TV Critics: Grayson Perry: All Man; Peaky Blinders

“The best documentaries are those that deliver the unexpected and this was one. It was beautifully judged, containing not a moment that patronised the viewer or exploited easy targets but plenty that will have moved them to tears. Intelligent, not mawkishly sentimental and no pointless background music: this is how factual television should be.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Perry’s great gift is to be at ease anywhere. Allied to a quick mind, compassionate spirit and unending curiosity, it makes him the perfect interviewer in any situation. So far, every documentary he has done has been one to treasure, and All Man is shaping up as no exception.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“It might not be his day-job but Perry’s a terrific presenter: incisive and emotionally open. You could see why his last two series have won Baftas. From a relatively simple premise – man meets people, man makes something – Perry and his team have fashioned something warm, wise and uplifting. Bafta could well beckon again.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Grayson’s a potter who likes to dress up in a lurid frock and pigtails like a dodgy Judy Garland impersonator. He visited the North-East of England, where he talked to cage fighters and retired miners — the only men who, to Grayson and his middle-class Leftie friends, exist in the Tyne-Tees region. It was painfully condescending, and woefully luvvie.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Parts of it were hard to follow, or indeed hear, but it all gathered to a stylish crescendo in which scenes of shagging, bare-knuckle fighting and a Russian infiltrator meeting a protractedly gory end were skilfully intertwined with the trademark stonking soundtrack. The stage is set and promises that this series will be a cracker.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Peaky Blinders is the most intensely stylised drama on TV, a gangster soap opera that seems wildly incongruous for the first few episodes — until suddenly it makes sense, and you’re hooked. Think of it as a morbid, comicbook vision of the Wild West, set in Small Heath, Birmingham, with a goth-rock soundtrack.”
Christopher Stevens, Dail Mail

“There’s something ugly about Peaky Blinders, not least the entirely unappealing, shaven-headed cast of thugs grunting at one another in deepest Brum. The art director, the sound chap and the director of photography plainly have a lovely time making this show look and sound so studiedly stylish and cool and cinematic. It’s rather less fun for the viewers.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express