Add A Thousand Blows to your watchlist. Series 2 will be available on Disney+ from 9 January 2026 A Thousand Blows, set in Victorian east London, is a lavish production involving dozens of supporting artists, not to mention horse-drawn carriages and tightly choreographed bare-knuckle boxing scenes. So you might expect executive producer Hannah Walters to have found the shoot for series two stressful. But she insists that being on set with her husband Stephen Graham, who plays boxer Sugar Goodson, and Erin Doherty, who plays Mary Carr, the head of a band of female thieves dubbed the 40 Elephants, was full of laughter. “Steve and I work together a lot and he says I do the grown-up stuff,” she says. “But when I’m on set, the grown-up stuff can wait. I want us all to skip into work.” Walters had the idea for A Thousand Blows after seeing a picture of the third lead character, Hezekiah Moscow, played by Malachi Kirby. “The picture was mesmerising,” she recalls, “so I delved into the history of this guy who’d come to England from Jamaica to be a lion tamer. Then we discovered the Goodson brothers and the Elephants, who also lived in that world. “I wanted Steven Knight to write it — my Steve had worked with him on Peaky Blinders and other things, so it was a match made in heaven,” says Walters, who also stars as a thief called Eliza Moody. A Thousand Blows is one of a string of successes for Matriarch, the production company Walters and Graham run together, which also made Adolescence and Boiling Point. “It’s been a nonstop rollercoaster, a glorious one that we’ve not wanted to get off. But Steve and I are very good at looking at each other and going, ‘We’ve done it, kid.’ It’s a happy marriage and a happy working marriage, and we’re very thankful for it all.”
The star of Wicked: For Good on tickling the ivories, sobbing in the cinema — and why he loves us Brits
Add Wicked: For Good to your watchlist Known for starring in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, The Fly and Independence Day, Jeff Goldblum’s latest role sees him playing one of the most famous characters in film: the Wizard of Oz. He first appeared as the charlatan using smoke and mirrors to rule the Emerald City in last year’s Oscar-winning movie Wicked, an origin story based on the West End and Broadway musical. Now, Goldblum is reprising his role for the sequel Wicked: for Good. Were you a fan of the original 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, or the theatrical version of Wicked, before getting this role? That movie has slayed me since I was a kid. Those songs, and the way Judy Garland sings them: she was so gifted. It’s a foundational fairy tale, and there’s something about that phrase, “There’s no place like home” – which maybe means your subconscious life, or your dream life – it grabs the heck out of me. I saw the Broadway show 20 years ago and I was already mushy just seeing the pictures in the lobby. By the end, I was a mess. You have a fantastic set piece in the new film, singing and dancing with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who play Elphaba and Glinda. Was that fun to do? So much fun. I’ve seen a lot of movies made of musicals, and you can really go wrong, but with that number the thrill of a stage show is mashed with cinematic, naturalistic acting and storytelling in a way that I’ve never seen before. The fans will go wild for it, but also I think it has a degree of difficulty – as they say in Olympic gymnastics – that may be underappreciated. Were you nervous about performing with two hugely successful professional singers? There’s a responsibility and some nerves. Everybody cares so much about this phenomenon of a show. It wasn’t the easiest thing to make into a movie, but they found something that hit the bullseye, and people love it so much, so I was very conscientious. I’m always bushy-tailed about acting, but on this one especially, you really don’t want to let the side down. You’re a very musical person, though, aren’t you? I play piano every day of my life, and I’ve snuck it into some movies, and now I play in a jazz band as often as we can. We’ve played at Glastonbury, Ronnie Scott’s [in London]… and we’re on our fourth album. I was on The Graham Norton Show a few years back, the great Gregory Porter was a guest and he asked if I wanted to play piano for him, so I did. I read that you made friends with Stephen Fry, too. Do you like British people? I’m enamoured of them. My first job was The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, of course. I was in The Tall Guy, which was Emma Thompson’s first movie. Jurassic World: Dominion was shot here. I’ve read all of PG Wodehouse and I met Dudley Moore once. I have a lot of connections and I’m definitely an Anglophile. Your Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey has been named People magazine’s “sexiest man alive”. Back in the day, you were well known for taking part in sexy photoshoots, with your shirt unbuttoned to your navel — have you passed the baton on to him? No, I never had the baton. My humility doesn’t allow me to accept that. Possibly I may be to some people’s taste, but I sit at his feet, he’s a sex god. I have no competition with Jonathan Bailey at all – or anybody for that matter. You’re still the world’s coolest man, though… Well, what is cool? I know I’ve had a fun time playing scientists. Scientists at one time would have been considered uncool, but my dad was a doctor and I always admired that expertise, so it was kind of fun for me to go, “Hey, maybe I can bring some jazz to this.” I don’t try to be cool, but the coolness of jazz thrills me. A lot of people talk about how nice you are in real life — but would you ever like to play someone really bad? Well, I played the devil [in Mister Frost], but I guess he had a bit of jazz hands, huh? I don’t know, I just like to play characters who think and do things that are different from my own personality. But I think my character as the Wizard of Oz is neither all good nor bad. Everybody’s a little complicated. You starred in the drama series Kaos last year, but it has been cancelled by Netflix. Were you disappointed? You never know when something is ready for its time. Martin Scorsese says that some of his movies worked, some didn’t, and it may have been the wrong time, who knows? I liked what we did. I had a ball, and I liked that character and I think we made something good. You have a great CV, but is there still a role on your bucket list? I’m sure there are many parts. There are directors I have a big appetite to work with. A lot of female directors are having a moment: Jane Campion, Lynne Ramsay, Sofia Coppola, Rebecca Miller. I feel like my best work is ahead of me, if I’m lucky enough to get an opportunity or two. I seem to be in a fertile state – unexpectedly, deliciously and gratefully.
Wicked star Jeff Goldblum dishes on working with "sex god" Jonathan Bailey and reacts to Netflix's Kaos cancellation
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Known for starring in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, The Fly and Independence Day, Jeff Goldblum’s latest role sees him playing one of the most famous characters in film: the Wizard of Oz. He first appeared as the charlatan using smoke and mirrors to rule the Emerald City in last year’s Oscar-winning movie Wicked, an origin story based on the West End and Broadway musical. Now, Goldblum is reprising his role for the sequel Wicked: For Good. Were you a fan of the original 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, or the theatrical version of Wicked, before getting this role? That movie has slayed me since I was a kid. Those songs, and the way Judy Garland sings them: she was so gifted. It’s a foundational fairy tale, and there’s something about that phrase, “There’s no place like home” – which maybe means your subconscious life, or your dream life – it grabs the heck out of me. I saw the Broadway show 20 years ago and I was already mushy just seeing the pictures in the lobby. By the end, I was a mess. You have a fantastic set piece in the new film, singing and dancing with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who play Elphaba and Glinda. Was that fun to do? So much fun. I’ve seen a lot of movies made of musicals, and you can really go wrong, but with that number the thrill of a stage show is mashed with cinematic, naturalistic acting and storytelling in a way that I’ve never seen before. The fans will go wild for it, but also I think it has a degree of difficulty –as they say in Olympic gymnastics – that may be underappreciated. Were you nervous about performing with two hugely successful professional singers? There’s a responsibility and some nerves. Everybody cares so much about this phenomenon of a show. It wasn’t the easiest thing to make into a movie, but they found something that hit the bullseye, and people love it so much, so I was very conscientious. I’m always bushy-tailed about acting, but on this one especially, you really don’t want to let the side down. You’re a very musical person, though, aren’t you? I play piano every day of my life, and I’ve snuck it into some movies, and now I play in a jazz band as often as we can. We’ve played at Glastonbury, Ronnie Scott’s [in London]… and we’re on our fourth album. I was on The Graham Norton Show a few years back, the great Gregory Porter was a guest and he asked if I wanted to play piano for him, so I did. I read that you made friends with Stephen Fry, too. Do you like British people? I’m enamoured of them. My first job was The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, of course. I was in The Tall Guy, which was Emma Thompson’s first movie. Jurassic World: Dominion was shot here. I’ve read all of PG Wodehouse and I met Dudley Moore once. I have a lot of connections and I’m definitely an Anglophile. Your Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey has been named People magazine’s “sexiest man alive”. Back in the day, you were well known for taking part in sexy photoshoots, with your shirt unbuttoned to your navel — have you passed the baton on to him? No, I never had the baton. My humility doesn’t allow me to accept that. Possibly I may be to some people’s taste, but I sit at his feet, he’s a sex god. I have no competition with Jonathan Bailey at all – or anybody for that matter. You’re still the world’s coolest man, though… Well, what is cool? I know I’ve had a fun time playing scientists. Scientists at one time would have been considered uncool, but my dad was a doctor and I always admired that expertise, so it was kind of fun for me to go, “Hey, maybe I can bring some jazz to this.” I don’t try to be cool, but the coolness of jazz thrills me. A lot of people talk about how nice you are in real life – but would you ever like to play someone really bad? Well, I played the devil [in Mister Frost], but I guess he had a bit of jazz hands, huh? I don’t know, I just like to play characters who think and do things that are different from my own personality. But I think my character as the Wizard of Oz is neither all good nor bad. Everybody’s a little complicated. You starred in the drama series Kaos last year, but it has been cancelled by Netflix. Were you disappointed? You never know when something is ready for its time. Martin Scorsese says that some of his movies worked, some didn’t, and it may have been the wrong time, who knows? I liked what we did. I had a ball, and I liked that character and I think we made something good. You have a great CV, but is there still a role on your bucket list? I’m sure there are many parts. There are directors I have a big appetite to work with. A lot of female directors are having a moment: Jane Campion, Lynne Ramsay, Sofia Coppola, Rebecca Miller. I feel like my best work is ahead of me, if I’m lucky enough to get an opportunity or two. I seem to be in a fertile state – unexpectedly, deliciously and gratefully. The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Saturday – subscribe here. Wicked: Part I is available to stream on Prime Video. Wicked: For Good is currently showing in UK cinemas. Add Wicked: Part I 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. 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David Duchovny plays a family man under threat in Malice. But it wasn’t just the script that drew him to the role…
Add Malice to your watchlist X-Files and Californication star David Duchovny might seem an odd on-screen pairing with UK comedian Jack Whitehall — but the Hollywood stalwart is a bit of an Anglophile, especially when it comes to TV and British jokes. “People don’t expect me to be as sarcastic as I am,” he says. “I’m more deadpan than most English people. I love British humour and television.” Beyond that, he would have originally said he was drawn to the part of Tanner patriarch Jamie for the usual actorly reasons — a great script, the concept, so on and so forth, darling. But now, he’s ready to come clean. “I’d be lying if I said coming to Greece wasn’t part of the reason, because I’ve never been here,” he admits. “Greece has figured prominently in my thinking my entire life. I loved Greek mythology as a kid; it’s the whole basis of Western civilization, thought, literature, poetry and music. But I also liked that the script was kind of a Ripley, where you know who the bad guy is all along, but the thrill is wondering when he’s going to get caught.” Interestingly, Duchovny was also drawing on his own experiences to play the part, having had a real-life male nanny — not a psychopath, he’s keen to emphasise — to care for his children. “Having a manny is a different dynamic,” he says. “Our manny was super macho, so it was like having a competitor in the house, and that’s what this is. “It’s fascinating. We invite these strangers into our lives in the most vulnerable sense by asking them to take care of our children. There have been horror movies about that, so it’s ripe for that interesting psychological treatment.”
James Wood created Malice with his star in mind
Add Malice to your watchlist Malice writer James Wood is best known for creating Rev, the award-winning BBC comedy starring Tom Hollander as a vicar in a deprived parish in east London. On that project, he worked closely with Hollander to create the part of Adam Smallbone — similarly, he wrote Malice with Jack Whitehall very much in mind. “I loved writing Rev for Tom,” says Wood. “We’d go and meet priests together. If you’re with the right person and your sensibilities match, it’s a lovely way to work. “I’ve always enjoyed building a role with and for a particular actor and in Malice Jack was involved in some of the early script meetings. “After we had the idea of a psychopathic manny, we all thought Jack was perfect because he’s charming and funny and would entertain your kids. And wouldn’t it be entertaining to see Jack play a sociopath?” <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/Jack-Whitehall-Malice-0603219.jpg" width="1909" height="1273" alt="Two men stand facing each other in a tense confrontation inside a modern, softly lit room. One man, wearing a blue polo shirt, leans slightly against the wall while speaking; the other, in a light green collared shirt, listens intently. The setting features neutral décor, wicker furniture, and a large window in the background." title="Malice" /> Given that Whitehall is best known for stand-up, was Wood worried about whether audiences would buy him as a terrifying presence in a psychological drama? “There’s a rich tradition of comedy performers playing against type,” he says. “Robin Williams did it incredibly well, as did Peter Sellers. The trick is to make something that feels emotionally honest, but entertaining and fresh. “There’s a version of Malice that could have had an established drama star playing Adam, and it would have been good, but with Jack I think it really pops. Also, there’s something about our era that loves stories about liars, whether it be The Tinder Swindler, Baby Reindeer or Traitors.”
Being a new dad is just one challenge for Jack Whitehall – in ,Malice, the comedian plays an unhinged “manny”
Add Malice to your watchlist For most parents, having a child involves a soundtrack of nursery rhymes, CBeebies and soothing music. But while comedian Jack Whitehall was bonding with newborn daughter Elsie, he was also preparing to play the psychopathic male nanny to a super-rich family in the thriller Malice. That’s not in the baby books. It led to an odd juxtaposition at home with his fiancée Roxy Horner, as he researched characters who are outwardly charming before revealing themselves to be dangerously insane. “The run-up to rehearsals was a strange time,” he explains. “I was in this blissful bubble with the baby but also trying to prepare for this part. “One day Roxy came down and I was watching Psycho with Elsie. She was probably a bit young to be watching Anthony Perkins doing his thing but she was tiny, so I got away with it! “About two weeks after Elsie was born, James [Wood, the show’s writer] brought me a book about a French serial killer, along with some flowers – ‘That’s a lovely baby, congratulations, here’s a story about a man who kills his entire family.’ That was my reading material during the first month of fatherhood.” And his preparation extended beyond reading and watching films. In Malice, the Tanner family, headed by Jamie and Nat (David Duchovny and Carice van Houten) fall for Adam’s charms when they meet him at their holiday home in Greece and, as such, Whitehall had to learn to cook, mix cocktails, dance and swim convincingly. “Adam’s very good at everything, and that’s been one of the major challenges!” Whitehall laughs. “I’m used to playing quite incapable characters, which is much easier.” As the series unfolds, it becomes clear that Adam isn’t what he first appears to be and, for reasons that don’t become clear until the final episode, he is determined to infiltrate and destroy the family. For Whitehall, 37, playing a charismatic villain was a dream role. Born to parents Michael, a theatre agent, and Hilary, an actor, and having Nigel Havers and Richard Griffiths as godfathers, he says he was always “completely obsessed” with becoming an actor. But, despite a handful of small TV parts as a child, he felt his talents weren’t enough to sustain a career and found himself moving towards stand-up comedy instead. Aged just 21, he was named Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for his debut show, and went on to win a string of plaudits, including being named ‘One to Watch’ by Hollywood bible Variety. He has since acted – notably as posh student JP in Channel 4’s sitcom Fresh Meat, and in Bad Education, which he co-created and co-wrote – but has always hankered after a part like Adam. “Growing up on a diet of American movies from the 80s and 90s, it was always the British actor stealing the scenes as the villain. I was obsessed with Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood. Malice is a totally different genre, but there’s part of you that wants Adam to succeed in ruining this family, because they’re so garish and their life is so charming. “It’s quite fun to see him messing with them, even if he does go a little bit over the top. You’re like, ‘You could have stopped at the mischievous high-jinks bit, you didn’t have to totally blow everything apart.’” Filmed partly on location in Paros, Greece, where the Tanners have a luxurious white-washed villa, Malice is easy on the eye. In that regard it’s already drawn comparisons to hit US drama The White Lotus, which has a similar mix of drama, crime, and humour. “There are a lot of really opulent settings on TV these days,” says Whitehall, “and people like watching that. Equally, part of the fun is watching privileged people being really put through the wringer. “Mike White [White Lotus writer] has written a lot in the comedy space as well as drama, and he’s able to marry those things expertly. Then there’s Jesse Armstrong, who’s gone from Peep Show to Succession: an amazing drama with humorous moments and funny characters. Increasingly there’s a blurred line between comedy and drama, which is reflective of life.” Alongside his own move into drama, Whitehall is also keeping his hand in with comedy. His stand-up tours remain sold out, and he’s had huge success with shows such as A League of Their Own. “I started out in comedy when I was 17,” he says, “which is a long time doing one thing. As fun as it is, you do constantly need new challenges, and that’s why I loved getting the opportunity to do this. “I’m currently writing a sitcom, and working on a couple of movies with writers: one is a broader comedy, the other is more dramatic. I just want to be able to do a wide variety of things and keep finding new challenges.” Balancing work and fatherhood is, of course, just one of them. In Greece, Whitehall was joined by Roxy and Elsie as he filmed scenes that involved Adam increasingly tightening the noose on the Tanners – from isolated incidents of cruelty to animals and creepy meddling to full-blown acts of revenge. “It’s been strange filming quite brutal material and then coming home and putting the baby to bed,” he says. “There are definitely worse places to be shooting, though. They were all too willing to come out and support Daddy playing a psychopath!”
Jack Whitehall talks his dark new psychopath role and his plans for an all-new sitcom
Jack Whitehall swaps baby bottles for bloodcurdling thrills as he plays a charmingly unhinged nanny in Malice — a dark new twist on family life.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. For most parents, having a child involves a soundtrack of nursery rhymes, CBeebies and soothing music. But while comedian Jack Whitehall was bonding with newborn daughter Elsie, he was also preparing to play the psychopathic male nanny to a super-rich family in the thriller Malice. That’s not in the baby books. It led to an odd juxtaposition at home with his fiancée Roxy Horner, as he researched characters who are outwardly charming before revealing themselves to be dangerously insane. "The run-up to rehearsals was a strange time," he explains. "I was in this blissful bubble with the baby but also trying to prepare for this part. "One day Roxy came down and I was watching Psycho with Elsie. She was probably a bit young to be watching Anthony Perkins doing his thing but she was tiny, so I got away with it! "About two weeks after Elsie was born, James [Wood, the show’s writer] brought me a book about a French serial killer, along with some flowers – 'That’s a lovely baby, congratulations, here’s a story about a man who kills his entire family.' That was my reading material during the first month of fatherhood." And his preparation extended beyond reading and watching films. In Malice, the Tanner family, headed by Jamie and Nat (David Duchovny and Carice van Houten) fall for Adam’s charms when they meet him at their holiday home in Greece and, as such, Whitehall had to learn to cook, mix cocktails, dance and swim convincingly. "Adam’s very good at everything, and that’s been one of the major challenges!" Whitehall laughs. "I’m used to playing quite incapable characters, which is much easier." As the series unfolds, it becomes clear that Adam isn’t what he first appears to be and, for reasons that don’t become clear until the final episode, he is determined to infiltrate and destroy the family. For Whitehall, 37, playing a charismatic villain was a dream role. Born to parents Michael, a theatre agent, and Hilary, an actor, and having Nigel Havers and Richard Griffiths as godfathers, he says he was always "completely obsessed" with becoming an actor. But, despite a handful of small TV parts as a child, he felt his talents weren’t enough to sustain a career and found himself moving towards stand-up comedy instead. Aged just 21, he was named Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for his debut show, and went on to win a string of plaudits, including being named ‘One to Watch’ by Hollywood bible Variety. He has since acted – notably as posh student JP in Channel 4’s sitcom Fresh Meat, and in Bad Education, which he co-created and co-wrote – but has always hankered after a part like Adam. "Growing up on a diet of American movies from the 80s and 90s, it was always the British actor stealing the scenes as the villain. I was obsessed with Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood. Malice is a totally different genre, but there’s part of you that wants Adam to succeed in ruining this family, because they’re so garish and their life is so charming. "It’s quite fun to see him messing with them, even if he does go a little bit over the top. You’re like, ‘You could have stopped at the mischievous high-jinks bit, you didn’t have to totally blow everything apart.'" Filmed partly on location in Paros, Greece, where the Tanners have a luxurious white-washed villa, Malice is easy on the eye. In that regard it’s already drawn comparisons to hit US drama The White Lotus, which has a similar mix of drama, crime, and humour. "There are a lot of really opulent settings on TV these days," says Whitehall, "and people like watching that. Equally, part of the fun is watching privileged people being really put through the wringer. "Mike White [White Lotus writer] has written a lot in the comedy space as well as drama, and he’s able to marry those things expertly. Then there’s Jesse Armstrong, who’s gone from Peep Show to Succession: an amazing drama with humorous moments and funny characters. Increasingly there’s a blurred line between comedy and drama, which is reflective of life." View oEmbed on the source website Alongside his own move into drama, Whitehall is also keeping his hand in with comedy. His stand-up tours remain sold out, and he’s had huge success with shows such as A League of Their Own. "I started out in comedy when I was 17," he says, "which is a long time doing one thing. As fun as it is, you do constantly need new challenges, and that’s why I loved getting the opportunity to do this. "I’m currently writing a sitcom, and working on a couple of movies with writers: one is a broader comedy, the other is more dramatic. I just want to be able to do a wide variety of things and keep finding new challenges." Balancing work and fatherhood is, of course, just one of them. In Greece, Whitehall was joined by Roxy and Elsie as he filmed scenes that involved Adam increasingly tightening the noose on the Tanners – from isolated incidents of cruelty to animals and creepy meddling to full-blown acts of revenge. "It’s been strange filming quite brutal material and then coming home and putting the baby to bed,” he says. “There are definitely worse places to be shooting, though. They were all too willing to come out and support Daddy playing a psychopath!" James Wood created Malice with his star in mind Malice writer James Wood is best known for creating Rev, the award-winning BBC comedy starring Tom Hollander as a vicar in a deprived parish in east London. On that project, he worked closely with Hollander to create the part of Adam Smallbone — similarly, he wrote Malice with Jack Whitehall very much in mind. "I loved writing Rev for Tom," says Wood. "We’d go and meet priests together. If you’re with the right person and your sensibilities match, it’s a lovely way to work. "I’ve always enjoyed building a role with and for a particular actor and in Malice Jack was involved in some of the early script meetings. "After we had the idea of a psychopathic manny, we all thought Jack was perfect because he’s charming and funny and would entertain your kids. And wouldn’t it be entertaining to see Jack play a sociopath?" Given that Whitehall is best known for stand-up, was Wood worried about whether audiences would buy him as a terrifying presence in a psychological drama? "There’s a rich tradition of comedy performers playing against type," he says. "Robin Williams did it incredibly well, as did Peter Sellers. The trick is to make something that feels emotionally honest, but entertaining and fresh. "There’s a version of Malice that could have had an established drama star playing Adam, and it would have been good, but with Jack I think it really pops. Also, there’s something about our era that loves stories about liars, whether it be The Tinder Swindler, Baby Reindeer or Traitors." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. All six episodes of Malice will be available to watch on Friday 14th November on Prime Video. Add Malice 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.
Daisy May and Charlie Cooper slept in the UK’s most haunted buildings looking for ghosts – and made a scary discovery…
Add Daisy May and Charlie Cooper's NightWatch to your watchlist Siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper shot to fame when they wrote and starred in the award-winning BBC Three sitcom, This Country, based on their childhood growing up in a slightly boring Gloucestershire village. Since then, Charlie has made a series called Myth Country, in which he explores folklore around the UK, while Daisy co-wrote and starred in award-winning sitcom Am I Being Unreasonable? as well as acting with Hollywood royalty like Tilda Swinton and Dev Patel in The Personal History of David Copperfield. Now, the Coopers have reunited for a six-part ghost-hunting series called NightWatch, where they stay at haunted locations in the hope of seeing something paranormal. RT caught up with them to talk about things that go bump in the night, sibling rivalry, and why there can never be another series of This Country. Why did you want to make this new show together? CHARLIE So much of This Country was just us trying to make each other laugh. It’s been five years since then, and we’ve got five kids between us now, so it’s been nice to reconnect. In Myth Country, Charlie, there’s a running joke about Daisy being flaky… DAISY MAY Is that what you say? CHARLIE Oh, come on, as if you’re not flaky! DAISY MAY Yeah, I know, but I didn’t know you mentioned that in the show. But how funny that I haven’t even watched it. I left BBC Three in 2018 and you’re still there! C You’re so arrogant and vile. Oops, I didn’t mean to start an argument. I just wanted to know if Charlie was the driving force behind the new show, and if you had to pin Daisy down to do it? D He was the driving force, but only because they wouldn’t have given him a series on his own. I’m doing stuff in the States now, but I said I’d come back to help him out. C What’s beautiful about this series is you don’t have to write a script. She’s the laziest person on planet Earth, so that was the only way to entice her – all she had to do was turn up, and even then she didn’t stop moaning. I was going to ask if you bicker in real life as much as you do on TV, but the answer’s becoming apparent… D It doesn’t matter how successful or adult your sibling becomes, you always have zero respect for them. C Because you knew them when they were a child, you know their darkest secrets, their most embarrassing moments. Have you always been fascinated by ghosts? C Our grandad told us this story when I was about 11. He saw this guy in medieval clothes with a face on him that was “damned for all time”. The apparition walked down an alleyway and disappeared into a wall. Our grandad was a doctor and pretty reliable so, from that point on, I thought there must be something in it. D It was a shared story from our childhood. When we were living in London and we had no money, we would wander around and join ghost walks. Were you scared while filming this series? C It did surprise me how scared I got. I thought she’d be more scared than me! D I brought sleeping tablets, so I didn’t even stay awake. The biggest plot twist was that it was a luxury staying in haunted prisons and castles because it meant being away from our kids. I haven’t rested so peacefully for ages. C It was refreshing not to hear a baby crying. But you’d fall asleep immediately and I’d be staring at the ceiling listening to your snoring. D At least I wasn’t windy, unlike you. Have you ever seen a ghost? D I was renting a house a few years ago and I was in the bedroom with my baby when I heard running in the room next door. I went in and saw a child in white PE shorts, barefoot, and with a torso but no head. It ran around the bed then disappeared. My son’s eyes were following it around the room, so he saw it, too. My partner and I have also had experiences in our new house. We’ve seen bed covers being lifted, heard knocking on the bedroom door when nobody’s there, and my partner once heard a dog bark right in his ear – then my five-year-old son said he’d heard a dog woof in his ear. There’s definitely something weird going on. What about you, Charlie? C No, but I love the idea of an afterlife. The idea that there’s nothing takes all the magic out of the world. D The scariest story I heard was when Martin Kemp told me he was filming at an old house and he saw a woman in a medieval maid’s outfit. He assumed she was an extra and asked if she knew when lunch was, and she just vanished. Imagine being a ghost and seeing Martin Kemp. I don’t want to spend my afterlife that way! How would you like to spend your afterlife? D I’d want to be in the Married at First Sight apartment block and get the gossip. C I’d haunt my own home. I don’t leave my house much in real life so I can’t imagine I’d leave in the afterlife, either. D Every day, you remind me more of Jim Carrey as Scrooge in the film A Christmas Carol: miserly and thin and haunted with regret. You swap a lot of funny childhood stories in the series. Was it fun to reminisce? D I don’t know. I think I need to see a therapist. C We concluded that our dad is a covert narcissist. Every conversation led back to him. He appeared in This Country and Myth Country, and you’ve said he always asks for parts in your shows. Is that still the case? D He’s out of control. He’s written a script about a carvery and he left it for me to read and I honestly thought my seven-year-old daughter had written it. I was gonna say to her, “Babe, this isn’t good enough.” It feels like, despite all your success, you haven’t really changed at all. D We haven’t, and that’s what’s so wild. It’s not that we’re humble – it’s pure laziness and lack of emotional growth. We’re still in Gloucestershire, doing the exact same things. The only difference is we have more money. Daisy, you’ve had what they call a “glow-up”. What do you think of her new look, Charlie? C Yeah, if you’re happy. D “If I’m happy?” C What do you want me to say? Yeah, it’s great. D You don’t have any respect for me at all. What about work-wise? What do you think of Am I Being Unreasonable? C Why did you cast me as a Dutch psychic? D Because Mum said you needed the money. C Because she’s so utterly insecure, she has to bring me down to make herself feel better. Did your relationship change during the filming of this series? C I realised how much I missed you. D I did, too, but not enough that I’ve bothered seeing you since we finished. C It was nice catching up. D “It was nice catching up” is what you say to your doctor, not your sister. I wish that you could view me differently. C But it’s important that you have someone in your life that doesn’t do that. You need someone that can bring you down to earth and just pin you there. Will you work together again — perhaps on another series of This Country? D It’s early days but we’re working on something unscripted. We can’t do This Country, though, because I’ve lost so much weight and I’ve had my lips done. We’d have to say that Kerry’s had a tapeworm and been stung by a bee.
Daisy May and Charlie Cooper rule out a This Country return – and reveal ghostly encounters
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper shot to fame when they wrote and starred in the award-winning BBC Three sitcom, This Country, based on their childhood growing up in a slightly boring Gloucestershire village. Since then, Charlie has made a series called Myth Country, in which he explores folklore around the UK, while Daisy co-wrote and starred in award-winning sitcom Am I Being Unreasonable? as well as acting with Hollywood royalty like Tilda Swinton and Dev Patel in The Personal History of David Copperfield. Now, the Coopers have reunited for a six-part ghost-hunting series called NightWatch, where they stay at haunted locations in the hope of seeing something paranormal. RT caught up with them to talk about things that go bump in the night, sibling rivalry, and why there can never be another series of This Country. Why did you want to make this new show together? CHARLIE So much of This Country was just us trying to make each other laugh. It’s been five years since then, and we’ve got five kids between us now, so it’s been nice to reconnect. In Myth Country, Charlie, there’s a running joke about Daisy being flaky… DAISY MAY Is that what you say? CHARLIE Oh, come on, as if you’re not flaky! DAISY MAY Yeah, I know, but I didn’t know you mentioned that in the show. But how funny that I haven’t even watched it. I left BBC Three in 2018 and you’re still there! C You’re so arrogant and vile. Oops, I didn’t mean to start an argument. I just wanted to know if Charlie was the driving force behind the new show, and if you had to pin Daisy down to do it? D He was the driving force, but only because they wouldn’t have given him a series on his own. I’m doing stuff in the States now, but I said I’d come back to help him out. C What’s beautiful about this series is you don’t have to write a script. She’s the laziest person on planet Earth, so that was the only way to entice her – all she had to do was turn up, and even then she didn’t stop moaning. I was going to ask if you bicker in real life as much as you do on TV, but the answer’s becoming apparent… D It doesn’t matter how successful or adult your sibling becomes, you always have zero respect for them. C Because you knew them when they were a child, you know their darkest secrets, their most embarrassing moments. Have you always been fascinated by ghosts? C Our grandad told us this story when I was about 11. He saw this guy in medieval clothes with a face on him that was “damned for all time”. The apparition walked down an alleyway and disappeared into a wall. Our grandad was a doctor and pretty reliable so, from that point on, I thought there must be something in it. D It was a shared story from our childhood. When we were living in London and we had no money, we would wander around and join ghost walks. Were you scared while filming this series? C It did surprise me how scared I got. I thought she’d be more scared than me! D I brought sleeping tablets, so I didn’t even stay awake. The biggest plot twist was that it was a luxury staying in haunted prisons and castles because it meant being away from our kids. I haven’t rested so peacefully for ages. C It was refreshing not to hear a baby crying. But you’d fall asleep immediately and I’d be staring at the ceiling listening to your snoring. D At least I wasn’t windy, unlike you. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/01/507122-1c704a4.jpg" width="3738" height="2492" alt="Dustin Demri-Burns as Dan, Daisy May Cooper as Nic, Selin Hizli as Jen and Lenny Rush as Ollie in Am I Being Unreasonable?, against a yellow background. There is a line running through them and their faces are reflected beneath it, each time with different expressions" title="Am I Being Unreasonable" /> Have you ever seen a ghost? D I was renting a house a few years ago and I was in the bedroom with my baby when I heard running in the room next door. I went in and saw a child in white PE shorts, barefoot, and with a torso but no head. It ran around the bed then disappeared. My son’s eyes were following it around the room, so he saw it, too. My partner and I have also had experiences in our new house. We’ve seen bed covers being lifted, heard knocking on the bedroom door when nobody’s there, and my partner once heard a dog bark right in his ear – then my five-year-old son said he’d heard a dog woof in his ear. There’s definitely something weird going on. What about you, Charlie? C No, but I love the idea of an afterlife. The idea that there’s nothing takes all the magic out of the world. D The scariest story I heard was when Martin Kemp told me he was filming at an old house and he saw a woman in a medieval maid’s outfit. He assumed she was an extra and asked if she knew when lunch was, and she just vanished. Imagine being a ghost and seeing Martin Kemp. I don’t want to spend my afterlife that way! How would you like to spend your afterlife? D I’d want to be in the Married at First Sight apartment block and get the gossip. C I’d haunt my own home. I don’t leave my house much in real life so I can’t imagine I’d leave in the afterlife, either. D Every day, you remind me more of Jim Carrey as Scrooge in the film A Christmas Carol: miserly and thin and haunted with regret. You swap a lot of funny childhood stories in the series. Was it fun to reminisce? D I don’t know. I think I need to see a therapist. C We concluded that our dad is a covert narcissist. Every conversation led back to him. He appeared in This Country and Myth Country, and you’ve said he always asks for parts in your shows. Is that still the case? D He’s out of control. He’s written a script about a carvery and he left it for me to read and I honestly thought my seven-year-old daughter had written it. I was gonna say to her, “Babe, this isn’t good enough.” It feels like, despite all your success, you haven’t really changed at all. D We haven’t, and that’s what’s so wild. It’s not that we’re humble – it’s pure laziness and lack of emotional growth. We’re still in Gloucestershire, doing the exact same things. The only difference is we have more money. Daisy, you’ve had what they call a “glow-up”. What do you think of her new look, Charlie? C Yeah, if you’re happy. D “If I’m happy?” C What do you want me to say? Yeah, it’s great. D You don’t have any respect for me at all. What about work-wise? What do you think of Am I Being Unreasonable? C Why did you cast me as a Dutch psychic? D Because Mum said you needed the money. C Because she’s so utterly insecure, she has to bring me down to make herself feel better. Did your relationship change during the filming of this series? C I realised how much I missed you. D I did, too, but not enough that I’ve bothered seeing you since we finished. C It was nice catching up. D “It was nice catching up” is what you say to your doctor, not your sister. I wish that you could view me differently. C But it’s important that you have someone in your life that doesn’t do that. You need someone that can bring you down to earth and just pin you there. Will you work together again — perhaps on another series of This Country? D It’s early days but we’re working on something unscripted. We can’t do This Country, though, because I’ve lost so much weight and I’ve had my lips done. We’d have to say that Kerry’s had a tapeworm and been stung by a bee. 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 TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Aimee Lou Wood and Film Club cast unveil their favourite films of all time - here's why you have to watch them
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Film Club creators Aimee Lou Wood and Ralph Davies and their co-star Nabhaan Rizwan reveal their favourite flicks. Aimee Lou Wood Broadcast News When you’re a young woman, you think you have to dilute your intelligence – watching Holly Hunter being cleverer than the boys but with loads of humility, blew me away. I realised that as a woman, you can be opinionated, outspoken, a bit gnarly and still be a delight. Moonstruck I have a tattoo of a moon from this movie. The moon is a big symbol in my life. I just couldn’t believe how good Cher was in this film. The Color Purple My mum used to love putting on a classic movie at the weekend, and The Color Purple is one of the first I remember. Whoopi Goldberg blew me away. It’s one of the first movies where I remember properly sobbing: it broke my heart and reverberated in me for weeks. It’s a Wonderful Life I watch it every single Christmas and it never gets old. I love A Christmas Carol too: anything where someone sees the parallel lives they could have had. And although I’ve seen these films dozens of times, I have the same rules as Evie in Film Club – everyone has to put their phones away. If anyone gets their phone out, it truly upsets me. Bridesmaids I love comedy: a belly laugh is the best thing in the world. But I think you have to understand tragedy to know what comedy is because they’re closely linked. For example, I’m obsessed with Olivia Colman, who did a lot of comedy early on in her career, but I always saw some sadness in it. Then she did her first serious film, Tyrannosaur, and that was the most heart-wrenching film ever. Bridesmaids is the exception to my “no talking” rule, because me and my friends have seen it 62 times and it’s not heavy, so we can chat through that a bit if we want to. Ralph Davis Gladiator This is the earliest film I remember watching, aged five, and it was the most enthralling cinematic experience. It became family bonding time. I lost my dad, Bill, a few months ago. Aimee and I were living in his flat in lockdown when we wrote Film Club. When he read the script for the last episode, I could tell he cried. It’s bittersweet but wonderful that he was part of that. Finding Nemo I was watching Finding Nemo on a plane this year and five minutes in, I was streaming with tears. I loved it originally but watching it again, I realised it’s so deep. It’s about grief, and a dad having to let go of his son, and I found it so touching. Shame Michael Fassbender’s performance is amazing. There’s a tracking shot of him running through New York, so close on his still face, and it changed me as an actor. I thought, “You can do something in this medium that transcends”. Billy Elliot I’m obviously not from a mining town in Durham in the 80s — far from it, I’ve lived a very privileged existence — but watching that as a young boy was so inspiring. The idea of following your dreams was immense. Babyteeth Funny, heartbreaking, human – this film doesn’t judge its characters or patronise the audience at all. It’s economic in its storytelling but has four performances at the heart of it that are titanic. Nabhaan Rizwan 8½ David Lynch said that film makes you want to dream for a month. The movie’s about a director who’s got writer’s block and keeps having daydreams about his childhood — it’s so stunning. I first saw it a few years ago and it was life-changing. I didn’t just dream for a month afterwards, I’ve been dreaming ever since. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind This film is so tragic and odd. I think it’s Jim Carrey’s most grounded and best performance. It’s about a dream state and I’ve always been a dreamy person. There’s a picture of my brother [Mawaan] holding a pigeon and I’m staring into space, which sums up our characters. Dr Strangelove I made a film in Manchester a couple of years ago called In Camera and the producer Mary Burke told me to study Peter Sellers. So I watched all the original Pink Panthers, which are his masterpieces. He’s dead serious, but wickedly silly at the same time. There’s something in that I really relate to. The Host Everyone knows Parasite, and it’s a brilliant movie, but The Host is by the same director, Bong Joon Ho, and has so much more heart. The comedy, the brutality, the heartbreak – Bong can hold all of that in one frame in a wide shot, which is bold and incredible. Amélie Whenever I’m uninspired, I put on this movie. When Amélie sees Nino and melts into a puddle of water, it’s so beautiful. A lot of people are scared by the surreal but it can communicate things we feel on a more accurate level – you’re not telling people how to feel, you’re making them feel it. I hope we’ve captured in Film Club what I love about all of these films: a bit fantastical and surreal, but grounded. The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday 7th October – subscribe here. Film Club begins on Tuesday 7th October at 10pm on BBC Three and iPlayer. Add Film Club 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 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.
Described as quirky all her life, it’s taken a Bafta, an Emmy nomination and her own new BBC series for Aimee Lou Wood to embrace her wonderful weirdness
Add Film Club to your watchlist "This is like a rom-com!” squeals Aimee Lou Wood. “ We’ve spoken loads over the phone, and now we get to meet! It’s like a Meg Ryan movie.” I’m meeting Sex Education and The White Lotus star Wood in a London hotel, having only ever interviewed her remotely thanks to her back-to-back filming schedule. And it quickly becomes apparent that to the effervescent actress, everything is comparable to a romantic comedy – it’s how she has always lived, seeing herself through the lens of heroines ranging from the aforementioned Ryan, through to Cathy from Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Now Wood, 31, has poured her heart and soul into her debut writing project, the gorgeously original BBC sitcom Film Club, about a young woman called Evie who has a breakdown and refuses to leave her mum’s house, only venturing to the garage once a week to put on a themed film club where she and her best friend Noa dress up as the characters while trying to work out if their feelings for each other are romantic or platonic. Film Club isn’t wholly autobiographical, Wood says. But she definitely shares traits with Evie, and squeals again when I say it reminded me of 1998’s Little Voice, in which Jane Horrocks plays a shy woman who comes to life when impersonating Hollywood stars. “Oh my God, I’m so glad you said that!” says Wood. “Growing up, Little Voice was my dream part. I was always doing impressions. I was very shy, but in private I’d be talking to myself, and dressing up in wigs and creating my own little mini universe. It gave me calm. “I didn’t even know what my real voice was because I’d be constantly doing accents and different voices. I would sing my thoughts; I found it easier to express myself that way. All of a sudden I could talk to people and find friends. It’s how I learned to express myself.” Earlier this year, Wood revealed she has been diagnosed with ADHD and is undergoing further tests to see if she is autistic. She says now, “When I watched Film Club back, I realised I was telling myself loads of things with the neuro-spiciness. Basically, it’s about a girl who’s working out she’s autistic, and I didn’t know that about myself when I was writing it. It was all subconscious.” Born in Stockport, Wood suffered body dysmorphia, bulimia and social anxiety as a teenager but went to Rada despite her lack of self-esteem. Set on becoming a serious actress, she found herself labelled as “funny” and “quirky”, which she says she found “a little bit hurtful” at the time. After graduating she landed her first major role on Netflix series Sex Education, which became a surprise break-out hit, winning an International Emmy for best comedy and a Bafta for Wood as best female comedy performance. She played Aimee Gibbs, the lovable girl whose offbeat dress sense and humour made her a fan favourite: even more so when her journey deepened in the second series, as she dealt with the ramifications of a sexual assault. “Everyone was talking about how strange and offbeat I was in Sex Ed,” says Wood, “but I didn’t think I was playing the character in that way. I was just reading the lines. To me, it was just how she would express herself, but everyone was slapping their thighs and finding it really funny. When you’ve only lived with yourself, that’s your normal.” The success of Sex Education led to other roles for Wood, including the BBC comedy Daddy Issues with David Morrissey, and Netflix drama Toxic Town, in which she played a bereaved mum opposite Jodie Whittaker. But her career went truly stratospheric when she landed a role in the third series of Netflix drama The White Lotus, which this year earned her an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series. Yet again, Wood found herself labelled as “quirky” and “funny” when that wasn’t her intention. She explains: “I did a run across the beach and the camera guy was like, ‘That choice was so genius, that is exactly how Chelsea would run,’ and I was like, ‘That wasn’t a choice, that’s my run!’” Now, with the cathartic experience of writing Film Club and having received her ADHD diagnosis, Wood is finally embracing her funny bones. “At drama school, there was such a value placed on being a very serious actor, and I didn’t like people finding me funny,” she admits. “Now, I realise it’s a great thing because tragedy and comedy are so close together. That’s life, isn’t it? “I was filming in Poland when the director came over to tell me I had an Emmy nomination, and I stepped in dog poo a second later. Nothing is ever all fantastic or all terrible.” The idea for Film Club came about during lockdown, when she and friend Ralph Davis decided to start writing together, something they had dreamed of since meeting at Rada. But the writing proved tricker than she expected: her fantasy of renting a house in Cornwall, with rain lashing down while writing “like Virginia Woolf ” never came to fruition, as she was too busy filming The White Lotus in Thailand. “I thought we were going to have way more free time, but we didn’t have any,” she says. “I’d be coming back to my hotel room from a day of filming and having Zooms about Film Club. That White Lotus world was such a bubble, there was no escape, and I find it hard to focus on two things at once. “I was so ready to throw myself into writing when I came back to England. Ralph and I have always talked about the fact that rom-coms now are all about simmering tension and non-verbal feelings. We really missed those kind of chatterbox, neurotic characters falling in love, like in When Harry Met Sally. We wanted to make something nostalgic.” Grounding herself back in England was beneficial for Wood’s mental health, as she found the attention following White Lotus overwhelming – especially when she first started going to the US for work meetings and awards ceremonies and found the industry’s polished professionalism hard to handle. “Everyone’s so good at small talk,” she explains. “I would try to match that, but it wouldn’t quite work. I’d think, ‘They’re not going to get me’. “I felt like a robot because I was thinking, ‘I mustn’t be weird’. I look back at pictures from that time and the light isn’t behind my eyes. I think, ‘Who are you?’, and it freaks me out.” Wood did have support, though: she’s close to her mum Alison and friends from childhood, and stays in touch with actors like Sex Education co-star Ncuti Gatwa, the most recent Doctor Who. “Ncuti and I were at the Met Gala together,” says Wood. “We didn’t go to the after-parties, we went to my hotel room and were like, ‘What just happened?’ “We did this mad show in Wales in the middle of nowhere, and for most of us it was our first TV job, so it just felt like summer camp. Then we blinked and suddenly we were with all these Hollywood people who knew what they were doing, and it was scary. Internally we didn’t feel any different, but we were expected to know how to do things.” Her Film Club co-stars include Suranne Jones as Evie’s mum Suz, Nabhaan Rizwan as her best friend Noa, and Owen Cooper, who, at the tender age of 15, won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series for his role in Netflix drama Adolescence – “One moment Owen and I were in Prestwich eating Quavers, then suddenly we were both doing all these fancy things. The contrast was mad.” The chaos of her sudden fame means Wood has to take care of her mental health, because her old feelings of insecurity come back to haunt her at times of pressure. But she says that having so many fans that connect with her has given her a new outlook on life. “It gives me confidence on the days where sometimes that little demon comes back up,” she says. “I get it so bad after social situations: obsessive, repetitive thoughts of, ‘Did I really say that? That was weird. Why did you say that?’, but then I think of those people who thank me for being weird because it means they can embrace their weirdness. “I still have moments when I’m really overwhelmed and stressed and I feel it coming back up, like, ‘I could just take back control by not eating…’ Then I go, ‘No, I have to [eat]’ and I catch that and try not to get burnt out.” Her diagnosis has been a huge relief: because now she realises her neurodiversity is a “superpower” that deepens her friendships and makes her brilliant at her job. “I don’t need everyone to understand me,” she says. “The people that get me, get me. The anxiety and feelings of inadequacy come from trying to meet other people’s expectations, but what’s so moving is that when I unmask, other people do too. The exhaustion and shame comes from covering things up, but it’s freeing when you say, ‘My brain doesn’t work like that’. “Growing up, I felt a deep need to be ‘normal’, but then I realised all my favourite people, all the people I admired, were weird – even my favourite characters, like Jane Eyre. “Acting has shifted how I feel about myself. I used to hate how my face was so expressive but going into my 30s, I don’t want to miss out on life because I’m worried about how I’m being perceived. Beauty is internal and I’m my own human-shaped self, and that’s OK. I don’t need to fit into any box.”
Aimee Lou Wood reveals how debut writing project Film Club helped her embrace her neurodivergence
Described as quirky all her life, it’s taken a Bafta, an Emmy nomination and her own new BBC series for Aimee Lou Wood to embrace her wonderful weirdness.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. “This is like a rom-com!” squeals Aimee Lou Wood. “We’ve spoken loads over the phone, and now we get to meet! It’s like a Meg Ryan movie.” I’m meeting Sex Education and The White Lotus star Wood in a London hotel, having only ever interviewed her remotely thanks to her back-to-back filming schedule. And it quickly becomes apparent that to the effervescent actress, everything is comparable to a romantic comedy – it’s how she has always lived, seeing herself through the lens of heroines ranging from the aforementioned Ryan, through to Cathy from Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Now Wood, 31, has poured her heart and soul into her debut writing project, the gorgeously original BBC sitcom Film Club, about a young woman called Evie who has a breakdown and refuses to leave her mum’s house, only venturing to the garage once a week to put on a themed film club where she and her best friend Noa dress up as the characters while trying to work out if their feelings for each other are romantic or platonic. Film Club isn’t wholly autobiographical, Wood says. But she definitely shares traits with Evie, and squeals again when I say it reminded me of 1998’s Little Voice, in which Jane Horrocks plays a shy woman who comes to life when impersonating Hollywood stars. “Oh my God, I’m so glad you said that!” says Wood. “Growing up, Little Voice was my dream part. I was always doing impressions. I was very shy, but in private I’d be talking to myself, and dressing up in wigs and creating my own little mini universe. It gave me calm. “I didn’t even know what my real voice was because I’d be constantly doing accents and different voices. I would sing my thoughts; I found it easier to express myself that way. All of a sudden I could talk to people and find friends. It’s how I learned to express myself.” Earlier this year, Wood revealed she has been diagnosed with ADHD and is undergoing further tests to see if she is autistic. She says now, “When I watched Film Club back, I realised I was telling myself loads of things with the neuro-spiciness. Basically, it’s about a girl who’s working out she’s autistic, and I didn’t know that about myself when I was writing it. It was all subconscious.” Born in Stockport, Wood suffered body dysmorphia, bulimia and social anxiety as a teenager but went to Rada despite her lack of self-esteem. Set on becoming a serious actress, she found herself labelled as “funny” and “quirky”, which she says she found “a little bit hurtful” at the time. After graduating she landed her first major role on Netflix series Sex Education, which became a surprise break-out hit, winning an International Emmy for best comedy and a Bafta for Wood as best female comedy performance. She played Aimee Gibbs, the lovable girl whose offbeat dress sense and humour made her a fan favourite: even more so when her journey deepened in the second series, as she dealt with the ramifications of a sexual assault. “Everyone was talking about how strange and offbeat I was in Sex Ed,” says Wood, “but I didn’t think I was playing the character in that way. I was just reading the lines. To me, it was just how she would express herself, but everyone was slapping their thighs and finding it really funny. When you’ve only lived with yourself, that’s your normal.” The success of Sex Education led to other roles for Wood, including the BBC comedy Daddy Issues with David Morrissey, and Netflix drama Toxic Town, in which she played a bereaved mum opposite Jodie Whittaker. But her career went truly stratospheric when she landed a role in the third series of Netflix drama The White Lotus, which this year earned her an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series. Yet again, Wood found herself labelled as “quirky” and “funny” when that wasn’t her intention. She explains: “I did a run across the beach and the camera guy was like, ‘That choice was so genius, that is exactly how Chelsea would run,’ and I was like, ‘That wasn’t a choice, that’s my run!’” Now, with the cathartic experience of writing Film Club and having received her ADHD diagnosis, Wood is finally embracing her funny bones. “At drama school, there was such a value placed on being a very serious actor, and I didn’t like people finding me funny,” she admits. “Now, I realise it’s a great thing because tragedy and comedy are so close together. That’s life, isn’t it? “I was filming in Poland when the director came over to tell me I had an Emmy nomination, and I stepped in dog poo a second later. Nothing is ever all fantastic or all terrible.” The idea for Film Club came about during lockdown, when she and friend Ralph Davis decided to start writing together, something they had dreamed of since meeting at Rada. But the writing proved tricker than she expected: her fantasy of renting a house in Cornwall, with rain lashing down while writing “like Virginia Woolf” never came to fruition, as she was too busy filming The White Lotus in Thailand. “I thought we were going to have way more free time, but we didn’t have any,” she says. “I’d be coming back to my hotel room from a day of filming and having Zooms about Film Club. That White Lotus world was such a bubble, there was no escape, and I find it hard to focus on two things at once. “I was so ready to throw myself into writing when I came back to England. Ralph and I have always talked about the fact that rom-coms now are all about simmering tension and non-verbal feelings. We really missed those kind of chatterbox, neurotic characters falling in love, like in When Harry Met Sally. We wanted to make something nostalgic.” Grounding herself back in England was beneficial for Wood’s mental health, as she found the attention following White Lotus overwhelming –especially when she first started going to the US for work meetings and awards ceremonies and found the industry’s polished professionalism hard to handle. “Everyone’s so good at small talk,” she explains. “I would try to match that, but it wouldn’t quite work. I’d think, ‘They’re not going to get me’. “I felt like a robot because I was thinking, ‘I mustn’t be weird’. I look back at pictures from that time and the light isn’t behind my eyes. I think, ‘Who are you?’, and it freaks me out.” Wood did have support, though: she’s close to her mum Alison and friends from childhood, and stays in touch with actors like Sex Education co-star Ncuti Gatwa, the most recent Doctor Who. “Ncuti and I were at the Met Gala together,” says Wood. “We didn’t go to the after-parties, we went to my hotel room and were like, ‘What just happened?’ “We did this mad show in Wales in the middle of nowhere, and for most of us it was our first TV job, so it just felt like summer camp. Then we blinked and suddenly we were with all these Hollywood people who knew what they were doing, and it was scary. Internally we didn’t feel any different, but we were expected to know how to do things.” Her Film Club co-stars include Suranne Jones as Evie’s mum Suz, Nabhaan Rizwan as her best friend Noa, and Owen Cooper, who, at the tender age of 15, won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series for his role in Netflix drama Adolescence – “One moment Owen and I were in Prestwich eating Quavers, then suddenly we were both doing all these fancy things. The contrast was mad.” The chaos of her sudden fame means Wood has to take care of her mental health, because her old feelings of insecurity come back to haunt her at times of pressure. But she says that having so many fans that connect with her has given her a new outlook on life. “It gives me confidence on the days where sometimes that little demon comes back up,” she says. “I get it so bad after social situations: obsessive, repetitive thoughts of, ‘Did I really say that? That was weird. Why did you say that?’, but then I think of those people who thank me for being weird because it means they can embrace their weirdness. “I still have moments when I’m really overwhelmed and stressed and I feel it coming back up, like, ‘I could just take back control by not eating…’ Then I go, ‘No, I have to [eat]’ and I catch that and try not to get burnt out.” Her diagnosis has been a huge relief: because now she realises her neurodivergence is a “superpower” that deepens her friendships and makes her brilliant at her job. “I don’t need everyone to understand me,” she says. “The people that get me, get me. The anxiety and feelings of inadequacy come from trying to meet other people’s expectations, but what’s so moving is that when I unmask, other people do too. The exhaustion and shame comes from covering things up, but it’s freeing when you say, ‘My brain doesn’t work like that’. “Growing up, I felt a deep need to be ‘normal’, but then I realised all my favourite people, all the people I admired, were weird – even my favourite characters, like Jane Eyre. “Acting has shifted how I feel about myself. I used to hate how my face was so expressive but going into my 30s, I don’t want to miss out on life because I’m worried about how I’m being perceived. Beauty is internal and I’m my own human-shaped self, and that’s OK. I don’t need to fit into any box.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Film Club airs at 10pm on BBC Three and iPlayer on Tuesday 7th October. 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.
The Keeping Faith star had to grapple with fake nails and fabulous fashion to play posh in her new thriller
Add The Guest to your watchlist Born on a council estate in Powys, Wales, Eve Myles hit the big time as Gwen Cooper in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. Since then, she’s had roles in dramas like acclaimed crime series Keeping Faith, for which she learnt Welsh, and the thriller Hijack. Now she’s taking on what she says is her most daunting role yet in BBC thriller The Guest, where she plays a rich, mysterious woman called Fran, who takes a working-class cleaner called Ria (played by Gabrielle Creevy) under her wing. So Eve, how did you come to join The Guest? The scripts were sent to me 40 minutes before I was due to see the great Taylor Swift with my daughters. I looked like I’d face-planted a bowl of glitter, I had a pink “Taylor” T-shirt on, the girls were ready to go, then this script dropped and I thought, “I’m holding something special here.” Taylor put on the greatest show ever, but in my head all I could think about was going home to read the script. You play a very rich, posh woman — what was that like? Absolutely terrifying. The director sent me an image of Fran’s house and I went, “Are you kidding me?” It’s the most beautiful building I’ve ever walked into. It used to be a zoo, then a nunnery, and it’s never been used as a filming location before, so that was incredibly intimidating. Do you know anyone like Fran? No! I don’t know this world. I’m the person in the bushes with the binoculars going, “Ooh, look at that car. Oh, my God, what’s she eating tonight – she’s got a Marks & Spencer’s spread.” It was a whole new world, but I had to embrace it because I wanted people to believe I was Fran. She has a fabulous wardrobe… I know. When I turned up, I was like, “Oh, my God, how do you even wear this – have I got it on back to front or upside down?” It wasn’t dark colours, either; it was creams and golds and champagne colours, which felt so exposing. Then there’s the hair and the damn nails. The swearing that went on in this house because I couldn’t do up my kids’ buttons. I was in the middle of potty training my youngest while filming, so none of this worked for me in real life, it was so far away from who I am. Fran’s not always likeable. Do you enjoy playing a woman who’s not “nice”? Yeah. We celebrate Tony Soprano, right? It was ground-breaking that The Sopranos had an unlikeable monster as the lead character and yet people were in his corner. I love the complexity of Fran, how she twists and turns. Once you start liking her, she flips over and you go, “Hang on, this isn’t the person I just met.” Both Fran and Ria are complex and flawed and truthful. Fran seems to see Ria as a kind of protégée. Have you ever had that relationship with anyone? I’m a mother of three wonderful girls, so I have a responsibility to make sure that those girls can become whatever they want. I’ll be behind them 100 per cent. Otherwise, if anybody wants to listen to it, I may have a little bit of advice, but I can only speak from my own experience. My mother told me I could do whatever I wanted if I worked hard and I treated people well and turned up to work on time. That’s what I say to the people I work with. You’ve starred in several hit Welsh TV productions. Is that important to you? I’m a profoundly proud Welsh woman. We’re bubbling with talent and we’re a storytelling, creative nation, but we’ve not always had the platform to produce major TV shows. Now we have more productions to work on, it’s been a game-changer. I’ve been involved in quite a few of them, which I’m pleased about. I said to the producers of The Guest, “Thank you for setting it in Wales.” What aspects of Wales do we see in the series? It shows a different side of Wales to what people might have seen before. It’s a very cosmopolitan piece. It shows both ends of the spectrum – severe poverty and extreme wealth. We’ve seen you on our screens a lot lately, in Keeping Faith, Hijack, The Crow Girl, this, soon Cold Water and The Hack… How do you pick the next job? I look for a script that I can’t put down and I can’t stop thinking about. With this, it turned me on that it was difficult, and this relationship between these women – this intoxicating, beguiling, dangerous, obsessive, unusual relationship – was something that I couldn’t quite define. That’s how it should be because once you label something, it’s hard to dig deeper. Ria looks up to the older Fran — what would your younger self think of the career you have now? I was brought up with my brother by a single mum who had nothing, in a two-bedroom flat on a council estate, with brilliant people around me all my life. Movies and books were escapism for me. Then years later I was working on stage with Michael Gambon [in Henry IV at the National Theatre] and every night I’d walk off and cry and say to myself, “You’re the luckiest person.” And now I’m working with Robert Carlyle [on forthcoming ITV drama The Hack] and pinching myself. I never thought I would have that opportunity, to create with these people I admire so much.
Torchwood favourite Eve Myles explains why her new role in The Guest was “absolutely terrifying”
The Keeping Faith star had to grapple with fake nails and fabulous fashion to play posh in her new thriller.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Born on a council estate in Powys, Wales, Eve Myles hit the big time as Gwen Cooper in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. Since then, she’s had roles in dramas like acclaimed crime series Keeping Faith, for which she learnt Welsh, and the thriller Hijack. Now she’s taking on what she says is her most daunting role yet in BBC thriller The Guest, where she plays a rich, mysterious woman called Fran, who takes a working-class cleaner called Ria (played by Gabrielle Creevy) under her wing. So Eve, how did you come to join The Guest? The scripts were sent to me 40 minutes before I was due to see the great Taylor Swift with my daughters. I looked like I’d face-planted a bowl of glitter, I had a pink “Taylor” T-shirt on, the girls were ready to go, then this script dropped and I thought, “I’m holding something special here.” Taylor put on the greatest show ever, but in my head all I could think about was going home to read the script. You play a very rich, posh woman – what was that like? Absolutely terrifying. The director sent me an image of Fran’s house and I went, “Are you kidding me?” It’s the most beautiful building I’ve ever walked into. It used to be a zoo, then a nunnery, and it’s never been used as a filming location before, so that was incredibly intimidating. Do you know anyone like Fran? No! I don’t know this world. I’m the person in the bushes with the binoculars going, “Ooh, look at that car. Oh, my God, what’s she eating tonight – she’s got a Marks & Spencer’s spread.” It was a whole new world, but I had to embrace it because I wanted people to believe I was Fran. She has a fabulous wardrobe… I know. When I turned up, I was like, “Oh, my God, how do you even wear this – have I got it on back to front or upside down?” It wasn’t dark colours, either; it was creams and golds and champagne colours, which felt so exposing. Then there’s the hair and the damn nails. The swearing that went on in this house because I couldn’t do up my kids’ buttons. I was in the middle of potty training my youngest while filming, so none of this worked for me in real life, it was so far away from who I am. Fran’s not always likeable. Do you enjoy playing a woman who’s not “nice”? Yeah. We celebrate Tony Soprano, right? It was ground-breaking that The Sopranos had an unlikeable monster as the lead character and yet people were in his corner. I love the complexity of Fran, how she twists and turns. Once you start liking her, she flips over and you go, “Hang on, this isn’t the person I just met.” Both Fran and Ria are complex and flawed and truthful. Fran seems to see Ria as a kind of protégée. Have you ever had that relationship with anyone? I’m a mother of three wonderful girls, so I have a responsibility to make sure that those girls can become whatever they want. I’ll be behind them 100 per cent. Otherwise, if anybody wants to listen to it, I may have a little bit of advice, but I can only speak from my own experience. My mother told me I could do whatever I wanted if I worked hard and I treated people well and turned up to work on time. That’s what I say to the people I work with. You’ve starred in several hit Welsh TV productions. Is that important to you? I’m a profoundly proud Welsh woman. We’re bubbling with talent and we’re a storytelling, creative nation, but we’ve not always had the platform to produce major TV shows. Now we have more productions to work on, it’s been a game-changer. I’ve been involved in quite a few of them, which I’m pleased about. I said to the producers of The Guest, “Thank you for setting it in Wales.” What aspects of Wales do we see in the series? It shows a different side of Wales to what people might have seen before. It’s a very cosmopolitan piece. It shows both ends of the spectrum – severe poverty and extreme wealth. We’ve seen you on our screens a lot lately, in Keeping Faith, Hijack, The Crow Girl, this, soon Coldwater and The Hack… How do you pick the next job? I look for a script that I can’t put down and I can’t stop thinking about. With this, it turned me on that it was difficult, and this relationship between these women – this intoxicating, beguiling, dangerous, obsessive, unusual relationship – was something that I couldn’t quite define. That’s how it should be because once you label something, it’s hard to dig deeper. Ria looks up to the older Fran — what would your younger self think of the career you have now? I was brought up with my brother by a single mum who had nothing, in a two-bedroom flat on a council estate, with brilliant people around me all my life. Movies and books were escapism for me. Then years later I was working on stage with Michael Gambon [in Henry IV at the National Theatre] and every night I’d walk off and cry and say to myself, “You’re the luckiest person.” And now I’m working with Robert Carlyle [on forthcoming ITV drama The Hack] and pinching myself. I never thought I would have that opportunity, to create with these people I admire so much. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Guest premieres on BBC One and iPlayer at 9pm on Monday 1st September. Add The Guest 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 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.
He’s back in the spotlight in his 007 spin-off series — but who would he like to see as the next Bond?
Add 007: Road to a Million to your watchlist Best known for his role as the sweary, bad-tempered billionaire Logan Roy in multi-award-winning drama Succession, Brian Cox, 79, is currently playing a James Bond-style villain for Amazon Prime’s 007-themed contest Road to a Million. But, he tells RT, he thinks his “baddies” are quite tame — and what he longs for is to play it for laughs. It’s been two years since Logan Roy died in the final series of Succession. Do you miss playing him? No, I never miss people I’ve played. The residue of him will always stay with me because of the swearing aspect, which people latch onto, but the great thing about acting is that it’s endlessly shifting. I’ve done many things since then. Will he always be your defining role, though? I don’t think so: Henry Moore wouldn’t say: “This sculpture defines me.” He would say, “This is all my work.” You’re back playing the Controller on the second series of 007: Road to a Million, in which contestants compete in James Bond-themed challenges to win cash. You always wanted to play a Bond villain — so did you do any prep to get into character? No, no, I just turn up and do the lines and try not to bump into the furniture! Are you a fan of reality shows like The Traitors and Race across the World, which are a similar format to Road to a Million? You have to be careful, because there could be a sadistic thing about watching people constantly fail – “They got it wrong, oh, good.” I don’t go in for that, and as the Controller, all I’m concerned about is that the right two people win. It’s about the human dilemma of choice: do I go this way or that way? That’s what provides the drama and entertainment. Do you enjoy playing a villain? I enjoy the job, but I never think of the characters I play as villains. I see them as humans who make mistakes or have avarice. On Succession, everybody said, “Logan’s such and such,” and I kept saying, “You’ve got him all wrong.” Logan’s a toughie but all he wants is one of his children to take over his business, yet none of them are any good. They’re pretty horrible people, and Logan has responsibility for the way they’ve been brought up, but he’s not cruel. My villains have all been fairly tame – apart from the ones who are psychologically disturbed. Is there such a thing as a true villain in real life? There’s certainly a lot of people around who I feel are villainous. With what’s happening in Ukraine, Putin is a definite villain, for my money. I think some of the American behaviour has definitely been unthinking. What’s tragic is that America was built on the notion of egalitarianism, and the present administration don’t want us to be equal. There’s an extremity that’s going on: a kind of oligarchy and a dedication to selfishness, which is not progressive for the world. Who do you think would be a good James Bond, now that Daniel Craig has stepped down? Well, I’m not scanning the papers every day going, “Goodness, what’s the latest?’ Sean Connery was fantastic, as were Roger Moore, Pierce [Brosnan] and Daniel [Craig], and the next Bond will probably be equally good and have a unique individuality of his own – or her own, if it’s a woman. There’s so much up for grabs in terms of redefining Bond and how you can bring him up to date. It’s only natural that it goes through changes because we start off young and end up old. Is Cillian Murphy being recommended? I think that would be interesting. I like Cillian. He’s very real, he’s got no crap about him. What’s next for you? My voiceover agent also happens to be Joanna Lumley’s agent, and Joanna has been doing these one-woman tours which have been rather good, so he mentioned it to me. Now I’m doing one called It’s All about Me!, where I’m going around talking about my work. Have you considered doing more comedy? Yes. As I get older, I just want to laugh. I think that’s all that’s left. I don’t particularly want to do heavy dramas, although I will always be doing heavy dramas because of who I am, but I just love to make people laugh. Life is ludicrous and absurd, isn’t it? So, I’m a sucker for comedy. I love game shows like Would I Lie to You? I’m a big fan of Lee Mack, who’s smart and funny, and David Mitchell, whose extremities and Englishness really make me laugh. I only recently caught up on Peep Show, which David did with Jesse [Armstrong, who created Succession] and that was absolutely brilliant. Jesse’s writing, including The Thick of It as well, has that comic element of looking at human beings and saying, “My God, they’re so stupid,” and I love that. Are you an avid TV watcher? I do love watching television. I get glued to it, especially because I live quite a lot of the time in America, but I’m spending more and more time here now, and I love British TV. I was wondering why I watch so much television. And I realised that when my dad died [when he was eight], they didn’t let me go to his funeral, so they put me in front of a television, and it was comforting. So TV became a great comforter – and it still is for me to this day.
Brian Cox reveals his pick for next James Bond: “He’s very real, he’s got no crap about him”
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Best known for his role as the sweary, bad-tempered billionaire Logan Roy in multi-award-winning drama Succession, Brian Cox, 79, is currently playing a James Bond-style villain for Amazon Prime’s 007-themed contest Road to a Million. But, he tells RT, he thinks his “baddies” are quite tame — and what he longs for is to play it for laughs. It’s been two years since Logan Roy died in the final series of Succession. Do you miss playing him? No, I never miss people I’ve played. The residue of him will always stay with me because of the swearing aspect, which people latch onto, but the great thing about acting is that it’s endlessly shifting. I’ve done many things since then. Will he always be your defining role, though? I don’t think so: Henry Moore wouldn’t say: “This sculpture defines me.” He would say, “This is all my work.” You’re back playing the Controller on the second series of 007: Road to a Million, in which contestants compete in James Bond-themed challenges to win cash. You always wanted to play a Bond villain — so did you do any prep to get into character? No, no, I just turn up and do the lines and try not to bump into the furniture! Are you a fan of reality shows like Traitors and Race across the World, which are a similar format to Road to a Million? You have to be careful, because there could be a sadistic thing about watching people constantly fail – “They got it wrong, oh, good.” I don’t go in for that, and as the Controller, all I’m concerned about is that the right two people win. It’s about the human dilemma of choice: do I go this way or that way? That’s what provides the drama and entertainment. Do you enjoy playing a villain? I enjoy the job, but I never think of the characters I play as villains. I see them as humans who make mistakes or have avarice. On Succession, everybody said, “Logan’s such and such,” and I kept saying, “You’ve got him all wrong.” Logan’s a toughie but all he wants is one of his children to take over his business, yet none of them are any good. They’re pretty horrible people, and Logan has responsibility for the way they’ve been brought up, but he’s not cruel. My villains have all been fairly tame – apart from the ones who are psychologically disturbed. Is there such a thing as a true villain in real life? There’s certainly a lot of people around who I feel are villainous. With what’s happening in Ukraine, Putin is a definite villain, for my money. I think some of the American behaviour has definitely been unthinking. What’s tragic is that America was built on the notion of egalitarianism, and the present administration don’t want us to be equal. There’s an extremity that’s going on: a kind of oligarchy and a dedication to selfishness, which is not progressive for the world. Who do you think would be a good James Bond, now that Daniel Craig has stepped down? Well, I’m not scanning the papers every day going, “Goodness, what’s the latest?’ Sean Connery was fantastic, as were Roger Moore, Pierce [Brosnan] and Daniel [Craig], and the next Bond will probably be equally good and have a unique individuality of his own – or her own, if it’s a woman. There’s so much up for grabs in terms of redefining Bond and how you can bring him up to date. It’s only natural that it goes through changes because we start off young and end up old. Is Cillian Murphy being recommended? I think that would be interesting. I like Cillian. He’s very real, he’s got no crap about him. What’s next for you? My voiceover agent also happens to be Joanna Lumley’s agent, and Joanna has been doing these one-woman tours which have been rather good, so he mentioned it to me. Now I’m doing one called It’s All about Me!, where I’m going around talking about my work. Have you considered doing more comedy? Yes. As I get older, I just want to laugh. I think that’s all that’s left. I don’t particularly want to do heavy dramas, although I will always be doing heavy dramas because of who I am, but I just love to make people laugh. Life is ludicrous and absurd, isn’t it? So, I’m a sucker for comedy. I love game shows like Would I Lie to You? I’m a big fan of Lee Mack, who’s smart and funny, and David Mitchell, whose extremities and Englishness really make me laugh. I only recently caught up on Peep Show, which David did with Jesse [Armstrong, who created Succession] and that was absolutely brilliant. Jesse’s writing, including The Thick of It as well, has that comic element of looking at human beings and saying, “My God, they’re so stupid,” and I love that. Are you an avid TV watcher? I do love watching television. I get glued to it, especially because I live quite a lot of the time in America, but I’m spending more and more time here now, and I love British TV. I was wondering why I watch so much television. And I realised that when my dad died [when he was eight], they didn’t let me go to his funeral, so they put me in front of a television, and it was comforting. So TV became a great comforter – and it still is for me to this day. 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 TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Delving into his family history for the new series of Who Do You Think You Are?, Ross Kemp was surprised and touched to discover his ancestors shared his wanderlust
Add Who Do You Think You Are to your watchlist As a child, EastEnders actor and award-winning documentary-maker Ross Kemp was fascinated by family stories of war, derring-do and even shipwrecks. So when the 60-year-old agreed to delve into his family history for the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?, he expected to uncover a colourful history. What he hadn’t anticipated was to get quite so emotional: “Like any family, the stories change as they pass down generations, like Chinese whispers,” he says. “Unravelling the truth was very moving.” Kemp travelled to Morocco to learn more about his maternal great-grandfather Arthur Chalmers – or “Pop” as he was known, thanks to him being a sailor with muscly arms like the cartoon character Popeye. Kemp is also told about an ancestor he had known nothing about: his great-great-great-great grandfather on his father’s side, Jeremiah Whall, who became a Royal Marine drummer in 1803, aged just 13, beating vital semaphore messages to other Allied troops as they protected colonial trade interests at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1809 he was involved in fierce combat, helping to capture the island of Martinique from the French. “Both Pop and Jeremiah were men who didn’t like to sit still for too long, so maybe I get a bit of that from them,” says Kemp, talking over Zoom from his home in Berkshire, where he’s preparing to take his four children to Disneyland. As a child growing up with his younger brother Darren in Essex, Kemp was regaled with stories about Pop, who loved drinking and gambling and was said to have been shipwrecked at least twice. “Apparently, he walked as if he was still on the ship – one step forward and two steps sideways,” says Kemp. “He tried to pawn his watch to the milkman a day before he died to put money on a horse.” When Kemp tries to discover whether there is any truth to the tales of being shipwrecked, he is told that Pop’s troop carrier, Duchess of York, was bombed in July 1943, 300 miles off the coast of Portugal en route to Algeria. Dozens lost their lives and the ship sank, but Pop was rescued and taken 700 miles to the nearest large port under Allied control – Casablanca. Kemp has qualified as a commercial diver and has explored shipwrecks such as the Mary Rose. Learning what happened to Pop made him tearful and put his own experiences at sea into perspective: “I’ve been on my own in the water for a period of time and it’s frightening – you start to hallucinate. I’ve been lost at sea twice when I was diving and got separated from the boat. The second time, I spent nine hours in the water with a crispy head from the sun. “Of course, it’s nothing like what Pop would have gone through, with the horrors of oil in the water, flames, dead men floating around you.” Kemp, who has spent weeks at a time in hostile environments filming documentaries such as Ross Kemp on Gangs and Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, also felt a connection with the fact that Pop spent most of his life at sea, first in the Navy and later working on cruise ships, far from home. “I felt a sadness that Pop hadn’t been there for his wife and daughter,” he says. “He left at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and didn’t come back until 1946, because part of his job after the war ended was to load tanks back onto ships and get them back to the UK. “I’ve spent too much time away myself and it makes you feel slightly selfish, even though I’m doing a job, as was Pop.” Learning about his ancestors made the actor, author and presenter think about where his own love of water and travel came from. “Jeremiah visited more countries than I have, and that was 300 years ago, long before the jet plane, so no wonder I love travel,” he says. “And I’ve always loved being at sea. As a child, I loved a bath and to make me get out, my mum would say, ‘You’ll go down the plughole and end up in Australia!’ That didn’t scare me; I liked the sound of that.” On a darker note, Kemp discovers that Pop’s older brother, Albert, was also in the Navy. But after being discharged he was arrested multiple times for drunk and disorderly offences, even threatening to cut his own mother’s head off with a kitchen knife. Albert was put on the “blacklist” of the 1902 Licensing Act, meaning he was banned from all licensed premises. Given the Chalmers family lived in a pub at the time, it’s hard not to draw comparisons with Kemp’s EastEnders alter-ego Grant Mitchell and the famous catchphrase of his mum Peggy (the late Barbara Windsor): “Get outta my pub!” “People shout it at me all the time! I didn’t think of that comparison because it was such a sad story. Albert was a rogue, an addict. There must have been something that sparked that. I know soldiers who’ve tried to self-medicate. Even I would come back from Afghanistan and the first place I’d stop was often a pub. You’ve been dry for three months, you experience a lot of s**t, you want to get it off your shoulders. Coming home takes some adjustment.” Although Kemp travels less these days, he’s busier than ever, having returned, albeit briefly, to EastEnders for the 40th anniversary in February, after nine years away from the soap. His game show Bridge of Lies, in which contestants have to avoid lies to win a cash prize, is also returning later this month for a new run and ten celebrity specials (from Saturday 3 May). I can’t imagine him ever retiring. “You and my wife, both!” he replies. Does Bridge of Lies give him a chance to show a more showbizzy side of himself than in his hard-hitting documentaries? “Of course. We all have more than one facet and this is a way of showing that… skipping across the bridge and dancing with everybody! “As for EastEnders, it was wonderful, but you come away from it slightly fried. Grant comes back and within a minute he’s fighting, he’s crying, he’s making love, then he’s crying about it, then he’s fighting again. He’s never just sat in the launderette. “The first scene in the anniversary was me breaking into the Arches and wrestling a Beretta 9mm off my brother, so it wasn’t like going to the café and saying, ‘Can I have a bacon roll, please?’. I think a part of me is Grant, and part of Grant is me. It was great to put the leather jacket on again, and also a relief that I could still get in it!” Kemp observes that he has another thing in common with his ancestors: an inability to take it easy. “Where I am now is not where I imagined I would be,” he says. “I thought I’d have hung my boots up by now. But I never have a boring day.” Going back to their roots The seven other stars exploring their family trees Andrew Garfield Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield’s grandparents on his father’s side were Polish Jews who emigrated to Britain in 1910 in search of a better life. He goes on a heartbreaking journey to find out what happened to other members of the family. Garfield also discovers an ancestor who ran a fashion store in Los Angeles, helping to dress the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Mishal Husain Though journalist and broadcaster Mishal Husain wrote a book about her grandparents, she still has questions about her family tree. She discovers stories of success and hardship among her Anglo-Indian family in the 19th century, along with a connection to the American War of Independence. Will Young Pop star and actor Will Young never knew his paternal grandfather, who he discovers was a Second World War Bomber Command pilot, captured by the Germans and spending years in a PoW camp. He also learns about a powerful ancestor in the Middle Ages, who came to a sticky end. Aisling Bea This Way Up star Aisling Bea is proud to be Irish and to come from a long line of strong women. These themes recur as she traces her family history, discovering an ancestor who struggled during the Great Famine, and another who was a pioneering schoolteacher on a remote Irish island. Diane Morgan Actor and comedian Diane Morgan “never thought in a million years” she’d be invited to go on Who Do You Think You Are? after making fun of the series on her show Mandy. She has mysteries she wants to solve — among them, why did her father always refer to one ancestor as “German Charlie”? Fred Sirieix First Dates maître d’ Fred Sirieix returns to his native France to explore a family rumour that his grandfather was a PoW in Nazi-occupied France when he met his wife-to-be. Fred also wants to know about his great-grandfather’s experiences in the First World War, and learns of a family link to France’s wine industry. Layton Williams Actor, singer and dancer Layton Williams is thrilled to discover a long line of Londoners in his family tree, including a 19th-century piano tuner and a Second World War soldier. In Jamaica, he finds a strong female ancestor and a link to slavery. Rosemary Collins, editor of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine
Ross Kemp: 'Unravelling the truth about my family history was very moving'
Ross Kemp delves into his family history for the new series of Who Do You Think You Are?.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Delving into his family history for the new series of Who Do You Think You Are?, Ross Kemp was surprised and touched to discover his ancestors shared his wanderlust As a child, EastEnders actor and award-winning documentary-maker Ross Kemp was fascinated by family stories of war, derring-do and even shipwrecks. So when the 60-year-old agreed to delve into his family history for the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?, he expected to uncover a colourful history. What he hadn’t anticipated was to get quite so emotional: "Like any family, the stories change as they pass down generations, like Chinese whispers." he says. "Unravelling the truth was very moving." Kemp travelled to Morocco to learn more about his maternal great-grandfather Arthur Chalmers – or Pop as he was known, thanks to him being a sailor with muscly arms like the cartoon character Popeye. Kemp is also told about an ancestor he had known nothing about: his great-great-great-great grandfather on his father's side, Jeremiah Whall, who became a Royal Marine drummer in 1803, aged just 13, beating vital semaphore messages to other Allied troops as they protected colonial trade interests at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1809, he was involved in fierce combat, helping to capture the island of Martinique from the French. "Both Pop and Jeremiah were men who didn’t like to sit still for too long, so maybe I get a bit of that from them," says Kemp, talking over Zoom from his home in Berkshire, where he’s preparing to take his four children to Disneyland. As a child growing up with his younger brother Darren in Essex, Kemp was regaled with stories about Pop, who loved drinking and gambling and was said to have been shipwrecked at least twice. "Apparently, he walked as if he was still on the ship – one step forward and two steps sideways," says Kemp. "He tried to pawn his watch to the milkman a day before he died to put money on a horse." When Kemp tries to discover whether there is any truth to the tales of being shipwrecked, he is told that Pop’s troop carrier, Duchess of York, was bombed in July 1943, 300 miles off the coast of Portugal en route to Algeria. Dozens lost their lives and the ship sank, but Pop was rescued and taken 700 miles to the nearest large port under Allied control – Casablanca. Kemp has qualified as a commercial diver and has explored shipwrecks such as the Mary Rose. Learning what happened to Pop made him tearful and put his own experiences at sea into perspective: "I've been on my own in the water for a period of time and it’s frightening – you start to hallucinate. I’ve been lost at sea twice when I was diving and got separated from the boat. The second time, I spent nine hours in the water with a crispy head from the sun. "Of course, it’s nothing like what Pop would have gone through, with the horrors of oil in the water, flames, dead men floating around you." Kemp, who has spent weeks at a time in hostile environments filming documentaries such as Ross Kemp on Gangs and Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, also felt a connection with the fact that Pop spent most of his life at sea, first in the Navy and later working on cruise ships, far from home. "I felt a sadness that Pop hadn’t been there for his wife and daughter," he says. "He left at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and didn't come back until 1946, because part of his job after the war ended was to load tanks back onto ships and get them back to the UK. "I've spent too much time away myself and it makes you feel slightly selfish, even though I’m doing a job, as was Pop." Learning about his ancestors made the actor, author and presenter think about where his own love of water and travel came from. "Jeremiah visited more countries than I have, and that was 300 years ago, long before the jet plane, so no wonder I love travel," he says. "And I’ve always loved being at sea. As a child, I loved a bath and to make me get out, my mum would say, 'You’ll go down the plughole and end up in Australia!' That didn’t scare me; I liked the sound of that." On a darker note, Kemp discovers that Pop’s older brother, Albert, was also in the Navy. But after being discharged he was arrested multiple times for drunk and disorderly offences, even threatening to cut his own mother’s head off with a kitchen knife. Albert was put on the “blacklist” of the 1902 Licensing Act, meaning he was banned from all licensed premises. Given the Chalmers family lived in a pub at the time, it’s hard not to draw comparisons with Kemp’s EastEnders alter-ego Grant Mitchell and the famous catchphrase of his mum Peggy (the late Barbara Windsor): "Get outta my pub!" "People shout it at me all the time! I didn’t think of that comparison because it was such a sad story. Albert was a rogue, an addict. There must have been something that sparked that. "I know soldiers who’ve tried to self-medicate. Even I would come back from Afghanistan and the first place I’d stop was often a pub. "You’ve been dry for three months, you experience a lot of s**t, you want to get it off your shoulders. Coming home takes some adjustment." Although Kemp travels less these days, he’s busier than ever, having returned, albeit briefly, to EastEnders for the 40th anniversary in February, after nine years away from the soap. His game show Bridge of Lies, in which contestants have to avoid lies to win a cash prize, is also returning later this month for a new run and ten celebrity specials (from Saturday 3 May). I can’t imagine him ever retiring. "You and my wife, both!" he replies. Does Bridge of Lies give him a chance to show a more showbizzy side of himself than in his hard-hitting documentaries? "Of course. We all have more than one facet and this is a way of showing that… skipping across the bridge and dancing with everybody! "As for EastEnders, it was wonderful, but you come away from it slightly fried. Grant comes back and within a minute he’s fighting, he’s crying, he’s making love, then he’s crying about it, then he’s fighting again. He’s never just sat in the launderette. "The first scene in the anniversary was me breaking into the Arches and wrestling a Beretta 9mm off my brother, so it wasn’t like going to the café and saying, 'Can I have a bacon roll, please?'. I think a part of me is Grant, and part of Grant is me. It was great to put the leather jacket on again, and also a relief that I could still get in it!" Kemp observes that he has another thing in common with his ancestors: an inability to take it easy. "Where I am now is not where I imagined I would be," he says. "I thought I’d have hung my boots up by now. But I never have a boring day." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Who Do You Think You Are? begins on Tuesday 22nd April at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. 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.
Bridgerton's Adjoa Andoh says fans want "more" LGBTQ+ storylines
Andoh talks fame in her 60s, laying bricks in Brixton, and why the arts must return to our schools.
As the charismatic and powerful Lady Danbury in period drama Bridgerton, actor Adjoa Andoh has won a legion of new fans. But Andoh – who is now also the voice of Channel 4’s Château DIY – had already built up an impressive career spanning soap, theatre and drama before landing the Netflix role. Born in the Cotswolds and married to writer Howard Cunnell, Andoh, 62, began her career while juggling life as a single mum in Brixton, south London. She talks to Radio Times about global fame, learning to lay bricks in a squat, the lack of arts funding in schools and the return of Bridgerton. How do you feel about the phenomenal success of Bridgerton? It’s a tremendous privilege. People tell me they love to watch a costume drama with women so central to the stories, and people of colour in a historical drama. I’ve had gay and lesbian people saying, "We've had little hints, when can we get a bit more of that sort of story?" There are lots of people who see themselves reflected in it. And what do you tell them? Nothing, or somebody would take me to a dark room! I’m filming the fourth season now and all I can say is it’ll be another dramatic, emotional, aesthetic feast. It was one of the earliest shows to feature colour-conscious casting, where actors of colour are deliberately cast. Why is that important? It has expanded the possibilities of what stories you can tell, how you tell them and who can be in them. It also means you've expanded your audience. When I stay with family in Ghana, people will charge across the street to me, excited about a costume drama set in Regency England. They identify with it in a different way. Has it changed your life? I was in EastEnders for a while, so I was very well known for that, and then I was in Casualty and Doctor Who, so it's not unfamiliar for me to be recognised. But Netflix is international, so that’s different. I can be recognised in Thailand or America or Shropshire. It means you’re doing your work well, and it's quite moving. Being older, there’s a contentment; you understand that life is a series of accidents and challenges with some lovely bits in between. The gratitude you feel is at a deeper level. You're narrating Château DIY, in which adventurous Brits take on the renovation of majestic properties in France. Every so often I have to stop recording and go, "My God, that's fantastic, I want to do that." In another life, I would have been an architect, so I'm a bit geeky about DIY, and there are psychological dramas going on with the couples and families. We all get to pressure points with our beloveds, don’t we? So it’s fascinating on all levels! Are you tempted to buy and do up a château yourself? Hell, no! The parts of France we film in are beautiful, and I love DIY, but it’s a big job. I salute them all day long. Living in a squat in Brixton in the 1980s means you must have become pretty skilful yourself, though? Yes, there were these beautiful Edwardian houses that had fallen into disrepair and become squats. The council would grant you a licence to do it up, and it was a big collaboration of everybody chipping in with whatever skills they had, and an architect overseeing us to make sure we didn’t blow ourselves up by laying an electricity cable next to water. I learnt a lot: glazing a window, rendering, bricklaying. Who knows if I could still do it, but I'm not intimidated by it. You're also known for your lead roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe. Is theatre in a good place? West End theatre is having a resurgence but, in some areas, theatres are being shut down. One ticket can cost somebody's weekly shop. We need to make theatres more accessible to local communities, not just in terms of budget but providing arts and youth projects and gatherings for people in the local area. There are complaints about modern theatre audiences heckling or talking through performances. Is that a problem? We could have more school parties having access to theatre, and more theatre companies going into schools. If people had more access to theatre from an earlier age, they’d understand the etiquette. Talking of schools, should there be more arts in the curriculum? We have to get that back on the curriculum. Arts are seen as the fluffy icing on the cake; not proper education. But they’re important. We understand the world through story. The minister for culture, media and sport, Lisa Nandy, is really interested in this, and I want this government to stick with it. We've had great investments in infrastructure, now we need to get boots on the ground in those communities where they've lost youth clubs, where the library has been closed, where there isn't a local orchestra. Kids don't want to be hanging around the street, they want to be actively engaged. They need to feel that somebody’s interested in them, somebody cares when they don't turn up on time for choir practice or netball. They need to learn about being part of something where they've all got to contribute, to have empathy for each other, to work collaboratively. These are life skills. You may not end up playing for a national orchestra, but you will learn what it is to be part of something where you all come together to make joyful music. How do you feel about Vengeance Most Fowl, last year's Wallace and Gromit Christmas film (in which you voiced the judge), winning an Oscar? I’m thrilled. Aardman are Bristol-based, and I'm from Bristol, so I'm really proud of them. It was also a show you could watch with the family, which I love. The new series of Château DIY airs weekdays at 5pm on Channel 4. Check out more of our Documentaries 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.
‘Agatha Christie inspired The Traitors,' says James Pritchard, great-grandson of legendary author
"I love that murder mystery is growing in popularity."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – and judging by the number of TV programmes that have borrowed from Agatha Christie, the crime writer would have been very flattered indeed. Her great-grandson, TV and film producer James Prichard, who manages Christie's literary and media rights, is delighted by the trend for Christie-ish murder mysteries like the Knives Out film franchise and Only Murders in the Building, starring Daniel Craig and Steve Martin respectively. But most of all, he loves the BBC’s ratings-busting show The Traitors. He believes the show – hosted by Claudia Winkleman – is based on And Then There Were None, the famous Christie novel published in 1939, in which a group of people are stranded on an island and murdered, one by one. The Traitors also includes tropes associated with Christie, such as an ornate library and luxury train, often used as a plot device in Christie’s stories. "I think The Traitors is brilliant. It’s absolutely based on an Agatha Christie murder-mystery concept," Prichard says of the show, a game of trust and treachery that is credited with reviving reality TV. "At the beginning of the series, they're on the train. They’ve got the board with all the faces being picked off, one by one. They’ve got the library, it’s everything Agatha Christie. It’s And Then There Were None in lots of ways." He adds: "There's a recognition amongst a lot of the crime-writing fraternity that my great-grandmother is an inspiration. It’s great. I love that murder mystery is growing in popularity." Christie adaptations have always been hugely popular – but in the '70s and '80s there was often a twee element to the movies and TV shows, such as those starring Peter Ustinov and David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, and Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. When writer Sarah Phelps started adapting Christie's books for the BBC in 2015, including Ordeal by Innocence and The ABC Murders, she brought a darkness to the much-loved crime capers. Since then, heavyweights Hugh Laurie and Kenneth Branagh have both made Christie adaptations: the former created Why Didn't They Ask Evans? for BritBox, while the latter has made big-screen versions of Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice. The ABC Murders starred John Malkovich, while a new BBC three-parter, Towards Zero, stars Hollywood A-lister Anjelica Huston. Says Prichard, executive producer of Towards Zero: "I think one of the most rewarding things is the fact that people are taking Agatha Christie more seriously. "One of the ways you can judge that is the kind of people who are involved in our projects, be it Ken Branagh, Hugh Laurie, Anjelica Huston or John Malkovich. We’re in a different place than we have been at any time in my lifetime. That's really special and means a lot to me." Prichard credits Phelps with showing Christie in a new light, by pulling out the more serious elements from her novels and noticing how often she writes about complex issues such as PTSD, suicide, grief and abuse. He says: "There's a tendency sometimes for Agatha Christie to be a little bit camp, and I don't like the camp. I think, broadly speaking, David Suchet as Poirot stayed the right side of that, but they weren't as serious as what we're doing now." "Sarah opened my eyes to something I hadn't properly seen. I credit her with my education in my great-grandmother’s work." That’s not to say Prichard doesn’t approach adaptations of Christie’s novels without thinking about modern-day sensibilities. The more recent adaptations have so far avoided that unpleasant modern trope of focusing on young female victims dying at the hands of a man. "We do have quite a few of those in Agatha Christie," admits Prichard. "It’s something that’s a challenge these days; there’s too much of it in crime fiction. There's possibly a bit too much of it in my great-grandmother's works for comfort. "You just have to be careful. I got my daughter to read The Body in the Library when she was quite young, and didn't really think through the fact that it starts with a young girl being killed. So, it’s an awareness we have." After the darker Phelps stories, Towards Zero, adapted by Rachel Bennette, has returned to a slightly lighter tone with its sumptuous story of a passionate love triangle – Nevile Strange, his ex-wife Audrey and second wife Kay, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland and Mimi Keene – set on the gorgeous Devonshire coast and featuring hedonistic scenes of dancing and jazz along with costumes to die for. Is this a response to the trend for cosy crime, such as the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club? "I hate the phrase cosy crime," says Prichard, "and I don't think it’s what my great-grandmother wrote, but her books had humour and I don't think everything needs to be as dark as Sarah made it. This one is a little lighter and I can certainly see us doing more." Might that include a resurgence for Miss Marple? The BBC adaptations of all 12 Miss Marple novels, with Joan Hickson in the lead role, were screened in more than 30 countries and ended in December 1992. An origins film telling the story of a young Marple, starring Jennifer Garner, was announced in 2011 but never made. Prichard says that a new drama is in the works. "I couldn’t be more excited," he enthuses, while keeping schtum on the nature of the production. "I’ve been trying to get something for Miss Marple off the ground for a very long time. For good reasons, Poirot has stolen her limelight since time began. I re-read all the Marple stories five years ago and I'd forgotten how good they were. "Poirot has perhaps three or four of the all-time great Agatha Christies, but if you did a top 10, you'd get at least two or three Marples in there. She's underestimated. My great grandmother wrote a lot of strong women, Miss Marple being the obvious one, and Audrey and Kay in Towards Zero being further examples. "She was an extremely interesting woman, because part of her was very shy and retiring, but I think she was also a forceful person. She would claim not to have been a feminist, but she absolutely thought she was as powerful as any man who she came across. And that’s the kind of woman she wrote about." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Agatha Christie's Towards Zero will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Sunday 2nd March. Check out more of our Drama 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.
Legend, Fire and Nitro are back to throw down the gauntlet to members of the public on Saturday-night TV
Add Gladiators to your watchlist Legend is picking at a loose thread on his exceedingly tight lycra shorts. We are filming our interview, so the Gladiator is worried about looking scruffy on film. Er, I don’t think anybody will be looking at a loose thread, I say – they’ll be too busy staring at your thighs. Honestly, dear reader, they are huge! On BBC1’s Gladiators, swinging around a big arena, surrounded by other super-fit athletes, Legend looks pretty muscly. But here in an east London studio, dwarfing the plastic chair he’s sitting on, his legs appear extraordinary to this mere mortal. “I do have to go through doors sideways,” he admits. “I’ve been classified as an actual weapon. I’m so strong, I have to be careful – I broke someone’s arm yesterday just by shaking their hand.” It seems Legend – otherwise known as Matt Morsia, a former long- and triple-jumper, European Championship silver medal-winning powerlifter and successful YouTube creator (under the name MattDoesFitness) – is clearly very much staying in character for this interview, to promote the second series of the hit Saturday-night show. Maintaining his alter ego is fun, but I’m slightly confused about whether I’m interviewing Legend and his fellow Gladiators Fire and Nitro, or their real-life counterparts Morsia, Montell Douglas and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. Is there much of a difference? “We were always told just to amplify who we are,” says 36-year-old Aikines-Aryeetey, a former Commonwealth gold medal-winning sprinter who recently appeared as himself in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, as well as last year’s Celebrity MasterChef. “We go out in the arena as ourselves and we play and we entertain. When the super suit comes off, I’m just as energetic as Nitro, Montell burns just as brightly as Fire. I’ll let Legend answer for himself, though…” “It’s true that some of the others dial it up a bit,” says 38-year-old Legend/Morsia, “but I’ve had to rein it in. I actually stopped training a couple of years ago because the production team said, ‘Listen, you’re too good now’. So instead I do a lot of signing autographs and motivational speaking.” Righto. I crack on with the interview, realising that Morsia is not going to break out of character – although when he asks for a heater to be placed nearby, it’s hard not to have a little giggle. One can’t imagine Legend admitting to being cold. Maybe Douglas can shed a bit more light on the difference between her on- and off-screen personas, given that the 38-year-old has just competed on Strictly Come Dancing very much as herself. Was that nice, or weird? “It was both,” she says. “Weirdly lovely. We do call each other by our Gladiator names, so it was really strange to be called Montell on Strictly. They’re similar shows in that they’re both platforms to show your skills and to perform, it’s just that on Strictly I was very much a novice. And I definitely used my Fire spirit to perform on Strictly, because the feeling before you go onto the dancefloor is exactly the same feeling as when I’m about to go into the arena on Gladiators.” After a 24-year gap, Gladiators returned to our screens last year with a new team of super-fit athletes and bodybuilders competing in a series of ultra-tough challenges against members of the public. With Bradley Walsh and his son Barney taking over presenting duties from Ulrika Jonsson and John Fashanu, the programme otherwise retained everything that made it so popular: from the catchphrase, “Contenders, ready? Gladiators, ready?”, to the pointy foam fingers dished out to a hyped-up arena audience. The new generation of Gladiators admit they were surprised by how hugely successful the reboot was: particularly with a younger generation. Aikines-Aryeetey says, “We knew it was good but we didn’t think it would go down as well with children as young as three. We see videos on social media afterwards and they’re turning their living rooms upside down, shedding this energy they’ve just built up watching us for an hour. “More kids are trying climbing, because they’ve seen me climb The Wall ridiculously fast; they’ve got into more sports. Kids are channelling this energy now. They’re having fun imagining themselves in the arena, and we’re sending out the message: anything’s achievable. “I did the same as a kid. I watched it and I’d make a fort and climb the stairs thinking it’s The Wall. I couldn’t be a Gladiator, so I became an Olympian instead, and now I’m both!” I wonder how tough it is to train as a Gladiator, and whether it requires a different kind of fitness from their day job. Douglas, for example, is a former Team GB sprinter who held the British woman’s record for the 100m at 11.05 seconds, smashing the previous record that had stood unbeaten for 27 years. She then also added competitive bobsledding to her skillset and, in January 2022, became the first female UK athlete to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Before the first series, she admits, she trained for six hours a day, six days a week, and started lifting more weights to increase her power. “I’ve enjoyed this because it changes your body and you use it in a different way to your sport. I’m not a bodybuilder, and there are bodybuilders as part of our team, so I lean on them to figure out what I should be doing to look a certain way. You add new skills to your CV.” Similarly, Aikines-Aryeetey had to change his training regime, having previously been discouraged by coaches from certain strength exercises, as sprinters can’t carry too much weight in their upper body. As for Morsia, his training regime is slightly different. “I typically wake at 3.30am and spend the next four hours watching videos of myself, which sets me up for the day,” he says. “Then I eat a 7,000-calorie breakfast, which is primarily goat.” Although all the Gladiators had a public life before appearing on the show, one imagines they are recognised far more now than ever before. The first series averaged 8.3 million viewers, with that elusive 16- to 34-year-old group accounting for more than a million. Are they enjoying their new fame? “It’s one of my favourite things,” says Douglas, “not in the sense of being recognised, but because of the impact the show’s had on families. Young kids and their parents who watched the show years back are watching together and to me, that’s what this show is all about. The kids all have their favourite Gladiator. Mine are like my little flames, and I really feel that connection. It’s cute.” View Green Video on the source website Legend/Morsia chips in, “I try to avoid mixing with normal people as much as I can. People cry with joy when they see me, they propose; it’s embarrassing. I’ve learnt to live with it: it’s the burden I carry for being so fantastic. It is inspirational, though. They’re never going to reach my level but at least they can watch me and better themselves. It gives people a goal.” So, what can we expect from the new series? Did the contestants come along with any new tactics having watched the first series? “They did come with more fire in their belly, excuse the pun,” Douglas says. “They wanted to come and beat us. That didn’t always go to plan, but they were definitely of a great calibre. Last year was a bit of a shock for them. They often said, ‘Goodness, you make this look easy!’ But we’re Gladiators, that’s our job!” “Some of them really studied us and made a point of understanding who would swing with their right arm first or their left arm, or whatever,” adds Aikines-Aryeetey. “People took it seriously. They needed to because, ultimately, they’re not going to be faster or stronger than us, they’re not going to be as handsome as us, as Apollo would say. So they had to think about their tactics.” It’s rumoured there are new games, as well as new Gladiators – including a female villain who may challenge Legend’s reputation as the baddie of the show. Is he feeling put out by that? “That’s not a concern,” he says with a shrug. “If Cristiano Ronaldo’s team signs a new player, he doesn’t care, does he? He’s still the best. I don’t concern myself with things that are beneath me. Besides, we all have a shared goal, which is to ruin the contenders’ lives and crush them and inflict as much pain as we can. In that sense, we’re all on the same page.” There’s plenty of rivalry between the three Gladiators in front of me, and it’s very much tongue in cheek, but I wonder if any of that competitive spirit is genuine. As professional athletes, they must want, to some degree, to be the best on the night? “As much as the show is called Gladiators, it’s not really about us,” Aikines-Aryeetey says, “it’s about the contestants. It’s about them showing the nation that whether you’re working a nine to five, whether you’re a mechanic, whether you’ve got four kids at home, you’ve got an opportunity to take on great athletes and potentially win.” Contender, ready? RT’s Morgan Jeffery gets his hands on a pugil stick… Last August, I was invited to Sheffield Arena to face off with a Gladiator — but on the day of my visit, the filming schedule had changed and safety restrictions meant this was no longer possible. I pretended to be disappointed, although I was secretly relieved I’d escaped a round of Duel and an inevitable walloping. Even the “smaller” Gladiators (never call them that while they’re in earshot) are intimidatingly mammoth in person, with the likes of 6ft 6in Bionic towering over this meagre journalist when we met for a quick photo opportunity. Instead, I was invited on a backstage tour of the arena, including a peek at the changing rooms — most striking, alongside the pugil sticks and training equipment, was Giant’s tiny leotard, left hanging beneath his nameplate. For a Gladiator of his size, it looked positively miniscule — one can only assume there’s plenty of stretch… I also got a front-row seat to a filming day for the second series. Happily, I can report it’s just as fun to watch in the arena as it is at home, though I had to get comfy — just one episode takes a whopping nine hours to film, most of that wait time between events. Each game, be it Powerball, Collision or the Gauntlet, has to be built and then disassembled by a tireless crew, so anyone coming along to watch filming can expect lengthy breaks. But this is where the Gladiators come into their own. During the downtime, they engage in audience Q&As and a few other non-broadcast segments. For example, the day I attended happened to coincide with the reveal that Montell Douglas, aka Fire, would be competing on Strictly Come Dancing, so we were treated to a sneak peek of her fancy footwork. As for what to expect, well, this series sees all the familiar stars and favourite events return, and you can also look forward to some new games, maybe even a new Gladiator or two. Beyond that, at risk of a pugil stick pummelling, I’m sworn to secrecy. But rest assured — this entertainment behemoth is still a big hitter.
Strike's Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger on future: 'It feels worthwhile playing it through to the end'
Burke and Grainger spoke with Radio Times magazine about the show's sixth season, based on The Ink Black Heart.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott in the hit BBC series Strike, they have kept viewers on the edge of their seats with their will-they-won’t-they chemistry. But in real life, actors Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger have a much more straightforward relationship as co-stars and great friends. The pair have filmed six seasons since 2017, playing the one-legged war veteran Strike and his partner in crime Robin in the adaptations of the books by Robert Galbraith, otherwise known as JK Rowling. Both actors now slip seamlessly into their roles as soon as they are on set together, but admit the lines have recently become blurred between fiction and reality. "I did forget where Strike ended and Tom began," Grainger says. "In between takes I would often put my arm out to Tom to help him because I got sucked in by his acting, then I remembered he has two legs in real life and doesn’t need a hand." Burke adds with a laugh, "When I was watching Holly in her other drama The Capture, whenever she was on her phone sending a text, I instinctively reached for my phone." The actors say coming back to Strike after filming other projects is akin to that cosy familiarity of getting your pencil case out for school after the summer holidays. For Burke, all he needs to do now to get into character is slip on the famous coat and remember how to do Strike’s accent: London with a twang of Cornwall. He says he "used to have to underline words in the script and work quite hard on it, but now it comes back easily, which is a relief. "As for the coat, I don’t know where it is, but it should be in a velvet-lined box, shouldn’t it? People do say I should wear it in real life and it is a great coat but if you saw me walking around in it, you’d think I’ve gone mad." Grainger adds, "I have done that before. I kept one of Robin’s coats, and came out of a shop wearing it and someone did a double take. It was a mistake." The Ink Black Heart begins with Strike and Robin having dinner together and, for those who may not have read the 2022 book of the same name, it seems possible that they will finally get together after years of bubbling romantic tension. Yet – with apologies for the spoiler – the date frustratingly ends without the much-longed-for kiss we are all hoping for, and the pair go back to their working relationship, albeit with the lingering gazes and pregnant pauses in conversation we have grown accustomed to. Burke explains, "They’re having dinner and their guard is down because they’re not in the middle of a case, and they’re both a bit tipsy as well. Something nearly happens; it’s a spectacular moment of mistiming. Consequently, they retreat from it." Why on earth can’t they both see how much they feel for each other? I ask almost pleadingly. Grainger explains, "Their relationship is so complicated and there’s a real fear of stepping over the line and there being a sense of no return. It’s written so well in the book, the breakdown of thoughts Robin has, of not knowing if he’s going to regret it in the morning, if he’s drunk a bit too much, or if this is not the right thing for him, and what it would mean for their business. It’s only afterwards that she’s like, ‘Oh, that could have been something, maybe I was overthinking it’. "That moment makes her realise how she feels towards him properly for the first time, I think. But in that moment there’s also fear of rejection, and of losing what they have, which is friendship. Robin has very few close friends, which is a big element." And how does Strike feel about it all? Burke says, "It’s that moment that can happen sometimes where the lights go down and the candles are lit and the whole world feels very different. And it’s like, why the hell not? But there’s a fear of messing it up. That’s a big thing that pulls you into the show, because I think people have friendships like this a lot, where it’s on a precipice of becoming something else and you think, let’s keep it in the sweet spot, because this could all go horribly wrong." There’s a vast number of online forums with fans discussing whether or not Strike and Robin should or could ever get together, and the actors admit they are asked the question all the time. Burke says with a grin, "People always ask with a certain squirming relish. They seem to enjoy the agony of it. They get very impatient about it, but they enjoy that. I don’t think they really want to know." The fact is, until Rowling writes it into her books, it will never happen on screen. But is it something the actors would like to see happen in the future? Would it ruin the will-they-won’t-they "agony" if Strike and Robin did become a couple, or could it simply add an extra delicious layer to the series? Burke compares it to the Richard Linklater trilogy of films starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy that begins with a teasingly slow burner of a romance in the 1995 film Before Sunrise and ends with Before Midnight, released two decades later, with the couple finally together. "There’s nothing smug about it when they’re finally together," he explains, "and it’s because they’re two such brilliant characters. I don’t think Strike and Robin would ever be a smug couple, so in that sense I can imagine a world in which it would still be an interesting thing to watch." Grainger adds, "I would certainly be interested to see it or read it, but I don’t know if that’s what people want to read and watch. Maybe they would." Despite Strike and Robin’s closeness, though, they are very different people. Wouldn’t the polished Robin get fed up with Strike’s messy ways? He drinks and smokes, and his desk is always cluttered. "There’s a bit of that," Burke protests defensively. "But he does make his bed every morning. He’s been in the military. He can be very meticulous when he has to be." Potential romance aside, Strike and Robin still have work to do, and in The Ink Black Heart, Robin is approached by an artist who fears for her life after being cyber-stalked. She tells the woman she’s too busy to take on the case but is then devastated when she is murdered shortly afterward and decides to take on the case posthumously and delve into the dark world of social media – something the actors had to learn about as neither use it in their personal lives. "I don’t read anything on social media," Grainger says, "which now saying it out loud sounds quite silly and ignorant, but it works for me. I did join Instagram to follow a kebab truck in Devon and find out where they were going to be each week, because they’re really good. But now they have a set place, so I don’t need it!" Similarly, Burke is not online and is keen to point out that the imposter on social media calling himself "Tom Burke" and asking for money is not him. "I did go down a black hole researching because I’m usually quite head in sand and I was thinking, what is all this stuff? I’ve never liked the idea of being ‘followed’, and that was always the wording on Twitter, wasn’t it? "And if you’re having a row in real life with someone you love, you might see something in each other’s eyes and suddenly all the ways you might win the argument don’t matter at all because there’s something deeper there. We do so much of our communication non-verbally and that’s not possible with words on a screen, so I’m very suspicious of it." The TV series is yet to catch up with the books, with seventh novel The Running Grave published last year, and the eighth, The Hallmarked Man, expected next year. Rowling has said she’d like to write at least 10. Luckily, both seem dedicated to filming for as long as the books keep coming. Grainger has already read The Running Grave and says she loves finding out where Rowling (also executive producer) is taking the story next. "She comes on set sometimes," reveals Burke, "and will occasionally spill something like, 'There’ll be another scene in this place that’s quite important', which is always intriguing. It’s a really precious job for me, it’s woven itself into my life in a very particular way. Holliday and I have talked about it a lot, and we feel like the currency of it has so much to do with the slow burn arc of it, not the individual stories, and that’s why it feels so worthwhile playing it through to the end." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Strike seasons 1-5 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Season 6 will begin airing from Monday 16th December. Check out more of our Drama 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.
JK Rowling’s detective drama Strike is back with a new case, but as things heat up between them on screen, has reality and fiction blurred for Holliday Grainger and Tom Burke?
This article was first published in Radio Times Magazine in December 2024. Add Strike: The Ink Black Heart to your watchlist As private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott in the hit BBC series Strike, they have kept viewers on the edge of their seats with their will-they-won’t-they chemistry. But in real life, actors Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger have a much more straightforward relationship as co-stars and great friends. The pair have filmed six series since 2017, playing the one-legged war veteran Strike and his partner in crime Robin in the adaptations of the books by Robert Galbraith, otherwise known as JK Rowling. Both actors now slip seamlessly into their roles as soon as they are on set together, but admit the lines have recently become blurred between fiction and reality. “I did forget where Strike ended and Tom began,” Grainger says. “In between takes I would often put my arm out to Tom to help him because I got sucked in by his acting, then I remembered he has two legs in real life and doesn’t need a hand.” Burke adds with a laugh, “When I was watching Holly in her other drama The Capture, whenever she was on her phone sending a text, I instinctively reached for my phone.” The actors say coming back to Strike after filming other projects is akin to that cosy familiarity of getting your pencil case out for school after the summer holidays. For Burke, all he needs to do now to get into character is slip on the famous coat and remember how to do Strike’s accent: London with a twang of Cornwall. He says he “used to have to underline words in the script and work quite hard on it, but now it comes back easily, which is a relief. “As for the coat, I don’t know where it is, but it should be in a velvet-lined box, shouldn’t it? People do say I should wear it in real life and it is a great coat but if you saw me walking around in it, you’d think I’ve gone mad.” Grainger adds, “I have done that before. I kept one of Robin’s coats, and came out of a shop wearing it and someone did a double take. It was a mistake.” The Ink Black Heart begins with Strike and Robin having dinner together and, for those who may not have read the 2022 book of the same name, it seems possible that they will finally get together after years of bubbling romantic tension. Yet – with apologies for the spoiler – the date frustratingly ends without the much-longed-for kiss we are all hoping for, and the pair go back to their working relationship, albeit with the lingering gazes and pregnant pauses in conversation we have grown accustomed to. Burke explains, “They’re having dinner and their guard is down because they’re not in the middle of a case, and they’re both a bit tipsy as well. Something nearly happens; it’s a spectacular moment of mistiming. Consequently, they retreat from it.” Why on earth can’t they both see how much they feel for each other? I ask almost pleadingly. Grainger explains, “Their relationship is so complicated and there’s a real fear of stepping over the line and there being a sense of no return. It’s written so well in the book, the breakdown of thoughts Robin has, of not knowing if he’s going to regret it in the morning, if he’s drunk a bit too much, or if this is not the right thing for him, and what it would mean for their business. It’s only afterwards that she’s like, ‘Oh, that could have been something, maybe I was overthinking it’. “That moment makes her realise how she feels towards him properly for the first time, I think. But in that moment there’s also fear of rejection, and of losing what they have, which is friendship. Robin has very few close friends, which is a big element.” And how does Strike feel about it all? Burke says, “It’s that moment that can happen sometimes where the lights go down and the candles are lit and the whole world feels very different. And it’s like, why the hell not? But there’s a fear of messing it up. That’s a big thing that pulls you into the show, because I think people have friendships like this a lot, where it’s on a precipice of becoming something else and you think, let’s keep it in the sweet spot, because this could all go horribly wrong.” There’s a vast number of online forums with fans discussing whether or not Strike and Robin should or could ever get together, and the actors admit they are asked the question all the time. Burke says with a grin, “People always ask with a certain squirming relish. They seem to enjoy the agony of it. They get very impatient about it, but they enjoy that. I don’t think they really want to know.” The fact is, until Rowling writes it into her books, it will never happen on screen. But is it something the actors would like to see happen in the future? Would it ruin the will-they-won’t-they “agony” if Strike and Robin did become a couple, or could it simply add an extra delicious layer to the series? Burke compares it to the Richard Linklater trilogy of films starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Deply that begins with a teasingly slow burner of a romance in the 1995 film Before Sunrise and ends with Before Midnight, released two decades later, with the couple finally together. “There’s nothing smug about it when they’re finally together,” he explains, “and it’s because they’re two such brilliant characters. I don’t think Strike and Robin would ever be a smug couple, so in that sense I can imagine a world in which it would still be an interesting thing to watch.” Grainger adds, “I would certainly be interested to see it or read it, but I don’t know if that’s what people want to read and watch. Maybe they would.” Despite Strike and Robin’s closeness, though, they are very different people. Wouldn’t the polished Robin get fed up with Strike’s messy ways? He drinks and smokes, and his desk is always cluttered. “There’s a bit of that,” Burke protests defensively. “But he does make his bed every morning. He’s been in the military. He can be very meticulous when he has to be.” Potential romance aside, Strike and Robin still have work to do, and in The Ink Black Heart, Robin is approached by an artist who fears for her life after being cyberstalked. She tells the woman she’s too busy to take on the case but is then devastated when she is murdered shortly afterward and decides to take on the case posthumously and delve into the dark world of social media – something the actors had to learn about as neither use it in their personal lives. “I don’t read anything on social media,” Grainger says, “which now saying it out loud sounds quite silly and ignorant, but it works for me. I did join Instagram to follow a kebab truck in Devon and find out where they were going to be each week, because they’re really good. But now they have a set place, so I don’t need it!” Similarly, Burke is not online and is keen to point out that the imposter on social media calling himself “Tom Burke” and asking for money is not him. “I did go down a black hole researching because I’m usually quite head in sand and I was thinking, what is all this stuff? I’ve never liked the idea of being ‘followed’, and that was always the wording on Twitter, wasn’t it? “And if you’re having a row in real life with someone you love, you might see something in each other’s eyes and suddenly all the ways you might win the argument don’t matter at all because there’s something deeper there. We do so much of our communication non-verbally and that’s not possible with words on a screen, so I’m very suspicious of it.” The TV series is yet to catch up with the books, with seventh novel The Running Grave published last year, and the eighth, The Hallmarked Man, expected next year. Rowling has said she’d like to write at least ten. Luckily, both seem dedicated to filming for as long as the books keep coming. Grainger has already read The Running Grave and says she loves finding out where Rowling (also executive producer) is taking the story next. “She comes on set sometimes,” reveals Burke, “and will occasionally spill something like, ‘There’ll be another scene in this place that’s quite important’, which is always intriguing. It’s a really precious job for me, it’s woven itself into my life in a very particular way. Holliday and I have talked about it a lot, and we feel like the currency of it has so much to do with the slow burn arc of it, not the individual stories, and that’s why it feels so worthwhile playing it through to the end.”
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two hosts Janette Manrara and Fleur East reflect on the latest series
Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist As Strictly Come Dancing 2024 enters its closing stages, ex-Strictly professional dancer Janette Manrara and former finalist Fleur East, hosts of the BBC2 spin-off show It Takes Two, reflect on the series and returning to the glitterball game as new parents. We’re into the final weeks of Strictly — how would you sum up this series? J This year everyone has let their hair down. The celebrities are so funny and that’s rubbing off on the judges. F Because it’s the 20th anniversary year, it feels like a big celebration. Is it hard not to have favourites — especially for you, Janette, now your husband Aljaž is back as a professional? J The celebrities are the ones competing, not the pros. I just want Aljaž to do a good job. I’m so happy to see him back. I’ve cried – he belongs on that floor. F You can’t have favourites because it’s so unpredictable. I could never say at the start who might win. Anyone can suddenly blow you away. Chris McCausland is the first blind celebrity on Strictly. Are there any limits to who can compete on the show? J Anyone can move to music. Chris is fascinating and Dianne’s doing such a brilliant job guiding him, it makes my heart sing. Strictly has a massive platform and it makes a lot of people at home feel heard and seen. F Yeah, we have an open door for anybody! You have co-hosted It Takes Two for two series now — is it a dream job? F We’re like the naughty kids who have to be separated because we giggle too much. It’s just as well we present different days. J We’re also both new mums. I’m struggling with Lyra’s sleep, and Fleur’s going through the same things. Lyra and [Fleur’s daughter] Nova met for the first time recently, which was cute! How challenging is it to go back to work with young babies? J When Lyra was three months old, I was doing It Takes Two and touring the UK with Aljaž, so Lyra was on trains and in hotels and she was absolutely fine. There’s a baby room on Strictly if we need it but Lyra goes to nursery on the days I’m filming. F Nova had a nap in the Strictly baby room when we did our first show. It’s nice to know we can have them there with us. You faced some negative comments for returning to work — was that hard to deal with? J I went back to Morning Live when Lyra was six weeks old and some people said, “You’re not setting a good example.” It baffles me that we judge each other like that. F You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Either you shouldn’t go to work and leave the kids at home, or you shouldn’t “just” be a mum.
Strictly's Janette Manrara 'baffled' at being judged for returning to work after giving birth
Manrara hosts It Takes Two alongside Fleur East.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As Strictly Come Dancing 2024 enters its closing stages, ex-Strictly professional dancer Janette Manrara and former finalist Fleur East, hosts of the BBC2 spin-off show It Takes Two, reflect on the series and returning to the glitterball game as new parents. We're into the final weeks of Strictly — how would you sum up this series? Janette: This year everyone has let their hair down. The celebrities are so funny and that’s rubbing off on the judges. Fleur: Because it’s the 20th anniversary year, it feels like a big celebration. Is it hard not to have favourites — especially for you, Janette, now your husband Aljaž is back as a professional? Janette: The celebrities are the ones competing, not the pros. I just want Aljaž to do a good job. I’m so happy to see him back. I’ve cried – he belongs on that floor. Fleur: You can’t have favourites because it’s so unpredictable. I could never say at the start who might win. Anyone can suddenly blow you away. Chris McCausland is the first blind celebrity on Strictly. Are there any limits to who can compete on the show? Janette: Anyone can move to music. Chris is fascinating and Dianne’s doing such a brilliant job guiding him, it makes my heart sing. Strictly has a massive platform and it makes a lot of people at home feel heard and seen. Fleur: Yeah, we have an open door for anybody! You have co-hosted It Takes Two for two series now — is it a dream job? Fleur: We’re like the naughty kids who have to be separated because we giggle too much. It’s just as well we present different days. Janette: We’re also both new mums. I’m struggling with Lyra’s sleep, and Fleur’s going through the same things. Lyra and [Fleur’s daughter] Nova met for the first time recently, which was cute! How challenging is it to go back to work with young babies? Janette: When Lyra was three months old, I was doing It Takes Two and touring the UK with Aljaž, so Lyra was on trains and in hotels and she was absolutely fine. There’s a baby room on Strictly if we need it, but Lyra goes to nursery on the days I'm filming. Fleur: Nova had a nap in the Strictly baby room when we did our first show. It’s nice to know we can have them there with us. You faced some negative comments for returning to work — was that hard to deal with? Janette: I went back to Morning Live when Lyra was six weeks old and some people said, "You’re not setting a good example." It baffles me that we judge each other like that. Fleur: You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Either you shouldn’t go to work and leave the kids at home, or you shouldn’t "just" be a mum. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Strictly Come Dancing final will air on Saturday 14th December on BBC One. 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.
Is Craig Revel Horwood going soft? Are the pros too tough on the celebrities? Who should appear on the Christmas special? The Strictly judges have their say…
Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist As the pantomime villain of Strictly Come Dancing, Craig Revel Horwood has become accustomed to being booed and heckled by fans. But viewers may have detected a slight softening recently, with the judge’s famous “Fab-u-lous, darling” catchphrase getting more airtime these days than his “Dull, dull, dull!” Could it be that, after 20 years behind the judging desk, the 59-year-old has gone soft? “I have changed my style of judging,” he admits. “I was really harsh 20 years ago. When I look back, I think, ‘Ooh, that’s cutting.’ It would now be classed as bullying, and then I’d be cancelled.” But, he adds, his new, kinder persona has not come about because he’s afraid of causing a public outcry. “It’s not fear of being cancelled. It’s just, how can I reach out to them and help them to improve, rather than just saying, ‘This is wrong, that’s wrong.’ I’m thinking more like a teacher than a judge. “If the standard is low, I really haven’t got anything to say except what’s wrong with it. But this series there’s been an awful lot that’s right with everything. They’re much more talented now than they used to be. Back then, we had snooker players and politicians, and it was pretty tough on people who couldn’t dance. I was very direct. I do still say what’s wrong, but you can wrap the truth in a nice way.” In case you’re concerned that he has become too nice, Revel Horwood insists he still couldn’t care less if dancers are upset by his opinions. “I’m not there for their emotions. I don’t care how it affects them in that way, because they need to learn and respect my opinion.” Nor does he care about any backlash from fans. In fact, he plans to write a book about the social media trolling he has received. “It will be hilarious. Over the years I’ve been keeping all these comments and so-called death threats from people who have five followers and no dance knowledge, and I’m going to shame them. “I read these comments and think, ‘Wonderful, that’s a brilliant one for the book.’ I treat it all as a cartoon. They can’t even string a sentence together. I often reply and say, ‘Thanks for the opinion, but perhaps you would like to learn to spell before you tell me what you think, darling.’” Not everybody is as thick-skinned as Revel Horwood. Duty of care towards contestants came under the spotlight earlier this year, leading to a new rule that means a chaperone must now be present in all rehearsal rooms, and there has been much debate about teaching standards on the show. What does Strictly’s toughest judge think of the furore? “Things have to change. These dancers are world champions – they’ve been taught properly to win, and the only way you’re going to achieve that is by someone driving you. That’s embedded in their DNA. You can’t just change that overnight. “That’s very different to a celebrity who’s a novice coming in. Celebrities are sensitive because they’re in the public domain. They’ve got reputations to protect and don’t want to be seen looking stupid. So it’s about having someone there in the room and guarding both the celebrity and the professional, and also encouraging the fact that it should be fun. They still need to be pushed, because we can’t get away from the fact that dancing is hard, but it’s a light entertainment programme as well.” Of course, Revel Horwood knows the heart of Strictly better than most. He’s the only remaining judge from the original line-up of Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Arlene Phillips. Apparently, Phillips and Tonioli still watch Strictly – but Revel Horwood rarely talks about the show with them, as they’re always too busy gossiping. “I see them quite a lot and they both watch it. I often see Bruno at his house – he cooks a great chicken. He’s obviously hopelessly involved in Britain’s Got Talent now and his thing is about pushing gold buzzers or whatever, and he does the American dancing show.” He adds that Goodman, who died in April 2023, would have “loved” Paul Merson, Chris McCausland and Wynne Evans this year. “He’d have loved the banter, because that’s like the old days when the celebs had a bit of a laugh.” Who has Revel Horwood most enjoyed watching in the past two decades? “Mark Ramprakash [who won series four] was always terrible in rehearsal,” he reflects. “Poor Karen Hardy would say, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to get through this,’ then he’d come on live and go ‘Boom!’ and fly across the dancefloor. We never knew where it came from. I suppose he needed the pressure of a live audience. That must be to do with him being a top-level cricketer.” The show will be back this Christmas with its traditional end-of-the-year outing and a 20th-anniversary documentary. Revel Horwood says he will be sitting down to watch them amid his “very traditional” Christmas, watching the King’s speech and eating a roast turkey dinner. His Christmas wish? That one day, he’ll get to choose who appears on the festive edition. “Simon Cowell would be the dream,” he says. “But if I could choose someone to dance with personally, I’d love to dance with Queen Camilla.”
'Nobody tells me what I can and can't say'
Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist There has been a bit of criticism about the judges bickering this year. What’s the atmosphere really like between the four of you? We’re all friends. I’ve known Anton over 35 years, Motsi over 30 years, and Craig for the full eight that I’ve been on the show, and we have such a good banter between us. Do you have favourite celebrities from the start? When they first come down the stairs, sometimes I think, “That’s not a coordinated person.” But I thought that about Bill Bailey, who went on to win, so what do I know! What have been your favourite moments on the show? Kelvin Fletcher with his samba in week one. My eyeballs nearly dropped out. And Giovanni and Rose Ayling-Ellis when she switched off the music and took us into her world. Do your critiques vary depending on how robust a celebrity seems? I have several hats. have a technician hat, an empathy hat and a snuggle-bunny cuddle hat if I feel they need it. I can read the room, put it that way. I might think I’m going to say one thing, then I see that they have struggled or made mistakes. You want to give encouragement for the parts they did well, but recognise the mistakes, too. Do the producers ever tell you to go easy on somebody that’s having a hard week? I don’t have anybody telling me what I can and cannot say. We have no earpieces. Nobody’s told what to say. Do you ever give the contestants advice backstage? I come downstairs just before we’re about to air, and there’s so much hustle and bustle. There’s amazing camaraderie. I just say to them as I go past, “Do your best and enjoy every minute, because it’s going to be memories by tomorrow. Enjoy it and don’t be worrying if you make a mistake.” As head judge, do you feel the pressure of having the final vote on who goes home? I’m sitting there every weekend, thinking, “Dear Lord, my saviour, please let the other three make the decision so it doesn’t come down to me.” But somebody has to do this job and I try to send them home with as much confidence and affection as I can. My heart does have a little cry when I see them go because I’ve got to know them, and see them improving. What would it take for you to leave the show? I want to do Strictly until I pop my clogs. I shall come in on my walking frame, because I’m married to dance!
'I'd never want somebody to feel belittled'
Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist You started your TV career as a professional on the German version of Strictly. Which is harder, judging or being a pro? They’re hard in different ways. The professionals give absolutely everything; they are mums to the contestants, they are therapists, they create choreography. As a judge, there’s always decision-making, which is hard. You can’t make everyone happy. Is there a difference between judging celebrities and professional dancers? On a professional stage, you say it straight. I’d never be a person that’s harsh, but there’s space to say, “You can’t expect the results if you’re not working hard.” You wouldn’t say that on a TV show. People would have a heart attack! I would never want somebody to feel in any way shamed or belittled. There are some people you can laugh with, though. Paul Merson tried his best, but he was fine with making jokes. You need people like that or it would be boring. As a young ballroom dancer, did you find the training techniques difficult? One of my teachers made me feel so worthless. I felt unprotected and vulnerable. There are different ways to motivate kids and we do things differently today. A lot of my insecurities come from my childhood. I’ve forgotten so much, and that’s my brain protecting me. I’ve blocked out a lot of things. Do you ever give advice to contestants who might be finding it tough? I try not to engage much with them, because then I might feel guilty. On the German version of Strictly, where I’m also a judge, we used to have an after-party every week and you start exchanging conversations. Then you have to let them down in front of millions! Is it easier now that your sister Oti isn’t on the show? Oti and I had to at some point stop the conversation because you want to be professional. Now we dissect everything. We sit on Sunday and have our own results show. It’s nice to reflect with somebody that you trust so you can get great feedback. It’s the same for me when I watch her on Dancing on Ice. Do you have any favourite contestants? My strength is that I live in another country. If you’ve watched EastEnders all your life, and an actor comes on Strictly, you have a certain feeling for them. I don’t know them so I meet them fresh. If you could choose a celebrity for the Christmas special, who would it be? I think Tom Hiddleston should come on! I saw Andrew Garfield saying he wanted to do it. And we should also get Mel B!
‘I watch it to check I’m not being idiotic’
Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist You’ve been part of Strictly since the start. How has the show changed over the past 20 years? People say the standard has improved, but Jill Halfpenny did one of the best jives ever in series two. Darren Gough was fantastic in series three, as was Mark Ramprakash in series four. But it’s more spectacular now because we do lifts and dances that we never used to, like the American Smooth and the Charleston. Did you ever imagine that the show would run for 20 years? What’s the secret of its longevity? We never even considered it, but I thought it was a genius idea putting a celebrity with a professional. You can enjoy it for so many different reasons, whether it’s the live music, the judges, the dancing, the frocks. The nuts and bolts haven’t changed, but it’s become more impressive-looking every time. What would it take for you to leave? I’ll be there in a decade, don’t you worry. I think it can run and run. People are loving the show as much as ever, even with all the negative press over the past months. What the press don’t understand is that audiences don’t want to hear about that. They want you to leave it alone, thank you so much. We love this show. Do you watch it yourself? It’s a big thing in our house. My wife and children love it, so I watch from time to time and check that I’m not being a lunatic or idiotic. Do you ever change your mind on your scores when you watch it back? What we don’t see in the studio is what you see at home. You’ll see something from the front, where the cameras are, and we’re watching from the side. Sometimes I’ll go, “Oh, I didn’t see that, they went a bit out of time.” But I judge what I’m looking at and I’ve never been wrong yet. Has the judging changed over the years? It was harsher in the old days. Craig couldn’t get away with it now. He was absolutely brutal! I got the worst of it. If someone’s made a mistake and could do better, of course you point it out. But if my partners were never going to be very good, I didn’t think there was any need for the judges to batter us. That was pointless and unhelpful. Did Craig’s comments ever upset you? No. He said some really unpleasant things to me and Ann Widdecombe. Ann said, “Well, if you didn’t like that, wait till next week, we’re doing the samba.” It was brilliant. Is it hard as a professional to find the balance between pushing the contestants and encouraging them? My attitude was always that if it’s not working, find another way. If people started to well up, we’d go and have a cup of tea to take the heat out of it. I never wanted my partner to wish they’d danced with somebody else. I was very fortunate; I had a great time with all my partners. Do you miss being a pro? I get a twinge when I see a lovely dance that I’d love to have done. Then again, one or two of the dances I would gladly not have done, and that’s what makes me think I’m better where I am! Will you be watching the Christmas special? I’m very traditional. We do Christmas dinner, then sit and watch Strictly. It’s secretly my favourite edition of the show. I used to beg them to let me do it. One year I was still in the competition so I couldn’t do the Christmas special as well, but they let me dance to Michael Bublé. Who would you like to see on the Christmas special? Mike and Zara Tindall. I know them both well and they’d be great sports.
Craig Revel Horwood on Strictly duty of care: "Things have to change"
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As the pantomime villain of Strictly Come Dancing, Craig Revel Horwood has become accustomed to being booed and heckled by fans. But viewers may have detected a slight softening recently, with the judge’s famous "Fab-u-lous, darling" catchphrase getting more airtime these days than his "Dull, dull, dull!". Could it be that, after 20 years behind the judging desk, the 59-year-old has gone soft? "I have changed my style of judging," he admits. "I was really harsh 20 years ago. When I look back, I think, 'Ooh, that’s cutting.' It would now be classed as bullying, and then I’d be cancelled." But, he adds, his new, kinder persona has not come about because he’s afraid of causing a public outcry. "It’s not fear of being cancelled. It’s just, how can I reach out to them and help them to improve, rather than just saying, 'This is wrong, that’s wrong.' I’m thinking more like a teacher than a judge. "If the standard is low, I really haven’t got anything to say except what’s wrong with it. But this series there’s been an awful lot that’s right with everything. "They’re much more talented now than they used to be. Back then, we had snooker players and politicians, and it was pretty tough on people who couldn’t dance. I was very direct. I do still say what’s wrong, but you can wrap the truth in a nice way." In case you’re concerned that he has become too nice, Revel Horwood insists he still couldn’t care less if dancers are upset by his opinions. "I’m not there for their emotions. I don’t care how it affects them in that way, because they need to learn and respect my opinion." Nor does he care about any backlash from fans. In fact, he plans to write a book about the social media trolling he has received. "It will be hilarious. Over the years I’ve been keeping all these comments and so-called death threats from people who have five followers and no dance knowledge, and I’m going to shame them. "I read these comments and think, 'Wonderful, that’s a brilliant one for the book.' I treat it all as a cartoon. They can’t even string a sentence together. I often reply and say, 'Thanks for the opinion, but perhaps you would like to learn to spell before you tell me what you think, darling.'" Not everybody is as thick-skinned as Revel Horwood. Duty of care towards contestants came under the spotlight earlier this year, leading to a new rule that means a chaperone must now be present in all rehearsal rooms, and there has been much debate about teaching standards on the show. What does Strictly’s toughest judge think of the furore? "Things have to change. These dancers are world champions – they’ve been taught properly to win, and the only way you’re going to achieve that is by someone driving you. That’s embedded in their DNA. You can’t just change that overnight. "That’s very different to a celebrity who’s a novice coming in. Celebrities are sensitive because they’re in the public domain. They’ve got reputations to protect and don’t want to be seen looking stupid. "So it’s about having someone there in the room and guarding both the celebrity and the professional, and also encouraging the fact that it should be fun. They still need to be pushed, because we can’t get away from the fact that dancing is hard, but it’s a light entertainment programme as well." Of course, Revel Horwood knows the heart of Strictly better than most. He’s the only remaining judge from the original line-up of Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Arlene Phillips. Apparently, Phillips and Tonioli still watch Strictly – but Revel Horwood rarely talks about the show with them, as they’re always too busy gossiping. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/10/strictly-craig-revel-horwood-anton-du-beke-halloween-shining-35e6ea3.jpg" width="2560" height="1707" alt="Craig Revel Horwood pushing Anton Du Beke on a swing in the Strictly ballroom, dressed in blue dresses and bob wig haircuts like the twins in The Shining." title="Craig Revel Horwood and Anton Du Beke in Strictly Come Dancing" /> "I see them quite a lot and they both watch it. I often see Bruno at his house – he cooks a great chicken. He’s obviously hopelessly involved in Britain’s Got Talent now and his thing is about pushing gold buzzers or whatever, and he does the American dancing show." He adds that Goodman, who died in April 2023, would have "loved" Paul Merson, Chris McCausland and Wynne Evans this year. "He’d have loved the banter, because that’s like the old days when the celebs had a bit of a laugh." Who has Revel Horwood most enjoyed watching in the past two decades? "Mark Ramprakash [who won series four] was always terrible in rehearsal," he reflects. "Poor Karen Hardy would say, 'I don’t know how we’re going to get through this,' then he’d come on live and go 'Boom!' and fly across the dancefloor. We never knew where it came from. "I suppose he needed the pressure of a live audience. That must be to do with him being a top-level cricketer." The show will be back this Christmas with its traditional end-of-the-year outing and a 20th-anniversary documentary. Revel Horwood says he will be sitting down to watch them amid his "very traditional" Christmas, watching the king’s speech and eating a roast turkey dinner. His Christmas wish? That one day, he’ll get to choose who appears on the festive edition. "Simon Cowell would be the dream," he says. "But if I could choose someone to dance with personally, I’d love to dance with Queen Camilla." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturdays BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.