'The real bum note is that it doesn't even play like a night-time soap'. Read on for more cutting criticism of last night's TV.

Echo Beach, ITV1
“The real bum note is that it doesn't even play like a night-time soap. It feels distinctly daytime.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

Echo Beach, ITV1
“Echo Beach is pretty standard soap fare [... ] Standing alone Echo Beach would be very uninteresting.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Echo Beach, ITV1
“... watching a wooden and derivative soap isn't necessarily more fun just because its intentions are satirical.”
Robert Hanks, The Independent

Echo Beach, ITV1
“How are we meant to take it seriously, when we've just seen, and been invited to laugh at, all the cynical, behind-the-scenes shenanigans [... ] It's not a brilliant idea, it's downright insulting.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Moving Wallpaper, ITV1
“It certainly makes watching Echo Beach more entertaining [... ] But I can't see that being enough to sustain interest throughout 12 episodes of what is otherwise a lame soap [... ] It all looks like it's an attempt by ITV to copy Extras.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Moving Wallpaper, ITV1
“Jonathan is a bloated ego precariously supported by a tiny talent and an acute instinct for self-preservation; and watching Ben Millar play him is an uncomplicated pleasure.”
Robert Hanks, The Independent

Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach, ITV1
“The show about the show [Echo Beach] while not great, has at least some spark, whereas Echo Beach is so laughably bad you start to think it must be the joke show.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach, ITV1
“... it's hard to believe there will be a more intriguing piece of programming in the whole of 2008.”
Gerard O'Donovan, Daily Telegraph

Fairy Tales: Rapunzel, BBC1
“Fairy Tales: Rapunzel creaked and sank.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

Fairy Tales: Rapunzel, BBC1
“In many ways, this Rapunzel was as simple-minded and innocent as a real fairy tale, just not so subtle.”
Gerard O'Donovan, Daily Telegraph

Never Better, BBC2
“Mostly, this is a standard-issue sitcom about a slightly feeble middle-class male whose desperate attempts to salvage his dignity always have hilarious consequences.”
Robert Hanks, The Independent

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