Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Lawbolisted Powerful

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

bland-kevin67 I loved this miniseries! It was very subtle and it made the viewer think. A room of people could watch the same episodes and gather different opinions about the meaning. I love British drama because it doesn't spell out everything for the audience. The Prince's proposition to Louis, the relationship with Julian and two other characters and the meaning of being on the edge. I love the expression on the main character's face when he realizes what it going on. The socio-political statements are subtle and clear as to class and race. It made me reflect on how far this world has come since then. The interracial relations and the color hue thing made me remember how it was back in the 70's and how different it is now. I also love the way color and class was discussed when money came into the picture. From sneaking through the back door to being escorted in the grand entrance. I wished it went on for another season where characters were brought back from exile and old love rekindled, but this is good enough. I think John Goodman is a compass towards good scripts and he makes any movie better. Watch it and enjoy. Being black and poor and hob knobbing with the leisurely wealthy can be dangerous for the ones on the edge of a society where color is still an issue. Being given privilege and then having it taken away can bring you back down to earth so you can see things clearly. Being poor and not having any nobility can also take you to a place where you feel you may transcend your status but like a young blue jay with it's wings clipped, you fall to the ground.

freda747 You get the gist of this quickly. Its a mystery set in 1930's England around a black jazz band and the near murder of one of its girl singers. But I was thrown in the first episode by the bizarre way the people were characterized. 1)*** Americans- angry, violent, sexually deviant and slightly uncivilized. No explanation for this. The white American man is insanely rich, fat a woman beater. The black American man was gone from the show fairly quickly. He was incompetent as a manger, thuggishly angry, obsessed with having sex with white women, and - despite having a death sentence waiting for him back in RACIST America- unable to control his violent ego and "attitude" enough to stay out of trouble and not get deported. 2)*** Rich/Royal/ Upper class English- slightly stupid, slightly racist, slightly horny, and potentially dangerous. Black English Jazz band- the band and the music/performances in this program are fairly bad. Not at all what was. 3)*** Black English female singers- This one really threw me! Jesse, the thinner lighter of the 2 singers is being swooned over as if she were stunning. When in fact, the actress is barely attractive. It seems to be an odd English thing to describe mixed race or light skinned people as beautiful without having to actually get one that fits the bill (which an American production would have done). Carla, the darker- but full figured black singer has a much better face. Her bone structure is very striking and on par with the white actresses- yet she is being sold as the less attractive and less talented of the two. Jessie is also being offered as a GREAT singer, when the actresses voice is ...well....nothing. Carla- the darker skinned actress is being played as naive and unambitious, and slightly dim witted- wanting only to prop up her better looking, more talented friend Jess. Its almost bizarre.Of course, the only good people are English and socially in the middle. The white woman photographer willing to love a black man, the black English man- who is very even tempered and plays piano, and the white, lower middle classwriter/manager of the band. *****THIS IS NOT A SPOILER- I have a feeling they will make Carla- the dark skinned girl singer the killer or co-killer (with one of the upper class, stereotypically defective males). She is too tall and too physically large to be good. It fits the weird formula of this mini-series***

petervintner Firstly, at the time of writing (16 September 2013) the information for this on the main page is incorrect. It says this film/series is not yet released. However, I've just watched all 5 episodes on DVD (2 DVDs to be precise), plus the extra almost 1 hour "interview" between Stanley and Louis. The DVD release date was March 2013.Like another reviewer I simply don't understand some of the poor ratings for this film. It was an immaculate production with an excellent cast for, I think, a cracking, well written story. It has style, suspense, humour, sensuality, good looks, great music and, as with so much of Stephen Poliakoff's work, a lot of intelligent dialogue and some fairly long scenes. But that's why I'm a fan of Poliakoff's work - it is literate, well researched and observed, and you have to pay attention. It rewards that attention many time over.I must say there were some performances that were a revelation to me. Jacqueline Bisset for a start, and the late Mel Smith. But everyone was really outstanding in the parts they played. Joanna Vanderham is astonishingly mature well beyond her years (19 or 20 years old during the production) and is destined I feel to be a great actress. One cannot comment on this production without mentioning the singers - 2 established actresses who had never sung in public, in theatre, TV or on film before. They did their own singing and were amazingly good.

Mouth Box Oh dear, the BBC must have blown their casting budget for the entire year on this one. It's positively dripping with movie stars, household names and hot, rising talent – which is just as well, because Dancing on the Edge really has very little edge to speak of.The period atmosphere, of course, is immaculate. Stephen Poliakoff's five part 1930s drama about the birth of jazz in the UK is set against a background of thinly disguised racism, poverty and extreme right wing politics. There's also a lot of distressed wood and peeling paint, and the producers must have covered up every double yellow line in the West End.Stan Mitchell (Matthew Goode), is the chain-smoking head writer of a struggling music magazine. Stan discovers a band of black musicians and launches them into London society, helped by bored aristocrat and chain-smoking music fan Lady Cremone (Jacqueline Bisset).Bisset has been an international film star since the late 1960s, so one does wonder what she is doing playing opposite the likes of Mel Smith. But as beautiful as Bisset is, Smith frequently owns the screen as saggy-faced hotel manager Schlesinger. Mel has always given great saggy-face. His jowls were heading south even when he was a rising star in the nineteen seventies, so here's a role he was born to play.With callous immigration officials, sinister Freemasons and half the German Nazi Party hot on their heels, the band manage to land a residency at a posh hotel in Piccadilly, and fast become the favourite plaything of the Prince of Wales and his champagne-swilling, chain-smoking buddies.Chiwetel Ejiofor is hard to say but effortlessly smooth and polished as chain-smoking band leader Louis Lester – a character perhaps partly inspired by real-life, chain-smoking, black band leader Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, who died in the London Blitz in the early forties.John Goodman (the fat, miserable hubby from Rosanne) plays fat, miserable, chain-smoking millionaire Masterson – a man with so many skeletons in his cupboard there isn't room for his evening suit.Joanna Vanderham is pointless, vacant, chain-smoking rich girl Pamela. Vanderham does pointless and vacant beautifully, and luckily for her, in this series (unlike in The Paradise) she is not challenged with any tricky accents.Jenna-Louise Coleman is in it, of course. She's in everything. Coleman plays Mitchell's pretty, chain-smoking assistant, and so far she's managed to uncharacteristically keep her clothes on. Good for her.Dancing on the Edge is beautiful to look at and the original jazz music by Adrian Johnston is slick and authentically recorded. I just wish the series had been a little more faithful to the actual history of black jazz musicians in the 30s, and that Poliakoff had resisted the temptation to turn it into a tacky Agatha Christie murder mystery. Did I mention that everyone smokes all the time? Read more TV reviews at Mouthbox.co.uk