Educating Greater Manchester; Top of the Lake

“Educating Greater Manchester is great for the same reasons the other Educating shows were: it doesn’t seem to have an agenda, set out to be political, or turn into Waterloo Road in the edit. It’s an honest, objective portrait of a real school.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Having honed its skills across the four previous series, the Bafta-winning observational documentary strand is masterfully edited to spin compelling stories from everyday school life. A welcome return for this cleverly constructed series, which was as warm, wise and inspiring as ever.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“The first episode showed great promise. Full credit to Mr Povey, the head of Harrop Fold School, for keeping a straight face while bollocking pupils who had covered a white van in penis graffiti.”
 Carol Midgley, The Times

“Educating Greater Manchester should have been heartwarming telly. But it left me feeling saddened by the sheer scale of the problems in classes where so many pupils struggle to speak English. There seems no point in trying to teach the standard curriculum to a child who thinks in Arabic or Polish, and who can ask for a bottle of pop in the canteen only by pointing.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Seriously? I spent six hours watching Top of the Lake and that was the finale? This is an odd review to write because the individual performances by Elisabeth Moss, Gwendoline Christie and Nicole Kidman as an arch-bitch were blue-chip. The plot, in the end though, was farce. To say it had more holes than a Swiss cheese insults Emmental.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“This misguided mess of a drama has been let down by overwrought dialogue, heavy-handed misogyny, cartoonish characters and a case riddled with implausible coincidences. Not so much Top of the Lake as bottom of the barrel.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph