Carol Midgley

It is flamboyant, extravagant and extremely camp, and Reid is fantastic, but I think the tonal shift might jar with some veteran viewers.

The pure history bits are gripping, as Pompeii never fails to be. It’s just a pity about the execution.

It’s perfectly functional as a series, I’m just not sure I have the patience.

The premise feels forced with the desire to orchestrate another luxe reunion drama in the style of Big Little Lies, The Perfect Couple and The Four Seasons evidently so great that an implausibility is allowed to drive the plot. But there are some good lines — and some refreshing sullen ungirlyness from Hollis’s oldest friend, Tatum (Chloe Sevigny).

I’ll be honest, the series (which tilts towards a second one at the end) is all a bit young for a fogey like me, but it is a nice, slick nostalgia fix — a throwback to simpler, happier times — and as a prequel, it definitely works.

I’d like to have seen more of Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) and less of the Faks, who are intended (I presume) to bring light relief but are, I’m afraid, as irritating as ever. What The Bear always does well is depict the minutiae of service and make astute observations about social chemistry when a group of humans work together closely in stressful conditions — and these qualities continue to the end.

It is punchy, spiky but cerebral few hours which recognises that the experiment is evolving and there is more work to do.

Let’s just say Alice and Steve embark on petty tit-for-tat revenges that wreak havoc on both their lives and show us, very entertainingly, that the fogeys are far more immature than the youngsters.

This is a raw drama that could easily have been depressing (and at times it is), but ends up ultimately being a buoyant story of resilience.

Hugely engaging.