​Nadiya’s Fast Flavours; Dalgliesh; Hellbound; Cowboy Bebop; Mary Berry: Love to Cook

 “I am very bored with cookery shows in general, but one thing I like about Hussain is that she is never pretentious or smug. She uses normal ingredients, such as when she squirted tomato ketchup in her stir fry. (Again, I don’t want to sound picky, but tomato ketchup? Also disgusting, unless you’re six.) Actually that kitchen set she uses is a little bit smug. I mean, it’s beautiful and bursting with colour, just like Hussain’s blue jumper and green trouser combo, but did you see the perfect, unstained, ironed tea towels hanging on the oven door? Literally, nobody’s tea towels look like that. Let’s have some realism. Mine look like they have mopped up a grisly crime scene.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

”Rivalry between Masterson and Miskin is welcome light relief, since the plots in Dalgliesh are cluttered, with a dozen suspects. Each two-part story is adapted, a little too faithfully, from one of P. D. James’s densely constructed novels. The need for all these characters to explain themselves and their plausible motives for murder leaves some scenes static and wordy. This isn’t helped by Carvel’s tendency to freeze, not even blinking, with a quizzical smile on his lips. He wants us to know he is listening intently, but he can look like a man trying to remember whether he locked the front door. Perhaps he’s just distracted by the decor, which is spectacular and nightmarish — swirling expanses of 1970s wallpaper in beige and blue, with tasselled standard lamps shedding a tepid light on the soft furnishings.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“One of the reasons Squid Game resonated with audiences is that it turned on a hair-pin from astute commentary on class divisions in South Korea (and, by implication, elsewhere) to visceral body horror. However, Hellbound doesn’t have the same nauseating energy and soon settles into a noir procedural with supernatural elements. It is pacy and there is an engaging sub-plot revolving…The other problem is the CGI “demons” aren’t at all scary and look more like minor Marvel monsters than harbingers of death. As a hokey mystery there is lots to enjoy in these six episodes. Squid Game fans will, however, find it all too easy to wriggle free of Hellbound’s squishy grip.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Such unvarnished swearing and occasional scenes of nudity mean that despite the poppy colours and energetic action, this is not a series that the whole family can watch (unlike The Mandalorian, that other tale of hunting bounties and forming ad hoc families on the fringes of civilisation). But it all adds up to an enjoyable feeling of anything-goes delirium. At a time when popular sci-fi has gone gritty and self-consciously “dark”, the caffeinated fever dream of Cowboy Bebop feels like a loving distillation of the original and a breath of fresh air.”
Graeme Virtue, The Guardian

“Berry is now Hussain’s warm-up act. She may be 86 but in some ways Mary Berry: Love to Cook was the more modern offering because at least she included some vegan dishes.” 
Carol Midgley, The Times