Good Grief; I Just Killed My Dad

”Considering the subject matter, indulging in a reassuring presence such as Coles, his easy erudition like spoonfuls of warm sticky-toffee pudding, is forgivable. While the show’s takeaways – it helps to talk, to say the departed’s name; the undemanding, unconditional love of animals can be a valuable crutch; coping with grief is not a linear progression towards “getting over it”, but an adjustment to a new way of living – are not profound, they have a universality that transcends their genteel packaging.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“The tone was pretty upbeat, and there were very few tears. Coles has years ahead of him – despite his self-deprecating mention of being arthritic, overweight and on the verge of retirement – and needs to find a positive way through. “I don’t just want to stay at home in a black shawl, clacking the beads,” he said. This was a very personal programme but one with a message that will resonate with so many.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Coles is such an obviously warm and lovely person that we’re on his side when he gets trussed up like a walrus in a sausage skin and plunges into the Bristol Channel in freezing February. I can well believe that this helped him to stimulate endorphins and broaden his life experiences, just as David had once led him out of his comfort zone. Yet, being the reserved type, Coles’s brief pieces to camera didn’t reveal that much about his inner feelings, as he admits. I’d have appreciated a bit more reflection about his life with David, and a bit less of the travelogue, to be honest. As I say, maybe Coles, despite his calling, didn’t have that much to say, or there wasn’t the time, what with so many adventures to relate.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent 

“In fairness, a documentary doesn’t have the immersive intimacy of a book, and the aim here was to highlight ways to navigate your way through grief, partly through exhilarating challenges such as sky diving and surfing, which help to take you out of your head, the focus, briefly, purely physical. And Coles offered well-observed, sometimes funny nuggets of wisdom throughout.”
Carol Midgley, The Times 

“The pace was fairly frenetic. One day he was on the Isle of Bute at a widow’s retreat, writing verses to be set to music.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“I Just Killed My Dad is still an interesting instalment in Netflix’s true-crime commissioning odyssey. As a thematically linked companion piece to last month’s hit Girl in the Picture, which twisted and turned every few minutes until its viewers felt like a tangle of fairy lights, it is a sleeker, more introspective project. The only shame, then, is that it answers the easy questions but doesn’t even raise the difficult ones.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent