“It has unfolded into something intelligent, complex and rewarding”

Mare of Easttown

Mare of Easttown, Sky Atlantic

“Mare of Easttown is much more than a thriller. Over the course of the series – there is one more episode to go – it has unfolded into something intelligent, complex and rewarding. It’s a study of community. It explores the bonds of family and friendship. It’s a window into a small-town, blue-collar America that usually only appears in documentaries about the opioid crisis.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Winslet is magnificent. Permanently scowling, her face puffy and her hair scraped back, she stomps the streets like a hangover in search of a fistful of paracetamol.Hollywood is full of British actresses, but none of the others would dare tackle this role. Not only is it doggedly unglamorous, with Mare the grandmother to a three-year-old boy, but it demands a working-class American accent and coarse swagger. One hint of Jane Austen among these Bruce Springsteen characters would ruin the show’s authenticity.”
Christopher Stevens, The Daily Mail

Motherland, BBC2

“Motherland is at its best when it is skewering what it knows: the snobbery, hypocrisy and narcissism of a specific strain of white, middle-class London, plus the hellscape of the school gate. And when it is at its best, it is glorious.”
Chitra Ramaswamy, The Guardian 

“Anna Maxwell Martin delivers an extraordinary performance as a mum at the end of her tether. She’s so different from the devious police pen-pusher she portrays in Line Of Duty, she’s almost unrecognisable. This series, co-written by Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan, has made the comedy gentler, paring back its moments of excruciating embarrassment and revealing sadder, kinder aspects to its characters.”
Christopher Stevens, The Daily Mail

Great British Photography Challenge, BBC4

“While Rankin made noises about constructive feedback, his blunt verdicts and vertiginously high standards made it clear that this was, above all else, a competition.”
Gwendolyn Smith, The i

“Maybe they felt it was more BBC4’s territory because it lacks the faux jeopardy and “one of you will be leaving the show today” melodrama of its baking/sewing/cooking competition cousins and thus felt slightly more grown-up.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

Inside No 9, BBC2

“It was all massively Mercurio-esque – albeit with the bonus that you didn’t need a diagram to work out what had happened. The devastating conclusion even leaned into the idea of a deep state brimming with bent coppers and corrupt politicians. As the smoke cleared, the thought occurred that perhaps BBC should have drafted in Pemberton and Shearsmith to add pep to the underwhelming Line of Duty finale. With this episode, they showed they could at least hit the target.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

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