Why You Should Be Watching... Line of Duty

Words by Tom Newsom

• It’s not your usual police show. It’s more of a police procedural, only the investigation is against a police officer, with the team trying to outsmart them and prove that they are corrupt. Psychological mystery meets action thriller, you could say, only a lot of it is set in an office. In the first series, this meant one of the team going undercover to see what his colleagues thought of him, trying to uncover and prove the dodgy dealings and secrets, but doing it by the book. For all its chases, stunts and action standoffs, some of its most effective, thrilling scenes are the interview scenes - simply two or three officers against the person (plus their solicitor), but these are lengthy scenes, sometimes up to ten to fifteen minutes, full of verbal sparring and bending of the truth.
• It’s realistic - sort of. These now famous interview scenes are full of realistic touches. Evidence is always in the form of numbered documents, movements are noted ‘for the tape’, arcane legal jargon is spouted, and quite often the phrase “I request the right to be interviewed by an officer at least one rank superior”. It sounds fussy, much of it is underplayed. Often this means people will jump in and target certain points to say that the show is not realistic, and that some scenes would definitely not happen in a real life investigation. So why have these touches at all - as verisimilitude, for the sake of it? Well, it’s certainly trying to be realistic, as a medical drama would be, say. At the time of the first series they couldn’t get the police to advise on the series, presumably as a show that investigated corrupt police officers would put them in a bad light either way - so they had to find other ways around it. In terms of the world that the show creates, it is meant to feel ordered, solid, realistic. Besides, anybody who disagrees with it because it doesn’t represent the real world should be pointed to a big glowing sign saying that this is TV, live with it.
• It’s a hit. We’re now up to the third series. The last series hit the headlines, the first run in 2012 broke ratings records for the channel. It hit the ground running, and for good reason - the style of the show hasn’t changed since, keeping the same assured tone.
• It’s not about the main characters. It’s worth comparing to that other big hit thriller of late, Happy Valley, because the two are doing very different things. That show is more of a personal journey with its characters, where the highlights are the achingly true dramatic moments, even when there’s a crime committed. Line of Duty is doing the opposite - there’s not even a central character or hero, and the private lives of the team that occur throughout the series barely get a look in. Even though they’re not the most interesting thing about it, they are great creations, much of this being down to the regular actors breathing life into every scene. Away from them, the series is built around a change in guest cast as they tackle each case each series - top actors coming in to give it their all. But even they’re at mercy to the fast moving, fast adjusting plot.
• There’s a lot to catch up with. What appears to be self contained series, throwing out the plot each season for a new one, has turned it something more ongoing. So the question of jumping in fresh at Series 3 - it’s tricky, if not impossible, and there are moments that you will miss out on (also the first episode is soon to run out on iPlayer before the series ends). It’s a funny point, because most episodes makes you feel like you’ve missed something, even if you have seen every minute. After the long opening recaps (like The Killing had), that’s it - they may refer to characters and plots from previous episodes that you hardly noticed, or even the previous series, an impressive two years on if you watch it live - a feat of memory. Based around a series where nobody quite knows the full picture anyway, you can forgive the general lack of exposition!
• It’s big, bold storytelling. It’s all about the investigation and the all important twists. And unlike some TV shows, here the twists actually change the entire show from episode to episode. It all feels very solid, even when you can’t quite make sense of it - there’s no cheating, nothing too overblown either. That’s part of what makes it so great to watch weekly, is the way it rug-pulls almost every episode and casts everything in a new light, in only a few scenes or gestures. Each episode is made very tense through editing and music, and there’s been some huge cliffhangers, making them a ‘must see’ every week. It’s the way forward, or perhaps a throwback - a boldness of storytelling that is matched by a level of research and detail and thought. It is TV with a kick up the arse.

Why You Should Be Watching... The Night Manager

Words by Tom Newsom

The first thing that strikes you is the sheer class coming out of your screen. Not just in the cast (Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander... why aren’t you watching it yet?) but it’s in the production values, the large budget, the sweeping helicopters and locations and stunts. It’s gripping TV, on a Sunday night on BBC One of all places.

The opening titles is a feast of imagery from hotels and weaponry, giving you a strong indication of the plot to come, and then we get to the five star hotel itself, where our sharp suited hero meets a glamorous woman guest and oh lord it’s like James Bond isn’t it?

The Night Manager is based a book by John Le Carré, who as far as I know has never tried to imitate James Bond. The show is almost a reply to the recent Bond films, almost as Le Carré’s famous George Smiley and Cold War-set novels were an antidote to the unrealistic, uninvolved spy stories of the Sixties and before. Here we have a British - almost too British - ordinary man, Jonathan Pine, dealing with the real pressures and consequences of spying; with a realistic, filthy rich bad guy in Hugh Laurie’s ‘Dicky’ Roper, the arms dealer, who’s not as one-sided as you’d expect either. Plus there’s the obvious point of main man Pine’s attraction and respect of women. Buried in the layers of character that are built up gradually, you get the impression that his motives are based on politeness, decency - yes, almost too British here.

And of course, no car chases, at least not yet. Currently two episodes in, I personally was surprised how vast the plot was, though more accessible and pleasingly streamlined than some other John Le Carré I’ve seen - this is a thriller in every sense. It takes unexpected turns - not knowing anything at all about it, I didn’t know where it was going, and it’s most probably better that way. And I found the second episode a very different tone to the first, as we go deeper into the story. It certainly looks like it will use its six hour running time very wisely, offering us a real assortment of locations - Switzerland, London, Mallorca, Cairo. The last one - partly setting the story in real events, just in the 2011 uprising, makes it feel bold and bang up to date, like the production itself. However the original book was published twenty five years ago; from interviewers with the screenwriter and director, it appears that they’ve made some important changes, although some of these were suggested by Le Carré himself when they met with him!

That director being notable, award winning Danish film director Susanne Bier, and screenwriter of Hanna and Spooks alumni (sit up straight, Spooks fans) David Farr. It’s an BBC/AMC co-production, its attracted top drawer talent even to the minor parts (David Harewood!) and those rare to TV. Tom Hiddleston makes an obvious smooth hero, but Hugh Laurie as the worst man in the world is fantastic. There’s your reason to watch right there.

Words by Tom Newsom

TV Review: And Then There Were None

Review by Tom Newsom

First of all, I’ve made a point of reading all of Agatha Christie’s output, and And Then There Were None was definitely one of my favourites. Less of a blessing and more of a curse - would this new TV adaptation be right up my street, or will I just pick up on all the changes they make? I wouldn’t be alone though - it’s the world’s biggest selling mystery novel at over 100 million copies apparently - a very strong 8 million people watched this one.

For fans of the book, I think they got the tone about right, which is a trickier task than it appears. When I read it, the sense of dread was there from the off in the careful plot construction, rather than the fairly ordinary prose. Then the danger escalated as one-by-one, people started dying. It was a scary book - I think I read it at Halloween coincidentally, but it certainly fits that mood. Rightfully they emphasise this on TV, though they come close to overdoing it. It’s a tense watch from the off, but where do you go from those opening moments of dread?

The story becomes bloodier (and swearier) in later parts, as the tone turns more primal and brutal. It’s what stands out as modern - yes, the book goes from civility to barbarity in a few hundred pages, but this one starts out with barbarity (a little more civility would have helped) and goes even further than the book. The choice additions made a few headlines in certain tabloids - drug taking, F-bombs, grisly murders - but it didn’t take me out of the story, instead, the opposite.

There’s a dark heart I’ve been trying to avoid so far in my review - and it’s not the ending (that was brilliantly done, a faithful recreation of the book). No, it’s the running time - three parts, three hours long in total. Oo-err. Chopping any story into three is sacrilege enough, although by construction this one is pretty well suited to it - and when it’s shown over three consecutive nights at Christmas, it almost rolls into one anyway.

But oh lord, there’s really not enough plot to go round. As such, it’s very slow. Most of the first part is set-up, the other two parts end up being a bit baggy, really. It’s very tense - it’s a miracle it’s still tense when nothing much is happening - but I still feel like there’s an absolute knockout two (easily, two and a half) hour version in here, struggling to get out. Maybe that’s because I knew already what was going to happen next.

It makes for an interesting watch though. No spoilers here, but the writer, Sarah Phelps, has put in a lot more clues for the TV viewers to pick up on, which makes it more rewarding than the rather too enigmatic book... if perhaps too easy to blindly guess the killer, as the people I viewed it with attested (though it’s a problem that’s in the book, made worse here). The script doesn’t rely on the same tension building tricks, but happily makes the ending easier to swallow.

Then there’s the cast. It’s a dream cast if ever I saw one - there’s ten juicy roles on offer here, so it attracts big names. What makes the thing work is that each person is distinguishable, a must when there’s a lot of characters to set up - thanks to casting, costumes, acting, writing. On the page it’s a lot of names, but they don’t matter - the story is visual.

It’s recommended then - hell, it’s the one of the best mysteries ever, and a story that’s sold out thousands of theatre performances since, of course it’s recommended! It’s a smart piece of TV, and a beautifully designed, modern 1939 (those jade green sculptures!). Just be wary of the slower moments, and enjoy the ride.

Roundup: Doctor Who Series 9

Catch up on each of our reviews of 2015's Doctor Who episodes by clicking the icons below, and don't forget to check out Matt and Dave's overview of the whole series here.

+ You can also get all this year's rating figures here.
+ And read our readers' thoughts on the series here.

Thank you very much for reading along this year, and we'll be back next weekend with a review of The Husbands of River Song!

Doctor Who Series 9 Ratings Recap

Your handy quick-reference guide to Doctor Who's 2015 audience figures!

	Overnights	Final	Appreciation Index
The Magician's Apprentice	4.58m	6.54m	84
The Witch's Familiar	3.70m	5.71m	83
Under the Lake	3.74m	5.63m	84
Before the Flood	4.38m	6.05m	83
The Girl Who Died	4.85m	6.56m	82
The Woman Who Lived	4.34m	6.11m	81
Invasion of the Zygons	3.87m	5.76m	82
Inversion of the Zygons	4.13m	6.03m	84
Sleep No More	4.00m	4.61m	78
Face the Raven	4.42m	6.05m	84
Heaven Sent	4.51m	6.19m	80
Hell Bent	4.80m	6.17m	82
The Husbands of River Song	5.77m	7.69m	82

click for larger

Doctor Who: Hell Bent

Review by Matt Michael

Has there been a truly successful series finale in the last five years? After the brilliantly twisty Dark Water, Death in Heaven paid respect to the late Nicholas Courtney by turning the Brigadier’s corpse into a Cyberman. The Name of the Doctor was fun, but felt like an extended prologue to the fiftieth anniversary special. Though it’s aged rather well, The Wedding of River Song was profoundly underwhelming at the time, largely because the Doctor’s absolutely-going-to-happen death turned out to be a whopping great lie.

Hell Bent also reminds us that ‘the Doctor lies’. All those dark hints about the Hybrid were a ruse to get access to the awesome technology of the Time Lords to rescue Clara from a fate – well, from a fate precisely the same as death, actually.

I struggled to engage with the first 20 minutes or so of the episode – the scenes where Rassilon and the High Council went traipsing out to the War Doctor’s barn went on forever with no obvious relevance to the story. Donald Sumpter was wasted, as was Clare Higgins. Whole scenes seemed to unfold just because: the General regenerated into a woman to make the point (as if Missy hadn’t already done so) that Time Lords can change sex - just so long as they aren’t the show’s lead. The Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels were in the Matrix crypt because Moffat’s season finales invariably feature them all anyway. Rachel Talalay keeps these scenes moving, but neat direction’s not enough to disguise a script running on the spot. By 8.25pm I was ready to write this off as a let down, and a waste of the Big Return to Gallifrey.

Then, something weird happened, right about the time the Doctor fled the dullest planet in the universe in a stolen TARDIS. Hell Bent switched gears from lackadaisically rehashing clichés to becoming something approaching magnificent. That gloriously retro 1960s control room is just the icing on the cake.

Back in Before the Flood, the Doctor raged at the Fisher King for stealing the deaths of his victims. Of course, this makes the Doctor an enormous hypocrite, and Clara, as she so often has before, calls him out on it. A woman so stubborn she’s willing to die to prove a point to a man who – as we saw in Heaven Sent – is willing to do exactly the same. What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Perhaps the last half hour of Hell Bent.

The Doctor and Clara have been dancing round each other for a long time now. But, eyeball-to-eyeball, both of them knew this was their last dance. Seeing the Doctor slowly lose control – and cool – as Clara’s heart resolutely refused to start beating, hearing them have the same conversation they’ve always had with the urgent edge that comes from the knowledge that they’ll never get the chance again, I was reminded of Moffat’s greatest work: Press Gang. This was Lynda Day having it out with Spike. With Capaldi and Coleman at their peak, it was electric.

Reintroducing Me allows Moffat do pull off the necessary exposition without having to resort to a tedious montage. More, it made explicit a point of view that’s been obvious in Moffat’s work for some time: the answers are never as interesting as the question. Does it matter whether the Hybrid is Ashildr, or the half-human Doctor (yes he is, get over it), or the Doctor’s partnership with Clara? Does it matter what’s inside Amy’s crack, or what the deal is with the Fall of the Eleventh? For many of us, yes. But I think the dialogue between Me and the Doctor sets forth the opposite view cogently.

The scene’s also impressive because Maisie Williams, who up until now hasn’t entirely convinced me, was completely compelling, as if she’s finally relaxed into the part. Ask me before today and I would have quite happily waved goodbye to Me with Face the Raven. Now – not so sure.

So much of Moffat’s era seems to be a response to Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who: not surprising, since the show’s mythology was comprehensively reimagined by Davies in a way that genuinely captured the imagination of the audience. Clara’s final end is clearly influenced by Catherine Tate’s departure, and manages to better it because while Donna’s end was tragic and dark, Clara’s manages to be tragic and light. She’s left with her memories of all those amazing adventures, changed by her experiences, and with access to a working TARDIS and the whole of time and space. Since she’s been becoming more and more like the Doctor, this felt like the proper end.

The Doctor, meanwhile, has a Clara-shaped hole in his mind, but remains fundamentally the Doctor in a way that Donna, stripped of her expanded awareness, was not. I’d say this was the best companion departure since Rose’s; certainly stronger than the Eleventh Doctor’s baffling decision to abandon Amy and Rory in the past. Crucially, Clara is not robbed of her death. It’s still waiting for her, but, as in Face the Raven, she will face it on her own terms. For me, this closed down any suspicion that this was another consequence-free resurrection.

As the conclusion to Series Nine, Hell Bent works well at wrapping up the themes of taking responsibility for your decisions, and living (or dying) with the consequences. The repeated emphasis on these ideas; Ashildr’s regular reappearances, and the number of two part stories have helped to give it a distinctive shape and consistency that’s the hallmark of most of Doctor Who’s best seasons. Like the mystery of Clara’s shop lady, it also leaves a couple of plot points open (have we really heard the last of the Hybrid? Who is the Minister of War? Where’s Rassilon going?). I’m betting Moffat will come back to them in the future – whenever that might be.

I’m of the view this is the best series since 2010, and certainly an improvement over Capaldi’s patchy first year. In a way, this episode mirrors this season: a disastrous beginning that settles down into something richer and more thoughtful than expected.

Rank Doctor Who Series 9!

Doctor Who Series 9: YOUR Thoughts

Here's a round-up of your thoughts on the 2015 run of Doctor Who so far. If you've any comments on this year's episodes, please feel free to leave them below this post. Don't forget to vote in our flash polls on Twitter every Saturday and Sunday!

The Magician's Apprentice

In our poll for Steven Moffat's nostalgia-laden opener, you rated it 7.7/10. Tom Newsom was more generous in his review, awarding the episode 9/10.

The Witch's Familiar

Our readers weren't so generous when it came to rating the concluding part of 2015's first story, giving it an a slightly lower average of 7.5/10. In his review, Tom actually went the other way and rated this an almost perfect story, with a staggering 9.5/10.

Under the Lake

The return of Toby Whithouse was met with much enthusiasm by readers, earning his first episode since 2012 8.3/10. Matt Michael took a look at this one, and scored it a respectable 8/10.

Before the Flood

You obviously enjoyed this bootstrap-bending instalment as well, giving it 8/10. Matt, like Tom, actually enjoyed the second part more than the first and awarded it 9/10 in his review.

The Girl Who Died

Jamie Mathieson's difficult third episode wasn't as much of a hit with our readers, receiving an average score of just 6.7/10. Tom enjoyed it regardless though, giving it 9/10 in his review.

The Woman Who Lived

We changed things up a bit for this episode and instead of having a poll on the site, we ran a two-choice flash poll on Twitter, where readers could just indicate whether they liked the episode or not. It proved to be pretty popular with almost 90% saying they did. Tom was similarly keen, awarding it 9.5/10 in his write-up.

Invasion of the Zygons

Tweeters were divided on this episode, with half giving it a thumbs up and half thumbs down. Dave reviewed it for us and was much more certain of this opinion on proceedings, awarding it 9.5/10.

Inversion of the Zygons

This Peter Harness-Steven Moffat collaboration proved more popular with our Twitter followers, with nine saying they approved and three disagreeing in our flash poll. Dave also enjoyed this episode, rating it 8/10 in his review.

Sleep No More

Reaction - as you may able to imagine for the most inherently divisive episode of the series - was polarised for Mark Gatiss' Sleep No More. On Twitter, just 3 of 19 voters told us they liked the episode, with the rest saying they were sent to sleep by the 'found footage' episode. Tom reviewed it for us and ultimately felt that the positives outweighed the negatives.

Face the Raven

All of the voters in this week's flash poll thought Face the Raven was a very moving episode as Clara bowed out of the series. Matt Michael reviewed the story for the site and wasn't completely sold but enjoyed it overall, awarding it 7/10.

Heaven Sent

This episode earned immediate praise from the vast majority of viewers, and that was reflected in our flash poll on Twitter where 88% of voters said they loved the story. Matt Michael was similarly enamoured with this single(-ish)-hander, scoring it 9/10 in his review.

Hell Bent

Whilst this episode was warmly received overall, it was to a lesser degree than Heaven Sent. This meant that 83% of readers thought it was brilliant, and the remainder awful. In his final review of the series, Matt gave it a positive rating of 7/10.

* * *

If you have any thoughts you'd like to share, you can either comment below or use the contact form at the bottom to apply to review a future episode.

Doctor Who: Heaven Sent

There was a moment about halfway through Heaven Sent, when the Doctor is digging out the grave in the cloisters, when I turned to my partner and explained how I thought the story was going to play out. It turned out I was half right (at that stage, we didn’t know about the diamond wall). But this, I think, is a good thing. Moffat plays scrupulously fair with the clues, taking a structure inspired by the recurring nightmare of Dead of Night, and countless horror films since, and combining it with Grimms’ Shepherd Boy. The result, more so than Face the Raven, is Doctor Who’s best example of a dark fairy tale.

Largely because of its empathy with the Doctor’s situation: the fear and grief and anger that drive him, this is easily Moffat’s best script since the fiftieth anniversary; perhaps even since 2010. And this is despite it including yet more hit-and-run assaults on continuity. This time, the target is the truth behind the Doctor absconding from Gallifrey – surely the most over-exposed “mystery” in the series’ history. Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks, Eric Saward, Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, Marc Platt and Russell T Davies have all pecked away at that particular diamond mountain in the last 46 years.

The cliffhanger in particular is a masterpiece of Moffat’s simultaneous fan-baiting, crowd-playing instincts, certain to have some people up in arms and muttering darkly about the 1996 movie, and others excitedly chattering about what it all means. Similarly, bringing back Gallifrey will worry some fans who suspect that if it returns the whole Horde of Travesties will come through as well: the Habitat soft furnishings; the weary Planet Zog politics; Colin Baker in a ridiculous hat. I take hope from the fact that Gallifrey returning does not, at least going by the Next Time trailer, look like a Good Thing, and because Moffat, though willing to play with continuity, has never wrecked it.

In fact, in a curious way, the climax of Heaven Sent reminded me of The War Games: both of them see the Doctor peeling back layers of misdirection to reveal the Time Lords, and the answer to the great mystery, at the heart. In The War Games, Gallifrey is the one place the Doctor’s been running from all his life. Since The Day of the Doctor, it’s been the place he’s heading towards. Both times, it’s positioned as a kind of final destination of his travels, the moment when the series can reach a natural end point. The death of Doctor Who, if you like.

How entirely appropriate for an episode, and a season, that’s steeped in death. It began with Missy brandishing the Doctor’s last will and testament, continued through episodes that have explored mortality and the consequences of immortality; infected all of its viewers with a dusty death, and forced Clara to face the raven. As a literal manifestation of the ‘second shadow’ that haunts everyone from the moment they are born, the Veil is a supremely effective image. It takes the tired old convention joke about trying to make running through corridors away from a shuffling monster look dramatic, and turns it into something truly nightmarish.

What really sells the monster, as it always has, is the Doctor’s reaction to it. Capaldi has already been universally praised for his blistering performance in the otherwise fatuous climax of The Zygon Inversion. I think he betters it in Heaven Sent, and while he’s not uniquely capable of carrying an episode pretty much single handedly (how many classic Doctors had to do that regularly, in one take?), he is absolutely compelling. In years to come, this will be rightly held up as one of the all-time great Doctor Who performances.

Whether Heaven Sent is held up as one of the all-time greats remains to be seen. Since The Sensorites, posterity, and fandom, hasn’t always been kind to outstanding first episodes with lesser second parts, and a huge amount rides on Hell Bent. But right at this moment, I’m willing to bet this season is going to go up and up in people’s estimation.

Doctor Who: Sleep No More

Sleep No More isn't trying to say or do anything in particular, it's just an experiment into uncharted territory for Doctor Who - but it doesn't work, writes Tom Newsom.

I’m sure some people must love it, but I never hear anyone admit that in public. The ‘found footage’ genre, normally for low-budget horror, has been ubiquitous in the last five (ten? fifteen?) years. I’m not an expert in it by any means, but it offers a very different form of drama to the one we’re used to in Doctor Who - something more distant. However given its widespread use, doesn’t it feel like a great fit for a scary episode? In theory, perhaps - but here it just left me cold.

You can’t call this episode conventional, in any sense. But I’ve surprised myself, thinking back, how many things it gets spot on: the monsters especially. Sleep, the sandman, it’s an irresistible connection, played to its full here. But the camera moving means that we barely glimpse them at first - a plus for anything trying to scare us. And then when we see more, it’s just a deformed blob with legs and a gaping mouth - eurgh. They’ve got one of the sketchiest backstories and behaviour - “sleep dust” is all there is to them - but they don’t half scare.

It’s a great production, especially when you consider it was filmed with the normal HD cameras, as opposed to smaller models attached to the actors. The camerawork can really make you feel the action even when people are standing still, and the editing is faster. Parts of this episode are INTENSE, the scary parts, which you don’t normally get with Doctor Who.

It’s definitely an episode that will be rated a ‘12’, in a series that’s had at least four of them so far - so god knows what young children thought of it. I remember being scared watching Jeopardy, a CBBC Blair Witch Project-style series, when I was younger - and that was just kids in a field with cameras, rather than full-blown Aliens.

But there’s only that intensity to parts of it. For the rest of it, normally the talky scenes such as at the start or with the supporting characters, it starts to grate. Yes, really - Doctor Who is a programme that actively tries to not be boring, always. But when it’s a group of guest characters who you barely even recognise (let alone care for), who are muttering in wide-shots with shaking cameras - well, you pray for a good closeup. Thankfully we get a few, of the Doctor especially (him and Clara are a welcome presence this week), because otherwise you’d struggle to feel a part of the action, even with the point-of-view business. At some moments it didn’t feel like television to me at all, more like a first-person shooter - really, for Doctor Who?

The helmet cameras, or lack of, was a good twist though, in an episode that had more standout moments than it deserved. The plot is involved just enough, building up and teasing out a few mysteries. Okay, I felt good about wondering to myself why we were seeing things from Clara’s point of view (or whether there was another soldier character I’d missed). The story about the Morpheus process was well told too, with its slightly creepy set-up involving “that song”. Less so about the hunt for the villain behind the piece - by then I was confused what the overall monster plan was, though so was the Doctor.

It would be cruel to sign off a review with the Doctor’s closing comment - “none of this makes any sense!” - so I won’t. Instead, I’ll highlight the cool and utterly terrifying closing shot of Reece Shearsmith. Good to have him in Doctor Who, and a perfect fit for this particular part. This episode feels like an Inside No 9 on BBC Two, if its budget was tripled overnight.

Really though, this is Doctor Who (and writer/horror fan Mark Gatiss) having fun with a particular genre. You can tell that through the ways they’ve tied it into the story - the ‘found footage’ of the “cameras”, and the message that frames the story. It’s not like a film, in that the director is using it to make a statement or a higher art-form. This is purely them trying new things, an experiment of an episode for this week’s audience.

I’m just not quite sure it works.

TV Review: London Spy - Lullaby

The first episode of BBC Two's new drama portrays it as more of a romantic mystery than a traditional spy thriller and is full of clever little touches, writes Tom Newsom.

You have to suspend your disbelief, even in the opening scenes. Ben Whishaw is entering a gay club - we know this because it’s populated by 90% men and 9% Donna Summer - yet none of the crowd recognises him. C’mon guys - this is big name casting! Q, Paddington! Star of the excellent drama The Hour! An exceptionally busy actor at the moment. But we’re not interested about the crowd, just about him, Danny. He leaves, much later, still high, and walks out into the shadow of the MI6 building. If that doesn’t set up the episode perfectly, I don’t know what does.

He meets Joe on the bridge and straight away from their slightly off behaviour we know that these two characters aren’t trying to emulate real people. Danny is awkward and says too much, the mysterious Joe stares, wipes some sweat from his face and gives him his water pack for free. I’m assuming here that encounters in the middle of London at five in the morning aren’t quite so homoerotic - but I don’t know.

If that didn’t feel real enough, then happily the rest of the drama does. They fall in love in a way that is rarely seen on TV - slowly, after they’ve met each other a few times and spent time in each others’ company (long walks, mumbling, endearingly cute groyne walking). The script specifies it’s over the course of weeks and months and actually yes, we feel that too. It’s as slow as relationships in costume dramas, even in an age where romantic opportunities are no longer limited to endless formal dancing.

So, it’s slow - but gripping, always gripping. The writer, Tom Rob Smith, is new to TV at least, and he’s very lucky that he teamed up with this director, Jakob Verbruggen. I honestly don’t think that any other director working in TV could have handled it this smoothly or brilliantly. I really enjoyed his work leading on the Gillian Anderson BBC Two drama The Fall and this is in the same mould, as a first episode at least: following only a few characters before the main conspiracy and drive steps in. It’s mainstream (read: actually watchable) minimalist. Indeed, this episode revolves around just three people, who thankfully are really good actors. Phew. And it earns its length: there’s an electric scene, one of Ben Whishaw’s best ever, in which he opens up and reveals some of his past. The writing is spot on too, but played slowly, in one take, gives it intensity and the extra time makes you read beyond the more subtle words and realise the importance of it.

It’s billed as a “spy thriller”, but it’s neither the high action of SPECTRE or even Spooks, nor the twisted logic of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Instead this episode is more like a “romantic mystery”. But there are spy elements if you’re a fan, in an episode full of small, clever touches - the hidden secrets, shadowy figures bugging and tailing you, hints of a greater force at work. It means that there are rules that we can expect, even though we’re not quite in that genre yet.

Other plot points appear to have been inspired by events in the news... I won’t say which events, however, because I felt that the plot was spoilt after I read a headline in a TV mag explaining it. The less you know the better - especially when there’s so little “action” that the trailers on TV midweek probably show you everything that happens anyway.

The promotion and trailers, Ben Whishaw’s presence, plus coming so soon after his role in the new James Bond film - well, it was going to be a hit, and it is - over three million viewers. For the first episode at least - less people will watch it by the end, as with Wolf Hall and every other drama on the channel. Not because of the central romance between two men (surprisingly rare to make a series around it - I always forget this) - but because this type of TV has a very particular style and pace, which this episode achieves beautifully.

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Lived

Review by Tom Newsom

The second in a two-part story - or is it? Regardless, it’s one of those uncommon episodes of the show - one where characters and themes and messages take over an otherwise standard plot, this time with magical results.

At first you might think you’d skipped an episode, what with the sudden change in setting. But this one complements last week’s “opening” part to the story rather more closely than you’d expect. The action-adventure strand in both is slight, but there are big discussions on life and death. Bravely, this episode is for the first half a lengthy two hander (no Clara!), before the action widens out. It’s great to have a smaller episode that still manages to be very compelling - I was captivated.

Much of it’s down to Maisie Williams’s character - what a part! The range is extraordinary - going from Viking girl last week to seventeenth century woman... probably because it’s basically two separate characters. It’s an inherent weakness that this episode doesn’t naturally follow on, and that’s the point. The character of Ashildr has grown up, hundreds of years older, and can’t even remember when she was born. Her morals have changed beyond recognition - as has her style! - and she’s become an interesting, headstrong figure who has run away from her past.

Oh, but it’s here where the best, deepest part of the episode is. Ashildr’s assumption that the Doctor has come back especially is undercut by the alien artefact plot; she’s just a coincidence, and plenty of adventures have happened since. But the Doctor’s well-meaning gift of an second “immortality charge” incase she meets someone she likes is undercut by the reality- she’s immortal, she doesn’t get close to anyone and she’s only got one patch; as she says, simply, “nobody’s good enough”. There’s plenty of touches here, quickly told to us - her mastering every skill through being alive longer; her disregard for her own species coinciding with becoming a highwayman; seeing her life through history culminating in tragic loss.

And then there are the parallels between her and the Doctor - it’s not particularly subtle by the end of the episode, but it makes the whole thing sing. The Doctor is advising Ashildr to notice the little people, the “mayflies”, an about turn perhaps from last year into the Doctor we know and love. He admits, though, he hasn’t made Clara immortal in the same way, even though he’s said he won’t bear to lose her. It all adds to the foreboding mood this series.

It’s a very handsome Doctor Who episode, thanks to some great imagery from the script (picking a very fancy period of history, and adding in a big kingly lion too). It looks stylish, with the night-time scenes lit blue with orange candles reminding me of Poldark’s house style, by the same director. But it’s not just the look - combined with the previous episode, Ed Bazalgette has managed to produce the ultimate Who calling card, with two perfectly paced adventures (in my opinion), telling a story on a grand scale.

The plots in both this and last week’s were admittedly slight - or simply a foreground to a wider canvas of the immortal, eponymous Ashildr. Leandro the Lion is both a cool monster and a fearsome foe, though his purpose sticks out more obvious than most this week - to provide a test of Ashildr’s character, as well as the obligatory monster of the week. He keeps to the shadows (unfortunately -the make-up is nice), and gets about as much screen-time in the end as the controversial Sam Swift the highwayman. I like Rufus Hound, and I like a rude joke as much as the next man - but I expect the “gallows humour” scenes will get some stick, in an otherwise grown-up episode. Personally I found it the best kind of silly jokes, even if it all goes on a bit too long, necessary to lighten the mood, with a performance containing all that sadness behind the humour.

If it invites comparison to Doctor Who of old - not that every episode does - then Enlightenment jumped out at me, and not just because it’s one of the increasingly rare examples of a TV episode written by a woman. Both are different from the normal stories the show tells, and curiously they both end up mixing poetic, immortal characters with history and aliens. Not that poetry and big ideas is limited to those two - look at Warriors’ Gate, Kinda, or Survival, or Vincent and the Doctor, Kill the Moon or In the Forest of the Night. The Woman Who Lived is one of those rarefied, unusual slices of Doctor Who that works on both levels - as a family adventure and a sweeping, engaging drama.

At the end, we have Maisie Williams - a very successful, commanding performance, even when it’s hyped beforehand - joining the pantheon of potentially recurring Doctor Who characters, and an immortal one at that. The sorts of people he considers to be his friends, who can pop up whenever and wherever the writer wants - Moffat’s a fan, of course. I didn’t quite buy the rather Torchwood-esque group Ashildr was going to set up, nor do I think it will be returned to any time soon. Because one of the clever things about the show, is that in following episodes, if a writer wants to feature her again, they don’t have to stick to the established events at all. Like the Doctor, the show can write its own history as it goes. Whether this episode sinks or swims in that history remains to be seen.

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Died

In terms of eye-catching imagery, this one grabs your attention. “Doctor Who meets Game of Thrones!” says the Radio Times (slightly superficially, given the actual episode). “Vikings Vs Aliens!” cries another. And if you’re thinking that it sounds fairly typical for the series, this story takes a simpler plot, tells it well, and makes good use of the extra room for smaller, snappier scenes. After the spooky but rather scientific investigations of Under the Lake, I liked this one even more. It’s my kind of Doctor Who.

It’s also yet another take on an established genre. No, not Vikings, but the classic, Western movie trope of a village being under siege and having to train up the villagers to beat the invaders. Not that it’s the first time it’s been used in Doctor Who. Having the Doctor gatecrash another type of story is one of the show’s staples, as it allows everyone to have some fun, and it’s the only type of show that can get away with it so often. This episode has some fun with it, with the Doctor training up the villagers and doing his best army general impression. But mostly, it’s played for real. He knows full well that the villagers are going to die (he argues they have to die, using his logic, because otherwise it will cause too many ‘ripples’ in time). The odds are against him more than ever in this impossible situation.

If that sounds less action packed than most stories, you’d be right. The story breezes along rather nicely, with some steady direction. After a fast paced introduction where we’re (very) speedily thrown into the situation this week, the story settles down into... introspection. The Doctor isn’t a fighter - actually, there’s very little fighting in this story at all! - he’s a thinker. And when the enjoyable and especially funny quips die down, there’s a rare chance for the show to delve a bit deeper into the characters than they usually do in recent years. Or have the Doctor and Clara talk about weightier issues.

The standout emotional scene in the middle of the story is the Doctor ‘talking’ baby. It’s taking what was presented as a joke from previous episodes, and perhaps being inspired by Peter Capaldi translating the dinosaur in Deep Breath too. The sound of a baby crying alone didn’t work in sparking the village into action, so the Doctor translates it into language and it becomes sweet and sad and a glimpse into an unknown world. All of this in a few spoken lines - and it’s enough of a moment to hang the rest of the story onto it.

I feel sorry for the new aliens, though. The Mire look and sound pretty cool, and the design does a lot of the work for them. But they don’t get much of an outing in this episode, when most of it is devoted to the Doctor and Clara. Pitching them as Viking-like in morality makes them stand out from the rest of the show’s pantheon straight away, even though we know very little about them otherwise.

The episode strives to be entertaining, with the Doctor on fine form. This week Peter Capaldi is cast as a mad god and a rational thinker rolled into one, and a goofier side to some of his humour. As ever, he feels unpredictable - hell, this Doctor feels like Tom Baker, having that alien aloofness of not caring for human matters, masking the love of the trivial, and deep friendship with his companion. Clara, you could say, occupies some of the more traditional role as she’s becoming more like him - she can stand up to the aliens too. But also she’s definitely got that shared bond with the Doctor as they understand each other much better. (All the more important to keep those talky scenes rather than reduce it all to shorthand)

It’s Doctor Who on strong form - reminiscent in broad terms of last year’s Robot of Sherwood (down to some of the expansive sets and the sunny look), but even more successful, if a more sketchier drawn setting. The Viking setting is a catchy look, but populated with everyday characters, with more detail being sketched in with new girl Ashildr. She’s cleverly played as just a normal, quiet young girl, but cleverly written to make her more Viking and less modern and immediately likeable. Her strengths are slowly revealed, and they are in her character rather than in her funny quips: her heart, her storytelling, her innocence. It’s a good role to build a story around.

For all the build-up to this particular episode, overthinking fans might feel a bit underwhelmed by the result. Sure, Maisie Williams’s casting is exciting, even when you discount the theories as to her character - cue the inevitable list of old friends and foes. But the episode itself (titled The Girl Who Died!) acknowledges that her character will be important right from the start, even if it cheekily puts the Doctor’s interest in her down to a premonition - “remembering in the wrong order”. Looking back, it’s pure mystical foreshadowing, but at least we can be comforted in the knowledge of another 45 minutes continuing the story next week.

Doctor Who: Under the Lake

Review by Matt Michael

What a joy, after Series Nine’s opening two-parter, which took almost as long as Eric Saward to get the Doctor to the plot, to see Under the Lake achieve the same outcome within four minutes. Of course, ten times faster doesn’t automatically equal ten times better, but it’s not far off.

This speed is achieved with some neat shortcuts. For example, there’s a clever economy with the characters - Pritchard is the money-grabbing annoyance, O’Donnell is another UNIT fan in the style of Malcolm and Osgood, Bennett is a bit cowardly, and Moran is the dependable base commander. The only surprise there is that the commander gets killed off first, whereas normally they’re the gruff and suspicious one the Doctor gradually wins over. Instead, the Doctor uses the psychic paper to bypass all that routine stuff, and the commander’s role is given over instead to Cass, whose deafness thankfully hasn’t, so far at least, become the solution to the plot in the way Daphne Ashbrook’s character’s disability was in the ‘worthy’ Deep Space Nine episode Melora.

It seems counter-intuitive to be focusing on the speed of Under the Lake when modern base-under-siege stories such as Cold War and The Waters of Mars have managed the whole deal in a single episode. Again, Daniel O’Hara’s direction emphasises the pace even when the characters are confined to a handful of sets. There’s an outrageous amount of running through corridors, particularly during the central ghost-hunting sequence. But even the exposition scenes move with an unusual energy helped by touches such as the Doctor’s visual representation of the Dark-Sword-Forsaken-Temple coordinates, and the ability to bounce the dialogue around lots of characters.

That pace makes two slower scenes stand out, and both of them have a similar point: Clara’s increasing recklessness. Inside the TARDIS (nice touch up, by the way) the Doctor warns her off becoming too much like him. And then later, Bennett contrasts himself with Clara – more of a ’bleeder than a fighter’. Clara, however, has become a danger junkie, desperate for ‘monsters and blowing things up’ and always wanting to go ‘where the action is’. There’s the implication she’s running from a life without Danny. I’d be surprised if this theme wasn’t leading, in some way, to her departure later in the year

For the time being, though, she’s well paired with Capaldi, whose performance has lightened. Given he’s the oldest of the modern era Doctors, he plays it like he’s the youngest, rushing about like an excited teenager, constantly thrilled by the latest new thing. Watching the two of them, I was reminded of the irrepressible energy of the first Doctor and Vicki in The Romans, which can only be a good thing.

It’s this energy that saves Under the Lake from becoming too dark. Whithouse is an effective horror writer – Being Human, The Vampires of Venice and The God Complex and the traumatising pre-credits sequence of School Reunion are obviously testaments to that. Here we’ve got legitimately creepy ghosts who play on the old myth that the eye retains the last image it saw after death. We’ve also got a fairly graphic drowning and a man being burned alive. Then there’s that cliffhanger, with the Doctor’s spectre, made up to look like Peter Cushing in Tales from the Crypt, floating through the lake.

It’s a good place to end the episode, although five years of timey wimey have conditioned me to expect the very much alive Doctor to turn up inside that deadlocked suspended animation chamber next week. My one big reservation about the story so far (the little reservation: how did the sonic specs transmit from inside the sealed Faraday Cage?) is the time travel at the end. A change of scene for the second episode is probably necessary in the modern two-parter, but I always look askew at using the TARDIS to solve the plot – if he does it this time, why not every time?

That said, Under the Lake definitely whet my appetite for Before the Flood. After the opening diptych felt like a good two-hander for the Doctor and Davros with a lot of flabby padding around it, Whithouse has raised the game with a much more compelling piece of work. All that water, and not a damp squib in sight.

Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar

Review by Tom Newsom

Doctor Who has legendary stories, those images and scenes that have lasted long in the memory. The sort of thing that’s talked about in the playground, or reiterated in fan publications (icon or not): Daleks invading London, Cybermen out of their tombs, Sea Devils rising out of the sea, Davros. Hopefully Series 8 and 9 have provided a few more. And the show thrives on these - the fans picked up on them over the years, then created their own stories and retold the mythology when they then took over the show.

Some of these have been revisited - followed up as a sequel, or lovingly ripped off as a remake, depending on your point of view - but curiously for the TV series itself, not the earliest of imagery. Now, and only now, we’re taken back to the metal cities of 1963. Perhaps it’s because the technology has finally caught up, as I doubt Skaro would look as impressive as in people’s memories if it wasn’t in HD and fine lighting. This story harks back in every way - old Daleks, and the plot points from the first Dalek story like the trip to the city and the companion getting inside one. Davros and his speech from Genesis of the Daleks and Tom Baker with the wires. Whether or not it adds something new might depend on your point of view.

Except it’s much more than old scenes playing out with a nod and a wink. The show is doing that great, marvellous thing of going beyond the imagery and telling us something new about the Daleks and how they think. And it’s marvellous that in every story they come back in, we always find out something new - and it always feels like a big secret! It’s not just them, either. Taken all the way to Skaro, in the heart of the city of the Daleks, and it feels like a character piece. The Doctor and Davros, Missy and Clara - we find out more about all of them.

The Doctor's morality doesn’t seem to be questioned, not like we saw last year. He knows he’s a good man, and a bad man, and an idiot. And not a very good doctor - but a brilliant Doctor. He’s robbed of the best lines in this one, but he’s out of his comfort zone, and we never quite know what he’ll resort to next - even when he’s stealing Davros’s chair! We’re always with him, though - it’s a great performance.

The scenes with Davros and the Doctor are the most important here, and among the most grown-up we’ve seen since, well, last year’s rather grown-up stories. Here are two old men, enemies who pity each other, sensing the long, bitter end. I can’t imagine any other of the Doctors having this talk with Davros, not really, yet here it fits. The episode is happily full of parallels, with Davros’s character compared to the Doctor’s, and Missy being both friend and foe as well. It’s like two retired generals facing each other, as there’s an element - for a while - of differences being put aside. I realised I’d missed the typical gloating, power crazed Davros, so it was nice to see a return to that in some scenes. But it merely rounds off a very nuanced, well written character for this episode - the bit with his eyes, for instance, breaking an unwritten rule for pure emotional effect, forcing us to look at old Davros as we never have done before. Hats off to Julian Bleach; and hats off too for the incredibly detailed make-up on him.

As her double act with Clara showed, Missy’s the Doctor but with different morals. She’s a joy to be with - the sort of Doctor figure we aren’t seeing in the Davros scenes, you could argue - if very fast and occasionally incomprehensible. Having her and Clara together really, really works; it’s the sort of partnership that was all too fleeting with Roger Delgado and his ‘Miss Grant’, dropped since. Much more of this, please.

And Clara. Brought along for a hell of a ride, but knowing how much she means to the Doctor, she’s put through hell with this episode, as the situation gets even more dangerous (and a real Sarah Jane Smith level of companion hell, too). I wonder if the terrific scenario at the end with the Doctor facing her is a sign of things to come...

But really, it's about the Daleks. They have little screen-time, really, but a big presence. After all, the Dalek city is back, the often-extinct race are alive once more. Their personality, not just as an alien race, but as an engineered race who started off as human but, through the choices of a madman, or a frightened child, ended up conquering worlds. And replacing emotional thoughts with firing weapons. It’s all there, literal, in this week’s story. If that’s not an icon properly restored, I don’t know what is. Fantastic.

Doctor Who: The Magician's Apprentice

It’s exactly the sort of story you’d expect if they ever decided to do a Doctor Who movie, yet it’s being shown at 7:40 on BBC One. The show is back, hitting the ground running. Like the man himself, they’re trying to make a big entrance, cramming it full of everything Doctor Who, new stuff and old. An opener that appears to be aimed at fans - well, fans of Genesis of the Daleks at least!

But first, Michelle Gomez. (“Not dead. Back. Big surprise. Never mind.”) Throughout this, she’s playing to the gallery - literally, in the scenes set in medieval Essex. But it’s the quieter scenes earlier with Clara that really grabbed me. It’s a rare moment of calm and it re-establishes her as a friend, as well as an enemy. Funny how they never say the words ‘The Master’, relying on everybody knowing the character from last series - because what an impression she made last series. Even though the power dynamic has changed since Death in Heaven, she’s still incredibly watchable, still 90% perfect and trying something new all the time. Nice direction in this episode, by the way, though I’m not sure how easy it is to direct Michelle Gomez!

On the one hand, then, it’s throwing in history and more fan references than ever - Missy, Skaro, Daleks, UNIT, Karn, the Shadow Proclamation, everything in the Doctor Who encyclopaedia. But most of the obscure appearances are glib, most of the back-stories are snappily reiterated. Casual viewers might be running to keep up with the madness of it, but they won’t be completely lost. And even they might appreciate quite how big the events are in this story - it feels like new (and old) territory, going into places that we were never able to go before. Exciting, and this is the opener.

Keeping the Doctor from the action is a risky move - making his absence part of the plot is also risky when there isn’t a lot else keeping the action going. This episode manages to sustain it, just.  Peter Capaldi, and later the Daleks, has a big impact when he finally appears. In this way, it’s as unusual a set-up to an episode as last year’s opener, Deep Breath, but the two couldn’t be more different in terms of style and scale. It’s quite an achievement that this episode was kept intimate - three main characters, forced together by events - as well as being pure spectacle, having a few masterstrokes up its sleeve that add to the mystery.

The heart of which seems to be the Doctor himself - this time he seems to think he’s going to die (must be a Tuesday). We’re with Clara, left struggling to catch up. A decent explanation can be found in the fairly substantial mini-episode ‘The Doctor’s Meditation’ - if you were able to work out its complicated ‘online exclusive’, region locked distribution before the series started. That’s a shame, as it’s the answers that were glossed over in the episode itself.

Sending the Doctor on his own quest between episodes is a trick that’s been done before in some of Steven Moffat’s bigger stories (The Snowmen, A Good Man Goes to War, etc), and I’m never totally comfortable with it - which might be the point. It’s a long way from when we last saw him, nine months ago, as if the show always has to keep evolving, that we should never tune in and think we know the Doctor. The show should be surprising us, constantly, always changing.

More things signify it’s a Steven Moffat episode - reviews should come with a checklist of praise, now, to save time - as every scene has a cool idea, and tons of surprises, even if we’re not entirely sure what they all mean. There’s plenty to marvel at: Colony Sarff’s very alien nature being revealed to us gradually; the grabbing hand-mines creating more playground games; the time freezing of the sky as a visual effect; all the mystery involving the hospital and the Daleks coming back. Somehow they all fitted together on screen nicely (again, good direction). But then it’s the start of the series, and this time we’re expecting the big visuals - and how much bigger can you get, with enemies like these? And, as ever, it’s also full of humour - this time, at least half of it as outrageous as the plot.

If I haven’t made it clear already, it’s very very big. But, even though it’s a two-part opener, what’s the story about? It takes us until the final scenes to realise, it’s about the Doctor. It’s about a certain choice he’s had to make, carrying on a theme from last year. The earlier scenes resonate with his difficult choices with Clara (who's very much not in a companion role this episode, and all the better for it), and much earlier in his past with Missy. But these scenes of gathering everyone together doesn’t add anything to the main events on Skaro - full of cool ideas, as the show needs, but we move on quickly onto shinier things. Let’s hope there’s more to it than that.

This episode definitely felt like the first half of a movie, just building and building all the time, so that when we got to the cliffhanger... obviously it’s left me keen to see the rest, with no clue of what the rest will actually play out like. Of course, Jenna Coleman’s leaving, so she’s obviously gone now - right?

All bets are off...

TV: Wolf Hall - Three Card Trick

review by Tom Newsom (Twitter | Flickr | Blog)

Of course I haven’t read the massive, Booker prize winning novels that inspired this classy TV adaptation for BBC Two. But after this, I want to.

Perceived classiness, though this is very classy, is sometimes dubious: is it solely in the look or the cast? The subject matter, the script perhaps? Or in this case, everything. Not lavish, it’s more realistic than that so far. But this makes even small scenes in candlelit rooms with men in plain robes feel very grand and expensive.

Almost every scene has Mark Rylance in it. Almost every scene is electric. These two facts are linked. Even though the drama is pretty much about Thomas Cromwell, Rylance makes him blend into hidden depths more often than not. His character an everyman coming from nowhere and the cleverest person in the room. The whole episode, if not the rest of the series (and the original books), is one big character piece for Cromwell. It’s a dream role for an actor, and he delivers in spades.

Not that the rest of the cast aren’t top drawer: Jonathan Pryce has a major role in this as historically doomed Cardinal Wolsey, most of the others make less of an impact in this first episode but Damien Lewis is another piece of perfect casting as Henry VIII, and I think the amazing actress Claire Foy, here as Anne Boleyn, should be in more things.

It doesn’t stop there: the music is gorgeous, its main theme played on a full orchestra’s strings. The British scenery - and there are lots of scenes - looks impossibly preserved; so much so that I thought it might have been not British at all, given previous successful BBC filming in Belgium for example, but surprisingly it was filmed mainly around the south-west.

The bottom line to any continuing drama is surely this: as the end credits rolled, I realised I could watch this all day. Some might say it’s slow to get going, I’d say it definitely takes its time - this episode only really focuses on Cromwell and Wolsey, he hasn’t even got into the King’s court yet. But each scene feels vital in telling the story thanks to the compressed editing involved from adapting book to TV. Nothing feels like it’s done solely for effect. Classy, but not flashy.

If all this gives the impression of yet another costume drama, it’s not. Remarkably refreshing for telly at least, the dialogue is set to natural as well as just being generally brilliant. It’s a Tudor version of House of Cards - their politics is only slightly more down to earth than Westminster today. It’s a bold step to take fine actors, costumes, sets, lighting and to make the historical characters talk to each other in conversational terms about the world, and themselves, like two people down a pub. But it works. It’s going to be a classic.

Our knowledge of the history promises so much for the series going forward - we’ve still got the reformation, Henry and Anne, rises and falls in power, especially for our hero Cromwell. And we can be sure that the events we might (or might not) be familiar with will be shown in a surprising, intriguing, wholly entertaining way.

And then I can tackle the books...

many thanks to

Tom Newsom (Twitter | Flickr | Blog)