The Seven Dials Mystery; Pole to Pole with Will Smith; How To Keep Your Brain Young

“As a lifelong Christie fan, this wouldn’t have been one of my top choices to receive the Netflix big bucks treatment. But I suppose they can’t just keep remaking Murder on the Orient Express (although I wouldn’t say no to another version of, say, A Murder is Announced or Evil Under the Sun). Anyway, there is no denying that Seven Dials is a very classy job with great performances in which the characters say enjoyably posh things such as “what the blazes!”, “botheration” and “one must never thank the staff”.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Forget cosy crime – Chris Chibnall’s leisurely adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is an exercise in supine sleuthing. All the delicious wit and dazzle of the 1929 novel has been siphoned off, leaving behind a glorified game of Cluedo that squanders an impressive cast. It commits the unforgivable sin of being deathly dull.”
Emily Baker, The i

“At last Martin Freeman arrives as real detective Supt Battle. As Battle brings order to the investigation, so Freeman brings some credibility to the televisual proceedings, pulling the thing together and up by virtue of his presence and an instinctive feel for how wholeheartedly and firmly these things need to be played. It’s a relief, but whether it’s enough to get you through all three uninspired, pedestrian hours of a supposed espionage thriller is up to you. Retro without flair and full of modern concerns about everyone’s emotional wellbeing is a mix that doesn’t work for me.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“If you have neither read the original book nor care about the changes, this is a diverting three-parter. Christie purists may feel differently. The ending is completely new. Lady Caterham is an invention, scenes in Spain have been added for no other reason than to add some Mediterranean sunshine, and the German scientist who appeared in the novel is now a gentleman from Cameroon who makes a speech about Africans fighting and dying for white Europeans in the First World War, a topic I don’t think Christie spent too much time worrying about. The script is written by Chris Chibnall, the creator of Broadchurch and the last-but-one showrunner of Doctor Who. Chibnall says he has given the adaptation a “fresh dynamic”. That’s one way of putting it.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“Clearly, this quasi-celebrity vehicle is some way from David Attenborough or Michael Palin (who had his own series of the same name), but I warmed to Smith’s guileless enthusiasm. This is a series for a global mainstream audience, and you couldn’t say it’s short on thrilling natural wonder, adventure or important insights. There is, for example, a look at the changing way of life of the Waorani tribe in Ecuador and their leader’s courageous legal fight to stop oil extraction in his region. The snake scales that the expedition collects there are shown to have traces of heavy metals or, rather, oil poisoning. In other words, this series has value and merit far beyond watching Smith beat-box jive with a toucan.”
James Jackson, The Times

“The series is made by National Geographic and has all the visual polish and sweeping grandeur you would expect. It doesn’t rest on its star presenter laurels. Every moment looks gorgeous or is thrilling. The parts where Smith talks to camera are less enthralling – why does nobody ever provide a script for these things that at least attempts to match the standards reached elsewhere? – but out in the field, he’s a great companion: charismatic, funny (“They might be a little crazy,” he points out after the news that he is to visit three Brazilian climate scientists who have spent months alone in a tiny research station in west Antarctica. “And we need to be prepared for that. What’s our evacuation plan if they start tripping?”), honest in his awestruck reactions and apparently genuinely fascinated by his (genuinely fascinating) companions.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Neuroscientist Professor Sand-rine Thuret explained, on How To Keep Your Brain Young, that our grey matter is constantly generating new neurons, or cells, at around 700 a day. But a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, found in flaxseeds, walnuts and (best of all) oily fish, can boost this by up to 20 per cent. That’s more than an extra 100 brain cells a day. Do that for a year or two, and you’ll be solving quadratic equations in your head over breakfast.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail