Legendary photographer Martin Parr looks back on his work and recalls the way we were
Speaking to Gareth McLean in Radio Times magazine back in August 2025, Martin Parr shared his singular vision of Britain.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine in August 2025 – just months ahead of Parr’s death on Saturday 6th December 2025. “Yellow card!” Martin Parr admonishes. “You’re intellectualising these things a bit too much for my liking.” I have earned his reproach for suggesting that the razing of the Lido in New Brighton — as featured in The Last Resort, the series of photographs that made his name — could be seen as a metaphor for the hollowing-out of Britain’s working-class communities over the past 40 years. “There’s politics in my images if you want to find it, but I don’t push it down people’s throats,” Parr proclaims. “People should just sit back and enjoy the images, really.” People certainly do enjoy Parr’s photography. As well as chronicling changing life in Britain, Parr’s work has transformed photography itself, with his garish but gritty signature style influencing everything from fashion editorials to war-zone reportage. Why does he take photographs? “It’s just what I do naturally,” he says. “I have a desire to go out and capture these images, and the crazier the scene in front of me, the happier I am.” The subject of a BBC4 documentary and co-author of an upcoming memoir, Utterly Lazy and Inattentive, which looks at his life by reflecting on 150 of his best-known photographs, Parr says that of the hundreds of thousands of photographs he’s taken, not one of them has been perfect — though he’s got close. “You know when you’re out shooting that most pictures you take aren’t going to be perfect or great. But you keep shooting to have that momentum so, as and when, things start to fall into place.” Parr ponders. “It’s just the luck of finding a scene.” Mayor of Todmorden’s Inaugural Banquet, West Yorkshire 1977 “Between 1975 and 1980, I lived in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and would attend all the different social events that were going on. This photograph was taken at the inauguration of the mayor of Todmorden, and it’s the best buffet scene I’ve ever managed to shoot. I’ve done buffet scenes many times since, but I’ve never managed to equal it. It’s the guy in the middle squeezing his way through that makes the picture.” Sedlescombe 1995—99 “I started using a macro camera, which I bought in 1995, and that was a real revelation: using the camera to focus on the foreground and letting the background fall out of focus. I started out doing pictures of things like British food, then different days around Europe, and then ended up doing these series of pictures in England. You can see here the flash on the Union Jack and you can see the outline of the woman sitting behind. Those two things combined made the picture really work.” New Brighton 1983—85 “We moved to Wallasey in 1982, and just down the road was New Brighton, a resort that I knew would be very interesting to photograph. And so it was. I got there when it was looking very shabby, lots of litter on the ground, which I liked, and I worked on this project over the next three years. It turned out to be the most successful one I’ve ever done. The flash and the palette of quite bright colours done with a colour negative for quite intense rendition was novel, very different to other colour documentary images.” Skegness 1992 “Whenever there was a dramatic news headline, I used to go out and try to capture people reading newspapers. It’s not something you’d do now, because newspapers have virtually disappeared, especially the red tops. If you went to the seaside today, you probably wouldn’t see anyone reading a paper — maybe a few older people — but everyone else would be looking at their phones. Smartphones affected everything. Cameras are being replaced by smartphones and everyone’s a photographer now. I take proper pictures on my phone because the quality is so good, especially when there’s no light.” New Brighton 1983—85 “This is the burger bar at the New Brighton Lido. Obviously everyone at the front is concentrating on either getting their burger or putting the tomato sauce on it, but as for the others… I’ve been back to New Brighton a few times, but the energy that was there in the 1980s has disappeared because the Lido, which was one of the best and biggest buildings there, has been pulled down. It’s gone — levelled [after a storm in 1990] and nothing was built on the site for years.” Sand Bay 1997 “You couldn’t get a better cup of tea if you went to a studio and set it all up. I got this at one of our favourite cafés in Weston-super-Mare, Monks's Rest, where they also did great scones. It’s closed down now. The teacup and the saucer are perfect, the colour of the tea is pretty good, and the tablecloth with the gingham is also good: this cup of tea is the classic cliché. Therefore it gets used quite a lot, on things like T-shirts, and imitated. I encourage pastiche of my work. I take milk in my tea. Just milk.” If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Call the Midwife star reveals she wants a damehood as cast tease much-anticipated 2025 Christmas special
As Call the Midwife returns for Christmas, Judy Parfitt and Helen George talk friendship, fame and festive traditions after more than a decade at Nonnatus House.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Judy Parfitt, 90, plays Sister Monica Joan, the Keats-quoting grande dame of Nonnatus House. Devoted to her calling, she has an abiding love of cake and an interest in astrology. Helen George, 41, plays Trixie Aylward, the troubled party girl – but formidable midwife – who married a baronet. The pair have worked together since the drama began in 2012. Helen, when did you first meet Judy? Helen: At the first-ever read-through, and she looked every bit the star she is: sparkling blue eyes, fiery red curls, beautiful cashmere and pearls complementing her porcelain skin. I introduced myself – nervously – and she was delightful. I was terrified initially because she has such a strong presence, but she quickly took me under her wing. She’s been a wonderful friend and confidante over the years, be it in work or in my private life. I love her dearly. Working with Judy and Jenny Agutter and watching the way they conduct themselves on set – how fun they are and how naughty they can be, but how professional and how dedicated they are to their craft – has been an exemplary education. Judy, were you aware you were such an inspiration? Judy: Monica Joan is such a wonderful character and I’ve been having so much fun; I didn’t think I was teaching anyone anything. I was educated in a convent, you see, and I always wanted to play a nun. Helen: What I admire most about Judy is that she gets the work done, but with such innate talent. She doesn’t suffer fools – she’s very direct, unapologetically, and I really appreciate that, especially as a woman. I used to always apologise for myself. Now I think, ‘I’ll be a bit more Judy!’ I just say it. Without a sorry at the end. She gets away with so much because of that sparkle in her eyes! She’s an icon. Do you feel iconic, Judy? Judy: Well, I haven’t got anything after my name to say that I am! Would you like something? Judy: I’d like to be Dame Judy, for my family and for me. So many actors ask me why I’m not and I don’t know. But I’ve never been asked and I’m not sure if it’s because of something I haven’t done or because of something I have! How will you celebrate Christmas? Judy: I like to have Christmas Day by myself. My family go away and I have nice food that I’ve prepared because I cook every day. And I watch Call the Midwife. Monica Joan isn’t usually involved in all the storylines so when it comes on at Christmas, it’s brand new to me. And because we filmed it in April, I’ve forgotten the bits I did. It’s wonderful, like seeing a programme I know nothing about! Helen: I have just moved into the perfect house for Christmas Day – when I saw it I knew exactly where the tree was going to go! I’ve always had such fond memories of Christmas and I want my kids to have them, too. Read more: Call the Midwife stars tease epic Christmas special with unexpected 'stunt': "It felt like Mission: Impossible" Call the Midwife creator and cast reveal show was hit by typhoon while filming in Hong Kong The Christmas double issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Call the Midwife's two festive specials will air at 8:15pm on Christmas Day and 8:30pm on Boxing Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Add Call the Midwife 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.
The actor and presenter on The Traitors, speaking out — and being a superhero
Over an illustrious 40-year career, Alan Cumming, 60, has appeared in an eclectic range of TV shows, films and stage plays — from the Emcee, full of licentious glee, in Sam Mendes’ productions of Cabaret to the weapons-grade camp host of The Traitors USA. Grammy-nominated, he has won Emmy, Tony and Olivier awards and was named by Time magazine as one of the three most fun people in showbusiness (alongside Stanley Tucci and Cher, apparently). He’s played God and the Devil, sold out Carnegie Hall and written seven books. Now, the actor-writer-singer-activist-photographer has added artistic director to his talents, taking charge at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland where he recently announced his inaugural season next year. You have quite a CV — have you ever been presented with an opportunity and thought “I’ll pass”? I believe in saying yes – and why not? If you have the pizazz and passion for it, give it a go. I feel like the most successful things I’ve done are things I haven’t overthought. I’ve just had a funny feeling in my tummy, excited and inspired, which is what I’ve got about Pitlochry. It’s about celebrating Scottish talent and bringing new ideas and international stuff to Scotland. When you were on Desert Island Discs, you said, “I do things I might fail at”. You’re not frightened of failure then? I’m not. I mean, it’s not my favourite thing, but Patti Smith said to me, “Alan, it won’t be a failure if you’ve done your best”. It could be a failure in financial terms, but those things don’t matter to me. The biggest and most important critic to me is myself. I’ve found in my life that if you believe in something, your passion can inspire other people. This is why I think I’d make a good cult leader. It feels harder than ever to be hopeful these days. As someone who lives in America, how do you remain optimistic? Depressed isn’t quite the right word to describe how I feel about American politics. I’m disgusted. Appalled. I recently hosted The Jimmy Kimmel Show and I did a monologue about trans rights. Everyone went nuts and people said, “You’re gonna get deported,” but all I was doing was saying the truth. So few people do that because they’re scared of being deported, of being attacked. I have a confidence because I have another life, another passport. I feel more at home in Scotland right now. The Traitors USA has been a huge hit, winning you four Emmys. Did you imagine it would be so successful? I thought it was going to be good but I had no idea that it would become this cultural phenomenon. People love it because there’s a panto element to it: it’s a way for us to boo and hiss and scream at the baddies and cheer the goodies. Would you go on the UK celebrity version of the show if asked? I’d love to do it. It’d be so fascinating to see it from the other side because I see up-close how people make terrible decisions when they’re mesmerised by this psychological experiment. It’s around episode five or six that they start taking leave of their senses. Christmas is coming up — how do your Christmasses now compare to those of your childhood? I grew up on a country estate so I’d be selling Christmas trees until Christmas Eve. After that, Christmas was an old-school Scottish affair. Family-oriented, satsumas in your stocking, maybe a wee Advocaat… This Christmas, our new house in the Highlands isn’t ready so we’ll be upstate [in New York] in the Catskills. We have a life-sized neon horse – from The Threepenny Opera I did – which we decorate then spend time doing nothing, making delicious food and watching films. You always seem busy — are you really able to “do nothing”? It might seem like I’m not good at it but I really am. With this show I’m filming in Manchester, I’m living a monastic life, doing a lot of reading and enjoying not having to see people. When I finish that, I’m off to a wee hotel in the Highlands, just me on my own, to rest up. You’re referring to Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new “suburban thriller” — what can you tell us? I’ve been trying to work with Russell for 20 years – I did a little thing on Doctor Who last year but I mean one of his big dramas – and finally now I’m in the right place at the right time. It’s beautifully written, it’s prescient, and I regularly go home emotionally and physically battered. It’s about rage, how we got into this current febrile atmosphere where there’s all this anger towards marginalised people, and how we might escape it. David Morrissey and I play neighbours. I get locked out. We have an interaction and 10 days later, the world changes. So it’s an anti-Reform drama? It’s a drama about having a moral centre, and the vigilance required to maintain a kind society. And finally, not since Gudrun Ure in Supergran has there been a high-profile Scottish superhero, but you’re reprising your 2003 X-Men character Nightcrawler, in next year’s Avengers movie, Doomsday. How does that feel? It is insane and incredible. I imagine that somewhere there is a production manager having a breakdown, trying to schedule 28 of the world’s busiest actors into the same scenes. I did my bits very quickly, on green screen because there was no one else around. I can’t quite believe that I’m doing another superhero movie. I turned 60 recently…
Alan Cumming teases "prescient" new show from Russell T Davies about rage faced by "marginalised people"
The actor and presenter on The Traitors, speaking out – and being a superhero.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Over an illustrious 40-year career, Alan Cumming, 60, has appeared in an eclectic range of TV shows, films and stage plays — from the Emcee, full of licentious glee, in Sam Mendes’ productions of Cabaret to the weapons-grade camp host of The Traitors USA. Grammy-nominated, he has won Emmy, Tony and Olivier awards and was named by Time magazine as one of the three most fun people in showbusiness (alongside Stanley Tucci and Cher, apparently). He’s played God and the Devil, sold out Carnegie Hall and written seven books. Now, the actor-writer-singer-activist-photographer has added artistic director to his talents, taking charge at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland where he recently announced his inaugural season next year. You have quite a CV – have you ever been presented with an opportunity and thought “I’ll pass”? I believe in saying yes – and why not? If you have the pizazz and passion for it, give it a go. I feel like the most successful things I’ve done are things I haven’t overthought. I’ve just had a funny feeling in my tummy, excited and inspired, which is what I’ve got about Pitlochry. It’s about celebrating Scottish talent and bringing new ideas and international stuff to Scotland. When you were on Desert Island Discs, you said, “I do things I might fail at”. You’re not frightened of failure then? I’m not. I mean, it’s not my favourite thing, but Patti Smith said to me, “Alan, it won’t be a failure if you’ve done your best”. It could be a failure in financial terms, but those things don’t matter to me. The biggest and most important critic to me is myself. I’ve found in my life that if you believe in something, your passion can inspire other people. This is why I think I’d make a good cult leader. It feels harder than ever to be hopeful these days. As someone who lives in America, how do you remain optimistic? Depressed isn’t quite the right word to describe how I feel about American politics. I’m disgusted. Appalled. I recently hosted The Jimmy Kimmel Show and I did a monologue about trans rights. Everyone went nuts and people said, “You’re gonna get deported,” but all I was doing was saying the truth. So few people do that because they’re scared of being deported, of being attacked. I have a confidence because I have another life, another passport. I feel more at home in Scotland right now. The Traitors USA has been a huge hit, winning you four Emmys. Did you imagine it would be so successful? I thought it was going to be good but I had no idea that it would become this cultural phenomenon. People love it because there’s a panto element to it: it’s a way for us to boo and hiss and scream at the baddies and cheer the goodies. Would you go on the UK celebrity version of the show if asked? I’d love to do it. It’d be so fascinating to see it from the other side because I see up-close how people make terrible decisions when they’re mesmerised by this psychological experiment. It’s around episode five or six that they start taking leave of their senses. Christmas is coming up — how do your Christmasses now compare to those of your childhood? I grew up on a country estate so I’d be selling Christmas trees until Christmas Eve. After that, Christmas was an old-school Scottish affair. Family-oriented, satsumas in your stocking, maybe a wee Advocaat… This Christmas, our new house in the Highlands isn’t ready so we’ll be upstate [in New York] in the Catskills. We have a life-sized neon horse – from The Threepenny Opera I did – which we decorate then spend time doing nothing, making delicious food and watching films. You always seem busy — are you really able to “do nothing”? It might seem like I’m not good at it but I really am. With this show I’m filming in Manchester, I’m living a monastic life, doing a lot of reading and enjoying not having to see people. When I finish that, I’m off to a wee hotel in the Highlands, just me on my own, to rest up. You’re referring to Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new “suburban thriller” — what can you tell us? I’ve been trying to work with Russell for 20 years – I did a little thing on Doctor Who last year but I mean one of his big dramas – and finally now I’m in the right place at the right time. It’s beautifully written, it’s prescient, and I regularly go home emotionally and physically battered. It’s about rage, how we got into this current febrile atmosphere where there’s all this anger towards marginalised people, and how we might escape it. David Morrissey and I play neighbours. I get locked out. We have an interaction and 10 days later, the world changes. So it’s an anti-Reform drama? It’s a drama about having a moral centre, and the vigilance required to maintain a kind society. And finally, not since Gudrun Ure in Supergran has there been a high-profile Scottish superhero, but you’re reprising your 2003 X-Men character Nightcrawler, in next year’s Avengers movie, Doomsday. How does that feel? It is insane and incredible. I imagine that somewhere there is a production manager having a breakdown, trying to schedule 28 of the world’s busiest actors into the same scenes. I did my bits very quickly, on green screen because there was no one else around. I can’t quite believe that I’m doing another superhero movie. I turned 60 recently… The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
She’s currently a copper in the Peak District, but this city girl would love to play a villain
Add Cooper and Fry to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? A massive pouffe to put my legs on and a lovely-sized TV. But what I really like to look at are memorabilia from shows that I’ve done, because when I think of the show, I think of the people. What kind of memorabilia? By the TV, there’s a gold frame from Can You Keep a Secret?, a sitcom that I filmed this year with Dawn French and Mark Heap [coming to BBC One in early 2026]. I’m really proud of it. I’ve seen bits of it five or six times and they still make me laugh. As a wrap gift, Dawn bought us each a lovely plate with Can You Keep a Secret? written around the rim, so I’ve got that out, too. Any other notable pieces? One of the presents that Jodie Whittaker bought me when we were doing Doctor Who [Gill played the Doctor’s companion Yasmin Khan] was this gorgeous lamp with a massive round bulb.The bulb has blown now and I can’t afford to replace it, but it’s not just an ornament because it wasn’t just a lamp. I look at it and I think of the show and of Jodie. In the kitchen, I’ve got a piece of fan art. Someone engraved Jodie and me in the last scene of Doctor Who onto a piece of cork, and it’s so beautiful. You reunited with Jodie to do Doctor Who audio dramas. How was that? So good. You’ve gone back to characters you adore, you’re working with these amazing people and also having such a laugh. They don’t need a budget for location so these stories can go anywhere – and you don’t need to learn your lines. And I get to spend 72 hours in a room with one of my best friends! We further that relationship between the Doctor and Yas that I know a lot of people cared about and invested in. I know I did. Your current TV drama series, Cooper & Fry, is adapted from the novels of Stephen Booth about an odd couple of Peak District detectives. Are you an avid reader? I started reading self-help books as an adult and everyone was like, “Are you OK?” Now I’m reading what I would call “warm books” – self-help, but much warmer. One of my favourites is The Comfort Book by Matt Haig. I read the little paragraph or chapter that’s in there for the day. And I adore a book where you believe the characters are real, like Chris Chibnall’s Death at the White Hart, which I’ve almost finished, and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train. There are 18 novels in Booth’s Cooper & Fry series. This could be a long job… We’ve adapted four of the early books so far and they’re each 120 minutes long, so essentially they’re little films. I play Diane Fry and Rob James Collier plays Ben Cooper. The characters are quite different in the way they approach investigations, but they both have issues in their personal lives and neither of them wants to give anything away. They both care about people and their work. What makes it more than just another detective show? It explores the folklore and superstitions of these rural communities. And although we filmed in Ireland, the Peak District and the countryside play a big part in how murders are committed – the equipment and the animals they have to hand… Do you like the countryside? I was born and lived in Leeds until I was 12 or 13 when we moved to the outskirts, and I’ve lived in London for the past 10 years, with stints in Cardiff. I’m a city girl. I’m a people watcher, I’m nosy and I like life noisy. You’ve never played a villain. Why is that? It’s not how people see me, although I’d love to play a baddie. I absolutely have it in me to play someone evil.
Doctor Who favourite Mandip Gill teases "furthering" relationship between Thirteen and Yaz in new adventures
"I know a lot of people cared about and invested in [it]. I know I did."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? A massive pouffe to put my legs on and a lovely-sized TV. But what I really like to look at are memorabilia from shows that I’ve done, because when I think of the show, I think of the people. What kind of memorabilia? By the TV, there’s a gold frame from Can You Keep a Secret?, a sitcom that I filmed this year with Dawn French and Mark Heap [coming to BBC One in early 2026]. I’m really proud of it. I’ve seen bits of it five or six times and they still make me laugh. As a wrap gift, Dawn bought us each a lovely plate with Can You Keep a Secret? written around the rim, so I’ve got that out, too. Any other notable pieces? One of the presents that Jodie Whittaker bought me when we were doing Doctor Who [Gill played the Doctor’s companion Yasmin Khan] was this gorgeous lamp with a massive round bulb. The bulb has blown now and I can’t afford to replace it, but it’s not just an ornament because it wasn’t just a lamp. I look at it and I think of the show and of Jodie. In the kitchen, I’ve got a piece of fan art. Someone engraved Jodie and me in the last scene of Doctor Who onto a piece of cork, and it’s so beautiful. You reunited with Jodie to do Doctor Who audio dramas. How was that? So good. You’ve gone back to characters you adore, you’re working with these amazing people and also having such a laugh. They don’t need a budget for location so these stories can go anywhere – and you don’t need to learn your lines. And I get to spend 72 hours in a room with one of my best friends! We further that relationship between the Doctor and Yas that I know a lot of people cared about and invested in. I know I did. Your current TV drama series, Cooper & Fry, is adapted from the novels of Stephen Booth about an odd couple of Peak District detectives. Are you an avid reader? I started reading self-help books as an adult and everyone was like, “Are you OK?” Now I’m reading what I would call “warm books” – self-help, but much warmer. One of my favourites is The Comfort Book by Matt Haig. I read the little paragraph or chapter that’s in there for the day. And I adore a book where you believe the characters are real, like Chris Chibnall’s Death at the White Hart, which I’ve almost finished, and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train. There are 18 novels in Booth’s Cooper & Fry series. This could be a long job… We’ve adapted four of the early books so far and they’re each 120 minutes long, so essentially they’re little films. I play Diane Fry and Rob James-Collier plays Ben Cooper. The characters are quite different in the way they approach investigations, but they both have issues in their personal lives and neither of them wants to give anything away. They both care about people and their work. What makes it more than just another detective show? It explores the folklore and superstitions of these rural communities. And although we filmed in Ireland, the Peak District and the countryside play a big part in how murders are committed – the equipment and the animals they have to hand… Do you like the countryside? I was born and lived in Leeds until I was 12 or 13 when we moved to the outskirts, and I’ve lived in London for the past 10 years, with stints in Cardiff. I’m a city girl. I’m a people watcher, I’m nosy and I like life noisy. You’ve never played a villain. Why is that? It’s not how people see me, although I’d love to play a baddie. I absolutely have it in me to play someone evil. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Add Doctor Who to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi 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.
'I'm not tremendous on gore but I do love frightening stories'
The Ab Fab and Amandaland star dishes on ghosts, ghouls, and gore.
Add A Ghost Story for Christmas to your watchlist The day Radio Times visited the set of the Ghost Story for Christmas, The Room in the Tower, Dame Joanna Lumley was filming a pivotal scene, unrecognisable under impressive prosthetics. It is only between takes that her trademark plummy timbre confirmed that, yes, it was her under the make-up. “I do like a scary story. I’m not tremendous on gore but I do love frightening stories,” she enthuses afterwards. This is probably just as well, given her acquaintance with the genre. In the 1973 Hammer horror The Satanic Rites of Dracula, where Christopher Lee’s titular Transylvanian plotted to exterminate humanity, Lumley played Jessica Van Helsing, the often-screaming object of the count’s affections. This year, she appeared in Netflix’s Addams Family reboot Wednesday as Morticia’s mother, Hester. And in between, there was also the slightly terrifying Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous. “She can’t be killed,” Lumley says, merrily. “She lives off air and alcohol and smoke and drugs.” To that oeuvre, she now adds Mark Gatiss’ adaptation of the EF Benson story for what is the Sherlock writer’s eighth chilling tale for Yuletide. In it, Tobias Menzies plays a man haunted by a recurring dream of being invited to stay in a house that hides an unseen terror. Lumley plays its sinister mistress. It is The New Avengers and Amandaland star as you’ve never seen her before. I ask the most obvious question: does she believe in ghosts? “I do believe that there are ghosts. We know what happens to our bodies — to bones, to dust, then gone — but I can’t believe that the rest of it, the soul or the mind or the spark, just goes too. It goes somewhere…” She also believes in God — or something bigger than us at least. “I adore classical music and I’m so lucky to be married to a musician [conductor Stephen Barlow] because I learn from him all the time, and I do believe that there is such a thing as ‘the divine spark’.” She carries on with enthusiasm, “Mozart wrote his manuscripts, practically without a single error. It’s as if he became a conduit from some extraordinary power. Papa [Joseph] Haydn was the same. When you hear their melodies, you can understand what that power is. All those great creators believed in gods. They had a sense of godliness. And I think if we skip out on that, we’re missing out on something. “We’ve become unbearably vain and destructive and we can’t remember how to stop destroying. If history could be written by anything other than human beings, we would be seen as a plague, unable to stop breeding, to stop destroying, using up, never replacing. We’re a pretty wretched bunch. So, we’ve got to strive not to be completely bloody, to make amends for humans’ dreadfulness to each other and the planet.” Which brings us neatly to Christmas. Lumley is a fan, with the exception of one aspect: “I hate the way Christmas now starts in October. When I rule the world, I would declare that Christmas cannot start until well into December!”
From lunchtime carols to Michael Bublé, boozy cakes and EastEnders – Renee Bailey, Helen George and Natalie Quarry share their seasonal secrets
Add Call the Midwife to your watchlist Helen George plays Trixie Aylward <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/CMT-Christmas-92d8eab.jpg" width="7236" height="4824" alt="Two women dressed as angels walk through a snowy street at night, smiling as they take part in a festive parade. They wear white coats with fluffy collars and large feathered wings. One pushes a decorated pram covered in white fabric and gold stars, while the other waves at onlookers. Snow falls heavily around them, and a brass band plays in the background beneath strings of laundry hanging overhead." title="Call the Midwife" /> How is Trixie this festive season? Even though there’s a huge distance between Trixie and her husband, things feel more stable than they possibly ever have. For once, she feels settled, strong even, and in a space, psychologically and literally, where she feels at home. But you do wonder how Trixie would react if her whole world were to change, if Nonnatus House faced a fresh threat to its very existence. Trixie deserves stability after all the tumult but, as an actor, do you wonder where the drama is going to come from if she’s content? It’s quite a relief, actually. I’ve spent so much time enduring, going through things and being desperately heartbroken all the time, it’s really fun that now she’s fighting other people’s battles and not her own. Given this is the 14th Yuletide edition of Call the Midwife, there must be a great feeling of camaraderie! It’s a family and I absolutely adore them all. It’s Judy Parfitt’s (Sister Monica Joan) birthday today; it’s lovely that she’s here so we’re celebrating together and have filled her trailer with balloons and flowers. I had a Halloween party – I went as a banshee and my daughters [she has two, aged eight and four, whom she shares with her ex-partner Jack Ashton] were clowns so were terrifying – and Hilda, a focus puller on the crew, came with her husband and her son, and Victoria Yeates who played Sister Winifred came along, too. It’s just so nice to be in each other’s lives, and for so long. If you go big on Halloween, I’m assuming that you absolutely love Christmas? It’s like a festive bomb goes off in my home! I just moved and the reason we chose this house was that it’s just the perfect place for Christmas Day – it’s really obvious where the tree will go. I’ve always loved this time of year. All the family would go to my aunt’s house – she also had this brilliant house – and we’d all wear festive jumpers and play games. I have such fond memories of it and I really want to re-create them for my kids. So when do things get underway in the George household? When I start making the cake – I’ve had my fruit soaking since Bonfire Night so that it’s really boozy. What do the holidays mean to you? Family. And charades. And cheese! Do you stay traditional with Stilton? I have all of them. But with my cake, I like to have a slice of wensleydale. You’re also in panto this year, playing the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella opposite Basil Brush at London’s Richmond Theatre. Is that fun? It’s two shows a day for four weeks. I’ve got a show on Christmas Eve, off Christmas Day, back in on Boxing Day – and there’s only a week’s rehearsal. I’m taking my kids to Lapland afterwards to make up for the fact that I’m going to miss their school shows because I’ll be in one of my own! Natalie Quarry plays Rosalind Clifford Rosalind is surely one of the most decent characters on television? Rosalind has such a capacity for love and wants everyone to live with an open heart. It’s admirable. You wonder what her (ulterior) motives are but she doesn’t have any. Her blossoming relationship with Cyril has been a gentle joy. How has it been to play? Because of who they are and the circumstances that they are in, they couldn’t have rushed into it. That edging towards being together because they felt so strongly about each other – slowly getting to the point when they held hands, finally kissing at Nancy’s wedding – has been an absolute joy. It’s not all been moonlight and roses, though? Last season, when they were on a date, some people shouted at them [because they’re an interracial couple] and I imagine that they have to battle some pretty difficult situations. That they do it together is, to me, the important part. When do you start your preparations for Christmas at home? I’m a Christmassy person and in my head, as soon as it’s been Halloween, it’s totally fair to start thinking about it. Because I think that the anticipation is actually better than the day itself. You can be like “Maybe I’ll listen to a bit of Michael Bublé…” Have you listened to any Michael Bublé yet? No not yet! I used to work in retail, as many actors do, and their Christmas starts horrifically early. By December, you’re like “I cannot listen to this playlist again”. What do your celebrations look like? They have changed lately because I have a long-term partner now. I used to do every year with my lovely family but now we do one year at mine and then one year at his. It’s been interesting experiencing another family’s Christmas. My family are really music people, so we sing some carols after lunch. His family don’t. No singing of any carols at all. Renee Bailey plays Joyce Highland When did you start to learn about your character Joyce? It was March, three years ago when I got the audition. I’d never seen the show so I watched a couple of episodes to get the vibe and my agent, who’s a fan, gave me some notes about it – and then I started to find out about the character. But because the accent was Trinidadian and I was no good at that, I was like, “There’s no way I’ll get this job”. But I got a recall, read more about her and got really invested like I promised myself I wouldn’t. Then, in Tesco one day, just by the salad bar, I got the call. I was so excited! Would you describe Joyce as a woman of principle? I think Joyce will always do what she believes is right, regardless of how hard it is. Sometimes she might come across as a bit harsh but she always acts from a place of love. Is she based on anyone you know? There are so many elements inspired by my mum, my aunt and older Caribbean women I know and have grown up around, that’s how they operate. They’re not afraid to tell it to you like it is. What do the festivities mean to you? I have become a bit jaded about it all! Now, as an adult, it’s just about waking up and thinking, “Shall we have a drink?” Luckily, I have three nieces and two nephews ranging in ages from two to 14 so for me, it’s about the kids and the excitement they get out of it. Once they all get older, it will lose its sparkle again and become about how much can I eat. Do you have any traditions? Every year, we go to my aunt’s in the evening on Christmas Day. I see all my cousins, they have loads of their friends around, and it’s not quite a party but it’s got that energy – some people are playing games, some guys are in the corner playing poker, others are watching EastEnders on the telly, there are kids running around, and conversations happening… After EastEnders, does the TV contingent stayed tuned for Call The Midwife? Yeah, they do. And I’ll watch it to see the bits I’ve not been a part of.
Joanna Lumley dishes on Ghost Story for Christmas: "I'm not tremendous on gore but I do love frightening stories"
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. The day Radio Times visited the set of the Ghost Story for Christmas, The Room in the Tower, Dame Joanna Lumley was filming a pivotal scene, unrecognisable under impressive prosthetics. It is only between takes that her trademark plummy timbre confirmed that, yes, it was her under the make-up. “I do like a scary story. I’m not tremendous on gore but I do love frightening stories,” she enthuses afterwards. This is probably just as well, given her acquaintance with the genre. In the 1973 Hammer horror The Satanic Rites of Dracula, where Christopher Lee’s titular Transylvanian plotted to exterminate humanity, Lumley played Jessica Van Helsing, the often-screaming object of the count’s affections. This year, she appeared in Netflix’s Addams Family reboot Wednesday as Morticia’s mother, Hester. And in between, there was also the slightly terrifying Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous. “She can’t be killed,” Lumley says, merrily. “She lives off air and alcohol and smoke and drugs.” To that oeuvre, she now adds Mark Gatiss’ adaptation of the EF Benson story for what is the Sherlock writer’s eighth chilling tale for Yuletide. In it, Tobias Menzies plays a man haunted by a recurring dream of being invited to stay in a house that hides an unseen terror. Lumley plays its sinister mistress. It is The New Avengers and Amandaland star as you’ve never seen her before. I ask the most obvious question: does she believe in ghosts? “I do believe that there are ghosts. We know what happens to our bodies – to bones, to dust, then gone – but I can’t believe that the rest of it, the soul or the mind or the spark, just goes too. It goes somewhere…” She also believes in God – or something bigger than us at least. “I adore classical music and I’m so lucky to be married to a musician [conductor Stephen Barlow] because I learn from him all the time, and I do believe that there is such a thing as ‘the divine spark’.” She carries on with enthusiasm, “Mozart wrote his manuscripts, practically without a single error. It’s as if he became a conduit from some extraordinary power. Papa [Joseph] Haydn was the same. When you hear their melodies, you can understand what that power is. All those great creators believed in gods. They had a sense of godliness. And I think if we skip out on that, we’re missing out on something. View Green Video on the source website “We’ve become unbearably vain and destructive and we can’t remember how to stop destroying. If history could be written by anything other than human beings, we would be seen as a plague, unable to stop breeding, to stop destroying, using up, never replacing. “We’re a pretty wretched bunch. So, we’ve got to strive not to be completely bloody, to make amends for humans’ dreadfulness to each other and the planet.” Which brings us neatly to Christmas. Lumley is a fan, with the exception of one aspect: “I hate the way Christmas now starts in October. When I rule the world, I would declare that Christmas cannot start until well into December!” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer this Christmas. If you’re looking for something else to watch in the meantime, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide, or visit our dedicated Fantasy hub. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Call the Midwife 2025 Christmas preview as Trixie's marriage gets a major update
Ahead of the annual Call the Midwife Christmas special, Helen George lifts the lid on Trixie and Matthew.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Ahead of this year's Call the Midwife Christmas special, Helen George sat down with Radio Times to discuss what's going on with Trixie and Matthew, her love of the festive season, and her upcoming stint as the Fairy Godmother in the Richmond Theatre's Cinderella pantomime. How is Trixie this festive season? Even though there’s a huge distance between Trixie and her husband, things feel more stable than they possibly ever have. For once, she feels settled, strong even, and in a space, psychologically and literally, where she feels at home. But you do wonder how Trixie would react if her whole world were to change, if Nonnatus House faced a fresh threat to its very existence. Trixie deserves stability after all the tumult but, as an actor, do you wonder where the drama is going to come from if she’s content? It’s quite a relief, actually. I’ve spent so much time enduring, going through things and being desperately heartbroken all the time, it’s really fun that now she’s fighting other people’s battles and not her own. Given this is the 14th Yuletide edition of Call the Midwife, there must be a great feeling of camaraderie! It’s a family and I absolutely adore them all. It’s Judy Parfitt’s (Sister Monica Joan) birthday today; it’s lovely that she’s here so we’re celebrating together and have filled her trailer with balloons and flowers. I had a Halloween party – I went as a banshee and my daughters [she has two, aged eight and four, whom she shares with her ex-partner Jack Ashton] were clowns so were terrifying – and Hilda, a focus puller on the crew, came with her husband and her son, and Victoria Yeates who played Sister Winifred came along, too. It’s just so nice to be in each other’s lives, and for so long. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/CMT-Christmas-92d8eab.jpg" width="7236" height="4824" alt="Two women dressed as angels walk through a snowy street at night, smiling as they take part in a festive parade. They wear white coats with fluffy collars and large feathered wings. One pushes a decorated pram covered in white fabric and gold stars, while the other waves at onlookers. Snow falls heavily around them, and a brass band plays in the background beneath strings of laundry hanging overhead." title="Call the Midwife" /> If you go big on Halloween, I’m assuming that you absolutely love Christmas? It’s like a festive bomb goes off in my home! I just moved and the reason we chose this house was that it’s just the perfect place for Christmas Day – it’s really obvious where the tree will go. I’ve always loved this time of year. All the family would go to my aunt’s house – she also had this brilliant house – and we’d all wear festive jumpers and play games. I have such fond memories of it and I really want to re-create them for my kids. Read more: Call the Midwife movie: Release date speculation, potential cast and plot, and latest news Call the Midwife favourite reveals there is "so much change coming" as scripts left cast reeling So when do things get under way in the George household? When I start making the cake – I’ve had my fruit soaking since Bonfire Night so that it’s really boozy. What do the holidays mean to you? Family. And charades. And cheese! Do you stay traditional with Stilton? I have all of them. But with my cake, I like to have a slice of wensleydale. You’re also in panto this year, playing the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella opposite Basil Brush at London’s Richmond Theatre. Is that fun? It’s two shows a day for four weeks. I’ve got a show on Christmas Eve, off Christmas Day, back in on Boxing Day – and there’s only a week’s rehearsal. I’m taking my kids to Lapland afterwards to make up for the fact that I’m going to miss their school shows because I’ll be in one of my own! The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Call the Midwife seasons 1-14 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Add Call the Midwife 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.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held prisoner in Iran for six years, while her husband fought for her freedom. A new BBC drama tries to do their story justice
Add Prisoner 951 to your watchlist Among the myriad delicate, difficult and perplexing questions that Stephen Butchard had to ask himself while writing Prisoner 951, was whether or not to feature Boris Johnson. As Foreign Secretary, Johnson played a pivotal part in the story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained and imprisoned by Iran for six years from 2016, and her husband Richard, who kept her name in the news in the UK by any means he could, including going on hunger strike. In November 2017, Johnson incorrectly told a Foreign Affairs Select Committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran “simply teaching people journalism” and although immediately refuted (she was visiting relatives), the Iranian authorities claimed that Johnson’s blunder was proof that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was engaged in propaganda against the regime. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/Prisoner-951-Nazanin-Zaghari-Ratcliffe-Richard-Ratcliffe-d7857da.jpg" width="4582" height="3055" alt="Narges Rashidi as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Joseph Fiennes as Richard Ratcliffe in Prisoner 951, sitting on a park bench with her head resting on his shoulder." title="Narges Rashidi as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Joseph Fiennes as Richard Ratcliffe in Prisoner 951." /> Undoubtedly, Johnson’s remarks endangered Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case, increased risk for her in detention and raised the spectre of Iran adding years to her sentence. When, in 2022, she met Johnson after her release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe told the then prime minister that she had “lived in the shadow” of his words for the past four and a half years. So Butchard couldn’t ignore the part that Johnson played. But casting someone to play him could become a distracting sideshow that both pulled focus and changed the timbre of the drama. “I decided we shouldn’t have an actor,” Butchard says. “Boris Johnson is almost a caricature himself, and if you bring in an actor to play that caricature, you get a buffoon. You might want to do it, but it wouldn’t be truthful.” Instead, Butchard opted for a smarter solution: he cast Johnson as himself. “You look for archive footage – from the news, say – and you play what he said off other characters.” This choice is informed by, and informs, answers to other questions that are fundamental to the nature of Prisoner 951 and the story that Butchard, director Philippa Lowthorpe and actors Joseph Fiennes and Narges Rashidi wanted to tell. “It’s a political thriller that has, at the heart of it, a love story,” says Lowthorpe, who began her career making documentaries before directing dramas such as Five Daughters, about the murder of five sex workers in Ipswich in 2006, which was co-written by Butchard. “This is a story about an ordinary couple getting caught up in geopolitics beyond their interest, beyond their lives, and catapulted into a Kafkaesque nightmare because one of them is in the wrong place at the wrong time.” “We had a working title of Love Story because that’s what this story is,” says Joseph Fiennes, who plays Richard. “It’s about Nazanin and Richard’s love for each other, the love of a mother and father for their child, and the love within the family and the families, who kept their daughter and their son-in-law on track.” Narges Rashidi, who plays Nazanin, parses the point: “It’s a political drama, about real people who are not political being politicised.” For her, it boils down to “a woman being punished for something she’s not responsible for, a man trying to get his family back, and a little child’s trauma.” When she was detained, Zaghari-Ratcliffe had her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella with her. Gabriella was eventually placed in the custody of her maternal grandparents in Iran, so she could visit her mother in prison. When she returned to the UK to start school, she needed a translator to speak to her father because she couldn’t speak English. Prisoner 951 is full of heartbreaking details like this as it establishes what Lowthorpe calls the “incredible humanity and relatability of Richard and Nazanin and each of their families”. If Prisoner 951 – which is based on A Yard of Sky, Nazanin and Richard’s soon-to-be- published book – is partly a love story, that begs another question: how do you demonstrate that love when the couple are 3,000 miles apart? After all, one of drama’s key tenets is “show, don’t tell”. “Stephen brilliantly begins with the phone call that signalled the beginning of Nazanin and Richard’s nightmare,” say Lowthorpe, “but it was really important to show their past. So I created these little scenes like a family album – of their weddings, in Iran and in the UK, and of them with their daughter. I’ve used that motif in all of the episodes and shown different little bits of their snapshots and their coupleness that anybody can relate to. Little glimpses of them together before they’re wrenched apart; then you know what they’re fighting for.” Believing in that love means believing in the characters who, let’s not forget, are real people. Which brings us to Fiennes’ and Rashidi’s contributions – their performances. How did they approach the roles? “You start at the point of being fairly forensic with the way they are physically, how they carry themselves, how they conduct themselves,” says Fiennes, who has form playing real people, having received rave reviews for his performance as Gareth Southgate in James Graham’s Dear England at the National Theatre. “You watch interviews with them, but interviews are artificial situations so it’s sometimes helpful to talk to someone who knows them rather than the person themselves. With Richard, he was very accessible. I spent hours in his company getting a sense of his essence, his spirit and his vital intelligence. Then it’s about me trying to calibrate all of that into the character.” Rashidi read everything she could find, watched every interview and pored over the documentary about the couple’s plight. And she read half of A Yard of Sky – the half written by Nazanin. “Philippa didn’t want me to have Richard’s perspective, because Nazanin didn’t,” she explains. “So I went into it subjectively, which was really useful.” Rashidi speaks for herself and, I think, for Fiennes when she says of the research and preparation: “Beyond that, there’s no more you can do. You ask questions, you give it your all and pray to God that it will happen.” For Butchard, these questions were asked and answered in pursuit of one thing: the truth. “There’s a difference between the facts and the truth. Something can be truthful without being an absolute fact, but you have to be truthful because otherwise it damages the credibility of the story.” And is that as true of fictional characters as it is of characters based on real people? “I always follow a truthful path, because the minute that a character does something that you don’t quite believe, it becomes melodrama and I switch off. I’m writing series two of This City Is Ours at the moment, so I think about this every day.” And the truths at the heart of Prisoner 951? That hope is an act of resistance, and in March 2022, the British government repaid to Iran a debt of nearly £400m that had been owed since 1979. The next day, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released. I ask Rashidi what scenes were the most difficult to film. “What weren’t the most difficult scenes to film?” she says. “Usually, you have three emotional scenes to play in an hour-long drama. With this, we’re telling the highlights of six years of an odyssey, so it felt like we had eight emotional scenes every day. That isn’t just tiring, it’s draining.” How do you put down such an affecting experience in order to not just pick up the next thing but to get on with life? “I don’t think you can – and I think you mustn’t,” says Lowthorpe. “As a director, you have to unzip yourself, bear your heart, bear witness to the power of the thing. Because if you’re not doing that and you’re distancing yourself, the audience will feel the distance. So you have to live with being a bit sad and then remember that it’s not your life.” And for rashidi, there was extra resonance. “I was born in Iran and left when I was very little, but obviously so much of my being is Iranian. A lot of that came up with this job. Even speaking the language, a lot is relived. But what helped me separate myself from the character was knowing that yes, it is draining and emotional to go through it for four months, but I got to go home every night, sleep in a warm bed, eat warm food. This is a true story that happened to a real person who went through it for six years and is still dealing with the consequences.” “You never really shake the story,” Fiennes says. “It might fall into a recess in your mind as you become engaged with something more novel or get engaged with the present, but every character I have played is somehow part of my DNA. Because you live it, breathe it, love it and no matter the character, their struggle or their story, something grows beyond the struggle that might even amount to some kind of celebration. Out of the mud, arises the lily.”
Prisoner 951 writer reveals why Boris Johnson wasn't cast with "buffoon" performance in Zaghari-Ratcliffe drama
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held prisoner in Iran for six years, while her husband fought for her freedom. A new BBC drama tries to do their story justice.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Among the myriad delicate, difficult and perplexing questions that Stephen Butchard had to ask himself while writing Prisoner 951, was whether or not to feature Boris Johnson. As Foreign Secretary, Johnson played a pivotal part in the story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained and imprisoned by Iran for six years from 2016, and her husband Richard, who kept her name in the news in the UK by any means he could, including going on hunger strike. In November 2017, Johnson incorrectly told a Foreign Affairs Select Committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran “simply teaching people journalism” and although immediately refuted (she was visiting relatives), the Iranian authorities claimed that Johnson’s blunder was proof that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was engaged in propaganda against the regime. Undoubtedly, Johnson’s remarks endangered Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case, increased risk for her in detention and raised the spectre of Iran adding years to her sentence. When, in 2022, she met Johnson after her release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe told the then prime minister that she had “lived in the shadow” of his words for the past four and a half years. So Butchard couldn’t ignore the part that Johnson played. But casting someone to play him could become a distracting sideshow that both pulled focus and changed the timbre of the drama. “I decided we shouldn’t have an actor,” Butchard says. “Boris Johnson is almost a caricature himself, and if you bring in an actor to play that caricature, you get a buffoon. You might want to do it, but it wouldn’t be truthful.” Instead, Butchard opted for a smarter solution: he cast Johnson as himself. “You look for archive footage – from the news, say – and you play what he said off other characters.” This choice is informed by, and informs, answers to other questions that are fundamental to the nature of Prisoner 951 and the story that Butchard, director Philippa Lowthorpe and actors Joseph Fiennes and Narges Rashidi wanted to tell. “It’s a political thriller that has, at the heart of it, a love story,” says Lowthorpe, who began her career making documentaries before directing dramas such as Five Daughters, about the murder of five sex workers in Ipswich in 2006, which was co-written by Butchard. “This is a story about an ordinary couple getting caught up in geopolitics beyond their interest, beyond their lives, and catapulted into a Kafkaesque nightmare because one of them is in the wrong place at the wrong time.” <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/Prisoner-951-Nazanin-Zaghari-Ratcliffe-Richard-Ratcliffe-d7857da.jpg" width="4582" height="3055" alt="Narges Rashidi as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Joseph Fiennes as Richard Ratcliffe in Prisoner 951, sitting on a park bench with her head resting on his shoulder." title="Narges Rashidi as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Joseph Fiennes as Richard Ratcliffe in Prisoner 951." /> “We had a working title of Love Story because that’s what this story is,” says Joseph Fiennes, who plays Richard. “It’s about Nazanin and Richard’s love for each other, the love of a mother and father for their child, and the love within the family and the families, who kept their daughter and their son-in-law on track.” Narges Rashidi, who plays Nazanin, parses the point: “It’s a political drama, about real people who are not political being politicised.” For her, it boils down to “a woman being punished for something she’s not responsible for, a man trying to get his family back, and a little child’s trauma.” When she was detained, Zaghari-Ratcliffe had her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella with her. Gabriella was eventually placed in the custody of her maternal grandparents in Iran, so she could visit her mother in prison. When she returned to the UK to start school, she needed a translator to speak to her father because she couldn’t speak English. Prisoner 951 is full of heartbreaking details like this as it establishes what Lowthorpe calls the “incredible humanity and relatability of Richard and Nazanin and each of their families”. If Prisoner 951 – which is based on A Yard of Sky, Nazanin and Richard’s soon-to-be published book – is partly a love story, that begs another question: how do you demonstrate that love when the couple are 3,000 miles apart? After all, one of drama’s key tenets is “show, don’t tell”. “Stephen brilliantly begins with the phone call that signalled the beginning of Nazanin and Richard’s nightmare,” say Lowthorpe, “but it was really important to show their past. So I created these little scenes like a family album – of their weddings, in Iran and in the UK, and of them with their daughter. I’ve used that motif in all of the episodes and shown different little bits of their snapshots and their coupleness that anybody can relate to. Little glimpses of them together before they’re wrenched apart; then you know what they’re fighting for.” Believing in that love means believing in the characters who, let’s not forget, are real people. Which brings us to Fiennes’ and Rashidi’s contributions – their performances. How did they approach the roles? “You start at the point of being fairly forensic with the way they are physically, how they carry themselves, how they conduct themselves,” says Fiennes, who has form playing real people, having received rave reviews for his performance as Gareth Southgate in James Graham’s Dear England at the National Theatre. “You watch interviews with them, but interviews are artificial situations so it’s sometimes helpful to talk to someone who knows them rather than the person themselves. With Richard, he was very accessible. I spent hours in his company getting a sense of his essence, his spirit and his vital intelligence. Then it’s about me trying to calibrate all of that into the character.” Rashidi read everything she could find, watched every interview and pored over the documentary about the couple’s plight. And she read half of A Yard of Sky – the half written by Nazanin. “Philippa didn’t want me to have Richard’s perspective, because Nazanin didn’t,” she explains. “So I went into it subjectively, which was really useful.” Rashidi speaks for herself and, I think, for Fiennes when she says of the research and preparation: “Beyond that, there’s no more you can do. You ask questions, you give it your all and pray to God that it will happen.” For Butchard, these questions were asked and answered in pursuit of one thing: the truth. “There’s a difference between the facts and the truth. Something can be truthful without being an absolute fact, but you have to be truthful because otherwise it damages the credibility of the story.” View oEmbed on the source website And is that as true of fictional characters as it is of characters based on real people? “I always follow a truthful path, because the minute that a character does something that you don’t quite believe, it becomes melodrama and I switch off. I’m writing series two of This City Is Ours at the moment, so I think about this every day.” And the truths at the heart of Prisoner 951? That hope is an act of resistance, and in March 2022, the British government repaid to Iran a debt of nearly £400m that had been owed since 1979. The next day, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released. I ask Rashidi what scenes were the most difficult to film. “What weren’t the most difficult scenes to film?” she says. “Usually, you have three emotional scenes to play in an hour-long drama. With this, we’re telling the highlights of six years of an odyssey, so it felt like we had eight emotional scenes every day. That isn’t just tiring, it’s draining.” How do you put down such an affecting experience in order to not just pick up the next thing but to get on with life? “I don’t think you can – and I think you mustn’t,” says Lowthorpe. “As a director, you have to unzip yourself, bear your heart, bear witness to the power of the thing. Because if you’re not doing that and you’re distancing yourself, the audience will feel the distance. So you have to live with being a bit sad and then remember that it’s not your life.” And for Rashidi, there was extra resonance. “I was born in Iran and left when I was very little, but obviously so much of my being is Iranian. A lot of that came up with this job. Even speaking the language, a lot is relived. But what helped me separate myself from the character was knowing that yes, it is draining and emotional to go through it for four months, but I got to go home every night, sleep in a warm bed, eat warm food. This is a true story that happened to a real person who went through it for six years and is still dealing with the consequences.” “You never really shake the story,” Fiennes says. “It might fall into a recess in your mind as you become engaged with something more novel or get engaged with the present, but every character I have played is somehow part of my DNA. Because you live it, breathe it, love it and no matter the character, their struggle or their story, something grows beyond the struggle that might even amount to some kind of celebration. Out of the mud, arises the lily.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Prisoner 951 will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Sunday 23rd November 2025. Add Prisoner 951 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.
The cast of 5's costume drama, The Forsytes, on powerful families, Britain's relationship with money – and hair...
Add The Forsytes to your watchlist James Forsyte played by Jack Davenport What appealed to you about The Forsytes? One of Debbie Horsfield’s great skills is that she’s able to wrestle these giant, creaky old galleons of novels into more modern shapes and reframe what the focus is. She and Damien [Timmer, The Forsytes’ executive producer] said they were interested in exploring patriarchy and its structures, such as primogeniture [the right of succession belonging to the first-born son] and how that system eats people alive. Because even though they’re rich and privileged, the likes of Jolyon Sr and James, and Jolyon Jr and Soames have no real agency because their paths are preordained. That intrigued me. Also, they wanted to focus on the women who, because they don’t have power, have a self-awareness that the men do not. So the men are powerful but clueless — and that tension seemed like an interesting thing to play with. Isn’t The Forsytes about Britain and its relationship with money and power? Don’t forget that the Forsytes are not aristocrats. They are upper-middle-class, and they have made their money by taking advantage of other people. When I’m in central London and I look up at the limestone buildings, I think to myself: this is a small island that can fit into the state of Texas seven times and yet look at this place! It’s a lot of blood and treasure that made this. We had our foot on a lot of people’s throats to achieve what we achieved. My character is a ghastly human, and I welcome Debbie’s subtle critique of the system that has made him extremely wealthy. Jolyon Forsyte played by Danny Griffin The last leading man in a Debbie Horsfield adaptation was Aidan Turner in Poldark. No pressure on you then… Yeah, it is a big deal. I was very nervous when I started on the show. I wanted to prepare — overprepare, really — as it’s all you can do. I had a lot of questions for Debbie when we first met. Questions about the stuff that the audience wouldn’t know that I would be aware of, so I could have it in the back of my mind. Some actors say they connect with a character through their costume. What did it for you? His jacket. It shows that he really wants to be a Forsyte — because all the Forsyte men wear jackets — but because his is a bit different, it shows that he’s not conforming exactly to the Forsyte way. My “hero jacket”, was customised so it seemed more casual, and a combination of the jacket and the hair really helped me find him. Let’s talk about the hair… We had long discussions about it. At one point, it was going to be a wig, but the one we got looked like a discount Thor. So it evolved into what you see on the telly because we wanted to show that he had a lot of hair. Then the question was, “How would you smarten that up?” To which the answer was “curling it endlessly”. We ended up doing that and I love the result. Louisa Byrne played by Eleanor Tomlinson How aware were you of The Forsyte Saga before you got the part? I’d heard of the adaptations and I knew the novels, but because my character was created by Debbie, I didn’t watch or read anything as there wasn’t an awful lot of point. Normally, if my character had been in the books, that’s absolutely what I would have done — that’s what I did with Poldark. Having said that, Debbie’s scripts are so rich that everything you need to know about your character is on the page. So, what is everything we need to know about Louisa? She’s a dressmaker who had a love affair with Jolyon 10 years prior to the events of The Forsytes, long before he married Frances. As she was a lady’s maid and he was the scion of a family like the Forsytes, the affair was doomed. But now she’s back in London, in the Forsytes’ orbit, which she realises is problematic — not least because she has two children and he’s the father. Isn’t that a good thing? No matter how long a woman had her children, if a man knew they were his, he could take them away. Initially, she lives in fear of that but once she realises that he’s still in love with her, and he’s trapped in a world where he doesn’t belong, that gives her more agency, power and strength. Frances Forsyte played by Tuppence Middleton Had you read Galsworthy before you got the part? When I got the part, I started reading the books. Then I realised that Debbie’s version was so different that I stopped. Because Frances didn’t feature in the books, I decided I wanted to focus on the scripts and get my information from them. As you say, Frances isn’t in the novels but she’s a formidable presence in the drama… Ann [Francesca Annis] is obviously the queen of the family but she’s at the stage where she’s handing over more of the responsibility, so Jolyon Sr [Stephen Moyer] is running the house and Frances is his right-hand woman. They are the ambitious ones with big ideas for the company and she has more of a business head than her husband Jolyon. Do you think previous adaptations cast a long shadow? When you’re making a version of something that already exists, the most important thing is to accept that there will be people who have their definitive version of it, and know that you’re making it for a modern audience. So, then you ask yourself: how can you make it feel alive and relevant for that audience? What does The Forsytes says about us now? A period drama is always of the time it’s made, and this is a feminist take on The Forsyte Saga. But I think it also taps into a contemporary fascination with powerful families like the Murdochs and the Trumps, especially after Succession. Soames Forsyte played by Joshua Orpin Let’s be clear — Soames is pretty awful, isn’t he? He can be, though I don’t think he thinks he is. When I’m playing him, I don’t judge him. I do try to understand him, though. He’s a guy born into this family of enormous wealth and privilege with ambition and drive to succeed and dominate. Those traits have been fostered by his parents, particularly his father, and he’s power-hungry. He thinks he’s the best man to run the family stockbrokers, not his cousin Jolyon. And he’s probably right. But while he’s very comfortable in the business world, he’s a man who doesn’t know how to express his feelings in a positive way. Again, thanks to his parents. He’s a product of his environment. The last man to play Soames — Damian Lewis — went on to great things, not least Homeland and Billions. As an Australian, is moving to the USA the big draw? There’s never really been a big draw to live in the United States. As nice as it is, I’ve only been a handful of times, and I’ve never worked there. The American stuff I’ve done has either been shot in Australia or in Canada. My mother’s actually British, so I’m a dual citizen. Is Soames a tragic figure? He thinks Irene is amazing. He falls in love but doesn’t know how to express that love. And then the thing that he loves about her — her free spirit — he ends up suppressing by trying to fit her into this box of what he perceives a wife should be. That sounds pretty tragic to me. How have your good looks factored in your career? I think that at a certain point in your acting journey, you have to reconcile yourself with the way you look and use that to your advantage. I’d say that my looks have helped me more than they’ve hindered me, but sometimes there have been roles that I’ve really wanted to play and the feedback I’ve had is that I’m too good-looking to play the character. That’s a shame, but what can I do? I can’t really change how I look. True, but do you feel under pressure to stay buff? In my life, I don’t feel that pressure. But if the role calls for it, it’s there. I played Superboy on Titans and he was a superhero, so there’s an expectation there for him to have a certain physique. For a role like that, I felt pressured to transform my body. But when it comes to other roles, not so much. Irene Herron played by Millie Gibson How aware were you of the Galsworthy novels and previous adaptations? I wasn’t. However, as soon as I got the audition, I started doing my research and reading the book. But the book is very much from the male perspective. Then Debbie explained that this was going to be a new, fresh version, more about the female characters, so I stopped reading the book. Which was pretty hard-going anyway, if I’m honest. And along with so many brilliant, strong female characters, we had two female directors, and Debbie obviously, so it’s an amazing thing to be a part of. How does your Irene compare to other iterations? She’s completely transformed, and it helps getting into character that I am completely transformed, too — I don’t think people will know it’s me and I love that. So compared to the noughties version, Irene is a lot younger. She’s 19 in this version and has such a youthful zest and energy — she just wants to be a ballerina and live life — which I think makes it more heartbreaking when these terrible things start to happen to her. And by “terrible things”, you mean Soames Forsyte? It’s not as simple as that. Debbie has written the characters with such nuance and in such a complex way. The audience gets to see them fall in love, which previous versions didn’t show, so when it starts to go bad, it connects with you more. Irene falls in love with Soames for a reason, he’s not a baddie from the off, so there are different dynamics going on between the characters that audiences haven’t seen before. Coronation Street, Doctor Who and now The Forsytes… It’s funny because I’ve broken my streak of only being in shows that are more than 60 years old — by being in a show that’s a version of a 58-year-old show.
Stephen Moyer loves a collection, from guitars and typewriters to great roles – and his latest in The Forsytes is one to treasure
Add The Forsytes to your watchlist In the course of our 45-minute interview that lasts an hour and a half, Stephen Moyer, 56, shares that he collects guitars – which he has hung up on the walls of his new home in Suffolk, because he can’t actually play the guitar – and typewriters, of which he has 30. We establish that he looks good in a duffle coat – which not every grown man does – and what he has in his pockets. Namely a “quite rare” $1 coin and an acorn, “which is a long story”. Further, he impresses upon me the virtues of good headphones and quality speakers, summer evening walks on Clifton Down in Bristol [he stays in the city while filming The Forsytes] and cooking for one in a Belfast kitchen. He confesses a love for Marmite and peanut butter, and details his favourite snack. “Anna [Paquin, his actress wife] calls them Stevie Snacks and they consist of some cheese, roasted almonds, some saucisson and chutney.” His mum makes an amazing green tomato chutney, apparently. “I’ve got jars from 1994 in my cupboard and I’m not even joking.” In his 20s, Moyer lived on a houseboat for seven years in London’s Little Venice, with no electricity – which is why he bought his first typewriter – and recently, in his 50s, he’s taken up sailing. “I really love that it’s an ancient skill and it doesn’t involve phones. I spend a lot of time in the digital world and I love it, but I’m actually quite analogue.” Moyer is great company, as inquisitive as he is forthcoming. You might be tempted to say that his work is the least interesting thing about him. Except that isn’t true. For this Essex-born actor, who made it big in America, also collects great roles, recently adding two very different characters to his collection. First, there is patriarch Jolyon Forsyte Sr in Debbie Horsfield’s fantastic take on John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga. “What Debbie has done is empower the female characters in the story to be having the conversations that they weren’t having in the novel,” he says. “While the men are worrying about stupid financial stuff, the women are dealing with real-life problems.” A radical reimagining, to be sure. But Moyer hastens to add that Galsworthy’s novel isn’t without a boldness of its own. “Yes, we all love the frocks, the big old houses and the horses and carriages, but he was the first person to talk about marital rape in a novel – which was a scandalous thing to do at the time – and he also examines the social structures and norms. “Debbie has taken inspiration from the book and created something extraordinary that it’s a joy to be part of.” Part of the joy that Moyer derives from The Forsytes, which has filmed for the last two summers in Bristol (there is one more series to air next year, with at least one more commissioned) is working with Jack Davenport, who plays his toxic, competitive younger brother, James. The pair first worked together on Ultraviolet, Channel 4’s 1998 vampire drama. “Back then, we were the young men about town and now we’re the old geezers. We’re like an old married couple, it’s hilarious. “When we did the first season of The Forsytes, we lived next door to each other and spent all our time together. Meanwhile, back in New York where we lived at the time, Anna and Michelle [Gomez, Davenport’s wife] were close, too. So it was kind of lovely.” Moyer’s other recent role made for an altogether more solitary existence as he upped sticks for Northern Ireland, where Art Detectives is filmed. In it, he plays DI Mick Palmer, lead sleuth for the Heritage Crime Unit. The series does what it says on the tin with murders linked to Viking gold and artefacts from the Titanic. “I’d never thought of myself doing cosy crime, but there was a warmth to Mick and to Shazia [Mick’s detective constable sidekick] and an understanding that I was drawn to. Mick’s quite eccentric – from the duffle coat to his obsession with comic books – and I enjoyed working him out and getting to know him.” As indeed do audiences. Made for Acorn TV, Art Detectives became the platform’s most watched new series, with another series in the works. It’s far from his usual grittier roles. “I’m quite happy doing a show that is a gentler version of the world than the one we live in right now. There’s a lot to be said for seeking a life more analogue.”
A ghost, a journalist, a small furry alien in a galaxy far, far away… Shirley Henderson recalls some of her most significant roles – and her latest
Add Summerwater to your watchlist In Summerwater, adapted from Sarah Moss’s novel about the British capacity for both cruelty and compassion, Shirley Henderson plays Annie Campbell, a visitor to the lochside holiday cabins that give this tense thriller its title. Geographically, Summerwater is situated in the Highlands; psychologically, it feels a stone’s throw from The Shining’s Overlook Hotel. Henderson doesn’t want to say too much about Annie for fear of spoiling the drama, which she describes as “an investigation of relationships, of memory and of longing”, but she will say that “something’s happening, something’s changing for her, and parts of her are leaving her”. Locked in a fraught marriage to Dougray Scott’s brittle Dr David Campbell, it may be Annie’s life that leaves her before the series’ end. In episode two, the pair take an ill-advised clifftop walk, during which the good doctor is clearly thinking bad thoughts, though Annie is breezily oblivious — or seems so. Like many of the characters Henderson has played, Annie has hinterland. When I first interviewed Henderson 21 years ago, she told me “it’s fun being messy or angry or disturbed,” and her CV is populated with such characters. But there are plenty of others, too… 'I'd never filmed before' Elizabeth Findlay in Shadow of the Stone STV (1987) Available on YouTube Children’s TV drama about a young girl and her 17th-century alter ego, who is accused of being a witch. “This was my first job. I got the part after Leonard White — who was a lovely man — from Scottish Television saw me in my last play at drama school. I stayed at my auntie’s, got the bus into Glasgow, walked up to the STV studios, got changed and went to work — and then did the reverse at the end of the day. It was Monday to Friday and we always finished around five o’clock. No job has ever been as civilised. I’d never done any filming before and I didn’t know any filming techniques so Leonard, who directed it, was teaching me at the same time. The script was set, too, so you could learn your lines — and I was young, so learning lines was much easier than it is now. I remember working with a wee lizard and Alan Cumming played my boyfriend.” 'I was shy and didn't want to mess up' Isobel Sutherland in Hamish Macbeth BBC One (1995-97) Available on iPlayer Drama starring Robert Carlyle as the eponymous crime-solving PC. “It was idyllic filming in Plockton every summer for three years, but there wasn’t a lot to do. We loved it when the wee fish and chip shop opened. We’d treat ourselves to a fish supper and gather in a caravan to listen as Ralph Riach and Brian Pettifer [who played “TV” John and Rory] told stories. “In the first series, we were filming a long shot and just before the camera got to me, the donkey I was looking after stood on my foot. It was agony! Today, I’d say, ‘Stop! The donkey’s on my foot!’ but I was shy and I didn’t want to mess it up. “I learned so much on that job. People would say they’d seen me on Hamish Macbeth. As time passes, you get recognised but I’ve never had ‘celebrity’; I don’t know what it is.” 'I didn't know who Harry Potter was' Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Available on Netflix and ITVX respectively The JK Rowling juggernaut that entranced a generation and made stars of its cast. “When I was first asked for an audition, I didn’t know who Harry Potter was. But my sister, who was staying with me, had read the books. Still, I wasn’t convinced I could play a 14-year-old girl because I was in my 30s at the time. But I spoke to the casting director Karen Lindsay-Stewart and she said, ‘I haven’t told them your age’. “So I went to the audition dressed as a schoolgirl — white shirt, black skirt, ponytail — thinking, ‘This is ridiculous’. I did my wee bit for them and they thanked me. Months went by and I thought that was it, but then they phoned my agent, asked to see me again and offered me the part. “Myrtle is an old person in a young person’s body and because she’s ghosty, there’s a kind of mistiness. You’re not looking closely at my face so we could get away with it.” 'In the end, you don't think about acting, you let it happen' Marie Melmotte in The Way We Live Now BBC One (2001) Available on Amazon Prime Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s novel. “With work like this, it’s often in language which is alien. When you first put on the costumes, which confine you, you’re like, ‘I can’t do it with all this stuff on me’. But then you relax into it, your body adapts and actually releases oils that make the costume too big. So you get it taken in and think, ‘I need all this stuff’, because it’s part of the character. In the end, you don’t even think about the scene, you just do it. And then you don’t even do that, you just let the scene happen.” 'I auditioned hunched down on the floor' Babu Frik in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Available on Disney+ In a galaxy far, far away, it’s Empire versus Republic round two. “It being Star Wars, they ask you if you want to audition, but don’t tell you anything else — nothing. I was like, ‘You have to give me something so I can prepare,’ and eventually they said, ‘Maybe very small, maybe very old, maybe from somewhere else’. “So I went to the audition with [director] JJ Abrams, who is the sweetest man, and Nina Gold (who cast me in Topsy-Turvy), had a lovely chat and then I did my bit. I hunched down on the floor and did this voice I had come up with in a language I had made up. He said, ‘You’ve got the job,’ and they brought in a model of Babu Frik. “It’s voice acting but not in the sense that you voice it later. I was there, on set, crammed into a cupboard on the floor trying to see what the puppeteers were doing with Babu’s mouth to improvise in the made-up language. An amazing job.” 'Sometimes I wonder if I dreamt it' Ursula Blake in Doctor Who" Love and Monsters BBC One (2006) Available on iPlayer Adventures in time and space. “When I was young, I’d either go out and play when Doctor Who was on, or hide behind the sofa. As an adult, I’d been watching David Tennant and Billie Piper, so when I was offered it — I didn’t have to audition — I jumped right in. We were forever being told to behave because Peter Kay, who I’d worked with on 24 Hour Party People, was making us laugh. Marc Warren was doing magic tricks — there was one that I still can’t get my head around, involving books. Sometimes I do wonder, ‘Did I dream it, or did it actually happen?’”
The broadcaster has found solace in nature — and in the company of Traitors
Add The Celebrity Traitors to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? The view is brilliant because it faces, not the TV, but the windows. So, out the window, I have this view of trees. Lots and lots of trees. I look out and see the seasons from my sofa – as well as a very nice bird feeder. Sounds thoroughly rural. I live in a bit of north London, which they’ve worked out used to be some kind of fruit forest for a king or queen of the past. We’ve got plums and pears and apples and cherries and greengages – all delicious, by the way. Trees are beautiful. They flower and they fruit and they’re the lungs of the Earth. I am a tree-hugger. I love hugging a tree. I feel like I sense the vibrations. Speaking of sensing vibrations, how was The Celebrity Traitors for you? I loved it. Being thrown in with that group of people was extraordinary and intense. You’ve got no phone, wi-fi, TV or radio so you’re in this bubble, everyone’s feeling a bit vulnerable and you’re very much absorbed in the game. How did it feel being cut off from technology and just sitting with yourself? I like having what I call a “power-down”. When it all gets a bit overwhelming, I have a zone out and, when I’m at home, stare at my trees out of my window. I’ve been trying to do more of that because real life is hectic and we have a lot of demands on us. How do you think you played the game? They were all suspicious of me from day one and I was voted the weakest player by the Traitors and everybody agreed with that so, in one way, not great. But the Faithful didn’t get a Traitor until after me. It’s a challenge – as a Faithful you’re trying to stay alive and not be murdered or banished because you can’t catch a Traitor when you’re out. How do you feel watching it back? It’s so beautifully put together and it’s fascinating, in that a lot of things that seemed big in my head didn’t feature at all, and things that seem obvious in watching it weren’t obvious when you’re in there. Everyone keeps saying, “How did you not notice Alan Carr giggling the whole time?” But he’s so much fun. I was making him laugh and he was definitely making me laugh, but you don’t see it as suspicious at the time. Your use of language made people suspicious of you. I know! And I am flabbergasted… but that’s just the way I speak. I think we need more flabbergasted in the world – and more whoops-a-daisy, too. Before your banishment, you spoke movingly about how, while caring for your husband Derek, who died in 2024, you had to be strong and inward-looking, but being in the Traitors castle had made you look up and outwards. What did the experience mean to you? When you’re caring for somebody, you’re very inward-focused, thinking: “Have I done the medication? What do I need to do next?” Constantly being in charge… Millions of people do it and disappear. They give up their work and their lives and they do it willingly because they love the people they’re caring for. But it takes away your chance to play because you can never really switch off. Doing The Traitors felt really indulgent – and I did ask myself, “Should I be doing this?” – because it was the first thing I’d done in ages that wasn’t serious or to do with the children or Derek being very ill. Was it life-changing? There have been some big experiences for me recently, so let’s not overegg it, but it was my birthday when I was in there and Derek was big on birthdays. So, it could have felt quite lonely, but weirdly it felt peaceful and like a reset.
Anita Dobson was wooed by James Mason, witnessed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, created one of soap’s most famous characters and ripped up time in Doctor Who. Now she’s reviving Play for Today
Add Play for Today: Never Too Late to your watchlist Anita Dobson suspects you get more fearless as you get older. “You should do, shouldn’t you?” she says conspiratorially. “The third time they asked me to do Strictly,” she continues, by way of explanation, “my best friend said to me, ‘You love dancing. Why do you keep saying no?’ I said, ‘I suppose I’m a bit scared of making a fool of myself.’ And she said, ‘At 62, do you care?’ And in that moment, I realised I didn’t.” So, in 2011, she signed up for the ninth series of Strictly Come Dancing, continuing in the competition until a very respectable ninth week. There were scary moments during her Strictly experience, but Dobson used fear, not as a brake, but as an engine. Fearlessness features in Never Too Late, the first of 5’s reinvention of Play for Today, the classic series of one-off plays broadcast on the BBC from 1970 to 1984. Dobson plays Cynthia, a sprightly senior citizen who, after one too many funny turns, is packed off to a retirement village by her daughter (Tracy-Ann Oberman). This institutional life ill-fits free-spirit Cyn and soon she’s protesting about rules and regulations – and quite possibly railing against the distant but encroaching dying of the light. If the drama is a meditation on mortality, it’s one with gags about escaped snakes and randy pensioners – and Nigel Havers. He pops up as Frank, Cynthia’s estranged former flame and faded 60s crooner. Capers ensue, secrets are revealed and there’s some singing. “After I read it, I rang them straightaway and said, ‘Yes, definitely. 100 per cent.’ I was gung-ho to get on board,” Dobson enthuses, “especially as it was giving people opportunities who might not otherwise get them.” Like the other Plays for Today (see page 23), Never Too Late was commissioned by 5 with the express intention of championing new behind-the-scenes talent. A laudable ambition that, upon watching the Plays, you wish 5 had believed in a bit more and invested just a bit more budget. “We did it on a shoestring, in a ridiculously short amount of time and I was in every scene but one. But I thought, ‘You’re here for the duration. Get up early, get on set, do your job, set an example.’” And you can bet she did. Dobson and her career have been shaped by a series of fearless choices, like deciding to become an actor in the first place. She was born into postwar privation in Stepney, east London. Her parents were in the rag trade – her father a dress cutter and her mother working “part-time as a tailoress”. There was no familial theatricality. Still, the augurs were there. The young Anita was a member of the Ivy Travers Dance Troupe and, at four, she was so enchanted by a pantomime at the Hackney Empire that “my grandfather said, ‘She’s got sawdust in her blood.’ ” Later, she learnt to tap-dance, entered talent competitions when they went on holidays and became a juvenile coat model for C&A. “I always thought I should have been a magician’s assistant. Being on show, looking fabulous, I would have gone down a storm.” But it was a school trip to see Marlon Brando and James Mason in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s film Julius Caesar that proved an epiphany. “I looked at James Mason and listened to that voice and thought, ‘I want to do that. I want to make people listen. I want to change their way of thinking. I want to have a beautiful voice and I want to capture people’s imagination’ – because he sure as hell captured mine.” At school however, there was very little of the arts apart from “staring at a wringer for what felt like an eternity in Mr Dubowski’s art class in an effort to put it onto canvas”. Dobson left with few qualifications, and got her first job at the Prudential Assurance Company – “It was like being buried alive.” It wasn’t until another job, at a company that made tassels (“curtains, before you get excited”), that Dobson decided enough was enough. “In the end, I went home and said, ‘OK, I’m going to be an actress.’ With my mum’s help, I found somewhere to go. I did some touch-typing in the day to earn a few bob to pay my mum rent, and in the evenings I’d go to am-dram. And that’s where it all started.” It was there, at an am-dram group run by the Inner London Education Authority, that Dobson made another bold choice: to go with the group to Czechoslovakia on an exchange programme. It was the summer of 1968, Dobson was 19 and ready to perform a new piece of theatre about life in the East End – Oi! The Musical. “Me and my friend Brenda went off on a coach to Prague, which was the first time out of the country without my family,” Dobson recalls. “We got to where we were to be staying in this youth hostel on Wenceslas Square. And the first thing that happened? The Russians invaded. We woke up the next day and outside, the Square was full of tanks. All the way round, with boys around my age sitting in them, with guns. That’s when it hit us that this was an invasion and we were in the middle of it.” What happened next sounds scary, surreal and almost cinematic. It involved getting back onto their coach – “We were told not to look left or right, not to talk to anyone, eyes down” – which drove off westward as the Soviets moved in from the east. They stopped, briefly, in one town but were forced to go further west to stay ahead of the wave of hard-line Communist forces sweeping across the country. They ended up in a little village with two shops – “one sold food and the other sold everything else”. That would be their hideout, their home, for the next two weeks. When the villagers found out they were actors, they asked them to perform their show. So every night, after curfew, Dobson, Brenda and the rest of the troupe gave the villagers their Oi! The reception was rapturous. “This adoring fan club gave us rings, jewellery, boots… they insisted because we had performed for them. When we left, when all aliens were ordered out of the country, it was…” Dobson tails off as she wells up. There’s a beat of a sombre silence. Then, she says, breezily, “So that was my baptism of fire as far as acting is concerned!” Two decades and a stint at drama school later and Dobson made another decision: to exit EastEnders. At the height of its popularity and her fame, she left behind the character of Angie Watts after playing her for three years. “I loved it,” she says with zest. “The maudlin drunk, the happy drunk, the hysterical drunk, the tearful drunk. I’m very, very proud of playing Angie because she gave me who I am today. “Early on, I remember I had a scene on my own on the pub stairs with Roly the dog. I sat talking to him about my marriage, my life, my demons. I was stroking the dog and I started to cry. And I couldn’t stop, so I just went with it. I finished the scene and Roly didn’t move, and I didn’t move, and the whole set was silent. And I thought, ‘I’ve found her.’ Because inside that jolly, mad, awright darlin’ and the make-up and the hair and all that, there was this broken doll.” Having grown up in the East End and worked in pubs, Dobson knew women like Angie. But even she sounds a bit awed by the Queen Vic landlady. “There are some characters you create and they are like a shell, behind which you hide. And there are other characters that come from your gut, that resonate so much that you become them. And those are the times when you fly, when you’re not acting, you’re not thinking, you’re just in the moment…” With highs like that, it would have been easy to stay, to still be there today, perhaps. But Dobson was done. “By the time I got to EastEnders I was 35 or 36 and I remember thinking that the next train was leaving soon and I needed to get on that if I wanted to make, learn and do lots of different things.” So she left EastEnders to be a jobbing actress? “I am a jobbing actress,” says Dobson with a smile. “It’s about being open to possibilities.” This openness that led Dobson to another decision – to take what she thought at the time was a bit part in Doctor Who. It was only later that she, and the viewers, would discover that the nosy neighbour Mrs Flood was actually the Rani. A Time Lady originally played by Kate O’Mara and one of the Doctor’s most formidable foes, the role was “a fantastic gift”. “For the first series, I was oblivious and just really enjoyed all the little character things and mannerisms that Russell [T Davies] was throwing at me,” she says. “Then, when he asked me back for another series, my curiosity was piqued as to who she was… But it wasn’t until I read the last few scripts of that series that I found out, and I was completely shocked.” The last we saw of Dobson’s Rani, she eluded the Doctor’s grasp after her plan for galactic domination failed. Would she return to Doctor Who? “Anything is possible. And if Russell asked me now, I’d be out that door so quick.” Despite her drive, Dobson still says “no” – and sometimes “never again”. After five decades, eight Snow Whites, seven Aladdins, four Dick Whittingtons, two Sleeping Beauties, and one Babes in the Wood, she won’t do another panto. Oh no she won’t. She doesn’t need the money: “Even with or without my Brian [May, her husband of 25 years], I’m OK. I’m obviously really OK with him.” And she’s had that experience. “I can’t put that crown on again and scream my tits off for 12 shows a week for five weeks,” she sighs. “It’s unseemly, isn’t it? And it’s just too exhausting for a 76-year-old woman.” Fearlessness can take a person places. Up a beanstalk isn’t one of them. THE FULL SERIES Intruder Written by David Whitehouse A cautionary tale about answering a late-night knock at the door. A meditation on power, guilt and complicity. A portrait of a marriage poisoned by secrets and mired in codependency. Novelist Whitehouse’s script about a light entertainment legend turned troubled has-been, is all of the above. Alan Davies stars as tarnished national treasure Lenny Bray, the brilliant Nikki Amuka-Bird plays his wife, and newcomer Logan Mersh is the barefoot, bleeding consequences of Lenny’s past actions. Big Winners Written by Martha Watson Allpress Sue Johnston and Paul Copley star as Edith and Arthur Thistle whose frugal 53-year marriage is rocked by a £14m lottery win. While he intends to spend, she has other plans. Plans that don’t involve Arthur — because Edith wants a divorce. It’s a story about opportunities seized and missed, chances taken and squandered, lives lived and paths not taken. Special Measures Written by Lee Thompson Amy, the deputy head of English in an overwhelmed and underfunded Liverpool school, is already having a bad day when her boss resigns. Then comes the announcement that Ofsted inspectors are arriving for a surprise appraisal. As Amy is caught between burnout and bureaucracy, the school’s future hangs in the balance.
The Forsytes cast - from Poldark to Doctor Who stars - reveal all about their dramatic new revamp of the iconic period drama
Stephen Moyer loves a collection, from guitars and typewriters to great roles – and his latest in The Forsytes is one to treasure.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. In the course of our 45-minute interview that lasts an hour and a half, Stephen Moyer, 56, shares that he collects guitars – which he has hung up on the walls of his new home in Suffolk, because he can’t actually play the guitar – and typewriters, of which he has 30. We establish that he looks good in a duffle coat – which not every grown man does – and what he has in his pockets. Namely a "quite rare" $1 coin and an acorn, "which is a long story". Further, he impresses upon me the virtues of good headphones and quality speakers, summer evening walks on Clifton Down in Bristol [he stays in the city while filming The Forsytes] and cooking for one in a Belfast kitchen. He confesses a love for Marmite and peanut butter, and details his favourite snack. "Anna [Paquin, his actress wife] calls them Stevie Snacks and they consist of some cheese, roasted almonds, some saucisson and chutney." His mum makes an amazing green tomato chutney, apparently. "I’ve got jars from 1994 in my cupboard and I’m not even joking." In his 20s, Moyer lived on a houseboat for seven years in London’s Little Venice, with no electricity – which is why he bought his first typewriter – and recently, in his 50s, he’s taken up sailing. "I really love that it’s an ancient skill and it doesn’t involve phones. I spend a lot of time in the digital world and I love it, but I’m actually quite analogue." Moyer is great company, as inquisitive as he is forthcoming. You might be tempted to say that his work is the least interesting thing about him. Except that isn’t true. For this Essex-born actor, who made it big in America, also collects great roles, recently adding two very different characters to his collection. First, there is patriarch Jolyon Forsyte Sr in Debbie Horsfield’s fantastic take on John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga. "What Debbie has done is empower the female characters in the story to be having the conversations that they weren’t having in the novel,” he says. “While the men are worrying about stupid financial stuff, the women are dealing with real-life problems." A radical reimagining, to be sure. But Moyer hastens to add that Galsworthy’s novel isn’t without a boldness of its own. "Yes, we all love the frocks, the big old houses and the horses and carriages, but he was the first person to talk about marital rape in a novel – which was a scandalous thing to do at the time – and he also examines the social structures and norms. "Debbie has taken inspiration from the book and created something extraordinary that it’s a joy to be part of." Part of the joy that Moyer derives from The Forsytes, which has filmed for the last two summers in Bristol (there is one more series to air next year, with at least one more commissioned) is working with Jack Davenport, who plays his toxic, competitive younger brother, James. The pair first worked together on Ultraviolet, Channel 4’s 1998 vampire drama. "Back then, we were the young men about town and now we’re the old geezers. We’re like an old married couple, it’s hilarious. "When we did the first season of The Forsytes, we lived next door to each other and spent all our time together. Meanwhile, back in New York where we lived at the time, Anna and Michelle [Gomez, Davenport’s wife] were close, too. So it was kind of lovely." Moyer’s other recent role made for an altogether more solitary existence as he upped sticks for Northern Ireland, where Art Detectives is filmed. In it, he plays DI Mick Palmer, lead sleuth for the Heritage Crime Unit. The series does what it says on the tin with murders linked to Viking gold and artefacts from the Titanic. "I’d never thought of myself doing cosy crime, but there was a warmth to Mick and to Shazia [Mick’s detective constable sidekick] and an understanding that I was drawn to. Mick’s quite eccentric – from the duffle coat to his obsession with comic books – and I enjoyed working him out and getting to know him." As indeed do audiences. Made for Acorn TV, Art Detectives became the platform’s most watched new series, with another series in the works. It’s far from his usual grittier roles. "I’m quite happy doing a show that is a gentler version of the world than the one we live in right now. There’s a lot to be said for seeking a life more analogue." View oEmbed on the source website Interviews with the cast James Forsyte, played by Jack Davenport What appealed to you about The Forsytes ? One of Debbie Horsfield’s great skills is that she’s able to wrestle these giant, creaky old galleons of novels into more modern shapes and reframe what the focus is. She and Damien [Timmer, The Forsytes’ executive producer] said they were interested in exploring patriarchy and its structures, such as primogeniture [the right of succession belonging to the first-born son] and how that system eats people alive. Because even though they’re rich and privileged, the likes of Jolyon Sr and James, and Jolyon Jr and Soames have no real agency because their paths are preordained. That intrigued me. Also, they wanted to focus on the women who, because they don’t have power, have a self-awareness that the men do not. So the men are powerful but clueless — and that tension seemed like an interesting thing to play with. Isn’t The Forsytes about Britain and its relationship with money and power? Don’t forget that the Forsytes are not aristocrats. They are upper-middle-class, and they have made their money by taking advantage of other people. When I’m in central London and I look up at the limestone buildings, I think to myself: this is a small island that can fit into the state of Texas seven times and yet look at this place! It’s a lot of blood and treasure that made this. We had our foot on a lot of people’s throats to achieve what we achieved. My character is a ghastly human, and I welcome Debbie’s subtle critique of the system that has made him extremely wealthy. Jolyon Forsyte, played by Danny Griffin The last leading man in a Debbie Horsfield adaptation was Aidan Turner in Poldark. No pressure on you then… Yeah, it is a big deal. I was very nervous when I started on the show. I wanted to prepare — overprepare, really — as it’s all you can do. I had a lot of questions for Debbie when we first met. Questions about the stuff that the audience wouldn’t know that I would be aware of, so I could have it in the back of my mind. Some actors say they connect with a character through their costume. What did it for you? His jacket. It shows that he really wants to be a Forsyte — because all the Forsyte men wear jackets — but because his is a bit different, it shows that he’s not conforming exactly to the Forsyte way. My “hero jacket”, was customised so it seemed more casual, and a combination of the jacket and the hair really helped me find him. Let’s talk about the hair… We had long discussions about it. At one point, it was going to be a wig, but the one we got looked like a discount Thor. So it evolved into what you see on the telly because we wanted to show that he had a lot of hair. Then the question was, “How would you smarten that up?” To which the answer was “curling it endlessly”. We ended up doing that and I love the result. Louisa Byrne, played by Eleanor Tomlinson How aware were you of The Forsyte Saga before you got the part? I’d heard of the adaptations and I knew the novels, but because my character was created by Debbie, I didn’t watch or read anything as there wasn’t an awful lot of point. Normally, if my character had been in the books, that’s absolutely what I would have done — that’s what I did with Poldark. Having said that, Debbie’s scripts are so rich that everything you need to know about your character is on the page. So, what is everything we need to know about Louisa? She’s a dressmaker who had a love affair with Jolyon 10 years prior to the events of The Forsytes, long before he married Frances. As she was a lady’s maid and he was the scion of a family like the Forsytes, the affair was doomed. But now she’s back in London, in the Forsytes’ orbit, which she realises is problematic — not least because she has two children and he’s the father. Isn’t that a good thing? No matter how long a woman had her children, if a man knew they were his, he could take them away. Initially, she lives in fear of that but once she realises that he’s still in love with her, and he’s trapped in a world where he doesn’t belong, that gives her more agency, power and strength. Frances Forsyte, played by Tuppence Middleton Had you read Galsworthy before you got the part? When I got the part, I started reading the books. Then I realised that Debbie’s version was so different that I stopped. Because Frances didn’t feature in the books, I decided I wanted to focus on the scripts and get my information from them. As you say, Frances isn’t in the novels but she’s a formidable presence in the drama… Ann [Francesca Annis] is obviously the queen of the family but she’s at the stage where she’s handing over more of the responsibility, so Jolyon Sr [Stephen Moyer] is running the house and Frances is his right-hand woman. They are the ambitious ones with big ideas for the company and she has more of a business head than her husband Jolyon. Do you think previous adaptations cast a long shadow? When you’re making a version of something that already exists, the most important thing is to accept that there will be people who have their definitive version of it, and know that you’re making it for a modern audience. So, then you ask yourself: how can you make it feel alive and relevant for that audience? What does The Forsytes says about us now? A period drama is always of the time it’s made, and this is a feminist take on The Forsyte Saga. But I think it also taps into a contemporary fascination with powerful families like the Murdochs and the Trumps, especially after Succession. Soames Forsyte, played by Joshua Orpin Let’s be clear — Soames is pretty awful, isn’t he? He can be, though I don’t think he thinks he is. When I’m playing him, I don’t judge him. I do try to understand him, though. He’s a guy born into this family of enormous wealth and privilege with ambition and drive to succeed and dominate. Those traits have been fostered by his parents, particularly his father, and he’s power-hungry. He thinks he’s the best man to run the family stockbrokers, not his cousin Jolyon. And he’s probably right. But while he’s very comfortable in the business world, he’s a man who doesn’t know how to express his feelings in a positive way. Again, thanks to his parents. He’s a product of his environment. The last man to play Soames — Damian Lewis — went on to great things, not least Homeland and Billions. As an Australian, is moving to the USA the big draw? There’s never really been a big draw to live in the United States. As nice as it is, I’ve only been a handful of times, and I’ve never worked there. The American stuff I’ve done has either been shot in Australia or in Canada. My mother’s actually British, so I’m a dual citizen. Is Soames a tragic figure? He thinks Irene is amazing. He falls in love but doesn’t know how to express that love. And then the thing that he loves about her — her free spirit — he ends up suppressing by trying to fit her into this box of what he perceives a wife should be. That sounds pretty tragic to me. How have your good looks factored in your career? I think that at a certain point in your acting journey, you have to reconcile yourself with the way you look and use that to your advantage. I’d say that my looks have helped me more than they’ve hindered me, but sometimes there have been roles that I’ve really wanted to play and the feedback I’ve had is that I’m too good-looking to play the character. That’s a shame, but what can I do? I can’t really change how I look. True, but do you feel under pressure to stay buff? In my life, I don’t feel that pressure. But if the role calls for it, it’s there. I played Superboy on Titans and he was a superhero, so there’s an expectation there for him to have a certain physique. For a role like that, I felt pressured to transform my body. But when it comes to other roles, not so much. Irene Herron, played by Millie Gibson How aware were you of the Galsworthy novels and previous adaptations? I wasn’t. However, as soon as I got the audition, I started doing my research and reading the book. But the book is very much from the male perspective. Then Debbie explained that this was going to be a new, fresh version, more about the female characters, so I stopped reading the book. Which was pretty hard-going anyway, if I’m honest. And along with so many brilliant, strong female characters, we had two female directors, and Debbie obviously, so it’s an amazing thing to be a part of. How does your Irene compare to other iterations? She’s completely transformed, and it helps getting into character that I am completely transformed, too — I don’t think people will know it’s me and I love that. So compared to the noughties version, Irene is a lot younger. She’s 19 in this version and has such a youthful zest and energy — she just wants to be a ballerina and live life — which I think makes it more heartbreaking when these terrible things start to happen to her. And by “terrible things”, you mean Soames Forsyte? It’s not as simple as that. Debbie has written the characters with such nuance and in such a complex way. The audience gets to see them fall in love, which previous versions didn’t show, so when it starts to go bad, it connects with you more. Irene falls in love with Soames for a reason, he’s not a baddie from the off, so there are different dynamics going on between the characters that audiences haven’t seen before. Coronation Street, Doctor Who and now The Forsytes… It’s funny because I’ve broken my streak of only being in shows that are more than 60 years old — by being in a show that’s a version of a 58-year old show. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Forsytes will continue airing on 5 on Monday 10th November at 9pm. 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.
From Harry Potter's Moaning Myrtle to Doctor Who - Shirley Henderson reveals secrets behind her iconic roles
A ghost, a journalist, a small furry alien in a galaxy far, far away… Shirley Henderson recalls some of her most significant roles – and her latest.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. In Summerwater, adapted from Sarah Moss’s novel about the British capacity for both cruelty and compassion, Shirley Henderson plays Annie Campbell, a visitor to the lochside holiday cabins that give this tense thriller its title. Geographically, Summerwater is situated in the Highlands; psychologically, it feels a stone’s throw from The Shining’s Overlook Hotel. Henderson doesn’t want to say too much about Annie for fear of spoiling the drama, which she describes as "an investigation of relationships, of memory and of longing", but she will say that "something’s happening, something’s changing for her, and parts of her are leaving her". Locked in a fraught marriage to Dougray Scott’s brittle Dr David Campbell, it may be Annie’s life that leaves her before the series’ end. In episode two, the pair take an ill-advised clifftop walk, during which the good doctor is clearly thinking bad thoughts, though Annie is breezily oblivious — or seems so. Like many of the characters Henderson has played, Annie has hinterland. When I first interviewed Henderson 21 years ago, she told me "it’s fun being messy or angry or disturbed," and her CV is populated with such characters. But there are plenty of others, too… 'I'd never filmed before' – Elizabeth Findlay, Shadow of the Stone - STV (1987) Children’s TV drama about a young girl and her 17th-century alter ego, who is accused of being a witch. "This was my first job. I got the part after Leonard White — who was a lovely man — from Scottish Television saw me in my last play at drama school. I stayed at my auntie’s, got the bus into Glasgow, walked up to the STV studios, got changed and went to work — and then did the reverse at the end of the day. It was Monday to Friday and we always finished around five o’clock. No job has ever been as civilised. I’d never done any filming before and I didn’t know any filming techniques so Leonard, who directed it, was teaching me at the same time. The script was set, too, so you could learn your lines — and I was young, so learning lines was much easier than it is now. I remember working with a wee lizard and Alan Cumming played my boyfriend." 'I was shy and didn't want to mess up' – Isobel Sutherland, Hamish Macbeth - BBC One (1995-97) Drama starring Robert Carlyle as the eponymous crime-solving PC. "It was idyllic filming in Plockton every summer for three years, but there wasn’t a lot to do. We loved it when the wee fish and chip shop opened. We’d treat ourselves to a fish supper and gather in a caravan to listen as Ralph Riach and Brian Pettifer [who played “TV” John and Rory] told stories. “In the first series, we were filming a long shot and just before the camera got to me, the donkey I was looking after stood on my foot. It was agony! Today, I’d say, ‘Stop! The donkey’s on my foot!’ but I was shy and I didn’t want to mess it up. “I learned so much on that job. People would say they’d seen me on Hamish Macbeth. As time passes, you get recognised but I’ve never had ‘celebrity’; I don’t know what it is." ‘I didn’t know who Harry Potter was’ – Moaning Myrtle, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) & Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) View oEmbed on the source website The JK Rowling juggernaut that entranced a generation and made stars of its cast. "When I was first asked for an audition, I didn’t know who Harry Potter was. But my sister, who was staying with me, had read the books. Still, I wasn’t convinced I could play a 14-year-old girl because I was in my 30s at the time. But I spoke to the casting director Karen Lindsay-Stewart and she said, 'I haven’t told them your age'. "So I went to the audition dressed as a schoolgirl — white shirt, black skirt, ponytail — thinking, 'This is ridiculous'. I did my wee bit for them and they thanked me. Months went by and I thought that was it, but then they phoned my agent, asked to see me again and offered me the part. "Myrtle is an old person in a young person’s body and because she’s ghosty, there’s a kind of mistiness. You’re not looking closely at my face so we could get away with it." ‘In the end, you don’t think about acting, you let it happen’ – Marie Melmotte, The Way We Live Now – BBC One (2001) Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s novel. "With work like this, it’s often in language which is alien. When you first put on the costumes, which confine you, you’re like, 'I can’t do it with all this stuff on me'. But then you relax into it, your body adapts and actually releases oils that make the costume too big. So you get it taken in and think, ‘I need all this stuff’, because it’s part of the character. In the end, you don’t even think about the scene, you just do it. And then you don’t even do that, you just let the scene happen." ‘I auditioned hunched down on the floor’ – Babu Frik, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) View oEmbed on the source website In a galaxy far, far away, it’s Empire versus Republic round two. "It being Star Wars, they ask you if you want to audition, but don’t tell you anything else — nothing. I was like, 'You have to give me something so I can prepare,' and eventually they said, 'Maybe very small, maybe very old, maybe from somewhere else'. "So I went to the audition with [director] JJ Abrams, who is the sweetest man, and Nina Gold (who cast me in Topsy-Turvy), had a lovely chat and then I did my bit. I hunched down on the floor and did this voice I had come up with in a language I had made up. He said, 'You’ve got the job,' and they brought in a model of Babu Frik. "It’s voice acting but not in the sense that you voice it later. I was there, on set, crammed into a cupboard on the floor trying to see what the puppeteers were doing with Babu’s mouth to improvise in the made-up language. An amazing job." ‘Sometimes I wonder if I dreamt it’ – Ursula Blake, Doctor Who: Love and Monsters – BBC One (2006) View oEmbed on the source website Adventures in time and space. "When I was young, I’d either go out and play when Doctor Who was on, or hide behind the sofa. As an adult, I’d been watching David Tennant and Billie Piper, so when I was offered it — I didn’t have to audition — I jumped right in. We were forever being told to behave because Peter Kay, who I’d worked with on 24 Hour Party People, was making us laugh. Marc Warren was doing magic tricks — there was one that I still can’t get my head around, involving books. Sometimes I do wonder, 'Did I dream it, or did it actually happen?'" The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Summerwater airs on Channel 4 on Saturday 16th November. 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. Add Summerwater to your watchlist when it arrives 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.
Kate Garraway reveals the fan-favourite she predicts will win The Celebrity Traitors — and who has slipped up
Add The Celebrity Traitors to your watchlist The Celebrity Traitors final is fast approaching, with just five players left in the ultimate game of deception, betrayal and trust. Amongst the remaining players are Traitors, Alan Carr and Cat Burns, and the remaining Faithful, David Olusoga, Nick Mohammed and Joe Marler - and it's truly anyone's game. While it seemed both Alan and Cat were shoe-ins to win after Jonathan Ross's banishment, Joe's suspicion of the two could prove to be their downfall, but recently banished Faithful Kate Garraway isn't so sure. Speaking to RT ahead of the final, the broadcaster revealed she'd love a Faithful to win the programme, despite initially thinking Cat was going to win the whole show. "I'd love Nick, David or Joe M to win. I feel like Nick and Joe M might have more of a chance," she explained. "I felt like Cat was going to steal the show, because she is so brilliant, but I think she might have mucked up a bit actually, because I think by voting for me and encouraging others to vote for me, when other people think voting David, she's left herself as the last woman in the game." Despite rooting for her fellow Faithful, Kate revealed she has "a feeling" that "Alan's going to win the whole thing". Viewers will finally know who has won the game in just two days in a special 70-minute long episode. Following the finale, there will be an extra special extended episode of The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked on BBC Two and Sounds, where Ed Gamble will be joined by the all-star cast, the finalists and host Claudia Winkleman, as they react to the final episode and reveal everything about their time at the castle. The Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday 6th November at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Celebrity Traitors' Kate Garraway reveals the fan-favourite she predicts will win – and who has slipped up
The Celebrity Traitors final is fast approaching, with just five players left in the ultimate game of deception, betrayal and trust. Amongst the remaining players are Traitors Alan Carr and Cat Burns, and the remaining Faithful David Olusoga, Nick Mohammed and Joe Marler – and it's truly anyone's game. It seemed both Alan and Cat were shoo-ins to win after Jonathan Ross's banishment, but Joe's suspicion of the two could prove to be their downfall – and recently banished Faithful Kate Garraway isn't so sure either. Speaking to Radio Times magazine ahead of the final, the broadcaster revealed she'd love a Faithful to win the programme, despite initially thinking Cat was going to win the whole show. "I'd love Nick, David or Joe M to win. I feel like Nick and Joe M might have more of a chance," she explained. "I felt like Cat was going to steal the show, because she is so brilliant, but I think she might have mucked up a bit actually, because I think by voting for me and encouraging others to vote for me, when other people were thinking of voting David, she's left herself as the last woman." Despite rooting for her fellow Faithfuls, Kate revealed she has "a feeling" that "Alan's going to win the whole thing". Viewers will finally know who has won the game in just two days in a special 70-minute episode. Following the finale, there will be an extra special extended episode of The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked on BBC Two and Sounds, where Ed Gamble will be joined by the all-star cast, the finalists and host Claudia Winkleman, as they react to the final episode and reveal everything about their time at the castle. The Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday 6th November at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Add The Celebrity Traitors 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 Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Anita Dobson teases the Rani's return to Doctor Who following Mrs Flood cliffhanger as she talks new role
Anita Dobson was wooed by James Mason, witnessed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, created one of soap’s most famous characters and ripped up time in Doctor Who. Now she’s reviving Play for Today.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Anita Dobson suspects you get more fearless as you get older. “You should do, shouldn’t you?” she says conspiratorially. “The third time they asked me to do Strictly,” she continues, by way of explanation, “my best friend said to me, ‘You love dancing. Why do you keep saying no?’ I said, ‘I suppose I’m a bit scared of making a fool of myself.’ And she said, ‘At 62, do you care?’ And in that moment, I realised I didn’t.” So, in 2011, she signed up for the ninth series of Strictly Come Dancing, continuing in the competition until a very respectable ninth week. There were scary moments during her Strictly experience, but Dobson used fear, not as a brake, but as an engine. Fearlessness features in Never Too Late, the first of 5’s reinvention of Play for Today, the classic series of one-off plays broadcast on the BBC from 1970 to 1984. Dobson plays Cynthia, a sprightly senior citizen who, after one too many funny turns, is packed off to a retirement village by her daughter (Tracy-Ann Oberman). This institutional life ill-fits free-spirit Cyn and soon she’s protesting about rules and regulations – and quite possibly railing against the distant but encroaching dying of the light. If the drama is a meditation on mortality, it’s one with gags about escaped snakes and randy pensioners – and Nigel Havers. He pops up as Frank, Cynthia’s estranged former flame and faded 60s crooner. Capers ensue, secrets are revealed and there’s some singing. “After I read it, I rang them straightaway and said, ‘Yes, definitely. 100 per cent.’ I was gung-ho to get on board,” Dobson enthuses, “especially as it was giving people opportunities who might not otherwise get them.” Like the other Plays for Today, Never Too Late was commissioned by 5 with the express intention of championing new behind-the-scenes talent. A laudable ambition that, upon watching the Plays, you wish 5 had believed in a bit more and invested just a bit more budget. “We did it on a shoestring, in a ridiculously short amount of time and I was in every scene but one. But I thought, ‘You’re here for the duration. Get up early, get on set, do your job, set an example.’” And you can bet she did. Dobson and her career have been shaped by a series of fearless choices, like deciding to become an actor in the first place. She was born into postwar privation in Stepney, east London. Her parents were in the rag trade – her father a dress cutter and her mother working “part-time as a tailoress”. There was no familial theatricality. Still, the augurs were there. The young Anita was a member of the Ivy Travers Dance Troupe and, at four, she was so enchanted by a pantomime at the Hackney Empire that “my grandfather said, ‘She’s got sawdust in her blood.’ ” Later, she learnt to tap-dance, entered talent competitions when they went on holidays and became a juvenile coat model for C&A. “I always thought I should have been a magician’s assistant. Being on show, looking fabulous, I would have gone down a storm.” But it was a school trip to see Marlon Brando and James Mason in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s film Julius Caesar that proved an epiphany. “I looked at James Mason and listened to that voice and thought, ‘I want to do that. I want to make people listen. I want to change their way of thinking. I want to have a beautiful voice and I want to capture people’s imagination’ – because he sure as hell captured mine.” At school however, there was very little of the arts apart from “staring at a wringer for what felt like an eternity in Mr Dubowski’s art class in an effort to put it onto canvas”. Dobson left with few qualifications, and got her first job at the Prudential Assurance Company – “It was like being buried alive.” It wasn’t until another job, at a company that made tassels (“curtains, before you get excited”), that Dobson decided enough was enough. “In the end, I went home and said, ‘OK, I’m going to be an actress.’ With my mum’s help, I found somewhere to go. I did some touch-typing in the day to earn a few bob to pay my mum rent, and in the evenings I’d go to am-dram. And that’s where it all started.” It was there, at an am-dram group run by the Inner London Education Authority, that Dobson made another bold choice: to go with the group to Czechoslovakia on an exchange programme. It was the summer of 1968, Dobson was 19 and ready to perform a new piece of theatre about life in the East End – Oi! The Musical. “Me and my friend Brenda went off on a coach to Prague, which was the first time out of the country without my family,” Dobson recalls. “We got to where we were to be staying in this youth hostel on Wenceslas Square. And the first thing that happened? The Russians invaded. We woke up the next day and outside, the Square was full of tanks. All the way round, with boys around my age sitting in them, with guns. That’s when it hit us that this was an invasion and we were in the middle of it.” What happened next sounds scary, surreal and almost cinematic. It involved getting back onto their coach – “We were told not to look left or right, not to talk to anyone, eyes down” – which drove off westward as the Soviets moved in from the east. They stopped, briefly, in one town but were forced to go further west to stay ahead of the wave of hard-line Communist forces sweeping across the country. They ended up in a little village with two shops – “one sold food and the other sold everything else”. That would be their hideout, their home, for the next two weeks. When the villagers found out they were actors, they asked them to perform their show. So every night, after curfew, Dobson, Brenda and the rest of the troupe gave the villagers their Oi! The reception was rapturous. “This adoring fan club gave us rings, jewellery, boots… they insisted because we had performed for them. When we left, when all aliens were ordered out of the country, it was…” Dobson tails off as she wells up. There’s a beat of a sombre silence. Then, she says, breezily, “So that was my baptism of fire as far as acting is concerned!” Two decades and a stint at drama school later and Dobson made another decision: to exit EastEnders. At the height of its popularity and her fame, she left behind the character of Angie Watts after playing her for three years. “I loved it,” she says with zest. “The maudlin drunk, the happy drunk, the hysterical drunk, the tearful drunk. I’m very, very proud of playing Angie because she gave me who I am today. “Early on, I remember I had a scene on my own on the pub stairs with Roly the dog. I sat talking to him about my marriage, my life, my demons. I was stroking the dog and I started to cry. And I couldn’t stop, so I just went with it. I finished the scene and Roly didn’t move, and I didn’t move, and the whole set was silent. And I thought, ‘I’ve found her.’ Because inside that jolly, mad, awright darlin’ and the make-up and the hair and all that, there was this broken doll.” <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/05/520864-dae9e92-e1747665498768.jpg" width="2585" height="1723" alt="Doctor Who's Jonah Hauer-King as Conrad Clark, Archie Panjabi as the Rani, and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood in Doctor Who episode Wish World" title="Doctor Who's Jonah Hauer-King as Conrad Clark, Archie Panjabi as the Rani, and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood in Doctor Who episode Wish World" /> Having grown up in the East End and worked in pubs, Dobson knew women like Angie. But even she sounds a bit awed by the Queen Vic landlady. “There are some characters you create and they are like a shell, behind which you hide. And there are other characters that come from your gut, that resonate so much that you become them. And those are the times when you fly, when you’re not acting, you’re not thinking, you’re just in the moment…” With highs like that, it would have been easy to stay, to still be there today, perhaps. But Dobson was done. “By the time I got to EastEnders I was 35 or 36 and I remember thinking that the next train was leaving soon and I needed to get on that if I wanted to make, learn and do lots of different things.” So she left EastEnders to be a jobbing actress? “I am a jobbing actress,” says Dobson with a smile. “It’s about being open to possibilities.” This openness that led Dobson to another decision – to take what she thought at the time was a bit part in Doctor Who. It was only later that she, and the viewers, would discover that the nosy neighbour Mrs Flood was actually the Rani. A Time Lady originally played by Kate O’Mara and one of the Doctor’s most formidable foes, the role was “a fantastic gift”. “For the first series, I was oblivious and just really enjoyed all the little character things and mannerisms that Russell [T Davies] was throwing at me,” she says. “Then, when he asked me back for another series, my curiosity was piqued as to who she was… But it wasn’t until I read the last few scripts of that series that I found out, and I was completely shocked.” The last we saw of Dobson’s Rani, she eluded the Doctor’s grasp after her plan for galactic domination failed. Would she return to Doctor Who? “Anything is possible. And if Russell asked me now, I’d be out that door so quick.” Despite her drive, Dobson still says “no” – and sometimes “never again”. After five decades, eight Snow Whites, seven Aladdins, four Dick Whittingtons, two Sleeping Beauties, and one Babes in the Wood, she won’t do another panto. Oh no she won’t. She doesn’t need the money: “Even with or without my Brian [May, her husband of 25 years], I’m OK. I’m obviously really OK with him.” And she’s had that experience. “I can’t put that crown on again and scream my tits off for 12 shows a week for five weeks,” she sighs. “It’s unseemly, isn’t it? And it’s just too exhausting for a 76-year-old woman.” Fearlessness can take a person places. Up a beanstalk isn’t one of them. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The 5 Live DJ on the joys of fatherhood, the downside of modelling — and crying on air
5 Live Breakfast is on Monday-Friday at 6am on BBC Radio 5 Live. Add it to your collection What’s the view from your sofa? It’s a fireplace that I think I like, but I’m not completely sure about. It’s very ornate, with a wooden surround that incorporates a mirror above it. It probably dates from, and hasn’t been changed since, the 1920s. Then there’s the TV, which is small and probably temporary, and keeps tilting backwards because I mounted the little feet on it badly. Sounds like you need a TV upgrade! We left the TV that we loved in our old house because it was wall-mounted, was perfect in the space and it felt like a nice thing to do, to leave it for the next people. My wife Emer [Kenny, Karen Pirie writer and actor] and I really regret that now. You began your career as a model — when did you realise you’re handsome? I was a cute kid, I think, and then, from 10 to 16, which is the worst age for this to be the case, I was not a good-looking boy. At all. I wonder if, in those formative years, it was character-building. Then, around 17 or 18, the proportions of my face sort of settled down, and from that point, it’s been fine. It’s weird to go from being not-good-looking to, a couple of years later, getting scouted for modelling work. I did it when I was at university and just after. That was odd. I didn’t like it one bit. Aside from the models, who seemed fine, it’s an industry of a lot of not very nice people. I found it a bit grubby. What’s the best TV programme you’ve watched recently? Your Friends & Neighbours on Apple TV starring Jon Hamm. He’s great – the whole cast is good – and it has some quite interesting things to say about family. As a fairly new father, with anything that says anything at all about family and fatherhood, I am quite likely to cry. How do you juggle family life and, among other things, 5 Live Breakfast? It’s tricky, because both Emer and I work and I’m very conscious of ensuring that she still has all the time she needs to work. Trying to dovetail it all together is a complicated jigsaw. One good thing is that, although the hours of my job are horrendous, doing a breakfast show does mean I’m home in the day and I get to spend time with my son then. You have to make it work. How ready were you for fatherhood? It was definitely something we wanted to do, and I thought and read about it quite a lot. But there is absolutely no way you can be prepared for what it’s like. There’s a depth of feeling you really can’t get your head around before you experience it. It’s crazy how it’s massively heightened my emotional response to almost everything, because you just see everything through a new lens of: “What is that going to mean for his future?” How has it affected your work? My emotions are much closer to the surface, so when we have people on who have distressing stories, I’m very affected by them. In my first year doing 5 Live Breakfast, Russia invaded Ukraine. In those first few weeks, we were speaking to Ukrainians and it was like nothing I’d ever done before. It was completely overwhelming and I really struggled. I’ve definitely cried on air, and I think the audience kind of get that because it’s quite a human response, but you don’t want someone crying all the time. How’s your relationship with your dad? My dad was and is terrific. The world I live in is probably quite different from the world he lived in and lives in, but I still go to him for advice, even when I know he won’t know much about the thing I’m asking him, because I’m still interested to get his take. He’s a safe person for me. What has surprised you most about becoming a parent? Sometimes, being a parent is hard, sometimes boring, sometimes annoying. But you don’t let those fleeting emotions override the core emotion, which is “this is brilliant, this is special”. What it has made me realise is how much my mum and dad must love me.
Rick Edwards reveals why fatherhood has changed his presenting work for ever - and talks his modelling past
The 5 Live DJ on the joys of fatherhood, the downside of modelling — and crying on air.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? It’s a fireplace that I think I like, but I’m not completely sure about. It’s very ornate, with a wooden surround that incorporates a mirror above it. It probably dates from, and hasn’t been changed since, the 1920s. Then there’s the TV, which is small and probably temporary, and keeps tilting backwards because I mounted the little feet on it badly. Sounds like you need a TV upgrade! We left the TV that we loved in our old house because it was wall-mounted, was perfect in the space and it felt like a nice thing to do, to leave it for the next people. My wife Emer [Kenny, Karen Pirie writer and actor] and I really regret that now. You began your career as a model — when did you realise you’re handsome? I was a cute kid, I think, and then, from 10 to 16, which is the worst age for this to be the case, I was not a good-looking boy. At all. I wonder if, in those formative years, it was character-building. Then, around 17 or 18, the proportions of my face sort of settled down, and from that point, it’s been fine. It’s weird to go from being not-good-looking to, a couple of years later, getting scouted for modelling work. I did it when I was at university and just after. That was odd. I didn’t like it one bit. Aside from the models, who seemed fine, it’s an industry of a lot of not very nice people. I found it a bit grubby. What’s the best TV programme you’ve watched recently? Your Friends & Neighbours on Apple TV starring Jon Hamm. He’s great – the whole cast is good – and it has some quite interesting things to say about family. As a fairly new father, with anything that says anything at all about family and fatherhood, I am quite likely to cry. How do you juggle family life and, among other things, 5 Live Breakfast? It’s tricky, because both Emer and I work and I’m very conscious of ensuring that she still has all the time she needs to work. Trying to dovetail it all together is a complicated jigsaw. One good thing is that, although the hours of my job are horrendous, doing a breakfast show does mean I’m home in the day and I get to spend time with my son then. You have to make it work. How ready were you for fatherhood? It was definitely something we wanted to do, and I thought and read about it quite a lot. But there is absolutely no way you can be prepared for what it’s like. There’s a depth of feeling you really can’t get your head around before you experience it. It’s crazy how it’s massively heightened my emotional response to almost everything, because you just see everything through a new lens of: “What is that going to mean for his future?” How has it affected your work? My emotions are much closer to the surface, so when we have people on who have distressing stories, I’m very affected by them. In my first year doing 5 Live Breakfast, Russia invaded Ukraine. In those first few weeks, we were speaking to Ukrainians and it was like nothing I’d ever done before. It was completely overwhelming and I really struggled. I’ve definitely cried on air, and I think the audience kind of get that because it’s quite a human response, but you don’t want someone crying all the time. How’s your relationship with your dad? My dad was and is terrific. The world I live in is probably quite different from the world he lived in and lives in, but I still go to him for advice, even when I know he won’t know much about the thing I’m asking him, because I’m still interested to get his take. He’s a safe person for me. What has surprised you most about becoming a parent? Sometimes, being a parent is hard, sometimes boring, sometimes annoying. But you don’t let those fleeting emotions override the core emotion, which is “this is brilliant, this is special”. What it has made me realise is how much my mum and dad must love me. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Rick Edwards presents 5 Live Breakfast Mon—Fri 6am/Fighting Talk 11am Sat/The Inside Track podcast Mondays. Check out more of our Audio 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.
All Creatures Great and Small's Anna Madeley on Mrs Hall's secret talent – and *that* Siegfried speculation
"They do get on and they do have a lot of affection for each other. Where that will lead...?"
Anna Madeley visibly bristles when I suggest that Mrs Hall, her much beloved housekeeper from All Creatures Great and Small, might be repressed. “It’s funny,” she begins in a tone that does not indicate amusement, "putting labels on characters when one of the things I love about this show, one of the things we’ve set out to do from the get-go, is avoid tropes and archetypes". Mrs Hall, Madeley is adamant, is not your typical busybody, buttoned-up housekeeper. “We could have very easily come out with the old trope of the bossy woman telling everyone what to do, which a lot of people expect, and instead what’s really refreshing is having a character who has proper story behind her, history that informs who she is.” And who is she? “She is a woman of her time with expectations of her life that fit where she’s from. She had a difficult time with her husband and she’s come through something there. She’s had a difficult time with her son and she’s come through something there. Her life’s been tough.” Madeley is, of course, quite right to challenge my broad brush strokes’ characterisation of her character. Younger than she is in the novels and altogether warmer a character, Madeley’s Mrs Hall is a woman with hinterland, and hidden talents. Just tonight, we discovered her heretofore unknown adeptness at darts. Played with delicacy and nuance by Madeley, Mrs Hall isn’t just Skeldale House’s beacon of decency, stoicism and quiet resilience – without whom the house could not function, on a very practical level – she is also its moral centre and beating heart. Yes, there is a fortitude befitting the period and Mrs Hall’s class and position, but there is also extraordinary tenderness. As the vets of All Creatures deal with wounded animals, Mrs Hall, in her own way, heals wounded souls – including her own. “She's someone who speaks her mind, gently,” Madeley says. “She’s the person in the house who does say there's an elephant in the room and we need to talk about it.” Read more: All Creatures Great and Small spin-off show confirmed with beloved special guest All Creatures Great and Small says goodbye (for now) to two long-running characters So far, it has just been metaphorical elephants that Mrs Hall’s had to deal with but anything is possible where Siegfried is concerned. Given the chemistry between the curmudgeonly eccentric vet played by Samuel West and Mrs Hall, might that include romance? "Oh my God, no," Madeley exclaims, half-laughing, half-aghast. “A real friendship has blossomed between the two of them and they are of a generation so there’s lots of things they can share and understand about one another from their lived experiences. But we just have a lot of fun with these two characters who butt heads a bit.” Seeming to put paid to any Sieg-drey entanglement, Madeley concedes that "They do get on and they do have a lot of affection for each other," before adding, somewhat tantalisingly, "Where that will lead, you don’t know." Certainly, in the post-war years, the times they were a-changing. And now that Mrs Hall has settled matters with her ex-husband and with her son… "It will be interesting to see where freedom from those concerns will now take her as a person," Madeley muses. "And whether it will allow her to be a little bit… freer." All Creatures Great and Small continues on Thursday at 9pm on 5. 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. Add All Creatures Great and Small 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.
'It's The Forsytes with a lot of Dallas'
Have Poldark’s Debbie Horsfield and Damien Timmer struck gold again with their reimagining of TVs greatest saga?
Add The Forsytes to your watchlist It began, as epic journeys often do, with a single step. It was the summer of 2021 and on Hampstead Heath – 800 acres of greenery and wild woodland in north London – writer Debbie Horsfield and producer Damien Timmer went on a walk to discuss what they might do next. Their last collaboration, Poldark, had ended two years earlier after five series and, as Timmer puts it, “Having had a rest after Poldark, we were trying to find a slab of story that Debbie could really enjoy getting her teeth into.” “I think it was Damien who first mentioned The Forsyte Saga,” says Horsfield. “I mean, I’m all for anything with ‘saga’ in the title.” Horsfield and Timmer were of course familiar with the previous dramatisations of John Galworthy’s novels, from 1967 and 2002. The former was a sprawling 26 parts from the BBC and is widely regarded as a TV classic. “It’s spoken about with hushed reverence,” Timmer notes. “And then there’s the Granada version for ITV at the turn of this century.” As Tuppence Middleton, who plays Frances Forsyte, says, “It hasn’t been done as often as some of the other big classics, but there’s still a reputation to live up to.” What Timmer intended to do was to “make a version for now. In our ever more divided society, there is a real parallel with that late Victorian era. We wanted to take a magnifying glass to this extremely wealthy family who are the one per cent.” Prior to Poldark, adapted from Winston Graham’s novels, Horsfield was known for big, messy family dramas like Making Out, The Riff Raff Element and Cutting It. “I’m from a big family and family dynamics have always fascinated me. I’ve written a lot about inter-generational conflict, and I don’t necessarily mean in a grim, serious way, but only ever my own original ideas, all contemporary and pretty much all set in Manchester, where I’m from. Then Poldark came along and it was very much new territory.” New to adaptation, Horsfield says, “Initially, I was nervous about taking on someone else’s characters, but I quickly realised I had to imagine they were my characters, to get inside their heads and understand what made them tick. So I did that and Poldark seemed to go OK.” Clearly, Horsfield has an aptitude for adaptation. “She’s so good at distilling a saga, keeping lots of different characters in play and knowing what each character’s story is,” says Timmer. “Which are exactly the skills you need to wrangle Galsworthy’s stories about the rich, troubled and often awful Forsytes.” From the shrewd, ruthless and controlling Soames and his oppressed but defiant wife Irene, to the bohemian Young Jolyon (who, despite being the first-born male heir, has little interest in the family firm and prefers making art to making money), the Forsytes are A Lot. “We’re synthesising Galsworthy, a bit of The Age of Innocence and a lot of Dallas,” Timmer says. “I want Oil Barons’ Ball vibes going on.” And that’s not even the half of it. “If you go back to the books,” he says, “a lot of the real meaty drama is actually hidden and the female characters aren’t well drawn at all. Irene, for example, is a shadowy figure who is really difficult to engage with because you never really understand her motivations.” To excavate the hidden drama from the novels and to illuminate their female characters would take Horsfield and Timmer another two years of walks on the Heath, he explains, “thinking about the timeline and talking about the family – who was and wasn’t there”. “We were clear from the word go that we weren’t going to do a straight adaptation of these male-centric novels,” says Horsfield. “What we wanted to do was redress the balance by fleshing out the women – but not at the expense of the men.” With their vision clear and Horsfield’s teeth well and truly stuck in – not to mention source material that was out of copyright so there was no need to buy the rights – Timmer had to find someone to commission it and foot the bill. He eschewed UK broadcasters “because we didn’t think they’d have a huge amount of interest”. Besides, “PBS really wanted it.” The American Public Broadcasting Service has had a long relationship with British costume drama, usually topping up budgets in return for the rights to show dramas such as Pride and Prejudice as part of its Masterpiece strand in the US. “It became clear early on that if they wanted it, they’d have to pay much more than they are used to,” says Timmer. “But they did want it, so they stepped up.” Timmer won’t be drawn on the The Forsytes’ budget, beyond saying that “it is substantially higher than our previous shows for PBS – Poldark, Victoria and Endeavour – and ten years ago, would have seemed eye-wateringly expensive. But drama costs have gone up a lot and now we’re competing with Apple and Netflix shows, there’s this kind of arms race inflation.” So is The Forsytes made for an American audience? “We’re making it with a sense of what we thought would work for a kind of broad audience around the world who enjoy a British costume drama,” he says, carefully. “And we’re making it for ourselves.” Horsfield has been true to her word. The 2025 version of The Forsyte Saga – just called The Forsytes as Timmer thought “saga” felt “a bit fusty” – is definitely not a straight adaptation. Moving the rival families of brothers James and Jolyon Senior into houses next door to each other and creating a family stockbroking business qualify as minor changes to Galsworthy’s world, given that with this first series Horsfield has, in effect, written a prequel to his novels – one in which Young Jolyon’s first wife Frances is not yet dead and, in fact, finds herself in a love triangle with her husband and a woman with whom he was in love prior to marrying her. (In the novels, Young Jolyon has had an affair with the nanny.) Where previous adaptations have focused on Soames and Irene’s toxic marriage, they’ve only just met in the first episode of Horsfield’s version. In doing what Stephen Moyer, who plays Jolyon Senior, calls “rewinding so we can see the origins of the stories that will propel the drama for three or four or five seasons”, Horsfield has broadened The Forsytes’ horizons by extending their timeline beyond the three novels and two interludes that constitute The Forsyte Saga in print. The result is an original, compelling and thoroughly modern period drama. Jack Davenport, who plays James Forsyte, was especially struck by Horsfield’s exploration of who wields power. “Because power isn’t handed to women on a plate in the way that it is for the men, the women have a self-awareness that the men absolutely do not. The men are powerful but clueless, and that makes for a fantastic tension.” With the financing in place and Horsfield thinking of the characters as her own – some of them were her own, after all – it was soon time to put faces to them all. “I love casting an ensemble,” says Timmer. “It is such fun and terrifying because you’re never quite sure how it’s going to work. It was easier with the older characters because we generally got our first choice – and it’s not like that all the time”. The challenge came in casting the leading men Young Jolyon and Soames. “We saw what felt like 300 actors for Soames and Jolyon. Every British actor with a pulse under 30 who was vaguely handsome, and about 80 Australian actors.” Among the throng were Danny Griffin and Joshua Orpin. “I initially auditioned for Young Jolyon,” says Orpin, who plays Soames. “That classic romantic leading man character is, more often than not, the sort of part I’m given to audition for. After that, I was asked to read for Soames and immediately I thought, ‘Wow!’ Morally ambiguous and darker than Jolyon, I’d much rather play him.” Griffin, who also auditioned for both roles, couldn’t be happier playing Young Jolyon – not least because he gets lots of scenes with Tuppence Middleton as his wife Frances. Hot from the success of The Motive and the Cue, the National Theatre play by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes, Middleton was Timmer and Horsfield’s first choice for Frances. “She is another level, so professional and her acting is just really… still,” Griffin says. “And if I decide to take a line one way and try it that way, Tuppence always follows so she’ll never do the same scene the exact same way. I love that!” With the female characters moved centre-stage, Irene is imbued with actual character by Horsfield, where previously she was remembered for something done to her. Audiences in 1967 were shocked by the rape of Irene (Nyree Dawn Porter) by her husband Soames (Eric Porter) – to demonstrate that she is his property – though you have to wonder if it was the brutality itself that shocked or the fact that it was being depicted on television. Marital rape wasn’t criminalised in Scotland until 1989 and 1991 in England so would have been part of many viewers lived experience, even as discussing it remained taboo. (That scene will take place in the second series of The Forsytes.) Doctor Who and Coronation Street alumna Millie Gibson takes on the mantle of Irene and is grateful for the opportunity, despite the gruelling nature of the part. “I don’t think a lot of casting directors see me as a heroine yet so it was nice to step into those shoes,” she says. Not that she thought she’d got the part. “I auditioned on Zoom and it was really hard. I had no sense of how I was coming across and afterwards I thought, ‘Well, that was awful.’ Literally a week later, I got a call asking if I’d be Irene.” For the key role of Louisa, the seamstress who has history – and perhaps a future – with Young Jolyon, Horsfield knew they’d need someone who would bring “nuance and vulnerability but also humour and strength”. The writer says, “It’s very different to the character she played previously for me, but I knew she’d be brilliant.” Step forward, Poldark’s Demelza herself, Eleanor Tomlinson. “I got a call from Damien asking me to lunch and thought, ‘Oh hello!’ ” says Tomlinson. “They sent me the scripts and I immediately started getting excitement flutters. We spoke about the character and who she was and what her journey was. And that was it. I was hooked.” The first series of The Forsytes was filmed last summer and the cast have just finished filming the second. There is at least a third to come. Fired and inspired by Galsworthy’s novels, Horsfield’s imagination could run to several more series. The books conclude with the next generation of the family (who are a long way off being born yet) reaching adulthood. And even that needn’t be the end of the story – though they might have to reattach the “Saga” to the title. After all, Horsfield’s The Forsytes is about intergenerational conflict, the weight of expectation passed down through families, and just how present the past is. The future, meanwhile, is full of possibility. Just as long journeys start with single steps, paths are made by walking them. Jolyon Senior played by Stephen Moyer Louisa Byrne played by Eleanor Tomlinson "They sent me the scripts and I immediately started getting excitement flutters. I was hooked." Frances Forsyte played by Tuppence Middleton "It hasn’t been done as often as some big classics but there’s still a reputation to live up to." Jolyon Forsyte played by Danny Griffin "Tuppence is another level. She will never do the same scene the exact same way. I love that." Ann Forsyte played by Francesca Annis Soames Forsyte played by Joshua Orpin "I auditioned for Young Jolyon but Soames is morally ambiguous – I’d much rather play him." Irene Heron played by Millie Gibson "I don’t think a lot of casting directors see me as a heroine yet so it was nice to step into those shoes." James Forsyte played by Jack Davenport
The new Forsyte Saga is not a straight adaptation of "male-centric novels", says Poldark creator
Have Poldark’s Debbie Horsfield and Damien Timmer struck gold again with their reimagining of TV's greatest saga?
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It began, as epic journeys often do, with a single step. It was the summer of 2021 and on Hampstead Heath – 800 acres of greenery and wild woodland in north London – writer Debbie Horsfield and producer Damien Timmer went on a walk to discuss what they might do next. Their last collaboration, Poldark, had ended two years earlier after five series and, as Timmer puts it, “Having had a rest after Poldark, we were trying to find a slab of story that Debbie could really enjoy getting her teeth into.” “I think it was Damien who first mentioned The Forsyte Saga,” says Horsfield. “I mean, I’m all for anything with ‘saga’ in the title.” Horsfield and Timmer were of course familiar with the previous dramatisations of John Galworthy’s novels, from 1967 and 2002. The former was a sprawling 26 parts from the BBC and is widely regarded as a TV classic. “It’s spoken about with hushed reverence,” Timmer notes. “And then there’s the Granada version for ITV at the turn of this century.” As Tuppence Middleton, who plays Frances Forsyte, says, “It hasn’t been done as often as some of the other big classics, but there’s still a reputation to live up to.” What Timmer intended to do was to “make a version for now. In our ever more divided society, there is a real parallel with that late Victorian era. We wanted to take a magnifying glass to this extremely wealthy family who are the one per cent.” Prior to Poldark, adapted from Winston Graham’s novels, Horsfield was known for big, messy family dramas like Making Out, The Riff Raff Element and Cutting It. “I’m from a big family and family dynamics have always fascinated me. I’ve written a lot about inter-generational conflict, and I don’t necessarily mean in a grim, serious way, but only ever my own original ideas, all contemporary and pretty much all set in Manchester, where I’m from. Then Poldark came along and it was very much new territory.” New to adaptation, Horsfield says, “Initially, I was nervous about taking on someone else’s characters, but I quickly realised I had to imagine they were my characters, to get inside their heads and understand what made them tick. So I did that and Poldark seemed to go OK.” Clearly, Horsfield has an aptitude for adaptation. “She’s so good at distilling a saga, keeping lots of different characters in play and knowing what each character’s story is,” says Timmer. “Which are exactly the skills you need to wrangle Galsworthy’s stories about the rich, troubled and often awful Forsytes.” From the shrewd, ruthless and controlling Soames and his oppressed but defiant wife Irene, to the bohemian Young Jolyon (who, despite being the first-born male heir, has little interest in the family firm and prefers making art to making money), the Forsytes are A Lot. “We’re synthesising Galsworthy, a bit of The Age of Innocence and a lot of Dallas,” Timmer says. “I want Oil Barons’ Ball vibes going on.” And that’s not even the half of it. “If you go back to the books,” he says, “a lot of the real meaty drama is actually hidden and the female characters aren’t well drawn at all. Irene, for example, is a shadowy figure who is really difficult to engage with because you never really understand her motivations.” To excavate the hidden drama from the novels and to illuminate their female characters would take Horsfield and Timmer another two years of walks on the Heath, he explains, “thinking about the timeline and talking about the family – who was and wasn’t there”. “We were clear from the word go that we weren’t going to do a straight adaptation of these male-centric novels,” says Horsfield. “What we wanted to do was redress the balance by fleshing out the women – but not at the expense of the men.” With their vision clear and Horsfield’s teeth well and truly stuck in – not to mention source material that was out of copyright so there was no need to buy the rights – Timmer had to find someone to commission it and foot the bill. He eschewed UK broadcasters “because we didn’t think they’d have a huge amount of interest”. Besides, “PBS really wanted it.” The American Public Broadcasting Service has had a long relationship with British costume drama, usually topping up budgets in return for the rights to show dramas such as Pride and Prejudice as part of its Masterpiece strand in the US. “It became clear early on that if they wanted it, they’d have to pay much more than they are used to,” says Timmer. “But they did want it, so they stepped up.” Timmer won’t be drawn on the The Forsytes’ budget, beyond saying that “it is substantially higher than our previous shows for PBS – Poldark, Victoria and Endeavour – and ten years ago, would have seemed eye-wateringly expensive. But drama costs have gone up a lot and now we’re competing with Apple and Netflix shows, there’s this kind of arms race inflation.” So is The Forsytes made for an American audience? “We’re making it with a sense of what we thought would work for a kind of broad audience around the world who enjoy a British costume drama,” he says, carefully. “And we’re making it for ourselves.” Horsfield has been true to her word. The 2025 version of The Forsyte Saga – just called The Forsytes as Timmer thought “saga” felt “a bit fusty” – is definitely not a straight adaptation. Moving the rival families of brothers James and Jolyon Senior into houses next door to each other and creating a family stockbroking business qualify as minor changes to Galsworthy’s world, given that with this first series Horsfield has, in effect, written a prequel to his novels – one in which Young Jolyon’s first wife Frances is not yet dead and, in fact, finds herself in a love triangle with her husband and a woman with whom he was in love prior to marrying her. (In the novels, Young Jolyon has had an affair with the nanny.) Where previous adaptations have focused on Soames and Irene’s toxic marriage, they’ve only just met in the first episode of Horsfield’s version. In doing what Stephen Moyer, who plays Jolyon Senior, calls “rewinding so we can see the origins of the stories that will propel the drama for three or four or five seasons”, Horsfield has broadened The Forsytes’ horizons by extending their timeline beyond the three novels and two interludes that constitute The Forsyte Saga in print. The result is an original, compelling and thoroughly modern period drama. Jack Davenport, who plays James Forsyte, was especially struck by Horsfield’s exploration of who wields power. “Because power isn’t handed to women on a plate in the way that it is for the men, the women have a self-awareness that the men absolutely do not. The men are powerful but clueless, and that makes for a fantastic tension.” With the financing in place and Horsfield thinking of the characters as her own – some of them were her own, after all – it was soon time to put faces to them all. “I love casting an ensemble,” says Timmer. “It is such fun and terrifying because you’re never quite sure how it’s going to work. It was easier with the older characters because we generally got our first choice – and it’s not like that all the time”. The challenge came in casting the leading men Young Jolyon and Soames. “We saw what felt like 300 actors for Soames and Jolyon. Every British actor with a pulse under 30 who was vaguely handsome, and about 80 Australian actors.” Among the throng were Danny Griffin and Joshua Orpin. “I initially auditioned for Young Jolyon,” says Orpin, who plays Soames. “That classic romantic leading man character is, more often than not, the sort of part I’m given to audition for. After that, I was asked to read for Soames and immediately I thought, ‘Wow!’ Morally ambiguous and darker than Jolyon, I’d much rather play him.” Griffin, who also auditioned for both roles, couldn’t be happier playing Young Jolyon – not least because he gets lots of scenes with Tuppence Middleton as his wife Frances. Hot from the success of The Motive and the Cue, the National Theatre play by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes, Middleton was Timmer and Horsfield’s first choice for Frances. “She is another level, so professional and her acting is just really… still,” Griffin says. “And if I decide to take a line one way and try it that way, Tuppence always follows so she’ll never do the same scene the exact same way. I love that!” With the female characters moved centre-stage, Irene is imbued with actual character by Horsfield, where previously she was remembered for something done to her. Audiences in 1967 were shocked by the rape of Irene (Nyree Dawn Porter) by her husband Soames (Eric Porter) – to demonstrate that she is his property – though you have to wonder if it was the brutality itself that shocked or the fact that it was being depicted on television. Marital rape wasn’t criminalised in Scotland until 1989 and 1991 in England so would have been part of many viewers lived experience, even as discussing it remained taboo. (That scene will take place in the second series of The Forsytes.) Doctor Who and Coronation Street alumna Millie Gibson takes on the mantle of Irene and is grateful for the opportunity, despite the gruelling nature of the part. “I don’t think a lot of casting directors see me as a heroine yet so it was nice to step into those shoes,” she says. Not that she thought she’d got the part. “I auditioned on Zoom and it was really hard. I had no sense of how I was coming across and afterwards I thought, ‘Well, that was awful.’ Literally a week later, I got a call asking if I’d be Irene.” For the key role of Louisa, the seamstress who has history – and perhaps a future – with Young Jolyon, Horsfield knew they’d need someone who would bring “nuance and vulnerability but also humour and strength”. The writer says, “It’s very different to the character she played previously for me, but I knew she’d be brilliant.” Step forward, Poldark’s Demelza herself, Eleanor Tomlinson. “I got a call from Damien asking me to lunch and thought, ‘Oh hello!’ ” says Tomlinson. “They sent me the scripts and I immediately started getting excitement flutters. We spoke about the character and who she was and what her journey was. And that was it. I was hooked.” The first series of The Forsytes was filmed last summer and the cast have just finished filming the second. There is at least a third to come. Fired and inspired by Galsworthy’s novels, Horsfield’s imagination could run to several more series. The books conclude with the next generation of the family (who are a long way off being born yet) reaching adulthood. And even that needn’t be the end of the story – though they might have to reattach the “Saga” to the title. After all, Horsfield’s The Forsytes is about intergenerational conflict, the weight of expectation passed down through families, and just how present the past is. The future, meanwhile, is full of possibility. Just as long journeys start with single steps, paths are made by walking them. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Forsytes will launch on 5 on Monday 20th October at 9pm. 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.
She’d love to return to acting, but for now she’s adding fizz to a new Saturday-night quiz show
Add The Inner Circle to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? I have a very bright, paprika orange sofa – my husband [music producer Chris Hughes] nearly had a heart attack when I got it – and the view from it is what you’d call a media wall. I found a good carpenter, who made the shelves and painted it green. Now I’ve got lots of different things on shelves – and, in the middle of them, a big telly. Who controls the remote? The kids. They’re on Netflix and YouTube and all the streamers and my algorithm is completely ruined with things like Wednesday and I Know What You Did Last Summer – or maybe it’s The Summer I Turned Pretty – which have nothing to do with my taste at all. Was there a summer you turned pretty? There was not! I had braces and a cowlick for years. Is watching television a communal activity in your house? There are certain shows that we all watch together – Strictly, Gogglebox and Modern Family. No one is allowed to watch those separately. If my mum’s here, we’ll catch Pointless. And I have to say Changing Ends, obviously, because of Alan [Carr]. The kids watch Amanda and Alan… but I don’t tend to watch things I’m in. Your daughter, Lexi, was scouted by the model agency Storm. The phrase “nepo baby” gets bandied about a lot these days… Yes, she’s related to me, but that’s nothing to do with me. The word “nepo” can be thrown around for ever but it’s unfair it’s been used in showbiz. When I was young, I got a job in a fruit ’n’ veg shop because my mum knew the fruit ’n’ veg guy. If you know someone that can help your child get in somewhere, you’ll do whatever. But they have to have talent and backbone, and work to succeed. I’m proud of my daughter, doing stuff for Storm as well as two normal jobs while at uni. She’s not going to come out with a debt. That’s amazing. Did you always want to work in showbusiness? My mum says I always wanted to act. I would do shows in the garden and make posters for them and stick them to the telegraph poles around our housing estate. My mum and dad had no money, so I didn’t go to extra classes. Then, by a miracle, when I was nine, a lady moved to Bishop’s Waltham [Hampshire], which is where I’m from, and started up an amateur dramatics group. You don’t do much acting now… And I miss it. I’m asked to do things all the time, including West End shows, but because of my other commitments – not least the radio show – I just can’t do eight shows a week. I absolutely am going to go back to it. I was nominated for an Olivier for my first big show, Thoroughly Modern Millie – and while I didn’t win, the nomination was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. Tell us about your new show, The Inner Circle. It’s simple, really – general knowledge plus “who do you trust?” It’s a bit Weakest Link, a bit Traitors, a bit Golden Balls, a bit Runaround and a bit of fizz – that’s me! Are you competitive? Hugely! I like winning. I’m not one of those people who thinks that, at school, everyone gets a prize. There should be first, second, third. Because life is like that. We are getting softer and softer, and I’m not a fan of that. You also present Heart’s breakfast show, you’re a judge on Britain’s Got Talent, you swan around the Med in Amanda and Alan… and you present Cheat, a dating show on Netflix. What’s the key to your success? Suddenly, in my 50s, I’ve been discovered again, which is bizarre – and wonderful. I’ll tell you what I think it is: I have always been authentic, I’ve never been unkind, I have never had an ego, and I have never thought I was any better than anyone else. And I’ve always shown up on time. That’s key, with any job.
Amanda Holden: 'My daughter's not a nepo baby – her success is nothing to do with me'
She’d love to return to acting, but for now she’s adding fizz to a new Saturday-night quiz show.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? I have a very bright, paprika orange sofa – my husband [music producer Chris Hughes] nearly had a heart attack when I got it – and the view from it is what you’d call a media wall. I found a good carpenter, who made the shelves and painted it green. Now I’ve got lots of different things on shelves – and, in the middle of them, a big telly. Who controls the remote? The kids. They’re on Netflix and YouTube and all the streamers and my algorithm is completely ruined with things like Wednesday and I Know What You Did Last Summer – or maybe it’s The Summer I Turned Pretty – which have nothing to do with my taste at all. Was there a summer you turned pretty? There was not! I had braces and a cowlick for years. Is watching television a communal activity in your house? There are certain shows that we all watch together – Strictly, Gogglebox and Modern Family. No one is allowed to watch those separately. If my mum’s here, we’ll catch Pointless. And I have to say Changing Ends, obviously, because of Alan [Carr]. The kids watch Amanda and Alan… but I don’t tend to watch things I’m in. Your daughter, Lexi, was scouted by the model agency Storm. The phrase “nepo baby” gets bandied about a lot these days… Yes, she’s related to me, but that’s nothing to do with me. The word “nepo” can be thrown around for ever but it’s unfair it’s been used in showbiz. When I was young, I got a job in a fruit ’n’ veg shop because my mum knew the fruit ’n’ veg guy. If you know someone that can help your child get in somewhere, you’ll do whatever. But they have to have talent and backbone, and work to succeed. I’m proud of my daughter, doing stuff for Storm as well as two normal jobs while at uni. She’s not going to come out with a debt. That’s amazing. Did you always want to work in showbusiness? My mum says I always wanted to act. I would do shows in the garden and make posters for them and stick them to the telegraph poles around our housing estate. My mum and dad had no money, so I didn’t go to extra classes. Then, by a miracle, when I was nine, a lady moved to Bishop’s Waltham [Hampshire], which is where I’m from, and started up an amateur dramatics group. You don’t do much acting now… And I miss it. I’m asked to do things all the time, including West End shows, but because of my other commitments – not least the radio show – I just can’t do eight shows a week. I absolutely am going to go back to it. I was nominated for an Olivier for my first big show, Thoroughly Modern Millie – and while I didn’t win, the nomination was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. Tell us about your new show, The Inner Circle. It’s simple, really – general knowledge plus “who do you trust?” It’s a bit Weakest Link, a bit Traitors, a bit Golden Balls, a bit Runaround and a bit of fizz – that’s me! Are you competitive? Hugely! I like winning. I’m not one of those people who thinks that, at school, everyone gets a prize. There should be first, second, third. Because life is like that. We are getting softer and softer, and I’m not a fan of that. You also present Heart’s breakfast show, you’re a judge on Britain’s Got Talent, you swan around the Med in Amanda and Alan… and you present Cheat, a dating show on Netflix. What’s the key to your success? Suddenly, in my 50s, I’ve been discovered again, which is bizarre – and wonderful. I’ll tell you what I think it is: I have always been authentic, I’ve never been unkind, I have never had an ego, and I have never thought I was any better than anyone else. And I’ve always shown up on time. That’s key, with any job. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Inner Circle begins at 5:35pm 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 TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Python on his love of language, poking fun at the powerful — and the joy of executive-free comedy
What’s the view from your sofa? Usually, it’s cricket – I love being indoors watching endless hours of cricket. I like the footie, too. I used to support Chelsea but I got tired of having my weekend ruined by 11 men in shorts. Are you watching anything else? Television now seems to be people trying to bonk each other on islands, game shows or news shows, so it’s not terribly interesting. I mean, it’s been stolen by the streamers, which is really bad news. They’ve uninvented television and it’s very sad. Do you miss watching television? Growing up, my generation – so that’s all of the Pythons – grew up without television. That’s quite a big difference, rarely observed. We grew up with radio, where the words involve your imagination much more. On radio, the Goons could set the Thames on fire. Is listening to radio where your love of language comes from? It meant we had a bias towards language; Terry Gilliam was the one putting in all the imagery. If you look at the Python sketches that are really funny, they all evolved from language – Argument Clinic, for example. Later, as we did on a couple of German shows, they were largely visual sketches. But that was because we had to learn them in German and we didn’t want to talk. When did you realise that you were on to something with Monty Python? When we were given our TV show, it was late on a Sunday night and the BBC was just trying to see if anybody was awake after 10pm and the pubs were closed. What was really lovely was that we could please ourselves, there was no one overseeing us, so it was executive-free comedy and all the funnier for it. No executive has ever improved a comedy. What makes you laugh today? What South Park is doing with Trump is heroic and I know they’ve done him a lot of damage. There’s a reason Hitler and Trump get rid of the comedians first. They hate being laughed at. So, it’s great that Governor Newsom is taking the p*** out of Trump and his hands. Comedy is saying the right thing at the wrong time. It’s so important. It’s telling truth to power and it’s keeping people sane. I was in the war, we laughed at Hitler and it makes a difference because it diminishes their power. I think it connects with an undercurrent of anti- and that’s vital. Stephen Colbert [who just won an Emmy as host of the US Late Show] was fired by his network very pusillanimously, but he’s got till May to say anything he likes. You’re prodigious in your output. Where do you get your work ethic from? I think it comes from boarding school. I was there for 12 years in Wolverhampton, and it wasn’t the most exciting place to be. Reading became a great escape. And the older you got, the more you wanted to read. History and literature is fascinating. I like geography, too. I made my own escape. You’re touring again. What appeals about performing live? I’ve always liked getting out there. On that stage, you must make the audience laugh, and if you do, you can surf that laughter; it lifts you up. So I’ve tried to go on stage at least once a year, especially in my later years, because it’s important to scare yourself, and to make sure you’ve still got that skill. Is it a farewell tour? Everywhere should always be goodbye. At my age [82], most of your friends are dead, which isn’t great. But it’s important to remember them, and remember them as funny. In my show, I talk about and show clips of old friends and sing songs about them. I sing a song called This May Be the Last Time You See Me, because it might be. Your song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life gets played at funerals a lot. What will be played at yours? Well, I used to say Sit on My Face, but my wife said I can’t say that any more.