User reviews

Some of the reviewers obviously based their rating on their personal political stance. There is a reason that this time period and the events covered in this series are very seldom the topic of film or television. Inevitably it makes the Jews look bad. After all, it was the Jews that were invading. The Arabs were defending their homes. This is not a popular subject these days. All credit to the producers and staff of this series for their courageous efforts. Having gotten that out of the way, the series held my interest, entertained me, and motivated me to further research on the time and place dealt with. In my view, this makes it worthy of praise no matter how many people try to discredit it and lower the viewer rating.

I had a personal interest in this for two reasons. My father served with the paras in Palestine (having joined up to fight the Germans) and I've had a long-term interest in what is now known as the 'IP' question. I have to say I was engrossed by the whole series, although there a few dramatic devices which were verging on the unbelievable. It might have worked better as a drama for those who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, in either era. I probably spent too much time worrying about the politics. My sympathies have always lain with the Palestinian side, and there were bits of it I thought were good for setting out a side to Israel that isn't always seen (eg the attitude of the settlers to the indigenous population, which I suspect are an embarrassment to many Israelis). However, although I know where I stand, I wouldn't want to watch anything which contained too much simple propaganda. I think The Promise did achieve a level of balance, sometimes to the detriment of the drama (eg the King David Hotel incident being followed by a suicide bomber). The perception has been is that The Promise was more pro Arab than Israeli, but I can guarantee that no-one with strong views and a knowledge of the history would be particularly satisfied with the politics. For instance, all the main characters were either Brits or Jews, the Arabs were walk-on one dimensional characters. I think it can best be regarded as a drama set in turbulent times, and not as a drama documentary - there is simply too much history to cover to do anything else. I realise it was a dramatic device but poor Len seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout. To put in context, the British had about 100,000 troops in Palestine from 46 to 48, and lost 234 (ish). Not a small figure, but less than you would think from watching The Promise where every other Jew appeared to be a member of the Irgun (which was just one of a number of Jewish organisations). And the 100,000 weren't all Paras... As others have mentioned, why didn't Erin just read the whole diary at once!! Anyway, I elected not to include spoilers so I'll remain silent on various bits which annoyed me along the 'that didn't happen' and 'that couldn't happen' lines. But overall, I did actually enjoy it. Worth watching.

A great piece of intelligent television. Biased? Didn't seem to spare anyone. Pretty much every group was shown acting horrendously, but also how much of those actions arose/arise from the context, and were compelling and difficult to avoid. Palestinians, British, the Isrealis, none demonised despite the awful things they all did and do, and as such it was really a remarkable feat. It is very hard to find that middle ground, (and that is also the problem for those in Isreal who want peace too). Great performances from Christian Cooke and Clare Foy. Clare in particular played the not terribly likable ingénue with distinction and subtlety. It isn't Hollywood, not evil v good, no heroes and no villains. The violence is shown as solving nothing and just leads to more vile acts of attrition. The story that holds it together has some artificiality, but does manage to run the two threads, 1947-8 and 2010 together very well.

I have a thing about miniseries as much more can be put into 6-8hrs that can be packed into the 2hrs of a feature length story. IMO almost all of televisions greatest works are in mini-series such as 'Boys from the Black Stuff', Traffic' & 'Edge of Darkness'. Alan Bleasdale has always been the master of this format but, with 'The Promise', Peter Kosminsky joins him at the top. All 8hrs is used to maximum effect.

'The Promise' shows how Israel was born in violence & how the violence is maintained in the present day. Around this Kosminsky has drawn a gripping storyline of the granddaughter of a soldier in the British Protectorate searching out the mystery of her grandfathers story. Thus Erin, the granddaughter travels modern Israel while her grandfathers story shows late '40s Palestine & the birth of Israel.

If you want to understand the Middle East conflict then you can't do better than to watch this series.

Kosminsky has been accused of taking an anti-Jewish stance with this series but I cannot agree with this. The British & Israeli forces are everywhere and very prominent while the modern Palestinian terrorist is a small minority. This is how Kosminsky shows it and I believe that to have given more prominence to the Palestinian violence would have introduced a pro-Israeli bias.

I do not give 10/10 lightly but 'The Promise' has earnt it as absolute top quality viewing.

Astonishing is all I can say, I fail to find the words to describe this piece of work. Maybe being an Arab who's heart breaks in two every time he hears about his neighboring country and how they were left helpless to struggle and still are effects me more, maybe thats why the movie got to me so deeply. I wouldn't want to take the credit off the producer nor the cast or anyone who participated in this magnificent work good job. This is a must see series. People (ofcourse I know which sort of people) will start to take us into the small details of events and how the IDF does that and doesn't do that, I believe the picture is clear for those who have hearts and minds to see with.

For a person who has been to the places that Kosminsky had shot, this piece of work is certainly worth the praise and had pushed me to write my first review on IMDb.

This outstanding piece of work, especially in photography and editing, indeed moves different audiences. The analogy between the past and the presence presents a different approach to seeing the Palestinian cause, especially from a foreigner's point of view.

The director is first a true historian, then a talented artist and finally an outstanding director. I sent this series to all of my family and friends as a must-watch.

I come from Palestine, when I started watching this mini-series, I was mentally prepared for the common western biased production of The Palestine cause, I am surprised at the end, that this was not only unbiased to any party, but also, shed more in my conscious on the British position, the Jews misery in Germany and later their perspective to occupy our lands and renaming our country. The drama was great, not a common Hollywood Bad Guys Vs.Good Guys BS. It gave me an urge to watch again and again and show it to my parents, relatives who are all refugees, a great and intelligent production, I strongly recommend it to anyone. If I was not Palestinian, or involved in this story, I still find a great story line, intelligent script and acting.

This mini series has a great plot. The parallel stories of Erin and Len Matthews are told in a really convincing way, with enlightening comparisons between the situation of Israel in 1946-1948 and today. I personally did not know much about the role of the British army in the couple of years prior to the creation of the State of Israel, and so I found Len's journey particularly interesting. The film is very didactic and is thus accessible to people who are not too familiar with the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict. My only disappointment was the way Erin's character turns into a caricature in episodes 3 to 4. Her stubbornness and lack of respect for the lives of others make her really irritating. She puts other peoples' lives at risk multiple times and her behaviour is so reckless, despite her rather hazy motives, that it becomes unbelievable at times. Other than that, a very enjoyable series.

The only thing I ever learnt about this period was from my RE teacher at school (well, we called it "Divinity" - it was that sort of school) who served in Palestine and missed the King David Hotel bomb by chance, and by minutes. Other than that... nothing. Even for the "small wars" of the British Empire, this is one of the most silent. Some hundreds of British troops died - and we know nothing about it.

What is more the Israel/Palestine dispute is on TV News all the time, even though 99% of us no absolutely nothing about the background.

Its interesting that there are disputes about its historical accuracy. Leaving aside the fact it is a drama, it does seem to be remarkably accurate. While watching it I was constantly checking - and the events this is based on actually happened.

Compelling, moving, educational, and yes controversial. But unmissable.

My wife recently downloaded this as a box set and watching it again reconfirms my belief that this is the most important television drama of the decade.

Inevitably given its subject, there are bound to be those who do not agree with or accept its premise, the plot, the direction, the acting etc etc.

They are simply wrong and angry that it does not confirm their own preconceptions rather than judging it on its merits.

It is an interpretation of events from one point of view and there could and should be others. It is nonetheless gut wrenchingly effective, emotionally compelling, well scripted, brilliantly acted and directed.

So much TV drama in recent years is anodyne, politically neutered, action packed hokum or crime led escapism. This is the antidote, challenging and compelling.

The Promise is a remarkable and memorable work of art that happens to be television drama. Nothing is ever perfect and there is a clear directorial stance (or bias, if you prefer) but it has huge ambition and succeeds triumphantly on its own terms while carrying a mighty punch.

Find it, watch it and decide for yourself.

I very much enjoyed parts of the Promise, but thought a great deal of it was basically crap.

The immediate post war aftermath in Palestine is a very good setting for a film/TV series and is a little known period in history for the general public. I thought the story set there was very compelling, with a good protagonist and remained balanced until the final episode.

In contrast the framing device of the girl reading her grandfather's diary was poorly constructed and meant we had to spend far too much time in the company of a girl whose only expression was a sullen pout. At times this became absolutely ludicrous, like her reason for wanting to visit Hebron 'to see how her grandfather's story turned out'. It's not that big a diary, unless you are the world's slowest reader you could read it cover to cover in a few hours. It was also a far less balanced story, with characters presenting as fact only one side of deeply controversial issues. Take the security barrier, condemned as useless for security reasons, and yet suicide bombings plummeted after its construction.

Talking about bias, we then come to the final episode, which presented the start of the arab-israeli war of 1948 as purely of poor helpless Arabs being slaughtered by Israelis. Both sides committed atrocities against civilians in the build up to the war and the war itself saw 2,400 Jewish civilians lose their lives. A far more interesting story might how a militia of only 30,000 Jews (at the start of the war) held back the armies of the Arab world.

In conclusion a good historical drama let down by its bias and framing device.

Very well researched piece of tv that seems to be very reflective of what actually happened. I'm guessing Israelis will be fighting the narrative here but the truth hurts. Things have got way worse for the Palestinians. Free Palestine.

I caught this on a streaming service years ago, liked it, then bought the box set on DVD.

Good luck finding it now.

I just tried to "buy" it from amazon prime video and it was nowhere to be found.

Both Britain and Israel had fits with this movie because both of them felt that their countries histories and political positions had been inaccurately presented. So apparently they've succeeded in erasing this movie from cyber space. Pity.

The truth is that any organized government has enough mindless bureaucratic incompetence to supply an abundance of "unfortunate" evil into the world. Just pick up the newspaper.

The story is about a spoiled, bored, and aimless teenager who discovers that the grandfather the hardly knows was both a witness and a participant to a contested yet integral confluence of modern history.

She decides to take upon herself the task of fulfilling an unfulfilled promise made by her grandfather in his youth.

She pursues such with total disregard to the political landscape or sensitivity to the people she is involved with.

Six episodes of well researched but still semi-historical antics. Highly recommended.

To film this in the heart of Palestine / Israel was an extraordinary feat . Nothing is spared but the brutal truth of a much wronged people left once again by a U. K. " peacekeeping " force to be butchered and annexed . Afghanistan reminds us we still haven't changed . What shocked me was to learn Terrorism was initiated by the immigrant Jewish fanatics not the indigenous Arabs , who 70 years later are still terrorised and beaten down. It's not polemical though . A powerful story observes history without comment as people struggle to coexist . Beautifully made , acted and shot . Thrilling.

It was an amazing series with an emotional ending.

The Series was talking about the British Mandate, and how the Zionist enter to Palestine (Arabian Land) and how they robbed the land by force and arms.

The strength point which we have seen in this series that the Palestinian territories are stolen every day and Zionist territory is expanding from generation to another.

I was enjoying watching the movie and it reflects the true picture of the situation in Palestine.

I recommend this movie to all who wants to see the truth.

Very good, finally a fairly balanced attempt at depicting the middle- eastern problem. I very much appreciated the fact that the movie tried to remain rather unbiased (except toward the end, where it went a little over the top with showing the brutality of the IDF and excessively victimizing the Palestinians). The two story lines make it possible to show at the same time both the current situation as well as the original creation of the problem, its roots. Great idea!

All in all, some good acting, good cinematography and decent, clear dialog (especially for a made-for-TV flick). If anything is lacking its a good musical score, but it doesn't take away much from the movie. I can only recommend this movie to all. Most will learn a lot by watching it, and it will make many think again about the preconceptions they have about this issue, mostly due to ignorance and misinformation in the media.

Have any one here heard of "Rachel Corrie", This Girl has VERY similar story with the protagonist of this series, Except that "Rachel" (American) Died cold blooded on the Hands of Israeli forces.

The work is a piece of art, the Music is good, Acting Hits very very hard by the 2 main leads, mother Uren wasn't the best though.

I know some people in middle east from Palestine who told something very very similar to what happens in this series, it is very very accurate, and really on point of the Palestine/Israel conflict.

Really great work by the director, and a Must watch for anyone who wants to understand this conflict.

And a fun watch for anybody else.

Highly Recommended.

What did I learn from watching The Promise?

Palestinians are warm, family-loving, loyal, peaceful, noble people, rich in spirit. Even the best Jews are hapless dupes of an evil police state; the rest are cold, heartless, scheming, violent and greedy—the opposite of noble.

And the Brits? God bless those Brits! They are a wise and altruistic people who once ran a worldwide empire purely as an act of selfless philanthropy, bringing civilization and maintaining peace among lesser peoples. If only the Brits still ruled the world!

Seriously, there is not a Palestinian in this movie who is not noble. And not a Jew who is not ignoble. The Brits are a bit more mixed—one of them, after all, falls for a Jewess and becomes yet another pawn in their evil scheme. But our British hero and heroine are shining examples of a type known in another era as the Ugly American—know-it- all buttinskys who think they possess an unerring moral compass and feel obliged to stick their noses in other people's business, certain that only they, the Brits, can sort things out. As foreigners abroad, it would never occur to them to simply mind their own business.

The leading actors are also very good looking. Kosminsky knows that the surest way to keep an audience watching is to offer excellent eye-candy. But there is no nudity, or even much skin at all. The women are hardly even glimpsed in the love scenes, staying hidden under the sheets. The Promise is unusually chaste for a miniseries made in 2011, and I wondered about this, until I realized that Kosminsky deliberately deleted any naughty bits so as not to offend any prudish Palestinian members of the audience.

As filmmaking, The Promise is above average. I'd give it a solid six stars. As propaganda, its scores nine (negative) stars, because being duped into watching propaganda puts me in a bad mood. That's a net negative three, which can only be scored here as one star.

About halfway through this four-parter, I still hoped the story might resolve in a nuanced and morally complex manner worthy of the thorny material—the sort of story we get from the best of le Carré or Graham Greene. But by the end, there is no ambiguity. There are good guys and bad guys—and a filmmaker with a clear agenda.

We haven't seen all the episodes of this drama yet, but I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a depiction of what life has been like in Israel and the Palestinian area for the past 60-70 years. I was happy to find that both sides of the ongoing conflict are shown, and as most of us know, there really is not one side or another to blame for all the hatred and killings and destruction.

I wasn't too happy with Claire Foy's performance. She seems to have one expression and that's about it. Christian Cooke is much more appealing as a British soldier based in Israel and dealing with the hatred of the Jews towards those who were appointed to protect the area. It's no surprise he falls for a Jewish refugee who might just have links to the Irgun. And are the Irgun terrorists or freedom fighters? The answer isn't an easy one even to this day.

This serial is still running as I write, so this opinion is not necessarily final. I have found the series to be absorbing viewing so far as far as drama is concerned. It has me glued to the screen.

It is mainly set in a period that most people outside Palestine/Israel know little about. Christian Cooke is pretty good as the protagonist. I only wonder a little that his character is rather taciturn and unexpressive, which seems a bit out of kilter with the eloquent diary he is supposed to have written.

Others have noted that Claire Foy is Miss One Note here. However, a lot of teenagers are rather like her, sadly. Had I been in charge, I think I would have scrapped the present day parts. They are less tense and less interesting than the historical ones and the links between the two are a bit crass at times. Also, the Foy character has to read the diary in very slow instalments, which is unrealistic.

As an outsider, I cannot judge the fairness of the portrayal of the conflict in Palestine. It comes over as rather anti-Jewish to me.

Excellent show! Beautifully done. The series did not take any sides yet showed the real picture of how Palestinians are being treated by their occupiers.

The show also depicted very nicely a comparison between 1948 and present day. Very enjoyable and well portrayed show. Perhaps the world can watch this show and learn about what Israel actually does. As the protagonist Erin said, "I learned a lot".