No Return; Starstruck; 60 Days With the Gypsies

“At first I imagined this would be a sort of dark Benidorm, but set in Turkey, with gruff Turkish policemen from Central Casting and the mood varying between serious and northern slapstick. It soon became something more complicated. It was a good performance by Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Noah, a monosyllabic, insular teenager. This is one of those dramas where it will be far more interesting (ie less clichéd) if Noah is guilty than if he is wrongly accused.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The show was created by Danny Brocklehurst, whose credits include Clocking Off, Brassic and Shameless. Fair play to him for producing a drama that isn’t a gloomy British police procedural, and I bet it’s a ratings hit. Serkis gets it spot on as the confused teenager. But we’ve reached the point of Sheridan Smith overload in recent weeks – not her fault, but an accident of scheduling, with Channel 5’s The Teacher and BBC One’s Four Lives. There are only so many times you can see her playing variations on the same feisty character.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“No Return is no Benidorm. Despite the non-stop sunshine, it’s chilling. Sheridan, who played an alcoholic teacher accused of sexual assault herself on C5 last week, and who will be a judge this Saturday on ITV’s singing contest Starstruck, is superb in roles like this. She can be brassy, angry and sharp-elbowed, never afraid to go too far and make viewers dislike her.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Smith is always very relatable when portraying people in extremely stressful situations, and you fully feel her frustration here with the intransigent authorities, slippery lawyer and passive husband. She is a mother who will do anything – including bribery – to free her son. This show is engaging enough to mean you’ll probably want to watch her take the risks. Unless, that is, you have a family all-inclusive to Izmir booked.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“At its best it’s a stellar showcase for Sheridan Smith, but, for most of its runtime, it’s little more than a medley of worst-case scenarios. Ultimately, it has as much to say about the trials of package holidays as it does about the criminal justice system.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“Series two is as much of a treat as the first. In an era of self-destructive and self-flagellating female protagonists, Jessie’s gentle messiness is a tonic. There are few series that can sustain being watched in one sitting, but Starstruck is one of them, and I would argue that this lovely, warm, witty series even benefits from a binge-watch. Each episode may be short and sweet, but the cumulative effect is magical.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Matafeo’s heroine is immensely likeable and powers the show, but is a much more rounded character than Tom, whose world as a movie star seems more like a backdrop than a fully realised one. Otherwise, this was a sweetly worked establishing episode, which, unlike the majority of romcoms, ventured beyond the happily-ever-after stage.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Starstruck is just as huge-hearted as it was the first time around. It’s also shrewdly observed and gloriously silly, and the casting is spot-on – but it’s not as funny as the first series. The lack of chemistry between Girl and Boy induces more anxiety than laughter. Sometimes you think, if you have to try that hard to make it work, it’s probably not meant to be.”
Ellie Harrison, The Independent

“It’s just as well, given recent events, that Jimmy Carr wasn’t presenting 60 Days With the Gypsies. That would have been awkward. Instead it was the explorer Ed Stafford who set out to live in a camper van with various Traveller communities to give that rarest of things — a balanced perspective.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“With the furore about comedian Jimmy Carr’s joke about the Gypsy community in his recent Netflix stand-up special still raging, surely this documentary wouldn’t add fuel to the fire? Sighs of relief all round. This was a far less provocative production than Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, more noble in its intentions – and thankfully without the unsavoury whiff of sneering class tourism that tainted the previous production. The documentary reached some hard-hitting conclusions and packed real emotional punch.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph