Love, Lies & Records; British Workers Wanted

“You might not think a register office would be the most exciting setting for a work-based drama but this is proper Mellordrama, and she squeezes every last drop of life, humanity and excitement out of the place.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“In a lesser writer’s hands all this might have felt too slushy and cluttered to take seriously, but Kay Mellor’s new drama skipped along with a lightness of touch belying how much was being packed in.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Yes, it’s a lot to take in but Mellor is a pro at all this. Her dramas are basically the televisual equivalent of a deliciously trashy real-life magazine with multiple far-fetched headlines that somehow suck you in. And I definitely mean that as a compliment.”
Isabel Mohan, The Telegraph

“This frenzy of preposterous sub-plots would be uncontrollable in the hands of a writer less experienced than Kay Mellor. She has never done anything quite this frantically complex before, but every scene was under control.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“You might not have imagined a registrar’s work bearing quite such a resemblance to Cagney and Lacey. It’s neither quite your standard ensemble drama, nor quite a thriller. In fact you’d be hard pressed to know where to file it.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Sarah and Gaynor were immensely likable, terrifically funny characters. But this documentary made one catastrophic error. It deliberately vilified a vulnerable section of our society – unemployed Brits – simply for the purpose of entertainment. There was an unpleasant whiff of poverty tourism about the whole thing.”
Rupert Hawksley, The Telegraph

“This documentary couldn’t decide what its purpose was, veering between a kind of reality sitcom and crude propaganda. How could anyone think labelling anyone as lazy or hard-working depending on what country they came from isn’t just crass and nasty?”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express