lyninbyron If you love a good "whodunnit " crime drama then you'll enjoy this. It's well casted and brilliantly acted. Don't read too many reviews or plot spoilers, just watch it. You won't be disappointed. Pass the popcorn please!

mshavzin I don't need police brutality lecture when I am watching an Agatha Christie mystery. For one thing, my sympathy is firmly with police of American and all European countries, who are good enough to keep on protecting us, even as rampant immigration makes our cities more dangerous. So I didn't appreciate the thinly veiled dig at the police. The BBC really needs to be aware that not all viewers are liberals, a fact that has escaped them. Perhaps they should leave entertainment as entertainment. I also didn't particularly appreciate the swearing. It seemed forced and out of place. Don't get me wrong, I don't object to foul language on principle. I only disliked it here because it was so obviously an attempt to set themselves apart from ITV Chritie by being more "modern" except that it wasn't. It was just more childish. Aside from that, i actually fell asleep during the first episode. It was all talk, talk, talk. the camera didn't even move. The characters were not that dynamic, and they were not that deep. it wasn't terrible, but I can't say i enjoyed the show. And can people PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT THIS IS "REALISTIC"! Just because they are coughing in bed doesn't add realism. Considering how completely stupid the answer to the mystery turned out, based on an absurd, and impossible coincidence, I would say this is a hundred times less realistic then the original Agatha Chritie story. I have never seen the other movie of this show, so i am not comparing it to anything, but I think this was completely rotten. The writer needs to get the political correctness bug out, and stop trying so hard to make the shows dreary. The ITV version of Agatha Christie was often dark, and some episodes left me crying ( Five Little Pigs) because the end was so bittersweet. It was still excellent. I am not expecting a "delicious fun murder". I don't even like that. But this is terrible. And it is the furthest thing from realistic.

Derek117 The Charles Laughton/Tyrone Powers/Marlene Dietrich/Billy Wilder 1957 film of "Witness for the Prosecution" has been one of my favorite films since I was in high school. So, watching this Toby Jones version--that follows Agatha Christie's original short story--comes as quite a surprise. Mostly the same characters, but with a decidedly different take on the story of love & guilt. The two "Witness" films are like watching the Kurosawa film "Rashomon"--the guilt lands on different characters.That said, and because I'm a student of film, I liked the Toby Jones version, too; and don't feel like it's inferior to the Billy Wilder film. The photography and set designs are all shadows, fog and smoke; just the right mood for a story that is does not reveal itself and fools the eyes. The acting is all excellent, which is in keeping with all British productions. And, the pacing of the narrative is accomplished with no tech or CGI--which is refreshing in this age of SuperHero films.Bottom line: if approached without bias, this film of Agatha Christie's "first draft" of Witness for the Prosecution is rewarding on it's on merits.

bob the moo Although difficult, I approached this BBC version of the story by trying to put the Billy Wilder one as far from my mind as possible. Of course that is not easy, and it is obvious from the get-go that this version is much different from the 1950's film of the same name. The way it comes through is very much in the grittiness and darkness of this version; there is no comedy lawyer, no light tone to draw you in – from the start it is a sordid relationship, a dirty piece of rough, stinking jail cells, and a lawyer servicing deadbeats for minimum wage. To be fair, maybe this is what it took to shake off the Wilder memory, because it is very dark throughout.In some ways this is a bad thing, but not many. The strength of this approach becomes clearer as the second part plays out (and this does play better with them back-to-back). The dark tone of everything is paid off with a tremendously impacting ending which not only hits the main mystery, but gives revelation and resolution to the main character too (okay based on an absurd coincidence, but I forgave it that). This had the added advantage of giving something for the viewer who already thought they knew it all, as well as justifying how dark everything had been up until that point. And it had been dark. Indeed, the first episode was almost tiresomely so – I found it to be a real drag as everything seemed aimed at showing how awful everything was. Like I said, this is justified in the end, but I still think it was laid on a bit heavy.In all areas this is the case, but the cinematography is the main one; it looks so murky to the point where it feels like the DOP slapped on an Instagram filter. It felt so heavy handed in this way that it did turn me off a little – and it seemed to highlight how hard everything else was trying to be down and dirty too. Jones' performance is the same in some ways; it works in the entirety, but for a while he feels like he is just playing to the lowest point in a deliberate way. He is still very good though, and the rest of the cast match him, with good turns from Riseborough, Howle, Cattrall, and Dolan (who has the darkest moments with her "not today thank you" denials). As a fan of Utopia, Ready was a surprise find in a small role.Overall this version initially seems to be overcompensating with its darkness at first, but in the end it is more than justified and works really well, even if it makes that first hour a bit harder to get through than it needed to be.