“It felt like a fascinating documentary in disguise.” Read on for the full verdict on last night’s television.

breaking the mould

Breaking the Mould, BBC4
“Nice enough but never really took off; it was just too well-behaved.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

“… never the most exciting or emotional of dramas. Rather, it felt like a fascinating documentary in disguise.”
Andrew Pettie, Daily Telegraph

“Problem is, scientific development, faithfully rendered, is probably always going to be as gripping as a double period of acid-base titration.”
Esther Addley, The Guardian

“…rather implied that Fleming had dishonourably taken a credit that wasn’t his … I don’t think the budget quite stretched to a Spitfire fly-past but you could feel the hankering there.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

 

Silverville, BBC1

“Film-maker Liz Allen pressed her interviewees beyond the enforced jollity that we like the old to adopt in order to hide the sorrows of a diminishing life… There is some drama that doesn’t need a script.”
Esther Addley, The Guardian

“A series of charming, poignant interviews”
Andrew Pettie, Daily Telegraph

 

Engineering Britain’s Superweapons, More 4
“A story of the right stuff applied to the wrong end.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent