Reception
In a preview, Radio Times described it as "Sunday night television at its cosiest", though called the plot of episode one "feeble". Comments by The Stage echoed this, calling the storyline a "run of the mill affair", but praised the locations and referred to the series as a whole as "nice". Following the broadcast of the first episode The Guardian wrote that the series "slips down as smoothly as a pint of Adnams" and (with tongue in cheek) welcomed it as a change from "loutish" Michael Kitchen in "relentlessly vulgar" fellow Sunday-night drama Foyle's War. The Times had a negative view, awarding the episode one star out of five and criticising Stephen Fry for "playing Stephen Fry". The casting of the other characters was also criticised, though the costuming was wryly praised.
The programme received some criticism in Norfolk for its inaccurate depiction of local accents. Local journalist and broadcaster Keith Skipper told the Eastern Daily Press: "If they are going to set these dramas in a specific location with locals and extras surely they should get the accent right otherwise it is self defeating." An ITV spokesman told the paper: "We hired a professional dialect coach to help the actors achieve their Norfolk accent. The Norfolk accent is different in one area of Norfolk to another. What we are trying to achieve is something that resembles a Norfolk accent that cannot be pinned down." However, he failed to identify any area of Norfolk in which the accent contains a Mummerset "r".
ITV executive chairman Michael Grade was pleased with the series, describing it at a conference in June 2007 as having "done well for " in the prestigious 9 p.m. slot.
Following Simon's reappearance in the second series, a writer on The Herald expressed disappointment that the air of mystery had gone from the programme; "As the sage and saintly Peter, Stephen Fry no longer has any great detective-style fraternal conundrum to unravel, or agonise over." The fifth episode of Series 2 won the 9 p.m. slot with 5.4 million viewers and a 22% audience share, beating the BAFTA coverage on BBC One. The series has been compared to Doc Martin, another ITV series featuring a professional working in a rural town.
The ratings for the first episode of Series 3 were affected by a scheduling clash with the finale of The Apprentice on BBC One; the episode had 4.95 million viewers and a 19.1% audience share.
Read more about this topic: Kingdom (TV Series)
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