Writer Grace Ofori-Attah, who worked in the NHS for 10 years, once again gives the proceedings an air of authenticity without overloading it with the sort of endless abbreviations that eventually made Line of Duty a bit of a joke.
While Jo is no Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire’s inimitable character in Happy Valley), neither is she meant to be. Mackie, however, is shaping up to be a villain every bit as skin-crawling as James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce.
I came to Nightsleeper with low expectations – the bare synopsis sounded unimaginatively generic. But this promises to be an intricately constructed, high-speed ride – let’s just hope it doesn’t get stuck at a red signal sometime around episode four.
The Forsytes is about as subtle as a migraine. However, if this ruthlessly efficient scene-setter hasn’t insulted your intelligence, it may dig its soapy hooks into you. Or it might just tempt you to look at Galsworthy’s source novels to discover why this saga won him the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Murder Before Evensong joins the ranks of Father Brown, Sister Boniface Mysteries and Grantchester. Unlike its bedfellows, however, this series is not purely escapist and Coles has used the generic framework of cosy crime for his own, more personal purposes. Without Amanda Redman’s Audrey, however, it would be as dry as a Communion wafer.
Walter certainly delivers a more rounded Thatcher than we’re used to, although any 80s nostalgia is limited to the lost art of the unspun, in-depth political interview. Brian and Maggie illustrates the kind of political interview (not to mention honesty) of which we are we’re being deprived.
The less invested might have become twitchy with the remote control, however. Archaeological digs require an awful lot of spadework for the occasional exciting discovery. Something similar could be said about this thorough but rather workmanlike documentary.
