Dial M for Middlesbrough

Funny enough to pass 90 minutes without taxing your brain. Not as funny as the Death on the Tyne episode.

The other 2 were pleasant distractions but this just wasn't. I think I missed the crazy old people that are usually on the bus. This was mostly the 2 of them and a new cast of extras that I didn't find funny at all.

Great cast but oh my the story was written by a 12 year old bored with their English assignment. Dull story and dull laughter.

Avoid this non laugh out loud rubbish TV movie. It makes the 70's confession movies look like a Hollywood production.

There are some good actors here, but they don't stand a chance in this under-rehearsed moronic drivel. The whole thing is desperately unfunny. There is far too much quick cutting, which means the director fails to capitalise on his one plus point; the performances.

Highly amateurish, Dial M for Middlesbrough is a abject failure.

Yes the plot and outcome are OK. The journey there is sadly so bland and innocuous, I found myself doing that modern thing of making a distraction by browsing about on my phone, using this "comedy-drama" as background noise. It was laboured and lacking any really rich dialogue. Heavy use of backing music and eternal editing. Ed Bye, still a great director, must consider this a low career point, as I'm sure a lot of the acting talent felt too. Johnny Vegas and Sian Gibson anchor it OK but they visually struggle to keep this entertaining. I've seen the offerings in this occasional series ( Draper Tours) of whodunnits from writer Jason Cook, who must have signed a lucrative deal to really get these passed for broadcasting. The highlight was Jason Donovan who (ironically for me) was the stand out of all the characters. Annette Crosbie can do no wrong too. The real mistake is that it feels it's made as a theatre farce. Over acted and loud with pregnant pauses as if waiting for the audience to laugh or applaud. Unfortunately, not many of us did.