The Great Fire

Everyone knows the Popish Plot was a fabricated story. Cannot believe they'd make a movie about a real event, the fire, and use an obvious fake story to try to "enhance" it. Ugh.

Another viewer compared this would-be miniseries exploring the 1666 Great Fire of London to EASTENDERS and I think they were spot on: this is extraordinarily disappointing given the effort and level of talent involved, and says a lot about the current state of the ITV drama department.

The miniseries is about the fire but the fire hardly comes into it. Instead we gets lots of uninteresting soap opera shenanigans involving sex, politics and conspiracy. The characterisation is on the level of a provincial pantomime and never once did I believe in or care about any of the sub-plots.

In a bid for quality, a lot of familiar actors from the best TV series around today are brought in. We get Rose Leslie and Charles Dance from A GAME OF THRONES and Jack Huston from BOARDWALK EMPIRE, but none of them are at their best. And they're sidelined in favour of Daniel Mays, who's out of his league playing Pepys (who seems to be a bit of a twit) and the singularly wooden Andrew Buchan. No, THE GREAT FIRE is a chore to sit through and there's nothing here I can recommend to any viewer.

For anyone expecting a documentary, it's worth noting that this is a dramatisation, there is historical content of course, but there is also a theatrical content running alongside. It's a truly interesting drama, you get some fascinating content, how it started, and how it was stopped.

The accompanying story is interesting, and ends up overshadowing the interest of the fire itself.

It does feel like a drama of two halves, if I'm honest, I didn't care a huge deal for the first two episodes, maybe my expectations were for something quite different, however, the third and fourth parts are terrific, there's a massive switch up in quality.

The special effects are a mix of wonderful and awful, sometimes it looks a bit amateur, and other times it looks amazing. A mixed bag.

The acting is very, very good, the standout without any shadow of doubt is Charles Dance, he's brilliant in it, sinister and commanding. One of two perhaps felt miscast.

Watch it for a bit of escapism. 7/10

About the 1666 Great Fire of London to the soap opera Eastenders That's a bit harsh. Eastenders is about nothing...blah about people who live in certain parts.

This had a point. The devastating fire.

However the spoilt it, at least in my opinion by all this plotting and stuff with the KIng and Catholics.

Sure these things happened around the same time period, but thats a different tale.

The miniseries is about the fire but the fire hardly comes into it. Instead we gets lots of sex, politics and conspiracy.

In a bid for quality, a lot of familiar actors from the best TV series around today are brought in. We get Ben Crompton, Rose Leslie and Charles Dance from GOT but so? I see actors in the UK pop up in all sorts of stuff, good things, bad things.

This doesn't make the film, or series.

I lost interest part way through. If they had stuck to the fire, the effects on normal people, the after effects also, it would have been much more interesting.

And sex doesn't make me watch something, unless it is the story or helps the story, then leave it out.

No-one was worrying about who screwed who while their businesses and homes went up in flames.

Entertaining not boring. Drama not documentary.

Tiled roofs and too wide streets. Actors emerged with lovely clean bright clothes and faces. Tiled roofs ? At least it was a bit more down and dirty by the finale.

Charles Dance did his normal towering authoritarian part very well, Andrew Buchan a solid professional but dangerous baker.

Completely ridiculous... the common man would never had access to Charlie the second ? And Sammy Pepys was a bit off the other wall .... It is true he buried his wine but not sure that Theresa Mays the stern approach for the part. It looked like he was Made in Dagenham.

However it's ok to watch on a rainy night when you aren't burning the house down.