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Shame, really, I like Julianne Nicholson in most things she has appeared in but whatever possessed her to appear in this latest piece of BBC revisionist historical based drama is unclear. Have attention spans sunk so low in today's generation that the commissioners at Bonkers Broadcasting Corporation keep producing tick box dramas that pay no attention to entertaining fact based well written thought through storylines with acting that doesn't always try to be weird or shocking and direction that doesn't leave the viewer confused or disorientated in trying to follow it. Also, the sound quality was shocking as was confirmed by the fact that to listen to it comprehensively the volume had to be turned up high and then quickly turned down again when the conclusion was followed by a trailer for Match Of The Day. Another disappointing failure in the long line of terrible BBC big budget drama shows of the last decade. Stop trying to get down wif da yoof and cater for people who actually watch television.

I knew nothing about this movie before promising to take my lovely wife to the pictures for a romantic afternoon. She had been looking forward to it after viewing the trailer. Nothing prepared us for how deeply a depressing subject matter and how utterly preposterous a scenario where our two main characters would meet. This was a very serious movie where "The Man" acts ridiculously to get a pen. I can see why the two actors wanted the roles as they would be able to act their acting chops off which they did magnificently. Suffice to say we were not prepared to waste the last day of the Festive Holidays spending a couple of hours being thoroughly depressed and made the bold decision to leave the cinema about 35 minutes into the movie. I, personally, never hope to see the conclusion of this movie. However, I would recommend watching it if your idea of fun is morbid love stories and great actors acting as if their acting lives depended on it.

This is a very dull movie full of talented actors playing very odious characters. It is a very short movie that unfortunately lasts too long. The plot is boring and has the feel of play turned into a movie. I actually paid to view this at a cinema and wish I had not. It is a period piece but still appears colourblind in some of the casting choices and were not explored satisfactorily to explain the reasoning for this. I believe there is actually an even more dull and boring version of this movie before the actors were recalled to re-shoot scenes. The mind boggles to how terrible the previous version must have been if this is the version that actually escaped into theatres.

My rule of thumb of what to expect when a movie starts is when there are more than two production companies credited it usually is a stinker. Clothes pegs at the ready for this multi-produced toilet blocker.