A Mother's Son

This had the potential to be great. But it stopped long before it should have. It was like cutting it off half way through. Very disappointing and ruined what could easily have been an 8*

A Mother's Son is a very good two part drama series. It deals with the murder of a young girl, the prime suspect, a young man, who's mother had her doubts.

The premise is a very good one, you have the doubts of mother Rosie, and you have the conflict of the two aspects of the family.

It's a good, solid mystery, it doesn't really have the twists or any suspense, it relies more on doubt, and the conflict that's arisen in the family.

I'm not sure if anyone else did, but I got a Broadchurch vibe, particularly in the early stages, the small gripe I had was the involvement of the Police, they were there one minute.....

Very well acted, Clunes, Norris and McGann are all great. Young Alexander Arnold is terrific as Jamie.

Well worth a watch, 8/10.

I have just finished watching 'A Mother's Son' on the ABC in Australia. It was shown as a single 2 hour story and I think that helped maintain the tension. I am at a loss to work out what program one of my fellow reviewers was watching, perhaps the fact that he remembers 'Billy Cotton's Bandstand' is an indication of his age (we are talking 1950's here), but the plot was certainly not 'East Enders' and 'over the top'. The other review pretty well sums up the movie, it was tightly written and extremely well acted. It is typical of the current crop of UK drama, good casts, good scripts and a big dose of conflicting emotions. In many ways it was similar to another excellent production "Broadbeach", although that was a much longer drama and more complicated plot-wise. Room for a lot of extra red herrings. I agree that the tension was well maintained, I could understand the mixed emotions which Rosie felt, although I was pretty sure by half way through that she was backing the wrong horse; her son was the culprit, or at least an accomplice.

Brilliant writing with lots of twists and turns and great acting too. On reflection, there is a wonder as to whether there was any need to show the police scenes at all. We don't see a lot of Nicola Walker. With her not doing any scenes with the main characters. It left me wondering whether this was a reduced version of something much longer or her scenes were added to fill the time in. As it is, it is kept tight, you care for the characters and up to the last few minutes, you are left wondering if the story will twist yet again.

Great to have a sparse, lean and pacy drama that only runs for 2 hours. No padding, no stupid red herrings, no plot lines full of holes. Excellent characters and acting. Hermione in particular. She wasn't bothered about how she looked, wild hair, no make up, very real. The best thing she has done. Doc Martin wasn't bad either! Really enjoyed it. So much better than the recent Blood series.