TV Critics: New Tricks; Churchill's First World War; Kumbh Mela; Badults

“New Tricks is not just past its sell-by date, you can actually see the mould growing on it. It’s not interesting as comedy… Nor is it interesting as a cop show… But it’s undemanding, and safe. You don’t have to think too much, can just let it wash over you, like warm soapy watery water.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“This is a transitional phase for the much-loved series, as its cast gets gradually replaced by slightly younger models… On this frothily compelling form, there seems to be life in the old dog yet.
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“What to say about the critic-proof New Tricks, save that it is back for a tenth run, will be extremely popular and is utterly terrible.”
Andrew Bilton, The Times

“There were surprises for those of us who didn’t know just how ruthlessly war-hungry Churchill was in his youth. The documentary’s talking heads couldn’t help repeating themselves: he was an egomaniac, we heard, who wanted to be the ‘biggest man in Europe’… The strongest aspect of this documentary, though, was its tenderness in capturing the intimacy between Winston and his wife, Clementine.”
Arifa Akbar, The Independent

“Adam Kemp’s exemplary 90-minute documentary was told largely through the love letters to his wife Clementine, who shared her husband’s faith in his destiny (even when his faltered) but was his superior as a political tactician and reader of human nature… In a wisely circumscribd number of re-enactments, Churchill was played by Adam James. Equally wisely, he did not attempt an impersonation.”
Andrew Bilton, The Times

“On a spiritual level, the Mela is a point at which the ordinary world and the spiritual world meet up. On a TV-watching level, it is a tsunami of colour, sound, energy and devotion well worth covering.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“This was an intelligent and spiritually uplifting hour of television, give or take the odd moment of accidental humour.”
Arifa Akbar, The Independent

“There’s nothing all that original to the comic set-up - we first saw this sort of set up in The Young Ones… And if the ‘sit’ is nothing to grab our attention, then neither, disappointingly, is the ‘com’… Badults puts sketch-sized characters on the rack to fill up a whole sitcom. The result is something like torture.”
Iona McLaren, The Telegraph