Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir; The Diplomat; Chimp Empire

“Painting Birds fails to achieve the bucolic bliss of Gone Fishing, because it refuses to relax. Sitting in a hide with an expert on waterfowl, Jim didn’t even pretend to listen. Instead, he was peering around the box with his binoculars, only paying attention when the cameraman spotted a peregrine falcon. He’s happier when it’s just him and Nancy. Driving across the causeway at low tide to the isle of Lindisfarne, he warned her they might have to spend the night there, cut off by the sea. ‘We could get stranded there?’ Nancy demanded. ‘I haven’t bought my pyjamas.’ That drew a dirty chuckle from Jim.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The programme is gentle but never boring – the tone reminded me of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, which features Vic’s old comedy partner Bob Mortimer similarly indulging his passions at a leisurely pace. There is something very winning about watching someone be enthusiastic about their subject.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“It’s a charming, slow-paced show even if I wished they’d ditched the background music and let us quietly watch Moir paint, something at which he’s very good. “Everyone’s an artist,” he said. “It’s just whether you carry on, and I never stopped.” Erm, have to disagree with you there, Jim. We are not all artists, as my lame Mr Potato Head efforts remain testament to.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The series is amiable enough without being award-bothering and any comedy is restricted to some light marital banter twixt Jim and Nancy. Anyone used to the more acerbically humorous exchanges between Jon Richardson and wife Lucy Beaumont on Meet the Richardsons might find the repartee good-humoured but rather innocuous.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i 

“Showrunner Debora Cahn previously worked as a writer and producer on Homeland and The West Wing. She has tried to recreate The West Wing vibe here, with peppy scripts for the tight-knit group running the US embassy. Cahn also acknowledges the similarities to Homeland; as Kate dashes around running her own intelligence operations, a character says: “She knows that she’s not CIA, right?””
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“The Diplomat is pacy, involving and surprisingly charming. With its fish-out-of-water main character and a woman in a man’s world undercurrents, it could have easily played on American cable TV in the mid-2010s. But its present-day conflicts make its subject matter feel current and entirely modern. Some say The West Wing (which can look hokey and sycophantic under a 2023 lens), wouldn’t stand a chance today. The Diplomat certainly does.”
Emily Baker, The i

“After a slightly turgid opening episode, The Diplomat becomes a hugely enjoyable ride and, while Russell rules the show, everyone around her is a brilliant addition and support. Like Martin Sheen in The West Wing, you only wish she could be playing the role in real life too. Imagine how much better off we’d be.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The wildlife unit filming Chimp Empire had all the right kit. This dramatic study of the biggest chimpanzee troupe ever discovered, with more than 120 animals in the forest of Ngogo in Uganda, is shot in ultra-high definition, giving it the look of a Hollywood superhero movie. Chimps swagger towards the camera in slow-mo, the picture so crisp and sharp that every bristling hair is visible. Drops of water fall and explode like glass balloons, and the butterflies seem as big as hang-gliders.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“This is masterfully done, as you would expect from a film-maker of [Jamie] Reed’s calibre and experience, and [Mahershala] Ali gives it a wonderful narrative heft. By the end, as the wheels turn on this ongoing tribal war, and the chimps’ strengths and weaknesses dictate their positions in the hierarchy, it is impossible not to be in thrall to the Ngogo and its mighty inhabitants.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian