The Push; How the BBC Began

“True crime documentaries can be a prurient business but The Push was remarkable. It was an education in the insidiousness of domestic violence and a lesson to anyone in an abusive relationship to record your conversations.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“In two measured episodes it followed last year’s trial for murder of Kashif Anwar, accused of pushing his pregnant wife Fawziyah Javed off Arthur’s Seat in 2021 when they visited Edinburgh from their home in Leeds. With the camera often on Anwar in the dock, this might easily have felt voyeuristic, but judge, barristers and witnesses set a sober tone.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“There was a nice balance here between the courtroom action and the family interviews that built a picture of the victim as an outgoing, much-loved young woman who had made one bad decision (namely marrying Kashif). Unlike so many true-crime documentaries, there was nothing remotely prurient or otherwise trashy about the programme.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Despite its bone-dry title, How the BBC Began was a juicy piece of fruit. The gossip quota in John Bridcut’s spirited documentary helped it to avoid being a stuffy ‘isn’t the BBC marvellous?’ paean and to entertain as well as inform. There were enough titbits from horses’ mouths to keep a diarist in long lunches for months.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It nowadays seems enshrined in the BBC’s constitution that it must sometimes punch itself in the face before anyone else does. Ending on a plea for its own survival, this rambling tour of old controversies and internal failings persuasively suggested that the BBC has always on balance got more right than wrong.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph