It's well written, well paced, well acted and doesn't even fall into the trap of putting her in an unhappy marriage. .... Here's a comedy worth your time.

Obviously it can’t be serious historians (although it has serious historians in it) because they don’t need key moments acted out by thespians hamming it up like an episode of Tracy Beaker. Then again it has too many clever talking heads to please those who like history served up like Carry On Cleo.

It is so well acted and directed. In fact, and this may not be a popular view, I preferred the prequel to the original show.

Yes, there are some “reimaginings” here in Gwyneth Hughes’s bucking, frisky Tom Jones script. But she has distilled a funny, sprawling novel into four shortish episodes while keeping its essence rather well. If you don’t mind it bobbing along at a surface, jolly, sometimes vanilla canter.

It's a nice, intimate series about a refreshingly normal chap.

Bonnar is always the standout actor in Guilt, but over the four episodes there are brilliant performances from many others. ... Although the farce went a shade too far when they were crawling through a pit of manure, its black humour remains sharp as a flick-knife.

The Good Mothers is a revelation: cleverly written, beautifully shot and brilliantly acted.

Spectacular, even if the wonders were more familiar and owls and dormice will never quite be as sexy as iguanas versus racer snakes.

Although Dusty is not as interesting a character as Ted IMO, it touches on darkness but brings the viewer back towards the light with decent one-liners.

Parts of the script work far better than others — I’m not keen on ditzy slapstick; just a personal thing — and there is an over-reliance on fart noises (detox juices, see). ... Yet in other areas it absolutely sparkles and carries you along.

I did not love it. To be honest, I struggled to see the point of it, or much that was even very striking in the opening episode. When there have been so many adaptations of a great novel you need something remarkable to justify another, something beyond a stark opening suicide attempt and throwing in the F-word in at 21 minutes (the swearing doesn’t bother me since I’m fairly confident it happened quite a lot in Dickensian times, but it has got some people in a lather).

It is a thorough, balanced, immersive and eerily atmospheric examination of a horrific stand-off in which 86 people, including 25 children, died.

If you weren't depressed before you will have been by 10pm, unless of course snuff porn is your thing. I think this is our new Vera. The weirdest thing of all is that it wasn't totally terrible. This was mainly down to John Simm playing Roy Grace. ... The other positive thing about it was the character of DS Norman Potting, played by Craig Parkinson. ... Thanks also to Richie Campbell and Amit Shah there was enough to keep watching. Although I wish I hadn't.

It gleefully and lengthily traded in female terror and, as you might have spotted, I hated it. ... John Simm is very good as gentle DS Roy Grace, just as Craig Parkinson is enjoyable as DS Norman Potting. They earn the two stars. Plus, the dialogue is pretty good.

More than enough feelgood comic content to warrant another series (some felt that series two slumped and was too drawn out, and there are rumours that this will be the last). The characters here are so well drawn that it could now almost exist without Ted.

This was no cut-and-paste runthrough of the rise and fall of a former national treasure. It was a serious attempt to understand why and how it happened, how one of the country's darlings landed in court accused of serially drugging and raping women.

While it’s not perfect and has too many episodes (eight), they have done a pretty damn good job [of adapting the novel for TV].

There is a gently sinister air, offset by dialogue that is funny without trying too hard to be so. It would be very easy to make this a dramedy in which many of these people were simple figures of fun, but Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Karen Cogan, who share writing duties, manage to convey real humanity.

I'd guess it needs more funny characters and a more intriguing mystery to make most people last the full stretch, but if you want silly escapism it's here.

It is a riotous watch but also a touching and sad one, which I'm sure Gordon, who died of cancer in 1985, would have appreciated.

I suppose it is mildly entertaining if you don't mind not believing a word anyone says. The talking heads claiming to be Gunther's "employees" are so arch and knowing, their fake faux pas are irritating. ... The two stars are for the dog.

The Larkins has very silly plots and two-dimensional characters. Actually, make that one-dimensional: ghastly poshos Pinkie and Cuthbert Jerebohm hammed it up so much they made cardboard cutouts look nuanced. But I like its bouncy optimism and lush aesthetic.

It is inevitable that his father's suicide when he was a child affected Spector. But it's good that this series isn't losing sight of the real victim here: Lana Clarkson.

Burns's assiduous method of documentary-making never talks down to the viewer, uses gimmicks or assumes that they have short attention spans. It's one reason why his films are so compelling.

I thought Stonehouse, based on a famous true-life story, was a joy, chiefly thanks to Macfadyen's witty, light on its feet performance as John Stonehouse. ... We're only three days into 2023, but already, in Macfadyen and Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley, we have two strong contenders for performance of the year.

I've seen subtler versions of the ugly sisters in panto Cinderella. Yet while the drama will inevitably be picked apart by experts over cultural missteps and inaccuracies, and seems to prize style over content, I like its fresh energy.

It's a mark of a drama's class that so many years can pass and yet when it picks up it is seamless, as if it has never been away. This is the best misery TV money can buy.

It is the subplot of 1923 that most interests me. The scenes from a cruel school for indigenous young women run by the sadistic nun Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and a strap-happy and possibly pervy priest, Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché), were horrific and brilliantly done. ... Helen Mirren is always hugely watchable and here she also does a decent Irish accent as Cara Dutton. ... Ford is reliably weighty too.