Jack Thorne on how true National Treasure is: 'I wrote it to understand Operation Yewtree – but I'm just as troubled as before'
The writer of Channel 4's new drama says the issues thrown up by Operation Yewtree continue to elude easy answers
Jack Thorne’s Channel 4 drama National Treasure – originally aired in 2016 – is about a fictional faded entertainer called Paul Finchley (played by Robbie Coltrane) accused of grotesque historic sexual crimes. His wife Marie (Julie Walters) has always been aware that he has never been a faithful husband; but the claims made against him rock both their worlds (and that of their daughter, Andrea Riseborough's Dee) when he is put on trial. While Finchley and his story is entirely made up, the drama's production team has made no secret that it is influenced by many of the real life cases that have rocked the British entertainment industry, from Jimmy Savile to Operation Yewtree. Thorne (pictured, below) tells RadioTimes.com that he wanted to write the drama in order to explore questions he didn’t fully understand about the many real life cases of historic sexual abuse – cases where people have been convicted, and those where they have been acquitted. But the writer believes that even after penning four hours of gruelling drama and seeing it rendered on the small screen, he is just "as confused" as he was before. "It’s something that really confuses me, about power and sex and the abuse of power," says Thorne, whose other credits include Skins, This is England, The Fades and His Dark Materials. "Yewtree is a journey into the past. It was the opportunity to shed light on something I didn’t understand, this whole question about whether you publicise names, how justice is pursued in these cases, the difficulties of memory, the way that these cases are put together... "These all felt like things that I didn’t understand, and I always sort of feel like that is a very good place to start from as a writer. So I went on a journey to try and understand it and pose the questions along the way. "You know what? I’m still just as, I um…" he trails off and thinks carefully about what he is about to say next. He continues: "Robbie [Coltrane]’s come out and said he feels like these names need to be publicised. And you sort of go, 'I understand why you would think that because the victims of these crimes are carrying around scars that have lived with them their entire lives and if something helps them to come forward and address those scars then that is a wonderful thing'. "But at the same time that question of innocent until proven guilty in today’s media world – mud sticks, and so you’ve got people who perhaps are not guilty of these crimes that have been tarnished by it forever. So I am just as confused as I was.” The drama makes no bones about being inspired by real life cases. Jimmy Savile is name checked in episode one ("They think I’m Jimmy f**king Savile," says Finchley after his arrest). The case of DJ and writer Paul Gambaccini (who was arrested but never charged by Operation Yewtree detectives) is mentioned in episode two. Real life comedians also make appearances on screen. Frank Skinner congratulates Finchley at an awards reception in episode one (the ceremony is hosted by Alan Carr). While entirely fictional, the decision was made to clearly ground this in a very direct reality. Why? "It felt it would be wrong not to use the name Jimmy Savile at some point in this show and we talked about Paul Gambaccini in episode two, and if you’re doing that then setting him in a context I think helps understand where he is in life. So the fact that Frank [Skinner] is a fan is very useful for telling the audience exactly where he’s at. The fact that we’ve got Alan Carr presenting the awards just gives it all a sort of authenticity. Lee Mack turns up later on, it sort of grounds it in a way but it also gives us license to use those names without it seeming strange." But, Thorne adds, the production team were keen not to base the Finchley case on anyone real. For one thing, he admits, there would be serious legal difficulties if they took this approach (plus we would know the outcome of his trial). "It would just be a dramatic reconstruction which would give less opportunities to really give a sense of understanding of this issue. If you’re reconstructing one case, then you’re sort of trying to give an understanding of that case, whereas what we were aiming to do was to make sense of what’s happening at the moment in some weird way." He didn’t speak to a single person accused or convicted of crimes (again, this could have thrown up legal difficulties); but he did speak to the police, barristers, and victims of abuse. And while he is still in the dark about the moral questions it throws up, he feels confident in the power of the real police to deal with these extremely difficult cases. "The thing is that it comes down to a question of morality, and that morality is one that the police have to exercise," he adds. "So we’ve got the police making very nuanced moral judgments, and every police officer we talked to in this case I would be happy for them to make those judgments, because I actually found them incredibly intelligent, incredibly empathetic human beings – but it’s a big ask." Thorne also says that by the end of the drama viewers will be in "no doubt " about the truth of what Finchley did or didn't do, but that other questions will remain. "This is not a drama with lots of answers about how we should be behaving or what the correct response is to these incredibly delicate situations. But it was one where it felt like posing the right questions was hugely important. "The ending is important. We're not a sort of whodunit, we’re not a sort of thriller by any means. But it is a character study and it is one where we want the audience to feel like a jury in order to engage them in this issue – though of course I don’t want to give a sense of the ending away." A version of this article was originally published in 2016. National Treasure is being repeated on Channel 4 on Thursdays at 9pm. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide
VE Day Facts: rogue royals, bargain bunting and fiery street parties
Here's what happened when the allies finally defeated Nazi Germany - and more facts about VE Day on its 75th anniversary
The first Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) was on May 8th 1945, officially ending World War II in Europe. On Monday May 7th at 2.41am, German General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document in Reims, France, which formally ended war in Europe. He did so on the orders of Admiral Karl Dönitz who had become the Third Reich’s president after Adolf Hitler killed himself on April 30th, 1945. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was informed of the event at 7am. After hearing rumours, large crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace shouting “We want the King!” before an official announcement was made. The delay in making the announcement was caused by the Soviet leader Josef Stalin. He didn’t have anyone senior enough to sign the treaty in Reims so held a surrender ceremony in Berlin the following day. But by the evening of 7th, Churchill decided he was not going to allow Stalin to hold up proceedings any longer, and at 7.40pm the Ministry of Information made a short announcement: “In accordance with arrangements between the three great powers, tomorrow, Tuesday, will be treated as Victory in Europe Day and will be regarded as a holiday.” Within minutes of this announcement, tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of central London to celebrate. People gathered in Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus and boats along the Thames sounded their horns in celebration. The celebrations only ended when a thunderstorm and heavy rain drenched the revellers – just before midnight. Here are a few things you may not know: VE Day means Victory in Europe VE Day stands for Victory in Europe Day - 8th May, 1945 - the very moment when the German armed forces signed an unconditional surrender, and WW2 in Europe came to an end. Bargain bunting The Home Office issued a circular (before any official announcement had been made) instructing the nation on how they could celebrate: “Bonfires will be allowed, but the government trusts that only material with no salvage value will be used.” The Board of Trade did the same: “Until the end of May you may buy cotton bunting without coupons, as long as it is red, white or blue, and does not cost more than one shilling and three pence a square yard.” Even Churchill let his hair down Street parties were organised across the country; neighbours pooled food, which was still rationed. Churchill went to Buckingham Palace to have a celebratory lunch with George VI. “We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing". he said in his 3pm address on the day. "Advance Britannia. Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King! ” ....as did the Royals In the late afternoon, the Royal family came out onto a balcony at Buckingham Palace where a crowd of 20,000 waited outside the gates for a glimpse of them. George VI wore his Royal Navy uniform, while Princess Elizabeth wore her ATS uniform. They were joined by Churchill, who later spoke to those gathered outside the Ministry of Health. At the end of his speech, the listeners sang For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow. Princess Elizabeth, as she was called then, took the opportunity to meet ordinary folk. She and her sister Princess Margaret decided to wander incognito through the city streets in the evening. This unprecedented promenade inspired the upcoming film A Royal Night Out starring Bel Powley as Margaret and Sarah Gadon as the future Queen (in UK cinemas on 15th May). St Paul's saw the light In the evening Buckingham Palace was lit up by floodlights for the first time since 1939 and two searchlights made a giant ‘V’ above St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a highly symbolic gesture for a city that had spent years in blackout. It wasn't an all-nighter The police reported that there was barely any criminal activity throughout the day despite the boisterous behaviour of tens of thousands. In the early hours of May 9th, the celebratory illuminations in London were turned off. The war in Japan was still being fought and austerity was still the order of the day But there were a few other problems... People built street fires out of whatever flammable materials they could find. Witnesses reported that London had the same red glow it had during the Blitz – but for a positive reason. Some fires got out of hand and the Fire Brigade had to be called to put out the blazes. People also got hold of fireworks – prohibited during the war – to give the celebrations more colour. Things were a little complicated in the US In the United States, the victory happened on President Harry Truman’s 61st birthday. He dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D Roosevelt who had died of a cerebral haemorrhage a month earlier, on 12th April. Despite the enormity of the day, flags in the US remained at half-mast for the day in honour of Roosevelt. And in the Soviet Union as well.... The Soviets did not declare the end of war until May 9th. The reason for the Soviet delay was that the Russian representative in Reims had no authority to sign the German instrument of surrender, so the surrender ceremony was repeated in Berlin on May 8th. Russian Victory Day was held the following day. And Japan was still at war Victory in Japan Day (VJ Day) was not until September 2nd 1945. Is it all over? Japan and Russia never signed an official peace treaty so no formal written document to end the Second World War was ever signed. And to this day there is still debate over who owns the Kuril islands in the Pacific between the two countries, partly because of this. There's a whole host of programming to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, check out our TV Guide for more or our special VE Day Timetable for a breakout of the special events taking place.
How Mrs Brown's Boys took over the comedy world
Ben Dowell follows the story of Brendan O'Carroll's comedy hit, from the radio waves of Dublin to the centrepiece of the BBC1 Christmas schedule, as he talks to those who helped make it happen
It was the middle of 2009. I was in the office of senior BBC comedy executive Mark Freeland and my gaze alighted on a poster on the wall. It featured a strange looking woman in her living room with what looked like her family. “What's that all about?” I asked. “That,” said Freeland. “Is a comedy in which a man plays a Dublin housewife and it’s going to be huge.” He wasn’t wrong. The comedy that came out in 2011 was Mrs Brown’s Boys – and it did indeed go on to be a massive success. Probably not what you might expect of a show featuring a late middle-aged man playing the matriarch of a raucous family making jokes about genitals, and slapstick humour. But millions loved it. The ratings grew steadily and over the past three years (2015, 2016 and 2017) the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas specials have become a centrepiece of the BBC festive schedule, delivering some of the biggest audiences across the holiday season. The Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special on 25th December 2017 was the biggest comedy episode of the year across all TV channels, attracting a consolidated average audience of 9 million. In an age of fragmented viewing these are enormous numbers that most shows, especially comedies, could only dream of. So how did it all happen? How did this show take over the British TV comedy world? The early days… The character of Mrs Brown started life in 1992 in an Irish radio series. Brendan O’Carroll was filling in a slot on RTE radio for a friend and thought it might be funny to play a character based on some of the women he met growing up near the markets and streets of north Dublin. O'Carroll – so goes the legend – had no intention of playing Agnes himself, until the actress (name unknown) he'd hired failed to show up to the first recording. Whether this is true or not – one friend says “Brendan is full of stories, so who knows?” – a legend was born. On radio, this working-class Dublin matriarch was an instant hit – and yet O'Carroll didn’t commit to the character full time, preferring to continue with his more conventional stand-up. But he did start writing Mrs Brown books, starting with the first in a trilogy, The Mammy, which became a Hollywood film called Agnes Brown – starring Anjelica Huston in the role of Agnes. View oEmbed on the source website According to Mrs Brown producer Stephen McCrum, Huston also had no intention of playing the role at first – she was due to direct the film, not be in – but the star she lined up for the role of Agnes dropped out at the last minute and she stepped in. “People say to me ‘so you discovered Brendan and Mrs Brown?’ and I always say ‘no, Hollywood got their first’,” laughs McCrum. What made O'Carroll finally develop the character on stage was a sudden need for money. In 1998 he had borrowed a small fortune to fund a film of his called Sparrow's Trap. Made but never released, it left him with debts of more than £2 million and he took Mrs Brown on tour to help fill the rather large hole in his pocket. The first Mrs Brown play ran for 16 weeks at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre in 1999 and was a massive hit. The show was a success in various UK and Ireland tours as well and went down particularly well in Glasgow. But in the early days it had never been to London. O’Carroll wasn’t sure it would work in the capital, so it bubbled along garnering an ever-growing fan base. View oEmbed on the source website Getting the show on TV… But it was in the theatre – the Glasgow Pavilion – that BBC producer and Londoner Stephen McCrum discovered Mrs Brown's Boys for the BBC, one drizzly autumn night in 2006 that he never forgets. “I worked at the BBC and my Mum, who was in her 70s at the time, said there was nothing for her on telly so I was looking for something for her. There was a marked absence of stuff for middle aged and older women and that was where my heart was, despite being a younger man in my 40s. I thought that it was strange anomaly because middle aged and older women are the mass audience in TV.” So, when two friends (one of whom was Rab C Nesbitt creator Ian Pattison) individually and separately recommended he go and see this funny little Mrs Brown show, McCrum went, he admits a little reluctantly. And he was bowled over. “I always trusted my instinct and I knew this was a sitcom hit live on stage. Occasionally in life you get these moments where you get really, really lucky and that was one of those moments. “I laughed myself, viscerally, proper belly laugh stuff. It’s very crafted. I remember that first night there was a scene in which Agnes talked with another older lady about having what she called ‘organisms’. It was amazing writing – two women talking about something this intimate – and older women were falling about, but so were 17-year-old ushers in the stalls.” McCrum knew he had a hit on his hands – and then started the painful task of persuading the BBC to commission it. “Actually, I thought it would be an ITV sitcom but wanted it for the BBC because I believe in the BBC and I pushed hard on this,” he says. But the BBC's head of comedy at the time, Cheryl Taylor, didn’t need persuading. “Stephen asked me if I’d go and see it in Manchester with a view to commissioning a TV script,” she tells RadioTimes.com. “I happened to be going to an awards ceremony in Manchester so bobbed into the theatre for the first half. Brendan told me later that they were watching me from the wings so I was glad I’d been clear that I had to leave at the interval. “I had never seen anything like it– nor had I seen such an appreciative adult audience– roaring and clapping from the moment it started and loving the double entendres and risqué humour. Sophisticated panto for adults was my feeling, and although I could see it would be a real gear change for the Beeb, it was also clear that we absolutely needed Mrs B in our line up.” There were other broadcasters and TV producers interested in taking the show on says McCrum, but Brendan warmed to the fact that he understood “what he wanted to achieve, and it was that chaos and breaking the fourth wall – the chaos of the show.” They began to trust each other and Brendan agreed that the BBC would be the best home for it. That chaos, liberal use of swear words and the presence of “a man in a dress” still apparently made it hard to convince Corporation top brass, however. The swearing continued to be a big issue for Auntie says McCrum. “They were really worried about using the word feck on BBC1. In the early days we used a lot of replacements like ‘book’ instead of ‘fook’.” But McCrum said he knew that the show was fully formed and his faith in it was unwavering and the BBC was persuaded to shoot a pilot in 2009. “By the time we shot the pilot Brendan had been doing it for 17 years,” says McCrum, who notes how he knew the character and its world intimately. “He partly based it on his mum who was this formidable character,” says McCrum. “She was a formidable woman who ran this hostel for disadvantaged women. A lot of this character and the world comes from this. He would work in the hostel with his Mum, he grew up with this language, with this dialogue, and he’s a very funny guy. “Normally with a sitcom you have to develop it. But when we got him, we got all the supporting characters and all the relationships and that made it so much easier. It was there, fully-formed. By the time we got it on it was nearly 20 years of developing characters and the jokes. With episode one we just filleted what was there already.” The viewing figures for series one helped the BBC overcome its squeamishness about the language and quickly the “books” morphed into the “fecks” we now hear whenever Agnes opens her mouth. Adds Cheryl Taylor: “Mark Freeland, who was head of in-house comedy production, and I were on real tenterhooks waiting for a decision on the pilot– we knew it was a risk but also really believed in the show. Jay Hunt [BBC1 controller] to her total credit absolutely got what it could mean for BBC1 and greenlit for series. When she left, I remember us all sitting round the table on several occasions with her successor Danny Cohen discussing all the ‘fecks’ and how many we thought we could have in any single episode. They were hilarious meetings – and again Danny was very bold and we never got any complaints…" View oEmbed on the source website Why it works… Ben Kellett, who has directed all the broadcast TV episodes and the film, is adamant that without McCrum’s faith in the show “there’s no doubt it would never have got on television.” But he also attributes the show’s success to the warmth and camaraderie of O’Carroll and his family. When he was offered the directing gig he went to meet O’Carroll at Toronto airport where the “family” were performing and felt for himself the warmth that permeates this show. “Brendan met me at the airport and gave me a big hug – I knew we would get on famously and it has been very easy ever since,” says Kellett. Kellet’s priority in getting the show to screen was retaining the flavour of the live show – the energy, the unpredictability, the sense that each performance was unique and could go anywhere. “Some scenes run for eleven minutes as they do on stage… they’re also having fun.” Kellett also laughs about the bizarre origins of the show and even now shakes his head when Angelica Huston’s name is mentioned. “It feels so bizarre to be saying that now but she was the first screen Agnes,” says Kellett. “But it shows that there’s a bit of fairy dust to it. A lot of things came together in a random way and instantly gelled and worked. It’s a story like no other.” He adds: “Whatever you think of this show it arrived fully formed.” View oEmbed on the source website The critics and the brickbats… Of course Mrs Brown is not to everybody’s taste. It is, in many ways, the comedy that the comedy world forgot – broad belly laugh humour that is quite unfashionable. Kellett admits it’s “Marmite TV… people either love it or hate it,” and acknowledges that it is a badge of honour for some comedy fans to say they hate it. “Brendan’s view of the critics is anyone can be a critic,” he adds. McCrum says: “Mrs Brown’s Boys makes you laugh out loud and it’s an antidote to the comedy that doesn’t– the squeamish embarrassment, the metropolitan angst comedy of Curb Your Enthusiasm or what have you. “The key to success is it’s warm, old fashioned and open. It’s very honest. It’s not bound up in embarrassment and discomfort. It’s joyous and has a real heart. “It’s also rooted in a universality. Everyone has a mother, and Agnes is a little bit of everyone’s mother and the broader characters that inhabit the piece can be found everywhere. “She can be a manipulative old bag at times, she can be a real piece of work at times, but all the time you know that whatever she’s doing it’s to protect her kids. “I’ve seen it in Romania where it works exactly as written because it's universal. It travels – there’s a version in the Czech Republic and Canada, in French. “It may not be cool, but it’s got a lot bigger audience than things that are are cool. I can’t see why I can’t deliver stuff for people who pay the licence fee. The BBC love it because it delivers.” As Cheryl Taylor has it: “It caused a stir right from the off and hats off to Brendan and his brilliant family for being so collaborative and creative! I loved doing deals with Brendan– he’s a really sharp business man– Bobby Ball meets Tony Soprano as I say! They have all been wonderfully kind to everyone they meet and are totally unique – an amazing family and what an achievement.” View oEmbed on the source website What’s next for Mrs Brown’s Boys… This Christmas we’re getting two specials, and according to McCrum the deal with the BBC lasts until 2020. “They could extend it – why not? The audience hasn’t declined,” he says. O’Carroll is still said to be keen to break the US with it. NBC nearly signed up to a series fairly recently, but according to sources familiar with the negotiations the sticking point was the family – NBC wanted to cast other roles and he was having none of it. "If you start unpicking that family you’re making a big error,” says McCrum “We have 36 episodes, a movie in the bag – he’s waiting for the right time to break into the US. “I know the BBC would kill for more series,"adds Kellett, "but Brendan needs to rest. Everyone deserves a rest occasionally. It’s physically very exhausting to do two Christmas specials, let alone eight in a row.” Cheryl Taylor is also keen for more. “Long may Mrs B reign,” she says – which is quite pertinent considering that one person who may be pleased to have more Mrs Brown is Her Majesty the Queen who is, according to rumour, also a fan. “Several people have told me that,” says Ben Kellett. “Who knows if it’s true because no one is going to ask the Queen if she likes it.” Agnes Browne probably would, given half a chance... Mrs Brown’s Boys is on BBC1 on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day
The best podcasts of 2019 – and who the hosts love listening to…
The best podcasters of the year reveal which shows they never miss
It's getting to that point of the year where we look back with misty eyes on the best stuff from the past 12 months. As part of this process, we spoke to the hosts of some of 2019's best podcasts to ask them about their own shows as well as which other audio treats they just can't get enough of. The High Low – Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes My podcast (by Pandora Sykes): Dolly Alderton and I started The High Low in early 2017. We didn't feel like there was a podcast out there, particularly a female-helmed one, that discussed the high brow and the low brow - of the news, pop-culture, current affairs - all in the same breath. We wanted to cut through the week and offer both a palate cleanser and a pause-for-thought, all in one. The podcast I love: The Week Unwrapped. I love The Week and I learn loads from their spin-off podcast which is about three news stories from the last week that may not have made headline news but nevertheless have ramifications for the way we live. It's smart, entertaining and informative. The Adam Buxton Podcast – Adam Buxton My podcast: The Adam Buxton podcast is mostly me talking to friends and other interesting people. Some are funny (episode 100 with my school friends Joe Cornish and Louis Theroux or episode 82 with comedian Tash Demetriou for example) and others are more serious (episode 98 with human rights activist Maya Foa, or episode 102 with writer Philip Pullman). Most of the interviews are bookended with me walking my dog Rosie in the fields out in East Anglia where I live. On the 100th episode I told Joe and Louis that I’d been given a box set of early David Bowie demos that none of us had yet heard. We had a go at imagining what the songs sounded like based on the titles and Joe did an amazing one. The title Joe chose was ‘Goodbye 3D Joe’ and he recorded a great song about 3D film technology. It didn’t sound anything like Bowie’s song, but it was very good. The podcast I love: I was trying to think of a podcast I listen to that would make me look intelligent and unpredictable but the truth is one of my favourite podcasts is another one with comedians talking to other comedians. It’s called Stop Podcasting Yourself and it’s hosted by two Canadian blokes I don’t know - Dave Shumka and Graham Clarke - who chat with other comedians, most of whom I’ve never heard of either, but I like Graham and Dave so much I don’t care who they’re talking to. They keep it light, inconsequential even, but (usually) not stupid. I think of them as friends now. That Peter Crouch Podcast – Peter Crouch, Tom Fordyce and Chris Stark My podcast: My podcast is my favourite thing to do. We sit and talk loosely about a topic in football but it wonders in to anything from Pants to paella and the fact the last series culminated in a festival blew my mind. I love the power of the pod. The podcast I love: Ricky Gervais got me into podcasts as I’m a big fan of anything he does and Quickly Kevin, Will he Score? is a lot of what I’m about because '80s/'90s football was the best for me. Dear Joan and Jericha – Julia Davis and Vicki Pepperdine Our podcast: Dear Joan and Jericha has been described as “Derek and Clive meets Joyce Grenfell”. We play judgmental agony aunts Joan Damry and Jericha Domain, whose complicated personal lives centre around Jericha’s wayward daughter Cardinal and Joan’s bed bound husband Ralph. The pair dish out wildly unhelpful ‘adult' advice in response to listeners' letters - a recent favourite involving a man whose mother we suspect of having stretched his manhood on a fishing rod. The podcast we love: Athletico Mince. Basically we love Bob Mortimer - and hearing him and Andy Dawson barely stifling their laughter is my favourite thing. How to Fail – Elizabeth Day My podcast: How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is a podcast that talks to guests about three occasions in their life that things haven't gone according to plan. The idea is that in learning how to fail, we actually learn how to succeed better because failure makes us strong, if we know how to deal with it. I opened season six with Camilla Thurlow, a former bomb-disposal expert turned Love Island contestant who has gone on to be a charity activist and poet. I had never met Camilla before, but I knew from following her on social media that she had interesting things to say. Still, I couldn't have anticipated just how beautifully and articulately she spoke about anxiety, depression and dislocation from self. When I put the episode out there, I knew there was a risk some people would dismiss her as a reality TV star, but I was overwhelmed by the listener response - both Camilla and I were inundated with messages from people saying the podcast had made them feel understood. One lovely woman came up to me in Sainsbury's with tears in her eyes telling me how much it had meant to her. She then directed me to the cold meats aisle, which was very kind of her (it was a huge Sainsbury's and pretty confusing). The podcast I love: Dear Joan and Jericha makes me snort with laughter every single week. It is so funny and so unashamedly extreme and I particularly love that it's two women riffing brilliantly against each other. (See also: Fortunately with Fi and Jane and The High Low). Walking the Dog – Emily Dean My podcast: Interviewing someone over a dog walk makes them open up in a way I hadn’t ever imagined, I think it creates a very intimate and relaxed atmosphere. My highlight this year was Ed Miliband telling me my dog Raymond looked like a toupee. The podcast I love: It's got to be Adam Buxton’s - he’s the original podcast gangsta and still for me, the best. He’s not only hilarious, he’s also fearless as an interviewer and not afraid to ask challenging questions. Older and Wider Podcast – Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder Our podcast (by Jenny Eclair): Judith Holder and I had co-written all the Grumpy live shows and wanted to continue fighting the good fight for women of a certain age all over the country, so we decided to do 'Older and Wider', the podcast for people who don't really know what a podcast is. It’s basically an online natter over an imaginary garden fence, it’s very indiscrete I’m very glad to say. Our favourite moments are usually coleslaw related, occasionally guests bring in homemade tubs and listeners send us unusual coleslaw recipes - coleslaw is our thing - oh, and cheese. The podcast we love: I like Drunk Women Solving Crime, it manages to be really funny whilst incredibly interesting and well-researched. It’s also great fun to do live as a guest. The Political Party – Matt Forde My podcast: It’s the only place you can hear major politicians from all sides really being themselves. I interview them with respect but I take the mick too, so the result is a funnier and more revealing interview than you’d get anywhere else. Plus it's going to be daily during the election so it'll be the best place to follow the campaign as I'm not bound by the rules that newspapers, radio and television shows are! The podcast I love: Quickly Kevin, Will he Score? by Josh Widdicombe, Chris Scull and Michael Marden. It’s a brilliant mix of football nostalgia and comedy with cult '90s figures like Matt le Tissier telling ludicrous stories about '90s football. Including the time he was sick in training because he’d had too many sausage and egg McMuffins. What more do you want out of life? The Guilty Feminist – Deborah Frances-White My podcast: The Guilty Feminist is about our noble goals as feminists and our hypocrisies and insecurities which undermine those goals. We always start with a series of confessions. For example - I’m a feminist but one time I went on a women’s rights march and popped into a department store to use the loo and got distracted trying out face cream and when I came out the march was gone. We use comedy to exfoliate anything unnecessary we’re carrying and build muscle to fight the patriarchy another day. My favourite moment from the last year was co-hosting with the legendary Emma Thompson and having her replicate her feminist stand-up comedy from the 1980s for the audience. It was wild and magical. That and recording the show at The Royal Albert Hall in front of 5000 people. We started three-and-a-half years ago when there were 30 in the audience. The podcast I love: My favourite podcast to listen to is GrownUpLand from BBC Sounds. The chemistry between comedians Sophie Duker, Heidi Regan and Ned Sedgwick as they navigate the grown-up world is just wonderful. The segment everyone talks about is Steve Ali’s Perspective where Syrian Steve answers your first world problem with a refugee solution. You learn a lot about a refugee’s life while laughing at yourself. Golden. Fortunately – Fi Glover and Jane Garvey Our Podcast (by Fi Glover): Jane and I started Fortunately a couple of years ago with the intention of shooting the breeze with people in broadcasting about people in broadcasting. Very much like we would do if we didn’t have the microphone on. We have been surprised, bemused and delighted by its modest success. My favourite moment was taking the show to Hay Festival - lovely to meet audience but also because Jane and I got locked out of our BnB, saw some great shows, ate too much, gossiped all the way home. Like an extended edition of the pod in real life. Oh, and meeting Tracey Thorn – lifetime heroine for both of us. The podcast I love: I have lived for The Missing Cryptoqueen, can’t get through life without Dear Joan and Jericha, How to Fail with Elizabeth Day and I like to pop a Griefcast and the High Low in the mix too. RHLSTP – Richard Herring My podcast: My podcast is RHLSTP (Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast). It’s a long form chat with a different celebrity each week, where I try to ask different questions than they’d usually get asked in the hope of getting laughs with some revelations. Almost always with some success. The Les Dennis episode is my favourite of the year, full of great anecdotes and honesty from this showbiz legend. His story about his plumber mistaking his then-wife Amanda Holden for his daughter was particularly brilliant. The podcast I love: No Such Thing As A Fish - an hilarious chat about some unusual facts uncovered by the QI Elves, which is always funny and also manages to educate at the same time. Usually with useless information, but it’s a huge amount of fun. Page 94, The Private Eye Podcast – Andrew Hunter-Murray My podcast: Page 94 consists of behind-the-scenes interviews with all the brilliant journalists, joke-writers and cartoonists who write Private Eye magazine. We haven't been sued over any of the episodes yet, which is tragic, but I'm working on it. My highlight of the year was the 1500th-issue special anniversary episode, where we found out that the Eye has a ghost on the third floor and I got to quiz Eye hack Adam Macqueen, the man who wrote the magazine's official history. He won. The podcast I love: The Briefing Room, where David Aaronovitch talks through a different issue each week with people who actually know what they're talking about (so policy experts instead of politicians). Highly informative and never dull. We Have Ways of Making You Talk – Al Murray and James Holland Our podcast (by Al Murray): Our podcast is called We Have Ways of Making You Talk, and it’s me and James Holland, the renowned World War Two historian talking about the war. I’m an enthusiast, he’s the expert: the subject is a bottomless pit, and one we could talk about literally all day long. We have a lot of fun answering people’s questions, discussing different aspects of the war – often enough I’ll be offering my opinion on something when I realise James has written a book about it. This year in September, James and I went to Arnhem, the scene of the famous A Bridge Too Far battle, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the epic struggle there. We did nine podcasts, one for each day of the battle, walking the battlefield, speaking to experts, and digging up some controversy too. To actually walk the ground, see the place where the battle was fought made it all come to life. The podcast I love: I am a huge fan of comedian Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast – hearing politicians talk at length rather than in soundbite form is refreshing, and Matt knows his stuff, so is able to take the mickey and get under the surface. He’ll talk to pretty much anyone of any persuasion and hear them out – so if they’re dodgy or hopeless it’s all there to be revealed. Box of Delights – Julia Raeside My podcast: On the Box of Delights I invite people to bathe in the nostalgia of their favourite TV memories during little 15-minute episodes. It’s often funny but I was unexpectedly teary hearing Richard Madeley describe watching the moon landings with his late mum and dad. The podcast I love: Heavy Pencil is a mini sitcom from Tony Gardner (Last Tango in Halifax) and Anna Crilly (Lead Balloon). He’s a jaded old luvvie short on work and she’s the bored youngster who listlessly answers the phone at his agent’s office. It’s comic perfection. Shagged Married Annoyed Podcast – Rosie and Chris Ramsey My podcast (by Rosie Ramsey): Shagged Married Annoyed came about completely by chance earlier this year. My husband [Chris Ramsey] and I weren’t spending enough time together. A podcast was the only solution to us sitting down and having an actual conversation. Chris is a workaholic you see, so it had to involve comedy in some way. It is recorded from our dining table and there are zero airs and graces, just like us! If you enjoy toilet humour and listening to a married couple argue then we are the podcast for you. My absolute favourite moment so far was when Chris and I found out that people are having foursomes on Wednesdays with complete strangers they’ve met online. Funny yet insightful. The podcast I love: I love a good true crime podcast. My most recent find was Man in The Window. Gripping stuff, I’ve been double checking all my doors ever since! Homo Sapiens – Will Young and Chris Sweeney Our podcast (by Chris Sweeney): Will and I have always loved Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 - we loved hearing about the world from a female perspective. So one day I said to Will that I wanted to make a show that was the word from an LGBTQ+ perspective. Will said “I love it” so we decided to do it together, and so we sat down at my kitchen table and recorded ourselves on my iPhone - two best friends talking about life, coming out, gay culture and we had a real laugh doing all of it. Suddenly we had a huge following - we’ve gone on to interview Sam Smith, Jeremy Corbyn, Clare Balding, we’ve been to the Gay Rodeo in America, visited Parkfield School to chat to Andrew Moffat who teaches wonderful lessons on inclusivity in schools - it’s been an incredible experience. The podcast I love: I love fortunately with Fi Glover and Jane Garvey - those two are hysterical and it seems similar to our podcast - a bit disorganised and very funny.
When is Poldark season five going to air on TV? Who's in the cast, and what could happen?
The next season of Poldark will be the last – but who will be in it, what's the plot... and exactly how old will Ross be?
Poldark season five will be its last. After four series galloping across the cliffs of Cornwall, Aidan Turner will hang up his tricorn for good. "As far as we’re concerned it’s going to be the last,” said writer Debbie Horsfield of the next series, which will air on BBC1 in summer 2019. But what will the final series look like? What will the new stories be? And who is in the cast? Poldark could return in later years with Ross "in his 40s" Where is Poldark filmed? If you like Poldark, why not try Jamestown on NOW TV? Watch now (sponsored link) When is the final season of Poldark on TV? CONFIRMED: Poldark series 5 begins on Sunday 14th July at 9pm on BBC1. The eight-episode series will continue on Sunday evenings. The final two episodes of the show will air over the August Bank Holiday weekend. While the penultimate instalment of the Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson show will be broadcast on 8pm on Sunday 25th August, the last ever episode will be shown the following night at 8.30pm. In the US, Poldark will launch on Sunday 29th September at 9/8c on PBS Masterpiece. Filming concluded in February, with the cast sharing plenty of bittersweet snaps to mark the final day of shooting: View oEmbed on the source website Is there a trailer for Poldark series 5? Yes! Take a look at this... View oEmbed on the source website What will happen in the final season of Poldark? Initially, it was presumed that Horsfield would look to author Winston Graham's next Poldark novel, The Stranger From the Sea, to inspire series five. But that book is set ten years on from the events of book seven, The Angry Tide, which included the sudden death of Elizabeth Warleggan and was adapted for series four. The BBC has since revealed that, rather than time-jump a decade, the fifth and final TV series would fill in the missing events leading up to The Stranger From the Sea which begins in 1810 (thus avoiding ageing Aidan Turner's Ross Poldark to 50 years old). "In The Stranger from the Sea, Winston Graham made many references to developments that happened in the 'gap' years. Much can also be inferred," explained Horsfield. "There are, of course, also historical events and people of the time, both in Cornwall and in London. Series five will draw on all of these to follow the lives of the Poldarks, George Warleggan, the Enyses, and the Carnes in this intervening period.” Winston Graham's son Andrew – who consults on the drama – added: "No-one can know what my father would have felt about the forthcoming series, let alone what he might have written. However, Debbie Horsfield has demonstrated such an extraordinary affinity with his work and shown such remarkable skill in bringing his Poldark characters to the screen that we know we are in safe hands. Indeed, without her, the Estate would not have agreed to series five in this form.” As for what those intervening events will be, details are rather thin on the ground for now. We know that following the death of Elizabeth, Ross vows to put Westminster behind him and "spend more time with the people he loves". Of course, that doesn't mean he and Demelza waltz off into the sunset just yet as an old friend soon emerges with a plea for help causing Ross to challenge the establishment yet again. Dwight and Caroline Enys join the cause, meanwhile Demelza contends with dangers close to home and George courts corrupt powers with a sphere of influence that spans the Empire. Which characters are returning for the final season of Poldark? All the old favourites are back with Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson returning as Ross and Demelza Poldark. View oEmbed on the source website Heida Reed may have left the series but her on-screen husband Jack Farthing returns as George Warleggan alongside Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde as Dwight and Caroline Enys. Following their wedding at the end of series four, we'll continue to follow Drake and Morwenna Carne (Harry Richardson and Elise Chappell) and Drake and Demelza's brother Sam (Tom York), too. And what would Poldark be without Prudie? Beatie Edney will also reprise her role for the fifth and final series. Elizabeth and Francis' son Geoffrey Charles will also return, with Freddie Wise the latest actor to play the role – taking over from Louis Davison. Meet the cast of Poldark series 5 Are there any new characters in Poldark season five? There sure are... They include: Lily Dodsworth Evans (Cecilly Hanson), Kerri McLean (Kitty Despard), Sofia Oxenham (Tess Tregidden), Vincent Regan (Ned Despard) and Peter Sullivan (Ralph Hanson). Find out who they're playing here. Will the fifth season of Poldark really be the last? Yes, it will... for now. That note of ambiguity has been emphasised by Poldark's executive producer Karen Thrussell who teased: "This will be the last series in the Poldark chronicle... for now. Who knows what the future may bring." Including The Stranger From the Sea, there are five more Winston Graham novels unadapted by the BBC in this latest Poldark incarnation. For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides. Thrussell told RadioTimes.com at the Radio Times Covers Party in January 2019 that she was keen to revisit the series – and that extra material – later down the line: “There are five more books we could do in future possibly,” she said. “If we did a Poldark six – and a lot of us would like to do it – it wouldn’t be for a few years yet. “Ross would be in his 40s… [and] I think we would probably focus on Ross and Demelza because we love them so much. The books are really great. I think for me, it would be a real honour to finish them because the 1970s series didn’t finish them, they stopped where we are stopping now. And as a reader of the books… [who] loves the books… I would love to get to the end.” So, don't grieve the end of Poldark just yet... Poldark season 5 starts on 14th June on BBC1
Nicholas Hytner’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge Theatre is politically sound but lacks coherence and magic
Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie performs Titania with Oberon's lines and it doesn’t really come off says Ben Dowell. But it's visually stunning... ★★★
Does A Midsummer Night’s Dream need tinkering with? Director Nicholas Hytner seems to think so in the veteran’s first stab at Shakespeare’s play of sylvan love-play, fairy magic and the potentially lethal perils of love. But he does more than tinker with it – he turns it on his head. One of the beauties of the play is its perfect construction – the Athenian King and Queen finding their parallels in their fairy world, Theseus and his kidnapped bride Hippolyta mirrored by the fairy Monarchs Oberon and Titania. But what Hytner does is invert the fairy Kingdom. Oberon (Oliver Chris) becomes King of the fairies, speaking Titania’s lines, and Titania (Gwendoline Christie) speaks Oberon’s lines. It’s a drastic re-ordering which means that Titania (and not Oberon) controls the mischievous Puck, putting love juice in the mortals’ eyes and creating the chaos that threatens tragedy before the comic resolution. It also gives a very different spin on the moment Titania falls in love with Bottom, after he is “translated” into an ass. Yes, Oberon very much is the Queen of the fairies in this working. It’s a witty idea, but I am not sure it works. Of course it plays with gusto to our gender fluid, woke, progressive age and there is a lot of comedy in watching Oberon fall for Bottom, played with the right level of bumptious buffoonery by the excellent Hammed Animashaun (below). But we had that without the switch. And of course there’s nothing wrong in giving Titania more of the power in the play. But Hytner makes sound political points without adding much to the drama. And I can’t say he really resolves these basic structural problems in the second half. Having said that the show is a visual and physical delight. It’s played in immersive style, like the brilliant recent production of Julius Caesar at this same venue, with a seated area round the space, and room for the groundlings to interact and follow the action. The stages rise up and down, beds upon which fairies sleep or frolic are flown high into the air, and theatregoers have to make way for the players. You feel close to the action, but sometimes you just feel pushed around (yes, I was a groundling) by the staff. The performances are unerringly excellent though. I loved all four lovers, especially Isis Hainsworth’s impassioned Hermia and Kit Young’s guitar-playing Lysander who manages to beautifully capture some of that character’s self-regard. As Oberon, Oliver Chris was handed a bit of a dud, forced to be more comic turn than mighty King, but he played his humiliation and redemption with fabulous camp gusto. David Moorst is a very punkish Puck, playing his part with a strong northern accent and add libbing, often about awful Londoners. I can’t say I liked him terribly much, but he raised many a laugh. Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie plays imprisoned Hippolyta with power and dignity, and she relishes her turn as a fabulously mischievous Titania. Only, she isn’t really Titania is she? She is mouthing Oberon’s lines. And that tips this Midsummer Night’s Dream into being something else entirely. Not really the play Shakespeare wrote, and something that will leave many people who love this timeless masterpiece simply confused and slightly frustrated. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is at The Bridge Theatre, 3 Potter’s Fields Park, London SE1 2SG. Box office: 0333 320 0051. Booking until August 31
As Seven Up! returns to our screens, Radio Times caught up with three of its cast members as they contemplate ageing, death, and how much (or little) they've changed ahead of 63 Up
Back in 1964, Granada TV assembled 20 boys and girls from all walks of life for a series about growing up in the UK. Among the earliest scenes to be filmed were sequences of the seven-year-olds playing at London Zoo – and later in a nearby playground. That footage (complete with a polar bear) still features in the programme, which, under the benevolent gaze of director Michael Apted, has followed their lives with updates every seven years. Now, 56 years later, Seven Up! has become 63 Up, the age of its remaining 11 active cast members. The best TV shows airing in 2019 15 books you need to read before they become TV series and movies in 2019 Stay up to date with the RadioTimes.com newsletter Among those children were Tony Walker, a cheeky little East End boy with dreams of being a jockey; Bruce Balden, a pre-prep-school boarder whose old-before-his-years air instantly evaporated the moment he voiced his dearest wish: to see his father who was soldiering in Rhodesia, “6,000 miles away”; and Sue Davis, the East End girl who was filmed with her schoolfriends Jackie and Lynn. Lynn died in 2013, the first of the cast (as they tend to call themselves) to pass away, but her family are taking part in this series. Tony’s dreams of being a jockey didn’t work out (although he did race at Kempton Park alongside Lester Piggott) and he became a London cabbie; university administrator Sue married early, divorced by the age of 35 and has been with a new partner since 42 Up. And Bruce, who did get to see his dad again, studied maths at Oxford, worked in Bangladesh, taught at a London comprehensive before moving to his current job at a private school in St Albans. But is the child, as the Jesuits believed, the father of the man? Were their paths already set by the age of seven? And what’s it been like to take part in this series? We took Bruce, Sue and Tony back to London Zoo to find out… Do you remember filming at the zoo? Surely you do, Tony, with your cabbie’s knowledge… TONY I remember it was a Saturday and I was the scruffiest one. I remember the playground, too, that was in Shepherd’s Bush. SUE I’ve seen the clip, but I don’t remember the day. I have a terrible memory. I’m like a goldfish. I remember being filmed at 14 because that’s the embarrassing age. BRUCE I don’t remember it at all. You’ve recently seen the first film of the new three-part series – what did you think of it? BRUCE It’s so heart-warming. It’s nice to see a life from the beginning, a progress through life. TONY I was quite happy. I was looking with trepidation, a bit of nerves. I think everyone does. All you’re asking for is credibility. Seeing my grandchildren grow up in the same film really touched a nerve with me. SUE It’s knowing your children have always got this. That record of your life and your children’s lives is always there and I’m really proud to be part of it. It was sad in places watching this new one, but in a nice way. We’re all feeling older and we have aches and pains and life has chucked things at us, but we all came across in a positive way… And you’re all still glad you took part? SUE We’re all terrified we’re going to make a fool of ourselves and say something really stupid we can’t take back. Because we don’t get to edit it or see it before it’s finished, so you have to think about what you’re saying. TONY There’s trust there. The whole production team have always been there. I trust them with my life. BRUCE You feel they will be positive. They won’t try to catch you out or trip you up. It’s not a political interview. It’s bringing you out, telling the story of your life so people can see their own lives reflected in that. We’ve all lost somebody, we’ve all been through grief. How do you look at your seven-year-old self? What advice would you give that child? BRUCE I see someone I don’t really identify with. I know that was me, but it doesn’t feel like me. I see him as a completely different person. TONY They were some of the best days of my life. I remember we went to the playground and had some lemonade in a hut and Jackie was dancing. And me beating up the posh kids… Who did you beat up? TONY [Pre-prep-school boy] Andrew [Brackfield] said, “They’re a bit rough and tumble for me” and one of them punched me in the back. It was a them and us thing. I wouldn’t say I beat them up, it was a rough and tumble… Have you ever regretted saying something? TONY I had a lot of adverse publicity after the last one, 56 Up. I’m a very staunch East End boy, typical traditionalist. And the demographics have changed considerably in the East End. What was happening when I was 56 made me out to be what Michael considered… “that’s a racist comment, Tony”, and I am quoting him. And I wasn’t trying to be. I got a bit of flak. But I don’t regret saying anything. SUE We all say silly things. But we’re not professionals. We’re just normal people thrust into this very abnormal situation. I did an interview with a newspaper and I got a taste of what it’s like for people in the limelight and they twisted my words to make a very hurtful headline about my first marriage. That little tiny bit of celebrity we get every seven years, you open yourself up to comments from people. The programme is famously based on the Jesuit idea that if you give someone a child till they’re seven they can show you the person they’ll become. Has that proved true? TONY With the academic side of things, of course it does. With respect to dear Bruce here, but he went to pre-prep-school when he was seven. When I was seven I had my arse hanging out of my trousers, swimming in the canal, going down Vicky [Victoria] Park. I had no academic education. BRUCE There’s something from the seven-year-old in all of us, you can see that. It certainly was a polemic about class to begin with but it’s become much more human than that with the stories. But someone like Sue is doing a really responsible job now… SUE Yes, I enjoy my job. I had a good education, a good comprehensive education. What has been the most surprising thing on your Up journeys? SUE In America I went with Michael [Apted] to a film festival and the Americans absolutely love this programme and people were hugging me in the street. They said they had been watching me since I was seven years old. Perfect strangers, which can be frightening… TONY A woman got in touch with me from Hull and she said when I was seven she was pregnant and she had a baby boy and named it Tony. And Tony had a son called Tony. And she still phones me and sends me a Christmas card. And when I call her she says, “I can’t wait to see you on the telly.” It’s fantastic. There were only four girls and one non-white child in the cast. Is that a problem? BRUCE Michael has always said he wishes he had balanced it with more women, but quite a few wives have come into it. TONY My dear wife, yes, very vocal. SUE He purposely involved more wives to try to get the balance. He didn’t think women would be anything other than housewives at that time, but of course understands that every woman has their story and as the years have gone on that’s been proven. But that was the 60s. Different time. You’ll be 70 for the next series. Would you do more? SUE Personally, and just speaking for myself, I am in a good place but things are going to get worse. You’re going to get sicker and older. Both my parents are with me so I’m thinking, “Another seven years, who knows? Am I going to be here, are they going to be here?” There’s an element that thinks this would be a good time to finish, but another part of me thinks seven till 70? It’s got a good ring. TONY Seven to 70 has got a good ring. You have to look at Michael, who’s now 77. His dedication, his tenacity, his talents would endorse another programme, providing all the same crew are still here. We’re not getting any younger, though… SUE It’s bad enough losing Lynn, so who knows what’s round the corner. Would you do it without Michael at the helm? BRUCE If they did it again without Michael or some of the others, it would be very, very different. So probably not. TONY No, I wouldn’t, he’s been like a brother to me. I love him dearly. The Up series is Michael Apted. SUE I doubt it very much. It would have to be a totally different kind of programme. The way it’s formatted now, that’s the trust with Michael and the crew. Where would you like to be in your lives when 70 Up comes round? BRUCE Probably retired by the sea. TONY Retired, on a golf course, with my horses. SUE I’d love to be retired with a nice cottage in Devon or Cornwall. I’ve always wanted that. 63 Up airs on Tuesday 4th - Thursday 6th June on ITV at 9pm. The documentary Seven Up and Me airs on Monday 3rd June on ITV at 9pm.
There will be a series every other year now according to the actor
Martin Clunes’ popular ITV drama Doc Martin will return with series nine in 2019. The actor had previously said that the show would finish its run with its eighth series which finished in November 2017. But it appears he was jumping the gun (or stethoscope in his case) and has now promised a series every other year. Clunes told RadioTimes.com that he is filming a new run of episodes featuring the uptight but brilliant GP in 2019. “I’m un-ending it,” he laughed when we asked him to explain the confusion. “We probably plan to do one every other year now….” Martin Clunes: I’m not bossy or posh – I’m nothing like Doc Martin! Meet the cast of Doc Martin series 8 Doc Martin stars Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell reveal their 40-year friendship The news will be welcomed by fans of the show, which is one of ITV’s most popular dramas, regularly pulling in audiences of more than six million per episode. It stars Clunes as the eponymous Doc, a brilliant surgeon who has been forced to move to Cornwall and work as a GP because he developed a fear of blood. His abrupt manner has led to various run-ins with the locals, but his medical brilliance has earned him their grudging respect. A recurrent thread also involves his on-off relationship with local primary school teacher Louisa Glasson (Caroline Catz, see picture below) with whom his character has a child. The series started in 2004 and eight series, plus a 2006 film, have aired so far. It is made by Buffalo Pictures, the independent production company run by Clunes and his wife Philippa Braithwaite.
Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell review: Cold Feet's Robert Bathurst is a funny and poignant old soak
You can get a boozy taste of old Soho at the actual pub where the 1989 play is set in a funny night that never gets too misty-eyed ★★★★
The Coach and Horses, the famous West End boozer associated with many a dewlapped patron, legendary drinking session, Private Eye lunch and also, of course, down-at-heel Spectator journalist Jeffrey Bernard is under threat. The current landlords are facing eviction by a huge brewery and as part of their campaign to keep it in local hands they have hit on the idea of reviving Keith Waterhouse’s famous 1989 play in the actual venue where it’s set. The oft-revived work, culled from lines of Bernard’s own journalism, imagines the cantankerous old soak locked into the pub having fallen asleep in the gents. As he tries to rouse its famous (and even grumpier) landlord Norman Balon he reflects on his life (which at the time the play was written was still being lived – Bernard died in 1997) and many loves. It’s a role made famous by Peter O’Toole, and latterly Tom Conti among others, but tumbling onto the floor of the pub this time is the rather unlikely figure of Cold Feet actor Robert Bathurst. Bathurst’s comic timing is pretty good and it’s an impressive effort on his part to play it all solo (this play does feature other characters including Bernard’s former lovers and an uptight customs officer, but we hear them as recordings – Stephen Fry voices the customs officer). And while it’s hard to imagine the polite and refined Bathurst blotto and clutching drunkenly to a toilet bowl on a cigarette-strewn floor, he rises to the challenge admirably. We may have lost the diverting drama of his interactions with other characters but the experience of feeling we are locked in the pub with Bernard - the actual pub from the play – is exhilarating enough. Waterhouse’s text is also very funny and potent, replete with a rat-a-tat arsenal of quick-fire lines. One story concerns the time a nurse asked Bernard (during one of his many stays in hospital) why he keeps on drinking and his reply is “to stop me from jogging.” In another moment he delivers a mock obituary of himself, reflecting that he came to Soho in the 1940s’s and "from that moment... was never to look forward". Fortunately, though, Bathurst doesn’t just make it a string of witticisms. And he also doesn’t lose sight of the almost Beckettian seam of sadness that runs through a life of addictions, four failed marriages and essential loneliness. It’s not for nothing that Bernard’s "Low Life" Spectator column was once described as “a suicide note in weekly instalments”; and however much this play is essentially Bernard justifying his life and lifestyle to the audience, Bathurst never loses sight of the pity of his essential and undeniable death wish. So as a snapshot of the times, as a tribute to what Bernard called the "enchanted dungheap" of old Soho, it’s hard to beat – beautiful without being too misty-eyed. Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from May 7 to June 9 at the Coach and Horses pub in Greek Street, London W1. You can buy tickets online here
Doctor Foster episode 3 recap: departures, betrayals and intrigue – has Gemma left Parminster for good?
In the best episode of the series so far Gemma is down but in no way out for the count…
“You win,” Suranne Jones’ Gemma Foster texted her oily ex-husband Simon as she drove out of Parminster for a new life. “We’ve gone.” I wouldn’t bet on it. This is not a woman to hold aloft the white flag of surrender: she’s more likely to ram the pole up Simon’s backside. And with two episodes to go of this sensationally schlocky series, this could just mark the beginning of the final stages of her campaign of revenge on the man who has turned her life upside down. In perhaps the most action-packed (and certainly the best) episode of the series so far, we saw the flawed brilliance of this woman. Doctor Foster series 2 episode 2 recap: The custody battle gets serious as Gemma goes to war Where is Parminster? Is the town in Doctor Foster a real place? Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter She stood up for Isobel (Hope Lloyd), the teenage girl whom we learned (in the biggest discovery of the evening) that her son Tom had made unwelcome sexual advances towards at Simon and Kate’s party in episode one; whatever trials she goes through, Gemma knows right from wrong. “It doesn’t matter what he’s been through,” Gemma told Isobel. “He should have stopped.” But she also stood by her son, despite the unpleasantness of his actions (and the fact that Isobel’s parents might even involve the police); Simon, by glaring contrast, seemed to use Tom's actions as an opportunity to wash his hands of his old family. New wife Kate (Jodie Comer) didn’t want Tom around their toddler Amelie and Simon acquiesced, accepting that his son’s drunken assault on a girl his own age – and his subsequent violent behaviour – could indeed make him a threat to his half-sister. So Tom was rejected on the doorstep by a dad who has started again with a new family. The young lad (an excellent and mature performance by young Tom Taylor) left with his mum to begin a new life, while Simon was last seen playing happily in a sun-soaked living room with his baby daughter. But of course, that’s not everything. Gemma and Simon had sex earlier in tonight’s episode – an animalistic and loveless coupling which started in the kitchen and moved on to the living room, all sweat and clawing. “Gemma, I hate you,” said Simon by way of foreplay. “I know, I pretty much f***ing loathe you,” she spat back before the action began. And it was, we later learned, all overheard by Tom. “You’ve never understood how thin the walls are in your house,” said neighbour Anna, before Tom wasted little opportunity in telling Gemma’s on/off boyfriend (and his teacher) James about his parents' liaison. The teen now has the power to wreak serious damage on Simon and Kate’s union, should he wish to spill the beans about their late-night antics; this was something Gemma didn’t do (or rather, hasn’t done yet) despite planning to film the whole thing on her phone before Simon spotted her ruse. It didn't stop either of them going through with it, though. Tom also said something to his dad I have been longing to hear from him since series one. “Can you stop calling me mate. I’m not your mate, I’m your son.” That “mate” thing really got on my nerves. Gemma and Tom's wasn't the only departure from promiscuous Parminster. Victoria Hamilton’s long-suffering spouse Anna (pictured, below) decided to up sticks to Edinburgh; through series one and two she’s been a clear foil for Gemma’s inability to leave behind her old life after her marriage breakdown. “In your world it really is all about Simon, isn’t it?” Anna said to Gemma in the Foster kitchen, where a vase of dying flowers was artfully placed on the kitchen top, with a symbolism that will not be lost on anyone. For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 And of course Anna is right. Gemma does find it hard to let go of her dead marriage. And while she may have left Parminster tonight, there’s no doubt that the lure of Simon will be keenly felt and she’ll be back. As she showed today, she is a vital part of her community: a responsible doctor (and mother) who is even on friendly first name terms with the town’s traffic wardens (did you notice the way she talked herself out of a ticket?). She doesn’t leave things behind that easily. So it’s three episodes down, two to go in the second – and probably final – series. Tonight’s visit felt like the climax of act one of a theatre play (and let’s not forget that writer Mike Bartlett has done most of his work for the stage). A second act beckons and Gemma will be back. Steal yourselves is all I can say. This article was originally published in September 2017
Doctor Foster series 2 episode 4 recap: Is this the end of the road for Simon?
A sensational and dramatic climax in the penultimate episode of the series sees Simon’s world fall apart
Outrageous, melodramatic, utterly addictive, Doctor Foster surpassed even its own schlocky standards with a humdinger of a penultimate episode which saw Gemma seek to take Simon's life away from him – in every sense possible. Suranne Jones' brilliant doc conspired to see him lose not just his new wife and young child. The last we saw she was driving towards him full pelt on a quiet suburban road intent on, what? Killing him? Will she swerve out of the way? Or career into him? We’ll find out in the next episode, of course, by which time we may finally have caught our breath. Doctor Foster episode 3 recap: departures, betrayals and intrigue – has Gemma left Parminster for good? Where is Parminster? Is the town in Doctor Foster a real place? Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter Blimey. The final, heart-stopping sequence began with slippery Simon on the doorstep of his fancy glass-laden home, his wife (Jodie Comer’s Kate) and young child Amelie having deserted him; he had no cash in his account, no car to drive. Hell, Kate’s vengeful parents would have even taken the clothes off his back if they could have been bothered. And it was all down to Gemma who managed to pull off a daring, and rather formidably implausible, coup by telling Gemma about Simon’s infidelity and then persuading Kate that he was still obsessed with his ex-wife. Initially, Gemma lured Kate to the hotel she and son Tom were staying at by means of an elaborate ruse: paying an estate agent to let her have a "snoop" (the agent's words) and to leave the address of her hotel lying around. Somehow she counted on Kate being as obsessive as her – takes one to know one, I guess. She also got Anna to tell her about Simon’s infidelity. As a way of getting an audience with Kate it was as weirdly complicated as it was compelling. When she got to speak to her a second time, Gemma constructed a bizarre argument woven around things he said at her wedding, the way she posed for him, their shared love of boots and tight-fitting jeans (hardly uncommon) and the food they ate. “Thai food is our food,” said Gemma, a little crazedly, ignoring, well, the people of Thailand (population 69 million) and those of us who are partial to a regular Pad Thai or Moo Nam Tok of a Saturday night. She also told Kate about the music they had sex to, essentially rubbing his new wife's nose into the intimate things she shared with Simon (and which presumably would apply to anyone who has been married before). But it seemed to do the trick on Kate who apparently swallowed the story whole, convinced that he remains fixated on his ex and that once a lying cheater, Simon will always be a lying cheater. Gemma’s thesis that Simon is the one who still can’t let go (of her) felt a tad preposterous. Didn't her behaviour demonstrate that she is clearly the one with closure issues? But Kate bought it. Clearly, of course, Simon’s infidelity hardened Kate's heart in the first place, though she seemed minded to forgive him at first. But even when he did stop lying, his explanation and attempt to win Kate’s affections back seemed a little too, er, Simon-ish for comfort. “Your body’s better…you smell better,” he said. My, he really is shallow as a puddle this one, and perhaps deserves everything he gets. So where do we go now? As Simon was staggering along the road, heading to speak to Tom, he seemed to have lost it all. But there may be even worse to come on the road as Gemma is seen swerving... towards her ex? She can't run him over, surely? Is she capable of murder? So many questions, the next of which must be: is it actually possible to feel sorry for Simon? I’ll definitely be tuning in for answers next week… View oEmbed on the source website This article was originally published in September 2017
Doctor Foster series 2 episode 1 review: Gemma faces the party from hell
Revenge takes a different twist in the first episode of the second series as a custody battle opens up
After the dinner party from hell in series one, Suranne Jones’ Gemma Foster begins series two by wading into the wedding party from hell. And, just as with that unforgettable get-together in series one of Doctor Foster, she was a wolf once more. Though by the end of episode one, she appears to be very much on the back foot, dissolving her wedding ring in a tub of acid as she considers her next move in a field of limited options. Where is Parminster? Is the town in Doctor Foster a real place? Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter Gemma's marriage disappeared in series one, but now it looks like her wayward ex-husband Simon has designs on their son Tom who was whisked away at the end of the episode and appeared happily ensconced in the home of his dad, new wife Kate (Jodie Comer) and their young child. The series one story of Gemma’s fightback against Simon’s infidelity has morphed into a series two fight-to-the-death custody battle. Events began rather sedately with a snapshot of life in the commuter town. It was a red-letter day – bright missives were being sent round the place – but it didn’t take much to guess that they heralded Gemma’s worst nightmare. And there it was, just about the smuggest message to get her teeth grinding: “We’re back and we’re married”. The jolt that Simon was returning to Parminster after two years away with new bride Kate and a baby. Gathered together in his “£1m house” in The Acres were all the people Gemma knew, including her colleague Roz (who had promised she wasn’t going) and she was having none of it. Enlisting her hunky date, who just happened to teach her son Tom, she turned up to the party desperate to cause as much havoc as possible, swigging wine, wandering around the house, even snooping in Kate’s drawers and playing with her sex aid. At one point she brushed up close to Simon, teasing him sexually, “playing games" as she put it in a way which she probably wanted to demonstrate her elusiveness and panache but rather suggested that she had somewhat lost the plot. Her earlier pleas to her son Tom not to attend the do and tearful voicemail message (“I don’t think your Dad’s being…very fair”) also seemed to be straight out of the ‘how not to parent' handbook – the one that teaches divorced parents not to use their offspring as emotional crutches. (It actually has a word – "parentification" – by the way). Meanwhile, Simon sneered at her that she hadn’t moved on. She wears the same clothes, she does nothing more than work and return home, he goaded, failing to acknowledge that many single parents probably find it hard and expensive to do much else. Being the same Gemma, if a little more bruised and perhaps slightly less sympathetic, she’s still a wolf, of course. And we saw her bare her teeth – quite literally – during a meeting with annoying new doctor Sian (Sian Brooke) who has joined her Parminster practice. Gemma also hasn’t lost that nervous tic of scratching her hand – reaching nervously to the finger where her wedding ring once perched. Simon is right in one sense. Her life has been on hold, although the suggestion now seems to be that she’s had a kick-start. Gemma works best when she has a mission. Sometimes I feel that Doctor Foster didn’t need a second series; that Gemma is doing ever more unhinged things (like housebreaking) in order to push the plot along. Couldn’t we have left her where she was at the end of series one, bruised but defiant and having just saved a man who had had a heart attack? But now we're back, things have been set up nicely in a show which, despite its moments of histrionics, brilliantly takes apart the lives and delusions of the comfortably well-heeled. Simon’s smug set-up will surely come under fire. I also suspect there will be some more probing on how he has found such wealth – he had some dodgy business dealings with Kate’s father in series one, so what's he been up to now to afford his luxury pad? Emotional dishonesty has leeched into his business dealings with the past. Will that be Gemma's best way to get him? I'm certainly keen to find out... Are you happy with the return of Doctor Foster? This article was originally published in September 2017
Doctor Foster series 2 episode 2 recap: The custody battle gets serious as Gemma goes to war
Suranne Jones’ vengeful spouse finds a new lover – but ex-husband Simon is proving a more than capable adversary
“That might be the best sex I ever had,” puffed an exhausted James (Prasanna Puwanarajah), the hunky schoolteacher who found himself in Gemma’s bed following a particularly vigorous moment of intimacy in episode two of Doctor Foster. “Yeah, it was good,” flat-batted Suranne Jones’ GP who, on this evidence, clearly isn’t one to gild the lily when it comes to boosting the egos of her bedfellows. She told James about a recent squeeze who she paid in order to ward off intimacy. He only did it two times and then stopped because he felt "insulted". Doctor Foster series 2 episode 1 review: Gemma faces the party from hell Where is Parminster? Is the town in Doctor Foster a real place? Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter These are not the kind of things any prospective new lover ever wants to hear and it does make you wonder what James sees in her. To date he has been rather doe-eyed where Gemma is concerned, overlooking all her irrational behaviour (he came upon her stalking her son outside the school gates tonight) and heavy drinking. Does he enjoy the uncertainty and danger? Because there’s been a lot of that. As for the boozing, those goldfish bowl wine glasses that these feckless Parminster types prefer has always been something of a Doctor Foster leitmotif. And tonight Gemma’s fondness for the sauce is looking like it's a real problem. She brought two bottles to dinner with her colleague Sian and then got hammered at a nightclub (bumping into Simon who took a photo of her). “I’m winning,” sneered the slimeball. And he's not wrong. We're nearly half way through this series and Gemma is yet to land a proper punch. We did get a flash of the old Doc Fos when she saved a comatose man in the club by putting him in the recovery position beflre spurning the advances of his heartless mate. But while her lack of control is good for pushing the plot along, as we saw last week, it’s watch-through-your-fingers stuff at times. She got her new colleague Sian to reveal what her son Tom had said in a private consultation, and she even prowled around Simon and Kate’s place (again), believing she had stumbled across the golden bullet when she saw Kate kiss another man while Simon was out. “Mark’s her godfather, anything else?” snapped Simon. Gemma also recruited Neil to take Simon for a drink on a crassly-conceived fact-finding mission. Simon, master dissembler as he is, was wise to the ruse. And after exchanging unchivalrous notes about Gemma’s sexual technique, set Neil up with a woman in the pub – which promptly destroyed his relationship when he got home. The info he gleaned from Simon was also entirely made up. Gemma’s meddling in Tom’s affairs, stalking his teenage friend Max, watching him from his garden, then quizzing him was another sign of a disturbed mind, the effects of which are clearly being felt by her son. The end of the episode saw Tom excluded from school for attacking his erstwhile mate. His teacher appeared baffled about why it had happened but it’s hard not to see the real reason. Has Gemma gone too far this time? And what the hell has she got in store for us next week? This article was originally published in September 2017
Poldark series 4 finale recap: Another major character dies as grief and joy envelop Cornwall
Series four ended with tragedy, a wedding, and some stunning moments of drama – but where could series five go next? (SPOILERS)
Elizabeth is dead. Ross Poldark’s former love killed by… what exactly? Her own folly? Her own ambition? Or… Ross himself? As Doctor Enys ruefully observed, with her dead body still warm in the Trenwith master bedroom: “What killed her was seeded long ago”. Ross certainly is the seed, quite literally if you think about it. His night of passion with Elizabeth back in series two resulted in the birth of young Valentine, the floppy-haired elephant in the drawing room, a Ross mini-me if every there was one, with his flowing dark locks and skill on a (rocking) horse. Poldark series 4 episode 5 recap: Ossie dies in a horse riding accident Poldark series 4 episode 6 recap: Ross foils George but sets up a bloody reckoning with Monk Adderley Poldark series 4 episode 7 recap: Ross risks all in his duel with Monk View oEmbed on the source website And it was Elizabeth’s desperation to prove to husband George that eight-month pregnancies were the norm for her that seeded her death. Her swallowing of a London-bought potion hastened the pregnancy, did something disastrous to her arteries, and caused her to die soon after giving George his daughter, Ursula Warleggan. That cataclysmic plot event closed the series four finale and cast a dark shadow over Cornwall. The look of shattered, furious grief etched on George’s face suggests that he will not be giving up a thirst for vengeance on Ross, whom he may well soon blame for the disaster. In some ways too, Elizabeth’s son Geoffrey Charles’ little joke about young Valentine looking like Uncle Ross was another seed, though probably not the one Dr Enys had in mind. It convinced George of the paternity question and set things in motion. So it was folly, yes, but looked at another way, Elizabeth died for her children. She wanted to secure Valentine a future, a place in society. And that could never have happened with George huffing about and treating the poor child like dirt as he had earlier in the episode. Heida Reed’s character will be much missed and her death was supremely moving, ending with George and Elizabeth’s two children watching in wracked silence at the dead woman's bed. Elizabeth’s place in the Poldark firmament was skilfully established by scriptwriter Debbie Horsfield in the opening scene – a flashback to 1780 which saw Ross, set to enlist in the army, wooing the young lady. Elizabeth’s eventual two husbands – Francis and George – looked on enviously, not knowing what fate had in store for them both. “It’s always been Ross, it will always be Ross,” said 1780 Francis. Ironic enough. An even darker joke followed that would only be fully understood in hindsight. 1780 Aunt Agatha’s Tarot cards foretold that Elizabeth would break hearts and bear beautiful children. “Not ours at any rate,” said Francis with a dark laugh – but we of course know that Elizabeth was destined to bear the children of all three men. Now there’s a thing for series five to get its teeth into... Elsewhere, there was still good news for Drake and Morwenna, who were finally married – but not before the former governess was put through the wringer once again. After agreeing to marry the love of her life, she was lured back to Trenwith by Elizabeth, only to be viciously sent packing by George. He ordered Tom Harry to see her off and to bring him a bottle of 94 Claret while he was at it. A funny touch that, but not for Morwenna. Being seen off by Tom Harry has never been a pleasant experience in Poldark and he took some savage barking dogs with him. Where was Ross when we needed him? Fortunately Drake was on hand to chase them away. “I thought Ee Methoddy types didn’t fight,” said Tom. “Ee thought wrong brother,” retorted Drake, before a stick somewhat surprisingly saw Tom, his two accomplices and those horrid dogs off. It will take more than a stick to stop George when series five (almost certainly the last) comes around next year. According to the Winston Graham books on which Debbie Horsfield’s scripts are based, the story will leap forward ten years to 1810. If that's the case, then things will have moved on rather a lot, with much of the focus being on the various children of Ross, George and co. If they take after their parents, we won't be short of drama. This article was originally published in July 2018 Poldark series 5 will air in 2019
Find out more about the stars of season four of the hit drama, including Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson
Passions are as intense as ever in the fourth season of Poldark. Aidan Turner's Ross is facing up to the fact that his beloved wife Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) betrayed their wedding vows with her romp among the sand dunes with Hugh Armitage in the last series. And he has to face the fact that it was his neglect which caused it. Have Ross and Demelza reconciled in romantic first look at Poldark series four? Is it sexist to lust after Aidan Turner in Poldark? It seems that he will have been more enemies this series, as he embraces a new political career in London. As well as long-standing foe George Warleggan and ghastly cleric Osborne Whitworth, there is Monk Adderley to add to the mix. Politician Adderley is a well-to-do friend of George's and very clever and charming. Which makes him so dangerous. Here are the main cast members - and what they are up to... View oEmbed on the source website Ross Poldark – Aidan Turner Who is Ross Poldark? Our hero opens series four with more than an inkling that his wife Demelza enjoyed love among the sand dunes with dashing, lovelorn poet Hugh Armitage at the end of the last series. As well as processing that betrayal he needs to heal his relationship with his neglected wife while also fighting injustice in Cornwall. To that end, we last saw him, finally, promising to accept the offer of becoming a politician if asked again… What is Aidan Turner famous for? BBC3 drama Being Human was his big break, with The Hobbit director Peter Jackson subsequently casting him as dwarf Kili in The Hobbit trilogy. But for his many fans he is simply Ross Poldark... Demelza Poldark – Eleanor Tomlinson Who is Demelza? Ross' charismatic and fiery wife had a dalliance with her sand dune lover and poet Hugh at the end of the last series and her admirer continues to get in touch. As the advances continue, will Demelza be able to retain her husband’s trust? And will he do his bit to mend their marriage? What is Eleanor Tomlinson famous for? Known for large roles in period drama The White Queen and literary adaptation Death Comes to Pemberley, she also played Jas in teen adaptation Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Elizabeth Poldark – Heida Reed Who is Elizabeth Warleggan? Ross’s erstwhile lover has now firmly nailed her colours to the mast, supporting her ghastly husband George Warleggan, with any residual affection for Captain P seemingly extinguished. We last saw her curbing some of her husband’s cruelty while also convincing George that he, not Ross, was the father of her baby. What is Heida Reed famous for? Iceland-born actress Heida Reed featured in David Nicholls book adaptation One Day in 2013, and also has roles in Silent Witness and Death in Paradise on her CV. George Warleggan – Jack Farthing Who is George Warleggan? Poldark’s hiss boo baddie continues to try and trip Ross up – which for him means getting his arch enemy’s neck at the end of a hangman’s noose. Now an MP, an election at the start of series four threatens his place in Parliament. But an anti-Ross alliance with fellow politician Monk Adderley may provide some comfort. What is Jack Farthing famous for? You may recognise him as the dim-witted Freddie Threepwood in the BBC1 adaptation of PG Wodehouse's Blandings, as well as George Balfour in feature film The Riot Club. Geoffrey Charles - Louis Davison Who is Geoffrey Charles? The son of Elizabeth and her first husband Francis, he is growing to manhood and enjoying school in Harrow. Friendly to Ross who he enjoys catching up with in London, he cannot bear his stepfather George whom he insists on calling Uncle, much to George's irritation. What is Louis Davison famous for? The son of former Doctor Who star Peter Davison and step-brother of Georgia Tennant, Louis takes over the role from Harry Marcus for series four. He has enjoyed roles in Holby City (as Essie's foster son) and played Victor in the film Ms Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Lady Whitworth - Rebecca Front Who is Lady Whitworth? Anyone who is the mother of Osborne Whitworth must be a strange person. A social climbing cold fish, her ghastliness may at least explain why her son is such an awful person too. What is Rebecca Front famous for? A veteran of many years of TV and film appearances, including her work with Steve Coogan on Knowing Me Knowing You to appearances more latterly on hits like The Thick of It, as well as drama roles in War & Peace and Doctor Thorne. Monk Adderley - Max Bennett Who is Monk Adderley? A new enemy of Ross, the slippery politician is an ally of George but also a very clever and charming customer – which makes him highly dangerous for our hero. What is Max Bennett famous for? Max has mainly achieved his successes in stage roles at prestigious venues like the Donmar and National Theatre. Caroline Enys – Gabriella Wild Who is Caroline Enys? The wealthy and beautiful Caroline didn't give up on her love for kind young doctor Dwight Enys despite the entreaties of her uncle Ray Penvenen, who wanted her to marry into gentry. But the course of Caroline and Dwight's love has not run smooth - not least when Dwight was imprisoned and nearly killed by the French revolutionary army in the last series. He survived thanks to her kind attentions and the now happily married pair are hoping to become parents... What is Gabriella Wilde famous for? Gabrielle Wilde starred in 2014 rom-com Endless Love and the film adaptation of The Three Musketeers. She was on the books of Naomi Campbell's modelling agency when she was just 14. Dwight Enys – Luke Norris Who is Dwight Enys? Ross's loyal friend Dr Dwight Enys has married his beloved Caroline, survived the cruelty of his French captors and is now looking to settle down to a bit of peace. But does anyone ever have peace in Poldark? What is Luke Norris famous for? Luke has enjoyed huge success on stage both as an actor and a writer, with productions of his plays enjoying acclaim at top venues like the Sheffield Crucible, Royal Exchange Manchester and the National Theatre. Morwenna Whitworth - Elise Chappell Who is is Morwenna? Elizabeth’s innocent cousin is mired in a terrible marriage to Osborne Whitworth. Her love for Drake burns strong - and her discovery of her spouse's affair with her sister Rowella has at least allowed her to break off sexual relations with the toe rag vicar. But for how long? What is Ellise Chappell famous for? Ellise Chappell's TV credits include The Last Dragonslayer and New Blood. Rev Osborne Whitworth - Christian Brassington Who is Osborne Whitworth? The oily, cruel, sex-crazed foot-sucking cleric appeared to have his comeuppance at the end of series three after his affair with his poor benighted wife’s sister Rowella was discovered. It gave Morwenna the excuse not to have relations with him – and to continue pining for Demelza’s brother Drake. But how long will he put up with that? What is Christian Brassington famous for? Brassington played the PM in Tony Blair: Rock Star and Boris Johnson in When Boris Met Dave. He also has a sideline writing Doctor Who audio adventures. Sam Carne - Tom York Who is Sam Carne? The charismatic Methodist preacher remains keen to save the souls of everyone he meets. The older brother of Drake, Sam has a loyal congregation, even if his family remain bemused at his tub-thumping preaching. What is Tom York famous for? His CV include parts in Olympus and Death in Paradise. Drake Carne - Harry Richardson Who is Drake Carne? Demelza and Sam's brother is desperately in love with Morwenna. He has at least got a career to distract him - a blacksmith's forge bequeathed by Ross but ransacked in series three by Warleggan's thugs. Will true love conquer all? And will he behave well enough to escape the hangman's noose? What is Harry Richardson famous for? You may recognise the young Australian from his role as Frank Gresham in ITV's period drama Doctor Thorne which aired in 2016. Rowella Chynoweth - Esme Coy Who is Rowella Chynoweth? A smart woman capable of using her good looks to her advantage, Rowella's affair with Ossie saw beau Arthur blackmail the odious cleric. But there is a strong suggestion that she does enjoy bedding the vicar. What is Esme Coy famous for? Esme Coy played Yvonne Sparrow in the last three series and 2016 special of Nicholas Lyndhurst comedy Goodnight Sweetheart. Arthur Solway - Will Merrick Who is Arthur Solway? Rowella's husband managed to secure a handsome sum for taking Rowella off Ossie. Capable of double dealing, as this showed, he looks set for more adventures in the parsonage... What is Will Merrick famous for? Has appeared in a number of mainly comic roles and was one of the standout successes of BBC comedy The Rack Pack, bringing a comic touch to the part of snooker master Steve "Ever so boring" Davis in 2016. Tholly Tregirls - Sean Gilder An old friend of Ross' from his youth the nomadic Tholly is a piratical cove with a broad Cornish accent. A loyal friend to our hero, he knows a thing or two about Ross' roistering past and often seems keen to get him back to his bad ways - as in series three when he persuaded him to make the raid on the French prison. Tholly has a daughter Emma (Ciara Charteris) who he's devoted to – and he may have taken a shine to Prudie who is now single. What is Sean Gilder famous for? You may recognise him from his work as Paddy in Shameless and Styles in Hornblower. Lord Falmouth - James Wilby Who is Lord Falmouth? Lord Falmouth is a historical figure - George Boscawen, 3rd Viscount Falmouth to give him his proper name, is a key Cornish power broker and an active politician. He wants George out of Parliament - but also dislikes fellow big cheese Sir Francis Bassett. Can they put their differences aside to get what they want? What is James Wilby famous for? A veteran actor he's perhaps best known for playing Charles Wilcox in the hit Merchant Ivory film of EM Forster's Howards End in 1992 and Freddie Nesbitt in Gosford Park. Sir Francis Bassett - John Hopkins A local grandee with a desire to reform the world. Francis has noticed Ross' radicalism - but personal differences have stopped them allying. Will that change? What is John Hopkins famous for? He has enjoyed an accomplished stage career – but is perhaps best known to TV fans for his work as Sergeant Scott in Midsomer Murders. Verity Blamey - Ruby Bentall Who is Verity Blamey? Francis's sister and Ross's cousin Verity is a well-intentioned woman who finally found love in an earlier Poldark series with Andrew Blamey, the sea captain who had killed his wife in unfortunate circumstances. That scandal behind her, the reformed and decent Blamey and his wife enjoy life away from Cornwall - paying occasional visits to their relatives. What is Ruby Bentall famous for? Ruby has appeared in period projects Lost in Austen, Lark Rise to Candleford and The Paradise - but once told RadioTimes.com that she longs to play a hooker.... Rosina Hoblyn - Amelia Clarkson Who is Rosina Hoblyn? Local girl Rosina is still looking for love after her flirtation with Dr Enys in series two fizzled out in rather unfortunate circumstances. Now working in Nampara, she has her sights set on Drake Carne. Demelza is also keen on the match, even though Drake is still pining for Morwenna. What is Amelia Clarkson famous for? The 20-year-old has been in the 2014 film Jane Eyre, US drama The Assets and BBC series Our Zoo. Emma Tregirls - Ciara Charteris The wayward daughter of Tholly ,she's got a good heart – and she loves religiously-minded Sam Carne. But of course he will have to overlook or forgive her colourful past – and she will have to embrace God – if they are ever to marry. What is Ciara Charteris famous for? Ciara's credits include Steven Poliakoff’s Close to the Enemy and James Norton drama Grantchester. Tom Harry - Turlough Convery Who is Tom Harry? George's servant, he has performed a number of roles including that of gamekeeper. But in the main he has been the man to do his master's dirty work and duff up enemies. Big, strong, and not afraid to use his fists, he's not the sort of fellow you'd want to cross. What is Turlough Convery famous for? He has enjoyed roles in Ready Player One (2018) and My Mad Fat Diary (2013) and will be seen in the BBC's upcoming adaptation of Les Miserables written by Andrew Davies. Prudie Paynter – Beatie Edney Who is Prudie Paynter? Ross's servants Jud and Prudie Painter were the key sources of comic relief in early Poldark - but sadly poor Prudie has lost her beloved husband (Aidan's co-star in THAT scything scene, let's not forget). After coming back from the dead he scarpered again (precisely where no one is entirely sure). Prudie is still employed in the Poldark household and she has said she is looking for new love. She claims she misses her husband "like a ruptured spleen". What is Beatie Edney famous for? Beatie Edney has had a long, successful and varied career on film and TV, including a starring role opposite Colin Firth in 1986 drama Lost Empires and parts in Rosemary and Thyme, Prime Suspect, The Coroner and many other shows. Lieutenant Hugh Armitage (deceased) - Josh Whitehouse Who is Hugh Armitage? Lord Falmouth’s artistic, aristocratic nephew was in love with Demelza, and even managed to have a sexual encounter with her at the end of series three. Just before that he revealed that he was going blind and soon developed a nasty neurological condition that took his life at the start of series four. What is Josh Whitehouse famous for? Whitehouse appeared in the films Northern Soul and Alleycats, in the latter as the brother of Eleanor Tomlinson’s character. This article was originally published in June 2018
Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett: There is “potential” for a third series
As the gripping relationship saga concludes, the show’s creator looks tentatively ahead to ANOTHER run
**WARNING: spoilers if you haven't seen Doctor Foster series 2 episode 5** Doctor Foster series two ended with Gemma and Simon’s son going missing after an eventful episode where Bertie Carvel's wayward spouse was saved from suicide and the divorced couple continued to be at each other’s throats. But where does that leave a possible series three? With the action concluding as Suranne Jones’ Gemma broke the fourth wall and told her missing son Tom that he would always be welcome back, surely a third run involving a hunt for Tom is on the cards? And what about more on Gemma and Simon’s toxic relationship? Will Simon attempt to get back his wife Kate and baby daughter Amelie? View oEmbed on the source website Well, there's only one person who knows and that's writer Mike Bartlett, who spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com. “You can see the ending," says Bartlett. "Tom’s gone. So there’s a question mark. In a way that is a question mark at the end. And I think it works as an end to this series and all the things that have been going on. Clearly there’s potential there. But obviously there would have to be lots of conversations. "We need to talk – Suranne and I and lots of other people need to have lots of conversations and we’ll see." Sounds promising. But Bartlett is also a writer who is keen to stay in the present. He says he originally had a different ending, only formulating the disappearance of Tom as he was writing it. “The ending of the show unfolded as I was writing it,” he reveals. “In the plan he’s in the car at the end. They go back to her house and get a new kitchen and try to build a life. It was only when I went to write it that she goes back to the car and he’s not there. But that happened very organically from what he has been through I think. “I was so involved in Gemma and Simon’s story, that's all I was thinking about when writing it. It sounds mad, this. But she comes out of the hotel and he’s not there. That’s the moment you look for as a writer, when the characters start telling you what they are doing rather than you telling them.” What did you think of that Doctor Foster ending? Have your say right here He adds: “I think it’s important with this show that you stay in the present. It’s not a show where you are seeding lots of things for some future thing. And that’s never been the point of it. View oEmbed on the source website Part of the reason I don’t massively do a big masterplan for it is that no one in the show has that. And it’s all about the present moment and what it feels like to go through this. View oEmbed on the source website "No one’s in control of things particularly in series two. There’s no big plan, it’s spiralling and they’re trying to keep control of it and that’s part of the energy of the show.”
Doctor Foster episode 5 recap: finally, the spotlight falls on Tom
In a gripping series finale we witness the fallout to everything Gemma and Simon's son has endured
First things first, the series finale of Doctor Foster began with the answer to the question on everyone's lips since last week: Simon is alive. Gemma swerved her car towards her cheating ex-spouse, but at the last minute veered past him and ploughed on to steal their son from his father's grasp. But in the end, we have focused so much on the bitter custody battle between Gemma and Simon that we viewers – like his parents – may have forgotten about poor Tom. The maltreated son of the warring Fosters, so brilliantly played by young actor Tom Taylor, stood front and centre of the show at the end of series two by disappearing, vowing never to see his parents again. Doctor Foster series 2 episode 4 recap: Is this the end of the road for Simon? Where is Parminster? Is the town in Doctor Foster a real place? Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter So Doctor Foster – which started as an infidelity drama in series one – became a vengeful break up custody battle in series two, before finally morphing into something else entirely. If we get a series three (and Mike Bartlett suggests he's thinking about it), it will be about a missing person. It was an inspired turn to take after the breathless events of the concluding episode which took in Simon's desperate pleas to Tom, his attempted suicide on a main road in front of his son and Gemma, and his interrupted second attempt to end his life using a syringe provided by his ex-wife. Yes, just before the close Simon was in his hotel room, ready to inject a deadly poison provided by Gemma, when she returned in the nick of time and managed to talk him out of it. But as Gemma reappeared – after talking Simon back from the edge – Tom was gone. When she finally listened to her son's voicemail message (and it was fitting that this busy woman had two messages on her phone to get through before finally hitting upon the most important one) she heard the dreaded words: “Mum, I’m going… I was going to move out anyway. I have got no school, no friends left. I hate myself. I just want to start again. You went off at 17, you did alright. You won’t see me again. It will be better, I think. Love you.” Up until that point the tension in the war between Simon and Gemma had been all-consuming. Was Simon going to kill himself? Was he going to attack her? Would he leave her alone, once and for all? What did you think of that Doctor Foster ending? Have your say right here Throughout the series finale Tom had been talking about how he needed to move out, his repeated insistence on his desire for independence and a place of his own dismissed by Gemma (and also at one point by her on/off boyfriend James). Gemma also recalled happier moments with Simon, with flashbacks showing him popping through the door, their kitchen bathed in sunshine. Of course, we knew that he was cheating at the time of these sunny scenes, but it contrasted powerfully with the grey, grim reality of the present. Tom had said he didn’t want to see his dad again but he finally got an audience with his father, only when Simon said he needed to talk to him – or he would kill himself. Again, this is hardly one to pick from the good parenting manuals. “Sometimes children have to look after their parents,” wailed Simon earlier in the episode and you wanted to scream 'no they don’t, it’s not their job'. Psychologists have a word for this terrible form of child-rearing: parentification. It's making your offspring look after you and it doesn't work. For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides. And when you tot up everything Tom has seen, culminating in that grimmest of breakfasts towards the close (the poor waitress) in the dingy hotel, it was all clear. Mealtimes have been a real Doctor Foster motif and it made you think of all the awful ones Tom has seen over two series. In some ways it is a surprise he got this far. But at least it leaves things open for series three – which writer Mike Bartlett has suggested will focus on the hunt for a missing person. That was certainly what seemed to have been set up when Gemma broke the fourth wall and spoke to the camera, addressing her son: “I’m here. Tom, I’m your mum. I’m sorry and I’m here. I will always be here waiting. When you want to come back. Whenever you want to come back.” Though if we do get a third series, I wouldn’t bet on the Gemma/Simon saga dragging on in its own inimitable style…. View oEmbed on the source website This article was originally published in October 2017
BBC1 drama Rellik is told backwards – but it takes the genre forwards in leaps and bounds
Ben Dowell is impressed by Jack and Harry Williams’ brainy new series which finds Fortitude and Game of Thrones actor Richard Dormer on top form
A serial killer whose modus operandi is acid has been found and killed by a police marksman – so it’s case closed, right? His fingerprints were discovered on one of the victims, he was smeared in blood and he had a history of violence and mental illness. The only terrible thing about his capture was the fact that the police shot him when he was reaching for his phone and not a gun. The strange thing is that all this happens at the start of new BBC1 drama Rellik, an intriguing, extremely dark piece from the writing powerhouse of Jack and Harry Williams. Sign up to the RadioTimes.com email newsletter And if you thought their other BBC1 drama The Missing was a clever inversion of the form with its leaps in time, then you ain't seen nothing yet. Rellik is told backwards – showing the case's climax then spooling back, with a time signature telling us how far into the past we've lurched. Rellik is Killer spelled backwards. Geddit? But it’s important to say from the outset that the narrative device of telling the story in this way isn’t a gimmick – and most importantly, it works. The writers admit that it was a tall order – in fact they didn’t think it would work, even after the script was commissioned by the BBC. They were so anxious they toyed with the idea of handing it back. But what they have produced is a very clever way of unpeeling a story. It's told in reverse but the momentum is forward, always forward and we’re constantly finding things out. Rather than going from cause to effect, as in a normal linear show, we go from effect to cause – and it's fascinating to behold. Rellik also benefits from an excellent performance from Richard Dormer as lead investigator DCI Gabriel Markham in what may be his best work to date. Scarred by an attack from the supposed killer, we’ll no doubt head back in time to find out how he got those horrific wounds (that the actor tells RadioTimes.com make him "look like Freddy Krueger") and what it means to be a victim of the crime that he is investigating. When we first see him he has been having an affair with his colleague DI Elaine Shepard (Jodi Balfour) which his wife, Lisa, has discovered, There are hints that his Missus has not exactly been a model spouse herself, but he is told that he must end his own extra-marital liaison or he will lose his family. It’s an emotional piece, not just a technical one, and the sense of mental torment is enhanced by the visual palette – rainy, dark, claustrophobic, and a constant a sense of being inside Markham’s head. And it’s not a place Dormer especially relishes. “He’s not a very nice person… he’s a narcissist," he tells RadioTimes.com. "The scarring in a way makes him start to look inward and discover who he is but before he took everything for granted. He’s a bit of a loose cannon. It’s a very emotional part.” It was quite an ordeal wearing the mask, as the actor reveals here, and Dormer admits it limited his range of facial expressions. But such is the force of Dormer's performance that there’s no doubt we have a complicated, angry, interesting man on our hands. And he's not the only one. There is an interesting array of supporting characters who may hold the key to unlocking the real truth of this – because it is still a whodunit even if the case has apparently been wrapped up. Two men on the investigating team – Mike (Kieran Bew) and Asim (Reece Ritchie) have a fist fight and we soon make a rather intriguing discovery about their relationship. Paul Rhys, an actor I have always admired, is fascinating as Patrick Barker, a successful management consultant who is clearly desperate from the outset and flees the country. Has he got anything to do with the crimes? And I can’t wait to find out more from Paterson Joseph’s Isaac Taylor, the psychiatrist who treated the supposed killer. But it’s not an easy ride. This is a pitch-black show that demands nerve and attention to detail. You really will have to watch every minute. I think I’ll be doing just that. And I'd urge you to do the same. This article was originally published in September 2017
Meet the characters and cast of Fearless
Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory appears alongside John Bishop, Michael Gambon, Jonathan Forbes and Wunmi Mosaku in the ITV thriller
ITV thriller Fearless is about a human rights lawyer called Emma Banville known for doggedly defending lost causes. But when her interest is sparked by the case of Kevin Russell - who was convicted for the murder of a schoolgirl, Linda Simms, 14 years before the action starts – she provokes a hornet's nest with powerful forces within the police and intelligence services who want to stop her uncovering the truth. Here are the main characters…. Helen McCrory as Emma Banville Who does she play? Human rights lawyer Emma starts the drama determined to prove the innocence of Kevin Russell, who was convicted for the murder of schoolgirl Linda Simms 14 years earlier. It’s a crime which Kevin maintains he didn’t commit. Firmly believing there has been a miscarriage of justice, Emma is determined to uncover the truth behind Linda’s death and is prepared to go to whatever lengths she needs to discover what happened and free Kevin. However, as Emma digs deeper into the case, risking her career, personal life and reputation, she begins to sense powerful forces at play within the police and intelligence services who want to stop her … Where have I seen Helen before? Helen McCrory is a firm favourite of TV casting directors, her most recent high profile work being in the series Peaky Blinders and Penny Dreadful. She also did a pretty good Cherie Blair in Peter Morgan’s films The Queen and The Special Relationship and has won a trove of accolades for her stage work, most recently appearing in Medea and The Deep Blue Sea. Jonathan Forbes as Dominic Truelove Who does he play? A former police officer, Dominic Truelove now works alongside and assists Emma. They have a close, trusting relationship. Says Forbes: “Emma could run rings around Dominic when it comes to the legal system. He is almost an apprentice from that point of view. What we imagined was they probably met each other through a case. They may have been on opposing sides and saw something in each other’s dynamism or a spark of humour. And then they found themselves working together. There are times when Dominic is very useful to Emma.” Where have I seen Jonathan before? A regular on stage, Forbes has done his fair share of work outside the theatre and will be familiar to fans of Channel 4’s Catastrophe for playing Fergal, the sarky brother of Sharon Horgan’s character. Sam Swainsbury as Kevin Russell Who does he play? Now in his mid-thirties, Kevin Russell has been in prison for 14 years for the murder of Linda Simms in 2003. The 15-year-old’s body was found buried near his workshop whilst he was caretaker at Linda’s school. At the time of his arrest, his fiancée Annie Peterson, was pregnant with their son, Jason. She has moved on since his imprisonment and found another partner (Jason's step-father), but still holds on to a belief in his innocence. Where have I seen Sam before? Sam will be most familiar to TV audiences for his role as the slightly gormless son of Lesley Manville's Cathy in BBC comedy Mum. Rebecca Callard as Annie Peterson Who does she play? Annie Peterson is Kevin’s ex-fiancée and has always fought for his cause, firmly believing him to be innocent. It’s Annie who hires Emma at the beginning of the series, having previously approached a number of lawyers in an attempt to get Kevin acquitted. She has a teenage son, Jason, and a new partner. Where have I seen Rebecca before? Daughter of Coronation Street actress Beverley Callard, Rebecca's credits include BBC drama series Moving On and Ordinary Lies where she played young lonely accountant Grace Wells. Wunmi Mosaku as DCS Olivia Greenwood Who does she play? Olivia Greenwood was the Investigating Officer on the Linda Simms case and conducted the interview when Kevin Russell confessed to Linda’s murder. There is speculation she may have coerced the confession. She now works for counter terrorism for SO15 and is investigating Yusef Attar, one of Emma’s current clients. She says. "It was great to play someone who is at the top of her game and brilliant at what she does,” says Mosaku. “Her personal life doesn’t come into it. She is completely and utterly focused on justice. And it's quite cool seeing a woman like that.” Where have I seen Wunmi before? The rising star won a best supporting actress Bafta earlier this year for her moving performance as Joy Taylor, the mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor in the recent BBC1 film Damilola, Our Loved Boy. Wunmi has also appeared in Dancing on the Edge, Black Mirror and Don't Take My Baby. John Bishop as Steve Livesey Who does he play? Steve is Emma’s boyfriend who she met on a previous case years ago when he was a press photographer. Says Bishop: “She is a human rights lawyer and he is a freelance photographer. He likes to go to the pub with his mates and watch football, which makes me feel I was slightly typecast! Steve is a lot more laid back than she is, but there is a balance within their relationship which comes out as the story develops. It becomes apparent that although Steve appears completely opposite to Emma, in terms of having her drive and ambition, they are exactly what they need for each other.” Where have I seen John before? A regular presenter and stand-up comedian, the last time he acted in a TV drama was in two films for Jimmy McGovern’s dark anthology series The Accused five years ago. Michael Gambon as Sir Alastair McKinnon Who does he play? Master of a Cambridge College, Alastair McKinnon is an influential and highly-respected academic and former Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet Office. He appears to have a close interest in this case – and a ruthless determination to ensure that Emma cannot do her job properly. Where have I seen Michael before? A giant of stage and screen, he is perhaps most famous for taking over the role of Albus Dumbedore from the late Richard Harris in the Harry Potter films. Michael is also known for TV series The Singing Detective and Maigret and has more recently appeared in The Casual Vacancy and Fortitude. In a career that spans over 50 years he's also had numerous stage roles, winning three Oliviers. Robin Weigert as Heather Myles Who does she play? Heather Myles lives in Washington and is a former CIA employee who now works as a private contractor in the intelligence industry. She's a ruthless, forthright, master manipulator. Says the actress: “Heather is an American who appears to be involved in a government cover up. I made a decision not to decide whether she was genuinely sociopathic or just fully owned by her government. So she’s either a person with natural sociopathic tendencies, an ability to make a study of what her own personality is like and deploy it as need be without a moral compass, or someone who became that way over me. She’s lost her moral compass because of what she has been asked to do. I liked painting her in the grey zone between those two.” Where have I seen Robin before? Deadwood fans will probably never forget her bad tempered, foul-mouthed Calamity Jane. Robin has also appeared in Sons of Anarchy and Chicago P.D. Jamie Bamber as Matthew Wild Who does he play? Matthew Wild is the Simms’ ambitious local MP. Alongside wife Laura, Matthew is highly-regarded in the community and tipped for leadership of his party in the not-too-distant future. When Emma starts investigating Linda’s murder, Wild is determined to protect the Simms family and tries to convince Emma that she should leave it alone. Where have I seen Jamie before? Starred as Lee “Apollo” Adama in Battlestar Galactica, and has enjoyed a variety of roles in dramas such as Law & Order: UK, Hornblower, Sky’s firefighter series The Smoke, and the ITV drama series Marcella. This article was originally published in 2017 Stay up to date with the RadioTimes.com newsletter
Fearless review: Helen McCrory is a brilliant crusading lawyer but the jury's still out on her ITV drama
Ben Dowell hopes the legal thriller steps up a gear in later episodes
I suppose it was the montage of major politicians – Thatcher, Blair, then Trump in the opening credits – that first sounded the alarm. It was a bold statement to make about a new thriller – the sense of scale, the relevance of world events, weighty subjects. But did ITV’s new drama Fearless starring Helen McCrory deliver on its promise? Not quite. Not to say there weren’t good things about this story following the intrigues of McCrory’s Emma Banville, a tenacious human rights lawyer investigating the case of Kevin Russell (Sam Swainsbury), a man jailed 14 years ago for the murder of a schoolgirl. Stay up to date with the RadioTimes.com newsletter As Emma, Helen McCrory produced a quite dazzling performance of a woman who is clearly smart, no-nonsense, funny and down to earth. It’s just that Homeland writer Patrick Harbinson’s script let her down a bit, desperately piling on the character quirks until there were far too many. There was the red leather jacket, the liquorice-flavoured roll ups, the battered car and the unusual marriage. Just one of these things would have been enough to blare out the message that she's someone who doesn’t give up the fight or bend to the rules. Add them all together and it felt a bit crowded – especially when Emma started taking batteries out of smoke alarms so she could puff away in the cheap hotels she stayed in. It felt at times as if Harbinson had seen all those Scandi noir thrillers and thought, 'well Saga had a Porsche in The Bridge, Sarah Lund had her jumpers in The Killing, we’ll give Emma a clapped-out Volvo as her little thing'. The exposition in the opening episode felt a tad clunky at times and some of the lines whiffed a little of cliché. We’re told Emma will defend anyone whether they are “sex offenders “or “Mad Mullahs”. Who says Mad Mullahs these days? Her efforts to clear the supposed killer's name came to the attention of the victim’s family and they lined up a press photographer to catch her in the act of fighting injustice. Fine. But when her character said she could "imagine the headlines” before suggesting one that sounded like nothing I have – or will – ever read in a newspaper, I cringed a bit. Emma's relationship with long-term boyfriend Steve, played by a bizarrely miscast John Bishop, also seemed to stretch credulity. A woman who clearly loathes the press, she has hitched herself to a tabloid photographer who simply “thought she was lovely.” Here’s hoping this relationship can be fleshed out (and explained) a bit more in episodes to come. While the series gets off to a stuttering start, it’s certainly not irredeemable. The storytelling is brisk and packed with plot, the themes are important, McCrory is dazzling (as always) on screen and there is a potentially interesting thriller ready to come out. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of Michael Gambon’s (yes Michael Gambon's!) shadowy grandee Sir Alastair McKinnon, the Master of a Cambridge College and former Cabinet Office official whose nefarious phone calls at the end of episode one pointed us to a world of international intrigue where the actual child murderer is involved in some kind of Anglo/US plot. Handled well, this could be worth watching. This article was originally published in 2017
Will there be a second series of Hold the Sunset?
It heralded the long-awaited return of John Cleese to BBC comedy, divided critics but performed well in the ratings. Is the BBC up for more?
The BBC comedy, Hold the Sunset, starring John Cleese and Alison Steadman, finishes its first series on Sunday 25th March – but will it return for more? At the moment there are no immediate plans to announce a second series, according to BBC sources, but a recommission is not being ruled out. According to one source the broadcaster is keen to bring it back, but a deal has still to be reached. View oEmbed on the source website The show saw Monty Python and Fawlty Towers legend Cleese appearing in his first sitcom for Auntie since Basil F’s hotel closed its doors in 1979. He plays Phil in Hold the Sunset, an old boyfriend of Edith (portrayed by Steadman) who dreams of marrying his lady love and moving to the sun. Just as Edith finally says yes to his proposal, there’s a knock on the door – and there on the step, with a large suitcase, is her 50-year-old son Roger (Line of Duty star Jason Watkins) to spoil their plans. Written by Charles McKeown, the show has performed credibly in the ratings. It opened with an audience of 6.2 million viewers on BBC1 last month, with last week’s episode getting a 3.6 million overnight audience which will rise once the figures are consolidated. But it has split the critics. The Telegraph wrote: “This was one of those wonderful programmes about everything and nothing – love, getting on with getting on, and simply taking a deep breath and adjusting as best you can when things don’t quite turn out the way you’d hoped.” However the Mail countered: "It remains to be seen whether audiences still have an appetite for laboured slapstick where ageing men get into scrapes and women cluck over them." But the sun has not gone down on this show. Not yet, anyway. Meet the cast of Hold the Sunset 6 million watch John Cleese comeback sitcom Hold the Sunset – but reviews are mixed This article was originally published on 23 March 2018
When is new Martin Clunes sitcom Warren on TV? Who's in the cast? What's it about?
The Doc Martin and Men Behaving Badly star is returning to sitcom after a decade away - but is his new show any good?
Martin Clunes is starring in a sitcom for the first time in a decade. Yes, we know his most famous regular gig of recent years (as ITV’s Doc Martin) has a certain comedic bent to it. But his new series Warren will be his first straight comedy for ten years – since the ill-fated Reggie Perrin remake aired on BBC1. Here’s everything you need to know about the new show... Martin Clunes to play pedantic driving instructor in new BBC1 sitcom Warren Martin Clunes praised for tough Manhunt role Watch full series of Patrick Melrose, Save Me and In the Long Run for FREE on RadioTimes.com When is Warren on TV? Warren airs on BBC1 on Mondays at 9pm, starting on Monday 25th February and airing just before the hotly anticipated This Time with Alan Partridge. Or as Clunes told RadioTimes.com with a laugh: “I suppose I’ll have to weather a few unkind comparisons.” What is Warren about? Penned by upcoming writers Paul McKenna and Jimmy Donny Cosgrove, the comedy centres around the life of Warren Thompson, a pedantic, mean-spirited and tight-fisted driving instructor who thinks the world is against him. Warren is a classic fish-out-of-water character – a southerner who is forced to move up north to Preston when his partner Anne’s father falls ill. He likes neither the area, the job, nor having to look after his two teenage stepsons. But he loves Anne – who always seems to see the good in him. Who is in the cast of Warren? Clunes plays Warren, with Lisa Millett (Early Doors, Blackpool) taking on the role of Anne. Newcomer Tim Preston plays the role of her son Charlie and (another newcomer) Oscar Morgan is Danny. The family’s cocky neighbours are played by Neil Edmond (as Ian) and Line of Duty's Maya Sondhi as Ian's socially ambitious wife Paula. Is there a trailer for Warren? There sure is… View oEmbed on the source website What does Martin Clunes say about his new character? “I like him… he’s not admirable in any way but you can see his motives, and how his mind works,” Clunes told RadioTimes.com. "I have to root for him because I’m playing him." On his return to sitcom, he said: "It goes to show when the right script comes along from the right sort of people, it works. It's that thing when you think you couldn’t bear someone else doing this that you say, 'I have to do it'. “I chuckled away when I read the scripts at how funny everybody was in it. And there are truths there. You can’t just twat around and be 'Mr Poo Poo goes to the toilet'. It’s just not funny if a fool does something foolish. But here I think there’s enough of a tangible world to build some genuine humour in.” Review: is Warren any good? There is something strangely old-fashioned about Martin Clunes’ foray back into straight sitcom after a decade as he takes on the title role of curmudgeonly, tight-fisted southerner (and driving instructor) Warren who is transplanted up north to Preston. His life with Anne, his dotty but loving partner (not wife, mind, he’s too ungenerous to marry her), and her surprisingly tolerant two teenage sons, is punctuated by hoary sitcom staples like keeping up with the flashier neighbours and struggling with new-fangled technology. A key plot line in episode one sees Warren deciding to reline his pond but not wanting to fork out the cost of a new pond liner. His annoying neighbour, Ian, appears to have relined his pond too. Warren also schemes to get stepson Charlie a job in the local garden centre so he’ll get some discount on, you guessed it, a new pond liner. It’s the kind of plot line (or pond line?) that wouldn’t have felt out of place in 80s classic Terry and June – which to some people may be no bad thing. But for those expecting cutting edge comedy for the modern era, this is probably not the show for you. Having said that, the cast work well together and Clunes in particular is always an alluring performer. And there are just about enough decent one-liners to keep this ticking along…. Warren begins on Monday 25th February at 9pm on BBC1
The story behind the Victoria theme tune
What is that mesmerising singing? And how did it come about? We have all the answers...
It’s the tune that is in everybody’s head – the haunting and uplifting title theme to ITV's hit Jenna Coleman drama Victoria that is used again during her wedding to Albert. But what is it? And how did it come about? View oEmbed on the source website The theme tune, Alleluia, and incidental music for the first episodes of the series were composed by Martin Phipps, the musician who also worked on BBC1 shows War and Peace and Peaky Blinders. Victoria series 3 will be released in the US before airing in the UK – and fans are in a right royal fury Phipps was shown an early version of episode one of Victoria and instantly fell in love with the drama, changing his holiday plans to get to work on the composition, executive producer Dan McCulloch tells RadioTimes.com “Martin loved the character. Particularly her tenacity, her humanity and youth. He wanted to score something that literally came from the heart,” says McCulloch. In fact, adds, in some of the scenes "you can hear a beat that’s a lot like Victoria’s heart thumping away.” For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides. The singing was performed by the classical choral ensemble The Medieval Baebes, who recorded the theme tune (which re-occurs in various motifs as incidental music) following a creative collaboration with Phipps in his East London studio. But Victoria-watchers may detect a slight difference to the sound in later episodes. That's because Phipps later handed the conductor’s baton to Ruth Barrett. And as McCulloch notes, the incidental music will have a different feel... “You’ll see – as Victoria’s life moves on so does the score. Albert has his own theme…” View oEmbed on the source website
Fans react with dismay to BBC axing of The Coroner – but writer says it may live on
The daytime drama's creator Sally Abbott says she still wants to make more episodes: "The Coroner doesn't feel dead to me"
Fans of BBC1 daytime drama The Coroner have reacted with anger to the news that the BBC is cancelling the show after two series. BBC axes daytime drama The Coroner Do you want to see a third series of The Coroner? RadioTimes.com newsletter: get the latest TV and entertainment news direct to your inbox The BBC explained the decision by saying it wanted to "look for opportunities to bring through new programmes for the BBC1 daytime audience", but that wasn't enough for the viewers taking to Twitter to protest the news. View oEmbed on the source website Another wrote: View oEmbed on the source website Poldark actress Beatie Edney, who also stars in The Coroner, criticised the BBC for failing to recommission a drama with such a strong female cast: View oEmbed on the source website She added: View oEmbed on the source website The Coroner's writer Sally Abbott thanked the fans for their encouraging words and said she thought the show could live on: "I'm sure every writer feels this but The Coroner doesn't feel dead to me," she wrote online. "There are so many more stories and God how I love our characters." View oEmbed on the source website A petition has also been launched by fans of the show urging the BBC to reconsider the decision. Yesterday the BBC confirmed it would not be commissioning a third series of the show. “After two fantastic series, The Coroner won’t be returning as we look for opportunities to bring through new programmes for the BBC1 daytime audience," a statement explained. "We’d like to thank the brilliant cast and production team for all of their hard work.” The hit daytime show stars Claire Goose as single mum Jane Kennedy who returns to her hometown of Lighthaven in south Devon to investigate murders alongside former childhood sweetheart Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins (Matt Bardock). For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 Edney, who also plays Ross’ servant Prudie Paynter in Poldark, plays Jane’s mother Judith. Ivan Kaye also stars as local publican Mick Sturrock. Two series of the drama have aired so far on BBC1, comprising 20 episodes in total. The writer has said in the past that she based the characters of Jane and Davey on the unresolved sexual tension between Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey in the 1949 film Adam’s Rib. View oEmbed on the source website
Killing Eve and A Very English Scandal win big at Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2019
The BBC America drama earns yet more awards ahead of its highly anticipated second series
Killing Eve has earned yet more major awards ahead of its highly anticipated second series. The BBC drama was voted Best Drama Series and its star Jodie Comer was named best actress at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2019. Killing Eve, which stars Sandra Oh alongside Comer, also won the Best Online First/Streaming Award. Everything you need to know about Killing Eve series two A Very English Scandal gets a sequel focusing on first public ‘slut-shaming’ case Another BBC drama, A Very English Scandal won the award for Best Single Drama/Mini Series. Hugh Grant, who played former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, was named Best Actor, while screenwriter Russell T Davies won the Best Writer award. Lauren Laverne was named Radio Broadcaster of the Year, for her work on BBC Radio 6 Music as well as her Radio 4 shows Desert Island Discs and Late Night Woman’s Hour. The awards, which are the only ones of their kind judged solely by UK journalists specialising in TV and radio, took place at a ceremony at Banking Hall in the City of London on Friday 15th March. Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2019 – winners in full Best Single Drama/Mini-series A Very English Scandal Best Drama Series Killing Eve Best Single Documentary Grenfell Best Documentary Series Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation Best Entertainment Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Best Online First/ Streaming Killing Eve Best Comedy Derry Girls Best of Multichannel Patrick Melrose Radio Broadcaster of the Year Lauren Laverne Radio Programme of the Year Tara and George Podcast of the Year Hip Hop Saved My Life - Romesh Ranganathan Best Actor Hugh Grant for A Very English Scandal (BBC1) Best Actress Jodie Comer for Killing Eve (BBC America) Best Writer Russell T Davies for A Very English Scandal (BBC1) Innovation Award Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, for a ground-breaking form of storytelling Breakthrough Award Alex Scott BPG Chairman’s Prize Big Brother Harvey Lee Award Nicholas Parsons CBE Actor, presenter & game show host, in particular recognition of more than 50 years of presenting Radio 4’s Just A Minute.
Jack Thorne's Channel 4 drama about a fictional entertainer at the centre of historic sex allegations features a stellar cast, including Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters and Andrea Riseborough
Channel 4's powerful drama National Treasure, about a faded entertainer called Paul Finchley being accused of historic sex crimes, boasts a stellar cast. Robbie Coltrane plays the accused Paul Finchley, with Julie Walters his stoic, unhappy wife and Andrea Riseborough his troubled daughter Dee. View oEmbed on the source website The writer is Skins, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and soon-to-be His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne. National Treasure starts Tuesday 20th September at 9pm on Channel 4. Here are the main players... Paul Finchley (Robbie Coltrane) Paul is a much-loved, ageing entertainer, one half of a very successful double act who have been on our screens for over 30 years. Paul is avuncular, witty and popular, both as the national treasure of the title and an inspiration to the younger generations of comics. Yet there’s also a troubling side to Paul. Away from the limelight he hasn’t always been a good (or faithful) husband to his wife, Marie, or the best father to his daughter, Dee. When he faces questioning over an alleged historic sex crime, all these demons will resurface. A giant of TV and screen, Robbie's best known TV role is as the hard-living maverick forensic psychologist Fitz from Cracker. He is also a Harry Potter favourite for his turn as Hagrid, and is known to Bond fans as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in the films Goldeneye and The World is Not Enough. Marie Finchley (Julie Walters) Marie has been Paul’s wife for 40 years and has stuck by him through all his career highs and lows. A steely, dryly funny, strong and religious woman, she has always been fiercely protective of her family. However, as the pressure of the legal case mounts and old family secrets start to emerge, Marie questions her own faith in her husband. Like her co-star Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters is another Harry Potter alumnus, much loved for her role as Ron's lovely Mum Molly Weasley. She won a Golden Globe and a Bafta and was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in 1983 film Educating Rita, enjoyed a wonderful comedy career alongside Victoria Wood, and recently appeared in Indian Summers on Channel 4. Danielle "Dee" Finchley (Andrea Riseborough) Dee is Paul and Marie’s only child. Troubled, clever, acerbically funny, but also deeply vulnerable, she’s a recovering addict, struggling to stay sober and to be a good mum to her kids, Billy and Frances. When her famous father is accused of monstrous crimes, it forces Dee to re-examine her life all over again. You will have seen Andrea in C4 drama The Devil’s Whore, alongside Michael Keaton in the Oscar-winning Birdman and playing the lead role of the former British Prime Minister in the TV drama Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley. Karl Jenkins (Tim McInnerny) As the other – more successful – half of the much-loved duo Karl & Paul, he is charming, outgoing and a lifelong bachelor. But there is more to his relationship with Paul than meets the eye. There is a deep loyalty there, but also a certain amount of long-standing resentment and jealousy. Known to Blackadder fans as the ridiculous Lord Percy from the second series (and as Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth), McInnerny has enjoyed a successful career with roles in Notting Hill and 101 Dalmations to his name. He was recently was seen as Lord Robbett Glover in Game of Thrones season 6. Jerome Sharpe (Babou Ceesay) Jerome is a straight-talking and smart criminal solicitor, and the man charged with getting Paul off the hook. Jerome lives and breathes the legal game and is prepared to employ every trick at his disposal to get the right result for his client. The Gambian actor is perhaps most recognisable to Lewis fans for his role as Lewis's sidekick DC Alex Gray. Will also soon be seen playing the role of Richard Taylor - the father of the murdered young boy Damilola Taylor - in the upcoming BBC drama Our Loved Boy. DI Palmer (Nadine Marshall) DI Palmer is the police officer who leads the investigation against Paul. Perceptive, dogged and an expert interrogator, she is a formidable adversary. Fans of Sky Living sitcom The Spa will remember her as the hyper-aggressive weights instructor Vron. She has also enjoyed roles in New Tricks, Waterloo Road, Vera and Death in Paradise. Rebecca Thornton (Kate Hardie) Rebecca is the first woman to accuse Paul, alleging he raped her in the early 1990s on the set of his sitcom, Japes. Rebecca is a sensitive soul and was a huge fan of Paul as a younger woman. Now middle-aged, Rebecca passionately believes she’s right about him. Daughter of the TV presenter and bird-watcher Bill Oddie, Kate enjoyed early success as a young actress appearing in a range of movies including Mona Lisa (1986), Cry Freedom (1987) and The Krays (1990). Since then she has appeared in a variety of roles including as an investigating officer in Peter Moffat's hit 2009 BBC drama Criminal Justice. She has also written and directed her own screenplays. Christina (Susan Lynch) Christina is the family babysitter who claims to have been 15 when Paul Finchley had sex with her. She came forward with her claim after Rebecca and is one of the key prosecution witnesses. The Northern Irish actress has appeared in a variety of film, theatre and TV roles but is perhaps best known to TV viewers for her role as Alison Garrs - the mother of tragic Darryl - in the second series of Happy Valley.
National Treasure: Is Paul Finchley guilty?
Ben Dowell analyses the evidence ahead of the final episode of Jack Thorne’s dark drama
“We're not a sort of whodunit, we’re not a sort of thriller by any means,” National Treasure writer Jack Thorne told RadioTimes.com recently about his new drama. “But it is a character study and it is one where we want the audience to feel like a jury in order to engage them in this issue.” It’s an interesting point which shows that the scriptwriter has a clear grasp of how some viewers are likely to respond to his drama about Robbie Coltrane’s faded entertainer Paul Finchley who is arrested for a series of alleged sexual offences. Just as with the real-life Operation Yewtree (which the writer and production team are clear is the inspiration for this) there are no easy, absolutely clear answers, but there is one big question. Amid all the hints and evasions (Finchley seems very good at not giving much of himself away, doesn’t he?) the same nagging words burrow away: did he commit those awful crimes against vulnerable women? Is Paul Finchley guilty? Well, after three episodes the answer seems to be on a knife-edge and we will find out tonight in the courtroom showdown of episode four if he is. All the way through the drama it is as if Thorne is offering subtle clues, tiny bits of evidence for the prosecution, but then immediately mitigating them, as if he suddenly becomes a defence barrister popping up to destroy the case. First on the prosecution's side there is the high number of people – seven – who have made accusations against Finchley. But, as we know, real life juries have exonerated people in these circumstances. How can we be sure Finchley’s accusers aren’t, as he claims, after fame and money? Finchley suggests the police have succeeded with their fishing operation – making sure the first accusation is made public so others come forward. Are they doing so because it happened – or because of the high profile nature of the case? Considering his habit of cavorting with prostitutes, it’s clear he is a man with a high libido and a low opinion of his wedding vows. Though, of course, having a high sex drive doesn’t necessarily mean you are a sex criminal. He does tell his spouse (Julie Walters’ staunch Christian Marie, below) about his extra-marital forays as soon as he strays. But on the other hand he still does it. Can he control himself? And what of those casual references to Viagra after the opening awards ceremony which prompted his comedy partner Karl (Tim McInnerny) to remark: “I never could tell when you were joking”. Finchley can hide things, clearly, but are we to take it that even his long-standing comedy partner doesn’t feel he knows him? And of course there is the Dee question… A lot of the drama has focused on Finchley’s troubled daughter, played by Andrea Riseborough, and teases out clues as to the reasons behind her fragile mental state. Is her Dad to blame? Did he abuse her? In episode one we saw a riveting scene between the two of them at her half-way house in which she described a vivid dream which, if my undergraduate understanding of Sigmund Freud is anything to go by, points to an extremely complicated relationship with her father. Also, she appears to be present in the house when one of the attacks allegedly took place. We see young Dee in bed, counting to herself and in a state of high anxiety. But nothing is ever simple and of course this is a drama which is as much about the elusiveness of truth as anything. As Marie has said, her husband is “never unfaithful in an important way.” But she also says that she “chooses to believe” him. Eh? “Chooses”? Over the past three episodes her faith in him has appeared to wane, and she has become increasingly drawn to her husband's comedy partner Karl (Tim McInnerny). In his interview with us, writer Thorne assures viewers that by the end of the four episode drama we will know the truth, even if he says he is himself none the wiser about some of the moral dilemmas that will continue to be presented by his story long after the series ends. For my money, I have a sneaky suspicion that the answer is in Dee's dream, but for now I'll leave it at that...
National Treasure delivers its verdict on Robbie Coltrane’s Paul Finchley
Jack Thorne’s Operation Yetwree drama starring the Harry Potter star and Julie Walters ends leaving viewers in no doubt about the fictional entertainer
So now we know. National Treasure has revealed the truth about Paul Finchley. Spoilers follow for anyone who hasn't watched the series finale. Robbie Coltrane’s character Paul was a rapist and paedophile, but he was acquitted of all charges by the court in a stunning climax to Channel 4's National Treasure. His defence team skilfully destroyed the cases of the two main witnesses who accused him of historic sex crimes. They successfully painted babysitter Christina (Susan Lynch) as a fantasist keen to make money from her story. And Kate Hardie’s Rebecca Thornton had her claims torn apart after it was revealed she wrote the entertainer a fan letter a year after the alleged rape. But, while the flashback suggested that 15-year-old Christina appeared to have submitted willingly to Finchley's sexual advances, he seems to be guilty of having sexual relations with a minor in that case. And there was also nothing alleged about his attack on Rebecca. It clearly was rape, and not only that, Finchley’s comedy partner Karl (Tim McInnerny) knew it. He came upon his friend in his trailer while he was committing the offence, his victim's cries and struggles obvious to anyone with a set of ears, and did not intervene. Nor did he speak out when he could in court. As he disclosed, Karl knew that if Finchley were brought down, he too would have been destroyed by association. It was a mesmerising and tense hour of drama that skillfully laid bare the important truths of this compelling story, but leaving just enough grey area and unanswered questions. The courtroom scenes were harrowing to watch as the claims and counter claims were presented with unflinching brutality. There was nowhere to hide for Finchley and the two women. Strangely, the key character in the whole episode, perhaps the whole drama, wasn't in the dock: Marie, Finchley’s wife, superbly played by Julie Walters, emerged as the through line on which this whole drama hinged. Her journey from trust of her husband’s word to her absolute belief in his guilt was deftly and sensitively handled by the scriptwriter Jack Thorne and the actress herself. “There are layers of you, aren’t there?” Marie told her husband in the series finale, just before he was due to testify. She pleaded with him to be brave and face the truth, but of course he did not, presenting an excellent front to the court and the jurors that of course had little to do with the facts of the matter. What he did do was use Marie, delivering a heartfelt apology to his wife from the dock. Some of that acknowledgement felt sincere, in fact. But as is the way of this nuanced drama, it also felt like a sheen of clever showmanship ably performed by a professional entertainer in a bid to get the jury on side. In some respects, his guilt and the not guilty verdict was not a surprise. It would have been unexpected if a progressively-minded broadcaster like Channel 4 had presented a man like Finchley as an innocent man. It would have also been surprising, too, given the difficulties of securing real-life rape convictions, if it he had been found guilty. What did come as a dramatic surprise were the final scenes. At the party he throws for his acquittal, Finchley appears to have lost his family. His daughter Dee (Andrea Riseborough) archly remarks that she doesn’t see much shame in her Dad, regarding him with a suspicious coldness. And Marie? She seemed to have disappeared entirely, possibly with a view to being with Karl, with whom she had sex earlier in the episode. More likely, though, she disappeared out of that hideous house and out of both their lives. After all, Karl showed that he was prepared to lie to protect himself and cause Finchley’s victims more pain, and Marie knew it. Karl also remains in the house when Marie is nowhere to be seen. As for her husband, well, the fact that the woman he loves now knows him to be a lying rapist seems to be his principal – and only – punishment. At the end all he could do was vainly howl her name, over and over….
What time is True Detective series 3 on TV? What is it about, and who is in the cast?
HBO’s time-shifting detective drama is back and Ben Dowell is pleased to note that it has returned to the form and dizzying heights of series one…
Nic Pizzolatto's anthology crime series True Detective is back for a third series, with Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff heading up a brand new cast. Here's everything you need to know about it... Is True Detective on Netflix? HBO boss explains what went wrong with True Detective series two When is True Detective series three on TV and how can I watch? True Detective series three starts on Sky Atlantic on Monday 14th January with a double bill of episodes one and two starting at 9pm Is there a trailer for True Detective series three? There sure is... View oEmbed on the source website Who is in the cast of True Detective series three? The new story is set in three overlapping time periods in 1980, 1990 and 2015. It stars Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff as lead detectives, Wayne Hays and Roland West, investigating the disappearance of two young children in rural Arkansas. Carmen Ejogo plays schoolteacher Amelia Reardon (below) who becomes Hays’ wife in later time periods. Other stars include Mamie Gummer as Lucy Purcell, the mother of the missing children, with Scoot McNairy playing their forlorn father Tom. Ray Fisher plays Henry Hays, the grown-up son of Wayne in the 2015 timelines. What is True Detective about? This is the third instalment of Nic Pizzolatto’s’s time-layered anthology crime saga. Series one starred Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, while the second (completely different story) starred Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn. The less said about series two the better... All three series are told over different periods and series three concerns a child abduction case set in the beautiful but impoverished Ozarks region of Arkansas in the southern United States. We first encounter Ali’s Wayne Hays and Dorff’s Roland West in 1980 as boozy cops roused to action by the disappearance of a young brother and sister from a broken home. They are Will and Julie Purcell, the children of feuding parents Tom and Lucy Purcell, who have gone missing near woods after riding out to play on their bikes a week after Halloween (below) – a date which, we are told, happens to be the same day that actor Steve McQueen died (November 7, 1980). In cleverly overlapping scenes, the policemen revisit the case in 1990 when there is a shocking new lead in the disappearance and then in 2015 when Hays’ mind is going due to creeping dementia but the story’s mysteries still haunt him. By 2015 Hays is also shown giving a series of interviews to a real crime-style TV show which opens old wounds. Even at this late stage, 35 years on, the abductions seem unsolved. Hays is also a veteran of the Vietnam War – he served as a reconnaissance tracker in the jungle, sometimes spending weeks alone looking for the Viet Cong enemy. He brings his tracking skills to bear in the plotting of this story, but very clearly carries the scars of his soldiering days. By contrast, West seems more stable (a little like the contrast between the two leads in series one where McConaughey's character was smart but wilder and more unpredictable than Harrelson's). Is True Detective series three any good? REVIEW After a disappointingly disjointed second series in 2015 exploring murder and corruption in California, the new run represents a welcome return to form (and basics) for Pizzolatto and his team. It also returns to the deep south of the US – a setting which earned the first series the fetching description Southern Gothic. Our leads (Oscar winner Ali in particular) are first rate; it’s also sublimely written, rewardingly slow and vividly evocative of its world. The look and feel is also extraordinary, and some wonderful cinematography showcases the beauty and harsh poverty of rural Arkansas. The huge interlinking time jumps work well each episode thanks to some stunning prosthetics (Ali ages particularly well over the 35-year span of the drama). Also, the script deals subtly with the changing nature of racism in this Deep South community, particularly where it affects Ali’s Hays. The 1980 scenes are particularly good at evoking a sense of place and brutality and menace. It’s the year of the disappearances and here, for example, we meet solitary Vietnam veteran and trash collector Brett Woodard (Michael Greyeyes) living a subsistence existence; he has Native American ancestry and begins attracting the suspicious attentions of the poor, racially bigoted locals. “I miss the time when 'don’t get killed' was not on my to-do list,” he tells our cops in one of the show’s many stark and darkly poetic one liners. This is quality TV: eerie, tense, gripping, dark and compelling, it's destined to be a small screen highlight of 2019. True Detective series three starts on Sky Atlantic on Monday 14th January at 9pm
When does BBC Scotland launch? How can I watch? What programmes will air?
The Corporation is launching a bespoke channel for Scotland – here’s what is going to be on it and how you can watch it
In February the BBC is launching a dedicated Scottish television channel with a new daily hour-long news programme and bespoke drama, arts and entertainment coverage. The new channel, called BBC Scotland, will have a prominent slot on Electronic Programme Guides (EPGs) in Scotland, and will be available across the UK via BBC iPlayer. Here’s everything you need to know about it... When does BBC Scotland launch? BBC Scotland will officially launch on Sunday 24th February. How can I watch BBC Scotland? Will it replace existing channels? The new channel’s place on the EPG will be “prominent” in Scotland. It will show on channel 9 on Freeview and YouView, 115 on Sky, 106 on Freesat and 108 on Virgin Media north of the border. To watch in HD on Freeview and YouView, head to 115. Full listings will be available in the Scottish edition of the print Radio Times. It will be available on iPlayer in the rest of the country. Will Scottish viewers still have access to BBC4? For Freeview and YouView users, BBC Scotland's new home on channel 9 is in a spot currently occupied by BBC4. But fear not, Scottish BBC4 fans will still have access to the channel – on 18th February it moved to its new home on channel 82. The switch may happen automatically, but some viewers may need to retune their TVs to get the new line-up. What sort of programmes will BBC Scotland show? The plan is to air 50% original content and 50% repeats. Each weeknight there will be an hour-long news programme at 9pm featuring national, UK and international news. Called The Nine, it will be anchored from Scotland by presenters Martin Geissler and Rebecca Curran (pictured). Existing BBC Scotland TV programmes will be showcased on the channel including Scottish drama River City which will feature each Monday night at 10pm and will continue to keep its 8pm Tuesday evening slot on BBC1 Scotland. The new channel will also air existing shows like police comedy Scot Squad and will premiere the final series of Scottish sitcom Still Game (which will air later in the year on BBC1). Other programmes include an eight-part documentary series The Children’s Hospital, about The Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (below), and A View from The Terrace, a weekly sideways glance at Scottish football adapted from the cult fan-led podcast The Terrace. There will also be a music series – Emeli Sandé's Street Symphony – which will see the singer-songwriter travelling across Scotland and recruiting her favourite buskers for a concert with an entire orchestra. The first drama commission is Guilt – a new four-part series starting Scottish actors Mark Bonnar (Catastrophe, Line Of Duty and Unforgotten, pictured) and Jamie Sives (Chernobyl, Frontier, Game Of Thrones). They play brothers Max (Bonnar) and Jake (Sives) who, while driving home from a wedding together one night, accidentally run over and kill an old man on a darkened street. After making the panicked decision to cover their tracks, the brothers have to face the consequences of their crime. How will programmes on BBC Scotland be distinctively Scottish? The flagship news programme – The Nine – will be at the heart of the schedules and will report regional, national and international news through a Scottish perspective. Rebecca and Martin will co-present Monday-Thursday while Laura Miller and John Beattie will present the news hour each Friday. Weekend coverage comprises a 15-minute bulletin on Saturday evenings at 7pm followed by a 45-minute review programme presented by Fiona Stalker and Nick Sheridan. On Sundays, the 15-minute 7pm bulletin will be presented by Lucy Whyte. The programme will have a distinct social media presence and audiences will be able to access the best of The Nine on digital platforms. Other programmes include The People's News – where topical events will be presented through the eyes of people from across Scotland who "dial in" each week. There will also be a Modern Scotland documentary strand and bespoke Scottish arts coverage, with Edinburgh’s globally renowned summer arts festivals one area of strength. What hours will BBC Scotland be on air? The channel will be live every day, broadcasting a total of 1,825 hours each year including more than 900 hours of original content. BBC Scotland's core hours will be 7pm until midnight. Between 12 noon and 7pm the channel will show BBC2 content alongside up to 150 hours per year of BBC Scotland content such as coverage of First Minister’s Question Time and sporting and music events. What is BBC Scotland's budget? The channel has a total annual programming budget of £32m and will replace the Scottish programmes currently shown on BBC2 Scotland. Its additional £40m comes from central BBC funding with the money split between TV services specifically for audiences in Scotland and additional network programming made in Scotland for audiences across the UK and beyond. Can I watch BBC Scotland from England? Yes. The BBC says it will be available in both High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) via Freeview, YouView, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media (on Freeview, the channel will be available in HD between 7pm and midnight only). The channel and its content will also be available on the BBC iPlayer. Why is BBC Scotland launching now? The decision to launch the channel came after much discussion about the quality and range of BBC programming and spending in Scotland. Just over half of the estimated £320m raised from Scottish licence fee payers is spent in the country, the lowest proportion among the four nations of the United Kingdom. The BBC anticipates that at the end of the first financial year in which the channel has been operating, the accounts will show that around 80% of the licence fee collected in Scotland will have been spent there. For many years activists in Scotland have demanded a dedicated news bulletin for the country with many believing that either a Scottish Newsnight would be a solution or a 6pm bulletin – the so-called “Scottish Six”.