Lover, Liar, Predator; Platoon 24/7; Our Man in Moscow; Under Salt Marsh; Silent Witness

“Documentaries like this are sometimes criticised for simply logging the problem, rather than addressing it and proffering solutions. But they do raise awareness (never mind Adolescence – I would put a package of these films together and send one to every school in the country), and perhaps prompt those lacking in experience and consequently sympathy to imagine possible answers to that vexed question: “Why don’t they just leave?” To imagine being scared in your own home, all the time. To imagine not knowing from one second to the next when your partner is going to “turn”. To imagine having your self-esteem chipped away over years by someone who brutalises you inside and out. To imagine having no safe space.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Recent TV documentaries about life in the military, such as BBC2’s Soldier or The Warship, have had a whiff of the reality show about them. The emphasis has tended to be on female recruits and unusual personalities, such as the padre. Platoon 24/7 is more straightforward. All of the riflemen are male, for a start. The only tears came as the youngest squaddie, a week short of his 18th birthday, set off for duty — he was fine but his mum was in floods. A few of the men sat down in front of the camera to reflect on Army life. Mostly, though, this was simply a no-nonsense look at a highly professional unit getting ready for active service. We can only hope they won’t be going to war by coach with plastic guns.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It was pretty riveting television, this insight into his [Steve Rosenberg] job and the thin ice on which he so skilfully skates. He insists that his choice to remain when many other international reporters have left (and who can blame them?) has nothing to do with bravery and more with his fascination with Russia. “Courage doesn’t come into it,” he said. Oh, I think most people would disagree. It takes enormous guts or, as I have seen online commentators say, “balls of steel” to do what he does. But that is one of Rosenberg’s most impressive traits — his modesty.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It’s a series that is good at subverting expectations at every turn – not least in its delicate evocation of grief and the manifold ways a landscape can affect its people. Morfa Halen’s townsfolk are hardy and self-reliant, qualities born of their environment and isolation. But the drama poses the question of whether such independence serves a person or a community equally well under more extreme circumstances – be they meteorological or emotional – or whether a community can implode under the strain.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Fashions in crime drama come and go. Not so very long ago, “noir” was all the rage, whether Scandi or otherwise. Now you can’t move for cosy crime, a trend that is threatening to become a treacly morass of sleuthing vicars, hairdressers and antique dealers. But for the past three decades, Silent Witness has serenely soldiered on above – or beyond – all these trends. Four years older than the mighty CSI: Crime Scene, it has outlived not only that American forensic drama, but also all the various CSI spinoffs. In other words, the BBC show is obviously doing something right. And a major part of that “something” is a confidence in its subject matter to create clear, ungimmicky storylines.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i