Strike: The Ink Black Heart; Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking

“Strike is often a little silly, even am-dram, and the script is clunky with exposition. When Strike and Robin went undercover in pursuit of suspects – several of them alt-right agitators – they donned arguably the least subtle disguises in private detective history, he seemingly as Ricky Gervais, she with a face full of geisha make-up. Car chases took place at night, down country lanes suffused with fog. And at least every six minutes, the phone rang in order to propel the narrative forward. Nevertheless, amidst the perfunctory nature of it all – the crime, the clues, the assorted malcontents – it still made for compelling comfort viewing. And things are about to get interesting with the arrival of a handsome police detective who is obviously interested in Robin. How on earth will Strike react? Everything’s all about love in the end.”
Nick Duerden, The i

“With the book’s excesses and provocative subtexts stripped away, we are left with a workaday whodunnit in which a small community of people is entirely populated by potentially vengeful oddballs, only one of whom is a murderer. Four episodes later, the revelation is shrug-worthy, even to those viewers who didn’t guess it fairly early on. But [Tom] Edge hits all the right beats, albeit at the slow pace dictated by the brand commanding a luxurious amount of screen time. It’s not a sufficiently gripping tale for festive BBC One primetime, but it’s not a mess, either.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“The plot hasn’t warmed up properly yet but it doesn’t really matter as the two main characters are so well-drawn, the yearning chemistry between them carrying things along, with Pat (Ruth Sheen) and Midge (Tupele Dorgu) in the office providing the “normal person” vibes. “How’s she going to find a boyfriend if she never stops working?” said Pat as Robin went off to yet another job. “Maybe she’s shagging Strike,” said Midge. “She’s got more sense than that,” said Pat. Let’s see, shall we?”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The politics isn’t limited to gender: the villains are the Far Right, incels and misogynists, including a character who rages online against the MSM and woke values. It’s all a bit tiresome, because Rowling has such a winning set-up with Strike and Robin. All we want is for them to have a rollicking good crime to solve, without all this other stuff getting in the way. Although there’s always room for a bit more romantic longing.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“The plot reflects Rowling’s ordeals with online trolls who denounce her for her views on trans rights. The murder victim, artist Edie Ledwell (Mirren Mack) appears to be a surrogate for the author — hounded by haters who love the Gothic cartoon strip she writes on the internet but don’t like her politics. Much of the investigation involves chatroom insults and distasteful YouTube pranks, which is hard to take seriously. So is the online game, set in a cemetery, that supposedly hides the clues to Edie’s death. The great thing about the internet, of course, is that you can always switch it off. The same goes for this show.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“As far as the actual baking is concerned Wizards of Baking is top tier. I mean, I’m no expert-slash-wizard, but the cakes on display are so preposterously advanced they appear to be on the verge of singularity, as if with a dusting of AI and some seed capital they might walk and talk and tell you you look nice today. So on that level, wizardry this is.”
Benji Wilson, Telegraph

“With a 90-minute run time, the energy is kept up nicely without the experience becoming too chaotic or stressful. There is enough room to breathe and appreciate the magnitude of the tasks the pairs have set themselves. Although the true stress they are feeling can occasionally be glimpsed. One couple, Zoe and Jordan, are incorporating a bit of technology into their showstopper (a celebration of Hufflepuff house, involving a badger cake sitting on top of an evocation of Platform 9¾ and surrounded by apple crumble trunks, natch) that will shoot out edible Hogwarts invitation letters from its mouth. What happens, asks one of the twins, if it doesn’t work? “Then,” says Jordan tightly and unsmiling, “we throw the letters at the judges.””
Lucy Mangan, THe Guardian