Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter

“There is something mesmeric about repetitive motion with a pair of sticks in the middle of the countryside in Scotland, where contestants got emotional about an insufficiently large neck hole or the feet of a goose decorating a tank top. It is a wholesome antidote to all the toxicity that befouls life beyond the Scottish ‘yarn barn’. Would I be kicking myself if I missed an episode of this? No. But it is perfectly pleasant and pure — and let’s just be thankful it’s not another dating show.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Produced with all the panache and drama of The Great British Bake Off, and aimed at the five million-strong audience that watches BBC1’s The Great British Sewing Bee, the format is an obvious, instant hit. It started with ten contestants, enough to supply a variety of lively characters without overwhelming us. The setting is a canny one: not a marquee nor a disused mill, but a barn in the Scottish Highlands. And the producers have picked the right presenter in Olympic diver and knitwear enthusiast Tom Daley.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Tom Daley is a joy, a twinkling whirl of unforced cheer whose obvious passion for all things wool manages to – oh, go on then – knit the whole thing together. And lo, a potentially soggy-bottomed GBBO facsimile is instantly transformed into something that is at least 80% less rubbish than it could have been. It is, in a very real sense, The Great British Cast-Off.”
Sarah Dempster, The Guardian

“As a proper knitting head, I was ready to find fault in the show – that it would make something I love too cringe, or undervalue its history, or just ask the impossible and humiliate contestants. How wrong I was. Tom Daley is a surprisingly capable host and, despite my reservations, is only centre stage in the press coverage, not the show proper. The sense of peril is both knowingly ridiculous and dead serious, balanced with a sense of fun. And Game of Wool even pulls off moments that are genuinely moving.”
Sadhbh O’Sullivan, The i

“Whether you have a high tolerance for puns or groan every time you learn that a contestant is about to be ‘cast off’, it’s a privilege to watch these talented, tolerant and thin-skinned folk compete. Obviously, the mood between them could change. And it would arguably be fitting if the barn proved to be a viper’s nest. But with or without blood-shed and bonking, this is must-see TV.”
Charlotte O’Sullivan, The Independent

“I admired the contestants’ skill and infectious passion, if not the viewing that resulted. When the most thrilling moment in an hour of TV is a tank top’s neck-hole being slightly too small, you’re in trouble. It might be the season of snuggling up under a woolly blanket, but this needle-clacking contest is cosy to the point of snooze-inducing. This was less ripping yarn, more holey jumper.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph