The Great British Bake Off; Prince Andrew: On Trial; Football’s Financial Shame

“While the jokes could definitely do with (im)proving, somehow this show keeps pulling you in. By the end of the opening episode the new bunch felt like old friends.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“Everyone is very jolly and nice, and the hour slips by in a pleasant pastel haze. Remember when The Great British Bake Off was a huge deal? Contestants became TV stars, and a binned baked Alaska made front page news. But these days it just hums along in the background. It’s sweet and pretty to look at, and that’ll do.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“As 12 new amateur bakers troop into the Bake Off tent for the show’s 16th series, I brace for a deluge of the inoffensive nice-ness with which the show has become synonymous. And sure enough, with its bloody bunting soaring into view within seconds, the opening episode of the year proves as insipid as ever.”
Emily Watkins, The i

“The show has risen to the occasion like a rampant soufflé when I, certainly, least expected it, and on the evidence of this first episode, I can see why it’s happened. The unchanged set of presenters and judges – Alison Hammond, Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith – are all very well, but they are, if not the icing on the cake, not the tastiest bits. The essential ingredient of any show such as this is its contestants, and this time the producers have excelled themselves.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“Everything about this fake trial was ropey. For a start, Andrew did not appear. He wasn’t even represented by an actor. And the trumped-up charge being tried was not a criminal one, nor anything like it. The 12 jurors simply had to decide this question: ‘Is Prince Andrew a liability to the Royal Family, yes or no?’”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It must rank as the most bizarre royal programme since Prince Edward roped the family into It’s a Knockout. The arbitrary nature of the evidence adds to the sense that this concept was thought up by someone coming off the back of a 48-hour bender.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Richard Milway’s documentary is a gripping, moving and human enough tale to inspire more than a little fellow feeling. Communicating their sense of impotence and unfairness is where the film excels. Rather than a detective story, it becomes a sensitive meditation on age, adversity and disappointment. It captures the melancholy of being an ex-pro.”
Phil Harrison, The Guardian