Andrew Arthur Matthews

At last ITV produce an original interesting and intriguing crime drama that is ‘based ‘ on the real story of Joan . I thoroughly enjoyed this series with first class performances from the actress that plays Joan and suitably supported by an excellent cast . So having suffered some bog standard, dull and frankly unexciting crime based dramas this is a very pleasant surprise!

What a load of rubbish ! Decided to give this a go as I live near the city of Cambridge and thought at the very least it would be fun to see if I can identify the locations. However the first thing I noticed was the amateur village hall acting , wooden performances and the obvious lack of a decent script. I did like the quality of the camera work and overall production quality but this first episode lacked any drama, jeopardy, tension or excitement from a plodding, turgid, dull , boring and uninteresting storyline. I had hoped for the Cambridge version of Inspector Morse the Oxford detective based on the superb Colin Dexter books to draw on but this Professor T clearly is not based on anything of quality and an absolute waste of time. Avoid at all costs

Only watched the first episode but as a seasoned veteran of crime / mystery drama this has all the ingredients of a strong gripping series . Good acting, intriguing plot and shows plenty of promise. Did find the Liverpool accent difficult to understand from time to time though!

Oh dear , I am guilty and hold my hands up ! Yes I did watch all the episodes to give it a fair run. However it didn’t improve anyway with the only actor working her butt of was the policewoman. In fact she seemed to be acting overtime to cover for most of the cast..Yes all the other negative comments are absolutely spot on . Yes this drama had all the makings of an intriguing crime drama series; good locations , unusual story line and excellent cast . Unfortunately the end result was a ludicrous yarn with so many holes in it I can understand why this drama has been given a massive thumbs down . The one word that sums up all the ITV crime drama comparisons is of course, Broardchurch . Since the excellence of the plotting , acting and script of the iconic Broardchurch ITV have made a splendid and memorable rod for their own backs.

Oh dear I was so looking forward to this re- working of this lesser known , lesser quantity Agatha Christie crime story and having just finished watching both episodes on BBC iPlayer I have to concur with all the negative comments on this site. Whilst I was happy to go along with the 1954 setting , the racist attitudes etc the big and most notable problem with this production was the total lack of actual drama , tension and jeopardy. Why on earth pick this low quality ‘ who did it ‘ when there are so many stronger and interesting books to choose from? Unfortunately although not a bad piece of viewing it was not good and delivered a simple ‘ ho hum ‘ , slack, pedestrian, dull and underwhelming couple of hours viewing

Must admit to having a massive crush ofn Emily Fox so very happy to watch her even doing the washing up ! However in these shows her role just appears to ask the blooming obvious questions to the Prof who actually is the ‘real ‘ expert here. One of the previous comments states these shows make the Police seem inept! Well yes and they are often inept as has been revealed this week when we see the cover up of officers committing numerous sexual offences. I suppose if these programmes help to shed new light , encourage new witnesses to come forward and it forwards these cold cases then it will have been worth while

What an absolute load of rubbish this series was. As an avid cop / crime drama I watch as many of these as possible. But that doesn’t mean I will watch Vera and that David Jason Frost stuff. No I measure by Pirie, Unforgiotten, Line of Duty, Happy Valley and many others. This very long series which I suspect in other directors hands may well of worked. So daft plotting , cardboard acting hashed together with 6 th form college scripts made this Before We Drop Off drama a total dud. Granted Lesley Sharp was very good in the two female CID officers thing but here she was wasted. I did watch until the end in order to be as fair as possible and I was gobsmacked when I realised we were being set up for another run of this drivel . This is just poor , very poor !

Another fine BBC crime drama that due to the superb storyline from Rowling and the screen play by someone else this particular caper was as good as all the others. Beautifully filmed and with high production values these Strike dramas show how rubbish other BBC crime content can be ; the lame , totally predictable and very low budget values on London Kills for example. That said I am eager for more Strike and desperately hoping the ‘ will they , won’t they ‘ question that is so obvious flagged up in this drama doesn’t raise its unnecessary head ( so to speak ) When you have writing and actors of this calibre a ‘ love ‘ interest is totally unnecessary to a good tale well told .

First class police drama featuring the charismatic, highly watchable and mesmeric Martin Freeman. Super supporting cast and in a world of ho hum cop show procedural ; Vera, Grace, etc this series is well written with good solid well drawn characters. I am watching on catch up , enjoyed episodes and very much looking forward to the remaining so well done the BBC

Having forced myself to watch the last 2 episodes of the execrable ITV Trigger Point excuse for a gripping drama I was fearful about another ITV drama, The Ipcress File. Most of us will recall the superb film based on the Len Deighton novel featuring a young an mesmeric Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. Being shot in black and white gave the film an authentic East European grittiness and with a memorable score made it into one of the best and most loved spy stories. Joe Cole , a new face to me, plays Harry in this 1960’s period piece and in full colour. Great care has gone into achieving the correct props, clothing and cars; it shows and it allows you to settle back into the past. On the viewing of episode 1 I shall definitely be watching the whole series. Good snappy editing moves the story along with pace and the cast are top notch. Yes ITV this is more like it !