Unforgivable; The Assassin; One Day in Southport

“Unforgivable has none of the agitprop that can creep into Jimmy McGovern’s always impassioned work and there are faultless performances throughout, including from Mark Womack, a sleeper agent of an actor who delivers invariably to mesmeric effect. It is an altogether richer, more subtle and more sophisticated creation than, say, Adolescence, to which it is likely to be compared; as such, it is unlikely to be adopted as a pseudo policy document by the government.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Bobby Schofield’s portrayal of Joe is skilful, contained and sympathetic. He’s worked with McGovern before, on Anthony and Time, and is fully conversant in the dramatist’s tendency towards understatement. Every actor effectively caps their emotions in favour of stillness, communicating a societal inability to express difficult, shameful things. That shame hangs like a fog, wrapping itself around every character, turning to anger over pub tables and terrace thresholds.”
Julia Raeside, The i

“Does an abuser sometimes deserve forgiveness? Are people, as McGovern has posited, ‘more than the crime they have committed’? Or is this sin ‘unforgivable’? This is what the script challenges us to consider while not glossing over the catastrophic impact it has on the victim and family. It is a heavy, melancholy 100-minute single watch but it is worth every one of those minutes, even though it ends too abruptly.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Traumatic family dramas that tackle deeply upsetting, taboo topics are dominating the market for serious television this year, following the success of Adolescence on Netflix. But Adolescence featured the familiar elements of a police thriller, with gripping interviews that slowly led us to a shocking truth. Unforgivable was much more difficult to watch.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“‘Important’ is an easy adjective to apply to a McGovern drama. But for viewers to endure a couple of hours of fairly unrelenting gloom, there needs to be a spark beyond great performances and plausible writing. Unforgivable feels like an endurance test, whose message – that empathy must prevail – could’ve been expressed with more dynamic light and shade.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“The Assassin is perfectly crafted preposterousness. It is stylish, witty, tightly written, even more tightly paced and takes the job of massively entertaining us at every turn with the proper amount of seriousness.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The Assassin is an education in how it should be done. It’s an absolute cracker. The secret, we now know, is to serve the thrills and laughs one after another in very quick succession, not to try to blend them together.”
Tom Peck, The Times

“With its country-hopping, string-led theme and geopolitical edge, it’s painfully obvious that The Assassin wants to emulate James Bond. But if this is Keeley Hawes’s audition to become the next 007, then she’s completely let down by thin characterisation and a shoddy, juvenile script. I’m not sure what made her say yes to such an underwhelming series, but I bet the Greek sun had something to do with it.”
Emily Baker, The i

“Topics tantalisingly touched upon included two-tier policing and mistrust of mainstream media. Yet framed within a film about a tragedy which felt quickly forgotten, both the personal and the political were done a disservice. As the stricken Southport families mourned or recovered in hospital, narrative focus was elsewhere. We heard about flashbacks, trauma and survivors’ guilt, but all too fleetingly.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“An abundance of CCTV, mobile phone and dashcam footage helped to make this film, about this atrocity and the UK riots it sparked, sharply immersive… There was a visceral, menacing feel to it, as if you too were there amid the baying mob. In years to come this and other films may be studied as a bellwether of British unrest in summer 2024 and afterwards.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“One Day in Southport purported to be a documentary about the devastating tragedy that unfolded at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Merseyside a year ago. Rather like the appalling crime itself, however, the film was soon hijacked by other issues entirely. The result was grimly gripping but ultimately unsatisfying.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph