Syria: Across the Lines
"Mesmerising... simply the most powerful film to have come out of the war in Syria. There are not that many programmes on television that demand to be seen, but this is one of them." David Chater, The Times
"Lambert makes [the civil war] viscerally comprehensive, while presenting the purest interpretation of 'fair and balanced' most of us are ever likely to see: He doesn't just get both sides of the story, but could have easily died in the process of getting them.' Newsday
"An extraordinary achievement. I urge anybody who wonders what this war has now become, to sit down, turn off the mobile and watch." Alex Thomson, Chief Correspondent C4 news.
"A particularly brave bit of film-making, deftly capturing the absurdity and the pathos of the ongoing struggle in Syria, whilst never side-stepping the horrors either." Matt Baylis, Daily Express
"A brilliant piece of reporting... a piercing portrait of a nation being torn apart." Radio Times
"Lambert's bloody, brave, and bloody brave film took no side, nor did it attempt to explain the religious and ideological division that prompted war". Andrew Billen, The Times
"Gripping, must see war footage" Sen John McCain
My Child the Rioter
"This was the best TV journalism on the riots so far..... My Child the Rioter made you think so hard about a well-covered subject that you changed your mind several times even while watching." Andrew Billen, The Times.
" Riveting... Here is a fascinating view of crime, punishment, morality and parenting in today's Britain - complex areas simply illuminated". Martin James, Sunday Times
"Devastatingly straightforward" The Guardian
"An outstanding documentary.... Instead of taking the usual shrill, censorious line, Olly Lambert's film was carefully understated and more puzzled than anything else." John Porter, Sunday Telegraph
"Excellent" Deborah Orr, The Guardian.
"Brilliant... As always the truth is rather less black and white than the Prime Minister imagined." The Times
"Excellent.... You'd have to be absolutely blameless yourself as a parent to confidently announce that it was adult delinquency alone that had produced this result. I couldn't manage the necessary self-righteousness." Tom Sutcliffe, Independent on Sunday
The Family
"Both simple and brilliant... eternally compelling... No novelist or poet could have put it better, nor could they come up with anything quite so richly entertaining as this simple look inside a modern British family." Matt Baylis, Daily Express
"Shows family love that's hard to replicate even in the best fiction" The Guardian, Pick of the Week
"A biopsy slice of the immigrant experience... It was funny and it was life, as it's lived by a lot of us." Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent
Confessions of a Traffic Warden
“This latest doc from the excellent Olly Lambert will leave you informed and – if you have a heart – endowed with a new-found empathy.... If you’ve ever unleashed your anger on a poorly paid immigrant doing the dirty work of a multi-million pound corporation, watch this programme, understand and repent.” Time Out, Pick of the Day,
“This Cutting Edge film does so much more than it says on the tin. Judging by the experiences shown here, this country is fast becoming a place of greed, selfishness and rage that is increasingly removed from quaint, old-fashioned notions of courtesy and fair play.” Mail on Sunday, Pick of the Day,
“Olly Lambert’s film of the slow withering of Durga’s admiration for this country is beautifully made”. London Evening Standard, Pick of the Day.
“Confessions of a Traffic Warden belies its jokey title: this heart-rending film makes one ashamed to be British.” Financial Times, Pick of the Day
“No film in the world is going to make you like traffic wardens, but Olly Lambert’s documentary pulls off the remarkable trick of making you see them as human.” Daily Mirror, Pick of the Day.
Ben Diary of a Heroin Addict
“A unique piece of television. No British documentary has ever got as close to a drug addict.” Daily Mail, Pick of the Day.
“Extraordinarily powerful.” Sunday Times, Pick of the Day.
“A rare foray for Sky into serious documentary film-making – and a quite incredible one it is too.” The London Paper, Pick of the Day
“Respectfully and superbly made.” Daily Mirror, Pick of the Day
Battle Hospital
“Documentaries about war tend to show the sheer hell of it, or they are propaganda. And if they are about battlefield healthcare, they are M*A*S*H*. Olly Lambert’s gem of a film is all three of these, yet quite different and utterly surprising… Beautifully filmed in the colours of the desert camouflage, it combines a mirage-like quality with an unhurried pace.” London Evening Standard, Pick of the Day.
“An extraordinary documentary, a powerful and necessarily graphic portrayal of life in wartime.” The Guardian, Pick of the Day
“A graphic reminder of the horror and futility of war. Compulsory viewing for all politicians.” The Observer, Pick of the Week
Sheffield International Documentary Festival, UK, 2003
Fullframe Film Festival, Official selection, USA 2004
FIPA Film Festival, Official selection, Biarittz, 2004
Britspotting Film Festival, Official selection, Berlin 2004, Basel 2004
Imperial War Museum, special screening, London, 2004
The Tea Boy of Gaza
“Neither a polemic nor a political diatribe… [This film] is intensely personal and deeply moving, and yet it has the cool, detached objectivity that defines the best news documentaries. This just might be the most eye-opening, unforgettable documentary you will see this year.” Alex Strachan, Canadian National Post.
“A thoughtful and, at times heartbreaking, tale of strength in appalling circumstances.” The Observer, Pick of the Day
“Utterly compelling.” The Sunday Times, Pick of the Day
Winner, “Journalist of the Year”, Foreign Press Association
Winner, “Best TV Feature”, Foreign Press Association
Winner, “Best TV Documentary”, One World Media Trust
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Chicago International Documentary Festival, 2007
OFFICIAL SELECTION: One World Human Rights Film Festival, Prague 2008.
Above Enemy Lines
"A terrific observational film, from which we get a real idea of what life is really like out there." The Guardian, Pick of the Day.
“Olly Lambert is one of the most talented documentary film-makers working in British television.” The Times, Pick of the Day
“The potential was high for a gung-ho piece of television, complete with pounding music and a narrator thrilled at the danger of it all. Instead, the result wisely took its lead from the men themselves." Daily Telegraph, Pick of the Day
Ross Kemp Middle East
“One of the best, most insightful and balanced pieces of television I have seen explaining Israel’s unique situation... [The series] was superb: not just grippingly produced, but actually balanced. Sky has given the BBC a lesson in how to produce documentaries.” The Spectator, Pick of the Week
“Kemp is in the hands of a TV production dream team.... The scenes are thrilling. They encapsulate the brilliance of the Ross Kemp phenomenon. Sky1 and his producers have understood that TV is a medium best suited to entertainment rather than worthiness. Kemp is the everyman of current affairs. He claims no special knowledge and arrives without an agenda, and then embarks on a journey that he may not actually survive. The viewer, meanwhile, picks up plenty of knowledge without even noticing.” Sam Kiley, Radio Times, Pick of the Week
Shortlisted for a BAFTA, “Best Current Affairs Documentary”
A Very British Storm Junkie
“Irresistibly, wonderfully, compelling.” The Telegraph, Pick of the Day
“So perfect — an eccentric, wonderful jewel — that initially you thought that it had to be a spoof.... The storm had passed but the directors had taken us, brilliantly and wittily, into the eye of the storm.” The Times, Pick of the Day
Nominated for a Grierson Awards (Most Entertaining Documentary)
Gridlock and Road Rage
“When someone at Channel 4 told a producer, ‘make me a funny film about traffic jams’, it might have seemed a tall order. As it turns out, the misery and powerlessness of commuter hell are beautifully captured in Olly Lambert’s documentary”. Radio Times, Pick of the Week
The Hunt for the Camden Ripper
“Mesmerising…. Olly Lambert’s film is a quite beautiful documentary about a bloody, horrendous subject. It was measured and thoughtful throughout, from its interviews with police officers, mental healthcare professionals and Hardy’s neighbours, through its portrayal of London as a place of anonymity…. Of course it was sensational – films such as this can’t not be – but it was also a considered examination of the failures of the system. It was about the things – and the people – we throw away.” Gareth McLean, The Guardian
“A measured, searching documentary… Engrossing.” Time Out
Hypersex
“Tackling such subject matter can have programme-makers treading a fine line between serious examination and peep show, but the open, candid treatment made sure we never strayed into the realms of titillation…. Both revelatory and repellent, this was uncomfortable viewing.” Manchester Evening News
“Fascinating.” Time Out.
Rasputin: Devil in the Flesh
“One of the most entertaining historical documentaries I have ever seen. It’s brilliantly put together – a genuinely thrilling combination of informative talking head opinions, archive footage and creepy reconstruction, liberally slathered with sophisticated horror-movie sheen.” Charlie Brooker, The Guardian.
“Utterly captivating,” London Evening Standard
Four Weeks to Find a Girlfriend
“Unreservedly hilarious,” The Guardian, Pick of the Week
“The kind of warm, original and off-beat film that there’s rather too little of in these days of homogenised schedules,” Kathryn Flett, Observer
“Lambert turns out to be an engaging, self-obsessed neurotic type, a kind of poor woman’s young north London Woody Allen…. Most impressive is the brazen way it simultaneously lands Lambert both a girlfriend and a break on TV. The Financial Times
“It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me reassess my life as a man” – Simon Marsh, FHM