Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-02-12T17:35:07.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: What lies beneath
items: Let's not call Melania Trump's film a documentary - Channel 4’s The Tony Blair Story is the real deal
items: The King's quest
items: 'Imagination is more important than knowledge'
items: Endeavour legend Shaun Evans talks saying goodbye to Morse and why he kept his Liverpudlian accent for ITV's Betrayal
items: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's The Rip proves the upsides and downsides of using real-life Hollywood friends
items: A fine bromance
items: The Traitors season 4 final sees two worthy winners – and proves once again why it's unmissable TV
items: The geek shall inherit
items: When did TV documentaries become all about celebrities and 'being' and stop being about people actually doing something?
items: The Traitors – Thursday's Best Moment
items: Just keep dancing!
items: Ignore the critics, Strictly Come Dancing doesn’t need changing for 2026 - apart from one thing
items: Remembering genius David Bowie and how he heralded 2016 - a year of exponential loss in showbiz history
items: Bowie: a true one-off
items: Who’s flourishing and who's floundering in The Traitors?
items: Queen legend Brian May argues we've lost the ability to "discuss" and "respect" other people's point of view
items: What The Traitors format twist means for the rest of series four
items: Praise be for holy sleuths
items: Why can’t we get enough of TV's crime-solving vicars in the likes of Grantchester and Father Brown?
items: 12 underrated TV gems from 2025 – from The Assembly to Worlds Apart
items: What were the most underrated TV shows of 2025?
items: 'Joanna charms everyone'
items: Can TV be so bad it's good?
items: Austen powers
items: Dame Joanna Lumley reveals her vegetarian Christmas plans: "Wouldn't it be lovely if we didn't kill things at Christmas?"
items: Jane Austen’s enduring and universal appeal revealed by hit writers, from Pride & Prejudice 1995 screenwriter to David Baddiel
items: Bleeps and bloopers
items: As All's Fair season 2 beckons, critical contempt for the hit Kim Kardashian show misses the point entirely

What lies beneath
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: A much-hyped film about the US First Lady only skims the surface
encoded: Add The Tony Blair Story and Melania to your watchlist An alignment of the stars this week meant I watched, back to back, two films that could fall into the category of “political documentary”. Both profile instantly recognisable, highly polarising figures and both offer glimpses into great rooms of power. But that’s where any similarity ends. First, we need to talk about Melania. Reviews have been harsh of the Amazon-funded portrait of the US First Lady during the 20 days prior to her husband’s second inauguration in 2025, but I thought I’d give it a fair crack. The Melbourne cinema where I watched it was almost packed (it was a 15-seater) with an all-female crowd presumably curious, like me, as to who or what lies under the hat. The opening credits give immediate warning: I’ve not seen one name mentioned so many times since Barbra Streisand’s magnum opus Yentl. Melania Trump is producer, star, all-round muse – making her responsible for the 15 minutes of footage in which she discusses, with fawning stylists, the shoulder pads on her inauguration suit, after which I’m ready to stick the much-discussed hatpin into my own forehead. View Green Video on the source website The rest of the film focuses either on Melania’s stiletto heels – stepping out of a limousine, onto a private jet, through the doors of her gold-plated Trump Tower home – or on the back of her head, so we get to see her golden tresses and the silencing effect she has on bystanders. As a study in iconography, it is fascinating, the only problem being icons don’t stand up to extended scrutiny. Just as a car’s value decreases the minute it drives off the forecourt, Melania’s effect diminishes the longer she stays in the room, and we’re here for 104 minutes. So yes, fascinating, but let’s not call it a documentary. “One-woman Robert Palmer video” would be more accurate. There has been a stream of “access-all-areas” docs lately – the Beckhams, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift – and we’re all au fait with th…

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Let's not call Melania Trump's film a documentary - Channel 4’s The Tony Blair Story is the real deal
type: item
date: 2026-02-11T08:00:01.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Magazine
description: A much-hyped film about the US First Lady only skims the surface.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. An alignment of the stars this week meant I watched, back to back, two films that could fall into the category of "political documentary". Both profile instantly recognisable, highly polarising figures and both offer glimpses into great rooms of power. But that's where any similarity ends. First, we need to talk about Melania. Reviews have been harsh of the Amazon-funded portrait of the US First Lady during the 20 days prior to her husband's second inauguration in 2025, but I thought I'd give it a fair crack. The Melbourne cinema where I watched it was almost packed (it was a 15-seater) with an all-female crowd presumably curious, like me, as to who or what lies under the hat. The opening credits give immediate warning: I’ve not seen one name mentioned so many times since Barbra Streisand’s magnum opus Yentl. Melania Trump is producer, star, all-round muse – making her responsible for the 15 minutes of footage in which she discusses, with fawning stylists, the shoulder pads on her inauguration suit, after which I’m ready to stick the much-discussed hatpin into my own forehead. The rest of the film focuses either on Melania’s stiletto heels – stepping out of a limousine, onto a private jet, through the doors of her gold-plated Trump Tower home – or on the back of her head, so we get to see her golden tresses and the silencing effect she has on bystanders. As a study in iconography, it is fascinating, the only problem being icons don’t stand up to extended scrutiny. Just as a car’s value decreases the minute it drives off the forecourt, Melania’s effect diminishes the longer she stays in the room, and we're here for 104 minutes. So yes, fascinating, but let’s not call it a documentary. "One-woman Robert Palmer video" would be more accurate. View Green Video on the source website There has been a stream of "access-all-areas" docs lately – the Beckhams, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift – and we’re all au fait with the …

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The King's quest
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: A new documentary explores our monarch’s “Harmony” philosophy
encoded: Add Finding Harmony: a King's Vision to your watchlist One of the few consolations of lockdown was that many of us suddenly rediscovered nature and the great outdoors. Like anything restricted from human grasp, it became a tantalising, precious commodity, seized upon by Instagrammers like a shiny new thing, along with salutes to the sun and mashed avocado on sourdough. However, there’s one public figure who can’t be accused of being a Johnny-come-lately to this particular cause – the King. Over half a century ago, as an earnest young prince, Charles was espousing the value of embracing our environment, of eschewing architectural carbuncles and restoring endangered species to protect biodiversity. His 1970 speech about chemically polluted rivers pre-dated Feargal Sharkey’s efforts by decades. Many of the nature-based alternative remedies he once advocated so “eccentrically” are now accepted complementary therapies. And what did he get for his pains? Headlines in the press about the “loon” prince chatting with his plants, and general head-scratching from everyone else. View Green Video on the source website Today, the now King Charles is beating the same drum to a far more receptive audience. This week finds him the focus of Finding Harmony: a King’s Vision, an Amazon documentary exploring his tireless work, from across the world to his own back garden. The King’s Foundation at Dumfries House in Ayrshire trains hundreds of people in sustainable skills and crafts, and has been credited with transforming one of Scotland’s most struggling regions. Further afield, the foundation has partnered with the government of Guyana in South America to make the country’s capital, Georgetown, “a sustainable garden city”. Meanwhile, since 2009, Waitrose Duchy Organic – which was founded in 1990 as Duchy Originals by the then Prince Charles – has contributed £50 million to the King Charles III Charitable Fund. Though visibly riled in the film by how much there is still to do, the monar…

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'Imagination is more important than knowledge'
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: When Shaun Evans takes on a new character, all the hard work goes on in his head
encoded: Add Betrayal to your watchlist The last time I interviewed Shaun Evans, we both had a little cry. Me, because I’d been poorly and watching every episode of his peerless Endeavour had sustained me through three bedbound months. Him… well, because he’s a very nice man, and also because he recognised the import of saying goodbye to young Morse after nine series. We signed off saying, “We will speak again.” And now we do, three years later, when the first thing Evans does is enquire after my health. Like I said, he’s a nice man. But we’re here to talk about Betrayal, an espionage thriller/marital drama he has both produced and stars in. Evans’s character John Hughes, an MI5 agent battling on many fronts – fighting “voluntary” redundancy requests, struggling to save his marriage, all the while investigating a national security threat – has the same solitude and righteousness of his Endeavour, but in a very different, contemporary setting. John is often at home with his children and troubled wife Clare, where we see the pressures on an ordinary man of an extraordinary job. “I was interested in playing a man having a midlife crisis,” says Evans. “Plus, there’s always an appetite for the spy genre, so I was curious to see if we could mix together those two. At work, he follows his instincts and it ends in catastrophe. His marriage is on the rocks. The four episodes trace his attempts to solve these seemingly intractable problems.” The two key themes in the show are the world of espionage, and the act of betrayal. For the first, producers recruited former BBC security correspondent- turned-podcaster Gordon Corera as production adviser. For the second? “I always think imagination is more important than knowledge,” says Evans. “It’s interesting to play these characters who are different from you, and find the reason for why they behave as they do. That’s the job, making the imaginative leap.” It’s a full and considered answer that gives nothing away. He’d make a good spy. In B…

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Endeavour legend Shaun Evans talks saying goodbye to Morse and why he kept his Liverpudlian accent for ITV's Betrayal
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T17:00:40.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: ITV
subject: Magazine
description: Shaun Evans moves on from Endeavour with a spy thriller – and a fresh sense of freedom.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. The last time I interviewed Shaun Evans, we both had a little cry. Me, because I'd been poorly and watching every episode of his peerless Endeavour had sustained me through three bedbound months. Him… well, because he's a very nice man, and also because he recognised the import of saying goodbye to young Morse after nine series. We signed off saying, "We will speak again." And now we do, three years later, when the first thing Evans does is enquire after my health. Like I said, he's a nice man. But we're here to talk about Betrayal, an espionage thriller/marital drama he has both produced and stars in. Evans's character John Hughes, an MI5 agent battling on many fronts – fighting "voluntary" redundancy requests, struggling to save his marriage, all the while investigating a national security threat – has the same solitude and righteousness of his Endeavour, but in a very different, contemporary setting. John is often at home with his children and troubled wife Clare, where we see the pressures on an ordinary man of an extraordinary job. "I was interested in playing a man having a midlife crisis," says Evans. "Plus, there's always an appetite for the spy genre, so I was curious to see if we could mix together those two. At work, he follows his instincts and it ends in catastrophe. His marriage is on the rocks. The four episodes trace his attempts to solve these seemingly intractable problems." The two key themes in the show are the world of espionage, and the act of betrayal. For the first, producers recruited former BBC security correspondent- turned-podcaster Gordon Corera as production adviser. For the second? "I always think imagination is more important than knowledge," says Evans. "It's interesting to play these characters who are different from you, and find the reason for why they behave as they do. That's the job, making the imaginative leap." It's a full and considered answer that gives nothing away. He'd…

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's The Rip proves the upsides and downsides of using real-life Hollywood friends
type: item
date: 2026-01-28T08:00:24.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Movies
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Magazine
subject: Netflix
description: When real-life bromance meets movie rivalry, the stars’ off-screen friendships become the real story we’re watching.
encoded: It may come as a shock to learn that, despite playing the "it’s for work" card, I occasionally lose control of the TV remote, which is how I ended up sitting through The Rip, a heist-based, gun-heavy, F-bomb-flooded thriller that I will describe, without apology, as "probably a film for boys". On the plus side, it starred – nay, was almost rescued by – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and when I wasn't watching another shootout through my eyelids, it got me thinking about them and how we feel when film-star friends appear together on-screen. It’s almost 30 years since this golden pair arrived in our lives. The story of how two longtime friends co-wrote Good Will Hunting, defying all their Hollywood doubters and going on to score box-office millions and an Oscar each for best screenplay, has become as rich in mythology and inspiration as the film itself. The film’s most moving moment comes when Affleck's blue-collar loyal friend Chuckie tells Damon’s maths genius Will he's worth more than the life he’s settling for: "You’re my best friend. I call for you every day. The best part is when I knock on your door and I think maybe you won’t be there." Cut to 2026, and The Rip proves that day has not yet come – the Affleck-Damon alliance still tight in life as on screen. View Green Video on the source website A similar challenge is posed by the George Clooney-Brad Pitt pairing in Wolfs. As in The Rip, the film sets two solitary operators in competition and seemingly reluctant comradeship. Except, of course, they’re played by two of the world’s most recognisable men, famous for being handsome, successful and, most pertinently, great friends ever since they dazzled together in Ocean’s Eleven. Studios have long used the same trick to seduce audiences, repeatedly pairing equal and sort-of opposites like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, or channelling the unstoppable-force-meets-unmovable-object charisma of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. We happily sit through hours of fictional …

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A fine bromance
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: When pals like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star together, it’s not just the bullets we’re watching
encoded: Add The Rip to your watchlist It may come as a shock to learn that, despite playing the “it’s for work” card, I occasionally lose control of the TV remote, which is how I ended up sitting through The Rip, a heist-based, gun-heavy, F-bomb-flooded thriller that I will describe, without apology, as “probably a film for boys”. On the plus side, it starred – nay, was almost rescued by – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and when I wasn’t watching another shootout through my eyelids, it got me thinking about them and how we feel when film-star friends appear together on screen. View Green Video on the source website It’s almost 30 years since this golden pair arrived in our lives. The story of how two longtime friends co-wrote Good Will Hunting, defying all their Hollywood doubters and going on to score box-office millions and an Oscar each for best screenplay, has become as rich in mythology and inspiration as the film itself. The film’s most moving moment comes when Affleck’s blue-collar loyal friend Chuckie tells Damon’s maths genius Will he’s worth more than the life he’s settling for: “You’re my best friend. I call for you every day. The best part is when I knock on your door and I think maybe you won’t be there.” Cut to 2026, and The Rip proves that day has not yet come – the Affleck-Damon alliance still tight in life as on screen. A similar challenge is posed by the George Clooney-Brad Pitt pairing in Wolfs. As in The Rip, the film sets two solitary operators in competition and seemingly reluctant comradeship. Except, of course, they’re played by two of the world’s most recognisable men, famous for being handsome, successful and, most pertinently, great friends ever since they dazzled together in Ocean’s Eleven. Studios have long used the same trick to seduce audiences, repeatedly pairing equal and sort-of opposites like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, or channelling the unstoppable-force-meets-unmovable-object charisma of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. We happily s…

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The Traitors season 4 final sees two worthy winners – and proves once again why it's unmissable TV
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
encoded: The following contains spoilers for the finale of season four of The Traitors. Add it to your watchlist The ravens have departed the castle, it’s all over and we have a winner. After 12 episodes, 22 contestants and 75 increasingly tense last minutes, Traitors Rachel and Stephen emerged as victors. The final started dramatically enough, with Traitor Rachel saved by chance from banishment. Despite Jack’s tears at James’s exit, this was a blessing for producers, as it paved the way for some serious traitor-on-traitor betrayal, after Stephen and Rachel both decided to ditch all those turret pledges of mutual loyalty. This made for an immensely satisfying final Round Table, as Stephen once again sat without an arrow going near him, and Rachel once again brushed off all comers like a lion swatting off impalas and played Faraaz like a violin. Result: Jade gone. And then there were four, and it was time for Endgame. 15 minutes later and it was all over as, with Faraaz gone, Rachel and Stephen somehow got over their differences and reunited to banish Jack and share the £97,750 pot. – a mere £47,875 each. They’re both worthy winners: Stephen with his ability to make allies and withstand the Library Five and Caged Three accusations, and Rachel with her formidable skill in thinking on her feet and fending off the attacks of fellow Traitor Fiona and forensic Faithful Harriet. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/traitors-final-1-2151158.jpg" width="4600" height="3067" alt="Claudia Winkleman in a tailored black suit stands confidently between two green leather armchairs in a wood-panelled room, facing a table piled high with gold bars." title="Claudia Winkleman in a tailored black suit stands confidently between two green leather armchairs in a wood-panelled room, facing a table piled high with gold bars." /> But never mind this triumphant pair, the real winners are the makers of this fourth series of The Traitors, who proved that they coul…

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The Traitors season 4 final sees two worthy winners – and proves once again why it's unmissable TV
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T22:03:28.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Entertainment
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Contains Trailer
description: A ruthless finale, two triumphant Traitors and another reminder that this gloriously simple parlour game remains required viewing.
encoded: The ravens have departed the castle, it’s all over and we have a winner. After 12 episodes, 22 contestants and 75 increasingly tense last minutes, Traitors Rachel and Stephen emerged as victors. The final started dramatically enough, with Traitor Rachel saved by chance from banishment. Despite Jack’s tears at James’s exit, this was a blessing for producers, as it paved the way for some serious traitor-on-traitor betrayal, after Stephen and Rachel both decided to ditch all those turret pledges of mutual loyalty. This made for an immensely satisfying final Round Table, as Stephen once again sat without an arrow going near him, and Rachel once again brushed off all comers like a lion swatting off impalas and played Faraaz like a violin. Result: Jade gone. And then there were four, and it was time for Endgame. 15 minutes later and it was all over as, with Faraaz gone, Rachel and Stephen somehow got over their differences and reunited to banish Jack and share the £97,750 pot. – a mere £47,875 each. They’re both worthy winners: Stephen with his ability to make allies and withstand the Library Five and Caged Three accusations, and Rachel with her formidable skill in thinking on her feet and fending off the attacks of fellow Traitor Fiona and forensic Faithful Harriet. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/traitors-final-1-2151158.jpg" width="4600" height="3067" alt="Claudia Winkleman in a tailored black suit stands confidently between two green leather armchairs in a wood-panelled room, facing a table piled high with gold bars." title="Claudia Winkleman in a tailored black suit stands confidently between two green leather armchairs in a wood-panelled room, facing a table piled high with gold bars." /> But never mind this triumphant pair, the real winners are the makers of this fourth series of The Traitors, who proved that they could come back down to earth from the high flights of last year’s celebrity version and still leave us hold…

The geek shall inherit
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: There’s a real joy and comfort in watching passionate people do what they love
encoded: Add Guy Martin: Proper Jobs and Mission to Space with Francis Bourgeois to your watchlist My friend and I used to be fans of a big documentary festival until about a decade ago. After yet more films about a boy wearing mascara, or a girl holding a Kalashnikov, we walked out after a screening and she said, “It’s all about being. When did people stop doing stuff?” To be fair, documentaries remain a crucial platform for investigative journalism, but when it comes to our TV screens, my friend was right. We aren’t short of what TV commissioners call “factual entertainment”, but it feels like a million variations on a single premise: two celebrities in a car swapping their “stories”, between stops where they buy a house and a surprisingly valuable bit of art. Or, if it’s Channel 4, an intentionally provocative session with some kind of sex practitioner. If an expert is called upon, it’s to answer the questions of yet another celebrity. Where are the people doing stuff? It wasn’t always this way. I grew up watching people like Keith Floyd, Ann Ladbury and Fred Dibnah and their infectious enthusiasms for, respectively, cooking without a recipe (but with a glass of red), cutting sewing patterns and demolishing chimneys. They were all doing it anyway; fame came through their passions, not the other way round. The word “geek” – which just means a deep, tireless interest in a subject, often niche – has been given a bad rap, associated with a bad haircut and passion for planes over personal grooming. Well, give me an unsmoothed expert enthused to share over a slick celebrity paid to learn any day of the week. The good news is that there are green shoots of fresh geek-dom on our screens. With a doffed cap to the storytelling talents of scientist Dr Hannah Fry, the numero uno of nerds is Guy Martin. First spotted by TV producers on his bike in a 2009 TT race, the Grimsby-born presenter brings his love for all things mechanical to TV, from building a boat to breaking the world reco…

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When did TV documentaries become all about celebrities and 'being' and stop being about people actually doing something?
type: item
date: 2026-01-21T08:00:46.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Channel 4
subject: Comment
subject: Magazine
description: The good news is that there are green shoots of fresh geek-dom on our screens.
encoded: My friend and I used to be fans of a big documentary festival until about a decade ago. After yet more films about a boy wearing mascara, or a girl holding a Kalashnikov, we walked out after a screening and she said, "It’s all about being. When did people stop doing stuff?" To be fair, documentaries remain a crucial platform for investigative journalism, but when it comes to our TV screens, my friend was right. We aren’t short of what TV commissioners call "factual entertainment", but it feels like a million variations on a single premise: two celebrities in a car swapping their "stories", between stops where they buy a house and a surprisingly valuable bit of art. Or, if it's Channel 4, an intentionally provocative session with some kind of sex practitioner. If an expert is called upon, it’s to answer the questions of yet another celebrity. Where are the people doing stuff? It wasn’t always this way. I grew up watching people like Keith Floyd, Ann Ladbury and Fred Dibnah and their infectious enthusiasms for, respectively, cooking without a recipe (but with a glass of red), cutting sewing patterns and demolishing chimneys. They were all doing it anyway; fame came through their passions, not the other way round. The word "geek" – which just means a deep, tireless interest in a subject, often niche – has been given a bad rap, associated with a bad haircut and passion for planes over personal grooming. Well, give me an unsmoothed expert enthused to share over a slick celebrity paid to learn any day of the week. The good news is that there are green shoots of fresh geek-dom on our screens. With a doffed cap to the storytelling talents of scientist Dr Hannah Fry, the numero uno of nerds is Guy Martin. First spotted by TV producers on his bike in a 2009 TT race, the Grimsby-born presenter brings his love for all things mechanical to TV, from building a boat to breaking the world record for the fastest toboggan. Refreshingly averse to celebrity over substance (he said no t…

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The Traitors – Thursday's Best Moment
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: As the players pass the halfway point, tensions continue to rise in The Traitors Castle. But who could survive until the bitter end?
encoded: The following contains spoilers for the first eight episodes of season four of The Traitors. Add it to your watchlist It’s dog eat dog in the Castle now, with fewer and fewer players pretending that it’s a team sport. The most blatant of these was evident in this episode’s mission – something to do with a cabin, some spooky clues and the chance for gold or one single Shield – with Sam saying from the off he was seeking the latter. “That was suspicious,” said everyone as he raced out of the cabin. “It felt like treacherous behaviour,” mused Ellie later. Was it, though? Wouldn’t you be just as likely to do that if you were a Faithful? If only there was someone in there who’d undertaken FBI training to spot a liar… It didn’t do him any good, mind you, as he was swiftly banished. Moral of the story: pretend it’s a team sport until the very final credits. Round tables in recent days have seen the confrontational aspect turned up to the max. The fisticuffs between Fiona and Rachel – Traitor on Traitor, lest we forget – was swiftly followed by the fall of Harriet, but with her ruthless attempt to take several people down with her. How is Rachel still standing after all that, let alone undiscovered? With only four episodes to go, who’s your money on emerging victorious? Who’s flourishing: Despite Matthew’s deal with the devils, Jessie remains un-murdered, she’s never even had a mention at the Round Table, and has succeeded in befriending everyone. She’s even onto Stephen. What a good Traitor she’d make. If she makes it through the night. And why does nobody ever, ever mention Jack? Who’s floundering: Rachel must have used up several of her Traitor’s lives by now, but she’s lived to see another visit to the Turret. Instead, it’s Stephen who’s starting to feel others’ eyes on him, and he can’t murder all of them.

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Just keep dancing!
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Strictly without Tess and Claudia may need a few new moves, but it’s still the jewel in the BBC’s crown
encoded: Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist In a festive edition of Celebrity Mastermind, one of the contestants was Strictly dancer Nikita Kuzmin (specialist subject: Cristiano Ronaldo). He wasn’t the worst of the four interrogees, particularly as English is not his primary language, meaning the Ukrainian native was, as Ginger Rogers might say, answering “backwards and in heels”. It was another mark of how far Strictly has come, with the show’s dance professionals now as well known as their celeb partners – and essential members of the BBC’s talent pipeline. Some, like Oti Mabuse and Janette Manrara, are trusted with fronting other shows, while Anton du Beke didn’t even need to leave the Strictly studio, instead shuffling seamlessly into his judge’s chair. From BBC to ballroom, everyone’s a winner. Backstage allegations, complaints and investigations have seen the BBC’s biggest entertainment totem totter on its perch in the last couple of years but, thanks to sure-footed protocols behind the scenes and inspiring figures like Chris McCausland on the dancefloor, the good ship Strictly has sailed safely on. However, a much bigger change is afoot. For ten years, it has been ably steered by two solid captains and the void left by Tess and Claudia’s emotional farewell has prompted many to start muttering about the beginning of Strictly’s end. The RT postbag reveals how much the hosting duo will be missed, as well as offering suggestions for giving the show a much needed shot in the arm. One publicist who helped launch the show suggested recently a fallow year would allow a proper reset, for “new energy to return”. Does the BBC’s biggest show really need a hiatus to survive? After more than 20 years, it’s clearly at a crossroads and offers a glittering, high-profile metaphor for the BBC’s wider challenge: how to keep its traditional audience happy, while futureproofing for the years ahead? If pressed, there’s only one thing about the show I would want to change immediatel…

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Ignore the critics, Strictly Come Dancing doesn’t need changing for 2026 - apart from one thing
type: item
date: 2026-01-14T08:00:47.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Entertainment
subject: Reality TV
subject: TV
subject: BBC
description: After two decades, Strictly faces its biggest moment of change yet – but does the BBC’s glittering flagship really need fixing?
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. In a festive edition of Celebrity Mastermind, one of the contestants was Strictly dancer Nikita Kuzmin (specialist subject: Cristiano Ronaldo). He wasn’t the worst of the four interrogees, particularly as English is not his primary language, meaning the Ukrainian native was, as Ginger Rogers might say, answering "backwards and in heels". It was another mark of how far Strictly has come, with the show’s dance professionals now as well known as their celeb partners – and essential members of the BBC’s talent pipeline. Some, like Oti Mabuse and Janette Manrara, are trusted with fronting other shows, while Anton du Beke didn’t even need to leave the Strictly studio, instead shuffling seamlessly into his judge’s chair. From BBC to ballroom, everyone’s a winner. Backstage allegations, complaints and investigations have seen the BBC’s biggest entertainment totem totter on its perch in the last couple of years but, thanks to sure-footed protocols behind the scenes and inspiring figures like Chris McCausland on the dancefloor, the good ship Strictly has sailed safely on. However, a much bigger change is afoot. For ten years, it has been ably steered by two solid captains and the void left by Tess and Claudia’s emotional farewell has prompted many to start muttering about the beginning of Strictly’s end. The RT postbag reveals how much the hosting duo will be missed, as well as offering suggestions for giving the show a much needed shot in the arm. One publicist who helped launch the show suggested recently a fallow year would allow a proper reset, for "new energy to return". Does the BBC’s biggest show really need a hiatus to survive? After more than 20 years, it’s clearly at a crossroads and offers a glittering, high-profile metaphor for the BBC’s wider challenge: how to keep its traditional audience happy, while futureproofing for the years ahead? If pressed, there’s only one thing about the show I would want to change i…

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Remembering genius David Bowie and how he heralded 2016 - a year of exponential loss in showbiz history
type: item
date: 2026-01-10T08:00:40.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: audio
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Ten years after a year of extraordinary cultural loss, David Bowie’s death still feels like the moment everything changed.
encoded: One of my friends is a music journalist who has interviewed all the biggest names. I have long delighted in peppering him with questions. Who’s the worst mannered? Who’s really short? Who’s the most charismatic? To that last one, he said straight away: "David Bowie. Always smiling." His words returned to me in the wintry dawn light of 11 January 2016, when the news arrived that Bowie had died the previous day. I’d been up all night live-blogging the Golden Globe Awards and was about to jump in a taxi to a TV studio. I still got there, but no one cared about the Globes any more. The talk was all of Bowie: what he’d contributed in 50 years of music, what he still meant, why fans across the world were sadly drawing red zigzags on their faces. Unusual for anyone, such an outpouring of affection was remarkable for someone who had completed over half his musical catalogue 35 years before. Of the 26 studio albums that Bowie released during his lifetime, 14 were out by 1980. And there was that almost cheeky twist: his final work, Blackstar, was released just two days before his death, loaded with elegiac allusion and analysis of which could be added to the commentary around Ziggy Stardust and what Bowie himself listed as "the seven or eight things on a journalist’s checkcard: bisexual, drugs, likes cats". What we didn’t know then was that, ahead of the curve as ever, Bowie’s death heralded a year of exponential loss, as one cultural behemoth after another fell off the branch – Prince, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood, Debbie Reynolds a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali. A decade on from entertainment’s own annus horribilis, these figures remain as clear in my mind’s eye as they were then, their contributions unique, their legends unmatched because we don’t make, or treat, our stars the way we used to. There can’t be much more to say about them, but that won’t stop the 10-years-on documentaries reflecting on legacies, o…

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Bowie: a true one-off
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Ten years after we lost one of our greatest cultural figures, his remarkable legacy endures
encoded: Add David Bowie: the Final Act to your watchlist One of my friends is a music journalist who has interviewed all the biggest names. I have long delighted in peppering him with questions. Who’s the worst mannered? Who’s really short? Who’s the most charismatic? To that last one, he said straight away: “David Bowie. Always smiling.” His words returned to me in the wintry dawn light of 11 January 2016, when the news arrived that Bowie had died the previous day. I’d been up all night live-blogging the Golden Globe Awards and was about to jump in a taxi to a TV studio. I still got there, but no one cared about the Globes any more. The talk was all of Bowie: what he’d contributed in 50 years of music, what he still meant, why fans across the world were sadly drawing red zigzags on their faces. Unusual for anyone, such an outpouring of affection was remarkable for someone who had completed over half his musical catalogue 35 years before. Of the 26 studio albums that Bowie released during his lifetime, 14 were out by 1980. And there was that almost cheeky twist: his final work, Blackstar, was released just two days before his death, loaded with elegiac allusion and analysis of which could be added to the commentary around Ziggy Stardust and what Bowie himself listed as “the seven or eight things on a journalist’s checkcard: bisexual, drugs, likes cats”. What we didn’t know then was that, ahead of the curve as ever, Bowie’s death heralded a year of exponential loss, as one cultural behemoth after another fell off the branch – Prince, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood, Debbie Reynolds a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali. A decade on from entertainment’s own annus horribilis, these figures remain as clear in my mind’s eye as they were then, their contributions unique, their legends unmatched because we don’t make, or treat, our stars the way we used to. There can’t be much more to say about them, but that won’t stop the 10…

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Who’s flourishing and who's floundering in The Traitors?
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: After the reveal of the Secret Traitor, many are living dangerously in Ardross Castle…
encoded: The following contains spoilers for the first four episodes of season four of The Traitors. Add it to your watchlist Talk of the identity of the red-cloaked traitor has governed all office chat for the past few days. “Normal” Traitors Rachel and Stephen had been invited to recruit the red-cloaked one, what they called “taking back the power”, what we called producers improvising on the hoof following barrister Hugo’s Kamikaze breakfast monologue and swift banishment. And so, only four days from the start of the series, we were back where we started, with three Traitors giggling at each other in the tower. Of course, it was going to be friendly, unassuming Fiona, in the tradition of Amanda and Linda in previous series. Fiona even told us herself last week, “Never underestimate a middle-aged woman.” The best moment: discovering that there are words in Ardross Castle more ominous than “murder”. First, we saw everyone counting heads the following day, realising there’d been no murder and hence, “There’s been a recruitment.” Even better was Claudia’s announcement that nine residents were up for murder, having been shortlisted “yesterday, in plain sight”. Even Traitor Rachel started sweating. With only one mission this episode — thankfully; that’s when I always make a tea — most of the rest of the hour was spent with conflabs in corners, alliances and accusations. Banished: Ross never really recovered from being recognised by Netty on day one. At least he has his secret girlfriend Ellie to avenge his exit. Who’s flourishing: From red cloak to black coat, Fiona has glided seamlessly through every Round Table without anyone even mentioning her name. She’s even dropping fellow Traitor Rachel under the bus without a blink. It’s a masterclass. Who’s floundering: Max, Reece or Sam will be the next to go. Reece had avoided Round Table banishment by one vote, but he was asked “Are you confident, or are you confident as a Traitor?” Impossible to answer without incrimination. The c…

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Queen legend Brian May argues we've lost the ability to "discuss" and "respect" other people's point of view
type: item
date: 2026-01-05T17:00:51.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Books
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: "There's so much suffering in the world, why would we want to add to it?"
encoded: This article originally appeared in Radio Times Magazine. Brian May has an affinity with big numbers. When he stood on the roof of Buckingham Palace in 2002 and played the national anthem on his electric guitar to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, it was in front of a reported worldwide audience of 200 million. Prior to that he walked out on stage at Live Aid with Queen, who stole the show in front of an estimated two billion viewers. And in a musical career spanning more than half a century, his band has sold more than 300 million records, including 1975’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which remains the most streamed song of the 20th century. Yet all these figures are dwarfed by the numbers on May’s mind today, as he reels off the jaw-dropping statistics at the centre of his new book, Islands in Infinity: Galaxies in 3-D, the first publication to present galaxies in three-dimensional form, thanks to stereoscopy, a historic photographic method using pairs of images to simulate depth. “This is the culmination of a series of projects linking stereoscopy with astronomy,” May tells Radio Times. “We previously did Mission Moon 3-D (about the Apollo landings), Bennu 3-D, about a rendezvous with an asteroid, and Cosmic Clouds. Where do you go from there, once you go outside our galaxy? The answer is: other galaxies. And there are billions of them – we’re only now realising how vast the universe is and how densely packed. “Astronomy is marching forward, daily, at a vast speed, and it’s hard to keep up. But if you know what makes galaxies tick, you know what makes the universe tick. So we’ve tried to make an easy way for people to be completely up to date.” May, who has a doctorate himself on the velocity of the zodiacal dust cloud, has co-authored the book with renowned experts in the field Derek Ward-Thompson and J-P Metsavainio, and describes his role as “the catalyst, the guy who puts it together, and the editor”. He explains: “When it’s mapped out, I ask every question under t…

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What The Traitors format twist means for the rest of series four
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The BBC's latest series of their most popular show puts the audience at the centre of the action
encoded: Add series four of The Traitors to your watchlist And there was me all worried that returning to a “normal” version of Traitors after the phenomenal success of the celebrity version late last year would be akin to Dorothy’s return home after her colourful detour to Oz – not quite black and white, but certainly a bit drab. Indeed, we may not get the psychedelic characters of freshly anointed national treasure Alan Carr, the world’s first knitter Tom Daley and the silence-breaking scene stealer Celia Imrie, nor the nation-stopping moment (YET!) of Nick Mohammed’s U-turn on Joe Marler, but many of my fears were quashed within five minutes of the start of the new series. 22 people met on a train and travelled to a castle… not all of them would survive. Such a formula never broke for Agatha Christie and her many emulators; why would TV producers mess in 2025? They haven’t messed, but they’ve certainly tweaked. Many reliable elements are in place: we have notice of a former acquaintanceship – Ross and Netty previously knew each other “through mutual friends”, whatever that means – and a secret mother-daughter connection, as well as a disproportionate number of Welsh people, some of whom may not even be faking their accents, unlike in previous series. The big twist was hanging in the air, though, and what a gem it proved. Of the 22 contestants, all of whom wanted to be Traitors, unlike in the celebrity version, Claudia tapped on the shoulders of cyber consultant Steve, communications guru Rachel and barrister Hugo. So gleeful were they in their green cloaks, until Claudia announced the presence of the red-cloaked traitor in their midst – not just someone who would be ordering who they murdered with a shortlist, but who knew who they were, while keeping his or her own identity hidden. What a wonderful onion layer of intrigue to add to the already timeless gifts of seduction, betrayal, treachery and to-face fibbing coming our way in the next few weeks. It also means that, fo…

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Praise be for holy sleuths
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Modern TV dog-collar detectives explore morality and human nature as well as solving crimes
encoded: Add Grantchester to your watchlist How can there be so much murder in one otherwise quiet country parish? The answer, of course, is that there can’t. You may as well wonder how Grantchester’s vicar fits in any actual vicaring between all his crime-solving, or if any real-life cleric resembles a studio-system film star like Alphy, the ITV drama’s latest, and likely final, “Maigret of the manse”. Grantchester returns this week for series 10, with number 11 confirmed to be its last – sad news for a show that has always carried its profound messages deceptively lightly. For regardless of its comely setting, Grantchester goes a lot deeper than may at first appear. James Runcie, the creator of the original books, based his fictional vicar Sidney Chambers on the duties of his own father, a pre-Canterbury Robert Runcie, for whom “death did come to the door. There wasn’t any murder, but it was a life for my father that didn’t involve clocking off”. The author once told me he set out to write what he called “the story of postwar Britain, a study of morality through stories of crime”. And, sure enough, since it began in 2014, the TV version has danced nimbly between sleuthing caper and romantic intrigue, midcentury mores clashing with private passions and, ultimately, the burdens and delights of personal and social responsibility. Against the chintzy period backdrop of dog walks and picnics by the Backs, the compassionate worldview shared by Alphy (Rishi Nair) and his policeman friend Geordie (Robson Green) would seem to belong to a more modern era, a long way from TV’s ecclesiastical sleuths of old. Thirty years ago, we had Derek Jacobi in Cadfael. While the drama’s cerebral Benedictine monk was gentle and wise in his sleuthing, he was forced to leave justice to the whims of the king and the outcome of a scrappy sword fight. Even more limited was Father Dowling Investigates, about a Catholic priest whose job seemed to be more of a plot device than a vocation – a lack of serio…

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Why can’t we get enough of TV's crime-solving vicars in the likes of Grantchester and Father Brown?
type: item
date: 2025-12-29T17:00:25.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: ITV
subject: Magazine
description: A cosy whodunnit on the surface, Grantchester — like Father Brown — uses village murders as a gateway to bigger questions of faith, morality and human frailty, proving TV’s clerical sleuths are about far more than solving crimes.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. How can there be so much murder in one otherwise quiet country parish? The answer, of course, is that there can’t. You may as well wonder how Grantchester’s vicar fits in any actual vicaring between all his crime-solving, or if any real-life cleric resembles a studio-system film star like Alphy, the ITV drama’s latest, and likely final, 'Maigret of the manse'. Grantchester returns this week for series 10, with number 11 confirmed to be its last – sad news for a show that has always carried its profound messages deceptively lightly. For regardless of its comely setting, Grantchester goes a lot deeper than may at first appear. James Runcie, the creator of the original books, based his fictional vicar Sidney Chambers on the duties of his own father, a pre-Canterbury Robert Runcie, for whom "death did come to the door. There wasn’t any murder, but it was a life for my father that didn’t involve clocking off". The author once told me he set out to write what he called "the story of postwar Britain, a study of morality through stories of crime". And, sure enough, since it began in 2014, the TV version has danced nimbly between sleuthing caper and romantic intrigue, midcentury mores clashing with private passions and, ultimately, the burdens and delights of personal and social responsibility. Against the chintzy period backdrop of dog walks and picnics by the Backs, the compassionate worldview shared by Alphy (Rishi Nair) and his policeman friend Geordie (Robson Green) would seem to belong to a more modern era, a long way from TV’s ecclesiastical sleuths of old. Thirty years ago, we had Derek Jacobi in Cadfael. While the drama’s cerebral Benedictine monk was gentle and wise in his sleuthing, he was forced to leave justice to the whims of the king and the outcome of a scrappy sword fight. Even more limited was Father Dowling Investigates, about a Catholic priest whose job seemed to be more of a plot device than a vocation…

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12 underrated TV gems from 2025 – from The Assembly to Worlds Apart
type: item
date: 2025-12-23T08:00:38.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: List
subject: Magazine
description: The best of the small screen over the past 12 months that you might have missed.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As well as this year’s biggest TV juggernauts – Adolescence (Netflix), The White Lotus (Sky Atlantic), The Celebrity Traitors (iPlayer) et al – we have been spoilt with some relatively undiscovered gems. Here’s my Deserving Dozen… 1. Confessions of a Brain Surgeon - iPlayer Pioneering neurosurgeon Henry Marsh quotes French doctor René Leriche, who wrote, “Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery… a place of bitterness and regret.” Now retired, Marsh’s regrets are both professional and personal, humble and honest. 2. Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action - Netflix How did the former Mayor of Cincinnati create a TV phenomenon that pitched itself as a champion of free speech yet stood accused of ruining US culture? Comparing himself to Oprah Winfrey, Springer said, “She does a talk show, I do a circus. Just no lions.” 3. Worlds Apart - Channel 4 Six young Brits each team up with a pensioner to travel across Japan, solve puzzles and try to win a £50,000 prize. They trade energy and wisdom in a reality show not about age, but compassion and comradeship. 4. Last One Laughing - Amazon Prime Video Ten comedians try to make each other laugh, while not smiling themselves. More proof that there’s nothing funnier than watching someone trying to keep a straight face. 5. Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius - iPlayer A fascinating two-part documentary follows Austen’s own personal rebellion: only by rejecting an offer of marriage without love and putting herself in financial peril could she dodge a woman of her time’s lot and instead become its greatest-ever chronicler. 6. Once Upon a Time in Space - iPlayer The awe-inspiring triumphs and devastating tragedies of the two-decade space race, as remembered by those involved. Among them is Anna Fisher, the first mother in space, who told RT, “I didn’t want to be a female astronaut, just an astronaut.” 7. Live Aid at 40 - iPlayer <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/produ…

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What were the most underrated TV shows of 2025?
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: RT columnist Caroline Frost counts down her 12 television treats of 2025
encoded: As well as this year’s biggest TV juggernauts – Adolescence (Netflix), The White Lotus (Sky Atlantic), The Celebrity Traitors (iPlayer) et al – we have been spoilt with some relatively undiscovered gems. Here’s my Deserving Dozen…

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'Joanna charms everyone'
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Amandaland stars Lucy Punch and Dame Joanna Lumley on first impressions, fond Christmas memories and mini flamethrowers...
encoded: Amandaland is on Christmas Day at 9.15pm on BBC One. Add it to your collection Joanna Lumley and Lucy Punch first played mother and daughter in the 2004 film Ella Enchanted. Some 20 years later, Punch plays social climber Amanda with Lumley her scene-stealing mother Felicity, first in Motherland, and now in its spin-off Amandaland. While filming the festive special, the pair reflected on their reunion, Christmasses past and present, and what gift they’d buy for each other… Lucy, what were your first impressions of Joanna? LUCY In Ella Enchanted, we played a ghastly stepmother and stepsister to the heroine, then we were reunited for Motherland, which was lovely, and now this. All this time later, I’m a very different person, but I believe Joanna’s exactly the same: so smart and funny. She charms everyone. When you’re doing comedy, you need lots of good energy, and hers is infectious. Joanna, what have you learnt working with Lucy? Joanna I couldn’t admire Lucy more. I remember her playing my daughter, but I’m not sure they [the Motherland producers] even knew that. She’s blossomed in this. A lot of acting by many of us is interchangeable, but some people stand out, and Lucy’s always been slightly different. She brings something extra. What are your fondest memories of Christmas growing up? Joanna We were in hot countries so we never saw snow, but Mummy would get balls of cotton wool to put on the windows like snowflakes. We were out in the Malayan Mari when the Disney film of Alice in Wonderland came out. I was given an Alice doll, and it was as beautiful a thing as I’ve ever seen, with yellow hair and a hair band, a blue dress with a little white apron – thrilling. Isn’t it lovely what we remember visually? What gift would you buy each other for Christmas? Lucy I’d buy something very little, discreet and lovely, maybe a teeny, tiny book. Joanna likes little things. Joanna Lucy lives in California and has two boys, so I think I’d get her something that money can’t bu…

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Can TV be so bad it's good?
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Some shows thrive despite being slated by critics — because sometimes terrible telly is just what we need
encoded: Add All's Fair to your watchlist It’s important to say from the off that no one sets out to make bad TV; also that any self-professed expert should think long and hard before pouring scorn on anyone else’s creative enterprise. As Theodore Roosevelt opined, “The credit belongs to the man [or woman!] in the arena, who… fails while daring greatly.” Teddy’s words come to mind with the news that season two of All’s Fair is on its way – despite critics’ valiant attempts to bury it at sea. This is Disney’s all-female legal drama that cost a whopping $69.7million, with a hefty proportion going on the salary of real-life law student Kim Kardashian in her first acting role. The rest of it has gone on clothes, cars, Oscar-nominated co-stars, but perhaps not the script, hence its rare 0% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Equally rare, The Guardian and The Times both gave it zero stars – which turned out to be generous, after the Daily Mail dug in and awarded it minus three stars. Ouch! Why so harsh? Well, you could point to the barn-door acting, the bling, the mixed message of sisters doing it for themselves, as long as “it” involves roasting their rich husbands for every last dollar. You could be generous and say the fighting over jewellery is a metaphor for autonomy and emancipation – although I fear it’s really just about the jewellery. If there’s another drama to be made about women’s righteous anger (and after Riot Women I’m not sure there is), this isn’t it. This comes hot on the heels of Robin Hood, which The Guardian called “the most gloriously bad TV of the year”. Indeed, its Star Wars-esque opening caption hints at what’s to come; no need to film all those wars when they can be explained away. Instead, MGM+’s purse has stretched to casting Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham, who brings us his meting out of medieval justice as perfected in Game of Thrones, very possibly wearing the same cloak. Young Robin endures his own version of Batman’s origin story,…

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Austen powers
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: As Radio 4 marks 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth, Philippa Perry explains why the author remains so influential today
encoded: When I Met Jane Austen is on Radio 4 from Monday-Friday at 1145am and 1.45pm. Add it to your collection now This year, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, has seen ample celebration of the life and works of this singular observer of English life in the early 19th century. So far on TV, we’ve had a three-part documentary exploring Austen’s rebel spirit, the drama Miss Austen starring Keeley Hawes, and soon to follow is another version of Pride and Prejudice, this time with some big Netflix bucks and an all-star cast. When it comes to Austen, it seems broadcasters never scrimp, and Radio 4 is proving no exception – celebrating this important anniversary in style, with a dedicated season that has already featured a new take on Northanger Abbey, Radio 4 Extra mining its archive of classic dramas, and newly commissioned radio dramatisations of Pride and Prejudice (see below right) and, next weekend, Sense and Sensibility. The latter is also explored in a special episode of Bookclub on Tuesday (Austen’s 250th birthday) with Emma Thompson. Fans can also feast on a ten-part factual series, When I Met Jane Austen, in which her biographer, Dr Paula Byrne, asks a star line-up of guests – David Baddiel, Katherine Rundell, Val McDermid, Kate Atkinson, Andrew Davies, Amy Heckerling, Gurinder Chadha, Marlon James, Colm Tóibín and Philippa Perry – about how Austen’s work has shaped and influenced their lives and own creative efforts. Like so many of Austen’s many millions of fans across the world, psychotherapist and bestselling author Perry can barely remember life without recourse to the wit and wisdom of the author she credits with “changing her life” after she first encountered her work aged 12, and studied Pride and Prejudice for English O-level. So, what is so special about Austen’s small but peerless collection of works that includes six novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion), one novella (Lady S…

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Dame Joanna Lumley reveals her vegetarian Christmas plans: "Wouldn't it be lovely if we didn't kill things at Christmas?"
type: item
date: 2025-12-08T17:01:25.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: Christmas
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Two decades after Ella Enchanted, Dame Joanna Lumley and Lucy Punch reflect on festive traditions, family fun and their on-screen reunion.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Joanna Lumley and Lucy Punch first played mother and daughter in the 2004 film Ella Enchanted. Some 20 years later, Punch plays social climber Amanda with Lumley her scene-stealing mother Felicity, first in Motherland, and now in its spin-off Amandaland. While filming the festive special, the pair reflected on their reunion, Christmases past and present, and what gift they’d buy for each other… Lucy, what were your first impressions of Joanna? LUCY: In Ella Enchanted, we played a ghastly stepmother and stepsister to the heroine, then we were reunited for Motherland, which was lovely, and now this. All this time later, I’m a very different person, but I believe Joanna’s exactly the same: so smart and funny. She charms everyone. When you’re doing comedy, you need lots of good energy, and hers is infectious. Joanna, what have you learnt working with Lucy? JOANNA: I couldn’t admire Lucy more. I remember her playing my daughter, but I’m not sure they [the Motherland producers] even knew that. She’s blossomed in this. A lot of acting by many of us is interchangeable, but some people stand out, and Lucy’s always been slightly different. She brings something extra. What are your fondest memories of Christmas growing up? JOANNA: We were in hot countries so we never saw snow, but Mummy would get balls of cotton wool to put on the windows like snowflakes. We were out in the Malayan Mari when the Disney film of Alice in Wonderland came out. I was given an Alice doll, and it was as beautiful a thing as I’ve ever seen, with yellow hair and a hair band, a blue dress with a little white apron – thrilling. Isn’t it lovely what we remember visually? What gift would you buy each other for Christmas? LUCY: I’d buy something very little, discreet and lovely, maybe a teeny, tiny book. Joanna likes little things. JOANNA: Lucy lives in California and has two boys, so I think I’d get her something that money can’t buy – an experience of s…

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Jane Austen’s enduring and universal appeal revealed by hit writers, from Pride & Prejudice 1995 screenwriter to David Baddiel
type: item
date: 2025-12-03T17:01:35.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Books
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: As Radio 4 marks 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth, Philippa Perry explains why the author remains so influential today
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. This year, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, has seen ample celebration of the life and works of this singular observer of English life in the early 19th century. So far on TV, we’ve had a three-part documentary exploring Austen’s rebel spirit, the drama Miss Austen starring Keeley Hawes, and soon to follow is another version of Pride and Prejudice, this time with some big Netflix bucks and an all-star cast. When it comes to Austen, it seems broadcasters never scrimp, and Radio 4 is proving no exception – celebrating this important anniversary in style, with a dedicated season that has already featured a new take on Northanger Abbey, Radio 4 Extra mining its archive of classic dramas, and newly commissioned radio dramatisations of Pride and Prejudice (see below right) and, next weekend, Sense and Sensibility. The latter is also explored in a special episode of Bookclub on Tuesday (Austen’s 250th birthday) with Emma Thompson. Fans can also feast on a ten-part factual series, When I Met Jane Austen, in which her biographer, Dr Paula Byrne, asks a star line-up of guests – David Baddiel, Katherine Rundell, Val McDermid, Kate Atkinson, Andrew Davies, Amy Heckerling, Gurinder Chadha, Marlon James, Colm Tóibín and Philippa Perry – about how Austen’s work has shaped and influenced their lives and own creative efforts. Like so many of Austen’s many millions of fans across the world, psychotherapist and bestselling author Perry can barely remember life without recourse to the wit and wisdom of the author she credits with “changing her life” after she first encountered her work aged 12, and studied Pride and Prejudice for English O-level. So, what is so special about Austen’s small but peerless collection of works that includes six novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion), one novella (Lady Susan) and the tantalisingly unfinished The Watsons and …

Bleeps and bloopers
type: item
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: App
subject: App features
description: We used to enjoy watching celebrities go off-piste — but now those moments are called “content” and have lost their frisson
encoded: Add The Most Embarrassing TV Guests to your watchlist It’s not often you feel sorry for Tom Cruise. Whether he’s diving headfirst into Paris’s Olympic stadium, defying gravity perched aloft Dubai’s Burj Khalifa or just donning a pair of Ray-bans to ride a motorbike along an ocean-front, he invariably epitomises cool, as if he were the love child of The Fonz and Huggy Bear – that is, with one exception. In 2005, he turned up on Oprah Winfrey’s chat show, ostensibly to promote his latest film. Instead, intent on expressing his love for future wife Katie Holmes, he variously shook his host’s shoulders, fist-pumped the floor and finally leapt onto the couch. Were we all having what he was having? Not so much. Instead, Winfrey spoke for everyone when she pointed out, “We’ve never seen you behave this way before.” In that brief, shining moment, Cruise “went viral” before it was a thing and proved he shares hallowed turf with Noel Edmonds (solemnly addressing his own Guardian statue in his recent documentary), Holly Willoughby (asking This Morning viewers, “Are you OK?” We’re fine!), Guy Goma (who went for a job interview at the BBC and ended up live on News 24) and Judy Finnigan (jaw-droppingly top-dropping at the NTA Awards). All have given us TV moments to watch through our fingers but never fully turn away from. Now they’re among those featured in an irresistible 5 documentary series (most embarrassing of all, it includes your friendly columnist as a nodding head, but don’t let that put you off). But why can’t we get enough of such clips? What puts the “fest” in “cringe”? It ill becomes us to dwell on the most obvious answer, everyone’s favourite German word schadenfreude, that is, pleasure derived from another’s misfortune, but it’s clearly a factor. Specifically, though, TV aims to offer us a world shinier, blander and more scripted than our real lives, so when humanity in all its foibles succeeds in breaking through, it’s both immensely jarring and wonderfully relat…

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As All's Fair season 2 beckons, critical contempt for the hit Kim Kardashian show misses the point entirely
type: item
date: 2025-12-03T11:59:58.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Disney Plus
subject: Magazine
description: All's Fair is returning to our screens, showing that even zero-star reviews can’t stop a determined TV drama.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It’s important to say from the off that no one sets out to make bad TV; also that any self-professed expert should think long and hard before pouring scorn on anyone else’s creative enterprise. As Theodore Roosevelt opined, “The credit belongs to the man [or woman!] in the arena, who… fails while daring greatly.” Teddy’s words come to mind with the news that season two of All’s Fair is on its way – despite critics’ valiant attempts to bury it at sea. This is Disney’s all-female legal drama that cost a whopping $69.7million, with a hefty proportion going on the salary of real-life law student Kim Kardashian in her first acting role. The rest of it has gone on clothes, cars, Oscar-nominated co-stars, but perhaps not the script, hence its rare 0% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Equally rare, The Guardian and The Times both gave it zero stars – which turned out to be generous, after the Daily Mail dug in and awarded it minus three stars. Ouch! Why so harsh? Well, you could point to the barn-door acting, the bling, the mixed message of sisters doing it for themselves, as long as “it” involves roasting their rich husbands for every last dollar. You could be generous and say the fighting over jewellery is a metaphor for autonomy and emancipation – although I fear it’s really just about the jewellery. If there’s another drama to be made about women’s righteous anger (and after Riot Women I’m not sure there is), this isn’t it. This comes hot on the heels of Robin Hood, which The Guardian called “the most gloriously bad TV of the year”. Indeed, its Star Wars-esque opening caption hints at what’s to come; no need to film all those wars when they can be explained away. Instead, MGM+’s purse has stretched to casting Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham, who brings us his meting out of medieval justice as perfected in Game of Thrones, very possibly wearing the same cloak. Young Robin endures his own version of Ba…

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