Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators (TV Series) This Promised End (2018) User Reviews

Hilarious, with a really clever twist.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 8 February 2019]

I've found the first few episodes amusing, this I have to say, had me in stitches, the scenes of Hathaway and Peter Quintus squashed up in a cubicle were hilarious, so funny that they almost distracted me from the plot, which in fairness was terrific, I loved the imagery of the Funeral Parlous and Hearse etc, but it was the pretty shocking twist at the end that caught me completely off guard, I hadn't expected that at all.

I am genuinely surprised still by this show, I thought Father Brown had stolen the role of only decent daytime show worth watching, it seems it now has some competition. Joyner and Benton are proving to be a real hit.

Elizabeth Berrington as always was a joy to watch, her scenes with Sebastian, again had me in stitches.

A Winner! 8/10

This Promised End

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 14 June 2018]

There are references to Hamlet throughout this episode. Undertaker Peter Quintus is visited by two hitmen, Mr R & Mr G who give him 24 hours to sort out his affairs as they have orders by some powerful people to kill him.

Quintus cannot go to the police as his loved ones would be in danger so he turns to Luella and Frank who take the case as he throws down £10,000 in cash.

With the clock ticking they need to find who may want to kill Quintus. His ex-wife, Brenda is in the frame as a suspect, his current wife Anne is later attacked and hospitalised. There is a strange warden hanging around and Quintus is getting increasingly desperate.

I had a fair idea who the suspect behind this all might be. I did like the turning of the tables and the flipping of one of the character's.

"Words aren't your strangpoint are they Frank?"

[ygwerin1 · 7/10 · 17 May 2021]

Shakespeare and Hathaway get presented with possibly one of their weirdest cases to date, when they get a visit from Peter Quintus a local undertaker.

His story is most certainly bizarre in the extreme of two men claiming openly to be representatives of a criminal organisation, with members in high places.

Their visit to him is to notify him of his imminent demise, and to give him the opportunity to put his affairs in order before hand. With the caveat that if he tells anyone of them or the situation especially the police, then dire prognostications will befall him.

This episodes storyline could have been borrowed from an episode of the old TV series The Twilight Zone, although it would have had to be one of the worst.

As many of those episodes were written by a far better writer than this script, non other than the celebrated novelist Roald Dahl.

Detective stories are invariably peppered with 'Red Herrings' false clues, and apart from the excessively strange storyline there are at least a couple of decidedly odd characters.

Peter Quintus ex wife Anne appears to have a pathological attitude to him, apparently over her allegations of being diddled in their divorce proceedings.

The Neighbourhood Watch bod Melvin Pipkin is most inquisitive, so much so that he could easily acquire the monika of 'Peeping Tom'.

The more I see of Frank Hathaway and his methods of detection I can't help wondering just how good a police detective was he while on the force, as many a time he at least gives the distinct impression of being clueless.

The local old bill chief DI Marlowe dose't exactly inspire confidence in criminology, and we have to ask what kind of deceptive team would they have made while they worked together on the force.

The highlight of season one

[boxyfella · 10/10 · 1 November 2021]

First time around I did not see the twist coming, but watching it again the clues are definitely there. It's a dark tale, for sure, but there are some moments of superb humour, Frank and Quintus' meeting in the toilet, and especially the scenes between Brenda and Sebastian, both face-to-face and on the phone.

Bitter twist

[safenoe · 9/10 · 27 April 2021]

This episode is quite serious, with themes of domestic violence raising its head at the very end in a twisty sort of Inside No. 9/Black Mirror/Tales of the Unexpected way. I like Shakespeare and Hathaway very much, and whilst it's a shame The Coroner got axed, I can't see why the BBC could have had both shots running in tandem.

Least favorite episode

[Ramstep · 2/10 · 20 February 2024]

I liked most of the episodes, except for this one. Although, there is nothing wrong with the casting and acting, I am just not crazy about any work that makes you sympathize with the protagonist, only to make him out to be the villain at the end. There have been some exceptions, such as the many film and television adaptations of the Whistler's radio play "Stranger in the House" (1946) that worked well. But for the most part, I don't like feeling cheated when I had invested my time and feelings into the protagonist, only to find out at the end that he was an abusive husband. And that the wife and her lover who terrorised him are actually the good people. Whenever this episode repeats on television, I only stick around to hear the lovely theme music over the opening credits, and then I shut it off.