Les veuves au parfum

I first watched 'Widows' back in 2008 and it's been staple viewing ever since. It never gets old I always enjoy it thoroughly. Ann Mitchell is brilliant in a tour de force performance that deserved a BAFTA award, she is brilliant, Ann totally encapsulates the character of Dolly Rawlins. Lynda La Plante is one of England's best crime writers and her television credits are very good she penned a fantastic script for this series Widows and its subsequent series plus it's third installment 'She's Out', which was also brilliant. After the huge success of Widows bringing in a viewing audience of 18 million in the UK Lynda La Plante when onto even bigger success by writing the famous 'Prime Suspect ' series and went on to win two Emmy awards and an Edgar Allan Poe award for her work on the fabulous crime series starring Helen Mitten. Later she also won a Dennis Potter BAFTA award for television writing. So it's safe to say anything penned by Lynda La Plante is going to be a worthwhile viewing. The production values are fantastic and the London locations are wonderful, the lock up being a favourite of mine. The supporting cast all do a wonderful job the acting is top notch by all. I can't recommend this wonderful series enough and if you haven't seen it do yourself a favour and watch it you won't be disappointed. 5*****

So, sequels are never as good as the original? This series dispels that. The success of the first one encouraged the producers to spend much more on the budget for Widows 2, and along with a well written script by Linda La Plante, it made for compulsive viewing in the U.K. during the early months of 1985.

Our four heroines seem to have evaded the police, and gotten away with the haul from the bank robbery that their dead partners did not survive to carry out. But although they have all separated and started new lives, the unexpected return of someone from the past, ensures that they have to reunite, with frightening consequences for some of them.

This was a fantastic series, which featured some original girl power. Dolly Rawlings served as a sort of matriach, keeping the other girls in check, while they organised themselves in order to carry out the robbery which her dead husband had planned to commit. Lynda La Plante created this series, because she grew tired of the glut of decent roles for women on TV, she was also laughably fed up of playing beaten up 'tarts' (her words) in shows like the 'Sweeney'. Great acting by all concerned, and La Plante's writing had me hooked until the suprise climax. The second series was certainly a must see too.

Own it on DVD or video.