A Mother's Son

Great to have a sparse, lean and pacy drama that only runs for 2 hours. No padding, no stupid red herrings, no plot lines full of holes. Excellent characters and acting. Hermione in particular. She wasn't bothered about how she looked, wild hair, no make up, very real. The best thing she has done. Doc Martin wasn't bad either! Really enjoyed it. So much better than the recent Blood series.

I have just finished watching 'A Mother's Son' on the ABC in Australia. It was shown as a single 2 hour story and I think that helped maintain the tension. I am at a loss to work out what program one of my fellow reviewers was watching, perhaps the fact that he remembers 'Billy Cotton's Bandstand' is an indication of his age (we are talking 1950's here), but the plot was certainly not 'East Enders' and 'over the top'. The other review pretty well sums up the movie, it was tightly written and extremely well acted. It is typical of the current crop of UK drama, good casts, good scripts and a big dose of conflicting emotions. In many ways it was similar to another excellent production "Broadbeach", although that was a much longer drama and more complicated plot-wise. Room for a lot of extra red herrings. I agree that the tension was well maintained, I could understand the mixed emotions which Rosie felt, although I was pretty sure by half way through that she was backing the wrong horse; her son was the culprit, or at least an accomplice.

Would have changed one thing... at the end... Mom says; "I think you did a bad thing and you know you must be punished." Would have been more appropriate to say, 'and you know you need to take responsibility'. Also included I think should have been, 'you can't be a bad person, or you wouldn't be feeling sorry... that says you did a bad thing, but you are not inherently bad.' Heartwrenching show. Well played. Hard to know how it would play in real life. Really, really, hard, and heartwrenching. Acting was all very good. The way the story developed was very realistic and provided just enough suspense and doubt. I can imagine every parent would dread such a thing ever happening to them, and pray that it never does.

This had the potential to be great. But it stopped long before it should have. It was like cutting it off half way through. Very disappointing and ruined what could easily have been an 8*

Some rather pessimistic reviews on here. I thought it was pretty good and with a cast like Nicola Walker, Hermione Norris, Paul McGann et al you can't go far wrong imo.

Good plot and acting and in the same neck of the woods as Liar for intrigue and excitement.

Certainly worth your time.