Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-01-02T12:32:06.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: On the 60th anniversary of Camberwick Green, we go inside its famous musical box
items: Jools Holland on walking back to New Orleans, breaking down barriers and one very big bang
items: Back to the Edge: The inside story, with rare RT photos, of one of the greatest TV dramas of them all
items: Let’s go round again! Dougal and pals at 60
items: As Dougal and friends turn 60, Radio Times explores the magic behind The Magic Roundabout
items: Thunderbirds are go again...
items: Thunderbirds are go again... not that they ever really went away for the show's long-standing fans
items: How the spectacular Space: 1999 set the bar sky-high for TV sci-fi
items: Fawlty Towers legend Connie Booth sets the record straight on sitcom writing credit with ex-husband John Cleese
items: "Quatermass is about residual humanity winning out... Everyone can identify with it"
items: Celebrating Neil Innes: From the freewheeling Bonzos and Monty Python to "Prefab Four" the Rutles
items: Falling in the mud and following your dream... self-sufficiency sitcom The Good Life at 50
items: Creating a classic... the story behind an evergreen Radio Times cover
items: John Cleese reflects on 50 years of Fawlty Towers ahead of UK stage tour
items: "It doesn’t take long to realise why Hammer took the world by storm"
items: Sky documentary goes behind the screams of Hammer Film studios for its 90th birthday
items: As Stingray turns 60, we go behind the scenes of the classic sci-fi series that's still making a splash
items: As Play School turns 60, one of its star presenters looks back on the pioneering preschool show
items: On the 60th birthday of Vision On, we celebrate a creative powerhouse that inspired a generation
items: What's pink and white and now gold? It's Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss, and he's celebrating his 50th birthday
items: Meet the puppeteer who gave life to Captain Scarlet and Lady Penelope
items: As Blackadder turns 40, Howard Goodall reveals musical secrets of classic comedy
items: Underground, overground, Wombling free at 50! It's a big birthday for TV's eco-minded heroes
items: The Detectorists are back for a Christmas special after a five-year break – and its stars are buzzing
items: David McCallum looks back on The Outer Limits, The Man from UNCLE and Sapphire and Steel
items: John Duttine on 1981's The Day of the Triffids: ‘I do bump into people who say it scared the pants off them!’
items: Sir Michael Palin reflects on the "step into the unknown" that would become a comedy classic
items: The man behind the magic: a new documentary profiles the creator of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet
items: Sara Vickers on playing Endeavour's Joan Thursday: 'It's the gift that keeps giving'
items: Ghosts star Ben Willbond on kindred spirits and comedy camaraderie in BBC series

On the 60th anniversary of Camberwick Green, we go inside its famous musical box
type: item
date: 2026-01-03T08:00:12.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: BBC
description: We celebrate the evergreen children's classic by exploring its life and legacy – and celebrating its memorable, magical music.
encoded: In January 1966, children were first introduced to a green and pleasant corner of England where troubles were never serious ones – maybe the sails of Colley’s Mill stopped turning, Tripp's Dairy ran out of milk or the soldiers of Pippin Fort were left minding Mrs Honeyman’s baby – but they captured young hearts and minds. Just 13 episodes of Camberwick Green were made, but the show’s afterlife, via repeats and in popular culture, means we still talk about it today. It was the creation of puppeteer Gordon Murray and animated by Bob Bura and John Hardwick. But a major key to its longevity is its happy, colourful soundtrack, from the musical-box introduction to all the individual character themes... "One person said he thought the music was like little opera pieces," John Phillips, son of the composer Freddie, tells RT. "At the end of the day he was an absolutely brilliant classical guitarist and composer." Freddie Phillips had worked for Gordon Murray previously, on A Rubovian Legend, and for German silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger in the 1950s. He would look for work by visiting a London pub frequented by the entertainment fraternity, nicknamed The Glue Pot. "Once you’d got your feet in, you couldn’t get out!" as John puts it. Gordon Murray created the fictional village of Camberwick Green to exist within the county of Trumptonshire, along with the locations of the show's two sequels: the town of Trumpton (1967) and village of Chigley (1969). Asked by Radio 4 in the 1990s whether the places were all supposed to be in Kent or Sussex, Murray replied: "There are mountains in the background so I would think it's probably in the middle of the country somewhere." Wherever it was, the gentle pastoral adventures were catnip to young tots, including the writer of this article. I loved seeing a different character emerge from the famous musical box, including go-ahead, hi-tech farmer Jonathan Bell, old-school Windy Miller and the ubiquitous Mrs Honeyman. For some reason, how…

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Jools Holland on walking back to New Orleans, breaking down barriers and one very big bang
type: item
date: 2025-11-14T08:00:37.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Entertainment
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: BBC Four
subject: Interview
description: The pianist and presenter recalls his explosive 1985 documentary, a time in television that no longer exists – and meeting his musical heroes.
encoded: They say you should never meet your heroes, but Jools Holland has been ignoring that advice his whole career. “Absolutely right,” says the musician, bandleader and broadcaster. “Although I’d rephrase that advice to ‘Don’t expect your heroes necessarily to be saintly figures’.” The friendly, enthusiastic host of BBC Two’s long-running music show Later... is looking back on his career, triggered by his new programme New Orleans Jukebox (Sunday, BBC Four). The heart of it is the reshowing of a Channel 4 film called Walking to New Orleans, which first aired 40 years ago, repackaged with eye-opening insights and performances of artists from that fabled US city, lifted from the BBC archives. Jools was 27 when he made the documentary, a spin-off from music show The Tube, which he co-hosted for more than four years. “It was a particular time and place in television which doesn’t exist any more," Holland tells Radio Times. "The Tube was a huge success and they had a budget to other things and they said, 'Jools, what would you like to do?' I said, 'I’d really like to go to New Orleans.' "I’d always loved the New Orleans music and it was a great opportunity for me to learn about it, but also to meet some of the people who were at the very heart of it." A reconnaissance trip proved successful. “It was very wintry and rather romantic, there were no tourists there and all the things in the film fell into place, in that all the important people in New Orleans music at the time were in it... We never did what we have to do today, which is to write out a script, work out exactly what’s happening. It was just like, ‘Well, go off and give it a go, see what you come up with!’” What they come up with was a fantastic, on-the-fly journey by Oldsmobile from Louisiana to the titular city (ie not “walking”), meeting music legends along the way. Lee Dorsey customises his car, Allen Toussaint pays touching tribute to Professor Longhair, the Gospel Soul Children sing roadside and Holland shares…

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Back to the Edge: The inside story, with rare RT photos, of one of the greatest TV dramas of them all
type: item
date: 2025-10-28T06:00:53.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Magazine
description: Actor Ian McNeice digs deep into Edge of Darkness – 40 years old but still hailed by critics and viewers as a masterpiece – and Radio Times celebrates by mining its picture archive.
encoded: During the peak paranoia of the Cold War, 40 years ago on 4 November, viewers tuned in to what they thought was another detective drama. But Edge of Darkness was a TV game-changer, its private tale of a grieving CID officer opening out into a big, multilayered conspiracy. No one had seen anything like this six-parter by Z Cars creator Troy Kennedy Martin. In many ways, that still holds true – and at a time when the UK and US now prepare to “enter a golden age of nuclear”, Edge of Darkness has lost none of its criticality... “Absolutely. It was right on key, it really was,” says Ian McNeice, who played government agent Harcourt. “I was offered another job at the same time, but I remember reading that and then Edge of Darkness and thinking, ‘There’s no contest here’ because the script was so good, so interesting and so well written. I was gripped from the start.” For McNeice there was also the bonus of joining with his friend and housemate Bob Peck, taking the lead as Detective Inspector Ronald Craven. “That really was a huge plus. We have to thank Michael Wearing the producer because both myself and Bob were brought onto the production after he’d seen us in shows with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Neither of us had done much TV… "We turned up to meet [director] Martin Campbell and, really, he had nothing to go on! I think I just had one tiny bit on Warship [BBC, 1973–7] and that was that. But he took a hunch and went with it, which was amazing.” Was television work a problem after doing so much theatre? "I remember very early on I said to Martin, 'Look I haven't done much of this, you’ve really got to tell me if I'm doing too much or if you want me to take it down or whatever.' And he said, 'No I’ve already got that note from Bob, I'll be looking at both of you, don't worry!' So that was really nice." Most of the opening episode deals with the shocking murder of scientist Emma Craven (Joanne Whalley) and its impact on her detective father, Ronald. From the outset th…

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Let’s go round again! Dougal and pals at 60
type: item
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: App
subject: App features
description: On the big birthday of this children's classic, we celebrate the man who brought it and many others to life – genius animator Ivor Wood
encoded: Add The Magic Roundabout Story – Timeshift to your watchlist Sixty years ago on Saturday, a “film series from France” arrived on BBC One with little fanfare. In the first episode, a sad man called Mr Rusty lamented a lack of magic, and an absence of visitors to his roundabout. But within five minutes, a jack-in-the-box called Zebedee predicted a change in fortunes – and The Magic Roundabout soon had a massive following! Its pre-evening News slot, and clever, two-tier script by narrator Eric Thompson, made it popular with children and adults alike. Radio Times spoke to Josiane Wood, who worked on the French original – Le Manège enchanté, and many later projects – with her animator husband Ivor. Born in 1932 in Yorkshire to an English father and French mother, Ivor moved with his family to Lyon in France. Josiane was born in Egypt to a French mother and Russian father, and they also moved to Lyon, which was her mother's birthplace. “We got married in Lyon,” says Josiane. “We moved to Paris and Ivor at the time [in the 1960s] was working at La Comète, which was an advertising company. That’s where he met Serge Danot, and where it all started.” Former ad executive Danot created the show using stop-motion animation, assisted by Ivor, while Josiane wrote episodes “because they were stuck in the beginning for a scriptwriter. In those days we had a tiny flat outside Paris, I used to have a tiny typewriter, typing on an ironing board because we didn’t have tables or anything like that!” It took a month to shoot five minutes of film but Josiane didn't know what the animators could get the characters to do: “I didn’t have a clue how they were working. The chaps were shooting in Danot’s house in Malakoff [a suburb of Paris], and I remember going to them and saying, 'How can he move? Can he lift an arm? Can he walk?' "And according to that I was writing as I went along. So it was quite funny. But I have a little bit of imagination, so it worked.” There were other tasks, too: “We…

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As Dougal and friends turn 60, Radio Times explores the magic behind The Magic Roundabout
type: item
date: 2025-10-14T05:00:58.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Children's
subject: Drama
subject: TV
description: On the big birthday of this children's classic, we celebrate the man who brought it and many others to life – genius animator Ivor Wood.
encoded: Sixty years ago on Saturday, a “film series from France” arrived on BBC One with little fanfare. In the first episode, a sad man called Mr Rusty lamented a lack of magic, and an absence of visitors to his roundabout. But within five minutes, a jack-in-the-box called Zebedee predicted a change in fortunes – and The Magic Roundabout soon had a massive following! Its pre-evening News slot, and clever, two-tier script by narrator Eric Thompson, made it popular with children and adults alike. Radio Times spoke to Josiane Wood, who worked on the French original – Le Manège enchanté, and many later projects – with her animator husband Ivor. Born in 1932 in Yorkshire to an English father and French mother, Ivor moved with his family to Lyon in France. Josiane was born in Egypt to a French mother and Russian father, and they also moved to Lyon, which was her mother's birthplace. “We got married in Lyon,” says Josiane. “We moved to Paris and Ivor at the time [in the 1960s] was working at La Comète, which was an advertising company. That’s where he met Serge Danot, and where it all started.” Former ad executive Danot created the show using stop-motion animation, assisted by Ivor, while Josiane wrote episodes “because they were stuck in the beginning for a scriptwriter. In those days we had a tiny flat outside Paris, I used to have a tiny typewriter, typing on an ironing board because we didn’t have tables or anything like that!” It took a month to shoot five minutes of film but Josiane didn't know what the animators could get the characters to do: “I didn’t have a clue how they were working. The chaps were shooting in Danot’s house in Malakoff [a suburb of Paris], and I remember going to them and saying, 'How can he move? Can he lift an arm? Can he walk?' "And according to that I was writing as I went along. So it was quite funny. But I have a little bit of imagination, so it worked.” There were other tasks, too: “We did a lot of the little flowers, the leaves on the trees. Th…

Thunderbirds are go again...
type: item
date: 2025-09-30T15:13:58.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: App
subject: App features
description: As the jewel in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's crown celebrates its 60th birthday, Mark Braxton examines the programme's lasting impact.
encoded: Add Thunderbirds to your watchlist Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's imperishable TV creation Thunderbirds is 60 today, and how apt that it should be celebrating its diamond anniversary. Because, rather like the hardest known naturally occurring material, the concept is such an ingenious one that time cannot wear it away. Based on a rock-solid foundation of square-jawed heroics and humanitarian principle, the show could hardly go wrong, you would think. But it has exceeded expectations, not just being reinvented for the modern age, but still dazzling new generations with its old-school blend of marionettes and models. I will happily serve as "Exhibit A" with regard to the show's ability to capture the imagination of successive generations. As follows... Although Thunderbirds launched on 30 September 1965, my first contact would have come during repeat screenings in the 1970s. From this distance, exactitude is impossible, but two moments do snap into sharp focus. The first is watching The Uninvited on London Weekend Television on a Sunday morning. That's the episode where Scott in Thunderbird 1 is shot down over the Sahara, and he and two archaeologists find a lost civilisation based in a pyramid. It was a 100-per-cent thrill ride, and it ensured I was a fan for life. Edge-of seat perils, Bond-style gadgetry, a dash of espionage, a villain both hissable and hilarious, and Tracy Island: the coolest playground in the world with its movable swimming pool and lift-and-slide rocket entries. What kid didn't love all that? The second memory is my grandmother taking me to a puppet show in a village hall in Cookham, Berkshire, when I was a toddler. Of the show itself, I recall very little, but the thing that really captured my attention was a puppet-scale pink Rolls-Royce outside. That sleek six-wheeler leads me neatly on to the world of merchandise that surrounded the programme. Because Fab 1, as it was called – Lady Penelope's specially adapted, machine-gun-toting Rolls-Royce – w…

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Thunderbirds are go again... not that they ever really went away for the show's long-standing fans
type: item
date: 2025-09-30T06:00:55.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: As the jewel in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's crown celebrates its 60th birthday, Mark Braxton examines the programme's lasting impact.
encoded: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's imperishable TV creation Thunderbirds is 60 today, and how apt that it should be celebrating its diamond anniversary. Because, rather like the hardest known naturally occurring material, the concept is such an ingenious one that time cannot wear it away. Based on a rock-solid foundation of square-jawed heroics and humanitarian principle, the show could hardly go wrong, you would think. But it has exceeded expectations, not just being reinvented for the modern age, but still dazzling new generations with its old-school blend of marionettes and models. I will happily serve as "Exhibit A" with regard to the show's ability to capture the imagination of successive generations. As follows... Although Thunderbirds launched on 30 September 1965, my first contact would have come during repeat screenings in the 1970s. From this distance, exactitude is impossible, but two moments do snap into sharp focus. The first is watching The Uninvited on London Weekend Television on a Sunday morning. That's the episode where Scott in Thunderbird 1 is shot down over the Sahara, and he and two archaeologists find a lost civilisation based in a pyramid. It was a 100-per-cent thrill ride, and it ensured I was a fan for life. Edge-of seat perils, Bond-style gadgetry, a dash of espionage, a villain both hissable and hilarious, and Tracy Island: the coolest playground in the world with its movable swimming pool and lift-and-slide rocket entries. What kid didn't love all that? The second memory is my grandmother taking me to a puppet show in a village hall in Cookham, Berkshire, when I was a toddler. Of the show itself, I recall very little, but the thing that really captured my attention was a puppet-scale pink Rolls-Royce outside. That sleek six-wheeler leads me neatly on to the world of merchandise that surrounded the programme. Because Fab 1, as it was called – Lady Penelope's specially adapted, machine-gun-toting Rolls-Royce – was just one of a squadron of toys, …

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How the spectacular Space: 1999 set the bar sky-high for TV sci-fi
type: item
date: 2025-08-26T09:29:34.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
subject: Magazine
description: As the high-reaching Gerry and Sylvia Anderson show turns 50, RT talks to family and fans about dreams, nightmares, lofty aims and a lasting legacy.
encoded: There are high concepts and there are high concepts. Fifty years ago a shiny-new, big-budget science-fiction show took the Moon, with hundreds of people on it, and blew it out of the Earth's orbit. It blew many formative young minds, too... On 4 September 1975, the then most expensive British series ever, Space: 1999, exploded onto TV screens. It had grand ambition, huge guest stars, acclaimed effects – and was a massive gamble from creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Yet 50 years on, it is still celebrated as a masterwork by a fanbase that reaches far and wide. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/08/shutterstockeditorial4815174a-94abfeb.jpg" width="2367" height="1564" alt="Editorial use onlyMandatory Credit: Photo by Shutterstock (4815174a) Christopher Lee, Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson, Barbara Bain and Martin Landau. Behind the scenes 'Space 1999' Series 1 - Earthbound. TV Programme. - 04 Dec 1975 EPISODE 5 -EARTHBOUND - A vessel of alien pacifists, bound for Earth, lands on the moon. They are greeted as friends by all- except Commissioner Simmons who sees their vessel as way to return home." title="'Space 1999' Series 1 - Earthbound. TV Programme. - 04 Dec 1975" /> Through the 1960s, the couple had scored hit after hit with their futuristic Supermarionation shows, from Supercar and Stingray to Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. So a £2.6 million production – shot at Pinewood Studios and fronted by husband-and-wife stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain from Mission: Impossible – was a huge deal. “It was everything that Dad and Sylvia had dreamt of and probably simultaneously their worst nightmare because of the pressure involved,” Gerry’s son Jamie tells Radio Times. “They wanted to escape the world of puppets for humans and they did it with UFO.” That 1970 show looked set for a second series after initially favourable US ratings. But production company ITC Entertainment pulled the plug, so the Andersons cha…

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Fawlty Towers legend Connie Booth sets the record straight on sitcom writing credit with ex-husband John Cleese
type: item
date: 2025-08-11T20:00:03.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: "When people quote back words from the script, instead of flattered I felt counterfeit."
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As John Cleese and Connie Booth’s towering creation nears its 50th birthday — with a functioning fire extinguisher to hand, bearing in mind all those candles — you’d think there was no more to be said on the subject. Cowboy builders, Waldorf salads and “Don’t mention the war” have entered the national lexicon, the show was voted the greatest British sitcom in a 2019 Radio Times poll and the hit stage show that began in the West End last year has now been filmed for U&Gold. But RT reached out to writer/star Connie Booth about the imminent celebrations, and she has this to say… “In the year and a half it took to write Fawlty Towers, John and I never imagined the impact the show would have. On its 50th anniversary, I’d like to take the opportunity to get something straight. John wrote the dialogue. “Before that dialogue was written, he and I developed the plots. Each episode took about a month to contrive. Out of the ridiculous complications of farce, his brilliant lines emerged. When the issue of billing arose, I thought ‘Written by John Cleese, storyline by us both’ would’ve been fine for me. John said they didn’t do that in TV comedy and insisted on co-authorship.” Booth, who left acting in 1995 and worked as a psychotherapist until she retired, adds: “Yielding to John’s generous offer turned out to be a kind of poisoned chalice. For half a century, I’ve been receiving praise for lines which John wrote. When people quote back words from the script, instead of flattered I felt counterfeit. "I’ve had to say, ‘No, John wrote that.’ Because I’m American, this disclosure about the pitch-perfect dialogue may be self-evident, but at this celebration of our work, one of the things I wanted to celebrate was the truth.” Cleese and Booth were married at the time of the first series in 1975 but divorced before the second aired in 1979. Just 12 episodes were made, yet the breakneck farce, peerless playing and polished lines en…

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"Quatermass is about residual humanity winning out... Everyone can identify with it"
type: item
date: 2025-06-17T09:00:05.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Drama
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Nigel Kneale's seminal creation is about so much more than science fiction, as Toby Hadoke reveals in his new book about the thrilling origins of a television and film classic.
encoded: A shorter version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. For many, the name “Quatermass” evokes powerful thoughts and images. Tales of scientific derring-do and monstrous discovery; of infected astronauts, epic excavations and stone circles. It delves deep into our past and reaches far into the future – the eponymous programmes retooled the still-young medium of television in the 1950s and exert an influence that's still felt today. Professor Bernard Quatermass, to give him his full name, was the dignified epicentre of a series of seismic dramas from fêted writer Nigel Kneale. They began with The Quatermass Experiment in 1953, which followed a first crewed flight into space (this was eight years before the first human orbited Earth) and the rocket’s return, with just one of the three astronauts surviving – and that man, Victor Carroon, metamorphosing into a deadly alien threat. It spawned highly regarded BBC sequels Quatermass II (1955) and Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59), film adaptations of all three by the Hammer horror studio, and an ITV revival in 1979. It launched a career for Kneale that also included his adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954), shocking for the time; satirical drama The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968); and his spine-tingling Christmas ghost story The Stone Tape (1972). But that initial six-part drama, broadcast live from Alexandra Palace, is examined in forensic, thrilling detail by The Quatermass Experiment: the Making of TV’s First Sci-Fi Classic, which conjures a palpable sense of time and place. And despite that title, the book’s author Toby Hadoke says that Kneale “wasn’t writing cult television, he was writing television for a mass audience. "What is key is that he tells science-fiction stories using the instruments of horror, so you don't, for example, have conversations with aliens. The aliens are largely unreachable, nebulous, sometimes even dead, but their effects live on, so it's all about their…

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Celebrating Neil Innes: From the freewheeling Bonzos and Monty Python to "Prefab Four" the Rutles
type: item
date: 2025-05-06T15:30:05.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Yvonne Innes reflects on life with her husband, the gifted musician, comedian and pasticheur par excellence.
encoded: When Rutland Weekend Television (RWT) began on 12 May 50 years ago, few could have foreseen its impact. But this cheerfully low-fi sketch show that launched “Britain’s smallest television network” was a chance for Monty Python’s Eric Idle to spread his comedy wings post-Flying Circus. The core cast included David Battley, Gwen Taylor and Henry Woolf, but it was Idle’s pairing with resident musician Neil Innes that was to prove fortuitous. A gifted songwriter with a wry and ingenious way of looking at the world, Innes was admired for the many projects he became involved with. Yvonne Innes tells Radio Times of the time her husband was hired for the gig… “One day Eric phoned up and said, ‘Neil, could you come [to TV Centre], our warm-up man’s not turned up?’ Neil said, ‘I don’t do warm-ups.’ Eric said, ‘There’s 25 quid in it’ and Neil said, ‘Done!’” Of course, Neil’s role would be more substantial, playing all the Marx Brothers one week, looking and sounding like Johnny Cash or Elton John the next. “Neil liked nothing more than being stretched,” says Yvonne. “Physically, mentally, any way you could stretch him, he loved it. Also he and Eric were finding out what each others’ strengths and weaknesses were. They were a fantastic team for a while.” Neil had a way with a couplet – "If all the trees were candles, and who's to say they're not/The world would be a birthday cake and we could eat the lot" – and could evoke an artist without doing slavish impersonations. Here he is on RWT in Elton mode... View oEmbed on the source website She adds, "Neil was very happy doing Rutland and it seemed a logical thing to do after working with the Pythons. Neil had a lovely time, he loved the challenge of writing a different song each week and the relationship was really close." Such memories are conjured by Yvonne in Dip My Brain in Joy, her recent biography of Neil, who died in 2019 aged 75 – they’d been married 53 years. She admits writing it was a challenge, but the process proved …

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Falling in the mud and following your dream... self-sufficiency sitcom The Good Life at 50
type: item
date: 2025-03-18T00:01:27.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Climate - Sustainable contributions within wider content
subject: Magazine
description: As the popular BBC comedy lights the candles for a landmark birthday, star Felicity Kendal and fan John O'Farrell sum up its evergreen appeal.
encoded: In April 1975, a deceptively traditional-looking sitcom first aired on BBC One. But The Good Life turned out to be way ahead of its time with its underlying theme of quitting the nine-to-five for a home-grown, ultra-green lifestyle. Tales of pig midwifery and posh frocks, harvesting in a quagmire and disastrous am-drams became comedy legend. Respectable early ratings soon doubled, a Christmas episode drew 21 million and is still shown annually, the swansong was recorded in front of the Queen – and the show made stars of its core quartet. Richard Briers was that suburban revolutionary, Tom Good, and Felicity Kendal, who played his supportive and cheerful wife Barbara, recalls how she landed the role: “I was in a play called The Norman Conquests in the West End, Richard was in the audience and after the show he came round and said he thought it was great, which was really nice because he was a very famous, wonderful actor that I didn’t know at all but I knew about. "He said, ‘I’m going to do this little television series, may I send you the script for the part of the wife? It’s a new series, it may not do well because it’s a very unusual subject.’” The Good Life’s producer, John Howard Davies, also went to see the play and thought Kendal would be perfect casting, as he did Kendal’s Conquests co-star Penelope Keith for the part of the Goods’ haughty neighbour Margo. Kendal tells Radio Times, “I felt thrilled and very lucky to be working on a BBC sitcom, a new one, with Richard Briers, and Penny Keith who I’d been working with for the last nine months anyway, so we were already mates. They cast Paul Eddington [as Margo’s executive husband Jerry], who I had worked with on two television shows. I loved working with him." The cast chemistry, and the character interactions, made the show a national, beloved institution. And according to Kendal, the dynamic was good from the start: “Dicky Briers was one of the great human beings that was also an actor. And we all worked well…

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Creating a classic... the story behind an evergreen Radio Times cover
type: item
date: 2024-12-13T08:00:05.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: TV
subject: Christmas
description: We contacted the artist who painted the ingenious and popular 1977 Christmas cover and discovered exactly what inspired it...
encoded: It is December 1977. The big BBC programmes on Christmas Day are Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game, the Mike Yarwood Christmas Show (guest stars Wings) and the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show (the one with Penelope Keith and an acrobatic South Pacific routine). Over on ITV there's Stars on Christmas Day with the unlikely billing of Bing Crosby and Don Estelle, plus the film Young Winston. But few things are getting us excited for the occasion like the Radio Times cover. At first glance it’s a big, snowy Christmas tree, but on closer inspection it’s a whole world of festive adventure. Children build a snowman, carol singers knock on doors, a dog scrabbles at a gate (the tree's "bucket") and the moon shines brightly behind a church (at the top of the tree). It's a brilliant concept, rendered in delightful detail. As one reader put it soon afterwards, "I should like to congratulate Pauline Ellison on her most beautiful cover." Indeed, annual posts of vintage covers on social media in recent years have revealed the 1977 front page to be one of the most popular in the magazine’s 101-year history. So Radio Times decided to reach out to the artist to ask about its origins. "The Christmas tree village is not entirely the product of my imagination," Pauline tells us. "In the spring of 1977 I went with my husband – the landscape painter Poul Webb – on a working trip to Provence, a fairy-tale land then, with castles and fortified villages perched high on rocky peaks in beautiful valleys. "In one of these villages, slightly below me on a narrow outcrop, I saw a monastery built in the shape of a cross. Of course we've all seen cruciform churches, but this was a whole settlement of living and working buildings, as well as a church, so it took a moment to perceive." As to the cover's creation, Pauline, now 78, continues: "The image was difficult to make, I had to airbrush the background first – not my favourite medium – but the only way to achieve the soft tonal graduations …

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John Cleese reflects on 50 years of Fawlty Towers ahead of UK stage tour
type: item
date: 2024-11-30T00:01:49.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The comedy icon talks to Radio Times about being Basil, the best place for farce, "hair-raising" TV recordings and the democracy of humour.
encoded: The falling moose heads, wrongly shaped chips and fire drill fiascos of a gone-to-seed Torquay hotel are the stuff of TV legend, in a sitcom voted the greatest ever by a Radio Times poll. Now Fawlty Towers’ frantic antics are playing to packed houses in the West End, in a play so successful it’s being teed up for a regional run. RT spoke to John Cleese, 85, who’s adapted it for the stage. “The great lesson I’ve learnt is that nobody ever knows,” says Cleese on a call from Los Angeles about the huge reaction to Fawlty Towers – The Play. “It’s all guesswork. I mean, the first episode of the TV series was greeted by the Daily Mirror with 'Long John, Short on Jokes' and The Spectator hated it! “My moment of great happiness was when we started doing the stage auditions. The sheer quality of the people... I was astonished. We could have had three Basils, a couple of Sybils and three Manuels, they were so good. And I thought: it can’t really go wrong because (a) the material is fundamentally funny and (b) the theatre is absolutely the best venue for farce.” Fellow Pythons Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam came to the first night: “I was thrilled, they really loved it." The play, which interweaves three episodes (The Hotel Inspectors, The Germans and Communication Problems, plus a smidgen of one other) works like a dream, with its ingenious take on a familiar set, pacey direction and huge laugh count. Even the cosy, string-quartet theme tune by Dennis Wilson gets a good workout, and you may spot the odd dislodged letter. It took me right back to appointment-to-view evenings in front of the family television, when we young ones laughed until we hurt, and couldn't wait to discuss the episode at school the following day. Endlessly quotable, the show famously overran the traditional 30-minute sitcom slot due to its packed plotlines. The play opened at London’s Apollo Theatre in May, the run was extended to next March, and a UK tour will follow that in the 50th anniversary year, b…

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"It doesn’t take long to realise why Hammer took the world by storm"
type: item
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Some 90 years after the studio was founded, documentary director Benjamin Field discusses Hammer horror's frightening formula, the Lee-and-Cushing chemistry, plus finding stars in unlikely places
encoded: Add Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters to your watchlist Sky hasn't missed a trick, and it's certainly crafted a treat, this Halloween with a peek between the bubbling flasks of Hammer Film Productions, which was founded 90 years ago. Hammer has become a synonym for horror, a name known even by people who haven’t seen a single one of its movies, and Heroes, Legends and Monsters charts its hair-raising history. It's an evocative, sharp-fanged tribute, full of thrilling detail and incisive input. “They were phenomenally important. They moved the dial,” says Benjamin Field, the award-winning director and producer behind the project. “There were no colour horror movies pre-Hammer. And contemporary horror is the way it is today because Hammer opened the doors to let them in.” View oEmbed on the source website Reinventing a genre made famous by Universal in the 1930s, Hammer scored huge hits including The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, but also with sci-fi (The Quatermass Xperiment) and pre-historic epics (One Million Years BC). “Essentially they had a repertory company of crew and actors,” says Field, “who turned up time and again to make these films, films that were adored.” Field admits he came late to the party. “Growing up a child of the 80s, they just didn’t feature on my radar. In October last year, that all changed and I got introduced to Hammer. It was a real moment for me. "The first thing that I really noticed was how stylish it was... I saw The Curse of Frankenstein – a good place to start. Wow, it was stunning! The sets are glorious, the colour is lush and lurid. It’s an attack on the senses. The music plays a massive part of that, of course. It feels like a revolution from what went before, and it doesn’t take long to realise why Hammer took the world by storm." Hammer's HQ from 1951 to 1966 was Bray Studios in Berkshire, and the films would draw extensively on the grounds and, in particular, Oakley Court country house, for their gothic ambi…

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Sky documentary goes behind the screams of Hammer Film studios for its 90th birthday
type: item
date: 2024-10-22T11:30:00.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Documentaries
subject: Movies
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: Director Benjamin Field on Hammer horror's frightening formula, the Lee and Cushing chemistry and finding stars where you don't expect to.
encoded: Sky hasn't missed a trick, and it's certainly crafted a treat, this Halloween with a peek between the bubbling flasks of Hammer Film Productions, which was founded 90 years ago. Hammer has become a synonym for horror, a name known even by people who haven’t seen a single one of its movies, and Heroes, Legends and Monsters charts its hair-raising history. It's an evocative, sharp-fanged tribute, full of thrilling detail and incisive input. “They were phenomenally important. They moved the dial,” says Benjamin Field, the award-winning director and producer behind the project. “There were no colour horror movies pre-Hammer. And contemporary horror is the way it is today because Hammer opened the doors to let them in.” Reinventing a genre made famous by Universal in the 1930s, Hammer scored huge hits including The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, but also with sci-fi (The Quatermass Xperiment) and pre-historic epics (One Million Years BC). “Essentially they had a repertory company of crew and actors,” says Field, “who turned up time and again to make these films, films that were adored.” Field admits he came late to the party. “Growing up a child of the 80s, they just didn’t feature on my radar. In October last year, that all changed and I got introduced to Hammer. It was a real moment for me. "The first thing that I really noticed was how stylish it was... I saw The Curse of Frankenstein – a good place to start. Wow, it was stunning! The sets are glorious, the colour is lush and lurid. It’s an attack on the senses. The music plays a massive part of that, of course. It feels like a revolution from what went before, and it doesn’t take long to realise why Hammer took the world by storm." Hammer's HQ from 1951 to 1966 was Bray Studios in Berkshire, and the films would draw extensively on the grounds and, in particular, Oakley Court country house, for their gothic ambience. Crucial to the 50s and 60s heyday of Hammer was the pairing of Peter Cushing and Christ…

As Stingray turns 60, we go behind the scenes of the classic sci-fi series that's still making a splash
type: item
date: 2024-09-23T23:01:13.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: Gerry Anderson's son Jamie on exploding tanks, love triangles and trans-media pioneering... Mark Braxton wishes Stingray a very happy birthday!
encoded: With the words "Stand by for action", a thrilling new children’s series launched on ITV on 4 October 1964. Stingray was a sophisticated puppet show created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who had given the world Fireball XL5 and would go on to dream up Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Joe 90. "Anything can happen in the next half-hour," we were promised – and it often did. Over 39 episodes, we followed the intrepid submariners of WASP (the World Aquanaut Security Patrol) and their encounters with undersea civilisations, mechanical fish, deadly plants and even the Loch Ness Monster. Spearheading their defence of Earth's oceans was the swift, atomic-powered combat submarine Stingray, which was designed by the show's associate producer Reg Hill. Gerry’s son Jamie Anderson tells Radio Times that the development made production company AP Films pioneers. "For the teams responsible for making the transition from black and white to colour, it was a massive pain in the arse!" A fact-finding mission to the States to learn from another studio working with colour resulted in the realisation, as Jamie puts it, "Oh God, we’re going to have to repaint everything, change everything! "So it was a huge challenge, but I think it became the 'unlock' to longevity. If they had shot Stingray and Thunderbirds [1965–6] in black and white, which everybody else was doing – mainstream channels and content at the time – it wouldn’t have had its long-term wins. "Thunderbirds wouldn’t have been designed so much around colour in terms of [the different] craft, there’s no way you’d have had Captain Scarlet – well, what’s the point in having Spectrum, it’s just in black and white! So it’s a real turning point." This, coupled with a step-up in the Supermarionation and special effects, gave the show staying power on repeat viewings, including on BBC Two in the 1990s. "That '90s resurgence was so key, and was such a testament to the work done by the whole team," says Jamie, 39, managi…

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As Play School turns 60, one of its star presenters looks back on the pioneering preschool show
type: item
date: 2024-04-15T08:00:18.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Entertainment
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: Derek Griffiths on the thuggish cockatoo, his least favourite toy – and a show that is remembered with fondness around the world.
encoded: As the legendary children's programme Play School turns 60 on 21st April, a pang of nostalgia will touch the hearts of millions. The show ran for 24 years from 1964 and would have been an introduction to television for countless young viewers. The weekday BBC2 series, which later earned itself a daily BBC1 repeat, offered simple preschool pleasures such as stories and songs, games with the famous toys (Big and Little Ted, Humpty, Jemima and Hamble) and indelible tunes such as the main theme and the rotating clock. Via the square, round or arched window, it also opened up the world for tots by showing short films of biscuits being made in a factory, for example, or kite-flying in China. Creator Joy Whitby introduced her programme to Radio Times readers with the words: "Are you an exhausted parent of a child under the age of five?" Although the programme had a robust educational core, Derek Griffiths tells Radio Times that it was a "relaxed format". The actor and musician, now 77, adds, "I enjoyed entertaining kids and adults, so Play School was a family show for me." Griffiths worked on the show for ten years from 1971. A pair of presenters would guide viewers through each day's activities – the hosts were constantly rotated and included many other future stars such as husband-and-wife Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law, Carmen Munroe, Brian Cant, Johnny Ball, Toni Arthur, Carol Chell and Floella Benjamin. So how did Griffiths get the gig? "A presenter, Miranda Connell, saw me in panto and told me I was right for Play School. Sadly I didn't know of it! The producers then saw my show and I was invited to audition." Griffiths brought an impressive range of skills to the show, from amazingly flexible physical acting to comedy and mime – his influences include Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau, Jerry Lewis and Jacques Tati. View oEmbed on the source website He also had great musical gifts – Griffiths is a singer, writer and multi-instrumentalist. Was he able to bring any of hi…

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On the 60th birthday of Vision On, we celebrate a creative powerhouse that inspired a generation
type: item
date: 2024-02-27T08:00:13.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Entertainment
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: The BBC's weekly wonder wasn't just a much-loved entertainment show, it also launched countless careers and gave us Pat Keysell and Tony Hart and Aardman and Sylvester McCoy...
encoded: Vision On was always a gem in the children's TV schedules – and now it's a diamond, 60 years old on 6th March. Between 1964 and 1976 it entertained children – and let's face it, their parents – with a quickfire and visually exhilarating mixture of comedy, creative ideas, multi-format animations, mime and viewers' artworks. It was also (full disclosure) this writer's favourite show as a youngster. For my short-trousered self, Tuesdays were the highlight of the week. In school break times, my best friend and I would draw pictures related to, and inspired by Vision On, in excited anticipation of that day's new episode. In later years other friends and I would try to mimic the show's high-speed comedy hero, The Prof (more of whom later), and his gag-packed comedy adventures, in our own Super-8 films. No two episodes were the same, and each one was lapped up by its eager audience, but it wasn't just viewers who appreciated the series' genius. It sold all around the world, from Australia to America, and from France (where it was called Déclic) to Israel (where its title translated as "Magic Magic"). It won the Prix Jeunesse International award in 1972, as well as BAFTAs for children's programmes in 1971 and for specialised series in 1974. Joan Bakewell, writing in Radio Times in 1976, said the programme was proof that "grown-ups don't need to be confined to an adult ghetto. I find Vision On one of the most upbeat, original and refreshing things I ever see on television." "It was a wonderful programme to work on," says Vision On cornerstone Clive Doig, who adds, "We were a very happy team." A friend of Radio Times, and supplier of the magazine's Trackword puzzle since 1980, Clive worked on 96 episodes of Vision On plus some specials, mostly as a director but on the final series as producer. "Back then quite a lot of people didn’t know how television was made," says Clive, 83. "At the time a chap I was speaking to over the fence at the bottom of my garden, said, 'I love tha…

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What's pink and white and now gold? It's Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss, and he's celebrating his 50th birthday
type: item
date: 2024-02-07T12:00:28.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: He's the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical... saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world. And Emily still loves him.
encoded: Some children's characters are like TV treasure. Only 13 episodes were ever made of the 1974 series Bagpuss, each one lasting just 15 minutes, yet the show occupies a cherished place – a comfortably plump cushion, if you will – in the hearts and memories of all who watched it. And now those warm feelings that the mere mention of Bagpuss evokes are golden – the stripy cloth cat with a love of storytelling and sleep turns 50 next Monday. His influence stretches far and wide. In 1999, Bagpuss came top of a poll to find the nation's favourite BBC children's programme (and in 2001, he was fourth out of 100 greatest kids' shows in a Channel 4 countdown). He has appeared on postage stamps, he was referenced in the sitcom Spaced and was the title of the first episode of comedy drama Man like Mobeen, and Lady Di was seen to be watching the show in royal drama The Crown. To mark the anniversary, Radio Times magazine spoke to artist Emily Firmin, the show’s human star and daughter of the co-creator, about its lasting legacy. "I was just the right age to bribe with sweets to appear in it," laughs Emily, over how her seven-year-old self came to be involved. She’s the youngest of six daughters of Peter Firmin who, with his friend Oliver Postgate under the company name Smallfilms, made revered programmes for children including Ivor the Engine, The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Pogles’ Wood, Clangers and, of course, Bagpuss. She played the little girl called Emily – seen in sepia photos at the start of the show – who owned the shop Bagpuss & Co, which "didn’t sell anything". Instead, it displayed lost or broken objects that were then repaired by the marvellous moggy and his friends – rag doll Madeleine, Gabriel the banjo-strumming toad, wooden woodpecker bookend Professor Yaffle and six mice carved on the side of a "mouse organ". As the toys awoke, the sepia yesteryear magically became a colourful present. Bagpuss and Co was essentially The Repair Shop 43 years early; while the show itse…

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Meet the puppeteer who gave life to Captain Scarlet and Lady Penelope
type: item
date: 2023-11-28T09:10:45.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: Mary Turner worked on pioneering programmes from Thunderbirds to Joe 90. Here she explains the process – and shines a light on the shows' legacies.
encoded: Sixties series like Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons were special then and are remarkable today. They were programmes of impeccable craft, brimming with technical ingenuity and packed with edge-of-seat thrills. Video, DVDs and streaming platforms like BritBox have kept the love going for these models-and-puppet shows from husband-and-wife team Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. There are now even popular weekly repeats of Thunderbirds on Talking Pictures TV. As Scalextric launches its slot-car version of FAB-1, Lady Penelope’s pink Rolls-Royce from Thunderbirds, Radio Times Magazine spoke to puppeteer Mary Turner, now 90, about bringing “Lady P” and other classic characters to life. Mary’s interest in the craft began after the war when her artist mother signed up for a puppetry class at the local polytechnic: “After a term she came home with this little figure on strings, a marionette, and I was amazed at what it could do. I think I was caught up on it then.” Mary studied sculpture at art college, and taught for two years. “I saw on the television that this series had started called The Adventures of Twizzle. That was Gerry’s first one [in 1957, with Arthur Provis; together they formed AP Films], and it was quite different from any other puppet series that had been on, more innovative and generally much better. And I thought, that’s what I’d like to do.” Her friend and fellow member of the Puppet Guild Christine Glanville, who worked at AP Films, told Mary the company wanted puppeteers for a new show called Torchy the Battery Boy. Mary got the job, and she also began to sculpt the character heads, from the next project onwards (western series Four Feather Falls in 1960). To begin with, the programmes were made in the ballroom of a house overlooking the Thames at Maidenhead, but as techniques were refined and the shows became bigger, the production company moved to new premises in nearby Slough. It was when Gerry married Sylvia and t…

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As Blackadder turns 40, Howard Goodall reveals musical secrets of classic comedy
type: item
date: 2023-06-06T09:50:17.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
description: The composer and broadcaster on playing with history, blasting off into the charts with Red Dwarf, the difficulty of musicals - and writing for streaming.
encoded: Seeing the word "Blackadder" conjures up a whole battalion of memories... the snivelling schemer with a savage haircut, a petulant-child queen ("Pooey!"), giant turnips, and increasingly desperate attempts to flee the Trenches... But linking them all across time is an instantly recognisable signature tune from a master of the genre, composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall, who now looks back on this colossus of comedy – which turns 40 next week – and his initial ideas for it. “I thought the stylistic touchpoint was probably Errol Flynn as Robin Hood," Goodall tells Radio Times. "You know, heroic 1950s film version of a person – very grand and pompous and over the top”. But although the series first aired on 15 June 1983, Goodall in fact wrote the music in 1982 for the pilot The Black Adder, which was recorded in front of a studio audience on 20 June that year but never transmitted. “It was kind of a first part of the theme everybody knows now," adds Goodall, 65. "When we came to do the actual series a year later, John Lloyd the producer said it felt like it needed a second bit”. Goodall was already known to its creators Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson (also the star) – they met at Oxford University and together toured student revues in the late 70s. His introduction to TV music came via satirical sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News in 1980. “After about the third programme of the first series Rowan came home one day – I was living in the same house as him in Kilburn – and he said, ‘We want to do a song but we’re rubbish at our instruments, could you come and help us.’ So from that point on I came in and we did a song pretty much every week. “I continued to work with Rowan on most things and then the idea came up for The Black Adder. They asked if I’d be interested in doing it. Obviously, yes, because I didn’t have much else on, being a young struggling composer in Kilburn!” After the medieval first series, the show leapt forward in time for its next three series…

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Underground, overground, Wombling free at 50! It's a big birthday for TV's eco-minded heroes
type: item
date: 2023-01-24T07:00:46.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: TV
description: As BBC's tidy-minded Wombles celebrate their golden anniversary next month, Mike Batt looks back on a very furry, very musical, success story.
encoded: “They’re furry, they collect rubbish, they live under Wimbledon Common...” Fifty years ago, Radio Times introduced The Wombles to readers ahead of its debut on 5th February 1973. Based on books by Elisabeth Beresford, directed by Ivor Wood, narrated by Bernard Cribbins and with the catchiest of theme tunes by Mike Batt, the programme and its endearing stars immediately caught on with the public. Their encounters with everyday objects like umbrellas and tyres, as though seen through the eyes of children, were invested with warmth and humour, not to mention a dash of social commentary. After two series and 60 short episodes, there was a big-screen outing in 1977 and a '90s comeback. And the broad sweep of characters meant that every young (and old) viewer had a favourite, from practical Tobermory to brainy but shy Wellington, bossy Bungo, ever-hungry Orinoco, athletic but not-the-sharpest Tomsk, kindly Madame Cholet and the old and very wise Great Uncle Bulgaria. So it was a case of "today, Wimbledon, tomorrow the world", while the Wombles' gift for making good use of the things that they find proved to be admirably pioneering. Composer Mike Batt, meanwhile, extended the franchise hugely by turning the recycling burrowers into a band – they enjoyed six top-20 hits in two years. Radio Times caught up with Mike, who is still working at 73, to look back on the popular programme and assess its legacy. The Wombles’ enduring popularity shows what a far-sighted concept it was in the first place. You must be proud of your connection with the project? I am very proud of my association with the Wombles project. It brought me my first hits and frankly, made me a wealthy young man after five years of playing “dodge-the-bank-manager”. Had we not had these hits, the characters would still be much loved, but would never have become an abiding national treasure. So my role in igniting “Womble mania” and adding a certain amount of my own whimsicality into the characterisations is some…

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The Detectorists are back for a Christmas special after a five-year break – and its stars are buzzing
type: item
date: 2022-12-13T08:00:28.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Christmas
description: Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones on an "un-turndownable job", Roman gold, real treasure and the superpower of kindness...
encoded: Detectorists occupies a special place in the hearts of its fans. Discovering the show was like unearthing a gem in the schedules, so the return of the BBC’s BAFTA-winning sitcom for a feature-length special is like a pot of gold to its myriad admirers. Funny, sometimes sad, full of quiet wisdom and underscored with a love of the countryside, Detectorists flew in the face of more aggressive modern comedies. But after three small but perfectly formed series, it looked like we’d said goodbye to treasure-seeking metal-detecting chums Andy (Mackenzie Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones) in 2017. The final scene saw the friends showered with "pennies from heaven", having at last stumbled upon a sparkling cache, while Andy and his teacher-wife Becky (Rachael Stirling) won their dream home at auction. It seemed like a decisive full stop on the part of Crook, who is also the show’s creator, writer and director. So what changed his mind? "I tentatively said that that was it at the end of the third series because we left them in such a lovely place, and I thought I wouldn’t disturb them again unless I thought of a good story… And one occurred to me." That and seeing your friends again? "Well exactly. It’s a bit of a cliché that actors at the end of a project say they’re going to miss their friends but yes, I was going to miss Lance!" Filming for the special in and around Framlingham in east Suffolk concluded in September, but there’s a reunion of sorts going on for RT’s interview, with Crook, 51, joining in via Zoom and Jones, 56, live in the room. Their camaraderie, a mix of respect and ribbing, is delightful to watch, and theirs is clearly a prized friendship. So how did Jones react when he got the call? "I was surprised because I felt we’d ended it, as MacKenzie says, beautifully, but I knew that he wouldn’t do it unless there was a good enough idea. He took Rachael out for lunch first – which I still hold against him – then he took me for lunch and said Rachael’s up for doing it,…

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David McCallum looks back on The Outer Limits, The Man from UNCLE and Sapphire and Steel
type: item
date: 2022-11-29T08:00:27.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Drama
subject: TV
description: The 90-year-old actor has played time travellers, fought rogue spies and gone up against spectral shenanigans.
encoded: It's not every day that Radio Times gets to talk to someone with a 70-year screen career. And he's about to discuss some very famous TV and film titles indeed... "I have so many memories, so many people and places," David McCallum tells RT from his home in New York. Early film roles for the Glasgow-born actor included well-known British fare like the thriller Hell Drivers and Titanic drama A Night to Remember in the 1950s, while TV hired him for two roles in The Outer Limits, the hugely influential US sci-fi anthology series, in the '60s. "I was in Los Angeles – I hadn’t been there for very long – and because I was completely unknown there, I was looking for work. Joe Stefano, who wrote Psycho the Hitchcock movie, he created the [majority of season one's] Outer Limits scripts. It was shot on location at MGM but the studio work was all done in a very tiny little studio right off Sunset Boulevard, where we did all the interiors." In the 1964 episode The Forms of Things Unknown, McCallum played Hobart, an inventor who toys with time ("It was an interesting idea"), but the year before that, in The Sixth Finger, he was Gwyllm, a miner who becomes a guinea pig in an experiment to speed up human evolution. It was a part that required increasing amounts of make-up. "I would get there around four in the morning and Fred Phillips the make-up man and I would work until 8 o’clock putting on all that prosthetic. I could work until I had to take it off because it was too heavy. "We worked with another man who was instrumental in making the prosthetics for military personnel who, in various overseas wars, had lost limbs." As the script was running short, McCallum made a suggestion in a scene where the enhanced Gwyllm is flipping through books and then proceeds to play complex Bach pieces. "I remember the line was 'Playing the piano is a simple matter of mathematics and manual dexterity'!" In fact, McCallum might have pursued a career in music. "My father and mother were both music…

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John Duttine on 1981's The Day of the Triffids: ‘I do bump into people who say it scared the pants off them!’
type: item
date: 2022-09-27T08:00:47.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: Duttine on the BBC's acclaimed adaptation of the classic science-fiction story, the collapse of society... and the secret of Triffid power!
encoded: The BBC’s 1981 adaptation of the John Wyndham novel The Day of the Triffids is back! It's now on BritBox for a new generation to enjoy, as well as existing fans, enabling Radio Times to reappraise this acclaimed TV drama. The six-parter generates unease from the first moment, with the main character, Bill Masen, in hospital with bandaged eyes and everyone around him witnessing the spectacle of a meteor shower that will blind most of the world's population. Masen has worked on a farm where Triffids – mobile, carnivorous plants – are cultivated for their oil. But the poison from one of their stingers got into his eyes, hence being operated upon to restore his sight. On removing the bandages, he discovers a global catastrophe... Over the years, the intelligence of Wyndham's stories has been much admired and there have been many adaptations of his books – a 1962 film of Triffids plus another TV series in 2009, while The Midwich Cuckoos has only recently been serialised by Sky. But few have caught the public imagination quite so forcefully as the BBC's 1981 drama. Radio Times caught up with its star, John Duttine, to talk about the show. John, how did you react when you were first approached about the project? I was very excited. I was working at the BBC at the time so I was aware that it was doing the rounds. Then I was suddenly asked to go and see Ken Hannam, the director. Had you read the novel, or any John Wyndham, beforehand? That sort of science-fiction wasn’t my cup of tea, as it were, but I did get into it after that. It involved a lot of location work... It was great to get out and about. What I do remember is being able to film in the city of London at the weekend, when there was nobody about. Also in Surrey and Sussex – just up the road from where I live now. It’s a very serious piece, and it's played dead straight – were there any opportunities to let off steam? [Laughs] I don’t happen to recall any! How long did the whole thing take to shoot? Six to ten week…

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Sir Michael Palin reflects on the "step into the unknown" that would become a comedy classic
type: item
date: 2022-09-20T07:00:53.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: BritBox
subject: On demand
description: Ripping Yarns, the masterly anthology series that Palin created with fellow Python Terry Jones, is 45 this week – and now on BritBox. So how did it come about? And which is Palin's favourite episode?
encoded: "There was this nicely unique formula with chances to do lots of little jokes – and I think that’s what makes them watchable again. There’s always something to see..." Sir Michael Palin is talking to Radio Times about Ripping Yarns, a comedy where anything could happen – and frequently did. It was set in an early 20th Century in which you could cross the Andes by frog, the most boring man in the world became a fêted bank robber and a plummeting football team reversed its fortunes by employing OAPs. Its arcane world of hopping contests and crusty colonials tore into a world of derring do made popular in The Boy's Own Paper. The rituals of boarding school, scarcely credible sporting heroics, displays of aggressive imperialism... all were ripe for affectionate ridicule in a show that was lapped up back in the day, and is now ready for reappraisal on, effectively, its 45th anniversary in its new home on BritBox. Ripping Yarns ran for just nine episodes – one season in September 1977 following a well-received pilot the previous year, then a three-part second season in 1979 – but it soon became embedded in the national consciousness, evolving from the seminal work of surrealism that was Monty Python's Flying Circus. Costing £34,000 per half-hour – double the average sitcom episode at that time – it was artistically filmed, full of period detail and great gags, and peopled with prestige actors. It came during a flowering of post-Circus creativity: John Cleese went on to Fawlty Towers, Eric Idle to Rutland Weekend Television, Terry Gilliam to fantasy films like Jabberwocky and Time Bandits, and Michael Palin and Terry Jones to their majestic upending of adventure tropes. I asked Sir Michael who had the initial idea for the Yarns. "Terry and I were looking round for something to write, and Terry had a book on his shelf, which I might well have given him because we exchanged old-fashioned books: it was called Ripping Yarns: a Collection of Tales. "Terry’s brother Nigel said, …

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The man behind the magic: a new documentary profiles the creator of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet
type: item
date: 2022-04-09T08:00:34.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: What drove producer Gerry Anderson to entertain the world? A personal and moving new BritBox special made by his son Jamie is about to reveal all.
encoded: Years before humans had set foot on the Moon, one man and his team of TV technicians were sending them out into deep space to keep peace in a teeming galaxy, plunging them into deep-sea danger and propelling them to Mars to meet terrifying aliens. Post-69, he continued to enthral us, with swishing flying saucers, a wandering Moon, heroic Terrahawks and the officers of Space Precinct – and pushed the envelope in puppetry and special effects, then live action and CGI. But what inspired him to such technical and imaginative heights? The answers may not be what fans are expecting, and can be found in a candid new BritBox documentary, Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted, released on what would have been his 93rd birthday, and nearly 10 years after his death following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Among those to be surprised was its presenter and producer Jamie Anderson – Gerry’s son from his third marriage. "The whole process has remodelled my vision of, and my thoughts about, Dad," says Jamie, 37, during an online chat with Radio Times from his home in Abertysswg, south Wales. So why did Jamie want to make it? "I go to conventions and have that lovely thing of people saying, 'Oh your dad was brilliant, he changed my life and he made my childhood.' I must have heard it 1,000-plus times and that’s amazing and I don’t want to stop hearing that... Same as I’m always happy to hear the Thunderbirds March when they play that on the radio and it’s never tiresome. But it’s about separating that public persona from the man behind it. "Quite often people say, 'Where did he get his ideas from?' and I knew some of the stories, the Mine Disaster [in Germany in 1963] that inspired Thunderbirds and that kind of thing, but it’s the step beyond that." The Gerry Anderson Podcast, which Jamie hosts with his friend, the actor Richard James, has also helped him look at his father's life and career in a different way by talking to guests including broadcasters Samira Ahmed and Matthew Swee…

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Sara Vickers on playing Endeavour's Joan Thursday: 'It's the gift that keeps giving'
type: item
date: 2021-11-02T09:00:27.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
description: The Scottish actor talks to Radio Times about ITV's long-running detective drama, as well as US superhero series Watchmen and BBC One thriller Guilt.
encoded: With Endeavour series eight recently ending on ITV and the show now available as an eight-series box set, the time is right for an overview with Sara Vickers, a mainstay of the show from its early days. She is part of a slick operation that consistently draws seven million viewers with its twisty mysteries and absorbing character dynamics, having played Joan Thursday (daughter of DCI Fred Thursday) for eight years, and appeared in all but one season. We've seen her character progress from bank employee in the mid-60s to assertive social-services crusader in 1971, so RadioTimes.com asked if she enjoyed working on the show? "Yes, and what I love about Joan is that we’ve gone on such an adventure with her. "With the first series or so it was a bit more domestic, she was just in the house and with her family, but we’ve come on such a journey since then. There’s lots of different avenues that I’ve got to explore with her and that’s just a joy because it's variety, and always challenging as well." Many fans felt that Joan was somehow destined to end up with the drama's hero DS Endeavour Morse, played by Shaun Evans, but series eight threw a curveball by creating in effect a love triangle for Morse, Joan and now DS Jim Strange (Sean Rigby), which sparked something of a meltdown on social media... "I know there has been a bit of a mixed response to the Joan/Jim situation. Endeavour has had lots of dalliances along the way and Joan’s had one difficult relationship with a married man so you knew that was never going to end well... but it’s funny that the first time we’ve ventured into the possibility that she could go elsewhere and there’s a bit of an uproar! [laughs]" That said, Joan and Jim are very sweet together… "They are. Actually he’s such a down-to-earth, dependable guy, he’s funny, he makes her laugh and he’s sweet and caring. With those scenes that we had together I was thinking, 'Is this going to work? Are people going to buy into this?' But as soon as we did the r…

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Ghosts star Ben Willbond on kindred spirits and comedy camaraderie in BBC series
type: item
date: 2021-09-21T08:00:24.000Z
creator: Mark Braxton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
description: The actor/writer from Ghosts talks to Radio Times about the supernatural, the origins of his character and "messing about" for a living.
encoded: The supernatural sitcom Ghosts was an instant hit when it first aired in April 2019, and has been averaging five million viewers ever since. With the latest outing having just finished on BBC One and all three series now available as a DVD box set and on BBC iPlayer, it seemed an opportune moment for Radio Times to discuss the story so far with Ben Willbond, who plays the buttoned-down but well-meaning Captain. The "Horrible Histories team" who write and star in Ghosts must be pleased with how the show has been embraced by the public? "Yeah, we really are. It’s always nerve-racking when you start a new show. Well actually, the first thing is you feel incredibly lucky to be able to get the show commissioned in the first place. I spoke to the others when we launched series one and Jim [Howick] was like, “I didn’t sleep at all!” You always live in fear of people absolutely hating it.” Despite any anxieties, Ghosts proved a hit with viewers, its mixture of funny and moving a potent one. "Yeah I think so, that just comes from us as a team. That really helps with the voice, or tone, of the show. Audiences obviously respond to the characters and the more real and emotional you can make them the better the connection with the audience. You expect that from an out-and-out drama but I think it should be in comedy, too... It’s quite a hard balance to strike because of course you’re labelled as a sitcom so people come to it going, 'Right, make me laugh then!'" For those who have somehow missed the show, Ghosts follows the misfortunes of Alison and Mike, a likeable young couple who inherit Button House, a huge but dilapidated mansion that they plan to turn into a luxury hotel. But a near-death experience then enables Alison to see the spooks from across the centuries who occupy the house. For the more mature viewer, Ghosts recalls 70s children's TV favourites such as Rentaghost and The Ghosts of Motley Hall – going farther back, even the wonderful late-60s private-eye drama Rand…

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