The Witchfinder

“Written by Neil and Rob Gibbons, the screenwriting brothers responsible for a number of Alan Partridge’s finest moments, on paper The Witchfinder felt as close to a sure thing as it’s possible to get on British TV. In practice, with a stellar cast and a novel premise, that was proven: you’ll struggle to find 30 better minutes right now.”
Lauren O’Neill, The i

“Somehow, like a usually brilliant wizard on an off day, the BBC has chucked some of the very finest talents into their cauldron of comedy – but produced something mediocre. Where The Witchfinder should be a potion of powerful trouble, it is merely quite amusing, not-bad television.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“The first episode was one of those comedies that’s more clever than laugh-out-loud funny, despite much loving detail and rich characterisation. Rather like This Time with Alan Partridge, it is the kind of thing that works better on a second viewing, when you catch some of the more blink-and-you-miss-it humour.”
James Jackson, The Times

“It has occasional fine flourishes, but for the most part The Witchfinder unfortunately seems as if it was put together by people who remember a GCSE plague project, have read the Wikipedia entry for 17th-century witchfinder Matthew Hopkins and hoped that would be enough.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“It has impeccable credentials. I wish I liked it more. But it’s silly fun, and things perk up after the first episode when we get into the Civil War and the cast list expands.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The Witchfinder is simply dire. It’s confused, it’s tasteless, it’s slow, it’s laboured, it’s unoriginal, it’s clunky and it’s repetitive. Above all, it’s desperately unfunny.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail