TV Critics: Hugh’s War on Waste; Roger Bannister: Everest on the Track; Full Steam Ahead

“A lot of imagination and work needs to go – and has gone – into making this engaging. It’s not just about facts and standing outside Starbucks shouting BOOO. It’s about finding interesting people like Mark the packaging expert (no really, he is interesting) and Martin the south London cup inventor. It’s about stunts – like this double-decker cup bus designed by art students (good slogan too: “Wake Up and Smell The Waste” works on all levels and decks). It’s about getting You and Hugh’s army involved. C’mon now everyone, get Twittering, Dear @StarbucksUK, @CostaCoffee, @CaffeNero_US …”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Unlike an Amazon parcel, this programme was densely packed – with good fact-finding, attention-grabbing stunts, solid campaign journalism, plus some ecological recycling of stories from the previous episodes in which Fearnley-Whittingstall marked his own homework.

“It takes a big ego to harness television and shame the corporations. But he can award himself a high score.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“By the end, Hugh was boiling mad. Jets of steam were blasting out of his ears, like a latte machine. It was a righteous anger, both entertaining and purposeful, and we haven’t heard the last of it.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“My problem with it was that Fearnley-Whittingstall was in such high dudgeon that he did not differentiate between a company that looked as if it was doing its best and those who were brewing coffee with extra excuses.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“With the build-up to the Rio Olympiad marred by doping scandals, Bannister: Everest on the Track, which chronicled Roger Bannister’s heroic feat in breaking the four-minute barrier for the mile in 1954, was a salutary palate cleanser, and a reminder of what clean running looked like.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“You know exactly where this film is going, but it doesn’t make it any less exciting when it gets there. Very little is more stirring than momentous sporting achievement, and running is so beautiful and primal. Plus Sir Roger is such a thoroughly decent chap.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Just like last week’s episode the second instalment clattered by agreeably, chock-full of anecdotes and costumed re-enctments from the days when steam power changed the world forever.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express