“It ends up as something more like Top Boy for Guardian readers”
Sherwood, BBC 1
”The new series of Sherwood is exceptional. It is very different to the first but Graham’s talent for understanding the human condition, for depicting the taste and texture of Nottingham — once nicknamed “Shottingham” after a wave of gun and drug crime — and for creating complex, believable characters is every bit as potent as last time.”
”This is not the conceptual masterpiece that season one was, but each episode is still gripping and deeply exciting. The series is paced incredibly well, filled with action, and retains the ability to shock and surprise. It is also beautifully shot and keeps the same visual language with heavy nods to back Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest, using nature to create an air of mystery that made season one such a treat to watch.”
”Though the season starts as an unsteady retread of ground covered in the first series, soon enough the muzzles start flaring and the blood starts flowing. If it aspired to be a “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” version of Line of Duty, it ends up as something more like Top Boy for Guardian readers.”
Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me, BBC 1
”It can be uncomfortable watching documentaries about sad and scary subject matters, but this isn’t a mournful, grief-stricken sort of film. If anything, you’ll feel heartened: Amy is a remarkably resilient person – because she has to be – and it’s hard to not feel a great deal of hope.”
”Dowden’s commitment to telling the truth about her ordeal is disarming. There was no sugar-coating when it comes to the gruelling chemotherapy. Her cancer was aggressive and so must the treatment be. She let us see her hooked up to the infusion of drugs, a cold cap on her head attached to a cooling system which is supposed to decrease blood flow to her scalp and give her the possibility of keeping her hair.”
Sven, Prime Video
”Sven, a feature-length documentary about the football coach, meets him before and after he receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. This knowledge, set against the crisp beauty of Eriksson’s home country, lends Sven a profundity that most sports biographies can’t reach for – but there is plenty to laugh and scream at in a beguiling, multi-faceted film.”
”Alongside the cancer documentary, there is a whole other documentary, no doubt filmed prediagnosis, which has been squished, ineptly, into a complete hot-mess orgy of vanity, selfishness and narcissism.
”The director wastes no time in flogging this dying man’s failings, even — gasp — dredging up Faria Alam, a PA who shagged Sven, along with his boss, Mark Palios, then did a kiss-and-tell, letting us know — here an actor stepped up to voice their quotes, to get the full flavour — ’Sven had a great body and he performed a certain sex act in a very satisfying way’.”
Camilla Long, The Sunday Times
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