TV Critics: The Necessary War; Strippers; Kirstie's Best of Both Worlds

“He put the case that we had to go to war and he convinced this viewer at least. What with the crisis in Ukraine, it is a timely reminder of how quickly matters can get out of hand once the fighting begins.”
Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

“His documentary studiously omitted any mention of the many strong arguments against his point of view. In hindsight, even if Britain probably was right to get involved, can we really sum up 1914-1918 as The Necessary War? More than 10 million people died in this conflict.”
Keith Lowe, The Telegraph

“I am terribly biased towards any history that is, as here, delivered to me in the epistemologically proper manner – by tall, patrician men chatting to learned chums in groves of academe and/or genteelly-faded drawing rooms lined with ancestral prints of horses.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“This was history written by a proper historian as well as a popular journalist.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The focus on just three women’s lives meant Strippers sometimes felt more like a reality TV show than a serious documentary. Strippers might be better off talking to the owner of one of these lucrative business operations.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“The three girls were lively, articulate, charismatic and entirely ill-served by the programme, which, not content with stuffing itself full of shots of the women and their colleagues at work, also only ever interviewed them in their bras and knickers.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Strippers turned out to be an advert for Glasgow’s Diamond Dolls lap-dancing club. The cameras loitered for five months without noticing anything illegal at all. This wasn’t necessarily helpful to the first of a three-part series.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Kirstie Allsopp is a perpetual third-former from a Thirties girls’ school, hauled off the hockey pitch to present a telly programme. Bouncing from one property to the next like Tigger, she barely gives us time to consider them. She needs the calming influence of Phil Spencer.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s just Location, Location, Location minus the calming influence of Phil Spencer. Kirstie’s new house-hunting tips didn’t seem particularly useful. They’re best summed up as, ‘Have a job that allows you to work from home and don’t forget to be rich.’”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent