Bear Grylls Meets President Zelensky; The Big Door Prize; Murder in Mayfair; DNA Journey

“After several hundred shows featuring Mr Survivalist Toughie Extraordinaire, last night we finally had a Grylls programme where the danger was genuinely life-or-death. On a mission to war-ravaged Ukraine for Bear Grylls Meets President Zelensky, our well-spoken wilderness master entered the country while being radioed about the threat of lethal missile strikes ahead. This is quite a contrast to some jungle or mountain where he can call ‘cut!’ and chopper it to a warm hotel.”
James Jackson, The Times

“Though his interview with Zelensky amounted to only a few minutes of footage in the whole hour, he was able to make every question count.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Despite their truncated time together, Grylls got past the soundbites and gave us a glimpse of the President’s inner turmoil.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Grylls is an interviewer of sorts by trade, but his celebrity subjects have usually been lured to a survival scenario of his own design before being hit with personal questions once trapped with him on a sleet-lashed precipice. In Ukraine, he’s away from home, and sometimes the programme feels as if it’s contriving ways to convince us of the relevance of his presence.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“It is funny, friendly and as beautifully light on its feet as you might expect from its creator, David West Read, who worked as a writer and producer on Schitt’s Creek. He is hugely helped in this by the presence and immaculate comic timing of Chris O’Dowd as amiable family man, history teacher and good whistler Dusty Hubbard.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“It would be easy to dismiss The Big Door Prize as manipulative, motivational schmaltz. And yet you can forgive a lot of guff for one funny line, and the Big Door Prize has plenty. The Ted Lasso formula of saccharine sentiment offset by salty humour is a highly effective one-two, and the performances here across the board are superb.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Television as an instrument of inquiry did its best. It got a story, and filmed itself doing so. But it’s difficult to know what lesson to take from it. Does Abdulhak’s casual cruelty tell us anything more widely about toxic masculinity? All that’s left is waste, and home movies sapped of all joy.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“It’s a pity BBC reporter Nawal Al-Maghafi didn’t begin with more innocuous questions, about his life in hiding, because he was clearly desperate to talk. Abdulhak’s slimy self-pity made the quiet, implacable quest for justice by Martine’s father seem all the more admirable.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The Mabuses made for infectious and effervescent company – singing and dancing with joy in one scene, their expressive eyes brimming with tears in the next. Basically the dream guests for this type of button-pressing production. Perhaps the most moving episode of DNA Journey yet, this was a wonderful way to round off the latest run.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph