Holding

I read in one review that the accents were wrong. Really? Which? Protagonist is from the north east. One PC is Dublin. Several have authentic Cork with natural lilting inflection. Not everyone in a town will be born there y'know.

Brenda Frickers ' monologue', a masterful lesson in unraveling a history. Again, so authentic I could be listening to my mother/aunt/elderly friend.

Woke? Pffft. Wake up and look beyond the obvious and you might find gold.

I loved how this gave a real sense of rural Ireland and its people and quirks. Coming from this environment and culture I can testify to the verisimilitude, and my Irish Mammy says the same, so it must be true!

I thought this was terrific with great characters. I'm on the west coast of Scotland rather than in Ireland but I recognise the setting and attitudes and find them all to be believable.maybe you have to have a rural Celtic or Northern background to fully appreciate the mild humour and the secrets and the shame etc.

I also enjoyed seeing people, especially the women, who look real with real looks and figures - normal, pleasant, naturally attractive people and no one tottering around in farms and in the countryside in high heels. And it was great to see a mature romance between less than svelte people.

I very much hope there will be a second series.

I'm only up to episode 3 and it's dangerous to review modern thrillers before the final episode because they usually fall apart. One thing that stands out in Holding is that the actors are given the opportunity to act. Episode 3 is worth watching just for the scene where Brenda Fricker's character talks about her past. Better than average (so far).

No ok it's not the best thing ever. But it was a pleasing mystery with great characters and splendid acting from the leads.

I'm wondering what the problem is with some people. So you can't please all the people all of the time and everyone has different tastes. Fair enough. But it appears to me that everyone who complained about 'woke ', 'virtue signalling' and 'shoe horning in characters' were seeing things that just aren't there. No it wasn't all 'white men bad' women all good. Hardly. There were a couple of lovely male characters especially PJ who had his demons for sure but came up trumps at the end. And not all the women were noble and strong. How anyone can come to that conclusion is beyond me.

One reviewer wondered why many high ratings reviews criticised the low reviews. Was it because so many appear to be misogynist, racist or homophonic perchance?