TV Critics: Leaving; 999: What's Your Emergency?; Hillsborough; Gordon Ramsay

“Who would have thought ITV could do a drama about a love affair between an older woman and a younger man without a hint of prurience or loud signals that it was dealing with a taboo issue? Instead, Leaving was touching, understated and entirely believable.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“You know what happens when hotel staff have a few empty bedrooms to hang out in. You also know what happens when a terrible idea actually turns into a script and then ends up on our television screens.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“What is quite interesting is to see an over-familiar staple of television drama – the workplace infidelity with a much younger partner – replayed with a woman in the commanding role. And Marchant nicely captures the way in which sexual attraction is so often accompanied (or revealed) by irritation.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“999: What’s Your Emergency? has been promoting itself as something unusual, a soup-to-nuts account that takes you from incoming call to final resolution. In reality, it’s pretty standard blue-light-chasing television.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“An awful, brilliant series, where even the fly on the wall might wonder if the place is too toxic to stay.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“It quickly felt terribly repetitive in a way that 24 Hours in A&E never did. I’d imagine that in future episodes we will get to see the emergency services in rather more varied and demanding situations where there’s something rather more at stake: if not, then I’ve had enough already.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“Throughout Hillsborough – The Search for the Truth I was waiting to learn something I didn’t already know about the disaster at the FA Cup semi-final in 1989 that left 96 Liverpool fans dead. I’m still waiting.”
John Crace, The Guardian

“He still cooks insanely good food. He still has a pacey soundtrack to which he can punch up a pork chop. But here he’s something of a self-help guru, holding up chalkboards with inspirational messages.”
Alex Hardy, The Times