“It was full of wonders, and landscapes that seem to have come straight off a set designer’s drawing pad.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

Madagascar, BBC2

“The first of a three-part series about the natural history of what Attenborough described as “an orphaned chip of land”, it was full of wonders, and landscapes that seem to have come straight off a set designer’s drawing pad.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“There are 80 species of lemur on Madagascar and last night it seemed possible that Attenborough was going to explain how each one of them had adapted to the many landscapes of what he called “this curious wonderland”.
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“David Attenborough, who despite his long years in the bush could scarcely disguise his wonderment at the mysteries of Madagascar.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

A History of Ancient Britain, BBC2

“Unfortunately, someone’s encouraged him [Neil Oliver] to include regular bulletins on his own sense of wonder and astonishment and excitement, rather than concentrate on exclusively on the delivery of fact.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“This proved a demanding hour in which the visuals couldn’t keep pace with the epic narrative.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“It was hard to say with whom he had the greater rapport: Cheddar Man (c.7150 BC) or a wild looking bloke called John whose idea of a good time was to camp out all night chipping away at antlers to make harpoons with which he spectacularly failed to catch fish.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The take-home message from the first episode was that our prehistory had more to do with survival than events and discoveries.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

Romancing the Stone, BBC4

“Sooke had a tough task convincing us that the period from the Norman conquest to the reformation was a golden age for British sculpture because 90% of it was destroyed by Henry VIII’s henchmen. But he ardently eulogised the 10% that remains – such artworks as the Arundel tomb in Chichester cathedral, so beautiful that it melted even Philip Larkin into fond poetry.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“Sooke is the Brian Cox of visual art, and quite a find, even if the show was stolen by a clever moment of CGI that returned Wells Cathedral to its gaudily painted, red and white, medieval heyday.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

 

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