Critic Reviews

Finding Alice strikes the right balance between drama and comedy, sadness and laughter, with a fine performance by Keeley Hawes at its center.

Ultimately, it’s Alice who is the main draw; an unusual, intriguing character given plenty of depth by the show’s writers and Hawes herself. To borrow the show’s title, I’m finding Alice well worth watching.

Hawes’ ability to switch between pissed-off, devastated and all the shades of emotion in-between was a marvel and a testament to her place as one of the UK’s best actors. Finding Alice is a rather gentle affair so far and a charming way to spend a Sunday evening.

Though the pacing of these six episodes isn’t particularly even in terms of its drama and revelations, the show’s overall take on this particularly tricky topic is enough to warrant wading in, especially for fans of Hawes (and really, who isn’t?).

There are good, funny lines scattered throughout as you might expect from a Nye script (he most famously gave us Men Behaving Badly but also the darkly flashing gem that was How Do You Want Me?, with Dylan Moran and the late, lamented Charlotte Coleman) but their sudden deployment generally just adds to the sense of unevenness. ... Lumley, Havers and Hawes together though – a shining moment that will do everyone good.

This script stretches even Hawes’s versatility. She’s required to quick-switch between distressed, wry, exasperated, shocked, warm, baffled and angry. Pappas has an easier time of it, as Charlotte’s role is a more straightforward voice of reason amid the cascading revelations. The senior roles are mostly one-note, and don’t give the actors much chance, charming as it always is to see Lumley.

What is this show supposed to be, exactly? A thriller that veered at times into sitcom territory, it sometimes seemed as if the producers had thrown elements of Grand Designs, Parasite and Cold Feet into the cement mixer and slapped the results on screen.

This plot is so improbable that if it didn't have such a superb cast (it's got Kenneth Cranham!), who save it, it would be sunk like Harry in his garden hole.