Critical Condition: Bancroft

Bancroft | TVNZ 1, 9.00 Sunday

➢ “After watching Thandie Newton’s meltdown in Line of Duty (to which this plot bore truly remarkable similarities, to the possible extent that lawyers might begin to rub their little hands), and that of Suranne Jones in Doctor Foster, it was poor Sarah Parish’s turn to play the driven, smart, career woman who has it all except sanity. She made the best of a doomed job as the ambitious and gilded policewoman covering up her part in a brushed-away murder … But, oh, the plot holes, wide as fishnet stockings, the yawnworthy subplots, the joke violence, Ade Edmondson trying to ‘act’ … I suspect Line of Duty won’t sue, if only out of fear of embarrassment through association.” — The Guardian.

➢ “I am a fan of Sarah Parish, who took the lead role as the tough, dedicated but unhinged detective Elizabeth Bancroft. Yet even her talents couldn’t make a silk purse out of what was often a sow’s ear of a plot. If you thought that what happened last night stretched your credulity, I’ve watched all four episodes and mine eventually snapped like perished knicker elastic.” — The Times.

➢ “ITV has given us too many of these overblown police dramas in the past couple of years. Philip Glenister in Prey, Anna Friel in Marcella, Helen McCrory in Fearless . . .  all would have been much better with the plots dialled down a few notches.” — Daily Mail.

➢ “There are some gnarled cameos from Adrian Edmondson, Kenneth Cranham and Art Malik as old-school coppers. And the script, which may yet turn into a conspiracy thriller about the deep state and the miners’ strike, could do with taking a few deep calming breaths. It’s written by Kate Brooke (Mr Selfridge) but … it’s as if Jane Tennison never happened.” — The Telegraph.

➢ “Things actually started quite promisingly, but by the end of the first episode we already knew that Bancroft was the historic killer. From then on, it all came out a bit like Line of Duty, which was either for people who didn’t get Line of Duty or had been written by one of them. Neither whodunnit nor howdunnit, it told you where it was going and then went there, save for a twist at the end that didn’t actually make any difference. The first big question of fiction is, ‘yes, but who cares?’ and Bancroft didn’t come close to answering it. A shame.” — The Times.