30 Sept, '09

“Curiously, it was only towards the end of the programme that the emotional aftermath of a death – rather than the mechanical business of disposal – got a proper representation.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It’s awfully hard these days to get a serious documentary on to BBC1 unless it is front-loaded with a personality presenter… But [Wilson] was an intelligent and compassionate interviewer with a mind open enough to be changed by what he head.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Richard Wilson finds beauty in dead bodies – but not once the embalmer arrives.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“An entertaining series that strips a contemporary family of all their mod cons and replaces them with period inconveniences.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“The family missed their mod cons but had fun with their KerPlunk and Space Hoppers anyway – but they were so nice and bright, they’d probably have had fun if they’d been left in a cave with two flints and a wooden spear.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“A series aimed squarely at the parents and older siblings of these Forty-philes, who are just as, if not more preoccupied with another decade… As far as Seventies-obsessed tosh goes, this one isn’t too bad.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“There’s a more interesting social-experiment side to the show. Because the kids have no screens to stare into all day long, and it’s too cold to go to the central heating-less rooms, they actually begin to operate like a family from the olden days. You know, eat together, occasionally speak, stuff like that.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“A blissfully archive-heavy history of computer games in which Brooker attempted to marshal a defence of them… As always with Brooker, the documentary contained more original ideas in 50 minutes than most of us have in a career.”
Andrew Billen, The Times