TV Critics: Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home; The Investigator: A British Crime Story; Fleabag; Full Steam Ahead

“My favourite thing about Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home is that it portrays the residents of Zaatari, Jordan’s fourth-biggest city, as just normal people. This moving documentary has given human faces to a camp we usually only see from the air.”
Patrick Kingsley, The Guardian

“Sadly this had the slight feel of a Blue Peter report for adults, putting a Pollyanna-ish spin on desperate circumstances. The dark side of life in Za’atari – which presumably includes high levels of crime and depression – was not explored, and from the look of the trail, won’t be next week either.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“This film and its trio of credibly concerned presenters did a good job of stressing the positives of life in the city. With their jobs, their shops and their daily routines, it was as if the people of Zaatari had the illusion of being in control.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“In form rather than content, Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home resembled Countryfile. It may have been sand not grass, but it was lit by sunny skies. Nor am I criticising. The positive accentuation was the point of difference against most documentaries about the Syrian crisis. It is also what made it watchable.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“This case was strange enough last week. Now it’s bizarre beyond belief. If the final twist is that Causley’s murdered wife, Carole, was actually abducted by Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson in a stolen Tardis, it’ll come as something of an anti-climax.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s worth noting that many of last night’s ‘discoveries’ have been public knowledge for several years and that an ace sleuth-turned-journalist is not necessarily much more useful than a well-worded search on Google.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Is eye-popping female sex comedy your sort of thing? If not, best look away now. Fleabag, written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is a delightful new entry to the canon, and perhaps the filthiest yet. High fives to fringe theatre for spawning this, and BBC3 for giving it further life.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“Even the punning title of Full Steam Ahead was enough to exasperate me. The sight of a little red locomotive huffing up an incline, snorting plumes of soot while a grinning celeb shovels fuel into the coalbox, no longer evokes a sense of childlike glee. We’ve seen it so often, it’s become boring.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail