Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

TheLittleSongbird Despite being a great fan of detective/mystery shows, from Agatha Christie, 'Inspector Morse', 'Midsommer Murders', 'A Touch of Frost', 'Taggart' and 'Foyle's War' to 'New Tricks', 'Monk', 'Columbo' and 'Murder She Wrote' and others {also found myself really liking 'Messiah', apart from the mess that was the fifth and last series), it took a while for me to get round to seeing 'Cracker'.When being introduced to 'Cracker' quite late- in the past six years to be exact- this reviewer found the show every bit as great as the best of the above shows, in fact on par and perhaps even better, coming from someone who has loved Miss Marple, Poirot and 'Inspector Morse' since eleven years old this is incredibly high praise.'Cracker' is made and photographed with supreme atmosphere and classy style. It is also scored understatedly but never in a way that takes away from the full impact of the drama, the main theme is memorable, while the direction is controlled and creates tension, horror and suspense wonderfully.It is a brilliantly written show too, one of the best written of the detective/mystery genre and an example for any good TV show regardless of whether it's comedy, animated, mystery, drama etc. It's violent, and unflinchingly but always effectively and never gratuitously so (not for those easily disturbed), but also with its fair share of poignant emotion and grimly dark and deliciously acerbic humour. It's not just the quality of these individual elements though that bowls one over, but also how they are all balanced, never too much of one or too little of another.Also present in 'Cracker' is an absolute mastery of storytelling. Story lines that could easily have been clichéd, too safe or not covered new ground are intricate, layered, complex, harrowing ("To Be Somebody" really wrenches the gut in a way that few individual episodes of any TV show in existence have managed), touching (the end of "To Say I Love You") and weren't afraid to take balls that many shows before and during wouldn't have had the balls to attempt, like the psychological effects of a key female character's rape, killing off key characters and giving the good characters strengths and flaws and not making the villains irredeemably bad. Instead of being so much a whodunit like 'Morse', 'Lewis' or 'Poirot' for examples or a howdunit like 'Monk', 'Columbo' and some episodes of 'Diagnosis Murder', 'Cracker' is sort of a whydunit and a psychology of the villains' minds, which it deals with so intelligently and often powerfully.The characters are also incredibly well written, Fitz being one of the best-written and most fascinating characters ever to grace television in my opinion. 'Cracker' is superbly acted too. Robbie Coltrane is just extraordinary and to me, despite being a departure for him at the time, Fitz is his best role (no offence Hagrid fans, love that character too but Fitz is a much more interesting character). Barbara Flynn, Christopher Eccleston, Geraldine Somerville, Ricky Tomlinson and Lorcan Crannitch support him impeccably, while out of the villains Robert Carlyle's spine-chilling Albie Kinsella (some of his best ever acting) stands out by a landslide.Overall, incredible in every way. 10/10 Bethany Cox

tim2348 Well, how could there be anything but 10 out of 10 for the great Robbie Coltrane. He would even shine adapting the Black Square by Malevich.Cracker, however, is so good by itself, it could've had a chance of making it even without Robbie. Which becomes, of course, unthinkable, once you meet the Fitz. He fills up the entire screen, no pan, every single time he appears and then you just want more of him.The stories are often so difficult to figure out: up until the very end. Together with such an unique lead it results in one of the most attractive and unusual crime series ever made.This is one of the very few movies you just need to watch for a couple of minutes to fall in love with. I do so envy you guys who haven't seen it yet.

Marcus Khaos Embodies the idea of criminal psychology to a T. Fantastic acting and script writing. Hugely enjoyable to watch. British television at its best. Jimmy McGovern once again stuns his audiences with a fantastic insight into the lives of both regular people and those that stray into the realm of criminal behaviour. The show's true strength is the portrayal of Fitz whose life - that progresses over the series)is just as enjoyable to watch as the main plot. Anyone who claims otherwise is most likely a hipster trying to sound cool by disrespecting classic TV, someone that is too young or too bitter or someone that is not of high enough intellect to understand the plot lines. Today's society needs more of this genius television making. 9.5/10

mattgreen127 Cracker is as good as TV has ever got. Yes, an excellent cast and direction but it's the blueprint-the writing-that makes their work so gripping. They, themselves are merely 'driving this baby home'. The depth, the complexity, the multi-layered characters and 'anti-heroes'. Keep in mind, this great work would not transfer to film. It's a wonderful example of great TV coming in a package of a time-specific episode, where the 'playing' and direction has to be 'large' to engage us-the small screen has this disadvantage against the movie theatre and yet, not so 'large' as to make it all incredible. McGovern knows when to lift us-usually,with humour- and when to hit us. Take for an example of the latter, the best....THE BEST death scene in TV history-when the magnificent and under-rated Christopher Ecclestone (Bilborough) gets done in by the wacko (played beautifully by Robert Carlysle-proving that he could do great stuff before we were baffled by Moulin Rage.) Truly a landmark scene in TV history. I haven't even mentioned the big questions it asks of post-Thatcher Britain!