Such a frustrating disappointment

Sadly Over-hyped

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I managed to watch the entire show, all three series, in the space of one weekend. Billie Piper was flawless, Iddo Goldberg was brilliant and Cherie Lunghi was perfect for the part of Stephanie. I loved this show, definitely one of my favourite series' out there, and probably will be for a long time. The series is down to earth, gritty and real. I guarantee you will fall in love with the character of Hannah instantly.I love the way Billie Piper breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the audience throughout the drama. It really makes you feel like you're involved in it, like you're there, on the set with Billie Piper and Iddo Goldberg. The only fault I have with the show is the acting of Ashley Madekwe. I don't feel that she was right for the part of Bambi and was generally not persuaded by her acting or character representation in the slightest.

Where the first season had a self confident Belle giving us an insight into the world of a call girl, the second and third season seems to be more like a bad soap opera, about love and uncertainty with a bumbling Belle making all kinds of mistakes.After having seen only a few season two episodes, I was starting to get really disappointed. The "based on the book" part seems to be only true for the main character, and only at the surface. The witty, powerful and strong Belle had crumbled to become a superficial character. The interview between Billie Piper and the real Belle also showed how far the character has strayed from the real life Belle in the second series.The third season doesn't fare much better than the second.I'd say that's an opportunity lost by the writers of this series, which unfortunately is more and more often the case with TV series nowadays.

When I watched the first episode I will admit I was rather scandalized. The sex is pretty graphic and they don't sugar coat too much. However, as the series went on I found myself really enjoying the characters and dying to know what would happen to Belle next. The life of a prostitute seems anything but glamorous in modern society but with in this show it was portrayed in a fun and fresh way.This is not the show for everyone but for something fluffy to watch with some Hagen Daas and your girlfriends its rather enjoyable. I would have appreciated more character build up with more overlapping characters. However, keeping in mind that it was only 8 - twenty minute episodes I have high hopes for season two.Very Sex and the City. Only British ... and starring Samantha.

ITV evidently imagined that they were breaking new ground with this sassy combination of prostitution and Billie Piper; in reality this series is a re-hash of everything from Sex And The City to Footballer's Wives.If Secret Diary of a Call Girl can claim have instigated any 'controversy' whatsoever, it is only among ITV's sexually repressed prime-time demographic who will still baulk at the broadcasting of an underexposed nipple or a glib f-word (uttered in Piper's objectionable mockney accent). This is, put bluntly, television for those whose viewing habits extend little beyond Coronation Street or The X-Factor. Certainly, anybody familiar with a typical E4 sex drama – such 2005's Sugar Rush, which Call Girl's post-feminist trappings obviously ape – will fail to be impressed by high-class escort Belle de Jours's attempts to reconcile her alternate career choice with a 'normal' life. While a show like this year's Skins, another sex-fuelled romp, could comfortably exist in an absurd world of drugs and drama, Call Girl's affectedly serious moments sit unevenly with Belle's lightweight sexual exploits.The much-touted sex scenes are staggeringly unerotic. One need only sample a few minutes of Andrew Davies' recent Fanny Hill on BBC4 to see how comedy and sensuality can be effectively combined. Davies, admittedly, has wiled away much of his career perfecting a method of injecting sexual activity into moribund period dramas, but Call Girl's sex – surely the selling point of such a series – is perfunctory to a point. It gives one the impression that neither Piper nor anyone on either side of the camera is at all comfortable, and would far prefer to be filming an episode of Heartbeat. ITV's decision to shoe-horn Call Girl into choppy thirty-minute episodes further demonstrates their counter-productive adherence to the soap format and its banal production values.Unimaginative, complacent and irredeemably passé, Secret Diary of Call Girl will only be remembered for show-casing Piper's not particularly photogenic breasts. While some outspoken critics have recently sought to raise a moral panic by highlighting it as an example of sexual liberalisation in mainstream television, the average Channel 4-produced show remains more offensive and certainly more enjoyable.