“It may not match the best of the crop on the other side of the Atlantic. But it’s ours and it really is awfully decent.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

The Hour, BBC2

“Writer Abi Morgan derives plenty of fizz from her plotting, and this series finale had buckets of drama to go with the satin frocks and vintage spectacles… The Hour may not match the best of the crop on the other side of the Atlantic. But it’s ours and it really is awfully decent.”
Ed Potton, The Times

“It felt as if the BBC were hastily finishing off this less than successful second season with two episodes in the last week, and tragically the finale had a pulse and an energy the preceding episodes just never attained.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Wrestling’s Golden Age – Grapples, Grunts and Grannies, BBC4

“Timeshift’s film wasn’t really about fakery but about fans, and the way in which wrestling went from being a discreditable music-hall spin-off, so authentically violent that it was banned by the London County Council, to a hugely popular television fixture watched by millions… Adrian Street started his career as Kid Tarzan but found it lacked a little oomph, publicity wise. So he turned himself into ‘The Exotic One’, a startling combination of glam-rock metrosexuality and Welsh miner. To watch him blowing air kisses at enraged opponents or skipping girlishly out of reach of a countermove, was to be convinced that wrestling, if it wasn’t sport, occasionally reached the heights of performance art.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

The 15-Stone Babies, Channel 4

“I’m probably making it sound more like a teehee, look-at-these-deviant-freaks kind of show than it is. Liz Allen’s film is better than that. It’s measured, sober, thoughtful, sensitive. She asks questions, and gets answers – frank, honest answers… It’s not about despairing of humanity; more about discovering – and attempting to understand – a little-known corner of it.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Pensioners Behind Bars, ITV1

“While John’s account offered no excuses or hard luck stories, it did seem to be remarkably free of responsibility. It had just happened. I found myself wondering if lives of crime really did often start that way or if I was just being hoodwinked by a number of twinkly-eyed pensioners with a clever way of presenting the truth.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Old people today, they’re a menace, aren’t they?”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

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