TV Critics: Confessions of a Doctor; The Legacy; Benefits Britain

“Confessions of a Doctor tried to cram a lot of things into one programme, and wasn’t entirely successful. The testimony of Howard Martin, acquitted of murdering three patients after easing their suffering with what turned out to be fatal doses of painkillers, deserved a documentary of its own.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“While it looked like it was all going to be a bit more Confessions of a Window Cleaner it wasn’t all jolly archive footage of graduates reciting the Hippocratic Oath in dodgy corduroy. One of the talking heads was Dr Howard Martin, who was struck off for hastening the deaths of terminally ill patients. It was difficult to watch, though Martin’s compassion – rather than confession – was there to see.”
Will Dean, The Independent

“Confessions of a Doctor is Carry on Doctor: the Documentary. To begin with anyway, then it turns into an entertaining yet also serious look into how general practice and the role of the GP has changed in the past half-century or so.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Whereas last week’s more striking episode on policing since the Sixties persuasively argued that reform was necessary because corruption was so rife, yesterday’s documentary, Confessions of a Doctor, suggested GPs were brought low by one very rotten apple: Harold Shipman.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The programme made too much of the part Harold shipman played in changing forever the role of our doctors. For a lot of doctors, the malaise set in not because of post-Shipman changes but because many of the ailments they saw were now easily treated with a prescription.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Though neither a crime drama nor a fizzing pot of political intrigue, the opening episode revealed The Legacy as something just as gripping: a claustrophobically intense tale of a family torn apart by a disputed inheritance. As set-ups go, it was brilliantly done. “
Gerard O’Donovan, The Telegraph

“This is a not a crowd-pleasing thriller but a Danish family tragedy in the tradition of Festen and it will struggle to break free from the ratings ghetto of Sky Arts. Yet the saga has a power of its own — and, as a bonus, episode one will make your family Christmas look damn near perfect.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“There’s certainly lots to recommend The Legacy to non Scandi-drama watchers. Principally, the fact that it’s a slightly smart, weird, off-kilter family drama of which there are probably too few of on British television.”
Will Dean, The Independent

“It’s familiar, if you’re done Danish before, in that it creeps up and envelops you. And its characters are so intriguing, the relationships between them so complex and real, that I’m already beginning to properly care about them.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“This was freakshow TV, cobbled together with a sarky voiceover. It pretended to care about jobless people in Liverpool affected by the under-occupancy charge, or so-called ‘bedroom tax’, but really it was just an excuse for gawping.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail