Reviews

Im rarely post a review here but I feel very strongly about this highly unpleasant drama. It starts with the interesting premise of two troubled strangers coming across a large drug consignment and deciding to take it. That could have been developed into a fascinating and entertaining story.

Instead, it goes rapidly downhill. The language is unnecessarily sweary but I can accept that if the show is otherwise good. However, in this show we have extreme violence - for example am informer having his tongue cut out and multiple murders of police officers in a raid on a police station - shown in a comedic way. The lack of morals in doing this is appalling. Treating extreme violence and cruelty as funny is against even the most basic human values.

The cast is full of good actors whom I've enjoyed watching in the past. They and the writers have gone down in my estimation by participating in this tasteless trash. I watched only the first episode - its values are so debased that I won't watch any more of it and I'll be cautious about watching anything else by the writers.

I've watched the first 7 of these programmes. The acting has been uniformly excellent. The scripts are interesting and subtle but seem a bit repetitive after a few episodes. The tone is uniformly bleak and usually full of suppressed anger. I'm not sure if I can take any more!!

I've just watched the final episode on my Virgin catch up box. The series was powerful and moving about the struggle against unthinking racial or tribal oppression, the ease with which a dominant culture assumes it has all the true values and the ways in which those who have power and authority justify any means they have to retain their position.

I watched the original series when it was first broadcast and remember it as being good but not it having this impact on me. I don't know if that reflects the relative merits of the two series or my journey an almost thirty something who hadn't lived in the US to being almost 70 and having lived in/visited the US for about 4 years.

As someone who loves both the US and the UK for the good they can and sometimes have done, it seems all too relevant to what is happening in President Trump's America with its demonisation of the different, the stranger and the disadvantaged. Sadly it's relevant also to the UK dominated by a government in thrall to the powerful, which rewards the rich with more riches and takes from the poor and disabled, with a pitiful opposition, a country that has rejected its own best interests by stupidly deciding to sever its links with the EU.

Roots ends on a positive note. I hope that our two great countries also come through this dreadful period and move back soon to being examples of the shining city on the hill instead of showing how badly countries can get it wrong.

This updating of the play works beautifully I think.

I love Shakespeare and classic opera and I'm wary of modern updates - so often they are facile or irritating and get in the way of the text/score. But this was a delight: genuinely funny, lovely special effects and a real feel for the soul of the play. It wasn't perfect - occasionally the words got lost in the music or through less than perfect diction. I studied this play at school more than 50 years ago and didn't get much of the humour or the cruelty in the treatment of the characters that this production brought out.

I will want to see more traditional productions as well but will return to this one too. Well done RTD - overall it was a great 1hour 35minutes. The BBC have done us proud in the Shakespeare anniversary year with this and the wonderful Hollow Crown.