“Although it didn’t tell us much we didn’t know, it was a well-presented anatomy of a narcissist unable to stop himself grabbing, literally, whatever he wanted”
“The programme follows what is now, sadly, an established formula. The entertainer’s career is outlined, salient points emphasised and commentary supplied from TV insiders such as Michael Grade and Mark Lawson explaining the place the star had in the social firmament. All this is interspersed with accounts from those who were exploited by him. That we have seen and heard it all before in recent documentaries about celebrities doesn’t lessen its power but gives it cumulative strength.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
“Although it didn’t tell us much we didn’t know, it was a well-presented anatomy of a narcissist unable to stop himself grabbing, literally, whatever he wanted.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“Those who still recall the details of the case might wonder about the merit in making a programme like this, several years after the trial took place, when it brings nothing new to light – particularly as this is not like the case of Jimmy Savile, in which management failures allowed him to continue his abuse for decades. But it is perfectly well-made and brings Harris’s crimes, as his failing health hits the headlines, back into sharp relief.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph
Open House: The Great Sex Experiment, Channel 4
“I missed the first series of Open House: The Great Sex Experiment, which was a great blessing. I could happily have got through life without seeing Kirsty having sex with her legs in the air, a grainy bedroom-cam trained on her jiggling open-toed high-heeled sandal.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“Channel 4’s Open House: The Great Sex Experiment is horrible. Not just horrible in the ways you expect: watching women in Ann Summers lingerie and men in unappealing underpants have sex on television, with all the sounds amplified. Or the cringemakingly suburban Britishness of it all. No, the true horribleness is in the bit leading up to the sex.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph
“Alexander Armstrong In Sri Lanka gives him the chance to explore some of the stranger sights, such as a Buddhist temple with a chamber of horrors, and a factory making paper from elephant dung. Most of all, his travelogues allow him to indulge his foodie yearnings. His love of new dishes and tastes is an unfeigned enthusiasm. I’d like to see him make a travel show concentrating solely on the gastronomy.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
Muted, Netflix.
“Normally a bad drama has a plot with holes in it. Spanish psychological thriller Muted is more like a black hole sucking in the occasional drifting nugget of narrative, destroying each one without trace. Rarely has such a serious-minded miniseries made so little sense.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian
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