BIRDSONG came with lots of hype and plenty of critical acclaim but is utter tripe. It's a love story with a bisected narrative: in 1910 an innocent Englishman falls in love with the young wife of the owner of the French textiles factory where he works, whilst in 1916 he's become a cold-hearted officer involved in tunnelling operations on the Somme. The big problem is that the Sebastien Faulks novel it's based on is psychological whilst TV is visual. Screenwriter Abi Morgan deals with this by including marathon staring competitions between characters instead of dialogue or action; presumably the characters communicate by telepathy. There are no proper character introductions and precious little development, rendering most of the characters dull enigmas. All this staring also denudes the subplots of space. The dialogue is truly modern; everyone either mumbles or has an impenetrable regional accent, rendering subtitles a must. The lovers leap straight to oral sex (in 1910!) in a Bad Sex Award-winning performance. The protagonist also acts like an ass: drawing his revolver on a subordinate and psychologically tormenting a man caught sleeping on duty. If you mistake a glacial pace, opaque characters and pretty lighting for good TV drama then you'll love this. If not then I'd stay away.