Reclaiming Amy; Professor T; Baptiste; Take Off With Bradley And Holly

“Reclaiming Amy is a short, sad, sweet film that sees her family and friends give their side of the singer’s complicated story. It is too personal a film to be particularly objective, but there are other documentaries that make the claim to be so. This is people who knew Amy well, talking about her many complex facets, as a superstar but mainly as a daughter and as their friend.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“It did little to deepen our understanding of Winehouse. As both person and artist, she remained aloof and unknowable. Reclaiming Amy was nonetheless a powerful testament to the scars caused by grief. And a reminder that, long after a star has died and the flashbulbs stopped popping, they leave behind a family who loved them not because of what they became but because of who they were all along.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“These are people who lost someone and who have been hurt by the suggestion that she wasn’t loved and cared for. They cannot be objective, and to be honest, why should they be? They are still grieving, and likely always will be. But for the purpose of a documentary, it did mean that the focus was narrow and specific. Winehouse’s story remains an extraordinarily sad one but there was something uncomfortable about the sense that her legacy is still being disputed.”
Rachael Sigee, The i

“As a drama, I’ll give it this: it is a total mind-screw. I cannot fault Ben Miller’s performance as Professor T, but the vibe overall is jarring, like those bizarre Victorian Christmas cards that would feature dead birds, children being attacked by giant insects or a killer snowman. I like macabre humour, but a cancer-stricken child having her dad killed and her mum nicked for murder as she lies in hospital is a bit much.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It still feels as if the director hasn’t quite found the right tempo, as Prof Tempest (Ben Miller) switches between lining up the bottles in his fridge to keep his obsessive compulsive disorder at bay, enduring flashbacks to being bullied by his domineering father and then seeing his father’s body hanging from the rafters, and having surreal visions which I think are supposed to be amusing.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“After a slightly frustrating start this second episode was a gloomy cracker. Tchéky Karyo and Fiona Shaw are a potent double act, playing characters who are balls of understated rage and grief enduring a living hell. But my it’s cheerless fare with not a speck of light or levity amid bottomless misery. This was an episode that was as strong as it was depressing.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“I’ll be watching this show right to the end because Tchéky Karyo has created one of TV’s most watchable detectives, and carries the series along on his charisma. Every time you think Baptiste has been outfoxed, or at least outrun, there is a surprise.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Fiona Shaw is extraordinary. I can’t think of any other actress capable of exposing so much raw pain, and simultaneously showing us that her character is numb to it. The script strikes a perfect balance, often using bitter comedy to advance the plot. Complex, full of surprises and thought provoking, Baptiste is everything that the final series of Line Of Duty claimed to be but wasn’t.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Brad and Holly’s double act is the only aspect of the series that works. The party games are all dreadfully lame, none worse than a test of reactions where four people, on a cue from Brad, try to snatch up one of three passports on a table. Between rounds, an Elvis impersonator sang snatches from the King’s songbook. It was more Skegness than Vegas.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s fitting that one of the prizes on BBC’s new Saturday game show was a trip to Las Vegas because Take Off with Bradley & Holly was the equivalent of a themed hotel: excessive, overblown and steadfastly bound to a concept.”
Rachel Sigee, The i