“This was an effective piece of no-frills television.”
“This was an effective piece of no-frills television that shone a much-needed light on the extraordinary people who keep our country on track. Who says public service is dead?”
Jake Wallis Simons, The Telegraph
“Like all good observational documentaries, this was really about the people. The frustrated commuters, the roadside residents and most of all the bloke whose job it is to pick up rubbish at the side of the lay-by. The Motorway captured all this, but also the strangeness, the mystery and, yes, even the glamour of a lonely stretch of the M6 on a wet night.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent
“As with many a BBC2 show, this one off offered me just enough of a new look at an overlooked subject. As with many a BBC2 show, I can’t imagine what they’re to do with the remaining three episodes.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express
“It’s a bleak picture of choked-up Britain – more and more cars, less space, no one happy, out-of-control lorries, the air filled with decibels and anger, airborne phlegm, driver Tizer and bags of poo. The only nice moment – a thin slice of joy among the misery – is when Matt the Tarmac-er brings a caramelised onion quiche along to share out among the nightshift workers.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian
“The documentary’s subtitle was ironic. Although the M6, when it was built, was sold to the Midlands in the way that most cars still are — as symbols of liberating speed — it is now known locally for its sloth, its traffic jams and missed business meetings. Much of Toby Paton and Barnaby Peel’s perfectly interesting first film of four was directed at efforts to press down on the accelerator a little.”
Andrew Billen, The Times
Hot Tub Britain, ITV
“All in all this was as jolly a peep into other people’s lives as ITV has served up in its occasional series on businesses involved in the luxury and/or leisure industries. Proof that a well edited one-off can be just as just as engaging, if not more so, than the stretched out six- or eight-part workplace series that have become more commonplace of late.”
Gerard O’Donovan, The Telegraph
“Lots of documentary concepts go straight down the plughole as soon as the cameras start rolling, and Hot Tub Britain was a classic example. This programme would have been too nondescript to broadcast if the family feuds hadn’t started bubbling to the surface.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
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