As Industry roars back for its fourth series, it’s all change for the graduate class of 2000.
Add Industry to your watchlist When the BBC/HBO drama launched during the pandemic lockdowns, we were introduced to Harper Stern, Yasmin Kara-Hanani, Gus Sackey, Hari Dhar and Robert Spearing, fresh-faced new hires on the trading floor of City of London firm Pierpoint and Co. Now, over five years on, just Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) are left standing. Not that the acclaimed drama, the brainchild of former bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, now lacks acting or narrative firepower. Far from it. For season four, new characters include an American banking disruptor played by Max Minghella (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso) as a trader who is working closely — very closely — with Harper. Myha'la is Harper and Marisa Abela is Yasmin Harper and Yas are kind of “toxic frenemies” — what do they get from being in each other’s orbit? Myha’la They get so much from each other. I wonder also if they can be apart in this world, considering how much they’ve gone through, how much they know about each other? Yas and Harper’s is probably one of the most intimate relationships. And honesty is hard to come by in the business that they work in, so they need each other for that reason. How does your on-screen and off-screen relationship compare? Marisa Well, we haven’t slapped each other – yet! Myha’la There’s still time! You both started out at similar stages in your working lives, and as the show has grown, so have your careers. What impact has it had? Myha’la This show is the reason anybody knows about me! For so many of us, this show kickstarted our careers. And with Marisa and I, our careers have seemed to mirror each other. Given the stubbornly patriarchal mores of film and TV drama, how refreshing is it to be able to play complex and not always wholly likeable women? Marisa It’s really refreshing. Having two young women at the heart of a TV show that’s about a male-dominated industry – while working [as actors] in a male-dominated industry ourselves – we’re showing people how exciting it can be when it’s done well. And that women are worth listening to. That is what’s really exciting to me – as well as inspiring others to write richer female parts, and knowing that people aren’t going to have a problem with forgiving flawed female characters. Because I think that’s where studios get it wrong. They’re afraid to make a character unforgivable. Yasmin and Harper have done some pretty unforgivable things, and we’re testing the limits all the time. And we’re still around – so don’t be afraid! Marisa, did your Bafta win for best actress last year change anything for you, going into the filming of this fourth series? Marisa Not at all. I was just so happy, obviously, that the show had been recognised. Not just for me, but for Mickey and Konrad and everyone. That’s really important for a crew, too. We’re not just chilling here, we’re making something that people are watching. I hope my Bafta is a gateway drug for the show, and people start to realise how much richness there is in the entirety of this season. Max and Toheeb join this new series. How helpful is that new injection of energy? Myha’la Oh, it’s always so exciting! Everyone who’s come on has been a fan of the show, and they’ve been really excited to join us. I bring that too. I love this show. I like watching it. I like seeing the bits that I’m not in. So, there’s a focus and excitement every day going to work. It doesn’t feel like a chore. Max Minghella is Whitney Who is Whitney Halberstram? He is an enigmatic person. We meet Whitney alongside his longtime friend and business partner, Jay Jonah Atterbury [Kal Penn]. They’re two Americans who have a company called Tender, an electronic payment system. Whitney is interested in turning it into, essentially, a bank in your pocket and aggressively moving into this future. Jonah is a little reticent. Industry brilliantly reinvents itself every series. Did it feel like you were joining a new show? As somebody who loves Industry, loves Pierpoint and had already fallen in love with these characters, I was scared of stepping into what felt almost like a reboot of the show. We were trying to retain the DNA of the drama. But there’s something exciting about season four – if you haven’t seen the show before, you can start here. It is almost like Industry 2.0. As a Londoner, how meaningful is it coming back from America and working on a British series? Massively – I’ve not had the privilege of working in England very much in my life. But I did Industry and then I did a movie, Clayface, right afterwards, also in the UK. So, I had a special year of getting to be back for almost 10 months. While I missed my dog horribly, it was really nice. You’re also the director on a new project. Did the directing bug come from your dad, Anthony Minghella? I would say movies have always been in me because of my mother and my father. My mother [choreographer Carolyn Choa] was my first introduction to movies and infected me when I was about three years old. Toheeb Jimoh is Kwabena Tell us about Kwabena Bannerman? He’s a trader, a public schoolboy. The education he’s paid for has instilled him with confidence that only private school can give you. In Industry, everything’s really high-stakes and everyone feels like their lives are determined by their money and status in their company. But Kwabena has a “let me come in, cash my cheque and bounce” approach to work – very different to the traders that we’ve seen on the show. Why do you think a show all about financial wheeler-dealing has been such a huge hit? People relate to the bustle of hustle culture, especially my generation. Everybody has their head down and is just trying to find themselves. But for the most part, you’re doing that at work. So the stress, people making ridiculous sacrifices in order to find value in themselves at work, is a thing that most people can relate to. We often think of finance as being white-dominated. How important is representation in the show? Really important. With working-class characters, if their accent changes, it can help people forget that they’re not a part of the club that occupies the space. But if you’re black, you’re always going to stand out. The show asks the question: “What sacrifices are you willing to make to survive?” As the season goes on, we watch Kwabena start to wonder whether it’s a worthy trade-off. Apparently you were filming in a river this afternoon. What are you shooting? I’m not sure I can discuss that yet! But it’s an exciting project. It’s a film, and it’s one that’s really dear to me. But I can tell you, it’s not Ted Lasso season four!
Industry season 4 cast talk "testing the limits" of character likability – as The Handmaid's Tale and Ted Lasso favourites join "Industry 2.0"
"Yasmin and Harper have done some pretty unforgivable things, and we’re testing the limits all the time."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As Industry roars back for its fourth series, it’s all change for the graduate class of 2000. When the BBC/HBO drama launched during the pandemic lockdowns, we were introduced to Harper Stern, Yasmin Kara-Hanani, Gus Sackey, Hari Dhar and Robert Spearing, fresh-faced new hires on the trading floor of City of London firm Pierpoint and Co. Now, over five years on, just Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) are left standing. Not that the acclaimed drama, the brainchild of former bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, now lacks acting or narrative firepower. Far from it. For season four, new characters include an American banking disruptor played by Max Minghella (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso) as a trader who is working closely – very closely – with Harper. Radio Times spoke to some of the stars of Industry ahead of the new episodes. Myha’la plays Harper and Marisa Abela plays Yasmin Harper and Yas are kind of “toxic frenemies” — what do they get from being in each other’s orbit? Myha’la: They get so much from each other. I wonder also if they can be apart in this world, considering how much they’ve gone through, how much they know about each other? Yas and Harper’s is probably one of the most intimate relationships. And honesty is hard to come by in the business that they work in, so they need each other for that reason. How does your on-screen and off-screen relationship compare? Marisa: Well, we haven’t slapped each other – yet! Myha’la: There’s still time! You both started out at similar stages in your working lives, and as the show has grown, so have your careers. What impact has it had? Myha’la: This show is the reason anybody knows about me! For so many of us, this show kickstarted our careers. And with Marisa and I, our careers have seemed to mirror each other. View oEmbed on the source website Given the stubbornly patriarchal mores of film and TV drama, how refreshing is it to be able to play complex and not always wholly likeable women? Marisa: It’s really refreshing. Having two young women at the heart of a TV show that’s about a male-dominated industry – while working [as actors] in a male-dominated industry ourselves – we’re showing people how exciting it can be when it’s done well. And that women are worth listening to. That is what’s really exciting to me – as well as inspiring others to write richer female parts, and knowing that people aren’t going to have a problem with forgiving flawed female characters. Because I think that’s where studios get it wrong. They’re afraid to make a character unforgivable. Yasmin and Harper have done some pretty unforgivable things, and we’re testing the limits all the time. And we’re still around – so don’t be afraid! Marisa, did your BAFTA win for best actress last year change anything for you, going into the filming of this fourth series? Marisa: Not at all. I was just so happy, obviously, that the show had been recognised. Not just for me, but for Mickey and Konrad and everyone. That’s really important for a crew, too. We’re not just chilling here, we’re making something that people are watching. I hope my BAFTA is a gateway drug for the show, and people start to realise how much richness there is in the entirety of this season. Max and Toheeb join this new series. How helpful is that new injection of energy? Myha’la Oh, it’s always so exciting! Everyone who’s come on has been a fan of the show, and they’ve been really excited to join us. I bring that too. I love this show. I like watching it. I like seeing the bits that I’m not in. So, there’s a focus and excitement every day going to work. It doesn’t feel like a chore. Max Minghella plays Whitney Who is Whitney Halberstram? He is an enigmatic person. We meet Whitney alongside his longtime friend and business partner, Jay Jonah Atterbury [Kal Penn]. They’re two Americans who have a company called Tender, an electronic payment system. Whitney is interested in turning it into, essentially, a bank in your pocket and aggressively moving into this future. Jonah is a little reticent. Industry brilliantly reinvents itself every series. Did it feel like you were joining a new show? As somebody who loves Industry, loves Pierpoint and had already fallen in love with these characters, I was scared of stepping into what felt almost like a reboot of the show. We were trying to retain the DNA of the drama. But there’s something exciting about season four – if you haven’t seen the show before, you can start here. It is almost like Industry 2.0. As a Londoner, how meaningful is it coming back from America and working on a British series? Massively – I’ve not had the privilege of working in England very much in my life. But I did Industry and then I did a movie, Clayface, right afterwards, also in the UK. So, I had a special year of getting to be back for almost 10 months. While I missed my dog horribly, it was really nice. You’re also the director on a new project. Did the directing bug come from your dad, Anthony Minghella? I would say movies have always been in me because of my mother and my father. My mother [choreographer Carolyn Choa] was my first introduction to movies and infected me when I was about three years old. Toheeb Jimoh plays Kwabena Tell us about Kwabena Bannerman? He’s a trader, a public schoolboy. The education he’s paid for has instilled him with confidence that only private school can give you. In Industry, everything’s really high-stakes and everyone feels like their lives are determined by their money and status in their company. But Kwabena has a “let me come in, cash my cheque and bounce” approach to work – very different to the traders that we’ve seen on the show. Why do you think a show all about financial wheeler-dealing has been such a huge hit? People relate to the bustle of hustle culture, especially my generation. Everybody has their head down and is just trying to find themselves. But for the most part, you’re doing that at work. So the stress, people making ridiculous sacrifices in order to find value in themselves at work, is a thing that most people can relate to. We often think of finance as being white-dominated. How important is representation in the show? Really important. With working-class characters, if their accent changes, it can help people forget that they’re not a part of the club that occupies the space. But if you’re black, you’re always going to stand out. The show asks the question: “What sacrifices are you willing to make to survive?” As the season goes on, we watch Kwabena start to wonder whether it’s a worthy trade-off. Apparently you were filming in a river this afternoon. What are you shooting? I’m not sure I can discuss that yet! But it’s an exciting project. It’s a film, and it’s one that’s really dear to me. But I can tell you, it’s not Ted Lasso season four! The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Blimey, Buttons! Kiefer Sutherland reveals why he’s swapped Hollywood for panto
Kiefer Sutherland reveals why he’s swapped Hollywood for panto
Add Tinsel Town to your watchlist It’s croissant o’clock in Paris. Kiefer Sutherland is up early, 24 hours away from the start of filming on a job that lets him do one of the things he does best: kick some butt. Father Joe is a “full-on, really violent, aggressive movie” written by Luc Besson. Sutherland plays the titular priest who wages holy – and actual – war against a ruthless mob boss, played by Al Pacino. It’s set in 1990s Manhattan, but the French capital and Bulgaria are standing in for New York. Yes, admits this action star who turns 59 four days before Christmas, the script calls for physical exertion “that’s going to be a real challenge” – even if you spent a decade taking down terrorists against a merciless clock in nine series of 24. “But you get a little bit of a moment where you go: ‘Oh my God, I’m so fortunate!’” Although he quickly adds, “Then, before you know it, you’re getting your ass kicked in the middle of a scene. And you sprain an ankle, or you pop a wrist or a rib, and still have to go to work.” Luckily, his “heavy-duty prep” for Father Joe’s physical exertions had something of a warm-up nine months ago, on the forecourt of a garage in Yorkshire. There he found himself wrestling on the ground with Danny Dyer. The pair were filming a frankly pathetic fight scene for Sky’s all-star Christmas comedy film Tinsel Town, in which Sutherland plays an arrogant Hollywood star called Bradley Mac who inadvertently finds himself starring in a British pantomime, with Dyer as the lairy ex-husband of his love interest, Rebel Wilson, the choreographer. “I’m a huge fan of Danny’s, and he’s a fantastic actor,” says the gracious Sutherland, before pointing out the larky, meta aspect of Tinsel Town’s script. “I did Jack Bauer, who was considered a tough character. And Danny Dyer’s played a number of tough characters. So, to be two guys at a filling station who fight – but then quickly realise neither can fight very well – was a little wink to our past as actors. And also, unbelievably funny. It’s one of my favourite fight sequences I’ve ever done!” He may still have a career that lands him leading roles alongside Pacino, but could Sutherland relate to the idea of an ageing Hollywood star being forced to accept the role of Buttons in a panto in the north of England? “I think there has to be resonance for any film you’re doing. And I have been spared the humiliation of Bradley Mac! Having said that, there have certainly been highs and lows in my career. But what resonated with me more was the estrangement he had from his daughter,” says the actor, who is father to 37-year-old Veep star Sarah Sutherland with his first wife. Meanwhile, in the film, his character has a London-based daughter with his ex, played by Alice Eve. “Bradley has to fight really hard to get her back. Because that’s what matters to him in the end.” Speaking of family: Sutherland and his twin sister Rachel were born in London to Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, Canadian actors who were working here at the time. They divorced when Sutherland was three. Last Christmas was the first he had without his father, who died, aged 88, in June 2024. “You know, it’s…” he begins quietly, then stops. “So many of my memories are from visiting him and his wife Francine for Christmas. Because I grew up in a household that was divided. So, I thought about him a lot. I have three brothers from my dad and Francine, and we visited and just remembered the enjoyable times that we’ve had together.” Eleven years since 24’s final, London-set series, does he ever still reminisce about Jack Bauer and consider “What if?”. “I’ve had conversations with [series producer] Howard Gordon,” says Sutherland. “He’s come up with an outline, which I think is an exciting step forward. We’ll see what happens. But I’m very open to it. And hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later!” Given how much Sutherland enjoyed his time in the world of pantomime and Tinsel Town, how about this for an outline: Jack Bauer and the Beanstalk? “Ha ha!” he laughs. “Well, you can submit that as a story idea for a reboot of 24, and I’ll let you know how it goes!”
What’s the view from your sofa? There’s a mantelpiece and a lot of dinosaurs. My son Milton is obsessed with them. They’re meant to be up in his room, but every time I put them there, he brings them all downstairs to create “dino-ramas” on the floor. My partner [Vanessa Howard] and I thought he’d grow out of these a few years ago. He hasn’t, and he’s now five. Who controls the remote at home? Well, because we’re always losing them, I discovered you can buy them easily on Amazon, so there’s loads of remotes just lying around, which means we get into tit-for-tat remote wars. It just goes on and on, but generally, if I’ve cooked dinner, I do. What have you enjoyed watching recently? We’ve just finished The Bear. Sometimes the reason you’re hating something is because it’s emoting precisely what the makers intended, so if The Bear makes you angry and frustrated, it’s because it’s meant to produce that reaction. What does it take to be a good presenter? Someone who realises it’s a craft, and is always chasing that perfect show. You’ve got to keep learning. I came to radio from telly and I was a real snob about it: “Television is bigger profile and now I’m coming to radio – so, boy, am I doing radio a favour!” Then you realise that radio is something you get better at. For me, TV you can either do or you can’t. I did The Big Breakfast, the most lively live show, so anything else in telly was never as enjoyable. Who’s the broadcaster you most admire? Anthony Bourdain. You could see his brilliance and his weaknesses. I interviewed him once and his passion for it was fantastic. He was travelling the world, eating great food, meeting great people – something we’d all love to do. Thanks to social media, now everyone can be a broadcaster, but are they real broadcasters? It’s short-form content, and there’s a bit of wannabe-ness about it. They’re like the local TV news we used to have – it would cut to a reporter dressed in karate gear in a village hall full of children with Mohicans doing a sponsored pogo. I see it a bit like that – they’re one-joke wonders, a lot of them. What’s your most replayed song? I’ve always hammered Oasis, but recently I really went for it with [Irish band] Fontaines DC’s Favourite. It’s just so good. I hammered it at home and I hammered it on the show. With Gavin Woods, you host Bloomin’ Legends, a podcast about historical figures. Which do you most admire? Admiral Nelson, the most influential man in British history. He single-handedly made Britannia rule the waves. In fact, I just dragged my family on a pilgrimage to Trafalgar Point, to look west and see where the battle was fought. But the trouble with the site of a naval battle is it’s just the sea. As someone who once resided at Her Majesty’s Pleasure [Vaughan tried to sell cocaine to undercover police when he was 21 and served 25 months of his four-year sentence], do you think the UK has enough measures to help people get back into work after jail? Are you Barrowclough or Mackay? That’s why Porridge is still the greatest sitcom. Are you just locking people up and sending them back into society worse, or investing in people who’ve gone astray? You’ve got to send people back out into the world with more than they came in with. That’s in terms of qualifications, knowledge and a sense of responsibility, or else you’ve failed. So I would always say: education, education, education. What would older Johnny tell his younger self? Never sell any of the properties you bought, and just keep buying them! You know those t**ts who go: “See this? Bought it for 90 grand…” That’s what I’d be. Johnny Vaughan hosts the drivetime show (weekdays 4pm) and The Kickabout (Saturday 11am) on Radio X (104.9, 99.7 FM; DAB)
Kiefer Sutherland talks wrestling with Danny Dyer and recalls Christmases with his late father Donald
Sutherland on bruising new thriller Father Joe, facing off against Al Pacino – and swapping gunfights for panto with Danny Dyer.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It's croissant o'clock in Paris. Kiefer Sutherland is up early, 24 hours away from the start of filming on a job that lets him do one of the things he does best: kick some butt. Father Joe is a "full-on, really violent, aggressive movie" written by Luc Besson. Sutherland plays the titular priest who wages holy - and actual - war against a ruthless mob boss, played by Al Pacino. It's set in 1990s Manhattan, but the French capital and Bulgaria are standing in for New York. Yes, admits this action star who turns 59 four days before Christmas, the script calls for physical exertion "that's going to be a real challenge" - even if you spent a decade taking down terrorists against a merciless clock in nine series of 24. "But you get a little bit of a moment where you go: 'Oh my God, I'm so fortunate!'" Although he quickly adds, "Then, before you know it, you're getting your ass kicked in the middle of a scene. And you sprain an ankle, or you pop a wrist or a rib, and still have to go to work." Luckily, his "heavy-duty prep" for Father Joe's physical exertions had something of a warm-up nine months ago, on the forecourt of a garage in Yorkshire. There he found himself wrestling on the ground with Danny Dyer. The pair were filming a frankly pathetic fight scene for Sky's all-star Christmas comedy film Tinsel Town, in which Sutherland plays an arrogant Hollywood star called Bradley Mac who inadvertently finds himself starring in a British pantomime, with Dyer as the lairy ex-husband of his love interest, Rebel Wilson, the choreographer. "I'm a huge fan of Danny's, and he's a fantastic actor," says the gracious Sutherland, before pointing out the larky, meta aspect of Tinsel Town's script. "I did Jack Bauer, who was considered a tough character. And Danny Dyer's played a number of tough characters. So, to be two guys at a filling station who fight - but then quickly realise neither can fight very well - was a little wink to our past as actors. And also, unbelievably funny. It's one of my favourite fight sequences I've ever done!" He may still have a career that lands him leading roles alongside Pacino, but could Sutherland relate to the idea of an ageing Hollywood star being forced to accept the role of Buttons in a panto in the north of England? "I think there has to be resonance for any film you're doing. And I have been spared the humiliation of Bradley Mac! Having said that, there have certainly been highs and lows in my career. But what resonated with me more was the estrangement he had from his daughter," says the actor, who is father to 37-year-old Veep star Sarah Sutherland with his first wife. Meanwhile, in the film, his character has a London-based daughter with his ex, played by Alice Eve. "Bradley has to fight really hard to get her back. Because that's what matters to him in the end." Speaking of family: Sutherland and his twin sister Rachel were born in London to Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, Canadian actors who were working here at the time. They divorced when Sutherland was three. Last Christmas was the first he had without his father, who died, aged 88, in June 2024. "You know, it's..." he begins quietly, then stops. "So many of my memories are from visiting him and his wife Francine for Christmas. Because I grew up in a household that was divided. So, I thought about him a lot. I have three brothers from my dad and Francine, and we visited and just remembered the enjoyable times that we've had together." Eleven years since 24's final, London-set series, does he ever still reminisce about Jack Bauer and consider "What if?". "I've had conversations with [series producer] Howard Gordon," says Sutherland. "He's come up with an outline, which I think is an exciting step forward. We'll see what happens. But I'm very open to it. And hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later!" Given how much Sutherland enjoyed his time in the world of pantomime and Tinsel Town, how about this for an outline: Jack Bauer and the Beanstalk? "Ha ha!" he laughs. "Well, you can submit that as a story idea for a reboot of 24, and I'll let you know how it goes!" Read more: Sky confirms Christmas 2025 TV schedule – from Tinsel Town to Rob & Romesh Vs The Christmas double issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Tinsel Town is available now via Sky Cinema. Add Tinsel Town to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Johnny Vaughan explains why Porridge is still the greatest sitcom after his own prison experience
The Radio X drivetime host is a big fan of Oasis, Horatio Nelson and Ritz Crackers.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? There’s a mantelpiece and a lot of dinosaurs. My son Milton is obsessed with them. They’re meant to be up in his room, but every time I put them there, he brings them all downstairs to create “dino-ramas” on the floor. My partner [Vanessa Howard] and I thought he’d grow out of these a few years ago. He hasn’t, and he’s now five. Who controls the remote at home? Well, because we’re always losing them, I discovered you can buy them easily on Amazon, so there’s loads of remotes just lying around, which means we get into tit-for-tat remote wars. It just goes on and on, but generally, if I’ve cooked dinner, I do. What have you enjoyed watching recently? We’ve just finished The Bear. Sometimes the reason you’re hating something is because it’s emoting precisely what the makers intended, so if The Bear makes you angry and frustrated, it’s because it’s meant to produce that reaction. What does it take to be a good presenter? Someone who realises it’s a craft, and is always chasing that perfect show. You’ve got to keep learning. I came to radio from telly and I was a real snob about it: “Television is bigger profile and now I’m coming to radio – so, boy, am I doing radio a favour!” Then you realise that radio is something you get better at. For me, TV you can either do or you can’t. I did The Big Breakfast, the most lively live show, so anything else in telly was never as enjoyable. Who’s the broadcaster you most admire? Anthony Bourdain. You could see his brilliance and his weaknesses. I interviewed him once and his passion for it was fantastic. He was travelling the world, eating great food, meeting great people – something we’d all love to do. Thanks to social media, now everyone can be a broadcaster, but are they real broadcasters? It’s short-form content, and there’s a bit of wannabe-ness about it. They’re like the local TV news we used to have – it would cut to a reporter dressed in karate gear in a village hall full of children with Mohicans doing a sponsored pogo. I see it a bit like that – they’re one-joke wonders, a lot of them. What’s your most replayed song? I’ve always hammered Oasis, but recently I really went for it with [Irish band] Fontaines DC’s Favourite. It’s just so good. I hammered it at home and I hammered it on the show. With Gavin Woods, you host Bloomin’ Legends, a podcast about historical figures. Which do you most admire? Admiral Nelson, the most influential man in British history. He single-handedly made Britannia rule the waves. In fact, I just dragged my family on a pilgrimage to Trafalgar Point, to look west and see where the battle was fought. But the trouble with the site of a naval battle is it’s just the sea. As someone who once resided at Her Majesty’s Pleasure [Vaughan tried to sell cocaine to undercover police when he was 21 and served 25 months of his four-year sentence], do you think the UK has enough measures to help people get back into work after jail? Are you Barrowclough or Mackay? That’s why Porridge is still the greatest sitcom. Are you just locking people up and sending them back into society worse, or investing in people who’ve gone astray? You’ve got to send people back out into the world with more than they came in with. That’s in terms of qualifications, knowledge and a sense of responsibility, or else you’ve failed. So I would always say: education, education, education. What would older Johnny tell his younger self? Never sell any of the properties you bought, and just keep buying them! You know those t**ts who go: “See this? Bought it for 90 grand…” That’s what I’d be. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
A-list star Kiefer Sutherland needed to be educated in the finer points of panto from his British co-stars… Oh, yes, he did!
Add Tinsel Town to your watchlist A drizzly February day in Leeds and, inside Versa Studios, they’re filming the ghost of Christmas future. After location visits to theatres and town halls in Knaresborough, Wetherby and Wakefield, it’s day 17 of a 25-day shoot for Tinsel Town, a new Sky Cinema production packed with more acting stars than a West End panto. Which is only fitting. This “Richard-Curtis-meets-Ealing-Comedy” caper is a loving, frequently hilarious tribute to the great British festive tradition of fairy tales and ugly sisters, shiny princesses and camp-fabulous villains; of local pantomimes that light up communities year after year. In a cast ludicrously stacked with talent, Kiefer Sutherland is American action movie star Bradley Mack whose career is behind him (oh, yes it is!), while Rebel Wilson is the choreographer in the mythical Yorkshire town of Stoneford tasked with assimilating the reluctant, Billy-big-boots thesp into the role of Buttons in her am-dram production of Cinderella. “I play Cassie, the director of the panto that this big Hollywood star has found himself in – accidentally,” Meera Syal tells RT as cast, crew and dancing fairies prepare to shoot a one-shot song-and-dance number set to Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson’s Santa Can’t You Hear Me. “I know a lot of directors, obviously, and she’s one of those directors who has done hundreds of pantos – and loves them.” Syal is one of a selection box of British stars rounding out that cast: take a bow, Sir Derek Jacobi, Danny Dyer, Asim Chaudhry, Maria Friedman, Alice Eve, Mawaan Rizwan and Jason Manford. “Really it was the cast that appealed to me,” admits adoptive Brit Katherine Ryan. The Canadian comedian plays Mack’s long-suffering Los Angeles agent, whose booking of her client into a provincial panto isn’t quite the prestigious, Shakespeare-at-The-Globe gig that her arrogant client thinks it is – but that just might bring him the personal redemption he needs. “I don’t do much acting work but I was on tour with my show in Leeds, and the dates just made sense.” Sutherland, she adds, “is such a Canadian icon. I had just worked with Shania Twain, and I thought: ‘It’s God’s plan for you, Katherine, to meet all of your Canadian heroes.’” Wilson seconds that emotion. “Keifer is obviously such an experienced actor,” says the Australian star of the Pitch Perfect films. “I wouldn’t have thought of ever co-starring opposite him because we do completely different kinds of genres. He’s just such a great scene partner and we have most of our stuff together in the film… He brings this intensity and a coolness to Brad.” That intensity and cool is on full display in Leeds as Bradley reluctantly shows off some surprisingly slick “choreo” in a routine with Wilson’s Jill. Sutherland is the 58-year-old known for Stand by Me, Young Guns, A Few Good Men and, of course, the indomitable Jack Bauer across nine seasons of the action series 24. Where, I ask him, did those dance moves come from? “Sheer fear!” he replies with a laugh, before lavishing praise on Tinsel Town’s choreography team. “It reminded me of theatre school! I don’t think I’ve had to do a dance number since. The film has probably five or six things that, in all the films and hundreds of hours of television that I’ve done, you won’t find me doing in any other single thing. All those things were part of the attractive elements of the project for me in the first place.” <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/tinsel-town-kiefer-sutherland-69ed0d0.jpg" width="3000" height="2000" alt="Kiefer Sutherland as Bradley Mack, Savannah Lee Smith as Izzy (Cinderella) amd Lucien Laviscount as Callum (Prince Charming) in Tinsel Town, standing on a glittering stage in costume and accepting applause with big smiles." title="Kiefer Sutherland as Bradley Mack, Savannah Lee Smith as Izzy (Cinderella) amd Lucien Laviscount as Callum (Prince Charming) in Tinsel Town" /> Rizwan – a Bafta winner for his surreal comedy show Juice – plays a member of the Stoneford community who holds down an amusingly wide range of service jobs. For him, appearing in a Christmas film is “my childhood dream”. Still, that A-list cast “terrified” him. “On the second day of us shooting together,” he says, “I had to do a scene where I drove a manual car. And bear in mind I haven’t driven a manual since I passed my driving test years ago. It was this 60s Volkswagen camper van with a dodgy gear stick, Kiefer’s sitting in next to me, Rebel’s behind, the rest of the cast are in the back. The net worth of the people inside this van alone is something to be terrified of! And I kept stalling it. Luckily everyone found it really funny.” That humour was baked into the production from the off, not least in the script. Stage veteran Maria Friedman – who plays a tipsy, frisky member of the panto cast who thinks she’s in with chance with Bradley – can attest to that. For her, the appeal of Tinsel Town was twofold: “One, the script made me laugh out loud – we’re all in need of that right now, frankly. And two, Kiefer – of course! He’s responsible for seminal moments of my TV-watching life. He was my very first binge-watch of a box set in 24. It was just brilliant film-making and storytelling, led by this fantastic actor.” Sutherland is game enough to admit that, before he worked on this film, his knowledge of pantomime was next to zero. Luckily, when filming began last January, Manford (who plays an ugly sister alongside Chaudhry) had just come off Manchester Opera House’s production of Cinderella. He was able to educate Sutherland on some of the tradition’s finer points. It only added to the very meta feeling of Tinsel Town. “I do think there were moments on set where Kiefer was genuinely going: ‘Hang on a minute! What’s happened here? I’m a Hollywood star playing Buttons in Wakefield!’” But equally the stand-up – about to start in Manchester in Robin Hood, his fourth panto in a row – is best-placed of all the Tinsel Town cast to speak to the power of this peculiarly British theatrical stalwart. “Pantos can be derided as cheap theatre,” Manford says, “but they have something for every generation. And when they sell out those few weeks round Christmas, it’s the thing that keeps a lot of theatres open. What I say to anybody who’s a bit snobby about it is: ‘The reason you’re watching The Cherry Orchard in a half-full theatre in April is because we did Snow White in December!’ That’s how important it is for British theatre.” Unsurprisingly, then, the love of pantomime also provides the heart, soul and lolz in a cheering slice of festive ham that might enter the Christmas cinematic canon. Katherine Ryan certainly thinks so. “Tinsel Town is super-funny. It has Elf capabilities.” High praise indeed.
Tinsel Town cast reveal Kiefer Sutherland's reaction to British panto for new Christmas film
A-list star Kiefer Sutherland needed to be educated in the finer points of panto from his British co-stars... Oh, yes, he did!
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. A drizzly February day in Leeds and, inside Versa Studios, they’re filming the ghost of Christmas future. After location visits to theatres and town halls in Knaresborough, Wetherby and Wakefield, it’s day 17 of a 25-day shoot for Tinsel Town, a new Sky Cinema production packed with more acting stars than a West End panto. Which is only fitting. This “Richard-Curtis-meets-Ealing-Comedy” caper is a loving, frequently hilarious tribute to the great British festive tradition of fairy tales and ugly sisters, shiny princesses and camp-fabulous villains; of local pantomimes that light up communities year after year. In a cast ludicrously stacked with talent, Kiefer Sutherland is American action movie star Bradley Mack whose career is behind him (oh, yes it is!), while Rebel Wilson is the choreographer in the mythical Yorkshire town of Stoneford tasked with assimilating the reluctant, Billy-big-boots thesp into the role of Buttons in her am-dram production of Cinderella. “I play Cassie, the director of the panto that this big Hollywood star has found himself in – accidentally,” Meera Syal tells RT as cast, crew and dancing fairies prepare to shoot a one-shot song-and-dance number set to Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson’s Santa Can’t You Hear Me. “I know a lot of directors, obviously, and she’s one of those directors who has done hundreds of pantos – and loves them.” Syal is one of a selection box of British stars rounding out that cast: take a bow, Sir Derek Jacobi, Danny Dyer, Asim Chaudhry, Maria Friedman, Alice Eve, Mawaan Rizwan and Jason Manford. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/tinsel-town-kiefer-sutherland-69ed0d0.jpg" width="3000" height="2000" alt="Kiefer Sutherland as Bradley Mack, Savannah Lee Smith as Izzy (Cinderella) amd Lucien Laviscount as Callum (Prince Charming) in Tinsel Town, standing on a glittering stage in costume and accepting applause with big smiles." title="Kiefer Sutherland as Bradley Mack, Savannah Lee Smith as Izzy (Cinderella) amd Lucien Laviscount as Callum (Prince Charming) in Tinsel Town" /> “Really it was the cast that appealed to me,” admits adoptive Brit Katherine Ryan. The Canadian comedian plays Mack’s long-suffering Los Angeles agent, whose booking of her client into a provincial panto isn’t quite the prestigious, Shakespeare-at-The-Globe gig that her arrogant client thinks it is – but that just might bring him the personal redemption he needs. “I don’t do much acting work but I was on tour with my show in Leeds, and the dates just made sense.” Sutherland, she adds, “is such a Canadian icon. I had just worked with Shania Twain, and I thought: ‘It’s God’s plan for you, Katherine, to meet all of your Canadian heroes.’” Wilson seconds that emotion. “Kiefer is obviously such an experienced actor,” says the Australian star of the Pitch Perfect films. “I wouldn’t have thought of ever co-starring opposite him because we do completely different kinds of genres. He’s just such a great scene partner and we have most of our stuff together in the film… He brings this intensity and a coolness to Brad.” That intensity and cool is on full display in Leeds as Bradley reluctantly shows off some surprisingly slick “choreo” in a routine with Wilson’s Jill. Sutherland is the 58-year-old known for Stand by Me, Young Guns, A Few Good Men and, of course, the indomitable Jack Bauer across nine seasons of the action series 24. Where, I ask him, did those dance moves come from? “Sheer fear!” he replies with a laugh, before lavishing praise on Tinsel Town’s choreography team. “It reminded me of theatre school! I don’t think I’ve had to do a dance number since. The film has probably five or six things that, in all the films and hundreds of hours of television that I’ve done, you won’t find me doing in any other single thing. All those things were part of the attractive elements of the project for me in the first place.” Rizwan – a Bafta winner for his surreal comedy show Juice – plays a member of the Stoneford community who holds down an amusingly wide range of service jobs. For him, appearing in a Christmas film is “my childhood dream”. Still, that A-list cast “terrified” him. “On the second day of us shooting together,” he says, “I had to do a scene where I drove a manual car. And bear in mind I haven’t driven a manual since I passed my driving test years ago. It was this 60s Volkswagen camper van with a dodgy gear stick, Kiefer’s sitting in next to me, Rebel’s behind, the rest of the cast are in the back. The net worth of the people inside this van alone is something to be terrified of! And I kept stalling it. Luckily everyone found it really funny.” That humour was baked into the production from the off, not least in the script. Stage veteran Maria Friedman – who plays a tipsy, frisky member of the panto cast who thinks she’s in with chance with Bradley – can attest to that. For her, the appeal of Tinsel Town was twofold: “One, the script made me laugh out loud – we’re all in need of that right now, frankly. And two, Kiefer – of course! He’s responsible for seminal moments of my TV-watching life. He was my very first binge-watch of a box set in 24. It was just brilliant film-making and storytelling, led by this fantastic actor.” Sutherland is game enough to admit that, before he worked on this film, his knowledge of pantomime was next to zero. Luckily, when filming began last January, Manford (who plays an ugly sister alongside Chaudhry) had just come off Manchester Opera House’s production of Cinderella. He was able to educate Sutherland on some of the tradition’s finer points. It only added to the very meta feeling of Tinsel Town. “I do think there were moments on set where Kiefer was genuinely going: ‘Hang on a minute! What’s happened here? I’m a Hollywood star playing Buttons in Wakefield!’” But equally the stand-up – about to start in Manchester in Robin Hood, his fourth panto in a row – is best-placed of all the Tinsel Town cast to speak to the power of this peculiarly British theatrical stalwart. “Pantos can be derided as cheap theatre,” Manford says, “but they have something for every generation. And when they sell out those few weeks round Christmas, it’s the thing that keeps a lot of theatres open. What I say to anybody who’s a bit snobby about it is: ‘The reason you’re watching The Cherry Orchard in a half-full theatre in April is because we did Snow White in December!’ That’s how important it is for British theatre.” Unsurprisingly, then, the love of pantomime also provides the heart, soul and lolz in a cheering slice of festive ham that might enter the Christmas cinematic canon. Katherine Ryan certainly thinks so. “Tinsel Town is super-funny. It has Elf capabilities.” High praise indeed. The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – subscribe here. Sky Original Film Tinsel Town will be coming to Sky Cinema on 5th December 2025. Add Tinsel Town to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Starring in Nick Cave’s Bunny Munro was liberating and watching Oasis euphoric — but the actor also loves a bit of Kylie
Add The Death of Bunny Munro to your watchlist Brighton, 2003: the seaside town’s West Pier is burning down. As is — unbeknown to him — the life of a rackety, lotions ’n’ potions door-to-door salesman whose addiction to booze is matched only by his addiction to sex. So begins both musician Nick Cave’s riotous 2009 novel The Death of Bunny Munro and Sky’s new six-part adaptation. Matt Smith plays Bunny, a bad dad and even worse husband who, after a cataclysmic family tragedy, embarks on a chaotic road trip with his nine-year-old son, Bunny Junior. RT caught up with the in-demand Smith on his penultimate day shooting series three of fantasy drama House of the Dragon, and shortly before he headed off to film a new Star Wars movie with Ryan Gosling. A long way from Brighton Pier… So, Matt, were you a Nick Cave fan before joining this series? Yeah, of course, man, huge Nick Cave fan. It was one of those messages to your inbox: “Oh, there’s a script come in… Oh, it’s Nick Cave! F**k! OK, cool.” Throughout his musical career, I’ve always been a fan, through each iteration of it. I watched [Cave-scripted 2005 Outback western] The Proposition, and the documentaries that Andrew Dominik made about him [One More Time with Feeling and This Much I Know to be True]. Through most of his artistic exploits and endeavours, I’ve always, like most people, had an eye on Nick. He’s just so interesting. You, of course, play the titular role — but who is Bunny Munro? I honestly think that’s for other people to decide. I like him. He’s deeply flawed. He’s addicted to about a million things. But if he’d made some different choices, and he just got through, he might have turned out to be a good dad in the end. The book has controversial elements — what made you want to sign on? It’s a very brave book. Because it’s right on the edge. It’s in your face. It’s, like, “Boom, have that.” We’ve got so much that just toes the line. Aren’t we all just trying to do something that feels original, for God’s sake? Cave is a totally original artist, and I hope this feels like an original piece of television. Normally, we hear about actors getting in shape for a role — as you’ve done for House of the Dragon — but Bunny doesn’t look after himself. Did you have to get out of shape to play him? Kind of, yeah. I certainly didn’t have to get in shape! Which was nice. But then, that’s all got to go on screen, so watching it’s a bit like: urgh! But the truth is, this guy’s not going to be in a good way. That’s not the way he lives his life. He lives his life day to day. He doesn’t eat the right things, he doesn’t do the right things. He does what he wants. In many ways, it was very liberating. Without giving away too much, an early scene involves Lindsay Duncan, who plays Bunny’s mother-in-law, tearing into him at a funeral. How was it shooting that? Lindsay’s amazing. I did one of my first jobs with her, a play called That Face by Polly Stenham [in 2007]. She was a huge influence on me early on in my career – and in my life, I have to say. She helped form my attitude towards the profession. She gave me a couple of pieces of advice that I’ll never, ever forget, on life – and on love. She bought me a wonderful book of poetry that I’ve passed on to about a million people. I love her. Rafael Mathé plays Bunny Junior. How did you find such a talented nine-year-old who’d never acted previously? I’d just give props to Shaheen Baig, the casting director, who does stellar work. Casting directors’ work is getting more and more lauded, as it should do. Without a well-cast piece of drama, you’re nowhere. I mean that for every part, even the smaller parts, the guys in the pub, all that stuff. This was just cast really well and really authentically. Did you shoot this between seasons of House of the Dragon? Yes. I came out of [series two of] Dragon and went on to this. Then I finished this, and three days later went to New York and did [Darren Aronofsky thriller] Caught Stealing, where I play a punk. A busy man! Why are you up for such an intense schedule, and such intense roles? People often go, “Well, why would you do this? Bunny Munro is out there and edgy.” And I’m like, “That’s the point.” That’s why I did it. It’s a great part. It’s a good story. And, if you look at it, it’s actually about something far bigger and far more moving, if you really invest in it. It’s about father and son. Those stories have always interested me. In your time off, you’re a big music fan. Did you manage to see Oasis on their comeback tour? Loads! I saw them six times. I love Oasis. I feel like [those concerts] did something. There was a sort of collective consciousness in those gigs. There was something simple and brilliant happening between artist and audience. It felt euphoric, and it totally marked out my summer. By contrast, Bunny’s music tastes in the show skew towards pop — he loves Avril Lavigne and Kylie Minogue. Are you down with that? Bunny’s kind of like that – he’s a bit naff. But I love a bit of Kylie!
Matt Smith talks staying out of shape for Bunny Munro, euphoric Oasis concerts and which actress influenced his career
Starring in Nick Cave’s Bunny Munro was liberating and watching Oasis euphoric — but the actor also loves a bit of Kylie.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Brighton, 2003: the seaside town’s West Pier is burning down. As is — unbeknown to him — the life of a rackety, lotions ’n’ potions door-to-door salesman whose addiction to booze is matched only by his addiction to sex. So begins both musician Nick Cave’s riotous 2009 novel The Death of Bunny Munro and Sky’s new six-part adaptation. Matt Smith plays Bunny, a bad dad and even worse husband who, after a cataclysmic family tragedy, embarks on a chaotic road trip with his nine-year-old son, Bunny Junior. RT caught up with the in-demand Smith on his penultimate day shooting series three of fantasy drama House of the Dragon, and shortly before he headed off to film a new Star Wars movie with Ryan Gosling. A long way from Brighton Pier… So, Matt, were you a Nick Cave fan before joining this series? Yeah, of course, man, huge Nick Cave fan. It was one of those messages to your inbox: “Oh, there’s a script come in… Oh, it’s Nick Cave! F**k! OK, cool.” Throughout his musical career, I’ve always been a fan, through each iteration of it. I watched [Cave-scripted 2005 Outback western] The Proposition, and the documentaries that Andrew Dominik made about him [One More Time with Feeling and This Much I Know to be True]. Through most of his artistic exploits and endeavours, I’ve always, like most people, had an eye on Nick. He’s just so interesting. You, of course, play the titular role — but who is Bunny Munro? I honestly think that’s for other people to decide. I like him. He’s deeply flawed. He’s addicted to about a million things. But if he’d made some different choices, and he just got through, he might have turned out to be a good dad in the end. The book has controversial elements — what made you want to sign on? It’s a very brave book. Because it’s right on the edge. It’s in your face. It’s, like, “Boom, have that.” We’ve got so much that just toes the line. Aren’t we all just trying to do something that feels original, for God’s sake? Cave is a totally original artist, and I hope this feels like an original piece of television. Normally, we hear about actors getting in shape for a role — as you’ve done for House of the Dragon — but Bunny doesn’t look after himself. Did you have to get out of shape to play him? Kind of, yeah. I certainly didn’t have to get in shape! Which was nice. But then, that’s all got to go on screen, so watching it’s a bit like: urgh! But the truth is, this guy’s not going to be in a good way. That’s not the way he lives his life. He lives his life day to day. He doesn’t eat the right things, he doesn’t do the right things. He does what he wants. In many ways, it was very liberating. Without giving away too much, an early scene involves Lindsay Duncan, who plays Bunny’s mother-in-law, tearing into him at a funeral. How was it shooting that? Lindsay’s amazing. I did one of my first jobs with her, a play called That Face by Polly Stenham [in 2007]. She was a huge influence on me early on in my career – and in my life, I have to say. She helped form my attitude towards the profession. She gave me a couple of pieces of advice that I’ll never, ever forget, on life – and on love. She bought me a wonderful book of poetry that I’ve passed on to about a million people. I love her. Rafael Mathé plays Bunny Junior. How did you find such a talented nine-year-old who’d never acted previously? I’d just give props to Shaheen Baig, the casting director, who does stellar work. Casting directors’ work is getting more and more lauded, as it should do. Without a well-cast piece of drama, you’re nowhere. I mean that for every part, even the smaller parts, the guys in the pub, all that stuff. This was just cast really well and really authentically. Did you shoot this between seasons of House of the Dragon? Yes. I came out of [series two of] Dragon and went on to this. Then I finished this, and three days later went to New York and did [Darren Aronofsky thriller] Caught Stealing, where I play a punk. A busy man! Why are you up for such an intense schedule, and such intense roles? People often go, “Well, why would you do this? Bunny Munro is out there and edgy.” And I’m like, “That’s the point.” That’s why I did it. It’s a great part. It’s a good story. And, if you look at it, it’s actually about something far bigger and far more moving, if you really invest in it. It’s about father and son. Those stories have always interested me. In your time off, you’re a big music fan. Did you manage to see Oasis on their comeback tour? Loads! I saw them six times. I love Oasis. I feel like [those concerts] did something. There was a sort of collective consciousness in those gigs. There was something simple and brilliant happening between artist and audience. It felt euphoric, and it totally marked out my summer. By contrast, Bunny’s music tastes in the show skew towards pop — he loves Avril Lavigne and Kylie Minogue. Are you down with that? Bunny’s kind of like that – he’s a bit naff. But I love a bit of Kylie! The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Death of Bunny Munro will be available to watch on Thursday 20th November 2025 on Sky and NOW. Add The Death of Bunny Munro to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Harlan Coben on how new thriller Lazarus stands apart from his previous work
"The atmosphere is different... a different kind of suspense," he says of the Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy-led series.
If you’re in the business of bringing the Harlan Coben multiverse to the small screen, you need a big space. The American author’s thrillers are now turned, every New Year, into splashy, all-star Netflix series such as 2024 mega-hit Fool Me Once; he has a new deal with Prime Video for more adaptations; and he pumps out a book pretty much annually. The eye-wateringly prolific 63-year-old reckons he’s now on his 37th, although it’s unclear whether that includes Gone Before Goodbye, this month’s collaborative novel with Reese Witherspoon. Cut to... the 17-acre facilities of Space Studios Manchester. It’s spring 2024 and the sprawling complex is simultaneously home to the filming of not one but two Coben thrillers: Missing You, the Rosalind Eleazar-starring mystery which was January 2025’s Netflix offering. And, finally available to stream now, Lazarus, starring Bill Nighy, Sam Claflin and Alexandra Roach. Like all his English-language Netflix dramas (and, yes, there are non-English language ones, too), Lazarus takes place in the UK. Albeit in a well-appointed, non-geographically specific corner of England that translates well to the streamers’ international audiences. It’s also made with his regular partners, Manchester-based Quay Street Productions, notably deeply experienced British TV producer Nicola Shindler (Happy Valley) and seasoned screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst (Ten Pound Poms). But unlike the Netflix series, this is not a transplanted American-set novel. Rather it began as a two-page treatment. Also, “it’s the first time that, when I was starting to create it, I realised it was going to be British,” Coben tells me in one of Space’s myriad meeting rooms. In the six-part supernatural murder-mystery, Nighy plays the titular Doctor Lazarus. He’s a famed psychiatrist clearly rich in both challenging case-histories and, well, riches: his well-appointed office, meticulously constructed on one of Space Studios’ sets, is a towering, art-deco wonder more befitting a Bond baddie. It’s seemingly the perfect setting to help his troubled patients get on with their lives – and, as it transpires in the opening scenes of episode 1, end his own. When Radio Times visits the set, they’re deep into filming episode 3, notably a scene where Claflin and Roach, playing the children of “Dr L”, try to unpick the truth behind their father’s seeming suicide – and what that might have to do with the unsolved murders of their sister and of at least one of the good doctor’s long-ago patients. The casting of Nighy represents more new ground for Coben: for the first time, he was the actor the writer pictured almost as soon as he’d set him down on paper. In a happy coincidence, voracious reader Nighy is also a huge Coben fan. “That was not just a happy coincidence – I was preening for weeks afterwards!” smiles Coben, a gregarious man with the air and look of a well-fed Stanley Tucci. “But yes, it was really a thrill. I figured Bill was a long shot. But the fact that he responded to the material and knew my stuff [has] been very flattering. I sent him an advanced copy of my new book the other day, and he read it the day he got it.” And rest assured: his early demise doesn’t mean that Coben’s first-pick actor only has a cameo. The week prior to our visit, cast and crew shot a scene featuring Claflin’s Laz, also a shrink, in conversation with his apparently late father. Which indicates that, plot-wise, we’re in even more head-scratching territory than a “regular” Coben yarn. During our time on set, more than one member of the team mentions wanting to give this Amazon-funded Coben a different “USP” to the Netflix productions’. How would the man himself characterise that difference? “Well, I wouldn't,” he replies. “For me as a creator, it's not like I write thinking ‘this one would be good for the Hulu market’, ‘this one for Disney’... That's just not how I think. I think about the story.” But he will allow that, with Lazarus, he and his TV partners have switched up the type of story. “I hate the term elevated. But the filming is different, the atmosphere is different. This is a story where the visuals are more important than most of the ones I've done. This one has an eerie quality to it. A different kind of suspense.” So, he eventually concedes, “it's a different sensibility than most of the ones I've done on Netflix.” Those, meanwhile, keep coming. Alongside checking in on production on Lazarus and Missing You, Coben is using this trip to Manchester from his home in New Jersey to discuss the next Netflix A-lister-fest: Run Away, dropping on 1st January 2026, stars James Nesbitt, Ruth Jones and Minnie Driver. “We've had meetings on all three,” he tells me. “And a possible fourth.” The common denominator, though, is that British setting. Being set in a nonspecific part of England, with the lifestyles glammed up and regional accents sanded down, seems designed to smooth the show’s spread around the world. Is that something Coben and his producing partners bake into the dramas? “Not consciously. But we do recognise this is not a show that's only going to be seen on BBC Manchester [sic]. This is going to be seen in Korea and Saudi Arabia and Africa and the United States. “But I don't know that we, as you called it, smooth. I always find the more specific I am, the more universal the appeal. If you're watching Lazarus, we've all lost somebody, right? Now, the chance that Sam’s character has to be with his father again? That's compelling. Those emotions are universal.” Indeed. And ghost stories are even older than thrillers. “Ha ha, yes they are!” Lazarus is available to stream now on Prime Video – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime. Add Lazarus to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
A look behind the scenes on Harlan Coben's latest series
Add Lazarus to your watchlist From pretty much the outset of Lazarus, the new six-part thriller from Harlan Coben, the eponymous Dr Lazarus is dead. On the set of the drama in Manchester, Bill Nighy, who plays the deceased psychiatrist, is conspicuous by his absence. Topping today’s call sheet are Sam Claflin and Alexandra Roach, who play his offspring. But fear not, Nighy is very much present in the series, despite his character’s demise. Hence the scenes already filmed of Claflin’s distraught son (also a psychiatrist) encountering the ghost of his father in the study where he died. And Dad’s not the only blast from the incorporeal past. “I see you met Cassandra,” Lazarus Sr says to Lazarus Jr of one of the old man’s former patients who was murdered years earlier. In this psychological thriller, it’s not just Lazarus who is risen. “I was a Harlan Coben fan before I came to Lazarus, therefore you have my attention straight away,” says Nighy of the American author whose novels and stories have become TV drama staples. “It’s very smart, intelligent stuff. I love the twists and turns and complex plots as much as anyone. It’s intriguing and very entertaining.” Following recent hits Fool Me Once and Missing You (both based on Coben novels), Lazarus is the first fruit of Coben’s new, parallel deal with Amazon Prime Video. He’s certainly not short of stories – Lazarus grew from a two-page outline. From the start, Coben envisioned Nighy as his lead — “I don’t think that’s happened before,” he says. Why Nighy? “The man’s an icon!” he beams. “In this role, he brings warmth, eccentricity, humour and humanity. As Dr L is dead, I wanted him to be larger than life.” Even though Coben killed him off, Nighy is keen to work with the writer again. “I like spending time with him; he’s an extremely attractive, entertaining person. “It’s absolutely possible,” the actor adds, “that we have discussed doing something else together.” Craig Mclean Lazarus is available to stream from 22 October on Amazon Prime Video
He may be playing a journalist in his latest comedy, but the actor is wary of the press — so no personal questions!
Add The Paper to your watchlist The CV of Irish actor Gleeson makes for interesting reading, ranging from Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films to an imperial baddie in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and a character called, er, Doofus in Frank of Ireland, an Irish comedy series co-created with his actor brother Brian. Now the 42-year-old is the star of Sky Max’s The Paper, a workplace comedy from the makers of the US version of The Office, playing a print-loving editor trying to turn around a struggling Midwestern newspaper. Thank you for supporting print journalism, Domhnall. Do you read newspapers? I do. I subscribe to a few different newspapers, but the one that I buy physically is The Irish Times, because I like doing the crossword. What is the value of proper journalism — and in the case of the fictional Toledo Truth Teller — proper local journalism? It’s incredibly important, in terms of keeping an eye on the place where you live, and on the people who find it easier to get away with things because [what they do] is seen as low-level. Those decisions can matter even more to people on the ground than the ones taken at the very highest level. What did you think of journalists before taking on this role? I’m probably always a little bit defensive because you’re trying to look after yourself. When I talk to journalists, I want to talk about work; sometimes they want to talk about private stuff. It can be tricky to navigate. In the style of the Truth Teller’s clickbait-chasing online version, what’s the most egregious nonsense you’ve read about yourself on the internet? I don’t think I’d pick one thing. Because then you’re pointing more people at it! But I’m aware how it works. If we do an interview and I say something that is more interesting to your readers than it is to me, that’s going to be the headline. I do understand the desire not to have the headline “Actor cares about current project” – no one’s like: “Oooooh!” Did you speak to Steve Carell about what it was like being the boss in the US Office? I did. Steve is one of those extraordinary people who leads by example. He told me, “If you get a chance to work with Greg Daniels [series co-creator], you have to do it. He’s the best.” He was right about that. John Krasinski [who co-starred] said the same thing. They’re both amazing actors and have done very well out of The Office. So, all you can do is try and be good in your own show. That show was a multi-award-winning behemoth of broadcasting. What’s the pressure like when you’re following that and you’re the man who’s leading from the front? If there’s pressure on the show, it’s pressure that it’s brought on itself because it’s described itself as in “the same universe as...” We’ll probably have a tricky time explaining to people that it’s not a remake of The Office. But this character is so different to all the bosses from the different versions of The Office. He’s more of a straight man. Before The Paper even aired, it was renewed for a second series. The US Office had nine seasons, with 201 episodes — given that you currently live in Dublin, are you ready for a multi-series, American-based commitment? No. What I’m prepared for is, if the show just keeps on going, it will be because people are responding to it in a positive way. And if we don’t, it’ll be because of the opposite. But I really look forward to doing more of it, because I think we can make it better. The Office changed TV, with the mockumentary becoming a whole new style of show. But it’s changed again since then. Now dramedies like The Bear and Hacks win comedy Emmys. Is there still room for a straight-up comedy like The Paper? I really hope so. I still seek out comedies. A lot of the time, what I need is something unabashedly interested in making you laugh. The people I like most in the world are people who make me laugh. The truth is no different when it comes to TV shows. With something like [Channel 4’s] Stath Lets Flats, I’m like: “For the following half an hour, I will be happy.” That’s a cool gift to give people. Do you find comedy harder than serious roles? Not really. All the time, you’re trying to access the truth of the project. So, you need a good script. You need good people to play with. You need a good overseer. That’s true of whatever you’re doing, whether it’s drama or comedy. You made a very convincing drug-dealing villain opposite Julianne Moore in recent Apple TV+ film Echo Valley. Was it a lot of fun being able to lean into a chewy, out-and-out bad guy? I absolutely loved it. Characters like that have such an immediate effect on the scene. When they walk into the room, things change. Actually, when I worked with Steve Carell on The Patient [the 2022 thriller series], it was a similar thing. I was playing a serial killer and he was a therapist I had kidnapped to try and keep me on the straight and narrow. So, yeah, I love that and will certainly be looking to do more of that in the future.
The Paper's Domhnall Gleeson reveals advice The Office legend Steve Carell gave him
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. The CV of Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson makes for interesting reading, ranging from Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films to an imperial baddie in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and a character called, er, Doofus in Frank of Ireland, an Irish comedy series co-created with his actor brother Brian. Now the 42-year-old is the star of Sky Max’s The Paper, a workplace comedy from the makers of the US version of The Office, playing a print-loving editor trying to turn around a struggling Midwestern newspaper. Thank you for supporting print journalism, Domhnall. Do you read newspapers? I do. I subscribe to a few different newspapers, but the one that I buy physically is The Irish Times, because I like doing the crossword. What is the value of proper journalism – and in the case of the fictional Toledo Truth Teller – proper local journalism? It’s incredibly important, in terms of keeping an eye on the place where you live, and on the people who find it easier to get away with things because [what they do] is seen as low-level. Those decisions can matter even more to people on the ground than the ones taken at the very highest level. What did you think of journalists before taking on this role? I’m probably always a little bit defensive because you’re trying to look after yourself. When I talk to journalists, I want to talk about work; sometimes they want to talk about private stuff. It can be tricky to navigate. View Green Video on the source website In the style of the Truth Teller’s clickbait-chasing online version, what’s the most egregious nonsense you’ve read about yourself on the internet? I don’t think I’d pick one thing. Because then you’re pointing more people at it! But I’m aware how it works. If we do an interview and I say something that is more interesting to your readers than it is to me, that’s going to be the headline. I do understand the desire not to have the headline “Actor cares about current project” – no one’s like: “Oooooh!” Did you speak to Steve Carell about what it was like being the boss in the US Office? I did. Steve is one of those extraordinary people who leads by example. He told me, “If you get a chance to work with Greg Daniels [series co-creator], you have to do it. He’s the best.” He was right about that. John Krasinski [who co-starred] said the same thing. They’re both amazing actors and have done very well out of The Office. So, all you can do is try and be good in your own show. That show was a multi-award-winning behemoth of broadcasting. What’s the pressure like when you’re following that and you’re the man who’s leading from the front? If there’s pressure on the show, it’s pressure that it’s brought on itself because it’s described itself as in “the same universe as...” We’ll probably have a tricky time explaining to people that it’s not a remake of The Office. But this character is so different to all the bosses from the different versions of The Office. He’s more of a straight man. Before The Paper even aired, it was renewed for a second series. The US Office had nine seasons, with 201 episodes — given that you currently live in Dublin, are you ready for a multi-series, American-based commitment? No. What I’m prepared for is, if the show just keeps on going, it will be because people are responding to it in a positive way. And if we don’t, it’ll be because of the opposite. But I really look forward to doing more of it, because I think we can make it better. The Office changed TV, with the mockumentary becoming a whole new style of show. But it’s changed again since then. Now dramedies like The Bear and Hacks win comedy Emmys. Is there still room for a straight-up comedy like The Paper? I really hope so. I still seek out comedies. A lot of the time, what I need is something unabashedly interested in making you laugh. The people I like most in the world are people who make me laugh. The truth is no different when it comes to TV shows. With something like [Channel 4’s] Stath Lets Flats, I’m like: “For the following half an hour, I will be happy.” That’s a cool gift to give people. Do you find comedy harder than serious roles? Not really. All the time, you’re trying to access the truth of the project. So, you need a good script. You need good people to play with. You need a good overseer. That’s true of whatever you’re doing, whether it’s drama or comedy. You made a very convincing drug-dealing villain opposite Julianne Moore in recent Apple TV+ film Echo Valley. Was it a lot of fun being able to lean into a chewy, out-and-out bad guy? I absolutely loved it. Characters like that have such an immediate effect on the scene. When they walk into the room, things change. Actually, when I worked with Steve Carell on The Patient [the 2022 thriller series], it was a similar thing. I was playing a serial killer and he was a therapist I had kidnapped to try and keep me on the straight and narrow. So, yeah, I love that and will certainly be looking to do more of that in the future. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Paper is available to watch on Sky Max and NOW. Add The Paper to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
As his Booker Prize-winning novel comes to our screens, author Richard Flanagan reflects on his father’s wartime experiences
Add The Narrow Road to the Deep North to your watchlist In Syria in 1941, an army medic tries and fails to save a comrade eviscerated by a landmine. In Australia in 1989, a Second World War veteran, asked by a journalist what it felt like to be a prisoner of war forced to work on Burma’s “Death Railway”, brusquely replies: “Feelings weren’t as fashionable as they are now. We did what we were told.” View Green Video on the source website These fractured, overlapping, narratives belong to one man, Dorrigo Evans, whose history unfolds in The Narrow Road to the Deep North, BBC1’s five-part adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. Evans is played in his younger years by Jacob Elordi (Priscilla, Saltburn) and in his older years by Ciarán Hinds (Kin, Belfast). <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/07/302WAAHGW-copy-09cfb86-e1752674061238.jpg" width="1344" height="896" alt="Week 30 Narrow Road" title="Saltburn (2023) directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike. A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family's s" /> The story centres on the experiences of the 13,000 Australian PoWs forced by their Japanese captors to work on the construction of a 258-mile railway linking Thailand and Burma (now Myanmar). Working in unfathomably horrific conditions, 2,800 of them – more than one in five – died building the line. But The Bridge on the River Kwai this is not. Flanagan’s book, brilliantly adapted by Australian director Justin Kurzel (True History of the Kelly Gang), is a masterful, mesmerising account of decades-deep love and resilience; of camaraderie (“mateship” in Australian culture); of the myriad, complex legacies of those PoWs’ experiences. It is inspired by the Australian author’s own father’s experiences. Arch Flanagan’s lifelong insistence on clothes being folded correctly (with the fold on the inside, not the outside) was but one outward manifestation of the brutal regime he barely survived. “I grew up as a child of the Death Railway, as did all my siblings,” Flanagan says from his home in Tasmania. “It was everywhere about us. My father had no interest in material things. He had no interest in achievement. He didn’t rate success, as we conventionally understand it, as important. What mattered to him was whether people were good and kind to each other. “He found derisory faux ideas of courage,” he continues of a parent who, in a tragic twist, died on the day that Flanagan told him that he had completed writing the novel. “For him, courage was a single mother trying to make ends meet and bring up a family. It was in everything. There was nothing that wasn’t shaped by it.” The Narrow Road to the Deep North has had a long road to screen, with an earlier attempt unstuck by film company leadership changes and then Covid. But when production was finally greenlit, Flanagan was clear about how the book, a bestseller that has become freighted with national resonance and significance in Australia, should be adapted. “Another lifetime ago, I directed a film of one of my novels,” the author says of 1998’s The Sound of One Hand Clapping. “What I learned from that was that you should never seek to replicate a novel in film or television. They’re absolutely different media. I wanted Justin to direct it, and all I asked of him was that he simply made something that was true to what he found in the book. And what I saw was that he made it with a huge love and passion.” During pre-production the author talked with Elordi and the other young actors playing the PoWs. “I tried to remind them of the strange and incommunicable nature of that experience. There was a solidarity, but it was a strange and terrible solidarity at times. The horror of war is that it demands of young men that they do things that in any other sphere of life we would rightly lock them up in prison for ever for. “If they’re lucky enough to survive such terrible things, they’re then condemned to having to live with the knowledge of what they’ve done in war. In a sense, war makes everybody complicit. It makes everyone have to share in the guilt. That’s the true evil of it.” The production was based outside Sydney, in New South Wales, with even the harrowing jungle scenes vividly re-created in the Australian wilds. Visiting the set during filming from late 2023 to spring last year, Flanagan was struck by the esprit de corps among the cast and crew. “There was a commitment such as I’d never seen on any other film or TV project. They really believed this story mattered.” Flanagan was present for some of the most intense prisoner of war scenes. “These young men had starved themselves for about three months. They were physically in a completely different dimension, so that they moved entirely differently. When they looked at you, they fixed you with this intense stare, and then their eyes would drift away into the distance. They had a very odd energy about them that was responding to what Justin told them, and then utterly unresponsive at the same time. “The set had a strange, almost incantatory feeling about it,” adds Flanagan, a man whose thoughtful, eloquent, rolling speaking style has its own incantatory feeling. “It was an oddly moving place.” Flanagan goes on to recall his father’s words to him. “He said to me once that they were lucky there, because they only had to suffer. It took me many years to understand what he meant. But what he meant was, when you’re a soldier, your job is to inflict suffering – and that’s actually worse than having to suffer yourself. “He slowly forgot the violence. He forgot the sickness. He forgot the horror. In the end, he was left with stories of kindness and goodness; the way a certain mutuality, the comradeship, sustained them. The whole lesson that he took from the camps was that the measure of a good society is the extent to which the strong help the weak, and any society that doesn’t do that is a failure. Whether the society is a family, a community or a nation, that’s the measure of it: the extent to which the strong will reach down to help the weak and the sick and carry them all and lift them all up. “He distilled the whole experience into this simple idea of love and goodness. That’s what he took from it. He didn’t gloss over the horror of it. He just ultimately felt that wasn’t the lesson of it.” Flanagan acknowledges that Kurzel’s series is “a darker vision than mine”. But in terms of ensuring a wide audience, their ace is their leading man. Brisbane-born Elordi is one of the hottest, in every sense of the term, young actors in the world right now – a status that the 28-year-old’s lead role in Saltburn director Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights will only deepen. How important will the actor’s celebrity (alongside his acting skills) be in bringing his novel and his father’s experiences, to Elordi’s millennial peers? “Really important,” the writer replies. He points out that, in Australia, where the series has already aired, Elordi’s fandom “has taken this to a generation that’s completely unaware of this story. Jacob was extraordinary, because he committed in a way that I was really surprised by. There was great humility to him about the way he went about this role. “In an odd way, he brought the pathos of his generation to the role,” he continues, drawing parallels with what his father’s era experienced. “As war bore down on Australia, the old men who ran the country were terrified. They felt, as the old always feel about the young, that the young men were a worthless generation because they’d come through the Depression. They felt they weren’t up to it. “I think that millennials, similarly, are a generation that have come through a bleak time and who are condemned by their elders. There’s an odd mirroring of the experience of the millennials and the experience of that generation that unfortunately found themselves having to go off into that most terrible war.” In the non-chronological spirit of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, let’s end almost at the beginning. Kurzel said earlier this year: “Richard always said to me, the most important thing to him was the tapestry of different time changes.” I ask Flanagan if he can unpack that idea. He replies that the director would often come to him with questions about the story. “But I said: ‘If the answer isn’t what you want, you go with whatever your instinct is.’ But with the structure of it, which is around this fractured time, I did say: ‘I think you will find that is the one fundamental aspect of it that you won’t be able to abandon and create in another form. Because, as William Faulkner said, the past is always present.” The problem with war and violence is that, as Flanagan puts it, “it doesn’t stop at the moment of the blow, the beating, the bullet. The wound grows and grows. It spreads out into families and then into communities, and then into nations. “At some point, it falls to others to somehow address that. If you’re to live in the light, you’ve got to walk back into that darkness, and you’ve got to acknowledge that that time isn’t gone, that it still lives within us. Once you’ve done that, you can come back and live in the light.” So, he concludes, that’s what Kurzel meant. “And that’s one thing from the novel that he did retain. But look, above all, I was just very honoured that a film-maker of Justin’s calibre – he’s the greatest director working in Australia today – took this on. And he made something extraordinary and unique.”
Novelist Val McDermid and screenwriter Emer Kenny on the challenges of bringing Karen Pirie to our screens
Add Karen Pirie to your watchlist Scottish crime novelist Val McDermid, 70, is a leading exponent of tartan noir. The Distant Echo (2003), her first novel featuring Karen Pirie, formed the basis of ITV’s titular 2022 series, with Lauren Lyle as the Scottish detective. As the cold-case drama returns, actor/screenwriter Emer Kenny, 35, is once again writing the adaptation. MIXING IT UP VAL McDERMID As a writer of fiction, when you agree to an adaptation, that’s what you’re agreeing to – an adaptation. It’s not a word-for-word transliteration of the book onto the screen. Writers never have any vetoes in adaptations, but I have a clause in my contract that says Emer can’t do anything substantive to a returning character without my consent. She can’t suddenly give Karen triplets! I always sit down with the people and say: “Here are the key elements, the things that are important, that you have to hold on to. Now go away and make me the best television you can.” And Karen Pirie is great television. EMER KENNY Early on set, you said to me, Val, to paraphrase, “Do your thing”. I felt trusted. But there are tenets that are important to Karen’s character. I think Lauren brings a lot of that as well. It becomes an amalgamation – a bit of Val, a bit of me, a bit of Lauren. Then we get this character on screen. CASTING KAREN VAL The casting has been crucial to this. Lauren doesn’t look anything like the Karen Pirie in my head. But that doesn’t matter, because she embodies who Karen is. But I’m still not happy with the bum bag! EMER Ha! I’m sorry, Val! Lots of people love it. It’s important with a TV detective to give them an iconic look. Vera with her hats; Columbo with his coat. The bum bag and Karen’s blonde bob give you a lot. It shows she’s very practical. Although Val might argue that it’s not practical because you can’t get much in there. VAL Yep! WRITING ROOM VAL I write a book over a period of about three to four months. It’s been in my head a long time before that; you can’t start until you know where you are, when you are, where your characters come from. I set one book, The Last Temptation, on the waterways of Europe, so I spent three weeks going around Europe talking to people who drove barges and worked on the water. I’m not a morning person; I’ve never written a decent sentence before 11 o’clock. I write in bite-sized chunks, for about 20 minutes. Then I’ll make a cup of coffee, walk around the block, play a video game... The one thing I can’t do, is work in coffee shops. Too much interesting stuff to eavesdrop on! EMER I’m a “write anywhere, anytime” person. The other day my toddler was in the bath and I was sat on the edge with my laptop on my knees, finishing something. That’s from necessity; TV deadlines are brutal. VAL You’re also constantly revising, getting notes, having to rewrite as you go. Whereas I do my first draft and then I get the notes. Then I do a revision. And then we’re done. JOB SWAP VAL I’ve no interest in adapting my own work for TV. I can write for the theatre or radio because they’re still all about the words. In television, it’s all about the visuals. You can say something in a single shot that would take me three, four, five pages to say. EMER I wouldn’t know where to start with a novel. I’d find writing a book quite solitary. VAL My partner says I don’t play well with others. Which is a bit bizarre, because she’s just agreed to do a collaborative novella with me. We’ll see how it goes! A MAN’S WORLD EMER I’ve been in a lot of rooms where I’m the only woman, where I’ve had to fight to be heard. Sometimes I’ve had to have an older, more experienced man back me up. That all fed into Karen. I think the trifecta of me, Val and Lauren has been important for Karen. We’ve put a lot of ourselves in the character. VAL When I started at newspapers a million years ago, I was one of only three women in the newsroom of the Daily Record. We were patronised, belittled and groped. I’ve been through the mill on that. What’s important now is the recognition that women can do the job, any job, as well as men. I can write male characters. I can write people who are very different from me. Because we observe, we empathise, we listen, we watch. You can’t be reductionist and say, you can only do one kind of thing. There are only so many stories about wee, fat, Scottish lesbians to tell. EMER Ha! There’s your headline!
Glastonbury 2025 daily schedule: Set times for Sunday 29th June and who to watch
As Worthy Farm closes out another jam-packed year, here's who you should be checking out (and where to find them).
Glastonbury Festival has been a lot of fun, but now it's time to wind down and say goodbye to Worthy Farm once again. But the team are making sure they're going out with one hell of a party - even with the hot summer sun resulting in organisers encouraging people to go home in the early hours of the morning in order to avoid Monday's heatwave. As the beloved festival prepares to take a "rested" year, you'll now have to wait until 2027 for it to come back – but at least we still have some special performances to look forward to and remember the festival by. From Rod Stewart taking the Legends slot to pop princess Olivia Rodrigo taking to the headline stage to close the weekend out, there is truly something for everyone. And we're here to make sure you see everyone you want, with a full list of timings and who will be performing. Here's what you need to know. What are the must-see Glastonbury sets on Sunday 29th June? Cymande (West Holts Stage, 2pm) Ahead of the festival, Craig Charles told Radio Times: "My must-watch act at Glastonbury 2025 is Cymande. They were Britain’s undiscovered supergroup. They toured extensively with Al Green in the 1970s and should have been as big as Earth Wind and Fire. "Songs like Brothers on the Slide and Bra are essential listening for anyone into groovy music and good time vibes. They performed a live session on my 6 Music show earlier this year and tore the roof off." Rod Stewart (Pyramid Stage, 3:45pm) After a string of illnesses, Rod Stewart is back with force and taking the Legends slot this Sunday evening, 23 years since he last made an appearance at the festival. The Maggie May and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy singer has decades of classics locked and loaded – with so much planned that he was even given an extended run time. Speaking to Radio Times, he said: "It’s difficult because they only gave me an hour-and-a-quarter slot. So I begged them: can I do another 15 minutes? Because usually I play for two hours. "It means that there’s a lot of songs that people love that I won’t be able to play – and I’ve got three guests coming on." We can't wait. The Maccabees (Park Stage, 9:15pm) If after a wild weekend of partying and non-stop dancing, The Maccabees set may just be the perfect place to wind down and gather yourself while listening to something relaxing. "The Maccabees coming back is a wonderful thing and The Park is the perfect setting for this to be happening," said Jo Whiley. "It’s the prettiest of places and has an intimacy and ambience which will suit their emotional, anthemic sound. I’ll be down the front at their feet weeping with the best of them." The Prodigy (Other Stage, 9:45pm) No festival is ever quite complete without a set from The Prodigy, whose hard-hitting beats will leave you unable to stand still. From Smack My B***h up to Firestarter, the band's stage shows always know how to get a crowd moving, and if you still have the energy, this is the perfect place to burn it off before winding down for the weekend. Olivia Rodrigo (Pyramid Stage, 9:45pm) Ending the weekend with an all-out party, we have Olivia Rodrigo – the American pop princess with angst-fuelled anthems you can't help but dance to. The 22-year-old will be shutting down the show with hits including Good 4 U, Bad Idea Right? and Vampire. Glastonbury 2025 daily schedule: Who's playing on Sunday 29th June? Pyramid Stage 11.15am: The Selecter 12.30pm: Celeste 2pm: The Libertines 3.45pm: Rod Stewart 6pm: Nile Rodgers & Chic 7.45pm: Noah Kahan 9.45pm: Olivia Rodrigo Other Stage 11.15am: Louis Dunford 12.30pm: Nadine Shah 1.45pm: Shaboozey 3pm: Joy Crookes 4.30pm: Turnstile 6pm: Snow Patrol 7.45pm: Wolf Alice 9.45pm: The Prodigy West Holts Stage 11am: Thandii 12.30pm: Abel Selaocoe & The Bantu Ensemble 2pm: Cymande 3.30pm: Black Uhuru 5pm: Goat 6.30pm: The Brian Jonestown Massacre 8pm: Parcels 9.45pm: Overmono Woodsies 11.15am: Westside Cowboy 12.30pm: Gurriers 2pm: Sprints 3.30pm: Djo 5pm: Black Country, New Road 6.30pm: St Vincent 8pm: AJ Tracey 9.30pm: Jorja Smith The Park Stage 11.30am: Melin Melyn 12.45pm: Geordie Greep 2pm: Katy J Pearson 3.15pm: Royel Otis 4.30pm: Girl in Red 6pm: Kae Tempest 7.35pm: Future Islands 9.15pm: The Maccabees Acoustic Stage 11.30am: Dawn Landes & Friends Perform The Liberated Woman’s Songbook 12.10pm: Toby Lee 1pm: The Henry Girls 2pm: Michele Stodart 3pm: The Riptide Movement 4pm: PP Arnold 5pm: London Community Gospel Choir 6.30pm: Rhiannon Giddens With Dirk Powell 8pm: The Bootleg Beatles 9.30pm: Roy Harper <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/06/GettyImages-2222738537-ab3a04c.jpg" width="5563" height="3709" alt="GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 29: Shaboozey performs during day five of Glastonbury festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 29, 2025 in Glastonbury, England. Established by Michael Eavis in 1970, Glastonbury has grown into the UK's largest music festival, drawing over 200,000 fans to enjoy performances across more than 100 stages. In 2026, the festival will take a fallow year, a planned pause to allow the Worthy Farm site time to rest and recover. (Photo by Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images)" title="Glastonbury Festival 2025 - Day Five" /> Avalon Stage 11.25am: Dea Matrona 12.30pm: Talisk 1.55pm: Brooke Combe 3.20pm: The Horne Section 4.50pm: My Baby 6.20pm: The Big Moon 7.50pm: Sam Ryder 9.20pm: Bear’s Den 10.50pm: Alabama 3 Left Field 12pm: [PANEL] How To Fix The Crisis Care (Ashley John-Baptiste, Daisy-May Hudson, Emily Kenway, Filipino Domestic Workers Assoc., Minnie Rahman) 1.30pm: Disability Cuts: The Fight Back (Ady, My Life My Choice, Andy Burnham, Disabled People Against The Cuts, Layla Steadman-bevan, John Harris) 3pm: Radical Round Up: With Billy Bragg, Grandson, Jamie Webster 4.30pm: The Halfway Kid 5.35pm: Du Blonde 6.40pm: Red Rum Club 7.50pm: Reverend and The Makers 9pm: Grandson Arcadia 8pm: Jeremiah Asiamah 9pm: Eva Lazarus 9.30pm: Dr Banana B2b Gallegos 10.30pm: Girls Don’t Sync 11.30pm: Dragonfly Show 11.40pm: Becky Hill 12.10am: Shy Fx B2b Eats Everything 1.30am: Basslayerz B2b Born on Road Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Who played Glastonbury on Saturday 28th June and who should you watch?
As Worthy Farm continues the party of the summer, here's where you can find your favourites performing today.
Day two of Glastonbury has arrived – and if Friday was anything to go by, complete with a surprise set on the main stage, then Worthy Farm is about to crank things up to 11. From the surrounding mystery of the band "Patchwork" through to Neil Young hitting the main stage, the day is full of hard-to-miss sets of your favourite acts. So now is more important than ever to make sure you know where to be and when, especially as two of the most anticipated performances today clash. But don't worry – we have you covered, with tips on the shows you need to see and the full line-up and timings list of the entire day. Here's what you need to know about who will be performing, when they'll be playing, and who we recommend you check out. For the Sunday 29th June 2025 daily schedule, we've also got you covered. What are the must-see Glastonbury sets on Saturday 28th June? Kaiser Chiefs (Pyramid Stage, 12pm) This long-standing British favourites are setting the tone for the day by kicking off the Pyramid Stage with their crowd pleasing-anthems including I Predict a Riot, Oh My God, Never Miss a Beat and Ruby. Get down early to kick off the day with something to get you jumping and singing your lungs out. Patchwork AKA Pulp (Pyramid Stage, 6pm) This seemingly "unknown band" had become one of the most speculated acts of the year – but with a space on the Pyramid Stage, who exactly were they? Of course, they turned out to be the Britpop icons Pulp! HAIM (The Park Stage, 7.30pm ) <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/05/GettyImages-2215164914-81414f4.jpg" width="3216" height="2144" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 14: (L-R) Este Haim, Alana Haim, and Danielle Haim attend the "Overcompensating" Screening And After-Party at Hollywood Palladium on May 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Prime Video)" title=""Overcompensating" Screening And After-Party" /> This slot was previously TBA, but the trio of HAIM sisters took to social media today to confirm their slot at 7.30pm on The Park Stage. The California-based siblings - Alana, Danielle, and Este - have just released their latest album and will no doubt make an impact with recent singles 'Relationships' and 'Down to be Wrong'. We can't wait to see what synchronised dancing awaits. Doechii (West Holts Stage, 10:15pm) No need for Anxiety here – Doechii is ready to take down the West Holts stage in absolute style. The Denial Is a River rapper is the headliner, and while she clashes with Charli XCX, she is sure to bring down the house with her catchy tracks. Clara Amfo has shared her excitement at seeing the musician take to the stage, saying: "My one to watch at Glastonbury this year has got to be Doechii, Doechii, Doechii!" Charli XCX (Other Stage, 10:30pm) After dominating 2024 with a Brat Summer, Charli XCX is closing out Saturday's Other Stage as the headliner in what is sure to be absolute style. Huw Stephens has billed her as his Glasto highlight, telling us: "Charli XCX headlining the Other Stage Saturday will be unlike anything you've seen before – a moment of intense cultural intrigue! See you there!" Glastonbury 2025 daily schedule: Who's playing on Saturday 28th June? Pyramid Stage 12pm: Kaiser Chiefs 1.30pm: Brandi Carlile 3pm: The Script 4.30pm: John Fogerty 6.15pm: Patchwork 8pm: Raye 10pm: Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts Other Stage 11.30am: Alessi Rose 12.45pm: Good Neighbours 2pm: beabadoobee 3.30pm: Weezer 5pm: Amyl & The Sniffers 6.45pm: Ezra Collective 8.30pm: Skepta (replacing Deftones) 10.30pm: Charli XCX West Holts Stage 11.30am: Infinity Song 1pm: Nilüfer Yanya 2.30pm: Bob Vylan 4pm: Kneecap 5.30pm: Yussef Dayes 7pm: Greentea Peng 8.30pm: Amaarae 10.45pm: Doechii Woodsies 11.30am: The Amazons 12.45pm: Sorry 2pm: Fcukers 3.15pm: JADE 4.30pm: Nova Twins 6pm: TV On The Radio 7.30pm: Father John Misty 9pm: Tom Odell 10.30pm: Scissor Sisters The Park Stage 11.10am: Yann Tiersen 12.45pm: Ichiko Aoba 2pm: Japanese Breakfast 3.30pm: Lucy Dacus 4.45pm: PA Salieu 6pm: Gary Numan 7.30pm: HAIM (previously TBA) 9.15pm: Beth Gibbons 11pm: Caribou Acoustic Stage 11.30am: Henry Grace 12.10pm: Lorraine Nash 1pm: Oisin Leech 2pm: Sophie B Hawkins 3pm: A Completely Unknown – A Celebration of the Songs of Bob Dylan 4.10pm: The Bluebells 5.10pm: The Coronas 6.30pm: Jeremy Loops 8pm: Hothouse Flowers 9.30pm: Nick Lowe Avalon Stage 11.30am: Fülü 12.50pm: Bess Atwell 2.15pm: Stephen Wilson Jr. 3.40pm: Jamie Cullum 5.10pm: The Amy Winehouse Band 6.40pm: Jade Bird 8.10pm: Rachel Chinouriri 9.40pm: Tom Walker 11.10pm: Hard-Fi Left Field 12pm: [PANEL] Confronting The Rise Of The Far Right (Adam Green, Carole Cadwalladr, Hope Not Hate, Zarah Sultana Mp, John Harris) 1.30pm: [PANEL] Saving The Planet But Not Leaving The Workers Behind (Caroline Lucas, New Economics Foundation, Port Talbot Steel Worker, Unite The Union, Gracie Mae Bradley) 3pm: Radical Round Up (Billy Bragg, Rianne Downey, Andy White) 4.30pm: Girlband! 5.35pm: Chloe Slater 6.40pm: The Guest List 7.50pm: Lambrini Girls 9pm: Kate Nash Arcadia 9pm: Danny Howard 9.55pm: Hannah Wants 10.50pm: Michael Bibi B2b Solomun 11.50pm: Dragonfly Show 12am: Four Tet 1am: Annie Mac B2b Jamz Supernova 2am: Groove Armada B2b Jungle [DJ Set] Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Who played at Glastonbury Friday 27th June and who should you watch?
As Worthy Farm kicks off the festival of the summer, here's everything you need to know about where to catch your favourites.
The biggest party of the summer has finally arrived with Glastonbury Festival – and thousands have made the pilgrimage down to Worthy Farm to be part of the action. Come rain or shine, thousands of artists across over 100 stages will be bringing their A-game to make sure there's something for everyone, creating a weekend no one will forget. But with so much choice, ticketholders have to be smart when it comes to how to spend their time in order to see everyone they want – which is where we're coming in, giving you our biggest tips of the sets not to miss and a full rundown of where everyone will be. Here's what you need to know about who will be performing, when they'll be playing – and who we recommend you check out. For the Saturday 28th June 2025 daily schedule, we've also got you covered. For the Sunday 29th June 2025 daily schedule, we've also got you covered. What are the must-see Glastonbury sets on Friday 27th June? Myles Smith (Woodsies, 12:45pm) Capping off an incredible year, BRIT Rising Star winner Myles Smith will be taking to the Woodsies stage in the early afternoon. Bringing his incredibly catchy – and perfect for crowd-singing – tracks including Nice to Meet You and Stargazing, this will get you in a great mood for the weekend ahead. Lewis Capaldi (Pyramid Stage, 4:55pm) The rumours were swirling but now the secret act has been revealed as Lewis Capaldi - and on the day of the release of his new single! Speaking to Radio Times before the revel, BBC Radio DJ Jo Whiley said: "Rumours are swirling about Haim, Lorde and Pulp. I’ve had some very encouraging conversations with them on my radio show and I’d say the signs are looking good for a Worthy Farm visit from each of them. If that happens these will all be part of my must-see performances." En Vogue (West Holts Stage, 5:30pm) This iconic '90s band are still going strong and are guaranteed to get you dancing as the evening kicks in on Friday. Anita Rani told us: "I’m very excited about En Vogue – as well as discovering hidden gems in magical little corners." Alanis Morissette (Pyramid Stage, 6:15pm) We are not being ironic when we say we cannot wait for this powerhouse. With a 30-year career and a back catalogue of absolute bangers, the Canadian singer promises to bring a set full of iconic classics. Ironic, One Hand in My Pocket, Everything, You Learn and Thank U are all expected additions to the set list. Let's just keep our fingers crossed there won't be any raaaaaaaaaaaain on the big day. The 1975 (Pyramid Stage, 10:15pm) As the first headliner of the weekend, it's up to Matty Healy and co to set the tone for the weekend ahead – and we're sure they have a couple of tricks up their sleeve as they make their appearance. The I'm in Love with You stars are known for their electric live shows, and with one of the biggest stages in the UK at their disposal and thousands watching, we're sure this is going to be one not to miss. Glastonbury 2025 full line-up and times for Friday 27th June Pyramid Stage 12pm: Supergrass 1.30pm: CMAT 3pm: Burning Spear 4.55pm: Lewis Capaldi (formerly Secret Set) 6.15pm: Alanis Morissette 8.15pm: Biffy Clyro 10.15pm: The 1975 Other Stage 11.30am: Fabio & Grooverider And The Outlook Orchestra 1pm: Rizzle Kicks 2.15pm: Inhaler 3.45pm: Wet Leg 5.15pm: Franz Ferdinand 6.45pm: Gracie Abrams 8.30pm: Busta Rhymes 10.30pm: Loyle Carner West Holts Stage 11.30am: corto.alto 1pm: Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso 2.30pm: Glass Beams 4pm: Vieux Farka Toure 5.30pm: En Vogue 7pm: Denzel Curry 8.30pm: badbadnotgood 10.15pm: Maribou State Woodsies 11.30am: Lorde (previously TBC) 12.45pm: Myles Smith 2pm: Fat Dog 3.15pm: Shed Seven 4.30pm: Lola Young 6pm: Blossoms 7.30pm: Pinkpantheress 9pm: Floating Points 10.30pm: Four Tet The Park Stage 11.30am: Horsegirl 12.45pm: John Glacier 2pm: Jalen Ngonda 3.15pm: Faye Webster 4.30pm: English Teacher 6pm: Osees 7.30pm: Wunderhouse 9.15pm: Self-Esteem 11pm: Anohni And The Johnsons Acoustic Stage 11.30am: Our Man in the Field 12.10pm: Nadia Reid 1pm: Tift Merritt 2pm: Gabrielle Aplin 3pm: Hugh Cornwell 4pm: Skerryvore 5pm: Billie Marten 6.30pm: Dhani Harrison 8pm: The Searchers 9.30pm: Ani Difranco Avalon Stage 12.50pm: Beans on Toast 2.10pm: Rumba De Bodas 3.35pm: Paris Paloma 5.05pm: Ash 6.35pm: Orla Gartland 8.05pm: The Magic Numbers 9.35pm: Terrorvision 11.05pm: The Fratellis Left Field 12pm: [PANEL] What Next For The Left: Politics, Organising And Power (Ash Sarkar, Chantelle Lunt, Gary Younge, Harriet Protheroe-Soltani, Ayeisha Thomas Smith) 1.30pm: [PANEL] Feminism In The Age Of The Manosphere (Beyond Equality, Carys Afoko, Marai Larasi, Susie Mcdonald, Nim Ralph) 3pm: Radical Roundup (With Billy Bragg, Jasmine.4.t, Holly Carter) 4.30pm: The Meffs 5.35pm: Gurriers 6.40pm: jasmine.4.t 7.50pm: Antony Szmierek 9pm: Billy Bragg Arcadia 9pm: Logic 1000 9.55pm: Optimo (Espacio) 10.50pm: Max Cooper 11.50pm: Dragonfly Show 12am: Sonny Fodera 1am: Romy 2am: Job Jobse B2b Palms Trax Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Sunday at Glastonbury: full schedule and picks for what to watch
Add Glastonbury 2025 to your watchlist. For full information on how to watch the festival, click here. Sir Rod Stewart has perhaps stolen some headlines for the festival's final day, but the bill has plenty to more to offer for those who look. Sunday's must-see sets Cymande (West Holts Stage, 2pm) Ahead of the festival, Craig Charles told RT: “My must-watch act at Glastonbury 2025 is Cymande. They were Britain’s undiscovered supergroup. They toured extensively with Al Green in the 1970s and should have been as big as Earth Wind and Fire. Songs like Brothers on the Slide and Bra are essential listening for anyone into groovy music and good time vibes. They performed a live session on my 6 Music show earlier this year and tore the roof off.” Rod Stewart (Pyramid Stage, 3.45pm) After a string of illnesses, Rod Stewart is back with force and taking the Legends slot this Sunday evening, 23 years since he last made an appearance at the festival. The Maggie May and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy singer has decades of classics locked and loaded – with so much planned that he was even given an extended run time. Speaking to RT, he said: "It’s difficult because they only gave me an hour-and-a-quarter slot. So I begged them: can I do another 15 minutes? Because usually I play for two hours. It means that there’s a lot of songs that people love that I won’t be able to play – and I’ve got three guests coming on.” We can't wait. The Maccabees (Park Stage, 9.15pm) "The Maccabees coming back is a wonderful thing and The Park is the perfect setting for this to be happening," Jo Whiley told RT. "It’s the prettiest of places and has an intimacy and ambience which will suit their emotional, anthemic sound. I’ll be down the front at their feet weeping with the best of them. " The Prodigy (Other Stage, 9.45pm) No festival is every quite complete without a set from The Prodigy, whose hard-hitting beats leave audiences unable to stand still. From Smack My B***h Up to Firestarter, the band's stage shows always know how to get a crowd moving, and if you still have the energy, this is the perfect place to burn it off before winding down for the weekend. Olivia Rodrigo (Pyramid Stage, 9.45pm) Ending the weekend with an all-out party, we have Olivia Rodrigo – the American pop princess with angst-fuelled anthems you can't help but dance to. The 22-year-old will be shutting down the show with hits including Good 4 U, Bad Idea Right? and Vampire. The full line-up and times for Sunday 29 June Pyramid Stage 11.15am: The Selecter 12.30pm: Celeste 2pm: The Libertines 3.45pm: Rod Stewart 6pm: Nile Rodgers & Chic 7.45pm: Noah Kahan 9.45pm: Olivia Rodrigo Other Stage 11.15am: Louis Dunford 12.30pm: Nadine Shah 1.45pm: Shaboozey 3pm: Joy Crookes 4.30pm: Turnstile 6pm: Snow Patrol 7.45pm: Wolf Alice 9.45pm: The Prodigy West Holts Stage 11am: Thandii 12.30pm: Abel Selaocoe & The Bantu Ensemble 2pm: Cymande 3.30pm: Black Uhuru 5pm: Goat 6.30pm: The Brian Jonestown Massacre 8pm: Parcels 9.45pm: Overmono Woodsies 11.15am: Westside Cowboy 12.30pm: Gurriers 2pm: Sprints 3.30pm: Djo 5pm: Black Country, New Road 6.30pm: St Vincent 8pm: AJ Tracey 9.30pm: Jorja Smith The Park Stage 11.30am: Melin Melyn 12.45pm: Geordie Greep 2pm: Katy J Pearson 3.15pm: Royel Otis 4.30pm: Girl in Red 6pm: Kae Tempest 7.35pm: Future Islands 9.15pm: The Maccabees Acoustic Stage 11.30am: Dawn Landes & Friends Perform The Liberated Woman’s Songbook 12.10pm: Toby Lee 1pm: The Henry Girls 2pm: Michele Stodart 3pm: The Riptide Movement 4pm: PP Arnold 5pm: London Community Gospel Choir 6.30pm: Rhiannon Giddens With Dirk Powell 8pm: The Bootleg Beatles 9.30pm: Roy Harper Avalon Stage 11.25am: Dea Matrona 12.30pm: Talisk 1.55pm: Brooke Combe 3.20pm: The Horne Section 4.50pm: My Baby 6.20pm: The Big Moon 7.50pm: Sam Ryder 9.20pm: Bear’s Den 10.50pm: Alabama 3 Left Field 12pm: [PANEL] How To Fix The Crisis Care (Ashley John-Baptiste, Daisy-May Hudson, Emily Kenway, Filipino Domestic Workers Assoc., Minnie Rahman) 1.30pm: Disability Cuts: The Fight Back (Ady, My Life My Choice, Andy Burnham, Disabled People Against The Cuts, Layla Steadman-bevan, John Harris) 3pm: Radical Round Up: With Billy Bragg, Grandson, Jamie Webster 4.30pm: The Halfway Kid 5.35pm: Du Blonde 6.40pm: Red Rum Club 7.50pm: Reverend and The Makers 9pm: Grandson Arcadia 8pm: Jeremiah Asiamah 9pm: Eva Lazarus 9.30pm: Dr Banana B2b Gallegos 10.30pm: Girls Don’t Sync 11.30pm: Dragonfly Show 11.40pm: Becky Hill 12.10am: Shy Fx B2b Eats Everything 1.30am: Basslayerz B2b Born On Road
Saturday at Glastonbury: full schedule and picks for what to watch
Charli XCX, Kaiser Chiefs – and the mystery band calling themselves 'Patchwork'…
Add Glastonbury 2025 to your watchlist. For full information on how to watch the festival, click here. Saturday is full of talking points, from the surrounding mystery of the band "Patchwork" through to Neil Young hitting the main stage, but not on the BBC. Let's start with the latter: earlier this week the BBC released their full broadcast plans, and Young was a conspicuous absentee. The reasons are so far unclear, though Young has expressed anti-BBC sentiment in the past. For more context, click here. Saturday's must-see sets Kaiser Chiefs (Pyramid Stage, 12pm) This long-standing British favourite is setting the tone for the day by kicking off the Pyramid stage acts with their crowd-pleasing anthems including I Predict A Riot, Oh My God, Never Miss a Beat and Ruby. Patchwork (Pyramid Stage, 6pm) This seemingly "unknown band" has become one of the most speculated acts of the year – but with a space on the Pyramid Stage, who exactly are they? Emily Eavis has confirmed that it's a known artist (or artists) under a fake name, with theories suggesting it could be HAIM. Doechii (West Holts Stage, 10.15pm) The Denial Is A River rapper is the headliner, and while she clashes with Charli XCX, is sure to bring down the house with catchy tracks. The BBC's Clara Amfo has shared her excitement at seeing the musician take to the stage, telling RT: “My one to watch at Glastonbury this year has got to be Doechii, Doechii, Doechii!” Charli XCX (Other Stage, 10.30pm) After her acclaimed album Brat led to many young people referring to this time last year as "Brat Summer", Charli XCX is closing out Saturday's Other Stage as the headliner in what is sure to be absolute style. Huw Stephens has billed her as his Glasto highlight, telling us: "Charli XCX headlining the Other Stage Saturday will be unlike anything you've seen before – a moment of intense cultural intrigue! See you there!" The full line-up and times for Saturday 28 June Pyramid Stage 12pm: Kaiser Chiefs 1.30pm: Brandi Carlile 3pm: The Script 4.30pm: John Fogerty 6.15pm: Patchwork 8pm: Raye 10pm: Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts Other Stage 11.30am: Alessi Rose 12.45pm: Good Neighbours 2pm: beabadoobee 3.30pm: Weezer 5pm: Amyl & The Sniffers 6.45pm: Ezra Collective 8.30pm: Deftones 10.30pm: Charli XCX West Holts Stage 11.30am: Infinity Song 1pm: Nilüfer Yanya 2.30pm: Bob Vylan 4pm: Kneecap 5.30pm: Yussef Dayes 7pm: Greentea Peng 8.30pm: Amaarae 10.45pm: Doechii <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/03/GettyImages-2197337640-d76348d.jpg" width="5655" height="3770" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 02: Charli XCX (C) performs onstage during the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)" title="67th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Show" /> Woodsies 11.30am: The Amazons 12.45pm: Sorry 2pm: Fcukers 3.15pm: JADE 4.30pm: Nova Twins 6pm: TV On The Radio 7.30pm: Father John Misty 9pm: Tom Odell 10.30pm: Scissor Sisters The Park Stage 11.10am: Yann Tiersen 12.45pm: Ichiko Aoba 2pm: Japanese Breakfast 3.30pm: Lucy Dacus 4.45pm: PA Salieu 6pm: Gary Numan 7.30pm: TBA 9.15pm: Beth Gibbons 11pm: Caribou Acoustic Stage 11.30am: Henry Grace 12.10pm: Lorraine Nash 1pm: Oisin Leech 2pm: Sophie B Hawkins 3pm: A Completely Unknown – A Celebration of the Songs of Bob Dylan 4.10pm: The Bluebells 5.10pm: The Coronas 6.30pm: Jeremy Loops 8pm: Hothouse Flowers 9.30pm: Nick Lowe Avalon Stage 11.30am: Fülü 12.50pm: Bess Atwell 2.15pm: Stephen Wilson Jr. 3.40pm: Jamie Cullum 5.10pm: The Amy Winehouse Band 6.40pm: Jade Bird 8.10pm: Rachel Chinouriri 9.40pm: Tom Walker 11.10pm: Hard-Fi Left Field 12pm: Panel — Confronting The Rise Of The Far Right (Adam Green, Carol Cadwalladr, Hope Not Hate, Zarah Sultana Mp, John Harris) 1.30pm: Panel — Saving The Planet But Not Leaving The Workers Behind (Caroline Lucas, New Economics Foundation, Port Talbot Steel Worker, Unite The Union, Gracie Mae Bradley) 3pm: Radical Round Up (Billy Bragg, Rianne Downey, Andy White) 4.30pm: Girlband! 5.35pm: Chloe Slater 6.40pm: The Guest List 7.50pm: Lambrini Girls 9pm: Kate Nash Arcadia 9pm: Danny Howard 9.55pm: Hannah Wants 10.50pm: Michael Bibi B2b Solomun 11.50pm: Dragonfly Show 12am: Four Tet 1am: Annie Mac B2b Jamz Supernova 2am: Groove Armada B2b Jungle [DJ Set]
Friday at Glastonbury: full schedule and picks for what to watch
As the festival of the summer kicks off at Worthy Farm, here's everything you need to know about Friday…
Add Glastonbury 2025 to your watchlist. For full information on how to watch the festival, click here. The first day of the festival is a typically action-packed affair, so here are highlights, plus a full schedule of how the day will play out across the main stages. Friday's must-see sets Myles Smith (Woodsies, 12.45pm) Capping of an incredible year, BRIT Rising Star winner Myles Smith will be taking to the Woodsies stage in the early afternoon. Bringing his incredibly catchy – and perfect for crowd-singing – tracks including Nice to Meet You and Stargazing, this will get you in a great mood for the weekend ahead. Secret Set (Pyramid Stage, 4.55pm) Secret sets at Glastonbury are nothing new – but for an act to take an hour-long core spot in the middle of the main Pyramid Stage, right before Alanis Morissette, means it's going to be someone — and something — big. Rumours have swirled around who this mystery artist could be, with theories ranging from Ed Sheeran – who has had several festival pop-ups throughout this year – to Lewis Capaldi, whose last appearance in 2023 triggered a flare-up of his Tourette's and a two-year absence from the spotlight. Speaking to RT, BBC Radio DJ Jo Whiley said: “Rumours are swirling about Haim, Lorde and Pulp. I’ve had some very encouraging conversations with them on my radio show and I’d say the signs are looking good for a Worthy Farm visit from each of them. If that happens these will all be part of my must-see performances: We'll have to wait and see but we guarantee it won't be one to miss." En Vogue (West Holts Stage, 5.30pm) This iconic 90s band is still going strong and guaranteed to get you dancing as the evening kicks in on Friday. Anita Rani told us: "I’m very excited about En Vogue – as well as discovering hidden gems in magical little corners." Alanis Morissette (Pyramid Stage, 6.15pm) With a 30-year career and stunning back catalogue, the Canadian singer promises to bring a set full of classics. Ironic, One Hand in My Pocket, Everything, You Learn and Thank U are all expected additions to the set list. The 1975 (Pyramid Stage, 10.15pm) As the first headliner of the weekend, it's up to Matty Healy and co. to set the tone for the weekend ahead, but the I'm In Love With You stars are known for their electric live shows – and on-stage antics. With one of the biggest stages in the UK at their disposal and thousands watching, we're sure this is going to be one not to miss. The full line-up and times for Friday 27 June Pyramid Stage 12pm: Supergrass 1.30pm: CMAT 3pm: Burning Spear 4.55pm: TBA (Secret Set) 6.15pm: Alanis Morissette 8.15pm: Biffy Clyro 10.15pm: The 1975 Other Stage 11.30am: Fabio & Grooverider And The Outlook Orchestra 1pm: Rizzle Kicks 2.15pm: Inhaler 3.45pm: Wet Leg 5.15pm: Franz Ferdinand 6.45pm: Gracie Abrams 8.30pm: Busta Rhymes 10.30pm: Loyle Carner West Holts Stage 11.30am: corto.alto 1pm: Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso 2.30pm: Glass Beams 4pm: Vieux Farka Toure 5.30pm: En Vogue 7pm: Denzel Curry 8.30pm: badbadnotgood 10.15pm: Maribou State Woodsies 11.30am: TBA 12.45pm: Myles Smith 2pm: Fat Dog 3.15pm: Shed Seven 4.30pm: Lola Young 6pm: Blossoms 7.30pm: Pinkpantheress 9pm: Floating Points 10.30pm: Four Tet The Park Stage 11.30am: Horsegirl 12.45pm: John Glacier 2pm: Jalen Ngonda 3.15pm: Faye Webster 4.30pm: English Teacher 6pm: Osees 7.30pm: Wunderhouse 9.15pm: Self-Esteem 11pm: Anohni And The Johnsons Acoustic Stage 11.30am: Our Man in the Field 12.10pm: Nadia Reid 1pm: Tift Merritt 2pm: Gabrielle Aplin 3pm: Hugh Cornwell 4pm: Skerryvore 5pm: Billie Marten 6.30pm: Dhani Harrison 8pm: The Searchers 9.30pm: Ani Difranco <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/04/GettyImages-2210992049-452a56e.jpg" width="3600" height="2400" alt="INDIO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 18: (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Lola Young performs during the 2025 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival Weekend 2 - Day 1 on April 18, 2025 in Indio, California. (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Coachella)" title="2025 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival - Weekend 2 - Day 1" /> Avalon Stage 12.50pm: Beans on Toast 2.10pm: Rumba De Bodas 3.35pm: Paris Paloma 5.05pm: Ash 6.35pm: Orla Gartland 8.05pm: The Magic Numbers 9.35pm: Terrorvision 11.05pm: The Fratellis Left Field 12pm: Panel — What Next For The Left: Politics, Organising And Power (Ash Sarkar, Chantelle Lunt, Gary Younge, Harriet Protheroe-Soltani, Ayeisha Thomas Smith) 1.30pm: Panel — Feminism In The Age Of The Manosphere (Beyond Equality, Carys Afoko, Marai Larasi, Susie Mcdonald, Nim Ralph) 3pm: Radical Roundup (With Billy Bragg, Jasmine.4.t, Holly Carter) 4.30pm: The Meffs 5.35pm: Gurriers 6.40pm: jasmine.4.t 7.50pm: Antony Szmierek 9pm: Billy Bragg Arcadia 9pm: Logic 1000 9.55pm: Optimo (Espacio) 10.50pm: Max Cooper 11.50pm: Dragonfly Show 12am: Sonny Fodera 1am: Romy 2am: Job Jobse B2b Palms Trax
As Sir Rod Stewart gets in shape for the world’s biggest music festival, the 80-year-old reveals the secrets of his post-gig parties, having to pay to play Glasto – and why he’s no longer pals with Donald Trump
Add Glastonbury 2025 to your watchlist History records that the last time Sir Rod Stewart played Glastonbury – headlining the main Pyramid Stage in 2002 – he wore a boxy white suit jacket, black dress trousers, sensible dress shoes, plain white shirt and a natty yellow striped tie that was loosely knotted just so. “Yeah, won’t be doing that again,” sniffs the man sitting in front of me. The occupant of the Legends slot at the world’s greatest music festival this year is dressed in a checked white two-piece suit, box-fresh baseball boots, snakeskin belt and statement shirt emblazoned with the image of a bird in a tree. It’s unbuttoned to the nipples, the better to show off a shiny piece of jewellery with the crest of his football team, Celtic. I know he loves the club and, 60 years and 120 million record sales into his career, he’s not short of a bob or two, so is that custom-made bling? View Green Video on the source website “Oh yeah!” he beams with a proud pout. “Diamonds and gold, mate. I don’t mess about!” Meanwhile, the Rod barnet remains a magnificent construction, an age- and gravity-defying explosion of canary yellow. I ask if his dad had hair like that, meaning as thick and fulsome, but Rod thinks I’m referring to the rock ’n’ roll nature of his follicles. “No, he didn’t! He was a f***ing plumber! No, I started this haircut... well, me and Ronnie both started it together,” he says of old mucker and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who sports a similar bird’s-nest thatch. As for this year’s Glasto clobber? “I’m not sure yet, but I’ve got the band all decked out in proper outfits. They all wear white jackets and black ties, and the girls wear sequins. It’s a bit more Las Vegas than it’s been before because, obviously, I’m doing my residency,” he says of his long-running engagement in Sin City’s Caesars Palace. “I’m up to 217 shows, which is amazing.” Breaking down his 12-piece band, half of them women, the Grammy- and Brit-winning man knighted in 2016 for services to music and charity says: “They’re all drop-dead gorgeous, but they’re very talented. And it just levels out the egos of the men. They’re always light-hearted and they keep me young – ooh!” titters the once serial squirer of women who has been married to third wife Penny Lancaster for 18 years. At the age of 80, Rod – or, even, “Sir Rod” – is very much refusing to go gently into that good night. This is one legend who remains very much a going concern. He’s a breezy geezer multimillionaire with eight kids, a fleet of cars (Ferraris, Lamborghinis, a Pagani Zonda, the white Rolls-Royce he arrived in today) and property portfolio (Essex, Florida, Los Angeles, France) who works hard for his money and still gigs for kicks. There’s a 30-track Ultimate Hits compilation released in time for Glastonbury, two new albums in the pipeline and a reunion record and retrospective documentary with his old 70s band the Faces. At the RT photoshoot in London, Rod is a few days out from a return to Vegas and the resumption of his residency (although, as it transpires, he has to cancel his Vegas shows and further, pre-Glastonbury US dates due to a bout of flu). It’s a long-running commitment that presented a bit of a speed bump when discussions began with the festival about his return this year. “It was about eight months ago when I was asked to do it,” Rod says, “maybe a little longer. But it didn’t fit with my schedule because I’ve got to bring everybody back from America.” Factor in the cost of shipping over the equipment and staging and “it’s going to cost me £300,000 to do it and they only pay you about 120,000 quid. So, it’s going to cost me.” But such is the honour of performing in a slot previously occupied by Barry Gibb, Diana Ross and Shania Twain that a personal financial hit “doesn’t matter”. And to be clear, he’s not scrimping. The band are being treated to Premium Economy, and he’ll be flying in his usual manner – “I haven’t flown commercial for 20 years.” Does he have his own private jet? “I keep thinking about it. And then certain people that have owned planes have said, ‘If it f***s, flies or floats, rent it,’” Rod says, unabashedly recounting the old-school adage beloved of high-flying rockers of his vintage. “It’s a headache I don’t want, so I just rent. I’m going up to Glasgow [in a private jet] on Saturday for the Cup Final. Me and five mates watching the Celtic pull off another treble – wahey!” he adds, the latter a frankly unnecessary dig at your correspondent, whom Rod knows to be a Rangers fan. (Sir Rod Stewart’s feelings now, given that Celtic lost to Aberdeen in that match, remain, sadly, unrecorded.) Anyway, the “PJ” is a well-earned but necessary practicality for a musician who’s been touring all his life. “You gotta get there in comfort. You book the best hotels. I’ve been to every major city in the world, and because I’m a keen model railroader, the hotels will set me up with a spare room, with a table, so I can build my models. I don’t take the whole set with me, because it’s in a room [in his Essex mansion] that’s 40 feet long. But I’ll take a project, like a building to make, and bring all my tools and my paints. It’s lovely, and I don’t waste any time.” So that’s his on-tour relaxation now; he’s not in the hotel bar any more? “No, no, I do the bar as well,” he adds hastily, lest I get the wrong impression. “One thing I do love is a drink.” That said, Rod recently found himself appraising the rider provision in his dressing room. “I looked at it the other day and I thought, what is all this s**t doing here? All I need is a few bottles of wine and some crisps, and that’s it. And there’s all these bloody things! What am I gonna do with them? No houmous, but big piles of bananas and apples! And when you think the whole world’s bloody starving. I gotta do something about that. Thank you for reminding me.” But the alcohol, including some bottles of his own Wolfie’s whisky brand, will remain. “The band have their booze that they request and I have mine. But I think why I love touring now is that we have the best after-gig party. All the girls come, we all get showered, all the girls are dancing,” he recounts, admittedly possibly not in an accurate chronology. “We put music on and we’re all having a laugh. It’s so much more fun than it was in the old days with just the guys. So many egos and drug-taking. It’s brilliant, I love it now.” The booze remains for medicinal reasons, too. “I always have a little gargle before I go on: rum and coke. Been drinking that 40 years. I never drink it any other time… The vocal cords need a lot of looking after. I mean, they’re absolute gold. I warm up for an hour, warm down for half an hour. And when I feel I’m losing my voice, I go into what they call ‘voice rest’ and wear a little card around my neck that says ‘I can’t talk. Don’t talk to me.’ And it’s remarkable how your voice will come back.” But looking after himself is a year-round job, “I don’t wait until I start touring”. Rod’s competitive footballing days are over after having a replacement right knee. (“What’s it made of? Metal. Well, not metal it’s carbon fibre or some bollocks.”) But at home in Essex, next to the five-a-side pitch where he’ll still have a kickabout with his youngest sons, Alastair, 19 and Aiden, 14, he’s had a 100m running track installed. “I can do it in 19 seconds. And the record for an 80-year-old is 14 seconds. I’ll never get it to that. But I’m trying. There’s all the little techniques – where you put your arms and where they finish. How high you can get your heels to your bum. They could knock a second off. I’m working on that.” Still, he has to remember that replacement knee, in part the legacy of decades spent performing on stage. “When I look back at what I used to do, falling down on my knees and sliding along…” Like the man says, he’s been doing this all his life, ever since he made a name for himself in the early 60s as a gifted young belter on London’s blues circuit. But before that, as a working-class lad raised above the shop – his Scottish dad’s newsagents in Archway – he paid his grafting dues. Did he ever deliver the nation’s favourite magazine? “More than likely, because my dad used to sell the Radio Times. When I was 16, I’d just left school, hadn’t got a job but wanted to be a musician. He’d get me out of bed and say, ‘Come on, you gotta deliver some newspapers.’ I’m up [to this height he indicates], and the other newspaper boys were only down here… So embarrassing! But bless him, he made me do it.” A stint working in Highgate Cemetery followed but didn’t last very long – “and I never dug any holes, because they used to do ’em with a little tiny digger”. But it was followed by a job in a funeral parlour. Well, to be clear, “above a funeral parlour. We were beatniks and all had long hair, so we couldn’t get jobs. So my mates set up a picture framing business. And downstairs was a funeral parlour, and to get a job in the framer’s, you had to lay in the coffin for ten minutes. They’d nail you in. That was the initiation. F***ing awful experience!” As for his attitude to death now, it’s best described as chipper. “It’s unavoidable!” he laughs. “I don’t worry any more than anybody else. But you can keep yourself fit. I’m surprised at how many men are so scared of going to the doctor’s. I had prostate cancer,” he says of his 2017 illness, a sequel to the thyroid cancer he had in 2000, “and I tell people: go to the doctor – finger up the bum, no harm done. “I can’t believe [Joe] Biden’s got it,” he adds. “What’s happened there? Did he avoid check-ups because he thought he could run for President again, or what? It’s terrible.” Speaking of which, how does he feel about performing in Trump’s America? “I’m not a great fan of Trump. I knew him very, very well. I used to go to his house,” he says, pointing out that they’re neighbours in Florida. “I live literally half a mile away… We’re both on the beach. I used to go to his Christmas parties. He’s always been a bit of a man’s man. I liked him for that. But he didn’t, as far as I’m concerned, treat women very well. But since he became President, he became another guy. Somebody I didn’t know.” Would he still count him as a friend? “No, I can’t any more. As long as he’s selling arms to the Israelis – and he still is. How’s that war ever gonna stop?” he adds, voice rising. “And we should stop selling them as well. What did Starmer say yesterday? They dropped the talks on trade? What f***ing difference is that gonna make? Someone’s gotta do something. What Netanyahu is doing to the Palestinians is exactly what happened to the Jews. It’s annihilation, and that’s all he wants to do – get rid of them all. I don’t know how they sleep at night.” Stewart knows from experience that criticising Trump on stage doesn’t go down too well in America. “I had a little joke about him when he had all the tan, you know, the Orange Man. And: ‘Boooo!’” But he does (literally) fly the flag for Ukraine in his set, during the song Rhythm of My Heart – “and I wear a blue and yellow suit to match the flag. That goes down very, very well.” Whether he’ll play that song at Glastonbury, he isn’t saying. But he will say that he has some tough choices to make about his set list. In 2002 he started with Handbags and Gladrags and ended, 22 songs later, with Sailing. This time? “It’s difficult because they only gave me an hour-and-a-quarter slot. So I begged them: can I do another 15 minutes? Because usually I play for two hours. It means that there’s a lot of songs that people love that I won’t be able to play – and I’ve got three guests coming on,” he adds, clarifying that they’re singers (he won’t say who) and that Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stone who’s his old Faces mate, is also coming on. “But I’m really looking forward to it. And it is a different gig. It’s like when you’re playing a cup final: you’re trying to treat it like another game. But, of course, it’s not. It’s special.” So, what can RT readers tuning in at home expect to see? “It’ll be glamorous, it’ll be sexy. Not me – I’m talking about the other members of the group! And we’ve got a little orchestra coming on to play with us. And we may have some bagpipes…”
Rod Stewart on Glastonbury 2025's legends slot – and why he's turned his back on Donald Trump
The Glastonbury headliner chats exclusively to Radio Times.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. History records that the last time Sir Rod Stewart played Glastonbury – headlining the main Pyramid Stage in 2002 – he wore a boxy white suit jacket, black dress trousers, sensible dress shoes, plain white shirt and a natty yellow striped tie that was loosely knotted just so. “Yeah, won’t be doing that again,” sniffs the man sitting in front of me. The occupant of the Legends slot at the world’s greatest music festival this year is dressed in a checked white two-piece suit, box-fresh baseball boots, snakeskin belt and statement shirt emblazoned with the image of a bird in a tree. It’s unbuttoned to the nipples, the better to show off a shiny piece of jewellery with the crest of his football team, Celtic. I know he loves the club and, 60 years and 120 million record sales into his career, he’s not short of a bob or two, so is that custom-made bling? “Oh yeah!” he beams with a proud pout. “Diamonds and gold, mate. I don’t mess about!” Meanwhile, the Rod barnet remains a magnificent construction, an age- and gravity-defying explosion of canary yellow. I ask if his dad had hair like that, meaning as thick and fulsome, but Rod thinks I’m referring to the rock ’n’ roll nature of his follicles. “No, he didn’t! He was a f***ing plumber! No, I started this haircut... well, me and Ronnie both started it together,” he says of old mucker and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who sports a similar bird’s-nest thatch. As for this year’s Glasto clobber? “I’m not sure yet, but I’ve got the band all decked out in proper outfits. They all wear white jackets and black ties, and the girls wear sequins. It’s a bit more Las Vegas than it’s been before because, obviously, I’m doing my residency,” he says of his long-running engagement in Sin City’s Caesars Palace. “I’m up to 217 shows, which is amazing.” Breaking down his 12-piece band, half of them women, the Grammy- and Brit-winning man knighted in 2016 for services to music and charity says: “They’re all drop-dead gorgeous, but they’re very talented. And it just levels out the egos of the men. They’re always light-hearted and they keep me young – ooh!” titters the once serial squirer of women who has been married to third wife Penny Lancaster for 18 years. At the age of 80, Rod – or, even, “Sir Rod” – is very much refusing to go gently into that good night. This is one legend who remains very much a going concern. He’s a breezy geezer multimillionaire with eight kids, a fleet of cars (Ferraris, Lamborghinis, a Pagani Zonda, the white Rolls-Royce he arrived in today) and property portfolio (Essex, Florida, Los Angeles, France) who works hard for his money and still gigs for kicks. There’s a 30-track Ultimate Hits compilation released in time for Glastonbury, two new albums in the pipeline and a reunion record and retrospective documentary with his old 70s band the Faces. At the RT photoshoot in London, Rod is a few days out from a return to Vegas and the resumption of his residency (although, as it transpires, he has to cancel his Vegas shows and further, pre-Glastonbury US dates due to a bout of flu). It’s a long-running commitment that presented a bit of a speed bump when discussions began with the festival about his return this year. “It was about eight months ago when I was asked to do it,” Rod says, “maybe a little longer. But it didn’t fit with my schedule because I’ve got to bring everybody back from America.” Factor in the cost of shipping over the equipment and staging and “it’s going to cost me £300,000 to do it and they only pay you about 120,000 quid. So, it’s going to cost me.” But such is the honour of performing in a slot previously occupied by Barry Gibb, Diana Ross and Shania Twain that a personal financial hit “doesn’t matter”. And to be clear, he’s not scrimping. The band are being treated to Premium Economy, and he’ll be flying in his usual manner – “I haven’t flown commercial for 20 years.” Does he have his own private jet? “I keep thinking about it. And then certain people that have owned planes have said, ‘If it f***s, flies or floats, rent it,’” Rod says, unabashedly recounting the old-school adage beloved of high-flying rockers of his vintage. “It’s a headache I don’t want, so I just rent. I’m going up to Glasgow [in a private jet] on Saturday for the Cup Final. Me and five mates watching the Celtic pull off another treble – wahey!” he adds, the latter a frankly unnecessary dig at your correspondent, whom Rod knows to be a Rangers fan. (Sir Rod Stewart’s feelings now, given that Celtic lost to Aberdeen in that match, remain, sadly, unrecorded.) Anyway, the “PJ” is a well-earned but necessary practicality for a musician who’s been touring all his life. “You gotta get there in comfort. You book the best hotels. I’ve been to every major city in the world, and because I’m a keen model railroader, the hotels will set me up with a spare room, with a table, so I can build my models. I don’t take the whole set with me, because it’s in a room [in his Essex mansion] that’s 40 feet long. But I’ll take a project, like a building to make, and bring all my tools and my paints. It’s lovely, and I don’t waste any time.” So that’s his on-tour relaxation now; he’s not in the hotel bar any more? “No, no, I do the bar as well,” he adds hastily, lest I get the wrong impression. “One thing I do love is a drink.” That said, Rod recently found himself appraising the rider provision in his dressing room. “I looked at it the other day and I thought, what is all this s**t doing here? All I need is a few bottles of wine and some crisps, and that’s it. And there’s all these bloody things! What am I gonna do with them? No houmous, but big piles of bananas and apples! And when you think the whole world’s bloody starving. I gotta do something about that. Thank you for reminding me.” But the alcohol, including some bottles of his own Wolfie’s whisky brand, will remain. “The band have their booze that they request and I have mine. But I think why I love touring now is that we have the best after-gig party. All the girls come, we all get showered, all the girls are dancing,” he recounts, admittedly possibly not in an accurate chronology. “We put music on and we’re all having a laugh. It’s so much more fun than it was in the old days with just the guys. So many egos and drug-taking. It’s brilliant, I love it now.” The booze remains for medicinal reasons, too. “I always have a little gargle before I go on: rum and coke. Been drinking that 40 years. I never drink it any other time… The vocal cords need a lot of looking after. I mean, they’re absolute gold. I warm up for an hour, warm down for half an hour. And when I feel I’m losing my voice, I go into what they call ‘voice rest’ and wear a little card around my neck that says ‘I can’t talk. Don’t talk to me.’ And it’s remarkable how your voice will come back.” But looking after himself is a year-round job, “I don’t wait until I start touring”. Rod’s competitive footballing days are over after having a replacement right knee. (“What’s it made of? Metal. Well, not metal it’s carbon fibre or some bollocks.”) But at home in Essex, next to the five-a-side pitch where he’ll still have a kickabout with his youngest sons, Alastair, 19 and Aiden, 14, he’s had a 100m running track installed. “I can do it in 19 seconds. And the record for an 80-year-old is 14 seconds. I’ll never get it to that. But I’m trying. There’s all the little techniques – where you put your arms and where they finish. How high you can get your heels to your bum. They could knock a second off. I’m working on that.” Still, he has to remember that replacement knee, in part the legacy of decades spent performing on stage. “When I look back at what I used to do, falling down on my knees and sliding along…” Like the man says, he’s been doing this all his life, ever since he made a name for himself in the early 60s as a gifted young belter on London’s blues circuit. But before that, as a working-class lad raised above the shop – his Scottish dad’s newsagents in Archway – he paid his grafting dues. Did he ever deliver the nation’s favourite magazine? “More than likely, because my dad used to sell the Radio Times. When I was 16, I’d just left school, hadn’t got a job but wanted to be a musician. He’d get me out of bed and say, ‘Come on, you gotta deliver some newspapers.’ I’m up [to this height he indicates], and the other newspaper boys were only down here… So embarrassing! But bless him, he made me do it.” A stint working in Highgate Cemetery followed but didn’t last very long – “and I never dug any holes, because they used to do ’em with a little tiny digger”. But it was followed by a job in a funeral parlour. Well, to be clear, “above a funeral parlour. We were beatniks and all had long hair, so we couldn’t get jobs. So my mates set up a picture framing business. And downstairs was a funeral parlour, and to get a job in the framer’s, you had to lay in the coffin for ten minutes. They’d nail you in. That was the initiation. F***ing awful experience!” As for his attitude to death now, it’s best described as chipper. “It’s unavoidable!” he laughs. “I don’t worry any more than anybody else. But you can keep yourself fit. I’m surprised at how many men are so scared of going to the doctor’s. I had prostate cancer,” he says of his 2017 illness, a sequel to the thyroid cancer he had in 2000, “and I tell people: go to the doctor – finger up the bum, no harm done. “I can’t believe [Joe] Biden’s got it,” he adds. “What’s happened there? Did he avoid check-ups because he thought he could run for President again, or what? It’s terrible.” Speaking of which, how does he feel about performing in Trump’s America? “I’m not a great fan of Trump. I knew him very, very well. I used to go to his house,” he says, pointing out that they’re neighbours in Florida. “I live literally half a mile away… We’re both on the beach. I used to go to his Christmas parties. He’s always been a bit of a man’s man. I liked him for that. But he didn’t, as far as I’m concerned, treat women very well. But since he became President, he became another guy. Somebody I didn’t know.” Would he still count him as a friend? “No, I can’t any more. As long as he’s selling arms to the Israelis – and he still is. How’s that war ever gonna stop?” he adds, voice rising. “And we should stop selling them as well. What did Starmer say yesterday? They dropped the talks on trade? What f***ing difference is that gonna make? Someone’s gotta do something. What Netanyahu is doing to the Palestinians is exactly what happened to the Jews. It’s annihilation, and that’s all he wants to do – get rid of them all. I don’t know how they sleep at night.” Stewart knows from experience that criticising Trump on stage doesn’t go down too well in America. “I had a little joke about him when he had all the tan, you know, the Orange Man. And: ‘Boooo!’” But he does (literally) fly the flag for Ukraine in his set, during the song Rhythm of My Heart – “and I wear a blue and yellow suit to match the flag. That goes down very, very well.” View oEmbed on the source website Whether he’ll play that song at Glastonbury, he isn’t saying. But he will say that he has some tough choices to make about his set list. In 2002 he started with Handbags and Gladrags and ended, 22 songs later, with Sailing. This time? “It’s difficult because they only gave me an hour-and-a-quarter slot. So I begged them: can I do another 15 minutes? Because usually I play for two hours. It means that there’s a lot of songs that people love that I won’t be able to play – and I’ve got three guests coming on,” he adds, clarifying that they’re singers (he won’t say who) and that Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stone who’s his old Faces mate, is also coming on. “But I’m really looking forward to it. And it is a different gig. It’s like when you’re playing a cup final: you’re trying to treat it like another game. But, of course, it’s not. It’s special.” So, what can RT readers tuning in at home expect to see? “It’ll be glamorous, it’ll be sexy. Not me – I’m talking about the other members of the group! And we’ve got a little orchestra coming on to play with us. And we may have some bagpipes…” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Jesse Armstrong reveals what new movie Mountainhead has in common with Succession
How do you follow Succession? Its creator takes four tech bros to the peak of fakery, corruption and beyond...
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Welcome to Mountainhead, the palatial snowbound 21,000-square-foot Utah Berghof belonging to software developer Hugo van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), where he and his tech-bro buddies get together for 36 hours of poker, banter and booze. Off the menu for the Silicon Valley titans – Randall (Steve Carell), Venis (Cory Michael Smith) and Jeff (Ramy Youssef) – is work chat, or anything else that might distract from the fun and games. Or as these back-slapping besties put it: “No deals, no meals, no high heels.” But as it turns out, what’s very much on the menu is panic in the markets, ethnic violence, societal collapse and talk of global coups – all of which are the calamitous, rapid-fire results of Venis launching a not-fully-thought-through upgrade to his social media platform, Traam. Welcome to Mountainhead, the blackly humorous and incredibly alarming film from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. The 54-year-old British writer’s first feature-length drama – and his directorial debut – is a scathing satire on what happens when the American “broligarchy” is allowed to run riot: things quickly get murky, not to mention Musk-y. From the outset, there are obvious parallels with how Donald Trump and his chainsaw-wielding former DOGE wingman Elon Musk, aided by a compliant, fact-checker-removing Mark Zuckerberg, have weaponised social media for their own ends. “You could extrapolate easily from Trump and Musk, no doubt,” agrees south London-based Armstrong. But, he adds, “it’s not a direct comment on that. The [digital] tools that I posit in the film don’t exist. It’s a fictional manifestation of a feeling we have that social media – and the content that gets onto it – is uncontrollable, minute by minute. This is a nightmare extension of where we are, of the hostilities and divisiveness you get from those really reflexive platforms that snowball emotion and reaction so viscerally and quickly.” Indeed. These tech-capitalist overlords make Succession’s Logan Roy (who bore an uncanny resemblance to media mogul Rupert Murdoch) look like a pussycat. As Venis’s Traam platform rolls out new features offering the ability to create, among other things, “unfalsifiable deep fakes” and made-up news footage that stoke violence and financial meltdown, the four come together to fiddle while the planet burns. What’s a nation-state takeover between friends? As Venis, spouting the deliciously pumped-up dialogue familiar from Succession, puts it: “What I wonder is… do we just get upstream, leverage our hardware, software, data, scale this up, and coup out the US?” This is a room full of white men – the lack of diversity representative, Armstrong points out, of the reality of who runs these companies – high on power, ego and money. How dangerous are they? “I guess if you were being positive, as they normally are, they’d say there are incredible opportunities!” replies Armstrong, laughing, as he video-calls from an edit suite in central London, where he’s racing to meet his crushing, self-imposed deadline to complete his film. “But those incredible opportunities mean that the possibility seems to have grown exponentially of the world being manipulated into different new shapes by quite a small number of people.” Mirroring the speed with which events spiral in Mountainhead is the momentum baked into the film’s DNA. Armstrong had the idea little more than six months ago, in the heat of the American presidential campaign. With Succession having ended its award-winning, four-series run two years ago, he’d been “cooking on” a couple of ideas for new shows. But while writing a review for The Times Literary Supplement of Going Infinite, the biography of jailed crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried by financial journalist Michael Lewis, “I just started reading more tech stuff and listening to more podcasts. The voices of what we still call Silicon Valley, the tech world, got lodged. This shape of a story occurred to me.” He admits he “wanted it to go away so I could concentrate on other projects, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.” Eventually he contacted Casey Bloys, the CEO of HBO for whom he produced Succession: “I think there could be a one-off in this. What do you think?” Bloys gave the thumbs-up. Armstrong then huddled with his “close collaborators” from Succession, including fellow Brit screenwriters Tony Roche and Lucy Prebble, and asked: “Do you think this could be a thing that I could do really quickly?” His friends were equally enthused. Or, as he frames it: “They gave me enough rope to hang myself by saying yes.” So, having pitched it in December, Armstrong wrote a draft in ten days in January; spent February in rewrites and pre-production; shot for 22 days in March in the mountains outside Park City, Utah; and edited across April and early May, so that the film came out on 1 June. That superfast turnaround was both practical and conceptual. First, it was the result of being “a little bit scared of directing. But also, quite liking the feeling of: ‘Oh well, I’ve just got to run into it and see what happens.’ But also, it’s got this queasy, looking-through-the-wrong-end-of-the telescope relationship to reality because none of the stuff in the film has happened. The president isn’t Trump; these people aren’t Musk or Zuckerberg or [AI pioneer] Sam Altman or Sam Bankman-Fried – but I think you’ll feel when you watch it that they’re all in the mix. Hopefully, you’ll be able to watch it next year and it’ll still be funny and interesting. But it feels like a now story.” It’s also a story bristling with finely tooled tech-speak and bro jargon. This is a rapacious world where to call someone a “decel” – a growth-blocking “decelerationist” – is a bigger slur than incel. But Armstrong is keen that viewers won’t be blinded by the science. “I hope it’s like Succession, where not everyone understood the weightings of shares and different holding companies. You should be able to follow this movie on the emotional level of the relationships between the four guys. And that you might give a pass to the ‘hyper-scale data centres’ and all that stuff that they get into! You should enjoy it on that level. That’s my task as a writer, and director this time: that you follow the story, even if you don’t know the finer details of AI development.” Not to overload Armstrong’s personal hyper-scale data centre, but, what’s next? With the news that his old Peep Show pals David Mitchell and Robert Webb are making another sketch show for Channel 4, is there a chance he’ll return to lighter fare? For, if nothing else, a breather? “Maybe,” he replies with a smile. “The only thing I would say is, there’s nothing harder as a writer than half-hour sitcoms. It’s the most condensed form of writing for TV that you can do. It might be nice not to think about the end of the world via right-wing politics, but day-to-day going to your desk, writing 30 Rock is probably harder than being Samuel Beckett – in my estimation. So, I’m not running back to sitcom. But, yeah, occasionally I’d like to write a silly sketch.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Mountainhead is available to watch on Sky and NOW. View Affiliate Playlist on the source website Add Mountainhead to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
'The voices of Silicon Valley, the tech world, got lodged'
How do you follow Succession? Its creator Jesse Armstrong takes four tech bros to the peak of fakery, corruption and beyond…
Add Mountainhead to your watchlist Welcome to Mountainhead, the palatial snowbound 21,000-square-foot Utah Berghof belonging to software developer Hugo van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), where he and his tech-bro buddies get together for 36 hours of poker, banter and booze. View oEmbed on the source website Off the menu for the Silicon Valley titans – Randall (Steve Carell), Venis (Cory Michael Smith) and Jeff (Ramy Youssef) – is work chat, or anything else that might distract from the fun and games. Or as these back-slapping besties put it: “No deals, no meals, no high heels.” But as it turns out, what’s very much on the menu is panic in the markets, ethnic violence, societal collapse and talk of global coups – all of which are the calamitous, rapid-fire results of Venis launching a not-fully-thought-through upgrade to his social media platform, Traam. Welcome to Mountainhead, the blackly humorous and incredibly alarming film from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. The 54-year-old British writer’s first feature-length drama – and his directorial debut – is a scathing satire on what happens when the American “broligarchy” is allowed to run riot: things quickly get murky, not to mention Musk-y. From the outset, there are obvious parallels with how Donald Trump and his chainsaw-wielding former DOGE wingman Elon Musk, aided by a compliant, fact-checker-removing Mark Zuckerberg, have weaponised social media for their own ends. “You could extrapolate easily from Trump and Musk, no doubt,” agrees south London-based Armstrong. But, he adds, “it’s not a direct comment on that. The [digital] tools that I posit in the film don’t exist. It’s a fictional manifestation of a feeling we have that social media – and the content that gets onto it – is uncontrollable, minute by minute. This is a nightmare extension of where we are, of the hostilities and divisiveness you get from those really reflexive platforms that snowball emotion and reaction so viscerally and quickly.” Indeed. These tech-capitalist overlords make Succession’s Logan Roy (who bore an uncanny resemblance to media mogul Rupert Murdoch) look like a pussycat. As Venis’s Traam platform rolls out new features offering the ability to create, among other things, “unfalsifiable deep fakes” and made-up news footage that stoke violence and financial meltdown, the four come together to fiddle while the planet burns. What’s a nation-state takeover between friends? As Venis, spouting the deliciously pumped-up dialogue familiar from Succession, puts it: “What I wonder is… do we just get upstream, leverage our hardware, software, data, scale this up, and coup out the US?” This is a room mostly of white men – the lack of diversity representative, Armstrong points out, of the reality of who runs these companies – high on power, ego and money. How dangerous are they? “I guess if you were being positive, as they normally are, they’d say there are incredible opportunities!” replies Armstrong, laughing, as he video-calls from an edit suite in central London, where he’s racing to meet his crushing, self imposed deadline to complete his film. “But those incredible opportunities mean that the possibility seems to have grown exponentially of the world being manipulated into different new shapes by quite a small number of people.” Mirroring the speed with which events spiral in Mountainhead is the momentum baked into the film’s DNA. Armstrong had the idea little more than six months ago, in the heat of the American presidential campaign. With Succession having ended its award-winning, four-series run two years ago, he’d been “cooking on” a couple of ideas for new shows. But while writing a review for The Times Literary Supplement of Going Infinite, the biography of jailed crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried by financial journalist Michael Lewis, “I just started reading more tech stuff and listening to more podcasts. The voices of what we still call Silicon Valley, the tech world, got lodged. This shape of a story occurred to me.” He admits he “wanted it to go away so I could concentrate on other projects, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.” Eventually he contacted Casey Bloys, the CEO of HBO for whom he produced Succession: “I think there could be a one-off in this. What do you think?” Bloys gave the thumbs-up. Armstrong then huddled with his “close collaborators” from Succession, including fellow Brit screenwriters Tony Roche and Lucy Prebble, and asked: “Do you think this could be a thing that I could do really quickly?” His friends were equally enthused. Or, as he frames it: “They gave me enough rope to hang myself by saying yes.” So, having pitched it in December, Armstrong wrote a draft in ten days in January; spent February in rewrites and pre-production; shot for 22 days in March in the mountains outside Park City, Utah; and edited across April and early May, so that the film came out on 1 June. That superfast turnaround was both practical and conceptual. First, it was the result of being “a little bit scared of directing. But also, quite liking the feeling of: ‘Oh well, I’ve just got to run into it and see what happens.’ But also, it’s got this queasy, looking-through-the-wrong-end-of-the telescope relationship to reality because none of the stuff in the film has happened. The president isn’t Trump; these people aren’t Musk or Zuckerberg or [AI pioneer] Sam Altman or Sam Bankman-Fried – but I think you’ll feel when you watch it that they’re all in the mix. Hopefully, you’ll be able to watch it next year and it’ll still be funny and interesting. But it feels like a now story.” It’s also a story bristling with finely tooled tech-speak and bro jargon. This is a rapacious world where to call someone a “decel” – a growth-blocking “decelerationist” – is a bigger slur than incel. But Armstrong is keen that viewers won’t be blinded by the science. “I hope it’s like Succession, where not everyone understood the weightings of shares and different holding companies. You should be able to follow this movie on the emotional level of the relationships between the four guys. And that you might give a pass to the ‘hyper-scale data centres’ and all that stuff that they get into! You should enjoy it on that level. That’s my task as a writer, and director this time: that you follow the story, even if you don’t know the finer details of AI development.” Not to overload Armstrong’s personal hyper-scale data centre, but, what’s next? With the news that his old Peep Show pals David Mitchell and Robert Webb are making another sketch show for Channel 4, is there a chance he’ll return to lighter fare? For, if nothing else, a breather? “Maybe,” he replies with a smile. “The only thing I would say is, there’s nothing harder as a writer than half-hour sitcoms. It’s the most condensed form of writing for TV that you can do. It might be nice not to think about the end of the world via right-wing politics, but day-to-day going to your desk, writing 30 Rock is probably harder than being Samuel Beckett – in my estimation. So, I’m not running back to sitcom. But, yeah, occasionally I’d like to write a silly sketch.”
The actor has left behind the privileged world of Downton to play “DCI Del Boy” in a new cop drama
All episodes of Dept Q will be available on Netflix from Thursday. Add it to your watchlist Matthew Goode is the star of Dept Q, a Scotland-based Netflix police procedural that puts a fresh spin on “tartan noir”. That twist is having a heavyweight American showrunner, Scott Frank (Godless, The Queen’s Gambit, Monsieur Spade) and an originally Danish story transposed from the source novels to Edinburgh. The dark drama has an appropriately all-star Scottish cast, including Mark Bonnar, Kelly Macdonald, Shirley Henderson, Kate Dickie and Jamie Sives. But leading from the front, as detective Carl Morck, is the 47-year-old Devon-born actor and father of three who starred in Downton Abbey and fantasy series A Discovery of Witches. Dept Q is a cosmopolitan concept: based on a Danish crime novel, adapted by an American, filmed in Edinburgh with a Scottish cast but an English lead. What makes that mix work? There are two stars of our show. One is Jussi Adler-Olsen, who wrote the original ten novels. The other is the showrunner Scott Frank. He scares me slightly, just because he’s intellectually far superior. And look at the amazing cast he assembled… Did the smorgasbord of different Scottish accents ever confound you? Only with some of the grips when they’d had a drink. Glaswegian is occasionally challenging. My brother went to university in Glasgow, so I spent time there. But even to me, when someone is drunk, the accent can be a bit quick. I occasionally just have to smile and nod. Did you read the source novels for preparation? I was told not to. And on this occasion, I listened to my director. In the past I have found it sometimes very useful, and sometimes it’s been a right pain to read the source material. Of course, things are going to change [from page to screen], and you’re going to hold on to a bit of the book – so it can become complicated. DCI Carl Morck is an irascible curmudgeon with few friends. What’s made him that way? Fifteen years on the murder squad and a divorce. But we might find out there’s other stuff from his past. I’ll be shot if I say more because we don’t know if this will go to a second series. Are you generally a fan of detective shows? My daughters and my wife watch everything. But I’ve also liked them since I was a kid. One of the films that made me think I might be able to do this job was Young Sherlock Holmes [from 1985, executive-produced by Steven Spielberg]. So, yes, bring on the detective genre. There’s always room for more. Like every good telly ’tec, from Columbo and his raincoat to Luther’s herringbone overcoat, you have signature outerwear. How did you and the wardrobe department arrive at Morck’s sheepskin jacket? We played around with a few options. I said, “It’s got to be the Del Boy, hasn’t it?” But it was funny to wear, because any wind, the jacket would suddenly whip up and you realise there’s two big, sheepy pockets inside. It ruined a few takes. You and Scott Frank go back to his 2007 directorial debut film The Lookout. What are your memories of filming in Manitoba? Getting off the plane and thinking, “I’d better go and buy a decent jacket.” Outside of our hotel it said: “Lowest recorded temperature in Canadian history”. It was something like minus 98. And then it said, in brackets: “plus wind chill”. Your last television role was the criminally underrated 2022 drama series The Offer — about the making of the classic gangster film The Godfather — in which you played film producer Robert Evans. How did you go about inhabiting his old-school Hollywood flamboyance? Once you work out the voice and characteristics, it becomes fun. But there was another role that they’d asked me about. Three months went and I thought, “Oh well, this isn’t going my way.” Then my agent phoned when I was on the golf course. “You’re playing Bob Evans.” “Who’s fallen out?” “It doesn’t matter, you’re doing it and you’ve got two weeks to prepare.” Fear got me through that. And if I hadn’t needed the funds desperately for me and the family, I would probably have found a way to inveigle my way out of it, because I’m a self-saboteur. In Downton Abbey you were a posh love interest. In A Discovery of Witches, a posh suave vampire. In Death Comes to Pemberley, The Crown and Ordeal by Innocence, posh rogues… How worried are you about typecasting? I’ve done other things! But you don’t always get choice. I know what you’re getting at. You want to have a difference. If you’re turning up with a pipe playing a Lord all the time, it would be terribly dull. But on all those projects, I was lucky to have great writing and great people. Speaking of Downton, we saw your character Henry Talbot, the husband of Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary, briefly in the first movie spin-off. But you weren’t in the second and you aren’t billed as being in the third. Why? I was unavailable for the second because I was doing The Offer. Then [for the third] I was shooting this. But I also buggered my knee, and I had to have an operation. That takes weeks to get over, so I was never going to be able to do it. And let’s face it, he was edging towards becoming a bit of a wet lettuce. So maybe it’s a good thing.
Neil Druckmann dreamt up a video game that resonated beyond the gaming world; Craig Mazin is an expert at turning disaster into watchable drama – together they made The Last of Us a TV phenomenon…
"It has nothing to do with zombies at all, really,” says Craig Mazin, the co-showrunner of apocalypse thriller The Last of Us, when asked what zombie-weary (or just zombie-wary) RT readers who’ve not watched the first series are missing. “It’s about relationships. If they are parents, if they are children, if they have loved anyone so much that it hurt, if they have lost people in ways that scarred them permanently, that’s what this is about. “There are some zombies, I’m not going to lie, and they are scary,” he adds with a ready – even proud – smile. “But what they represent is the danger of the world around us. The danger of nature. So, we do not make this for one kind of person – we make it for everyone.” Prior to the unveiling of the long-in-development TV interpretation of The Last of Us, expectations were mixed. Fans of the video game were proprietorially concerned about how their beloved characters – heroic Joel, guardian of plucky Ellie, the teenager whose immunity to zombie infection could save the world – would translate to a different medium. Culture-watchers knew that transforming interactive video games – whether Halo, Super Mario or, most recently, Cate Blanchett box-office bomb Borderlands – into engaging big- or small-screen drama was a rocky road. Regular TV viewers questioned the appeal of yet another zombie apocalypse survival thriller. Well, hold on to your joysticks... Mirroring the blockbuster sales of its source IP, The Last of Us, which debuted on Sky in January 2023, was a triumph of gripping, beautiful, humanistic and, yes, terrifying storytelling starring The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal as Joel and Game of Thrones’s Bella Ramsey as Ellie, battling their way across a zombie-plagued America. It made British actor Ramsey, 17 when they began filming, a global star, and Pascal an online phenomenon. One episode, Long, Long Time, starring Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), a tender, intimate story of love in the face of global doom, became a sensation in its own right. Overall, the nine-episode series was HBO’s most watched debut season ever. At the following year’s Emmys, The Last of Us won eight of the 24 awards for which it was nominated. Now comes the second series, based on the video game’s Part II, in which we catch up with Ellie and Joel five years later (“Happy new year 2029” runs the banner at a festive party). They’re safe, relatively speaking, in a fortified community in snowbound Jackson, Wyoming. Safe, that is, apart from the traditional teenage/father-figure tension plaguing the relationship between Nirvana-playing, sexuality-exploring Ellie and overprotective Joel. And apart from the fact that the fungally infected undead who still encircle the compound just might be evolving… “We see that they’ve actually gotten very good at this,” explains Mazin, who has previous experience of creating TV drama dealing with disasters in the form of the awards-hoovering Chernobyl (2019). “They are no longer scared of confronting a stalker or two. They know how to kill them easily, and they have patrols… But of course, while they are progressing, so too is nature. And it’s the progress of Jackson – the fact that they have to expand and renovate old homes to bring in refugees [fleeing the undead] and house them – that is what disturbs the evolutionary balance.” Joining as a newcomer, playing Abby, a vengeful militia member out to kill Joel, is Kaitlyn Dever. Although the 28-year-old American star of Booksmart and Dopesick is, in fact, an “oldcomer” – she was attached to the part of Ellie when Neil Druckmann, the second showrunner and the video game’s co-developer, was first in talks to adapt The Last of Us. That was over a decade ago, which is how long it’s taken to get this right for television. The video game’s creation obviously dates even further back. It’s earliest iteration came while Druckmann was studying for a Master’s in the entertainment technology programme at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. For an assignment, students had to come up with a video game based on 1968’s Night of the Living Dead and pitch it to the film’s director, George Romero (a friend of Druckmann’s professor). “Then George would pick his favourite and we would develop that over the semester as a game prototype.” Lifelong horror fan Druckmann duly came up with a concept influenced by that year-zero zombie movie. His pitch to Romero: “You play a cop who lost his daughter in this zombie apocalypse world. Then, there’s another girl, her parents were divorced [and] she’s lost her dad. These two characters have to team up and cross the country. You would start playing as the older man with a heart condition. And whenever his heart condition would act up, you would play as the girl. I really wanted to play with the idea of, ‘Who is the protector? Who is the hero in the story?’” Unfortunately, Romero wasn’t persuaded by the pitch and the class went with another student’s submission. “But I was intrigued by this concept. I started working on it as a comic book, but that didn’t really go anywhere. Eventually, I got a job at Naughty Dog, and I got to pitch the game again years later. And that became The Last of Us.” After its 2013 launch by Naughty Dog, “People outside of the games industry would tell me how much The Last of Us resonated with them,” remembers Druckmann. The offers to adapt it came thick and fast. But having gone “through a lot of false starts” trying to adapt another Naughty Dog game called Uncharted, Druckmann was pessimistic. “We were a bit disillusioned about the whole endeavour. So, for a long time, we said: ‘Let’s not do it. It’s just going to be another waste of time.’” Then came Mazin’s Chernobyl, the compulsively binge-worthy drama retelling humankind’s worst ever nuclear accident. “It’s material that, on the surface, should be unwatchable,” says Druckmann. “It’s just so dark. But when I did watch it, I felt like I was watching an incredible thriller.” Luckily, the love went both ways – Mazin was a huge fan of The Last of Us. “Not all games are created equal,” he says. “Some games are great because the gameplay is great. There aren’t many games that are great because the story and the central relationship are great. It’s just not as common, because it is not the priority of the medium. But The Last of Us managed to do both things beautifully. It was incredibly entertaining to play and it had a remarkable narrative at its heart. I’ve wanted to make this adaptation ever since I played it for the first time.”
The Last of Us co-creators: 'There aren't many games that are great because the story is great'
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann spoke with this week's issue of Radio Times magazine.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. “It has nothing to do with zombies at all, really,” says Craig Mazin, the co-showrunner of apocalypse thriller The Last of Us, when asked what zombie-weary (or just zombie-wary) RT readers who’ve not watched the first season are missing. “It’s about relationships. If they are parents, if they are children, if they have loved anyone so much that it hurt, if they have lost people in ways that scarred them permanently, that's what this is about. “There are some zombies, I’m not going to lie, and they are scary,” he adds with a ready – even proud – smile. “But what they represent is the danger of the world around us. The danger of nature. So, we do not make this for one kind of person – we make it for everyone.” Prior to the unveiling of the long-in-development TV interpretation of The Last of Us, expectations were mixed. Fans of the video game were proprietorially concerned about how their beloved characters – heroic Joel, guardian of plucky Ellie, the teenager whose immunity to zombie infection could save the world – would translate to a different medium. Culture-watchers knew that transforming interactive video games – whether Halo, Super Mario or, most recently, Cate Blanchett box-office bomb Borderlands – into engaging big- or small-screen drama was a rocky road. Regular TV viewers questioned the appeal of yet another zombie apocalypse survival thriller. Well, hold on to your joysticks... Mirroring the blockbuster sales of its source IP, The Last of Us, which debuted on Sky in January 2023, was a triumph of gripping, beautiful, humanistic and, yes, terrifying storytelling starring The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal as Joel and Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey as Ellie, battling their way across a zombie-plagued America. It made British actor Ramsey, 17 when they began filming, a global star, and Pascal an online phenomenon. One episode, Long, Long Time, starring Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), a tender, intimate story of love in the face of global doom, became a sensation in its own right. Overall, the nine-episode series was HBO’s most watched debut season ever. At the following year’s Emmys, The Last of Us won eight of the 24 awards for which it was nominated. Now comes the second season, based on the video game’s Part II, in which we catch up with Ellie and Joel five years later (“Happy new year 2029” runs the banner at a festive party). They’re safe, relatively speaking, in a fortified community in snowbound Jackson, Wyoming. Safe, that is, apart from the traditional teenage/father-figure tension plaguing the relationship between Nirvana-playing, sexuality-exploring Ellie and overprotective Joel. And apart from the fact that the fungally infected undead who still encircle the compound just might be evolving… “We see that they’ve actually gotten very good at this,” explains Mazin, who has previous experience of creating TV drama dealing with disasters in the form of the awards-hoovering Chernobyl (2019). “They are no longer scared of confronting a stalker or two. They know how to kill them easily, and they have patrols… But of course, while they are progressing, so too is nature. And it’s the progress of Jackson – the fact that they have to expand and renovate old homes to bring in refugees [fleeing the undead] and house them – that is what disturbs the evolutionary balance.” Joining as a newcomer, playing Abby, a vengeful militia member out to kill Joel, is Kaitlyn Dever. Although the 28-year-old American star of Booksmart and Dopesick is, in fact, an “oldcomer” – she was attached to the part of Ellie when Neil Druckmann, the second showrunner and the video game’s co-developer, was first in talks to adapt The Last of Us. That was over a decade ago, which is how long it’s taken to get this right for television. The video game’s creation obviously dates even further back. It’s earliest iteration came while Druckmann was studying for a Master’s in the entertainment technology programme at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. For an assignment, students had to come up with a video game based on 1968’s Night of the Living Dead and pitch it to the film’s director, George Romero (a friend of Druckmann’s professor). “Then George would pick his favourite and we would develop that over the semester as a game prototype.” Lifelong horror fan Druckmann duly came up with a concept influenced by that year-zero zombie movie. His pitch to Romero: “You play a cop who lost his daughter in this zombie apocalypse world. Then, there’s another girl, her parents were divorced [and] she’s lost her dad. These two characters have to team up and cross the country. You would start playing as the older man with a heart condition. And whenever his heart condition would act up, you would play as the girl. I really wanted to play with the idea of, ‘Who is the protector? Who is the hero in the story?’” Unfortunately, Romero wasn’t persuaded by the pitch and the class went with another student’s submission. “But I was intrigued by this concept. I started working on it as a comic book, but that didn’t really go anywhere. Eventually, I got a job at Naughty Dog, and I got to pitch the game again years later. And that became The Last of Us.” After its 2013 launch by Naughty Dog, “People outside of the games industry would tell me how much The Last of Us resonated with them,” remembers Druckmann. The offers to adapt it came thick and fast. But having gone “through a lot of false starts” trying to adapt another Naughty Dog game called Uncharted, Druckmann was pessimistic. “We were a bit disillusioned about the whole endeavour. So, for a long time, we said: ‘Let’s not do it. It’s just going to be another waste of time.’” Then came Mazin’s Chernobyl, the compulsively binge-worthy drama retelling humankind’s worst ever nuclear accident. “It’s material that, on the surface, should be unwatchable,” says Druckmann. “It’s just so dark. But when I did watch it, I felt like I was watching an incredible thriller.” Luckily, the love went both ways – Mazin was a huge fan of The Last of Us. “Not all games are created equal,” he says. “Some games are great because the gameplay is great. There aren’t many games that are great because the story and the central relationship are great. It’s just not as common, because it is not the priority of the medium. But The Last of Us managed to do both things beautifully. It was incredibly entertaining to play and it had a remarkable narrative at its heart. I’ve wanted to make this adaptation ever since I played it for the first time.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. View Affiliate Playlist on the source website The Last of Us season 1 is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW with an Entertainment Membership. Season 2 will be released on 13th April 2025. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on this week. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What's it like to teach an actor to move like Dylan?
Polly Bennett helped transform Timothée Chalamet into Bob Dylan for the film A Complete Unknown
A Complete Unknown is nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Add it to your watchlist Polly Bennett is a movement director who helped Austin Butler transform into Elvis Presley, Rami Malek into Freddie Mercury, Naomi Ackie into Whitney Houston and, most recently, Timothée Chalamet into Bob Dylan for the film A Complete Unknown. BUILDING MY SKILLSET My parents did amateur dramatics, so I spent a lot of time in rehearsal rooms, watching people, thinking, “That doesn’t feel right. They should walk that way.” Then I did a master’s in Movement at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. STRICTLY NOT DANCING I do use choreography, but movement direction is working with the human body to help tell the story in a physical way that amplifies what’s already in the text. THE HARD YARDS Viewers have an expectation of how people are, so actors have to convince them. I’m with the actor every day, offering ideas and changing things. PLAYING DYLAN We don’t have much footage of young Bob Dylan, so it was about investigating photographs, the music, and his personal life, and helping Timothée access that material so he can portray a full-bodied essence of him, rather than an impersonation. TAKE ME TO CHURCH Whitney Houston grew up in the gospel church, so when you watch her perform, she behaves like a pastor. She referred to herself as a tomboy, so we said she’s “a boy in a dress” to help Naomi walk in I Wanna Dance with Somebody. PUBLIC ACCLAIM There is a sort of invisibility cloak around what we do. It felt valid when Austin, Naomi and Rami publicly thanked me. We don’t get awards, and we don’t get residuals — even though people win prizes for our work.