Sink Or Swim; The Great British Bake Off; Franco Building with Jonathan Meades

“I shouldn’t enjoy this show, for all that it raises money for Stand Up to Cancer. It contravenes Larry David’s rule when writing Seinfeld: no hugs, no learning. Sink Or Swim is all hugs and learning, reality TV at its most algorithmically constructed. But when Alex Brooker fights off tears and pain to complete his 500m swim and collapse into Greg Rutherford’s arms, I well up like a Cumbrian rain cloud.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“The sight of the semi-famous gamely attempting the near-impossible may give courage to people facing cancer treatment. But the endless attention-seeking becomes exhausting. Reality TV has become a hysteria competition, to discover who can have the most devastating emotional collapse on camera.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The problem with SOS is that there’s no real tension or conflict. God forbid that anyone should sink (i.e. drown), but if they did we would have heard about it by now and we certainly wouldn’t be seeing this four-part series. We know everything will turn out all right, even if it doesn’t go, er, swimmingly at the start.”
Veronica Lee, The i

“Bake Off remains a constant in this otherwise sugar-free life. A place where catastrophe is a dropped cake that can always be squashed back together. Welcome home, nan.”
Chitra Ramaswamy, The Guardian

“Early episodes each year are always a tad hectic, with too many new faces who you haven’t yet learnt to love. However, after a quiet two months of TV, especially for Love Island refuseniks, it was sheer delight to fall back into the bosom of this irresistibly cosy contest. Welcome back, Bake Off. We’ll pop the kettle on.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“My, but he was on good form. Everyone and everything got it with both barrels, Catholicism in particular. Anything stained with Franco’s legacy came in for Meades’s treatment, even Real Madrid. If you missed it you must watch it on iPlayer. Meades is peerless.”
Chris Bennion, The Times