“It was a tragic, complicated and totally preposterous storyline, but it adroitly ticked the Sunday-night drama box.”

Endeavour

Endeavour, ITV

“It was a tragic, complicated and totally preposterous storyline, but it adroitly ticked the Sunday-night drama box. However, and here’s my own nostalgia speaking, it will never be in the same league as Morse.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It is a whodunnit, but a clever and excellently crafted one, with plenty of whydunnit, too. Familiar, maybe, and comforting (as comforting as murder can be). But it is also really good.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“While there was interest to be found in the main character and how he is evolving into the finished article, I have to say that the plot here felt leaden. You have to ask, if there hadn’t been Inspector Morse, would Endeavour be worth the endeavour, and the answer is probably no.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Now in its fifth series, this superlative murder-mystery drama excels because its characters are deep and real, not anonymous parts in a kit that writers can swap in and out. Endeavour is also the wittiest crime show on TV.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The cases cracked by the young DS Endeavour Morse are exactly like the ones he dealt with later – extraordinarily long-winded, quite unlikely and with the odd reference to paintings or Puccini chucked in to make them seem cleverer than they are.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Requiem, BBC1

“There were so many echoes of classic horror movies in the opening 15 minutes of Requiem that this ghost story was in danger of disintegrating. Tales of the supernatural are only creepy if we understand what’s going on. Surreal collages are not scary. But Requiem got a grip on itself just in time.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“I was gripped with a delicious fear throughout. It felt like an upmarket Hammer Horror. I have no idea what is going to happen next, but I reckon you would be mad to miss the next episode.”
Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph

Call the Midwife, BBC1

“The wretchedness was unrelenting. But it was so well-written and movingly performed that you could forgive that it left you needing a go on a crack pipe.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

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