Reviews

Having worked in Aberdeen for a couple of years I was keen to see this series in order to check in on the great City and hopefully be entertained, but I could only watch one episode I'm afraid.

Unfortunately the writing was pretty uninspired, and the acting was very dour and wooden.

As with most modern UK TV series, the writers/commissioners/casting etc. Seem to be more concerned with ticking boxes rather than producing quality, original drama. With so much competition from other broadcasters and streaming services you would expect that the BBC along with ITV, Channels 4 and 5 etc. Would be upping their game - but they just seem to churning out similar, mundane and average at best programmes.

As someone who loves visiting Gibraltar I thought this series would be really interesting. It wasn't. Despite Gibraltar's geographical location on the tip of southern Europe, with Africa just across a narrow strip of water, and the fact that it is a UK dependancy, there must be more to policing it than removing drunk old men from hotel bars and nicking kids with a spliff in their pocket. One of the cops was clearly playing up for the camera every time he was on screen, and the narration was embarrassingly bad.

I guess it looked a good idea on paper when the idea was being pitched to the broadcasters - but there really isn't enough content to make it worthwhile.

Just brilliant - everything from the story, the acting, the photography, along with the production and the direction, this series just oozes the highest of quality.

The casting is superb and the quirkiness of the individual actors comes across throughout, I particularly like Emma Myers portrayal of Enid Sinclair as the perfect foil to Jenna Otega's Wednesday.

Tim Burton has always made superb movies in the comedy/horror genre, and whilst his influence is evident, it's the juxtaposition of the Nevermore community with the 'normies' that sets this apart and adds a wonderful dimension to the whole story.

I could go on - but I'm way too busy watching it!

Absolutely awful. I don't know what else to say. The dialogue between the two main protagonists was just dreary, meaningless tripe.

Where they intend going with this in the remaining episodes I just can't imagine - but I won't be going along for the journey.

Recipe: Take 8 miserable, unlikeable, flawed adults.

Add a couple of stroppy teenagers and some incredibly annoying younger children.

Don't forget the staple of all current dramas - secretive mobile phone activity.

And finally put them in a villa in what seems to be a particularly cold and windy Malta.

Result: A flat and relentlessly boring story, the type of which Channel 5 excel at.

Morven Christie was captivating and very believable in series 1 and 2, both of which had good storylines and well written scripts.

Series 3 without Morven Christie is terribly lame. A mundane script, shallow characters and pretty poor acting all contribute to a massive downturn in this series.

Lots of tropes - disfunctional families, stroppy teenagers, alcoholism and etc all make this depressing, uninspiring viewing.

And don't get me started on the 30 year old schoolboy!

I saw this at a preview screening in an almost full cinema, and probably the most telling comment I could give is that at the end of the film, as the final credits rolled, the whole cinema was eerily quiet.

I think most people (myself included) were left wondering "what have I just seen?".

That is not a criticism as such, more a reflection on what is a very strange, sometimes profound, and yet an extremely compelling film.

There are some strong and hugely enjoyable performances from most of the cast, and the script is clever and occasionally funny - albeit with many more than necessary profanities (particularly from the children!).

The ending was inevitable, yet I found it somewhat unfulfilling. Having said that I'm not sure how else they could have wrapped it up.

Certainly it is not a film for everybody, but it is a film that makes you think.

A stellar cast delivers a wonderful adaptation one of the greatest ever spy novels. Paced at just the right level to keep the momentum going whilst building the intrigue and the suspense.

Alec Guinness is of course brilliant as George Smiley, but the likes of Bernard Hepton, Michael Aldridge, Ian Richardson and Michael Jayston all deliver outstanding performances. Masterful direction and production too.

Complete and utter rubbish. Another film about Zombies made FOR zombies. Who watches this type of crap? There's no depth to the story or the characters. The dialogue is so lame it could have been written by a school kid, and the acting is as wooden as it can possibly be. Simply awful.

I gave up on this episode after about 20 minutes. Contrived plot with very shallow characters and a turgid screenplay.

Yet another psychological drama made for British TV featuring affluent, successful people who have no likeable qualities, and who stumble through their chaotic lives making one bad decision after another. One wonders how they ever became affluent and successful in the first place!

The three main characters are not only un-likeable, they are actually unpleasant, which makes having any sympathy or empathy for them just about impossible. The acting isn't great, the characters are very two-dimensional, the plot is unconvincing and the screenplay is tired, lame and unimaginative.

It's one of those series that thinks it is clever, original and 'edgy', but is in fact boring, predictable and just plain daft.

A very mediocre episode of Midsomer Murders I'm afraid to say.

All the usual elements are present, such as multiple suspects behaving suspiciously, historical family secrets, jealousy and resentments etc., but it's just not very good.

I thought that the screenplay was very dull and uninspiring, and the general pace of the episode slow and dismal.

But what struck me more than anything was the standard of the acting amongst the supporting cast. Jim Carter and Lynda Bellingham apart, the rest of the ensemble were bland, wooden and two-dimensional. Certainly nowhere near the usual standard of the series, and sometimes quite cringeworthy.

Also, the ancient barrow that is meant to have been a pagan site for hundreds of years looked like it had been constructed the day before by the children from the local primary school using papier-mâché.

In what way, shape or form is this entertainment? Sheer inane, dross.

This was a very enjoyable and engrossing drama that was much better than I had anticipated. The characters were well defined and well acted, the story was engrossing (if a little far-fetched), and the production quality was top-notch. Ruth Bradley was extremely engaging as Agatha Christie and it was lovely to see Pippa Haywood on our screens again. Yeah, it was good!

An interesting (if sometimes factually flawed) biopic of the band and Mr Mercury. An entertaining watch - just don't take it too literally.

What a thorough waste of a great cast. An absolutely dire script for a very flimsy story set aboard a North Sea ferry(which bore no resemblance whatsoever to any ferry I've been on!) Awful.

This is one of those community spirited films in the manner of The Full Monty, and the Ealing comedies, that British film makers often do (but don't always do particularly well). A fairly formulaic plot of 'let's get the old gang back together for the one last tilt at the establishment' is brought to life by some good acting and some very likable, and in some cases eccentric characters. It's not full of belly laughs, but you can't help but have a smile on your face much of the time. Stephen Graham, Julian Sands, Steve Furst and Jill Halfpenny all turn in great performances (Jill Halfpenny in particular), and there's some lovely Yorkshire scenery to enjoy.