“Whatever your view of Branson, this was an absorbing, if rather reverential, documentary”
Branson, Sky Documentaries
“So far, it is an effective portrait of the sort of contradictions and coincidences that, when revealed, so often recast the legend of an entrepreneurial hero as more of a myth.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian
“Whatever your view of Branson, this was an absorbing, if rather reverential, documentary that began with the hero recordinga goodbye video just before he went into space in case it all went wrong up there.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“The first part of Branson is very much the story of his life told on his terms. That’s not to say it’s a puff piece – I’ve watched further episodes and this is merely setting the groundwork for a grittier cross-examination to come. What makes this series so compelling is the subtle, unspoken tug of war over who’s controlling the narrative. Watch carefully and you’ll see that director Smith never quite lets Virgin’s marketing operation have the reins.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph
George & Tammy, Paramount+
“I am not proud of my ignorance, but it remains the case that I had never heard of George Jones, and I last heard Tammy Wynette singing on the (admittedly excellent) KLF song Justified & Ancient. With that accepted, George & Tammy, an awards-bait chunk of premium streaming starring A-listers Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, was about as good as it could have been to these philistinish eyes. It was a detailed, beautifully-made trip back to the late 1960s chronicling the booze-sodden decline of Jones’s career, the hairspray-laden birth of Wynette’s and the ructions caused by their love affair.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph
“The thing about country music – both the songs and the lifestyles of its performers – is that proceedings are conducted at the sort of hysterical intensity that would shame the writers of EastEnders. Neither the genre nor this series is interested in snooty, cosmopolitan things like ‘subtext’: the show is just as big, brash and unsubtle as its protagonists. George & Tammy is a lavish soap opera; a crooning, booze-soaked Nashville melodrama.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent
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