Reviews

Gets an extra star as one of the fake policemen looks a lot like Richie Sunak

The BBC are trying to match Netflix in the violent but ridiculous storyline stakes. It looks like there are 2 stories going on. They're some way related, but we don't know how. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be comedy. Now I like dark comedy - Julia Davies and so on. But graphically depicted suffering is not something I can laugh at, but there they are - slapstick moments and eccentric charachters. To me, it's in bad taste.

There's a lot of leaps of faith to take. The fake cops are obviously fake and people in the house are chained to things they can escape from.

This may be Steve Jones' version of things, but apart from a potential exaggeration of his role, it all looks and feels right. The clothes, the vibe, the sense of time and place are all in place. Too often, punk comes across as a cartoon when dramatised, but this feels real. The characters are believable and the background to iconic events adds to the story. It doesn't fall into the trap of trying to fit in everything, thus the SPOTS tour is only partially dealt with. Equally the famous Manchester lesser free trade hall gig is left out. This avoids introducing extraneous characters who later became famous themselves. Better not to mix stories or risk credibility with a widened cast.

The mixture of myth and truth here is convincing and compelling.

Right from the start, the music is intrusive with tense motifs used as people walk through doors with no peril. The music also cliched. As we move through episode 1, we can't build empathy with Jill Halfpenny's character as she becomes pretty creepy. You can almost hear the alarm bells ringing in the ears of the School HR lady.. and wonder why nobody else can hear them. But if you want tension, the second half of the episode delivers. It's just that it's the type of tension that makes me want to turn off, rather than go look for the next episode. A shame.