Hard Sun; Michael Palin: A Life on Screen; SAS: Who Dares Wins

“Hard Sun crams more plot into the opening episode than most series manage over their entire run. It’s relentlessly thrilling, playing familiar notes with virtuoso skill, and from the standoff with MI5 to the big reveal about Renko’s secret, it digs its claws in and doesn’t let go.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“It is an unrelentingly bleak, horribly violent and highly improbable drama from Neil Cross, the man behind Luther. I enjoyed it. This is another cop show, but it avoids most clichés and moves at a cracking pace, surprising and wrong-footing the viewer.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The atmosphere of paranoia and threat was lightened by police banter in a rainbow array of British accents. Almost everyone was scrumptiously good-looking. London was a chiaroscuro vision, Victorian terraces huddling under sky-piercing towers. This glossy apocalyptic thriller is so moreish that – to quote Bowie – my brain hurt like a warehouse.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“The stylised credits suggest a classy affair akin to The Night Manager. The billing as a pre-apocalyptic crime drama recalls Channel 4’s outstanding Utopia. Sadly, it falls short on both counts. Deyn does well at the Statham-like action, flying through the air to tackle a man on a motorbike. But too many unintentionally funny moments undermine the tension.”
Robert Epstein, The i

“There’s a lot of action, tension, violence and enough of all three to get carried along for long stretches with your heart threatening to jump out of the jaw that you’ve left wide open. Only in the quiet bits do you wonder if someone would automatically think a 13-year-old could only get pregnant as a result of incest or why a phone works in a car park but stops working in the street.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Michael Palin: A Life on Screen was a deserved celebration of the career of the ex-Monty Pythoner and all-round lovely chap. This, however, followed the usual formula of tribute shows — splendid old clips woven with talking heads such as John Cleese, David Jason and Connie Booth — which meant that at times it felt somewhat linear and flat.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“There is, of course, much basic fun to be had with SAS: Who Dares Wins. It is a sadistic joy to see people pushed to their limits, particularly personal trainers with bad tattoos or bankers who have a whiff of The Apprentice about them. But camouflaged beneath all this is a rather more subtle and important message.”
Rupert Hawksley, The Telegraph