christine Wilson

Reading some of the reviews here is quite a sad experience. It’s not enough that it’s great cast, great story telling and very puzzling - not to mention spooky. That’s not enough to satisfy the ‘I’ve seen every tv programme ever made and nothing excites me’ brigade. Well, I’ve not watched every tv programme ever made and I’m more than happy with great acting and storytelling. That’s quite enough for me. This is a thriller and it certainly does its job. Oh and Nikesh Patel is excellent!

It’s hard not to quite like this series. It’s even harder to love it. Set in London’s Chelsea (one of the richest in London) and with two quirky detectives - one, Sonita Henry channelling her Indira Varma here with classic hairstyle. He cycles slightly precariously. They solve the crimes efficiently with a degree of brain power and some useful input from their pathologist - an actress I didn’t know. It has good guest stars - horribly underused - mainly clicking their heels. (Frances Barber being one). And it moves at a pace that could nearly be called slow but maybe isn’t. It’s just hard to say because despite many good things going on here - it’s just slightly dull. Despite being in Chelsea - a rich part of London as I said - the first 3 crimes show nothing much in the way of wealth. All the featured crimes are set against modest or very modest backgrounds. A night watchman, a blogger a man who works in a church. Very ordinary types. And the crimes are fairly ordinary too. If murder can be called ordinary. Being pushed under a tube train, being stabbed and being hit by a meat tenderiser. It’s not quite Midsomer Murders. It’s like a nicotine free vape or an alcohol free beer. It looks the same, tastes the same but somehow doesn’t quite reach the spot.

A middle class family move from London to a huge country house - where despite poverty they can afford lunch from the farmers’ market. And to add to their tragic story - they can’t afford Farrow and Ball paint! They might have to go for B&Q own brand!!! But crikey they are so poor they have to take a lodger!! (They can’t afford to pay their poor working class electrician though). Big clue ‘she gets it from her mother’, says artist lodger when she hears the daughter is an artist. The story is blown open. Luckily, rather than spend 4 hours on this predictable tosh, I came here to read the reviews. That’s 3.5 hours saved. Three good actors wasted on this. (And is the deposit on a single room, no wardrobe, in a remote house really £4,000???? And would she really have carried cash for this?)

Sally Lindsay rarely steps out of line and this is no exception. After she is scammed on the phone she sets out to recover her money - with the aid of a computer savvy former school friend, it could have gone one way but instead chose a different one. It threw in psychology and interesting characterisation. And ‘June’ turned mastermind. I’m doing 4 stars instead of 5 because it was crazy of June to use the card to buy a pram and bracelet. (And it was odd to barely see the bridegroom Budget constraints.) She nearly blew the game apart. But on saying that she certainly recovered her footing. Great acting all round and a really tense plot that kept me guessing. Oh, a bit gory in parts. But a good thriller. For those saying it was implausible - poetic licence springs to mind!

If you can get past the glaring plot holes - (why was a man convicted on so little evidence? And why was he released so close the scene of the crime? And why could he not remember anything?) Why was the reporter’s room vandalized by a very unlikely person? - it was a good 6 part series that really could have been 4. Working out the family ties and who was who was challenging. But despite all that I quite enjoyed it. There was some good acting and it was a genuine puzzle. I just hope the tied up sheep dogs got found and untied!!

It’s a fascinating concept. 6 men in pre Love Island days, romance the enigmatic Miriam on Ibiza in front of the cameras until they discover that ‘she’ is really a ‘he’. In the world’s tackiest reveal. It scraped the barrel of TV formats so much that Endamol now disown it. Cleverly the documentary gets several of the male ‘contestants’ and a few of the still cynical production team together to pick this apart in detail. From the sceptical cameraman and the incredulous psychiatrist to the unrepentant production ‘executive’ - it makes a sorry but interesting tale. But it suddenly does a sharp U turn. Having created some interesting thoughts on callous tv and assembled a good cast of characters - it then leaves them behind and the story takes an even darker tale in America and Mexico. Interviewing some of Miriam’s family and friends we are able to piece together her final tragic days. However I found it misleading. Her death took place over 10 years after the TV series. And it hadn’t affected her very greatly - in fact she had enjoyed the fame it brought her and had actively chased after it. Although as her friend made clear ‘sex was the only option open to them’. Therefore the first part of the documentary seemed a bit redundant. It might have been better if they had stayed with the whole distasteful tv theme in more detail. I think it made it seem like it wasn’t sure what it was doing. But it had some very sad and interesting content. Would have been better as two episodes rather than three. And might have been better with less voyeurism.