not as good as all the hype

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I really liked it but it seems unfinished; I had to ask my husband if it was over or there was another part? when it ended they were looking for the the mother and her son in a field or someplace; and we had to do research to find out if there really was a conspiracy to replace Charles (II?) with James.

When it comes to bringing historical events to the screen there are a couple of options, one is to make it a total documentary, this is not what you are going to get with this series, you are going to gets some good actors that could have had a little better direction portray what happened during the great fire of London in 1666 and some of the events that happened during the 4 days that the fire burned uncontrolled though the streets of the city and what happened to some of the people that were close to the fire. It attempts to put some faces to the story and help the viewer understand the events of the time that lead up to other tragedies that were occurring at the same time. The struggle for the religious hearts of the people and the fear of foreigners, the depths that some people had to go to just to survive and the lack of caring that some people had for their neighbors and then how in some of the bleakest circumstances the people you least expect end up helping someone else just out of kindness. Is it all true and accurate? Probably not, however it is a decent way to spend 3 hours.

Another viewer compared this would-be miniseries exploring the 1666 Great Fire of London to EASTENDERS and I think they were spot on: this is extraordinarily disappointing given the effort and level of talent involved, and says a lot about the current state of the ITV drama department.The miniseries is about the fire but the fire hardly comes into it. Instead we gets lots of uninteresting soap opera shenanigans involving sex, politics and conspiracy. The characterisation is on the level of a provincial pantomime and never once did I believe in or care about any of the sub-plots.In a bid for quality, a lot of familiar actors from the best TV series around today are brought in. We get Rose Leslie and Charles Dance from A GAME OF THRONES and Jack Huston from BOARDWALK EMPIRE, but none of them are at their best. And they're sidelined in favour of Daniel Mays, who's out of his league playing Pepys (who seems to be a bit of a twit) and the singularly wooden Andrew Buchan. No, THE GREAT FIRE is a chore to sit through and there's nothing here I can recommend to any viewer.

I thought this was very badly written, and not worth watching. Every one in it has been so badly flawed as to be unbelievable. Not a fan I am afraid. The cast were trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ears. It seemed more a script more suited to Eastendfers, another program which I cannot be bothered to watch. No celebration of how well organized the society must have been that only 6 people perished. We think of our society as being so enlightened and modern, but I doubt that the outcome of a fire in London today of such magnitude would be so well managed with so little loss of life. There was an opportunity here to show the courage and fantastic organisation skills of our ancestors, instead we get 2nd rate intrigues and the baseness of human frailties which are not entertainng to watch, much admit to. And, quite honestly, not something that is often common in these sorts of situations. Pitifully bad storyline, which had the potential to be good.