Devon and Cornwall; Big Zuu’s Big Eats; Do Black Lives Still Matter?; Rick and Morty

“No offence to the good people of Devon and Cornwall, but it was the animals who were the best crowd-pullers in Devon and Cornwall. The dolphins were lovely, as was a seal called Bob that resembled a nightclub bouncer just come off his shift, and the beavers. Oh the lovely beavers. John Nettles’s narration is so playful I expected him to slip in at least one double entendre, but nothing. Disappointing, all in all. Anyway, this fourth series is luckily timed, given the G7 summit and how virtually everyone is going to Devon and Cornwall for their holidays thanks to the pandemic (actually, I’m not, but you get my drift). Since West Country folk are famously unthrilled about townie tourists bringing the virus to their beauty spots, they may disagree on how fortunate the timing is. They couldn’t ask for a better, glossier PR brochure, though: gorgeous scenery, wildflower meadows, the “jagged rocks and sparkling seas” (sorry, that one was Nettles).” 
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The series, though, does that annoying thing of trying to inject some jeopardy into proceedings (not much, I grant you). Would the weather hold off for Alasdair? Would the customers come flocking when Tristan sold his catch? Would Sam Henwood, an engineer, restore a replica of Richard Trevithick’s Puffing Devil steam locomotive sufficiently well for it to pass a hydraulic boiler test? The answer to all of these questions, of course, was yes. And the narration by John Nettles (born in St Austell) was as comforting as a cream tea, but occasionally a bit much.” 
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“I could have enjoyed it for hours. Unfortunately, the first episode of the fourth series of Devon and Cornwall deemed it worthy of only a few minutes screen time before moving on to other, less attractive, scenes. The bucolic Channel 4 show is unbelievably popular, which explains why it’s back for a fourth time, but this particular episode felt like little more than a series of disjointed clips – The One Show without the studio. There is a guiding voiceover, provided by the St Austell-born Midsomer Murders actor John Nettles, though at times it is overly genteel, making the series sound more like a cheesy tourist board advert than an honest portrait of England’s most southerly counties.”
Emily Baker,The i

“As usual, the celebrity wasn’t the main attraction. While Redknapp’s stories of his mother taking his son, Jamie, cheese sandwiches to Liverpool games and explaining his love of a “wally” (a pickled gherkin from the chippy) were engaging enough, it was Zuu who was the real star.The menu he provided was staggering, in size more than quality. First up was a simple cheese club toastie, the recipe inflected with Zuu’s signature ad-libs (“Pickle? Branston, standard ting”), then a pie filled with sausage and mash. “Bun that!” he shouted, announcing the next dish, granat soup, a traditional stew made with peanuts and chicken – it looked delicious. The perfect guest, Redknapp enjoyed everything put in front of him, but, like me, seemed to revel in Zuu’s company even more.”
Emily Baker,The i

“Do Black Lives Still Matter? was a lean machine packing plenty of information about racism and football into just 27 minutes. It wasn’t addressing the racism that black players get from fans in the stands, but the sort they get from the culture within football management. A third of players on the pitch are black or from an ethnic minority, yet only nine players of colour have ever become a manager. The vast majority getting coaching positions are white, which means they develop leadership skills that make it easier to go on and be a manager. The grime artist Saskilla, presenting, asked whether, a year on from the murder of George Floyd and after the Football Association issued platitudes about making football a fairer industry for black people, anything had changed. It certainly didn’t seem to have for women’s football. That seemed to be going backwards.” 
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It’s a quite brilliant 22 minutes and one with an implicit moral. In future, when Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk tire of merely going into space, as they will, and seek to time travel – thereby ruining civilisations other than ours and rewriting the past in line with their megalomaniac dreams – this episode of Rick and Morty must be used as evidence for why they should be stopped.” 
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian