“There could hardly be anyone better qualified to examine Britain’s care-home culture.” Read on for the verdict on last night’s TV.

Neil Morrissey: Care Home Kid

“Whatever, he [Neil Morrissey] remains an engaging screen presence, and there could hardly be anyone better qualified to examine Britain’s care-home culture, currently responsible for the raising of almost 90,000 children.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

“It’s painful of course, as you would expect of the reopening of old wounds. It’s also touching and moving. You come away from it thinking – in spite of his bad behaviour, nil moral standards and inability to tell right from wrong – that Neil Morrissey has done remarkably well to turn out the way he has. But also that he is one of the lucky ones.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Dispassion made complete sense by the end of the film. Because as much as the tales of outright abuse, physical and sexual, that he uncovered were abhorrent, another, quieter, picture emerged alongside. This was one of repression, of lives lived around routine, not emotions.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Rather than presenting us with a long version of the poor-me game, Morrissey is channelling his feelings into a fair-minded enquiry.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“Ostensibly a documentary series about the ins, and more specifically the outs, at the Princess Anne maternity hospital in Southampton, One Born Every Minute, it has become increasingly clear, is actually a social, economic and cultural study of contemporary Britain that just happens to be through the prism of childbirth.”Brian Viner, The Independent

Bored to Death, Sky Atlantic

“Written by Jonathan Ames, Jason Schwartzman plays, erm, Jonathan Ames, a Brooklyn-based writer who whimsically decides to moonlight as a private detective. In fact, the show has been going since 2009 in the US, and on first acquaintance, it’s extremely welcome here.”
Brian Viner, The Independent

The Dales, ITV1

“Compared with Morrissey’s though, Adrian Edmonson’s [childhood] was a walk in the park. Literally. They used to come out from Bradford to walk and picnic in the Yorkshire Dales national park, and marvel at Ribblehead viaduct.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Thailand: Tourism and the Truth – Stacey Dooley Investigates, BBC3

“The brilliant thing about Stacey is she doesn’t stop at the expose; she then sets about making it right. So she sets up a meeting with the hotel management to try to improve workers’ conditions, and with the prime minister of Thailand, to save some sea gypsies.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Waking the Dead, BBC1

“The knottiest mysteries boil down to the simplest explanations. It’s just that TV detectives never seem to realise this until the last five minutes.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

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