TV Critics: Mafia’s Secret Bunkers; Nelson's Caribbean Hell-Hole; 24 Hours in A&E; Scott & Bailey; Browsers; School of Hard Sums

“Despite the rather Boy’s Own title, this documentary’s scope was bigger than villains’ lairs – and that’s what made it compelling. It was about the mafia’s stranglehold on Italy, and how, slowly, the tide might be turning… Italy’s police might be starting to win the battle – but there’s a way to go, and clearly, a compelling sequel to be made to this documentary.”
Emma Gosnell, The Telegraph

“Dickie’s film was fascinating and depressing in equal measure; fascinating because ancient criminal brotherhoods always are; depressing beause it seems the Italian government would have let all the violence carry on if the rest of the world hadn’t found out.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“We followed a live excavation by a team of archaeologists. Skeletons were discovered, including those of children – who may or may not have been young boys serving on the tall ships. It sounds exciting, but it wasn’t and the results were inconclusive, in part because the bones couldn’t be tested properly in the time frame required by television schedules.”
Emma Gosnell, The Telegraph

“Nelson’s Caribbean Hell-Hole: an Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered delivered exactly what its very long title promised: an excavation of a graveyard on the now idyllic-looking island of Antigua… The quantity of bodies down on the beach suggested [the sailors] were right to be afraid of going there.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“It’s not the most interesting episode from a medical point of view. But then real hospitals don’t always operate in 24-hour storylines, which can easily be condensed into neat one-hour TV shows like Holby. You take what you get. And a hospital, A&E especially, is always fascinating, because lives are being changed so dramatically.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“24 Hours in A&E opened with a consultant in full Richard Curtis mode…It was going to be hard to find stories to live up to that and the documentary didn’t quite find them, but the three blokes we followed each had heart enough to make us smile.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Scott & Bailey, it is becoming increasingly clear, actually takes place in an alternative universe, broadly indistinguishable from the one its viewers occupy but given away by one significant inversion. In our universe senior police officers are mostly men. In theirs it looks as if promotion exclusively favours women…Not our world, really, but an intriguing one nonetheless.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“This is Girls with music or Glee after the youngsters have graduated from college to work unpaid for a cynical new website, the Daily Gush. Besides being funny and charming, Browsers skewers both intern slavery and accumulator video websites.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The comedy element, not entirely surprisingly, turns out to be a bit strained, but the maths is quite interesting. In fact, you find yourself hankering for a bit more maths and fewer gags.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent