TV Critics: Sex Box; A Very British Murder; Stacey Dooley Investigates

“Sex Box was one of the worst TV programmes I have seen in a long time. From concept to execution, it was a combination of gimmick, prurience, exploitation and dullness… All we learnt from this dreadful hour was that when the awaited discussion happens, there certainly won’t be a sex box in sight.”
Ed Cumming, Daily Telegraph

“The gimmick might have been more excusable if it had made for great television. But it wasn’t… Nor did the panel discussion chit-chat really fizz. There was something of daytime Radio 4 about it – polite, sensible, even if it did include the odd rimming reference.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Everything about Sex Box was badly devised. Agony aunt Mariella Frostrup got all girly and giggly with the couples before sending them into the shed; the studio audience twiddled their thumbs while a trio of sexologists explained that the British don’t usually like talking about you-know-what; and then the couple emerged, and everyone got embarrassed… The whole programme was pointlessly coy, euphemistic and inarticulate.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Obviously you can’t show couples going at it on television – but witnessing them purely post-coitus felt a bit teasy, like watching Match of the Day stripped of its goals, or Bake Off without the buns.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Worsley utterly spoiled Agatha Christie’s The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd for anyone who doesn’t know the book by spelling out the clues and revealing the ending. That’s unforgivable. It’s like vandalising a painting or stamping on a Stradivarius… It’s a shame, because this series otherwise has been great fun.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Worsley at last backed up her colourful and plentiful examples with some serious explanation, asking what was happening as Britain entered a golden age of crime fiction in the Twenties and Thirties. She turned to a shining example of the genre, PD James, and came up with a theory that could never be proved but held some water.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Sex, Stags & Prague: Stacey Dooley Investigates wasn’t exactly hard-hitting, but Stacey’s friendly, one-of-the-girls manner led to some open exchanges with Prague’s sex-workers, women who don’t always get to speak for themselves… When it came to interviewing large groups of drunken men, however, Stacey’s butter-wouldn’t-melt questioning style wasn’t quite as effective.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“A sense of ‘So what?’ hung over Dooley’s mission, which felt pretty toothless compared to her exploits in Cambodia and India. There facing up to the trade in children and women, she came across real evil, real desperation. In Prague it was just tawdry, tiresome and all too familiar.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express