The Curse; Chloe

“Tom Davis, himself a master at offsetting his chunky 6ft 7in frame by playing fretful softies, has spotted kindred spirits and formed some kind of sitcom supergroup. The scene with the four of them around the pub table is just sublime. Davis and his long-term collaborator, co-writer/director James De Frond seem primed to move on to movies before too long – with The Curse, they continue to make fabulous TV comedy look easy.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The humour is less intensely driven than in People Just Do Nothing and more like Davis’s much-missed Murder in Successville, and has similar sharp wit. But that slower pace just means you have a little more time to savour the superb period touches. Unlike the not-that-lovable rogues, the creators of The Curse clearly have a very good idea of what they’re about, and their plan is seamlessly executed to highly amusing effect. They deserve a reward for recovering such an impressive haul of comedy gold.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“Half sitcom and half homage to London gangster movies such as The Long Good Friday, all split-screens and wah-wah guitars, this heist caper is co-written by its star, Tom Davis. If you’ve got fond memories of Minder, you’ll love this.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The first episode rattled along perhaps a little too fast. The stylish visuals were a fun counterpoint to the chaos on screen, but the best stuff was in the mundane chats in between the action, like debating whether or not the drinks in Club Tropicana really would be free.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“The Curse brings together the talents behind two superb, Bafta-winning British comedies – Murder in Successville and People Just Do Nothing – to create an amiable crime caper that is a cut above the usual sitcom fare, but a notch below anything that would unduly trouble the Bafta panel. The four, who co-write with director James De Frond (Davis’s Successville and King Gary partner), would be watchable even if you were just eavesdropping on them in the pub, yet the feeling here is that the balance between larky comedy and genuine drama is never quite right.”
Chris Bennion, The Telegraph

“Created, written and directed by Sex Education alumna Alice Seabright, it has much of that show’s brio and fleet charm, although the subject matter couldn’t be more different. The central intrigue builds and never gets forgotten, but the real tension comes from seeing how far Becky can go – how big a house she can build with purloined business cards, how many plates she can keep spinning, how far out she can go with this jazz riff of a life and still get herself back in. Vitally for a drama about fake identities and shifting truths there is not one false note in it.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The premise may not be totally original and the plot occasionally daft but Chloe feels crisp and new and Doherty is like a breath of fresh air.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It all hangs together well, with the mysterious circumstances of Chloe’s death acting as an additional plot device. Ultimately, it’s a commentary on social media, because isn’t Becky’s behaviour just an extreme version of the fakery deployed by every Instagram user curating glossy pictures of their oh-so-successful life?”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Writer and director Alice Seabright’s six-part psychological thriller takes a perceptive look at the illusory nature of life in the social media age.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“There are certainly flaws: her targets seem remarkably welcoming to a newcomer and she has access to an extremely convenient (and infinite) glamorous wardrobe. But overcoming these issues is an excellent central performance from Doherty, flipping seamlessly between Becky’s mundane ‘real’ life and her confident alter ego, Sasha. With Becky plagued by her own imagined versions of how others see her, this is a tense and intriguing exploration of how we shape our identities both on and offline, and what happens when those versions of ourselves collide.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“Chloe is very much a thriller for our time, and our near future, because it’s like a preview of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook ‘Metaverse’ – intriguing, repulsive and thrilling in equal measure, and something you really do need to see.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent