“The coverage has been perfectly pitched, the pace, momentum and excitement managed with the finesse of a conductor’s baton.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

OLYMPICS, BBC

“Super Saturday was possibly the best day I’ve ever had watching TV, and I’m not that keen on sport…the coverage has been perfectly pitched, the pace, momentum and excitement managed with the finesse of a conductor’s baton…In particular, there are the edited packages the BBC puts together with mercurial speed. The BBC’s editors rarely get more than a flickering credit, but they deserve a medal and a Bafta and a better coffee machine for this.”
AA Gill, The Sunday Times

THE DARK: NATURE’S NIGHTTIME WORLD, BBC2

“It’s been a lovely series, a fascinating look at the less familiar and scarier world that starts at dusk.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian 

“There are two reasons why we havent done a lot of night-time nature docs. One: there’s not a lot going on at night. Two: it’s pretty hard to see it.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

WALLANDER, BBC4

“Where Wallander: the One without Subtitles often glories in the crisp light of the Baltic, and the transparency of those Scandinavian colours, the Swedish-language version speaks a language of surveillance and existential murk.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Hell, it’s bleak. And so beautifully done. And utterly compelling. I haven’t see the English remake of this one I’m afraid, with opening ceremony star Kenneth Branagh. But I can’t imagine it’s any way near as good.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian 

THE ANGELOS EPITHEMIOU SHOW, C4

“Renton Skinner isn’t quite nimble enough to take advantage of the liberties his mouth-breathing alter ego gives him. It also owes a considerable debt to Reeves and Mortimer-style mucking about..and these elements are more successful, even if they wildly overestimate the comic payload of stage explosives. Adeel Akhtar is very funny too as Angelos’s sidekick Gupta. If there was more of him, I might watch it again.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

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