TV Critics: Mystery Map; Backchat with Jack Whitehall; Nigel and Adam’s Farm Kitchen; Tudor Monastery Farm

“It wanted so badly to be a kind of real-life X-Files…Only time and again they ran into the same problem; that, unlike The X-Files, real-life is crushingly mundane and full of tedious logical explanations.”
Ben Machell, The Times

“To make up for its flat content, Mystery Map made the mistake of trying to cram far too many tales into one episode. In the end, the only real mystery left to solve was why such a weak show ever got commissioned in the first place. 
Claudia Connell, Daily Mail

“In among the boringtruths, a few condundrums were left quietly to twinkle away.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“A lot of it is funny – dead funny. And the parent thing (also not totally original, Matt Lucas has had his mum on with him) adds a whole new dimension, and a whole seam of jokes to be mined. They’re good together too – Jack and his dad. Embarrassed and disappointed and everything that a proper father-son relationship should be (even if it is very staged). But also obviously close, touchingly so even.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“It just didn’t fizz along in the way you’d hoped…You realised that, in a weird way, what it actually needed was more Whitehall. He is a very funny man…but stuck behind a desk he seemed peripheral and mild.”
Ben Machell, The Times

“I’m sorry, life really is too short for making – let alone growing – your own pasta.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“It was highly enjoyable, educational . . . and guaranteed to make your mouth water.”
Claudia Connell, Daily Mail

“You wonder whether shows like this have any effect on an increasingly cash and time-poor population, or whether it simply makes for comforting wallpaper as we chow down on our ready meals.”
Gerard Gilbert, The Independent

“The sheer glee with which she approaches even the most mundane task – this week she also scrubbed down the creamery and made ewe’s-milk cheese – is a wonder to behold.”
Gerard Gilbert, The Independent