The Gallows Pole; Changing Ends; A Paedophile in My Family

“The roughcast look, feel, performances, including and especially by first timer Suzie Binns as less-embryonic, more lugubrious battleaxe Mand (other varieties of female character do, I assure you, abound), wit and earthy intelligence combine to make this a drama of rare quality in every sense. It is funny, moving, enraging, shocking by turns and always compelling. Not to be missed.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“It is riotously entertaining and upends most of what you expect from a period drama, tosses it in the air and refashions it as something entirely distinctive.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Despite the quick-witted script, The Gallows Pole had a leisurely pace. Hartley had returned home with a sack of shiny gold, but the iffy means by which he had acquired the coin was kept secret in this first episode of three. Nor was there any mention of the forgery scheme for which he would finally go down in infamy. Instead, Meadows focused on establishing a blackly comedic tone, the deprivations of the villagers mixed with a droll banter. “Are you actually doing the pauses on purpose?” Grace asked her husband when David kept lapsing into dramatic silences.”
Ed Power, The i

“Compared to most modern TV, plot happens almost as an afterthought, when it happens at all. Meadows loves his company so much that he lingers on them, often in slow motion, for scene after scene. But you can see why: the performances, the humour and just the life that he manages to capture on film are irresistible. This is a gang that, within half an hour, you want to join, no matter what they’re up to.”
Benji Wilson, Telegraph

“Without a script, the plot doesn’t develop, and without a plot I became distracted — wondering why these penniless villagers all had fresh skin, well-kempt hair and white linen. They didn’t look hungry: they looked like they’d been sipping oat milk lattes between takes.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The real [Alan] Carr narrates straight to camera while the excellent young actor Oliver Savell plays his younger self. There’s a poignant contrast between the softness of the child and the waspishness of the adult, which could have been played up to more powerful effect. But Carr is determined to keep things light. So when kid Carr asks his dad (Shaun Dooley) if he’s normal – and gets the blunt response “I don’t think you know what normal is” – the adult Carr pops up to caw: “Hey snowflakes! This was therapy, 80s style”.”
Helen Brown, Telegraph

“The Carr family’s rivalry with their uptight neighbours is great and that aspect has the feel of a classic British sitcom to it. Changing Ends emerges as a sillier, warmer cross between Ladhood, Liam Williams’ own fourth-wall-breaking comedy about his youth, and Keeping Up Appearances. That might sound about as appealing as a Frazzle dipped in Tizer, but when he raids the bag of clothes that Ange has donated to charity, young Alan makes it clear that sometimes, clashing patterns just work.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“With documentaries like this one, so dependent on a single person laying themselves open to a film-maker, there is a tacit unease about the purpose of the exercise. Emily began this film saying, “I’m going to take a look back at what happened to me as a child.” Her mother worried about how it would affect her now that she has her life on an even keel. But Emily’s answer was that she wanted to use her voice to help other survivors and find out why her abuse stayed hidden for so long. Hopefully films like hers will encourage other sufferers to speak out sooner, because if there is a throughline to her story it was that everyone wished they’d said something, but no one did.”
Benji Wilson, Telegraph