2 Feb '11

“This was not a pilot in the Sopranos league. That prohibition equalled profits was a point laboured to exhaustion. Although existing in an era of female emancipation, the female parts were obvious: whore, victim, matron.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“There was something rather lifeless about it, as if the show was trying just that bit too hard to tick all the boxes: rather than proving its hardcore credentials, the gratuitous full-frontal nudity and close-up shotgun blast just looked a bit cheap and try-hard.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“Jimmy Doherty presides over nine couples who are hoping to replicate his own move from nine-to-five wage slavery to the gruelling five-to-nine day of the average farmer.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It’s hard to think of a duller reality show premise, and this proved to be the longest hour of television I’ve seen in months.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“Viewer interest is inevitably more on people than the ins and outs of putting up fences or sowing barley and by far the most interesting people last night were the first ones to leave.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“This account of her life – which seemed to have about two-and-a-half times the quantity of career than most lives can absorb – at times veered strangely close to a benign episode of Acorn Antiques.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It is sentimental and obvious, but note its intense sense of place, its economic story telling and the possible meanings of the blue bloods’ surname, Reagan.”Andrew Billen, The Times

“This thoroughly fascinating documentary pointed out, when Roman rulers laid on games they weren’t hoping for a decent write-up in the papers. The real idea was to win the public’s affection and demonstrate the almighty power of the Empire.”
Matt Baylis, The Express