Critic Reviews
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Ridley is not a show out to break new ground: this is television made unashamedly for the Vera fanbase, but done so with care and quality.
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The relatively downscale lead-in to the more ambitious "Endeavour," stars the unlikely Adrian Dunbar as the title character, who is more suggestive of the P.D. James creation Adam Dalgliesh than an aesthete like Morse.
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While there's little original here, there is enough quality to return to it. As Sunday night comfort fare, it's fine.
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A solid but hardly exceptional example of the rural mystery, telling its two-part stories with a slow and steady pace, enriched by Dunbar's craggy and unexpected lyrical persona. [12 Jun - 2 Jul 2023, p.6]
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At times, it seems to take itself a bit too seriously – there are few lighter moments, no laughs or sarcasm between friends, family or co-workers, nothing to relieve the sombreness – but, overall (especially, as I’ve said, if we ignore the club singing scenes), it works.
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Ridley as a series isn't bad. If you're missing Vera, it fills the hole perfectly.
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[Erin Shanagher] delivered the strongest performance, at the very end, in a scene soundtracked by Dunbar crooning a Richard Hawley tune. Other than that, though, this was a downbeat police drama with no distinguishing features.
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You can play along with cliché bingo at home. That one case he never solved? Tick. Inexplicable extracurricular hobby for a detective? Tick. Bafflingly Scandinavian interior design? Tick. Individually, none of these things are unpleasant. As with anything that becomes trite, the process of that overuse inevitably begins with a kernel of quality.