The Child in Time

Is that it?

What a load of utter twaddle - 90 mins of my life I won't get back

Makes Liar look classy

Reading these comments I'm glad I didn't bother.

I'm no wiser either Merlotgran !

Can't believe above comments !! Believable story and well acted. Surely can't be just me ?

What a blooming waste of an hour and a half, a load of old twaddle I m really surprised at Cumberbatch he's usually very good

Believable story? Getting to the hospital just in time for the birth he didn't know about for one thing? Making ends meet by giving a few piano lessons whilst sitting in a £1m house? The caricature of a PM and HS? And Charles? I'm still reeling

They must have paid him a lot to risk his reputation like that ?

Oh well we enjoyed it! Can't understand why if people aren't enjoying a programme they continue watching for 90 minutes instead of changing channels?

I kept thinking that it must be better than this and that I was missing something - anyway, it's cathartic to have a good moan about something non political ?

Because you re constantly expecting to turn the corner kittye and it all fit into place I kept thinking it's going to get better
My daughter had told me to watch she texted me and said what a waste of an hour and a half

His book The Children Act apparently is going to be shown sometime in the next few months. I've read that and unless they rewrite the book, it should at least make sense. I thought about the book a lot during the Charlie Gard case

There was nothing wrong with Cumberbatch's acting. I felt the whole thing was very sad. The poor man had lost a child his behaviour was what was to be expected.

How about "Flash backs" which happen in many dramas.
Did you know that in some dramas you have to use your imaginations? As do the dramatists who wrote it.
You do not need to believe it is fact. Good drama can leave you guessing about endings.

How many of you watch the soaps? If some of you thought that was not a "Believable story?" how on earth can you manage to cope with the story lines of East Enders and the rest of the soaps.

Don't watch soaps

But do listen to the Archers

I didn't find it confusing but not brilliant either though I thought the actor who played Charles was excellent.
The thing that had me shouting at the TV was that he could just walk into a school and go roaming down the corridors. This wouldn't happen, especially in a primary school.

The book was written 29 years ago when you could and it being updated to the present day didn't take account of the changes in security

I think Ian McEwan's books are generally a bit odd and confusing. I can't get on with them very well (although I'm enjoying The Children Act at the moment) and I'm not sure they adapt well to TV or film as they seem to have quite complex structures. The film Atonement was lauded by all the critics when it was released but I loathed it because it just didn't seem real to me. I also thought Enduring Love was very strange.

I didn't really know what this screenplay tonight was meant to be saying - and I think possibly the whole thing was too compressed to get across the ideas that the author was experimenting with. I think it was meant to be looking at ideas relating to childhood/adulthood, memory and the passing of time but I found it confusing and unsatisfying and actually quite distressing.

There was nothing wrong with Cumberbatches acting but the story was severely diluted by having a second 'problem' introduced I thought it was totally strange to suddenly have a very unbelievable man running round the woods and then standing in the bathroom shaving his bits !!!! Things just didn't fit in what was the point in the staring through the pub window and the mother explaining she'd been there x number of years before
The marriage seemed totally weird too I understand couples often do split through internal turmoil and sadness can drive them apart but I felt no belief in that marriage or chemistry between them
You see Nelliemoser I think you ve hit the nail on the head when you said how sad you felt ...... I didn't feel any great emotions for them at all, the story should have been incredibly sad and I didn't feel emotional at all I wasn't crying ( which I would normally be )

I watched ten minutes and decided it wasn't for me. I read the Children Act, well written, readable and a fairly realistic presentation of the complex issues facing Judges in these kind of situations. It will make a good tv drama I expect.

I haven't read the book so I didn't know what to expect, I found it overwhelmingly sad and shed a few tears at the end. I've read a couple of Ian McEwan's other books, Atonement which I loved and Enduring Love which I can remember very little about other than a hot air balloon featured in it. The Children Act is on "my to read list"

I recently posted about Manchester-by-the-Sea which I found such a moving testament to grief on the loss of children and parental guilt and its impact on the parental relationship. With that so fresh in my mind, I suppose The Child in Time didn't have a prayer.

Yes have to agree with a lot of posters. I didn't think it was terrible but couldn't see the need for the strange friend topping himself in the woods. I thought Cumberbatches' acting was good but the mother didn't ring true too me.