TV Critics: No Sex Please, We're Japanese; George Clarke's Amazing Spaces; Arena; Shackleton; Educating Yorkshire

“No Sex Please, We’re Japanese thought it was painting an ominous picture of a land where the population is expected to contract by a third in the next 40 years. But from this end of the sofa, Far East futures looked pretty encouraging.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The island seems to be heading for a disaster, although that might be averted, as Anita Rani indicated, if it took a more enlightened attitude towards immigration. Or just dimmed the lights, opened a bottle of wine and put on a Barry White album.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“I think we needed to know about contraceptive sales in Japan – although I can’t deny it was fun watching a middle-aged bloke squirm when asked whether he would sooner lose his wife than the virtual love interest in his pocket.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It swerved any real examination of sexual behaviour and veered off into more traditional documentary territory.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“It isn’t a depressing programme – it has a touch of the Kirstie Allsopps, minus the airy Marks & Spencer ad parochialism – but it left me deflated, because it aired in a week when it was revealed that thouse prices in London are going up by £50k a month.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“The conversion of a Sixties ambulance into a camper van, with a tiny kitchen and five beds crammed inside, was ingenious — and off-putting… Note to George Clarke: you ought to call the show Why In Heaven’s Name Would Anyone Want To Do That?”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Theatre: it’s just TV for the Amish, isn’t it? Or so I thought, before I sat down to watch part one of the two-part Arena documentary celebrating 50 years of the National Theatre. Praise be to Dionysus, god of the stage! BBC4’s commitment to arts programming has made me a better woman.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“It was very good on detail… There were several fascinating anecdotes but the documentary did suffer a little from a lack of archive footage, not least of the performances themselves.”
Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph

“Considering Tim Jarvis’s epic undertaking, Shackleton: Death or Glory was a curiously underplayed affair, with only a hyperbolic voice-over occasionally adding drama.”
Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph

“The final Educating Yorkshire was not an observational documentary. It was a movie waiting to be made, possibly by Ken Loach, if he could be persuaded to treat us to a happy ending… Wonderful stuff.”
Andrew Billen, The Times