17 July '12

“So in the babies come, and they do a fair amount of disruption. Fewer calls are made, performance figures drop, the drivers don’t get paid (hmmm, I’m not sure I actually believe that one, it looks a bit manufactured for the film, for extra drama). But even if less work is being done, the office is probably nicer with the babies about – livelier, happier, bubblier (literally, because call-centre team manager Tohier is blowing them), more colourful.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“It’s a reminder that nothing matters (or is meant to matter) more than earning money.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“Let’s hope that next instalment addresses farther the many things that weren’t win-win.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“I was disappointed by it. Not by the documentary, a thorough and fascinating profile that did all the right things, talked to the right people, showed the right footage of the greatest living athlete flying down the track, destroying opponents and records alike. But by the man himself.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“For all his extravagant talent and training (there were clips of him running while dragging a weighted harness, War Horse-style), he seemed to have the child star’s syndrome, with his singular focus and juvenile charm. At points, he resembled Tom Hanks’s character in Big, the film about a boy stuck in a man’s body.”
Arifa Akbar, The Independent

“It was essentially an archaeology programme dressed up in a Top 50 countdown format. Michael Buerk and Bettany Hughes presented, him sombre, her smiley, while John McCarthy talked us through the discovery of a slave shackle and Saul David waxed lyrical about an ancient toy canon, but the format gave the programme a superficiality and “amazing finds” were discussed too briefly and in sound bites.”
Arifa Akbar, The Independent