“Norma Percy has created something that deserves to be talked about in the same terms as The World at War”
“It is easy to look at this series with the benefit of hindsight. It presents us with the temptation to view every fork in the road with dismay, as if every wrong turn was diametrically opposed by a hypothetical decision that could have led to peace and prosperity; if only one person had thought things through a bit more thoroughly, or been more willing to compromise. However, there is a heft to this series that you don’t see very often. By being able to streamline the subject, by talking to every side and by refusing to be led by emotion over fact, Norma Percy has created something that deserves to be talked about in the same terms as The World at War.”
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian
“Percy didn’t insert herself or any of the team in the film. You heard no interviewer’s voice and there was none of that bafflingly popular modern tactic of recording people when they think the camera isn’t running so they check their hair or take a swig of water. She let the interviewees do the talking, unhurriedly, over three hours, and interweaved that with footage of interviews from many years ago, giving a sense of past and present. The result is sober, forensic, knotty, exhaustive, complex and very depressing as we see how those in power have, as the voiceover said, tried again and again to end the conflict — and failed.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“Produced by Norma Percy, this is fibrous stuff. No The Rest is History edutainment here, it’s All Bran all the way. Aside from the odd amusing detail – an Israeli diplomat who desperately used a thesaurus to find the exact word for ‘suspension’; Joe Biden trialling fist bumps as a diplomatic weapon – there is no sugar to be sprinkled on your cereal here. As an insight into the machinations going on behind the crisis, however, it’s magnificent.”
Chris Bennion, The Telegraph
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