Two Doors Down; Fifa Uncovered; The Crown

“Cathy, played by Doon Mackichan, has left Colin for an estate agent in Sharm El Sheikh. This cast change, prompted by Mackichan upping sticks for reasons unknown, gave Two Doors Down an opportunity as well as a problem. The problem, slightly predictably, was that Doon Mackichan was the funniest thing in Two Doors Down – without her it lagged horribly (and I have to say that even with her it was never the peppiest of sitcoms). Two Doors Down relied on Cathy for incident, visual humour and punchlines. She was the show’s Dorien Green or Kramer. For the balance of the show – for the jokes, frankly – she needs replacing, fast.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“The departure of Doon Mackichan from Two Doors Down after nine years might seem to spell the end for the series. Her lairy, drunken, selfish monster of a suburban housewife, Cathy, worked like petrol on the script — sometimes fuelling laughs, sometimes setting everything ablaze. But the charm of this sitcom is the way it takes the smallest variation on a theme and makes something unique from it. It’s all scripted to perfection and performed with hypnotic rhythm as the characters swing constantly from world-weariness to sudden, gossipy excitement. Who’d have thought that Two Doors Down could become even funnier?”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“No disrespect to Mackichan, one of our smartest comedy actors (and presumably greatly in demand, hence her absence), but I’m quite pleased to see the back of Cathy. Essentially a reiteration of Abigail from Abigail’s Party, the boozy, socially ambitious Cathy regularly dominated a comedy that works better on more understated rhythms. Jonathan Watson excelled as the forlorn Colin, the glazed expression on his face worth the price of admission alone as Beth attempted to teach him how to cook.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Although it drags in its overdetailed final episode and could have been trimmed from four hours to three, Fifa Uncovered for the most part is a queasily thrilling chronicle of allegations and fishy coincidences, with cash appearing in brown envelopes when a big vote is taking place, and disappearing when it ought to be going to worthy development projects. The brazen wrongdoing of some of the individuals involved gives the programme the addictive repulsiveness of a true-crime documentary.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“I’m guessing you’re bored to the back teeth with it already. Me too. Play your tiny violins, do, because this series is also the hardest yet to review as it is so inconsistent. While a few episodes are outstanding, others are so boringly flabbed out that they barely scrape three stars.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The reality is that The Crown ran out of steam a while ago. It was intended as a piece of historical fiction, playing on the way that the early days of Elizabeth II’s reign had disappeared into the fog of history. The longer it has gone on, the more it has assumed an exhaustive and soap operatic quality.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent