The Sunday Times, January 24, 1988, by Patrick Stoddart
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[...] The dimensions do merge sometimes, when denizens of 
one are offered a play or a documentary that allows them to 
peer into the other--which generally means the more 
privileged getting a chance to cluck with proper liberal 
concern at the plight of the less privileged. I can't think 
of any other reason for Central Television to have made 
*Hard Cases* (ITV, Monday). Now that the social services 
have been consumed by the soap opera industry I suppose it 
was only a matter of time before probation officers got 
their own show, but they must have been hoping for a better 
one thanthis. What we have is one of those perfect examples 
of demographic balance--one lefty, one righty, one old hand, 
one novice--and if *they* are stereotypes, how about their 
clients, one of whom took about 25 seconds to tell his 
probation officers that he raped and robbed because his dad 
used to beat him and his mother was out all the time? Equal 
measures of gloom and cornflake philosophy do not a potent 
mixture make. [...]



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