As his culture-clash school comedy Boarders returns for a final term, Daniel Lawrence Taylor reveals why humour is more effective than anger
Add Boarders to your watchlist There was an awkward moment during Sir Lenny Henry’s address to the Royal Television Society in 2019 when, having lavished praise on Daniel Lawrence Taylor’s Bafta-nominated comedy Timewasters, he asked the ITV execs in the audience if the show would be returning for a third series. Met with embarrassed clearing of throats, Henry went on to speak of the “two-season jinx” that seemed to bedevil projects with Black leads and writers. But here’s the good news: seven years on, Taylor’s follow-up show, Boarders, has made it to series three on the BBC. The curse, it seems, has lifted. “Yeah, that feels so good,” grins the writer and performer, at home in south London. “You wouldn’t believe the number of Black creators who’ve mentioned that to me. Just the other day I was speaking to Adjani Salmon [writer-star of BBC Three’s Dreaming Whilst Black] and he said, ‘I can’t believe you’ve done it!’” Launched on BBC Three in 2024, Boarders is a culture-clash comedy-drama about five underprivileged Black sixth-formers on a scholarship to a very posh, very white, private boarding school. It’s a show with a big heart – and a message that’s no less powerful for being delivered with a lightness of touch. “First and foremost, it’s a piece of entertainment,” explains Taylor, who also takes a role in the series as the students’ mentor. “When I sold the show, the first thing I spoke about was friendships and relationships… That’s front and centre. It’s just that the backdrop is a bit different for these particular kids than it is in Harry Potter. “I knew I could say something with this piece, about how a part of society experiences the world. But I also wanted to show the joy in things. Growing up where I did, I faced some difficult times, but I always tried to push through it with a smile on my face. I believe humour can be a more effective weapon than anger. That’s how I’ve always seen the world.” The show was inspired by a newspaper article about five Black boys who had earned a scholarship to Rugby School. “It just resonated with me,” recalls Taylor, who has two young daughters with his wife Tess. “I didn’t go to boarding school, but growing up in south London and then going to a predominantly white, middle-class university [he has a drama and theatre degree from Royal Holloway, which is based in Surrey], it was a completely alien world. When I came back to London, people said that my accent had changed. I’d started morphing into the people at university, to try to fit in. It was a survival thing.” Taylor – who formed comedy duo Ginger and Black with his uni friend Eri Jackson, and later appeared in sitcoms such as Uncle and The Inbetweeners – lays much of his success at the door of his mum, who came to England from Jamaica as a child, and went on to raise five children as a single parent, while working multiple jobs. She also helped forge his love of comedy. “We used to all sleep in my mum’s room. I’d be on the floor, my sister and brothers would be in the bed, and we’d watch reruns of Desmond’s, The Real McCoy and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In Fresh Prince, Uncle Phil was a Black activist lawyer, and Aunt Viv taught African-American studies. It was a comedy, but it was saying something of the time. And that’s just embedded itself into my work, I think. “Representation is such a big thing. The response to Boarders from young Black boys, in particular, has been amazing. But it’s still a bit of a battle,” he admits, of being one of the UK’s very few Black showrunners. “We need to make sure we keep the momentum going, because Black creators have got a lot of amazing stories to tell.” Series three sees Femi (Aruna Jalloh), Leah (Jodie Campbell), Jaheim (Josh Tedeku), Omar (Myles Kamwendo) and Toby (Sekou Diaby) embarking on their final term at St Gilbert’s. Though this is the last series of Boarders, it’s a creative choice, not a commissioning one. “With so many TV shows nowadays, you never get to finish the story,” says Taylor. “So the fact I’m able to tie things up and send everyone out into the world is lovely. Though I do feel a bit sad to be saying goodbye.” As he waves off the class of ’26, Taylor is looking ahead, too, having signed a first-look deal with Boarders’ production company, Studio Lambert, which is also behind The Traitors. “Yeah, they did say I can come and visit the castle, which I think was a nice way of saying they don’t want me in the show,” he laughs. “I want to keep making work about the Black experience,” he continues, when asked what’s next. “I want to keep pushing boundaries. My next project will definitely be on a much bigger scale. I’m excited for whatever comes my way.”
Boarders creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor talks ending his beloved comedy show: "I want to keep making work about the Black experience"
As his culture-clash school comedy Boarders returns for a final term, Daniel Lawrence Taylor reveals why humour is more effective than anger.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. There was an awkward moment during Sir Lenny Henry’s address to the Royal Television Society in 2019 when, having lavished praise on Daniel Lawrence Taylor’s BAFTA-nominated comedy Timewasters, he asked the ITV execs in the audience if the show would be returning for a third series. Met with embarrassed clearing of throats, Henry went on to speak of the “two-season jinx” that seemed to bedevil projects with Black leads and writers. But here’s the good news: seven years on, Taylor’s follow-up show, Boarders, has made it to series three on the BBC. The curse, it seems, has lifted. “Yeah, that feels so good,” grins the writer and performer, at home in south London. “You wouldn’t believe the number of Black creators who’ve mentioned that to me. Just the other day I was speaking to Adjani Salmon [writer-star of BBC Three’s Dreaming Whilst Black] and he said, ‘I can’t believe you’ve done it!’” Launched on BBC Three in 2024, Boarders is a culture-clash comedy-drama about five underprivileged Black sixth-formers on a scholarship to a very posh, very white, private boarding school. It’s a show with a big heart – and a message that’s no less powerful for being delivered with a lightness of touch. View oEmbed on the source website “First and foremost, it’s a piece of entertainment,” explains Taylor, who also takes a role in the series as the students’ mentor. “When I sold the show, the first thing I spoke about was friendships and relationships… That’s front and centre. It’s just that the backdrop is a bit different for these particular kids than it is in Harry Potter. “I knew I could say something with this piece, about how a part of society experiences the world. But I also wanted to show the joy in things. Growing up where I did, I faced some difficult times, but I always tried to push through it with a smile on my face. I believe humour can be a more effective weapon than anger. That’s how I’ve always seen the world.” The show was inspired by a newspaper article about five Black boys who had earned a scholarship to Rugby School. “It just resonated with me,” recalls Taylor, who has two young daughters with his wife Tess. “I didn’t go to boarding school, but growing up in south London and then going to a predominantly white, middle-class university [he has a drama and theatre degree from Royal Holloway, which is based in Surrey], it was a completely alien world. When I came back to London, people said that my accent had changed. I’d started morphing into the people at university, to try to fit in. It was a survival thing.” Taylor – who formed comedy duo Ginger and Black with his uni friend Eri Jackson, and later appeared in sitcoms such as Uncle and The Inbetweeners – lays much of his success at the door of his mum, who came to England from Jamaica as a child, and went on to raise five children as a single parent, while working multiple jobs. She also helped forge his love of comedy. “We used to all sleep in my mum’s room. I’d be on the floor, my sister and brothers would be in the bed, and we’d watch reruns of Desmond’s, The Real McCoy and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In Fresh Prince, Uncle Phil was a Black activist lawyer, and Aunt Viv taught African-American studies. It was a comedy, but it was saying something of the time. And that’s just embedded itself into my work, I think. “Representation is such a big thing. The response to Boarders from young Black boys, in particular, has been amazing. But it’s still a bit of a battle,” he admits, of being one of the UK’s very few Black showrunners. “We need to make sure we keep the momentum going, because Black creators have got a lot of amazing stories to tell.” Series three sees Femi (Aruna Jalloh), Leah (Jodie Campbell), Jaheim (Josh Tedeku), Omar (Myles Kamwendo) and Toby (Sekou Diaby) embarking on their final term at St Gilbert’s. Though this is the last series of Boarders, it’s a creative choice, not a commissioning one. “With so many TV shows nowadays, you never get to finish the story,” says Taylor. “So the fact I’m able to tie things up and send everyone out into the world is lovely. Though I do feel a bit sad to be saying goodbye.” As he waves off the class of ’26, Taylor is looking ahead, too, having signed a first-look deal with Boarders’ production company, Studio Lambert, which is also behind The Traitors. “Yeah, they did say I can come and visit the castle, which I think was a nice way of saying they don’t want me in the show,” he laughs. “I want to keep making work about the Black experience,” he continues, when asked what’s next. “I want to keep pushing boundaries. My next project will definitely be on a much bigger scale. I’m excited for whatever comes my way.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Boarders season 3 is available on Sunday 15 March from 6am on BBC iPlayer and begins at 10pm on BBC Three. 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.
The Hollywood actor on speaking in tongues, her biggest fear, Wicked auditions and more Mamma Mia!
Add The Testament of Ann Lee to your watchlist Since making her big-screen debut in 2004’s Mean Girls, Pennsylvania-born Amanda Seyfried has starred in films as diverse as Mamma Mia!, Lovelace and David Fincher’s Mank, for which she was Oscar-nominated. On TV, she’s appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: the Return, and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance as disgraced CEO Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout. She’s now earning rave reviews for her latest role in The Testament of Ann Lee, Mona Fastvold’s historical musical drama about the 18th-century founder of the Shakers religious sect. Your director Mona Fastvold says she cast you as Ann Lee because “she’s really strong, a wonderful mother and a little bit mad”. Are you happy to take that? Sure. I think she meant it in a good way. “Mad” can mean so many things, but for this, it meant being completely uninhibited. The ego is a barrier for actors, and you have to be able to put that aside. As I’m getting older in my career, people seem to be able to trust me to show up in that way. Like the scene where Ann is speaking in tongues. How many directors are going to let me react like that? To allow me to just improv freely, in the most absurd way? It felt incredible. But you’ve also said making the film was “hard as f***”. How? I hate being wet and cold, and on a film set you can be wet and cold for eight hours a day. It wasn’t suffering, by any means. But it was extreme discomfort. The grief was extensive as well. [Ann lost all four of her children in infancy.] Nobody wants to feel grief. Luckily, I haven’t had to explore that in my personal life, but it’s my biggest fear. So it was imagining what that would feel like. Afterwards, I just had to hold myself. View Green Video on the source website You took your husband [actor Thomas Sadoski], daughter and son to Budapest for the shoot. Did they have fun? It was wonderful. The kids were just so happy. My son had never been out of the country, because he’s a Covid baby. They saw palaces and all these weird places. And we took the dog, which was tricky, because it meant taking 80 pounds of frozen dog food to the country. Was it contraband? No. Wait? Oh, my God! Can I be retroactively imprisoned? Having a religious fundamentalist as the heroine is quite a bold choice. Are you a person of faith? I’m not a person of that kind of faith. But then not many people were a person of Ann’s faith. I grew up in the United Church of Christ, which was quite relaxed. There was no speaking in tongues. It was quite boring for me. I don’t go to church any more. My church now is when I go into nature. Are you managing not to let all the praise — including Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations — go to your head? I feel really good about all that. I don’t need the accolades – but, by God, it helps my business. And with Ann Lee, I felt satisfied myself, watching it back. There are a few things I won’t ever love – moments where I feel my Manchester accent kind of falls off. But I’m proud of it and I can stand behind it. This isn’t your first musical, of course. Are you confident there will be a third Mamma Mia!? It’s inevitable. We’re all just waiting for the call, really. I mean, Meryl Streep will have to be a ghost, but I think she’s fine with that. There are enough Abba songs for 18 movies. If Fast & Furious can get made this often, can we at least have a third Mamma Mia! to finish the trilogy? You auditioned six times for Ariana Grande’s role in the Wizard of Oz retelling Wicked. Are you over it now? Yeah. I’ve been making the [promo] rounds with all of them, and it’s like everything happens for a reason. I wasn’t sad I didn’t get it, but I guess I wish it had been communicated to me in a better way. I don’t like to be in the dark about things. I like to feel appreciated. You also recently starred in The Housemaid with Sydney Sweeney. It’s been pointed out that you could be sisters… That was kind of the set-up of the film – that we are eerily similar, physically. I mean, she’s quite a bit younger than me, and I’m totally accepting of my older role in a way I used to be scared I wouldn’t be. I don’t miss my 20s or early 30s. I’m absolutely good where I’m at. Everyone seems to have an opinion about Sydney… I don’t envy her at all. I imagine it’s hard to keep your head when people are constantly trying to project onto you. I never had that spotlight shining so bright. But every time I see Syd, she’s happy to be there. Life is constant emotional acrobatics, but it’s heightened for her. I mean, it’s heightened for me, but it’s really heightened for her. You’re 40 now. Are you looking forward to the next decade? Yes, because most of my friends are in their 40s and it seems they’re all happier. And it’s kind of obvious why. It’s an age when you know who you are, and you know what you want. The Testament of Ann Lee is in UK cinemas from Friday 27 February
Amanda Seyfried talks Mamma Mia 3, her religious new role, and why she doesn't envy "spotlight" on Sydney Sweeney
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Since making her big-screen debut in 2004’s Mean Girls, Pennsylvania-born Amanda Seyfried has starred in films as diverse as Mamma Mia!, Lovelace and David Fincher’s Mank, for which she was Oscar-nominated. On TV, she’s appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: the Return, and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance as disgraced CEO Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout. She’s now earning rave reviews for her latest role in The Testament of Ann Lee, Mona Fastvold’s historical musical drama about the 18th-century founder of the Shakers religious sect. Your director Mona Fastvold says she cast you as Ann Lee because “she’s really strong, a wonderful mother and a little bit mad”. Are you happy to take that? Sure. I think she meant it in a good way. “Mad” can mean so many things, but for this, it meant being completely uninhibited. The ego is a barrier for actors, and you have to be able to put that aside. As I’m getting older in my career, people seem to be able to trust me to show up in that way. Like the scene where Ann is speaking in tongues. How many directors are going to let me react like that? To allow me to just improv freely, in the most absurd way? It felt incredible. View Green Video on the source website But you’ve also said making the film was “hard as f**k”. How? I hate being wet and cold, and on a film set you can be wet and cold for eight hours a day. It wasn’t suffering, by any means. But it was extreme discomfort. The grief was extensive as well. [Ann lost all four of her children in infancy.] Nobody wants to feel grief. Luckily, I haven’t had to explore that in my personal life, but it’s my biggest fear. So it was imagining what that would feel like. Afterwards, I just had to hold myself. You took your husband [actor Thomas Sadoski], daughter and son to Budapest for the shoot. Did they have fun? It was wonderful. The kids were just so happy. My son had never been out of the country, because he’s a Covid baby. They saw palaces and all these weird places. And we took the dog, which was tricky, because it meant taking 80 pounds of frozen dog food to the country. Was it contraband? No. Wait? Oh, my God! Can I be retroactively imprisoned? Having a religious fundamentalist as the heroine is quite a bold choice. Are you a person of faith? I’m not a person of that kind of faith. But then not many people were a person of Ann’s faith. I grew up in the United Church of Christ, which was quite relaxed. There was no speaking in tongues. It was quite boring for me. I don’t go to church any more. My church now is when I go into nature. Are you managing not to let all the praise — including Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations — go to your head? I feel really good about all that. I don’t need the accolades – but, by God, it helps my business. And with Ann Lee, I felt satisfied myself, watching it back. There are a few things I won’t ever love – moments where I feel my Manchester accent kind of falls off. But I’m proud of it and I can stand behind it. This isn’t your first musical, of course. Are you confident there will be a third Mamma Mia!? It’s inevitable. We’re all just waiting for the call, really. I mean, Meryl Streep will have to be a ghost, but I think she’s fine with that. There are enough Abba songs for 18 movies. If Fast & Furious can get made this often, can we at least have a third Mamma Mia! to finish the trilogy? You auditioned six times for Ariana Grande’s role in the Wizard of Oz retelling Wicked. Are you over it now? Yeah. I’ve been making the [promo] rounds with all of them, and it’s like everything happens for a reason. I wasn’t sad I didn’t get it, but I guess I wish it had been communicated to me in a better way. I don’t like to be in the dark about things. I like to feel appreciated. You also recently starred in The Housemaid with Sydney Sweeney. It’s been pointed out that you could be sisters… That was kind of the set-up of the film – that we are eerily similar, physically. I mean, she’s quite a bit younger than me, and I’m totally accepting of my older role in a way I used to be scared I wouldn’t be. I don’t miss my 20s or early 30s. I’m absolutely good where I’m at. Everyone seems to have an opinion about Sydney… I don’t envy her at all. I imagine it’s hard to keep your head when people are constantly trying to project onto you. I never had that spotlight shining so bright. But every time I see Syd, she’s happy to be there. Life is constant emotional acrobatics, but it’s heightened for her. I mean, it’s heightened for me, but it’s really heightened for her. You’re 40 now. Are you looking forward to the next decade? Yes, because most of my friends are in their 40s and it seems they’re all happier. And it’s kind of obvious why. It’s an age when you know who you are, and you know what you want. The Testament of Ann Lee is in cinemas from Friday 27 February. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. 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.
RT’s vampiric cover star, comedian Phil Wang, explains his new-found love of horror movies, as he gets his fangs into judging Great British Menu
Add Great British Menu to your watchlist Don’t let anyone tell you that Phil Wang isn’t a trouper. In a studio in south London, the amiable comedian has submitted, uncomplainingly, to two hours in the make-up chair to be transformed into Count Orlok – bloodsucking antagonist of one of his favourite films, Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror – to help draw together the threads of RT’s horror special and his latest gig as a judge on the new, film-themed series of Great British Menu. Having been fitted with a bald cap (“like a big condom,” according to the make-up artist), slathered in grease paint and accessorised with razor-sharp nails and false teeth – Phil Fang, anyone? – the only thing our easy-going vampire draws the line at is shaving off his moustache. “I’ve got five minutes of material about it in my stand-up show,” he explains, apologetically. That’s OK, we assure him – hipster Orlok is actually quite a strong look. “I feel like I’ve unleashed an inner part of me,” says the 36-year-old, as he vamps it up for the camera. “Also, it’s nice to have a preview of what I look like bald. I think I’ve got quite a good-shaped head.” According to his self-effacing tour blurb, Wang is best known “for one series of Taskmaster, one episode of Would I Lie to You? and one minute of Wonka”. In reality, of course, he’s one of Britain’s most in-demand stand-ups, a regular TV fixture on everything from Graham Norton’s sofa to Have I Got News for You, and the star of two hit Netflix specials, Philly Philly Wang Wang and Wang in There, Baby! He also hosted the 2021 podcast series Phil Wang Hates Horror, in which comedy pals including Ed Gamble, Rose Matafeo and Nish Kumar forced him to overcome his lifelong fear of scary movies. Did it work? Judging by his current get-up, yes – even if, as we talk, he’s slightly ruining the effect by sipping peach water instead of drinking blood… What was your main takeaway from the Phil Wang Hates Horror podcast? That horror can be really fun. As heightened emotions, laughter and being scared are actually very close together. To anyone who doesn’t like horror, I’d say the best cure is definitely immersion therapy – you just have to watch lots of it. What’s your favourite horror film? Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror is obviously up there – especially the 2024 remake. I didn’t sleep for three days after watching The Babadook [2014], but it was worth it. Are films like Weapons, Sinners and Frankenstein — which are up for multiple Bafta Film Awards — proof we’re living in an age of “prestige horror”? It seems that way, and that can only be a good thing. There’s a kind of snobbery around film awards – comedy never, ever gets a look in, for example. But I think they’re finally recognising that horror is a very significant genre. Plus, horror seems to be single-handedly keeping cinemas alive, because it’s more fun as a shared experience. The new series of Great British Menu, which you’ve joined as a judge, is a celebration of great British films. I guess you’d include Wonka [2023] in that category? Of course. Paul King [director and writer] and Simon Farnaby have made some of the most beloved films of this century. Paddington 2 is a cultural behemoth. I’m in Wonka for a glorious one minute and 48 seconds [as wedding groom Colin]. It was my first day on a big movie set, and I broke my elbow falling through a table. But there was so much adrenaline surging through me, I didn’t really feel the pain. Are we calling it the greatest 1 min 48 sec in British film history? I think so. I think British film will now be separated into pre-Colin and post-Colin. In other film news, you wrote a gag for Amy Schumer at the 2022 Oscars… That was really exciting. It was the year Will Smith was nominated for King Richard, and the joke was, after years of Hollywood ignoring women’s stories, this year we finally have a movie about the incredible Williams sisters’… dad. Then it cut to Will Smith and he was laughing. At my joke! I thought that would be the most surreal moment of the night. But it wasn’t. Afterwards I was like, “Can we just skip over the slap thing? I feel like that was a really good joke earlier!” This isn’t your first Great British Menu rodeo. You were a guest judge in 2021 — when you went, in your own words, “full Asian parent”. Yeah, I was a bit mean with some of the scores. I was giving threes and fours, and the producers had to have a word, saying, “People don’t normally go below a six.” So I’ve gone in with a different attitude this time around. I get it. You’re a big foodie, aren’t you? I’m a glutton. I love foods of all different types – I love a 17-course tasting menu; I love a KFC. I’m just a pig. When I moved to the UK [Wang was born in Stoke-on-Trent to an English mother and Chinese-Malaysian father, but grew up in Borneo, before returning aged 16], the biggest culture shock was curry sauce, from a chip shop – I’d never had sweet curry glue. British food is now spectacular, though. It’s unrecognisable compared to when I moved here. And we all know how you feel about our fear of reheating rice… That was a shock. People were like, “You will die if you eat a single grain of this reheated rice.” Which is weird, because old rice is literally what you make fried rice out of. So that became a routine in my last Netflix special. I like to think I’ve started a very important dialogue. Your forthcoming stand-up tour is called Uh Oh. Should we be worried? It’s about the vibe shift in the Western world – the end of the progressive era and the lurch towards the right, politically and culturally, that’s coincided with the ageing of my millennial generation. That doesn’t sound like a laugh a minute, does it? But it is. Phil Wang Hates Horror is available to listen to on Audible. For tickets to his stand-up show Uh Oh, starting from 11 September 2026, visit philwang.co.uk
Phil Wang transforms into the legendary horror icon Nosferatu - and reveals his top horror picks
RT’s vampiric cover star, comedian Phil Wang, explains his new-found love of horror movies, as he gets his fangs into judging Great British Menu.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Don’t let anyone tell you that Phil Wang isn’t a trouper. In a studio in south London, the amiable comedian has submitted, uncomplainingly, to two hours in the make-up chair to be transformed into Count Orlok – bloodsucking antagonist of one of his favourite films, Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror – to help draw together the threads of RT’s horror special and his latest gig as a judge on the new, film-themed series of Great British Menu. Having been fitted with a bald cap (“like a big condom,” according to the make-up artist), slathered in grease paint and accessorised with razor-sharp nails and false teeth – Phil Fang, anyone? – the only thing our easy-going vampire draws the line at is shaving off his moustache. “I’ve got five minutes of material about it in my stand-up show,” he explains, apologetically. That’s OK, we assure him – hipster Orlok is actually quite a strong look. “I feel like I’ve unleashed an inner part of me,” says the 36-year-old, as he vamps it up for the camera. “Also, it’s nice to have a preview of what I look like bald. I think I’ve got quite a good-shaped head.” According to his self-effacing tour blurb, Wang is best known “for one series of Taskmaster, one episode of Would I Lie to You? and one minute of Wonka”. In reality, of course, he’s one of Britain’s most in-demand stand-ups, a regular TV fixture on everything from Graham Norton’s sofa to Have I Got News for You, and the star of two hit Netflix specials, Philly Philly Wang Wang and Wang in There, Baby! He also hosted the 2021 podcast series Phil Wang Hates Horror, in which comedy pals including Ed Gamble, Rose Matafeo and Nish Kumar forced him to overcome his lifelong fear of scary movies. Did it work? Judging by his current get-up, yes – even if, as we talk, he’s slightly ruining the effect by sipping peach water instead of drinking blood… What was your main takeaway from the Phil Wang Hates Horror podcast? That horror can be really fun. As heightened emotions, laughter and being scared are actually very close together. To anyone who doesn’t like horror, I’d say the best cure is definitely immersion therapy – you just have to watch lots of it. What’s your favourite horror film? Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror is obviously up there – especially the 2024 remake. I didn’t sleep for three days after watching The Babadook [2014], but it was worth it. Are films like Weapons, Sinners and Frankenstein – which are up for multiple Bafta Film Awards – proof we’re living in an age of “prestige horror”? It seems that way, and that can only be a good thing. There’s a kind of snobbery around film awards – comedy never, ever gets a look in, for example. But I think they’re finally recognising that horror is a very significant genre. Plus, horror seems to be single-handedly keeping cinemas alive, because it’s more fun as a shared experience. The new series of Great British Menu, which you’ve joined as a judge, is a celebration of great British films. I guess you’d include Wonka [2023] in that category? Of course. Paul King [director and writer] and Simon Farnaby have made some of the most beloved films of this century. Paddington 2 is a cultural behemoth. I’m in Wonka for a glorious one minute and 48 seconds [as wedding groom Colin]. It was my first day on a big movie set, and I broke my elbow falling through a table. But there was so much adrenaline surging through me, I didn’t really feel the pain. Are we calling it the greatest 1 min 48 sec in British film history? I think so. I think British film will now be separated into pre-Colin and post-Colin. In other film news, you wrote a gag for Amy Schumer at the 2022 Oscars… That was really exciting. It was the year Will Smith was nominated for King Richard, and the joke was, after years of Hollywood ignoring women’s stories, this year we finally have a movie about the incredible Williams sisters’… dad. Then it cut to Will Smith and he was laughing. At my joke! I thought that would be the most surreal moment of the night. But it wasn’t. Afterwards I was like, “Can we just skip over the slap thing? I feel like that was a really good joke earlier!” This isn’t your first Great British Menu rodeo. You were a guest judge in 2021 – when you went, in your own words, “full Asian parent”. Yeah, I was a bit mean with some of the scores. I was giving threes and fours, and the producers had to have a word, saying, “People don’t normally go below a six.” So I’ve gone in with a different attitude this time around. I get it. You’re a big foodie, aren’t you? I’m a glutton. I love foods of all different types – I love a 17-course tasting menu; I love a KFC. I’m just a pig. When I moved to the UK [Wang was born in Stoke-on-Trent to an English mother and Chinese-Malaysian father, but grew up in Borneo, before returning aged 16], the biggest culture shock was curry sauce, from a chip shop – I’d never had sweet curry glue. British food is now spectacular, though. It’s unrecognisable compared to when I moved here. And we all know how you feel about our fear of reheating rice… That was a shock. People were like, “You will die if you eat a single grain of this reheated rice.” Which is weird, because old rice is literally what you make fried rice out of. So that became a routine in my last Netflix special. I like to think I’ve started a very important dialogue. Your forthcoming stand-up tour is called Uh Oh. Should we be worried? It’s about the vibe shift in the Western world – the end of the progressive era and the lurch towards the right, politically and culturally, that’s coincided with the ageing of my millennial generation. That doesn’t sound like a laugh a minute, does it? But it is. Photography - Simon Webb @simonwebbphoto Make-up and prosthetics - Bryony Blake @bryony_blake Make-up and prosthetics - Holly Davies @hollylouisehmua Styling - Maureen Vivian @maureenstylist The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – subscribe here. 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.
The star of new thriller Atomic has gone from musical punchline to the most successful member of his showbiz family
Add Atomic to your watchlist It says a lot about Alfie Allen’s career that the only window he can find in his schedule to talk to Radio Times is 8.30 on a Sunday morning. “I just feel knackered all the time,” admits the 38-year-old actor, who flew into London last night from the Spanish shoot of new Paramount+ thriller Baby Doll. Not that he’s complaining. “It’s good to be busy,” he says. “I enjoy the work, and being surrounded by people at the top of their game.” The son of actor and comedian Keith, and the younger brother of pop star Lily, Alfie could have ridden through life as a lesser Allen – but instead, he’s forged a career as an in-demand actor in big-budget, often violent TV shows and films. For example, today he’s overcoming travel exhaustion to talk about his lead role in Sky’s new high-octane thriller Atomic. Inspired by Vanity Fair journalist William Langewiesche’s book The Atomic Bazaar – an exposé of the illicit trade in nuclear weapons technology – it sees Allen’s drug smuggler Max getting caught up in a plot to traffic enriched uranium across North Africa and the Middle East. “Max has made some questionable life choices, which is something we can all relate to at points in our life,” says Allen. “But he’s kind of lovable, and a bit vulnerable.” In the first episode, Max lays out his moral code: “I’m a driver. I don’t kill people.” For Allen, spending hours behind the wheel in the Moroccan desert last summer was one of the perks of the job. “I love driving long distances,” he says. “Plus, as an actor, I like to have other things to think about, rather than just saying the lines.” He also does a lot of running in the show – often while carrying a heavy bag of supposedly hazardous nuclear material – but says the heat wasn’t too punishing. “September is when it gets really hot, and we were out by August. It wasn’t like on [BBC drama] SAS Rogue Heroes, where we were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. The hottest day on that shoot was 53 degrees, which was insane. It just made you delirious.” But Max isn’t even the biggest wrong ’un on Allen’s showreel: previous roles have included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in McVeigh and a Nazi officer in Jojo Rabbit. He was also, lest we forget, involved in killing Keanu Reeves’s puppy in the first John Wick movie, unwittingly kickstarting a four-movie bloodbath of frenzied ultraviolence. “I was in New York doing a play, and whenever I was out, I’d constantly hear people shouting, ‘Hey, you killed John Wick’s dog, man!’ ” Allen laughs. “I have great memories of doing that film.” Next up, he’s set to work with David Benioff and DB Weiss – the showrunners who cast him as Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones in 2011 – for the second series of their Netflix sci-fi thriller 3 Body Problem. “They called me and said, ‘We’ve got this part we’d like you to do’. I read the stuff they sent me, we had a chat, and I immediately said, ‘Yeah, I’m in’. Dave and Dan [DB] are great writers and showrunners. They know how to keep a show going, with all the moving parts that involves.” Seven years after filming wrapped on the final season of what was then the biggest show on TV, Allen now looks back on the whole Thrones circus with “mostly fond memories”. The qualifier being, presumably, because the role of Theon – who went from Ironborn royalty to the broken, tortured “pet” of Iwan Rheon’s sadistic Ramsay Bolton – took its emotional toll? “Yeah, definitely,” he nods. “By season three, I was in this dungeon with Iwan. It was isolating, and the content was pretty dark – especially when I was being tortured. Iwan and I would regularly go out and play pool the whole night, and not talk about what we’d done during the day. And I also had stuff going on in my life – my grandfather was passing away during season three. So there were definitely tough times.” His life is now quite different from when Benioff and Weiss first brought him to Westeros. Today, Allen is talking over video from the friend’s house he’s currently crashing in. “I’m renting out my London place at the moment,” he explains. “Home these days is LA, most of the time, because I have a six-year-old there [a daughter, from his former relationship with American DJ and fashion designer Allie Teilz]. That’s where I’m going after this week – I’ll be there for three weeks, then back here for 3 Body Problem, then back to LA until more work comes in.” Which, on current form, probably won’t be very long. He likes LA. “There’s a positivity to it,” he says. “People say it’s very transactional, but I think that’s the same anywhere – in LA it’s just less hidden. It’s also a beautiful place to be: you’ve got mountains and desert, you’ve got the beach and the rainforest. And when your kid is speaking in a Californian accent, then it’s home.” Growing up in London, Allen was diagnosed with ADHD, and expelled from various expensive schools around the south of England. “It was a big part of my childhood,” he recalls. “I always needed outlets for whatever I was feeling, whether it was acting, or sport. These days, I don’t actively talk about how my ADHD is making me feel, it’s just something that makes me who I am.” At the age of 20, he acquired notoriety as the subject of his big sister’s not entirely flattering song Alfie, in which she entreated him to get up off his “lazy arse” and stop “wasting your life away”. But, despite having no formal training, he soon proved his acting chops, taking over from Daniel Radcliffe in the stage revival of Peter Shaffer’s Equus; he’s gone on to earn both Emmy and Tony nominations (for Game of Thrones and the Broadway production of Hangmen). So would it be fair to say he’s having the last laugh? “Oh God, I dunno,” he says, shifting awkwardly in his seat. “I don’t look at it as anyone having the last laugh. It’s just more about… life’s challenges.” He didn’t find Lily’s song in any way motivational? “No, I don’t think it was. I always wanted to be an actor.” I ask if, as the scion of Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, acting and showbiz might be in the genes? “I don’t know, I mean… I’d have to kind of know somebody else’s experience,” he mumbles. Talking about his family really makes him squirm, doesn’t it? “I have been squirming, you’re right,” he laughs. “I’ve been moving around in my chair. Yeah, I’d just rather not talk about them.” But doesn’t the fact that he’s so in demand – as arguably the most successful Allen – allow him to loosen up a bit on that score? “Yeah, I guess so,” he says, not sounding hugely convinced. “I just don’t want to be reactive to those things. Maybe I’ll get so bored [with dodging questions] I’ll have a change of heart at some point.” He flashes a brief, half-apologetic smile. “But not yet.”
Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen recalls "isolating" and "tough times" working on series as he reunites with showrunners for new role
The star of new thriller Atomic has gone from musical punchline to the most successful member of his showbiz family.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It says a lot about Alfie Allen’s career that the only window he can find in his schedule to talk to Radio Times is 8.30 on a Sunday morning. “I just feel knackered all the time,” admits the 38-year-old actor, who flew into London last night from the Spanish shoot of new Paramount+ thriller Baby Doll. Not that he’s complaining. “It’s good to be busy,” he says. “I enjoy the work, and being surrounded by people at the top of their game.” The son of actor and comedian Keith, and the younger brother of pop star Lily, Alfie could have ridden through life as a lesser Allen – but instead, he’s forged a career as an in-demand actor in big-budget, often violent TV shows and films. For example, today he’s overcoming travel exhaustion to talk about his lead role in Sky’s new high-octane thriller Atomic. Inspired by Vanity Fair journalist William Langewiesche’s book The Atomic Bazaar – an exposé of the illicit trade in nuclear weapons technology – it sees Allen’s drug smuggler Max getting caught up in a plot to traffic enriched uranium across North Africa and the Middle East. “Max has made some questionable life choices, which is something we can all relate to at points in our life,” says Allen. “But he’s kind of lovable, and a bit vulnerable.” In the first episode, Max lays out his moral code: “I’m a driver. I don’t kill people.” For Allen, spending hours behind the wheel in the Moroccan desert last summer was one of the perks of the job. “I love driving long distances,” he says. “Plus, as an actor, I like to have other things to think about, rather than just saying the lines.” He also does a lot of running in the show – often while carrying a heavy bag of supposedly hazardous nuclear material – but says the heat wasn’t too punishing. “September is when it gets really hot, and we were out by August. It wasn’t like on [BBC drama] SAS Rogue Heroes, where we were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. The hottest day on that shoot was 53 degrees, which was insane. It just made you delirious.” But Max isn’t even the biggest wrong ’un on Allen’s showreel: previous roles have included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in McVeigh and a Nazi officer in Jojo Rabbit. He was also, lest we forget, involved in killing Keanu Reeves’s puppy in the first John Wick movie, unwittingly kickstarting a four-movie bloodbath of frenzied ultraviolence. “I was in New York doing a play, and whenever I was out, I’d constantly hear people shouting, ‘Hey, you killed John Wick’s dog, man!’ ” Allen laughs. “I have great memories of doing that film.” Next up, he’s set to work with David Benioff and DB Weiss – the showrunners who cast him as Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones in 2011 – for the second series of their Netflix sci-fi thriller 3 Body Problem. “They called me and said, ‘We’ve got this part we’d like you to do’. I read the stuff they sent me, we had a chat, and I immediately said, ‘Yeah, I’m in’. Dave and Dan [DB] are great writers and showrunners. They know how to keep a show going, with all the moving parts that involves.” Seven years after filming wrapped on the final season of what was then the biggest show on TV, Allen now looks back on the whole Thrones circus with “mostly fond memories”. The qualifier being, presumably, because the role of Theon – who went from Ironborn royalty to the broken, tortured “pet” of Iwan Rheon’s sadistic Ramsay Bolton – took its emotional toll? “Yeah, definitely,” he nods. “By season 3, I was in this dungeon with Iwan. It was isolating, and the content was pretty dark – especially when I was being tortured. Iwan and I would regularly go out and play pool the whole night, and not talk about what we’d done during the day. And I also had stuff going on in my life – my grandfather was passing away during season 3. So there were definitely tough times.” His life is now quite different from when Benioff and Weiss first brought him to Westeros. Today, Allen is talking over video from the friend’s house he’s currently crashing in. “I’m renting out my London place at the moment,” he explains. “Home these days is LA, most of the time, because I have a six-year-old there [a daughter, from his former relationship with American DJ and fashion designer Allie Teilz]. That’s where I’m going after this week – I’ll be there for three weeks, then back here for 3 Body Problem, then back to LA until more work comes in.” Which, on current form, probably won’t be very long. He likes LA. “There’s a positivity to it,” he says. “People say it’s very transactional, but I think that’s the same anywhere – in LA it’s just less hidden. It’s also a beautiful place to be: you’ve got mountains and desert, you’ve got the beach and the rainforest. And when your kid is speaking in a Californian accent, then it’s home.” Growing up in London, Allen was diagnosed with ADHD, and expelled from various expensive schools around the south of England. “It was a big part of my childhood,” he recalls. “I always needed outlets for whatever I was feeling, whether it was acting, or sport. These days, I don’t actively talk about how my ADHD is making me feel, it’s just something that makes me who I am.” At the age of 20, he acquired notoriety as the subject of his big sister’s not entirely flattering song Alfie, in which she entreated him to get up off his “lazy arse” and stop “wasting your life away”. But, despite having no formal training, he soon proved his acting chops, taking over from Daniel Radcliffe in the stage revival of Peter Shaffer’s Equus; he’s gone on to earn both Emmy and Tony nominations (for Game of Thrones and the Broadway production of Hangmen). So would it be fair to say he’s having the last laugh? “Oh God, I dunno,” he says, shifting awkwardly in his seat. “I don’t look at it as anyone having the last laugh. It’s just more about… life’s challenges.” He didn’t find Lily’s song in any way motivational? “No, I don’t think it was. I always wanted to be an actor.” I ask if, as the scion of Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, acting and showbiz might be in the genes? “I don’t know, I mean… I’d have to kind of know somebody else’s experience,” he mumbles. Talking about his family really makes him squirm, doesn’t it? “I have been squirming, you’re right,” he laughs. “I’ve been moving around in my chair. Yeah, I’d just rather not talk about them.” But doesn’t the fact that he’s so in demand – as arguably the most successful Allen – allow him to loosen up a bit on that score? “Yeah, I guess so,” he says, not sounding hugely convinced. “I just don’t want to be reactive to those things. Maybe I’ll get so bored [with dodging questions] I’ll have a change of heart at some point.” He flashes a brief, half-apologetic smile. “But not yet.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
He’s comfortable mixing with A-listers but says he’ll always play second fiddle to strong women (and Alan Partridge)
Add The Count of Monte Cristo to your watchlist Since finding fame in Pirates of the Caribbean, The Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman, Sam Claflin has gone on to play television roles as diverse as Oswald Mosley in Peaky Blinders and Billy Dunne, lead singer of a fictional 1970s rock band in Daisy Jones & the Six. Now the 39-year-old from Norwich stars as wrongly imprisoned Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo, a new eight-part French-Italian adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel about betrayal and revenge. View oEmbed on the source website There are more than 50 screen versions of The Count of Monte Cristo. Why do people keep returning to this story? It has many life lessons, number one being that forgiveness is key. Learn to live in love, rather than hate. Edmond is an anti-hero – he’s a bit like Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders – but he used to be a good man, and that makes it more harrowing that he’s been led to these depths. There’s a feeling that if he carries out this vengeance maybe he’ll be fixed. But of course he won’t be. Would you seek revenge in a situation like his? Fortunately, I’ve never been through what he’s been through. But you just don’t know. Edmond is grieving for his younger self, and people grieve in different ways. But I’m someone who avoids conflict at all costs. I keep away from people who have wronged me. I don’t keep going back for more. What was it like working with Jeremy Irons on the show? I mean, he’s a legend. My introduction to him was as Scar in The Lion King, but I’ve since tuned into his other work. We’d been shooting for four months in the heat when he joined us, and I was exhausted – I was at my wits’ end – but he brought a new energy to it. He was like a fresh burst of light. I was fortunate to work with his son, Max, on The Riot Club [2014], and I’ve just finished a job with his wife, Sinéad Cusack. I’m working my way through the Ironses! You were very young when you found success in blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hunger Games. Did that take time to adjust to? Yeah, I remember my first day in Hawaii, doing the table read for Pirates with Johnny Depp to my left and Penélope Cruz to my right, thinking, “What the hell just happened?” On my first trip to LA, my agent took me to this restaurant and said, “Has your life changed much?” and I was like, “No, no one knows who I am.” Then Penélope and Javier Bardem walk in, going, “Hi Sam.” And my agent was like, “No, your life hasn’t changed – just two Oscar winners saying hello!” But I still have very low expectations of every job I do. I’m probably too humble for my own good sometimes. You also had children quite young [a son and daughter from his six-year marriage to actress Laura Haddock]. Did that stop you from going off the deep end? I suppose I matured a lot quicker than some others. There are actors in their 50s who still live like they’re in their 20s. But I was never a big party person. I think that’s partly to do with being working class – I didn’t have the money to flash on expensive VIP tables in nightclubs. My parents had kids very young, and I always just wanted to be a dad when I believed I’d met the right person. You’ve said you spent your early career “playing second fiddle to strong female leads” like Jennifer Lawrence, Kristen Stewart and Emilia Clarke. That’s probably not a bad thing for an actor, is it? Absolutely not. There was a time when white men were fronting pretty much every film, but my experience from the get-go was working with female writers, directors and producers on films with strong female leads. I was always the romantic love interest. And that’s still continuing. The amount of times I’ve been in a pub and a guy’s gone, “I dunno who you are, but my girlfriend really likes you.” I’m like, “OK… but why are you talking to me in the toilet?” Is it true you didn’t know much about music when you were cast in Daisy Jones & the Six? Yeah, the music producer said, “Do you know this song?” and started playing Come Together. I said, “That’s Michael Jackson.” Of course it was the flipping Beatles. Well, you were only working with Elvis’s granddaughter (Riley Keough), so no pressure… Exactly. I was so far removed from that world, and she was so deep in it – so deep that she’d sort of removed herself from it. She’d never sung or played an instrument either, so we were navigating that at the same time, which helped us build a chemistry. But you did know who Elvis was? Yeah, I’d heard of Elvis. Elvis Costello, right? The big question: who is Norwich’s most famous son — you or Alan Partridge? Oh, Alan, every day. I think Delia Smith’s up there too, and Stephen Fry. But no one can compete with Alan Partridge. He’s the King of Norwich.
Hunger Games favourite Sam Claflin reveals why he is still happy being the “love interest” in female-led films
Sam Claflin's comfortable mixing with A-listers but says he’ll always play second fiddle to strong women (and Alan Partridge).
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Since finding fame in Pirates of the Caribbean, The Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman, Sam Claflin has gone on to play television roles as diverse as Oswald Mosley in Peaky Blinders and Billy Dunne, lead singer of a fictional 1970s rock band in Daisy Jones & the Six. Now the 39-year-old from Norwich stars as wrongly imprisoned Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo, a new eight-part French-Italian adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel about betrayal and revenge. There are more than 50 screen versions of The Count of Monte Cristo. Why do people keep returning to this story? It has many life lessons, number one being that forgiveness is key. Learn to live in love, rather than hate. Edmond is an anti-hero – he’s a bit like Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders – but he used to be a good man, and that makes it more harrowing that he’s been led to these depths. There’s a feeling that if he carries out this vengeance maybe he’ll be fixed. But of course he won’t be. Would you seek revenge in a situation like his? Fortunately, I’ve never been through what he’s been through. But you just don’t know. Edmond is grieving for his younger self, and people grieve in different ways. But I’m someone who avoids conflict at all costs. I keep away from people who have wronged me. I don’t keep going back for more. What was it like working with Jeremy Irons on the show? I mean, he’s a legend. My introduction to him was as Scar in The Lion King, but I’ve since tuned into his other work. We’d been shooting for four months in the heat when he joined us, and I was exhausted – I was at my wits’ end – but he brought a new energy to it. He was like a fresh burst of light. I was fortunate to work with his son, Max, on The Riot Club [2014], and I’ve just finished a job with his wife, Sinéad Cusack. I’m working my way through the Ironses! You were very young when you found success in blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hunger Games. Did that take time to adjust to? Yeah, I remember my first day in Hawaii, doing the table read for Pirates with Johnny Depp to my left and Penélope Cruz to my right, thinking, “What the hell just happened?” On my first trip to LA, my agent took me to this restaurant and said, “Has your life changed much?” and I was like, “No, no one knows who I am.” Then Penélope and Javier Bardem walk in, going, “Hi Sam.” And my agent was like, “No, your life hasn’t changed – just two Oscar winners saying hello!” But I still have very low expectations of every job I do. I’m probably too humble for my own good sometimes. You also had children quite young [a son and daughter from his six-year marriage to actress Laura Haddock]. Did that stop you from going off the deep end? I suppose I matured a lot quicker than some others. There are actors in their 50s who still live like they’re in their 20s. But I was never a big party person. I think that’s partly to do with being working class – I didn’t have the money to flash on expensive VIP tables in nightclubs. My parents had kids very young, and I always just wanted to be a dad when I believed I’d met the right person. You’ve said you spent your early career “playing second fiddle to strong female leads” like Jennifer Lawrence, Kristen Stewart and Emilia Clarke. That’s probably not a bad thing for an actor, is it? Absolutely not. There was a time when white men were fronting pretty much every film, but my experience from the get-go was working with female writers, directors and producers on films with strong female leads. I was always the romantic love interest. And that’s still continuing. The amount of times I’ve been in a pub and a guy’s gone, “I dunno who you are, but my girlfriend really likes you.” I’m like, “OK… but why are you talking to me in the toilet?” Is it true you didn’t know much about music when you were cast in Daisy Jones & the Six? Yeah, the music producer said, “Do you know this song?” and started playing Come Together. I said, “That’s Michael Jackson.” Of course it was the flipping Beatles. Well, you were only working with Elvis’s granddaughter (Riley Keough), so no pressure… Exactly. I was so far removed from that world, and she was so deep in it – so deep that she’d sort of removed herself from it. She’d never sung or played an instrument either, so we were navigating that at the same time, which helped us build a chemistry. But you did know who Elvis was? Yeah, I’d heard of Elvis. Elvis Costello, right? The big question: who is Norwich’s most famous son — you or Alan Partridge? Oh, Alan, every day. I think Delia Smith’s up there too, and Stephen Fry. But no one can compete with Alan Partridge. He’s the King of Norwich. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Count of Monte Cristo is on U and U&Drama from Saturday 2 August. 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 actor, writer and director on working with Lena Dunham, living with bipolar disorder — and fighting Richard E Grant
Too Much is on Netflix from Thursday 10 July. Add it to your watchlist William Tomomori Fukuda Sharpe has many strings to his bow. As an actor, he won a Bafta for BBC drama Giri/Haji and was Emmy-nominated for The White Lotus, while his writer/director credits include Channel 4 black comedy Flowers and Sky mini-series Landscapers, as well as feature film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. In Too Much, a new ten-part Netflix comedy from Girls’ Lena Dunham, the 38-year-old plays Felix, the love interest of New Yorker Jessica, played by Hacks’ Megan Stalter. You’re a man in high demand — why did you choose Too Much? It was a combination of being a fan of Meg’s, as well as Lena’s work and these very funny, very tender, very Lena scripts. I felt I could find a way into the character of Felix. He has lots of layers to unpack. Jessica calls Felix “My Mr Darcy… my Rochester”, while Grazia magazine has described you as “the male romcom lead we’ve been waiting for”. How does it feel to be a heart-throb? I mean… I never really thought about Felix in those terms. Lena’s obviously very aware of the tropes of the classic British romcom – but I always felt, first and foremost, that this is a Lena Dunham show. It’s certainly not shy about tackling some of the more complex and difficult aspects of a relationship. As a writer/director yourself, was it tempting to offer suggestions? My job was to play Felix. But Lena is very open and collaborative and interested in everyone. She was very curious about our thoughts and ideas – not just me, but this amazing cast she’d assembled. She wanted to use our imaginations. You have a brilliantly pathetic fight with Richard E Grant in one episode. Was that fun? Yeah, we tried to make it as sloppy and s**t as possible. Was he gentle? No – he’s really strong! The White Lotus is a savage satire of the idle rich — but some of its stars have admitted to enjoying staying in the swanky hotels. Can you relate to that? It’s not a holiday – you’re working – but you can still appreciate the beauty of your surroundings. We were in Taormina, a beautiful town in Sicily, and Mount Etna was right there. I had to remind myself every day how amazing it was to look at. Your mother is Japanese, and you’ve said you feel like “a Japanese version of an Englishman”. In what way? I lived in Japan until I was eight, so I got to experience two different cultures from a first-hand perspective. But there’s also a degree to which you never feel any place is exactly home. You drift between places, which brings with it a certain restlessness. But it also means, in theory, you’re happy to try to fit in wherever you go. You once considered using the name Tomomori Fukuda. Would it have held you back? I don’t know if it would have held me back, but the advice I was given at the time was: “We don’t want to ethnicise you”. It made sense to me in the moment, but in hindsight, maybe it’s a bit odd. Was it the right decision? I don’t know. You’ve reunited with Giri/Haji writer Joe Barton and director Julian Farino for HBO’s upcoming Amadeus. Are you braced for the inevitable discussion about a mixed-race Mozart? Not yet, but maybe now you’ve asked me! No, I definitely have an awareness of it, but when I’m on set, I’m not thinking about that sort of noise. I’m focused on the task at hand. It was an interesting challenge to get into the headspace of Mozart. Obviously there’s no footage of the real man, so I tried to get a sense of him through his music, which at times is grand and dark, and at other times sweet and playful – like the seemingly paradoxical elements of his psyche. You have bipolar disorder; does it give you a creative advantage? It’s a good question. Having an understanding of how it works, and ways of thinking and adjusting your behaviour to try to temper the mood fluctuations, has been really helpful. When I was younger, I thought of the creative process as being like an explorer – getting to the emotional far reaches, then bringing it back and putting it into something for the audience. But as a way of thinking and working, that’s draining and unsustainable. So as I’ve got older, and hopefully wiser, I’ve found more measured ways to approach it. And finally… you and your wife [Loki actor Sophia Di Martino] were both Casualty regulars. Who’d be best in a medical crisis? I think we’d work together to bring our different strengths to the problem. But I’m not sure we’ve really retained any useful medical knowledge, to be honest – sorry! Too Much is on Netflix from Thursday
Will Sharpe on Too Much, playing Mozart and tuning out the critics
The actor, writer and director on working with Lena Dunham, living with bipolar disorder – and fighting Richard E Grant.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. William Tomomori Fukuda Sharpe has many strings to his bow. As an actor, he won a Bafta for BBC drama Giri/Haji and was Emmy-nominated for The White Lotus, while his writer/director credits include Channel 4 black comedy Flowers and Sky mini-series Landscapers, as well as feature film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. In Too Much, a new ten-part Netflix comedy from Girls’ Lena Dunham, the 38-year-old plays Felix, the love interest of New Yorker Jessica, played by Hacks’ Megan Stalter. You’re a man in high demand — why did you choose Too Much? It was a combination of being a fan of Meg’s, as well as Lena’s work and these very funny, very tender, very Lena scripts. I felt I could find a way into the character of Felix. He has lots of layers to unpack. Jessica calls Felix “My Mr Darcy… my Rochester”, while Grazia magazine has described you as “the male romcom lead we’ve been waiting for”. How does it feel to be a heart-throb? I mean… I never really thought about Felix in those terms. Lena’s obviously very aware of the tropes of the classic British romcom – but I always felt, first and foremost, that this is a Lena Dunham show. It’s certainly not shy about tackling some of the more complex and difficult aspects of a relationship. As a writer/director yourself, was it tempting to offer suggestions? My job was to play Felix. But Lena is very open and collaborative and interested in everyone. She was very curious about our thoughts and ideas – not just me, but this amazing cast she’d assembled. She wanted to use our imaginations. You have a brilliantly pathetic fight with Richard E Grant in one episode. Was that fun? Yeah, we tried to make it as sloppy and s**t as possible. Was he gentle? No – he’s really strong! The White Lotus is a savage satire of the idle rich — but some of its stars have admitted to enjoying staying in the swanky hotels. Can you relate to that? It’s not a holiday – you’re working – but you can still appreciate the beauty of your surroundings. We were in Taormina, a beautiful town in Sicily, and Mount Etna was right there. I had to remind myself every day how amazing it was to look at. Your mother is Japanese, and you’ve said you feel like “a Japanese version of an Englishman”. In what way? I lived in Japan until I was eight, so I got to experience two different cultures from a first-hand perspective. But there’s also a degree to which you never feel any place is exactly home. You drift between places, which brings with it a certain restlessness. But it also means, in theory, you’re happy to try to fit in wherever you go. You once considered using the name Tomomori Fukuda. Would it have held you back? I don’t know if it would have held me back, but the advice I was given at the time was: “We don’t want to ethnicise you”. It made sense to me in the moment, but in hindsight, maybe it’s a bit odd. Was it the right decision? I don’t know. You’ve reunited with Giri/Haji writer Joe Barton and director Julian Farino for HBO’s upcoming Amadeus. Are you braced for the inevitable discussion about a mixed-race Mozart? Not yet, but maybe now you’ve asked me! No, I definitely have an awareness of it, but when I’m on set, I’m not thinking about that sort of noise. I’m focused on the task at hand. It was an interesting challenge to get into the headspace of Mozart. Obviously there’s no footage of the real man, so I tried to get a sense of him through his music, which at times is grand and dark, and at other times sweet and playful – like the seemingly paradoxical elements of his psyche. You have bipolar disorder; does it give you a creative advantage? It’s a good question. Having an understanding of how it works, and ways of thinking and adjusting your behaviour to try to temper the mood fluctuations, has been really helpful. When I was younger, I thought of the creative process as being like an explorer – getting to the emotional far reaches, then bringing it back and putting it into something for the audience. But as a way of thinking and working, that’s draining and unsustainable. So as I’ve got older, and hopefully wiser, I’ve found more measured ways to approach it. And finally… you and your wife [Loki actor Sophia Di Martino] were both Casualty regulars. Who’d be best in a medical crisis? I think we’d work together to bring our different strengths to the problem. But I’m not sure we’ve really retained any useful medical knowledge, to be honest – sorry! The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Too Much is coming to Netflix on Thursday 10th July 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
The I, Jack Wright actor on career longevity, his scary reputation and that pesky Doctor Who rumour...
Add I, Jack Wright to your watchlist Having begun his career as a protégé of Laurence Olivier, Birmingham-born Trevor Eve found fame in the late 1970s as the star of BBC detective drama Shoestring. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he’s juggled award-winning stage work with screen roles, including The Politician’s Wife and all nine series of Waking the Dead. He and his wife, fellow actor Sharon Maughan, have three grown-up children, including Hollywood star Alice Eve. In I, Jack Wright, the new drama from Unforgotten creator Chris Lang, he plays the eponymous self-made billionaire whose death sparks a bitter feud among family and friends fighting for a share of his fortune. It’s no spoiler to say that, despite being the title character, you don’t last very long in I, Jack Wright. Is it the shortest role of your career? It absolutely is. There are some people, like Sean Bean, who are always dying, but I haven’t died much at all on screen. So what made you want to do it? Chris Lang. I’ve worked with him three times – I played an Alan Sugar kind of character in Unforgotten [as Sir Phillip Cross] – and Chris sent me an email saying, “I need you to do this and these are the reasons.” I don’t think I even saw a full script, so I’ve no idea what happens after I die. Could you see yourself as a captain of industry, if you hadn’t become an actor? I’d be absolutely pathetic. I dabble in business with the production company [Projector Pictures] that I run with my wife and I’m always told in meetings with lawyers and people who cost an enormous amount per minute, to cut the jokes and not get emotional. Which is the opposite of acting. Jack wants his kids to go into the family trade. Did you encourage yours to follow in your footsteps? No. I started life as an architect, and never had any intention of being an actor. With Alice, I insisted she go to university and she went to Oxford. In the creative arts, you’re dependent on approval, which is a weak position to be in. But my daughter is very, very successful, so she’s fine. Last year marked your 50th year as an actor. What’s your secret? For so long it was everything to me. I worked really hard, probably too hard for some people. It meant so much to me. I loved it beyond belief and was determined to make things as good as they could possibly be. You strive for perfection. I learnt that from people like Olivier. He’d ask to look at your script, to make sure you’d covered it in notes and if people didn’t perform in rehearsal, they were fired. Do you think that’s why you may have earned a reputation for being difficult to work with? I upset some people. But I was only difficult because I cared. It was never about the size of my trailer or my car being late. It was, “Why are we doing this?” I rewrote a lot of my stuff, because I was taught to believe if there’s something you don’t want to say, don’t say it. But I stopped doing that about ten years ago. I just thought, “OK, send me the script. I won’t change a word.” Interviewers often describe you as quite scary, but you seem perfectly friendly to me… You’d heard I wasn’t a nice bloke? Most reputations are unfounded, in my experience. One of the first interviews I ever did went badly – there was an objectionable journalist and I told him he was being rude. And then that particular newspaper chain published all these articles about all the appalling things I was supposed to have done, to get back at me. I’m not sure that doesn’t stick around. The recent Bergerac reboot has been a big success. Didn’t they only make the original because you didn’t fancy a third series of Shoestring? That’s right. As John Nettles says, “I owe my entire career to Trevor Eve.” I’m still waiting for him to buy me that pint. Would you like to see Shoestring get the reboot treatment? I’m not sure who has the rights now. I had them for a long time. But Bergerac was on for so many years. I’m not sure Shoestring had the same impact. Mind you, there isn’t a day goes by when someone doesn’t ask me about it. And that’s fabulous. I remember being quoted as saying I hate people mentioning Shoestring. But I’m very proud of it. You caused a kerfuffle a few years ago when you were quoted as saying the BBC was spending too much money on Doctor Who… I never said that! That was [journalist and critic] Adrian Gill, God rest his soul. I adored him, but he was such a little stirrer. I think he mentioned Doctor Who because he didn’t like it himself. Then it got printed in Radio Times, and I got a right load of abuse. There was a Doctor Who actor [Matt Smith] who went into print, criticising me. But I never cast any aspersions on Doctor Who, and I would like that to be corrected. I love Doctor Who! I wonder if that’s the reason I’ve never been asked to play a villain..?
Trevor Eve: "I upset some people but I was only difficult because I cared"
Eve stars in Chris Lang's latest drama, I, Jack Wright.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Having begun his career as a protégé of Laurence Olivier, Birmingham-born Trevor Eve found fame in the late 1970s as the star of BBC detective drama Shoestring. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he’s juggled award-winning stage work with screen roles, including The Politician’s Wife and all nine series of Waking the Dead. He and his wife, fellow actor Sharon Maughan, have three grown-up children, including Hollywood star Alice Eve. In I, Jack Wright (U&Alibi), the new drama from Unforgotten creator Chris Lang, he plays the eponymous self-made billionaire whose death sparks a bitter feud among family and friends fighting for a share of his fortune. It’s no spoiler to say that, despite being the title character, you don’t last very long in I, Jack Wright. Is it the shortest role of your career? It absolutely is. There are some people, like Sean Bean, who are always dying, but I haven’t died much at all on screen. So what made you want to do it? Chris Lang. I’ve worked with him three times – I played an Alan Sugar kind of character in Unforgotten [as Sir Phillip Cross] – and Chris sent me an email saying, “I need you to do this and these are the reasons.” I don’t think I even saw a full script, so I’ve no idea what happens after I die. Could you see yourself as a captain of industry, if you hadn’t become an actor? I’d be absolutely pathetic. I dabble in business with the production company [Projector Pictures] that I run with my wife and I’m always told in meetings with lawyers and people who cost an enormous amount per minute, to cut the jokes and not get emotional. Which is the opposite of acting. Jack wants his kids to go into the family trade. Did you encourage yours to follow in your footsteps? No. I started life as an architect, and never had any intention of being an actor. With Alice, I insisted she go to university and she went to Oxford. In the creative arts, you’re dependent on approval, which is a weak position to be in. But my daughter is very, very successful, so she’s fine. Last year marked your 50th year as an actor. What’s your secret? For so long it was everything to me. I worked really hard, probably too hard for some people. It meant so much to me. I loved it beyond belief and was determined to make things as good as they could possibly be. You strive for perfection. I learnt that from people like Olivier. He’d ask to look at your script, to make sure you’d covered it in notes, and if people didn’t perform in rehearsal, they were fired. Do you think that’s why you may have earned a reputation for being difficult to work with? I upset some people. But I was only difficult because I cared. It was never about the size of my trailer or my car being late. It was, “Why are we doing this?” I rewrote a lot of my stuff, because I was taught to believe if there’s something you don’t want to say, don’t say it. But I stopped doing that about 10 years ago. I just thought, “OK, send me the script. I won’t change a word.” Interviewers often describe you as quite scary, but you seem perfectly friendly to me… You’d heard I wasn’t a nice bloke? Most reputations are unfounded, in my experience. One of the first interviews I ever did went badly – there was an objectionable journalist and I told him he was being rude. And then that particular newspaper chain published all these articles about all the appalling things I was supposed to have done, to get back at me. I’m not sure that doesn’t stick around. The recent Bergerac reboot has been a big success. Didn't they only make the original because you didn't fancy a third season of Shoestring? That’s right. As John Nettles says, “I owe my entire career to Trevor Eve.” I’m still waiting for him to buy me that pint. Would you like to see Shoestring get the reboot treatment? I’m not sure who has the rights now. I had them for a long time. But Bergerac was on for so many years. I’m not sure Shoestring had the same impact. Mind you, there isn’t a day goes by when someone doesn’t ask me about it. And that’s fabulous. I remember being quoted as saying I hate people mentioning Shoestring. But I’m very proud of it. You caused a kerfuffle a few years ago when you were quoted as saying the BBC was spending too much money on Doctor Who… I never said that! That was [journalist and critic] Adrian Gill, God rest his soul. I adored him, but he was such a little stirrer. I think he mentioned Doctor Who because he didn’t like it himself. Then it got printed in Radio Times, and I got a right load of abuse. There was a Doctor Who actor [Matt Smith] who went into print, criticising me. But I never cast any aspersions on Doctor Who, and I would like that to be corrected. I love Doctor Who! I wonder if that’s the reason I’ve never been asked to play a villain..? The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. I, Jack Wright is coming to U&Alibi on Wednesday 23rd April at 9pm. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ten Questions with Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm
The Hollywood heavyweights on their oilfield drama Landman, screen success and what it means to be a man in America today
This article was first published in Radio Times magazine in January 2025. Add Landman to your watchlist Actors Billy Bob Thornton, 69, and Jon Hamm, 53, bring their combined star power — and competing visions of American masculinity — to Paramount+’s tough drama Landman. Created by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, Tulsa King) and Christian Wallace, the show is a fictionalised take on Wallace’s acclaimed podcast Boomtown, about the “modern-day gold rush” of the Texan oilfields. Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a grizzled troubleshooter for Hamm’s billionaire oil magnate, Monty Miller. But who is the top dog when it comes to winning awards? View Green Video on the source website What attracted you to Landman? JON Taylor’s storytelling. He knows how to tell a compelling story and set it against a backdrop that feels familiar yet unique. This is a tricky landscape, in every definition of the word, and the show really leans into that complexity. BILLY It works really well as a human story: it has humour, drama, joy, sadness, pain – everything. It also shows a world we don’t see on screen very often. It’s been said Taylor’s shows can reach “heartland America” in a way that more critically lauded series like Succession can’t… BILLY Because movies are made by the coasts, there’s always been a prejudice. I experienced that when I was coming up. Jon and I both grew up in the south midwest, so we know there are a lot of people who are underserved with their stories. People tend to focus on LA, New York, Chicago… Do you still feel connected to that America? Or have you gone soft after too long in Hollywood? JON We’re all going soft. None of us is getting harder in our old age. BILLY There’s oil you can get for that! But no, I still feel connected to my roots. Jon and I are both born and bred St Louis Cardinals [baseball] fans, and that doesn’t go away. I still have relatives in Texas, I’m back there a lot. Plus I play music and tour the country, so I see every city and a lot of small towns. Is America still a nation of cowboys at heart? BILLY For sure. There’s no doubt about it. The country started in a small area of the east coast, and the whole idea was to keep moving until we found the golden land. View oEmbed on the source website Did you guys know each other before filming the series? JON We met a few years back, at a St Louis Cardinals all-star game. I was a massive fan of Billy’s work, of course, and I think I can speak for Billy when I say he was probably more of a fan of my work! It’s always great to work with somebody you’ve admired. It adds a layer of fascination, because you think: let’s see what happens here. To work at this high level, telling these kinds of stories, is great – especially at this point in both our careers. You gotta keep it going. Billy, you’ve said, “Casting directors call me up when they need an asshole.” Do you ever take offence? BILLY No. In my actual life, I’m sort of an insecure, open, friendly guy. But I grew up around some tough men, including my own father. Both mine and Jon’s characters in Landman are men with the weight of the world on their shoulders. But I think Tommy is more of an impatient guy than an asshole. Jon, Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley described you as “a kind of American man who doesn’t seem to exist any more”. What do you think he meant? JON I think he was talking about what I brought to the role of Roy Tillman in Fargo, which was this kind of larger than life, quiet masculinity. But there are plenty of guys like me in the world. My family has a bunch of those guys in it – my uncle Gary, my uncle Bill… These guys worked hard and lived hard, and didn’t say a lot. That was kind of the definition of masculinity for a long time. Who knows if we’re going back to that? Billy, you’ve said television is now “where the good s**t is”. Do you think this small-screen golden age can last? BILLY I don’t think the industry has any choice at this point, because the movie theatre business is very different now. You mainly have big event movies to keep it going. And so, for actors like us, if we’re not going to play the mayor in Batman or something, then we don’t get a job. So, thank God for streaming. Jon, did you take much persuading to reprise Mad Men’s Don Draper in Jerry Seinfeld’s recent comedy film Unfrosted? JON Yes and no. I’m rightfully very protective of Don Draper and didn’t want to necessarily dine out on that too much. But it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. It was fun, and a nice surprise for people. I saw it recently and chuckled at it. It was a fun day, shooting with Jerry Seinfeld and Melissa McCarthy. It’s always nice to be invited to the party. Billy, you’ve got an Oscar and two Golden Globes; Jon you’ve got an Emmy and two Golden Globes. Who’s winning? BILLY We’re even. JON America’s winning. We’ve got so many Golden Globes between us, we jingle when we walk.
Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm: 'Without streaming, actors like us would just play the mayor in Batman'
Thornton and Hamm spoke with Radio Times magazine about their Paramount Plus drama Landman.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Actors Billy Bob Thornton, 69, and Jon Hamm, 53, bring their combined star power — and competing visions of American masculinity — to Paramount Plus’s tough drama Landman. Created by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, Tulsa King) and Christian Wallace, the show is a fictionalised take on Wallace’s acclaimed podcast Boomtown, about the "modern-day gold rush" of the Texan oilfields. Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a grizzled troubleshooter for Hamm’s billionaire oil magnate, Monty Miller. But who is the top dog when it comes to winning awards? What attracted you to Landman? Hamm: "Taylor’s storytelling. He knows how to tell a compelling story and set it against a backdrop that feels familiar yet unique. This is a tricky landscape, in every definition of the word, and the show really leans into that complexity." Thornton: "It works really well as a human story: it has humour, drama, joy, sadness, pain – everything. It also shows a world we don’t see on screen very often. It's been said Taylor's shows can reach 'heartland America' in a way that more critically lauded series like Succession can't… Thornton: "Because movies are made by the coasts, there’s always been a prejudice. I experienced that when I was coming up. Jon and I both grew up in the south midwest, so we know there are a lot of people who are underserved with their stories. People tend to focus on LA, New York, Chicago…" Do you still feel connected to that America? Or have you gone soft after too long in Hollywood? Hamm: "We’re all going soft. None of us is getting harder in our old age." Thornton: "There’s oil you can get for that! But no, I still feel connected to my roots. Jon and I are both born and bred St Louis Cardinals [baseball] fans, and that doesn’t go away. I still have relatives in Texas, I’m back there a lot. Plus I play music and tour the country, so I see every city and a lot of small towns." Is America still a nation of cowboys at heart? Thornton: "For sure. There’s no doubt about it. The country started in a small area of the east coast, and the whole idea was to keep moving until we found the golden land." Did you guys know each other before filming the series? Hamm: "We met a few years back, at a St Louis Cardinals all-star game. I was a massive fan of Billy’s work, of course, and I think I can speak for Billy when I say he was probably more of a fan of my work! "It’s always great to work with somebody you’ve admired. It adds a layer of fascination, because you think: let’s see what happens here. To work at this high level, telling these kinds of stories, is great – especially at this point in both our careers. You gotta keep it going." Billy, you've said, 'Casting directors call me up when they need an asshole.' Do you ever take offence? Thornton: "No. In my actual life, I’m sort of an insecure, open, friendly guy. But I grew up around some tough men, including my own father. Both mine and Jon’s characters in Landman are men with the weight of the world on their shoulders. But I think Tommy is more of an impatient guy than an asshole." Jon, Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley described you as 'a kind of American man who doesn't seem to exist any more'. What do you think he meant? Hamm: "I think he was talking about what I brought to the role of Roy Tillman in Fargo, which was this kind of larger than life, quiet masculinity. But there are plenty of guys like me in the world. My family has a bunch of those guys in it – my uncle Gary, my uncle Bill… These guys worked hard and lived hard, and didn’t say a lot. That was kind of the definition of masculinity for a long time. Who knows if we’re going back to that?" Billy, you've said television is now 'where the good s**t is'. Do you think this small-screen golden age can last? Thornton: "I don’t think the industry has any choice at this point, because the movie theatre business is very different now. You mainly have big event movies to keep it going. And so, for actors like us, if we’re not going to play the mayor in Batman or something, then we don’t get a job. So, thank God for streaming." Jon, did you take much persuading to reprise Mad Men's Don Draper in Jerry Seinfeld's recent comedy film Unfrosted? Hamm: "Yes and no. I’m rightfully very protective of Don Draper and didn’t want to necessarily dine out on that too much. But it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. It was fun, and a nice surprise for people. I saw it recently and chuckled at it. It was a fun day, shooting with Jerry Seinfeld and Melissa McCarthy. It’s always nice to be invited to the party." Billy, you've got an Oscar and two Golden Globes; Jon, you've got an Emmy and two Golden Globes. Who's winning? Thornton: "We’re even." Hamm: "America’s winning. We’ve got so many Golden Globes between us, we jingle when we walk." The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Landman will air on Paramount Plus. Get a seven day free Paramount Plus trial at Amazon Prime Video. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Bad Sisters star is taking the lead in Nicole Kidman’s new drama but she’s not letting fame affect her — yet!
This article was first published in Radio Times magazine in August 2024. Add The Perfect Couple to your watchlist Dublin-born Eve Hewson, 33, played Tom Hanks’s daughter in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and was Maid Marian to Taron Egerton’s Robin Hood, before landing the lead in Netflix thriller Behind Her Eyes. The daughter of Ali and Paul Hewson (aka U2’s Bono), Eve returned to Ireland to star in Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters. Now, in The Perfect Couple — Netflix’s adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling murder mystery, from Oscar-winning director Susanne Bier — she plays a woman who is marrying into one of Nantucket’s wealthiest families. Your full name is Memphis Eve Sunny Day Iris Hewson. Did you like it as a kid? When I was young I was annoyed – I didn’t understand that being different was cool. I keep asking my parents where the Memphis comes from. They say, ‘You were conceived in Memphis’, or ‘It’s because you came out with a bunch of hair, looking like Elvis’. I don’t think they know themselves, to be honest. Did your dad give you any advice about navigating stardom? I’ve gotten so much advice my whole life, it’s been wonderful. Someone once said to me that no matter who you are, if you get mega-famous, you’re going to be very weird for about seven years. You’ll start to think everything you do is important, and it’s something you have to watch out for. And have you? I haven’t really hit that kind of stardom yet! I’m not J-Lo. When I get there, I’ll let you know. The Perfect Couple has a stellar cast — Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning — and you’re the lead! Was that daunting? Not really. I want to be the lead! That’s what I’m here to do. I really liked the idea of playing an outsider, coming into the family and seeing these crazy people through her eyes. My character, Amelia, is quite honest, but the rest of the cast had such a good time dressing up and being awful. How would you describe the series? It lives in its own weird world. It’s kind of its own genre – a drama, but also funny – with the whole cast giving these amazing performances. I think people are going to eat it up. It’s a really fun, wild ride. What was it like having Nicole Kidman as a prospective mother-in-law? It was incredible. I had no idea she was even part of the show. My agents kept talking about this Nicole person, and I was like, ‘Nicole who?’ When she came on to set, we all got so giddy. It’s amazing to watch someone like that work. She’s been doing it for so long, but she’s constantly pushing herself. View oEmbed on the source website The series opens with a choreographed dance routine on the beach. Tell us about that… We got an email saying, ‘You need to learn this dance over Christmas’. Everyone was going, ‘What’s this? I’m calling my agent!’ But we got to have a dance lesson with Dua Lipa’s choreographer. We were so close by then, and it ended up being the last scene we filmed, on the beach in the sunshine, with everyone just smiling. Our own Mamma Mia! moment. Behind Her Eyes was a huge hit, with a twist that involved (spoiler alert) astral projection. Have you tried it? Oh yeah, we all did a course. No joke. You know that feeling when you’re just about to go to sleep, and you feel like you’re falling? If you catch that moment and then sit up, that’s what astral projection is. You’ve just wrapped the second series of Bad Sisters. Do you feel a genuine kinship with Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Greene? We actually are like sisters. I just spent my whole weekend with them, and there is a sisters’ WhatsApp group. We’re very close. You considered giving up acting at one point. Why was that? I had a bad experience on a film and I thought: what’s the point of this? I don’t want to put myself in a position where I’m being constantly treated like shit. I think most actors have moments like that. It’s a love-hate relationship with the job.
Eve Hewson on The Perfect Couple, Bad Sisters and why she almost quit acting
Hewson is making waves in Hollywood with lead roles in Netflix thrillers and Apple TV+ dramas.
Dublin-born Eve Hewson, 33, played Tom Hanks’s daughter in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and was Maid Marian to Taron Egerton’s Robin Hood, before landing the lead in Netflix thriller Behind Her Eyes. The daughter of Ali and Paul Hewson (aka U2’s Bono), Eve returned to Ireland to star in Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters. Now, in The Perfect Couple — Netflix’s adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling murder mystery, from Oscar-winning director Susanne Bier — she plays a woman who is marrying into one of Nantucket’s wealthiest families. Your full name is Memphis Eve Sunny Day Iris Hewson. Did you like it as a kid? When I was young I was annoyed – I didn’t understand that being different was cool. I keep asking my parents where the Memphis comes from. They say, ‘You were conceived in Memphis’, or ‘It’s because you came out with a bunch of hair, looking like Elvis’. I don’t think they know themselves, to be honest. Did your dad give you any advice about navigating stardom? I’ve gotten so much advice my whole life, it’s been wonderful. Someone once said to me that no matter who you are, if you get mega-famous, you’re going to be very weird for about seven years. You’ll start to think everything you do is important, and it’s something you have to watch out for. And have you? I haven’t really hit that kind of stardom yet! I’m not J-Lo. When I get there, I’ll let you know. The Perfect Couple has a stellar cast — Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning — and you’re the lead! Was that daunting? Not really. I want to be the lead! That’s what I’m here to do. I really liked the idea of playing an outsider, coming into the family and seeing these crazy people through her eyes. My character, Amelia, is quite honest, but the rest of the cast had such a good time dressing up and being awful. How would you describe the series? It lives in its own weird world. It’s kind of its own genre – a drama, but also funny – with the whole cast giving these amazing performances. I think people are going to eat it up. It’s a really fun, wild ride. What was it like having Nicole Kidman as a prospective mother-in-law? It was incredible. I had no idea she was even part of the show. My agents kept talking about this Nicole person, and I was like, ‘Nicole who?’ When she came on to set, we all got so giddy. It’s amazing to watch someone like that work. She’s been doing it for so long, but she’s constantly pushing herself. The series opens with a choreographed dance routine on the beach. Tell us about that… We got an email saying, ‘You need to learn this dance over Christmas’. Everyone was going, ‘What’s this? I’m calling my agent!’ But we got to have a dance lesson with Dua Lipa’s choreographer. We were so close by then, and it ended up being the last scene we filmed, on the beach in the sunshine, with everyone just smiling. Our own Mamma Mia! moment. Behind Her Eyes was a huge hit, with a twist that involved (spoiler alert) astral projection. Have you tried it? Oh yeah, we all did a course. No joke. You know that feeling when you’re just about to go to sleep, and you feel like you’re falling? If you catch that moment and then sit up, that’s what astral projection is. You’ve just wrapped the second series of Bad Sisters. Do you feel a genuine kinship with Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Greene? We actually are like sisters. I just spent my whole weekend with them, and there is a sisters’ WhatsApp group. We’re very close. You considered giving up acting at one point. Why was that? I had a bad experience on a film and I thought: what’s the point of this? I don’t want to put myself in a position where I’m being constantly treated like shit. I think most actors have moments like that. It’s a love-hate relationship with the job. The Perfect Couple will stream on Netflix from Thursday, 5th September. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The actor excels at playing ruthless villains – but his dream job would be to read the CBeebies Bedtime Story
Add Those about to Die to your watchlist Carmarthen-born Iwan Rheon, 39, began his career on the Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm, before landing his breakthrough role as a superhero on community service in E4’s Misfits. Later, he found global fame as the eye-wateringly sadistic Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones, and has since played a range of characters from Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars to a young Adolf Hitler. An Olivier Award-winning stage actor and occasional singer/songwriter, Rheon now plays crime boss Tenax in Those about to Die, Roland (Independence Day) Emmerich’s new ten-part “blood and sport” saga set in the cut-throat world of Roman gladiators and chariot racers. So Iwan, how big is Those about to Die? It’s got huge ambition – they’ve really set out to show ancient Rome in all its glory. Obviously with Roland Emmerich directing, you expect it to be a big, action-packed spectacle. He likes a wide lens. But what I think is great is the way it shows a real cross- section of Roman society, from the emperor all the way down to the slaves. What’s your take on Tenax? He’s a product of his environment, really. He grew up on the streets of Rome as a homeless child and through street smarts and sheer tenacity, he’s sort of crawled his way to the top of the underworld, and formed himself as a bit of a mob boss. He’s an incredibly ruthless person, but that ruthlessness is keeping him alive. And he’s not without a heart – he looks after the street kids that he sees himself in. Your fellow countryman Anthony Hopkins plays Emperor Vespasian — but you didn’t actually get to work with him? No. It’s probably the most devastating thing that’s happened in my career. I did ask Roland, very early on, if I could have just one scene with him – playing the Welsh card – but I got a flat no. I did get to meet him, though, briefly. He’s just a legend. Tenax isn’t the first ruthless villain you’ve played, of course. Why do casting directors see that in you, do you think? Absolutely no idea. It’s a question I get asked a lot. Perhaps it’s something I should discuss with my therapist. It breaks my mother’s heart. I don’t always play those parts. But it just seems to be something that’s in my repertoire. Nearly a decade on, how do you look back on your time in Game of Thrones? It was a great experience and I’m grateful to have been involved. It was a huge, huge part of my life and I made some really good friends. I don’t think any of us had experienced anything quite like it, and it was quite a shock to the system how popular it was. It takes some adjusting to. I had some idea of what it was like [from Misfits], but not on that scale – where you’re walking down the road and the people in front of you are talking about the scene you were in last night. Since Thrones, you’ve done a few projects back in Wales, including the Welsh language S4C drama Y Golau (The Light in the Hall). Is that important to you? Definitely. It’s such a huge part of who I am, the Welsh language. It’s my mother tongue, which I grew up speaking. It’s an important part of how I see the world. Michael Sheen says he finds it hard to accept non-Welsh actors playing Welsh characters. Where do you stand on that? I can see his point but, from my perspective, I want to be allowed to play English characters. Or Romans! But I get it – to cast someone over a very good Welsh actor [doesn’t make sense]. Whenever I’m asked to do a tape for a Scottish role or something, my first thought is: “Surely there’s a Scottish person who could do this better?” So I can see Michael’s point, but it’s hard to be black and white about it. Marvel’s TV show Inhumans, in which you played the treacherous Maximus, was considered a rare misfire for the company and was cancelled. Was that a bruising experience? It was just one of those things. But I’d love to do more. I feel sorry for Maximus, really. He’s still stuck on the Moon on his own, going crazy, so by this point he’s going to be perfect for the massive baddie in something! You’ve just finished recording your second album of folk-pop songs. Have you swapped notes with Johnny Flynn about balancing life as an actor/singer? No, but I see him, because his kids go the same school as my son. I should probably have a word with him, but I feel a bit intimidated, because he’s absolutely unbelievable. A proper musician. You’ve said that your mother couldn’t bear to watch you in Game of Thrones. Has your son seen you in anything? He’s a bit too young at the moment – he’s almost six. But I’d absolutely love to read the CBeebies Bedtime Story, so please get me in there! I take pride in my story time with my son. The characters really do come to life. Those about to Die is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from 19 July
Jamie Dornan: 'The next James Bond could be someone never mentioned'
Jamie Dornan reflects on his career, those James Bond rumours and The Tourist.
Former model Jamie Dornan has played a serial killer, a sex object, a henchman, a proud father and – most recently – an amnesiac in the Australian outback for the BBC/HBO thriller The Tourist, which brought him new attention earlier this year. Alongside a Golden Globe-nominated turn in Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, it’s been a big 12 months for the Northern Irish actor… but does he think he could be the next James Bond? Read on for 10 questions with Jamie Dornan, which originally appeared in Radio Times magazine. The Tourist was a huge hit when it debuted on BBC One on New Year’s Day 2022. Were you surprised by the response? I was really pleased by it. I thought people were either going to embrace the off-kilter weirdness of the show – the shifts between heavy drama and quirky comedy – or decide it wasn’t for them. Luckily there are a lot of weirdos out there who responded well to it. For most of the series, we don’t really know who your character is. How much did you know? I talked to [writers] Jack and Harry Williams, so I had a broad idea. But I didn’t see the script for episode 6 until we’d been out in Australia for a long time. So in a way I felt like I was on a journey with the audience in terms of what was being revealed about The Man. Which is helpful when you’re playing someone who has absolutely no recollection of who they are, or how they’ve found themselves in this position. A second series is in the pipeline. What can you tell us about it? It’s difficult to talk about without spoiling the ending of series 1, but all I’ll say is there’s an appetite for it. There are conversations about how you continue the story – is it set before or after what we’ve already seen? It’s definitely all up for discussion. I really like playing the character and I think there’s more to explore. You seem to have become part of Kenneth Branagh’s rep company, first with Belfast and now the upcoming Poirot movie A Haunting in Venice. Do you call him Sir Ken? No, he’s not like some other notable knighthood recipients who insist on being called that… I feel very fortunate that he wants to continue working with me and doesn’t just think I can play a dad from Belfast. Which is what I am! You’ve been doing a lot of singing lately — including a big showstopping number in Belfast and your rendition of Bette Davis Eyes in The Tourist. Does a career in musicals beckon? I would say…probably not. I did four jobs in a row that I sang in – that’s plenty, although I do kind of enjoy it. I was actually meant to do a musical a couple of years ago, but schedule-wise we couldn’t make it happen. I love the variety of this job, and so far I’ve been able to enter a lot of different worlds – so if that means ending up in a musical, then so be it. As young actors, you and housemate Eddie Redmayne were good friends with Batman (Robert Pattinson), Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Do you harbour any ambitions to squeeze into superhero latex yourself? I’d definitely be interested, though you don’t hear a lot of good things about the comfort of those suits. It’s weird how all the American superheroes are British. Back then, we were all young actors from the other side of the pond, trying to make it in LA. We were always going up for the same jobs, and none of us getting them. For a while it looked like it wasn’t going to work out, but we all came out of it OK. So far… You said recently there are jobs you wish you hadn’t taken – “but probably not the one you’re thinking”. What could you possibly be referring to, Jamie? I don’t know. It was probably me trying to weasel my way out of answering an awkward question. Which I’m trying to do right now! So you’re saying you have no regrets about making the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy? I wouldn’t have much reason to regret those films. If I was talking to you now from a bedsit having not worked in seven years, it would be a different story. But I’m not. Your name often comes up as a potential James Bond. Are you able to take it seriously? Of course it’s nice to be in those conversations. If you’re an actor of a certain age who’s had a good year, there’s an inevitability about it [being mentioned]. But they’ll probably replace Daniel Craig with somebody who’s never been on one of those lists. You recently turned 40 – how are you feeling about that? I feel great about it. I’m in a good place at work and at home, and I haven’t started sprouting hairs out of my nose yet. I’m standing here with three healthy kids and a beautiful wife and a good career. I don’t have a lot to complain about. I feel my life has been marked out by decades: I moved to London when I turned 20, I modelled for ten years, and then my acting career kicked off at 30, and I got married and had children. That makes me even more excited about my 40s. I honestly feel like I haven’t even begun. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast.
Stitches in time: Doctor Who’s outfits ranked and rated
Amid reports that Ncuti Gatwa is set to rock a pair of wellies aboard the TARDIS, here’s our guide to the Time Lord’s fashion highs and lows.
The Seventh Doctor once claimed to have “an impeccable sense of haute couture”. Which was a pretty bold statement for a man wearing so many questions marks that even The Riddler probably thought it was “a bit on-the-nose”. It’s far from the only statement look the Time Lord has sported over the years, of course. And now, if tabloid reports are to be believed – and they’re usually not, but go with me here – it seems Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor is set to gallivant around the cosmos in a fetching pair of space wellies. So what more perfect time to bring you the Definitive Guide to Wellies in Doctor Who? Just kidding (although the Cybermen did rock some delightful silver moon boots, back in the day): we’re actually here to talk about the Doctor’s duds down the years. And from Hartnell’s hat to Gatwa’s gumboots, it’s quite the catwalk parade… Doctor Who costumes ranked - from William Hartnell to Jodie Whittaker William Hartnell With a nod to the series’ HG Wells roots, William Hartnell set the default Doctor template of an Edwardian gentleman, complete with a frock coat, winged collar and cravat. What’s a ‘frock coat’, you ask? No idea, but that’s what Terrance Dicks always called it in his Target novelisations, so that’s what we call it as well. (For extra fan points, accessorise your description with an ‘Astrakhan hat’. No, me neither.) Style rating: 7/10 Patrick Troughton Patrick Troughton had some, er, eccentric ideas about his Doctor’s look, at various points suggesting he should dress in the style of “a Victorian windjammer” captain – whatever one of those is – or play him as an Arabian hero from One Thousand and One Nights, complete with blackface, which thankfully never happened. In the end, they settled on a scruffier, more dishevelled version of Hartnell’s costume – basically what the First Doctor might have looked like if he’d been thrown out of the TARDIS and forced to sleep in his car. Style rating: 6/10 Jon Pertwee Jon Pertwee’s Victorian dandy look emerged by happy accident from a Radio Times photoshoot, for which the actor wore his grandfather’s frilly shirt, velvet smoking jacket and black and scarlet cape. Of course, it didn’t hurt that such retro foppery was currently all the rage among Carnaby Street hipsters (Peter Wyngarde had also recently made his debut as proto-Austin Powers Jason King in TV’s Department S). The Third Doctor would go on to sport numerous variations on this signature look, including a natty crushed velvet pimp suit that saw him voted Spiridon’s Most Superfly Guy 1973 (probably). Style rating: 8/10 Tom Baker Inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s portraits of 19th century French cabaret artist Aristide Bruant, Tom Baker’s boho ensemble – designed by future triple-Oscar winner James Acheson – was completed by the most iconic item of clothing in Doctor Who history: a 12-foot-long multi-coloured scarf knitted for the programme by the fabulously named Begonia Pope. No stranger to a tall tale, Baker has long insisted that “when we went to her little house, we could only talk through the letterbox, because the scarf filled the hall”. If you say so, Tom. Style rating: 8/10 Peter Davison By the time Peter Davison arrived, producer John Nathan-Turner had developed a taste of Costumes, with a capital C – hence the Fifth Doctor’s heavily stylised ensemble of cricketing whites, pyjama trousers and “fawn blazer with red piping” (Terrance again), accessorised with a stick of celery. I’m sorry, what? That’s right – celery. You can laugh, but we’ll all be wearing them next year. Anyway, as the Tenth Doctor later told his predecessor, “fair play to you, not a lot of men can carry off a decorative vegetable”. And besides, wearing a bit of celery was nothing compared to being saddled with a wet lettuce like Adric. Style rating: 3/10 Colin Baker OK, brace positions everyone, it’s time to talk about the Sixth Doctor. Every fan knows the story of how John Nathan-Turner tasked costume designer Pat Godfrey to come up with something in “extremely bad taste” – only for her to keep coming back with things that weren’t quite tasteless enough. The resulting explosion in a fabric factory – think clown costume made entirely from carpet off-cuts – was certainly, um, eye-catching. To be fair, Colin Baker’s Amazing Technicolor Nightmarecoat is not so awful on its own (indeed, such test card patchwork is currently bang on-trend, with Stella McCartney among those now “doing a Godfrey”). But once you add the yellow Rupert Bear trousers, Mr Tumble spotty cravat and – oh please – spats, the whole thing is just one giant migraine. Style rating: 2/10 Sylvester McCoy Sylvester McCoy’s outfit was, in many ways, a return to the crumpled Edwardiana of the similarly puckish Patrick Troughton, complete with baggy jacket, checked trousers and braces. Sadly, McCoy could have been dressed in a giant dog costume for all anyone knew, because the only thing that drew the eye was his garish vintage golfing sweater plastered with more question marks than a peace offering from the Daleks. The symbol had been a fixture of the Time Lord’s collar – because he’s Doctor WHO, geddit? – since the late Tom Baker era, but now he was positively riddled with them. And, just in case we didn’t get the message, he also carried around a bright red question mark umbrella and a flashing neon sign saying 'Ooh, I’m dead mysterious, me'. (OK, I made that last one up. But it was definitely heading that way.) As his run went on, McCoy adopted a new, more sinister interpretation of the Doctor as a master of the cosmic dark arts, which was signalled through a combination of enigmatic dialogue and subtle shifts in his performance. But mainly by giving him a brown jacket. Style rating: 4/10 Paul McGann Being half-British (on his mother’s side), the Eighth Doctor cut a distinctly Byronic figure on the streets of 1990s San Francisco. The in-universe explanation for Paul McGann’s outfit is that he steals a Wild Bill Hickok fancy dress costume – though the dashing ensemble of brocade waistcoat, cravat and velvet green (oh yes) frock coat definitely says “Romantic poet” more than “sharp-shootin’ Wild West lawman”. When he returned 17 years later, McGann’s Doctor was rocking more of a rugged, Allan Quartermain vibe – like he was finally dressed for adventure, as opposed to a poetry recital. Style rating: 7/10 Christopher Eccleston This was precisely the sort of foppery Russell T Davies was determined to get away from when he re-launched Doctor Who in 2005. And his leading man, Christopher Eccleston, was in full agreement, declaring he wasn’t going to wear gimmicky “scarves and hats”. It’s a decision that made a lot of sense at the time, though in retrospect it was arguably a course correction too far – one that ran a little too scared from the essential spirit of Doctor Who. With his buzzcut, leather jacket and hobnail boots, the Ninth Doctor looks less like a Lord of Time and more like an East End hardman with his own car-clamping business. Plus he commits the cardinal fashion faux pas of wearing a jumper without a shirt underneath, a la Michael Douglas in that horrifically awkward Basic Instinct nightclub scene. Style rating: 2/10 David Tennant David Tennant’s costume, by contrast, is close to perfect: finding a third way between Eccleston’s bovver boy and the fussy fancy dress of Classic Who, the Tenth Doctor went full geek chic with a skinny brown suit, Converse daps and Jarvis Cocker specs. The ankle-length coat, meanwhile, was a personal request by Tennant – fanboy that he is – to make him look more “Doctorish”. In a press release, the BBC described the ensemble as “Franz Ferdinand-cum-Kaiser Chiefs”, which might just be the most 2005 sentence ever, while The Guardian’s resident fashionista favourably contrasted the first “indie Doctor” with Eccleston’s “rocker dad” leathers. Dubbed “the long pencil” by costume designer Louise Page, Tennant’s would become the most iconic Doctor Who look since Tom Baker hung up his scarf (or posted it back through Begonia Pope’s letterbox). The variant blue suit never looked as good, though. Style rating: 9/10 Matt Smith When Matt Smith pulled out his Doctor’s trademark bow tie while rummaging through the BBC dressing-up box, showrunner Steven Moffat was horrified. “That’s just the most ridiculously retro, child’s eye view of what Doctor Who wears,” he told him. But then Smith tried it on, and everyone agreed that bow ties are, indeed, cool. In fact, the Eleventh Doctor’s tweedy, preppy professor vibe suited Smith’s old-man-in-a-young-man’s-body down to his desert boots. “Geography teacher meets Hoxton clubkid” was Esquire’s approving verdict. And punters seemed to agree – sales of bow ties went up 94%, according to Topman. There was less of a run on fezzes, though, and the less said about the ghastly purple get-up Smith wore in his final season – which really **did** look like a child’s drawing of Doctor Who – the better. Style rating: 8/10. Peter Capaldi “Simple, stark and back to basics” is how Peter Capaldi described the Twelfth Doctor’s new duds in 2014, adding: “In my day, the original Doctors had all dressed in dark colours – although I knew this was probably because it was in black and white.” But this was no mere Hartnell or Troughton cosplay: in fact, there’s an argument for Capaldi’s fetching dark blue Crombie coat and button-down shirt being the most stylish of all the Doctor’s outfits. Another nice touch was the livid slash of colour in the coat’s red silk lining – presumably in tribute to the young Capaldi’s great hero, Jon Pertwee, at the height of his peacock pomp. The later addition of a hoodie, sonic shades and an electric guitar may have had a whiff of midlife crisis about it (it comes to us all after the first thousand years or so) but Capaldi is so effortlessly cool, he even managed to carry those off. Style rating: 10/10 Jodie Whittaker In contrast to her predecessor’s back-to-black approach, Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor brought a bold splash of candy-coloured cheer to the TARDIS. The essential elements of cropped trousers, t-shirt, braces and boots were based on a photo Whittaker found on the internet: she liked the androgynous nature of the look, and the t-shirt’s rainbow stripes also reflect the era’s “space for all” inclusivity (though their actual inspiration was an album cover by the actor’s beloved Coldplay). As statement looks go, it’s certainly bold – Mork from Ork meets Rod, Jane and Freddy – but it’s been a huge hit with cosplayers, and the hooded coat is a modern Who design classic. (The colour of the trousers is ‘petrol’, by the way, if you want to update your colour charts.) Style rating: 6/10 Ncuti Gatwa? And the future? Next up, we’ve got the return of David Tennant, rocking a subtle tartan variation of his trademark skinny spaceboy – after which we’ll get to find out if Ncuti Gatwa really is going to explore the universe in Gallifreyan galoshes, like Space Paddington. Having already proved himself something of a style icon – including becoming the first Time Lord to go bare-chested on the cover of Doctor Who Magazine – you can’t help thinking that, if anyone can pull it off, it’s him. Doctor Who outfits ranked And so, to recap, here's our (definitive) ranking of Time Lord style – from the Doctors with the best sartorial sense to the ones most in need of a makeover. Peter Capaldi David Tennant Tom Baker Matt Smith Jon Pertwee William Hartnell Paul McGann Jodie Whittaker Patrick Troughton Sylvester McCoy Peter Davison Christopher Eccleston Colin Baker Where will Ncuti Gatwa's get-up rank? Only time will tell... View Riddle on the source website Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Why Doctor Who should embrace nostalgia for its 60th anniversary
As rumours of former Time Lords returning continue to mount, why are some Doctor Who fans still so wary of the show’s past?
“A man is the sum of his memories,” the Doctor once said. “A Time Lord even more so.” This typically wise and astute observation from the great Terrance Dicks was the perfect sentiment for inclusion in Doctor Who’s warmly nostalgic 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors. Because what are we, as sentient beings, if not the balance of our experiences – the things we’ve seen, the lessons we’ve learned and the people we’ve met along the way? When Donna Noble had her memories of travelling with the Doctor wiped, it felt like the cruellest possible fate. Because without those memories, Donna was literally a different, smaller person. And the same goes for Doctor Who itself. As a property of 58 years standing, it has something that most other TV shows can only dream of: it has a mythology. More important than that, though, it has a history that we all share: one that reaches back into our childhoods – however recent or distant – and through which many of us can mark births, marriages, deaths and all the other important milestones of life. So it’s hardly surprising that, as the show prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday next year, the rumour mill is alive with speculation that former Doctors such as David Tennant and Matt Smith could return for a series of special episodes. Because why wouldn’t you, right? And yet you’ll find plenty of hardcore Doctor Who fans throwing up their arms in horror – mock or otherwise – at the idea. For them, the show’s past is not so much a foreign country, as enemy territory: the stony ground of creative bankruptcy, where ideas go to die. Or something like that, anyway. But why? Why has it become fashionable among some of the programme’s most devoted followers to insist that it should only ever march relentlessly forward, eyes front, never looking back? Why this ascetic insistence that Doctor Who should be made for anyone – children, grannies, Saturday night TV audiences – but them? A couple of reasons, I think. One, they’re just showing off. They’re trying to sound grown-up by talking more like a potential Doctor Who showrunner than a fan. They’re embarrassed to lean into nostalgia because it feels so… well, fannish. And so, to quote another Terrance Dicks line from The Five Doctors, they find menace in their own shadow. This is not entirely without logic, of course. In 2005, Russell T Davies – the once and future king of Doctor Who – made a huge success of the show’s relaunch by stripping it of all the fussy baggage of Time Lords and Gallifrey and, in his own words, all those “men in silly hats”. Instead, he drilled down to the core principles of an alien and a London shop girl embarking on thrilling adventures across time and space. But what was the right choice for 2005 – when Doctor Who had been off the air for 16 years, and British TV commissioners still largely viewed science fiction as audience Kryptonite – isn’t necessarily right for the 2020s. Now, we live in an age when you practically need a spreadsheet to follow all the interlaced plots and character arcs of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; when even the most casual cinemagoers are delighted to see former Spider-Men crawling out of the woodwork, and DC has a positive colony of Batmen in its belfry. (And let’s not forget that, even in his initial, back-to-basics pitch document two decades ago, Russell T Davies was already talking of Doctor Who’s past being a source of “wonderful rich discovery for an excited eight-year-old viewer”, to be introduced gradually along the way.) Another reason why some fans are so wary of nostalgia, I suspect, is that they still bear the scars of the 1980s, when – in our collective memory, at least – the programme became increasingly continuity obsessed, pandering to the hardcore faithful at the expense of more casual viewers until, eventually, the hardcore faithful were all that remained. This in itself is quite a reductive reading of the situation – many factors contributed to Doctor Who’s viewer decline in the mid-late 1980s, and it’s honestly a stretch to see the casual name-dropping the occasional old companion being high on many people’s list of reasons for tuning out. But the point isn’t so much that Doctor Who was referencing its own past, as how it was referencing its own past. Because yes, expecting viewers of 1985’s Attack of the Cybermen to remember details from The Tomb of the Cybermen, broadcast 18 years earlier, was a big ask. Similarly, if you’re going to make the Matrix so central to the plot of Arc of Infinity (1983), it might have be useful to remind viewers who don’t have the Target novel of The Deadly Assassin to hand what the Matrix actually is. But that’s deepcore nerd stuff. David Tennant or Matt Smith coming back for a quick victory lap, on the other hand, is something everyone can enjoy, no matter how casual their relationship with the show. The polar opposite of fan-serving indulgence, it’s actually the biggest, most populist, most crowd-pleasing, big tent move Doctor Who could possibly make. (And this was true even in the 1980s, by the way, when the return of the Cybermen after an absence of seven years was an exciting event for everyone – including the kids who’d never heard of them.) Even the return of Paul McGann, whose Eighth Doctor has had only fleeting screen-time, would be pretty simple to explain to viewers who aren’t familiar with him. And not just simple, but fun. Exciting. A strange man in strange clothes rocking up and telling everyone he used to be the Doctor? That’s drama. That’s a story. Who on Earth is going to take flight at that? So the point about “continuity”, surely, is that, as Bananarama would have it, it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it. If there’s a decent story to be told, and there are no barriers to entry, then what are you afraid of? It doesn’t have to be nostalgia for the sake of it. But equally, there’s nothing wrong with the odd bit of nostalgia that is very much for the sake of it – if it brings a delicious shiver of recognition to the nape of the neck, without getting in the way of the action, then bring it on. Though much derided, nostalgia is as valid an emotional weapon as any other in a dramatist’s armoury. Derived from the Greek words nostos, meaning homecoming, and algos, meaning pain, there’s an inbuilt dramatic tension in nostalgia: a recognition that memories are as sorrowful as they are sweet. When you’ve got a story forged over six decades to play with, you’d be crazy not to tap into that every now and again. After all, there’s surely a limit to how many times you can repeat the same format of the Doctor arriving somewhere, fixing something and then leaving again. You have to shake up the formula and raise the emotional stakes occasionally, and plugging into your own mythology is one obvious way of doing that. And to those who still insist that all this halts the glorious march of progress, I would say: you wouldn’t treat your own history like that, would you? Keep all your precious memories in a locked box, never to be opened? What a diminished life that would be. And the same goes for Doctor Who. So come on. We’ve all had a horrible few years. Let’s stop thrashing ourselves with birch twigs and pretending we need to live like monks. For Doctor Who’s 60th birthday, let’s lean into the biggest, most glorious nostalgia hit Russell T Davies can throw at us. Casual viewers will love it, the media will love and, if they’d just allow themselves to relax and go with the flow, the hardcore fans would love it, too. It’s a party that everyone is invited to – after which, the Fourteenth Doctor can strike out into a bold new future with a renewed headwind of love and goodwill. And if the show doesn’t want to look over its shoulder for a year or two at that point, then fair enough. Fresh start, and all that. But the past will always be there, waiting – and it’s honestly nothing to be scared of. Doctor Who returns to TV this spring with Legend of the Sea Devils. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide. The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Take a trip to Ten Acre Field with our Worzel Gummidge location guide.
BBC One's Worzel Gummidge returns to our screens on 28th December, with Mackenzie Crook starring as the misfit scarecrow in another adventure. In the upcoming special, titled Twitchers, Worzel sees his plan to scare a pack of choughs – quite the achievement for a scarecrow – foiled by an interfering pack of birdwatchers. Worzel and friends will then return again on 29th December for Calliope Jane – the funfair is in town and Worzel has heard tell of a magical fairground that sends humans to sleep so that scarecrows can enjoy the rides unobserved... Recently, RadioTimes.com shared an exclusive first-look clip from the new episodes, which sees Worzel (Mackenzie Crook) share his scarecrow handbook with young friends Susan (India Brown) and John (Thierry Wickens). The series is set in the country town of Scatterbrook – but where is the fantasy comedy-drama filmed? And where can you find all of the locations in real life? Read on for our full Worzel Gummidge location guide. Scatterbrook Farm In the films, siblings Susan and John (India Brown and Thierry Wickens) arrive to spend the summer at Scatterbrook Farm, under the watchful eye of Mr and Mrs Braithwaite (Steve Pemberton and Rosie Cavaliero). All the Scatterbrook scenes were filmed at Valence End Farm, a working farm just outside Dunstable in Bedfordshire. The farm’s neighbours include elephants, cheetahs and brown bears (it’s right next door to Whipsnade Zoo). Ten Acre Field The field Worzel calls home was filmed in countryside close to Berry Bushes Farm in King’s Langley, Hertfordshire. This time around, Worzel’s neighbours include goblins, a giant basilisk and a certain boy wizard – it’s less than 10 minutes away from Warner Bros. studios at Leavesden, home of The Making of Harry Potter tour. Many of the other countryside exteriors were also filmed around King’s Langley. The lane The opening sequence to first ever Worzel Gummidge episode The Scarecrow of Scatterbrook sees Susan and John being driven down a high-hedged country lane – this filmed at St Leonards, midway between Tring in Hertfordshire and Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. Earthy’s allotment Taking his cue from Barbara Euphan Todd’s books, Mackenzie Crook has written Aunt Sally (Vicki Pepperdine) as just that – Worzel’s aunt (unlike that flaming temptress Una Stubbs, who set Jon Pertwee’s heart a-flutter in the 70s TV version). Instead, Crook has reintroduced Worzel’s literary love interest Earthy Mangold (Francesca Mills), whose day job is keeping the birds off a local allotment. The veg patch in question was filmed at Highfield Park in St Albans, Herts. The Local History Museum The scenes where Worzel pays a call on Aunt Sally were filmed at Wardown Museum and Gallery, a Grade II listed building in the grounds of Wardown Park, Luton, Bedfordshire. The museum’s collection includes an Iron Age mirror and the Shillington Roman coin hoard – which no doubt piqued the interest of a certain detectorist… The Tree of Tree This is the ancient, magical tree that Worzel uses to send a message to the scarecrows of Albion. And what more magical location in the world could there be than… a car park in Luton. Bloomsbury Barton Manor The country seat of Lady Bloomsbury Barton (Zoë Wannamaker) – as seen in the episode The Green Man – was filmed at a private house in Watford. Top of the world In The Green Man, Worzel and the Green Man (Sir Michael Palin, no less) sit down at the top of a hill for a heart-to-heart about what it means to be a scarecrow. This is Ivinghoe Beacon, part of the National Trust’s Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire. Perched high in the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Ivinghoe Beacon contains the remains of an Iron Age hill fort and several Bronze Age burial mounds, as well as offering spectacular views across several counties. Worzel Gummidge returns to BBC One at 7.15pm on Tuesday, 28th December. For more to watch, check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
Who’s who in Mackenzie Crook’s new take on the scarecrow of Scatterbrook.
Scatterbrook receives a fresh batch of visitors in two new Worzel Gummidge episodes airing on the 28th and 29th December: Twitchers and Calliope Jane. The first episode sees Worzel's hopes of scaring scare a pack of choughs thwarted by an interfering pack of birdwatchers, including Mr Brathwaite's old bird-watching rival Lee Dangerman. We then meet Calliope Jane in the episode of the same name – a friend of Aunt Sally who determines to help Worzel when he tells the gang about the myth of a magical fairground that sends humans to sleep so that scarecrows can enjoy the rides unobserved. Recently, RadioTimes.com shared an exclusive first-look clip from the new episodes, which sees Worzel (Mackenzie Crook) share his scarecrow handbook with young friends Susan (India Brown) and John (Thierry Wickens). But which guest stars will be appearing alongside the Worzel Gummidge regulars in the new episodes? Read on to find out. Mackenzie Crook plays Worzel Gummidge Who is Worzel Gummidge? The irascible titular scarecrow is the main character in Euphan Todd's Puffin Books series. He lives in Ten Acre Field and befriends children Susan and John, becoming inanimate whenever his pride is wounded (which is rather often). Mackenzie Crook's version is gentler than Jon Pertwee's. What else has Mackenzie Crook been in? The man in the turnip mask made his name as deluded assistant regional manager – sorry, assistant to the regional manager – Gareth Keenan in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s seminal mockumentary The Office. After that, he found success in Hollywood, as one-eyed sea dog Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean mega-franchise, and was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway transfer of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem. The 49-year-old can also be seen – again in heavy prosthetics – as the skull-headed shaman Veran in Butterworth’s trippy Sky Atlantic Roman invasion drama Britannia. But arguably his crowning achievement to date is writing, directing and starring in three series of the BAFTA-winning BBC sitcom Detectorists. India Brown and Thierry Wickens play Susan and John Who are Susan and John? Siblings Susan and John are foster children. They've come to Scatterbrook for the summer to work as farmhands for the Braithwaites. Initially, they're very attached to their smartphones and struggle to adapt to life in Scatterbrook, but that changes when Worzel takes them under his wing. What else have India Brown and Thierry Wickens been in? India has previously appeared in Silent Witness and The Athena. Prior to Worzel, her most prominent role was Amber in the 2018 Christmas TV adaptation of David Walliams’ The Midnight Gang. Worzel Gummidge marks Thierry Wickens TV debut. Steve Pemberton plays Mr Braithwaite Who is Mr Braithwaite? He is the rather grumpy farmer who doesn't realise his scarecrow has the uncanny ability to come to life. He usually blames the children for the messes the turnip-headed stick figure leaves behind. He was played by Norman Bird in the ITV adaptation of the classic tale. What else has Steve Pemberton been in? As one of The League of Gentlemen, Steve created a menagerie of comic grotesques including Tubbs, Royston Vasey’s murderous, porcine-nosed keeper of the local shop for local people, and Pauline, the sadistic restart officer with a passion for pens and a burning hatred of ‘dole scum’. Since then, he’s barely been off our screens, with roles in everything from Whitechapel and Happy Valley to Midsomer Murders and Doctor Who, as well as spending eight years by the pool as Mick Garvey in ITV’s sunburn and sangria sitcom Benidorm. In partnership with fellow Leaguer Reece Shearsmith, the 52-year-old has also continued to probe the darker corners of TV comedy in macabre sitcom Psychoville and the brilliant, BAFTA-winning anthology series Inside No 9. Rosie Cavaliero plays Mrs Braithwaite Who is Mrs Braithwaite? Mr Braithwaite's strong-willed wife runs Scatterbrook Farm alongside her husband. She isn't all that fond of the titular scarecrow, who she thinks has seen better days. Originally played by Megs Jenkins, she spends her days bossing Susan and John around and trying to get rid of Worzel. What else has Rosie Cavaliero been in? With more than 50 screen credits, Rosie is one of the busiest actors in Britain. Notable roles include troubled nurse Marion Kelsey in the second series of Unforgotten, Anne Lister’s maid Elizabeth in Sally Wainwright’s recent Gentleman Jack, and jilted wife Wendy in John Cleese sitcom Hold the Sunset. She also starred as DS Susan Reinhart in two series of ITV crime thriller Prey. Earlier this year, the 52-year-old was seen as Frances in Cleaning Up, starring Sheridan Smith, who she first worked with on the 2003 bingo sitcom Eyes Down, starring Paul O’Grady. Francesca Mills plays Earthy Mangold Who is Earthy Mangold? In the books, Earthy Mangold is Worzel's wife but the pair are just friends in the new series. The character did not appear in the '70s series. What else has Francesca Mills been in? Most recently seen as Cherry Dorrington in period drama Harlots, Francesca’s other credits include Zoolander 2 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Vicki Pepperdine plays Aunt Sally Who is Aunt Sally? Una Stubbs played the fairground doll in the 70s, but Mackenzie Crook's eerie version is closer to the one in Euphan Todd's books. Instead of his love interest, Aunt Sally is Worzel's actual aunt, who has been left to rot in a museum and is not exactly thrilled about it. What else has Vicki Pepperdine been in? Like Mackenzie Crook, 58-year-old Pepperdine is as happy bashing out scripts as performing them. With Jo Brand and Joanna Scanlan, she co-wrote the award-winning hospital sitcom Getting On, in which she played Dr Pippa Moore, a geriatric care consultant whose bedside manner left something to be desired. On radio, she was one half of comedy duo Hudson and Pepperdine, with Melanie Hudson, and she currently hosts a podcast, Dear Joan and Jericha, with her friend Julia Davis, who also cast her in her TV comedies Camping, Nighty Night and Sall4Ever. Vicki played Princess Anne in Channel 4 comedy The Windsors, while recent film roles include Goodbye Christopher Robin and Johnny English Strikes Again. Aaron Neil plays Lee Dangerman Appears in: 'Twitchers' Who is Lee Dangerman? Lee Dangerman is a twicher, or bird-watcher, and an old rival of Mr Braithwaite's. What else has Aaron Neil been in? Neil played Varun Singh in the Doctor Who spin-off Class, Raj in Channel 4 comedy-drama Home and this year appeared in episodes of Inside No. 9 and Landscapers. Bill Bailey plays Mr Peregrine Appears in: 'Calliope Jane' Who is Mr Pegerine? Mr Peregrine runs the travelling fair that comes to visit Scatterbrook for one night only. What else has Bill Bailey been in? Nneka Okoye plays Calliope Jane Appears in: 'Calliope Jane' Who is Calliope Jane? Like Worzel and Aunt Sally, Calliope Jane is a seemingly inanimate object that springs to magical life – along with her friend Sally, she plans to help Worzel enjoy the fun fair. What else has Nneka Okoye been in? Okoye previously played Mags on Netflix series The A List and has guest-starred in episodes of Death in Paradise and Grantchester. She will next be seen in the TV series adaptation of the hit video game Halo. Paul Kaye plays Guy Forks Appears in: 'Guy Forks' Who is Guy Forks? Guy Forks is the cousin of Worzel Gummidge who arrives in Scatterbrook and takes his place at the top of the town's bonfire. What else has Paul Kaye been in? Paul Kaye is best known for appearing as Dennis Pennis on The Sunday Show and for his roles in Game of Thrones, After Life, The Watch, Vera, and Three Girls. Toby Jones plays The Bonfire Night Committee Appears in: 'Guy Forks' Who are the Bonfire Night Committee? The Bonfire Night Committee is made up of the baker, butcher, mayor, postmaster, publican and alderman – all of whom are preparing for the Scatterbrook bonfire. They are all played by Toby Jones. What else has Toby Jones been in? Toby Jones is best known his roles in Detectorists, Marvellous, The Girl, Wayward Pines, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Hunger Games and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Shirley Henderson plays Saucy Nancy Appears in: 'Saucy Nancy' (2020) Who is Saucy Nancy? A ship's figurehead with a foul mouth, Nancy is discovered by Worzel, Susan and John at a scrapyard. The character was played by the late Barbara Windsor in the '70s series. What else has Shirley Henderson been in? Henderson is known for her role as Jude in the Bridget Jones film trilogy and for playing Moaning Myrtyle in the Harry Potter films. She has also appeared in the series Hamish Macbeth, Southcliffe, Happy Valley and The Nest, and voiced Babu Frik in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Vanessa Redgrave plays Peg Appears in: 'Saucy Nancy' (2020) Who is Peg? Peg is an old seawoman who mends fishermen's nets and lives in a shipwreck on the beach. What else has Vanessa Redgrave been in? Vanessa Redgrave CBE is a legend of stage and screen, having earned six Academy Award nominations and winning in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in 1977's Julia. Her many film credits include Blowup (1966), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Atonement (2007), while previous small-screen credits include Nip/Tuck and Man in an Orange Shirt. She narrates Call the Midwife as the voice of the older Jenny Worth. Tim Plester plays Fisherman Stan Appears in: 'Saucy Nancy' (2020) Who is Fisherman Stan? Stan is - you guessed it - a fisherman, and friend to Peg. What else has Tim Plester been in? Plester has appeared on Game of Thrones (as Black Walder Rivers), After Life (as drug addict Julian Kane) and, earlier this year, in The Sister (as Justin). He is also a filmmaker, known for his documentaries Way of the Morris and The Ballad of Shirley Collins. Spencer Jones plays Reggie Appears in: 'Saucy Nancy' (2020) Who is Reggie? Reggie works at the local scrapyard, but his business acumen leaves quite a lot to be desired. What else has Spencer Jones been in? Jones is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer who plays Shakespeare actor William Kempe in Upstart Crow and played the title character in BBC Two sitcom Mr Winner earlier this year. He has also appeared in Still Open All Hours, Skins and Pulling. Brian Blessed plays Abraham Longshanks Appears in: 'Saucy Nancy' (2020) Who is Abraham Longshanks? Abraham is a tiny scarecrow who used to be much larger – but his booming voice has never diminished. What else has Brian Blessed been in? With screen credits dating back to the late 1950s, Blessed is a household name and cult icon known for his aforementioned booming voice, with roles in I, Claudius (as Augustus), Z Cars (as PC Fancy Smith) and Doctor Who (as King Ycarnos, in the 1986 story The Trial of a Time Lord). He also voiced the alien Boss Nass in 1999's Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and played the winged Prince Vultan in the 1980 big-screen version of Flash Gordon, from which his catchphrase "GORDON'S ALIVE?!" originates. Youseff Kerkour plays Farmer Brawn Appears in: 'Saucy Nancy' (2020) Who is Farmer Brawn? On a trip to the seaside, Susan and John meet Farmer Brawn in a local pub, along with Farmer Strong (Christopher Patrick Nolan), Farmer Beef (Denise Mack), Farmer Bonce (Daniel Copeland) and Farmer Gout (Daniel Page). What else has Youseff Kerkour been in? Kerkour is probably best known for his role as the gentle Sami in Channel 4 comedy-drama Home. He has also appeared in Criminal: UK, Dracula, Sex Education and Baghdad Central, and made a brief appearance in the 2019 Gavin & Stacey Christmas special. Zoë Wanamaker plays Lady Bloomsbury Barton Appears in: 'The Green Man' (2019) Who is Lady Bloomsbury Barton? Lady Bloomsbury Barton is the eccentric local lady of the manor, with whom Worzel takes tea despite lacking the insides to absorb it. The aristocrat was a bit of a freeloader in the first Worzel series, and was driven around in a Rolls-Royce by her chauffeur Humphrey. What else has Zoë Wanamaker been in? The daughter of American actor and producer Sam Wanamaker, Zoë’s stage career – including extensive engagements with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre – has earned her two Olivier Awards and seven nominations, along with four Tony nominations for her work on Broadway. On screen, she received BAFTA nods for her roles in the original Prime Suspect and the romantic comedy drama Love Hurts. In more recent years, she has been best known for playing Susan Harper in the BBC sitcom My Family, Ariadne Oliver in Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Princess Marie in Mr Selfridge. And of course, she earned her place in the Hogwarts hall of fame as Madam Hooch in the first Harry Potter film. Zoë, who turned 70 in May, was made a CBE in 2001 for services to drama. Michael Palin plays The Green Man Appears in: 'The Green Man' (2019) Who is The Green Man? He is the creator of all scarecrows, including Worzel, and keeper of scarecrow lore. The Green Man is more akin to Worzel's mysterious creator in the books, rather than the Crowman from Pertwee's Worzel Gummidge. He isn't pleased when he learns Worzel has befriended humans. What else has Michael Palin been in? Actor, writer, comedian, traveller, Python… national treasures don’t come much more cherished than Sir Michael. As one sixth of the Monty Python team, he starred in such iconic skits as the Dead Parrot sketch, The Spanish Inquisition and the Fish-Slapping Dance, as well as performing The Lumberjack Song. He teamed up with fellow Python Terry Jones to co-write and star in the 70s comedy anthology Ripping Yarns, and won a BAFTA for his role in the 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda. The same year, he embarked on a journey Around the World in 80 Days, the first of many TV travel documentaries that have since taken him Pole to Pole, Full Circle and, most recently into North Korea. From 2009-20012, he was also president of the Royal Geographical Society. Having previously been made a CBE and a BAFTA fellow, Sir Michael, 76, received a knighthood in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to travel, culture and geography. Colin Michael Carmichael plays Soggy Boggart Appears in: 'The Green Man' (2019) Who is Soggy Boggart? Soggy Boggart is Worzel's marrow-headed rival. In Mackenzie Crook's version, he wears a leather jacket and is the ruffian leader of a scarecrow biker gang. What else has Colin Michael Carmichael been in? Colin has worked extensively in the theatre, including producing shows with his own company, called – rather brilliantly – Brian. His film and TV credits include Hot Fuzz, St Trinian’s 2, Burke and Hare, Black Mirror and EastEnders. Worzel Gummidge returns to BBC One at 7.15pm on Tuesday, 28th December – check out what else is on with our TV Guide or our guide to the best Christmas TV.
What can Doctor Who fans expect from Russell T Davies' return?
The showrunner's second coming sees him poised to take advantage of a dramatically changed television landscape – but it also presents some big challenges...
So it’s official – start synthesising those enzymes, brush up on your telebiogenesis: The Nyssa Adventures are coming! Okay, so they’re probably not. Russell T Davies was almost certainly joking when he proposed a spin-off for the brainiac '80s companion during our conversation last December, so don’t expect to see Sarah Sutton slipping back into that purple velvet pantsuit any time soon (for shame). In fact, I’d be very surprised if Doctor Who was already on Russell’s radar when we spoke just before Christmas. If it had been, I suspect he’d have been a bit more circumspect before casually floating the idea of a Doctor Who Channel and David Tennant teaming up with Matt Smith for a 10-part multi-Doctor adventure. Because some people will no doubt get very cross when those don’t happen. (I’m assuming they won’t, but who knows – as Russell says, did Star Trek fans ever expect a Captain Pike prequel?) Still, idle spitballing or not, it does at least afford us a glimpse into Russell’s thinking, and the scale of his ambition to “shift Doctor Who up a gear” when he gets the keys to the TARDIS back in 2023. And if anyone’s up to the job, it’s the dream team of Russell, Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner. Yes, they’ve got the old Bad Wolf band back together – but don’t go expecting them to just play the hits, any more than they did when they dragged Doctor Who kicking and screaming into the new century in 2005. Will it be easy, this gear shift? Not for a second. Firstly, anyone who thinks this is going to mean a return to regular Saturday night audiences of eight million (faithful) viewers is probably deluding themselves; that world no longer exists. Sure, the likes of Line of Duty and Vigil may have proved that reports of linear TV’s death continue to be exaggerated, but Doctor Who relies on continually refreshing its audience with a new generation of younger viewers. And, as Ofcom has warned, the traditional broadcasters are currently staring down the barrel of a “lost generation” who, lured away by sexy young buzz brands like Netflix, Disney Plus and YouTube, increasingly view the BBC as that funny old thing your nan watches in the afternoons. (BBC One’s average viewing age, lest we forget, is 61.) In that context, five to six million ‘live’ viewers would probably have to be considered a good result, while – for all that Russell is famously passionate about Doctor Who being a big, Saturday night family show – the real metric by which we measure its success will increasingly lie elsewhere. If, as hinted, Russell does want to expand the Doctor Who “empire”, what sort of expanded portfolio might we reasonably expect? The short answer: haven't got a Scooby. But has that stopped you starting to build your own fantasy Doctor Who Cinematic Universe in your head? Of course it hasn't. So what’s on your bingo card? How about an anthology series featuring one-shot appearances from former – possibly unseen – Doctors? (Hugh Grant as a pre-Hartnell Doctor, anyone?) A stylish period spy-fi drama about the early years of UNIT? Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor versus The Division? A Dalek cartoon for the kids? The Humker and Tandrell Adventures…? Will Russell be dusting off his proposal for Rose Tyler: Earth Defender? Is Torchwood coming back? (Er, probably not.) And will they please, for the love of the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe, just give us something – anything – with Paul McGann in? But stop. Before we get ahead of ourselves, is it even reasonable to think Doctor Who can operate on the same scale as those other franchises Russell mentioned in our interview? For a start, Star Wars, Star Trek and the MCU are all American – and US shows are the world’s default TV lingua franca. Can Doctor Who ever be a truly global player without sacrificing some the essential Britishness that’s such a key part of its charm? International successes stories like Sherlock and Downton Abbey would suggest that it can, given a fair wind. Though, this time around, Russell would probably still have to think twice before writing in cameos for Ann Widdecombe and McFly, or making jokes about Christmas in Walford. Also – and I hesitate slightly to say this but, isn’t Doctor Who just a little bit, you know, weird? For a big, mainstream family show, it’s always had a slight element of outsider art to it, while also never quite shedding its original, Reithian mission statement to inform and educate, as well as entertain. Compared to the crowd-pleasing, bang-for-your-buck spectacle of spaceships and spandex superheroes, Doctor Who’s funny, quirky stories about the Romantic Poets and Madame de Pompadour and farting green aliens becoming the mayor of Cardiff can seem like a cherishably odd proposition. All of which is another reason to be grateful that it’s Russell T Davies who will be steering the ship through these uncharted waters. Because here is a man who balances a healthy respect for Doctor Who’s legacy – for its essential, unique DNA – without ever becoming a slave to it. As a writer, he’s bold and cheeky, with a knack for tackling the biggest, most profound questions with the lightest of touches. (His writing, as he put it in that same interview, is “like life – sad one minute and sunny the next, and not a hair’s breadth between the two”.) That said, this will be a different, older Russell, writing in a changed world. In 2005, he struck a defiantly optimistic tone: “I do think we live in an age where every day you open up a newspaper and it tells you that you’re dying – coffee is going to kill you and bird flu is going to kill you and genuine things like global warming are going to kill you,” he said at the time. “I wanted to do something that said there is a future of monorails and zip-suits and jetpacks and fun.” Contrast that to the dystopian vision he painted in 2019’s Years and Years, in which no hot button – from Trump, Isis and the refugee crisis to the banks, #fakenews and Brexit – was left un-pushed. Yes, he was writing for a different audience but, just as It’s A Sin can be read as the yin to Queer as Folk’s yang, so Years and Years often feels like the hangover to noughties’ Who’s Panglossian faith in the human race. I still wouldn’t bet on Russell “going dark”, though. Of the three modern showrunners, he’s the one who’s charted furthest away from the idea of Doctor Who as, to use Mary Whitehouse’s memorable epigram, “teatime terror for tots”. Of all his Doctor Who scripts, there’s probably only two – Tooth and Claw and Midnight – that fully lean into Doctor Who’s horror tradition. He tended to leave that to Steven Moffat, who, in 2010, noted that he was “more at the fairytale and Tim Burton end of Doctor Who, whereas Russell is probably more at the blockbuster, Superman end of the show”. Quite how much Russell will be writing is another thing we can add to the list of don’t knows: you’d forgive him if, for the sake of his own sanity, he wanted to step away from the script treadmill a bit more this time. But that’s easier said than done, as he has the scars to prove. Either way, one of the biggest joys of this whole out-of-left-field curveball is that we’ll be getting Russell T Davies at the absolute top of his game. Coming off the back of A Very English Scandal, Years and Years and It’s A Sin, his stock has arguably never been higher. And this is what he has chosen to spend it on – in large part, presumably, out of sheer, unbridled love for Doctor Who. Gosh. Exciting, isn’t it? But if you simply can’t wait two years to see what Doctor Who’s going to look like in its next bold, ambitious and thrilling reinvention, the good news is you don’t have to: there’s a bold, ambitious and thrilling reinvention coming our way in a matter of weeks, when Jodie Whittaker embarks on one of the Doctor's most epic adventures yet. So in our haste to find out what the era of – oh go on then – RTD2 is going to look like, let’s not wish away what we’ve already got because, from every angle, this is shaping up to be a very good time to be a Doctor Who fan. Doctor Who returns to BBC One this autumn. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
The real reason Doctor Who makes fans want to hide behind the sofa
Think watching Doctor Who is fun? Not if you’re a Doctor Who fan it isn’t. From new episode anguish to DVD shelf indecision, these are the trials of (watching) a Time Lord…
If I’ve learned anything from a lifetime’s devotion to Doctor Who – and that’s a big if – it’s probably that Doctor Who fans weren’t put on this Earth to enjoy watching Doctor Who. No, in my experience, that sort of thing is best left to mere “viewers” – those lightweight flibbertigibbets who think nothing of sitting down, casual as you please, to enjoy 50 minutes of escapist fantasy, in the same way you or I might innocently tune in to Holby City, or Peston. For the hardcore faithful, by contrast, watching any new episode of Doctor Who is an uncomfortably fraught experience – one that’s wont to magnify the show’s every blemish and duff note, and leave you seriously questioning your life choices. Or is that just me? This goes double, of course, if you happen to be watching in polite company: those unavoidable occasions when you’re forced to consume Doctor Who in front of family, friends and other Not We, many of whom have probably been silently judging you – or even noisily judging you – over your choice of hobby for years. Of course, if you could guarantee the quality of what was about to unfold, this wouldn’t be such a problem. But, uniquely among TV shows, Doctor Who’s famously flexible format can make it a bit of a rollercoaster on the quality control front: for every sublime City of Death and The Haunting of Villa Diodati, there's an excruciating Underworld or Nightmare in Silver. As a result, communal viewing can take on something of a Russian Roulette quality: I have happy memories of watching Blink in a holiday cabin in North Yorkshire (even if some of the party did insist on talking all the way through it), but still burn with hot shame about the time a packed roomful of friends and family gathered in a Cornish cottage to witness the unfolding horror that was The Rings of Akhaten, in which Dr Who and his friends defeated an angry planet by shouting at it, singing to it, then showing it a leaf. Talk about wanting to hide behind the sofa. Even that, though, has nothing on Christmas: I still shudder at the memory of 25th December, 2008, when all my rellies crowded into an overheated room to watch The Next Doctor, and I felt their eyes burning into the back of my neck as someone in a party shop gorilla costume and a Cyberman mask terrorised the cast of Oliver! And then, a year later, we were all back again, for that one where the entire human race, from Barack Obama to Sylvia Noble, turned into John Simm, and Gallifrey appeared in the sky over Chiswick. True story. Then there’s the clammy dread of how the episode will be greeted on social media and the fan forums. Oh god, the forums: if you think Twitter is vicious, you’ve obviously never logged into a Doctor Who forum in the hours after an episode has gone out. It’s less a discussion, more a live autopsy. And for the full sucker-punch, don’t forget to revisit the next morning when the overnight ratings are released, and a 0.3 drop in viewers is immediately interpreted as the End of Days that will lead to the show’s immediate cancellation and the master tapes of all existing episodes being buried in landfill – even though it was a hot bank holiday weekend and people were probably just… you know, out. Sometimes, the Normal People in your life will even force **you**, a card-carrying Doctor Who fan, to leave the house on a Doctor Who day – often for the most trivial of reasons, like the fact it’s their birthday, or your wedding anniversary. I’ll never forget the tense week in July 2008 when my first child was due to be born – **in the same week as the Doctor Who series 4 finale**. “Relax,” I told myself. “You can always watch it on video later.” (The birth, I mean. Well you have to get your priorities straight, don’t you?) View oEmbed on the source website Why is it, though, that we always care about the shortcomings of the current iteration of Doctor Who more than we do about its past failings? Why is brand new Who, when it misfires, a source of anguish, while The Horns of Nimon’s manifest failings are a bit of a giggle? Several reasons, I suspect. Partly it’s because you’re only ever as good as your last show. So until the next story comes along, any dud episode is, for better or worse, the “current” state of Doctor Who – perhaps even a bellwether for all the Doctor Who to come (even though it never actually is). By contrast, once an era is no longer ‘live’, and can be safely time-locked and filed on our DVD shelves, those failings somehow no longer seem to matter so much: for good and ill, it’s just another brilliant but flawed chapter in the great messy, meandering saga that is Doctor Who. At which point, it becomes part of a whole other viewing dilemma – that of deciding **which** story from your vast library to actually sit down and watch. When I was a kid, the only way to enjoy “old” Doctor Who was on audio cassettes taped off the telly, often with unscripted appearances from your mum and dad telling you to turn off that rubbish and come and eat your tea. And even when we got our first VCR, I only had a couple of tapes, so regularly had to wipe over previous recordings. (This is how, in 1984 – and readers of a nervous disposition may wish to look away now – I came to tape over The Caves of Androzani with The Twin Dilemma. The really damning thing? I didn’t even regret it.) As a result, I savoured every minute of those stories, as I did the early BBC Video releases. I must have watched Revenge of the Cybermen a hundred times in 1983 and 1984 – which, if you’ve seen Revenge of the Cybermen, you might consider to be at least a hundred times too many. Now, by contrast, we have the entire catalogue of existing Doctor Who available at the touch of a button. You can literally watch Tomb of the Cybermen on the bus or in the bath, and I know someone who once watched The Sensorites on a beach in Florida. (Because, sure, Disney World is fine and everything, but it can’t compete with ancient black and white images of a race of bulb-headed aliens in space pyjamas tripping over each other’s flippers.) But can you have too much of a good thing? I only ask because, faced with such an embarrassment of riches (many of them rich in embarrassment, but let’s not go there again), I often find myself overwhelmed by sheer choice. “All of time and space,” the Doctor once promised Amy Pond. “Everything that ever happened or ever will. Where do you want to start?” To which my reply would be: “I don’t know! You’re making me all flustered!” <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/04/Radio-Times-Doctor-Who-Colony-in-Space-1971-072-5dd8872.jpeg" width="3405" height="2228" alt="Doctor Who: Colony in Space. The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) shows Jo Grant (Katy Manning) the Tardis dematerialisation circuit in his Unit laboratory. BBC Television Centre, Studio 4 on 5 March 1971. Photographed by Don Smith for Radio Times" title="Radio Times Doctor Who Colony in Space 1971 072" /> As a result, I usually end up listlessly scrolling through BritBox and iPlayer, or riffling through my DVD shelves, trying to work out what sort of a mood I’m in. Is it a Capaldi mood, or a Pertwee mood? And if the latter, is it gritty (well, gritty-ish), Quatermass-style season 7 Pertwee? Or cosy, UNIT family, Greyhound to Trap One / ham-fisted bun vendor, psychedelic season 8 Pertwee? And if it’s P-Cap, should I watch one I already know is brilliant, like Heaven Sent or Thin Ice? Or give that one with the flying Cyber-Brigadier another chance? (For some reason, I often find myself drawn to stories I think I don’t like, searching – more in hope than expectation – for some kind of redemption, as if Paradise Towers might suddenly have been transformed into a heartbreaking work of staggering genius since I last watched it. At least, that’s my excuse for why I’ve watched Paradise Towers more times than Genesis of the Daleks – or, indeed, The Godfather – and I’m sticking to it.) Usually, these conversations will play out in my head for at least an hour or so, after which I usually give it up as a bad job and go to bed. Or maybe I’ll watch the news instead – because at least reports of war, plague and famine are less stressful than watching Doctor Who. Doctor Who returns to BBC One later this year. Want more? Check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
The Mane of the Doctor: What Doctor Who haircuts can tell us about the show
From on-trend Beatle-mops and "towering meringues" through natural curls, stalagmites of hair gel and wigs all the way to Jodie Whittaker's blonde bob, the Doctor's hair is iconic - but what can each style tell us about the Time Lord?
Minding my own beeswax in the kitchen a while back, my ear was drawn to the popular broadcasters Zoe Ball and Sara Cox discussing the hot button topic of Doctor Who’s hair. Not in the way us Who diehards might discuss it, you understand – which would probably be in the context of, say, the continuity nightmare caused by Peter Davison’s temporally unreliable barnet during season 19, or whether it might be possible to digitally remove David Tennant’s upsetting fringe from future releases of The Day of the Doctor. No, they were talking about Jodie Whittaker’s smart blonde bob (series 11 model, for those taking notes) and its influential bearing on their own tonsorial makeovers. Whatever the excuse, I was just pleased the subject of the Doctor’s hair was finally getting the traction it deserved. Because, for me, this is a much more important conversation than the trifling issues which usually take up all the bandwidth when people talk about Doctor Who: you know, stuff about scripts and casting and ratings and whether the logos on our DVD spines line-up properly. (OK, maybe not more important than that last one.) By way of illustration, look no further than Peter Capaldi’s first run as the Doctor in 2014. By Steven Moffat’s own admission, they probably went a bit far down the aggressive “Malcolm Tucker in space” route that season, leading to a rapid reverse ferret in time for that year’s Christmas special. But that isn’t the main problem. The main problem with Doctor Who series eight is that Peter Capaldi doesn’t have proper Doctor Who hair. I mean, look at it. It’s just so ridiculously… sensible; like he’s on his way to a job interview, or a court appearance (Probably the latter, knowing the Doctor). I put it to you that it’s simply impossible for Peter Capaldi to properly dispense his duties as Doctor Who with that haircut. And clearly P-Cap felt the same, which is why, over the following years, his hair gradually mushroomed into a classic, '70s-vintage Doctor Who ‘do, culminating in his final appearance in 2017’s Twice Upon a Time, by which time he looked like a man who’d fallen head first into a candy floss machine, or perhaps got too close to some low-lying cloud. Christopher Eccleston’s close-cropped Ninth Doctor suffers from a similar problem. In this case, it was a deliberate choice to shy away from the classic / clichéd (delete as applicable) image of the Doctor as an Edwardian fop. But I’d argue they went a little far. I’m perfectly happy to accept the Doctor can turn into a woman, a Scotsman or even a cactus, but surely no self-respecting Gallifreyan DNA would allow itself to resolve into a haircut like that. When we first met the Doctor, he was an old geezer with long white hair – a surprisingly bold statement for 1963, when The Beatles had a generation of parents’ clutching their pearls in horror just for growing their moptops over their collars. The little flick curl at the end was also a statement look, suggesting the existence of a pair of Time Tongs aboard the TARDIS. The Second Doctor’s mussed-up Beatlemop (above) was achingly on-trend for 1966, though in subsequent appearances becomes more problematic. Patrick Troughton’s hair in The Five Doctors (1983) is less Beatles, more Ann Widdecombe. And then The Two Doctors (1985) rolls a hand grenade into established hair continuity by presenting the Second Doctor with a grey thatch. Is this further evidence of the existence of a mysterious ‘season 6B’, extending the life of everyone’s favourite cosmic hobo beyond The War Games? Or had he simply forgotten to apply his Just For Time Lords that day? Jon Pertwee’s coiffure follows a similar trajectory to Peter Capaldi’s, starting out as a rather sensible short crop before expanding to the towering meringue of his final year, by which time it is clearly a danger to low-flying aircraft and, indeed, pterodactyls. Tom Baker, by contrast, rocked the same trademark teeth and curls throughout his seven-year run – only at the very end did his well-sprung mop visibly sag, along with its wearer’s enthusiasm. We’ve already discussed Peter Davison’s ever-fluctuating mane, which was up and down like a Castrovalvan staircase during the early '80s. According to Davison, producer John Nathan-Turner insisted on him having blonde highlights in order to boost his chances of becoming “a gay icon”. Goodness knows who the celery was supposed to appeal to, though. Dentists? The Sixth Doctor’s hair serves as a metaphor for Colin Baker’s own experience in the role: it starts out full of bounce and vigour, but by the end of The Trial of a Time Lord is looking distinctly frazzled (I don’t know what the humidity was like in that courtroom, but no amount of Frizz Ease was going to save this one). Secretive so-and-so that he was, the Seventh Doctor had a habit of keeping his hair under his hat – which is just as well, as it rather defies all attempts at categorisation. Even now, the best description expert hairologists have managed to come up with is “brown”. Paul McGann was the first Doctor since William Hartnell to wear a wig (two, in fact, costing $5,000 a pop). It wasn’t until he returned to the role 17 years later that he finally appeared with model’s own hair – though probably not the hair you were expecting. Post-Eccleston, David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor reintroduced the idea of Interesting Hair to the role – though those stalagmites of lovingly applied gel did raise the disturbing idea of the Doctor spending an hour in the TARDIS bathroom before dashing out to save the universe. And any doubts that 26-year-old Matt Smith might be too young to play the Doctor were instantly assuaged when he was unveiled to the nation staring out beneath a magnificent swoosh so enormous, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d cast the hair, and the actor came with it. And now, after 58 years, we are blessed to be living through a truly golden period for Doctor Who hair: the sort of hair that’s stylish enough for Radio 2 DJs to ask for in a salon, but which can also be swished about in a manner that’s truly… well, Doctor-ish. As a bonus, thanks to series 12’s introduction of Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor, and the canonisation of the Morbius Doctors, cosplayers' dressing-up boxes can be expanded still further. But we’re still waiting, at time of writing, for that elusive Ginger Doctor… Doctor Who returns to BBC One later this year. Want more? Check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes review: Boldly original, beautifully evocative
Caroline Katz stars in this docu-drama about the sonic pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme.
Delia Derbyshire was a pioneer on so many fronts, but to her list of innovations we can now add the fact that – according to BBC Four’s new docu-drama, at least – she was the first person ever to ask for a job at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. “No-one’s ever requested to join that department,” says a baffled corporation apparatchik in one of Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes' dramatised segments. “People are normally sent there. Unwillingly.” “Like to Coventry?” smiles Delia (Caroline Katz, pictured) – a native of that equally unfashionable city – sweetly. “May I ask you why?” persists the man from the BBC. Delia’s reply has a simple clarity: “I’d like to create sounds that have never existed in the world before.” Which is exactly what she would go on to do – most famously, of course, through the menacing throb and unearthly howl of the Doctor Who theme, a moment of musical and television history that contributed greatly to Derbyshire’s belated recognition as “the godmother of electronic dance music” (a title the film suggests would have amused and baffled her in equal measure). A labour of love for writer-director-star Katz, The Myths and the Legendary Tapes was made three years ago but is only now receiving its broadcast debut as part of the BBC’s long-running Arena arts strand – the perfect berth, as it turns out, for a boldly original and beautifully evocative piece of avant-garde filmmaking. Born three years before the start of the Coventry Blitz that reduced so much of the city to rubble, Derbyshire often credited her love of abstract sounds to the constant background drone of air-raid sirens, followed by the shrill whine of the all-clear, that soundtracked her early years. Ferociously bright, she received offers from both Oxford and Cambridge – pretty much unheard of for a working-class girl in the 1950s – and in the film we see her, freshly graduated from the latter with a degree in mathematics and music, submitting to a dispiriting round of job interviews. “Music is just an expression of mathematics – it’s an idea that was established way back in the sixth century by Pythagoras,” she explains patiently to a careers officer. We also learn that she can find a piece of music on a record just by looking at the vinyl (it’s all a matter of groove modulations, apparently). At Decca Records, she’s told by a cigar-chewing exec that they don’t employ women in their recording studios – but they might have a secretarial position if she’s interested? (“He was probably the man who turned down The Beatles,” she Fleabags to the camera, knowingly.) Her persistence at the BBC is rewarded with the offer of a three-month placement in the Radiophonic Workshop’s Maida Vale studio. “You were only allowed to stay for three months in case you went mad,” recalls Brian Hodgson – Derbyshire’s friend, and fellow Doctor Who sonic adventurer, of the perceived psychological impact of prolonged exposure to the experimental noises they conjured up there. Katz’s film beautifully captures this lost analogue world of sine wave oscillators and magnetic tape, and the delightfully archaic nature by which the Workshop’s technicians – they weren’t allowed to call themselves musicians – created the sounds of the future using milk bottles and lampshades, or writhing about on the floor in a box of gravel. From the start, Delia is keen combine her musical skills with her knowledge of Pythagorean maths and ancient Greek harmonics. “You can be our enchantress of numbers,” says her boss, Desmond Briscoe – a neat little man with old-school manners and, it would seem, a grasp of sexual politics to match. “I’m a mathematician, Desmond,” she sighs. One day, Desmond arrives with a request from a young drama producer called Verity Lambert, who needs a theme for her new family science fiction serial, which she would like to sound like the avant-garde Parisian combo Les Structures Sonores, only much, much cheaper. He has in his hand a piece of paper – a scribbled melody and bassline from composer Ron Grainer, along with instructions that the mood of the piece should sound like “wind bubbles and clouds”. From this, Delia fashions one of postwar Britain’s most instantly recognisable pieces of music – a disorienting journey into teatime terror that famously led Grainer to suggest she should have got half the royalties. As it was, she still wasn’t even allowed to call herself a musician. Along with Hodgson – whose '60s self is charmingly brought to life by a twinkly Julian Rhind-Tutt – and synthesiser pioneer Peter Zinovieff, Delia forms the experimental performance troupe Unit Delta Plus, and embarks on a relationship with fellow musical experimentalist David Vorhaus (Tom Meetan), following a flirty date where they get each other excited by talking about frequency shifters. This is very much Delia’s late '60s stoner period – Psyche-Delia, as David calls her – where Brian Jones drops in to check out the Workshop’s fab gear. The drama is intercut with footage of musician and performance artist Cosey Fanni Tuttey – a former member of industrial art-op combo Throbbing Gristle, and very much Derbyshire’s spiritual successor – on a mission to source musique concrete from the concrete of Coventry. Tuttey also provides the film’s hypnotic original score, assembled from 267 tapes discovered packed away in cereal boxes in Derbyshire’s Northampton home after her death in 2001. By sampling and manipulating these lost recordings, Tuttey creates “a phantom collaboration – an exchange of ideas across time”, while Katz’s own dialogue also interlaces and overlaps with recordings of Derbyshire herself, in a manner that honours her own tape-splicing sonic sorcery. With the production seemingly confined to one soundstage, Katz employs a range of theatrical devices, with a company of supporting players swapping between roles, and extensive use of back projection. (In one particularly witty shot, Katz appears to walk through the backcloth and into a telephone box.) Allied to Tuttey’s score, the result is beautifully trippy collage of sound and vision. The final reel documents Delia’s long slide into alcoholism and depression with tact and restraint. She grows disillusioned with life at the Workshop, and struggles to adapt to its clunky early synthesizers. (Doctor Who diehards will be pleased to know that the infamous, dead-on-arrival 1972 Delaware synth revamp – the result of which sounded like someone pinging a Coke can – gets a look-in.) “What are you doing?” asks Brian, finding her slumped at her desk. “Decomposing,” she puns miserably. Though her later years are inevitably a story of decline and wasted potential, the film ends with Katz, as Delia, reading her own, woefully inaccurate newspaper obituary, with lively amusement (“A hopeless alcoholic? Actually, I was rather a successful alcoholic...”) Brian Hodgson, meanwhile, recalls his friend as being “a bit like a diamond. It depends how you shine the light. You get all sorts of different Delias." “She was too in advance of her time,” he adds – a fitting epitaph for a woman who fulfilled her ambition of making sounds that had never existed in the world before, and which may very well never exist in it again. Doctor Who returns to BBC One later this year. Check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
Meet the cast of Maigret's Night at the Crossroads
Everything you need to know about Rowan Atkinson and his co-stars in ITV’s latest take on the classic French detective.
Classic sleuth Maigret is back on screens this Easter in a new ITV film starring Rowan Atkinson. Georges Simenon’s French detective appeared in a whopping 75 novels and 28 short stories between 1931 and 1972, and has previously been played by the likes of Michael Gambon, Richard Harris and Rupert Davies. Atkinson starred in two previous adaptations, Maigret Sets a Trap and Maigret's Dead Man, and reprised his role in Maigret's Night at the Crossroads, first aired in 2017 and getting a repeat showing in 2020. Maigret's Night at the Crossroads sees Atkinson joined by an impressive cast of familiar screen faces. Here’s our guide to who’s who, and where you might have seen them before. Rowan Atkinson – Chief Inspector Maigret Comedy legend Atkinson – best known for his iconic roles as Edmund Blackadder and Mr Bean – may seem an unlikely choice to play the pipe-smoking chief inspector. But if you think he’s donning Maigret’s trilby “in order to achieve some kind of respectability”, think again, the 61-year-old told Radio Times this week. The County Durham-born star started performing as a student with the Oxford Revue, before finding fame as one quarter of the Not the Nine O’Clock News team, along with Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. He wrote the first series of The Black Adder with Richard Curtis, before Ben Elton replaced him as co-writer for Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth. He first played Mr Bean in 1990 and, following numerous TV series and two feature films, still voices the animated version of the character today. Atkinson made a memorable appearance as a bumbling vicar in Richard Curtis’ Four Wedding and a Funeral, and later fronted Ben Elton’s police sitcom, The Thin Blue Line. This isn’t his first ‘straight’ drama role: in 2013, he starred in Simon Gray’s Quartermaine’s Terms in the West End, and his CBE in that year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours was awarded for “services to drama and charity”. Shaun Dingwall – Inspector Janvier Shaun Dingwall – who plays one of the trusted colleagues Maigret calls ‘The Faithful Four’ – already has plenty of police hours under his belt, having played DC Mark Rivers in three series of Paul Abbott’s Touching Evil, DI Mike Lewis in Lynda La Plante’s Above Suspicion, and a detective super on New Tricks. Away from the force, he’s best known for portraying the father of two iconic TV characters: he was Rose Tyler’s dad Pete on Doctor Who, and a young Del Boy’s old man in Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips. Aidan McCardle – Judge Comeliau A judge who becomes Maigret’s rival over the course of several books, Comeliau is here played by Irish actor Aidan McCardle, most recently seen as Lord Loxley in Mr Selfridge. Prior to that, he’d carved out a niche playing real historical characters, including lawyer John Silvester in Garrow’s Law, Dudley Moore in the TV biopic Not Only But Always, plus John the Baptist, Richard Sheridan, Igor Stravinsky and Albert Einstein (twice). He also played Andy, the lead character’s dad (and Olivia Colman’s husband) in Jonathan Harvey’s comedy drama Beautiful People, while his extensive stage credits include the title role in the RSC’s Richard III. Ian Puleston Davies – Inspector Colombani Ian Puleston Davies is probably best known to viewers as Owen Armstrong – resident of Coronation Street's cobbles between 2010 and 2015. But since leaving the soap last year, he's bagged a string of top roles, appearing in ITV's Beowulf and Marcella before popping up in Channel 4 drama National Treasure. And his post-Corrie career looks set to go from strength to strength, with a role in Sky's big-budget Tin Star next year alongside the likes of Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks. In Maigret's Dead Man he plays Inspector Colombani – the policeman heading up an investigation into a mysterious string of brutal farmhouse break-ins. Lucy Cohu – Mme Maigret The latest in a long line of actresses to play Maigret’s wife, Lucy Cohu made her name as Major Jessica Bailey in Soldier, Soldier. She was nominated for both a Bafta and an Emmy for her portrayal of Princess Margaret in Channel 4’s 2005 biopic The Queen’s Sister. She would later take home an Emmy for her role in true-life drama Forgiven. Cohu co-starred with David Morrissey in Cape Wrath, a C4 drama about a family trying to escape their past, appeared in the BBC’s adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes, starring Emma Watson, and played Alice Carter – daughter of John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Harkness – in mini-series Torchwood: Children of Earth. Her most prominent recent role was as Tess Hanchard, David Tennant’s ex-wife in Broadchurch. Leo Staar – Inspector LaPointe Another member of Maigret’s “Faithful Four”, Inspector LaPointe is played by Leo Staar, best known as Jenny Lee’s ill-fated boyfriend Alec Jesmond in Call the Midwife. (Remember when he died after that fall? It was a tearjerker, even by CTM’s standards.) Since then, he’s appeared in Casualty, Death in Paradise and Lewis, where hopefully he picked up a few tips about this police inspector business from Kevin Whately. Tom Wlaschiha – Carl Andersen A wealthy Danish man living at the Three Widows Crossroads, Carl shares a home with his sister, Else. But the aloof pair attract attention when a diamond merchant – Isaac Goldberg – is found dead in their neighbour, Emile Michonnet’s, garage. The body is at the wheel of Carl’s car leading Maigret to question whether the Andersens are caught up in his death... German actor Tom is best known for playing Jaqen H’ghar in the second, fifth and sixth seasons of Game of Thrones – although it remains to be seen whether he’ll play a part in the new run this summer. Besides Thrones, Wlaschiha has appeared in a string of German productions and stars as Kommissar Sebastian Berger in crime series Crossing Lines. Mia Jexen – Else Andersen The glamorous sister of Carl, Else proves a distraction for the fastidious – and married – Maigret who can’t help but notice the alluring Danish woman. Living with her brother at the crossroads, Else gets caught up in the investigation into Goldberg’s killing. Is she as innocent as she makes out? Danish actress Mia Jexen is best known for playing PC Ingrid Witry in Sky Atlantic’s Fortitude set in wintry Scandinavia. After attending drama school in the UK, she spent several years starring in Denmark’s hit TV series 2900 Happiness. Kevin McNally – Inspector Louis Grandjean Grandjean joins Rowan Atkinson’s Maigret in his attempts to track down the real killer of Isaac Goldberg. Kevin McNally may be familiar to Pirates of the Caribbean fans thanks to his portrayal of Joshamee Gibbs in all four films – he also has a role in the fifth, due for release later this year. An actor for more than 40 years, he has cropped up in many projects, both in film and television. He is married to Downton Abbey actress Phyllis Logan who played Mrs Hughes in the ITV drama. Colin Mace – Inspector Lognon Nicknamed “the ungracious inspector”, Lognon represents a promotion for Colin Mace, who’s earlier this year played a detective sergeant in BBC Three kidnap drama Thirteen. Other recent credits include Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, Cradle to Grave, Call the Midwife, Foyle’s War and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies. Christopher Bowen – Inspector Lefors Playing yet another Inspector (there are clearly no staff shortages at the Paris Brigade Criminelle), Christopher Bowen’s extensive TV credits include Doctor Who (he was evil knight Mordred in Sylvester McCoy story Battlefield), Parade’s End, Jane Eyre, Lewis and Agatha Christie’s Poirot. He was a naval commander in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, and also played Prince Charles in a TV movie based on James Hewitt’s book Princess in Love. Mark Heap – Moers Police pathologist Moers is brought to life by Mark Heap, best known for his work in an impressive portfolio of classic British comedies. He was Brian, the introverted artist in Spaced, pompous doctor Alan Statham in Green Wing (pictured), strait-laced Terry in Paul Whitehouse’s Happiness and infatuated neighbour Jim in Friday Night Dinner. He has been a regular collaborator with Chris Morris, made a memorable guest appearance as a psychiatrist on Miranda, and played Charles Dickens in the BBC drama Desperate Romantics. Films include About a Boy, Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Stardust and The World’s End. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide
Doctor Who? What IS the Doctor's real name?
John Smith? The Oncoming Storm? Basil? Paul Kirkley attempts to uncover the real name of the Doctor…
What’s in a name? Quite a lot, if you’re the Doctor, or Basil, or Theta Sigma, or δ³Σx², or whatever Doctor Who's lead character is really called. It’s probably not Basil, if we’re honest. But that’s the name he gives in 2017's The Zygon Inversion, and the Doctor never lies, right? Apart from when the Doctor does lie, which is all the time. But if not Basil, or 'Doctor Who,' then what? What is the Doctor's real name? What is very clear is that the Doctor doesn’t want us to know, actually. When he first met River Song, David Tennant's Tenth Doctor was shocked and horrified that she knew his name, stating there was “only one reason” he would ever divulge that information. (We suspect that reason was marriage, because it was during their wedding ceremony, now in his Eleventh incarnation, that he supposedly whispered it in her ear – on the other hand, he could equally have been saying "Don't worry, I'm actually a robot version of me with the tiny real me hiding inside." Time Lord weddings are complicated). Around the same time, the witch (sorry, Carrionite) Lilith claimed the Doctor was hiding his true name from her “in despair”, while psychic Roman teenager Evelina said his “true name” was “hidden” even from her. Intriguing. View oEmbed on the source website During his next incarnation, keeping his name out of the headlines was virtually a full-time job: according to Dorium Maldovar, the riddle ‘Doctor Who?’ was “The question that must never be answered”. The Great Intelligence was desperate to get its hands on the information (in so much as a formless entity can get its hands on anything), while, on the opposite side, The Silence was an entire religion/spooky monster club founded on stopping the Doctor from ever blabbing it. In Eleven’s dying moments, we learned that the Doctor’s real name was the signal chosen by the Time Lords to return to our universe – kicking off a massive galactic bunfight in the process – until Clara persuaded them that the only name that really mattered was ‘the Doctor’. Quite right, too. Clara herself had briefly learned the Doctor’s real name in a book, The History of the Time War (not available in any good high street bookshops, sadly) but some timey-wimey business left her with no memory of it. D’oh! Now, following the events of The Timeless Children for Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, we can't be sure that even the Doctor is aware of his/her real birthname...could this be any more confusing? Anyway, with total disrespect to our hero’s wishes – and the possible safety of the universe – let’s have a look at some theories of what the Doctor might be called… The Doctor's name is... The Doctor Firstly, we need to ask if the Doctor might actually be the Doctor's real name. Who knows, it might be as common as Steve or Kevin on Gallifrey? But the evidence would suggest not. In The Name of the Doctor, Matt Smith’s Time Lord told Clara he had chosen the name ‘the Doctor’ as a promise – a promise never to be cruel or cowardly; to never give up, and never give in. Famously, he refused to use the title during the Time War, feeling his actions didn’t live up to the promise. The Valeyard – a sort of Hyde to the Doctor’s Jekyll, distilled from the dark side of his/her personality – also stated the name is an alias, while John Simm's Master mocked him for styling himself as “the man who makes people better”. As usual, though, the Master got it a bit wrong as, according to River Song, the opposite is actually true: we get the word Doctor from him: “the word for healer and wise man throughout the universe”, based on tales of the Doctor’s legendary exploits. (An idea, as RadioTimes.com reported, that Steven Moffat first idly proposed in an internet chatroom 20 years ago.) Incidentally, the Doctor does appear to possess several actual doctorates, including, according to 2011’s The God Complex, one for cheese-making. But that might have been a joke. The Doctor's name is... John Smith The Doctor’s most common alias (apart from the Doctor, obviously), this is his standard pseudonym on Earth. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor used it all the time while stranded here in the 70s (or was it the 80s?) and he’s still rocking it today, including when the Twelfth Doctor did 'deep cover' as Coal Hill School’s caretaker. He even became John Smith, for real, when he turned human to hide from The Family of Blood. Oh, and it’s written on his library card, which is probably, like, totally illegal, right? The Doctor's name is... Theta Sigma Theta Sigma – or ΘΣ, if you’re feeling flash – was the nickname given to the Doctor at the Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey, according to Drax, a student contemporary from “the class of ’92” who the Fourth Doctor bumped into again during The Armageddon Factor. It appears this may have been a genuine attempt by writer Anthony Read, who created Drax, to answer the series’ enigmatic title question through the medium of some knockabout throwaway banter. Fortunately, everyone chose to ignore this and assume it must have been a jokey nickname, which the Seventh Doctor confirmed it was in The Happiness Patrol. Could it give some clue to his actual name, though? After all, most nicknames bear some relation to the real thing (unless you’re Sting). For a clue, let’s turn to The Making of Doctor Who, the series’ very first reference guide, published in 1972. Written by then-script editor Terrance Dicks and regular scripter Malcolm Hulke (thus giving it a certain legitimacy), it breezily claimed, casual as you like, that the Doctor’s real name was δ³Σx². So Theta Sigma may well be a hilarious variation of this. (I couldn’t possibly tell you, as it’s all Greek to me.) The Doctor's name is... The Oncoming Storm, The Beast, Predator of the Daleks, The Great Exterminator, The Destroyer of Worlds, etc Names given to the Doctor by his various enemies. They’re pretty cool names, actually. If they really wanted to annoy him, they should call him Custard Face, or something. The Doctor's name is... Something unpronounceable The Sixth Doctor once told Peri she wouldn’t be able to pronounce his real name. Though this was on Radio 4, so may not be canon. Also, the Sixth Doctor had a very low opinion of people, and Americans in particular, so was possibly just being rude. Though later on, Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor suggested in his final moments that his name was largely incomprehensible, unless you were a child with your "heart in the right place" so who knows - maybe it wasn't just a healthy dose of xenophobia from the Sixth Doctor after all... The Doctor's name is... Doctor Who OK, here’s the biggie. If the Doctor’s real name ever has been spoken on screen, then most of the evidence points towards his/her name being the same as the one on the tin (or the DVD box, anyway): Doctor Who. Firstly, as far back as 1966, in the William Hartnell story The War Machines, supercomputer Wotan declared “Doctor Who is required, bring him here”. Yes, we know the real reason for this is because the writer hadn’t read his brief properly, or hadn’t actually ever watched the show, but now it’s out there, we can’t unhear it. Wotan could be wrong, of course – a case of “computer says Who” – but it was far from an isolated incident. The following year, Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, masquerading as a German, used the name ‘Doctor von Wer’ (Doctor of Who), and a few weeks later signed a message with “Dr W.” What could all that possibly mean? That’s to say nothing of all the “Doctor? Doctor who?” gags over the years. And let’s not forget the full text of Dorium Maldovar’s warning: “The first question. The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. The question you’ve been running from all your life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor who?” Hidden in plain sight. What could be more hidden in plain sight than the name of the show, the one that comes whizzing towards you through space at the start of every episode? It’s pretty obvious, when you think about it. Michelle Gomez's Missy certainly wanted us to believe that's the answer, calling herself Doctor Who when she stepped into the Doctor's shoes for a training exercise in 2017's World Enough and Time, and insisting afterwards that it really is his name. "He chose it himself, trying to sound mysterious," she said. "And then he dropped the 'Who' when he realised it was a tiny bit on the nose." Even the Doctor doesn't disagree. "You see this mad woman sitting in this chair? Her name is not Doctor Who, my name is Doctor Who." "It's not is it?" asks a puzzled Nardole. "I like it," replies the Doctor. Come to think of it, so do we. And especially given the revelations of 2020's The Timeless Children, which suggested even the Doctor doesn't know the truth of her past, maybe we should just stick with it. Steven Moffat seems to like the idea anyway... This article was previously published in 2017. View Riddle on the source website Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer with episodes of the classic series also available on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide and Streaming Guide. 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