I'm not sure if the naysayers watched the same program I did. I found this miniseries one of the smartest things David Hare has ever written. A suspenseful series for adults with a fine cast l d by a wonder Carey Mulligan.

This series was give a great build-up, with some big names, but it really did not live up to the billing. The actors, for the most part, didn't really seem to know what was going on, and the main character, the detective seemed like a bit of an afterthought, as though her part had been bolted on to try and give coherence to a string on more or less connected political rants. I think they were doing their best, but by the end, some, at least, seemed to be losing the will to live. There were so many political and moralistic messages that they completely confused any semblance of a plot almost out of existence. For example, Billie Piper did her best, but what was her character even there for? Similarly, there were a number of other characters who seemed to be there simply to get some message over, rather than further the plot, such as it was. The MP character was a triumph of sorts, as he was one of the least likeable creations seen in drama for a long time. Physically unappealing, he was whiny and sulky, petulant and flouncy by turns. If this is an accurate example of our MPs, heaven help us. Even though I did watch all of it, I have only a vague idea of what it was meant to be about. Nice photography, though.

Come on! This piece of drivel can't have made it through all of the checks and balances at the BBC.To put Nicola Walker through this sort of comic book drollery must be a terrorist offence in its own right. She must have squirmed with embarrassment after she saw the final product, with the rest of the cast behind her hanging their heads in shame!Stereotypical garbage on all fronts, there should be an arrest warrant out for David Hare but with any luck he's secreted himself out of the country. By the time Brexit is finalised there won't be any extradition treaty to get him back here where he should be tried for crimes against the entertainment business.Somebody, somewhere in the process must have realized that Hare and Clarkson (the Director) were incompetent and unable to deliver a good story, but I guess when the train's left the station the driver's the boss!It's just groan after groan of clichéd set ups.There's three or four hours of my life I wouldn't want to relive!A complete dud!

Many reviewers have criticized this production for its heavy handed socio-political message. On the other hand if you regard as a morality play on the awful consequences of being afflicted by Leftwing, it really works.As the story develops you are shown how this affliction will cause you to constantly sneer at all around you, only laugh to underline your innate superiority; you will be betrayed by all your friends and colleagues, and you will betray them. Self pity will govern your life, and so on. There are dangers in putting across a political message in drama, it always risks making the converse point e.g. Leni Riefenstahl who very efficiently demonstrated how awful it was to be a Nazi, although she didn't think that.I am sure the author didn't intend this interpretation, nor do I like the message; but then Jean Paul Sartre was constantly told what his books 'really meant' when he thought they meant something else entirely.If it wasn't for Carey Mulligan the whole thing would have been impossibly thin and wandering. Her part was the only one that really worked.