16 Aug '11

“In terms of entertainment value this show offered about as much as tuning into a football match to watch the players ironing their kit.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“Telescopes. That’s what this film was really about. Telescopes so amazing that one was the width of a jumbo jet, and housed in one, to take it closer to the stars.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“The basic message of the voiceover being: “This is all really important but I’m not going to say why, as you won’t understand, so just sit back and enjoy the pictures because they are stunning.” This no-nonsense approach was surprisingly effective because it lived up to its billing: the images were breathtaking.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“The Secret Life of Buildings was right up Prince Charles’s avenue, with the architectural critic Tom Dyckhoff skewering a variety of extravagant modern buildings for being soulless novelties rather than functional spaces.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

“The presenter argued that it’s all about making a big splash and attracting admiring looks rather than having regard for what’s underneath which was an odd argument coming from a man well into middle age who dresses like a young art student.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“I’m still not sure what krump is, but I enjoyed the troupe’s version of a mugging, of agitation in a cashpoint queue, and of a young Asian man putting the wind up people at a bus stop by putting down his rucksack and then walking away.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

“The last programme in this engrossing series was subtitled “The Culture Wars”, a reference to the democratisation of culture following the foundation of the BBC in 1922, and the hostility that provoked.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

“It turned out to be the dullest programme imaginable as two-thirds of it was devoted to trying to create some drama out of a group of blokes building a fire engine out of an old car and a few odds and sods.”
John Crace, The Guardian