DNA Journey; Interior Design Masters; Predator; The Pig Butchering Romance Scam

“I spent at least half of the first in the latest run of DNA Journey in a state of finger-drumming impatience: bored of genealogy shows, bored of John Bishop being everywhere, bored of even good old Hugh Bonneville after sitting through several hours of him glowering in The Gold. Yet somewhere around the 45-minute mark, amid the mist of torpor, genealogical sorcery suddenly gripped hard.”
James Jackson, The Times

“The two-celebrities-for-the-price-of-one format, a clear attempt to differentiate this series from BBC rival Who Do You Think You Are?, was awkward in places. Some material wasn’t terribly televisual, relying on chats in the back of people carriers or the reading aloud of text messages. However, the sparring partners’ chemistry and the uncanny convergence of their stories comfortably compensated. This was cockle-warming and really rather lovely.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Unlikely friends and drinking buddies John Bishop and Hugh Bonneville made a double act worthy of BGT as they roamed England and Ireland in search of their shared past. If they were surprised to begin with, they were incredulous by the end, when they realised they each had a great-great-great-grandfather who worked on Capel Street in Dublin in the 1840s. The mathematics of ancestry being what it is, this means they each had 15 other great-great-great-grandfathers who, we assume, lived all over the place and never met. Still, it’s an entertaining notion that John’s distant forebear bought his morning loaf from Hugh’s long-gone grandsire.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Interior Design Masters sets itself apart from the likes of Bake Off and Sewing Bee by rejecting anything remotely twee. It’s a serious competition that doesn’t limit its contestants in terms of creativity. Mostly, however, it’s Michelle Ogundehin and her no-nonsense judging I tune in for.”
Emily Baker, The i

“Michelle Ogundehin doesn’t mince words but she shreds egos. Interior Design Masters is the most brutal of the reality show competitions. Imagine Prue Leith picking up a cake on Bake Off and scraping it into the bin: that’s how two minutes of constructive criticism from Michelle must feel.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It is a rare and breathtaking insight into how grooming works and how deep the psychology of abuse is. Extrapolate further, and you can see how it gives rise to a whole society that refuses to face the truth and prefers instead to venerate an accused man even after death.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“What an unexpectedly daring piece of reportage this turned out to be — and what a dark best foreign picture contender is waiting to be made about it.”
James Jackson, The Times