Made in the 80s; Royal Mob; Save Our Squad With David Beckham

“As a paid-up nerd and Jet Set Willy obsessive myself it was hard not to get all nostalgic for the final part of Channel 4’s Made in the 80s: The Decade That Shaped Our World. It made a convincing case that it was a very British nerdiness and insularity, born of troubled times and expressed through the medium of cheap synthesisers and BBC Micros, that gave birth to the modern world.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“The Made in the 80s series, a punchy, thoughtful study of a decade that brought us Thatcherism, riots, unemployment, industrial decline, new romantic blouses, some brilliant music and some awful music, ended last night with a celebration of British tech.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“This engrossing documentary, the last of three, found a new way of looking at the 1980s, through the prism of technology, and set it to a pulsing electronic pop beat — everything from foppish New Romantics ABC to Adamski’s drum machines.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Usually I am wary of documentaries peppered with historical recreations; they often spill over into GCSE drama productions, aged by scratchy iMovie-style special effects. But this is all perfectly pleasant and watchable, because it is primarily a soapy drama, rather than a straightforward split between drama and documentary. As history lessons go, it is a very enjoyable one, telling a tale that cannot help but be fascinating.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“This is a bizarre amalgam of storytelling methodologies that manages to yoke together every type of TV history ever conceived into one four-part series. We get re-enactment, talking-head historians and The Crown-style straight drama colliding with smash-cut graphics and animated family trees. The overall effect is like a GCSE history teacher ram-raided the supply cupboard for any gimmick available in a desperate bid to get her class’s attention. Yet, if at times it’s a little overdone, it is also effective. Quite simply, Royal Mob succeeds in giving faces and characters to the many, many names.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“As is mandatory with formulaic, cynical, manipulative formats like this, we must endure a lot of guff. Despite these constraints (and the fact that Beckham is that rare case of a preternaturally good-looking superstar without the charisma to carry a programme), Save Our Squad survives and thrives. This is partly because when Beckham is properly in and among them while they are training, the artifice falls away. His easy charm and grace as he works on their skills, encourages their strengths and gently advises them how to mitigate their weaknesses is lovely to watch.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardianx