Blindspot; Bake Off: The Professionals; Cooking With The Stars

“Blindspot is a good fit for Ross Kemp’s return to acting because there are moments — such as the scenes in a caff — when it can feel like a particularly fraught episode of EastEnders after some terrible event. And pretty soon it became clear that Kemp is a secondary presence here, being thoroughly outsleuthed by the young woman in a wheelchair who witnessed the murder of her friend. Played by Beth Alsbury, she is the main reason to watch this bleakly efficient tale.”
James Jackson, The Times

“Despite his star billing, Kemp actually has only a supporting part here. The real star is Beth Alsbury, who is barely a year out of drama school but carries the whole thing. If only the rest of it were any good. The dialogue is ropey, the production values are poor. It feels like a low-budget horror that has been spliced with an episode of Doctors.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“With his documentaries, Kemp proved a master of escapist thrills with just enough substance to keep you coming back. The same was true of Blindspot. Its production values were rickety (the CCTV nerve centre looked like a CBeebies studio) but Kemp and Alsbury had great chemistry as ordinary people caught in the headlights of a murder investigation.”
Ed Power, The i

“It’s business as usual, with ambitious patisserie chefs ‘going bananas with their banoffee’ to make incredible cakes, and really, who’d be churlish about a show that works so hard to create a bit of joy? This takes in the efforts of the loveably tough judges Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin, who are the most fun thing here, the latter still almost a walking self-caricature.”
James Jackson, The Times

“The patisserie challenges are so intense, and judges Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden are such garishly eccentric personalities, that it can all become overwhelming. It takes a confident character to hold everything together. New co-presenter Ellie White was in charge from the start, wearing a three-tier wedding cake as a costume before changing into a yellow cheesecloth dress that made her look like a cross between Judy Garland and a cupcake.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The real problem with this format is not the novice chefs themselves but the meals they cook. Nothing is exactly appetising. Mentors are shouting advice from the sidelines like football managers, fellow celebs are whooping and cheering, but the finished food is a long way from the standard on Celebrity MasterChef, for example.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail