“This was interesting both as a biography of this eccentric royal and as a record of the behind-the-scenes machinations of an influential 20th-century figure.”
Prince Philip: The Plot To Make a King, Channel 4
“The story isn’t an entirely unfamiliar one. It is a very jolly story though, and Tamsin Greig’s narration adds to the fun. Lovely punditry too, from Gyles Brandreth and some splendid old trouts who have resurfaced from another age and another world.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian
“I loved watching the top-rank talking-heads: Mountbatten’s daughters, the biographers Philip Eade and Gyles Brandreth, and the racy Piers Brendon. So more, please, about the intriguing Prince Philip. We all like him, and there can’t be much time.”
Christopher Howse, The Telegraph
“It was a cracking good story, albeit one missing a large, obvious thing. We knew what Uncle Dickie wanted. We knew what Elizabeth wanted. We knew as well what her parents and assorted courtiers and High Tory politicians wanted. What Philip of Greece wanted, however, or felt, or expected, never really came through.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express
“The surprise here was how caustically the programme dealt with Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten. He was depicted less as a kingmaker, more as a Disney villain. It was all fascinating. But it sometimes felt like heavy-handed propaganda, as though a different script could have told an entirely different story.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
“The Duke of Edinburgh is famous for his outbursts. The documentary Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King made you realise he should be celebrated for his long-suffering and reticence.”
Andrew Billen, The Times
“This was interesting both as a biography of this eccentric royal and as a record of the behind-the-scenes machinations of an influential 20th-century figure.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent
Flockstars, ITV
“Flockstars is monkey tennis television, an example of commercial television perverting a thing of innocence and charm — the BBC’s One Man and his Dog — to crass celebrity ends. The awful thing is I quite enjoyed it.”
Andrew Billen, The Times
“Whereas One Man and His Dog featured skilled practitioners of an, admittedly niche, art the competitors on Flockstars have absolutely no idea what they’re doing and no real hope of ever learning. Where’s the entertainment value in that?”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent
“Actually, sheep herding is an excellent spectator sport and translates well to television, as anyone who has ever watched One Man and His Dog knows. And the fact that these are clueless slebs rather than old hands with regional accents doesn’t spoil it; in fact, it adds the comedy of ineptitude.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian
“By all that’s woolly, I wept with vicarious embarrassment as if lemons had been stuffed into my sinuses. It would be more interesting to stare at the stains on an old padded tea-cosy for 27 minutes than to be trapped into viewing the ovine F-word of all reality TV flops.”
Christopher Howse, The Telegraph
“The voiceover for Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean On Earth spoiled the show, because narrator Cillian Murphy was giving it the full Hollywood basso profundo in a transatlantic Irish accent. Much of the footage was excellent, and must have cost months of diligent labour. A shame to wreck it with a slapdash voiceover.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
“It’s not just Cillian’s voiceover that is epic, the whole thing is as spectacular and as beautiful as you would expect from a big one from the BBC Natural History Unit.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian
“I could have done without Cillian Murphy’s voiceover. Like instrusive music, or unnecessary camera stunts, there’s a sense in which an overblown script undermines the whole point of a nature documentary.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express
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