Wallace & Gromit creator teases a potential return for Feathers McGraw – and reveals hilarious hidden Easter egg moments
Nick Park tells us what’s next for the evil bird after Vengeance Most Fowl.
Criminal mastermind Feathers McGraw, the penguin who cleverly disguises himself as a chicken, returned last Christmas in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, much to the delight of fans. He first appeared in 1993’s Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, where he stole the Blue Diamond. For his recent revenge, he escaped his prison (the zoo) and hacked Wallace’s smart gnome, Norbot, to create a whole army of evil minions to help reunite him with the precious gem. But he was once again thwarted by inventor Wallace and his loyal pooch Gromit, who swapped the diamond for a turnip. We last saw Feathers, outsmarted and deflated, escaping on the back of a train, but crucially, he was not caught by the police, which means he’s still at large, always a firm fixture on a “wanted” poster. Where exactly is he then, if not in prison? Talking exclusively to Radio Times, Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park reveals, “He’s somewhere in Yorkshire. Well, who knows where he is? He doesn't let us know these things or what his plans are. A lot of people ask about Feathers McGraw, and the response since last Christmas has been brilliant. We're still reeling from it to be honest.” Does that mean we can expect Feathers to return with another cunning plan? Park teases, “Watch this space... who knows? He’s unpredictable.” With lots of unfinished business with his enemies Wallace and Gromit, he might come out of hiding when the time is right. Until then, you can catch plenty of Easter eggs when rewatching Vengeance Most Fowl, a big part of any Aardman Animations film. Remember when Feathers actually made a very brief cameo at the end of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget?! Park, who directed Vengeance Most Fowl with Merlin Crossingham and co-created the story with Mark Burton, tells us some of his favourites. For instance, Feathers’s pet seal actually has a name. “No one would ever know this, because it was more of a joke we had among ourselves, but we called him Ronseal, which is, I guess, a very British joke. It's Ronseal that you paint your fences with.” Park, who’s from Preston, says the barge chase scene pays homage to his Lancashire roots. “My dad used to watch The African Queen on TV with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, and that was the name of the boat, so we called one of the barges The Accrington Queen. Some people get that.” Fans will notice that Gromit is an avid reader throughout all the films, and he’s often got his nose in a good book, with puns created from the titles or author names: Pup Fiction, The Dogfather, The Republic by Pluto, Crime and Punishment by Fido Dogstoyevsky. Park mentions that in Vengeance Most Fowl, he’s reading a magazine about gardening in the future called Gardens of the Galaxy by Alan Titchmarsh. “We had to call up Alan to get permission to use that,” he explains. “He was very happy and supportive of it.” Read our full interview with Nick Park, all about making our Christmas cover with Shaun the Sheep and Gromit, in our Christmas issue – in stores now. Read more: Wallace and Gromit creator reveals whether Aardman Animations will use AI in future – and what they won’t compromise on Wallace & Gromit creators reveals how they celebrated Oscar nomination Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is available now on BBC iPlayer and Netflix. Check out more of our Film 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.
Gen V stunt coordinator reveals some stunts were too extreme to do – even for The Boys
"I've been told a couple times, 'Dude, we can't do that!'"
Gen V and The Boys are known for their out-of-this-world stunt scenes full of explosions, blood, fight choreography and wirework. RadioTimes.com was invited to try out some stunt work for ourselves during a very special day of training with Gen V and The Boys’ Emmy-winning stunt coordinator John Koyama to learn a sequence from season 2 of Gen V, which you can watch above. During our exclusive chat, we ask Koyama how he continues to up the ante in the series that love to shock. He explains: “My team and I will break down the writing and have meetings with Eric Kripke [who created The Boys and developed Gen V] and the writers to make sure we’re still staying within the story, the tone and the characters. It's really specific what we do. “The creators of the shows have a lot of trust in me, so they let me have a big, open canvas where I can paint and do my thing. Sometimes I go too crazy and they're like, ‘Whoa.’ I've been told a couple times, ‘Dude, we can't do that!’ Now I know where the limit actually is on The Boys... I thought there were no limits!” Can he reveal where that limit is? “I can't really say, because sometimes we think of things and we’re told we can't do them, but we keep them in the bank, just in case... I don't want to spoil it – maybe they will be approved.” He can confirm, though, that the stunts have “definitely levelled up for the rest of Gen V – it just gets bigger and crazier in storytelling and action”. In season 2 of Gen V, there’s a new dean of Godolkin University, where young Supes learn to be heroes. Cipher's (Hamish Linklater) aim is to test the students’ powers to their limits, making them stronger than ever, with a particular interest in Marie Moreau’s (Jaz Sinclair) blood manipulation abilities. As for the final season of The Boys, set to be released in 2026, “It’s gonna be epic and absolutely crazy and constant,” says Koyama. “While shooting, our saying was, ‘All gas, no brakes.’ We were all gas all the way down to the floor, no brakes all the way to the very last day.” The cast do all of their own fight choreography in both series. “The only thing I take away from them, obviously, is dangerous stunts. It’s a Supe show, so you don't just get hit like a human, you go flying through walls and windows.” Eric Kripke, creator of The Boys, always planned to end the series with season 5, where Homelander (Antony Starr) is now the leader of America, and there will no doubt be a huge showdown between Billy Butcher’s The Boys and The Seven. You might also recognise Koyama from season 4 of The Boys, where he plays Ryan Butcher’s (Cameron Crovetti) stunt coach Koy during a staged rescue. Ryan unintentionally kills him when he throws him too hard against a building. Gen V season 2 will continue on Prime Video on 15th October 2025. The Boys seasons 1-4 are available to watch now – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Add Gen V 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 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.
Blue Lights season 3 is scary and dangerous – with "really heavy" storylines
The cast of the Northern Irish police drama reveal what's coming up in the "emotionally-driven" new episodes.
As season 3 of the BBC’s BAFTA-winning drama Blue Lights returns, it continues to follow officers at the fictional Blackthorn Station in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, as they navigate life on the front line in modern-day Belfast. Speaking exclusively to Radio Times from the Blue Lights set in Belfast, the cast teased what’s in store for their characters as the team find themselves up against a new kind of threat – white collar crime. Watch the full interviews in our Behind the Screens video series above, where we visited Blackthorn Station and private members' club The Deanery. “They are developing in the police force and learning more about themselves as they progress in their professions. The crime story gets even more complex,” says Siân Brooke, who plays social worker turned police officer Grace Ellis. Martin McCann, who stars as Stevie Neill, Grace’s love interest on the force, adds: “It’s kind of scary, kind of dangerous.” We also revisit a storyline from season 1 involving Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin), who received an anonymous death threat, forcing her to leave her family home for her and her mother’s safety. “The death threat is constantly in the background,” says Devlin. “There’s also a lot of stuff going on back home for Annie. She’s constantly juggling the idea of, is the job worth it? Is the sacrifice worth it?” “There’s some really, really heavy topics this season and some really, really heavy scenes for Annie that are very emotionally-driven, but I’m well-supported, and it’s been my favourite season. We have become so much more comfortable in the roles, and it’s lovely to go back into these characters again.” Devlin also praises the writing, led by Northern Irish screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, former journalists for Panorama and BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight. “I think the script will always be, and it should be, the most challenging thing about our job, because it’s always so important to dissect, to try things out, and to keep it fresh, and to constantly be asking questions and figuring things out.” Annie moved in with Grace in season 2, but she now lives with her colleagues Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff) and his girlfriend Aisling (Dearbháile McKinney). Braniff explains: “The series focuses a lot on Tommy’s relationship with Annie. The three of them are going through this journey together, dealing with all the things the police force throws at them in Northern Ireland, and the strain that puts on the relationships, both inside and outside of the job.” Michael Smiley joins the cast as Paul “Colly” Collins, an intelligence officer who worked with Gerry Cliff (Richard Dormer), who was murdered in the first season after being shot by criminal Sully. Cathy Tyson appears as Dana Morgan, who has all the drug dealers in her pocket and owns private members' club The Deanery. A fourth run of Blue Lights has already been confirmed by the BBC. Blue Lights season 3 is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer and airs Mondays at 9pm on BBC One. Seasons 1-2 are available to stream in full on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The secrets of casting the next breakout child star – from Adolescence to the new Harry Potter series
Stacey Burrows founded the Bradford-based Articulate drama school and casting agency, which secures significant film and television roles for children and young adults.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Articulate drama school and casting agency in Bradford, set up by Stacey Burrows, provided 150 child extras for Netflix hit Adolescence, which swept this year's Emmy Awards. Amélie Pease (who plays Lisa, Jamie’s sister), Fatima Bojang (Jade) and Austin Haynes (Fredo) also all came through the drama school – as did Austin’s brother Rocco, who is seen in the opening of 28 Years Later, and Rory Wilmot, who has been cast as Neville Longbottom in the new Harry Potter series in an eight-year deal. Here Burrows tells RT how she helps to nurture young talent. CHANGING CAREER In 2013, I was working as a barrister in county courts and magistrates’ courts across the North working on low-level cases, but I was doing a lot of public speaking in courtrooms. I was looking to give back, so I set up a public speaking school for kids one night a week and created a website for parents to track their children’s progress. CBeebies came across it and asked me to do a bit of vocal coaching on a series and I agreed as long as I could get some of the kids in as extras. Then they just kept calling me back asking for more children. I dropped the legal stuff and the agency really took off in 2015. SUPPORTING YOUNG PERFORMERS We've just opened up to adults, but our focus is on children and young performers up to the age of 25. We represent kids from all over the country, but a lot of them are generally from disadvantaged or diverse backgrounds. Yesterday, one of my actors couldn't afford to get to a recall, so we booked their train tickets and said, “Pay us back when you're rich and famous.” Our drama classes are about £8 a week, and we offer loads of scholarships. We also go to schools and run free workshops to teach people about what it's like to be an actor. WORKING WITH CASTING DIRECTORS We’ve got all the regulars on Waterloo Road and Emmerdale and a lot of people come to us for the gritty Northern dramas. A casting director sends us a detailed brief of all the different characters they’re looking for, including age range, maybe a particular accent or specific physical attributes if the parents have already been cast. We then suggest any actors we think might be suitable and send off their CVs, and the casting director tells us who they would like to audition. HELPING WITH SELF-TAPES They send us a sample script, which could be two or three scenes to memorise, and then the child self-tapes at home. They can send those tapes to us on WhatsApp and we can give them voice note feedback, which is something you wouldn't get at many agencies. It's an extra support mechanism to make sure they've understood everything and don't miss anything. Sometimes it's something practical, like their lighting is terrible, or if its performance-related, they might drop out of an accent. RECEIVING A CALL BACK When we feel like we've got a perfect tape, we will send it off to the casting director. They will shortlist those tapes and show them to the directors and producers. They decide who will come in for a recall – either on Zoom or in person. It's a chance to go through the scenes, and for the director to give a bit of direction to see how the actor takes that direction. After that recall, sometimes we get an offer straight away. Other times, it might be a chemistry read or a second recall. PROVIDING HONEST FEEDBACK We've got what we call small books, so we know each of our clients individually. We have weekly 10-minute drop-in sessions where we catch up with all of our clients. We're always there for feedback, and we're a very honest agency, so if we think the child needs to work on certain skills to move to the next level, we will always tell the parents, who will hopefully support them with it. SPOTTING A STAR A child has to have resilience, commitment and determination, because you get a lot of knockbacks. They also need a level of maturity, a good memory for lines and emotional intelligence. We celebrate their successes. I often even go to school plays! Then a week later I could be flying to LA to watch a movie premiere. DEALING WITH THE PARENTS A lot of agents say they don't want to deal with kids because of the annoying parents, but we don't have that issue here. Some of the kids have actor parents, but for those who aren’t actors, we help them navigate things. The industry is so alien to people who aren't in it. Some jobs are life-changing, like this new Harry Potter series – financially, but also in the sense that the child might have to move away from home and their siblings for years. One parent often has to give up a job for a substantial amount of time. NEGOTIATING THE CONTRACTS In certain deals, we organise extra flights so family members can go out and visit. We might organise Zooms with the school so the child can catch up with their friends or teachers. When you’re in a big global franchise, you lose a bit of your normal life, so we try to keep our children grounded and make sure they’re enjoying it, because if they’re not, they shouldn’t be doing it. Adolescence is available to watch on Netflix – sign up from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Add Adolescence to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Chris O’Dowd calls for more regional accents on-screen amid Celtic language "resurgence"
The Irish star on romcoms and regional identity – and why his dog is a Puffin
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? A dark-green wallpapered wall, then a big TV over the fireplace, which I know you’re not supposed to do. Our two dogs, Meatloaf and Puffin, and two cats, Boo and Myrtle, are usually on the sofa. We also have a tortoise called Sandwich. Puffin as in Puffin Rock, the kids’ animated series you narrate about the marine birds on the coast of Ireland? Yes, Puffin is named in tribute, because the kids [O’Dowd has two sons with his wife, writer/presenter Dawn O’Porter] were watching a lot of it at the time. It’s basically me reading them a story! What have you been watching lately? I really enjoyed Bad Sisters and Colin from Accounts. My kids just finished watching all of The Simpsons. It’s been fun explaining some of those jokes. I’m also in an episode! We watch old movies with them, but I made a mistake… they were too young for Arachnophobia. Luckily, the younger one said, “I need to stop watching this now.” He’s absolutely obsessed with insects, so he watches a lot of YouTube videos about how to build terrariums. We’ve got a little pond in the garden and he’s been going bananas for all these newts and salamanders, and now the frogs have started coming. Puffin Rock features regional Irish accents. Do you think we’re hearing them more often on screen? We’re going through such a great phase for Irish actors achieving success, and it’s becoming more and more normalised. Regional accents are important because it’s all about representation. There’s no point everybody just sounding like posh English people, because that’s not what everybody’s like. Can you speak any Irish? Bits, but not well. I have been using Duolingo since the Celtic revival has been happening. I think the resurgence is wonderful, because through the suppression of language we’ve lost so much knowledge about ourselves. The last century in Ireland was just about the state standing on its own two feet and the actual identity underneath all of that wasn’t the primary concern. Now we’ve kind of established ourselves, we’re yearning for the things we have lost. I just hope the Irish language isn’t destroyed by the British in the next 100 years. You also used your own accent in the hit romcom Bridesmaids. Do you think there are enough romcoms nowadays? I think they moved to television. There’s great romcom writing within shows like Sharon Horgan’s Catastrophe. It’s a shame, the cinema has become absolutely swarmed with action movies, and now there’s no place for romcoms to go. I presume date night movies are still a thing? What do people go to, Superman? You’ve written series including Moone Boy and Small Town, Big Story. Who do you test your material out on? When Dawn and I lived in Los Angeles, we hosted a lot of barbies and invited Irish actors and people like Jason Segel, who is one of my best pals, so loads of people to bounce stuff off. Now we’re in the UK, it’s Sunday roasts. I like to pitch a lot during those things and put myself under pressure to write something by the time I see everyone again in six weeks. You starred in Black Mirror as a man who enrols his wife (Rashida Jones) into a healthcare subscription service to keep her alive after she’s diagnosed with a brain tumour. Did it make you think about the future of tech? The episode [Common People] is really about how to deal with your partner when they’re unwell. I’ve spent a lot of time recently in hospitals with elderly relatives. We all live longer, but we haven’t made the conditions for being old any better. We’ve decided as a society we’re going to be led by tech rather than compassion, so we have to bear the consequences. Some of it is useful and some is terrible, just like AI. You’re not going to really be given a choice. It’s going to be like a self-service checkout – less personal, slightly more efficient and the experience is more s**t for everyone. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
"You can sit and stand on it": Meet the UK company making TV and film sets out of cardboard
Chris Gilmour of Vectar Sets creates paper-based sets for film and TV that contain up to 90 per cent lower carbon than normal set materials.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Manchester-based Vectar Sets, established in 2022 by Chris Gilmour, creates paper-based sets for film and TV that contain up to 90 per cent lower carbon than normal set materials, and are 90 per cent lighter and 100 per cent recyclable. He’s worked on Coronation Street, Newsround, Alien: Romulus and pre-school series Treehouse, which was filmed at RD Studios, a fully sustainable production facility. Here he tells RT how he got into it, and why it matters. PAPER ARTIST I did a course called Art in Social Context at the University of Bristol. I was doing workshops with kids and mental health groups and that’s where working with cardboard started. It’s a very friendly, accessible material. I lived in Italy for a long time and was a fine art sculptor working with galleries and museums around the world. I used to do a lot of mechanical sculpture, and I was using cardboard to make prototypes – then I just started using cardboard for all of it! I’ve made life-sized motorcycles, bikes, cars…. I moved back to the UK in 2016, and after one Covid lockdown, I was asked to do an Old Spice advert. There was a shortage of wood in the UK, so we were trying to find a solution that was quick and cheap. I’m currently doing my PhD on how you can use paper materials to make film sets. ALL ABOARD There’s obviously a lot of interest in sustainability in film and TV, but it tends to be on lighting, power, transport, and reusable cups, and then it kind of ends there. Most film and TV sets are made from MDF (medium density fibre board) or plywood. MDF is made of a wood pulp, and it's got formaldehyde and resins in it, and it's completely unrecyclable. The dust is toxic and it's really heavy, but it's cheap. After filming, the sets are smashed up and put in a skip. There’s at least a tonne of set waste for a one-day advert, and for big TV shows and films, that’s 700 or 800 tonnes. A manufacturer in Sweden makes what we have now branded as Vectar board. It comes from timber waste. It’s really tough – the furniture in our office is made of it! You can sit and stand on it. FLAT PACK We'll start with a digital design, then make a model. Then it goes to specialist machines where it's printed and cut out. Assembly involves hot glue guns and craft knives, and the glue is biodegradable. When it's exposed to UV light, it breaks down, but when it's stuck inside something, there's no light on it, so it stays intact. We work with scenic painters, but any additions are ideally water-based so they’re recyclable. Rust effects are normally done with iron filings, but we mix cinnamon into the paint to give it a fleck-y, dusty look! Ultimately, it needs to look good on screen. We can also make it waterproof and fire retardant, and we've been developing things like printed tiles. Afterwards, you can cut the set into bits and put it in the paper recycling. Or, we’ll take it back, and if it’s still worth using, we’ll try to re-home it with film schools, theatres or community groups. PAPER WEIGHT Our initial focus was on short shoots where it'd have the most impact, but the sets can last for years, be repainted and tidied up. We also do a lot of outside broadcast desks, such as for the Premier League. Some of them have a Perspex top and have LED lights in. It’s useful for locations where you don't want to damage the walls or the floors. It fits well into existing sets, and if you have a part you need to move, it weighs nothing at all! I think the Sky Sports Super Sunday desk weighs about 130kg, and you need four or five people to pick it up, whereas ours weighs about 30kg. A GREENER FUTURE We've had a lot of help from the sustainability departments at ITV and BBC, and we’ve had loads of repeat customers. The only real push back we've had is from some of the traditional trades, where it could conceivably be seen as a threat. If you’ve got a carpentry company that's invested thousands of pounds in saws and drills, and have 20 carpenters working four days, you could actually have 10 people in two days. They’re reluctant to adopt it, but I think it’s an extra tool they can use. Now, we’re looking at what we could replace polystyrene with. The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday 19th August – subscribe here. Treehouse airs Saturday and Sunday at 7:05am on 5's Milkshake!. 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.
NHS surgeon discusses performing surgery on TV for new Netflix series
In Critical: Between Life and Death, cameras follow the work of NHS trauma teams.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. In the engrossing and shocking new Netflix documentary series Critical: Between Life and Death, 40 cameras are embedded for 21 days across the entire London Major Trauma System, which includes major trauma centres at The Royal London Hospital, St George's Hospital, King's College Hospital and St Mary's Hospital. Mr Ibraheim El-Daly, 41, who grew up in northwest London, has been a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at King's College Hospital for five years. Here he tells RT how it feels to be filmed on the job. DRILLING DOWN I studied at City St George's, University of London, and during my rotations, I fell in love with orthopaedic surgery. I liked the power tools – the screwdriver, mallet, and my favourite, the drill! I did my five-year orthopaedic training at the Royal London Hospital. I then spent a year at Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, a major trauma centre in Paris. I came back to a job at King’s College and it was very fast-paced. I thrive on stress. THE NHS GOES GLOBAL I appeared in Channel 4’s Emergency and 24 hours in A&E. The same production company behind those shows told us Netflix loved them and would like to do their own medical series. With Netflix it’s a great opportunity to expose the NHS to the world. TEXTING ABOUT TRAUMA A lot of the problems you hear in the media about the NHS are true, like trying to get an appointment, but our major trauma network is second to none. We even have WhatsApp groups with all the major trauma surgeons – there’s a national pelvic group and a national upper limb group. We post cases and discuss them. I feel sad that we don't promote ourselves, because we have such amazing experience and expertise that we should be selling our services. The NHS could benefit by going to countries and helping them create the same level of trauma care that we deliver for citizens of the UK. ON-CALL FOR THE CAMERA The camera crew followed me everywhere I went, but they never got in my way. They were constantly checking they weren’t doing anything that would cause an issue, or they’d say, “Are you OK? Do you want us to take a step back?” The only time I’d switch off my mic was when I went to the loo! There were usually two, sometimes three, cameras. Before I saw a patient, the production team asked them or their relatives if it was OK to film them. Then the camera crew would either get the green light or stand down. View oEmbed on the source website COMPLICATED CASES They filmed me doing multiple surgeries before they selected the case for the show, where the patient, Jared, was at risk of losing his leg after a motorcycle accident. He had an open fracture that was a high-energy injury, which refers to trauma caused by a significant force, so it can’t be closed by just suturing it together again. While I was operating, I explained the process for the cameras like I would to a junior trainee. King’s is a big teaching hospital and the biggest medical school in Europe, so I’m used to having trainees. You have to pass on your knowledge – otherwise, what’s the point? A RISK WORTH TAKING Most consultants say no to being filmed, because they’re worried about something bad happening. I'm dealing with complex, unpredictable injuries, so there’s a much higher risk of patient dissatisfaction and problems, but I'm confident in my skills, so I'm not too concerned about what others say or think. Every surgeon encounters complications – there was one that happened intraoperatively on Emergency where I had to intervene to stop it from becoming a disaster – but we discuss them and learn from them so we can better ourselves. We're constantly pushing the boundaries and improving. Critical: Between Life and Death is available on Netflix from 23rd July. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Call the Midwife's Helen George exposes personal vulnerabilities in new show: "It's not glamorous"
In the new ITV1 series Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, the star faces her fears.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… well, it is! Or at least, that’s what a batch of TV stars hope to prove in the new ITV1 series Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters. Its aim is to undo the damage Jaws did in demonising the sharp-toothed creatures as the film celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In the series, Helen George, Lucy Punch, Sir Lenny Henry, Ross Noble, Rachel Riley, Ade Adepitan and Dougie Poynter get up close and personal with bull sharks in a diving cage, while interacting with hammerheads, stingrays and more on the islands of Bimini in the Bahamas, which is home to seven to ten different shark species. As the breeds get bigger and more dangerous across five episodes, they work themselves up to the ultimate challenge: diving with tiger sharks. Although the clue is in the name of the show, Call the Midwife star George didn’t really think they’d be swimming with sharks, because “it’s TV” and “who would actually do that?” When she agreed to take part, she was not only scared of sharks, but had a phobia of even putting her head under the water – something she hadn’t done for 15 years. “I'm quite gung-ho as a person, so I thought I’d be fine, but I genuinely wasn’t,” she says. “At that point, the sharks were small fry. It was more about the water!” In episode 1, she explains that when she was young, she went to a swimming party, and as she was trying to resurface from underwater, foam mats on the top prevented her from getting out. But she signed up for the show for her daughters, aged three and seven. “I wanted to get more confident for them. They were impressed I even went in the first place, because they didn't think I would. I was really terrified of the water, so I might be a bit embarrassed about some of the scenes! “I’m an actress and I play other people’s vulnerabilities, so playing my own is always terrifying. I’m ugly crying, there’s no hair and make-up... it’s not glamorous. Now I’m thinking, ‘What have I done?’ I haven’t been ‘myself’ on screen since I did Strictly [in 2015], and that was uncomfortable for me.” She isn’t the only celeb stepping out of their comfort zone in the series, but they are all supported not only by each other, but also by safety, shark and diving experts throughout. That includes Paul de Gelder, who lost an arm and a leg in a bull shark attack, but now dedicates his life to shark conservation. They also all gained a PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certification. George was a few days behind everyone else's training. “They didn’t know whether I’d be able to pass my PADI in time for filming, because I wasn’t up to the standard that everybody else was, because I was really scared. I thought they were gonna put me on the next plane home and get someone else.” Instead, she was given the option to do a snorkelling course instead of the PADI. “It would have meant I was separate from the group and I didn’t want to be, so I knuckled down, put my big girl pants on and got on with it! I thought, ‘I’m not going to be behind everyone else. I’m not going to let myself fail in week one.’” The celebs were in the Bahamas for just over three weeks, spending a good eight hours on the dive boat some days, and being in the wetsuit took some getting used to. “Sometimes it's really hot, sometimes it’s really cold. You're just constantly wet,” George explains. “Your skin's rough as hell from all the sea water. You're just fighting against it and trying not to look rubbish for the camera at the same time. Vanity goes out the window. Everyone's peeing in their wetsuits!” Across the series, George goes from someone who had never seen Jaws, because she was so afraid of sharks, to swimming with them and even appreciating them. “I will be watching Jaws – now I’ve seen them up close, it won't scare me at all! “Sharks don’t want to eat us – we really do need to protect them. While we can joke about how scared I was, the whole premise of this show is to show how important they are and how we need to nurture them. Our marine life needs them as well.” George’s favourite moment came when she saw two gigantic Hammerheads swimming above her in the water. “I hadn’t expected that I would be brave enough to do it. I was so emotional – they’re so rare to see. There were moments of meditation where I was completely in the moment and present.” George’s aim of being on the show was that afterwards she’d be able to jump in the sea and not be as terrified. Has she achieved her goal? “I have been underwater. I haven't been diving since, but I want to go so I don't lose the skill. “I didn't realise I was going to be overcoming my biggest fear on camera in front of the nation, but that's what it turned out to be!” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters will air on ITV1 and ITVX from Monday 14th July at 9pm. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Charlotte Ritchie is "desperate" to make a Ghosts movie
The actor speaks to Radio Times about the hit sitcom's future, plus new thriller Code of Silence.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What's the view from your sofa? My boyfriend insisted on getting a big TV. His excuse was that I was away filming for five months, so he needed something to focus on. There’s also a PlayStation 4. I’ve always loved video games. On a beautiful summer’s evening, all the normal people are outside having pints, and I’ll spend six hours being chased by horrendous monsters. What have you been watching? I’ve been really enjoying the Apple TV+ series The Studio, where Seth Rogen plays a guy who’s promoted to head developer of a film studio. I also started watching The Royle Family again. I’m not really concerned with endings. If anything, I avoid them. I didn’t finish some of my favourite books. I’m sure I could be psychoanalysed and it would be quite revealing, but things aren’t tied up in life, so why should they be in art? You’re best known for your comedy roles in Ghosts and Fresh Meat, but You is a psychological thriller and Code of Silence is a crime drama. Was it challenging taking on different genres? Being more of a sitcom actor gave me a definite sense of imposter syndrome. You feel that you’ve got to earn your stripes a bit. I spoke to a bunch of older actors recently who said it only gets worse. I think back to the confidence I had early doors – the less you know, the better you think you are. In You, you play wealthy CEO Kate Lockwood, and she always looks perfect. Could you relate to that? It’s an image that is so completely unsustainable. Some people sustain it, but I can’t do that – it’s hours of work, prep, money and time. You have to work out what matters to you. I have this professional team that spend about two hours making me look like that, then I have to deal with the reality of myself, taking out the hair extensions, taking the heels off. But then I can breathe, and wear clothes I can spill my coffee down. The hardest thing is seeing people double-take me in the street: "Is that her? She doesn’t look like the person I saw on telly." Do you think women are under more scrutiny to look good than men? Yes, without a doubt, although I would argue that the general expectation of how good we’re all supposed to look all the time has increased. The boys now have to have washboard stomachs. Everyone has to look unreal – and everyone can feel bad. You introduced you to an international audience and the fifth and final series was filmed in New York. Is it still an actor’s dream to "break" America? I always had a resistance to that, because my life and my heart is in the UK. Then I got to New York. I loved it and I’d love to do more there – I was afraid of going away for five months, but nobody cares. I filmed Code of Silence just after You, so I went from being in a New York penthouse to being in an ex-police station in Watford. What was it like working with Rose Ayling-Ellis on Code of Silence? Rose is very generous. She was so inclusive bringing the cast and crew into the signing world and telling us how to communicate more effectively with people who have hearing loss or are deaf. I sometimes asked if she would sign along when she was talking to help me learn, and I also used a signing app. Communication can be inconsiderate, sloppy, indirect or impersonal, but Rose communicates through eye contact and reading someone’s face, and she expects that to be reciprocated, so you have to be so much more considered about what you’re saying. You don’t like endings, so you must have been sad when Ghosts finished. Is there the possibility of a film? It was absolutely awful! If there was a film, I would do it for free! No, don't tell them that – I'll do it for a very high fee… I'm desperate to get back in that house and see them all again. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Ghosts is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Adrian Scarborough doesn’t want to outstay his welcome on TV, but would he do a Gavin & Stacey spin-off series?
This article was first published in Radio Times magazine in May 2025. Add The Chelsea Detective to your watchlist Adrian Scarborough has been acting for more than three decades – in television, film, radio and theatre. The accomplished character actor has played Villanelle’s violent and sinister handler Raymond in Killing Eve and Dawn’s awkward yet well-meaning husband Peter in Gavin & Stacey. He has two best supporting actor Olivier Awards and has appeared in acclaimed films including The History Boys and The King’s Speech. But it took until 2022, when The Chelsea Detective first aired, for Scarborough to be cast in a lead role on screen. Scarborough was actually ready to cut back on television work, but the part of DI Max Arnold convinced him to change his mind. “I never expected to go down this road,” says the 57-year-old who is now promoting the third series of his detective drama. “Playing the lead isn’t a responsibility that I really enjoy. People start looking at you like you must know the answer, because you’ve been there from the beginning.” Arnold and his partner DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme) solve cases in the London borough of Chelsea, and in the new series’ first episode, a body is found in an allotment. Scarborough enjoyed watching John Thaw in Inspector Morse growing up and says Arnold has a bit of “bumbling Columbo” about him. It’s cosy crime at its finest. There’s no swearing, no sex and no bloodshed. “It appeals, because there’s quite a few people out there, myself included, that don’t like too much gore,” says Scarborough. “The crimes themselves are almost irrelevant. The most interesting bit is the process of working them out.” Scarborough was born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. His father was a teacher and his mother was a lay worker at the local Methodist church, who inspired his love of theatre by taking him at a very young age. “I wanted to be a dancer, but it was very obvious from about the age of eight or nine I didn’t have the physique,” he says. “As soon as I saw that acting was a job you could do, I thought it was for me. My parents never turned up their noses and went, ‘You’re never going to be an actor, don’t go on the stage.’” He describes himself as a “disaster at school” and was his happiest when he left at the age of 16. “I don’t think school catered for the person that I was. My creative side wasn’t nourished. I’m a very practical person, so I learn by being active and doing. I don’t learn by reading or sitting.” He went on to attend Brooksby Melton College, where his love of acting was encouraged, and then he studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He recalls his first on-screen role in The Bill in 1991, when he had to drive a truck across an airfield. “I used to do what I call SAS acting,” Scarborough explains. “You essentially get parachuted into a job, you’re there for three days, they shoot all of your stuff, and you’re gone again. That had its own set of problems – you never got to be part of a family.” Now, he tries to make all the guest stars in The Chelsea Detective – which this series includes Alex Kingston (A Discovery of Witches, Doctor Who) as US Ambassador Emily Morgan – feel as welcome as possible. “We try to make everybody’s journeys on the show a happy one, partly because I’ve had some s**t experiences in my time. I would hate anybody to come on our set and go away with that sort of experience. It’s hard walking into a space where you don’t know people and you’re expected to do big, emotional scenes or violent stuff, or be angry. It can be really tricky getting yourself to that place in a very short space of time when there’s not a lot of trust about. “You get on a gig where people have been doing it for a very long time, perhaps too long, and they get used to doing it in a particular way, and they don’t want to do it any differently. You don’t feel welcome or comfortable – you feel like cannon fodder. Those experiences have an impact – more of an impact than the good times you have. They can upset you and play havoc with your confidence.” How did he keep going? “Well, sometimes I didn’t actually. I took time out or went off and did something completely different.” The Chelsea Detective is very different to “SAS acting”. It takes five months to film, with a couple of months’ prep before that, and involves a lot of long days. “This takes up a massive chunk of my life. Your loved ones become impatient, and sometimes tempers are thin…” says Scarborough. He lives with his wife, psychotherapist Rose Blackshaw, in Hertfordshire. Their children, Esme and Jake, no longer live at home. “We try to be as communicative as we can, but it can be hard to find time to get together. You have to go, ‘OK, you can have me for an hour and a half here, you can have me for this much of Saturday, but the rest of the day I need to sit down and work out next week’s scenes and script, and I need a bit of time to myself.’” Scarborough didn’t expect for The Chelsea Detective to run as long as it has, and believes “all gigs have a finite life”. He praises Gavin & Stacey for knowing when to end. The final episode, which aired on Christmas Day last year, brought in more than 12 million viewers. Would he ever do a spin-off with Julia Davis, who plays his on-screen wife Dawn? “I don’t think so. One of the reasons why Peter and Dawn were so delicious was that you didn’t have to have a full half-hour of them. I think you’d get exhausted pretty quickly with the highs and lows of that relationship. It would just get so frantic and mad so quickly that I’m not sure it’d sustain for six episodes, but Julia is a genius. She’s also the worst corpser [an actor who laughs uncontrollably during scenes] I have ever met!” What about The Chelsea Detective? DI Arnold could probably carry on for years, solving hundreds of cases, but would Scarborough want to? “You shouldn’t outstay your welcome. You have to be careful that you don’t get bored and complacent, particularly in this genre. You can tell when your heart’s not in it, but I haven’t reached that stage yet!” It’s safe to say Scarborough won’t be requiring a parachute any time soon.
You season 5 ending explained: Who lives, who dies and Joe Goldberg's fate
*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for the final episode of You season 5.* You's final season has come to a dramatic end, revealing the fate of serial killer Joe Goldberg after five chapters of murder, obsessions, cover-ups and stalking – and he finally gets what he deserves. Things were looking very different for Joe at the start of the new season: his new partner Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie) had managed to use her newly inherited wealth to clear his name, enabling them to live a peaceful life together. But that all changed when Joe set his sights on new cast member Bronte (Madeline Brewer), an employee at his bookstore. Chaos ensued as Joe's darker side emerged once again, and Kate was left questioning whether she really knew who he was, while Bronte revealing she was duping him and was part of a Reddit community that wanted to take him down. We knew it was going to be a wild ride of a finale, but nothing could've quite prepared us for the heart-racing battle to the death that ensued between Bronte and Joe, as Bronte continued to wrestle with her true feelings and prospective future with a serial killer. Wondering who succeeded in this game of cat and mouse between Bronte and Joe, and whether anyone met a tragic fate? Read on for a full breakdown of the fates of each character in the final ever episode of Netflix's You, including some exclusive reflections on the finale from actress Charlotte Ritchie herself. You season 5 ending explained: What happened to everyone in the finale? Does Joe get caught in You season 5? Yes, Joe Goldberg is ultimately incarcerated for his crimes. After Maddie (Anna Camp) burns down Mooney's with her own sister Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and Joe inside, Bronte came back to rescue Kate, but as she was seemingly dead and with Joe still alive, she ended up bringing up Joe to safety, where he popped the big question. The finale starts with the pair on a road trip just outside New York, driving round to find somewhere to rest up for the night before they make their way to the Canadian border with new passports that have been pre-arranged by Joe. Unlike before, Bronte isn't blinded by her love for Joe any longer after her heartfelt conversation with Marienne. She's intent on making sure the world learns the truth about Joe and plays nice, resisting the urge to speak to a police officer when they stop for petrol and concealing a gun of her own. They end up at a holiday rental that Joe breaks into (he has no money, after all), spending the evening eating and going out on the boat for a ride around the lake. They end up in the bedroom just about to have sex when Bronte gets out the gun she's concealed under one of the pillows and aims it at Joe's head, demanding to know the truth about how he killed Guinevere Beck. Bronte orders Joe to redact all his own words from Beck's book, tearfully talking about how Joe has managed to erase parts of herself while they've been together. They're interrupted by a call from Joe's dodgy friend, who informs him that Henry's online playing his game and can be patched through to Joe. Henry is at home with his uncle Teddy (Griffin Matthews), who is seen solemnly talking to the police. Henry quizzes Joe about what he's done to his mother, referring to Kate. Henry tells Joe that despite Joe telling him there weren't any monsters in his room, Joe lied and actually is the monster. Henry's emotional statement breaks Joe, who completely loses it at Bronte and starts to question how he has become the person he is. Bronte is tired of Joe trying to play the victim and says she should call the police, but Joe says there's little point as he always manages to get off scot-free. He lunges at Bronte, knocking the gun from her grasp, and the pair get into an intense brawl, with Bronte eventually managing to break free and run into the surrounding woods. She returns to the house to call the police and manages to finally get through, once she's had to jump from the bedroom window to hide from Joe again. The phone is connected as Joe admits to breaking Bronte's ankle himself to keep her around so they can talk. He calls her ungrateful and spiteful as he follows her into the lake, strangling her seemingly to death in the water. After hearing sirens, Joe goes running into the woods and ambushes a police officer, who the camera pans to for a second time as it's revealed his gun is missing. Bronte is actually alive and has taken the officer's gun for herself, aiming it at Joe, who eventually begs her to kill him as the police start to circle the area. After a tense confrontation, Joe runs at Bronte but she shoots him in the penis, he drops to his feet and the cops come to take Joe away. What happened to Bronte in You season 5? After narrowly escaping Joe's deadly clutches and making it out alive from her tense stand-off with him, Bronte is the one narrating the final part of the episode. Now living in her truth as Louise, she reworked Beck's manuscript and took out Joe's additions after demanding he redact himself. A newly released version of Beck's book is released in stores, which is bittersweet for Louise, who wishes she were there in person to see it. She admits that her life will not be seen as before and after Joe, admitting that the memory of him shrinks with each passing day. She doesn't know what she wants to do or who she wants to be just yet, but says she can't wait to find out. What happened to Kate Lockwood in You season 5? As we learn in the episode's closing moments, Kate survived the fire at Mooney's after all. Left with burn scars, she wears them proudly as she embarks on a new chapter in her life with Henry and continues to spend plenty of time with her brother Teddy, who has made Lockwood Corporation a 100 per cent nonprofit after taking over as CEO. Having now left her father's company, Kate returns to her first love of art and continues to champion Marienne as an artist, who can now live in the public limelight after Joe is put behind bars. As for the rest of Kate's family, Reagan is obviously dead, but Maddie is now living happily as herself with Harrison, whose charges for Reagan's murder were dropped. Although Maddie was tried for arson and her sister's murder, she didn't have to serve time due to the circumstances. We see her enjoying time in the park with Harrison and Gretchen, now expecting twins of her own. Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about Kate's fate in the You finale, Ritchie said: "I found out so late. There were so many moments in the make-up room where I remember catching eyes with Penn, and he was definitely talking about Kate and he was like, 'So are you sad that Kate...?' And I was like, 'Sad that Kate what?' And he was like, 'What do you mean? You don't know?' I was like, 'I don't know. I don't know anything.' So there was this real tension." She continued: "There were a lot of rumours going around that he died, that he didn't, that he got away. They were really good at keeping it under wraps, even from us. I wonder if they were sort of still deciding towards the end... but I don't think so. I think they had that idea. "I was as satisfied as you can be. It's as close as satisfying as you could get. I reckon seeing him having to face himself, even though he won't, the possibility that he could is quite exciting. It's nice he can't get near anyone." What happened to Marienne Bellamy in You season 5? Free of Joe, Marienne can live a successful life as an artist. Having been plagued by Joe's existence for the last three seasons, Marienne is finally freed of him thanks to her alliance with the other women he has harmed. In the end, with Joe incarcerated, Marienne pursues her art and is even helped by Kate, who continues to raise Henry away from his father. What happened to Nadia Farran in You season 5? Having been freed from prison with the help of Kate and with Joe now in prison himself, Nadia returns to writing and seems happier than ever. She is seen returning to her prison to teach classes to women and uses her gifts to help others process their trauma. What happens at Joe's trial in You season 5? We then flash forward to a courthouse where Joe is being led from a courtroom to awaiting press and paparazzi, clearly numb to the fact that he has now finally been caught for his crimes. Bronte's narration reveals that Joe's trial was messy, and the truth of his true nature was undeniable. Through her shooting of him, Joe was also immortalised on the internet as a meme, eventually being turned on by the public. Joe was convicted of the murders of Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck, which then led to a flurry of allegations coming his way, which later turned to more convictions, ensuring that Joe will never be free again. We learn that Joe has also been convicted for the murders of season 1's Benji Ashby (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Peach Salinger (Shay Mitchell), Dr Nicky's conviction for Beck's murder was also vacated, with Dominique (Natasha Behnam) and Phoenix (b) telling a podcast that they're far from done with their internet sleuthing as there continue to be many more Joe's out in the world. Speaking about how she thinks fans will react to the ending, Ritchie previously told RadioTimes.com: "I think there'll be a mixed reaction, as there always is." She added: "I think this is such a larger than life character that finding an ending that satisfies everybody based on all of the various feelings they have about him, like in his life, I don't think that's possible, but I think it's a nice nod to the kind of relationship we have with him, which I think is quite fun and quite kind of inclusive, weirdly." Does Joe Goldberg die at the end of You season 5? No, as detailed above, Joe doesn't die in the series finale. Co-showrunner Michael Foley recently told Netflix's Tudum that everyone involved in the series agreed "death would be too easy" for Joe. “I always thought somebody killing Joe wouldn’t be justice. It would be vengeance. Anybody who kills him would be brought down to his level, which is not justice for them,” he said. “He’s a quandary in a way. What would justice for him look like? I think we get as close as we can.” However, Foley did recently reveal in an interview with the New York Post that Joe almost did meet a grisly end, explaining that the fifth season had an alternative ending where Joe realised he was actually dead and is a ghost. "We liked putting him in a veritable cage [in prison]. We liked him not knowing the touch of a lover," Foley told the publication, adding that "it was late in the season" when the writers had "finally locked that down". "Throughout the series, there was a shared belief among the writers and the creators that Joe wouldn't get away with his crimes," he added. "We came into the season knowing that we didn’t want to redeem him, that he would get his comeuppance, that he was going to face some of those whose lives he ruined. And most importantly, we knew he was going to be made to face himself." What does the You season 5 ending mean? The final scene of the series is of Joe in his prison cell, with a shaven head and in a red jumpsuit, denoting he has been imprisoned for the most violent crimes. He finishes reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, likely hinting at Joe's thoughts of the future, despite New York having abolished the death penalty. Joe's narration remarks on the loneliness of the time ahead and whether all the blame can be pinned on him if he's simply a product of his environment. He gets handed a letter from a fan, who is explicit in the kinds of sexual fantasies she wants to enact with Joe. Joe asks whether it's fair that he's caged while people like this continue to roam free, asking finally if the problem of this all is actually not him, but you. On that final moment of Joe reading his fan mail, Charlotte Ritchie told RadioTimes.com: "I don't know about the psychology of that. There's something about the distance that matters, right? "It's the same with the intrigue in the show. It's far away. It's not someone there in your living room or at your school or whatever. It's like they are away from you, and they exist in your mind, and in there you can control that, and that is major. People are into stuff that you can't explain." Meanwhile, speaking to Tudum about that final monologue, Foley explained it was a final "deflection" highlighting that Joe "has not changed". “I can see the whole arc of the series and I’m like, ‘Man, I’m glad I got to do that,’” Badgley added. “But there’s no amount of enjoyment or gratitude that can eclipse the brutal reality of what a man like Joe Goldberg is. And so, giving life to him for this long, I’m ready to lay that down … Hopefully, it just feels like a really good way to end it.” Elsewhere, Badgley was even more scathing about Joe's much-deserved fate. Speaking to Deadline, the actor said: "If somebody was to kill him – and it would be a woman, right – well then actually now what you’ve burdened her with is having committed murder, like that’s not just, I don’t think. Torture? Uh OK, same thing. Prison? Eh, feels a bit not enough. So what do you do? Take. His. Balls.” You season 5 is available to stream on Netflix now – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guideto find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Adrian Scarborough on The Chelsea Detective's future – and why he won't do a Gavin & Stacey spin-off
Scarborough chatted exclusively to Radio Times magazine about the return of the U&Drama series.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Adrian Scarborough has been acting for more than three decades – in television, film, radio and theatre. The accomplished character actor has played Villanelle’s violent and sinister handler Raymond in Killing Eve and Dawn’s awkward yet well-meaning husband Peter in Gavin & Stacey. He has two best supporting actor Olivier Awards and has appeared in acclaimed films including The History Boys and The King’s Speech. But it took until 2022, when The Chelsea Detective first aired, for Scarborough to be cast in a lead role on screen. Scarborough was actually ready to cut back on television work, but the part of DI Max Arnold convinced him to change his mind. “I never expected to go down this road,” says the 57-year-old who is now promoting the third series of his detective drama. “Playing the lead isn’t a responsibility that I really enjoy. People start looking at you like you must know the answer, because you’ve been there from the beginning.” Arnold and his partner DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme) solve cases in the London borough of Chelsea, and in the new season’s first episode, a body is found in an allotment. Scarborough enjoyed watching John Thaw in Inspector Morse growing up and says Arnold has a bit of “bumbling Columbo” about him. It’s cosy crime at its finest. There’s no swearing, no sex and no bloodshed. “It appeals, because there’s quite a few people out there, myself included, that don’t like too much gore,” says Scarborough. “The crimes themselves are almost irrelevant. The most interesting bit is the process of working them out.” Scarborough was born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. His father was a teacher and his mother was a lay worker at the local Methodist church, who inspired his love of theatre by taking him at a very young age. “I wanted to be a dancer, but it was very obvious from about the age of eight or nine I didn’t have the physique,” he says. “As soon as I saw that acting was a job you could do, I thought it was for me. My parents never turned up their noses and went, ‘You’re never going to be an actor, don’t go on the stage.’” He describes himself as a “disaster at school” and was his happiest when he left at the age of 16. “I don’t think school catered for the person that I was. My creative side wasn’t nourished. I’m a very practical person, so I learn by being active and doing. I don’t learn by reading or sitting.” He went on to attend Brooksby Melton College, where his love of acting was encouraged, and then he studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He recalls his first on-screen role in The Bill in 1991, when he had to drive a truck across an airfield. “I used to do what I call SAS acting,” Scarborough explains. “You essentially get parachuted into a job, you’re there for three days, they shoot all of your stuff, and you’re gone again. That had its own set of problems – you never got to be part of a family.” Now, he tries to make all the guest stars in The Chelsea Detective – which this series includes Alex Kingston (A Discovery of Witches, Doctor Who) as US ambassador Emily Morgan – feel as welcome as possible. “We try to make everybody’s journeys on the show a happy one, partly because I’ve had some s**t experiences in my time. I would hate anybody to come on our set and go away with that sort of experience. It’s hard walking into a space where you don’t know people and you’re expected to do big, emotional scenes or violent stuff, or be angry. It can be really tricky getting yourself to that place in a very short space of time when there’s not a lot of trust about. “You get on a gig where people have been doing it for a very long time, perhaps too long, and they get used to doing it in a particular way, and they don’t want to do it any differently. You don’t feel welcome or comfortable – you feel like cannon fodder. Those experiences have an impact – more of an impact than the good times you have. They can upset you and play havoc with your confidence.” How did he keep going? “Well, sometimes I didn’t actually. I took time out or went off and did something completely different.” The Chelsea Detective is very different to “SAS acting”. It takes five months to film, with a couple of months’ prep before that, and involves a lot of long days. “This takes up a massive chunk of my life. Your loved ones become impatient, and sometimes tempers are thin…” says Scarborough. He lives with his wife, psychotherapist Rose Blackshaw, in Hertfordshire. Their children, Esme and Jake, no longer live at home. “We try to be as communicative as we can, but it can be hard to find time to get together. You have to go, ‘OK, you can have me for an hour and a half here, you can have me for this much of Saturday, but the rest of the day I need to sit down and work out next week’s scenes and script, and I need a bit of time to myself.’” Scarborough didn’t expect for The Chelsea Detective to run as long as it has, and believes “all gigs have a finite life”. He praises Gavin & Stacey for knowing when to end. The final episode, which aired on Christmas Day last year, brought in more than 12 million viewers. Would he ever do a spin-off with Julia Davis, who plays his on-screen wife Dawn? “I don’t think so. One of the reasons why Peter and Dawn were so delicious was that you didn’t have to have a full half-hour of them. I think you’d get exhausted pretty quickly with the highs and lows of that relationship. It would just get so frantic and mad so quickly that I’m not sure it’d sustain for six episodes, but Julia is a genius. She’s also the worst corpser [an actor who laughs uncontrollably during scenes] I have ever met!” What about The Chelsea Detective? DI Arnold could probably carry on for years, solving hundreds of cases, but would Scarborough want to? “You shouldn’t outstay your welcome. You have to be careful that you don’t get bored and complacent, particularly in this genre. You can tell when your heart’s not in it, but I haven’t reached that stage yet!” It’s safe to say Scarborough won’t be requiring a parachute any time soon. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Chelsea Detective airs on U&Drama at 8pm on Wednesday 21st May. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Nicola Coughlan on why she's the "biggest fan" of "imperative and brilliant" intimacy coordinators
The Bridgerton and Big Mood star discusses her experience filming sexual scenes.
Nicola Coughlan, who we know and love for her roles in Derry Girls and Bridgerton, has received her first BAFTA nomination for Female Performance in a Comedy for Big Mood. She stars as Maggie, who has bipolar disorder, meaning she experiences periods of intense highs (mania) and intense lows (depression). She’s been best friends with Eddie (Lydia West, It’s a Sin) for 10 years, but recently their relationship has become strained. For half of her time filming Big Mood, Coughlan was also shooting the third season of Bridgerton. She stars as Penelope Featherington, who reveals her secret identity to the Ton as Lady Whistledown, the author of an anonymous gossip sheet. There are also plenty of steamy scenes with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), her long-time crush who she ends up marrying. Coughlan even shared an Instagram photo in June 2024 of them both next to a piece of furniture they broke during a sex scene! Does she feel like she has more agency doing intimate scenes with an intimacy coordinator? "I'm the biggest fan of intimacy coordinators. They’re imperative and brilliant. Lizzy Talbot, who worked on Bridgerton, was so phenomenal," Coughlan told Radio Times exclusively. She added: "It's really interesting, because you see a lot of backlash from actors of an older generation saying they don't get why intimacy coordinators are there or why they want them. It's not poo-pooing the way that things used to be done or to shame anyone, but it just makes you feel so much safer and in control. "It's dealt with like a stunt, so it's left in your hands, but you never feel like things are going to go awry or that you don't know what's going to happen next. You leave the set feeling empowered and good, which is what everyone should leave their workday feeling like. There are no blurred lines, it's not scary." The highly anticipated fourth season of Bridgerton likely won’t be released until 2026. Luke Thompson’s Benedict Bridgerton and his love story with maid Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) will be the focus as they become acquainted at Violet Bridgerton’s (Ruth Gemmell) masquerade ball. We’ll be able to catch Coughlan in The Magic Faraway Tree, Simon Farnaby’s film adaptation based on The Faraway Tree series of children’s novels by Enid Blyton, later this year. She’ll star as woodland fairy Silky alongside fellow BAFTA nominee Jessica Gunning, plus Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
'I never wanted to play Martha as a villain – she's nuanced'
Jessica Gunning is nominated for Supporting Actress for Baby Reindeer
Add the Bafta Television Awards and Baby Reindeer to your watchlist It’s been a little over a year since drama Baby Reindeer was released on Netflix, and actor Jessica Gunning has been riding the wave of its success. She’s picked up an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG Award and Royal Television Society Programme Award for her portrayal of stalker Martha Scott. Now she could be adding a Bafta to that already groaning shelf. Gunning is smiley and giggly and uses the word “special” a lot to describe her involvement in Baby Reindeer – with good reason. It has been seen by 252 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched Netflix shows of all time. It came out of nowhere, based on Richard Gadd’s one-man play of the same name from 2019, and then suddenly, it was all anyone was talking about. So, it might seem like Gunning is an overnight success, but she has been working for the better part of 18 years. The 38-year-old from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, has appeared in David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s Back, the film Pride and Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws, where she was also in the writers’ room. She used to give talks at her drama school, Rose Bruford College in London, to third-year students. “I’d tell them, ‘Think about the actors who you admire – they didn’t necessarily graduate from drama school and work straight away. The things you love them in are probably things they did in their 30s or 40s. These things do take time.’ “It took 17 years for the part of Martha to come around,” she continues. It’s one of several answers she starts with, “I’ve said previously,” which is understandable, as she’s been interviewed about Baby Reindeer a lot. Although not all coverage since its release has been positive. Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the real Martha, has filed a $170 million defamation lawsuit against Netflix in the US, with a court date set for 6 May. Did Gunning ever consider “the real Martha”? “As soon as I read the scripts, I was just playing a character. I never would have wanted to play Martha as a villain or a baddie, because I never saw her in that way. She’s multi-faceted and nuanced.” Her next project is Simon Farnaby’s film adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree, where she’ll be working with fellow Bafta nominee Nicola Coughlan, plus Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. Gunning’s rising star power is impossible to ignore, despite her desire to keep a low profile. “I’m not on social media and I’ve never felt the pressure to join. I don’t see myself as a celebrity and I don’t think actors need to be in the public eye. Sometimes you can just do your job and that’s that. I think there is a fascination with actors – I have it, too – where people want to know more about them. Somebody said the other day that people look at how many followers actors have in order to give them parts. I’m buggered if that’s true!” It feels unlikely that Gunning’s reluctance to join Instagram will impact her career trajectory – her life has undeniably changed for ever. “It’s been amazing to be a part of something that’s felt really special.” There’s that word again, and perhaps it’s really the only one that will do.
'I feel like TV is often catching up with real life'
Anjana Vasan is nominated for Female Performance in a Comedy in We Are Lady Parts
Add the Bafta Television Awards and We Are Lady Parts to your watchlist Indian-Singaporean actor Anjana Vasan, 38, plays lead guitarist Amina in We Are Lady Parts, about an all-female Muslim punk band. She’s also starred in Black Mirror, the film Wicked Little Letters and as Stella in a stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, for which she won an Olivier Award. How does it feel to be nominated for a Bafta? We Are Lady Parts is a very special show and it changed my life. It was the first time I played a lead woman of colour on TV – but it’s not just me, it’s five women of colour leading the show, and that’s rare. I feel like TV is often catching up with real life. We Are Lady Parts isn’t the first time punk music has been represented, it’s not the first time women of colour have done punk, but there’s real power in seeing it on screen. How important is it for the industry to trust diverse voices and female writers like Nida Manzoor (the creator, writer and director of We Are Lady Parts)? People can be quite scared to make something different, but audiences aren’t scared. The biggest opportunities I’ve ever had have come from women. Bisha K Ali co-wrote the Black Mirror episode Demon 79 with Charlie Brooker, and her presence was a big part of how I came into the picture, and the same with Nida. Any news on We Are Lady Parts series three? I will ask Nida when I see her at the Baftas! I message her all the time – the WhatsApp group is still going very strong. The best thing that has come from the show is I found so many sisters that I never had growing up.
'I was 22 in the first series of Industry. It was incredibly exposing'
Marisa Abela is nominated for Leading Actress for Industry.
Add the Bafta Television Awards and Industry to your watchlist The 28-year-old stars as investment banker Yasmin Kara-Hanani in finance drama Industry. She also recently played Amy Winehouse in the film Back to Black and appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag. How does it feel to be nominated? I found out the news on set while filming Industry, so it felt like a win for all of us. Getting a third series of the show was such a triumph. I’m currently filming series four and I’ll still be filming when the Baftas happen, so to take the win back to everyone would be really fun. It’s definitely validating. It feels great that people appreciate your work. Are the best roles in TV now female? No, but I don’t think men’s parts are necessarily better, either. There is much more equity than there was, but there’s that quote: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” There was always this idea that people didn’t want to sit down and watch a show about women, but [the HBO drama] Big Little Lies changed the game. Does working with female directors make a big difference? I was 22 when I did the first series of Industry and it was incredibly exposing in a lot of ways. The way the public deal with women’s bodies on screen over men’s will always be different and when women are asked to do a lot on screen, they need a woman guiding them through that process. There were lots of articles about how naked I got, so having Lena [Dunham] talking me through that was really important. It was the same working with Sam [Taylor-Johnson] on Back to Black, because that story was told through a very specific female lens. With the arrival of intimacy coordinators, do you feel like you have more agency? Yeah, definitely – I’m fluent in intimacy coordinator language! There are people now starting out on Industry who are as young as me when I joined and I can say, “If you don’t know what you want to ask for, I’m more than happy to talk to you about what helped me.” It’s always good to help others navigate that process.
Her career may be on a high but she’d be just as happy swapping telly for Tesco
Add Alison Hammond's Big Weekend to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? Well, babes, let me set the scene… my sofa is massive. I’m talking a sink-in-and-you-don’t-get-up-for-hours sort of sofa. It’s a lovely rich brown, so cosy. My son Aidan and I chose it, because he normally brings about ten mates over, and they could never fit before. Right above the television, there’s a beautiful picture of my late mum, so she’s always watching TV with me. Who controls the remote? I’m the queen of the scroll. If Aidan is around, I might let him have a little go – it depends if he’s making the tea. What have you been watching? Black Mirror series seven properly messed with my head, but I loved it. I’m obsessed with Love Is Blind and Married at First Sight: Australia, and am catching up on Celebrity Big Brother. You appeared in Big Brother in 2002. How has reality TV changed? There was no social media. You didn’t have that instant judgement from people, apart from when you came out and heard people clapping or booing. Now people tell you how they feel online. You also appeared on Celebrity Fit Club in 2004, which doesn’t feel like a show that would be made now. It was a different time back then, wasn’t it? All about body shaming. I remember doing Hole in the Wall [in 2009] wearing that silver outfit and they didn’t care that we didn’t look great. They just let us wear it. I’m glad that times have changed and we’re embracing everybody, no matter what they look like. In your new show, Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend, you spend 48 hours with celebrities including Sir Lenny Henry, Jimmy Carr and Mel B. How do you get them to open up? The fact they’ve said yes to do my show, they know we’re going to go deep with the chat. I would never ask a question that I wouldn’t want to be asked myself, but I’m quite an open book. As long as it’s respectful and they’re comfortable, I’ll ask anything. And even if they’re not comfortable, sometimes you have to go there. I ask all the questions you’re thinking at home. Which of your celebrity interviews has been the most memorable? Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling was the worst because I didn’t get any content for the film [Blade Runner 2049] at all. It’s the best interview if you want to cheer yourself up – you’re gonna laugh. I could never, ever re-create that situation. Ryan was in a good mood and so was Harrison. To be the one who made Harrison laugh like that was just brilliant. Not everyone finds the Hammond funny, you know! Do you like being interviewed? No, I like to be in control all the time. What’s the interview question I should be asking you? “Are you happy?” Because not many people ask that. Well, Alison, are you happy? I’m so happy! I’m in such a good place. I’m 50, I’ve done everything I needed to do in life, and now I’m just enjoying it! I’ve had hard times, and I know television is fickle, so tomorrow I could be out of work. This might not be for ever, so you’ve got to enjoy every single day, and it’s not the end of the world if it ends. I could go get a job in Tesco and be more than happy there as well. In 2021, you were the first black presenter to be shortlisted for an NTA. Do you feel like a role model? No, but I get letters from people who say that I’ve encouraged them to be more confident. It’s pressure when you call someone a role model – I’m not perfect, I get things wrong. But it’s really important to have people on the telly who everyone can relate to. My life has changed a little, but I’m still the same old Alison. I still clean my own house. There’s no difference other than I’m doing well on TV.
'I’d love to play a very unlikeable woman that has no redeeming qualities'
Nicola Coughlan is nominated for Female Performance in a Comedy for Big Mood
Add the Bafta Television Awards and Big Mood to your watchlist Derry Girls has won several Baftas and Bridgerton has received nominations, but as brilliant as Nicola Coughlan is in both, she’s surprisingly never received an individual Bafta nod – until now, for Big Mood. The dark comedy is about the friendship between Eddie (It’s a Sin’s Lydia West) and Maggie (Coughlan), who has bipolar disorder, and it’s essentially been in the works for 16 years – ever since Coughlan and writer Camilla Whitehill met at the Oxford School of Drama. “Camilla made me laugh so much. I remember seeing her first short play, and in that moment, I knew she was going to be famous,” Coughlan says. “I was never asked to be in Big Mood. It was more, ‘I’m making a show, and you’re gonna be in it.’ I was like, ‘Right, OK!’ It was never a doubt.” When Coughlan, 38, left drama school, she remembers roles for women being mainly “someone’s girlfriend, or the woman who sits behind a desk”. She found it difficult to find work in her 20s and moved to London three times in four years, each time returning to her parents in Galway, Ireland. “There were definitely lots of moments where I thought, ‘Should I quit?’ It’s a difficult industry to break into and I didn’t have any connections or money. It didn’t seem sensible for me to keep going, but I got Derry Girls at 30, which was an amazing turning point.” Some of the Bridgerton shoot crossed over with Big Mood, with Coughlan filming one during the week and the other at the weekend. It took her two hours to get ready for Bridgerton, whereas no wigs or make-up were required to play Maggie. “We didn’t want to present mental illness in a pretty way. In the scenes where Maggie’s meant to look terrible, I said, ‘I have to look terrible. If she has dirty hair, my hair will be dirty.’” She adds, “I think we’re getting braver with what’s represented on television. There’s certain things that have broken out, like Baby Reindeer and Adolescence, but it also strikes me that they centre on male experiences. I think men are still given a lot more chances in this industry than women. What would we have done without Michaela Coel [Chewing Gum, I May Destroy You] or Phoebe Waller-Bridge [Fleabag]? “I hope there’s more roles like Maggie for women to play. Maggie’s not particularly nice or sweet, she’s a bit abrasive. Viewers and reviewers massively struggle when a female character is unlikeable. Let them be terrible! I’d love to play a villain – a very unlikeable woman that has no redeeming qualities.”
Anjana Vasan on We Are Lady Parts season 3 and why her biggest opportunities have all come from women
The hilarious and zany Channel 4 sitcom follows an all-female, all-Muslim punk rock band.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Indian-Singaporean actor Anjana Vasan, 38, plays lead guitarist Amina in We Are Lady Parts, about an all-female Muslim punk band. She’s also starred in Black Mirror, the film Wicked Little Letters and as Stella in a stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, for which she won an Olivier Award. How does it feel to be nominated for a BAFTA? We Are Lady Parts is a very special show and it changed my life. It was the first time I played a lead woman of colour on TV – but it’s not just me, it’s five women of colour leading the show, and that’s rare. I feel like TV is often catching up with real life. We Are Lady Parts isn’t the first time punk music has been represented, it’s not the first time women of colour have done punk, but there’s real power in seeing it on screen. How important is it for the industry to trust diverse voices and female writers like Nida Manzoor (the creator, writer and director of We Are Lady Parts)? People can be quite scared to make something different, but audiences aren’t scared. The biggest opportunities I’ve ever had have come from women. Bisha K Ali co-wrote the Black Mirror episode Demon 79 with Charlie Brooker, and her presence was a big part of how I came into the picture, and the same with Nida. Any news on We Are Lady Parts season 3? I will ask Nida when I see her at the BAFTAs! I message her all the time – the WhatsApp group is still going very strong. The best thing that has come from the show is I found so many sisters that I never had growing up. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. We Are Lady Parts is available to stream on Channel 4. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Marisa Abela on Industry, nudity double standards, and being guided by Lena Dunham on set
The star spoke to Radio Times magazine for the new BAFTA special issue.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. The 28-year-old stars as investment banker Yasmin Kara-Hanani in finance drama Industry. She also recently played Amy Winehouse in the film Back to Black and appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag. How does it feel to be nominated? I found out the news on set while filming Industry, so it felt like a win for all of us. Getting a third series of the show was such a triumph. I’m currently filming series four and I’ll still be filming when the BAFTAs happen, so to take the win back to everyone would be really fun. It’s definitely validating. It feels great that people appreciate your work. Are the best roles in TV now female? No, but I don’t think men’s parts are necessarily better, either. There is much more equity than there was, but there’s that quote: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” There was always this idea that people didn’t want to sit down and watch a show about women, but [the HBO drama] Big Little Lies changed the game. Does working with female directors make a big difference? I was 22 when I did the first series of Industry and it was incredibly exposing in a lot of ways. The way the public deal with women’s bodies on screen over men’s will always be different and when women are asked to do a lot on screen, they need a woman guiding them through that process. There were lots of articles about how naked I got, so having Lena [Dunham] talking me through that was really important. It was the same working with Sam [Taylor-Johnson] on Back to Black, because that story was told through a very specific female lens. With the arrival of intimacy coordinators, do you feel like you have more agency? Yeah, definitely – I’m fluent in intimacy coordinator language! There are people now starting out on Industry who are as young as me when I joined and I can say, "If you don’t know what you want to ask for, I’m more than happy to talk to you about what helped me." It’s always good to help others navigate that process. 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 Guideto find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Jessica Gunning on Baby Reindeer success: "It took 17 years for the part of Martha to come around"
Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning opens up to Radio Times magazine about her BAFTA nomination.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It’s been a little over a year since hit series Baby Reindeer was released on Netflix, and star Jessica Gunning has been riding the wave of its success. She’s picked up an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG Award and Royal Television Society Programme Award for her portrayal of stalker Martha Scott, based on writer and creator Richard Gadd’s real-life experience. Now she could be adding a BAFTA to that already groaning shelf, in what she calls her “pinch-me” year. Gunning is smiley and giggly and uses the word “special” a lot to describe her involvement in Baby Reindeer – with good reason. Since it launched, it has been seen by 252.1 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched Netflix shows of all time. It came out of nowhere, with a strange title based on Gadd’s one-man play of the same name from 2019, and then suddenly, it was all anyone was talking about. “I don't think you ever do a job imagining loads of people are going to watch it, or you're going to be nominated for awards,” Gunning says. She mentions the types of people who have approached her – from teenagers to 80-year-olds and even famous fans including Kathy Bates. “When you meet people you’ve admired for years and they know your name, you’re like ‘Huh?’ It’s all just been nuts.” It might seem like Gunning was an overnight success, but in reality, she’s been working for the better part of 18 years, although she’s probably most recognisable for supporting roles and comedic parts. The 38-year-old from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire appeared in David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s Back, the film Pride, and Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws, where she was also in the writers’ room. She used to do talks at her drama school, Rose Bruford College in London, to students in their third year wanting to be actors. “I'd tell them, ‘Think about the actors who you admire – like Olivia Colman or Idris Elba – they didn’t necessarily graduate from drama school and work straight away. The things you love them in are probably things they did in their 30s or 40s. These things do take time.’ “It took 17 years for the part of Martha to come around,” she continues, “hopefully it doesn’t take 17 more.” It’s one of several answers she starts with, “I’ve said previously,” which is understandable, because she’s been interviewed about Baby Reindeer a lot. Although not all coverage since its release has been positive. Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the real Martha, has filed a $170m (£132m) defamation lawsuit against Netflix in the US. Did Gunning ever consider the 'real' Martha? “As soon as I read the scripts, I was just playing a character, and so was Richard [he plays a version of himself called Donny Dunn]. We were just telling the story – all the work was there on the page. I never would have wanted to play Martha as a villain or a baddie, because I never saw her in that way. She’s multifaceted and nuanced.” Her next project is Simon Farnaby’s film adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree, where she’ll be working with fellow BAFTA nominee Nicola Coughlan, plus Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. Gunning’s rising star power is impossible to ignore, despite her desire to keep a relatively low-profile. “I'm not on social media and I've never felt the pressure to join. I don't see myself as a celebrity in that way. I don't necessarily think actors need to always be in the public eye. Sometimes you can just do your job and that's that. I think there is a fascination with actors – I have it too – where people want to know more about them. Somebody said the other day that people look at how many followers actors have in order to give them parts. I'm buggered if that's true!” Gunning came out as gay to her family and friends in 2022, and she confirmed her sexuality in June 2024 during a podcast interview on Reign with Josh Smith shortly after Baby Reindeer was released, calling herself a “big, ol’ gay”. “I didn't intend to publicly announce anything. It was just a really nice conversation. I ended up mentioning it then, because I couldn't really answer any of the questions without saying that. It took me a while to realise I was gay.” Surely this type of representation is important when it’s coming from someone so heavily in the spotlight? Gunning reflects: “After that conversation, I had loads of people say it meant a lot to them to hear my story. Those kinds of things do matter, especially if people feel seen.” Gunning says she feels like the same person after all the reception she’s received for playing Martha, but her life has undeniably changed forever. “It's been amazing to be a part of something that's felt really… special.” There’s that word again, and perhaps it’s really the only one that will do. 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 see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Nicola Coughlan considered quitting acting before landing Derry Girls role
"Television is in an incredibly difficult position now, because there's more competition than ever for eyes, and it's really hard to launch a new show."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Derry Girls has won several BAFTAs and Bridgerton has been nominated for many, but as brilliant as Nicola Coughlan is in both, she’s surprisingly never received an individual BAFTA nod – until now for Big Mood. The dark comedy is about the friendship between Eddie (It’s a Sin’s Lydia West) and Maggie (Coughlan), who has bipolar disorder, and it's essentially been in the works for 16 years – ever since Coughlan and writer Camilla Whitehill met at the Oxford School of Drama. “Camilla made me laugh so much. I remember seeing her first short play, and in that moment, I knew she was going to be famous,” Coughlan says. “I was never asked to be in Big Mood. It was just sort of like, ‘I'm making a show, and you're gonna be in it.’ I was like, ‘Right, okay!’ It was never a doubt.” When Coughlan, 38, left drama school, she remembers roles for women being mainly “someone's girlfriend or the woman with two lines who sat behind a desk”. She found it difficult to find work in her 20s. In four years, she moved to London three times, each time returning to her parents in Galway, Ireland. “There were definitely lots of moments where I thought, ‘Should I quit?’ It's a difficult industry to break into and I didn't have any connections or money. It didn't seem sensible for me to keep going, but I got Derry Girls at 30, which was an amazing turning point.” Coughlan was shooting Bridgerton for half of Big Mood, filming one during the week and one at the weekend. It took her two hours to get ready for the former, whereas no wigs or makeup were required to play Maggie. “We didn't want to present mental illness in a pretty way. People can see it as something very glamorous, and it can be depicted completely wrong. In the scenes where Maggie's meant to look terrible, I was like, ‘I have to look terrible. If she has dirty hair, my hair will be dirty.’” She adds, “I think we’re getting braver with what’s represented on television. I hope there's more roles like Maggie for women to play. Maggie’s not particularly nice or sweet, she’s a bit abrasive. Viewers and reviewers massively struggle when a female character is unlikable. “I always use the same example of Walter White from Breaking Bad – no one thought to make him a little softer, a little bit more understanding, and to show that he really takes care of his family, so why should female characters have to ascribe to this strange notion? Let them be terrible! I'd love to play a villain – a very unlikeable woman that has no redeeming qualities.” Coughlan explains that it was important to Whitehill to have a female comedy director for Big Mood, but she struggled to find one in the UK, which meant Rebecca Asher (Arrested Development, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grace and Frankie) flew in from America. A report from 2014 found that only 8 per cent of entertainment and comedy was directed by women, and female writers are particularly under-represented (30.2 per cent) in comedy programmes, according to data from 2021/2022. “Television is in an incredibly difficult position now, because there's more competition than ever for eyes, and it's really hard to launch a new show. I think there's an impression that people want to sit in comfort and just watch the same thing again and again – I don't believe that,” says Coughlan. “There's certain things that have broken out, like Baby Reindeer and Adolescence that are wholly original, but it also does strike me that they centre on male experiences. I think men are still given a lot more chances in this industry than women. What would we have done if the industry hadn't supported Michaela Coel [Chewing Gum/I May Destroy You] or Phoebe Waller-Bridge [Fleabag]?” Recently the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. Coughlan has long been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and since the ruling, has launched a fundraiser for the trans charity Not a Phase, raising over £100,000. “We need to support marginalised groups, especially trans people. At the moment, it's such a scary world for them to be living in. There’s so much space for queer stories and people want to see it,” she says. “There can be a very small vocal minority that makes it seem like the rest of the world aren't allies to the queer and trans communities, and I don't believe that's true. I think there are actually a lot more good people in the world that are supportive, but they're just not necessarily as loud, so I feel very lucky if I have a bit of a platform to be able to speak up.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Alison Hammond: 'My TV career could end tomorrow – but I’d be just as happy working in Tesco'
The beloved TV presenter has a new series coming to BBC One.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What's the view from your sofa? Well, babes, let me set the scene… my sofa is massive. I'm talking a sink-in-and-you-don't-get-up-for-hours sort of sofa. It's a lovely rich brown, so cosy. My son Aidan and I chose it, because he normally brings about 10 mates over, and they could never fit before. Right above the television, there's a beautiful picture of my late mum, so she's always watching TV with me. Who controls the remote? I'm the queen of the scroll. If Aidan is around, I might let him have a little go – it depends if he's making the tea. What have you been watching? Black Mirror season 7 properly messed with my head, but I loved it. I'm obsessed with Love Is Blind and Married at First Sight Australia, and am catching up on Celebrity Big Brother. You appeared in Big Brother in 2002. How has reality TV changed? There was no social media. You didn't have that instant judgement from people, apart from when you came out and heard people clapping or booing. Now people tell you how they feel online. You also appeared on Celebrity Fit Club in 2004, which doesn’t feel like a show that would be made now. It was a different time back then, wasn't it? All about body shaming. I remember doing Hole in the Wall [in 2009] wearing that silver outfit and they didn't care that we didn’t look great. They just let us wear it. I'm glad that times have changed and we're embracing everybody, no matter what they look like. In your new show, Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend, you spend 48 hours with celebrities including Sir Lenny Henry, Jimmy Carr and Mel B. How do you get them to open up? The fact they've said yes to do my show, they know we're going to go deep with the chat. I would never ask a question that I wouldn’t want to be asked myself, but I'm quite an open book. As long as it's respectful and they’re comfortable, I'll ask anything. And even if they’re not comfortable, sometimes you have to go there. I ask all the questions you’re thinking at home. Which of your celebrity interviews has been the most memorable? Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling was the worst because I didn't get any content for the film [Blade Runner 2049] at all. It's the best interview if you want to cheer yourself up – you’re gonna laugh. I could never, ever re-create that situation. Ryan was in a good mood and so was Harrison. To be the one who made Harrison laugh like that was just brilliant. Not everyone finds the Hammond funny, you know! Do you like being interviewed? No, I like to be in control all the time. What’s the interview question I should be asking you? "Are you happy?' Because not many people ask that. Well, Alison, are you happy? I'm so happy! I’m in such a good place. I’m 50, I’ve done everything I needed to do in life, and now I’m just enjoying it! I’ve had hard times, and I know television is fickle, so tomorrow I could be out of work. This might not be for ever, so you’ve got to enjoy every single day, and it’s not the end of the world if it ends. I could go get a job in Tesco and be more than happy there as well. In 2021, you were the first black presenter to be shortlisted for an NTA. Do you feel like a role model? No, but I get letters from people who say that I’ve encouraged them to be more confident. It’s pressure when you call someone a role model – I’m not perfect, I get things wrong. But it’s really important to have people on the telly who everyone can relate to. My life has changed a little, but I’m still the same old Alison. I still clean my own house. There’s no difference other than I’m doing well on TV. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Alison Hammond's Big Weekend begins on Friday 16th May at 8:30pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Baby Reindeer star says Paddington and Ghosts fans will love new Enid Blyton adaptation
Jessica Gunning will next appear in The Magic Faraway Tree.
Jessica Gunning gained widespread acclaim for her role as stalker Martha Scott in Baby Reindeer, based on writer, creator and star Richard Gadd’s real-life experience and adapted from his autobiographical one-man show. Gadd plays a version of himself as struggling comedian Donny Dunn, who meets Martha at the London pub he works in. She grows very attached to him and begins to stalk him online and in person. Gunning has won an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG Award and Royal Television Society Programme Award, plus many more, for the role. Baby Reindeer is leading this year’s BAFTA TV awards with eight nominations, including for Gunning in the Supporting Actress category. The 38-year-old from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire has appeared in David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s Back, the film Pride, and Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws. For her next project, she’s jumping into the family-friendly tale The Magic Faraway Tree, based on The Faraway Tree series of children’s novels by Enid Blyton. What has that been like after Baby Reindeer? “It was lovely, and it's such a beloved story,” Gunning tells Radio Times exclusively. “I really hope people will love it. It's one of those things that grandparents who read the books when they were little will enjoy, and there will be people discovering it for the first time as well. I've got a feeling it might be a pretty magical tale. It was amazing to film.” It’s adapted by BAFTA winner Simon Farnaby (Wonka, Paddington 2, Ghosts), and directed by Ben Gregor (Britannia, Cuckoo), so Gunning assures us, "Paddington fans and Ghosts fans will love it! Simon's script was so heartwarming and funny. Even in the read-through, there wasn't a dry eye in the house at the end". The story follows Polly (Claire Foy) and Tim (Andrew Garfield) and their three children, who relocate to the remote English countryside. There, the children discover a magical tree and its residents. At the top of the tree, they are transported to different lands, where they embark on fantastical adventures. The characters include Dame Washalot (Gunning), Moonface (Nonso Anozie, Ted Lasso), woodland fairy Silky (Nicola Coughlan, Bridgerton), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns, Slow Horses), Mr Oom Boom Boom (Mark Heap, Friday Night Dinner) and Mr Watzisname (Oliver Chris, Trying). Lenny Henry, Michael Palin and Simon Russell Beale will portray mystical wise men from the Land of Know-Alls. The film is set to be released this year. The Magic Faraway Tree will be released later this year. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Black Mirror star didn't know she was going to film cameo for season 7
Anjana Vasan makes an appearance in the season 7 Black Mirror episode USS Callister: Into Infinity.
Anjana Vasan, who is nominated for a BAFTA for Female Performance in a Comedy for We Are Lady Parts, is also known for starring in Black Mirror’s Demon 79 episode in season 6. Vasan recently made a cameo in season 7’s USS Callister: Into Infinity, a follow-up to the season 4 episode USS Callister. She appears briefly on screen with her Demon 79 co-star Paapa Essiedu as they play gamers in the final scene attacking the spaceship the USS Callister. "That cameo was a surprise," the Indian-Singaporean actor, 38, tells Radio Times exclusively. "Paapa and I did a little set visit, because the team behind USS Callister were the same team that made Demon 79. It was around the time of the BAFTAs last year, and we were all nominated [for seven awards], and we wanted to do a set visit to celebrate. "Our producer had this wonderful idea that maybe we should be in it. It was all very spontaneous and very quick." She adds: "The truth is, we had no idea what the story was when we shot it, they just yelled some instructions at us. "They gave us a brief context of what was happening in that scene. I was doing things, and I had no idea what they were going to use, or if we were going to get cut. It was a fun day on set, but I did not expect to be in another Black Mirror episode." In USS Callister: Into Infinity, Captain Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) is dead and the crew of the USS Callister, led by Captain Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti), are stranded in an infinite virtual universe as they fight against 30 million players. Several cast members returned to reprise their roles, including Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks, Osy Ikhile, Paul G Raymond and Plemons as a digital clone version of Daly. Demon 79 is set in the town of Tipley, an area of Greater Manchester, in 1979, where Nida Huq (Vasan) works at a department store selling shoes. She releases the demon Gaap (Essiedu), who tells Huq she has three days to make three human sacrifices. If she fails, it will lead to world destruction. Vasan has recently played lead guitarist Amina in the all-female Muslim punk band Lady Parts for two seasons of We Are Lady Parts. She also starred in Wicked Little Letters and in the play A Streetcar Named Desire as Stella, for which she won an Olivier Award. Black Mirror season 7 is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV
The Ghosts star is embracing his silly side as he takes on the Taskmaster
Add Taskmaster to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? We’ve got a nice, deep sofa and we like to get our feet up, but lately, I’m usually watching my nine-year-old daughter do a dance. She choreographs her own little routines to pop songs and then tells us to come and see. What have you been watching on the TV recently? When your kids are young, you end up sharing their screen habits a lot – Bluey, Peppa Pig and Pixar movies – so it becomes a treat to watch something really dark like The Babadook. We also just watched Tribe with Bruce Parry. It takes you somewhere you would never get to go and expands your idea of the world. There’s also the entertainment factor of the suffering he potentially has to go through to prove himself… <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/01/taskmaster-series-19-cast-0ebf1bf.jpg" width="1200" height="675" alt="Portraits of Fatiha El-Ghorri, Jason Mantzoukas, Mathew Baynton, Rosie Ramsey and Stevie Martin with a large typewriter in the background and the words 'Coming Soon' typed on the page." title="Fatiha El-Ghorri, Jason Mantzoukas, Mathew Baynton, Rosie Ramsey and Stevie Martin on Taskmaster" /> Your partner Kelly Robinson is a film historian. Is there a lot of film chat in your house? When you’ve ended up in the business, particularly as a writer, watching things can be a bit of a busman’s holiday. Kelly’s also a writer and we’ve been writing some stuff together. When we watch films with our son, who’s 14, he gets so annoyed because we do talk shop and he goes, “Can you just shut up?” How do you watch your films? We’ve still got boxes of VHS tapes, and we’ve got one of those VHS-to-hard-drive things. I also collect records – I really like having a thing in my hand and the artwork. I wish we could go back to the days where you just pay for the thing you want and you don’t get a whole catalogue of stuff that you don’t care about alongside it. You’re in the new series of Taskmaster — what was your approach? I’m not a stand-up, and I’ve never felt really comfortable being myself, so I wanted to give myself a bit of a mask, a costume, something that gives me permission to feel silly – almost reminding myself that I’m here to be laughed at. So I thought it might be fun to treat it like it’s sport and the idea of being dressed for a marathon or athletics with a number on. I asked the costume guys to get me some short shorts and a vest. The vest was too big and the shorts were really short. One of the tasks is to do something that you think looks “cool” when the footage is reversed… were you cool at school? No, being funny probably was my currency. I was really skinny and felt, physically, like a completely inferior specimen to all the other boys, but I could make people laugh. I learnt the guitar and I played in a band, so I had my idea of what I thought was cool, but I don’t think I ever really managed to convince anyone else. You starred in Horrible Histories. How does it feel knowing children have learnt history through watching it? It’s crazy. It feels like an unearned accolade. I was just lucky enough to be doing the thing I wanted to do with my life – being funny and playing silly characters. My kids didn’t watch much of Horrible Histories because their dad’s in it, but they both had phases where they were into the songs. One of my brothers is a teacher, and it must be galling for him that he’s put the graft in day in, day out, to educate hundreds of kids over the years, and then his brother, the clown, gets to say, “I taught the whole country, mate!” With shows like Taskmaster and Last One Laughing, do you think we’ve rediscovered silly comedy? I don’t think silly ever went away. There was a report that original comedy commissioning was at a low, but I hope that commissioners, channels, streamers and broadcasters continue to invest in comedy, because it’s evergreen. People will remember the comedy and comedy shows they’ve loved for all their life; drama doesn’t necessarily always last the same way in people’s minds.
Mathew Baynton explains his unusual Taskmaster outfit: "The shorts were really short"
The Ghosts alum speaks to Radio Times magazine about his recent work – and the view from his sofa.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What's the view from your sofa? We’ve got a nice, deep sofa and we like to get our feet up, but lately, I’m usually watching my nine-year-old daughter do a dance. She choreographs her own little routines to pop songs and then tells us to come and see. What have you been watching on the TV recently? When your kids are young, you end up sharing their screen habits a lot – Bluey, Peppa Pig and Pixar movies – so it becomes a treat to watch something really dark like The Babadook. We also just watched Tribe with Bruce Parry. It takes you somewhere you would never get to go and expands your idea of the world. There’s also the entertainment factor of the suffering he potentially has to go through to prove himself… Your partner Kelly Robinson is a film historian. Is there a lot of film chat in your house? When you’ve ended up in the business, particularly as a writer, watching things can be a bit of a busman’s holiday. Kelly’s also a writer and we’ve been writing some stuff together. When we watch films with our son, who’s 14, he gets so annoyed because we do talk shop and he goes, "Can you just shut up?" How do you watch your films? We’ve still got boxes of VHS tapes, and we’ve got one of those VHS-to-hard drive things. I also collect records – I really like having a thing in my hand and the artwork. I wish we could go back to the days where you just pay for the thing you want and you don’t get a whole catalogue of stuff that you don’t care about alongside it. You're in the new season of Taskmaster — what was your approach? I’m not a stand-up, and I’ve never felt really comfortable being myself, so I wanted to give myself a bit of a mask, a costume, something that gives me permission to feel silly – almost reminding myself that I’m here to be laughed at. So I thought it might be fun to treat it like it’s sport and the idea of being dressed for a marathon or athletics with a number on. I asked the costume guys to get me some short shorts and a vest. The vest was too big and the shorts were really short. One of the tasks is to do something that you think looks "cool" when the footage is reversed… were you cool at school? <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/04/taskmaster-season-19-artwork-5dd8e29.jpg" width="3050" height="2033" alt="Taskmaster season 19 artwork of Rosie Ramsey, Jason Mantzoukas, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Mathew Baynton and Rosie Ramsey trapped in green capsules, with a large Greg Davies looming over them and grabbing one of the capsules and Alex Horne looking shocked behind him." title="Taskmaster season 19 artwork" /> No, being funny probably was my currency. I was really skinny and felt, physically, like a completely inferior specimen to all the other boys, but I could make people laugh. I learnt the guitar and I played in a band, so I had my idea of what I thought was cool, but I don’t think I ever really managed to convince anyone else. You starred in Horrible Histories. How does it feel knowing children have learnt history through watching it? It’s crazy. It feels like an unearned accolade. I was just lucky enough to be doing the thing I wanted to do with my life – being funny and playing silly characters. My kids didn’t watch much of Horrible Histories because their dad’s in it, but they both had phases where they were into the songs. One of my brothers is a teacher, and it must be galling for him that he’s put the graft in day in, day out, to educate hundreds of kids over the years, and then his brother, the clown, gets to say, "I taught the whole country, mate!" With shows like Taskmaster and Last One Laughing, do you think we've rediscovered silly comedy? I don’t think silly ever went away. There was a report that original comedy commissioning was at a low, but I hope that commissioners, channels, streamers and broadcasters continue to invest in comedy, because it’s evergreen. People will remember the comedy and comedy shows they’ve loved for all their life; drama doesn’t necessarily always last the same way in people’s minds. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Taskmaster season 19 premieres on Thursday 1st May 2025. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
You star Charlotte Ritchie didn't find out Kate's fate until late
She also had no idea what was going to happen to Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg in the season 5 finale.
*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for the ending of You season 5.* In the fifth and final season of You, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) returns to New York from London with his wealthy British wife Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie) and his son Henry (Frankie DeMaio). Their marriage soon comes crumbling down as Kate can’t see past his proclivity for killing, even though she practically asks him to murder her uncle Bob. Besides, Joe’s attention is elsewhere, and he becomes infatuated with Brontë, or should we say, Louise (Madeline Brewer). Kate decides the only way to get rid of Joe once and for all is to kill him, so she teams up with his previous victims Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) and Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) to trap him in his glass cage in the basement of Mooney’s bookstore. When Maddie Lockwood (Anna Camp), Kate’s half-sister, is freed from jail, after Joe put her there, she sets Mooney’s on fire. Joe, who had a secret key hidden in his arm to unlock the cage, and Kate are now both trapped in the basement as the flames engulf the store. After a struggle, Joe shoots Kate in her side. She records Joe confessing to the murder of his ex-wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), which she then sends to Nadia. Both Kate and Joe manage to escape when Brontë comes to the rescue. Speaking exclusively to Radio Times, Charlotte Ritchie told us she found out Kate’s fate really late. “There were so many moments in the make-up room where I remember catching eyes with Penn, and he was like, ‘So are you sad that Kate...?’ And I was like, "Sad that Kate what?’ He was like, ‘What do you mean? You don't know?’ I didn’t know anything, so there was this real tension.” Ritchie was also left in the dark about what would happen to Joe. “There were a lot of rumours going around that he died, that he didn't, that he got away. They were really good at keeping it under wraps, even from us.” Joe attempts to flee the country with Brontë, but she finally sees him for who he really is. Followed by an intense showdown, the police show up and Joe is held accountable for his crimes at last. He’s convicted for the murders of Love, Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) and Beck’s friends Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Peach (Shay Mitchell), and sentenced to life without parole. Kate, wearing her scars from the fire proudly, having stepped down as CEO from her father’s company, is now devoted to looking after Henry and is returning to her first love: art. What did Ritchie think of the You ending? “It's as close to satisfying as you could get. Seeing Joe have to face himself, even though he won't... the possibility that he could is quite exciting. It's nice he can't get near anyone. I think there'll be a mixed reaction from fans, as there always is, but I think it's a nice nod to the kind of relationship we have with him.” Just before the credits roll, Joe laments his loneliness and then receives a letter from a “fan”, one of many he’s been receiving while locked up. “I don't know about the psychology of that. People are into stuff that you can't explain,” said Ritchie. “There's something about the distance that matters, right? It's the same with the intrigue in the show. It's far away.” Joe makes the claim that society is broken and perhaps the problem isn’t him, but us, but you. Throughout its run, You has been seen as controversial, because people have romanticised Joe, despite his violent and manipulative actions. “This is a fantastical realisation of the darkest sides of humanity and it’s packaged in an attractive, charismatic man, which is going to hold a really weird place for people because of that,” said Ritchie. “People have to decide their own relationship with it. Joe is essentially a cartoon character, an amalgamation of real people, and he behaves in ways that real people have and will behave, but the crucial thing is this is not a true crime documentary, which is about a real person and a real victim, this is made up.” You is based on the books by author Caroline Kepnes, and in the most recent, fourth book, For You and Only You (2023), Joe does not receive his comeuppance in jail – he’s very much free, so although season 5 is the show’s last, perhaps in the future we’ll see Joe live to kill another day. You season 5 is available to stream on Netflix now – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guideto find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
We’re all one bad day away from prison, says the presenter and activist
Add Katie Piper: Locked Up in Louisiana to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? We sit in an open plan kitchen-lounge area to watch telly. We always have lots of snacks and a blanket. My husband [carpenter Richard Sutton] and I don’t argue over the remote. Our daughters are still quite young at seven and 11, so we watch one show a night, then we go up to bed. What have you been watching recently? Con Mum on Netflix is fast-paced, sad, funny and shocking. I enjoy watching kids’ TV with my children. You get to relive a lot of nostalgic things, like old Disney stuff, and you get to experience the new live-action Disney films together. In Katie Piper: Locked Up in Louisiana, you visit female inmates at New Orleans Parish Prison. What did you learn from the experience? We’re all one bad day away from being locked up. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you in life and who’s going to harm you – and how you’re going to react when somebody harms you. In 2008, you were the victim of an acid attack. How much of your own story do you reveal when you meet these women? I go in with lived experience – as a woman, a mother, a daughter, a victim of crime. Some of my story is worn on my face. That was an advantage and meant the women probably trusted me, but some of them shouted stuff like, “Hey lady, are you addicted to Botox?” or “Slow down on the plastic surgery.” They didn’t know what had happened to me. A lot of their stories involve abuse, trauma and drug addiction, which must be hard to listen to… Making a programme like this stays with you for ever. Part of you feels guilty coming home. They’ve just told you about their life and then you leave, and your normal life resumes. I’m a Christian and it did make me think that I might have gone to the US and worked at an in-prison ministry or maybe at a halfway house, if I’d not had my family or this career. My life could have been very different. What led you to make Katie: My Beautiful Face in 2009? Authenticity – to be honest and open, to not be voiceless or repressed, to not have something taken away from me. That is my wish for all women. You’re also very candidly yourself online. Do you think that’s important? Yeah, definitely. I have a responsibility as a public figure to be authentic, to not use Photoshop. I try not to seek external validation, and I am proud of how I look. Beauty diversity is broadening, and we should acknowledge the progress. I don’t have to edit myself or shrink myself. How do you protect your children from toxic influences online? My kids aren’t celebrities, they don’t have an online persona. I saw Adolescence, and thought it was brilliant, scary and shocking. It showed that adults need to understand the online space, and keep educating ourselves. Both of your attackers were jailed. How much of your own journey is about forgiveness? Even though I had this terrible thing happen to me, I come from a massive place of privilege that the people I work with in prisons, my own charity [Katie Piper Foundation] and hospitals couldn’t even dream of. I grew up in a loving, stable, secure family, with access to lawyers and doctors. I’d never moan about my life. For me, my journey is over. My case has had closure. If I was living in the past with something that happened 17 years ago, I wouldn’tbe able to function at the level I do. I’m a healed woman who’s moved on. I live very much at peace.
'We're all one bad day away from prison,' says presenter and activist Katie Piper
Katie Piper spends a month in a notorious US prison in her new series.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. After being attacked 15 years ago, Katie Piper has been trying to understand why women commit violent acts. In her new series, Locked Up in Louisiana, the presenter spends a month in New Orleans Parish Prison - one of the most notorious jails in the US. Here, she speaks to Radio Times magazine about her new series. What's the view from your sofa? "We sit in an open plan kitchen-lounge area to watch telly. We always have lots of snacks and a blanket. My husband [carpenter Richard Sutton] and I don’t argue over the remote. Our daughters are still quite young at seven and 11, so we watch one show a night, then we go up to bed." What have you been watching recently? "Con Mum on Netflix is fast-paced, sad, funny and shocking. I enjoy watching kids' TV with my children. You get to relive a lot of nostalgic things, like old Disney stuff, and you get to experience the new live-action Disney films together." In Katie Piper: Locked Up in Louisiana, you visit female inmates at New Orleans Parish Prison. What did you learn from the experience? "We’re all one bad day away from being locked up. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you in life and who’s going to harm you – and how you're going to react when somebody harms you." In 2008, you were the victim of an acid attack. How much of your own story do you reveal when you meet these women? "I go in with lived experience – as a woman, a mother, a daughter, a victim of crime. Some of my story is worn on my face. That was an advantage and meant the women probably trusted me, but some of them shouted stuff like, 'Hey lady, are you addicted to Botox?' or 'Slow down on the plastic surgery.' They didn’t know what had happened to me." A lot of their stories involve abuse, trauma and drug addiction, which must be hard to listen to… "Making a programme like this stays with you for ever. Part of you feels guilty coming home. They’ve just told you about their life and then you leave, and your normal life resumes. I’m a Christian and it did make me think that I might have gone to the US and worked at an in-prison ministry or maybe at a halfway house, if I’d not had my family or this career. My life could have been very different." What led you to make Katie: My Beautiful Face in 2009? "Authenticity – to be honest and open, to not be voiceless or repressed, to not have something taken away from me. That is my wish for all women." You're also very candidly yourself online. Do you think that's important? "Yeah, definitely. I have a responsibility as a public figure to be authentic, to not use Photoshop. I try not to seek external validation, and I am proud of how I look. Beauty diversity is broadening, and we should acknowledge the progress. I don’t have to edit myself or shrink myself." How do you protect your children from toxic influences online? "My kids aren’t celebrities, they don’t have an online persona. I saw Adolescence, and thought it was brilliant, scary and shocking. It showed that adults need to understand the online space, and keep educating ourselves." Both of your attackers were jailed. How much of your own journey is about forgiveness? "Even though I had this terrible thing happen to me, I come from a massive place of privilege that the people I work with in prisons, my own charity [Katie Piper Foundation] and hospitals couldn’t even dream of. I grew up in a loving, stable, secure family, with access to lawyers and doctors. I’d never moan about my life. "For me, my journey is over. My case has had closure. If I was living in the past with something that happened 17 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to function at the level I do. I’m a healed woman who’s moved on. I live very much at peace." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Katie Piper: Locked Up In Louisiana is available on Sunday 27th April at 9pm on U&W. Stream free on U. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.