28 March '12

“Perhaps we can give Kay Mellor the long-shot coincidence that provides the stay cable for her new drama series. As popular drama goes, it isn’t bad, that dual plot-line trapping the characters in an intractable spot.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“If there is one thing Kay Mellor does brilliantly it’s tell a story. This is a perfectly serviceable drama. But it’s about as edgy as an episode of Poirot.”
Sarah Vine, The Times

“It feels as though it could be a good ‘un created not to squeeze out a pitiful series but to tell an original story well.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Reassuringly slow. Promisingly inconclusive. Mad Men isn’t as perfect as some of the devotees make out. But then just as you’re thinking it might be ordinary it delivers something unexpected.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“America’s most sophisticated drama offered us no Frank O’Hara epigram to puzzle over. It was an uneasy ending… Despite all of the births, last night’s Mad Men continued to intone the death of something.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It is not the most thrilling of series openers in terms of what the main characters get up to. It’s slow, even. Even if I wasn’t exactly on the edge of my seat, it has sucked me slowly back in with it.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“To ease your mind, the producers accompanied the film with an almost unbroken soundtrack of the kind of apocalyptic techno music that science fiction films use to tell you Something Really Bad Is Coming.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“The history of early wartime aviation was engagingly told largely via a group of enthusiasts in New Zealand.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express