Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2025-04-03T14:57:36.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Who's that girl?
items: Doctor Who's Varada Sethu: 'Belinda is main character of her own story – not in awe of the Doctor'
items: My Time Has Come
items: What's occurrin'?
items: Is this really the end for Gavin & Stacey? "I would love to come back every year"
items: 'We've become the viewers' extended family'
items: Larry Lamb says Gavin & Stacey could return again: 'BBC won't kill goose that laid the golden egg'
items: Doctor Who's Ncuti Gatwa: 'I'm not fully taking in what I’m on the precipice of'

Who's that girl?
type: item
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Varada Sethu made such a big impression in her first Doctor Who outing that showrunner Russell T Davies had to bring her back as a new companion – continuity be damned…
encoded: Add Doctor Who to your watchlist When Varada Sethu first found out she might be Doctor Who’s newest companion she had, perhaps fittingly, just come crashing back to earth. Not long returned from an extended five-month sabbatical of travel around South America, the 32-year-old landed in London in October 2023 in the midst of an industry-wide actors’ strike that meant a planned job had very suddenly fallen through. “I was depressed, had the holiday blues and just thought, ‘I guess I’m never working again,’” she says, with a rueful laugh. That was when her agent called to let her know that the team at the newly Ncuti Gatwa-powered BBC institution were wondering whether she may be interested in a long-term stint in the Tardis for the show’s forthcoming second season (or, in old money, 15th series). Her initial response was, well, confusion. Having already filmed a self-contained guest role for the show’s most recent series – as Mundy Flynn, the emotional heart and overly twitchy trigger finger of Steven Moffat’s impossibly tense, ticking-clock episode Boom – Sethu wondered whether the producers had made a mistake. “I said, ‘But I’ve been in it already. They know that, right?’” she recalls. After being reassured that, yes, they were aware, and that showrunner Russell T Davies had already planned to “write some magic to make it work” (more on this later), Sethu was whisked into a meeting and told the job – playing a new and different character – was hers if she wanted it. In a few days her blurted, instant “Yes!” was formalised, scripts started to arrive and she was bundled into a read-through. Two weeks later, and barely a month after she’d returned to the UK, she was on set with Gatwa, in costume as the mysterious Belinda Chandra, and on the breathless precipice of taking on what is still among the most coveted, high-profile and high-pressure co-starring roles on British television. Let’s just say that she didn’t have to work too hard to channel the necessary awestruck …

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Doctor Who's Varada Sethu: 'Belinda is main character of her own story – not in awe of the Doctor'
type: item
date: 2025-03-31T23:01:55.000Z
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: Magazine
subject: On demand
description: "As far as I know, the core of Doctor Who is kindness, love and doing the right thing."
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When Varada Sethu first found out she might be Doctor Who’s newest companion she had, perhaps fittingly, just come crashing back to earth. Not long returned from an extended five-month sabbatical of travel around South America, the 32-year-old landed in London in October 2023 in the midst of an industry-wide actors’ strike that meant a planned job had very suddenly fallen through. “I was depressed, had the holiday blues and just thought, ‘I guess I’m never working again,’” she says, with a rueful laugh. That was when her agent called to let her know that the team at the newly Ncuti Gatwa-powered BBC institution were wondering whether she may be interested in a long-term stint in the Tardis for the show’s forthcoming second season (or, in old money, 15th season). Her initial response was, well, confusion. Having already filmed a self-contained guest role for the show’s most recent series – as Mundy Flynn, the emotional heart and overly twitchy trigger finger of Steven Moffat’s impossibly tense, ticking-clock episode Boom – Sethu wondered whether the producers had made a mistake. “I said, ‘But I’ve been in it already. They know that, right?’” she recalls. After being reassured that, yes, they were aware, and that showrunner Russell T Davies had already planned to “write some magic to make it work” (more on this later), Sethu was whisked into a meeting and told the job – playing a new and different character – was hers if she wanted it. In a few days her blurted, instant “Yes!” was formalised, scripts started to arrive and she was bundled into a read-through. Two weeks later, and barely a month after she’d returned to the UK, she was on set with Gatwa, in costume as the mysterious Belinda Chandra, and on the breathless precipice of taking on what is still among the most coveted, high-profile and high-pressure co-starring roles on British television. Let’s just say that she didn’t have to work too hard to channel the …

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My Time Has Come
type: item
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: App
subject: App features
subject: App Doctor Who 20
description: As he prepares for his Doctor Who debut, Ncuti Gatwa tells Jimi Famurewa about self-doubt, swearing and standing on the precipice of the Whoniverse
encoded: This article was published in RT in December 2023 and is part of our digital Doctor Who anniversary bookazine — click here to download it for free. Ncuti Gatwa’s timelines are a little scrambled. When we meet, he’s yet to make his first official appearance in Doctor Who. But his life as the 15th incarnation of the Doctor feels confusingly – or, perhaps, appropriately, given the nature of the show – like both a thing of the recent past and the yet-to-come future. “I’ve been waiting for so long!” he says. “I got cast so long ago and then started filming so long after that, that it feels like this thing that’s never going to come.” He laughs. “I don’t think I’m fully taking in what I’m on the precipice of.” If he means the enormity of what lies ahead, then he’s not wrong. From the moment in May 2022 when Gatwa was announced as the long-term successor to Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor (receiving the Tardis keys only after the surprise, three-episode tenure of David Tennant’s 14th Doctor), his debut became one of the most anticipated British TV moments of the decade. This, after all, will be the first time in Doctor Who’s 60-year history that the series’ main character has been played by a black man and an openly queer person; it’s the dawn of Russell T Davies’s splashy return as showrunner of the revived series; and it’s the first batch of episodes to follow the significant budget boost initiated by the BBC’s global distribution partnership with Disney. On a personal note – as a lapsed, once-obsessive fan of the show since the days of Christopher Eccleston and flatulent Slitheen – I feel that Gatwa’s casting is the perfect, zeitgeist-seizing move; the youthful, risky counterpoint to the nostalgic fan-service of Tennant’s unexpected return. So there’s a fair bit of pressure and expectation. Did he feel the weight of it? “I was questioning every line,” he admits, with a gleaming smile, sharply dressed and nestled at one end of a leather sofa in a tastefully appointed Londo…

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height: 1224

What's occurrin'?
type: item
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Billericay and Barry’s lovebirds are taking flight one last time. Mathew Horne and Joanna Page bid them farewell
encoded: Add Gavin & Stacey: the Finale to your watchlist It has been 17 years since Gavin & Stacey, the zeitgeist-capturing, Anglo-Cymraeg tale of love, friendship and family dysfunction first hit our screens. Now Gavin, Stacey and the West/Shipman clans are back, with creators, writers and stars James Corden and Ruth Jones tying a climactic, festive bow on their long-running saga. If you’re among the millions to have watched every episode, then you will have also seen the grand sum of my filmography as a television actor. In the sixth episode of the second series, there is a typically silly B-plot scene involving Pam Shipman (Alison Steadman) leading local opposition to a new phone mast. Thanks to a long story (related to a former career as a men’s magazine journalist), I can be seen as an extra, in an oddly prominent role as one of the two phone company operatives who trudge through Pam’s glowering crowd of protestors in order to hammer a sign into the ground. It is, over and above my subsequent career as a regular food critic on shows like MasterChef, the thing I still get the most excited messages about. And the fact that I’m a very small part of one of the modern era’s most beloved British sitcoms is a completely ridiculous, frequently wheeled-out claim to fame. Following 2019’s yuletide reunion special, hotly anticipated answers relating to rumoured funerals, Uncle Bryn and Jason’s infamous fishing trip, and Smithy’s response to Nessa’s cliffhanger marriage proposal are mere days away. So, naturally, the first thing I want to ask Mat Horne and Joanna Page – both returning as the titular star-crossed lovers – is why I didn’t get the call to reprise my pivotal role. “Oh no, is this going to be a really bitter piece now?” says Horne, with a chuckle. “It was nothing to do with your performance, Jimi. There was actually a big chat about it. But we just wanted to leave the audience with something that wasn’t concluded.” In all seriousness, Jones and Corden’s apparent willin…

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Is this really the end for Gavin & Stacey? "I would love to come back every year"
type: item
date: 2024-12-10T00:01:46.000Z
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: BBC One
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: "But I genuinely don't think there will ever be any more and I can really see why."
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It has been 17 years since Gavin & Stacey, the zeitgeist-capturing, Anglo-Cymraeg tale of love, friendship and family dysfunction first hit our screens. Now Gavin, Stacey and the West/Shipman clans are back, with creators, writers and stars James Corden and Ruth Jones tying a climactic, festive bow on their long-running saga. If you’re among the millions to have watched every episode, then you will have also seen the grand sum of my filmography as a television actor. In the sixth episode of the second series, there is a typically silly B-plot scene involving Pam Shipman (Alison Steadman) leading local opposition to a new phone mast. Thanks to a long story (related to a former career as a men’s magazine journalist), I can be seen as an extra, in an oddly prominent role as one of the two phone company operatives who trudge through Pam’s glowering crowd of protestors in order to hammer a sign into the ground. It is, over and above my subsequent career as a regular food critic on shows like MasterChef, the thing I still get the most excited messages about. And the fact that I’m a very small part of one of the modern era’s most beloved British sitcoms is a completely ridiculous, frequently wheeled-out claim to fame. Following 2019’s Yuletide reunion special, hotly anticipated answers relating to rumoured funerals, Uncle Bryn and Jason’s infamous fishing trip, and Smithy’s response to Nessa’s cliffhanger marriage proposal are mere days away. So, naturally, the first thing I want to ask Mat Horne and Joanna Page – both returning as the titular star-crossed lovers – is why I didn’t get the call to reprise my pivotal role. “Oh no, is this going to be a really bitter piece now?” says Horne, with a chuckle. “It was nothing to do with your performance, Jimi. There was actually a big chat about it. But we just wanted to leave the audience with something that wasn’t concluded.” In all seriousness, Jones and Corden’s apparent wi…

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'We've become the viewers' extended family'
type: item
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Larry Lamb plays Mick
encoded: Add Gavin & Stacey to your watchlist Did you ever worry that Gavin & Stacey might never return? Never say never. Having waited all those years, answering people’s questions about if there’s ever going to be another one. And then having to answer the same question when we’d done another one, I was surprised but not shocked. And I don’t think the BBC will ever kill the goose that laid the golden egg. So there may be scope for more? The point is, we just put together the most extraordinary, grand finale to the best part of 20 years of work. Who knows? Was playing Mick again emotional? I didn’t feel emotional until we started heading towards the end of the shoot. Then you realise, well, this is very likely the last time that we all get together. And having joined in with everything from the very beginning – seeing people in their 20s who are now pushing 50, it’s a fascinating study. I’m now an elderly gentleman, while I was respectably in my 60s when it started. There’s extreme secrecy around the details of the final episode. How did you find that? Ever since we’ve started doing it, people have always wanted to know more. But if they ask you, you just say, “Look, if I tell you one thing, it’s like a great big knitted garment. You pull one thread and the rest are all gonna come apart. So, I ain’t telling you anything. That’s it.” You’ve mentioned that you added some of yourself to playing Mick. Are you similar? I’m pretty close to Mick and I enjoy playing him because he’s a gentle soul. Back when I played Archie Mitchell [in EastEnders], that side of me was not one that I always wanted to show, whereas Mick is much more the character I am. What was it like reuniting with Alison Steadman, who plays your on-screen wife, Pam? Alison and I have a really lovely working relationship. We like playing those characters together and it’s wonderful to sense their love. Everyone is watching an extended family succeed in moving forward with love at the core. And finally — will there …

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Larry Lamb says Gavin & Stacey could return again: 'BBC won't kill goose that laid the golden egg'
type: item
date: 2024-11-26T00:01:01.000Z
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Christmas
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The actor spoke to Radio Times about the upcoming Christmas special.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Did you ever worry that Gavin & Stacey might never return? Never say never. Having waited all those years, answering people’s questions about if there’s ever going to be another one. And then having to answer the same question when we’d done another one, I was surprised but not shocked. And I don’t think the BBC will ever kill the goose that laid the golden egg. So there may be scope for more? The point is, we just put together the most extraordinary, grand finale to the best part of 20 years of work. Who knows? Was playing Mick again emotional? I didn’t feel emotional until we started heading towards the end of the shoot. Then you realise, well, this is very likely the last time that we all get together. And having joined in with everything from the very beginning – seeing people in their 20s who are now pushing 50, it’s a fascinating study. I’m now an elderly gentleman, while I was respectably in my 60s when it started. There's extreme secrecy around the details of the final episode. How did you find that? Ever since we’ve started doing it, people have always wanted to know more. But if they ask you, you just say, 'Look, if I tell you one thing, it’s like a great big knitted garment. You pull one thread and the rest are all gonna come apart. So, I ain’t telling you anything. That’s it.' You've mentioned that you added some of yourself to playing Mick. Are you similar? I’m pretty close to Mick and I enjoy playing him because he’s a gentle soul. Back when I played Archie Mitchell [in EastEnders], that side of me was not one that I always wanted to show, whereas Mick is much more the character I am. What was it like reuniting with Alison Steadman, who plays your on-screen wife, Pam? Alison and I have a really lovely working relationship. We like playing those characters together and it’s wonderful to sense their love. Everyone is watching an extended family succeed in moving forward with love at the core. And final…

Doctor Who's Ncuti Gatwa: 'I'm not fully taking in what I’m on the precipice of'
type: item
date: 2023-12-25T09:00:45.000Z
creator: Jimi Famurewa
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: The Big RT Interview
description: This interview first appeared in Radio Times Magazine.
encoded: Ncuti Gatwa’s timelines are a little scrambled. When we meet, he’s yet to make his first official appearance in Doctor Who. But his life as the 15th incarnation of the Doctor feels confusingly – or, perhaps, appropriately, given the nature of the show – like both a thing of the recent past and the yet-to-come future. “I’ve been waiting for so long!” he says. “I got cast so long ago and then started filming so long after that, that it feels like this thing that’s never going to come.” He laughs. “I don’t think I’m fully taking in what I’m on the precipice of.” If he means the enormity of what lies ahead, then he’s not wrong. From the moment in May 2022 when Gatwa was announced as the long-term successor to Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor (receiving the TARDIS keys only after the surprise, three-episode tenure of David Tennant’s 14th Doctor), his debut became one of the most rabidly anticipated British TV moments of the decade. This, after all, will be the first time in Doctor Who’s 60-year history that the series’ main character has been played by a Black man and an openly queer person; it’s the dawn of Russell T Davies’s splashy return as showrunner of the revived series; and it’s the first batch of episodes to follow the significant budget boost initiated by the BBC’s global distribution partnership with Disney. On a personal note – as a lapsed, once-obsessive fan of the show since the days of Christopher Eccleston and flatulent Slitheen – I feel that Gatwa’s casting is the perfect, zeitgeist-seizing move; the youthful, risky counterpoint to the nostalgic fan-service of Tennant’s unexpected return. So there’s a fair bit of pressure and expectation. Did he feel the weight of it? “I was questioning every line,” he admits, with a gleaming smile, sharply dressed and nestled at one end of a leather sofa in a tastefully appointed London hotel. The 31-year-old’s voice is a sonorous Scots burr, marked by a childhood in Edinburgh and Dunfermline, and often accented by express…

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