We asked for your comments on Sorted. You said:
"For 60 minutes tonight I was on that sorting room floor."
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"I'm sorted. Cheesy I know, but I loved every second. The mark of a good drama is if you can picture yourself in it. For 60 minutes watching this I was on that sorting room floor, getting irate with Radge at the endless barage of 80s music, at the hospital with Harry and feeling his pain as he struggled with discovering Kathy's affair. And I was most definitely behind that wall with Dex and Barmpot as they sleuthed out Jack, the new kid on the block.
The BBC wipe the floor with Channel 4* and ITV's* diet of 'reality' TV. The casting is perfect - Cal Macaninch and Neil Dudgeon are mucho sexy!"
Diane Strachan, Harlow
"As a former postal worker I know what life's like in a sorting office, and thought Sorted got it spot on.
The biggest problems were radio arguments. If it was ever too loud or on the 'wrong' station, it was common for the lead or remote control to go missing. People trying to find out your private business was also very common."
CH, Rrochester
"I watched this with interest as I'm a postie. The writer captured about 40% of what it's actually like, but then this isn't a documentary is it?
I haven't saved anyone's life yet, although have seen a bloke pleasuring himself, helped push-start a car, and drank several cups of tea on a cold morning (cheers No.133). Was entertaining enough, but the postie aspect could've been any job."
Andy, Essex
"As a postman it's quite realistic as a series, although there is much more mail in real life. The show seems to create a 'them' and 'us' attitude with regards to workers and management, which is very true. Overall looks good and I'll certainly be watching the next episode."
Vinny, Spalding
"Sorted is fantastic - it's original, touching and strikingly convincing. I like the fact that none of the characters are predictable or too likeable. Like real people they all have faults and secrets which aren't all blatantly shared with the audience.
The story developed brilliantly, with things slowly getting worse and worse for poor Harry, but not completely destroying him. It was hard to feel sorry for Kathy after her infidelity was discovered. I went from not being sure about Charlie to despising him in under an hour.
Barmpot is probably my favourite character so far. It's nice to see Will Mellor play someone so politically aware."
Natalie, Bromley
"Should there not have been female postal delivery workers? And those from ethnic groups?"
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"A good programme, if a bit formulaic and derivative.
There were too many familiar faces from similar shows. This is no criticism of the acting - it just needs a few new faces.
Should there not have been female postal delivery workers? And those from ethnic groups? It jumped out to me that this was an all white male group of postmen. Women were side-lined into cipher roles. In London most of my postmen are black and many are women. Sorted would have benefited from one or two of the main characters coming from one of these groups."
Robin Dunn, London
"At first I was enjoying Sorted but then it dawned on me the lack of Asian, Black or Chinese cast members. Ooops, sorry I forgot Nancy, the black/mixed raced girl working in the staff canteen.
This programme is set in Manchester, a very cosmopolitan city and the Royal Mail are a known employer of ethnic minorities, but the writers/researchers of the show obviously missed these facts.
When will the BBC stop churning out so-called dramas, which in no way reflect the make up of the British public? In future episodes (if I’m lucky) we'll see a black hip hop kid on an estate, some Bangladeshi people at the local curry house and maybe, just maybe, an Indian doctor. Fingers crossed eh?!"
Brian, Bristol
"Where are all the postwomen?"
Cathy (Ex-Manchester Postie), Manchester
"As a female postie who generally enjoys her job, I felt this was a good, gritty drama about ordinary working people and their daily lives.
Does it represent an accurate picture of a typical sorting office well? Only in some ways. For a start, there didn't seem to be that much sorting going on! And as for fighting in the office... It's true that it IS a fairly 'blokey' environment; but it's mostly just good-natured banter. There's the odd spat, and there are always some people that don't get on. But I would like to assure the general public that most posties are reasonably civilised people and don't go round hitting each other.
I appreciated the comment from Hugo Speer (Charlie) that there's something quite noble about getting up early and delivering the mail. That's how I feel too - most of the time. I also related to the story about the boss who finds it difficult to be a mate and a manager.
How about some lady posties in the office scenes? Just to prove we do exist. Someone has to keep those unruly male posties under control."
Liz Riley, Chesham, Bucks.
"The BBC should be ashamed."
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"I fully expected a serious drama series about postmen to be boring, and I wasn't disappointed. The only surprise was the unrelenting awfulness of the painfully cliché-ridden script. The writers struggled desperately to come up with plot excitement, and quickly went down the route of making the setting completely irrelevant and piling on the soap opera. Angst in the sorting office, punches thrown, an affair with the best mate's wife who subsequently ends up in intensive care after a car accident. And yet, because they had missed out the vital step where they make the audience care about any of the characters, it remained resolutely dull.
On a more significantly annoying note, apparently there are no female employees in the post office except a) the ladies who work in the canteen and b) 'that bitch Claire from head office'. All we have are a handful of wives-of-postmen. Usually I'm fairly zen about the pitiful selection of female characters in TV drama, but, seriously, I felt like I was back in the 1970s. The BBC should be ashamed."
Anna Simpson, Leicestershire
"Well done Danny Brocklehurst and the BBC."
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"I was looking forward to this programme after seeing a preview - but it was even better than I imagined. Great cast, great storyline, lots of gritty action, loved the funny incident over the radio. That big bloke should have pasted Radge if the others hadn't stopped him. We want more programmes like this. Well done Danny Brocklehurst and the BBC."
Sue Hudson, Derby
"A below average, if not mundane, attempt at a TV drama. The actors appeared to struggle to rise above a badly-written and highly clichéd script. This appears to have been written to an over-used, tedious and boring formula.
I have to question why it was ever commissioned: a very sad admission that there is nothing better available perhaps? The BBC once made bin men look interesting - this nonsense will do nothing for the image postal workers!"
David R Jones, S London
"This brings postmen into the spotlight as Casualty, The Bill* and London's Burning* have done for doctors, police and fire-crews respectively.
It had a great cast and script, was engaging and nicely paced. But accuracy and plausibilty were obviously overlooked. Where and when was the research done?
As a postman myself it was impossible not to cringe and criticise at the errors made as I often do when watching EastEnders' resident postman in 'action'. I'm keen to watch the rest of the series and even hope for a second already. Some attention to detail needs to be paid."
Stewart Lennox, Ipswich
"My local sorting office seem to 'lose' anything of any value, including my wife's driving licence and passport, our marriage certificate and several CDs. Our post frequently gets delivered somewhere else entirely, while in return we get someone else's.
Far from being a cheeky chappie, or any other kind of comedy-drama stereotype, our postie appears to be doing the job on day release from the nick and couldn't care less whether he does a good job or not.
Will these sorts of things be featuring as storylines in the near future?"
Phil, London
"I understand this is a drama, but it is capable of misleading the general public."
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"This show is such an insult to the hard working staff that perform deliveries. It implies that the job they do is so easy. Our postmen arrive and work extremely hard preparing the mail ready to deliver and this rubbish implies that they have hardly anything to deliver. Every day they leave the office with five or more bags. Yet this shows that they have nothing to deliver.
I understand this is a drama, but it is capable of misleading the general public and giving the hard working members of delivery a bad name.
I am under the impression that the BBC try to make everything as true to record when making dramas etc, but this shows a very poor work. Get the facts right to show the true environment."
Duncan Smith, Wolverhampton
"I'm a postman and was wondering why the postman in this series don't have proper Royal Mail uniforms or anything with Royal Mail on?"
Rob Beadle, Crawley, W. Sussex
"I noticed that most of the postmen in the main image for the programme are wearing their wallets 'bandolier-style' as they do in the uniform brochures.
There are about a hundred delivery postman (and, at present one woman) in my office. Not one uses the wallet like this as it is totally impractical. Try lifting a full wallet over your head everytime you have to take a parcel out of it.
Call me a trainspotter if you like, but this seems to be a constant factor in TV (and uniform manufacturers) portrayal of the postman's job."
Alec Bilsland, Big South, Glasgow
"I enjoyed the first episode. I watched it on BBC HDTV, but the picture quality was poor and not what I would have expected of a HDTV broadcast."
Alan Hird, Aberdeen
"What a load of rubbish. I was really looking forward to this series. But it seems to be a poor man's Footballers Wives*. Just a show that thinks we all need to know/think/see sex. What happened to a story? I have better things to do with my time and shall not be watching it again."
Margaret Hazel Reader, Eastbourne
"A good mix of story, humour, strong characters and a whopping soundtrack."
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"Excellent drama. A good mix of story, humour, strong characters and a whopping soundtrack. A double CD compilation won't be far off I think."
Adam Davies, Cheshire
"Yet another drama set in Manchester, this is becoming so boring now. Sorted looks to be an excellent drama but could your resources not take you somewhere else for a change?
What about Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, London or alike?"
Steve Busby, Staffordshire
"How about a series that follows the lives of five Manchester (where else?!) based traffic wardens who are best mates and all play for the same local football team - called "Penalty Charge". Go on, you know you want it..."
D Black, Outside Manchester
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