2 November 2016

“The 80th-anniversary documentary was overlong and over-technical, but brilliantly recreated the tension of that first night.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“If you’ve ever longed to see a detailed comparison of cathode ray tubes from the Thirties, this was the documentary to make your life complete. This 90-minute museum piece was overlong and dull.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The social history of the box could fill lots of airtime. Last night’s programme only paid lip service, though, concerning itself mainly with a techie challenge, a cooked-up deadline and more science than we needed.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Being modern television, this evocative tale of technological fisticuffs was not allowed to stand alone. No, apparently the only way we could absorb such material was for it to be injected with the jeopardy of an imposed deadline.”
Jim White, The Telegraph

“Television’s continuing insistence that self-belief overcomes all reaches a grisly, over-lit apotheosis here. Davina McCalls so over-egged it that she could have been making omelettes.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“This Time Next Year is a shot of instant emotion. It’s what television was invented for, though there hasn’t been such a pure example of distilled schmaltz since Surprise Surprise. And it works, because Davina is the natural heir to Cilla.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Forget next year, I hope this show doesn’t come back next week.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“The director James Jones hit documentary pay dirt: he had access to all sides in Rankin’s trial, including Rankin himself. Unflinching, open-minded, letting the facts speak loud, this was exemplary film-making.”
Jim White, The Telegraph

“It makes you angry, watching. But James Jones’s absorbing documentary remains objective, open-minded and journalistic, allowing the events and the people to speak for themselves. And it is all the more powerful for that.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian