28 Feb '12

“An authored documentary should have something to say and Paxman’s did, and this was a film so authored that he relied upon not a single professor for insight. Instead he sought out colour from the locals and they provided it.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Global power, Paxman seemed to imply, in a programme that was more opaque in its argumentative line than it needed to be, all too often comes down to the power to make a historic mess of things.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Paxman’s stronger point was that the British Empire unwittingly boobytrapped the Middle East by “playing God in the Holy Land”.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“The film that followed showcased Hockney’s latest exhibition at the Royal Academy, as well as his frantic energy as an artist and talker.” 
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“I can’t pretend I love the resultant paintings now at the Royal Academy, but I was enthused by Hockney’s fresh vision of his homeland – the perspective of an artist who lived for 30 years in LA.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“The glorious sumptuous feast of stone-walled, sunshine-soaked armchair rambling, met up with Mrs Owen whose five (and counting) brood live out a sort of Thirties existence on a Yorkshire hilltop farm.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“All round, it was a rather reassuring film about extremism. I hope it was accurate.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It reacquainted us with the unjustifiable sufferings of certain breeds and considered whether anything had improved since the first televised expose in 2008. Unfortunately, statistics are notoriously hard to read.”
Matt Baylis, The Express