Legends; Amandaland

“Because it feels so reminiscent of similar shows (not just The Gold but also Slow Horses, This City is Ours and even The Cage, which only came out last week) Legends feels unambitious. Yet, at the same time, all the components are solid. A good cast playing believable characters, dealing with a script that only occasionally tips into contrivance. It also looks better than most shows on Netflix, with Forsyth and series directors Brady Hood and Julian Holmes afforded an unusually murky colour palette. The 1980s are effectively evoked, but never a distraction from a story that feels pertinent in our present day. It’s all extremely competent.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“It is a great story – plucky underdogs risking life and limb for noble ideals (a drug-free country! The protection of impoverished, vulnerable and innocent people!) while baddies wait to pounce on mistakes – and the establishment are braced to grab any credit for themselves. You can see why Forsyth (best known for The Gold which dramatised the Brink’s-Mat robbery) and its aftermath, which touches on some similar state-of-the-nation themes) was drawn to it. He mostly, if sometimes very, very narrowly avoids falling into the ever yawning trap that a story about customs officers becoming the A-Team inevitably faces, which is the potential for bathos, if not outright risibility. “You think a few customs officers can take on the biggest drug gang in Britain?” (as the Home Sec says to Blake) is a line that could easily come from a sitcom or a comedy sketch.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“While everyone in this strong ensemble cast delivers, the standout performance comes from Burke as Guy (based on a real legend known as Guy Stanton, whom Forsyth interviewed for the series). He stalks around like a man possessed by his alter ego: wild-eyed, quick-witted and brave. Burke brings alive a character conflicted by his responsibility to his family and the all-encompassing high delivered through his new life. This is glossy, big-budget drama filled with adrenaline — and a mighty fine early 1990s soundtrack — but it’s not without moments of comic relief, giving it a British feel that will undoubtedly please fans of Forsyth’s previous work on the BBC.”
Tim Glenfield, The Times

“I wouldn’t describe it as a feel-good story, exactly, but the emphasis here is on the ingenuity and bravery of these amateur investigators rather than the darkness of the drug trade. A postscript informs us that undercover investigators in the 1990s helped British law enforcement seize heroin with a street value of more than £1bn, and finally we’re learning some of the remarkable ways they went about it.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“If God really does love a trier, he’d absolutely adore Amandaland’s Amanda Hughes. The former owner of west London boutique Hygge Tygge may be in her idea of the gutter – she’s a single mum recently relocated from a spacious house in Chiswick to a Harlesden maisonette (which she has to clean herself) and currently working in sales for a high-street kitchen company – but she’s fixated on those stars. Don’t be fooled by the outrageous laziness and negligence she brings to her actual job; when it comes to her true calling of becoming a successful influencer in order to promote her bland lifestyle brand Senuous, she’s really putting the hours in. In this sense, Amanda slots neatly into a lineage of British comedy icons; file her next to the delusional, narcissistic, indefatigable likes of Alan Partridge and David Brent.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“As Amandaland returned for a second series, anything less than comic excellence was bound to be a disappointment. We needn’t have worried. This show is bursting with invention, so full of possibilities that it crams three or four sources of fun into half an hour and plunders all of them gleefully.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Maill

“It’s a rare supporting character that can survive the step up to headline act, but season two only underlines the fact that Amanda was far too good to keep on the margins. She’s well on her way to achieving BBC comedy icon status. Only don’t tell her that – it’ll just inflate that already super-sized ego.”
Katie Rosseinsky, The Independent

““So you post a picture of yourself eating cake and that’s a job?” asked a baffled Joanna Lumley in the new series of Amandaland (BBC1), neatly summing up the absurdity of being a social media influencer. Luckily for us, it’s a job with endless comic potential, and this second series overflows with jokes about Amanda (Lucy Punch) trying and failing to become a luxury content creator. It remains the BBC’s best sitcom by a country mile.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“It’s still very sharply written and cleverly observed, and Punch is brilliant in the role — the head mic and TED talk-style jog onto the stage were perfect, as was Amanda talking up her “Hong Kong Shanghai” financing (she got a three-grand loan from HSBC). Joanna Lumley remains absolutely fabulous as her mother. But we’ve been here before.”
Ben Dowell, The Times