TV Critics: DCI Banks; Surviving Sandy Hook; India's Daughter; Great Comic Relief Bake Off; Being Bipolar

“I am underacquainted with DCI Banks, but perversely I admired its pessimism last night. DI Helen Morton coolly informed the grieving Banks that there was no heaven. “It is all just a construct to answer basic existential doubt.” And they sell adverts during this show?”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“You’d never call DCI Banks ground-breaking stuff. But last night’s episode gave us a shock. Instead of clouds scudding across big skies and stone-faced sleuths shot from the boots upwards, this was really a British TV detective mystery trying to be just that. Sometimes a show hits the heights by aiming low.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Britain’s most sensitive and emotionally vulnerable copper was in shock after his mother died. She passed away quietly, in hospital, after a stroke. That’s a bizarre way to go, in Banks’s world. Much more normal was the killing of a beautician, who took a shower, packed a hacksaw in her duffle bag and then went out with a friend who buried her alive. DCI Bank barely raised an eyebrow at that. He hasn’t spotted the obvious clue yet, though: what does a beautician want with a hacksaw? She might crack a nail.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“What works well for DCI Banks is that the police investigating the various crimes are simply doing their jobs, rather than indulging in a personal crusade that will involve them facing and then slaying their demons. DCI Banks is not ground-breaking, but after spending eight weeks watching Olivia Colman and David Tennant do the TV drama equivalent of cleaning the Augean stables, it was nice to watch a detective drama that made sense and was sure of itself.”
Chris Bennion, The Independent

“The film focused not on the shootings, but on the secondary tragedy of grief as the mourning families attempted to honour the memories of the dead. All conducted in the slightly Rothian weirdness of an enduring conspiracy theory that the massacre was a hoax. All three families are beyond brave to talk about their experiences to camera and we were lucky to witness them.”
Will Dean, The Independent

“The This Worlddocumentary Surviving Sandy Hookcould so easily have been a wallow in grief. Jezza Neumann’s subtly brilliant documentary instead took a snapshot of America, in light and shade. The film had heart-breaking moments but it was also a testament to American optimism at its best: practical, civilised and determined.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“ThisWorld: Surviving Sandy Hook mentions the killer’s name only twice and no pictures of his face are shown. It is the first sign that this moving and mostly sensitive study of the passage of grief won’t play fast and loose with the usual media response to such murders. Much of the documentary is difficult to see through a wash of tears.”
Julia Raeside, The Guardian

“Storyville:India’sDaughter verged on the unwatchable. For its eye-watering brutality, and also for its resonant symbolism, this was the case to ignite furious demonstrations, which in turn were violently suppressed by riot police. Peering behind the headlines and the hysteria, Leslee Udwin’s overpowering documentary featured interviews with a wide range of people connected to the case.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“This documentary was always going to be a tough watch. But the details of the brutal gang rape and murder of medical student Jyoti Singh need to be shared if we want to strive for gender equality across the world. India’s Daughter is a necessary watch – not just for the women of India but for women across the world.”
Neela Debnath, The Independent

“Clearly no one apart from Victoria actually watched the Great British Bake Off before they agreed to do this gig for Comic Relief. But at the end of the day, this programme is here to raise money for causes that desperately need them. Tonight Paul’s visit to a centre that helps returning veterans adjust to life away from the front line was the real moment of drama and poignancy.”
Neela Debnath, The Independent

“This has been an entertaining, soufflé-light series to tide us over until the Bake Off proper returns this summer. As for tonight’s jolly and absorbing instalment, Ed Byrne made a genial guest host and seemed to have borrowed Perkins’s specs for his stint.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Being Bipolar was an intelligent, thoughtful film presented by psychotherapist Philippa Perry, who questioned some of the current fads in the treatment of mental health. Perry, unlike many a telly expert, wasn’t suffering delusions of grandeur. She was simply wondering whether mental illness might have causes other than chemical and treatments other than pills. Sadly, in today’s blinkered world, that sort of thinking can get you sectioned.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“It felt incredibly intimate, and well done to the three people featured for being brave enough to show their struggles on TV. Normally it’s a platitude, but you could see that watching this ought to increase public understanding of an often misunderstood condition. At least a notch.”
Will Dean, The Independent