Brian and Maggie; Idris Elba: Our Knife Crime Crisis

“Brian and Maggie is an absorbing study of politics, class and conflicted loyalties. Watching this makes you nostalgic for a time when programmes such as his were appointment-to-view television, journalists were forensic but respectful, and politicians could do more than trot out spin-doctored soundbites.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“For those of us old enough to remember these forensic, long-form political TV interviews before the days of social media soundbites and Matt Hancock’s TikTok videos (sigh), this drama is a trip down memory lane. I’m not sure how interesting it will be for younger viewers, many of whom might not have heard of Walden and for whom this drama must look like a full-on period piece. But for the older political nerd it will be a nostalgia bath, especially reminders of the old Weekend World theme music, the quiet seriousness of the interrogation style, and the reminder that even though her chancellor Nigel Lawson had just resigned and she was wounded, Thatcher didn’t pull out of a 45-minute interview.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Harriet Walter certainly delivers a more rounded Thatcher than we’re used to, although any 80s nostalgia is limited to the lost art of the unspun, in-depth political interview. Brian and Maggie illustrates the kind of political interview (not to mention honesty) of which we are we’re being deprived. After all, you couldn’t base a two-hour drama on a soundbite or a tweet.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Writer James Graham, who is, it’s no secret, left-leaning, stomachs some admiration for Thatcher’s willingness to have her feet held to the fire. It is, after all, what has been lost in the 45 years since this moment. And so even though the work is more politically equivocal than might be expected from the triumvirate of Frears, Graham and Coogan, it is still effectively polemical. Not in terms of refighting battles over the poll tax or the exchange rate mechanism, but in its sheer frustration with the way that scrutiny has been systematically eroded.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“As drama, it fails to catch fire. This may be due to the fact that Walden v Thatcher is not and never will be Frost v Nixon. It does not have iconic cultural status. Which is not to say Brian and Maggie isn’t interesting or doesn’t give you plenty to think about and chew over later (including the parts of the interview in which Walden criticises her inability to show warmth, which haven’t aged well in a more egalitarian age). But there is a detached, declamatory aspect to it overall that prevents the whole from triumphing.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“What takes this from being a good documentary to a great one is just how much complexity and nuance Elba and director Ben Steele are able to contain within its one-hour running time. It covers everything from the economic toll of recidivism to domestic violence in the home as early indicators, the lack of funding for youth programmes, the importance of mentorship and even how images of knife fights on social media can act as an incentive to carry weapons.”
Leila Latif, The Guardian

“In this weighty, sobering film Elba’s incredulity that monstrous knives are still legal to sell was palpable. Surely any reasonable person feels the same. Elba’s commitment to this cause is clearly genuine and heartfelt and he is doing a commendable thing. There are probably not many actors who could get the King himself involved in stopping knife crime which, depressingly, has almost doubled in the past ten years with an average of four people being stabbed to death every week.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“At least Elba is trying to get to the root of the problem. Plenty of people in his position would simply enjoy the actors’ lifestyle and no longer care about the kind of neighbourhood that they grew up in.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“If Idris still believes, after five years of campaigning, that the solution to knife crime is to provide mentoring, emotional support and better sports facilities for disaffected teens, he is impossibly naive. For every ten adolescents who benefit from these programmes, ten thousand will be experimenting with drugs for the first time. Idris, and by extension everyone at the BBC involved with this one-off film, made no effort to address this.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“He’s absent from some of the more intimate recollections, such as a visit to the Wolverhampton home of Ronan Kanda, a 16-year-old who was murdered by fellow teenagers in a case of mistaken identity. Whether that’s a creative choice – to allow Ronan’s mother the spotlight – or a scheduling issue, is unclear. But it makes the show feel lopsided, as though it cannot decide whether this is the tale of Elba’s activism or the human story of those more directly involved.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent