The Inheritance

I'm not sure precisely what it was about this that made the "journey" enjoyable. There was definitely a feeling of the characters being given time to breathe and events were left to unfold at a sensible pace.

The problem, of course, is that much is made of the "secrets" that various characters are keeping from various other characters. So you're encouraged to believe that maybe several of the characters had the motivation to murder. But, of course, at the end, they reveal the actual culprit and all that potential collapses to a single not very significant point.

So, enjoy it for the ride, but expect to be disappointed by the ending.

This started out as a fairly average family drama, father and three adult children. Larry Lamb played the role of the father, which wasn't promising as he's not a great actor. Then he dies and the family find out he has disinherited them and left his wife of 14 years his estate, which they didn't know he had. Surely a silly state of affairs. The actors who play the siblings have absolutely nothing in common with each other and no charisma.

The drama unfolds bringing in the current wife, the ex husband of one of the siblings who has loaned money to the siblings brother, the coroner and the police. Some suspicious characters are introduced into the mix and a highly unlikely scenario of circumstances arise. All happen without any humour and all lines are delivered in a deadpan serious manner. It is the most awful drama I have ever seen and one I will never watch again. I went from watching episode 1 to watching the last episode, thinking that even that was too long a watch.

Started quite promisingly, but rapidly descended into a tangle of ludicrous sub plots. Coroners liaising with relatives of the deceased? Police who ask a suspect to "keep your eyes open for anything suspicious"? A family that had apparently not strayed far from their place of birth (although displaying a vast range of regional accents). And the cast losing any belief in the dialogue they were forced to utter along the way of the convoluted plot?

The whole thing was a train wreck, with two-dimensional character and not one likeable. It amazes me how a TV company can produce a series like this - is the production company given free reign with no editorial input?

I'm a fan of 4 part dramas, enjoy them more than the longer running ones which really should be compacted into less episodes. So with that in mind The Inheritance definitely scores in my estimation as the storyline didn't drag. With all murder mysteries everyone is given a motive and one by one the most obvious suspects are eliminated. That's where it comes a little undone as the final reveal seemed a bit weak in the motivation department. On the plus side full praise must go to James Collier. He's terrific in this and very strong leading man material so I hope he gets more roles as a result. I'd love to see him carry an entire series on his own.

I enjoyed the concept of this series and found it very interesting and relatable. I have a similar situation in my family with a split family and siblings though in my case it wasn't a shock that came out at the reading on the will! I liked the dynamic among the siblings and the first two eps especially kept me hooked. Like many mysteries it lost its way a little toward the end and didn't know how to resolve in a clever way but it didn't spoil my enjoyment. Good Christmas viewing on my5 and I recommend it with the caveat that you take it for what it is. Final question that went unanswered- where was it meant to be set?