TV Critics: Return of the Giant Killers: Africa's Lion Kings; Britain’s Spending Secrets; Horizon: First Britons; Top Coppers

“The slo-mo camera work captured every claw, bite and maul. And the sound guys had gnawing on elephant flesh and bones down to a tee. Make no mistake, this was a beautifully shot, brutal look at the circle of life.”
Sally Newall, The Independent

“it was spectacularly beautiful to watch, even the gory kills. The most upsetting sequence was also the most technically impressive. Bestelink had got close enough with his night-vision cameras to capture every detail of savage behaviour never shown on television before.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“As is so often the case with sequels, this didn’t quite have the original’s shock factor or narrative momentum. Imogen Stubbs’s portentous voice-over occasionally resorted to overblown cliché in a bid to inject jeopardy: the lions had “been on a journey”, it was “now or never”. Yet it was still epic in feel with stunning photography – flitting between time-lapse sequences of changing seasons to aerial views of hunt tactics to close-ups of bloodied fangs.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Beautifully shot, it was nature red in tooth and claw.”
Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

“Britain’s Spending Secrets showed with excruciating clarity why most people steer clear of talking about money: whichever end of the wealth spectrum you’re at, discussing what you do with cash will make you sound like a grade-A knob.”
Sally Newall, The Independent

“Breathless, exhilarated, all buttons pushed, fear, love and loathing for the array of humanity strung out before us – the whole thing was a masterpiece of manipulation.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Cor. That’s the only possible reaction to the utterly and totally gripping documentary Britain’s Spending Secrets which did its bit to spread a little hate by getting people to talk about how much money they had and what they did with it.”
Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

“Solid, dependable, it manoeuvred us deftly, if uninspiringly, through the evidence that is changing the way people who think about these things are thinking about the Mesolithic people.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Not many series could go toe-to-toe with Leslie Nielsen’s mighty Police Squad!, but this spoof of crime procedurals showed an attention to detail and mastery of sheer silliness to make even Frank Drebin to crack a smile.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times