The series was considered misconceived for multiple reasons, such as the studio-bound production which offered little in the way of realism and the lack of available funding.
Each episode dealt with a particular period in British history, and the quality was consequently variable.
Much of the acting was criticised, despite the involvement of Richard Johnson, Robert Hardy, Alan Howard, Colin Blakely, Anna Massey, Gemma Jones, and Edward Fox, amongst others.
The series was reviewed at some length in the programme TV Hell, which revealed that viewing figures had plummeted from 2 million at the series' launch to less than half a million by the fifth episode.
Nancy Banks-Smith in The Guardian described it as having "little to offer us but blood, horsehair and history.