Football Dreams: The Academy; Cosmic Love; Five Days at Memorial; Ambulance

”These three amigos were such natural personalities you found yourself visualising the series researchers high-fiving each other on finding such “TV gold”. At 11 Kairo was breezily offering soundbites worthy of an Apprentice candidate. “My mum’s literally my boss. But I’m gonna go from employee to CEO!”…You found yourself rooting for the boys — not least when Kayden sweetly explained: “When I become a footballer the first thing I’ll spend my money on is getting my mum a house.”With the obscene amount of money involved in football there was little surprise in seeing the work that goes into developing the next generation of Harry Kanes. What was more impressive was the duty of care shown by the academy’s staff — in particular the head coach, Phil Hingston, mentoring his charges through a “Darwinian” struggle. Or, to put it in TV terms, this coach was a long way from Alan “you’re fired!” Sugar. And the episode’s most unexpected achievement? It (almost) made you want to become a Crystal Palace fan.”
James Jackson, The Times 

“The series excelled in its casting. Not only were the three boys bright and engaging but their coaches, led by the impressive Phil Hingston, were equally camera-friendly. They nurtured the boys’ emotional development as much as their ball skills, reminding their charges to “stay humble”. We’re often told that professional football can be toxic – see the current Ryan Giggs court case – but the mentoring here offered hope.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“The start of this six-part series focused exclusively on the game and the unrealistic dreams it fosters, without asking what happens to those who don’t make the grade. We saw nothing of the three boys’ schoolwork. Nobody mentioned the impact on their studies — they were constantly playing five-a-side, practising in the garden, watching matches on the TV or being ferried to the training ground. It’s natural for boys that age to have extravagant ambitions. But if the academy encourages them to dream without making sure they can fall back on solid school work, that’s irresponsible.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Does it work? Does it heck. There’s no real impetus for it to work, because if the key to instant and lifelong love and attraction really is birth chart compatibility, then the producers, sorry the Astro Chamber, should be able to pair up a couple straight away, then sit back and watch as they fall in love. That would be a sweet, smooth single episode, at most, but it isn’t a series. A full dating show series needs lots of drama, and in this case, it’s shoved in with the introduction of 16 single people.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian 

“On such a teeming canvas, most characters feel sketched in. They’ve got a job to do and they do it. Standing out are Broadway star Cherry Jones as hospital boss Susan Mulderick, and Vera Farmiga as Dr Anna Pou who, as is hinted by the flash forward scenes, had to play God in the evacuation. For all the whiff of stylistic déjà-vu, Five Days at Memorial is a timely warning that, in our foreseeable future, infernos and floods are going to lose their once-a-century surprise element. This terrifying drama isn’t fiction. It’s science.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph 

“The whole country is perpetually on the brink of tears, even the paramedics. With cameras following an emergency response team on Ambulance driver Kyle was wiping his eyes on his sleeve as he left a job. I’ll admit, it does alarm me a little that an ambulance crew might be crying uncontrollably as they speed through traffic. When they say they’re on ‘blues-and-twos’, I thought that meant sirens and flashing lights — not clinical depression. At one call-out, where a woman with a back injury was lying in the porch of her home, Kyle gasped, ‘OMG! This is absolutely awful.’ I wouldn’t find that reassuring. It’s probably just me, though. The Beeb should embrace this touchy-feely trend, with a whole series about 999 officers who arrive at the scene in a state of hysterics. They could call it Emotional Rescue.” 
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail