29 May '12

“It was a programme of Platonic and unimprovable dullness, consisting of home-movies of Her Majesty visiting her subjects and her subjects being reduced to that bovine state of wonder that she always seems to induce in people.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It was nice – normal people recounting the time they met her maj, with home movie footage to prove it. They all seem to think she’s lovely.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“If this is the amuse-bouche for the Jubilee coverage, so loaded with saccharine, we’re all going to be either sick or giddy by the weekend.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Perhaps because of the amount of Queen-related material on the TV right now, I ended up more interested in what this told us than any insight into our monarchy. The camera phone means no one has to try very hard to capture an image. That in turn means no image is all that striking any more.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“What we have repeatedly failed to understand, Stewart argues, is Afghani pride in resistance. “We have accepted poverty,” said a member of the royal family, “because we want to be free.” You wondered whether the reverse might be true too; that they fetishise freedom (and pride) because they don’t have anything else.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Whereas Rory got an official job in Iraq, where he, too, was surrounded by mistrust and misunderstanding, but got through with his head intact and ended up as MP (Con) for Penrith and the Border. And he still appears to be only about 15, a (public) schoolboy. Charming though, and ever so clever and knowledgable. An excellent guide.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“This was a drama as calculating as the killer in it, and one I’m not sure us Brits will warm to.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Amazingly, we’ve allowed the familiar qualities of the Assads to blind us to the brutality of the regime they’re running. That might be true but devoting a programme to the point made this reviewer think of stable doors, bolts and horses.”
Matt Baylis, The Express