The Child in Time; Electric Dreams

“All 220 pages of an Ian McEwan novel into an hour-and-a-half adaption doesn’t all go, stuff gets left out. The TV drama is a simpler thing, of course it is. But it’s still a deeply affecting portrait of loss and what that does to love.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Missing children, along with raped women, have been drama’s money-shot for years. This was a rarity: nuanced, unmawkish, unsentimental. It steered us through this unthinkable limbo and what it does to a marriage in an intellectual, almost spiritual way.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It was a lot to cram into 90 minutes and I think a two- or three- part series would have given the novel’s component parts more room to breathe. But the performances were excellent. The updating of the novel, originally a commentary on the Thatcher era, worked well too.”
Jeff Robson, The i

“This was a disjointed story, lacking almost all the bits of the original that would have helped it make sense. A version of McEwan’s story so partial you wondered why they bothered.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“The novel was published 20 years before the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Perhaps McEwan would tell a different story now, but this updated blast from his past was a rewarding story of private pain.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“The story, about the longings that precede death, played out as a remedial journey into the perilous unknown. It felt somehow right that the denouement never quite laid all its cards on the deck; sci-fi which over-explains itself leaves no room to ponder its provocative visions.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“With a rapturous finale, Impossible Planet becomes a compelling, existential film. If last week’s gritty opener didn’t do it for you, this will be a more palatable alternative. One that still packs a powerful punch.”
Alex Nelson, The i