- Network: BritBox
- Series Premiere Date: Jun 24, 2026
Critic Reviews
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A Woman of Substance may not hit the same heights as the best period dramas out there, but at its best, it offers some delicious intrigue that makes you eager to stick with it until the end.
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Reynolds is a force to be reckoned with here – bringing humour, light, hope and heartbreak to every episode. With less screen time than Reynolds, it's hard for Blethyn to embody all of that to a similar degree but in the final moments of the series, she does come into her own a bit more as the story takes some soapy turns.
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A Woman of Substance still works brilliantly as a nostalgia piece – a perfect homage to the age of excess and television that drowned you in plot and let someone else worry about the rest. Think of it as Dallas in Yorkshire. Three-star television but four-star nonsense and delight.
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The neurotic bed-hopping (which continues even after one of the trio is dead) was akin to torture. Thankfully, despite the longueurs, AWOS gets where it needs to go.
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This drama can be a bit “tell” not “show”. It is also, obviously, really silly. But it does have the nous to lean into the absurdity with thunderous string music, fortissimo piano and sweeping shots of the lovely Yorkshire landscape. If anything, the parallel timeline is even more lush.