Challenge Anneka; Grace; Rise and Fall

“There are obvious parallels with the Beeb’s DIY SOS, which started a couple of years after Challenge Anneka was dropped. The difference is that, while Nick Knowles keeps the focus on his team of builders and designers, Anneka wants to meet all the volunteers. Sometimes, as they rush to meet her impossible deadlines, she gets in the way, but only a curmudgeon could feel cross with her. One bloke was more than happy to chat.Annie was all of a flutter. ‘Do you think,’ she wondered, ‘that delightful young man has gone to building school to learn how to say, ‘How you doin’, sweets? You all right, darlin’?”‘I love that!’ she added. Now you are showing your age, Anneka — language like that from construction workers has been outlawed.
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail 

“The helicopter, its most iconic feature, pushes the same retro buttons as the theme tune, but it turns out to be a bit pointless. Rice flies into the sky in order to read a giant “challenge card” laid out in a field, which she has to use binoculars to read, and which poses the question of why they didn’t show her a normal-sized card, on the ground, because she could have just used a pair of reading specs and saved everyone the fuel. Still! It’s a nod to the original, and they’re so confident that this is for people who loved the original that they don’t even bother explaining what is going on. There’s no need to. It is all self-explanatory and hits the ground running. Rice agrees to get the impossible done, helping a charity or organisation in their hour of need, pulling together volunteers, donations and a load of elbow grease, ending up with a truly amazing achievement that leaves a wonderful feelgood glow in the belly. It knows what it’s doing, it rolls up its sleeves and gets on with the job.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Flourishing the programme title with one supplier who’d never heard of it, Rice asked whether there was someone older she might speak to. That’s probably the demographic this reboot will appeal to most. What saved the show from feeling like a slightly tatty throwback were the people and dogs at Foal Farm near Biggin Hill. The builders were cheerful despite the torrential rain while Lisa and Lauren, who run the charity that re-homes 200 dogs a year, were impressively dedicated.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Look, I know it’s based on Peter James’s books, but did they have to indulge this queasy circus? It’s a shame because John Simm is very good as gentle DS Roy Grace, just as Craig Parkinson is enjoyable as DS Norman Potting. They earn the two stars. Plus, the dialogue is pretty good. But, disingenuously, it tried to present this horror in a “feminist” way with messages about weirdo, predatory men, sexism in the police, victim-blaming and how women should feel confidence in reporting rape. All while laying on a floorshow for perverts at women’s expense. What would Fred Thursday say?”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“While it’s all well and good to acknowledge the role of toxic masculinity (in this case, public-school bullying, incel culture and institutional misogyny), failing to interrogate it in any meaningful way seemed like paying mere lip service. Was the impassioned promise from Grace about the police taking all reports of sexual assault seriously simply naive or a more calculated bit of pro-law enforcement messaging? Either way, it was a cheap bone to throw after missing the mark so widely.”
Rachael Sigee, The i

“Men, eh? They didn’t come well out of this story. That the culprit turned out to have an even more complicated, deviant and frankly implausible psychology – well, that’s entertainment.
Jasper Rees, Telegraph

“Although there is some fascination in one Grafter who shows an instinct for genuflecting gratitude – and the show might warm up when some of the Rulers are ex-Grafters – so far there are no revealing interactions between the proles and the blinged-up bosses, nothing to compete with the psychological subtlety and strain of The Traitors’ extended bluffs. Beneath that shiny veneer of newness is an old-fashioned, backstabbing bunfight between unlikable people – entertaining, yes, but business as usual.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“It is The Traitors’ garish little cousin, featuring a cast of characters engineered to cause maximum controversy and supply endless “OMG” social-media content. Radio 1 DJ Greg James is the host, an odd choice because he’s the least sinister presenter in existence.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph