TV Critics: Life in Squares; BBC: The Secret Files; 24 Hours in Police Custody

“The drama took a certain effort of will to get into. Do try, because it’s very, very good. The performances are uniformly wonderful. And the script is glorious. I recommend tuning in for the next two weeks.”
Lucy Managan, The Guardian

“The romantic entanglements of this set are so complicated that there is an undeniable achievement in laying them out clearly, as writer Amanda Coe has done here. Alas, the work’s the thing and while this opening episode contained all the gossip, it conveyed none of the depth of thought or artistic feeling that must ultimately justify our interest (if any) in these people.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“There was much to admire here, not least elegant performances from a fine young cast and perceptive writing from Amanda Coe. But it lacked passion and engagement, not helped by the exhaustingly oppressive greyness of the production. So far, this is mostly for fans only.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“This could have been an elegant slow-motion car crash but it was actually a lively, high-speed primer bringing stiff-limbed waxworks back to flighty life. There’s plenty for all in this shapely exhumation.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“It’s an ensemble drama, whose players just happen to be the circle of writers, painters and thinkers known as the Bloomsbury set. I’m not suggesting this is an Edwardian version of Friends with the jokes. Nor, however, is it something so stuffed with research and reverence that it forgets to be fun.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Television more pretentious than Life In Squares cannot be imagined. If you’d watched wearing a beret and neckerchief, while smoking cheroots as long as knitting needles, you would not have looked half as ridiculous as the effete, languid fops who styled themselves the Bloomsbury Set.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“This programme was curious proof that the confidence to risk an unflattering self-portrayal still exists, especially if it results in some interesting television. It was also proof of all we’ve lost in the digital age. These typed and hand-written letters were so much wittier and weightier than today’s average intra-office email.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“This was perhaps the most boring programme ever to feature Dad’s Army, David Bowie and all points in between: a whole hour of pompous interdepartmental briefings and begging letters from not yet famous performers. If Secret Files aired the best of it, the BBC should bung the rest on a bonfire.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“Penelope Keith discovered a history of institutional incompetence. Arrogant, smug, petty-minded and with an utter absence of self-awareness, the mandarins of Broadcasting House appear to have insulted just about every actor and comedian who ever appeared on screen.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The unfailingly gripping 24 Hours in Police Custody cut to the chase and the quick in an incisive and compelling portrait of human nature. It’s customary to say that this fly-on-the-wall documentary is as gripping as any police drama, but its achievement is in some ways even greater.”
Andrew Billen, The Times