Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-02-16T12:56:44.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Has The Archers cheated listeners with George Grundy reveal?
items: Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award at the BBC Audio Drama Awards
items: Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award
items: Bridge Farm to be brought to life at new RHS show to celebrate The Archers' 75th anniversary
items: BBC launches three new radio stations: "It's all about the audience"
items: 'Lust is a great creative force': David Bowie reveals what drove him in exclusive interview
items: The far away war
items: The Archers star Lucy Speed reveals her pride in show embracing "important" new BBC initiative
items: 30 of the best podcasts for summer 2025
items: BBC Radio 2's Sara Cox reveals why she sometimes "struggles to maintain eye contact" with friends after new podcast
items: Will Lord of the Rings be the one soundtrack to rule them all? Vote now in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame
items: My mate Michael
items: Greg James on his Radio 1 future – and meeting childhood hero Michael Palin
items: BBC Shipping Forecast announcer shares advice for Pulp's Jarvis Cocker
items: Sarah Koenig on 10 years of Serial: 'I didn't know we were making a true crime podcast'
items: Rosamund Pike on winning a BBC Audio Drama Award, her love for the medium – and why you won't hear her in The Archers
items: Bob Hoskins 'lost' radio play to be rebroadcast – can you help find more?
items: The Archers’ villain Rob Titchener is dead – should fans be celebrating?
items: "I sometimes wish I could just be a voice": Rosamund Pike on her new podcast drama and her love for audio
items: Circled in the Radio Times theatre review: A heart-warming, nostalgic piece of storytelling ★★★
items: Horrible Histories theatre review: Best of Barmy Britain is a riotous romp through our past
items: History's far from horrible at Warwick Castle
items: Strictly Prom review: "As dazzling as the dancing was, it didn’t outshine the orchestra"
items: UK’s Best Part-Time Band is basically BBC4 does Britain’s Got Talent
items: How did author Kate Atkinson help create new Shonda Rhimes drama The Catch?
items: Is Dogs Might Fly the daftest talent show of all time?
items: Professor Green: Hidden and Homeless: "I have less hope now than when I started"
items: Ten Pieces Prom review: "What the BBC does best"
items: The Brink review: "Despite its near-the-knuckle bravado, the humour is often clunkingly old-fashioned"
items: Mark Steel: David Cameron's Chipping Norton is full of lovely people

Has The Archers cheated listeners with George Grundy reveal?
type: item
date: 2026-02-16T12:53:24.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Comment
description: The identity of the Ambridge resident who attacked George Grundy came as a shock to most fans.
encoded: So we now know who lamped poor George Grundy (played by Angus Stobie) with a bottle of well-oaked Chardonnay on New Year’s Eve as he walked to make amends with his mother, Emma (Emerald O'Hanrahan). But I doubt whether any Ambridge addict who placed a bet on whodunnit is now sitting pretty after their hunch paid off. None of the main suspects who were in the frame turned out to be guilty – from one of Marky’s henchmen getting even for George grassing him up in prison to the improbable notion it was George’s younger half-sister Keira, fed up with the disruption he caused in the family. Add in the long list of others with potential motives, including Brad (Taylor Uttley), Jazzer (Ryan Kelly), Fallon (Joanna Van Kampen), Harrison (James Cartwright), Mick (Martin Barrass), Chris (Wilf Scolding), Lilian (Sunny Ormonde), Brian (Charles Collingwood) and Amber’s dad, and the scripts were a masterclass in misdirection. Yet when it was revealed in last Friday’s episode that it was Brian’s beloved son Ruairi (Arthur Hughes) who had done the dastardly deed, listeners couldn’t help but be surprised. Not that there’s no logic behind Ruairi being the attacker. He is the half-brother of Alice (Hollie Chapman) after all, and she almost went to prison after George placed her – blind drunk – at the wheel of her car, following the crash back in 2024 that saw Mick, Joy (Jackie Lye) and Fallon career off the road and into the icy waters of the Am. [facebook-embed url="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1567851714432358" captioned="true" /] Fallon lost her unborn child after the crash and the guilt almost overwhelmed the hoodwinked Alice, who couldn’t remember what happened that fateful night, and saw her turning back to her old, destructive friend, the bottle. So it’s feasible that Ruairi has harboured a long-simmering grudge against George and that on a drunken New Year’s Eve in the Bull at which he saw George square up to his elderly father Brian, whose angina seems to strike whenever h…

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Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award at the BBC Audio Drama Awards
type: item
creator: David Crawford
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Radio Times is launching its own audio drama Award, and we want you to choose the winner!
encoded: Radio is famously the “theatre of the mind” and that’s most apparent in audio drama, where listeners can be transported from a cosy village pub to the far reaches of the galaxy, all from the comfort of their bed, bath or beyond. Alison Hindell, commissioning editor for drama and fiction at Radio 4, says the best audio drama “enlightens and illuminates, leading the listener into lives they will never lead and to places they may never go. Every listener will experience an entirely unique production, and be touched in different, individual ways, because for each of us it all happens within our own imaginations.” To celebrate this transportive genre, we have established our own Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award, for dramas broadcast or released between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2025, and now invite you to vote for your favourite from a 30-strong shortlist (see below along with clips to jog your memory) drawn up by a panel of our expert critics. They range from gritty one-man shows to star-laden adaptations of literary classics and from meditative pieces on loss to heart-thumping thrillers. Chris Jones, senior director of production for Europe at Audible, highlights the three elements that comprise good dramas: “First, writing – a script designed to be heard, where every line of dialogue, every breath, sound effect or moment of silence earns its place to reveal character or carry action. "Then, casting – the right actor doesn’t just read lines, they embody the character. Lastly, sound design – treating the acoustics of an environment or the footsteps of a character not as background, but as storytelling itself.” Bear these in mind when you cast your vote. The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20 February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1 March and revealed in the issue of Radio Times on sale Tuesday 3 March. The vote follows below - make sure you choose carefully as you only have one vote. The shortlist is below. View R…

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Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award
type: item
date: 2026-01-20T00:01:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
description: Have your say and vote now!
encoded: Radio is famously the “theatre of the mind” and that’s most apparent in audio drama, where listeners can be transported from a cosy village pub to the far reaches of the galaxy, all from the comfort of their bed, bath or beyond. Alison Hindell, commissioning editor for drama and fiction at Radio 4, says the best audio drama “enlightens and illuminates, leading the listener into lives they will never lead and to places they may never go. Every listener will experience an entirely unique production, and be touched in different, individual ways, because for each of us it all happens within our own imaginations.” To celebrate this transportive genre, we have established our own Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award, for dramas broadcast or released between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2025, and now invite you to vote for your favourite from a 30-strong shortlist (see below along with clips to jog your memory) drawn up by a panel of our expert critics. They range from gritty one-man shows to star-laden adaptations of literary classics and from meditative pieces on loss to heart-thumping thrillers. Chris Jones, senior director of production for Europe at Audible, highlights the three elements that comprise good dramas: “First, writing – a script designed to be heard, where every line of dialogue, every breath, sound effect or moment of silence earns its place to reveal character or carry action. "Then, casting – the right actor doesn’t just read lines, they embody the character. Lastly, sound design – treating the acoustics of an environment or the footsteps of a character not as background, but as storytelling itself.” Bear these in mind when you cast your vote. The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20 February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1 March and revealed in the issue of Radio Times on sale Tuesday 3 March. The vote follows below - make sure you choose carefully as you only have one vote. The shortlist is below. View R…

Bridge Farm to be brought to life at new RHS show to celebrate The Archers' 75th anniversary
type: item
date: 2026-01-19T17:42:37.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: News
description: Designer Jo Thompson has created a garden for the inaugural RHS Badminton Flower Show.
encoded: As part of The Archers’ 75th anniversary celebrations, the show has teamed up with the Royal Horticultural Society and garden designer Jo Thompson to bring to life a location central to the drama for decades, Bridge Farm. Remarkably the farm went fully organic in 1984 and has been innovating regularly ever since, moving into organic milk production and running its own dairy. The Archers 75th Anniversary Garden at the new RHS Badminton Flower Show will look to reflect that commitment to organic farming and be a similarly pioneering, productive, sustainable, welcoming, family centred and optimistic space. Though it’s more recent Bridge Farm history that has inspired the overarching spirit of the garden – the sewage spill last year that caused havoc for the Archers’ business and had listeners across the land gagging at the sloshing sound effects. The plot is designed to be a hopeful front garden, lovingly rebuilt after the damage from the spill. That rebuilding will be reflected on air throughout the year, with references to the replanting of the Bridge Farm garden in the programme, some of which will then be on show at RHS Badminton. Jeremy Howe, editor of The Archers, says: “For the past 75 years [The Archers] has been reflecting rural life in the UK. The RHS garden will be a wonderful opportunity for fans to see Bridge Farm brought to life as never before – we can’t wait.” Thompson says: “I’ve been a long-time Archers fan, so creating a Bridge Farm garden to mark the programme’s 75th anniversary has been an absolute joy. The Archers world feels incredibly familiar to so many people, and everyone has their own idea of what Bridge Farm looks like – which has made it both exciting and a little daunting, in the best possible way. I can’t wait to see it come to life, with plenty of small details that will feel familiar to listeners.” Some of those details in the 12m by 18m feature garden, will include Bridge Farm’s visitor entrance and noticeboard with bunting and pots; …

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BBC launches three new radio stations: "It's all about the audience"
type: item
date: 2025-09-11T23:01:33.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: BBC Radio 1
subject: BBC Radio 3
subject: News
description: The Radio 1 and Radio 3 spin-offs were approved while Radio 2 and 5 Sports Extra proposals were dismissed.
encoded: Twenty-three years since it last launched new national radio stations – BBC 6 Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network – the BBC has three starting on the same day. Previously available since November 2024 as live streams on BBC Sounds, Radio 1 Anthems, Radio 1 Dance (which has been on Sounds since 2020) and Radio 3 Unwind passed full competition assessments undertaken by the industry’s regulatory body Ofcom in July of this year and will start broadcasting on DAB+ on Friday 12 September. The three stations were part of wider proposals from the BBC, which also included the launch of a Radio 2 spin-off and the extension of the broadcasting hours of 5 Sports Extra. Both the Radio 2 spin-off and the extension of 5 Sports Extra were refused by Ofcom for the negative impact it was deemed they would have on commercial competitors. Sam Jackson, the controller of Radio 3, says that while he couldn’t be certain that Unwind would get approval, “I wasn't surprised, because I think we made a very, very strong case. I was very proud of the submission that we made, I felt we did a good job of arguing why this was distinctive and why it would be welcomed.” He points out that around 8,000 different pieces of music will be played on Unwind each year, from a broad repertoire but with a focus on recordings from the past 10 years – even of Baroque or classical pieces – and a mission to introduce new contemporary works, including from performers or composers who aren’t signed to record labels. Radio 1 controller Aled Haydn Jones is similarly robust in his defence of why we need two new stations: “It’s all about the audience. Ofcom has pointed out that the BBC needs to be doing better with young audiences. Having services for young people is a public service. Radio 1 is the biggest radio station for youth audiences in the UK, so having stations with the Radio 1 brand offering more is a pretty special thing.” Both men are keen to stress the differences between what their stations are offering and wh…

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'Lust is a great creative force': David Bowie reveals what drove him in exclusive interview
type: item
date: 2025-09-10T17:00:41.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Podcasts
subject: BBC Radio 6 Music
description: A new BBC podcast presented by Kate Moss features Bowie and stars like Elton John, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams and Tilda Swinton reflecting on his life and legacy – plus, Radio Times has acquired exclusive extracts from interviews not used.
encoded: The chameleon figure of David Bowie is one of the most scrutinised personas in rock and pop, as commentators continue to attempt to capture his essence, like bottling lightning. The subject of innumerable books and documentaries, Bowie has also had a touring exhibition that ran, appropriately enough, for five years, and now the Victoria & Albert Museum in London is opening on 13 September a David Bowie Centre at its new Storehouse facility in the east of the city, to house a wealth of material from his archive, including notes on his uncompleted final project – a musical set in 18th-century London. Given all that, it seems unfeasible that there is anything new to learn about Mr David Jones from Brixton. Yet the BBC 6 Music podcast Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling has unearthed a previously unheard interview the Starman gave to producer Des Shaw in 2001, in which he looks back at his progression from wannabe rock star to global superstar in the early 70s, often guffawing at the absurdity of it all with a cackle to rival Grayson Perry’s. In the interview, the Starman reflected on how he reacted to the fame and success he enjoyed in the early 70s, telling Shaw: "I think that throughout the 60s and most of the 70s I was driven by lust, as much as anything. It's a great creative force. That in turn is replaced by anger, when you ask where the money is. And then you get depression, and then you go to Berlin and write really moody instrumental stuff. It’s the triptych of the 70s. Lust, anger, moody." Bowie also reflected on the differing views on what he was doing – his fusing of music, fashion, performance and art – “I think people are split into two very separate attitudes. One was that I was just this charlatan and other that I was, sort of, this rock god. There was no halfway measure. And I was rather scared of both sides!” There’s no doubting on which side the contributors to the podcast fall, including its presenter Kate Moss, who became friends with Bowie th…

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The far away war
type: item
creator: David Crawford
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Kavita Puri continues to give voice to the forgotten in her series bringing home the shocking reality of the war against Japan
encoded: The Second Map is on Radio 4 on 18 August at 11am, and is on BBC Sounds from 15 August. Kavita Puri’s work across award-winning series Three Pounds in My Pocket, Partition Voices and Three Million has illuminated forgotten or unheard stories from South Asia so, looking at the Second World War, it was inevitable she would land on the region’s “Forgotten War”. But she was shocked when she told people she was making The Second Map for Radio 4, to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day. “I couldn’t believe how many people said, ‘What’s VJ Day? Did we fight the Japanese?’ People of all ages, and people who are well educated, some of whom may even have studied history at university.” Trying to understand the reasons behind this forgetting drives much of the series. Was it simply a matter of distance? As a schoolboy, Peter Knight had put up a map of Europe in the living room of his Bromley home, to chart the course of the war. Then after the invasion of British Malaya in 1941 and the opening of a new front in Asia, he put up “the second map”. In the series he describes it as a “far away war, not our war. We had bombs falling on our head. That was the here and now.” But are there more complex reasons? Was it the humiliation of part of the British Empire falling to the Japanese, whom many Brits saw as racially inferior? Or the ignominy of the Allied retreat from Burma (now Myanmar), with troops forced back across hundreds of miles of British territory, and the shame of when brutalised prisoners of war returned home looking, as Knight recalls, like “miserable specimens”? Another interviewee, Maurice Naylor, who’d been forced to work on the Burmese railway, stood at his parents’ door in 1945 as a 24-year-old weighing only five stone. There was almost a code of silence, with PoWs told not to upset their families with stories and the families told not to say anything to upset the men. Maurice didn’t say a word until he was 61. The moral ambiguity of empire certainly played a part. …

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The Archers star Lucy Speed reveals her pride in show embracing "important" new BBC initiative
type: item
date: 2025-08-07T08:52:05.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
subject: News
description: "As someone who plays a farm manager, I really want our content and storylines to be as real as possible so that they honour the legacy of farming at the heart of the show."
encoded: On Thursday 7 August, BBC Farmwatch will see farmers taking over the airwaves, broadcasting for 24 hours nonstop across local radio, BBC Sounds and BBC News. As the initiative offering a comprehensive look at the daily realities of modern farming returns for a second year, with an emphasis on discussing some of the most pressing issues currently facing the industry. Stories to be featured include a 25-year-old farmer in Herefordshire who unexpectedly took over the family farm at 17 – leaving her in charge of a 200-acre site, with more than 1500 sheep and cattle; investigating the financial and emotional cost of farm fires in the East and West Midlands; meeting a fifth-generation wool farmer in County Durham; and 12 hours of outside broadcasting from a mixed farm in Somerset which makes its own gelato. There will also be a live broadcast from a combine harvester — with a so-called “Combine-Cam” — showing a field being harvested and allowing viewers to ask questions directly to farmers while they’re working. Harriet Cowan, the popular farmhand from Clarkson’s Farm, and Mike Wilkins, the fourth-generation Wiltshire farmer who starred in last year’s Great British Bake Off, will be presenting a live programme on every BBC Local Radio station across England. Yet, anything on BBC radio linked to farms and farming has to pay a visit to the nation’s most famous farmers in Ambridge, with The Archers on BBC Radio 4 featuring a special BBC Farmwatch storyline in which some of the Ambridge residents tune into their local radio station and are inspired by what they hear. Talking to Radio Times about the initiative, The Archers actor Lucy Speed said, “Farmwatch is a brilliant BBC Local Radio initiative that shines a light on the real stories behind British farming, and it’s something I’m proud to see reflected in The Archers.“ Her character, Stella Pryor, has been at the heart of a recent story that explores the conflict between environmental initiatives such as rewilding and farm…

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30 of the best podcasts for summer 2025
type: item
date: 2025-07-25T06:00:48.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: audio
subject: Podcasts
subject: Magazine
description: From Alan Partridge's latest comedy offering to political insights and gripping true crime, these are the podcasts to get into this summer.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Whether you're in need of a laugh, looking to catch up on the latest political goings-on, or hoping to improve your general health and wellbeing, podcasts have become a big part of daily life for many of us. Here, Radio Times runs down the 30 best podcasts of summer 2025 – from the worlds of entertainment, current affairs, history, crime, wellness and sport. Best podcasts for summer 2025 Entertainment 1. Alan Partridge: Tales from the Oasthouse Some 34 years after Partridge hatched, fully-formed, as the unwittingly naff and desperately insecure golf sweater-wearing sports reporter on BBC Radio 4 comedy On the Hour, Steve Coogan’s excruciating creation shows no signs of getting tired. Male vanity is, as far as comedy is concerned, the gift that keep on giving but it is testament to Coogan’s precision and nimbleness as an actor that he also delivers moments in which your heart goes out to his petty, resentful and un-self-aware character. Gareth McLean Steve Coogan: "The only threat to Alan Partridge is reality" 2. Heavyweight In the first episode of Heavyweight, a show in which Jonathan Goldstein seeks to bring closure and/or reconciliation to his guests whose lives are marked by rifts and estrangements, the American-Canadian humourist tried to heal the decades-long division between his father and his uncle. Poignant, bittersweet, funny, it set the tone for this extraordinary, often tender, occasionally horrendously awkward, pod. GM 3. The Teen Commandments Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox and her longtime BFF Clare Hamilton discuss the often-messy reality of parenting teenagers as well as reminiscing about their own teenage misdemeanours in the 1980s. A refreshing and rare beast amid a sea of parenting pods focused on babies and young children, the result is, Cox says, “not an advice pod”. “We thoroughly encourage people to do the opposite of what we do with our parenting. People call it more of a parental panic group.” …

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BBC Radio 2's Sara Cox reveals why she sometimes "struggles to maintain eye contact" with friends after new podcast
type: item
date: 2025-07-21T23:01:20.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Podcasts
subject: TV
subject: Magazine
description: On their podcast Teen Commandments, the Radio 2 presenter and her longtime pal Clare Hamilton discuss parenting teenagers and reminisce about their own teenage misadventures together.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What is the mission of your podcast? Sara Cox We wanted to create a place where people could go if they needed a bit of escapism from their own domestic situations, for them to see that everybody is pulling their own hair out sometimes. We also really want to make people laugh because we laugh a lot. Clare Hamilton Sometimes when you have teenagers, it feels like you’re going a bit mad and you take it a bit personally when they’re giving you attitude. We’re here saying you’re not on your own. It’s fine, you’re not going crazy. How does it differ from your other work? Sara This is a Sara Cox production and I really enjoyed the production side of it. But I guess the main difference is that, while I’m 100 per cent me on the radio, I’m aware young children or my in-laws could be listening so it has a family feel, while on the pod it’s just me and Clare having a brew – or a margarita – and no subject or topic is off the table. There are no holds barred. Sometimes I do struggle to maintain eye contact with some friends who have listened. Clare I’ve never done anything like this, but I’m absolutely loving it, being in a room with a microphone. Sara She’s such a natural that I forget it’s not her actual job. She’s a hairdresser by trade, and she’s not used to being in front of audiences but she’s brilliant. Clare I’m still doing my day job and it’s bizarre because my clients are finding out quite a bit about me now. I was trying to keep it separate because it’s a little bit rude at times. I’ll be doing a client’s hair and she’s like, “Well, I had a listen…” There are lots of child-rearing podcasts. What’s your USP? Sara There are lots of brilliant podcasts about parents and about parenting young children, but there isn’t as much out there about teenagers. Clare We get a lot of people saying that our friendship shines through, that we’re not an artificial pairing. We bring different dynamics, too, because I’m a single mum.…

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Will Lord of the Rings be the one soundtrack to rule them all? Vote now in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame
type: item
date: 2025-07-21T11:34:50.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
description: Howard Shore's score topped the Classic FM Movie Musical Hall of Fame in 2024 – can it repeat that success this year?
encoded: At first glance, Canadian composer Howard Shore may have seemed an unusual choice for director Peter Jackson to pick to score the most ambitious production in cinema history, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Until 2001 Shore was better known for his work in the crime and thriller genre, and had never taken on a project of this scale before. Nevertheless, Shore’s score was a triumph - it features over 80 different themes and motifs representing the various characters and locations, and won him three Oscars, four Grammys and three Golden Globes. And since 2023, it has topped the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame (in 2020 it came second to John Williams’s music for Schindler’s List). That’s not bad when you consider the 2024 top ten includes three Williams soundtracks (Schindler’s List, Star Wars and Jurassic Park), two by John Barry (Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves), two by Ennio Morricone (The Mission and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), one by Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) and one by Vangelis (guess which one that is...). The fact that iconic scores such as Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho and Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther placed in the 90s may be surprising to some, but then when you look at what fell just outside the top 40 – The Great Escape, the James Bond theme, The Third Man, Jaws – it becomes apparent that a few hummable bars is not enough to win the vote. Now it’s time to decide this year’s Hall of Fame – the vote opened on Monday 21st July and closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 10th August – so if you want your favourite soundtrack to have a chance of hitting the top spot, head over to Classic FM now. You can find suggestions on Global Player when you go to vote, but for some other hints, the Radio Times films team will be picking their favourites from recent films in the issue of the magazine on sale Tuesday 5th August. 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.

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My mate Michael
type: item
creator: David Crawford
subject: App
subject: App features
description: From shows on Radio 1 and Radio 4 via podcasts, Greg James continues to add to his CV — but who inspired all that enthusiasm and curiosity?
encoded: Rewinder is on Radio 4 on Saturday at 10.30am. Add it to your collection Perched on a deckchair outside Sheffield City Hall, Greg James is enthusing about having just been on stage with his childhood hero and favourite son of the city, Michael Palin. “Michael massively inspired me. I must have been about eight or nine when I watched Around the World in 80 Days, and I just saw him as this wonderful travel presenter, but then I went on this voyage of discovery and realised this very funny man was also part of the greatest comedy group of all time, and a scriptwriter, an actor, a director and an author.” The pair were recording a live episode of James’s Radio 4 series, Rewinder, at the Crossed Wires podcast festival, which featured a trove of archive clips linked to the former Python’s life and career – from his first screen performance in a saucy Ken Dodd sketch to his old geography teacher reminiscing about Palin’s school days. The previous evening James hosted another show at the festival, Nobody Expects the Michael Palin Podcast, in which ostensibly he tried to persuade Palin – surely one of the few famous people not to have a podcast – that he needs one. “One thing I love about him is that he is endlessly curious – he loves meeting new people, experiencing new things and finding out about stuff, and I think finding out about podcasts is an extension of everything else that he does.” But the podcast wheeze was really a red herring: “It was an excuse to interview him about his life in Sheffield. That was the magic.” An endless curiosity is perhaps something that could also be attributed to the 39-year-old Radio 1 Breakfast presenter, Radio 4 archivist, Tailenders cricket podcast host, children’s author and, from this year, creative director of Crossed Wires. When asked where that drive comes from, he returns to the influence of Michael Palin, “He approaches everything he does with such enthusiasm and genuine passion – I try to do that as well. You need role models a…

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Greg James on his Radio 1 future – and meeting childhood hero Michael Palin
type: item
date: 2025-07-14T23:01:57.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Radio
subject: audio
subject: BBC
subject: BBC Radio 1
subject: BBC Radio 4
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: From shows on Radio 1 and Radio 4 via podcasts, Greg James continues to add to his CV — but who inspired all that enthusiasm and curiosity?
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Perched on a deckchair outside Sheffield City Hall, Greg James is enthusing about having just been on stage with his childhood hero and favourite son of the city, Michael Palin. “Michael massively inspired me. I must have been about eight or nine when I watched Around the World in 80 Days, and I just saw him as this wonderful travel presenter, but then I went on this voyage of discovery and realised this very funny man was also part of the greatest comedy group of all time, and a scriptwriter, an actor, a director and an author.” The pair were recording a live episode of James’s Radio 4 series, Rewinder, at the Crossed Wires podcast festival, which featured a trove of archive clips linked to the former Python’s life and career – from his first screen performance in a saucy Ken Dodd sketch to his old geography teacher reminiscing about Palin’s school days. The previous evening James hosted another show at the festival, Nobody Expects the Michael Palin Podcast, in which ostensibly he tried to persuade Palin – surely one of the few famous people not to have a podcast – that he needs one. “One thing I love about him is that he is endlessly curious – he loves meeting new people, experiencing new things and finding out about stuff, and I think finding out about podcasts is an extension of everything else that he does.” But the podcast wheeze was really a red herring: “It was an excuse to interview him about his life in Sheffield. That was the magic.” An endless curiosity is perhaps something that could also be attributed to the 39-year-old Radio 1 Breakfast presenter, Radio 4 archivist, Tailenders cricket podcast host, children’s author and, from this year, creative director of Crossed Wires. When asked where that drive comes from, he returns to the influence of Michael Palin, “He approaches everything he does with such enthusiasm and genuine passion – I try to do that as well. You need role models and I don’t think the…

BBC Shipping Forecast announcer shares advice for Pulp's Jarvis Cocker
type: item
date: 2025-07-07T12:00:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Interview
description: The singer recorded a forecast for a live show at Crossed Wires Podcast Festival in Sheffield, but it seems it wasn't perfect.
encoded: Two days before his band’s “surprise” appearance at Glastonbury, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker recorded a special version of the Shipping Forecast, to mark the 100th anniversary of the BBC Radio 4 mainstay. Cocker’s version was played out to the audience at a live show on Friday 4th July – the exact day of the 100th anniversary – at the Crossed Wires Podcast Festival in Sheffield, including two discerning pairs of ears, Shipping Forecast regular presenters Lisa Costello and Viji Alles, who weren’t slow to review Cocker’s efforts. Costello was taken with the timbre of the Pulp frontman (and erstwhile radio broadcaster on 6 Music and Radio 4’s Wireless Nights), saying: “You can just swim in that voice!” Alles however, had his reservations about Cocker’s slow and low delivery: “He needs to work on the pacing. You do need to get the whole forecast out in 11 minutes.” Cocker said that reading “The Ships” as it’s known at Radio 4 “might be one of the best moments of my life”. He admitted that, like many, he used to listen while going to sleep, citing that “the repetitive nature” and “the soothing nature of the person who reads it” helped him to drop off. Costello and Alles later read out a very localised version of the bulletin that referenced Sheffield areas and beloved institutions, including the now defunct Coles department store in which the event was held. Talking to Radio Times backstage after the event, Costello and Alles reiterated how important timing is to the one Radio 4 programme that remains a fixed point in the schedule – most famously during the Fifth 2011 Ashes Test match in which, with England on the verge of a famous victory, Test Match Special on LW was interrupted by the Shipping Forecast. Frantic cricket fans returned to the match only to hear that the final Australian wicket had fallen and England had won Down Under for the first time in a quarter of a century – a historic event that had happened while Radio 4 was bringing us the latest maritime weathe…

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Sarah Koenig on 10 years of Serial: 'I didn't know we were making a true crime podcast'
type: item
date: 2024-10-04T16:00:50.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Interview
description: The queen of podcasting reveals all.
encoded: In conversation with BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed at the International Women’s Podcast Festival at London’s Southbank Centre on Thursday 3rd October, Serial presenter Sarah Koenig revealed all about her career and the success of the podcast — with 420 million downloads, the most in the world, and the first podcast to win a Peabody Award (the radio industry’s equivalent of a Pulitzer). Asked what lay behind the wild popularity of the first series, which focused on the case of Adnan Syed, a high school student from the outskirts of Baltimore who was accused of murdering his girlfriend Hae Min Lee, Koenig said: "I’m very, very good at what I do… I’m kidding!" In truth she couldn’t really pinpoint one thing except, "Boy, people like a murder mystery!" But she admitted that isn’t the case for her, saying: "I don't look at true crime, I don't read it, I don't watch it. I didn't know that was what I was making." Asked how she felt about inspiring a true crime podcast boom, Koenig replied: "It's weird. It seems an obvious way to tell those stories [in a chapter-by-chapter narrative]. But I don't listen to them, so I don't have an opinion." Does she view female-led true crime podcasts as her spawn? "No! But if you're doing it well, I'm happy to claim them as my spawn. But I'm worried at the level of crap that gets made." Responding to a question on whether the rise of amateur sleuths, seen most notoriously in the Nicola Bulley case, was a product of true crime podcasts, she was suitably appalled. "I think that's horrible. It's terrible and cruel. Anything that's seat of the pants, [someone thinking], 'I'll just put this out there,' I think that's terrible." Is there anything that she personally has learnt from the making of Serial and other podcasts? "Most importantly to warn interviewees and sources about what their involvement means. That’s my main ethical concern, that we’re exposing sources to the public in ways they hadn’t anticipated. In series 1, it felt horrible that…

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Rosamund Pike on winning a BBC Audio Drama Award, her love for the medium – and why you won't hear her in The Archers
type: item
date: 2024-03-25T13:26:57.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Exclusive
subject: Interview
description: "I'm not really a guest appearance kind."
encoded: On Sunday night at the BBC Radio Theatre in London, Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya presented Rosamund Pike with the Best Actress gong at the BBC Audio Drama Awards, for her starring role in the podcast drama People Who Knew Me adapted by theatre writer Daniella Isaacs from Kim Hooper's novel. She played New Yorker Emily, who uses the horror of the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to flee a difficult family situation and set up a new life in California as Connie Pryne, bringing up a daughter, Claire, on her own. Yet 14 years later, when she receives a cancer diagnosis, she realises she must confront the life she ran away from, if only for the sake of Claire. Talking to Radio Times backstage in Broadcasting House, Pike says of the award: "Audio is a very personal passion for me, I grew up travelling with my parents on long car journeys and the thing that got me through those journeys was a box of 16 tapes that contained a whole book. And it was an illustrious panel of judges for this award; it's very meaningful when the people on the judging committee are all actors and that this show moved them enough to vote for me." Talking further about her early years, when she first became aware of audio drama, Pike reveals that Margot Boyd, who played Mrs Antrobus in The Archers from 1984 to 2004, used to live in the next block of flats over from her childhood home. "She was my first real contact with a real actress, so she was my idea of what an actress looked like." And like for many of us, The Archers is emblematic for her: "The music and hearing that was I suppose what everyone thought of as audio drama." Given her early associations with The Archers, would she follow in the footsteps of the likes of Queen Camilla, Princess Margaret, Sir Terry Wogan, Dame Judi Dench and, er, Rylan, and make a guest appearance in Ambridge? "I'm not really a guest appearance kind. I feel there is sort of leaders and there are followers and I think I prefer to be the leader. I like to set the t…

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Bob Hoskins 'lost' radio play to be rebroadcast – can you help find more?
type: item
date: 2024-03-22T10:28:30.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
description: "Out there, in people's sheds and attics, are reels and tapes containing more radio jewels..."
encoded: “It’s almost like a national duty… in the same way it was your duty to make sure your house wasn’t emanating light in the Second World War.” Producer James Peak may have his tongue in cheek when comparing wartime blackouts to a call for members of the public to return any tapes of old BBC programmes they find to the archives, but as he oversees a BBC season of acclaimed plays that have been recently rediscovered (which continues on R4 Extra and Radio 3 in May, July and September) you can understand his evangelical zeal. Peak claims “there’s not a duff one among them”, but pick of the crop has to be Radio 4’s Sunday drama (3pm), a production of arguably Harold Pinter’s best play, The Dumb Waiter, starring Bob Hoskins and Roy Kinnear as two hit men waiting in a restaurant cellar for news of their next target, which was broadcast on the World Service in 1981 and has not been heard since. There’s also a lost 1980 radio adaptation of Dennis Potter’s 1971 Play for Today, Traitor, on Monday on Radio 4 at 2.15pm, starring Denholm Elliott as a thinly veiled Kim Philby character being interviewed by a TV crew in Moscow. Although those two were found nestled in an obscure corner of the BBC archive – in the Transcription Service, which made copies to sell programmes overseas – many of the plays being broadcast were discovered among tapes sent to archivists the Radio Circle, who Radio Times worked with on our Treasure Hunt campaign to find lost programmes, which uncovered such gems as episodes of Desert Island Discs and Workers’ Playtime, plus a special TV treat that will be revealed in our magazine's Feedback pages next week. This season grew from a tranche of tapes the Radio Circle had catalogued, restored and returned to the archive, which included a staggering number of radio plays – more than 1,000 in total. Peak explains the process: “Often these things are found on reels or tapes or obscure formats of the time, or sometimes they’ve been recorded off the airwaves by people…

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The Archers’ villain Rob Titchener is dead – should fans be celebrating?
type: item
date: 2023-11-19T19:15:29.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Soaps
subject: TV
description: Rob was first introduced in 2013.
encoded: Finally, it has happened. Helen Archer is rid of her tormenter after hearing from Miles Titchener that his brother Rob died at 9.09pm on Saturday night. There have been a fair number of villains and rogues in Ambridge over the years — Matt Crawford, Cameron Fraser, Simon Pemberton – but none have caught the imagination in the way that the manipulative, abusive Rob Titchener did. He arrived in Ambridge in 2013 and began an affair with Helen not long after. That love story soon turned into a long-running tale of coercive control and domestic abuse, as Rob alienated Helen from her friends and family. The troubling storyline culminated in 2016 with Helen being arrested for stabbing Rob with a kitchen knife, following an explosive confrontation when she tried to leave him. Villagers were shocked to learn the full extent of the abuse during Helen’s trial, while Rob continued to manipulate people with his version of events. Helen was eventually cleared of attempted murder and, now a pariah in Ambridge, Rob fled to the States. The storyline had been developed with domestic abuse charities and was widely praised for raising awareness of the issue of coercive control — MPs referenced the story during the creation of new legislation to criminalise this form of abuse, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline saw an increase in the number of calls it received. Fans took the story to heart, with Timothy Watson, the actor who played Rob, finding himself on the receiving end of nasty vitriol. He was booed on stage at the Radio Times Festival in 2015 and had to quit social media to avoid abuse. When Rob reappeared in The Archers earlier this year, in an attempt to gain access to his biological son, Jack, it seemed as if the nightmare was beginning all over for Helen. Instead, we soon discovered that Rob had an inoperable brain tumour and seeing his son was his dying wish. The storyline has been neatly balanced between eliciting sympathy for an unsympathetic character and raising sus…

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"I sometimes wish I could just be a voice": Rosamund Pike on her new podcast drama and her love for audio
type: item
date: 2023-06-26T08:00:14.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: TV
description: Pike plays a woman whose past catches up to her in a new audio drama based on the novel by Kim Hooper.
encoded: Two thousand seven hundred and sixty three people died in New York on 9/11. Yet within that official statistic are a number of people who disappeared on that day and whose remains have never been found. That mysterious gap in knowledge is the basis for Kim Hooper’s novel People Who Knew Me, in which New Yorker Emily uses the horror of those murderous attacks as an opportunity to flee a difficult family situation and set up a new life in California as Connie Pryne, bringing up a daughter, Claire, on her own. Yet 14 years later, when she receives a cancer diagnosis, she realises she must confront the life she ran away from, if only for the sake of Claire. Now the book has been dramatised by theatre writer Daniella Issacs and Sharon Horgan’s Merman Pictures as a podcast for BBC Radio 4, starring Oscar-nominated actor Rosamund Pike and Hugh Laurie. Speaking to Radio Times, Pike was unequivocal about what drew her to the role of Emily/Connie. "I’m interested in lying: characters who don’t tell the truth or manipulate the truth are extremely interesting to play - think Amy Dunne (Gone Girl) or Marla Grayson (I Care a Lot). The idea of someone using the National Tragedy of 9/11 to fake their own death, and escape one lie, only to find themselves supporting a much more intricate web of lies was very compelling. I am interested in the ways lies gather energy - which inevitably, sooner or later, becomes too strong to contain." The writer Isaacs concurs with that view about the appeal of the story: "I’ve always had a fascination with the spectrum of truth and lies. I was thinking as I was writing it about what makes people lie. We all lie. I lie. But the way [Connie] struggles through her lie is to never be the bad guy. [She’s not really bad] she’s a messy woman responding to a messy world." It’s that compassion for Connie/Emily and Isaacs’s empathetic treatment of the situation that resonated with Pike. She enthused: "[Daniella] wrote these scripts beautifully; and that’s why…

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Circled in the Radio Times theatre review: A heart-warming, nostalgic piece of storytelling ★★★
type: item
date: 2017-05-27T06:00:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: News
subject: Travel
subject: TV
description: Writer John Osborne tells the story of his grandfather's life through the television programmes he highlighted in the Radio Times
encoded: It’s a weekly ritual for many readers. Leafing through the new copy of the Radio Times and highlighting the shows they want to watch. But, if you had a collection of all their past issues, what could you tell about a person’s life from what they have put a ring around? Writer John Osborne (who I imagine lives with the weary refrain, “No, not that one”) answers that question in this evocative and nostalgic one-man show that not only delights in the ability of TV to bring us closer together but also stands as a gentle exploration of grief and loss. The story begins with John receiving a phone call from a woman called Daniella, who lives in the town where his late grandfather lived all his life. She has some of his granddad’s possessions, would John like to come and collect them? Soon John is in the shed at the bottom of Daniella’s garden, mesmerised by a collection of Radio Times, which stretched back to the early 80s, each issue with shows highlighted in the cheap biros his granddad took from the bookie’s. As John’s fond memories of childhood days perched on his granddad’s armchair watching TV mix with his exploration of the RT collection, we learn more of his granddad’s life — why Inspector Morse was always marked with a heart, why the crossword is filled in a mix of capital and lower case letters, and why for a few weeks game shows and entertainment programmes are circled in angry red pen. There’s a depth of emotion that wells up through the slightly shambolic show, but that is undercut by wry observations on Radio Times and television in general. Just how many times have we put the Queen Mother on the cover? Who on earth watched Talking Telephone Numbers with Phillip Schofield and Emma Forbes? And it’s reassuring to hear a reader’s letter from 1985 railing against The Archers scriptwriters trying to introduce “modern” storylines. Plus ca change. If you can mark your life through the TV shows you’ve watched, then this charming, heartfelt show will resonate strongly…

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Horrible Histories theatre review: Best of Barmy Britain is a riotous romp through our past
type: item
date: 2016-08-15T13:00:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: News
subject: Travel
subject: TV
description: The best bits from the critically acclaimed Barmy Britain shows make for a barnstorming afternoon
encoded: The Horrible Histories team can do no wrong. Starting from Terry Deary's books, through the TV series and on to the stage shows, the unique mix of trivia, silly humour and historical facts is a winning formula that receives almost universal adulation. So much so that after three separate stage shows about "Barmy Britain" — which have been around for five years in the West End — long-time HH collaborators the Birmingham Stage Company can produce a 70-minute highlights package with just two actors and it is still a brilliant watch. We start with the Roman invasion of Britain and Boudicca's rebellion, with a sing-along to We Will Smash You (to the tune of Queen's We Will Rock You), and the show continues in a similar, high-energy vein for the rest of the hour or so. There's a very funny skit about the Magna Carta, with a childlike King John; a brave young audience member dragged on stage to help explain the various demented remedies suggested for the Black Death — he did look scared at the thought it would be whipped out of him — while the Great Fire of London is reimagined as a catastrophe in the Bake Off tent on a par with someone taking your baked alaska out of the fridge. Book tickets for The Best of Barmy Britain from the Radio Times box office While the jokes and songs are excellent, it's really the two stars of the show, Neal Foster (who also co-wrote the show with Terry Deary, and directs) and Alison Fitzjohn that really make it spectacular. Despite having to carry off recounting the whole of British history, their energy means the pace never slackens even during the many costume changes. And the rapport between the two is evident; while Foster tries to make Fitzjohn corpse during King John's death scene, she's quick to point out when he does the wrong funny voice in the Black Death sketch. Kids will love the traditional Horrible Histories jokes about bodily functions and gore, but there is a lot for adults to enjoy too — not least the incongruous sight of a so…

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History's far from horrible at Warwick Castle
type: item
date: 2016-08-12T14:00:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: News
subject: Travel
subject: TV
description: New "knights" accommodation turns an action-packed visit to the home of the Horrible Histories Maze into a relaxing (and much better value) stay
encoded: Warwick Castle has played a pivotal role in much of British history, from the Vikings through the Norman conquest to the Wars of the Roses. It's also been owned by a rich cast of characters, from Ethelfleda, the Mercian queen who first built fortifications on the site in 914 AD, to William the Conqueror, Richard III and Warwick the Kingmaker (fans of the recent Hollow Crown may remember his role in the Wars of the Roses). It's now owned by Merlin. Merlin Entertainment, that is, the conglomerate behind theme parks such as Thorpe Park and Legoland, who have turned the castle into a sort of Historyland — history done by Disney. But not the sanitised, saccharine Disney, more the entertaining, kids-love-it Disney. As well as the traditional castle entertainments of counting the steps on the vertiginous walk along the ramparts (500+) and running up the mound to the site of the original Norman motte and bailey, children are delighted by the free displays of jousting, archery, birds of prey, and the chance to train with a sword in the knight's school. Then there's the demonstration of the castle's mighty trebuchet (allegedly the world's largest catapult) shooting a flaming fireball 150 metres into the air — go for the last show of the day for a fitting finale to your visit. New for this year are a couple of Horrible Histories attractions, which fit neatly in with the castle's established mix of entertaining, gruesome education. Head straight to the disorientating Horrible Histories Maze, where the object is not to find the centre and get out again, but to visit different eras of history, collecting stamps on your Time Passport as you go, and then get out again. To reveal too much would be to spoil the point of the maze, but it's scattered with typically gruesome HH facts, fun interactive elements and bewildered parents wondering how to get from the Tudor period to the First World War. Even the exit is fun. Follow that with a bit of a sit down at the Horrible Histories stage…

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Strictly Prom review: "As dazzling as the dancing was, it didn’t outshine the orchestra"
type: item
date: 2016-07-22T09:30:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Entertainment
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Talent Shows
subject: TV
subject: audio
description: Last night Katie Derham and six Strictly Come Dancing pros danced up a storm at the Royal Albert Hall
encoded: Yes, there is a glitterball hanging from the ceiling of the Royal Albert Hall. The traditionalists who squawked with outrage when they first heard of the Strictly Prom — or Prom 8 (b minor) as they’d prefer to call it — will be spitting marabou feathers at the thought. But if you want to widen the opportunities for people to engage with the Proms — as new Proms director David Pickard wishes — it can’t all be modernist music in concrete car parks in Peckham (see Proms at... Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park). You have to embrace the populist. And what could be more popular than BBC1’s Saturday night ratings-winner Strictly Come Dancing? Giovanni Pernice, Janette Manrara, Kevin Clifton, Aljaz Skorjanec and Joanne Clifton dance at the Strictly Prom Does this mean that the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Gavin Sutherland were slathered in fake tan and clothed in sequins? Not quite. The Prom may use the Strictly brand but it’s no shiny-floor show. Yes, there is dancing, from Strictly professionals Joanne Clifton, Giovanni Pernice, Janette Manrara, Aljaz Skorjanec, Karen Clifton and Kevin Clifton, alongside host and 2015 finalist Katie Derham — yet it does not take precedence over the music. If you were expecting two hours of hot footwork, you were always going to be disappointed. The point of the concert is to illustrate how classical music has been inspired by dance music, and how dance can bend different forms to its own devices. So while you’d expect to hear the music of the Strauss family in connection with the waltz, and Johann II’s Fledermaus overture does feature, it’s more unexpected music that accompanies the dancing of two waltzes. Erik Satie’s lyrically melancholy Gymnopédie No 1 was the backing for a beautiful slow waltz by Joanne Clifton and Giovanni Pernice, while Katie Derham and Aljaz’s spectacular Viennese was accompanied by an arrangement of Elvis Presley’s closing number from his 68 Comeback Special, If I Can Dream. It was quite a varied progra…

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UK’s Best Part-Time Band is basically BBC4 does Britain’s Got Talent
type: item
date: 2016-06-03T11:37:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Entertainment
subject: News
subject: Talent Shows
subject: TV
description: The Beeb’s new music show tries to be worthy but is just another talent competition, says David Crawford
encoded: BBC4 does have form when it comes to talent shows. Although outside the rarefied world of the Cardiff Singer of the World and Young Musician competitions, this new series has more in common with a Simon Cowell-helmed talent pool dredge. But instead of a young hairdresser from Pontypool dreaming of Cowell turning her into the next Beyoncé, we have her granddad in a band that supported the Who. And because this is BBC4, there is no huge cash prize, recording contract or opportunity to perform in front of the royal family. As host Rhod Gilbert tells us gleefully, the winner will get “F*** all!” In common with the Cowell juggernauts, for the auditions Gilbert travels around the country in a battered Transit van (so not much in common with Simon there) hearing bands who play together once they’ve finished their day jobs. The best five get to perform in regional heats, where two are put through to the final. This week he’s accompanied by Midge Ure on an epic road trip to judge bands in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Along the way they hear Scottish ska, Irish bluegrass and Welsh rock from the aforementioned band that supported the Who in 1966 —Rhod jokes they have a combined age of 850. That’s one of the winning aspects of the series, the irreverent humour of not just Rhod, but also Midge Ure (surely he’s too arty and pretentious in a mac, trilby and wispy moustache to joke around?) and the musicians they meet. As none of them rely on their music for their wages, the bands all have a fun-loving approach to it. There are no artful musos here — sorry Midge. It’s the bonhomie, passion and musicianship that Rhod and Midge find among bands that can’t make a decent living from music that leads the latter to rant about the wider industry being “hijacked by…mediocrity”. Are you listening, Mr Cowell? Yet, in common with Mr Cowell, this series is turning art into a competition — trying to pit the subjective judgements of Midge Ure, Peter Hook and Jazzie B against each other.…

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How did author Kate Atkinson help create new Shonda Rhimes drama The Catch?
type: item
date: 2016-05-26T13:38:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: Mireille Enos and Peter Krause star in the latest drama from the ShondaLand stable
encoded: There is an enigma at the heart of this new, flashy US crime drama. That it’s flashy should be no surprise as it comes from the same Shonda Rhimes stable as those slick big-hitters Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy. It has all the quick editing, shiny buildings and over-reliance on a pop soundtrack as you’d expect. But what is unusual is that, nestling in the end credits, is the name Kate Atkinson. Yes, Kate Atkinson the award-winning novelist, whose books such as Behind the Scenes of the Museum and Life after Life feature dazzling literary tricks and nuanced explorations of the human condition. She’s also the creator of the doughty Yorkshire detective Jackson Brodie, who seems as far away from the glamorous LA world portrayed in The Catch as it’s possible to be. So why is Atkinson’s name there? Well, it seems that she wrote the treatment for the series – and fans of the Brodie books will notice a similarity between the story and a plotline in When Will There Be Good News. So is Kate swapping books for the glossy world of television? I hope not as I’d prefer her to keep writing her brilliant novels. That’s not to be sniffy about The Catch — which is fun — but it’s a bit of an odd match. The series starts with what is becoming the ubiquitous “James Bond” pre-credits opening, in which we’re introduced to the hero, top LA private detective Alice Vaughan (played by star of The Killing USA Mireille Enos), as she demonstrates why she’s so good at her job — catching a conman trying to steal a Renoir painting from an art gallery. But soon we’re into the meat of the action, following Alice as she tries to ensnare the super-smart fraudster Mr X (Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause), who has been targeting Alice’s clients, taunting her all the while. It’s this game of cat-and-mouse that plays out over the series, but much like Tom and Jerry this is a relationship of co-dependency and mutual loathing/love. No sooner has Alice stepped on a rake than she’s seasoning Mr X for the pot. All the …

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Is Dogs Might Fly the daftest talent show of all time?
type: item
date: 2016-02-28T08:45:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Entertainment
subject: News
subject: TV
description: "Jamie Theakston looks as if he’s trying hard not to laugh when he announces, 'We’re going to teach a dog to fly a plane!'" writes David Crawford
encoded: It’s a question as vital as whether the UK should remain in the EU: could a dog be trained to fly an aeroplane? What do you mean you’ve never thought about it before. Well, Sky1 is here to set the record straight with a new reality show that sounds as if it were dreamt up by a deranged Alan Partridge brandishing a round of cheese. Never mind the stilton, smell the damp dog. Constructed like a talent show (The Rex Factor?), abandoned and stray dogs at rescue centres around the country are auditioned by pooch behaviour expert Victoria Sitwell, dog scientist Adam Miklosi and animal trainer Charlotte Wilde. We’ll call them the judges. The judges then decide which four dogs they’d each like on their teams, to fight for one of three places at “flight school”, where genius/bonkers animal psychologist Mark Vette will train the three remaining “contestants” how to pilot a single seater plane. He’s already taught a dog to drive a car, so he has form. The show, presented by Jamie Theakston – no longer the bounding pup, but still a faithful retriever — has good intentions about highlighting the increasing problem of abandoned dogs. We’re told that each year over 120,000 end up at rescue centres, and how the overbreeding of staffordshire bull terriers has become a particular problem. Each of the dogs chosen by the judges will be housed with a “loving family” once the series is over, and the judges are visibly upset at being only able to take four each, leaving many others to languish in the rescue centres. In subsequent episodes we’re promised tests that will reveal the science behind canine behavior and the judges are strong on explaining the subtle negotiations needed to train a dog. But always in the back of your mind is the voice saying, “But you’re training a dog to fly a plane!” So when one of the judges says, “dogs have such potential, people don’t know what they’re missing,” all you can think is, “They’re missing a dog that can fly a plane?” That will help getting to the…

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Professor Green: Hidden and Homeless: "I have less hope now than when I started"
type: item
date: 2016-02-09T11:26:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Documentaries
subject: News
subject: TV
description: The rapper's latest film is a sobering look at the plight of the young homeless
encoded: Professor Green appears to be living a double life on our TV screens. On Friday nights he’s the hyped-up judge of Channel 5’s cheesy Lip Sync Battle UK, but weeknights he prefers to front sobering documentaries for the BBC, like last autumn’s Suicide and Me, in which he explored the reasons why his dad killed himself and why suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50. Presumably on the strength of that, he’s now presenting two new docs for BBC3. One on dangerous dogs can be seen after the channel moves online, but on Tuesday night he starts with an immersive examination of the phenomenon of youth homelessness. Getting to the human truth behind the statistics — the latest estimates suggest that three times as many young people experience homelessness every year than official figures state — Professor Green gets to know a number of people who are or who have been homeless. The “hidden” in the title refers to the fact that many young people are not counted as homeless in statistics as they are sofa surfing or staying with friends. But as Dionne Warwick sang, “A House Is Not a Home.” It’s hard to hold down a job if you have no permanent address. But most affecting is the time Green spends with Luke, a young rough sleeper in Manchester, who spends his nights endlessly walking the city centre while struggling with an addiction to “spice”, legal highs of synthetic cannabis, which seem to have the effects of much harder illegal drugs. He alternates between paranoia and bravado, as he in turn threatens a shopkeeper who refuses to sell him “spice” and then, when high, takes to stopping traffic in the middle of the road. At times the film does seem like a government health warning about the dangers of legal highs, they appear to be increasingly the crutch that young homeless people are using to cope with the awfulness of their situations, definitely more than alcohol. Green is an open, honest interviewer who acts almost like an older brother to Luke, chiding him for smoking…

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Ten Pieces Prom review: "What the BBC does best"
type: item
date: 2015-08-02T05:00:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: TV
subject: BBC Proms
description: The culmination of a year-long initiative to get young children interested in classical music was an inspirational spectacular
encoded: This is a Prom like no other. A troll stalks through the audience throughout the concert, cackling witches wheel and whirl their way across the stage, a phoenix soars around the Royal Albert Hall auditorium and Dick and Dom crash spacecrafts into the Hall. There's also the utterance of the unforgettable line — surely never before heard at a Prom — "Shall we show Dick how to blow a raspberry?" It's a head-spinning multi-media spectacular that acts as a climax to the BBC's worthy year-long Ten Pieces initiative to get primary school children enthused about classical music by introducing them to ten easily accessible pieces of music (more on them later). The pieces are played here by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under conductor Thomas Sondergard, which was also the orchestra that featured in the BBC's Ten Pieces film that launched the initiative. The music may be the focus, but to keep young minds from wandering each piece is introduced by a team of boundlessly energetic CBBC stars: Barney Harwood, Dick and Dom, Dan Starkey (Wizards v Aliens) and Molly Rainford (from Friday Download) — oh, and that troll. Their energy helps build the enthusiastic response to the music: imagine a concert hall reverberating to the sound of a packed audience singing the first eight notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. But the real stars of the show are the children who were inspired by Ten Pieces to produce their own music, some of whom get the rare privilege of being invited on to the Royal Albert Hall stage to perform. First up is 11-year-old Evelyn and her school friends Emma and Sophie from St Mary's Primary School in Maguiresbridge, Fermanagh, whose composition Equinox is a violin-led piece that wears its inspiration from Beethoven's Fifth lightly. Just as inspiring as the music is to hear Evelyn talk about how she picked out Beethoven's motifs and pizzicatos for her own piece. The next contribution from schoolchildren really sends a shiver up the spine, as hundreds of kids fr…

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The Brink review: "Despite its near-the-knuckle bravado, the humour is often clunkingly old-fashioned"
type: item
date: 2015-06-22T20:30:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Comedy
subject: News
subject: TV
description: HBO's new political satire starring Jack Black and Tim Robbins lacks the wit or subtlety of its acclaimed predecessors
encoded: Meet the main characters in this comedy from Weeds exec producer Roberto Benabib and his novelist brother Kim. An alcoholic, perverted Secretary of State (Tim Robbins), a hopped-up, drug-dealing jet fighter pilot (Orange Is the New Black’s Pablo Schrieber), and a sex-crazed, dope-smoking diplomat at the US embassy in Islamabad (Jack Black). Spot a theme? It’s lewd and crude all the way. The episode begins with the Secretary of State tied up naked on a hotel bed, with a Cambodian prostitute suffocating him. From there no depth is left unplumbed. When asked by his aide if he’d read some briefing documents, the Secretary replies, “Unless they were encrypted on the vaginal walls of an Asian call girl, no.” Though it’s from the same HBO stable as edgy, sweary comedies Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep, The Brink has none of their wit or subtlety. Oh look, that pilot has popped the wrong pill while flying a highly sensitive mission and is tripping out at the controls of a heavily armed supersonic jet. Hilarious. The plot revolves around a coup in Pakistan, after which the psychotic new military leader, General Umair Zaman, is calling for the end of US drone flights over his country, because he believes they are making Pakistanis infertile. Not because they’re blowing them up, but because of some strange technology he ascribes to a Zionist plot. As a consequence he wants to nuke Israel. The most shocking thing is that Zaman is played by Iqbal Theba, the lovely Principal Figgis from Glee. I suppose having to endlessly listen to Journey covers is enough to send anyone psychotic and want to start blowing things up. The coup sees Jack Black locked out of the embassy during a riotous demonstration and taking shelter at the home of his driver’s family, and Tim Robbins stuck in the White House Situation Room trying to hold off hawkish generals wanting to launch a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan, while nursing a terrible hangover. The scenes in the Situation Room are the best and …

Mark Steel: David Cameron's Chipping Norton is full of lovely people
type: item
date: 2015-05-18T14:40:00.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: Comedy
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: TV
subject: audio
description: As his award-winning Radio 4 show returns, the comedian reveals why he's as rude as possible and meets a pool-playing dog
encoded: Interviewing a famously left-wing comedian two days after an election that returned the first Conservative majority government in 18 years is not likely to be an upbeat affair. It doesn’t begin well. “I feel utterly, utterly foul, so let’s start from there,” is Mark’s opening gambit and a question about whether he thought the election coverage was biased is given short shrift – “I think it’s fairly obvious what I’m going to say on that, that’s probably for a different interview.” Fair enough. We’re supposed to be talking about his Radio 4 series, Mark Steel’s in Town, which he is more than happy to do. During our phone conversation, he jumps in and out of cars and hides in doorways from blustery winds in an effort to carry on chatting. In the series he travels to various towns around the UK, does a ton of research and turns that into a one-hour stand-up show (edited to 30 minutes for radio), in which he, well, takes the mickey out of the place. He’s been doing it for six years and the series has won multiple Sony awards, but still he worries about how the locals will react. “Every single show, I look at the script before I go on and think, I can’t possibly get away with saying this, it’s so rude about their town.” But it seems he has hit upon a winning formula: “The ruder I am, the more they like it!” That approach is not without its hazards. When the show went to the Isle of Man, Mark’s opening line – “It’s great to be in place that’s positive. Because you’ve had the sense to invest in the one remaining boom industry...fiddling tax” – was met by a resounding chorus of boos from the audience. His response? “Well, I’m afraid there’s another hour of that, so you’re going to have to live with it.” Luckily, the Manx men and women seemed happy with that. So how does Mark get away with rocking up to a place and putting on a show where he’s basically pointing a finger and saying, “Look at this place, it’s a bit weird isn’t it”? Firstly, he arrives up to three weeks before …