Paul Evans The concept is definitely a good one, one of the darkest 'what if's' you can imagine, what would Britain have looked like if the Nazis had won the war?As always the BBC gets the visuals spot on, the whole thing looks fantastic and slick from start to finish, the costumes, sets, effects are all amazing, it looks incredibly high budget. The story is very engaging, the first episode is a bit of a drag, but get past that and it opens up very well. It's definitely better then The Man in The High Castle, so much more realistic, you watch this and realise it could have happened, this is what life could have been like.The sound at times was a little bit poor, with a little bit of mumbling, not a great deal, definitely nothing like Jamaica Inn. Accents, however, spot on, I'm glad they didn't use non authentic dialects.If you're a fan of film noir, this will suit you, I hope very much that we get a second series. 8/10

Tweekums It is 1941 but not the 1941 that our history records; in this 1941 London is occupied by German forces as in this alternate history they were victorious in the Battle of Britain. Churchill is dead, the King is incarcerated in the Tower of London, there is a resistance but most Londoners appear to be just struggling to get on with their lives.One such person is Police Inspector Douglas Archer; he works alongside the Germans investigating the ordinary crimes that inevitably continue to happen. When a man is found murdered he soon finds himself in a dangerous situation; the Germans are very keen to have the case solved as soon as possible. Archer is soon caught up in a power struggle between his boss Gruppenführer Fritz Kellerman and SS Standartenführer, Oskar Huth who comes from Berlin to take over the investigation… clearly this is no ordinary case. Before it is over Archer will uncover a plan that could ultimately help bring the Americans into the war and liberate Britain… will his loyalty be to his country or to his German masters?When I saw this advertised I was a little unsure about the whole 'alternate history' idea but once I started watching I was soon gripped and thought the premise actually worked very well. There was a nice ambiguity about many characters; most notably Archer himself. At first it appears that he is just a collaborator working for the Germans but then it seems more likely that he is just investigating ordinary crimes that would need solving whoever was running the country… inevitably he is eventually shown to be a 'good guy' as he gets involved in a plot to get the King out of the country. The series features a decent number of twists as some real surprises. There is a decent amount of action but not too much… this is essentially a character led drama. Sam Riley Impresses as Archer and is ably supported by a cast that includes Rainer Bock as Kellerman; Lars Eidinger as Huth; James Cosmo, as Archer's sergeant Harry Woods and Kate Bosworth, who plays American reporter Barbara Barga. The series has a good 'wartime look' with the sight of damaged buildings, including Buckingham Palace and a general drabness. The series ended with plenty of issues unresolved so hopefully there will be another series telling us what happens next.

David James I liked man in the Man in the High Castle, although a lot of the time you are spoon fed the concepts and told what's going on more by pointless dialog and not by a simple matter of deduction. SS-GB is nothing like the Man in The High Castle, as far as I'm concerned, that's Sci-Fi and SS-GB is fiction. And I admit that I was put off thinking its UK version of the above and some pretty bad reviews. I should have ignored them, because after watching the first episode I had to binge on the next 2. SS-GB is dark and gritty, it's what I would expect of a UK based crime thriller. No fast car chases .. well there might be later, no 1000 bullet magazines or bar brawls. I could smell the "Big Smoke's", War Time atmosphere because the sets where so convincing. The pace was fine the tension build up was perfect, the dynamics between the characters great. The story and concept are an excellent piece of "What if", so I'm astounded by so much negativity about this series. What I have found is that all my friends over the age of 30 really enjoyed it and it's become a talking point during socialising. However below that age, it seems to need a lot of explanation, as in "Were the SS the German police?" etc., although Sam Riley's character made a good attempt of trying to explain the differences. And all this "Douglas Archer", mumbled a lot, total tosh! Stop watching it on your phone on the tube and appreciate the surround sound and glorious HD on a decent TV.

Mark N A lot of reviews seem to have this series decided from the first episode. Well I enjoyed the first episode and the second seems to have improved the quality of the series.The premise is hardly new and despite the book being out in the 70s it seems like it has similarities to "The man in the high castle" but, other than the premise that Germany won the war, it's not.I think it's closer to 40s film noir where the hero/Nazi Sympathiser(?) is constantly lied to and friends become enemies and visa versa. I'm going to give it a go and see where it goes. I'm hopeful.