Mortimer & Whitehouse; Countryfile; Is She the Wolf?

“I’m delighted to report that watching the comedians wade through Britain’s rivers has not lost any of its magic. In the opening episode, the pair were back in Wales, hoping to catch some chub along the charming banks of the River Wye. Conversation flowed as easily as the river, both Mortimer and Whitehouse settling back into their well-defined roles: Mortimer the eager student, Whitehouse the wise fisherman sensei.”
Emily Baker, The i

“The comic interlude, featuring a bored-looking Ted with a hat on having ‘one of his parties’ and neither Mortimer nor Whitehouse wanting to go, was an absurdist highlight in an episode that was as exquisitely shot as ever. To watch this series is to have a mental mini-break, a 30-minute life pause watching two men in their sixties discuss the meaning of small talk and its opposite, large talk.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Why does it work? TV arranges plenty of marriages between celebs, then sends them along canals or on road trips or off DNA sleuthing. None would happen if the cameras weren’t there. This feels as if it would, and the song would remain the same.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“There was nothing to hold the front page for here. But it was a nice, soothing hour, her grandson Sam accompanying her and, despite her macular degeneration, the presenter Hamza Yassin managing to show her two golden eagles. TV doesn’t come much gentler than this.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The reverence for Her Denchness maxed out when a Scottish landscape artist invited her to add some splodges to his painting of poppies and cheerfully saluted the kindergartenish results. Dame Judi, lest we forget, suffers from macular degeneration, so her watercolour daubs are possibly not what they were. But this is what made the climax of the hour so moving.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“It’s like a really, really badly written novel and just as compelling. I suspect it will succeed for two reasons. First, the basic premise is foolproof – a tried and tested formula for instant addiction. The second reason is that it is gentle. Much gentler, and much quieter, than we are used to. Maybe even a bit kinder too. As long as you set aside the inherent cruelty of an entertainment form that depends on messing with people’s heads and playing on every human’s defining need for connection in order to placate the howling void inside us all, of course.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian