nk44ab I found this series brilliant. The sensitive acting and timing were unusually spectacular. Gerard Butler(Johnnie Donne) was exceptionally convincing as the recovering alcoholic.He has personal experience of this and it must have taken huge courage to play this character as he has admitted that it was a very dark period in his life. Well done Gerry. He gathers belief in himself as the trial progresses and is shown to be the strongest of the jurors and the most factual. He carries a lot of the weight of the series with his perceptive interaction with Derek Jacobi who is in prime form as the defending council. Rose(Helen McCory) is sympathetic and portrays real emotional energy in her delicate handling of the at first fragile Johnnie. All the other characters lent weight and credence to this series I have seldom seen better. Tim Healey lends charm and cheekiness with his practical advice and fatherly treatment of Johnnie. Overall this one could be an anytime any place series as this situation unfortunately still exists. It should be shown again as there is a lot to learn from the doubts and fears of racism and our present day attitudes need redress.

flosamuels The shame is that the first user comment anyone sees when reviewing The Jury is "Political Correctness (ya-aawwwn)", a review, if it can be called that, that more reflects someone with a beef taking a Political Science course and needing to use all the big words they learned to show how smart they are. While we all have the right to voice our opinion, I strongly feel this right should not prejudice the reader (or stop them, as it will some) before they see reviews that are more valuable. Any review that has one yes against multiple no's should be at the bottom of the review list.Be that as it may, I have come to the Gerard Butler scene late (January, 2006) and because his acting ability struck me immediately and I'm interested in his progress (and why I hadn't heard of him until now), I've been watching his work. Doing that, I've come across some great movies (and a few that weren't so great). The Jury is in the great category.I'm not going to describe the film, others have done so but I do want to note that the characters lives were well depicted. The frequent use of closeups made me feel like I was standing right next to each person, seeing what he or she saw, feeling what he or she felt. It was an awesome experience. I only buy a video/DVD if it has meaning and makes me feel something, hence I only have about 75 and this is over the past 20 years. I bought The Jury.

jonathan baron Having now seen parts of this twice, I think that what makes this really great, and gripping, is the character development and the acting. I especially liked the recovering alcoholic and Rose, but all the characters were well developed and real (except, perhaps, the judge, the lawyers, and the defendant - but this is about the JURY).I am as much against political correctness as the next person, but I don't think that was what this was about. That was part of the background, but not the story. The story was about the people.

davideo-2 STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsKudos to ITV for the good idea of this six-parter series,which shows we can do it and that it's not just Hollywood that can make this kind of thing work.In Britain (and certain other countries) it's considered every working citizens duty to perform 'jury service'.That is,twelve people (men and women usually these days) from completely different walks of life and with presumably no previous experience of the judicial system must come together to decide the fate of a defendant on trial for a crime.In this case,a 15/16 year old Pakistani student has been accused of hacking his classmate to death in a field.It is a very high profile case which has ignited racial hatred between the White/Asian community,and the series cleverly examines not only the opinions of the jurors,but also how this alien and stressful experience affects their lives outside work.The acting is pretty good stuff.Veteran Derek Jackobi is lively,spirited and ingenuitive as the defence barrister.Plus Anthony Sher is suitably cold and uncompromising as the prosecution.The people on the jury impressively convey the uncertainty and fear that overrides them all.Jack Shepherd is a good character actor,here playing the murdered boy's father,but is given little to do except sit in the courtroom looking tense and agitated.Also,Tim Healy gets to spread his wings and fly in something that isn't another annoying Uno advert.The ending is something of a cop-out ,with a few unexplained matters not being resolved.But it's all acted with such sincerity and dash,with engaging pace and dialogue to match,that you feel compelled to watch it to the end if only to support British big/small screen productions.***