Blood

This happens too much in TV, both British and American. A good, well-plotted and well-acted show is stretched out and stretched out until it becomes unbreakably slow. There was no reason whatsoever to make this program twice as long as the plot supported. As a result, you end up fast forwarding through the endless scenes of funerals and speeches and sunsets and so much pretentious camera work that you can barely get to the final sixth hour -- which really is a shame because if shortened, this would have been quite good -- except, perhaps, for the fact that the heroine of the show is possibly one of the most unpleasant characters ever portrayed on tv.