“Saving the British Bulldog proved a thorough investigation that ought to make anyone think twice about buying the breed.”

Saving the british bulldog

Saving the British Bulldog, BBC1

“Saving the British Bulldog proved a thorough investigation that ought to make anyone think twice about buying the breed. But it was also shot through with the testimonies of besotted owners, and enough cute bulldog puppies to make you want to run out and buy one straight away.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“A calm, unblinking interrogation of what it can mean to be ‘man’s best friend’. Catherine Tate took to her brief with an impressive commitment to travel up and down the land and report on the latest research.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“It’s a pity the producers didn’t encourage her to slip into character occasionally as the cockney Nan and shout: ‘WHAT a fakkin liberty.’ Because a liberty is precisely what it is. Who do we think we are, creating a creature that is ‘not fit for life’ just so it will look more comically like Winston Churchill?”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Catherine met breeders trying to introduce a health standard for bulldogs to breed out the life-shortening issues over the generations. You’d think the Kennel Club would be doing everything to help. Catherine’s interview with the organisation’s health and breeding manager suggested otherwise.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Catherine’s heart was in the right place. But it takes more than a well-known face with a sincere delivery to make absorbing TV. This show wheezed along like an overweight pug, with frequent slumps and pauses. All the raw material for an important documentary was here, but it needed much more work. This lacked bite.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

The Assassination of Gianni Versace, BBC2

“In The Assassination of Gianni Versace, writer Tom Rob Smith takes the real-life trail of mayhem left by Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan and gives it a dramatic touch. This doesn’t glamorise the man but it presents him as a human craving something.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“As Cunanan, Darren Criss is horribly convincing, though I’m starting to doubt if he can convince me to spend six more episodes in his company. There are still two more murders to sit through. Come back, Gianni and Donatella. All is forgiven.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

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