7 April '11

“Lucinda Coxon’s adaptation and Marc Munden’s direction appear to have a very fine grasp of just how far you can tip a drama towards knowing comedy without it becoming risible. They’ve taken some risks in this respect, most notably in casting Chris O’Dowd as William Rackham and Mark Gatiss as his pious brother, both actors best known for comedy and – in Chris O’Dowd’s case – a gleefully silly kind of comedy too.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“There is a kind of nightmarish glamour to the whole thing, a weird, off-kilterish feeling against which refreshing scenes of prostitutes remaining preoccupied with their own survival and nursing diaries full of vengeance sit well, and suggest a story and an execution that will yet come to bite complacent viewers firmly on the ass.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Although the language is beyond Dickensian (Mrs Castaway describes semen as “a squirt of slime”) and the sex gruesomely explicit — Crimson Petal still falls within the best traditions of BBC costume drama. This is because, unlike so much contemporary fiction, it has faith in the magnetism of character acting.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It’s Dickens, to coin a modern phrase, with an edge.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“If you find Phil and Kirstie’s odd-couple routine charming – or think it wonderfully comic to watch a goat eating her straw hat – then this is for you. Otherwise, it’s only purpose is to pad the gap between 8.00 and 8.30.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It was one of those stories for which the word Kafkaesque was both invented and yet wholly inadequate.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“This series has proved throughout its seven, grubbily gripping episodes, a promising model’s career can be ruined by something as simple as a bad haircut or bitchy remark.”
Matt Baylis, The Express