Lavender Johnson

Truly awful! A waste of time and effort for the film-makers, and definitely one to avoid. Pure drivel, tripe with no redeeming features.

Mildly amusing in places (not sure if it was meant to be); entertaining with some good performances. Daft storyline and conclusion, but watchable.

Can't really understand the criticism; this film is what it is. A well cast if rather predictable romp with a slightly dodgy storyline. Unusually for American films it is well-paced and nor over-long. I could even understand most of the conversation, rather than the slurring and mumbling that is now so common.

Watched Series 1, which we found padded-out and implausible. My wife and I loath racism, but why, oh why, can't the anti-racist brigade realise that by attempting to engineer the viewer's perception of 'normal' society they are achieving the exact opposite of their aims? The idea that the head of a hospital, the headmistress, a counsellor, and a senior police office are all black is unrealistic and devalues the story. And of course one must throw in mixed-race and lesbian couples. The same argument applies to TV ads, and I'm convinced that many do more damage to sales than their promoters realise. In 'Liar', it seems, virtually all white people are either evil or stupid, or both. Well, watch the series if you wish, though it's like a Johannesburg soap-opera. In itself it's a decent, if complicated, storyline and there are some good performances, but most viewers will be distracted by the producer's obsession with grand-standing on 'integration and diversity'. Update - Series 2 - now watched, The casting continues to be statistically improbable, and the story is yet more complicated. Weak conclusions to both series, to be truthful.

Some good performances, especially from Billy Howle (an actor's dream part?) and Helen McCrory, who was peerless. But a complicated story set over eight episodes, which was too many. As so often, the scenes were padded to the point of inducing boredom. But I suppose it gave the BBC the chance to inject some PC and 'inclusivity'! Just about worth watching, but don't expect too much.

Original subject, interesting and sensitively made. Good performances and, unusually for an American film, I can hear every word they're saying! Well worth watching.

Good film. atmospheric and sensitive. Beautifully performed and well directed. My one complaint is the mumbling and slurring of words; that costs a star from me, It is so commonplace in American films. I don't expect received English but prefer to avoid missing half of the spoken words.

What a waste! A potentially good story, completely ruined by the screenwriter's insistence on turning every conversation, every situation, every nuance into a conversation about racism. Please, give us a break from political correctness; the country works surprisingly well and real racism is now rare to find. We can live without being woke-lectured on mainstream television. Some of the lesser actors in this production were very poor too, so instead of a potential 4-5 stars that the bare story warrants, I mark it down to three.

Gripping, an excellent drama well directed with characters beautifully portrayed by the lead actors. But several of the lesser actors were abysmal, and hopelessly miscast (particularly the Met police officers); in fact one or two should try getting a job other than acting. To be fair some of them were given an impossible task, playing implausible roles with foul language scripted gratuitously. Does nobody in authority watch the finished article before transmission and realise the casting and scripting mistakes that have been made? Perhaps to avoid them in the future? The storyline did drag a little, with irrelevant sub-plots; perhaps four episodes (rather than six) would have been ideal. And, predictably of course, the BBC and Irish producers were intent on a little Social Engineering to educate we proles who pay their wages. Without my reservations the series would warrant a full five stars, so well worth watching.

A weird and disturbing film, very original. Quite raunchy for the 70s, and good performances, though perhaps Kris Kristofferson is rather miscast. Definitely worth watching if you enjoy eccentric films.