The Little House

Not much to add to what has been said already. Coming from someone who has not read the book, The Little House could have been better than it turned out to be but it had a lot of things that were really good. Lets start with those good things first, first and foremost Francesca Annis, who steals the show in the mother-in-law-from-hell role that has been seen many times before but rarely as chillingly as with Annis. In fact all the performances were very good and the chemistry is all believable, credit also should go to Lucy Griffith who was immensely likable as The Little House's most relatable character. The Little House looks great, very skilfully shot and the house is like a character of its own and suits the nature of the story very well. John Lunn's music is both charming and eerie while also being unobtrusive, the dialogue is snappy and also gives the right amount of foreboding, most of the direction is good and the characters in the first half are well written. The first half of The Little House is brilliant, the atmosphere is genuinely unsettling, everything's coherent and you at least know who the characters are and their motivations. The second half doesn't quite match up, the performances and atmosphere just about keep things afloat but it did feel rushed(I agree another episode or two would have helped) and ideas are introduced right out of the blue and are rarely fully explored. The ending is also agreed incredibly underwhelming, it could have been clever and creepy and was neither, instead it feels like an anti-climax and that it belongs somewhere else. Almost like the writers were not sure how to end it and just tacked one on. All in all, has a lot of good things, in the case of the acting and the first half great, but the rushed and underdeveloped second half and the ending make The Little House also uneven. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This two-part TV production was going along quite well, I thought, heading for an anticipated showdown between Francesca Annis's mother-in-law from hell and her would-be victim Lucy Griffith and also one really good twist surely just around the corner waiting to finish it off neatly. Instead, we get a blink-and-you-miss-it denouement with Annis at last getting her just desserts and Griffith turning the tables on her even after the wicked witch is dead, but it was an ending without surprise or tension and for me let down what had been reasonably effectively built up till then.

Not that there weren't other faults too, for example, Annis's husband Tim Pigot-Smith's character is too ambiguous. In episode 1 you're convinced he's in cahoots with his wife's nefarious and frankly unfathomable wish to appropriate Griffith's child for herself but in the second show, he's revealed to be innocent and in fact exposes, even if unwittingly, some of Annis's devious plans. There's also a male friend of Griffith who you think is going to play a bigger part than he does and there's also an obscure red-herring too in the references to Annis's other daughter, who now lives aboard and obviously has a testy relationship with her mother, presumably because she wasn't a boy.

There were no genuinely scary moments, the only fairly mundane attempt being Annis's silly dressing up as Griffith's late mother, in full 60's hippy gear, to supposedly convince her victim she's lost her mind, but it maintained a decent head of steam up until that anti-climactic finish which let it down.

The acting by the four leads is all good and a chilly if not chilling atmosphere is pretty well conveyed from the start. Again I felt a bit more menace could have been conveyed in the sets for the houses themselves especially given the series title, after all.

This was aired in the UK in November 2010 in two parts on ITV to great hype. The story concerns a woman who moves in with her new husband after unexpectedly falling pregnant. The couple initially move in with her husband's parents, Annis' creepy mother and her meek, doting hubby. The first part is extremely creepy, well written and acted by all and very believable. The plot concerns the mother-in-law's seemingly unhealthy fixation on her new grandson. Does she have a secret agenda or is it all in the mind of our young protagonist, the baby's mother? The paranoid tension is sustained throughout the first episode and we are left gagging to find out what happens next. Unfortunately, the second part doesn't do so well. Sub-plots are tantalisingly introduced and promptly dropped, e.g. a long-distance call from the grandparent's estranged daughter, the main character's mysterious background involving a car-crash and her missing parents, the main character's friend and confidant (who has feelings for her) and who it turns out has nothing to do with the story, and the grand-father who has a bewilderingly unexplained out-of-character change of heart toward the end. Worst of all though is a deeply unsatisfying and unbelievable cop-out of an ending that seems to have been made up on the spot. Perhaps they should have stretched the plot out to three episodes to allow the story to breathe and the plot threads to be resolved. Overall, an exciting drama but one I'd have reservations in recommending due to the silly ending

Ruth and Patrick are expecting their first child, after giving birth, Ruth struggles emotionally, and is offered help from her domineering mother in law Elizabeth, whether she wants it or not.

I enjoyed it very much, more so than my fellow reviewers. I liked the story, I loved the acting. It was clever the way that Elizabeth took control, and how powerless Ruth was. She needed to get rid of Patrick at the soonest opportunity.

It starts off well, it builds up to a shocking, dramatic climax, an ending nobody will see coming.

Despite being transmitted over two nights, it's technically a made for TV drama, a format I miss very much. The only option we get now are six parters.

The acting was very good, a very high standard, the best of the group though, Francesca Annis, who proves once again that she really can take on any role.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, 8/10.