Heston: My Life With Bipolar; Pushers; Murder Most Puzzling

“Heston: My Life with Bipolar may have been yet another of those emotional journey films, but it was an unusually powerful and important one. Honesty is a prerequisite but, Blumenthal being Blumenthal, he took emotional frankness to a more extreme — you could say snail porridge — level, even playing himself in a reconstruction of the moment when he was injected with a ‘whacking great syringe’ and carted off to a psychiatric unit.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“This is not an ordinary documentary in which the director asks questions and the subject answers them. It is a deeply personal film made with some of the creativity that made Blumenthal famous. And it is based around a central question that preoccupies him: now that Blumenthal is on medication to damp down his manic highs – as well as saving him from the terrible lows which come with bipolar disorder – will that creativity desert him? It is an unusual focus in a programme about mental illness, but being unusual was what made Blumenthal a star in the first place.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“A conversation with his son Jack, also a chef, is one of the most dreadfully honest and painful things I have seen on TV in years. This is a standard-format documentary, but with a layer of skin removed. It probably serves the cause well and you hope Blumenthal doesn’t regret it in times to come.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The thin line between genius and madness has been a fierce debate for decades, from painter Vincent van Gogh to rapper Kanye West. But rarely do we get to see a creative grapple with the dichotomy in real time. In the exposing, emotional Heston: My Life with Bipolar, however, culinary inventor and Michelin star chef Heston Blumenthal does exactly that.”
Emily Baker, The i

“My Life With Bipolar’s workmanlike approach to its subject matter is effective in spurts: we are shown clips of Blumenthal down the years, and cannot help but reframe them through this new lens of his diagnosis. By the end, the programme has transformed into a call to action: it’s clear that drastic change is required. The issue is bigger than Blumenthal – and Blumenthal is big enough to acknowledge that.”
Louis Chilton, The Independent

“There’s a deft balance between silly, laugh-out-loud gags and clever observational comedy that skewers attitudes to disability. The overall effect is a bit surreal in places, but always enjoyably so. For a first foray into sitcom writing for Rosie Jones, it’s remarkably assured. I’d happily spend plenty more seasons hanging out in the charity shop back room with this gang of improbable kingpins.”
Katie Rosseinsky, The Independent

“Although its lack of sentimentality and commitment to hard comedy is admirable, Pushers still could have done with leaning a little further into the scathing satire promised by its setup. Instead, what we ultimately get is a gag-strewn, generally lighthearted portrayal of small-town turf wars. Jones’s action-sitcom certainly has its moments, but it could have had slightly more bite.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“Murder Most Puzzling is trying to be Ludwig, which was a hit for the BBC last year. But it’s a pale imitation. While that one was a five-star treat starring David Mitchell, this one is a two-star rip-off starring Phyllis Logan. The missteps start as soon as we are introduced to her character, Cora Felton.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“I can’t accuse Murder Most Puzzling of being a complete rip-off, since it is adapted from a pre-existing sequence of crime novels by American author Parnell Hall. But at the same time, it’s hard not to conclude that the success of the BBC series has convinced 5 that there might be something to this puzzler-catches-the-criminals premise. Sadly, this undercooked and meandering adaptation confirms that a good idea is of little use if the execution is both dull and dashed-off.”
Ed Power, The i