bowiewhist

I am very disappointed with this as it has promise. However having watched four episodes it seems as if the writer (also an executive producer) is trying to emulate the humour of some aspects of Gavin and Stacey and blending it with Father Brown/ Sister Boneface style cosy crime drama. Two fabulous rights making a huge wrong! Timothy Spall accounts for the two stars I have given. He's got the best of the lines and seems sufficiently realistic and intriguing. Unfortunately he is paired with such an over the top eccentric young officer, Janie, who is an embarassment to we Welsh. I am sure the actress is doing her level best with the drivel she is given to say but the way the character is written is neither funny nor believeable. The settings are very pretty and the crimes have a sprinkling of logic behind them but it all feels very forced. The attempt to be quirky overshoots by miles. If recommissioned for a second series this could be a very good show indeed but Janie needs to be replaced by someone less kookie. Kookie can be great but not for a police officer and not as a foil to Spall who just needs a foil for his character to play off. The episodes I have seen have used Welsh actors I've seen many times before - at least three of them too typecast to work for this. Good to see Cymraeg being spoken and translated. What a missed opportunity.

Overwhelming loyalty dating back to the first episodes with Hartnell mean I simply can't drop below three stars and I must acknowledge that to sustain good stories consistently while the world evolves year on year has to be a massive challenge - but lately the writing and acting has been patchy. A sensistivity had been developed with the regeneration for the 21st century, something tender, each Doctor touching a nerve as they encountered loss upon loss - but somewhere in the Capaldi years (no reflection on him) this seemed to get traded for a comic book version and since then I've begun to realise I am no longer the right demographic for the show. Fair play I have been kept enthralled - mostly - for 60+ years by wonderful baddies, a brave and inventive doctor and a smattering of decent companions with some, often scary, cliff-hanger episodes but lately things seem hollow, a bit too knowing to the extent that it begins to beggar belief that the humans who now encounter The Doctor haven't already heard of him and his Tardis. In much the same way that the Star Trek films seemed to turn up alternatively as either weak or superb, the x factor for good drama seems to me to be the age old connectivity with the audience through relationships and very believable characters. I'm not sure I believe anymore.

This is cosy crime on the outskirts of Cambridge and thanks to the most wonderful characters it is an easy watch, engaging and often moving. It can be twee here and there but not everything about crime has to be violent and brutal. I particularly rate Al Weaver who now directs as well as plays Leonard. I am very much enjoying the new Vicar - helped by him being very easy on the eye!

Very impressed with the sense of place and in particular with the Sikh/Muslim issues demonstrating the tensions between cultures. I felt this domestic aspect was more compelling than the slightly fragmented hunt for a serial killer. There were several moments when belief had to be suspended - especially over Riaz's love life. The last two minutes of the final episode, while moody with a good music score, seemed wasted - a blatent attempt to hook a second series by leaving us hanging. Some strong performances and generally good direction. Not entirely comfortable with the moral compass. However maybe these days one has to suspend belief that a copper will have honesty and integrity...

I think it was useful to have watched this spontaneously without much idea of what it was about or who was acting in it. As it got underway I sussed it was set in an English seaside town in 1920 and the sense of time and place was pretty good - with the exception of some incongruent casting for the period. (I know, I know, you are not meant to say anything or notice but it jars and anything taking you away from the narrative and experience is just pointless. If the same logic had been applied to everything then there would be women on the jury!) It is absolutely hilarious while also offering a dark, troubling undercurrent of coersive control both of an individual and of women in general. This is one film that offers plenty of lines to its female protaganists and they are ripe and racey. An absolute hoot in many ways but also profoundly sad.

This was well directed, acted, shot and edited but I felt it was too long - far too much moody lighting of cigarettes dragging the pace. The concept is an excellent one and with Ecuador today allowing assisted deaths most pertinent. The writer comes down marginally more against by demonstrating the loopholes and the danger of explotation and a vague line not to be crossed. I worried for the aged dog believing some sort of putting to sleep might be used to draw parallels but thankfully I was spared any such thing. Ironically the action packed episode 6 finished too soon with so many loose endings I felt frustrated. Meanwhile there were countless odd implausable moments. Why did the pair bring the boat back to a different spot rather than return it from whence it came? When have the blue plastic bag ready for what was meant to be a dummy run? Experienced policewoman fails on cinema alibi to such a lame extent? This got a 3.7 from me rounded to 4. Good work from the supporting cast and some great locations.

One of my favourites. Watched when it first came out and it scored top marks for me then. I watched it again 23 years later - this time knowing the plot and the outcome - and it was still gripping.