“Another of the retch-making set pieces for which he became famous…”. Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

JIMMY AND THE GIANT SUPERMARKET, C4

“The awkward truth here was that consumer ignorance is an essential ingredient of Britain’s disordered food culture…. if more of us are going to eat free-range and cruelty-free meat then all of us will have to eat less meat in total. But that may be for a different programme altogether. Meanwhile, this one at least has its heart in the right place.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“I have, in common with most regular TV viewers, grown a bit of a thick skin where things like C4, the big supermarkets and free-range food are concerned.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Another of the retch-making set pieces for which he became famous…  I have a sneaking suspicion that the Tesco raptors will be feasting on Jimmy’s own entrails rather than ethically sourced calf before the end of the series.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian 

SILK, BBC1

“[It] continues to be one of the most enjoyable guilty pleasures available at the moment. Why guilty? Because the court-room scenes…are just silly…Why a pleasure then? Because none of us are entirely immune to this kind of snakes-and-ladders plotting.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“I remain to be convinced that the brilliant Maxine Peake is not essentially miscast…or that her part is not strangely underwritten. Either the actor or the character seemed slightly overawed by the job they have to do, but I can’t tell which. But the show as a whole zips along nicely and the addition of Frances Barber…to proceedings can only be good, good news.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian 

THE ROYAL RESTORATION, ITV1

“Any real sense of jeopardy was largely banished by the knowledge that the sale of a single Chippendale bespoke bookcase from the house’s collection would cover it.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian 

MAD MEN, SKY ATLANTIC

“It could have been the moment Mad Men jumped the shark, when fantastical plotting tipped its period theme of female subjugation into sexploitation. Instead, the writers and cast built a subtle, intricate work of art on this stinking marshland of a premise. It was an episode about grasping dreams and seeing them dissolve.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

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