Reviews

As you're watching Partygate, you ask yourself 'Did this really happen?' And then you are shown the evidence to prove it from the Sue Gray Report; testimonies of family of those who died, who weren't allowed into hospital to say goodbye; film of mourners at funerals who were not permitted to comfort others. Reminders of the awful things the rest of the country was suffering, at the exact same time Johnson and his staff were living it up at 14 parties and then lied about it. This is a tough watch, but as the Covid Inquiry is deliberately kicked into the long grass, I think it's really important we're reminded of this.

This was good. For the first four episodes. Great to see Leeds, good acting by Leila Farzad and Andrew Buchan. Interesting take on the police drama. After the first four good episodes, we were excited to see how it ended. Only to find a completely implausible ending, which totally ruined our enjoyment of the previous episodes. It would have been better if we'd just watched 1-4 and it had ended there, with Lou never quite sure whether they would come for her for the rest of her life. That would have been believable. The conclusion provided by episode 5 was no. Disappointed and felt a bit cheated.

Have just watched the last episode of the 2022 series and this has really got into it's stride now. The characters are all well developed, it's funny and sharp and everything adds up in the story. Oh, and it's beautiful. More series if this please!

Huge fan of Ann Cleeves, so was looking forward to this, when I saw it was based on one of her stories. However, I was vastly disappointed. The whole thing seemed designed to be pretty -eg. Many scenes everything was carefully colour co-ordinated - for example in the last episode the colour of the two actors' clothes were carefully matched to the colours of the fish and chip box and the coffee cup; they showed the same view of the same pretty cliff about six times every episode (I think that's called 'Doing a Broadchurch'); all the brethren people strangely wore the same three colour shades; a lead actor, seemingly chosen for his high cheek bones and little boy lost look, either crying, staring moodily out to sea, or kissing his lover every few minutes ... Need I go on? This cheapened the Ann Cleeves brand for me and I had to go off and watch a couple of episodes of Shetland the day after to feel better again!

Not many shows have both superb writing and fab acting. Those that do usually go on to be known as classics - eg. Fawlty Towers, Blackadder. However, this has something else. It is more than a comedy. Rarely do you see writers who can depict the range of emotion that you have in this show so perfectly. And then that writing is acted so well that every word, every look, tells you something. There is not one minute of wasted air-time. It is so sensitive and so packed full, that I have re-watched every episode of this series, so that I can enjoy the little touches again. The characterisations are spot on - the screwed up sister, the awful step-mother, the typical British inarticulate father. Then the little quirky ways the writer shows us things - the way only the priest is on her wave-length enough to notice she 'disappears'; the way they all pretend not to need each other and yet somehow we know how much they love each other. We are not told these things, we are shown them in subtle, clever ways. I laughed and cried. Superb.

This is a very grown up film. It tackles very difficult issues, in an intelligent but sensitive way. Jonathan Prycr is as effective as you would expect, but for me it is Glenn Close who gives the stand-out performance. She says so much with her facial expressions, which is entirely in keeping with they way she has behaved, we learn throughout her marriage. At no point do you think this is a woman who has been subservient to her husband because she is less intelligent than him or a victim. The power of this film is that it does not skirt over the complexities which exist in any long-term relationship. It is so refreshing to see a film which treats its audience as intelligent viewers who can cope with complex messages and feelings. Superb.