Thanks for the memories!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This was a good enough watch with some great points of dramatic tension,but it all got a little stretched out, with the interweaving characters' stories getting a bit over-played. If this had been done by the CSI stable I reckon they'd have got the right balance of believable action and cliffhanger episode endings. It's an imaginative take on a tragic real-life theme and the lead actor carries the victim role well. But on the flip side, this actor is reduced to constant baffled gurning. Yes, we got it,emotional turmoil....a hard gig to sustain, and it's creaking by the end. On a personal note I found the indulged daftness of the victim's middle-class family by turns irrititating and alienating. If being very picky you could criticise the police ineptness in the last episode as being totally unrealistic but sadly it isn't. But being of a fire-fighter's family, I found the circumstances of the final escape were just more than could be believed and actually let down the rest of the series.

It's captivating and makes you want to continue to come back for the next episode just to see how it all pans out but it is all so depressing. The problem is that every single character has no redeeming features, they are all unlikeable with the men being the weakest. The most common word used must be'sorry', every one seems to be sorry for one thing or another and they continue to make apologies just about every five to ten minutes.

Ivy Moxam (Jodie Comer) escapes from her captor. She's 26 and has been a prisoner since being kidnapped at 13. Her family is uncertain but a DNA test confirms that she's the real Ivy. Her parents are scared to reveal their separation. Her little sister Emma is now grown with her own boyfriend. She is reunited with childhood boyfriend Tim and he's scared to reveal that he's married. Eloise feels guilty about not meeting on the faithful day. The kidnapper is identified as Mark White as he goes on the run. He kidnaps a new girl, 10 year old Phoebe. The police is desperate to find him and Phoebe but Ivy's story does not all add up.This is a 5 part BBC mini-series. Its 5 hour running time is probably a little over-extended. It doesn't really have the twists to justify the length. There are some compelling relationships but they don't go too far with them. The police investigation is lackluster. Even Ivy giving herself up to Mark White is somewhat unrealistic in its execution. Jodie Comer is a perfectly good troubled mercurial girl. Other than some of the relationships, there is a lack of sharpness to the writing. Tim is probably the most compelling but even that fades at some point.

Really enjoyed this mini series..... Ivy was very convincing as a 26yr old who'd been shut away for 13 years. Acting was great, all the characters were good. The very end scene was so disappointing though. Almost as if the writer just had to end the story in two minutes flat. Everything was plausible except that final scene with the explosion. A fire without the explosion would have been more convincing. More of an effort could have been made there.Being familiar with Bristol made it doubly enjoyable as i saw familiar places on screen.Other than that... it's good. well done.