“I think they’re really horrid, these bears… Amazing footage, though.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

The Great Bear Stakeout, BBC1

“Bears may look kind of cute but they are not. This was only the first episode of two, taking us through spring and summer as the bears emerged from hibernation and started looking for mates. Yet in that hour we witnessed a bear cub drowning thanks to its mother’s stupidity; another mother bear kicking her son out for good so she could go and have some sex; and the mighty Van, the Tony Soprano of the bear world, murdering a female bear to try to impress the girl he really fancied in a bid to let him mount her – and it worked. “It’s like Bonnie and Clyde,” said one of the bear experts.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“I think they’re really horrid, these bears. Bad parents; stupid, deceitful, callous murderers; killers for sex kicks; and cannibals. Then there’s all the scratching, and the swarms of flies, and the pissing. (No woods here, though, interestingly – so is the Pope a Muslim?). Amazing footage, though.”
Sam Wollaston, Guardian

“You’ll never think of bears in the same way again,” promised Billy Connolly at the beginning of Great Bear Stakeout. Oh, come off it, Billy, I thought. That’s just boilerplate puff, isn’t it? I felt pretty confident that what I thought about bears before the programme began – not to be crossed lightly, big fans of salmon, touchy parents – was broadly going to be what I thought of them when it ended. But I was wrong. I now think of bears as sociopaths in fun-fur overcoats – actors in a soap opera so bleak and unremitting that it makes EastEnders look like Balamory.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

License to Kill, BBC3

“License to Kill was an often heartbreaking film, focusing on the misery that follows road-traffic accidents and the terrifying insouciance of young people about their own survival.”
Tom Sutcliffe, Independent

“It’s no secret that the combination of teenagers and fast cars is an accident waiting to happen. There has been a rush of dramas and documentaries highlighting the horrific statistics associated with young drivers. But none has driven the point home quite so astutely as Licence To Kill.”
Metro

 

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