Undercover Ambulance; Cold Case Detectives; Ted Lasso

“The superb BBC series Ambulance has had health service underfunding – and the knock-on effects of degraded social care and mental health provision – as its underlying theme for years. But there is a special, awful power in seeing it directly, through the horrified eyes of a medic at work. Undercover Ambulance could be a series. It could be a nightly programme, seven days a week for months on end, recounting tragedy after tragedy, all of which need not have happened and will for ever haunt those left behind.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Watching it was nothing short of terrifying. Don’t have a heart attack, folks; don’t have a stroke. This footage, filmed by the paramedic over winter as hospital A&Es overflowed with ambulances queueing outside and unable to discharge patients, showed that you will be entering a grim tombola. Due to a bed-shortage bottleneck an ambulance could take many hours, and that delay could cost your life.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“DS Gerry Blake had a personal connection to the unsolved murder of Carol Ann Stephens, aged six, in Cardiff in 1959, having been in her Sunday school class. He saw her two days before she was abducted by a man in a car. This connection and Blake’s driving urge to resolve the case, which affected local children deeply, was almost the stuff of a drama.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Detectives suspected sweets salesman Ron Murray, then 36, who was also thought to have murdered his wife by gassing her as she slept. But the evidence was circumstantial and never enough for a prosecution. Murray died half a century ago. Demonstrating his guilt with DNA would be a symbolic victory — and a warning to child killers that their evil deeds will never be forgotten or forgiven.”
Christopher Stephens, Daily Mail

“When something called Operation Dudley was suddenly lobbed into the mixer – a series of unconnected historical sex crimes that are also being re-examined after advances in DNA testing – the sense of padding was palpable. It was a shame because the Stephens case was poignant and perplexing in its own right, and the programme’s portrayal of a small town suffering a horrific crime in another era was affecting.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“People love Ted Lasso the show, because Ted Lasso the character is charming and kind-hearted. It’s a sunshine-y series that will make you smile if you have a high tolerance for schmaltz. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s a show about football. If you’re a football fan, it will make you wince.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The arrival of a superstar new player is a welcome return to the sporting foundation of the show, a storyline about sexuality has promise and Hannah Waddingham continues to deliver on Rebecca’s evolution as a woman battling a bruising humiliation. But the 50-minute episodes (up from 30 minutes) are bloated and the ever-expanding universe renders the show’s wholesome messaging a little repetitive.”
Rachel Sigee, The i