- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Alison Graham
I beg you not to think too hard, if at all, about The Reckoning, for fear that you cause yourself an injury as you fall through any one of the many holes in its plot.
No, just sit back, switch off that little part of your brain that demands at least a smidgen of reality in its dramas and enjoy two preposterous hours with Ashley Jensen as an ordinary mum who stands to inherit £5 million — if only she will kill a man who “deserves to die”.
Ignore the fact that it’s an offer no decent person would even consider and get swept along as Sally (Jensen) and her scarred security-guard ex-copper boyfriend (Max Beesley) are slowly sucked into someone else’s deadly game.
I’m not quite sure what it is about The Reckoning that makes it work effectively as a neat little thriller; possibly it’s simply that the performances are good and believable. Particularly that of Jensen, who is completely convincing as a straightforward and honest woman thrust into a world over which she has no control.
It’s all too silly for words, yet you will probably find by the end of episode one that you’d really like to see the concluding instalment, just so you know how things work out for the couple.
About this programme
Part one of two. Single mother Sally Wilson's daughter Amanda has a brain tumour and will die within months without radical surgery that is only available in America at a huge cost. When Sally is invited to attend the offices of London solicitor Frederick Taylor, he tells her she has been left £5million by an anonymous benefactor - but a condition of the bequest is that she should kill a man who allegedly deserves to die. Thriller, starring Ashley Jensen, Max Beesley, Sophie Stuckey and Peter Wight.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Sally Wilson
- Ashley Jensen
- Victoria Sturridge
- Anna Madeley
- Scott Bradley
- Jams Thomas
- Mark Dobson
- Max Beesley
- Simon Harris
- Aidan McArdle
- Frederick Taylor
- Peter Wight
- Debra Cale
- Jane Perry
- Amanda Wilson
- Sophie Stuckey
- Rillington
- Simon Pearsall
- James Sturridge
- Richard Cordery
- Yuri
- Georg Nikoloff
- Sita
- Cristina Catalina
- Richard Bury
- Daniel Ryan
- Receptionist
- Kate Russell-Smith
- Priest
- Eamon Boland
Crew
- Director
- Jim O'Hanlon
- Executive Producer
- Jeremy Gwilt
- Executive Producer
- Matt Arlidge
- Executive Producer
- Chris Lang
- Producer
- Jeremy Gwilt
- Writer
- Chris Lang
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