Not being a fan of the Harry Potter series, I was glad to find such a good drama based on a book by Rowling. (I haven't read the book, but would like to.) To disagree with another critic on IMDb, the death visions are well done. They borrow, in their simplicity, from traditional mummer's theater, and are one of my favorite aspects of the show, along with the scenery and interiors. Themes and plot twists are as intriguing as the town's different spaces are colorful. The scene of a recovering addict's tortuously long wait for a bus is perfect. Bravo to all involved.

It's difficult to know where to start with this very disappointing drama. Set in a beautiful rural village where millionaire business people and professionals in their grade I listed manor houses live but a well struck 5 iron from a sink estate full of drug addled benefit scroungers and ne'er-do-wells, it seems to be attempting to highlight cultural and social divides, unfairness and inequity in our society. Fair enough, reasonable basic idea.The problem was that the story was, quite frankly, rubbish. Initially it looked like a small guy vs. nasty rich property developer yarn, but this never really materialised in any meaningful or interesting way. When the impassioned champion of said small guy, and always excellent, Rory Kinnear dies at the end of a rather slow scene setting first episode, a from-the-grave on-line ghostly presence appeared to be setting up episodes 2 and 3 to develop into a ghost story (it didn't), or a taut psychological drama (didn't do this either). Instead it meandered between low level soap opera story threads (which mostly led nowhere interesting), made trite, obvious, uninteresting social commentary on far too many topics to be impactful, and ended up as a tragi-drama with a completely random drowning crow-barred into the story to provide some sort of "conclusion".Low points - Gambon and McKenzie and Richard Glover were cartoonishly "bad", Emilia Fox's character was totally peripheral. The final scenes when the young boy wanders off and is then effectively abducted, not 20 yards from his mother by a well meaning doctor, who never thought to look for, or shout out to, any parents before carting him off home, was just ridiculous.High points - Abigail Lawrie and Rory Kinnear were excellent, Keeley Hawes pretty good. Rural town setting was very nice indeed.

Fantastic look into human nature and the way we British are with one another. Living in a rural town myself I have met a few people like those in this mini-series.I would thoroughly recommend this to everyone. The story is originally by J.K. Rowling so of course it's going to be brilliant. She once again blew me away with her detailed and thrilling story. The BBC did a fantastic job with adapting it too. Really well written. And they had an incredible cast from Michael Gambon to Keeley Hawkes (a particular favourite of mine). What nailed it for me was the ending. A true look into how unlucky you can be (or how lucky) and to know who your real friends are. Moreover, the little things can create a domino effect and become bigger than you thought. I was in emotional shock in the end. I love it when a film or TV series is SO good that I don't see it coming. Now stop reading this and go watch it!

Had to write a quick review to counteract the ridiculous first review from whom I can only assume is one of the privileged snooty characters from the programme. I honestly thought it was a joke outside. The programme isn't particularly crude: it shows a realistic depiction of fairly ordinary life, swearing and sexuality included.Yes, Britain really is like that, and the drama painted a very intimate and affecting portrait of the lives of ordinary people, the hardships they face, and their failings as human beings.Highly recommended. Apparently IMDb wants me to write more, so I'll say that the scenery is also very nice, so if you fancy a holiday somewhere with nice countryside, I believe it was filmed in the Cotswolds...