The Accident (CH4, Thursdays 9pm)
 

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-accident



Did anyone catch the first episode of this (Oct 25)?

I just watched it and I had pretty high expectations for it... it's from the same writer (Jack Thorne) as Kiri, This is England, Skins, National Treasure and His Dark Materials... and it features Sarah Lancashire and Joanna Scanlan...

...and well, the first episode is pretty dreadful :unsure: felt more like an episode of Holby City, really. Incredibly wooden writing, no emotional hook, and just bizarre character choices that don't weave together to make an interesting story. It seems to have gotten good reviews but I can't think why other than by media establishments trying to connect it to Grenfell to score #woke points.

Found Lancashire completely empty for once, too - she was brilliant in 'Kiri' but here she's just pallid and barely responsive to what's going on, and has a pretty awful accent too.

Yeah I thought it was pretty bizarre and dreadful too.

I felt that they could have come up with a much more believable 'accident' with higher stakes and more heart and emotion to it if they were going for the Grenfell/Aberfan theme than what they did. Young white people break into a regeneration project's construction site and die in a gas explosion doesn't exactly correlate to the Grenfell disaster, at all...

Like you said, I wasn't blown away by any of the performances and Sarah Lancashire really disappointed me. I wonder if she was struggling/unhappy with her accent and that had an impact on her performance. I read she tried to perfect the accent for 6 months so it's certainly something that didn't come easy to her as an actress despite (in my opinion) being one of the most talented actors on the television.

AND ANYWAY, why is she signing up for THIS when Happy Valley 3 is yet to be made?

ER, EXCUSE ME LADEH, YOU'RE MEANT TO BE PLAYING BLOODY CATHERINE CAWOOD! Hmm? Ayy?

They arent making Happy Valley 3 until the actor that plays the son reaches the age he is supposed to be in the third season - which I believe is a couple more years.

Slow burner maybe.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
All the background drama giving little glimpses of what is to come.
Wife bashing, affairs, and northern grit.

same Smudgie, I did think Sarah Lancashire was a bit wooden but then I wonder if her character is meant to be devoid of emotion due to the domestic abuse

Oh yeah the scene where her husband beat her and then she hugged him afterwards was horrible.