Big Oil v the World; Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds?; The Thing About Pam; Bangers And Cash: Restoring Classics

“No one in this programme explores the hideous political ramifications of this terrible state of affairs, namely that the virus of capitalism (in the form of big oil) undercut democracy through a sustained campaign of disinformation. How easy it proved for corporations to sucker politicians such as Hagel to subvert not just the will of the people but the wellbeing of the planet. If McMullen’s film has a moral, it’s that democracy must be healthy enough to resist commercial lobbying, so that we don’t get fooled again.” 
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“It was an eye-opening look at the dark art of corporate communication. One of those PR people says now that he regretted his involvement: “I was clearly on the wrong side of history.” What the film lacked was sufficient context. We were told that the film-makers drew on documents from the Exxon archive, which is held by the University of Texas. Were these all new revelations? How much damage did this one company do? How to quantify Big Oil’s contribution to today’s “climate chaos”? The picture felt incomplete.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph 

“The documentary was compiled meticulously, exhaustively and without gimmicky dramatics, which always helps in my view, though sometimes it was so dense with material, newspaper headlines and documents flitting like confetti across the screen that it was dizzying and hard to read. Still, when you have on camera, for example, the former Republican senator Chuck Hagel, who helped to kill the US ratification of the Kyoto climate treaty, saying of the lobbying oil companies who spread a “grand fog” of doubt that “they lied” and “I was misled” and that their dishonesty had “cost the world”, you have a star witness.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds? invites many questions about Britain’s most lucrative burglary spree” 
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“Ecclestone is an unsympathetic central figure. Shot in glossy, manicured close-up…But the lasting impression of Ben Bryant’s documentary is a tale of haves and have-nots. Asked what she would like to tell the gang, Ecclestone responds: “That they are disgusting. I just find it sickening that people are such low lives.” As she says this, the string-infused score swells emotively, but it’s hard not to imagine those notes being played on the world’s smallest violin.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent 

“There is no shortage of plot here, but the programme-makers are too concerned with the quirky tone – they think they’ve produced the next Fargo – to have considered the pacing, or any attempt to explore Hupp’s motivations. There is no mystery or suspense, because the show tells us from the outset that Hupp is the villain.” 
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“In the main, though, it’s a show about stupid little people in a tacky, nondescript town. It may well be that everyone involved in the Faria case was genuinely as naive as they seem, but it creates unrewarding drama and unsophisticated comedy: the scenes concerning local law enforcement devolve into a clunky workplace sitcom” 
Jack Seale, The Guardian 

“Part of the fun is trying to spot the bargains, and this twist on the format raises the stakes. The Astra was a mess, with sun-bleached paint and carpets so grotty they renamed it the Vauxhall Ashtray. But auctioneer Derek Mathewson urged the team along, promising that when the car was back to factory condition, ‘they’ll be listening to Duran Duran all day long’. Save a prayer for the producers.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail