James Walton reviews Parade's End, Tom Stoppard’s ambitious adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's Edwardian novels for BBC Two.

A few years ago, David Simon, the creator of The Wire, was interviewed on The Culture Show. The series, Lauren Laverne suggested, didn’t have much mercy on the casual viewer who just wants to dip in and out. “F--- the casual viewer,” Simon replied.

The same attitude – perhaps more elegantly expressed — might also serve as a manifesto for Parade’s End. Certainly, the opening episode on BBC Two of Tom Stoppard's ambitious adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s novel sequence about the violent death of Edwardian Britain both demanded and rewarded our full attention.