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Fans praise dark BBC thriller featuring 'hour of best television ever' with 95% Rotten Tomatoes score

Home> Entertainment> TV

Updated 17:05 9 Apr 2024 GMT+1Published 17:06 9 Apr 2024 GMT+1

Fans praise dark BBC thriller featuring 'hour of best television ever' with 95% Rotten Tomatoes score

The show might have released a decade ago but apparently it's worth the watch

Jess Battison

Jess Battison

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Sure, the likes of Netflix and Prime Video bang out some pretty decent series for us to get gripped on.

But sometimes, we just end up coming back to the good old BBC for some absolute must watches.

From a ‘10/10’ crime drama compared to Peaky Blinders to a comedy-drama compared to Skins, there’s some absolute bangers being rolled out right now.

And now, fans are praising a dark BBC thriller for featuring ‘hour of best television ever’.

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Currently boasting a whopping 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, it’s an older show that viewers are loving as a comparison to Apple TV’s Slow Horses.

The Game initially came out back in 2014 and stars the likes of Brian Cox, Victoria Hamilton, Paul Ritter, Gemma Chan and Jonathan Aris.

A ‘complex thriller’, the series is set in London in 1972 and follows a team of M15 officers ‘risking everything in a secret war’.

The British Cold War spy thriller show was created by Toby Whithouse who also created the likes of Being Human and No Angels, as well as writing seven episodes of Doctor Who.

Brian Cox stars in the series. (BBC)
Brian Cox stars in the series. (BBC)

The Game was nominated at the Edgar Allen Poe Awards for Best Episode in a TV Series as well as for a British Screenwriters’ Awards for Best British Crime Writing.

Fans on IMDb reckon that the fourth episode is ‘without a doubt one of the best hours of television’ as they call it an ‘awesome’ series.

As some wrote: “Deliberately paced and brooding in tone, yet laced with caustic wit, personal tragedy and sinister inference... It is a first-rate production of the Cold War terror that we all feared at times growing up in the 60's and 70's.”

One said it is a ‘slow burn but definitely worth the watch’ as another called it a ‘frustrating watch’.

But sitting with an impressive 88 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, viewers say it’s ‘sort of the mini-series version of the movie Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy’.

The show premiered a decade ago. (BBC)
The show premiered a decade ago. (BBC)

Another put: “Cold war spy drama done with a subtle undertone of doubt and conspiracy. Moody and complex, bluff and double bluff. Truly brilliant, a collector’s piece.”

Others said: “It is a first-rate production of the Cold War terror that we all feared at times growing up in the 60's and 70's.”

And one did write: “Utterly devastating that a second series wasn't commissioned, the BBC missed a golden opportunity with this. Nevertheless, The Game was a magnificent piece of drama, 10/10.”

While The Game isn’t currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer, it is available to users with a NOW TV subscription.

Featured Image Credit: BBC

Topics: BBC, TV, TV and Film

Jess Battison
Jess Battison

Jess is a Senior Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include asking everyone in the office what they're having for tea, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021.

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@jessbattison_

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