VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

grendelkhan I tried out The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on a whim, based on Jane Horrocks starring in it. I quickly recognized much of the cast and knew I would be on interesting ground, based on the Kudos production logo. It is that: interesting. I expected something a bit more comedic, with Horrocks, but there is little "pure" comedy here. The idea of an ordinary citizen propelled to Parliament, based on a populist campaign, is not a new idea, nor is the female focus. The family angle made it a bit more unique. It's a satire, with a rather simplistic view of the mechanisms of government, though we get snippets of scenes that reinforce that creating change isn't that easy. However, we never really get a sense of the forces that would be arrayed to oppose the kinds of changes that Ros Pritchard talks about. The Tory opposition is made out to be completely impotent, which even the Blair years would suggest was far from the truth, let alone more recent elections. We also never get a sense of business interests that might oppose many of the reforms that Pritchard wants to implement, though things are kept very much centered around general community topics and with a rather centrist view, especially compared to previous political satire/drama, like House of Cards (the original) or A Very British Coup. Those two played more with hard politics, with very definite points of view in each of their main characters. It also doesn't get into opposition from the rather conservative civil service, as in the brilliant Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister comedy series. On the end, I think it is this rather tame political stance that holds the series back and part of why it didn't generate a second series. I wondered a bit as to where on the political spectrum I might cast Ros Pritchard and pretty much concluded that dead center was about as close as I could come to an answer, even moreso than Jim Hacker ever was.The cast is all first rate and the writing is generally good, with interesting characters, though Ros Pritchard seems a little too perfect. She carries the moral high ground until forced to compromise in the last episode. This is the closest she comes to being tainted by the power she wields, another aspect I felt was less than realistic. On the other hand, her husband seems so weak that you wonder how their marriage has lasted this long. Daughter Emily seems to go from relatively level-headed to impetuous rather quickly. Also, the new MP character seems to be introduced, then ignored until a scandal is needed to set back Ros' government. This character was begging for more development than she was given.You get the feeling that many of the weaknesses of the series were elements that might have been addressed in a second series, which gives the whole thing an incomplete vibe, despite the epilogue card that inserted after a second series was nixed. Still, there are plenty of interesting ideas and characters to keep you interested for the 6 episodes, though it will probably never be rated a classic.

JudyObscure Hasn't this been done a hundred times? You'd think after Margaret Thatcher this wouldn't be such a shocking premise. I found the whole thing silly and irritating.I dislike prejudice in any form so it offends me to hear statements like, "Women are better at politics because they can admit when they've made a mistake." I don't think work has a gender, I don't think women are better at politics any more than men are better at engineering. I also dislike seeing women treat their husbands like children and their children like adults. This might make a nice "follow your dream" film for school girls except for the fact that the film teaches that self-esteem is a more useful career preparation than education or experience.

IridescentTranquility I'm a little surprised to have seen so many negative comments about The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. Considering that voter turnout at the 2005 election was estimated at around 60%, I should have thought someone new and dynamic like Ros Pritchard was precisely what we needed in British politics. If we could all get half this passionate about one political viewpoint, maybe politics could finally shake off its boring, our-vote-won't-count-so why-bother image. Watching this, I thought, "We could actually make this happen if we could get interested enough".On the occupational side, I would have liked to have seen more than just a few shots of Ros walking around talking to her staff to represent her work in the supermarket. Apparently Jane Horrocks visited my boss at the supermarket I work in for tips and ideas, and I felt there wasn't enough on Ros's old job. A few scenes on the shopfloor, then she decided to stand for election and that's it (bar a couple of other scenes).Politicians have a fantastic reputation for lying, so it was refreshing when Ros made a remark about the European constitution, "which to be quite frank is no better than the last one". Any other MP would say half as much with twice as many words. The only thing I would criticise was that things seemed to be tidied up very quickly, although the case of the suspected terrorist attack (topical indeed) this might be out of sensitivity to the victims and relatives of London's 2005 bombings.Equally different was when Ros actually offered to resign if her idea didn't work out. Admittedly, it might not have been the brightest thing to say in the House of Commons, but at least she was honest. Certainly she also found the clever people to join her cabinet. Miranda, for instance, negotiated with the journalist in a way that would have scared me and I was most surprised when it backfired. I must give credit to Jodhi May - I've seen her in lots of productions and I didn't recognise her in this until half way through.There were a lot of family scenes that I found humorous. It wasn't so much the idea of the prime minister finding a condom in her daughter's pocket that tickled me, but the fact that Ros only found it because she was looking for her iPod, which said daughter had borrowed. In spite of Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" thing, I just can't imagine him with an iPod. On that note, the characterisation of Emily and Georgina is excellent. When a preoccupied Emily takes her little sister out for lunch and says, "You can have anything you want", Georgina seizes the moment and drinks her sister's wine.Much of Ros' personal background comes out towards the end. The reason why her girls are obviously so important to her is incredibly sad, especially in the context that she discloses it to Catherine. It's interesting, too, that political tension seems to build just as tension in the Pritchard family builds, too.Without giving anything away, the ending was a bit of a let-down. Close to the end, Ros wakes up after talking with her husband and - at the crack of dawn - has a secretary talking non-stop about her appointments for the day and I wondered, "How is this woman still functioning?" There are a lot of twists and turns, all the time you are expecting Ros to be ousted and the ending was just too anti-climactic. So anti-climactic, in fact, that I thought there would be another episode the following week.Overall, an interesting, thought-provoking, optimistic series that was sadly let down by the very end of the last episode.

ic2 The first episode has just finished.It was quite good. Some problems with it's, cuteness, but otherwise an entertaining hour on an otherwise improbable plot, and believe me as someone who stood as independent in a district council election, it is improbable.For me Jane Horrocks was a bit light, she is a fine actress and carried the part well but she was too much "little voice". A supermarket manager was appropriate as I was reminded of the adverts she appeared in here in the UK with Prunella Scales.Nice to see an outing for so many good actors, I struggled to remember where I had seen the jilted bride and it has just come to me, the daughter from Funland, she might even be wearing the same wedding dress.I look forward to the next 5 episodes and hope that Jane Horrocks can find some substance, all the same, excellent Tuesday night tele fodder. It will keep me out of the pub.