Nicola Bailey

It's basically 2 hours of Harrison Ford doing Indiana Jones only instead of the action involving Tanks, Castles, Airships, archaeologists and historic locations he's confined to a jet plane with some hijackers.

Absolutely brilliant! Given it's setting - The Troubles in Belfast this is a warm and feel good film. Kenneth Branagh captures with great poignancy the effect that religious and political divisions had on the people of Northern Ireland creating and imposing divisions on Catholics and Protestants who lived happily together whilst having little understanding of eachothers beliefs. The genius of it is it's filmed from 9 year old Buddies perspective- there's a lot of looking up as children are forced to do and eavesdropping on half understood whispered conversations between adults dealing with grown up stuff and wanting to protect their kids. The performances are outstanding from all the cast members - portraying superbly the warmth of a very close and caring family. And the casting of Colin Morgan is inspired as the threatening small time criminal wannabe gangster taking advantage of The Troubles to increase his standing. The film is shot in black and white cleverly echoing the style of both classic British cinema of the 1950s and Hollywood classic Westerns - particularly High Noon. Put aside a couple of hours and sit back and enjoy!

Really enjoyed this series, its a nice move on from the Homeland territory so excellently portrayed by Clare Danes from a heroine with a multitude of issues, brave but basically flawed to Keri Russell's portrayal of someone a top diplomat who is at the top of her game and is not prepared to be compromised. She's practical and pragmatic, resisting all attempts to mould her in exactly the way a man would and just gets on with her job. Rufus Sewell is good as her husband also a diplomat, supportive but possibly with his own agenda of which she is very well aware but is essentially devoted to her. Not a particularly real portrayal of a power couple but nice to see a set of lead characters all devoted to maintaining world stability whilst the egos and agendas of elected and non elected politicians and their hangers on swirl around them threatening mass destruction.