If I Had You

This was originally shown in the UK as a 3 part mini series. So those of you watching it as a "TV Movie" should realise that it has been crudely edited down. This is probably the reason that some of you found it dis-jointed. Incidentally one of the boys who found the body in the lake went on to become a member of the boyband One Direction.

I have Just watched it, really enjoyed it although i did guess the ending about half way through as the wife would confirm so it was a spoiler for her!!. It HAD to be good,i mean Paul McGann , Mark Benton & Sarah Parish in the cast to me means good. Won't comment on the plot as don't want to spoil it for anybody waiting to see it but i did stay with it for two hours, saving calls of nature for the commercial breaks which to me is a sign that i was hooked.It clashed with a BBC extravaganza about Krakatoa which is right up my street but i chose to record that and watch at a later date so i had an instinct that this was worth watching "live". I wasn't wrong, i.m.h.o.

Sharon Myers returns to her hometown to attend a School reunion, after reuniting with her absent friend Helen, she encounters Helen's partner Phillip and new teacher Lesley. The morning after Sharon is called in to investigate Lesley's murder.

It's a very slick and stylish thriller from the mid 2000's, a time where ITV were putting out high quality, one off dramas, a shame the format has all but died a death.

Very twisty turny, it may appear complex and deep, but it's actually quite a simple storyline, the eternal triangle, it's a live story with a twist, a murder. It takes a bit of time to work it out, but it's definitely a satisfying mystery.

It feels like a precursor to Bancroft, another ITV crime drama in which Parish would play a tough, slightly troubled Detective.

It boasts a very talented cast, Sarah Parish, Paul McGann and Poppy Walker, who are all on point. Mark Benton was very good, and playing a slightly harder edged character than is the norm.

8/10.

Seems I have watched all the current shows that are of interest to me so had to choose something older. One reviewer shared that this was a pared down from several episodes so the slight lack of detail in some areas made better sense; that said, too many episodes may have caused the story to drag.

Little by little we learn the relationship of most of the characters, both in the present & the past. Everyone seemed to be intertwined. I suspected everyone at one time or another which kept me involved with the stories though, for me, I wasn't really sure until the very end. I recommend this to anyone interested in this genre.

The story is not as coherent as it should be. Several elements are referred to without any prior mentioning of them. Several sequences are merely stock scenes glued together without meaning. Very very cliché. Several items in the investigation don't add up either. I understand that it is difficult to write these things nowadays, but I had expected something infinitely better after reading the other comments. Also something seems amiss in the casting: the accents are awkwardly mixed, and the actors don't quite fit the characters. The action and enunciation are not fit together. Also, a lot of themes seem to be introduced, which are not followed up, nor even explained. I do admire the attempt to mix the whodunit with the flashbacks, and the psyche of the investigator, but it is no more than an attempt. It seems that nobody knew what they were doing at the time, and took things that could be successful, and put them together, hoping it would become coherent, which it doesn't. It is bizarre, but not in a good way. Honestly, I know quite a few things that are a lot better. Of course, this is all just my humble, yet bitterly honest opinion...