Dangerous Liaisons; SAS: Rogue Heroes; Black Sands

“The new eight-part Starz adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons is billed as the origin story of the marquise de Merteuil and vicomte de Valmont we know and love-hate. You’re better off thinking of it as Bridgerton in France. Gossip Girl in powdered wigs. Game of Thrones in silks, slaying only reputations. Which is to say: park your brain at the door and enjoy the ride.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“No expense has been spared to recreate the beau monde of 1780s Paris. The Czech locations, lashings of Mozart and a jolly rock video aesthetic ramp up the fun. Throw in haughty lords, hot-to-trot mesdames and pert sans-culottes, plus the devoutly pure Jacqueline de Montrachet (Carice van Houten), and you’ve got a whole chessboard of polyamorous rivalries that play out at breathless pace.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“There is something irresistible as well as entertaining about Rogue Heroes. Of course, it’s ramshackle fun, creaking along with the same pace and gag rate as a Roger Moore-era Bond. But the superb central trio of Connor Swindells’s David Stirling, Jack O’Connell’s Paddy Mayne and Alfie Allen’s Jock Lewes truly set it apart. They are convincingly cracked and spiky with complexities – you believe that war could throw them together and forge an indissoluble camaraderie.”
Alex Diggins, The Telegraph

“Dominic West’s intervention gives the story a much-needed twist. Without him, SAS Rogue Heroes is in danger — despite the frequent explosions of violence and the poetic flights of verbose dialogue — of becoming a bit monotonous. West, as the wildly theatrical and selfish eccentric Dudley, livened the proceedings up.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“West’s performance as the cross-dressing officer Dudley Wrangel Clarke was standout. From the second he first appeared, sleeping off a hangover in full make-up, a four-string of pearls, a Chanel dress and white opera gloves, he stole every scene he was in, which were too few in number for my liking.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“This is a place where everyone knows everyone, and it conveys its small-town claustrophobia well. When we eventually begin to understand the tentative reasons why everyone is falling apart, Black Sands remembers itself, and throws another firework into the mix, giving its police officer protagonists a reason to do something more than mope around and argue on the phone. It is slow, but it’s meaty, and it offers just enough intrigue to make me want to return and find out what secrets the Black Sands are going to reveal next.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“A detective serial from Iceland that moves about as quickly as a melting glacier. Even by Scandi-noir standards, the first episode was uneventful, until the last moments.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail