Must Watch reviews The Responder
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review The Responder on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Martin Freeman stars as an urgent response officer who has been tasked with working a series of night shifts on his beat in Liverpool.
BBC/Dancing Ledge/Rekha Garton
Hayley says: "You really feel the pressure he's under"
"It’s bleak and gritty, but it's also very funny in a very dark way. It’s more of a character study than a police procedural. I thought Martin Freeman was excellent at portraying this guy who is at the end of his tether, who’s desperately trying to do good and fix himself but is being pulled in all of these different directions, caught in a system that is just not set up to deal with ongoing, complicated mental health issues.’"
‘’I found it relentlessly tense. It’s definitely not a calming watch, and if you’re given the chance to binge it I would suggest not doing that. There aren’t really high and lows, there's just this unending tension of a night shift and you really feel the pressure he's under, stuck in this situation where even his own brain won’t give him a break. But it’s really good.’’
BBC/Dancing Ledge/Rekha Garton
Scott says: "So authentic and very dark"
‘’It’s a Must Watch, there are many dramas recently that try to show what a job is really like, this one looks into people who turn up at a scene or situation the first. The fact that this is based on what writer Tony Schumacher has been through, means that he has created so something so authentic and very dark.
“It kind of takes the normal police procedural and things from a normal police drama that you have seen countless times and kind of throws it on the floor and stamps on it!
“Schumacher is trying to show us what it is really like for some people in this profession and I think seeing the gruelling nature and having to see the worst of humanity a lot of the time can have such a profound impact. It's not an easy watch this but do I recommend that you should watch this? I do.’’
BBC/Dancing Ledge/Rekha Garton
The Responder is available now on BBC iPlayer.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
This week, the team speak to Spencer Jones about series 2 of The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk on BBC Two. Plus reviews of The Gilded Age on Sky Atlantic and Trigger Point on ITV.
