The Traitors star Faraaz reveals he was left in tears after billionaire's touching gift
Faraaz Noor may not have won The Traitors prize money to take his family on a pilgrimage to Hajj, but the opportunity to do so may come sooner than he thinks. Faraaz was a fan favourite on this year's series, often for his quiet and sometimes incorrect contributions to the roundtable. He made it to the final episode but was ultimately banished by Traitors Stephen and Rachel. Ahead of the final, Faraaz said if he were to win the prize he would "love to be able to spend it on me and my family to make a religious pilgrimage". "To go to Umrah, to go to Hajj, would be really nice. For me to do that for my family would be great. If there's a bit of left over, I wouldn't mind putting a bit away for a new car but treating my family is my main goal." Following the whirlwind of The Traitors, Umar Kamani, the CEO of PrettyLittleThing, shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), that he "would love to send Faraaz from Traitors and his family to Hajj". View oEmbed on the source website Reacting to the news at the Radio Times Covers Party 2026, Faraaz shared that he was "in tears" after seeing the post. "I came back and I was talking to my mum and I was like, I just can't... to Umar, I'm so grateful, Alhamdulillah, I was literally crying my eyes out honestly. I couldn't believe it." View Green Video on the source website While details on whether Faraaz and Umar are in touch are not known, the breakout Traitors star is keen to still make the pilgrimage. He told BBC News: "The love and support I've been getting is unbelievable... Inshallah, one day I'll be able to hopefully take them to Hajj or even complete Umrah. I'm looking forward to that." The Traitors season 1-4 are available to watch on BBC iPlayer now. 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.
Claudia Winkleman's stylist on the star's impeccable Traitors style and the brands she's faithful to
Plus, Sinead McKeefry uncloaks her top looks from every series.
Add The Traitors to your watchlist The original brief given to Claudia Winkleman’s stylist, Sinead McKeefry, for the first series of The Traitors was providing 12 outfits for 12 episodes, with just four weeks to pull everything together. “We didn’t really know what we were doing,” she recalls. “Everyone was working out what the format was. There was talk of Claud wearing a parrot on her shoulder. She’s up for anything, but I was like, ‘I don't think we should make it pantomime.’ I believe there are enough beautiful things out there.” The celebrity stylist, who is based in London, was introduced to Winkleman by Fearne Cotton, who McKeefry was working with at the time, during a photoshoot. They’ve now worked together for almost 20 years. “Strictly was the most glamorous we’d ever go, but it still had a masculine edge to it and we kept it quite chic and pared back. The Piano is where you'll see the real Claudia. That's how Claudia would naturally dress, just a little more polished. She loves a Uniqlo jumper, and that's what she gets,” McKeefry explains. “With The Traitors, we can be a lot more editorial, edgy and creative.” For series 1, she focused on textures and patterns and, far from parrots and pantomime, she turned to high-quality heritage brands including Barbour, Brora, Dubarry of Ireland, and Johnstons of Elgin for countryside chic, keeping it “quite neat and obvious” to suit the backdrop of Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, where you could “wear anything and look amazing”. It’s there that 22 contestants compete for up to £120,000, with the Faithful attempting to banish the Traitors. With the show now in its fourth series, Winkleman requires 36 outfits, three per episode, with breakfast, the mission and the round table all being treated differently. They take three months to prepare, with loads of back-up options and wet weather gear for any eventuality. “We lock everything down in London,” McKeefry says. “It's almost like prepping for a catwalk show and moving everything from one location to another.” McKeefry, 51, who graduated from Central Saint Martins with an MA in Fashion, specialising – fittingly – in knitwear, doesn’t travel up to Scotland. It’s Catherine Moran and her team who look after the wardrobe in Scotland. All the looks are photographed on Winkleman and lying flat with descriptions of how they should be put together. Then they’re shipped off in a transit van. “It’s so far that the driver has to stop overnight, so I said, ‘You’re sleeping in the van, aren’t you? You’re not leaving those clothes on their own?’” She’s joking of course, but Winkleman’s tweeds, capes, fingerless gloves, boots, chunky knits, kilts, leggings and oversized coats have become iconic and are a big draw as to why people tune in. The first episode of series 4 was the show’s most-watched to date, peaking at 6.9 million viewers. It opened with some familiar imagery – Winkleman in her black “murder cape” and a close-up of her red leather fingerless “murder gloves”. “Claudia's always worn wrist warmers. One year, at the end of Strictly Come Dancing, she bought the hair and make-up girls and me some Johnstons of Elgin wrist warmers,” McKeefry says. “It was really easy to incorporate fingerless gloves as part of The Traitors looks, but production really wanted red murder gloves and I was really resistant in the beginning. That is not something you're ever going to see on a mood board of mine. It’s not working with my sludgy colours. Red against black is so cringe. I went on Amazon, got a couple of options, and the least offensive were these thinner fingerless ones.” Winkleman now always wears this outfit when the Traitors are going to murder a contestant. “I've learned to love the red gloves. I actually think it was a genius move. It was never the intention that the cape would also always be used for a murder, it was just part of one of the looks and then it became a standout piece.” What you will see on McKeefry’s mood board are “a lot of pictures of Amanda Harlech; Chanel references; editorial that I've loved over the years with things shot outside by Juergen Teller or Corinne Day; exhibitions I’ve been inspired by; and there’s a catalogue in my head of imagery I’ve used since I was studying, like Alexander McQueen’s shows that I attended.” When The Traitors returns, so do the online articles and searches related to how to dress like Winkleman. According to search agency Deviation, from data gathered in November 2025, there’s been a 900 per cent rise in searches for “Claudia Winkleman clothes style” compared with the same time the previous year and a 50 per cent increase for “Claudia Winkleman Traitors outfits”. Searches for Winkleman on Google increased to their highest yet over the past five years. And based on the most popular search terms, people are particularly interested in adding these items to their wardrobe: tartan trousers, knee high boots, lace shirts, tartan skirts, and kilts. Plenty of the pieces Winkleman wears sell out as people attempt to nail the Highland goth, castle-core aesthetic. After the show airs, some of the items are kept and archived, others are loaned, but most are auctioned off for different charities. “I really try to support new and independent brands,” McKeefry adds. “It's been great over the past few years to see those brands be able to go to the next level and have that exposure from even one of their things being on The Traitors.” An example is Devon-based Lauren Aston Designs. Winkleman wore one of her forest green knit jumpers in series 3 and it had a phenomenal impact on her business, resulting in hundreds of orders, and Aston dubbing it the “Claudia effect”. If you look at any clothing brand, this “Claudia effect” is now unavoidable, including to McKeefry. “I see it so obviously. I'm walking through somewhere like Zara and I'm like: ‘Traitors, Traitors, Traitors.’” Clearly, this is fashion we’re remaining 100 per cent faithful to. Here, McKeefry uncloaks her favourite outfits of Winkleman's from every series... Series 1 “This was one of the first fittings we did. The blazer and fine merino men's knit are from Johnstons of Elgin, and the shirt is from Reiss,” says McKeefry. “Everything had to be so quick, so I went on Amazon and typed in jodhpurs to see what came up. I think it was a breakfast look that went into a mission look. “Production phoned me to say that the breakfast looks wouldn't work for the round table. I was like, ‘What's the round table?’ and they explained it was a much darker, more evening, luxe thing. Luckily, you only really see the top half of Claudia in the round table, so that was on our side a little bit.” Series 2 “Rose & Wül is run by Nadine Rose in Nottingham who does these big hand-knitted blankets. Claudia had bought some and introduced me to her. I then contacted her on Instagram and commissioned her to do a couple of scarves. The jumper is Mr Mittens, a Belgian-Australian brand – their knits are so cool. I just love the sleeve on that,” says McKeefry. “When independent companies contact me, or I stumble across something, I'm so happy when it’s a brand that really aligns with what we do. Knitwear is such a craft. It can't be rushed; that's why it’s so expensive, especially when you're looking at using cashmeres. Hours go into these things.” Series 3 This Fair Isle lambswool jumper from luxury Scottish brand Brora sold out after Winkleman wore it on the show (and so did all the other colourways). Has McKeefry come to expect that? “It definitely is getting that way now.” The kilt is from Le Kilt, a staple on her mood board. “Sam [McCoach, the founder] works really hard and she does all of the shoots that they use to promote the brand. I love the imagery they create, so I pull a lot of their stuff off Instagram. Her partner will drop stuff to the office, so they haven't got tons and tons of people working for them.” Series 4 “Le Kilt is a go-to brand for me and I have long been a fan of their beautiful kilts. They have a wonderful eye for quality fabrics and I love that they do everything with a slight grungy/punky edge. It seemed perfect to partner the kilt with this hand-knitted vest from an independent company called Hambro & Miller, which I discovered last year. I love to support independent brands and both of these showcase stunning craftsmanship," says McKeefry. Series 1 – The Celebrity Traitors “I thought the celebrities would be leaning towards plaids, tartan, tweed and knits. I wanted Claudia to have more of a gothic edge with a romantic element, just so it wasn’t merging into everyone looking the same," says McKeefry. “We were on a shopping day when we saw those Givenchy boots, and they were bought in five seconds. Claud's a size six, and I was like, ‘We'll take anything between a four and an eight, whatever you've got.’ Boots like that really inspire with their structure, proportion and weightiness. They sum up my mood board. “The ‘murder cape’, or poncho, which is a great shape, is by a company called Luxury Family Affair. The brilliant Tilla Lindig makes them and does the personalisation on them for us [the word “Celebrities” on the back].” The Traitors series 4 continues nightly Wed–Fri.
RT's Laura Rutkowski heads behind the scenes of Lost and Found in the Lakes
Add Lost and Found in the Lakes to your watchlist While looking out at the glistening, expansive waters of the Lake District, you might think that anything dropped in there would be gone forever, alongside anything misplaced on the picturesque fells in the background. But Lost and Found in the Lakes, which returns for a second series this week, proves otherwise. In the programme, a team of dedicated scuba divers, freedivers and detectorists (on land) attempt to reunite people with their treasured possessions, whether it’s a ring, a drone, a phone (only the ones in waterproof cases, mind you) or a sentimental heirloom. RT visited Ullswater to watch one search take place, and later witnessed a reunion from a previous successful one, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. When something can’t be located, the owners are instead gifted with a piece made by a local craftsperson out of objects found by the divers in the lakes — turning trash into treasure. The team also clean up the lakes as they go, disposing of bottles, fishing tackle, scrap metal and disposable vapes. Helen Skelton, from Carlisle, who now lives near Penrith, is the perfect host for the show. “I love being in the lake, I love being on mountains, but I also like what people would call tat,” she says. “My house is full of stuff where other people are like, ‘What is that?’ “When I was growing up, being outdoorsy and in nature wasn’t cool. My parents farmed, and the farming kids were not the cool kids. Now, people appreciate and understand the benefits of having your feet in the soil, and sustainability. It’s a privilege to have grown up with this as my backdrop.” Mysteries of the deep Helen debriefs with the divers after their search in Ullswater. Renée Goulet, a Canadian who now lives in the Lake District, has been freediving since 2021. The most common thing people lose are phones, but “they’re replaceable”, she says. “The most meaningful finds are the things people never think they’re going to get back. We would do this even if there wasn’t a television show. I’ve already got a list of things that I want to go back and look for again in my free time. If we don’t find something, we don’t forget that — we want to reunite people.” But there are also items the owners probably don’t want to be reunited with. The team have found drugs, bullets, a machete and hard drives wrapped in plastic, weighed down with rocks. What lies beneath The divers’ kit includes a metal detector to search, a mask, a knife to cut through fishing line, and an optional snorkel. But the biggest challenge they come up against is visibility. Scuba diver of 20 years Darren Fine, from Ulverston, says, “If it’s nice and rocky on the bottom and shallow, we have a very good chance of finding something, but most of the time it’s very cold and very dark with a lot of algae and silt.” Angus Hosking, a self-taught freediver of six years from Coniston, agrees. “Sometimes you’re just searching by touch, trying to find a familiar shape. It’s hard to know when to stop searching. When you come across the item you’re actually searching for, it’s almost disbelief.” The treasure chest This is the set where Helen Skelton reunites people with their treasured possessions, or lets them down gently when their item hasn’t been found. The divers’ success rate is about 50/50 on the series. “People always feel so embarrassed about getting upset about a piece of jewellery [for example], because they don’t want to seem materialistic,” Skelton says, “but what’s really heartwarming about this show is that it’s a reminder that things aren’t just things — they always represent something. It really taps into the value of sentiment, which is an old-fashioned thing in this day and age.”
Harlan Coben picks his top 10 thrillers of all time
The king of the TV thriller selects his top 10 exclusively for Radio Times.
New Jersey native Harlan Coben is the internationally bestselling author of more than 25 books, known for their twists and turns. His work has been made into multiple TV adaptations. The latest one, Run Away, is the 12th for Netflix. Clearly, he knows a thing or two about thrillers. So we asked Coben to give us his top 10 from TV and film, and some of them feature actors he’s then gone on to feature in his own series. “I want to be surprised. I want to be entertained. I want to be moved. I want something that's going to stir my heart,” he says of his criteria. “I don't think a twist that surprises you is enough. The twist has to generate something inside of you and move you.” 1) Strangers on a Train “I love Alfred Hitchcock, obviously. He's been a major influence on me – the ordinary man and the extraordinary circumstance, or woman, and in this case, Strangers on a Train happens to be my favourite. "It's just a chance meeting between two people and some of the great, iconic scenes of all time, and we intentionally paid homage to it in (Netflix adaptation) Stay Close – the tennis scene when all the heads are moving back and forth, and one head is looking straight ahead. I used that one to represent my Hitchcock love. "If you asked me tomorrow, I could have picked Vertigo, I could have picked Rear Window, Psycho, a bunch of them.” 2) The Secret in Their Eyes “This is the original Argentinian one, do not watch the American remake! It's gripping, it's moving, it's a love story. I was so in love with this movie that we decided to make a Netflix South America show. We made one in Argentina where this is filmed, and the lead in Caught on Netflix is the lead in The Secret in Their Eyes, but it's dark, it's surprising. "It's got a wonderful twist at the end and a true, true heart. And there's one great film sequence when they scoop you into a stadium. Even with today's AI and things like that, I'm not sure you can duplicate it or make it as compelling as it is in that movie.” 3) The Lives of Others “Another great foreign film from Germany. Both The Secret in Their Eyes and The Lives of Others have won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. "It's a little bit of a spy story [about] a Stasi agent, but where you think it's going to go in one direction, it goes in a completely different one. And again, besides the twists, I love the heart of the story.” 4) Prisoners “A lot of you probably remember this one with Hugh Jackman. You feel for this father who is doing anything and everything, going too far to find his child. Once again, a nice dark ending with a nice dark twist at the end. Well-acted, gripping from beginning to end.” 5) The Invisible Guest “A Spanish movie made by the incredible Oriol Paulo. A man and a woman driving accidentally kill somebody and try to hide it, and everything spins out of control. I love the small event that spirals. He made The Innocent, on Netflix with me. I found him from this movie, and I wanted to work with him. It just keeps twisting. If there's anybody who likes to twist more than me, and maybe, like me, over twists, it's Oriol Paulo. "We are simpáticos. We have the same vision. We had so much fun making The Innocent. Every episode starts with a different viewpoint. He did something a little bit similar here. Mario Casas and José Coronado are both in The innocent and The Invisible Guest. "I'm really proud of what we made together and when people ask me what movie they should watch of his, I always tell them, check out The Invisible Guest first, then go to The Body and everything else, because he's a wonderful director.” 6) Veronica Mars “Veronica Mars is a wonderful TV show. When I first was going to watch it, I thought it was a young adult show. There's a lot of people who later became quite big from the show and it was really realistic and gripping and dark and took on very adult themes. It was also funny as heck. "The father-daughter relationship in that is magic. The father's a local cop. Veronica is a high school student who's a PI, and it sounds silly, but it's really, really good. It's one of my favourite TV shows of all time.” 7) Columbo “I grew up on Columbo. It's probably the single greatest detective series in the history of television. I'm not sure what would be second – Cracker would be up there. The way Colombo works is he's not in it for the first hour, half hour. "We see it all from the criminal's viewpoint, the killer's viewpoint, and you just realise there's no way this guy's going to get caught, and then Columbo comes into the picture and kind of bungles his way to finding out the answer and surprising us. Some of them have wonderful twists. The villain was always a great actor who was just chewing the scenery and having a blast. If you haven't watched Columbo, go back and watch the original ones. They're so good, even now.” 8) Line of Duty “I just love Line of Duty. Jed Mercurio's so good. It's a giant mess of perfection. It's all over the place, and you don't know where it's going, and it’s so unrealistic, and things could never happen, and I love every moment of it. The cast is great. The crew is great. All of the little buzz phrases are great. "They take a lot of the rules and just toss them out the window. You can't have an interrogation scene last that long – I'm sorry, you cannot – and he does it every time and you're gripped from the first moment. I can't wait for the new season.” 9) Spiral “It reminds me of when Hill Street Blues first came out in America. It's a great cop show. It's got a ton of characters, a big ensemble cast. I first saw the actress Audrey Fleurot, who we ended up using in Safe when we needed a French actress, in that. "Each episode follows new different people, the entire police precinct that they have, the lawyers. It's a big cast, and always gripping. I work with people I'm fans of. If I see this person and I love them, I'm like, ‘I'd love to work with that person.’” 10) Fargo (TV series) “The TV series is really great. Noah Hawley's done a great job of making a quirky show with extreme violence, outrageousness, interesting twists and turns. "I wouldn't say quite as much heart in that one, but you never know what's going to happen next, and your eyes are glued to the screen every moment. It's a really well done show. I think the second season was my favourite.” 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.
Harlan Coben’s Run Away cast and author tease "emotionally devastating ending" and talk "insidiousness" of addiction
From a panicked parental "what if?" to Netflix’s next big thriller, Harlan Coben and James Nesbitt dig into addiction, obsession and the terrifying lengths a father will go to when his child disappears.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. All of Harlan Coben’s book ideas begin with a "What if…?" – Run Away's is, "What if my daughter was taking drugs?" – The New Jersey author explains his thinking: "When my daughter Charlotte was young, I found some cannabis paraphernalia in her room, and my mind spiralled and went out of control. "One day I was sitting in New York’s Central Park on Strawberry Fields, which is where the John Lennon Memorial is, thinking, 'How do I open up this book? How do I get into the story?' One of the buskers was playing a John Lennon tune and I thought to myself, 'What would I do if the person playing that tune was my missing daughter?'" Luckily for Coben, Charlotte is far from missing and is actually the associate producer on Run Away. She also worked on the series as a writer, and has contributed to previous adaptations of her father’s books, Shelter, Stay Close and Fool Me Once. Coben is very involved in the casting of his series – this is his 12th for Netflix – watching audition tapes and approving everybody. "I would rather change the character to fit the actor than change the actor to fit the character," he says. At the front and centre of Run Away, written for the screen by frequent collaborator Danny Brocklehurst, is James Nesbitt, no stranger to the Coben-verse, having also appeared in Stay Close and Missing You. "He gives off good 'distressed dad' vibes," says Coben. In Run Away, Nesbitt plays wealth manager Simon Greene, who shares two daughters and a son with his wife, paediatrician Ingrid (Minnie Driver). When daughter Paige (Ellie de Lange) goes missing, Ingrid thinks she’ll come home when she’s ready, but Simon won’t stop looking, blaming her drug-dealer boyfriend for getting her hooked on drugs. Then one day he sees her in a park, singing and strumming away on a guitar… RT visited the Run Away set in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, where between takes Nesbitt said, "I’m the worst on-screen parent and the worst on-screen cop ever. Of all the cops I’ve played, usually someone dies, and in three of the parent roles, my children have gone missing. I just wouldn’t cast me!" Meanwhile, Coben promises that "Run Away is not just my most surprising ending, but my most emotionally devastating ending." For someone who has made his mark as the king of suspenseful stories, that’s saying something… James Nesbitt plays Simon Greene "It’s very easy to tap into the reality of the situation that Simon finds himself in — the utter drive and determination to bring his daughter back, the despair and the guilt he feels that he drove her away. He can also be explosively violent at times. As a parent, it makes that easier, because you can obviously locate your feelings about your own children and if something similar was happening to them. It makes you appreciate your own life. "As time has passed in my career, it’s been automatic that I would be offered parts as a parent, but in terms of the darkness and why they go for me, I don’t know. I had an idyllic childhood, I can’t understand why they see this potential in me! "I started in comedy and I was lucky that I had an instinct for it. I loved doing Jekyll, because although it was very dark, Steven Moffat’s writing was so funny — the comedy was irreverent and shocking, and that’s the sort of thing I miss doing. I think it’s harder to find good comedy roles and probably harder to write comedy than serious drama. I wouldn’t mind doing a romcom, but at 60, I’m not sure anyone wants that. "I’d also quite like to play a baddie for Harlan — perhaps in a thriller set in Ireland. The landscape would suit it — it can be very beautiful in the north, but it can also be quite foreboding." Minnie Driver plays Ingrid Greene "The insidiousness of addiction is that it doesn’t matter what kind of a home you come from. Paige’s family have offered the most they could, yet still this beautiful kid is lost down the tunnel of this disease. I’ve come across so many friends who have dealt with addiction themselves, or their family members have. I’ve had boyfriends who suffered from addiction. "I’ve gone to so many Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with friends. I wanted to understand what they were going through, and those meetings are full of love, hope and support. You really realise how necessary that programme is for so many people. "There are so many things we don’t talk about, because we’re frightened of acknowledging that dark things exist in our world, and particularly with social media, where everything is about the presentation of a perfect life. As parents, we would go to any extreme for our kids, and that is a theme of the show." Ruth Jones plays private investigator Elena Ravenscroft "So many people are Harlan Coben fans, like my auntie Lynne, who’s 84, and so excited I’m in this. I love a thriller, but I find violence hard to watch. So I have to say to myself, 'That is all staged.' I find emotional violence even more difficult to watch, like psychological bullying. "Elena doesn’t look like you’d perhaps expect a private investigator to look. The glasses were my choice — I wanted to make sure she was different from characters I’d played before. In the past Elena was a firearms officer, and when I was doing the flashback scene, inwardly I was thinking, 'It’s so ridiculous that Ruth Jones is playing the part of a firearms officer.' But I have to be 100 per cent committed to what I’m doing, otherwise there’s that tendency to make a little joke. There were opportunities for Elena to be lighter in the scenes with Simon [James Nesbitt], and I loved those moments. With both comedy and drama, it just has to be believable. If you get comedy wrong, you can tell when it hasn’t landed. "Harlan is the master of complex secrets. I couldn’t do what he does, but there are secrets in my novels, because they’re interesting to read about. "I don’t write my books thinking of them as TV adaptations. There is a possibility for one of them, but it’s very early days." Alfred Enoch plays detective Isaac Fagbenle "Maybe I’m judging him too harshly, but I’m not sure Isaac is a great detective. He has a hunch and a single-mindedness; he’s too zoomed in. The other characters imply that Isaac’s very attractive — I’m just going to have to trust that the audience will be willing to go with that! "I was thinking, 'That’s sort of pressure.' I showed up to the read-through all unkempt and unshaved, like I’d been in the woods for two months. But I did find it gratifying that it was a male character [as opposed to a female character] getting objectified. "My dad [William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton, one of Doctor Who’s very first companions] was my teacher. I would watch films he’d been in, and as a kid go and see him on stage. I was like, 'This is what I want to do,' and he nurtured that. Fans usually approach me for How to Get Away with Murder — a twisty-turny thriller in the same vein as Run Away — and Harry Potter. I didn’t have much to do in Potter, but there’s such a fandom around it and people associate me with a character they’ve read, because so much was cut in the films." Read more: Harlan Coben reveals which British acting legend he wants to work with again on a Netflix adaptation Harlan Coben's new Netflix thriller starring Gavin & Stacey icon releases chilling first look trailer Run Away will premiere on 1st January 2026 on Netflix – sign up from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media. Add Run Away to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Run Away is the latest twisty Harlan Coben mystery to be adapted for the screen – and James Nesbitt has come along for the ride
Add Run Away to your watchlist All of Harlan Coben’s book ideas begin with a “What if…?” Run Away’s is, “What if my daughter was taking drugs?” The New Jersey author explains his thinking: “When my daughter Charlotte was young, I found some cannabis paraphernalia in her room, and my mind spiralled and went out of control. “One day I was sitting in New York’s Central Park on Strawberry Fields, which is where the John Lennon Memorial is, thinking, ‘How do I open up this book? How do I get into the story?’ One of the buskers was playing a John Lennon tune and I thought to myself, ‘What would I do if the person playing that tune was my missing daughter?’” Luckily for Coben, Charlotte is far from missing and is actually the associate producer on Run Away. She also worked on the series as a writer, and has contributed to previous adaptations of her father’s books, Shelter, Stay Close and Fool Me Once. Coben is very involved in the casting of his series – this is his 12th for Netflix – watching audition tapes and approving everybody. “I would rather change the character to fit the actor than change the actor to fit the character,” he says. At the front and centre of Run Away, written for the screen by frequent collaborator Danny Brocklehurst, is James Nesbitt, no stranger to the Coben-verse, having also appeared in Stay Close and Missing You. “He gives off good ‘distressed dad’ vibes,” says Coben. In Run Away, Nesbitt plays wealth manager Simon Greene, who shares two daughters and a son with his wife, paediatrician Ingrid (Minnie Driver). When daughter Paige (Ellie de Lange) goes missing, Ingrid thinks she’ll come home when she’s ready, but Simon won’t stop looking, blaming her drug-dealer boyfriend for getting her hooked on drugs. Then one day he sees her in a park, singing and strumming away on a guitar… RT visited the Run Away set in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, where between takes Nesbitt said, “I’m the worst on-screen parent and the worst on-screen cop ever. Of all the cops I’ve played, usually someone dies, and in three of the parent roles, my children have gone missing. I just wouldn’t cast me!” Meanwhile, Coben promises that “Run Away is not just my most surprising ending, but my most emotionally devastating ending.” For someone who has made his mark as the king of suspenseful stories, that’s saying something… 'As a parent, you can locate those feelings about your own children' James Nesbitt plays Simon Greene “It’s very easy to tap into the reality of the situation that Simon finds himself in — the utter drive and determination to bring his daughter back, the despair and the guilt he feels that he drove her away. He can also be explosively violent at times. As a parent, it makes that easier, because you can obviously locate your feelings about your own children and if something similar was happening to them. It makes you appreciate your own life. “As time has passed in my career, it’s been automatic that I would be offered parts as a parent, but in terms of the darkness and why they go for me, I don’t know. I had an idyllic childhood, I can’t understand why they see this potential in me! “I started in comedy and I was lucky that I had an instinct for it. I loved doing Jekyll, because although it was very dark, Steven Moffat’s writing was so funny — the comedy was irreverent and shocking, and that’s the sort of thing I miss doing. I think it’s harder to find good comedy roles and probably harder to write comedy than serious drama. I wouldn’t mind doing a romcom, but at 60, I’m not sure anyone wants that. “I’d also quite like to play a baddie for Harlan — perhaps in a thriller set in Ireland. The landscape would suit it — it can be very beautiful in the north, but it can also be quite foreboding.” 'I find violence hard to watch' Ruth Jones plays private investigator Elena Ravenscroft “So many people are Harlan Coben fans, like my auntie Lynne, who’s 84, and so excited I’m in this. I love a thriller, but I find violence hard to watch. So I have to say to myself, ‘That is all staged.’ I find emotional violence even more difficult to watch, like psychological bullying. “Elena doesn’t look like you’d perhaps expect a private investigator to look. The glasses were my choice — I wanted to make sure she was different from characters I’d played before. In the past Elena was a firearms officer, and when I was doing the flashback scene, inwardly I was thinking, ‘It’s so ridiculous that Ruth Jones is playing the part of a firearms officer.’ But I have to be 100 per cent committed to what I’m doing, otherwise there’s that tendency to make a little joke. There were opportunities for Elena to be lighter in the scenes with Simon [James Nesbitt], and I loved those moments. With both comedy and drama, it just has to be believable. If you get comedy wrong, you can tell when it hasn’t landed. “Harlan is the master of complex secrets. I couldn’t do what he does, but there are secrets in my novels, because they’re interesting to read about. “I don’t write my books thinking of them as TV adaptations. There is a possibility for one of them, but it’s very early days.” 'So many friends have dealt with addiction' Minnie Driver plays Ingrid Greene “The insidiousness of addiction is that it doesn’t matter what kind of a home you come from. Paige’s family have offered the most they could, yet still this beautiful kid is lost down the tunnel of this disease. I’ve come across so many friends who have dealt with addiction themselves, or their family members have. I’ve had boyfriends who suffered from addiction. I’ve gone to so many Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with friends. I wanted to understand what they were going through, and those meetings are full of love, hope and support. You really realise how necessary that programme is for so many people. “There are so many things we don’t talk about, because we’re frightened of acknowledging that dark things exist in our world, and particularly with social media, where everything is about the presentation of a perfect life. As parents, we would go to any extreme for our kids, and that is a theme of the show.” 'I'm not sure Isaac is a great detective' Alfred Enoch plays detective Isaac Fagbenie “Maybe I’m judging him too harshly, but I’m not sure Isaac is a great detective. He has a hunch and a single-mindedness; he’s too zoomed in. The other characters imply that Isaac’s very attractive — I’m just going to have to trust that the audience will be willing to go with that! I was thinking, ‘That’s sort of pressure.’ I showed up to the read-through all unkempt and unshaved, like I’d been in the woods for two months. But I did find it gratifying that it was a male character [as opposed to a female character] getting objectified. “My dad [William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton, one of Doctor Who’s very first companions] was my teacher. I would watch films he’d been in, and as a kid go and see him on stage. I was like, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and he nurtured that. Fans usually approach me for How to Get Away with Murder — a twisty-turny thriller in the same vein as Run Away — and Harry Potter. I didn’t have much to do in Potter, but there’s such a fandom around it and people associate me with a character they’ve read, because so much was cut in the films.”
A Guide to Netflix's Harlan Coben Collection
With Harlan Coben, it’s clear that all of his ideas for his books start with a “What if…” “There’s always something that happens in my regular life that I turn around in some way,” he says. There’s currently 12 book adaptations you can watch on Netflix, with the latest one being Run Away, starring James Nesbitt as a dad searching for his daughter who’s addicted to drugs and has run away from home. The king of the thriller genre says, “I want the ‘WTF’ when you watch my shows, I want the jaw to drop. That's fun.” There’s no better person to walk you through his collection than Coben himself, so we asked him to explain all of his “What ifs…”
A new festive animation brings Pudsey to life with Tom Fletcher
Pudsey and the Thread of Hope, book available now and on BBC One on Christmas Eve at 10.20am. Add it to your collection Tom Fletcher has been having a bear-y busy year. “I must have been manifesting bears!” says the McFly singer and bestselling children’s author, who has not only written the music for Paddington the Musical, but has also brought another very special bear to life, Children in Need’s mascot, Pudsey. “Both of them stand for wonderful things: Pudsey for hope and Paddington for kindness. My version of Pudsey is a bit clumsy and is driven by a desire to help children.” The animation and book Pudsey and the Thread of Hope is based on Fletcher’s story about a boy called Jai who has lost his dad. He meets other kids who have been supported by Pudsey, with the thread of hope tying them together. Fletcher has three sons, aged 11, nine and seven, with his wife Giovanna. “They are my main source of inspiration. My middle child, Buddy, is home-schooled and he practically lives at the skatepark. It’s been this amazing journey with him, and so much of that I was able to put into Jai.” Fletcher’s eldest son Buzz sings Thread of Hope on the animation’s soundtrack with his father. “It felt like a lovely way to heighten the emotion of that moment and a special thing for me to be able to share with my son.”
How 2025's Radio Times Christmas issue cover – featuring Aardman favourites – came to life
Two iconic animated pals reunite on the Radio Times Christmas cover, as Nick Park brings festive clay magic to life.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. This year, RT's Christmas cover stars are two award-winning film and TV favourites. But unusually in the cut-throat world of showbiz, they are also old pals going back 30 years. In fact, the cover, conceived and designed by Nick Park, celebrates Shaun’s screen debut in A Close Shave. Back then, Shaun walked into Wallace and Gromit’s home and ate everything in sight. Now he has a taste for Radio Times… hopefully, without swallowing any crucial TV listings! It’s a busy time for Aardman Animations. There’s a Christmas Day episode of Shaun the Sheep on BBC One called Fleece Navidad, and in 2026, to mark the studio’s 50th anniversary, a big Aardman exhibition at London’s Young V&A, plus a film outing for Shaun, The Beast of Mossy Bottom. So, what better time for a reunion? While the beloved pair say "cheese" for their cover shoot – remaining characteristically silent, yet with a mischievous glint in their eye – RT sits down with Park at Aardman’s Bristol HQ to discuss making Christmas out of clay... A grand cover It’s a pleasure to be asked to design another cover. We’ve had a few: my downstairs bathroom is full of framed ones. I leapt at the opportunity and it was a privilege to get involved. Radio Times has been an iconic magazine since way before I was born, and you can’t have Christmas without it, so I just couldn’t resist having my characters on the cover. My aim was to make it as Christmassy as possible and evoke feelings of warmth. View oEmbed on the source website Cracking ideas I think through sketching – more so than through writing. I like to draw on paper, but I have an iPad Pro, which I love. I probably spend three days to a week doodling different ideas. That’s where a lot of film ideas come from. Wallace and Gromit are my favourite characters to sketch. I draw them in my sleep. They’re just very natural now – I’ve been doing them for so many years. Season's bleatings I played around with this idea of Gromit opening a mystery gift, and then out pops Shaun the Sheep, like "I’m back," doing something silly and surprising Gromit, like playing the trumpet or maracas. Another idea, which I thought was very warm and quaint, had Shaun and Gromit sitting on the sofa drinking hot chocolate with their slippers in the foreground. Then I sketched out Shaun chewing the edge of the Radio Times. I didn’t think that would be liked, because it was destroying the cover, but that was the favourite. Inventing new jokes Little gags and Easter eggs appear in all the films, and it’s no different with Radio Times. We want them to come through, so when the magazine is lying on the coffee table, there’s always things in there to look at and notice. There’s a portrait of Wallace on the wall, but the frame is obviously one he’s made, because he’s compensated for his ears so the frame goes around them. I thought that was a nice little touch. Part of the festive furniture I start to riff on things, like what’s on the mantelpiece; what’s on the tree; what would look good on Gromit and Shaun’s mugs. We thought it’d be good to see Feathers McGraw as a ballerina in a tutu on the top of the tree, but there wasn’t room to put that in. We also had him as a ballerina in the snow globe. Then, him as a snowman in a snow globe, with a carrot for a nose. They write themselves How would Gromit react to Shaun reappearing? Well, they’re good mates, it’s a reunion. I think there would be a bit of reticence on Gromit’s behalf, a Gromit eyeroll, like, "Oh no, he’s back" – that agent of chaos in the house. He’s got enough with Wallace. All Gromit wants is a quiet life, but he loves Shaun really. There’s a little bit of antagonism between them, but it’s friendly. It’s great to have characters that kind of write themselves. You can put them in any situation, and they’ll find their own comedy. Retro versus modern Gromit and Shaun started off together, but since Shaun got his own series, we’ve sort of separated the worlds, because they’re slightly different, with different rules. With Wallace and Gromit, everything’s a bit retro. They rarely have a TV on, until Vengeance Most Fowl. They don’t have mobile phones and they don’t really have computers, but if they do, they’re like antiques. Shaun the Sheep is more flexible in terms of the modern world. There’s social media and you can dial for pizza! I don’t think we’d merge the two worlds in a story, but we had the Farmer from Shaun the Sheep in Vengeance Most Fowl. In the first Shaun the Sheep Movie, we talked about whether Wallace and Gromit should go through the background at one point on the motorbike. I think we’d only ever do it if it’s unexpected and a joke guest appearance. Styling the stars It would be quite expensive to make the puppets from scratch, so this Gromit on the cover has been in Vengeance Most Fowl in this same dressing gown, and this Shaun has been in the series. A sitting-down Gromit is differentto a standing or walking-on-all-fours Gromit. The model-makers made Shaun a brand-new jumper similar to his original one, but with a Christmassy pattern, so he looks super cute. Animated animals It takes the best part of three weeks to get everything together – the set, the decorations, the props, with about a dozen people working on the Christmas cover. I find it harder to pull together a photo than an animation, because a photo has one moment that has to say everything. We’re doing about 10 seconds of animation to go with the cover. On a feature film, the animators usually get through about two to three seconds a day. Wallace and Gromit are my children, so I’m very fussy about who animates them. For this, I particularly wanted one of my favourite animators and long-term colleagues, Jay Grace. He’s one of the best, very sensitive and really knows what he’s doing. It’s not just about moving your puppet. It’s about making the audience believe that it’s a living, breathing character. Feat of clay When Toy Story came out [in 1995], we thought, "How long have we got?" But we’ve managed to survive CGI. In fact, there’s been a resurgence of interest over the years in our stop motion animation. We use CGI as well, but AI is a whole new thing. Obviously a lot of people will be fearing for their jobs. We want to embrace the technology and find in what ways it’s going to be useful to us, maybe to do animation a bit quicker, but we’re going to be very cautious not to lose our values. The clay is our USP and we pride ourselves in that. Authenticity is the most important thing. It’s where the charm is. The Christmas double issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Shaun the Sheep: Fleece Navidad airs on Christmas Day at 4:35pm on BBC One. Add Shaun the Sheep: Fleece Navidad 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 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.
Meet the miniaturists shrinking Christmas for RT this year
Crafting a fantastic snowy landscape for RT's 2025 Christmas features was a real labour of love for Hannah Lemon and Abi Trotman
The Marvellous Miniature Workshop is on iPlayer. Add it to your watchlist Making miniatures is no small task. Hannah Lemon and Abi Trotman, who star in The Marvellous Miniature Workshop spent a combined 200 hours creating the Christmas snowscape for our Christmas interviews with stars of Death in Paradise, Call the Midwife, Strictly, The Archers and Amandaland. Trotman, from south Wales, specialises in 1/12th scale miniatures for doll’s houses and dioramas and started making miniatures with her gran for her doll’s house when she was 11. Lemon, who’s from Japan and now based in the UK, started making tiny houseplants in lockdown on a break from work. Both have now made it their full-time career. View Green Video on the source website Using toolkits containing tweezers, brushes, paints and glues — not to mention a steady hand — Lemon explains that RT’s snowy scene (all compiled and photographed by her in her living room) is Styrofoam, so it’s light and easy to stick items into and to carve with a blade. Then she used frost and snow effect spray and placed fake snow powder on top. The tree is made out of tinsel wrapped together to create different-sized branches. The snowmen and their miniature carrot noses are made from clay, with black glass “caviar beads” for eyes — but what about their knitted hats? “I used my old socks, but I promise I washed them!” Lemon laughs. Lemon’s biggest challenge was the reindeer — “I wanted to make something realistic, so I needed to study their anatomy.” She started with wire to create a skeleton, then wrapped masking tape around it to mimic tissue, and applied modelling paste to create the body shape. Once that was dry, she coated it with acrylic paint and applied fake fur. “Working on the face is always challenging in miniature. I wanted him to look straight at the camera, happy and proud, like he owns the place.” Trotman’s gingerbread house, meanwhile, proved to be a real construction project. “Measurements and getting the angles of the roof right took a lot of time,” she says. “You want things to look in proportion, so it’s important to scale everything down properly.” She was inspired by a gingerbread house in an old American cooking magazine from the 70s. “It was really kitsch and I fell in love with it. I used a laser cutter to cut precise, sharp lines from a material called PolyBak, then dry-fitted those pieces. I then coated the PolyBak I used for the walls with a stone clay to make it look like a gingerbread texture.” Polyfilla mixed with acrylic paint made the “perfect” icing and all the polymer clay sweets and candy canes were handmade, baked and then glazed. “There’s a lot of yourself that you put into it,” Trotman says. “Seeing someone’s heart and love in a piece will always resonate more with people.”
How the team behind Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age brought animals like dwarf elephants and predatory marsupials to life
Add Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age to your watchlist Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age features animals that have never been seen on screen before — marsupial lions (essentially carnivorous koalas), kangaroos so huge they can’t hop and dwarf elephants only three feet tall. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston and executive produced by Hollywood film-maker Jon Favreau alongside creative director of the BBC’s Natural History Unit and long-term David Attenborough collaborator Mike Gunton, the Apple TV series was a (woolly) mammoth effort. The production took three years, was filmed in 15 countries, and for the first time used technical reference puppets — Gunton was convinced after seeing the puppet of the baby stegodon. These could be filmed on location, thereby providing essential references for visual effects company Framestore to create the CGI (computer-generated imagery) animals. Crucially, everything seen is backed by science — as well as gut feeling. “If you’ve spent your life watching animals, when you see one of these creatures brought to life on screen, there’s this final filter where it looks weirdly right… or rightly weird,” Gunton tells RT. That’s what lead scientific consultant Dr Darren Naish, who has been the show’s palaeontologist since the first series in 2022, was in charge of. Here, he explains how he helped bring the unusual animals of the Ice Age to vivid life. THE MAN FOR THE JOB I’m an expert on the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, which we featured in seasons one and two of Prehistoric Planet, but I’ve also published enough on Ice Age animals to be considered an expert for season three. I also provide detailed, specific information to the people at Framestore building the digital animal models. SKETCH TO SCREEN We consulted with more than 50 Ice Age specialists, using their expertise to compile asset packs on the animals, containing up to 30 pages of diagrams, drawings and information. I draw tons of stuff, and we work with various concept artists and paleo artists [who depict prehistoric life]. FACTS FROM THE FOSSILS Everything we do is grounded in science. How do we know how these animals moved and what they would have done? Well, we go to what we understand from the fossil record. We’ve got frozen bodies in permafrost. We can use fossil footprints to work out animals’ speed and gait. Since humans were Ice Age creatures, too, we drew these animals, so we can also look at rock art. SCIENTIFIC STORYLINES Science establishes facts. But also, a woolly mammoth is a kind of elephant, so everything that’s true for African and Asian elephants, woolly mammoths would have done as well. Animals get themselves into all kinds of extraordinary situations. What happens if a woolly mammoth is trapped in a snowstorm and about to give birth? It must have happened, so it’s justifiable for us to come up with that storyline. A LION THAT’S NOT A LION Thylacoleo, the so-called marsupial lion, is a leopard-sized, predatory marsupial related to koalas and wombats, but fundamentally unlike anything alive today. It had a big opposable thumb with a giant claw, and fang-like teeth, but they weren’t canines, they were giant incisors. It had this ridiculously broad, muscled head. It took many, many iterations to make it feel like a real animal — it looked like a weird teddy bear at one point. There is Indigenous Australian rock art depicting it, so we’ve got some idea of what its pigmentation was like. PREHISTORIC PEEVES Some animals in this series are not CG, they’re real animals, like the vole. We’re pretty confident people won’t be able to tell them apart. I have a massive list of pet peeves in CG animals. If you watch all the Jurassic World films, the dinosaurs roar and do this head wobble where their cheeks flutter as they’re blasting air out… nothing does that. Someone made that up in a film with a dragon or something, and it’s been copied. Some like to over-animate everything, but Framestore is the real deal. ANSWERING THE UNKNOWN Some of the animals were an absolute challenge, and they might never have been reconstructed well before, because nobody’s understood them. We have to come up with answers to questions that people haven’t really considered. For example, the next time someone asks how an extinct snow sloth [Megalonyx jeffersonii] walks, we’ll be the only ones that have ever done it right. None of the work we do on the show, and that the VFX team does, ends up published in technical papers, but it should. It is actual science.
7 reasons to watch Tom Hiddleston's new documentary series Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age features animals that have never been seen on screen before – marsupial lions (essentially carnivorous koalas), kangaroos so huge they can’t hop and dwarf elephants only three feet tall. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston and executive produced by Hollywood film-maker Jon Favreau alongside creative director of the BBC’s Natural History Unit and long-term David Attenborough collaborator Mike Gunton, the Apple TV series was a (woolly) mammoth effort. The production took three years, was filmed in 15 countries, and for the first time used technical reference puppets – Gunton was convinced after seeing the puppet of the baby stegodon. These could be filmed on location, thereby providing essential references for visual effects company Framestore to create the CGI (computer-generated imagery) animals. Crucially, everything seen is backed by science – as well as gut feeling. “If you’ve spent your life watching animals, when you see one of these creatures brought to life on screen, there’s this final filter where it looks weirdly right… or rightly weird,” Gunton tells RT. That’s what lead scientific consultant Dr Darren Naish, who has been the show’s palaeontologist since the first series in 2022, was in charge of. Here, he explains how he helped bring the unusual animals of the Ice Age to vivid life. View oEmbed on the source website The man for the job "I’m an expert on the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, which we featured in seasons one and two of Prehistoric Planet, but I’ve also published enough on Ice Age animals to be considered an expert for season three. I also provide detailed, specific information to the people at Framestore building the digital animal models." Sketch to screen "We consulted with more than 50 Ice Age specialists, using their expertise to compile asset packs on the animals, containing up to 30 pages of diagrams, drawings and information. I draw tons of stuff, and we work with various concept artists and paleo artists [who depict prehistoric life]." Facts from the fossil "Everything we do is grounded in science. How do we know how these animals moved and what they would have done? Well, we go to what we understand from the fossil record. We’ve got frozen bodies in permafrost. We can use fossil footprints to work out animals’ speed and gait. Since humans were Ice Age creatures, too, we drew these animals, so we can also look at rock art." Scientific storylines "Science establishes facts. But also, a woolly mammoth is a kind of elephant, so everything that’s true for African and Asian elephants, woolly mammoths would have done as well. Animals get themselves into all kinds of extraordinary situations. What happens if a woolly mammoth is trapped in a snowstorm and about to give birth? It must have happened, so it’s justifiable for us to come up with that storyline." A lion that's not a lion "Thylacoleo, the so-called marsupial lion, is a leopard-sized, predatory marsupial related to koalas and wombats, but fundamentally unlike anything alive today. It had a big opposable thumb with a giant claw, and fang-like teeth, but they weren’t canines, they were giant incisors. It had this ridiculously broad, muscled head. It took many, many iterations to make it feel like a real animal — it looked like a weird teddy bear at one point. There is Indigenous Australian rock art depicting it, so we’ve got some idea of what its pigmentation was like." Prehistoric peeves "Some animals in this series are not CG, they’re real animals, like the vole. We’re pretty confident people won’t be able to tell them apart. I have a massive list of pet peeves in CG animals. If you watch all the Jurassic World films, the dinosaurs roar and do this head wobble where their cheeks flutter as they’re blasting air out… nothing does that. Someone made that up in a film with a dragon or something, and it’s been copied. Some like to over-animate everything, but Framestore is the real deal." Answering the unknown "Some of the animals were an absolute challenge, and they might never have been reconstructed well before, because nobody’s understood them. We have to come up with answers to questions that people haven’t really considered. For example, the next time someone asks how an extinct snow sloth [Megalonyx jeffersonii] walks, we’ll be the only ones that have ever done it right. None of the work we do on the show, and that the VFX team does, ends up published in technical papers, but it should. It is actual science." The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Saturday – subscribe here. All seasons of Prehistoric Planet are available to watch on Apple TV. Find out how to sign up for Apple TV here. Add Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age 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 Documentaries 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.
We played Squid Game: The Challenge – and learned how brutal it really is
As season 2 comes to a dramatic end, a pair of intrepid Radio Times reporters recount their gruelling experiences on the set of Squid Game: The Challenge.
Many people have watched a reality competition on the telly and thought to themselves, 'I could do that.' Radio Times writers David Craig and Laura Rutkowski are not among that group. Nevertheless, they were sent to Reading's Shinfield Studios to see the real sets of Squid Game: The Challenge and take part in two devious game demos, which were nothing if not humbling. Dragging their aching bodies home at the end of a long day, it was clear that the tournament is physically draining – and that's to say nothing of the psychological stress added by that eye-popping $4.56 million jackpot. As immersive as it was, David and Laura didn't have any cash on the line during their grand day out, but the risk of humiliation in front of one's peers did loom large – and quickly became a reality. This is their story. Welcome to Squid Game Laura Rutkowski: Nothing really could have prepared me for walking into the dorm, and my mouth falls open in shock. It’s as massive as you would imagine to accommodate 456 beds for 456 players. I quickly claim a bottom bunk, thinking it’s easier to hop out of in a hurry! I'm player 255, kitted out with my tracksuit (which was in fact made in Korea – I checked) and thermals on underneath; white slip-ons; a water bottle and a black bag (with a toothbrush and toothpaste labelled 255 inside). There's a gigantic red 'X' and blue 'O' on the ground, which was used in the drama for players to indicate whether they wanted to stop or continue the games. Very quickly, I can see cliques forming into little groups dotted around the dorm, alliances already developing from the offset. Before our games begin, I'm served curry and rice by the intimidating guards in pink. I thank them, in case politeness is rewarded. Naturally, they don't respond, and it makes me question my relationship to authority figures. My inclination is very much to obey them and stay on their good side, but it probably won't make a difference in Squid Game. Just keep a low profile, I think! It's surreal walking up and down the pastel-coloured staircases that are meant to lead to the games, but these ones lead... nowhere, but that is, of course, where the TV magic comes in. David Craig: Entering the Squid Game dorm as my all-time favourite player Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun), my initial plan is to embody the loveably deranged rapper for the duration of our visit. But after an hour of spouting egomaniacal nonsense to anyone that would listen, I realise that – for better or worse – the unpredictable 'alpha' qualities of the pill-popping performer don't exactly come naturally to me. Overwhelmed by the scale of my surroundings – not to mention, a flood of influencers and reality stars eagerly (read: loudly) putting on a show for the cameras – I realise that spray-on hair dye is not a substitute for a personality. It strikes me that, were we competing in the deadly version, these would be the true Thanos-style figures, and I would probably be one of their grovelling followers. Oh well. Game 1: Six-Legged Pentathlon Laura: If I ever thought that reality TV series were easy to compete in, I don't think that anymore after this game. For the six-legged pentathlon, taken from Squid Game season 2, five players have their legs tied together and must complete five different minigames within five minutes, competing against another team of five. These include: Ball in a Cup, Flying Stone, Gonggi, House of Cards, and Jegi, and we receive a demonstration of each one. My team are very supportive, but I choose one of the harder games, Gonggi (Korean jacks). Full disclosure – I have never played this before, nor had I practised beforehand, but I can imagine that the players in The Challenge would have smartly thought to try it out before competing in the reality series. I'm sweating and feeling the pressure – especially with my team relying on me and cameras in my face. In the end, all that matters is beating the other team, which we manage to do, crossing that rainbow finish line for VICTORY! David: "Purple hair, do care (a lot, actually)." This is my ethos going into our first game, Six Legs, where I am determined to wow my fellow players with a never-before-realised aptitude for Korean playground games. True to the drama series, I am chained by the ankles to four random participants (a lovely way to get to know someone, FYI), and we nervously prepare to march to our fate. Of the five stations, each with a different challenge assigned to a single player, I leap at the chance to play Gonggi; an intricate game of throwing and catching that looks mesmerising on screen. Very quickly, I realise I've made a huge mistake. Seven excruciating minutes later, the producer tells me to stop and move on. I am shaking and feel as if I have been playing for hours. Set visit: Mingle Laura: Mingle is a seriously impressive set that looks identical to the one in the drama. It's a joyous, warm, colourful, bow-ridden space with a giant carousel platform in the middle. It lurches into action, spinning us all around. In Squid Game season 2, when the carousel stops, a number is called out and the players must form groups of that number and enter the surrounding rooms, then close the door. As soon as the catchy Korean children's song, 'Round and Round', starts playing, it's impossible not to think of the 'Mingle dance,' made famous by the character Thanos (played by K-pop star T.O.P aka Choi Seung-hyun). David is obviously a great stand-in for him, so there's only one thing left to do, and that's link arms and twirl around, exactly as Thanos (RIP) would have wanted! David: From the pentathlon chamber, we are thrust immediately onto the Mingle set – not to play the game (a health and safety nightmare, I assume), but to observe. This is why I studied journalism. Truthfully, I feel unable to muster the same enthusiasm as the real Thanos once did, not because it doesn't look the part – it certainly does – but because I am, to use the clinical term, f**king knackered. My brave RT comrade Laura initiates the customary arm-in-arm dance – made iconic by Thanos and his (even more) disturbed accomplice Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won) – but my heart isn't in it. I want to sit down, or better yet, curl up in the foetal position. May the real players of Squid Game: The Challenge be blessed with stronger stamina than I. Game 2: Slides and Ladders Laura: While Slides and Ladders is new for The Challenge, it's still an innocent game with a sinister twist – which is what makes it inherently Squid Game. Players are put in pairs and roll a die to progress on the board. If they land on a ladder, they go up, and if they land on the dual slide, one transports them further down the board, while the other eliminates them. There are also 'twist' cards to choose from that reveal either an advantage or a disadvantage, with only six teams able to progress. I'm on the purple team with my teammate Ayo and we start strong. David and his teammate pick a card where they can bring up one team to where they are, which is almost at the finish line at the top, and they choose us! We're feeling incredibly smug... for a brief moment. Ayo and I then have to choose a card and it says to move forward one space where we're faced with the double slide. Ayo takes one for the team and chooses one at random after I win a game of rock, paper, scissors (in an ode to Squid Game), but it shoots him out of the game! I go down the other giant metal slide, which is surprisingly high and fast, and let out a warbled scream as I come out much further down the board back to where I started. Oh, it's a cruel game… David: Still lamenting my failure to seize glory in Six Legs, we begin our final game of this Squid Game: The Challenge set visit – an extravagant new spin on snakes and ladders. Change is in the air. You see, it soon becomes clear that what I indisputably lack in skill, I can make up for here in random luck (the great equaliser!). Stepping onto an industrial-sized expansion of the quintessential children's board game, my partner (People's Gabrielle Rockson) and I have no choice but to leave our destinies to dice rolls and card draws. Fate smiles kindly upon us. In a slightly anticlimactic fashion, we speed to the top in a matter of minutes, finishing first and basking in… well, not much, as we aren't playing for money. But still, it's glorious to end the day on a positive note, after some considerable ego bruising at the start. (Quietly, I am disappointed to be deprived of a go on one of the slides.) Death Comes for Us All Laura: Nothing prepares me for when the 'squib', as it's called, actually goes off. There's a quick spurt and then a pooling of black ink on my chest, which has a very distinct and sickly sweet smell. I fall immediately to the floor, milking this moment as much as I can. Despite my fake death, which is all part of the experience, I manage to make it out alive, exhilarated, but utterly convinced I would not last long on The Challenge. I have actually seen a few of my fellow players since, and we're now forever bonded (trauma bonded?) as Squid Game survivors. David: I witness my teammates experience 'death' one-by-one. That is, the triggering of an inky explosion from the squibs strapped across their chests. I count my blessings that I am last in line for eruption, feeling this is my chance to launch the acting career that, deep down, I always thought of as my true calling. I anxiously brace for my moment, and when it comes, I emit a shrieking wail that seems fittingly dramatic for the moment. "Yes! Surely I will not regret this when the footage is shared with me nine months from now," I think to myself. Moments later, the rancid scent of the fake blood hits my nostrils, and brings me firmly back to reality. The Academy Award slips from my fingers. Squid Game: The Challenge is available to stream on Netflix. Add Squid Game: The Challenge 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 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.
Is Squid Game: the Challenge really that hard?
Add Squid Game: the Challenge to your watchlist In 2021, South Korean drama Squid Game became a cultural phenomenon — so much so that viewers were desperate to join in. So two years later, a reality show version was created called Squid Game: the Challenge, bringing the deadly games to life with real members of the public competing. Now, its second series is in full swing, with almost 110,000 people from around the world applying to be one of 456 people chosen to compete for a prize of $4.56 million (about £3.5 million). People are clearly dying to play it — without the actual dying part. All you can hurt in this version is your pride, as RT can confirm after our own visit to the set. In every other way, however, it feels authentic. Upon entering the vast dorm, my mouth falls open — it’s huge, and looks identical to the series. Soon I’m kitted out in the iconic tracksuit, with intimidating masked guards watching my every move as player 255. The reality series has had the blessing and help of Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, but while his drama ended with series three, The Challenge has no plans to call game over. “We’d like to go on for as long as possible,” says executive producer Stephen Yemoh. “As long as we can keep finding new, interesting games and 456 people who are willing to put a tracksuit on and come and play.” With that, I zip up my green jacket and face a host of games, some from the TV show, some newly created. Ready or not… MINGLE In Squid Game series two, players stand on a spinning carousel for Mingle. When it stops, a number is called out and they must form groups of that number and enter the surrounding rooms, then close the door. Onscreen it’s chaotic and dangerous, so when replicating it, the health and safety briefing, as with all the games, was paramount. Stephen Yemoh says, “We had soft closing doors to make sure no one was trapped in any way.” Anna Kidd adds, “The games go through rigorous testing, internally and with supporting artists.” SLIDES AND LADDERS In one of the new games created for the show, players are put in pairs and roll a dice to progress on the board. If they land on a ladder, they go up, and if they land on the dual slide, one transports them further down the board, while the other eliminates them. There are also cards to choose that reveal either an advantage or a disadvantage, with only six teams able to progress. “It couldn’t be flat,” says Kidd, “but if it was vertical, it’d become too big. Our amazing games designer Ben Norman came up with the idea of making it on stepped platforms.” DEATH BY SQUIB Even though the players are eliminated rather than killed, Yemoh explains, “The deaths are so iconic in the actual drama that we needed to visually replicate that, but also make it feel fun and playful.” A special effects company created a pressurised canister for the “squib”, resulting in a burst of black ink (instead of red blood) when a player “dies”, like I did here. “We tried 17 different versions of the nozzle, including a star shape and a triangle, and 12 different versions of the type of T-shirt we needed for it to go through the outfit.” The players have never been explicitly told to act dead, but they always “take their moment” for a theatrical exit. I certainly couldn’t resist. SQUID GAME STAIRCASE In the second series of Squid Game, the players staged a revolt against the guards, leading to an intense shootout on the pastel staircases. In this series of The Challenge during the Mingle episode, inspired by the drama, the players actually refuse to continue the game at one point, but the team behind the reality show was able to watch series two before release on Netflix, so they were prepared for this eventuality. “We often thought about the revolt, so we had plenty of contingencies in place,” says Stephen Yemoh.
I'm a Hunter on Channel 4's Hunted and this is what it's really like to chase down fugitives
"We would never let anyone get away for TV purposes. It’s our reputation!"
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Former soldier Jordan Wylie, 42, from Blackpool is a hunter on Channel 4’s Hunted and Celebrity Hunted, where people go on the run and try to evade capture by a team of intelligence experts. He’s also an ambassador for the Army Cadet Force and is embarking on an expedition to Antarctica in late November. Here he tells us about his life pre-Hunted and what it's really like to chase down fugitives... FROM THE SEA TO TV I joined the Army at 16 and was a frontline soldier for 10 years in The King’s Royal Hussars, doing multiple tours of Iraq and Northern Ireland. After I left, I went into maritime security, where I protected ships from pirates off the Somali coast. I was later asked to become a consultant on the film Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks — advising on tactics, what the pirates wore, and their strategies. Out of nowhere, Channel 4 called me about Hunted, which I’ve now done for eight years. It’s one thing to know your stuff, but a lot of it is being OK on camera and entertaining the audience. HOW TO HUNT You need surveillance skills, discipline and patience, and you have to be vigilant and alert for long periods of time. We’re in the car for 16–18 hours a day with the same people for six to seven weeks. I might be watching someone’s house for 24 hours. Before the show starts, we do a week’s worth of training where all the hunters discuss the latest technology — surveillance devices, bugging systems and cameras you can put on a lapel. MISSING IN ACTION Hunted shows that it’s incredibly difficult to go missing in England. We’re under surveillance and being tracked in everything we do — spending money, making calls, posting on social media. People who go missing are probably only not found because the authorities haven’t allocated the resources. THE BEST PLAN IS NO PLAN Our team quickly recognise a pattern, so the fugitives need to be difficult to predict. Most reach out to their friends and family, who we’re probably monitoring. I’d opt towards going into the rural environment, because there’s less CCTV. Avoid phones, vehicles and major cities. I don’t think people realise how intrusive the show is. If you’ve got a skeleton in your closet, we’re gonna find it. IT’S 100% REAL When I’m chasing a fugitive, the adrenaline is always high and I am doing everything I can to catch that person. If they get away, it’s because they’ve outrun or outsmarted us. We’ve got police, pilots and interrogators… we would never let anyone get away for TV purposes. It’s our reputation! The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Great British Bake Off judges on why making the series is just like being in a Carry On film
Add The Great British Bake Off to your watchlist When RT meets The Great British Bake Off judges Paul Hollywood, 59, and Prue Leith, 85, at the famous white tent in Berkshire’s Welford Park, we shake hands. This technically means that I’ve had a coveted Hollywood handshake, although Paul is quick to point out that he also gives that “to builders and my dentist”. Bake Off has been running for 16 series — has what you look for in a baker changed in that time? PRUE LEITH I vacillate – I never really know whether I’m after massive innovation or really classic, traditional, good baking. It’s so exciting when a baker comes up with something you’ve never eaten before, or a combination of flavours that is really imaginative. Then somebody bakes a good old favourite that you absolutely love, like rhubarb crumble, and it’s so wonderful because it’s homely, real and familiar. PAUL HOLLYWOOD One of the things we’ve had a lot this series is overcomplicating a recipe with too many flavours – you need a hero flavour and a couple to back it up. The innovation this year has really surprised, impressed and disappointed me at the same time. What cake should someone bake to win you over? PRUE One that has a lot of ground almonds in it. We had a really good polenta cake this series that was gluten free. PAUL Any cake with cream and fruit. What advice would you give to someone coming on the show? PAUL Ignore Noel and Alison when they try to make conversation. PRUE Sometimes the bakers long for them to go away, because they’re against the clock and want to get on with it. Do you ever disagree while judging? PRUE The discussion in Cake Corner [where they talk about the bakes] is more to inform and remind the audience, because Paul and I could do it in two seconds. The audience often say that I’m kind and Paul’s horrible, but if you look at our scores out of 10, we’re never more than one point apart. I think I’ve given one 10 in nine years... I can’t remember to who though! I used to say, “It’s not worth the calories.” That is my absolute judgment about any baking, because you know it’s full of fat and sugar, so: “Do I really want to eat this? Am I prepared to get fat?” I don’t say it now, because lots of people said they felt judged for liking cake. They thought I was being fattist. PAUL I’ve never given a 10, only a 9.5. A handshake is very close to a 10. These are amateur bakers, but if they get a handshake from me, it means it’s very professional. PRUE He will say, “This year or this week, I’m not giving any handshakes,” and then the hand will come out, because a bake will be so good he can’t resist. Lots say I should have a Prue pat. Prue, you are known for your colourful outfits and assortment of glasses — how many pairs do you own? PRUE I own 75, because that’s how many are in my range [Specs by Prue], but I’ve only got about 20 with my prescription in. I’m not allowed to wear any of mine on Bake Off, because it would be using the show to promote them, but there’s nothing wrong with RT advertising them… We’ll see what we can do. Innuendos in Bake Off are unavoidable. Is that difficult during filming? PRUE My problem is that I mostly don’t get it. I don’t know what they’re talking about. The bakers are asked to produce their favourite animal in cake, and there’s a beaver, so I say, “Tell us about your beaver.” Hysterics all round. What am I meant to say? PAUL There is a classic clip online where Prue talks about needing two holes to squirt, and about squeezing the bag. At the time, I had to walk out of the tent. It’s like a Carry On film. PRUE Paul and Noel could go into hysterics over the word sausage… like school boys, really. It must be hard to form a bond with the bakers and then see them go home? PRUE It is. PAUL Actually it’s the best part of my weekend… I don’t remember who left last week. Surely that’s just a tough guy act on the outside Paul, but on the inside? PRUE He’s quite squishy in the middle. PAUL That’s because of the cakes. What are you like when you’re away from the show? PAUL I keep to myself most of the time. I live in the middle of nowhere and I like it like that. There’s nothing better than putting on a dressing gown and watching a box set with my wife [former pub landlady Melissa Spalding]. I like mowing the lawn. I’m like Forrest Gump on my sitting lawnmower. PRUE The other thing Paul likes to do is cooking as opposed to baking. PAUL I do, I’m a feeder. I brought my pizza oven to set during Covid. PRUE He made pizza for 120 people in about an hour. Do you enjoy meeting your fans? PRUE I’m such an egotist. I love it. I like the attention, Paul doesn’t. I like when someone asks for a selfie, or when they say, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” PAUL I get a lot of people coming up to me, and I’ll do all the photographs, but I tend to be just hiding around the corner. When we do Celeb Bake Off, I’m fanboying everybody. I still don’t feel famous. I’m just a guy from telly who eats cake.
GBBO's Prue Leith reveals why she was labelled a "fattist" - as she and Paul Hollywood share best advice to bakers
The Great British Bake Off judges on why making the series is just like being in a Carry-On film.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When RT meets The Great British Bake Off judges Paul Hollywood, 59, and Prue Leith, 85, at the famous white tent in Berkshire’s Welford Park, we shake hands. This technically means that I’ve had a coveted Hollywood handshake, although Paul is quick to point out that he also gives that “to builders and my dentist”. Bake Off has been running for 16 series — has what you look for in a baker changed in that time? PRUE LEITH I vacillate – I never really know whether I’m after massive innovation or really classic, traditional, good baking. It’s so exciting when a baker comes up with something you’ve never eaten before, or a combination of flavours that is really imaginative. Then somebody bakes a good old favourite that you absolutely love, like rhubarb crumble, and it’s so wonderful because it’s homely, real and familiar. PAUL HOLLYWOOD One of the things we’ve had a lot this series is overcomplicating a recipe with too many flavours – you need a hero flavour and a couple to back it up. The innovation this year has really surprised, impressed and disappointed me at the same time. What cake should someone bake to win you over? PRUE One that has a lot of ground almonds in it. We had a really good polenta cake this series that was gluten free. PAUL Any cake with cream and fruit. What advice would you give to someone coming on the show? PAUL Ignore Noel and Alison when they try to make conversation. PRUE Sometimes the bakers long for them to go away, because they’re against the clock and want to get on with it. Alison Hammond, Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith Do you ever disagree while judging? PRUE The discussion in Cake Corner [where they talk about the bakes] is more to inform and remind the audience, because Paul and I could do it in two seconds. The audience often say that I’m kind and Paul’s horrible, but if you look at our scores out of 10, we’re never more than one point apart. I think I’ve given one 10 in nine years... I can’t remember to who though! I used to say, “It’s not worth the calories.” That is my absolute judgment about any baking, because you know it’s full of fat and sugar, so: “Do I really want to eat this? Am I prepared to get fat?” I don’t say it now, because lots of people said they felt judged for liking cake. They thought I was being fattist. PAUL I’ve never given a 10, only a 9.5. A handshake is very close to a 10. These are amateur bakers, but if they get a handshake from me, it means it’s very professional. PRUE He will say, “This year or this week, I’m not giving any handshakes,” and then the hand will come out, because a bake will be so good he can’t resist. Lots say I should have a Prue pat. Prue, you are known for your colourful outfits and assortment of glasses — how many pairs do you own? PRUE I own 75, because that’s how many are in my range [Specs by Prue], but I’ve only got about 20 with my prescription in. I’m not allowed to wear any of mine on Bake Off, because it would be using the show to promote them, but there’s nothing wrong with RT advertising them… We’ll see what we can do. Innuendos in Bake Off are unavoidable. Is that difficult during filming? PRUE My problem is that I mostly don’t get it. I don’t know what they’re talking about. The bakers are asked to produce their favourite animal in cake, and there’s a beaver, so I say, “Tell us about your beaver.” Hysterics all round. What am I meant to say? PAUL There is a classic clip online where Prue talks about needing two holes to squirt, and about squeezing the bag. At the time, I had to walk out of the tent. It’s like a Carry-On film. PRUE Paul and Noel could go into hysterics over the word sausage… like school boys, really. It must be hard to form a bond with the bakers and then see them go home? PRUE It is. PAUL Actually it’s the best part of my weekend… I don’t remember who left last week. Surely that’s just a tough guy act on the outside Paul, but on the inside? PRUE He’s quite squishy in the middle. PAUL That’s because of the cakes. What are you like when you’re away from the show? PAUL I keep to myself most of the time. I live in the middle of nowhere and I like it like that. There’s nothing better than putting on a dressing gown and watching a box set with my wife [former pub landlady Melissa Spalding]. I like mowing the lawn. I’m like Forrest Gump on my sitting lawnmower. PRUE The other thing Paul likes to do is cooking as opposed to baking. PAUL I do, I’m a feeder. I brought my pizza oven to set during Covid. PRUE He made pizza for 120 people in about an hour. Do you enjoy meeting your fans? PRUE I’m such an egotist. I love it. I like the attention, Paul doesn’t. I like when someone asks for a selfie, or when they say, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” PAUL I get a lot of people coming up to me, and I’ll do all the photographs, but I tend to be just hiding around the corner. When we do Celeb Bake Off, I’m fanboying everybody. I still don’t feel famous. I’m just a guy from telly who eats cake. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Toy Story at 30: John Morris on voicing Andy from aged 7 – and whether he'll appear in the fifth movie
The voice actor has appeared in every film in the beloved Pixar franchise so far.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. The film that confirmed what we believed as children — that our toys are real — celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Not only was Toy Story Pixar’s first feature-length film, but it was also the world’s first feature-length CGI animation. John Morris was there from the beginning at the age of seven, first auditioning and then lending his voice to the character of Andy Davis, who plays with his favourite toy, Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), his shiny new toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and many others. Unbeknown to him, when he’s not watching, they get up to all sorts of mischief. Morris was asked to bring his favourite toy to the audition. "I brought all my X-Men action figures in a big case," he laughs. "I was voicing Wolverine, Professor X, Storm… like we see at the beginning of Toy Story when Andy is playing with his toys. "Coming home from the recording sessions, I’d look around, like, 'Is everyone in the same place? What happened while I was away?'" Morris, who’s now 40, and has made a career in voice acting, has played Andy from Toy Story 1—4, including the heart-wrenching scene where Andy goes to college and gives his toys away to a young girl called Bonnie. "I was definitely teary recording it,” he recalls on Zoom, wearing a Pixar cap and a shirt featuring Toy Story characters. "Andy was saying goodbye to the toys, and it was also like a goodbye for me, too, because he potentially wouldn’t be back in the series — but I would love to see Andy return in the future.” "Some of us on the film-making side were more like Sid than Andy," says Bob Pauley, who was a character designer on the first film, art and technical consultant on the second and has been production designer on the rest, including the forthcoming Toy Story 5. "I definitely took apart toys, repainted them and blew up army men. I think Sid’s actually more creative in general, because he did those things," he says, referring to Andy’s neighbour who builds "mutant toys" and terrorises them. Pauley was responsible for creating Buzz Lightyear, who went through many different iterations. He used to be small and wear a red suit while Woody was tall, but that was going to be difficult for filming, so they scrapped that. Other names for Buzz included Lunar Larry (complete with an "LL" belt buckle), Tempus from Morph and TECOR (Telegalactic Earthbound Cyborg of Rimboz). Pauley visited a lot of toy stores, buying action figures that were on sale, and flea markets for the well-loved toys. "To have a believable world, you need to make sure these materials and the construction of these toys connect with the audience. Young kids are the best experts. They know how these toys work." To understand how to animate the film’s toys, the team created them for real, and most of the film toys did then, of course, land on shelves. Pauley proudly brings out his Buzz Lightyear in a wonderful full-circle moment — the original figures made by Thinkway Toys were among the first toys to be produced using digital models. In Toy Story 5, which is released in 2026, the toys must grapple with something very relevant… technology. "Creative play is important, but it’s a limited, precious resource. These toys have a very small window of time with these kids as they grow up — now there’s this thing in the room turning your kid into a screen zombie," says Pauley. "It’s like what everybody is dealing with now with AI: how’s this gonna work out?" The franchise continues to modernise itself for new audiences and is certainly on its way to infinity and beyond. Pauley says, "With every Toy Story that comes out, people will have their Toy Story. We’re very fortunate to be part of that." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – <a class="_mizu194a _1ah31bk5 _ra3xnqa1 _128m1bk5 _1cvmnqa1 _4davt94y _4bfu1r31 _1hms8stv _ajmmnqa1 _vchhusvi _syaz14q2 _ect41gqc _1a3b1r31 _4fpr8stv _5goinqa1 _f8pj14q2 _9oik1r31 _1bnxglyw _jf4cnqa1 _30l314q2 _1nrm1r31 _c2waglyw _1iohnqa1 _9h8h16c2 _1053w7te _1ienw7te _n0fxw7te _1vhvg3x0" title="https://www.buysubscriptions.com/print/radio-times-magazine-subscription" href="https://www.buysubscriptions.com/print/radio-times-magazine-subscription" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">subscribe here. All four Toy Story films are available to stream on Disney+ now. You can sign up to Disney+ for £4.99 a month or £89.90 a year now. 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.
Hard-hitting police drama Blue Lights is back and RT was given exclusive access to the set and its stars
Add Blue Lights to your watchlist When Radio Times is invited to visit the set of Blue Lights in Belfast, series two has just won a Bafta for best drama and the cast and crew are understandably in high spirits while filming the third. The award is even proudly on show today at Netherleigh House – the former headquarters of the Department for the Economy, which acts as the fictional Blackthorn Station in modern Belfast. The recreation room, the briefing room, the offices, the interview room – they’re all located within these halls. “The set makes our job so much easier because we don’t have to imagine anything. The police cars are literally parked outside,” says Nathan Braniff, who plays Constable Tommy Foster. “It’s basically like a real police station.” He’s not wrong – it very much feels that way. On a pinboard in the recreation room, which has dartboards, a TV and DVDs, there are polaroids of the cast in character and handwritten cards addressed to the officers. There are even padlocks on the fridges because, during their research, the production designers noticed this quirk in real police stations… the officers don’t want anyone stealing their food. View Green Video on the source website “Once you slip on the uniform and walk on to the set, you’re back at it… people have thought I was a cop. It’s easier to just play along than explain,” says Frank Blake, who stars as unpredictable police officer Shane Bradley. “The [bulletproof] vests don’t get any easier,” adds Katherine Devlin, referring to the heavy uniform she wears as Annie Conlon. “There are so many props to think about… We hate to see our continuity script adviser coming. He’ll be like, ‘Your earpiece wasn’t in.’” The attention to detail is impeccable, which comes as no surprise. It’s written by Northern Irish screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, former journalists for Panorama and BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight. They spend about three months researching a new series, speaking to around 25 police officers for each one, as well as lawyers, victims of crime and business owners in Belfast. “Officers would tell us about their experiences and frequently they would end up crying. We felt a bit like impostors, like we were unqualified therapists,” says Lawn. “Many of them had never had any therapy or counselling. They just got on with it. There’s so much undiagnosed and hidden trauma in the police force. That really comes through in this series.” In the hall, I notice a prominent memorial to Constable Gerry Cliff (played by Richard Dormer), who died in action in series one, as well as a plaque dedicated to “Our Murdered Colleagues”. Cliff is still very much part of the storyline in the new series that starts this Monday. Michael Smiley joins the cast as Paul “Colly” Collins, an intelligence officer who worked with Cliff and is now seeking justice, and possibly revenge, for his murder. “My dad died when I was 32,” says Lawn, who’s now 48. “The idea that someone dies and their colleagues and friends forget them is preposterous. These people, in some ways, still walk among us as psychological ghosts. “It’s also a metaphor for all the loss we’ve endured in Northern Ireland. You couldn’t write a realistic show about Northern Ireland without incorporating the idea of loss, grief and violent death. It’s so integral to who we are. So many people died here, and so many others were maimed or horrifically injured, and we’re still living with all of that.” Lawn also met three police couples, with one pair working in the same station, for realistic relationship material for police officer Stevie Neill (Martin McCann) and social worker turned “peeler” Grace Ellis (Siân Brooke), who finally kissed at the end of series two. Lawn says, “Will-they, won’t-they storylines work in television, but I think sometimes they can be overexploited by writers to keep an audience interested. At some point, they deserve to see that kiss, or those people admitting they love each other. The fear is: it’s done – what happens then? Do you talk about the job when you get home? Do you ever disagree about how to do the job?” “One of the more upfront questions people ask about Grace and Stevie is whether they’ve got it on,” actor McCann laughs. “But it’s quite a grown-up, realistic, not very Hollywood approach to a workplace romance.” “This series, you see them navigating this crazy profession together, and how their old lives impact where they are now,” adds Brooke. Series one took place in a republican community in west Belfast; series two in a loyalist community in east Belfast; and now series three is set in “the leafy, salubrious suburbs of south Belfast, where I live,” Lawn explains. “I’m talking about my neighbours in this series. I’ve always thought, ‘This is where the real criminals live.’ It probably means I’ll have to move house at the end of it, but that’s fine. I’ll take that on the chin. “Crime doesn’t have any class boundaries. When people think of this city, they think of troubled working-class communities still divided by sectarianism. That’s true, and we have shown that, but when I go out with the police in the back of their car, they’re only spending a portion of their time in working-class estates. They’re often going to really bad incidents in lovely big houses. White-collar crime is even more dangerous than regular crime out on the streets.” I also visit the set of the sumptuous private members’ club The Deanery, which is actually right next to the set for Blackthorn Station. There’s a giant gold and teal octopus on the wall, peacock wallpaper and loads of funky art and fancy lamps. It’s owned by career criminal Dana Morgan (Cathy Tyson, joining the cast in this third series), who is celebrating the club’s first anniversary with wealthy guests. “I haven’t played a character like this ever,” Tyson reveals. “She is at the top of an illegal trade and has a double life. She’s very intelligent and a sociopath – I did a bit of homework on that!” Lawn and Patterson spend hours discussing the cast’s characters with them so “they have a stake in who this person is”, even with actors who only film for a few days. “Blue Lights is fundamentally and primarily a character drama,” says Lawn. “Everything about the criminal arcs is secondary to those characters. They all encounter things in the job that make every one of them question: ‘Is this really worth it?’ We get the answer in episode six.” They’re already discussing series four, which was commissioned before series two even came out. More than 87 per cent of the Blue Lights crew were from Northern Ireland and the series generated about £20 million for the Northern Ireland economy, according to a 2023/24 BBC Economic Impact Report for Northern Ireland. When Lawn accepted the Bafta, he said, “Belfast, this one’s for you.” McCann says, “I’m from west Belfast, so a career in the police service just didn’t seem like an option. For the first time, I think people in Northern Ireland are getting to see a drama that represents the people beneath the uniform that take the risk to do this job. It really is changing the perception of what the Police Service of Northern Ireland is.” “There was a producer in New York who said to me last year, ‘You guys in Belfast are having a real moment.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s going to last for 30 years,’” Lawn laughs. “That’s the plan – that it never dissipates or fades, that we just keep going.”
10 Questions with Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots
Their new film All of You mixes sci-fi and romance. But how do they feel about a romcom grand gesture?
Add All of You to your watchlist Brett Goldstein, 45, is known as the foul-mouthed footballer Roy Kent in Ted Lasso — but in All of You, he shows off his softer side. He is co-writer and co-producer of the film and stars as Simon, who’s in love with his best friend Laura, played by 36-year-old Imogen Poots (28 Week Later). Unfortunately, she’s about to take a futuristic test to discover her true soulmate… All of You started as a short film 10 years ago. What appeals about the romantic genre? BRETT GOLDSTEIN I love that genre. The only thing I’m interested in writing is relationships. It’s what connects me to any story. All the big TV shows are stuffed with romantic comedy but it’s just not been in the cinema for a while. IMOGEN POOTS Romance is often dismissed as silly or adolescent, reserved for teenagers, but it’s what great music and poems are written about. Brett, as on Ted Lasso you’re a writer, producer and actor here — how do you juggle it all? BRETT I prefer it that way, because I’m thinking about every aspect anyway. When you’re hired as an actor, there are times when you’re frustrated because you think a scene should change a bit, but it’s not your place to do that. This way I write a script, and it’s perfect to me, but then I start filming and see things, so I can adapt it to become better. Have any romcoms shaped how you believe relationships are in real life? IMOGEN Notting Hill! BRETT The problem with a lot of those films is that it would be psychotic if you turned up at an airport or got out a boombox and made a big speech. IMOGEN No, it wouldn’t! That’s what I expect and it’s not happening! Then again, I always wanted a cowboy and then I dated a few of them… some things are better as a myth. BRETT My fantasy was living under the sea with a mermaid, so all these things have their issues… Do you believe in soulmates? IMOGEN It changes all the time, but there are moments in my life that have shifted by meeting another person. I don’t necessarily think it’s always a good thing, but I do believe in the idea of it. I am very romantic. BRETT I think there are 50 people in your life that you’re meant to meet for some reason, whether they’re your soulmate or otherwise. If the soulmate test was real, would you take it? BRETT I wouldn’t, because I don’t want it spoiled. IMOGEN On some days I would, and some days, I’d wait. What if you get a dud? Is there any real-life technology you wish had never been created? BRETT Social media altogether should go. I stopped looking at Instagram because I spent so much time on it, and I never felt good. IMOGEN Technology is related to why there are no manners any more. That’s why everyone’s treating each other so badly romantically. We’re confused about what’s real and what’s simulated. What did you learn about love from working on this film? IMOGEN Love can be complicated. It’s a puzzle… but I’ve met people where it hasn’t been a puzzle at all. Maybe it’s about turning up. But I also think you can people-please yourself into a romantic situation which isn’t where you should be. What’s the last film that made you cry? IMOGEN I just rewatched Terms of Endearment, which killed me. And I’m a bit late to it, but King Richard. I’ve been crying at everything recently. BRETT The ending of Presence, Steven Soderbergh’s film, scared me and made me cry. Imogen, you were 17 when you starred in 28 Weeks Later, and Brett, you became an overnight star with Ted Lasso. What do you credit your success to? IMOGEN Delusion, because this job is mostly rejection. Or audacity! A bunch of people believed in me and took me seriously. I attended Young Blood Theatre Company workshops at Riverside Studios [in Hammersmith, London] and it was so valuable. That informed everything afterwards, because I found my people there. I wish there were more community theatres for kids. BRETT I credit it to Ted Lasso! Did you have any idea that Ted Lasso was going to be as big of a hit as it was? BRETT No, not at all. Apple TV+ was a new streamer that people didn’t know existed yet, plus it was an American-British hybrid thing, and they rarely work. I did a show called Hoff the Record [in 2015] with David Hasselhoff and it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever done. I was like, “This is the one. This is the breakthrough.” It won an International Emmy, but no one watched it. I long ago let go of the idea of having a big one. I was like, “I’m very happy. I All of You is on Apple TV+ from 26 September
All of You's Brett Goldstein and Imogen Potts on soulmates, crying at films – and why social media is ruining romance
The new Apple TV+ film – which Goldstein also co-wrote – explores a test which allows the user to discover their soulmate.
Brett Goldstein, 45, is known as the foul-mouthed footballer Roy Kent in Ted Lasso — but in All of You, he shows off his softer side. He is co-writer and co-producer of the film and stars as Simon, who’s in love with his best friend Laura, played by 36-year-old Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later). Unfortunately, she’s about to take a futuristic test to discover her true soulmate… All of You started as a short film 10 years ago. What appeals about the romantic genre? BRETT GOLDSTEIN: I love that genre. The only thing I’m interested in writing is relationships. It’s what connects me to any story. All the big TV shows are stuffed with romantic comedy but it’s just not been in the cinema for a while. IMOGEN POOTS: Romance is often dismissed as silly or adolescent, reserved for teenagers, but it’s what great music and poems are written about. Brett, as on Ted Lasso you’re a writer, producer and actor here – how do you juggle it all? BRETT: I prefer it that way, because I’m thinking about every aspect anyway. When you’re hired as an actor, there are times when you’re frustrated because you think a scene should change a bit, but it’s not your place to do that. This way I write a script, and it’s perfect to me, but then I start filming and see things, so I can adapt it to become better. Have any romcoms shaped how you believe relationships are in real life? IMOGEN: Notting Hill BRETT: The problem with a lot of those films is that it would be psychotic if you turned up at an airport or got out a boombox and made a big speech. IMOGEN: No, it wouldn’t! That’s what I expect and it’s not happening! Then again, I always wanted a cowboy and then I dated a few of them… some things are better as a myth. BRETT: My fantasy was living under the sea with a mermaid, so all these things have their issues... Do you believe in soulmates? IMOGEN: It changes all the time, but there are moments in my life that have shifted by meeting another person. I don’t necessarily think it’s always a good thing, but I do believe in the idea of it. I am very romantic. BRETT: I think there are 50 people in your life that you’re meant to meet for some reason, whether they’re your soulmate or otherwise. If the soulmate test was real, would you take it? BRETT: I wouldn’t, because I don’t want it spoiled. IMOGEN: On some days I would, and some days, I’d wait. What if you get a dud? Is there any real-life technology you wish had never been created? BRETT: Social media altogether should go. I stopped looking at Instagram because I spent so much time on it, and I never felt good. IMOGEN: Technology is related to why there are no manners any more. That’s why everyone’s treating each other so badly romantically. We’re confused about what’s real and what’s simulated. What did you learn about love from working on this film? IMOGEN: Love can be complicated. It’s a puzzle… but I’ve met people where it hasn’t been a puzzle at all. Maybe it’s about turning up. But I also think you can people-please yourself into a romantic situation which isn’t where you should be. What’s the last film that made you cry? IMOGEN: I just rewatched Terms of Endearment, which killed me. And I’m a bit late to it, but King Richard. I’ve been crying at everything recently. BRETT: The ending of Presence, Steven Soderbergh’s film, scared me and made me cry. View oEmbed on the source website Imogen, you were 17 when you starred in 28 Weeks Later, and Brett, you became an overnight star with Ted Lasso. What do you credit your success to? IMOGEN: Delusion, because this job is mostly rejection. Or audacity! A bunch of people believed in me and took me seriously. I attended Young Blood Theatre Company workshops at Riverside Studios [in Hammersmith, London] and it was so valuable. That informed everything afterwards, because I found my people there. I wish there were more community theatres for kids. BRETT: I credit it to Ted Lasso! Did you have any idea that Ted Lasso was going to be as big of a hit as it was? BRETT: No, not at all. Apple TV+ was a new streamer that people didn’t know existed yet, plus it was an American-British hybrid thing, and they rarely work. I did a show called Hoff the Record [in 2015] with David Hasselhoff and it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever done. I was like, “This is the one. This is the breakthrough.” It won an International Emmy, but no one watched it. I long ago let go of the idea of having a big one. I was like, "I’m very happy. I have a life where I get to act, write and do stand-up at a small level, and I’m busy all the time, so what else do I need?" Then Ted Lasso happened. All of You is released on Apple TV+ on Friday 26th September 2025 – – sign up to Apple TV+ now. 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.
Blue Lights writer on police force's "hidden trauma" – and why show's will-they, won't-they story had to end
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When Radio Times is invited to visit the set of Blue Lights in Belfast, series two has just won a Bafta for best drama and the cast and crew are understandably in high spirits while filming the third. The award is even proudly on show today at Netherleigh House – the former headquarters of the Department for the Economy, which acts as the fictional Blackthorn Station in modern Belfast. The recreation room, the briefing room, the offices, the interview room – they’re all located within these halls. “The set makes our job so much easier because we don’t have to imagine anything. The police cars are literally parked outside,” says Nathan Braniff, who plays Constable Tommy Foster. “It’s basically like a real police station.” He’s not wrong – it very much feels that way. On a pinboard in the recreation room, which has dartboards, a TV and DVDs, there are polaroids of the cast in character and handwritten cards addressed to the officers. There are even padlocks on the fridges because, during their research, the production designers noticed this quirk in real police stations… the officers don’t want anyone stealing their food. “Once you slip on the uniform and walk on to the set, you’re back at it… people have thought I was a cop. It’s easier to just play along than explain,” says Frank Blake, who stars as unpredictable police officer Shane Bradley. “The [bulletproof] vests don’t get any easier,” adds Katherine Devlin, referring to the heavy uniform she wears as Annie Conlon. “There are so many props to think about… We hate to see our continuity script adviser coming. He’ll be like, ‘Your earpiece wasn’t in.’” The attention to detail is impeccable, which comes as no surprise. It’s written by Northern Irish screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, former journalists for Panorama and BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight. They spend about three months researching a new series, speaking to around 25 police officers for each one, as well as lawyers, victims of crime and business owners in Belfast. “Officers would tell us about their experiences and frequently they would end up crying. We felt a bit like impostors, like we were unqualified therapists,” says Lawn. “Many of them had never had any therapy or counselling. They just got on with it. There’s so much undiagnosed and hidden trauma in the police force. That really comes through in this series.” In the hall, I notice a prominent memorial to Constable Gerry Cliff (played by Richard Dormer), who died in action in series one, as well as a plaque dedicated to “Our Murdered Colleagues”. Cliff is still very much part of the storyline in the new series that starts this Monday. Michael Smiley joins the cast as Paul “Colly” Collins, an intelligence officer who worked with Cliff and is now seeking justice, and possibly revenge, for his murder. “My dad died when I was 32,” says Lawn, who’s now 48. “The idea that someone dies and their colleagues and friends forget them is preposterous. These people, in some ways, still walk among us as psychological ghosts. “It’s also a metaphor for all the loss we’ve endured in Northern Ireland. You couldn’t write a realistic show about Northern Ireland without incorporating the idea of loss, grief and violent death. It’s so integral to who we are. So many people died here, and so many others were maimed or horrifically injured, and we’re still living with all of that.” Lawn also met three police couples, with one pair working in the same station, for realistic relationship material for police officer Stevie Neill (Martin McCann) and social worker turned “peeler” Grace Ellis (Siân Brooke), who finally kissed at the end of series two. Lawn says, “Will-they, won’t-they storylines work in television, but I think sometimes they can be overexploited by writers to keep an audience interested. At some point, they deserve to see that kiss, or those people admitting they love each other. The fear is: it’s done – what happens then? Do you talk about the job when you get home? Do you ever disagree about how to do the job?” View oEmbed on the source website “One of the more upfront questions people ask about Grace and Stevie is whether they’ve got it on,” actor McCann laughs. “But it’s quite a grown-up, realistic, not very Hollywood approach to a workplace romance.” “This series, you see them navigating this crazy profession together, and how their old lives impact where they are now,” adds Brooke. Series one took place in a republican community in west Belfast; series two in a loyalist community in east Belfast; and now series three is set in “the leafy, salubrious suburbs of south Belfast, where I live,” Lawn explains. “I’m talking about my neighbours in this series. I’ve always thought, ‘This is where the real criminals live.’ It probably means I’ll have to move house at the end of it, but that’s fine. I’ll take that on the chin. “Crime doesn’t have any class boundaries. When people think of this city, they think of troubled working-class communities still divided by sectarianism. That’s true, and we have shown that, but when I go out with the police in the back of their car, they’re only spending a portion of their time in working-class estates. They’re often going to really bad incidents in lovely big houses. White-collar crime is even more dangerous than regular crime out on the streets.” I also visit the set of the sumptuous private members’ club The Deanery, which is actually right next to the set for Blackthorn Station. There’s a giant gold and teal octopus on the wall, peacock wallpaper and loads of funky art and fancy lamps. It’s owned by career criminal Dana Morgan (Cathy Tyson, joining the cast in this third series), who is celebrating the club’s first anniversary with wealthy guests. “I haven’t played a character like this ever,” Tyson reveals. “She is at the top of an illegal trade and has a double life. She’s very intelligent and a sociopath – I did a bit of homework on that!” Lawn and Patterson spend hours discussing the cast’s characters with them so “they have a stake in who this person is”, even with actors who only film for a few days. “Blue Lights is fundamentally and primarily a character drama,” says Lawn. “Everything about the criminal arcs is secondary to those characters. They all encounter things in the job that make every one of them question: ‘Is this really worth it?’ We get the answer in episode six.” They’re already discussing series four, which was commissioned before series two even came out. More than 87 per cent of the Blue Lights crew were from Northern Ireland and the series generated about £20 million for the Northern Ireland economy, according to a 2023/24 BBC Economic Impact Report for Northern Ireland. When Lawn accepted the Bafta, he said, “Belfast, this one’s for you.” McCann says, “I’m from west Belfast, so a career in the police service just didn’t seem like an option. For the first time, I think people in Northern Ireland are getting to see a drama that represents the people beneath the uniform that take the risk to do this job. It really is changing the perception of what the Police Service of Northern Ireland is.” “There was a producer in New York who said to me last year, ‘You guys in Belfast are having a real moment.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s going to last for 30 years,’” Lawn laughs. “That’s the plan – that it never dissipates or fades, that we just keep going.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Blue Lights returns at 9pm on Monday 29th September on BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The 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.
Add Adolescence to your watchlist. 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.
What's it like to be a Traitor or take part in Squid Game and Race Across the World?
Radio Times'sLaura Rutkowski tests out the live experiences from three popular TV game shows...
It’s not enough to just watch TV any more — we need to experience it. As people increasingly choose to prioritise and pay for interactive “experiences” over material things, and live, sleep and breathe all things entertainment, production companies have seen an opening — what if you could actually step into the world of your favourite TV show, even if it’s just for a couple of hours? It seems to have all started with Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience, which debuted in Brisbane, Australia in 1997, and has since gone global. The Crystal Maze Live Experience launched in 2016 and arguably made these types of events mainstream. If you name a TV show, there’s probably been an experience for it: Friends, Doctor Who, Taskmaster, The Cube. In the US, Netflix House is launching later this year as a free year-round entertainment venue for fans to step inside the worlds of their favourite shows, from Stranger Things to Squid Game. In August, the dating app Thursday partnered up with Love Is Blind: UK in London, Manchester and Glasgow to allow singletons to go on blind dates in “pods”, just like they do in the series. Clearly, some shows really are just crying out to be experienced firsthand. So, along with my friends, family and colleagues, I put these three to the test… THE TRAITORS GAME FACE ON I’m playing the game with 13 other players — most of whom are strangers — across two hours. Our host (sadly not Claudia Winkleman) instructs us at the Round Table (exactly like the one in the show) in tasks where we work together to win gold. Everything you do once you step into the room counts, and a good poker face is crucial. 100% FAITHFUL The game is surprisingly tense and follows the rules of The Traitors very closely — of all the TV experiences, this one is probably the closest to the real thing. My heart’s pounding, I’m nervous, and I’m lying terribly! I nearly go out at the very first Round Table because a few people, including a sweet woman called Gemma, vote for me. I’m told I seem “a bit shifty”. I blame my American accent. I can now see why people get emotional during the real show -— it’s very easy to get defensive when people make assumptions about your character! SPECS APPEAL Before the game, you’re advised not to wear noisy clothing so you’re not caught. Participants are instructed to wear a blindfold, and at certain moments, only the Traitors are asked to remove them. But if you wear glasses, taking them on and off causes a commotion — people pick up on the noise and, well, they are banished. However, if you’re murdered or banished, you still get to watch the rest of the players from a separate room and remain involved in some of the tasks. BOARD ROOM Writing people’s names on the board to eliminate them is thrilling. It’s even more fun if you’re a Traitor and you get to “murder” other players in a sneaky way. I start off Faithful and then get recruited as a Traitor. I’m voted out during the final Round Table after someone spots that “something changed” in me. No one wins anything, but it makes the urge to win this skilful game no less great. thetraitorslive.co.uk RACE ACROSS THE WORLD MAD FOR IT We called our team “The Madchesters”, consisting of my parents Alison and Pieter, who live in Manchester (my mum is from there, my dad is American, which clearly was my downfall during The Traitors Live Experience), and their two friends, married couple Glenys and Nick, who was born and bred in Manchester. I thought I could use their local expertise! Teams can include up to eight players or be split into two smaller teams to race each other, and there’s also a London version of the experience. Our journey starts on the lovely yellow tram as we make our way into the centre of Manchester to our secret location, disclosed via WhatsApp, as all our instructions are. We begin with a £30 in-game budget that we can spend or lose, and we can also request virtual “work” to earn money. LUNCH BREAK This is a very smart way of seeing the city as we pass the statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, plenty of Oasis posters and neon lights that read, “You’re my wonderwall,” and the symbolic worker bee. For each location, there’s also a little history lesson. We have to respond and solve puzzles and clues within WhatsApp, as well as actual physical ones in pubs, where we tell the staff, “We’re on the race”. We also get a 20 per cent discount on drinks — clever. My dad wants me to point out that his pint of IPA only cost £2.60… without the discount! Ahh, Manchester. A GRAND DAY OUT You can gently stroll, with in-built stops along the way, or “race” and complete it as quickly as you can, because you are up against other teams. Out of four, we came fourth. The whole experience is meant to take around two to three hours, and we took five, but we had a great time! It is stressful, though, especially with everyone’s differing senses of direction, and ability to solve tricky clues. I’m not surprised people break down in tears on the show — it’s a true initiative test, and this is only Manchester, never mind trekking across Asia without a map! raceacrosstheworldexperience.com/manchester SQUID GAME PLAYER 275 On arrival everyone is given a vest with numbers on — I’m branded player 275 — and then have our photo taken. It’s all starting just like Netflix’s Squid Game… though hopefully less violent. When we’re taken through to our dorm, we’re greeted by the game’s guards in their hot pink jumpsuits and masks. We’re split into two groups and the games begin as the mysterious Front Man’s voice chimes above, “If you cheat, just make sure you don’t get caught.” CHEATS NEVER PROSPER? We’re all given wristbands to digitally scan at the end of each game based on whether we passed or failed, equating to points on the leaderboard. The first of five games is Memory Steps, where you have to remember a sequence correctly as you cross an LED panel board. Then there’s a twist on the show’s heart-rending Marbles game, and later we compete in a tug-of-war. Next up is the infamous talking doll Young-hee in Red Light, Green Light. She cunningly catches a lot of people out when she calls, “Stop” followed quickly by another “Stop.” The leaderboard is updating, but people are logging that they’ve passed when they haven’t, and are even tapping their wristband multiple times to earn more points — a flaw of the game or exactly as it was intended in the first place? END GAME The final game is Round and Round, where you must land on the right shape before the signal ends. The winner of that goes up against the leaderboard winner… who is a cheater. After they play a simple childhood game, the winner must choose whether to win one item from the giftshop for themselves or give everyone a discount. He chooses himself! Still, it seems fitting — as in the show, in the end, there really can only be one Squid Game winner. And unlike in the series, at least we all make it out alive. squidgameexperienceuk.com
The Irish star on romcoms and regional identity — and why his dog is a Puffin
Add Puffin Rock to your watchlist 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 actor on her lost childhood, the benefits of intimacy coordinators — and her obsession with aliens
Add The Rumour to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? Years ago, I was skint and had a tiny telly in my flat. The guy I was dating then said, “Emily, for someone who’s on TV, you should have a bigger TV.” I was mortified so I overcompensated and now I have this ridiculously massive, over-the-top television that’s half in the kitchen, half in the living room. What have you watched recently? I’m quite late to the party but I’m really into Grey’s Anatomy right now. Since becoming a mother [to one-year-old son Barney with her fiancé Dr Alistair Garner], TV time is even more sacred. Who controls the remote at home? Al and I usually find a drama we want to watch together – if we see an episode without each other, it’s like cheating. We’ve been watching The Perfect Couple and Unforgivable, and we’re about to start Alien: Earth. I’m obsessed with aliens and UFOs. I’m a believer – who’s to say there isn’t life elsewhere? Al is a scientist, so you might think he’d not believe in all that, but he does. What do you watch with Barney? We love Bluey, In the Night Garden and Mr Tumble. I’m really good at sign language now because CBeebies features Makaton and BSL. Barney has even started to sign! There are so many lovely inclusive, diverse programmes that are teaching him positive messages. The CBeebies presenters are brilliant – I’d be really starstruck if I met them. What’s your first TV memory? My mum [Kate Robbins] has always been on TV. My late uncle Simon [Shelton] played Tinky Winky in Teletubbies, so my childhood was spent going to Teletubbyland and to the studios where my mum was working, seeing behind the scenes, but it kind of destroyed my childhood. I saw Barney the dinosaur with his head off. Mum was on Spitting Image and kept some of the puppets in the house. If my siblings and I were naughty, she’d say, “You have to sit in the room with the Margaret Thatcher puppet,” which I was really scared of. So really, I should hate TV! In The Rumour, a convicted child killer is suspected to be living in a small town. Did being a new mum help you work with your on-screen son? I’d given birth ten weeks before filming, so I was exhausted, emotional and still in agony from my caesarean, but it was really about getting back on the horse. Before, I’d be like, “How do I play a mum? How do I make it look believable that I love this child?” In The Rumour, my fake son Liam was so sweet. I did even the tiny things, like getting him off to school, putting his bag on and adjusting his coat, with heartfelt emotion, because they really mean something now I have my own son. What do you hope to teach Barney? I want to raise him to know how to treat women and know his own worth, so he doesn’t feel he has to follow awful men online that are preying on vulnerable boys. Adolescence exposed the truth of what is going on in so many homes. We’re a very open book in this family. I want Barney to know he can talk to me about anything – that’s the mother I want to be. In 2023, you presented Emily Atack: Asking for It?, which was about online sexual harassment. Would you like to do another documentary? Yes, I want to do one on intimacy coordinators, and I’m going to start having conversations about it soon. I’ve seen people roll their eyes about them and say, “I don’t need one.” There’s a defensiveness about it, because they feel like they’re being accused of something they haven’t even done yet. Intimacy coordinators are there for support if you feel uncomfortable, whether you’re a man or a woman. I’ve been sexually assaulted at work throughout my career, whether it’s on the actual set, or at a wrap party – and since the #MeToo movement, it shows that people are listening and that there has to be a shift in behaviour on sets. What’s it like working with intimacy coordinators on Rivals? I’m really proud of the Rivals gang because, throughout my life, I haven’t felt safe all the time, and we’re all so respectful of each other. We have to do a lot of sexual scenes and we’re very looked after. It’s a really positive thing.
The Paper's Domhnall Gleeson on what makes The Office spin-off "stand on its own"
The new sitcom is about "fighting the good fight – even if it feels like you're losing".
The Paper star Domhnall Gleeson has explained why the spin-off from massively successful sitcom The Office (US), which was itself inspired by the UK version, stands on its own from those two preceding shows. Both the UK and US editions focused on employees at a mundane paper merchant – Wernham Hogg in Slough, Berkshire, and Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania, respectively – where outlandish bosses sparked farcical scenarios. This spiritual successor shifts focus to a fictional local newspaper operating out of the American midwestern town of Toledo, Ohio, which idealistic incoming editor Ned Sampson (Gleeson) is attempting to restore to its former glory. Ned is certainly more reasonable and self-aware than David Brent or Michael Scott, but the show does boast two characters more akin to those nightmare bosses in the form of Tim Key's Ken Davies and Sabrina Impacciatore's Esmeralda Grand. On what differentiates The Paper from The Office's most famous incarnations, Gleeson told RadioTimes.com: "There was a cringe humour that happened with [David Brent and Michael Scott], but that was part of what made them great. "If you look at how different those two characters are to each other – they're totally different, those actors made them totally [their own]. And the humour of each of those programmes is different from each other." Gleeson continued: "And in a similar way, this is [different, but] probably closer to the American Office in terms of the tone. "I think it's very hopeful in loads of ways, and all about fighting the good fight, even if it feels like you're losing. I loved that about it and I hope that's one of the things that makes it stand on its own two feet." The Office (US) creator Greg Daniels is behind this spin-off, teaming up with Nathan for You's Michael Koman, while Chelsea Frei (The Life List), Melvin Gregg (Snowfall), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Black Ops) and a returning Óscar Núñez round out the cast. The Paper premieres on Sky Max and NOW on Friday 5th September 2025. 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. Add The Paper 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.
Rivals' Emily Atack reveals what shows she's watching and what she hopes to teach her son
The Rivals star sits down with Radio Times to discuss her new thriller series The Rumour and being a new mum.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? Years ago, I was skint and had a tiny telly in my flat. The guy I was dating then said, “Emily, for someone who’s on TV, you should have a bigger TV.” I was mortified so I overcompensated and now I have this ridiculously massive, over-the-top television that’s half in the kitchen, half in the living room. What have you watched recently? I’m quite late to the party but I’m really into Grey’s Anatomy right now. Since becoming a mother [to one-year-old son Barney with her fiancé Dr Alistair Garner], TV time is even more sacred. Who controls the remote at home? Al and I usually find a drama we want to watch together – if we see an episode without each other, it’s like cheating. We’ve been watching The Perfect Couple and Unforgivable, and we’re about to start Alien: Earth. I’m obsessed with aliens and UFOs. I’m a believer – who’s to say there isn’t life elsewhere? Al is a scientist, so you might think he’d not believe in all that, but he does. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/08/THE-RUMOURFirst-Look-Rachel-Shenton-as-Joanne-and-Emily-Atack-as-Debbie-with-cast--a3cc795.jpg" width="3800" height="2533" alt="Rachel Shenton and Emily Atack star in The Rumour; Rachel's character, Joanna, is talking to a group of women sat in front of her, with concerned and unwelcoming expressions on their faces" title="THE RUMOUR - (Firt Look)" /> What do you watch with Barney? We love Bluey, In the Night Garden and Mr Tumble. I’m really good at sign language now because CBeebies features Makaton and BSL. Barney has even started to sign! There are so many lovely inclusive, diverse programmes that are teaching him positive messages. The CBeebies presenters are brilliant – I’d be really starstruck if I met them. What’s your first TV memory? My mum [Kate Robbins] has always been on TV. My late uncle Simon [Shelton] played Tinky Winky in Teletubbies, so my childhood was spent going to Teletubbyland and to the studios where my mum was working, seeing behind the scenes, but it kind of destroyed my childhood. I saw Barney the dinosaur with his head off. Mum was on Spitting Image and kept some of the puppets in the house. If my siblings and I were naughty, she’d say, “You have to sit in the room with the Margaret Thatcher puppet,” which I was really scared of. So really, I should hate TV! In The Rumour, a convicted child killer is suspected to be living in a small town. Did being a new mum help you work with your on-screen son? I’d given birth ten weeks before filming, so I was exhausted, emotional and still in agony from my caesarean, but it was really about getting back on the horse. Before, I’d be like, “How do I play a mum? How do I make it look believable that I love this child?” In The Rumour, my fake son Liam was so sweet. I did even the tiny things, like getting him off to school, putting his bag on and adjusting his coat, with heartfelt emotion, because they really mean something now I have my own son. What do you hope to teach Barney? I want to raise him to know how to treat women and know his own worth, so he doesn’t feel he has to follow awful men online that are preying on vulnerable boys. Adolescence exposed the truth of what is going on in so many homes. We’re a very open book in this family. I want Barney to know he can talk to me about anything – that’s the mother I want to be. In 2023, you presented Emily Atack: Asking for It?, which was about online sexual harassment. Would you like to do another documentary? Yes, I want to do one on intimacy coordinators, and I’m going to start having conversations about it soon. I’ve seen people roll their eyes about them and say, “I don’t need one.” There’s a defensiveness about it, because they feel like they’re being accused of something they haven’t even done yet. Intimacy coordinators are there for support if you feel uncomfortable, whether you’re a man or a woman. I’ve been sexually assaulted at work throughout my career, whether it’s on the actual set, or at a wrap party – and since the #MeToo movement, it shows that people are listening and that there has to be a shift in behaviour on sets. What’s it like working with intimacy coordinators on Rivals? I’m really proud of the Rivals gang because, throughout my life, I haven’t felt safe all the time, and we’re all so respectful of each other. We have to do a lot of sexual scenes and we’re very looked after. It’s a really positive thing. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Paul, Prue, Alison and Noel get the new series off to a stylish start…
Add season 16 of The Great British Bake Off to your watchlist. The Great British Bake Off tent smells exactly as you would imagine — buttery, sweet, toasty. RT joins the set in Welford Park in Berkshire, where it’s been located since series five, and it’s not hard to see why thousands apply every year. Today, the bakers for series 16 are working on a signature challenge of… well, you’ll have to watch to find out. But RT can confirm they all taste delicious — judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith have their work cut out. Alison Hammond, who has co-hosted with Noel Fielding since 2023, agrees. “I will taste the thing that didn’t do well and say, ‘I don’t know what Paul and Prue are talking about. Everything’s amazing!’ I told one of the bakers and he was like, ‘We don’t really care about what you think, Alison!’” “It’s a stressful situation,” adds Fielding. “The bakers’ chats with us are a little escape from the pressure of the actual baking.” Other parts of the Bake Off recipe are getting a refresh this series. “We’ve experimented with the technical challenges,” says executive producer Kieran Smith. “People thought the technicals were getting more complicated, so we reined that in to focus on traditional baking.” Other new ideas include challenges where key ingredients have to be combined with two other bakers’-choice flavours, or where the bakers use their hands instead of utensils. “We’ve also moved away from international weeks — we’d say we’re making this country’s signature dish and then people with that heritage would go, ‘You’d never put those flavours in it!’” says Smith. “We certainly listen to viewers’ feedback — we just want to keep it within the confines of what people love about Bake Off. Everyone will let us know if we mess with it too much.”