For Her Sins; My Grandad’s War; The Idol

“With its slick storytelling and exhilarating secrets, For Her Sins is off to a strong start despite an overwritten line or two. What is motivating Emily? And does a part of Laura want her domestic drudgery to be sabotaged? Not so much a whodunnit as a why’d-she-do-that, For Her Sins’ first episode pulsed with menace, thanks to a compelling pace and intriguing characters.”
Emily Watkins, The i

“Despite the unattractive company, this was like a book that you can’t put down, however much you might be tempted. Rachel Shenton was brilliant as Emily. With just a look or a tone of voice, she turned ordinary conversations into something far more sinister.”
Roland White, Daily Mail

“For Her Sins was a thriller that hit its plot points with an inflatable clown hammer. Jo Joyner was great as the everywoman – she always is – but the credibility she brought to her character only set the implausibility of that character’s behaviour into stark relief. It was almost worthy of parody.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“This moving documentary puts the Line of Duty and This Is England actor into the role of historian, presenter and interviewer as she tells the story of her grandfather, Ralph McClure, who was a ship’s signaller in the Royal Navy on D-day in 1944. Ralph must be one of the last survivors still able to tell his story, and getting McClure to ask him about it gives it an intimate feel that seems just as revealing, if not more so, than the history we get from the textbooks.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“The testimony of Ralph McClure, 97, in Vicky McClure: My Grandad’s War, showed why first-hand accounts are so valuable: under the prompting of his granddaughter, the Line of Duty actor Vicky McClure, Ralph’s story of manning one of the landing craft that delivered Sherman tanks to Sword Beach on that fateful morning was extraordinary.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Vicky McClure, who after her sterling work making documentaries about dementia must surely be going for the ‘nicest actress in Britain’ award, was clearly a loving granddaughter, taking Ralph back to Sword Beach and becoming emotional. She even waded into the sea in full Tommy uniform to experience how cold and heavy it must have been — a bit gimmicky but heartfelt.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The McClures visited Sword, on the Normandy coast, where Vicky donned battledress and tried to recreate the experience of her grandfather’s passengers by wading ashore. If Vicky really wanted the authentic D-Day experience, assistant producers should have raked the beach with machine gun and artillery fire.”
Roland White, Daily Mail

“Having created the discourse, The Idol dutifully tries to fulfil its role at the centre, but it all feels a bit stiff. It aims for Paul Verhoeven – Jocelyn and Leia even watch Basic Instinct together – but so far, it’s more of a tribute act. It’s a big, dumb spectacle, and while I don’t hate it, by the end of the first hour, I am a little bored.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Here is a show purporting to satirise sexual exploitation while relishing it. It’s having its torture-porn cake and eating it. Suggesting that young women like being choked so much they do it to themselves for downtime is not just crass, it is downright dangerous.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“If there was ever any satirical or cautionary element in this story of a young woman being chewed up by the fame machine, it’s now nowhere to be seen: overall you’d have to say the show is extremely pro the chewing, and in fact thinks the chewing is desperately sexy and hot – and perhaps even hashtag-empowering, if you squint a bit.”
Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

“The Idol doesn’t quite manage the universality that has made Euphoria the canonical text for Gen Z. But in its perverse, almost horrific, take on the processed frailty of the human form – the disconnect between tortured psyche and toned body – it comes close to some profound insight into our times. Striking and sordid, you’ll want to jump straight in the shower after an hour in The Idol’s polluting company.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent