“Entirely lacking the real Christ’s gift for pith.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

A Long Weekend with the Son of God, Channel 4

“It was everything you could hope for: beautifully filmed, well-paced and endlessly surprising.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“The film’s disappointment was its exclusive interview with the Master himself, who turned out to be a grade-A crasher, entirely lacking the real Christ’s gift for pith.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“If Carey had hoped to uncover heretics or cracks in the façade of countercultural bliss, they never turned up. This wasn’t an expose but a study of the odd shapes that human yearning can take, and the specific vulnerabilities of a society in which the values you’ve grown up with have crumbled away like Soviet asphalt.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

The Genius of Omar Khayyam, BBC4

“It was fun to learn about a figure most people know little about, but it felt as if a more interesting story got sidelined in a tide of reverence.”
John Crace, The Guardian

The World’s Most Dangerous Place for Women, BBC3

“It was clumsily made, with two separate stories confusingly bolted together. The voiceover was saccharine, patronizing and poorly recorded. I did a double-take when I discovered it was by Thandie Newton. Yet, despite all this, it ended up a genuinely jaw-dropping documentary.”
John Crace, The Guardian

Cougar Town, Living

“The show’s only appeal will be almost exclusively to women of 40 with children who want their partying days back, although it will help if they happen as to be called Courteney Cox.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

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