Summer of Rockets

Enough reviews about the series, I enjoyed, excellent, intriguing.

I want to write in response to lots of queries over the ending!

I believe that the daughter had taken part in a make up of the plan that the secret service had inklings about, and that her writer friend was also involved with MI5/6 and had been able to feed in to the comedy episode shown on the TV which brought all the dastardly plans to an abrupt end, after the daughter had unwittingly revealed a conversation with her dad.

So it all makes sense if you take this into account.

The missing son storyline, which again a lot of people were perplexed by, I believe again was that he had provided information to MI5/6 as soon as he had become aware, and had been advised to disappear to protect himself, and his preferred way of vegan life.

Overall, as good as any Agatha Christie. Kept you intrigued and confused right till the end!

I loved the acting, especially the lead lady.

Mr P has toned down his usual artificiality, created a time and place that more or less convinces and put together an exciting plot with a real dénouement. He deserves kudos for managing all this after many years of not doing so. Perhaps all the BBC money they have thrown in his direction has started to pay off at last. Toby Stephens is excellent, as is Keeley Hawes (as usual). Everyone else is good too and little Toby Woolf is a delight. There are faults. Yes, there is a coherent dénouement but it's not without clichés (one particularly egregious one involving guns) and some sickly sweetness. Adrian Edmondson's TV shows are embarrassingly unfunny. The subplots, while interesting, are in fact superfluous. There is the one about the missing son, which is included, I guess,to give Keeley Hawes and Clare Bloom things to do. The daughter's daft scenes at Buckingham Palace and the expensive ball with hordes of debs are also of only tangential relevance.

This series had so much potential but the ending was ridiculous and the explanations to various events (such as the missing son) were completely unbelievable. Such a shame as the story was excellent up until the end and the actors and setting were wonderful but all was ruined by the bizarre ending.

I loved this, mostly for the fabulous production, perfect period setting, faultless acting and just dreamy comfortable escapism. Cleverly positioned humour dampened somewhat by weak satire.

However if you focus too much on the plot then it becomes a bit of a drag, bouncing back and forward and not necessarily going anywhere. It achieves its goal to instill a feeling of paranoia and mistrust, which worked well until the slightly daft ending. A deftly psychological thriller that ended up like an episode of Dad's army or last of the summer wine.

The Anthony story made no sense and wasn't entirely explained.

That aside, I still wouldn't have missed a sparkling performance by Keeley Hawes (Awards Long overdue) the epitome of the English Wife and a masterclass in received pronunciation. Toby Stevens brings an outstanding depth to the lead character Petrukhin as does his hilarious family ensemble.

Definitely recommended for the polished production; a cracking yarn mingled with the menace of espionage and subterfuge.

I give this series two stars for good production values in costume and scenery design. In every other aspect it is dreadful Toby Stevens constant overacting worked ok in the cartoonish Black Sails, but has failed in everything else. The plot of summer of rockers is unengaging, and frankly juvenile. Lastly the heavy and forced political correctness puts the final nail in this mess.