Summer of Rockets

Anything starring Keeley Hawes is going to be worth watching and this little drama is no exception. It's a fun bit of nonsense - very reminiscent of an episode of The Avengers from the late sixties - but far more elaborate. As usual with the BBC, the sub-plots hammer every politically correct stereotype going. The villains are all white, middle-aged, middle class males, the heroes are all either from a minority group or disabled. Of course, the police are racist and the young white men (except for the gay man and the vegetarian) are violent boors. Even the poor little debutantes get a drubbing. All boringly predictable - but it was fun seeing Lily Sacofsky giving one of the nasty young men a taste of her knee! To be fair though, I did enjoy this drama and would recommend it as a lightweight bit of entertainment.

Poliakoff again! A very frustrating writer/director. Production values high... But... As usual... Unconvincing characters, stilted dialogue, and constant creation and maintenance of tension over inconsequential issues. How does he get work!?

Mr P has toned down his usual artificiality, created a time and place that more or less convinces and put together an exciting plot with a real dénouement. He deserves kudos for managing all this after many years of not doing so. Perhaps all the BBC money they have thrown in his direction has started to pay off at last. Toby Stephens is excellent, as is Keeley Hawes (as usual). Everyone else is good too and little Toby Woolf is a delight. There are faults. Yes, there is a coherent dénouement but it's not without clichés (one particularly egregious one involving guns) and some sickly sweetness. Adrian Edmondson's TV shows are embarrassingly unfunny. The subplots, while interesting, are in fact superfluous. There is the one about the missing son, which is included, I guess,to give Keeley Hawes and Clare Bloom things to do. The daughter's daft scenes at Buckingham Palace and the expensive ball with hordes of debs are also of only tangential relevance.

Some of the themes were intriguing, and the cast did their best. However, the plot was so ridiculous that it undermined any of the positive qualities of the drama. By the end, very disappointing and not worth the viewing time

It was a strange era, the 1950's. The Americans had McCarthyism, and we were affected by it, as the Series demonstrated reasonably well. Civil defence was growing, nobody trusted anybody else, and as Mr Petrukin found out, being Jewish put you right under the radar of MI5. This story captured the feel of the era quite well, and was assisted by some great acting and even thought I found this to be a very slow series, it was fascinating and I had to keep watching.

It was helped considerably by a first class cast, especially Toby Stephens as Samuel. He captured the essence of what it feels like to be the only sane character amongst a company of maniacs, and the rest of the cast including Keeley Hawes as his love interest, were all magnificent. I rather enjoyed Timothy Spall's portrayal of the titled gentleman know it all who tries to manipulate his peer group. Characterisation was what kept this series afloat; the plot meandered and the ending fell flat.

I am not too familiar with Poliakoff's stories but I look forward to watching some of his better works, this was intriguing but not satisfying.