TV Critics: The Scandalous Lady W; Revenge Porn; Show Me A Hero

“Two fabulous performances here: from Natalie Dormer as Lady W, Girl Power in a red riding habit, way too far ahead of her time; and from Shaun Evans as Sir Richard, aristocratic repression and perversion personified, in a stylish, spunky, fun-filled drama.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“[Shaun] Evans was suitably odious as Sir Richard, and Barnard’s purring performance as the ultimately cowardly Bisset revealed how so-called sexual liberation often stops short of liberating any women. It was Dormer, however, playing the lead role for once, who had clearly found her métier. As Lady W strode, head held high, away from her husband’s house, she was the proto-feminist hero for our costume-drama-loving age.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) confirmed her rising-star status – and her ability to portray sassy, wronged women – playing Lady Worsley with obvious relish and undeniable allure. The whole thing was beautifully shot, much of it in lovely Georgian interiors. Yet, by reducing such an intriguing real-life story to a simple black-and-white morality tale (and with the morality belonging firmly to the 21st century) the programme felt not just distinctly hollow, but also patronising to both its heroine and audience.”
James Walton, The Telegraph

“Much rested on Dormer, and the Games of Thrones actress was terrific: by turns vulnerable, alluring and defiant. The sex was filmed discreetly, its troubling undertones neither ignored nor overplayed, while the wide-open, blindingly white marble interiors contrasted neatly with the repeated image of Sir Richard’s beady eye, peeping unblinking through a keyhole. Yet the whole underwhelmed, offering a cliché of female emancipation when greater insights and complexity beckoned.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times

“It must have been the glorious costumes that tempted Natalie [Dormer] to make this one-off period drama, because it certainly wasn’t the script. This retelling of a notorious court case, when the MP Sir Richard Worsley sued the Army officer who had run off with his wife, was rigid with lines heavier than lead.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“As the story moved quickly on, you never really felt the full effect of the victims’ experiences, or the range of people affected. People have had to leave their homes and jobs after the publication of their images, but there was little evidence of that here.”
Ian Douglas, The Telegraph

“Richardson’s stunt, courageous and well-intentioned though it was, added little. Instead, her sympathetic, careful interviews with the victims needed a harder-nosed type to push the culprits for answers and, in particular, take on the advertisers who make revenge porn sites so profitable – something alluded to, but never pursued. This bleak affair offered cautionary tales aplenty but precious few solutions.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times

“After Channel 4’s leering documentaries recently on outdoor sex and prostitution, this programme might have been a sweaty rummage through some of the nastiest corners of the web. Instead, it was a sympathetic, respectful warning to women.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It has some of the hallmarks of The Greatest TV Show Ever – tenements, outdoor sofas, drug dealing, social problems, plus officialdom, the public sector, bureaucracy etc. Also Simon’s extraordinary ability to breathe life into concrete, to turn issues and politics into humanity, to tell big stories through smaller ones.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Strangely, the 1980s setting in no way diminishes the relevance of Simon’s observations – in fact, in the year of the Black Lives Matter movement, this study of America’s racism feels particularly relevant. And this way we get Simon’s writing, plus a cast of excellent character actors sporting all the over-sized specs and amusing facial hair you could hope for. Alfred Molina’s slicked-back ‘do alone is worth the Sky subscription fee.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent