SamuelPickwick

I watched the first of these but won't bother with any more. The set-up is the usual. Morse, sorry, morose elderly detective is brought back to help with a new case that relates to an old one. As usual these days (Vera, Signore Volpe, Karen Pirie) the senior officer on the case is a woman. She has the character and charisma of a turnip. All the other essentials are ticked - her boss is black (tick), lesbian relationship (tick), mixed race (tick). There are tedious soap-like side-stories that are nothing to do with the plot. There are two 'twists' in the plot, but you can see them coming a mile off. Adrian Dunbar's crooning doesn't fit, and seems to be just more filler. The only redeeming feature is the scenery.

It's easy to dismiss the Mitfords as posh, privileged and irrelevant, but that would be a mistake. The main theme of the first series, which only goes up to 1937, is the issue of how people can easily get swept up into extremist movements, which is just as relevant today as it was in the 1930s.

As others say, truth is stranger than fiction. If this had been presented as fictional, you'd say it was implausible, but almost everything described in the series really happened (though at least one of the characters is an invention). And what happens next, which we will probably see in the inevitable series 2, is even more shocking. It's remarkable that anyone could describe this story as boring. I suppose there are no car chases or shoot-outs.

The production is good (houses, cars, dresses...) although some of the scenes supposedly set in Germany are not very convincing. The acting performances are strong, considering how difficult these roles are to play. Kudos to the brave girls who took on the challenging roles of Diana and Unity.

This show has been praised for presenting a leading character who is autistic. But Austin shows few of the characteristics of autism.

Autistic people usually don't like eye contact. But Austin stands in front of people and stares straight at them.

Another trait is finding it difficult to empathise with other people or understand their emotions. But in the first episode Austin says "yes, I can understand why you would feel like that". Autistic people usually don't like social interactions, but Austin seems fine with that, happily mingling and chatting with strangers. They tend to dislike and avoid physical contact, but Austin keeps hugging his newly discovered father.

Yes, I know, "you can't say that", because the actor playing Austin is or was diagnosed as autistic. Perhaps it has been taken out of him by years of therapy. Something seems wrong with either the writing, or the direction, or the acting, or all three.

The show is sold as a comedy, but it's really not very funny at all. The two main characters apart from Austin, played by Ben Miller and Sally Phillips, are not likeable - he is selfish and she is bitter and nasty towards him.