Strike; Top Gear

“JK Rowling’s crime novels aren’t lacking in shocks and dark but there’s something wonderfully comforting about the world she’s created: the characters feel very real and the place they inhabit is recognisably modern-day London. It helps too that the chemistry between the two leads is off the scale.”
Sarah Hughes, The i

“Strike manages to be modern yet old-fashioned, discomfiting yet cosy, absurd yet plausible. If you ask me we’ve found our next great TV detective.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The return to Sunday nights of Robert Galbraith’s thoroughly likable if unlikely private detective pairing is good news. They have about three quid in the company coffers, plus a soupcon of sexual chemistry.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Burke does a fine job of conveying his injury, wincing with pain when he runs. But the acting is wasted, because too much time of every episode is spent on shots of the detective rubbing ointment into his stump before going to bed alone.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s a good pot boiler… [but] it feels like it’s missing something – an originality it promised and has never properly delivered.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“When last night’s episode opened to Matt LeBlanc in a mahogany jacket and seeming to channel Joey Tribbiani, his character from Friends, my buttocks clenched. But it was fine. Better than fine. Although the script was occasionally contrived (as it can be with Jeremy Clarkson and co), there was a natural ease between LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“MLeB works, he knows cars and is likable and funny. But together they seem to be trying too hard to show what great mates they are. That’s maybe why it isn’t quite working and only a trace of chemistry is coming through.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Top Gear returned with a LeBlanc slate as the series put behind it the upheavals of recent seasons and sprinted off the grid with a solid comeback episode. With naff natterer Chris Evans receiving the ejector-seat treatment and Chris Harris and Rory Reid promoted to full co-hosts, the series has finally recaptured some of the boyish brio of the Jezza epoch.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“This post-Clarkson car show would be better if it ditched the pretence that Matt and his co-drivers, Rory Reid and Chris Harris, were best mates with a natural chemistry. They’re not. All three are good at conveying their love of motoring, though. In their hands, the drag races, lap times, off-road challenges and hill climbs are not mere vehicles for comedy but informative about the cars.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail