11 Jan '11

“I find myself unable to give a fat thumbs-up after the opening Episodes, and the problem lies with Greig and Mangan, or at least with their script.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

“A set-up episode is always hard, especially so here when what’s being set up is quite complicated. It’s certainly smart, and insightful about the world of television, and there are funny moments.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The situation appears to stifle the comedy. It’s almost as though, having come up with such a clever concept, the writers are somehow uncertain what to do with it.”Sarah Vine, The Times

“The eighth series, which began brilliantly last night, is to run for 22 episodes (the first five on consecutive evenings), which is much more them than us, and an indication of Channel 4’s enduring faith in Paul Abbott’s extraordinary gallery of grotesques.”

Brian Viner, The Independent

Consider a hybrid of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver in the form of a rather gorgeous black woman, and that’s Pascale, the presenter of Baking Made Easy, an oddly prosaic title for a vehicle for such a glamourpuss and yet undeniably apt.

Brian Viner, The Independent

“A lesson in presenting was provided by the queen of morning television.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“Praise the lord it’s back, at last there’s something joyous on television for a man in a mid-winter midlife crisis to look forward to.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Like a thermometer in the course of an average British summertime, [it] swung between diverting and dull.”
Matt Baylis, The Express