3 Mar '11

“Dream School is one of those Jamie Oliver transformation projects that is at once filled with lofty intensions and the low ambition of hauling his fellow citizens out of their comfort zones so that we can see them squeal.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“There’s always a hard part at the beginning of Jamie’s shows, when he’s up against it and against the world. There are tears then and there will be here, too. He always turns it around; I’m sure he will do again. But he needs to sort out his staffroom first. And begin by firing David Starkey.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“There is always a faint odour of the quick fix about such affairs, a suspicion that the gleaming new facade will start to crumble and fall apart about 10 seconds.… Jamie can fairly claim to have made a real difference with the genre before - in his series on school food - so perhaps we should approach with an open mind.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Wednesday night is Channel 4’s reality power night but, disappointingly, the second episode of The Model agency was a lo-cal pudding without a theme.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Last night’s episode, focusing as it did on classic workplace niggles showed a pleasingly ordinary side to a business that often comes across as false and superficial.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Can you do a whole nature programme about a bird that not only doesn’t exist but of which there are no photos or accurate skeletons? Almost, if you have David Attenborough in charge.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Cameras and lenses have greatly improved over the intervening decades, but other changes gave this programme the edge over the first one he’d made. Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, a cotton ball with giant eyes and grasping hands was only discovered 10 years ago, so wasn’t available for filming first time round.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent