Ghislaine Maxwell: The Making of a Monster; Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams

“There is no shortage of articulate contributors or familiar faces but they are usually at a remove from the woman herself. We hear from observers and acquaintances who saw, often up close, how she operated, but can only speculate about her thoughts and feelings. The friends and loved ones who might do that more authoritatively are absent, perhaps nonexistent. This is not necessarily a weakness, because it stops The Making of a Monster falling into the trap of eliciting pity for its subject. Instead, we have a disgusted curiosity: Ghislaine Maxwell may not have been untouchable, but she moved in circles that made her unknowable. She’s better left that way.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“It does better than many of the previous films about Maxwell and her abhorrent co-conspirator, Jeffrey Epstein, in mapping Maxwell’s twisted psychological terrain. This is achieved through old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting. Former friends and associates of Maxwell from her time at Oxford and her days running with the Manhattan smart set are tracked down and persuaded to share their recollections across a three-part series that delivers a gripping profile of Maxwell without slipping into grubby prurience.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“What is completely unsurprising is that none of those who knew Maxwell have an unalloyed good word to say about this perverted monster. Across the series, the stories are told clearly and calmly, while the archive is used effectively. Maxwell Senior was fond of home movies and the footage contains sharp insights.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“It’s a tricky role Flintoff is foisting on himself — a kind of PE teacher/social worker. As for the sweary, smirking teens he met, they were pretty cynical about the whole bowling-and-batting thing, but oddly impressive in their unfazed way. Likeable enough, too, which is important, because you need to root for them or the programme wouldn’t be much fun. From the moment they showed up to flounder about trying to bowl the, the first episode quickly set the scene for a classic sporting underdog tale — think The Bad News Bears or Slap Shot.”
James Jackson, The Times

“Field Of Dreams is spread over three episodes, though quite how is anyone’s guess. We’ve already spent ten minutes watching the boys bicker as they’re ordered to don cricket whites. Surely there’s no more mileage in seeing groups of novices reading Freddie’s Wikipedia entry and pretending to be shocked that he’s well-known.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail