Next of Kin

A slow and pedantic series with several pointless scenes and whimsical 'face the camera' dialogue. Shades of Bollywood in this drama targeted at UK minorities. Mood musicians must have made a packet out of it.

However it makes no sense to me that this family after the police started targeting them that they did not have an attorney to help them through the police harassment and investigation.

An excellent drama which focuses on a family drawn into a frightening, and very relevant, terrorist situation. A bit of a continuity blunder early on seems to have given some people a bit of a stick to beat this programme with but, embarrassing as it may have been, it has no real effect on the story. Tension builds nicely to a genuinely moving conclusion. The actors create a believable family dynamic which is far more effective for the telling of the story than having some maverick cop-type character or Strike Back style antics doing everything for them. Nice to see Archie Panjabi in a lead role in the UK too - long overdue.

This is a well produced TV series anchored strongly by Archie Panjabi who's face spends much time filling the screen, but thats no bad thing. Good to see such a real drama that drastically affects this very British family in a highly contemporary storyline. Its not perfect but overall it ratchets up the tension and keeps the viewer intensely engaged. Good performances all round ensuring you empathise with the human mistakes they make because of the closeness of kin.

It is a real pity that such a topical subject matter that holds such promise for highlighting modern global realities as viewed from the family angle disappointed me so much. I looked forward to Archie Panjabi's acting making this series work ( I was very frustrated when she was dropped from the Good Wife series) but the story line was unimaginative, full of plot holes and unbelievable develpoments. I only continued watching because my OCD prevented me from abandoning it. I cannot believe such incompetence from the creators of Vera. The story assumes that we viewers cannot seperate fiction from nonsense. I also hoped with ever decreasing fervour that some twist would save it from oblivion. Jack Davenport gave off the vibe of chagrin as he realised too late that he had been sold a flop but plodded on to honour his contract. Shabana Azmi was quite convincing in her acting but her role in the story was not. Viveik Kalra did what any teenager does naturally - just laze about and sulk. Claire Skinner could not control her family in Outnumbered and was just as incompetent in her control of underlings here. Simply not worthy of the BBC.