of it... I’ll tell you how bad all this was: Keith Allen was the best thing in it, that’s how bad it was." David Belcher of Scottish broadsheet The Herald was far more positive in his view, picking up on the episode's political allegory. "In a political sense, things were much worse in Britain in 1192. Back then, as Robin Hood's opening instalment made clear, this nation was engaged in a ruinously expensive and unwinnable war in the Middle East at the behest of an expansive global superpower." He also praised the cast, feeling that Armstrong "succeeds in being likeably noble, a possible sufferer from crusades-induced post-traumatic stress, yet still spry... But it's the baddies who give the new Robin Hood its winning tension. Guy of Gisborne is a cool and sinister lizard. Keith Allen portrays the Sheriff of Nottingham with subtle brio." The Guardian newspaper's review expressed disappointment with the episode, but pointed out that there was still plenty of time for the series to improve. "These are very early days (12 more episodes to go), and Robin and his posse haven't yet set up camp in the forest. I have no idea if there'll be archery competitions, or log fights between big men on small bridges, but the spirit of the thing seems not to have been lost through modernisation. I'm looking forward to more. Come on, it's Robin Hood — he steals from the rich to give to the poor!" Ratings In the unofficial overnight viewing figures, "Will You Tolerate This?" gained a 37% share of the total television audience available during its timeslot, which equated to an average of 8.2 million viewers across the forty-five minutes. The viewership peaked at 8.5 million. This put the programme over a million viewers ahead of the nearest competition in its timeslot, the light entertainment show Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV1. Ant and Dec gained 31.1% of the available audience, with an average of 7 million viewers. In the official viewing figures released by the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (BARB) a week and a half later, which included recordings watched within one week of broadcast, "Will You Tolerate This?" recorded a final average audience of 8.56 million. This placed it fifth for all BBC One programmes in the week of 2 October – 8 October 2006, behind three episodes of EastEnders and one of Strictly Come Dancing.