JRB-NorthernSoul

Was looking forward to this one as I enjoyed the book of the same name it was based on. This was a big disappointment though, it was all about agendas and grandstanding and forget about telling an interesting story.

There's more than a hint of Peaky Blinders in it's tone, modern music and sensibilities etc. Stylistically it's great to look at and had decent production values.

That said I'd agree with an earlier reviewer, this is one of the worst recorded shows I've seen in a long time, huge swathes of dialogue were unintelligible.

For me it was killed by it's irritating tone, it's very much of the all women are heroes and all men are zeros school of writing which has now become a really boring trope. The setup was also messy and confusing.

Please just give us interesting characters and stories without endless finger waving.

I didn't make it through the first episode and I think many others will follow suit.

The Hardacres isn't going to win any awards but it isn't half bad as an easy Autumn watch with its lovely Yorkshire backdrops. With an obviously limited budget the period setting is pretty much defined by a country house and the clothes of the time, which is a shame.

Overall its much closer to those old Catherine Cookson TV movies than higher budget efforts like Poldark. Production wise I felt it was a bit far-fetched story wise with lots of predictable pay-offs and the pilot episode was definitely too rushed. The soundtrack was very busy, honestly less is more.

Made by the same outfit as 'All Creatures Great & Small' I wanted something a bit more sophisticated, but hopefully it will find an audience and find its feet properly in series two.

Worth a look if you're a fan of period drama/family sagas.

This is a bargain basement C5 production shot and set in sunny Malta, which is all good. Not so good was the awful script full of stock characters and soapy scenes that we've all seen before umpteen times. This is a murder mystery, problem was I didn't care about any of the characters..

As a show it was quite badly produced and directed. Tonally it veered between comedy, murder-mystery and romcom, it certainly wasn't a thriller. The direction was a bit off with a lot of odd angles and cuts. The cheesy plinky-plonky score added nothing but irritation.

It was dull and the script and acting were well below par. One you can safely give a swerve.