Wreck; Raising the Mary Rose; Karen Pirie

“With its original premise, game approach to genre-bending and admirable sense of silliness, Wreck certainly stands out, if not always for the right reasons. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of telly that BBC3 should be making: ambitious, audacious and, if not always entirely perfect, then bold enough in its convictions.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“It’s all fine. Wreck has got charm, it’s got a little bit of wit, it’s got youthful exuberance and energy, and even if it never develops much more than that, it will justify its place in the schedules. It’s fun, perhaps, rather than notably funny but sometimes that’s enough.”
Lucy Mangan The Guardian

“There’s not a great deal to recommend this barking mad drama, which is a cross between a high-school comedy movie and a slasher flick with the killer being Orville the Duck. To be fair, there were some funny lines and a kinky initiation ceremony for new crew members that involved a large dead fish. I’d guess it needs more funny characters and a more intriguing mystery to make most people last the full stretch, but if you want silly escapism, it’s here.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It stars young actors, it’s about young people being youthful and it’s chock full of heightened characters and antics. There’s so much colour and energy and hormones on screen that it makes you (okay, me) feel superannuated just watching it. Inevitably, therefore, there are misfires – I’m not sure we needed another shady multinational corporation who here are operating the good ship Sacramentum, just as we didn’t need another girl diving into a pool. But like a punk band at their first gig, Wreck’s energy is infectious.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“This camp horror thriller is a bit confused about its identity. Most of the time, it wants to be a soap mystery, with lots of partying and romances among the young crew. Now and then, it becomes a fluffier Blair Witch Project, with a serial killer in a fancy-dress duck costume stalking the cabins. And at odd moments, it turns supernatural, as the ghost of drowned entertainer Pippa (Jodie Tyack) materialises to stare at her brother Jamie (Oscar Kennedy) as he tries to find out the truth about how she died. The result is a tangle of comedy, snogging and gore.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The programme consisted largely of footage of the main players in the salvage operation being filmed watching the archive footage, like a sort of salty sea-dog Gogglebox. I wouldn’t for a minute want to suggest that the history of the Mary Rose, nor the gaunt hull itself that was lifted from the sea bed, nor the operation to do that lifting, was boring. But the whole lost tapes set-up, which was the reason given for the programme’s existence at all, was a red herring. It proved only that some ‘unseen’ archive footage is, in fact, unseen for a reason.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“I thought the Karen Pirie finale was terrific. Lauren Lyle has been perfectly cast in this role, despite looking about 12 years old. She has an open face that manages to be aloof and expressive at the same time, and this has been an admirably contained performance. In a story about how one selfish man had wrecked many lives and how sexism still prevails in the police, it managed to make strong feminist points without ramming them down the viewer’s throat.”
Carol Midgley, The Times