Electrifying. ... A bleak but knockout piece of drama, which shows that Freeman is an actor of extraordinary range.

Freeman, though, absolutely bosses this role. ... It’s an accomplished script for a debut writer, with a plot that is never predictable. The supporting cast is uniformly good.

This is a phenomenal cast across the board, taking Schumacher's superb scripts and propelling them to even greater heights.

An astoundingly tough, vigorous, sinewy thing without a wasted word or moment. Freeman – who must have fallen on it like a hungry dog – does every bit of it justice. ... The Responder is as fast and riveting as a thriller and as harrowing as a documentary.

Shot almost entirely after dark and populated with outcasts, losers and broken souls, The Responder could have been 60 minutes of misery. Instead, it was a reminder that Jed Mercurio doesn’t have a monopoly on crime drama that gets under your skin.

If the only reason why you watch The Responder is to see Martin Freeman barely hold it together, then it’s a pretty good reason to watch the show. The rest of the plot is incidental to a performance by Freeman that utilizes all of his copious ability to be the aggrieved everyman who’s ready to crack at any moment.

The drama is very much dominated by Freeman, almost everyone else acting as mere feeders for his trademark mannerisms. That is, apart from the formidable Rita Tushingham in a cameo as his old mam.