TV Critics: Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty; Nigel Slater’s Icing on the Cake; The Fall

“Dan Jones is a presenter who always gets you where you need to be got. His boyish enthusiasm inspires, the gap between you, ignoramus and him is breached and his knowledge trips happily across it to a fieldful of receptive synapses. It’s great. And it was as effective as ever in Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“What with all the buzz words in Jones’s narration and the flashy reconstructions of Henry II’s court, this series hasn’t just turned history into any drama, it’s turned it into an episode of Game of Thrones. That’s no bad thing for us GoT fans, although the trendy turn of phrase grew a little wearing.”
Ellen E Jones, The independent

“Jones, despite the leather biker jacket he wore, is a serious historian who bothered to show us several original written sources for his racy account of Henry II’s travails. However, his fondness for anachronistic cliché was a real disincentive to taking him seriously.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty was a like a 99 per cent proof distillation of every great soap story: a medieval family saga rammed with characters laid low by their flaws and jealousies.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“There is a time and a place for programmes like Nigel Slater’s Icing on the Cake and fortunately that time and place is on the television in my sitting room on a cold winter’s night. Like a Mary Berry (or, I daresay, a Nigel Slater) sponge, it was a light, airy confection that promised nothing but sweet delight.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Nigel Slater’s Icing on the Cake was food porn so explicit it should have come with a censor’s warning. Cheesecake glistened seductively in low lighting, cream oozed from the layers of a Victoria sponge, and icing sugar caressed the curves of a chocolate torte. Oh Nigel, you are naughty!”
Ellen E Jones, The independent

“Just like The Great British Bake Off, this history of cake was nudge-nudge-wink-wink from the start. And that was fine But then Nigel ruined everything. He dragged self-professed cake hater Jenny Eclair, a feminist comedienne, into a tea shop to rant about ‘girly’ cupcakes and how they represented the repression of womankind.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“I certainly enjoyed Slater’s cake odyssey. As with the best BBC4 programmes, it enthused me about a subject I’d never imagined myself being interested in.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“We have three episodes to go and are running on adrenaline fumes. It’s as addictive as cake, but unlike with cake I’m not sure how much more I can take.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Marking the halfway point of its six-part series, this episode was masterfully paced, keeping me perched on the edge of my sofa. Rivalled only by new Danish gem The Legacy on Sky Arts, The Fall is the best drama on TV right now.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph