“Colossally boring, self-indulgent — and an insulting waste of the licence fee.” Read on for the full verdict on last night’s TV.

Feasts, BBC4
“Stefan Gates enjoyed doing it, and we all enjoyed watching it, just as we enjoyed most of the programme, even if there was a suspiciously small amount of food involved.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Feasts, BBC4
“It’s an amiable kind of travelogue.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

Feasts, BBC4
“Colossally boring, self-indulgent — and an insulting waste of the licence fee.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

Why Poetry Matters, BBC2
“Although I’d be the first to complain about celebrity-fronted arts documentaries, Griff proved to be a thoroughly engaging guide.”
Paul Whitelaw, The Scotsman

Why Poetry Matters, BBC2
“It got up my nose very early – when Griff skipped through a patch of daffodils, parodying the Fotherington-Thomas attitude to poetry – and then it stayed there, undislodgeable, for the next 50 minutes.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

Why Poetry Matters, BBC2
“It was all a bit bitty, intended, I think, to make poetry accessible.”
Nacny Banks-Smith, The Guardian

Why Poetry Matters, BBC2
“What is with the BBC’s nannyish desire to save and educate us? It typically amounts to a hideous tension between worthy intentions and witless execution.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

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