TV Critics: Are Our Kids Tough Enough?; New Tricks; Hunt For The Arctic Ghost Ship

“It is hilarious. Comedy based on cultural difference and misunderstanding. The programme-makers are certainly enjoying it. The local staff all seem ace. Lovely students, too. In fact, Bohunt seems to be a brilliant school, enlightened, friendly, successful. I don’t think they need help from anywhere.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The documentary’s title was barely grammatical, which didn’t bode well for standards at Bohunt School in Liphook, Hampshire. But the disintegration in the pupils’ behaviour as soon as lessons started was genuinely shocking. It made depressing viewing, because there were no solutions in sight.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The trajectory of the documentary felt as repetitive as a Chinese lesson plan. The didactic newcomers would attempt to impose discipline and a sense of competitive spirit on pupils more used to a participatory, pastoral approach. The novelty would wear off, their attempts would founder and a compromise would be sought. And so it came to pass.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times

“There is one upside to the British classroom, which is that it produces lots of spirited characters such as chatterbox Sophie, who’ll likely be played by Catherine Tate in the Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Red Nose Day special.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“It seems even the most bafflingly long-lived show can drag itself out of mediocrity to come good once in a while. Granted, last night’s 12th-series opener was hardly Line of Duty, but it was pretty gnarly and complex nonetheless.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times

“In terms of humour, pace and suspense this opening of the two-part Last Man Standing was head and shoulders above the vast majority of New Tricks episodes which, let’s face it, have a tendency to proceed at the velocity of an Age Concern mobility scooter..”
Gerard O’Donovan, The Telegraph

“This was a chilling tale, cautionary in all sorts of ways against the folly of man and his big ambitions, against not listening to the locals.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“A succession of dire fates unfolded in Hunt For The Arctic Ghost Ship, the fascinating story of the Franklin Expedition. When their corpses were discovered years later, knifemarks on the bones revealed the final survivors had been forced to eat their dead companions. Let’s hope it doesn’t end that badly for the Chinese teachers stranded among marauding British teenagers.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail