The Light in the Hall

In a world where popular crime dramas fall into the same predictable formula, it's refreshing to see something brave enough to do things a bit differently.

The early episodes start at a slow pace, but there's a real effort to develop the central characters before it changes gear and becomes a highly engaging (and unpredictable) thriller. The decision to set the show in the dramatic Welsh countryside was a triumph and a 6 episode British crime drama with very little police involvement is both refreshing and bold.

I became hooked in this highly engaging drama and hope that we see more of Cat Donato!

Great work by Channel 4 (and S4C), the outstanding cast and creator/writer Regina Moriarty.

It's hard keeping one story plot running over six episodes, very few series do it successfully. This one didn't do it for me, it wanders and meanders and a red herring here and a red herring there, but an inexperienced journalist who is diverted by an affair didn't focus it. I prefer police procedurals because they are focused and you get facts and evidence piece by piece and you get a conclusion. This series started moving by episode 4, but I gave up.

This is another typical family who has suffered a great loss and parents who can't move on. Nothing new, we've watched it before. Joanna Scanlan, Iwan Rheon and most of the cast are good, but good acting doesn't make up for a bad script. I wanted to like it, but it would have been better as a 3 episode series and not 6. It's a depressing series to watch.

The Pembrokeshire Murders series was a true story in Wales and it was fast and focused and kept my attention. There is a lesson there, but sadly I doubt producers and writers will take it.

At least 4 episodes too long. I had more or less guessed what had happened after a couple of episodes. Bit unbelievable that journalist would go around a village interviewing people like she did just dropping in. And what convenient coincidences she always was in the right place at the right time? Perhaps that is why she did a far better job than police investigators. Couldn't clear my mind that Joe wasn't Ramsey Bolton (GOT) Joanna Scanlan played a good part as Sharon and sounded authentically Welsh. Not quite sure what purpose Cat's boyfriend / editor had in the production? Watch only if you've nothing better to do.

Wow this was good.

Joanna Scanlon and Alexander Roach both starred in the brilliant No Offence and are both excellent here too.

The story is about a mother who's daughter was murdered by a local boy but the body was never found. The murderer played by Iwan Reon has never been able to recall what he did with the body but despite this he is granted parole.

What follows is fascinating look at a mothers love and devotion and how it affects everyone around her and the journalist who moved away after the murder of her friend coming back to write a story about the murder.

There a twists and turns aplenty and a few subplots that are tied up nicely and some red herrings that Line Of Duty would be proud of but it's the strength of acting not just from its stars but a strong supporting cast that kept me watching and guessing. (I actually guessed right but won't spoil it for anyone here)

Filmed in both Welsh and English (The Light In The Hall) this is a really strong thriller right up there with the best of British TV.

Highly recommended.

The script, the characters and the acting is so well delivered in this TV series. With a few well known faces delivering very good performances its definitely a good series to watch.

There are a lot of series based around very similar, and almost predictable storylines that struggle to keep you interested.

This is not one of those, with a very clever storyline, feeding the view little nuggets of information through the episodes, it keeps you hooked until the very last episode.

An avid viewer will likely put all the pieces together, and guess who did it. But it's not until the final episode when you finally discover exactly what happened.

It's easy to watch, not overly complex, and the character development all come together to deliver a very watchable series.