Close to Me

I enjoy slow burn drama but this was excruciatingly dragged out. The characters never really took off - especially Christopher Eccleston's part - he seemed awkward and wooden, not helped by the uninspired writing. At most this is a four part, even three part drama. Consequently it was diluted and not in the slightest bit compelling - which is a crying shame because the synopsis and setting had great potential.

Jo seems to have it all, a loving family, a great home, success, one thing she's missing however, her memory, after waking up from a fall, she's missing the last year of memories.

It gets off to a pretty frustrating start, the early episodes are pretty slow, and padded, but my advice is stick with it, from part 4 onwards, it goes up a few gears, it becomes way more intense and a lot more engaging, the last two episodes I thought were excellent.

It's a good old fashioned mystery, you'll have to put the pieces of the jigsaw together, it's very satisfying when it call comes together.

It is beautifully filmed and shot, it looks and sounds awesome, superbly produced. The best element for me, the acting, what a terrific cast, each person gets their chance to shine, and they do.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, 8/10.

Adapted from a Kindle bestseller it tells the story of a woman recovering from a mystery fall which leaves her without memory of the last year or so. She has to try and work out what has happened in that missing period.

Pros - a good performance from Connie Nielsen in the lead role, fairly well made and watchable and a plotline with a lots of twists and surprises.

Cons - some wobbly and stilted direction and clunky dialogue (the interior monologue device didn't work for me at all). Sadly it got a bit daft and was a couple of episodes too long for its story.

Verdict: there's a lot of better dramas out there, it felt like style over substance and by the end I'd lost interest. Average.

Really enjoyed this. Intriguing and engaging. Kept me guessing until the end.

We thoroughly enjoyed the series and were left guessing until the end, expecting a fantastic twist or big 'reveal', but disappointingly the end was much duller than we expected.

Unfortunately, the '8' we would have given the series has been reduced to a 6 because of this.