The Golden Hour

A welcome and long-awaited return to the small-screen for Richard Armitage, though he featured only briefly in this first episode. Abundant sub-plots focusing on each protagonist in turn, which kept the viewer on their toes, but rather too many flashbacks and over-cooked replays dwelling on the gorier incidents for my tastes.

This series is a complex mix of medical action drama and personal drama sub-plots. My concern is that the latter will dominate the former and this will become yet another soap. Having said that, I am looking forward to the next episode in the hope that Richard Armitage's character will be featured in more depth and detail than his rather bland colleagues who do not always convince in the medical department. He is the stand-out so far...

'You have an hour to live or die.'

A small teach of emergency medics specialising in trauma work towards a every specific brief, they have one hour to reach their patients and treat them.

The Golden Hour clearly didn't want to just be another Casualty, it did at least try to do something a little different.

I'm sure most people watched this for one reason, the presence of Richard Armitage, who is naturally wonderfully brooding, but he's not the only reason for checking this show out.

The casting was pretty good, several strong guest performances, Emma Amos and the lads Keith Barron stood out. Ciaran McMenamin is just as good as Armitage for me.

The countdown timer helps add a degree of tension and anxiety, it doesn't amble along, and generally the focus is on the injured parties, and drama surrounding their friends and loved ones.

Sometimes it does venture into soap opera land, the third episode in particular, it's a frustrating affair, it really does feel like Casualty.

How times have changed, the last time I waited for an ambulance it took seventeen hours, if they did this show now it would need to be called The Golden Day, the thought of attendance and treatment within the hour now seems impossible, maybe that's why a second series didn't transpire.

Of its time, but it was engaging enough.

7/10.