Naughty & Nice: Sex Toy Britain; Wordsworth & Coleridge: Road Trip; Landscapers; The Witcher; Christmas Magic At Kew Gardens

“Its saving grace is that it keeps the interrogation of the general public about their use of wands, rabbits, butt plugs and all the vibrant, vibrating rest of it to a minimum…You could argue that it’s a cheap trick, to entertain through incongruity – the brutal commercial realities behind meeting customers’ desires for mind-bending orgasms – but it’s such fun, and so effective…The few interviewees are well chosen. Inordinately charming sex-positive influencer Jess Megan talks with as little coyness or embarrassment about her work, her toys and the opportunities toy use offers women as I’ve ever heard. Perimenopausal sexual wellness coach Mangala Holland talks frankly about the specific issues affecting older women, and accountant Michael speaks very movingly about finding freedom in wearing women’s lingerie”
Lucy Mangan The Guardian

“This series has been an unalloyed joy, Skinner and Mina’s sheer love of the poetry shining like a sunbeam through a Lakeland mist. Their chemistry and obvious fondness for each other mirrors the poets’ partnership too, although fortunately without the fractures that followed Will and Sam’s row over the second edition of Lyrical Ballads…Part manifesto, part confession, this was full of love and guts and authenticity. A seeing into the life of things, as dear old William W once had it.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“The logic of Sinclair’s approach was more in evidence in episode two because it showed the Edwards’s cocooned world finally meeting reality in the form of unarguable evidence presented by almost comically indelicate coppers…However, my main beef is that while Colman and Thewlis are mesmerising, with the queasy, horrible magic of Sinclair’s writing and Will Sharpe’s directing exerting an undeniable pull, I cannot escape feeling that this drama is an accomplished bag of tricks masking what is essentially conjecture. Conjecture that doesn’t really have anything fresh to say.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“Their stories were told in three interweaving yet non-chronological narratives, a bold creative move that resulted in a head-scratching first few episodes and which may have put off more casual viewers…The world of the show also opens up, too; whereas the first season felt focused on laying the groundwork for the characters, the second season fleshes out the rest of this universe. Game of Thrones fans who may have missed the politicking of Westeros will be pleased by this widened worldbuilding: as the narrative zooms out from the core trio, we begin to get a sense of the moving chess pieces of the various kingdoms and their political machinations, and of the divisions that exist in this world.”
Alim Kheraj, The i 

“This might have made a fun, five-minute feature on The One Show, but watching workers decorate trees for an entire hour became frankly dull.The Kew Gardens shows are usually packed with interesting facts about exotic horticulture. This time, as the gift shop staff showed off their bags of potpourri and a historian lectured us on the uses of frankincense 2,000 years ago, it all rather dragged on.But you can’t accuse Kew of being apathetic about festivities. The vast glass houses now look like visiting spaceships, thanks to a million bulbs and projector beams.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail