pandemic, from the point of view of then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

If it were a totally fiction based drama, it would have been quite amusing at times, with Boris shown as a somewhat jovial figure, however, as we all know this was based on actual, real life events, and here you get to see some of the suffering.

One thing that was well portrayed, was how utterly Clueless The Government were, unprepared, incompetent and slow to react, I defy anyone to say they handled the situation well. What worries me, is that during the current financial crisis, lots of these people are there, it's a sobering thought. It was an impossible situation, but one that overwhelmed and consumed those that were responsible for the day to day running of the country.

This was a truly well made and well acted drama, I subscribed to the service, for one reason only, I wanted to see Kenneth Branagh playing Boris Johnson, and he did so quite brilliantly, he is one awesome actor, and as always he nailed it. Lots of strong performances, I look forward to seeing more of Simon Paisley Day, hopefully we'll get to see day trips to Durham.

Very good, thought provoking drama, 8/10.

An excellent fiction based on real events drama regarding Boris, England and Covid.

Couldn't decide whether at times it was a serious drama or a comedy but then there's always the bumbling comedic value to Boris so someone playing Boris was always going to be humorous.

It's very interesting - mixing home life with work life of the ones working within the government at the time of the pandemic. Quite a worry if this is really how the virus was handled by our government - apart from Cummings they were all a set of muppets.

Anyway very entertaining to watch and well done. Well worth a binge and anyone time who is genuinely interested in what happened at that time..

There is so many takeaways from this, but the stand out is the realisation that Dominic Cummings is just not very bright. In fact, I'd suggest that he is a bit of a twonk.

More generally, this is well done - it is well written, well performed, maintains a decent pace, covers the key moments of the pandemic in way that is very easy to follow. Dramatically, it generally delivers.

However, whilst Branagh, as Boris, captures the voice, the prosthetics are a problem. Winterbottom, et al, would have done well to consider Anthony Hopkins' performance as Nixon. Whilst they look nothing alike, Hopkins captured the physically of Nixon very well and built the performance up from that. I suspect that the prosthetics were an impediment and, sometimes, the physical performance, the hunch of the shoulders, the wave of the hands, the shake of the head, comes too close to parody to quite work.

The dream sequences, just to cement that Boris is a bad Dad, detracted. It was off point, added nothing, it should have been cut.

Finally, Contagion. In the first or second episode, Carrie and Boris are sat watching TV and there we find Kate Winslet explaining the reproductive properties of an imaginary virus, which just served to remind me how much better Soderbergh delivered all of this. Where this was baggy - multiple characters introduced, just to kill them off - Contagion was rigorous, tight, taut, and all the better for it. I understand what Winterbottom was trying to do: to give the hidden victims a voice - but, ultimately, Contagion delivered a greater punch through maintaining focus.

Oh, and some of those politicians - Hancock, and the like - really do belong in prison. That Tory Government really is stained in blood.

This series is so raw it's hard to watch at times. I had to pinch myself that only 18 months ago we were in lockdown, stuck at home, despairing at panic buying and praying for a vaccine. This dramatization is extremely well acted, all the main players are well represented, and there is a superb portrayal of the behind-the-scenes pandemonium as the pandemic progresses. The episodes covering Care Homes are especially harrowing, as is the sense of despair in the NHS. The flaw I think is that we learn very little of the virus itself, the molecular biology, the cause, how it spread, vaccine development etc. Instead the focus is on suffering, loss and political ineptitude. So it's part of the picture but not all of it.

This England is an excellent dramatic series, perhaps too close, that portrays a very difficult period of time not only for England but for the whole world, in which some governments were incompetent, they did not know how to face the pandemic.

Being honest I have to admit that I watched the series to see Kenneth Branagh work, it's fascinating how he gets the voice, the gestures, the physicality, he becomes Boris, but what makes his performance perfect is that he doesn't judge the character, he doesn't ridicules not condemns him, Branagh shows Boris for the viewer to judge. The rest of the cast and crew also do a great job. It's worth the time, sometimes a little hard to watch but it's important not to forget what happened and where everyone was.

I was really looking forward to this, but my only criticism is that it didn't really know what it was trying to do.

It's a tough job to cover everything that happened because there was simply too much going on to fit into the time allowed, but no mention of Track&Trace and the PPE scandals was very odd to say the least.

Some judicious editing would have made this more engaging because we don't learn much from continually watching people walking around and saying hello to their colleagues.

All the bits about the dog (Dylan) should never have made it to the final cut.

6/10 because it's above average but nowhere near as insightful as it could have been.

The show is keen to point out its fiction based on facts, however, the scenes in the care homes and hospitals are trully heart breaking. The country was clearly unprepared for c19. The actors in the care homes portray the tragedy with care and perfection. We had daily figures from the government during the pandemic, but the stories portrayed in the programme really bring home the individual tragedy and devastating stories happening all accross their country, personal stories behind the figures.

A great, and deeply thought provoking programme. The acting all round was brilliant, in particular the elderly patients who succumbed to the awful disease.

The scattergun pacing, excessive use of library footage & that friggin' typewriter effect make this hard to watch.

The show feels like a box-ticking exercise; rapidly flipping between each minutiae, each generic & over-dramatic Zoom meeting, introducing what feels like 20 new characters a minute, whilst trying to tell us everything but actually telling us nothing at the same time.

All of this effort to cram in so many supposedly accurate details, and yet Matt Hancock is wearing a rainbow-coloured NHS badge in the first episode!

This show feels as if it doesn't know what it is: a portrait of Boris or a blow-by-blow documentary of the pandemic.

Keeping the focus on him would surely have produced a more watchable, engaging piece of drama.

Branagh as Johnson is fantastic, after 15 minutes in you forget you are not watching the real Boris. The pace and style of the series reminds me of 2011's Contagion. The music and sound design leaves me with a continuous feeling of tension hanging in the air. The hospital scenes looks authentic, you can clearly see how misled and thus desperate the medical personnel is at times. The whole series takes you back to those days back in February and March 2020 when the whole world came to a standstill. And when noone knew when, or if this pandemic will ever be over again. A must-watch with great acting!

Good grief, what a boring TV programme. Such an interesting topic and it's a snooze fest - the scenes jump around so quickly, you don't actually have any idea what's going on. A 2 second scene here, a 2 minute scene here.. it's just so quick and confusing and nothing interesting is happening?

Branagh is OK; some words sound like Boris, but his make-up is so terrifying to look at, it puts you off! I normally like Buchan, but you would hardly know he's playing Hancock except for the massive words across the screen introducing him as so. The actor playing Cummings does him well, otherwise there's very few redeeming features to this show and I would not recommend you forcing yourself to watch it.

Absolutely heartbreaking and shocking account of real life events of no 10 and dealing with the outbreak of Covid-19 . Kenneth Brannagh was incredible as the mumbling eccentric Boris and the rest of the cast were absolutely brilliant too. Casting was amazing . The mix of humour and drama in at no 10 coupled with heartbreaking scenes was so good they nailed it !!!! I know how it feels, I was on ventilation fighting for life at that same time March 2020 exactly the time of the firstnational lockdown. Difficult to watch but it was incredible at the same time. Thanks goes to NHS. I can't believe the low rating by some ? Are people mad?

Where to start with this.

Every episode advises this is fiction based on fact. From everything I remember during the pandemic it seems pretty spot on.

The idea for this was great although it could have backfired due to the horrible impact covid had on everyone.

In my opinion this was put together with great care and consideration to everyone who has been impacted by this pandemic. The scenes in the care home and those caring for family at home are heartbreaking. However they really show how people came together and supported one another.

The other side to the coin, it also shows the worst is some people who were working within the government who felt they were above the common person. This was a story which needed to be told and has been done while using corroborated fact.

The acting is off the chart and really pulls you in. It doesn't take long before you stop realising you are watching a drama and feel that you are right there with them. You will have genuine feeling for the characters both loving and hating which is probably why some don't enjoy this. Some of the negative reviews, could likely be due to the fact, that this make you look again at the views you had on certain individuals during the lockdown. Not only that but who was really in charge of the government during the pandemic.

This is a must watch and I would be extremely dissapointed if this is not nominated for all sorts of awards.

10 starts is not enough.

I'm not really a fan of glamourising or exploiting real world tragedy for entertainments sake, I often think it causes more damage than it's actually worth, this show does the exact same but unkind murder documentaries or even small massacres the group potentially affected by this are in the millions.

Getting it out the way, the portrayal of boris was good, but to be honest that wasn't the main thing I cared about, I mean the fact this country still insists on having these posh, out of tough narcissistic fools run a country built and Maintained by the common man is infuriating. The fact boris is portrayed here often as a blithering simpleton bordering on the autistic is frightening. How was he ever running a country?

I'm unsure the reason of purpose this show even had? If these things were factual and could be proven then the fact both Hancock and Cummings aren't rotting in prison is a real shame. The fact that they just openly and consistently lie throughout is just awful to watch, to see them congratulating themselves for fooling people briefly in thinking they'd done something well even though it was instantly disproven by logic and common sense.

Again the care home stuff and all instances of the family life with death and struggles was brilliantly acted and only reason this wasn't a 0/10, it was heartbreaking, anger inducing and just makes you feel helpless and sad. Then to sandwich those moments in this endless barrage of abuse by the people we elect is scary. I mean if they don't have the peoples backs, who does? It's unlikely that we will ever recover from the pandemic, that's just financial, but generations of families will be traumatised and potentially depressed for generations to come.

They needed to make all of the government stuff completely factual as I'm tired of the media inciting hate. I couldn't work out how I felt about boris, the rest I was either indifferent to or hated, even the media who were portrayed as the truth, the damage they've done to our society isn't far off as bad.

As for boris, bits make him sympathetic, bits make him look ridiculous, he should never have had the job, the dream stuff was completely needless and seemed like the film makers were auditioning for other things, as a person I find boris a strange figure with an irritating yet amusing character, more laugh at than with though. I think he's a great cover which is why I think he got where he did, but for me it should've bought a change with parliaments going far north and get away from these posh out of touch cretins.

If anything this proved book smarts don't equal qualified or Efficient, capable or effective people, or surely we'd never have been so let down, those 2 weeks of dithering where infections were worsened 30 fold was unforgivable a set the tone of their failure, some of which should be treated as criminal.

Pointless show that does more harm than good, as entertainment it's ok but when you actually think about it, the fact no comeuppance will occur and we have their boy rishi in charge that all of this was for nothing and our suffering continues, if labour had a guy with a personality we'd likely be more optimistic.

If you've loved the portrayal of The Royals in 'The Crown' they you'll like this time capsule based on the rise and fall of the Conservative government from mid 2019 through 20/21 with the highs of Brexit and successfully leaving it 2020 but the onslaught of the dreaded 'COVID' its all very gripping as we all lived through it in real time and losing family to it so equally hard to see it unravel in a drama but then this based on life experiences of key events.

Kenneth Branagh as the infamous 'Boris Johnson' not only puts in a brilliant performance from his gravely voice and waddle but looks exactly like him with his doting wife and look alike Carrie.. From Rishi to Hancock, all putting in a great performance, brilliant!

The title itself gives you an insight into how much thought has gone into this series. England is not Great Britain and is not the UK. Although the focus is the Prime Minister's reaction to COVID, which was primarily restricted to England, his decisions on this impacted the whole of the UK, and other matters, eg Brexit we're certainly not England-only.

It was also a series that didn't need to be made. His tenure should have been investigated appropriately and not made into a TV series based on real events. It understates the terrible decisions made and the impacts it has had on individuals and the economy. No mention either on how contracts were handed out.

Pointless series that seemed to be researched from memory.

Kenneth Branagh is a gem of an actor. He has every nuance, look and mannerisms of Boris Johnson nailed.

Sadly, It's a look back at 2020 when no one seemed to know what to do with the awful pandemic hit.

Heartwenching to watch as people had to stand by and watch their beloved family & friends die without being able to give them comfort and love. God Bless our healthcare workers for the thankless job they did to help.

Enjoyed this immensely and I appreciate the care and detail everyone put into this project to bring it to everyone . Kenneth Branagh is a rockstar in my opinion and deserves every award.

The title of this film is ignorant considering this is a story about the United Kingdom government and not England. It makes it feel inaccurate and misrepresented.

It's watchable with decent acting. The story flowed well and kept the viewer engaged. There were some powerful scenes. Overall, I would have enjoyed this series more if had been accurately represented and inclusive of all the countries affected by the story. This is important when taking on a factual story and I feel like, without it, what is the point in watching. You may as well watch a tv drama for entertainment. Shame as it could have been great.

The show says it's"fiction based on fact" but Boris has been truly shafted here. His character is made out to be interested in quite literally anything other than covid. His book, his dog, going to events, quoting Churchill etc. There are bizarre scenes that have clearly been made up such as him badmouthing people of different backgrounds - none of this has any fact so why out it in? Carry made to look equally bad and as if she's angling for some kind of affair which again is literally made up. Add in the first few scenes of people dying from covid (which are well acted and tough to watch) are obviously from a particular background (if you know you know) and it's a hatchet job on Boris tbh. Bear in mind in early March quite literally nobody here cared about Covid full stop l, it's unfair to show him at a sporting event while somebody is on a ventilator. I'm no big fan of his but this show feels like an assault on character which is really Poor is you literally make stuff up so it's a more interesting watch.

This awesome TV series from Great Britain is purely a masterpiece in terms of accuracy in the detailed analysis of the Boris Johnson's reign at 10 Downing Street, from the beginning to the end, or nearly his end. Because he was still in charge of Prime Minister matters when the production was finished.... Anyway, this is a dive into the behind the scenes elements of 10 Downing Street, it shows everything of this jungle, yes, jungle where the Prime Minister's staff, especially the subordonates, is treated as cattle, as pieces of sh...and ruthlessly fired at the least sign of weakness or incompetence. But I will insist on the fact that kind of situation was surely the same in many contries during the COVID plague crisis. Maybe worst elsewhere. And in any big company in search of course of performance, I am sure it is the very same. And the second reason not to miss this show is that it also shows in a brilliant way the rough battle between authorities and the COVID plague, it shows all the mistakes made by the staff, all the difficulties which they had to fight against, between numbers, curves, expectations, surveys about the possibility to lockdown the whole population or not, the financial disaster, collapse of the economy, that those drastic measures could - and eventually will - provoke.... And I don't speak of the incredible, gigantic grief and pain that emerged in families, stroke by deaths galore. Hospital system gruesome difficulties..... Awesome series, I repeat. And Ken Brannagh is absoloutely outstanding, I hope he will be rewarded at the BAFTA ceremony.