25 Jan '10

“The narrative’s focus was blurred and the pacing weirdly off – quite a lot of the time you were well ahead of the drama and hanging around for it to catch up with you.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Full of astute period details… and with enough good lines to get by on, Rock & Chips was better than the sequel that preceded it.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It’s pretty lame… They’ve only bleeding well forgot the jokes, Rodders!”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The real flaw with the whole thing was its sheer laziness… It was just chucked at us half-made in the mistaken view we’d be laughing with such gusto we wouldn’t notice.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“It’s almost impossibly exciting already, but I just don’t think I’ve got the energy to get involved again.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The split-screen I commend most strongly is one between you and any television it’s showing on.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

What makes this series so superior to nonsense such as Spooks is not just its pace and acting, but the care with which each characters is fleshed out.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Where most presenters beam at the lens, full of Tiggerish excitement that they hope will prove infectious, [Howard] Jacobson often looks out of the screen as through you’ve spilled his drink and he’s wondering whether to punch you.

“You know you’ve been invited to a fight and that it will be an interesting one.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Thank God – or the commissioning people at Channel 4 – for Howard Jacobson’s slot on The Bible: A History.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express