TV Critics: The Secret Life of Uri Geller; Music and Monarchy; Family Guy; The Mating Game; Top of the Lake; The Returned

“The Secret Life of Uri Geller was another top-drawer documentary from the BBC. Now, there are two possibilities. Either the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, or it was one of the most extraordinary pieces of television I have seen this year.”
Jake Wallis Simons, The Telegraph

“There’s a nice deadpan, non-judgemental tone to this film. Vikram Jayanti, who made it, pretty much leaves it up to you what to believe. Here are these people who seem legit saying they did this and that work with Uri into remote viewing. But a lot of it – the stuff Uri won’t talk about but clearly wants us to believe – is clearly bonkers.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“What was impressive about Vikram Jayanti’s documentary was getting American spooks to detail their adventures with him, adventures Geller then feigned reluctance to talk about. Unimpressive was its taking Geller’s claims on trust.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Geller reminded me of those men in pubs who let it be known that they know something very interesting but then refuse to tell you it, in the hope that this will make them seem more interesting themselves… I was intrigued but I became increasingly less so as I realised no one was going to tell me anything very detailed.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“David Starkey’s Music and Monarchy is everything you might expect it to be: learned, a little on the schoolmasterish side, packed with detail but also with an extra bit of oomph.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Edifying stuff, though you couldn’t help but feel that the more perfect medium for this might have been radio.”
Arifa Akbar, The Independent

“A new series of Family Guy is a cause for celebration, and what a joyous opener. So jam-packed with lols I enjoyed it as much the second time.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“In the wrong hands, this hour-long show could have been embarrassingly graphic. Mercifully, we rarely saw animals actually engaging in the act.”
Arifa Akbar, The Independent

“Holly Hunter is gradually getting more air time, if scarcely much more to do, on Top of the Lake. This is a trend in the right direction because everything she does as GJ, leader of the lakeside Paradise camp for misused women, is great.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Tonight’s penultimate instalment, atmospherically directed by Frédéric Mermoud, began to weave the series’ multiple strands into a pleasing, magical whole… Not that I have any idea what it means – in fact, I’m slightly worried The Returned might wind up as mind-frazzlingly cryptic as Lost, leaving plenty of its most pressing questions unanswered… Everything is teed up tantalisingly for the finale. Let’s hope for a satisfying outcome to this compelling series.”
Patrick Smith, The Telegraph