19 April '11

“Goodness knows what Fyodor Dostoevsky would have made of it had he been watching ITV1 last night, but there were clear echoes of his epic novel Crime and Punishment in The Reckoning, with nice Scottish ex-nurse Sally Wilson (Ashley Jensen) weighing up the moral implications of committing murder, given that her intended victim was himself a killer who had mutilated a young prostitute and incidentally lived in Gerrards Cross.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

“Hmmm. A foot – a toe even – in the real world and I would have wanted to come back for part two. But I’m sorry, this is just too bonkers.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Behind the brainy plot, however, is a creditable concern with how real people might behave in an unreal situation.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“Alas, the final episode didn’t yield the romantic encounter it had promised, despite Sally continuing to show much more devotion to Ian than he got at home from his needy, nagging, pixellated wife.
Brian Viner, The Independent

“A whole bunch of Kate’s (very) “extended family” turns out to say nothing of any interest at all, except Kate’s great-aunt Alice, who says that Kate is too good for the royal family. That’s nice. But most of these so-called Middletons aren’t even Middletons at all, as they come from Kate’s mum Carole’s side of the family.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“For every mention of affluent mill owners, there was a gem of a quote about another branch of the clan, such as East Enders so poor that they had “jelly for Christmas.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Scariest of all from Sarah is “bedbugs can crawl 4ft a minute!” Well, you know what, I reckon I could outcrawl one. It’s hard to take that seriously, as a national crisis.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The argument, as put forward by the cast at a recent Q&A, says that this is a totally unreal world but the relationships within it are deeply human. The first episode certainly lived up to that principle.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Last night’s ailing establishment, the First In Last Out, featured an owner on the verge of a coronary and an under-manager so marvellous he could have come from the pages of Dickens by way of The Office.”
Matt Baylis, The Express