“Anoth­er total TV triumph

Mar­tin Free­man returns in the exquis­ite­ly painful study of a police officer’s break­down – and it’s a rare sec­ond run that’s just as riv­et­ing and vital as the first

…Tony Schu­mach­er gave us five of the most riv­et­ing and har­row­ing hours of tele­vi­sion there have been for many years…The new five-part dra­ma feels nat­ur­al and – giv­en the unspent poten­tial – necessary…Schumacher main­tains his tight con­trol every­where. The Respon­der unfolds as the first sea­son did, like a clas­si­cal tragedy, with the unswerv­ing sense of inevitabil­i­ty. There are so many ways for peo­ple to be trapped and the claus­tro­pho­bia builds with vir­tu­al­ly every scene. The bleak­ness is shot through with great, fun­ny lines… It’s anoth­er match­less piece, in oth­er words. A tri­umph for all involved.”

“No let-up for TV’s most stressed-out cop in this superb drama

Mar­tin Free­man returns in Tony Schumacher’s qual­i­ty police dra­ma that deliv­ers a cru­cial sense of authenticity

…This is a dra­ma in which every char­ac­ter makes bad choic­es, occa­sion­al­ly for good reasons…The first series of The Respon­der was so impres­sive that main­tain­ing the qual­i­ty seemed a tall order. But series two is also superb, thanks to a com­bi­na­tion of Mar­tin Free­man in the best role of his career, and the writ­ing of Tony Schu­mach­er, whose pre­vi­ous life as a Liv­er­pool response offi­cer deliv­ers a cru­cial sense of authenticity…The sup­port­ing cast is also uni­form­ly excellent…Schumacher offers us a win­dow into the real­i­ties of polic­ing at this lev­el. It’s deal­ing with anti­so­cial behav­iour, threats of vio­lence, men­tal­ly ill people…just enough black humour…”

“Bru­tal and bril­liant cop show gives Mar­tin Free­man the role of his career

Can the sec­ond series of the hit show live up to its predecessor?

…thrilling­ly, defi­ant­ly unique, bril­liant­ly written…this one is even bet­ter, delv­ing deep­er into the char­ac­ters, show­ing but nev­er telling…Schumacher’s writing…not only com­bines thrilling dra­ma with gen­uine humour, but he has an abil­i­ty to gut punch the audi­ence with dev­as­tat­ing sad­ness when they’re least expect­ing it…this series tack­les var­i­ous oth­er issues, and is par­tic­u­lar­ly pre­oc­cu­pied with fathers and children…The return­ing actors around Freed­man are all top notch too…The Respon­der pro­vides all the thrills and spills audi­ences seek from a police dra­ma. But it also brings some­thing else. It has been called a state-of-the-nation piece…it real­ly shines a light on the dis­in­te­gra­tion of social ties…An extra­or­di­nary feat…”