Truelove

Hmm. I started watching this thinking... Why am I subjecting myself to six long episodes of a program about really old people? That's what we all do. We immediately dismiss old people. How refreshing and positive it was to enter into the lives of this fictional group, with all the uncertainties and passion of someone starting out in the adult world.

Age gives us time to get really good at what we love to do. This is a quality production with classy performances from very experienced actors. For example, I love the way emotions explode out of Phil's face, with just the slightest change of expression. The topic is bleak and challenging, moments in this drama are moving, but I came away from it feeling strangely positive. Criminal activities aside, I hope my golden years are exciting as this!

I got hooked about 10 minutes in due to the stellar cast. This moves slowly but in a world of fast everything, this isn't a bad thing.

This story is so pertinent with the current demands for assisted dying and the wonderful Esther Rantzen appeals.

I am currently up to the end of episode two and the last scene broke me, the first class actress Sue Johnston played this scene mesmerisingly.

I realise that the rest is going to be a hard watch but the story telling takes you along slowly with it.

I'm age 57 and this is something that interests me greatly.

It will make you think deeply about the subject matter which is covered in a beautiful and highly sensitive manner.

This was a very good little miniseries, except for that one character that you always hate. That is the young female detective Ayesha Kareem, who cannot mind her own business. Her character is annoying from the first time you see her to the end of the series. The minute you see how aggressive she is to try to do things she's not paid to do. It just drives me nuts. You never wanna work in an organization with people like her always minding everyone else's business not doing what she's paid to be doing I don't know why they put character characters like this in series because it's just annoying beyond belief. Every time they show up on the screen, you dislike them. You shut the TV off then you come back. See it again shut it off again.

The big 'but' is what did all those brilliant actors make of their raw material, the script and the screenplay?

Please let me express dismay that this is still such a 'live' (difficult choice of a word) topic in the UK, with the whole Esther Rantzen story on the lips of the nation, a much-loved TV star facing a dismal death from cancer, and unable to choose to die with dignity. Please also let me say that I live elsewhere, in the State of Western Australia, where Voluntary Assisted Dying is on the law book, as it is in all of the other five states of our nation, and has been for so long that nobody even thinks about it any more.

The UK is not so enlightened, and those people who consider that their personal religious affiliations give them a right to insist on how others live their lives, and how they die, still appear to hold sway. We had that battle here about five years ago, not long after I was myself diagnosed with cancer, and this is a matter of considerable comfort to me, knowing that a slow, lingering, agonising death will not be something I will be forced to endure if that time ever comes.

There's the background setting. I wish to avoid spoilers, as such reviews which are thus blanked tend not to get read. I will simply say that those involved do not display in any way the competence we would associate with them from their former professional lives. A top-ranking police officer and an SAS officer in particular would plan things immaculately, and carry them out faultlessly. It is the fact that they don't even get close to either which spreads this out across six episodes, the last of which was all but pointless.

Perhaps they felt they had to do things this way to present a 'balanced' view of Voluntary Assisted Dying, and maybe the religious obstructionists would have otherwise been even more up-in-arms than I am sure they were.

So they did all this to generate drama, and thus lost the plot.

8/10 for the courage to at least open up this dialogue on such a vital topic, and for great acting, but ...........................

This UK Channel 4 series starts well but tails off somewhat as it progresses. Certainly a difficult, painful and controversial subject is handled competently without bias and at times with some delicacy. The fact that a retired senior copper is a main player in the deployment is of some interest, given the nature of the law on this subject. The cast was well chosen and mostly very convincing in their portrayal of a group of old friends facing stark choices in their declining years and how to deal with them. I have one reservation - the later stages of this drama tended to stretch credibility, and the ending is - well, frankly - a little disappointing.