TV Critics: Homefront; Wartime Farm; The Audience; The British

“At its best, Homefront does take you to a place we probably don’t know well enough. It isn’t always at its best, of course, being an odd mixture of sorority soap (the kind of thing that Kay Mellor can write in her sleep) and something tougher and sharper. The first episode also displayed some odd jolts of narrative control.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“With its quick-cut scenes of death, pregnancy, clubbing and copping-off – all punctuated with meaningful glances whose meaning wasn’t immediately clear – the first episode had a breathless quality: a little slowing down and character development wouldn’t go amiss.”
Sam Wallaston, The Guardian

“It’s a craftsmanlike midweek, mid-market drama. If the bodies weren’t still coming back from Afghanistan, I might even be able to enjoy it.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Although some of the characters were so stock they could have come from the NAAFI, I did not hate it as much as I expected. If nothing else, Homefront is an attempt to dramatise something big that has happened in contemporary Britain: the conversion of a peacetime military to a wartime one.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Some of the exposition can be a bit clunky, but the history – even the bureaucratic bits – can be fascinating.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“The Audience has proved to be one of the more interesting and thought-provoking reality shows of the year so far.”
Sam Wallaston, The Guardian

“The British has found a new way to do history badly on TV… It was all made ludicrous by the interjections of celebs… Unbelievably, Frank Lampard appeared to summarise the Battle of Trafalgar.”
Andrew Billen, The Times