Alice Roberts: Our Hospital Through Time; 56 Days

“The first episode was not without its theatre of horrors. Roberts could be seen helping to cut off an unanaesthetised woman’s gangrenous legs with the use of other old torture instruments: a curved knife for the blackened leg flesh, then a bone saw to hack through the young lady’s femurs. Before you call the police, it was of course a re-enactment. Just be glad you don’t live in the 17th century. So far these demonstrations of medical horror are the only moments from the show you’re likely to remember in a month, and that’s probably because they’ll have caused mild PTSD. By comparison, the rest of the series can only be more mundane, if more reassuring.”
James Jackson, The Times

“BBC2’s A House Through Time brings history alive by tracing individual stories and, with the ghastly tale of Ellin French (who did survive, at least for a few months), Prof Alice seemed to be following that pattern. But she kept flipping forward to the modern day, reporting on the hospital’s work with cardiac and cancer patients, as well as renovations on the historic buildings. This could have been interesting too, if more time had been spent introducing the personalities. Instead, we met them briefly, sometimes just stopping for a chat in a corridor, before moving on. It was all too much for one episode, and it lacked structure and theme. Part-time travel, part medical documentary, it ended up being neither.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“As it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish AI content from the real thing, 56 Days will mess with your mind. You know it’s real, because here it is on Prime Video featuring actors with Google-able profiles. Yet this lifeless erotic thriller may as well be synthetic, with its generic plot and a beautiful female star whose face is the cosmetic doctor’s ideal. The whole thing feels custom-made for TikTok, where Amazon is currently promoting it with a clip of the two leads accompanied by the caption: “The chemistry is chemistrying.” I say “erotic thriller” because that’s how the series is billed, but despite frequent sex scenes, it’s about as hot as a walk through the frozen food aisle.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph