4 May '12

“Yes, it was touching to see Nigel get his life back, but would it really have made it less interesting to squeeze a few crumbs of nuanced psychological insight in among those picturesque piles of rubbish?”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Besides turning people’s private misery into a form of circus entertainment, the programme peddles the idea that there is an instant solution to that misery. It’s the nastiest show I’ve seen all year.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“This current offering [of hoarding documentaries] would have worked better at 30 minutes.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Jim Cartwright’s script didn’t really have the elbow-room to avoid coming across as a little trite. But Tom held up his corner of the triangle well and there was a nice echo of Nigel’s sorrows when Ron’s wife pulled an old drape jacket out of the wardrobe.” 
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Still, it was quick and painful. And it was a chance to marvel anew at how very, very brilliant Blethyn and Steadman always, always are. If only the rest could have been silence.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“I don’t know who was more outrageously misrepresented by Count Francesco da Mosto, Shakespeare or the Italians.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It’s a butterfly programme, beautiful, insubstantial, flitting from point to point and lingering nowhere for very long. But as long as Francesco keeps talking, I don’t care.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian