The Village: episode six, BBC One, review Five weeks ago, I reviewed episode one of Peter Moffat's The Village (BBC One). My review was very nearly a rave, and several other critics responded in the same way. However, comments on Twitter showed a very different reaction, accusing Moffat of laying on misery with a trowel, while critics of later episodes objected to the drama's portentousness and its inauthentic portrayal of a community. Had I got it so very wrong? Alas, having watched all six episodes, there is no doubt that The Village was a flawed piece of work. It set out to provide an authentic portrait of one Derbyshire community, but in its quest to add dramatic tension ended up playing God with the past. The isolated fervour of the Methodist Martha Lane (Charlie Murphy), the village's reaction to Joe Middleton's (Nico Mirallegro) shell shock, the way in which everybody spoke with astonishing emotional articulacy when the war memorial was unveiled felt unlikely and therefore dishonest. In one scene, George Allingham (Augustus Prew) questioned the models of soldier's helmets on the memorial, stating they were merely there for pathos. He suggested intestines or bluebottles might be far more apt symbols of the Great War. Perhaps if The Village itself had been less concerned with creating pathos it might have won more viewers round. There were, however, some beautiful vignettes, such as the wheelbarrow race where young Bert suffered a bittersweet victory. And only the most stone-hearted of critics would fail to feel the dramatic power of last night's closing scene as the villagers united to commemorate the dead at the eleventh hour. The dialogue was good, too, never over-explained, never trite. No one here experienced the "steep learning curve" of Downton Abbey's ill-fated Matthew Crawley. Maybe the real problem lay with the scheduling. Viewers tend not to want challenging fare on Sunday nights. The costume dramas that have succeeded on Sundays - Lark Rise to Candleford, Downton Abbey, Mr Selfridge - have seduced audiences by rejecting any sort of reality and aiming for a cosy candlelit view of the past, or big, bold storylines with a soap-like quality. The Village could be unremittingly grim, and offered few moments of escapism. Despite losing viewers over recent weeks, it has been considered a great enough success to be commissioned for a second series. It will be interesting to see if Moffat takes note of his critics as the villagers enter the Roaring Twenties, and if the schedulers give it a more sensible time slot.