Strike: Troubled Blood; Predators; Big Ben Restored

“The sleuths’ personal lives are what fans are here for: in a crime drama that lacks a distinctive location, community, era or criminal modus operandi, Strike and Robin are the USP. The soul of the show is in their love for each other, which must, for the sake of franchise longevity, remain unspoken – last time round, they went as far as a semi-accidental kiss on the corner of the mouth. Troubled Blood’s epic runtime only accentuates the artifice of the pair circling longingly, and when romantic developments do haltingly come, they too have the air of a throwback, namely the carefree English romcoms of the 90s. But it’s not enough to distract us from the thought that really, Strike is a Sunday-night detective like all the others.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Strike: Troubled Blood really is an extraordinarily fine crime drama, where a range of exceptional talents come together to create something that is actually greater than the sum of its very formidable parts. That is something rare and to be cherished. And indeed watched, and I can unreservedly commend this four-parter as a highlight of your festive viewing (along with the latter stages of the World Cup, obviously). It starts brilliantly, but gets better, and there are some surprising and compelling star performances to come.”
Sean O’Grady, Independent

“The sexual tension between Strike and Holliday Grainger’s Robin no longer just bubbles along but now boils away like unattended carrots on the hob — less will they, won’t they, more why don’t they bloomin’ well get a room — but it made for much-needed gentle relief in a grim tale. Strike’s face when presented with the perfumes “Carnal Flower” and “In Your Arms” by a shop assistant while buying Robin a last minute birthday present was a delight, and of course he bought her flowers instead.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“With a serial killer dubbed ‘the Demon of Paradise Park’ and a police inspector obsessed with satanic symbolism, the plot risks tipping into melodrama. But if the murder mystery is in danger of bubbling over, we can trust the cast to keep a tight lid on it.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Sky presumably hired [Tom] Hardy because, like a latter-day Ross Kemp or Vinnie Jones, he has a masculinist CV to lend credibility to the script. Here, though, he brings something more likably fey to his task. He’s neither as comically stentorian as Matt Berry, nor as whisperingly mannered as David Attenborough, but rather redolent of some old-school English thespian as he sets the scene. “In Tanzania’s Serengeti, a notorious brotherhood of cheetahs,” he intones. Or: “A flotilla of crocodiles, the apex predators of this water world.” Kudos to Hardy – I never had to turn on the subtitles, which is more than you can say about most of television’s mumblecore output.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“The high-definition video sequences were magnificent, most of all the drone shot that tracked the two big cats, then lifted off and skimmed several miles across the savannah to where a mother cheetah and her four adolescent cubs were encroaching on their territory. Camera buggies trundled close to the animals as they feasted and chirruped to each other. A contented cheetah sounded a lot like a canary. There was some marvellous photography, though I’d love to see it without the frantic editing and the pulsating voiceover.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“In an alternative reality, where money’s no object and film crews aren’t in the way, the story would be worth a whole series of slow TV. Perhaps someone’s shooting one next door in the Palace of Westminster – though as that restoration is projected to last 50 years, documenting it will need another Michael Apted, who spent 55 years on the Up series”
Jasper Rees, Telegraph