The Celebrity Traitors; Victoria Beckham; Perfect Pub Walks

“All the essential elements are present and correct. The Winkleman. The castle. The dramatic Winkleman cloaks. The dramatic Winkleman sleeves. The boots. The round table around which the Winkleman stomps in her boots to mark out Traitor from Faithful. The eight kabillion first-round contestants. The only difference is that it is a bit easier to keep track of those first-round contestants because they are all familiar faces, designed as a group to pull in punters from all possible demographics and keep the BBC’s current greatest hit as popular as ever. There are national treasures (Celia Imrie, Stephen Fry, Clare Balding) and people for the kidz (YouTube prankster Niko Omilana, TikToker turned actor Ruth Codd, singer-songwriter and frankly mesmeric screen presence Cat Burns), TV presenters (Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr, David Olusoga, Kate Garraway), actors and comedians (Mark Bonnar, Tameka Empson, Nick Mohammed, Joe Wilkinson, Lucy Beaumont), singers (Charlotte Church, Paloma Faith) and sportspeople (Joe Marler, Tom Daley). “He’s a diver,” Empson says fondly of the last as they send him running back over hill and dale to find a missed clue during the first task, “but we use him for everything.””
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“This is the first celebrity version of the megahit BBC One game show – in the UK at least; the iteration we know and love was actually the first in the world to feature civilian players, following multiple star-led versions from America to Belgium. The idea of having celebs take over the game ruffled my feathers at first. No, I thought, the success of The Traitors lies in the ordinary people’s desperation to bag up to £120k and willingness to throw each under the bus to keep it all to themselves. I’ve never been more glad to be wrong. The murderous game is the same, the contestants are more game. In other words, The Celebrity Traitors is even better than the original.”
Emily Baker, The i

“Is it as good as the non-celebrity version? Not quite. On the other hand, the fakery involved in being a celebrity might turn some of this lot into elite-level traitors. The producers don’t give them an easy ride. The first thing the contestants have to do is dig their own graves to win a shield protecting them from elimination. The opening mission, to get a Trojan horse up a hill, is physically tough. Sportsmen Marler and Daley, unsurprisingly, are good at it. Clare Balding takes charge and gives instructions in head girl fashion, only to make a blunder.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“What wouldn’t you give to be a Traitor? Some of the stars jostling to stab each other in the back at Claudia Winkleman’s Highlands castle are so eager, they might literally kill to take part. The line-up for The Celebrity Traitors is more stellar than any reality show ever screened before on British telly. Among the names are several who, you’d think, would be mortally insulted by the very idea of appearing on any lesser showcase. To suggest that Celia Imrie might do Dancing On Ice, or that Stephen Fry would be up for Taskmaster, is nothing short of libellous. But they were simmering with excitement to be ferried in a motorcade of all-terrain limos across the Scottish moors, with fellow contestants including Jonathan Ross, Charlotte Church, Paloma Faith, Kate Garraway and Alan Carr.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s good fun and certainly has the potential to get funnier. There is a high calibre of celeb, by which I mean you would recognise most of them. Winkleman, as ever, is the real star, wearing a black cape with “celebrities” in inverted commas (nice touch) and inviting them literally to dig their own graves, the headstones bearing their names.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It is a three-hour advert for brand Beckham with no higher purpose than to fulfil the £16-maybe-£20m deal they signed with Netflix, and a companion piece to the one David did in 2023. And it works. But she is so drily funny, so clearly far more interesting and insightful than she allows herself to be here, that the waste becomes infuriating. I would love to see her talk properly rather than in platitudes. Put her and best mate Eva Longoria in a room with a camera and a few bottles of wine and watch them go. Netflix, it’s over to you.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Despite repeatedly telling the cameras how much she loved performing as a child, the first Spice Girls reunion in 2007 cemented the fact that she didn’t want to be on the stage – instead, her calling is fashion. But the average viewer won’t care about the Paris fashion show we’re given behind-the-scenes access to, and it makes for rather dull viewing. Donatella Versace, Tom Ford, Anna Wintour and Juergen Teller are all impressive names to have as interviewees, but they can’t tell us anything about Beckham beyond her public-facing fashion persona.”
Emily Baker, The i

“After the four-part series in which the man she calls Goldenballs memorably revealed that she was driven to school in a Rolls-Royce, Netflix has given one fewer episode to what may well be Brand Beckham’s brainier and more charismatic half. Victoria Beckham was as much a look back on her life as the stage school wannabe turned Spice Girl sensation as a profile of her new career as a fashion designer. And she pulled it off with style.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“What do you give the couple that has everything? In the case of Netflix and the Beckhams, it’s a set of his ’n’ hers documentaries. David went first, in a 2023 series revisiting his playing days and showcasing his happy family life. Now Victoria has her own three-parter, and the focus is on her fashion business. She comes across as likeable, self-deprecating, hard-working and funny. Which is why it’s such a shame that the end product is so boring.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph 

“That’s the best description of autism I’ve ever heard. Alexander Armstrong, his voice choking up, called it, ‘a journey with no arrival… you just have to hope that the road is going largely in the right direction.’ He pointed off to the left and said, ‘Somebody is having to live on this sort of axis.’ And then he pointed straight ahead, and added, ‘The rest of us live on this axis.’ In other words, life for all involved is tipped on its side, at right angles to the rest of the world. Talking to Chris Packham on his Perfect Pub Walks, Armstrong was revealing for the first time that one of his sons is autistic. He and his wife, Hannah, have four boys, aged about ten to 18, and he did not specify which one has the autism diagnosis. ‘I’ve never spoken about my son before,’ he said. ‘As a parent of an autistic child, it’s a wonderful but incredibly challenging life.’ I’m the father of a profoundly autistic son myself, and I realise that no description, however apt or eloquent, can really convey how tough it is to see your child struggle endlessly with the most basic aspects of daily life. But the earnest intensity of Armstrong’s words implies that his family has been going through an exhausting struggle, one with no apparent resolution, and I wish them all the very best.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Chris Packham isn’t a fan of pubs, which should disqualify him from being the guest on a show where Alexander Armstrong walks his chosen companion from pint to pint. Happily, however, that hasn’t stopped the Springwatch presenter from participating in this sunny excursion through the Kent countryside, a journey that turns out to facilitate a deeply moving conversation between the two men, moving beyond even the wistful poignancy of Mortimer and Whitehouse — Gone Fishing. “Men of a certain vintage are not very good at talking,” Armstrong asserts at the start, but this gentle ambulatory format allows Packham and his host to open up a genuine and powerful discussion about autism, family and mental health struggles. There is also unexpected aviation history, tree-hugging and a salute to the punk band Penetration.”
Victoria Segal, The Times