Trauma; Collateral; Julius Caesar Revealed

“Writer Mike Bartlett, with his theatre background, knows how to hit that sweet spot between the viewer on their sofa and the back row of the stalls. Child murder aside, I’m keen to see where Bartlett takes this next.”
Julia Raeside, The Guardian

“It is a tremendous performance from John Simm, who manages to make Bowker’s self-loathing seep out of his pores. Adrian Lester is grand too, an imperious god-made-flesh who has just been confronted with his own fallibility for the first time. No doubt that some time during tonight’s second episode and tomorrow’s finale the pair will be grappling, bare-chested, on a stormy clifftop, but until we get there we have a subtle portrait of two crumbling men.”
Chris Bennion, The Times

“At its heart, Trauma may be about a clash between haves and have-nots, between those who give the explanations and those who just have to accept them, but as human drama, it has considerable force.”
Chris Harvey, the Telegraph

“Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett has created a taut, cunning drama of the mind but after the first of three parts, all screened on consecutive nights this week, many might wonder if it’s too stifling. Simm does raw grief and smouldering anger very well but that is all we got last night.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Trauma’s biggest flaw is its premise. However upset and angry a grieving father must be, Dr Allerton is right to question why he’s chosen to blame the surgeon who did everything he could to save his son’s life. Surely blaming the boys who stabbed his son would be more natural.”
Daisy Wyatt, The i

“Written by David Hare, Collateral is an inherently exciting state-of-the-nation piece, a patchwork of meticulously researched storylines concerning gun violence and immigration, knitted together with terrific performances and noirish direction from S J Clarkson. It was also riddled with clunking exposition, some of which, frankly, tickled me.”
Patrick Smith, The Telegraph

“It’s a spaghetti Junction-style whodunit with Carey Mulligan as a dogged South London copper investigating a professional hit-job on a pizza delivery man. Crowded, fascinating and tangled with no obvious destination. Just like the street it’s set on.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“This four-parter feels like it has given itself plenty of scope but carries no threat of becoming overwhelmed. Collateral has something of the feel of Paul Abbott’s magisterial State of Play but you can’t help but think of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Collateral is not so much a whodunnit but a classy, finger on the red-hot pulse thriller that reflects the world we live in down to a tee. My only criticism is Carey Mulligan’s well-spoken voice. Accuse me of having a chip on my shoulder, but I just can’t believe a former competitive athlete turned Met Police officer would be that posh. Other than that, Collateral felt believable and exciting.”
Daisy Wyatt, The i

“As ever with Mary Beard, Julius Caesar Revealed was witty and engaging but must we always have the frippery? The moment when she stood on a soapbox in Rome and hollered at the tourists was excruciating.”
Chris Bennion, The Times

“Her engaging and accessible Julius Caesar Revealed was full of entertaining nods to the modern, which only served to illuminate rather than distract from the story of Rome’s greatest leader and how his legacy remains with us to this day. From the outset, when Beard marched into a maternity ward to demonstrate the connection between a C-section and her subject, she avoided any sense that Roman history was a dry or dusty subject.”
Gerard O’Donovan, The Telegraph