Call the Midwife; Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America; Jane McDonald: My Yorkshire

“Call the Midwife always stays classy, and this was no exception. The train crash was not a tedious ‘spectacular’ like, say, Coronation Street’s special effects tram crash, not least because the train carriage where Dr Turner and Sister Julienne were trapped looked as if it had been knocked up from balsa wood ten minutes earlier. Expense had been spared. But it made for moments of profundity, this series’ strong suit, as Sister Julienne, trapped in the wreckage, reflected on her life spent ‘waiting’ and offered her wimple to stem the blood of a dying woman.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It was hard to believe that this enduringly excellent series would mark its tenth birthday with a page torn out of a soap opera. Even so, the tension was expertly handled. Sister Julienne and Dr Turner’s calm acceptance of their apparent fate both rang true to the characters and acted as a sharp, poignant contrast to the raw terror of their loved ones.”
Gabriel Tate, The Telegraph

“It feels ruthless to suggest that the episode would have been better had either main character succumbed to their injuries but it felt like a dramatic cop-out. Why include a scene featuring Sister Julienne’s bloodied wimple when we already knew she was fine? The subplot was more satisfying, demonstrating what Call the Midwife does at its moving best in telling the story of a young, underprivileged woman suffering both a mystery illness during pregnancy and a stillbirth.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“Forbidden America is an ideal synthesis of the things that make Theroux a great documentarian. His subjects have enough media savvy to want to talk to him, but not enough to know when to keep quiet. People rather banally claim that Theroux offers his interviewees just enough rope to hang themselves, but that’s an analysis that rather ignores his evolution as a documentarian. He is actually extremely direct, but with an unexcitable receptivity that, crucially, makes his subjects feel heard.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“I’m sure the premise sounded good in theory — Theroux talking to America’s young rappers about the drugs and guns that drive their music — but in practice it was meandering and underwhelming. Sorry, Louis, but it was one of your weaker offerings. When Theroux tried to pin down these talented but chaotic and mumbling young artists to answer a question, it was like trying to nail jelly to a wall. They were just not the types to oblige in a traditional interview format.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Why is Theroux meeting rappers thousands of miles away when there is similar territory on his doorstep? If the subject had been homegrown, perhaps it would have drawn us in. But the sight of Theroux asking someone called Hotboii about a ‘beef track’ between him and fellow Floridian rapper 9lokkNine felt way too niche for a British audience.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Jane McDonald: My Yorkshire is Channel 5 in its purest form. It was the TV equivalent of those ‘do you remember?’ Facebook accounts that invite you to like pictures of Fry’s Chocolate Cream or the Grange Hill flying sausage. In truth – and I say this as someone Yorkshire born and bred – the programme had nothing of note to say about the place. But McDonald is such good company, nattering away to us and to everyone she meets, that it made a pleasant hour of television anyway.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph