“It’s a heritage which makes her a very typical Eastender.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

Who Do You Think You Are?, BBC1

“Brown made a fascinating subject. She is the oldest person to do this show, and alternately spoke as if she were gargling with pebbles, and doing her impression of the common garden toad. She had the charming, instant surprise at historical curiosities of Bruce Forsyth – a former subject on this show – and struck me as something of a female version of him.”
Amol Rajan, The Independent

“What a tearless journey right back to the expulsion of the Jews from Oran in Algeria in 1669, hers proved.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It’s a heritage which makes her a very typical Eastender.”
Matt Baylis, TheExpress

“June Brown finds some interesting stuff. A bare-knuckle fighter, persecution, poverty, the Spanish Inquisition even. But she has to go back a long way to find them.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Village SOS, BBC1

“It was all very splendid, but in dressing this up as an attempt to reverse the decline of Britain’s native industries, a worthwhile local task was needlessly cast as a project for national salvation. A fine show, but with delusions of grandeur.”
Amol Rajan, The Independent

“As quickly as Talgarth regenerated its heritage, Beeny raped the language. Spotting this trend Mish Evans wittily accompanied her script with numbingly literal musical clichés: the Dam Busters and Monty Python themes.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It is like the opposite of what’s going on in the rest of the country. A bunch of very unhooded people in a very unurban part of the country get together in a very community-minded way during the day to put buildings back together again.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

The Code, BBC2

“We might think that we’re all individuals equipped with free will and personalities but when we’re studied en masse those differences are not significant at all.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

Neighbours, Channel 5

“Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) has demonstrated that there are no limits to his depravity.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

Timothy Spall: Back at Sea, BBC4

“I’m not convinced that Timothy is entirely cut out for seafaring, but the programme is a very charming one. This is party because of his limitations and how funny and honest he is about them. He’s simply very good company, and you really share his sense of relief when he gets somewhere.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

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