The Mighty Redcar; No Offence; Press

“The Mighty Redcar continues to be the antidote to Benefits Street, Born Famous or any of the other vile caricatures that make up the objectionable genre of poverty porn. This is proper heartwarming, heartrending film-making that, for a few nostalgic hours, made me love the BBC again, although that may be the synth-laden 80s soundtrack working its euphoric magic.”
Chitra Ramaswamy, The Guardian

“This was a comeback that was by turns tear-jerking and pulse-pounding as well as pertinent. The script tackled such topics as Islamophobia, social media trolling and outsourced public services, while Deering remains one of the most colourfully compelling characters on TV. Who needs Keeley Hawes or Richard Madden’s bare buttocks?”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“If I were to tell you that by the end of this episode, after just short of an hour’s TV, I’d found myself not only horrified, not only hooked but had also actually laughed and cheered on more than one occasion, you could be forgiven for thinking I wasn’t quite right in the head. But I am, I promise you. It’s simply that No Offence continues to defy all those constricting labels by featuring fully believable rounded characters, flaws and all.”
Mike Ward, Daily Express

“No Offence’s creator, Paul Abbott, the man behind Shameless, thrives on polished chaos and lingual pyrotechnics, and some of the repartee was of a calibre you would find in no other police drama. Joanna Scanlan gave her usual tour de force even when some of her lines were cop-drama clichéd.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Press is shaping up very nicely, almost entirely due to Ben Chaplin as the reptilian, bullying yet charismatic tabloid editor Duncan Allen. His performance gets better and better.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“I cut Press some slack when it launched last week, reluctant to castigate it for minor industry inaccuracies and instead weighing its merits purely as dramatic fiction. It didn’t repay my faith because this second episode was markedly inferior. If it continues on this path, Press could be tomorrow’s fish and chip paper.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph