TV Critics: Newzoids; The Delivery Man; Raining in My Heart; Million Pound Properties

“Newzoids is no Spitting Image. But it is certainly a step up from any other form of animated satire that ITV has dabbled with in the last 20 years.”
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian

“The kindest thing to be said in defence of Newzoids is that the first few editions of Spitting Image in the early 1980s were not funny either.”
Andy McSmith, The Independent

“Where Spitting Image was often devastatingly insightful, the first episode of Newzoids too frequently swung at easy targets – and rarely landed anything resembling a knockout.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“This is traditional, old-fashioned sitcom fare with an annoying plinky-plonky don’t-forget-this-is-comedy soundtrack. It’s safe, sanitised to avoid infection, or even the slightest possibility of offence.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“So far, so formulaic, but The Delivery Man is redeemed by some at-times very witty dialogue.”
Ellen E jones, The Independent

“The weak link was leading man Darren Boyd. His gaffe-prone character, all awkwardness and inappropriate jokes, had a whiff of David Brent in surgical scrubs.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Twenty years ago there might have been a fantastical gender-challenging comedy to be made about a cop who hung up his truncheon to retrain as a midwife. Unfortunately, the police are more politically correct than nurses now, and all that survived of the canteen culture in our hero Matthew was a wit not so much ever ready as drum-poundingly Duracell.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“On the whole, this was humbling, heart-wrenching television about an important subject, full of humour and hope. Yet I couldn’t help feeling let down by the manipulative ending. It was a crude editing trick, unworthy of what had gone before.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Despite its MOR title, Raining in my Heart was a dignified documentary about three children fighting cancer with experimental therapies. It did, however, briefly raise the undignified question of how much obvious artifice a film-maker is wise to employ when dealing with a story of heartbreaking seriousness.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Television so stark and honest as this is difficult to watch. It’s hard, going to bed with images as sad and traumatic as these fresh in the mind.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s the people inside these Million Pound Properties that really make them interesting. There’s good people-watching and snoopage to be had in this Cutting Edge documentary.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Ultimately, two couples trying and failing to sell their million pound homes, whatever the the reasons, could not turn boring conversation into an hour of entertainment, no matter how hard the film-makers tried.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express