“An obscure jewel to be snatched from TV's outflow pipe.” Read on for the critics' full verdict on last night's TV.

The Wire, FX
“Season five came back last night like a bitch on heat.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

The Wire, FX
“An obscure jewel to be snatched from TV's outflow pipe.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

Can't Read, Can't Write, C4
“This programme needed to be far more, well, educational.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

Can't Read, Can't Write, C4
“A decade or so ago, television would probably have tackled the issue with a sombre documentary. Here it's duly being tackled in a reality-TV style - which only goes to show how well the format can sometimes work.”
James Walton, The Daily Telegraph

Can't Read, Can't Write, C4
 “Along the way, it was often maddening, trying to turn a complex set of problems into a race against time (have you ever thought how much television could be improved by the simple expedient of banning the phrase ‘With just days to go...'.”
Robert Hanks, The Independent

Dragons' Den, BBC2
“Some of us watch Dragons' Den for the lame ducks - those inventions that never should have made it off the beermats upon which they were scribbled just before last orders.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Eating with the Enemy, BBC2
“This is what format-fixed, licence-fee bank-rolled, spiritually bankrupt British telly boils down to.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

Topics