Race Across the World; Ice Age: Return of the Mammoth; Call The Midwife; Endeavour

“This show, despite being a bit scattered and having some annoying participants, is at least different from the usual fare in that it requires the five pairs of contestants from different generations to use the old soft skills of actually talking to people and using their initiative, not Siri. I doubt I’ll stick with this for six weeks, but I suppose it beats watching some ex-TV presenter in a turquoise sarong.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It succeeded in recreating the combination of unexpected highlights, soul-destroying lows and crucial budget decisions which characterised old-school seat of the pants travel. The contestants they’ve selected look game for that sort of thing, and were generally the perfect reality TV mix of basic likeability with the odd annoying trait that tends to be revealed by a bit of pressure. All in all, it was a flawed but engaging package.”
Jeff Robson, The i

“In this fascinating glimpse back in time, Prof George Church, from Harvard Medical Center, wanted to rebuild an actual mammoth. He has probably never seen Jurassic Park, or he would know how ominous it is when the man with the white beard and glasses says things like that.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“Harvard University geneticist Professor George Church plans to engineer the Asian elephant with the DNA of the mammoth to create a hybrid. But while the research no doubt revolutionises our picture of the Ice Age world, the endgame all feels a bit Jurassic Park, and we all know what happened there.”
Rachel Ward, The Telegraph

“The find that really made me gape was the cave-lion cub. Its teeth, its claws, even its whiskers and tongue were still perfectly intact — protected by millennia in the frozen ground. Never mind sampling its DNA, this thing looked like a competent vet might be able to revive it.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Call the Midwife ended its run with a first, for me at least. It was the only time an episode hasn’t made me cry. It’s not that the stories weren’t sad (they always are. Heidi Thomas must have a magic cupboard marked: neverending supply of sad stories) or the writing good. It is perhaps that it tried to cram too much in, as if it had leftovers to use up.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“You can always depend on the sisters of Nonnatus House to reduce you to gulping sobs. Never more so than during the series eight finale of Call the Midwife. Those who weren’t should probably check in to see Dr Turner to make sure they have a heart.”
Rachel Ward, The Telegraph

“This episode, the last in a batch that has never been less than brilliant, opened with a grimly spectacular sequence. It was all the more shocking for the way it left the worst to our imaginations. The clues are ever ingenious, the interwoven mysteries gripping, but it’s gruff old Fred who is the show’s beating heart.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“There was occasionally a sense that writer Russell Lewis and director Jamie Donoughue were trying to tie up a few too many loose ends and stage a few too many set pieces. But the finale, involving dodgy Freemasons, dodgier building contracts and a virtuoso display of plot twists, delivered a satisfying conclusion.”
Jeff Robson, The i