Simon Reeve’s Return to Cornwall; Great Expectations; Surviving R Kelly III

“Everywhere Reeve went there was hardship. The ‘working poor’, a phrase that should shame a first-world country, were relying increasingly on food banks because wages haven’t kept pace with costs. Reeve has made programmes on every continent, yet he said that Don Gardner, who helped to run a food bank in Camborne, was one of the most inspirational people he had met, which is quite a compliment.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“This a follow-up to a show made over the summer of 2020; this time Reeve visited the county in winter, and painted a gloomy picture. He looked at the plight of locals who are struggling with the cost of living and the shortage of affordable housing – the latter an acute problem in a place where one in 10 properties is a holiday home. Reeves is an empathetic interviewer and a presenter with his eye on the bigger picture. There are no easy answers to these problems, but at least he’s asking the questions.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Great Expectations moved up a gear from last week’s unremarkable offering. If, that is, we ignore the regrettable and rather desperate depiction of Mr Pumblechook as a BDSM whipping fetishist, with Pip’s elder sister his paid dominatrix. Otherwise there was more oomph to last night’s episode, largely because Olivia Colman’s sadistic, gurning Miss Havisham was centre stage.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Nobody wants a naked Mr Pumblechook and yet here we are, watching him getting sexual kicks from being whipped by Mrs Gargery the dominatrix. Miss Havisham, one of the greatest creations in English literature, is now a smackhead. And the nadir: a seemingly respectable lady from the church is revealed to be a prostitute, hired by Miss Havisham to take Pip’s virginity on his 18th birthday. Writer Steven Knight has dreamt up scenes, characters and dialogue that he would like to put in a drama – any drama – and inserted them into this one, just because he can.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Every aspect of this adaptation is bad beyond belief, but most of all it brutally exposes the limitations of Steven Knight as a storyteller. The pacing is awful, with long dull stretches punctuated by overwrought moments. Computer-generated backgrounds are two-dimensional, and indoor scenes are so badly lit that the characters are hardly visible. All of this is simply what we’ve come to expect from BBC costume dramas. What wrecks it beyond salvage is Knight’s inability to create conflict between characters without resorting to sex, drugs or violence.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Watching the four episodes, repulsion and righteous fury give way to immense pride in every activist, survivor, journalist and film-maker who took on this wolf in wolf’s clothing and demanded he be held accountable. Seeing their relief when Kelly is finally convicted is genuinely glorious.”
Leila Latif, The Guardian