- Network: Sky Atlantic , BritBox
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 28, 2022
Critic Reviews
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A gruelling watch, but a mesmerising one.
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This England is more like a drama-documentary and, by sticking to what felt like the facts, has the makings of a persuasive critique of what went right and (more to the point) wrong when Johnsonian Britain collided with a global health crisis.
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Kenneth Branagh leads a very strong cast in a drama that is assembled with great skill, yet feels made far too soon.
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Despite Kenneth Branagh’s brilliant transformation into Boris Johnson, This England takes too much time rehashing the beginnings of the response to COVID-19 as if they were 20 years ago instead of something that, even though it was almost four years ago, still feels like it happened yesterday to most of us.
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Even if unintentional, the show is all about Boris Johnson, and the great problem with Branagh's performance is that it’s simultaneously a fairly poor impression and an enormously distracting one.
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The show tries to build a sense of urgency through a score (by David Holmes) that thrums under the dialogue, use of real-life news reports, and figures on screen showing the rising numbers of Covid cases. Yet it doesn’t work when it’s paired with this living, breathing version of Spitting Image.
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There’s no meaningful arc for anyone in the hundred or so speaking parts to play, just a series of fatally unfortunate events that may still feel too close to home for many to willingly revisit.
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It is hampered from the off by feeling both too soon and wildly out of date.