31 Mar '11

“The deal is Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer go on holiday and argue with each other while spending a couple of nights on budget, before moving on to five-star luxury for the last few days.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“As a consumer show, it is close to useless: apparently Ibiza is cheaper off season and campsites are more affordable than hotels.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The fake bickering, the shared giggles, the linked arms were an extra annoyance when the subject matter was housing. When it’s a pair of estate agents inexplicably travelling the world on holiday together, all that good natured ribbing takes on a different form.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“The urgency of their desire to do well came not only from an (apparently) unquestioning commitment to El Jefe Fidel, but also from the knowledge that boxing might be their only way up and out of poverty. But the familial sense of shared endeavour seemed absolutely genuine.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Cristian, Santos and Junior – all the wrong side of 12 – were up at 4am every day to start training; they said their aim was to keep alive Castro’s dream of “revolution through sport” but if looked as if they were more concerned with keeping themselves alive.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“There may also be something in here for professional teachers, enduring the implicit insult of the concept, which is that charisma is all that is missing from the education system. The episodes so far have categorically disproved that, I would have thought, as celebrity teachers floundered and despaired. But there are some interesting studies of how authority can operate with unruly students.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“This is what Annie said of India: “This girl cannot operate us. We operate [her]…She does what we tell her to do.” She’ll go far. Annie, I mean.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“As it began, I had all sorts of hopeful ideas. Lions get the vote in Ethiopia. Lions are really good at knitting. Lions can predict the future. None of these turned out to be true, regrettably, but lions nevertheless turned out to be quite interesting.”
Matt Baylis, The Express