“If we get a better TV offering this year, we'll be lucky, though I very much doubt we will.” Read on for the critics' full verdict on last night's TV.

Red Riding, C4
“Red Riding is a bleak view of the world and a bleak series. Whether it'll find an audience for its carefully crafted darkness, I'm not sure but, as British broadcasters are squeezed even more and expensive drama becomes an even rarer sight on our screens, there ought to be a place for something so visceral and challenging.”
Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman

Red Riding, C4
“Well, what I can I say? It was brilliant: ambitious, enigmatic, so swift on its feet that I suspect a second viewing may be in order. But, my goodness, it was grim: the very antithesis of jolly, credit-crunch escapism [ ...] If we get a better TV offering this year, we'll be lucky, though I very much doubt we will.”
Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Independent

Red Riding, C4
“It is good. Very good.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Red Riding, C4
“The ability to make us feel gripped, disorientated and slightly infuriated at the same time only helps Red Riding to achieve its central aim. In the end, the result really is a triumphantly unsettling antidote to everything bland and comfortable on television.”
James Walton, The Daily Telegraph

Red Riding, C4
“The only thing to conclude at the end of two hours of torture, grey multi-storeys, beatings, torture, child disappearances and moral corruption was that it really is grim up North. Red Riding knocked the stuffing out of you, then, smiling viciously, set it alight. It was astonishing, unbearable, tough, and beautifully written and mounted.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

Jimmy Doherty in Darwin's Garden, BBC2
“It was all a little Blue Peter for me.”
Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Independent

Darwin's Dangerous Idea, BBC2
“It was fascinating, and thoroughly engaging.”
Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Independent

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