Guerrilla

This excellently directed and acted series takes an unapologetic look at England's cultural and official reactionary response to immigration from former colonies. With the beginning of self rule in Africa and the last vestiges of colonial power fading into the horizon, all British citizens are forced to choose what the face of the next British century will look like. Guerrilla succeeds by placing this localized struggle in a broader global context. The struggle for human rights has many stories and battles. By watching Guerrilla you will understand what this looked like in England - with all if it's ugliness out in the fresh air for reexamination.

I wanted to like this. I don't get Sky Atlantic so bought the DVD for 10 pounds. I was 11 in 1971 so know to some extent what things looked and sounded like then.

The whole tone of the thing is false.

Britain was a racist society then (still is to some extent?) but I don't believe news reports would sound like they were National Front members. I used to watch a British TV show called Special Branch (ITV),it was set in London in the 1970s and it got the jargon and the look right. More recently the BBC did a drama called THE YEAR London BLEW UP,it was great,captured the era perfectly.

I was not surprised when I found out the writer is American,he has obviously done some research but he could have done with some local input. I will stick with it,I am half way through it,it might work as a drama but I wish it was more realistic.

After half an hour of the first episode I decided to Google reviews of this show and I wasn't completely surprised to find that there were quite a few negative reviews of 'Guerilla' and most of them came from the UK.

I'm going to add to them. It's terrible: imagine a Quentin Tarantino directed version of 'Love Thy Neighbour' or 'Till Death Us Do Part' and you aren't far off. Clichés abound, historical accuracy is irrelevant, all of the characters are stereotypes and it was so dire that I think even one star is doing it a favour.

Britain in the early 1970s wasn't perfect, but 'Guerilla' is terrible and could only be improved with a laughter track. Utter, utter nonsense. Avoid.

The strength of the names in front of camera and behind it was what brought me to watch this series, despite not knowing much about the story. Our focus is a group of young people who break a political prisoner out of jail, forming a terrorist cell, and fighting directly against the Government and Police's attempts to quash any black power uprising in the UK in the 1970s. As a world it sounds interesting, and it is all delivered with high production values and a sense of time. However it doesn't hang together tonally or in terms of content – and I'm not sure why.

We jump around with characters and tones for the whole 6 hours. At times it is almost playful, others tragic; it focuses on messy romantic relationship and affairs; but it doesn't manage to produce a sense of things building as a whole – but rather it remains fragmented across characters, situations, and tone. It does do enough to be engaging, but it is never really compelling or gripping, and I think this is down to its construction as a drama. As I say, cast and production values are all good and plenty to comment on, but they are mostly well served in the moment rather than the sweep.

That said, for all its faults, it is too well made to be bad; I enjoyed it while also wanting more from it – and the conclusion felt like a cop-out to get a second season, while also getting rid of its biggest scheduling challenge if it did go ahead.

As a Canadian I am glad to see some historical series that is retro but not in the USA. The producers did a excellent job in making this series. The actors do a good job of capturing the emotions tied to the issue of racism and equality.

Also I am glad the female character is of South Asian descent, which is a refresher because usually it is that everyone is white or black.

But this time we get the point of view from a very different character whose background is more complex then we realize.