Andrew: The Problem Prince; Clive Myrie’s Italian Road Trip; The Windsors: Coronation Special

“Andrew: The Problem Prince was exactly the sort of documentary that the royals would not want broadcast five days before a coronation. It was the bird splat in the street party punchbowl, running Prince Andrew’s dirty linen up the flagpole to remind us how he sleepwalked into his own TV massacre.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“What saves Andrew: The Problem Prince – although it’s still a close-run thing – from being an unforgivable media masturbatory session, allowing the people involved with the interview to cover themselves in further glory and pontificate about the power of journalism to hold the privileged and protected to account, is the proximity of its broadcast to the coronation. It reminds us all that the monarchy contains and tolerates the likes of the Duke of York. He isn’t the first dodgy royal and he won’t be the last.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“To watch the first part on its own was to feel just a little short changed. I would highly recommend ploughing straight on to the second part, available now on All 4. That’s where we get the thoughts of Paul Tweed, a friend of the Duke’s and also a defamation lawyer. Thoughts that, you may surmise, include, ‘I really wouldn’t do that buddy if I were you.’ But there was plenty to be going on with in the first programme too – a car crash of this magnitude leaves a sizeable wreckage for forensics to pore over.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Andrew: The Problem Prince sets out in a two-part documentary to explain how the former second-in-line to the throne became a national liability and laughing stock. But the unintended consequence is to remind us that, far from being a bully and thick as cold porridge as we are constantly told, the duke can be an effortless charmer. It was half an hour before this profile uncovered anything to use in evidence against Andrew, and that was only a tendency to live beyond his means.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Episode one of Clive Myrie’s Italian Road Trip, in which our host drove around Puglia and Basilicata, gawped at some buildings and ate some food, was one of the better examples of a threadbare genre. Myrie was, I felt, good while dealing with the history, less so when his road trip veered (as all celebrity-goes-somewhere-for-no-reason TV must) – into Alan Partridge territory.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Clive Myrie must have imagined his Italian Road Trip would make him look adventurous, cosmopolitan and easy-going. Unluckily, and I wouldn’t have guessed this, he comes across as a bit of a bore when he’s off duty.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Channel 4’s The Windsors: Coronation Special really is the right royal treat we all need. Forget your Coronation Quiche; while you can’t eat this televisual feast, it’ll bring you a veritable regal banquet of fun. It’s all sublime, finely observed nonsense, exceptionally witty and sharply edited.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent