Monarch; The King’s Guard; JFK; Mary Makes It Easy

“The 10-episode series runs along a split timeline, with a trio of young characters in each, united by a rare piece of brilliantly successful stunt casting. The past is fun – lots of Indiana Jones-type derring-do. The present, alas, is not such fun. It does, however, have Kurt Russell. Once he arrives, the modern-day scenes get a sorely needed lift as he sells the bejesus out of every line.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“A TV show with ‘Monster’ in its title lives or dies by the liveliness of its leviathans. In that respect, Monarch acquits itself decently. True, there’s the occasional iffy FX shot. And rather than share breathing space with actual monsters, the actors are all clearly shouting at tennis balls on sticks. But generous servings of Godzilla crashing around make up for these shortfalls – ensuring this extension to the Monsterverse delivers enough earth-shaking thrills to justify its existence.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“As is customary, the film-makers attempted to build tension and create jeopardy by showing us problems and glitches as the clock ticked to the big day. The problem with that was we all know that the coronation went like clockwork, so the suspense thing didn’t really work. But it was interesting to see how easily it could have all gone wrong.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“To ensure the noise and spectacle of the crowds didn’t panic them on the big day, the horses were given ‘desensitisation training’ at the indoor riding school in Hyde Park Barracks. There wasn’t much to see: a few soldiers clapped and waved flags, and the horses trotted around an obstacle course. Outdoors, the regiments rehearsed their steps at an airfield where a mock-up of the route from palace to abbey was marked out with tyres and cones. Again, it made less-than-gripping television.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The day’s events were well told but the repeated re-showing of the moment the president’s head ‘exploded like a firecracker’, as one person described it, was ghoulish. It is undeniably an extraordinary 26 seconds of film, but did we need to see it quite so many times?”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Mary’s kindly, slightly amused tone is perfect for explaining the obvious without making us feel too ignorant. She’s never condescending, as she shows us how to crack an egg carefully to separate the yolk from the white, and reminds us to cover a bubbling saucepan so it doesn’t spatter our clothes. She exudes a grandmotherly competence, which makes the viewer feel cosily childlike.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail