David Oyelowo talks See How They Run, TV habits and Bake Off
Speaking to Radio Times magazine, the actor opens up about who he was most excited to work with on the new murder mystery and the important role of storytelling.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? Our living room looks out over the San Fernando valleys in LA. We have an 80-inch screen and an L-shaped purple sofa that takes up the entire room where my wife and I, our four kids and four dogs curl up to watch movies. Who controls the remote? It varies! If we’re going to agree on what to watch, it’s me. If we’re going to fight, end up scrolling and dissipate – it’s one of my children. Is there a programme your wife (actress Jessica Oyelowo) loves and you loathe? My wife and ten-year-old daughter watch The Great British Bake Off religiously – but it’s just not my jam. Thankfully, I benefit from the baking that ensues after it. What TV did you watch when you were at school in London? I was obsessed with Happy Days. Henry Winkler played Fonzie and he famously used to run a comb through his hair. Having an afro, I was completely scarred by the fact a comb didn’t go through my hair in the same way – that was fairly formative for me. Now we have lots of people who look like me on screen, so I don’t carry those burdens any more! You’re in See How They Run, the star-studded new murder mystery film with the likes of Ruth Wilson, Sian Clifford and Adrien Brody. Who were you most excited to work alongside? Saoirse Ronan – a generational talent who will be up there with Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet. And she’s a wonderful human being – my fanboying over her only increased getting to work with her. What sets this apart from other whodunnits? It’s a film about a play being turned into a film. My earliest years as an actor were spent in British theatre, so I was keen to do a film celebrating and slightly poking fun at that. You received a scholarship to study at Lamda, the prestigious acting school. When did acting feel like a viable career? You almost never lose that feeling that, at some point, someone is going to turn the tap off. I’m incredibly blessed to say I have spent my 24-year career purely making a living as an actor. I knew it was going to work in 2001, when I played Henry VI at the Royal Shakespeare Company and my dad – who was very sceptical about me pursuing acting – came to watch. He very proudly said, “I never thought I would see a Black man play the King of England, let alone that that Black man is my son.” That was a huge moment for me – my dad had suffered a lot of racism when he first came to the UK in the '60s but could see that things were opening up. You portrayed Martin Luther King Jr in the film Selma and in A United Kingdom you played the role of Seretse, the prince of a Botswanan tribe who marries a white woman. What can we learn from Hollywood’s take on modern history? Storytelling is probably one of the defining elements of us as human beings – we use it as a mirror to see who and what we are. Selma and A United Kingdom are films that have a very real cultural impact; they expose people to cultures and stories they have no idea about. I think they help with breaking down prejudice and recognising that we are more alike than we are different. See How They Run is out in UK cinemas now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Streaming the best TV shows of 2022: From Bridgerton to Heartstopper
Catch up on 10 of the finest dramas of the year so far.
We not far beyond the halfway mark of 2022, but it's fair to say that this year has already been a triumph for streaming platforms across the board. With such a vast wealth of material to choose from, we've put together a list of some of the best new offerings: from Netflix and Disney Plus to Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and Apple TV+, these are some of the recent highlights to enjoy on all of the services. Take a look at our favourites below, which includes all the important details about where you can watch the show – and why they’re worth your time.
Jane Garvey gives her verdict on Top Gear
With the penultimate episode of the iconic motoring show airing this weekend, Jane Garvey reveals what she thinks about the latest season.
In the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, broadcaster and Radio Times Podcast host Jane Garvey shares her thoughts on the long-running BBC motoring show. Top Gear is nearing the end of its 32nd series. That’s a lot of series. The presenting line-up these days lacks anyone as magnificently irritating as Jeremy Clarkson, though they give it a good go. Paddy McGuinness supplies what passes for energy, Freddie Flintoff the derring-do and journalist Chris Harris the genuine expertise. Harris has the air of a benevolent prefect tasked with amusing a pair of giant toddlers over a long weekend. Though sometimes, Christopher, you allow Patrick and Andrew to lower your own high standards! It’s a long old hour on a Sunday on BBC One. All right, I suspect this show isn’t aimed at me. I am a car owner, though perhaps I should out myself as someone who once bought two consecutive Fiat Pandas. And not many petrolheads would boast about that. I was no stranger to the hard shoulder, let’s put it that way. My current car is silver, has wheels and it starts, and I enjoy sitting in a tailback on the way to B&Q listening to the Eagles on Magic FM as much as the next person. But there my interest in cars ends. For such freewheelin’ fellas, they may want to rethink the way Top Gear starts – a crowd in very thick anoraks and bobble hats (when was this filmed?) clap away dutifully outside TV Centre as the hosts plod through a clunking, faintly punny introduction. Freddie Flintoff makes a reference to a “big innings”. Ho hum. Things improve when we leave the UK behind, and get racing in the Florida sunshine. We’re expected to believe that Paddy personally ordered a beaten-up Rambler motorhome as their vehicle of choice. If you say so. Though I expect the producers may have had something to do with it. There’s a marginal amount of jeopardy as they cross the Everglades in fear of alligator attack. I think we all know that if they had been the unfortunate victims of a violent assault by giant reptile, we’d already have heard about it. Then Freddie seems nervous when Chris says he sleeps in the buff. We don’t hear any more about that, sadly. Next thing we know it’s morning and the lads are in pastel jackets as a tribute to Crockett and Tubbs of Miami Vice. Chris sustains an injury during a game of Frisbee. Off camera, sadly, because I’d have liked to have seen it happen. He’s now on crutches. Paddy makes reference to the risks the middle-aged take when they participate in dangerous sports. It’s the only time their seniority is acknowledged. Officially, they’re daft lads for ever. Just the unusual, lucky sort of daft lads who have somehow managed to wangle a job that involves pots of money, glamorous international travel and the opportunity to guffaw a lot. Still, the Donk-racing sequence – burnt orange Chevrolets against a glorious blue sky – was a thing of genuine beauty, superbly filmed. Top Gear continues on Sunday 3rd July at 8pm on BBC One. All previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Looking for something else to watch in the meantime? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Entertainment hub. Jane Garvey is the host of the Radio Times Podcast, featuring interviews with TV’s biggest stars and a preview of all the finest treats the entertainment world has to offer – new episodes arrive every Wednesday. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Stephen Daldry reflects on a half century in the fight for freedom and equality
The Oscar-nominated director's new documentary Freedom: 50 Years of Pride explores and celebrates the queer activism movement throughout the last five decades.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. Fifty-three years ago this month, the New York police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, an iconic venue for LGBTQ+ people. Violent raids happened across the city every night, but what was different on this night was that the people inside and out said no. LGBTQ+ people from all across New York demonstrated against police brutality and state oppression. The Stonewall Uprising spread across America and 50 years ago this month inspired a few hundred LGBTQ+ people in London to march from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park. They were marching for liberation. Less to change the law, and more to change themselves, they were marching against shame. And so the UK’s first ever Pride march was born. Over the decades, it’s grown to a million and a half thronging the streets of London to celebrate LGBTQ+ equality. Today there’s a lot of debate about how relevant Pride is. Some say it has become too commercial. Some say it’s too much of a party and needs to return to its radical roots. Some say the battle has been won. We’ve made a film about this story with the BBC and Channel 4. It’s the story of 50 years of Pride, of protest, of performance. And, of course, 50 years of fabulousness. And what an unbelievable story. Police brutality in the 70s, Aids in the 80s, Section 28, the fight for an equal age of consent, same-sex marriage, black liberation and trans rights. Director Peter Sweasey and his team interview the campaigners, actors, activists, rock stars and ordinary folk who found a community and a voice at Pride. From Tom Robinson’s anthemic call to arms Glad to Be Gay (banned by the BBC in 1978) to the 1988 invasion of the BBC newsroom by lesbians protesting against Section 28, Britain’s changing prejudices and perceptions have been reflected over half a century on its TV screens. As the story of Pride can’t be told without expressing the joint muscle of protest and performance at the heart of the movement since that night outside Stonewall, we hosted a concert of iconic performers of Pride’s past, present and future at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, one of the oldest surviving LGBTQ+ venues. Pioneers like the world’s first openly gay rock star Tom Robinson, poet Kae Tempest and pop star Olly Alexander came together in front of a crowd of LGBTQ+ icons (including some from that march in 1972) to take us on a musical journey, a love letter to Pride. The result is part history, part celebration, part looking forward to what the next 50 years will be. What we’ve learnt making this film is that those debates have been going on since the very start. And the many triumphs along the way have been achieved in spite of, or maybe because of, that passionate diversity of opinion. And we’re seeing around the world that hard-won rights are not set in stone. A wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is sweeping the US. In places like Hungary, Poland and Russia, the community is under threat. In a dozen countries, homosexuality is still punishable by death. If we’ve learnt anything, it’s that Pride continues to mean something. It means resistance, struggle, defiance and hope. It means being proud of you are and to love who you want. So while our film celebrates 50 fabulous years of Pride, it’s also a reminder not to hang up our high heels yet. Freedom: 50 Years of Pride airs this Saturday 2nd July on Channel 4 at 8pm. Looking for more to watch? Check out our TV Guide. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
With his new cyber-crime thriller airing tonight, Radio Times magazine caught up with the Trigger Point star all about his latest role.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. Having played Henry V, it was only a matter of time before Adrian Lester brought his statesmanlike demeanour to a contemporary leader. And so, in Peter Kosminsky’s new drama The Undeclared War, a six-part thriller set in 2024 that depicts a cyber attack on the UK from Russia, Lester is cast as the Prime Minister. His character has ousted Boris Johnson in a coup to take control of the Conservative Party and country, but comes from an equally privileged background. “Every part of that situation is a real tangible thing that we have around us today,” says Lester. But a black PM? “A black PM in Britain’s future will happen. It’s just a case of when,” the 53-year-old actor adds. “In our multicultural society, it is inevitable that there will be a prime minister of colour at some point.” Researching a modern-day politician, of whatever rank or party, was easy, says Lester. He simply watched Question Time, listened to the Today programme and noted how politicians seem to answer questions… but never actually do. “I started pulling up interviews, and watched politicians speak the truth without saying anything that could be pulled out and wrapped around a different argument and fired back at them. That’s how politicians speak. They never use specifics, because any specifics mean three days later your answer can be fired back at you. So, politicians speak with an absence of facts and use opaque responses.” Episode one of the Channel 4 drama hinges on the global hacking of the internet and, thanks to the work of an intern at GCHQ, the discovery of malware at the heart of the British communications systems. Is Lester familiar with hacking, coding and general computerisation? “At heart, I’m analogue,” he confesses. “I’m one of those people who has to buy something if they walk past a stationery shop. If I was in the psychiatrist’s chair they would note that I still have to make marks with a pen on a piece of paper. And yes, I still have my vinyl collection, although I do value the era of MiniDiscs. I talked about MiniDiscs to my children the other day and they said, ‘What?’” We are currently in something of a golden age of TV drama, and Lester is at the pinnacle of that world, having recently featured in ITV’s Trigger Point and Mike Bartlett’s BBC drama Life. He’s also a hit on stage, having just been nominated for a best actor Tony for his Broadway debut in The Lehman Trilogy. “I want to play different people all the time,” says Lester, whose TV credits also include several series as professional fraudster Mickey Stone in BBC1 hit Hustle. “Hustle worked really well for me because every week, my character was a different character. I’m not the kind of actor who’s going to fit well with a long-running series unless that series offers me the chance to be in new and different situations every week. And I like what I do on stage, where you research a character, work hard on it and then walk away.” Following the success of Hustle, Lester made a move to the US. I was at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998 at which he starred in the festival’s opening movie, Primary Colors. It earned him a nomination from the Chicago Film Critics’ Association for most promising actor and seemed like a first step into the inevitable Hollywood career. That didn’t quite happen, yet if this is frustrating for him, Lester doesn’t reveal it, perhaps because he has flourished so much elsewhere. “It’s a much wider field. Hollywood is struggling to find new ideas and new mediums, and keeping up with the changing face of media, whereas TV drama has been doing this for a while. One of the key moments was when Netflix had the idea that if you were in Britain and tuned into Netflix, you didn’t get American Netflix. You got British Netflix with British actors. The same thing happened in Spain and in France. It means the gates to production and a platform for brilliant new voices can be accessed by the entire world.” Meaning greater diversity in performers? We are on the phone, but I sense Lester is bracing himself yet again for the question about being a black performer who helms prestigious TV series, and his views on how easy or otherwise that is. It ought not to be necessary to ask it, but it is. Still. “Everyone has a different path,” he says. “Your own story – my own story – is not an indication of an industry-wide problem unless you can find a truth that sits within the entire industry. There is an absolute line of truth that sits behind what made actors like Lennie James, David Harewood and Idris Elba leave the country for the US. It has been a problem throughout our entire industry. “When we were in lockdown and George Floyd was murdered, the entire western population had to realise there is something very wrong with society. After the Floyd atrocity, every company looked at the way in which they might be adding to the problem. So the Oscars start to shift, and Bafta starts to shift, and movies and films that are greenlit start to shift.” He sounds glad, but also angry. “People like Lenny Henry and Lennie James have been in this industry for 30-plus years and have spoken about the problem again and again. But it’s only been in the past five years that the industry has started to look at itself and take note.” Lester pauses. “It is why the brilliant talent we lost to the US are actors who now feel they have the cachet and status to come back and take roles they wouldn’t have been given otherwise. We all have kids and we want to make sure they grow up in a different world. We have shouted about the problem, we have done a great job, but there’s no room for complacency.” We talk about the BBC licence fee and Channel 4 losing its protected status and being privatised. “Once the money is at risk, people try to mitigate by being more narrowminded about what is put out there. Once the Government starts to threaten channels like Channel 4, channels that don’t adhere to the rules of just making money, the channel will stop thinking outside the box.” He is a passionate advocate of our homegrown drama. “The best things from American TV drama are modelled on what British TV drama did. Shows of 60 minutes with no adverts. Shows where you can sit with a character and watch them slowly develop. That flavour. That form. That identity. I love it when I see that on Netflix or Amazon, but you know, BBC iPlayer was there first. We forget that we have this ability to do [drama] so well, but it only happens when producers don’t think about profit.” The Undeclared War starts tonight, 30th June 2022, at 9pm on Channel 4. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Drama hub for the latest news. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Emma Raducanu returns to Wimbledon: Tennis stars preview SW19 comeback
A year on from her Wimbledon debut, the British teenager returns to Centre Court as the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since 1977.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. Rocketing to sudden superstardom has its downside. Just ask Emma Raducanu – if you can make yourself heard above the babble of voices declaring an opinion as she returns to Wimbledon, where she first electrified the nation 12 months ago. This time last year Raducanu was 18, just two months out of secondary school and taking her first steps on the women’s professional tennis tour. Granted a wildcard into Wimbledon, she was ranked 338 but within days was on every front page as she won her way through to the last 16, before breathing difficulties forced her to withdraw. It could be very different this summer, though. And three-time Wimbledon singles champion John McEnroe says Raducanu could win the whole tournament. “It’s reasonable to think she has a chance,” he says. “She’s a supremely talented individual and has an excellent chance to make a good run. If she’s physically fit, I’d be very surprised if she lost early. To think she couldn’t win would be ridiculous.” Raducanu returns to Wimbledon having produced a feat as startling as any in sporting history. At the US Open in September 2021 she became the first player, male or female, ever to come through qualifying en route to the title. McEnroe knows something of Raducanu’s path. In 1977 he came through qualifying as an 18-year-old to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals. The next year he crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round (although he had the consolation of winning five other tournaments that year). “Expectations go up greatly when you pull off something like that [winning a grand slam], and Emma did something no one in the history of tennis has done,” says McEnroe. “I’m assuming expectations in Britain are pretty high. The change in her life is overwhelming. The scrutiny is a bit much at times. It’s the same everywhere, not just Britain. The bigger you are, the harder you fall. When you’re a kid and just trying to grow up, and it’s in front of people, it can be frustrating.” Raducanu’s US Open victory, less than 10 weeks after Wimbledon, remains so brain-scrambling to tennis insiders that they still struggle to articulate how astonishing it was. “Ridiculous,” commentator Andrew Castle says with a smile and a shake of the head, as his BBC colleague Annabel Croft adds in wonder: “It was meant to be. The stars just aligned.” It was crazy stuff, and more was to come. Two days after lifting the trophy, Raducanu was mixing with the smart set at New York’s exclusive Met Gala. A month later she was at the Bond premiere in London, and soon her agent Max Eisenbud – who helped Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova make more than £200 million in career endorsements – sealed Raducanu deals with Tiffany, Porsche, Dior, Evian, British Airways and Vodafone, to join her existing kit sponsorships with Nike and Wilson rackets. The Bromley teenager who had won barely four figures in prize money before Wimbledon 2021 was now worth more than £10 million. But as Raducanu herself put it at the time she was “doing everything backwards”. Having achieved immediately what countless brilliant players never do, Raducanu remained an inexperienced newcomer when she returned to the unforgiving rigours of the professional tour, yet suddenly she was expected to win every match. By the end of May this year, she had played 24 matches since her US Open triumph and won only 10. The unsparing public gaze wasn’t impressed, but those inside the sport understand that it takes time to consolidate early success. Catherine Whitaker, anchor of Amazon Prime’s tennis broadcasting team and host of Channel 4’s coverage the night Raducanu won in New York, says, “Even the best players in the world lose most weeks – only one player wins each tournament, and the rest lose. So regardless of future success, Emma is going to lose a lot.” Croft agrees. “We’re putting such unimaginable pressure on her by expecting her to win everything,” she says. “And she signed up to millions of dollars of contracts where everyone wants a piece of her, making the demands on her time huge.” At the eye of the storm, Raducanu remains philosophical. “I don’t think anyone would say, ‘I wish I didn’t win a grand slam at 18,’” she has pointed out reasonably. “I wanted to win a grand slam, and I did that. For it to happen very soon definitely comes with a lot of challenges. But I’d much rather have that and learn from all those experiences, keep building and progressing.” But a further hurdle on the path of that progress has been a tendency to be injury prone. Competing indoors in Austria last autumn it was a hip spasm; in Australia in January she had large blisters on her racket hand; there was a hip strain in Mexico in February; a stiff back in California in March; a foot blister in Prague in April; her back again in Rome in May; and this month on the Nottingham grass it was a rib muscle. Many link it to the fact that Raducanu has had three coaches in the past 12 months, and no coach at all since the end of April. A trusted guide is vital for the most experienced players, never mind a teenager navigating a bewildering new landscape. “It’s unusual for a player of any age to win a major and then decide you don’t want to continue with that coach,” says McEnroe. “It does seem like there’s been a lot of change to overcome, so much that it would be difficult for anyone, never mind a person of 19.” However, the problem is certainly not in her family, which is as solid as ever. Raducanu is the only child of Romanian and Chinese parents, Ian and Renee. Born in Toronto, she has lived in south London since the age of two. She began tennis at age five, but education was her chief focus until she left school in April last year, armed with A-grade A-levels in maths and economics. Ian Raducanu has always been influential in his daughter’s coaching decisions, but it takes a village to propel an elite player to success. Pulverising training demands mean that careful conditioning is needed to avoid injury. That requires a fitness trainer and a physiotherapist alongside the coach in the chief role. Some players have more – a nutritionist, perhaps, and a sports psychologist. Even then, the tour can be lonely. Making friends with opponents you must try to beat the next day is difficult, while Judy Murray has noted how isolating it can be for young players to be far from home and only surrounded by people who are at least a decade older than them and reliant on them for their salary. Raducanu is not without support, though. Iain Bates, head of women’s tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association, is “helping on an interim basis”, while LTA doubles coach Louis Cayer is giving “technical guidance” when he has time. Bates has known Raducanu since she was 13, having first become aware of her promise four years previously. “It’s a crazy contradiction that she’s a grand slam champion during the building phase of her career,” he says. “But she’s the same Emma as before – light-hearted, easy-going, engaging, smart, likes to laugh and joke, knows when it’s time to work. “Because of her, people are talking about women’s tennis in a way I’ve never known. People connect with her enjoyment and excitement when they watch her. She’s inspired countless young girls to pick up a racket. “I was in New York with her for the US Open, and what impressed me most was her composure in dealing with everything she was facing, and her ability to learn on the job.” The ability to work your way through adversity is essential, as fellow Brit Andy Murray knows all too well after years of injury struggles. In February the Scot re-entered the top 100 for the first time since 2018, though an injury this month ruled him out of Queen’s. However, McEnroe says his grit will be an example to all at Wimbledon. “I can’t imagine playing with a metal hip [following surgery] like he is, so God bless him and I hope he wins. That would be a hell of a story.” Meanwhile, Croft and Castle think a great result for Raducanu would be making the fourth round, as she did last year when playing with the innocent freedom of one with nothing to lose. “She and the family are handling things really well,” says Castle reassuringly. “She’s doing a fantastic job. Just hit the tennis ball and enjoy the game, Emma. Don’t worry about anything. It’s going to be fine.” Emma Raducanu plays her next match at Wimbledon 2022 today, Wednesday 29th June 2022. If you’re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide, or visit our dedicated hub for more Sports news. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Portraying the Queen on screen - the stars who have played Her Majesty
The actors who have taken on the royal role in their own words.
Four of Britain’s finest actors – Prunella Scales, Dame Helen Mirren, Claire Foy and Olivia Colman – have risen to the challenge of portraying Queen Elizabeth II. To mark the Platinum Jubilee weekend, we take a look back at how they approached the role and what they have said about playing Her Majesty. This article was originally published in Radio Times magazine. Prunella Scales In 1991, Prunella Scales became one of the first actors to portray Queen Elizabeth II on screen, when Alan Bennett adapted his National Theatre play A Question of Attribution for BBC One. Writing in Radio Times, the playwright said: “Even nowadays when Her Majesty makes a regular appearance on Spitting Image [ITV’s satirical puppet show], it still seems quite bold to depict her in the flesh. I can’t imagine anyone giving a more convincing portrayal than Prunella Scales.” Interviewed for RT by Andrew Duncan in 1995, Scales recalled: “It was such a joy playing her at the National. It was the first time a reigning monarch had been portrayed on stage, and when I came on – I had a very good wig and costume – there was a frisson, which was absolutely physical. It was, ‘How cheeky.’ I had a sweet letter from her private detective or someone, who said he had to stop himself from standing up. The most wonderful compliment.” She admitted: “I didn’t enjoy doing it on television. It became perfectly obvious in close-up that this wasn’t HMQ herself. It was P Scales in a wig, and that’s not so much fun.” Dame Helen Mirren Appointed a Dame in 2003, Helen Mirren has portrayed the monarch several times. Interviewed for RT in 2013 by Francine Stock, she revealed: “I was really, really nervous doing The Queen [the 2006 film]. And then I suddenly thought, ‘She’s very generous about portraitists.’ Unlike Elizabeth I, whom I’d played just beforehand, who was very controlling about her image, the Queen is incredibly free and allows any artist to do what they want, and never criticises or tries to control it. I thought, ‘I’m like a painter doing a portrait. It’s my understanding of the Queen,’ so that liberated me.” Mirren went on to play the Queen in Peter Morgan’s stage play The Audience. In 2015, she told Andrew Duncan: “They love the Queen on Broadway as much as they did in London. But it’s the Queen they’re applauding for an incredible 60-year achievement, not me.” She admitted she was a “queenist” if not a monarchist, and said of the Royal Family, “I’ve chilled a lot and respect them enormously.” To celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, Radio Times is releasing a 116-page commemorative edition, featuring covers, articles and illustrations from our archive – buy Radio Times: Her Majesty The Queen for £9.99 at Radio Times Shop. Claire Foy Fresh from playing Anne Boleyn in BBC Two’s Wolf Hall, Claire Foy was cast as the young Elizabeth in Netflix’s The Crown. Interviewed for RT by Kirsty Lang in 2016, she said: “There is no first-hand account of what the Queen was saying or thinking, so my job as an actor is to interpret her circumstances. To think of a young girl who didn’t want all that attention, who just wanted to be a good wife and mother and live in the country with lots of horses. Suddenly she loses her father and gets the biggest responsibility in the world. In the first two episodes before she becomes Queen, I could be a lot freer with my emotions, but as the series goes on, she develops an armour to cope. She has to be a sphinx, which must be so hard.” Interviewed by Zoe Williams in 2017, The Crown’s creator Peter Morgan revealed: “I came at it as completely anti-monarchist and I’ve turned around utterly. I’m a royalist now. There’s something about the soul of a country that is somehow connected to a head of state. People believe in the Queen at a time when it’s so hard to find people that you really believe in. Her achievement is undeniable, particularly when you think what effect exposure and visibility can have on people. It’s breathtaking, really.” Olivia Colman Taking over the role of the Queen for seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown, Olivia Colman told RT’s Emma Cox in 2019: “I think I was doing an impression of Claire Foy for the first couple of weeks’ filming – definitely channelling her – but then I just started to do what the script says and I’ve fallen in love with the Queen. We’re used to people being a little unclassy and she’s the opposite of that. She’s extraordinary. I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it before, but now I love her. “I’m one of those rare left-wing monarchists – very conflicted. Many countries don’t have one continuum and I’m pleased that we do. I like the fact that some extremes couldn’t happen because she’s there. She’s an extraordinary woman, never faulted – there are not many people who could have done that for an entire lifetime with humility.” Colman described the Queen as “the ultimate feminist. She’s the breadwinner. She’s the one on our coins and bank notes. Prince Philip has to walk behind her. She fixed cars in the Second World War. She’s no shrinking violet.” Want to watch coverage of the special anniversary on TV? Here is the Platinum Jubilee BBC schedule of shows and programming up until Monday 6th June. If you're after something to watch tonight, you can check out our TV Guide.
Royal programmes to stream in celebration of the Jubilee
From historical sagas to riotous parodies, here are all of the best royal shows and films to stream across this Jubilee weekend.
As Queen Elizabeth II formally commemorates her Platinum Jubilee - marking 70 years on the throne - we thought it would only be right to celebrate the historic occasion with a selection of the most entertaining royally-inclined TV series and films. Whilst broadcast TV has a tonne of royal scheduling planned - from Kirsty Young hosting the BBC's Platinum Jubilee coverage to the National Lottery's Big Jubilee Street Party on ITV - if your own weekend schedule is looking rather packed, here are the shows and movies you can dive into on demand whenever suits you best. To celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, Radio Times is releasing a 116-page commemorative edition, featuring covers, articles and illustrations from our archive – buy Radio Times: Her Majesty The Queen for £9.99 at Radio Times Shop. So whether you are more in the mood for a light-hearted royal comedy or to learn a few facts about the famous family in a biopic, our list of top choices should have you covered!
Simon Cowell on the return of BGT, Pop Idol rumours and his favourite films
As the new season of Britain's Got Talent kicked off with a bang on ITV last weekend, Radio Times magazine caught up with judge Simon Cowell on the much-anticipated return of the competition.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. You’ve got homes in Los Angeles and London. Where are you now? I’m in LA, filming America’s Got Talent. I’m here about three months of the year. What’s the TV set-up when you sit down with fiancée Lauren and your eight-year-old son Eric? We’ve got a large, L-shaped sofa. It’s very comfortable but not smart, because we’ve got three dogs who will be on it fighting with each other. I’m a big believer that you can’t have a big enough TV. I never understand people who watch a movie on their phones. I want to feel like I’m at the cinema. Is there snacking going on? There’s always an argument because Eric and I like to eat in front of the TV, but Lauren likes to eat more formally at the table. At the moment, Eric and I are winning. What are you enjoying watching? I’m loving introducing Eric to my favourite movies, like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Back to the Future. I wish I could experience those films again for the first time, but I get to do that through Eric by seeing his reaction. Who’s in charge of the remote? We always argue about what to watch so we put names into a hat. Tonight, it’s Flubber. My only rule is that whatever you watch at night, it’s got to make you feel good. It can’t be anything miserable, or a horror movie. What do you watch after Eric has gone to bed? I worry that I’ll start a new series and not like it, so I tend to watch things over and over again. I’ve watched The Crown three times. The level of detail is amazing. I like dramas that are based on real events; I find them more interesting. Are you still a night owl? No. My schedule ten years ago was crazy. I would work every night until six in the morning, go to bed, wake up in the afternoon then start again. I was doing 18-hour days. Now I’m up at 8am. In the evening I’ll say, “That’s it. No calls, no emails, nothing.” You look well on it… Thank you. I feel better. That accident on my bike was pretty horrendous [Cowell broke his back falling off an electric motorbike in 2020] and I had a trainer to get me through it otherwise I’d never heal properly. Now I’m fitter than I was before. So I’m kind of happy it happened, weirdly. It’s like it was meant to be. You broke your arm in another fall from your bike earlier this year. Have you got rid of it now? No! I’m literally obsessed with it. Last year you had to rest Britain’s Got Talent. What was that like? I remember reading about the new Delta variant in December 2020 and it was freaking me out. We pulled it at the last minute because it didn’t feel safe. I knew it wasn’t going to make me very popular, but it was the right thing to do. What was it like coming back to film the show this year? There was a lot of energy and it felt special. When we did the show with a virtual audience in 2020, I realised how important the atmosphere is. The audience reaction is absolutely crucial. Have you started watching your rival show Strictly since X Factor finished on Saturday nights? That’s very funny. Look, I don’t sit there on a Saturday night and watch, but occasionally I might see a bit of it. They’ve done a brilliant job. Like BGT, it hasn’t really changed. That’s a great lesson: when you’ve got something that works, don’t tinker with it. Finally, Pop Idol is rumoured to be coming back. Can you tell us anything about that? I wouldn’t have a clue… Britain's Got Talent 2022 continues on Saturday 23rd April at 8pm. If you’re looking for more to watch check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Entertainment hub for the latest news. The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Inside No. 9's Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Mark Gatiss reveal how their friendship began
The League of Gentlemen trio spoke to Radio Times Magazine about how they originally met ahead of their long-awaited Inside No. 9 reunion.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. Steve Pemberton Mark [Gatiss] and I were in the same year at Bretton Hall College [in West Yorkshire], but he wasn’t living on the campus. He was quite dandyish, wearing waistcoats and bow ties; they weren’t flamboyant clothes, it was more charity-shop chic. I didn’t have an ounce of flamboyance about me at all. I’m the same now. From our initial chats, it was obvious we had the same sense of humour. We loved talking about horror films, so we started a club where we rented a video from the college library and watched a VHS together using two sets of headphones. We introduced each other to our favourite films, many of which we’d already both seen. We felt like we’d had the same life. We felt like the same person in many ways, so it was an instant connection and we wrote from the off. We never went out into town because the last bus back from Wakefield was at half-past nine and to reach the bus stop you had to walk up a really big hill, so it wasn’t worth it. As a result, we spent a lot of time in our student bar, and one of the first things Mark and I did was to stage a comedy night. We wore padded-out dinner jackets and played spoof Northern club comedians called Fatt and Crass – very Bernard Manning-esque – and we built a whole routine around them. I’ve still got a cassette tape with the first ever gig on. Every year at Bretton Hall they posted a picture of the students who were joining, and Reece stood out to us, because he was posing with a very funny expression on his face, so we pegged him as someone to watch out for. “Reece” and “Shearsmith” – what a name! Later on, when I was in a Shakespeare production, Reece came to see it, and we got chatting afterwards. Again, there was that sense that you’d met a fellow soul who understood the world the way you understood it; he had that humour, that love of horror films, and love of comedy. Reece was quite quiet, actually, but he came alive on stage. I remember seeing him play Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and thinking, “Wow!” He was full of wit, comic business, and was just naturally funny. Mark Gatiss The first time I worked with Steve was in our second week at Bretton Hall, or maybe the first. We had to improvise a little story based around two things that we were both most obsessed with. I was paired off with Steve and we devised a Billy Joel/Doctor Who crossover. That’s where I discovered he loved Billy Joel and he discovered I loved Doctor Who. This is so geeky. We became very self-reliant very quickly. Although this sounds like a Cliff Richard movie, we used to stage shows ourselves all the time and that was really useful. The college’s approach, almost accidentally, was improvisation and self-reliance, and for two successive years Steve and I took shows to the National Student Drama Festival and we went to Edinburgh. Then I remember, vividly, a photo of the incoming year and Reece was pulling this face, and we cried, “Reece and Shearsmith!” Little did we know… Isn’t that strange? We were destined to be friends and everything that’s come out of it professionally is a bonus. The greatest part of it is that we’ve always had such a good laugh together. To be part of the cast of Merrily, Merrily [the latest Inside No. 9] was a real treat. It’s very moving and funny, but it speaks of a big universal truth about friendships. That’s what makes it so powerful. View oEmbed on the source website Reece Shearsmith Bretton Hall was a beautiful place but odd, because you were completely in the middle of nowhere in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield. You were warned of cabin fever before you went, because it was like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. In a weird way, it bonded you more because you were trapped. For a year I never came out of my shell and was homesick. I was only an hour away – I’d come from Hull! I used to go home on Friday and I’d be on the train at 4.25pm, and then I would reluctantly have to leave on a Sunday night as late as possible. So, for a while, I never really liked it. Steve and Mark were these fabled people. They were staging funny sketches and plays in the Student Union bar, and I thought, “These are the people to get in with.” I think I met Mark first – or wanted to meet Mark. He was a character, as he wore tweeds and had the appearance of a time traveller – the Doctor, basically. He was someone you wanted to gravitate towards. In the second year I dared to pluck up the courage to speak to him. I remember approaching him in the canteen, thinking, “I hope that you like me because I feel like I’m like you.” I think he’d heard of me a little bit and we very quickly found common ground. The very first time I saw Steve was in the second-year production of The Taming of the Shrew. He was at the back of a main scene with a hat, a walking stick, glasses and an inhaler, and he was walking around, puffing away on this inhaler, and completely pulling focus. I thought, “That’s who I want to be.” There wasn’t a Machiavellian element to befriending them – that I needed to get in with Mark and Steve because they were really good – it was desperately thinking they would understand my sense of humour, that we were alike. I just wanted to present myself because I thought, “You will like me if you get to know me.” But there was that massive hurdle of trying to speak to them because I was really shy. I’m sort of still like that now, to be honest. Inside No. 9 returns on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer at 10pm on Wednesday 20th April. The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey. Visit our Drama hub for more news, interviews and features, or find something to watch now with our TV Guide.