DIY SOS The Big Build for Children in Need; Grand Designs; Two Doors Down

“I got through this episode without shedding a tear. Only the hint of a lip wobble when the girls’ choir performed a rather lovely song at the end. Mostly, this was because the project was a tie-in with Radio 2, which meant that half of the episode was given over to various DJs – Zoe Ball, DJ Spoony, Sara Cox, Trevor Nelson and Scott Mills – who did the interviewing and presenting bits that Knowles would normally do, but not half as well as he would have done them. Only Rylan lifted proceedings with a comic turn, turning up in a pink high-vis jacket with a can of hairspray in his toolbox. It was a welcome injection of fun.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“Nobody tunes into DIY SOS for gripping drama. As anticipated, the build was completed and the volunteers from Getaway Girls were delighted with their new facility. “There’s not a dry eye in the place,” said one. But then, not everything on the airwaves has to brim with nail-biting tension. This was honest-to-goodness upbeat telly where the celebratory ending, if expected, was entirely deserved.”
Ed Power, The i 

“I’m glad House of the Year is back, although I don’t really know why. I never agree with their winners and at the end of each episode I tend to look ruefully around my own house and think: “What a craphole.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

Watching Grand Designs: House of the Year (Channel 4) is a different experience to watching the regular version of the show. There are no couples mired in existential despair. Presenter Kevin McCloud is extremely chipper, because he doesn’t have to stand on a rain-lashed building site listening to people explain that they’re facing bankruptcy and their dream home doesn’t have a roof. It’s just a jolly look around some finished houses, which the Royal Institute of British Architects has deemed sufficiently exceptional to make its House of the Year longlist. The fun, then, is in nosying around and deciding if you could live there. It’s a matter of personal taste.
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“I don’t think this show quite has the recognition it deserves. OK, it’s now on its sixth series, but you can dip into a TDD box set at any point on iPlayer and be rewarded with an observation about domestic mundanity that is exquisitely delivered, from the bizarrely deafening noise men make while urinating to Christine bitching about the slug trails on Michelle’s flags. But it has lost some of its lustre.”
Carol Midgley, The Times