4 May '11

“The ingenious conceit of a mystery story in which the quest for the truth is foiled by an Alzheimer’s sufferer catalysed a well-plotted drama, executed without exploitativeness and, in Simm’s case, played more tenderly than I’d have thought him capable.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“I am all for gloom in drama, but you have to believe in it. My suspended disbelief began levering southwards on Monday night, when Metzler, the Evil Emperor, used the local police as his private enforcers and they picked up Sam up for a beating.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“To my mean-spirited sensibility, her beneficiaries were intolerably humble in the face of charity by TV. She gave £100,000 to Saint Wilfrid’s Centre for vulnerable and socially excluded people. But earlier director Kevin Bradley had told her St Wilfrid’s needed £1.5m for a residential facility. Couldn’t she have written a bigger cheque? After all, Simrin isn’t merely a millionaire, but a billionaire.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“I wonder if the format is running out of steam. When billionaires Simrin Choudhrie revealed her true identity to the good souls of Burngreave in Sheffield, there was nary a flicker of surprise.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“Theo tried to make us feel sympathy for the big retailers by demonstrating how slender the profit margins are once all the overheads have been paid off, but he couldn’t really conceal the fact that the only area in which the creators and the craftsmen were getting the biggest slice of the pie was when it came to taking on the risk.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“The film was a 60-minute hagiography conducted above the tinkling music that companies dub on to your 8mm home cinema tapes when they convert them to DVD. Tributes flowed from everyone from Sir Bobby Charlton to the Princess Royal.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“When looking for the real story behind the film legend, there’s always a risk that the truth will turn out to be a lot blander than the fiction but that wasn’t the case here.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

 “Programmes like this present us with a have-your-cake-and-eat-it deal when it comes to judgemental superiority. We know that we’re not supposed to look down on those depicted, and that they will eventually be coaxed into the light by nutritional missionaries. But the set-up makes any other perspective pretty much impossible.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent