Know Your Sh!t; The Family Pile

“The aim of the programme was at least laudable: gut health is one of the most exciting new frontiers in science, and your poo holds surprising clues to your mental and physical wellbeing. But if we’re all too bashful to even go there then many serious problems are going to get passed over in the name of propriety.”
Benji Wilson, Telegraph

“For the most part, it’s genuinely fascinating stuff. Prof Tim Spector, now well-known for his books on eating and nutrition as well as the Zoe health study, explains why gut health is such an exciting field. The science is only just starting to catch up with what scientists have long suspected about how much the health of our gut is connected to the rest of our body and mind.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Like many classic sitcoms before it, The Family Pile was set exclusively in the house, which helped viewers to feel quickly at home. That familiarity was a bit of a burden, though, and the show felt too similar to sitcoms of eras past – My Family, Outnumbered, Not Going Out to name a few – and suffered from the natural comparison. Within the first half hour episode, The Family Pile‘s own spark or defining quality fails to materialise.”
Rachael Healy, The i

“The Family Pile is one of those ingenious concepts that is ruined by its format. The cast is great, the characters feel real and likeable — but as a sitcom, the show simply doesn’t work. It’s like putting a search engine in a pair of bifocals.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It aspires to be more than a broad, canned-laughter sitcom, aiming for the poignancy of Carla Lane’s Bread (also about a close-knit Liverpudlian family) or the brilliance of Derry Girls (there is a slightly dippy brunette here who is clearly inspired by the latter’s Aunt Sarah). But it falls far short of those because there are simply no laughs in it, however nicely written it might be.
Anita Singh, Telegraph