“Fast-paced, stylish and psychologically involving, it's a crock of very hot shit and is bound to be hugely successful.” Read on for the critics' full verdict on last night's TV.

The Beast, Five USA
“The problem with The Beast is the problem with a lot of American police drama. They all want to be The Shield. Gone are the simple days of the good guys and bad guys, solve a case every week, hometime. Now whole brooding cityscapes of twinkling lights and steam rising from gutters form the backdrop for morally dubious law enforcers who often seem as mad and bad as the people they are trying to catch.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

The Beast, Five USA
“Fast-paced, stylish and psychologically involving, it's a crock of very hot shit and is bound to be hugely successful.”
Deborah Orr, The Independent

Nature's Great Events, BBC1
“It's dead exciting, the tension builds, there are a few subplots involving wolves and bald eagles. But this is all about the bears and the salmon, and you know that when they finally come together, The Convergence of the Twain, it's going to be pretty damn spectacular.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Trouble in Amish Paradise, BBC2
“God, Trouble in Amish Paradise was interesting.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Trouble in Amish Paradise, BBC2
“This was sleepy viewing and whispered volumes for a perfectly adequate, perfectly dull night of television.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

The Joy of Motoring, BBC4
“This was a romantic, nostalgic hour full of thundering old honking classics.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

Brush with Fame, Sky Arts 1
“While this programme - designed to offer a simultaneous potted history of the lives and careers of one of the greatest post-impressionist painters of all time, and the simian singer from a Manchester indie band - seems like a preposterous idea on paper, this was an amiable half hour in which worlds collided with total ease.”
Paul Whitelaw, The Scotsman

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