Paddy and Christine McGuinness: Our Family and Autism; Positive; Farage: The Trump Interview; Landscapers

“Learning about Christine became more interesting than learning about her three lovely children, because they were so young (twins of eight and a younger daughter aged five), while she had been through school, got a job, got married, had babies, all without realising why she always felt “different”, why she cleaved to “beige food” and tended to “mirror” the behaviour and responses of those around her to get by… I’m sure every family’s experience of autism is different; this one was honest and life-affirming.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

”I am not in a position to say whether or not the documentary was helpful to parents of children with autism, but it explained a great deal about the condition…And it showed us the emotional toll…The need to wrap things up in an hour-long programme meant that the ending felt a little forced. But it was moving to see Paddy address the subject with such honesty, and the McGuinnesses’ love for their children shone through.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The finished product, Paddy and Christine McGuinness: Our Family and Autism, was more about the parents.The process was very moving, as she progressed from blithely saying it would be good to have the diagnosis, if it helped her children to know they were “just like mummy”, to crying with relief as she said she had always felt “difficult for everyone, like I’m a pain”.The focus was also on Paddy, who, with some bravery…He is still not perfect – in one conversation with an autistic child he exclaimed with surprise that one of her fears was “normal”.Yet the documentary gently made the point that lacking the most right-on language to discuss the condition did not make him less of a loving father, and did not negate his burning desire to understand and support his family.”
Barbara Speed, The i

“Throughout the show, her bravery and selflessness was immensely moving. For a long time, Paddy admitted, he could not face what autism might mean for his three adored children…He choked up repeatedly, trying to talk about how much he loves them, and how deeply he appreciates Christine for coping…Both of them are brilliant parents and everyone who watched will have been filled with admiration.”
Christopher Stevens Daily Mail

“An excellent documentary — zippy and moving at the same time. It reminded us that, thanks to what was termed by some in the popular press as the “gay plague”, the gay community was treated atrociously… Russell T Davies’s It’s a Sin dramatised this story brilliantly; here it was in devastating fact.” 
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It’s a Sin earlier this year can make it easy to forget that Britain’s HIV story has gone relatively unheard. Sky Documentaries’ Positive is an admirable attempt to change that… It captured the horror of receiving a diagnosis with no treatment and almost no medical knowledge attached to it, and how the HIV-positive were forced into a half-life…Fascinating, too, was the way the crisis played out in journalism and politics.”
Barbara Speed, The i

“The theme is one of uncertainty, gathering fear and a learning process that was painfully slow. Archive footage vividly recreates the atmosphere within a London gay scene that had really only just got going when a shadow loomed over it, and the programme does well to point out historical moments of interest…There is a lot to get through, which means every minute is precious. So it’s frustrating that the opening instalment feels like listening to someone who has so much knowledge to impart that they keep stopping to digress…The result is an hour of television that veers between informative and anecdotal, and at times feels impersonal when you want it to be militant.” 
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“The tone was of two chums shooting the breeze. After the cameras stopped rolling, it’s easy to picture the pair continuing their catch-up over a round of golf. And while it was of course fascinating to step back into Trump’s world, as political theatre the interrogation perhaps lacked that killer edge. It couldn’t have been any cuddlier had Farage arrived dressed as a teddy bear. Yet if Farage didn’t attempt many two-footed lunges during his 30 minutes with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Estate, he kept the conversation cracking on and made sure to touch on as many juicy areas as possible.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

”Landscapers is experimental in form and tone, slipping into monochrome for romantic gazes, breaking the fourth wall for exposition scenes, hopping around through time and space, showing us some of the machinery of cinema. But it’s not just those flourishes. The interiors have a rococo richness of texture, with not a picture or light or trinket unaccounted for. Even a shuffle through a train station becomes strangely gorgeous. You’re left with an inkling of how Wes Anderson’s work might looked if he had spent his childhood watching Cash in the Attic.”
Ed Cumming, The Independent