Kiri

I will watch it

I really liked it. Sarah Lancaster is a likeable, flawed character. Reminds me of my social worker sister.
At the start I thought the accents sounded like Bristol/West Country before I was aware of where it was set.
I thought they went a bit OTT with the graffiti to make sure we knew it was Banksy country. It's not everywhere in Bristol and definitely not at that motorway junction!
Lots of interesting (and heartbreaking) themes here. A must watch.

I agree mostlyharmless, Sarah Lancaster's character is flawed and likeable. If I was to nitpick, I'd say it was not in character or at all likely in Real Life, that a sw would drop a child off for her first unsupervised contact at the home of birth grandparents, without going in with the child. The emotional atmosphere would be tested, the child and grandparents reassured that the sw would be back at x time. The prior agreement about whether they could leave the house, to go to the local park/shop etc would be re-visited and set out in a positive manner so everyone knew the boundaries.
Still, it's a drama isn't it and so far, a very good one.

Now I really need to watch if only to see which motorway junction has a 'Banksy' - did they improvise or did they get him to do one and is it still there?

They most certainly did not sound as if they had been within 100 miles of Bristol. I was though to be posh when I went there at 8yrs with my Midlands accent.

The scene where they did the sweep search did not sound right. I cannot imagine that once a body was even suspected the police would have stopped immediately and made the searchers go away. They barged on and that could have totally messed up any forensic evidence.
I will reserve my judgement until a later episode.

Sarah L does seem to be presenting as as a rather flawed character yet again.
I hope that her managers do not start booking her to do similar roles all the time and get her stereotyped in her career. She is very good.

Definitely worth watching

As usual, when we watch Sarah Lancashire, we have to use the subtitles. Can never understand a word that woman says. She doesn't move her lips much and speaks quickly, it spoils it for us. We're from the West Country and it didn't even occur to us that her accent was trying to be Bristolian. But then, to us 'down yer', Bristol is way to northerly and easterly to even count as the West Country.
Despite all that, we're thoroughly enjoying Kiri, flaws and all.

Bristol be West, perhaps you be South-West?
That's what the BBC thinks, anyway

Very gripping tonight again. Annoyingly the trailer for next week gives something away (well it's what I expected, but still annoying).
Social workers can't win can they?

Sad, heartrending even but compelling television. There are still many secrets to emerge but Tobi's pain and his interaction with Nathaniel were so well written and acted.

No spoilers except to say is the foster mother in denial or just daft.

Great acting all round, loving it.

Good acting all round the grandfather is excellent I m finding this a decent drama I don’t have a problem understanding Sarah Lancashire but I agree it’s a bit of a mixed up accent not sure what it’s meant to be
Looking forward to next weeks episode It’s so much better than girlfriends on the other side which is really mundane and boring

Jalimal, yes, I'm definitely south west!

Nina - she's also nasty!
I'm trying to work out who 'lover boy' is, have we met him before or was the swimming bath his first appearance?

I have caught up and also watched tonight's episode.
Miriam is definitely a flawed character and if they had had any suspicion that she was drinking at work would that not have been investigated? Sarah Lancaster's accent is all over the place and it wouldn't have been too difficult to introduce the fact that she had moved from somewhere else in the country.

Who is the woman she kept taking the sausages to? A client or a relative, I missed something there.

Bristol isn't shown in a great light, I don't remember the paintings on the walls just off that stretch of motorway - definitely not Banksy style! although the colourful Bearpit was authentic and it was on the news last night as becoming a real problem crime area just off the shopping centre (what a pity).

The son is not very likeable and I have to use sub-titles as I can't hear a lot of what he mumbles.
Have I seen grandfather before - did he play J L B Matekoni in No 1 Ladies Detective Agency?

The acting is very good, I'm enjoying it even if it stretches credulity somewhat.

I cant believe that a 16years old would be having the kind of conversations with his mother that the boy in this program is.
As for the bathroom scene what was that all about.

AsElred says where has the boyfriend suddenly sprung from.

The whole family appear to be dysfunctional to me and if SW allow people like them to adopt children, heaven help them!!!!

Yes I was puzzled as to why such a dysfunctional family would want to adopt a child let alone be cleared by Social Services.

They’ve hidden their disfuntions because they are very clever!
I can’t decide who actually did the crime, one of the three. At the moment my money’s on the son, I think he has an Oedipus complex, and didn’t want to share his mother’s love. In the bathroom he was trying to shock her, make her jealous( the girlfriend) and gain some sort of gratification.

travelsafar most 16 year old boys would be extremely embarrassed to see their mother semi-naked, let alone naked.
He was trying to humiliate her. Even if he didn't kill his foster sister, he is a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
The mother has admitted slapping one of her pupils - lack of self-control? Did she follow Kiri on the Downs?

It has got so much better this week for me. Can't wait to know the outcome.

The son seems too obvious a choice. Maybe it is the mother? And now to be deliberately throwing suspicion on the real father. What a family!

So the first week was seen from the perspective of the social worker; the second week from the point of view of the birth grandfather; the third episode from the point of view of the adopting mother. I wonder whose perspective next week's episode will show.

The "stable" middle class family (professional married couple with one son, big house in nice part of Bristol,) obviously seemed ideal adopters to Social Services. They hid their multiple problems well!

The grandad is an excellent actor I thought, also his ‘son’.
Sarah L’s character is both flawed and at times annoying.
Carrying a hip flask everywhere?!
I think the adoptive mother did it btw.

Surely her colleagues would have smelt drink on her?

None of them are 'fit for purpose'.
Except grandad but even he was weak and went against the rules.

Lucian Msamati did play J L B Matekoni in No 1 LDA - he is a bit young to play a grandad (41) but I suppose there must be some grandads around of that age.

Paapa Essiedu, who plays Nate, was on Front Row on Radio4 this evening. He spoke of his respect for Lucian Msamati and said he aspires to be like him when he reaches his age.

That's good
However, he's only 14 years younger (Lucian Msamati is 41)