This is a good story about the snow-balling effects of one irrational action and all the people who are brought into the melee. It all starts with the murder of a young girl and all the assumptions made by the investigators - one rash consequence of those assumptions send the participants into a downward spiral. A well acted film with a good story line. This is not really suspense programme but still holds your attention.
However, the sound track is horrendous with loud unpleasant and irrelevant noises throughout that tended to make me want to switch it off. If you can stand the jarring noises which are put in at random then this well acted story is worth watching. I would have given it five without the ridiculous sound track and was tempted to give it one with it.

Like some previous reviewers I am somewhat surprised by the rave reviews and the 4 to 5 star ratings dished out. This is, or it seems, a good script and storyline. I have stopped watching it part way through the second chapter so I can't comment with authority on that. The programs major downfall is the editing. In my humble opinion it seems as though the director and editor have just graduated from film school and have tried all the fancy tricks to jazz the program up to make it trendy, for whatever reason that pocesses them at the time of post production.
The best anaolgy is this; consider a book, a good thriller, well thought out and well written and a riveting storyline....then just imagine if someone kept all the chapters in order, but cut out the pages in each chapter, shuffled them up and stuck them back into the book....that is exactly what this program is like...it is quite fustrating, chopping back and forwards through time with an unsettling sound score to boot, together with too much unsteady camera work...that is fine in small doses, and to enhance a mood or effect, but in this case it almost seems as though the tripod budget was siphoned off for increased editing fees in the cutting room....

It is a shame because when I see that icon, the BBC logo, I am used to being treated with memorable entertainment...

I loved this programme when it was on the telly, I stayed in every Saturday for 6weeks to watch it, it was that good.

The story line was excellent, gripping and plausible. The casting was perfect with every one acting their roles fantastically each making their characters really believable and watch able. The actor Ian Puleston-Davies is one of my favorites and he doesn't disappoint in this. I love this so much and I want every one to watch it and love it too!!

I have met Ian Puleston-Davies since I watched this and told him how much I loved this, he told me that this was the proudest piece of work he has done and considering he was in Alan Partridge is one of the funniest episodes is saying something!!
Watch it and love it!!

I've watched this, and I've got to say I don't agree with the rave reviews this seems to be getting.

It tries to be (and succeeds in being) quite gritty, but that doesn't automatically make it good. In terms of tone and procedural style police drama, it's very similar to Prime Suspect. Where the reviewer who compared it to the "Constant Gardener" was coming from I don't know.

While I accept that TV is escapism and you've (often) got to suspend your belief a little, for something that's essentially a serious program, I found one aspect of this series so totally ridiculous that I nearly gave up (I won't spoil it). It was only because it was well acted and scripted that I stuck with it.

It's alright. I watched it, I wasn't bored and it did have it's moments; but NYPD Blue, Morse, Homicide or (the better episodes of the aforementioned) Prime Suspect, it isn't.

As an unreformed addict of high quality drama, this series is a dream! It marries the three dimensional characterisation and razor sharp narrative of the finest police procedurals (Cracker, Prime Suspect) with a such a striking visual/cinematic approach that is streets ahead on anything out there on the small screen, be it British or American series!

In fact the series' look and structure recalls recent features such as The Constant Gardener, Traffic (the film), Syriana, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros. Besides maybe City of Men, I have never seen tv -- on HBO, Showtime or the Beeb -- that looks like this!

While it might lack the realism of shows like Traffik, The Wire, Homicide, West Wing, or the genre busting writing of The Shield, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Galactica or works from the Whedonverse, Conviction has perfected and improved upon the Police Procedural genre, setting new standards in visual inventiveness marrying it with great writing in a way that leaves all the C.S.Is, without a traces, and 95% of those US McProcedurals in its wake!

I am looking to see what BBC and Red Dog productions have up their sleeves next!