14 Aug '12

“The acting was exceptionally good, with very few of the “interviewees” displaying the betraying smoothness that sometimes mars simulated spontaneity. And [Alecky] Blythe’s involvement seems to have ensured that the exercise would not be drearily sociological.” 
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“As actors recreated the admissions of joiners-in, this film was so direct as to be deeply upsetting. How viscerally we were snapped back into London’s confusing extremes; flung from the most casual language to the most searing… Scheduling this, the day after our Olympics Comfort Blanket was ripped away, was a mood-killer greater, even, than George Michael doing his new stuff.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“So many actors, so many people … you don’t really get to know anyone. And there’s little sense of narrative, of how the events unravelled. So it doesn’t really work as drama. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to…And not only does it not add anything to the reports that have appeared in this paper, but nor is it nearly so comprehensive.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian 

“Impressive then – tense, taut, and murky. With fine performances all over the place. It’s nice to see Rendell’s work back on the screen. And a good one for ITV to announce the fact, after two weeks in the wilderness, that they do in fact still exist.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian