Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-02-12T17:28:35.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: View from my Sofa: Cathy Tyson
items: Blue Lights star argues that there are still so many realistic stories to tell about sex workers
items: The Inbetweeners' James Buckley reveals hopes for Jay in his 30s as a comeback is rumoured
items: My life on a plate
items: I’m the new MasterChef judge and I was utterly surprised to be asked to take over
items: Could AI breathe new life into vintage Doctor Who?
items: Ten Questions with Adrian Dunbar
items: Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar offers another season 7 update - and argues Ridley isn’t a “cosy crime” drama
items: 'I can't hide beneath my top hat this time'
items: Tom Hughes on Malpractice season 2 – and the twists he didn't see coming
items: The mother of all sitcoms
items: Amanda was "the obvious candidate" for a Motherland spin-off, says writer
items: 'I'm a tough judge'
items: Ten Questions with Parminder Nagra
items: Myths and legends
items: Charlie Cooper: "It would be criminal not to revisit This Country"
items: Colourising classic Doctor Who shouldn't be sacrilege
items: Doctor Who monster spin-offs would be a scary gamble for the show
items: What does the Disney Plus deal really mean for Doctor Who?
items: So what the hell is going on with Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who?
items: Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power review – Dazzling prequel doesn't let Tolkien fans down
items: How Bernard Cribbins brought magic and warmth to the world of Doctor Who
items: Doctor Who: Is Beep the Meep David Tennant's new nemesis?
items: Doctor Who has a bright future of potential spin-offs
items: Is it time for Doctor Who to embrace the multiverse?
items: Superman & Lois review: Full of sincerity and old-world optimism
items: Lost in Space season 3 ending explained
items: Lost in Space season 3 review: Netflix sci-fi's final outing is the show at its best
items: Who Killed Sara season 2's ending explained: What did that final scene mean?
items: Jared Leto's Joker wasn't the problem – it's DC's Extended Universe that's the real failure

View from my Sofa: Cathy Tyson
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Despite her Bafta, the actor says that every role she gets is still like winning the lottery
encoded: Add Black Ops to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? I used to have a small TV because I was against letting it dominate the room, but my partner is a massive film geek and viewing is very important to him. So, I doubled the size of my TV, but it doesn’t dominate the room. We have a corner suite that we watch it from. What have you been watching on your room-appropriate TV recently? I’m drawn to documentaries, and I’ve just watched Sean Combs: the Reckoning on Netflix. I’m also enjoying The Beast in Me. Who controls the remote at home? We share it. If I walk into the room and my partner is watching a programme, he will stop to talk to me. He doesn’t just continue watching, which is incredible, isn’t it? You recently starred as a crime boss in the drama Blue Lights, and you play the head of MI6 in the comedy Black Ops. Which genre do you prefer? I like immersing myself in characters and I’m fascinated by good writing. As long as my mind is engaged, I’m a happy bunny. I just try to make things interesting and bring some humanity to even the baddies I play – they were kids once, too. But being around people who do a lot of comedy is always lovely. Black Ops also makes pertinent points about racism and corruption. Do you think comedy is an effective medium to explore difficult topics? Yes, and I think it gets overlooked. Even though I’m not employed in a lot of comedic roles, I’m still aware of the need. I revere comedy and I don’t think it gets the respect it deserves, budget-wise, as well as the kudos. Your breakout role was as a sex worker, Simone, in the 1986 film Mona Lisa, and you played another one in the 1990s TV drama Band of Gold. What’s your opinion on how TV series and films represent that occupation? In the area of sex workers, there are still loads of stories to be told from a realistic point of view. When Band of Gold came out, hearing and seeing these women at home, it was revolutionary. I let go of my prejudices of sex workers on that job, be…

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Blue Lights star argues that there are still so many realistic stories to tell about sex workers
type: item
date: 2026-02-09T17:00:31.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Despite her BAFTA, the actor says that every role she gets is still like winning the lottery.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? I used to have a small TV because I was against letting it dominate the room, but my partner is a massive film geek and viewing is very important to him. So, I doubled the size of my TV, but it doesn’t dominate the room. We have a corner suite that we watch it from. What have you been watching on your room-appropriate TV recently? I’m drawn to documentaries, and I’ve just watched Sean Combs: the Reckoning on Netflix. I’m also enjoying The Beast in Me. Who controls the remote at home? We share it. If I walk into the room and my partner is watching a programme, he will stop to talk to me. He doesn’t just continue watching, which is incredible, isn’t it? You recently starred as a crime boss in the drama Blue Lights, and you play the head of MI6 in the comedy Black Ops. Which genre do you prefer? I like immersing myself in characters and I’m fascinated by good writing. As long as my mind is engaged, I’m a happy bunny. I just try to make things interesting and bring some humanity to even the baddies I play – they were kids once, too. But being around people who do a lot of comedy is always lovely. Black Ops also makes pertinent points about racism and corruption. Do you think comedy is an effective medium to explore difficult topics? Yes, and I think it gets overlooked. Even though I’m not employed in a lot of comedic roles, I’m still aware of the need. I revere comedy and I don’t think it gets the respect it deserves, budget-wise, as well as the kudos. Your breakout role was as a sex worker, Simone, in the 1986 film Mona Lisa, and you played another one in the 1990s TV drama Band of Gold. What’s your opinion on how TV series and films represent that occupation? In the area of sex workers, there are still loads of stories to be told from a realistic point of view. When Band of Gold came out, hearing and seeing these women at home, it was revolutionary. I let go of my prejudices of sex wo…

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The Inbetweeners' James Buckley reveals hopes for Jay in his 30s as a comeback is rumoured
type: item
date: 2025-11-24T17:01:35.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Channel 4
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The Inbetweeners actor James Buckley on festive fatherhood – and the happiest fellow he’s ever met.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Tell us a little bit about your character in Finding Father Christmas. I play the father of Chris, played by Lenny Rush. The mum’s no longer in the picture, and it’s got to a point where my character, who’s just called “Dad” in the script, feels that his son’s at an age where he should talk to him about Father Christmas. But it doesn’t go exactly as planned, and they end up on this Christmas adventure together. How was it working with Lenny Rush? As someone who was a child actor as well, did you offer him any advice? I don’t think he needs any advice from me; he’s a clever lad who knows what he’s doing. I’d say if Christmas was a person, it’d be Lenny – he’s the happiest fellow I’ve ever met in my life, and a really good laugh. Greg Davies is in the film, too. Did you have a mini Inbetweeners reunion on set? Greg shot all his stuff in one day, but I wasn’t there, so I missed him. That was a shame, because it would have been lovely to have a little catch-up with him. What’s the latest on the rumoured Inbetweeners comeback? I’ve not had any kind of offer – when I do, I’ll spend a long time thinking about it, but I’m not going to bother until I have some idea of what’s going on. Do you ever think about what Jay would be up to now, in his 30s? I’d like to think he’s become a bit more normal. I think all boys are weird when they get to those teenage years, then they seem to straighten out. What does your family Christmas look like? Our Christmases are great, but now our two boys are 14 and 12, I’m worried this Christmas might feel a bit grown-up. When you stop being a kid yourself the magic goes for a few years, then when you have kids of your own, it’s even more exciting. But I think those days are numbered, which is quite sad. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Finding Father Christmas is coming to Channel 4 this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit o…

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My life on a plate
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Corned beef hash, sheep’s testicle mousse and more – Grace Dent recalls the dishes that have defined her as she becomes the new co-host of Celebrity MasterChef
encoded: Add Celebrity MasterChef to your watchlist I’m over the moon about presenting the new series of Celebrity MasterChef. I was utterly surprised to be asked. For me, this was taking on the mantle of a show that I’ve watched religiously from the moment it began in 1990. In this country, we treat food very seriously. Yes, it’s an entertainment show but, at the heart of it, it’s about the joy of food, the science of food, the precision of food… I think when you ask people who work in television what it’s like, they always say the same things about how thrilled they are, but I genuinely am – I’ve lived and breathed this show for ever, and now I’m front and centre! I'm reminded of home by... corned beef hash Specifically corned beef hash made in a pressure cooker. I remember standing in our kitchen on Harold Street in Currock, Carlisle, in the north west of England in 1978 and my mother opening up the pressure cooker and spooning this corned beef hash with carrots, onions, peas and potatoes into bowls. If it wasn’t runny enough, we’d have it with ketchup. Now, when I’m with Anna Haugh [Dent is presenting this series with JohnTorode, but from next year Haugh will be her MasterChef co-host], every time someone uses a pressure cooker, I turn to her and say, “1970s childhood!” The first dish I learnt to cook was... asparagus risotto I’ve cooked since I was a child, but the first fancy thing I learnt to cook was an asparagus champagne risotto with aged Parmesan — which was very, very glamorous in 1998. Back then I was living in Camden, in a big, shared house with five incredibly ambitious women who all worked in the media. Whenever I had a date night, I would try to woo whoever was coming round for dinner with my risotto. When I cooked on the MasterChef Battleof the Critics Christmas special in 2023, I made this dish. I knew two things — firstly, that if you can master that risotto with depth and manage to get it out on the plate, people are always impressed. And secondly, I kne…

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I’m the new MasterChef judge and I was utterly surprised to be asked to take over
type: item
date: 2025-11-11T00:01:56.000Z
creator: Grace Dent
subject: Entertainment
subject: Reality TV
subject: TV
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: BBC One
subject: Comment
description: Celebrity MasterChef returns next week.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. I'm over the moon about presenting the new series of Celebrity MasterChef. I was utterly surprised to be asked. For me, this was taking on the mantle of a show that I've watched religiously from the moment it began in 1990. In this country, we treat food very seriously. Yes, it's an entertainment show but, at the heart of it, it's about the joy of food, the science of food, the precision of food… I think when you ask people who work in television what it's like, they always say the same things about how thrilled they are, but I genuinely am – I've lived and breathed this show for ever, and now I’m front and centre! I'm reminded of home by… corned beef hash Specifically corned beef hash made in a pressure cooker. I remember standing in our kitchen on Harold Street in Currock, Carlisle, in the north west of England in 1978 and my mother opening up the pressure cooker and spooning this corned beef hash with carrots, onions, peas and potatoes into bowls. If it wasn’t runny enough, we’d have it with ketchup. Now, when I'm with Anna Haugh [Dent is presenting this series with JohnTorode, but from next year Haugh will be her MasterChef co-host], every time someone uses a pressure cooker, I turn to her and say, "1970s childhood"! The first dish I learnt to cook was… asparagus risotto I've cooked since I was a child, but the first fancy thing I learnt to cook was an asparagus champagne risotto with aged Parmesan — which was very, very glamorous in 1998. Back then I was living in Camden, in a big, shared house with five incredibly ambitious women who all worked in the media. Whenever I had a date night, I would try to woo whoever was coming round for dinner with my risotto. When I cooked on the MasterChef Battle of the Critics Christmas special in 2023, I made this dish. I knew two things – firstly, that if you can master that risotto with depth and manage to get it out on the plate, people are always impressed. And secondly…

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Could AI breathe new life into vintage Doctor Who?
type: item
date: 2025-10-17T06:00:19.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: 60 Days of Doctor Who
subject: Comment
description: AI has been used as a force for good and evil in the show - but what about its real-life use?
encoded: Doctor Who has been exploring the ideas behind artificial intelligence almost from the moment it began. From WOTAN to K9 to the Cyberium to the TARDIS herself, AI has been both a force for good and for bad in the show. But while Doctor Who has been talking about artificial intelligence for more than 60 years, it's only recently that we've begun to ask the question: what does its real-world possibilities offer the show itself? There are, of course, ethics issues with many of the opportunities AI provides – using the tech to generate first-draft scripts, deepfaking long-dead actors, etc – but one area which may well benefit, without too much controversy, is the classic, i.e. pre-revival series. We've all seen those AI apps that can sharpen up a foggy old photograph or add a splash of colour to a vintage black and white image, but can that or similar tech be applied to classic television? Part of the queasiness that schedulers and streamers have about TV from the dim and distant is how poor the picture quality is compared to the needle-sharp HD and 4K programmes we've become accustomed to. Most TV of the 1950s and '60s – in the UK anyway – was recorded on 405-line cameras, later upgrading through the late '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and much of the '00s, to 625-line (or 576i) – that's far less visual information than the 1080p of High Definition or 4320p (4k) of Ultra HD, hence the much blearier, fuzzier picture. Older shows made on film, such as Star Trek or The Avengers, don't have this problem, as celluloid can be upscaled much easier. But can AI offer a way of extending the shelf life of these pre-HD programmes? Peter Crocker is a member of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, and is in charge of sprucing up those older episodes for Blu-ray release. Speaking to Radio Times in 2023, he told us that he already used AI "appropriately and sparingly" but cautioned that the technology isn't currently there to upscale, say, an old William Hartnell episode into eye-wowing UHD. "At …

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Ten Questions with Adrian Dunbar
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The Line of Duty star loves nothing more than a good crime drama — and clandestine curry club dates…
encoded: Add Ridley to your watchlist Famous for his role as the steely Superintendent Ted Hastings, head of AC-12 in BBC1’s Line of Duty, Adrian Dunbar took a demotion of sorts to play a retired Detective Inspector in the ITV1 crime drama Ridley. But the series, which returns this week, gave the actor his first ever lead as the grief-stricken Alex Ridley, who found himself returning to the force as a consultant. “Police procedurals give you a chance to develop character and backstory,” the 67-year-old actor tells us. “They’re the bread and butter of TV.” It’s been three years since the last series of Ridley. What can we expect from this second run? With a series like this, it kind of finds its feet the second time round, it starts to know more about what it is. Alex was two years on from his wife and child dying in the first series, and now it’s another two years on. We don’t lean so heavily into him being isolated and grieving – I think it’s important for the audience to see that people can move on from grief. What makes Ridley different, do you think, from your average crime drama? It sets up its own niche. It’s not cosy crime by any means, and yet it’s occupying that Sunday-night slot where you can’t be too visceral. So you have the serious police procedural that we devote time and thought to, and then there’s the family aspect. I was insistent that we needed somewhere else to go, and that’s the jazz club and the musical element. As well as being an actor, you’re also a singer. So, was it your idea to have Ridley sing in each episode? Yes, I was thinking back to cop shows that I enjoyed when I was growing up, like The Rockford Files, Columbo and Kojak where they all had these quirks that made you really interested in the central character and the mise-en-scène. This is your first show as a lead. Is there more pressure being first on the call sheet, as opposed to being part of an ensemble, as Line of Duty? There is extra pressure, yes. With Ridley, it’s no secret that I’m…

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Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar offers another season 7 update - and argues Ridley isn’t a “cosy crime” drama
type: item
date: 2025-08-04T23:01:38.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The Line of Duty star loves nothing more than a good crime drama – and clandestine curry club dates…
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Famous for his role as the steely Superintendent Ted Hastings, head of AC-12 in BBC1’s Line of Duty, Adrian Dunbar took a demotion of sorts to play a retired Detective Inspector in the ITV1 crime drama Ridley. But the series, which returns this week, gave the actor his first ever lead as the grief-stricken Alex Ridley, who found himself returning to the force as a consultant. “Police procedurals give you a chance to develop character and backstory,” the 67-year-old actor tells us. “They’re the bread and butter of TV.” It’s been three years since the last series of Ridley. What can we expect from this second run? With a series like this, it kind of finds its feet the second time round, it starts to know more about what it is. Alex was two years on from his wife and child dying in the first series, and now it’s another two years on. We don’t lean so heavily into him being isolated and grieving – I think it’s important for the audience to see that people can move on from grief. What makes Ridley different, do you think, from your average crime drama? It sets up its own niche. It’s not cosy crime by any means, and yet it’s occupying that Sunday-night slot where you can’t be too visceral. So you have the serious police procedural that we devote time and thought to, and then there’s the family aspect. I was insistent that we needed somewhere else to go, and that’s the jazz club and the musical element. As well as being an actor, you’re also a singer. So, was it your idea to have Ridley sing in each episode? Yes, I was thinking back to cop shows that I enjoyed when I was growing up, like The Rockford Files, Columbo and Kojak where they all had these quirks that made you really interested in the central character and the mise-en-scène. This is your first show as a lead. Is there more pressure being first on the call sheet, as opposed to being part of an ensemble, as Line of Duty? There is extra pressure, yes. With Ridley,…

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'I can't hide beneath my top hat this time'
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Tom Hughes is stepping into the modern day in his new drama, but he won’t be leaving behind the frock coats for ever…
encoded: Add Malpractice to your watchlist Over the years, viewers have become used to seeing Tom Hughes decked out in frock coats, Balmoral boots and periwigs. From Victoria, in which he starred as Prince Albert, to The English, to Franklin and Those about to Die, he has become the go-to actor for all things period – which is why, he says, his latest role in ITV medical drama Malpractice provides a welcome change of scene. “It’s very refreshing,” says the actor who recently turned 40. “With it being a present-day thing, there’s no veneer there – you can’t hide beneath a top hat. Me and [my character] James are incredibly different people, but there’s a rhythm that’s not radically far from mine.” In 2023, the first series of Malpractice (created by writer and former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah) was gripping, edge-of-your-seat telly, becoming ITV1’s most-watched new drama debut that year. Imagine Holby City meets Line of Duty, with a doctor accused of wrongdoing coming under investigation and the truth about their actions left ambiguous until the end. In series one it was Niamh Algar’s Dr Lucinda Edwards in the frame, but this time its Hughes’s psychiatric registrar Dr James Ford who is accused of negligence, with medical investigators Dr Norma Callahan and Dr George Adjei (played by Helen Behan and Jordan Kouamé) returning to put him under the microscope. Exactly what they find is still a mystery. “It’s the kind of show where, broadly speaking, you don’t want to give too much away,” Hughes says, warily. “You just hope that people go along on the rollercoaster, cat-and-mouse ride that it is.” What he does share is that the series takes time to fully unmask Ford and his – let’s say – complicated private life. On the face of it, he’s a good person who, in the opening episode, possibly does a bad thing. But, like Hughes, there are many more sides to the character. “There are no archetypes in this show,” he says. “All the characters feel very relatable and tangible because they’…

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Tom Hughes on Malpractice season 2 – and the twists he didn't see coming
type: item
date: 2025-04-28T23:01:35.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Magazine
description: The actor speaks to Radio Times magazine about his latest series – and the role he wishes he could have played.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Over the years, viewers have become used to seeing Tom Hughes decked out in frock coats, Balmoral boots and periwigs. From Victoria, in which he starred as Prince Albert, to The English, to Franklin and Those About to Die, he has become the go-to actor for all things period – which is why, he says, his latest role in ITV medical drama Malpractice provides a welcome change of scene. “It’s very refreshing,” says the actor who recently turned 40. “With it being a present-day thing, there’s no veneer there – you can’t hide beneath a top hat. Me and [my character] James are incredibly different people, but there’s a rhythm that’s not radically far from mine.” In 2023, the first series of Malpractice (created by writer and former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah) was gripping, edge-of-your-seat telly, becoming ITV1’s most-watched new drama debut that year. Imagine Holby City meets Line of Duty, with a doctor accused of wrongdoing coming under investigation and the truth about their actions left ambiguous until the end. In series one it was Niamh Algar’s Dr Lucinda Edwards in the frame, but this time its Hughes’s psychiatric registrar Dr James Ford who is accused of negligence, with medical investigators Dr Norma Callahan and Dr George Adjei (played by Helen Behan and Jordan Kouamé) returning to put him under the microscope. Exactly what they find is still a mystery. “It’s the kind of show where, broadly speaking, you don’t want to give too much away,” Hughes says, warily. “You just hope that people go along on the rollercoaster, cat-and-mouse ride that it is.” What he does share is that the series takes time to fully unmask Ford and his – let’s say – complicated private life. On the face of it, he’s a good person who, in the opening episode, possibly does a bad thing. But, like Hughes, there are many more sides to the character. “There are no archetypes in this show,” he says. “All the characters feel very relatable and tan…

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The mother of all sitcoms
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Lucy Punch returns to play Amanda, the bitchy queen bee from Motherland in a sitcom spin-off – with Joanna Lumley as her even bitchier mum in tow
encoded: Add Amandaland to your watchlist When BBC1’s cult parenting sitcom Motherland aired its final episode at the end of 2022, it felt like a definite full stop on the story of middle-class mums in well-to-do west London. No one, it seems, not even Lucy Punch, who played the infuriatingly ritzy Amanda, expected to be back. But, while filming in the middle of Arkansas in America, the actor received a call out of the blue. “They asked if I’d be interested in a series based around Amanda,” 47-year-old London-born Punch recalls from her home in LA (which was, she says, mercifully untouched by the recent fires). “I mean, it was an instant yes!” The pitch for the series was that Amanda has been forced to move from Chiswick to the less Amanda-y environs of south Harlesden (around Wormwood Scrubs prison, to be precise), and has to navigate a new life, where she isn’t the alpha mum or success story that she was in W4. “Amanda was the obvious candidate,” co-writer Holly Walsh says of all the spin-off/sequel options available to them. “To see somebody who thinks they’ve made it in life fall is a fun story to write. South Harlesden is only about five miles away from Chiswick, but for Amanda that’s huge, as she’s so postcode-obsessed.” Walsh adds that another part of the appeal of telling more stories in the “Motherverse”, as she calls it, was to deal with the singular stresses of coping with teenage children, so the new series is set a few years later. In real life, Punch’s kids are just three and nine, so she still has those headaches to come. “Most of my friends have older children, and it seems like a minefield,” she grimaces. “Almost every episode of Amandaland covers some sort of teenage situation: boys or drinking or whatever… But then, Amanda’s sort of a teenager herself. Now that they’ve reached the teen years, it’s a teenager parenting other teenagers.” Talking to Radio Times on location for episode four at an old people’s home in Croydon, south London, Walsh explains it’s …

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Amanda was "the obvious candidate" for a Motherland spin-off, says writer
type: item
date: 2025-02-04T00:01:24.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Holly Walsh, Lucy Punch and Joanna Lumley give Radio Times a tour of Amandaland.
encoded: When BBC One's cult parenting sitcom Motherland aired its final episode at the end of 2022, it felt like a definite full stop on the story of middle-class mums in well-to-do west London. No one, it seems, not even Lucy Punch, who played the infuriatingly ritzy Amanda, expected to be back. But, while filming in the middle of Arkansas in America, the actor received a call out of the blue. "They asked if I’d be interested in a series based around Amanda," 47-year-old London-born Punch recalls from her home in LA (which was, she says, mercifully untouched by the recent fires). "I mean, it was an instant yes!" The pitch for the series was that Amanda has been forced to move from Chiswick to the less Amanda-y environs of south Harlesden (around Wormwood Scrubs prison, to be precise), and has to navigate a new life, where she isn’t the alpha mum or success story that she was in W4. "Amanda was the obvious candidate," co-writer Holly Walsh says of all the spin-off/sequel options available to them. "To see somebody who thinks they’ve made it in life fall is a fun story to write. South Harlesden is only about five miles away from Chiswick, but for Amanda that’s huge, as she’s so postcode-obsessed." Walsh adds that another part of the appeal of telling more stories in the 'Motherverse', as she calls it, was to deal with the singular stresses of coping with teenage children, so the new series is set a few years later. In real life, Punch's kids are just three and nine, so she still has those headaches to come. "Most of my friends have older children, and it seems like a minefield," she grimaces. "Almost every episode of Amandaland covers some sort of teenage situation: boys or drinking or whatever… But then, Amanda’s sort of a teenager herself. Now that they’ve reached the teen years, it’s a teenager parenting other teenagers." Talking to Radio Times on location for episode four at an old people's home in Croydon, south London, Walsh explains it's here that Amanda, having follo…

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'I'm a tough judge'
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: After winning in 2019, Scottish chef Lorna McNee takes her seat on the Great British Menu judging panel
encoded: Add Great British Menu to your watchlist While it’s become routine over the years for past winners of BBC2’s Great British Menu to return to oversee heats and mentor their fellow chefs, none of them has ever been asked to join the show’s illustrious judging panel before. Enter Scottish chef Lorna McNee… “It’s just amazing,” beams McNee, who in 2019 won the competition with her Wham!-inspired dessert, Lime & Sunshine: There’s Enough for Everyone, and now returns to the show, alongside chef Tom Kerridge and comedian Ed Gamble. “To go from being a competitor all the way to being a judge, it’s unbelievable.” Talking from her home in Glasgow, the 37-year-old is clearly thrilled to be taking the place of restaurateur Nisha Katona. “My first day was pretty nerve-racking,” she admits. “When you’ve competed in the show, you know how it feels, and it is intimidating. I was nervous for myself – but I was feeling the nerves for them as well.” The contestants will, of course, be looking at the show’s newest judge as an example of what winning the Great British Menu can do for your career. After McNee’s triumph in 2019, she was offered the job of head chef at Glasgow’s prestigious Cail Bruich, helping to win the restaurant a Michelin star in 2021. She clearly has the chef skills required, but what kind of judge will McNee be? She bristles at the suggestion that, as a former competitor, she might pull any punches when critiquing the dishes. “Tom Kerridge and I are both Michelin-starred chefs, but we’re very different in our styles,” she says. “We both understand how things should be cooked, but we’re possibly looking for different things from people’s dishes. “I understand what the contestants are going through, but it’s a competition,” she insists. “I’m tough in the way that I judge, because I would expect the best from myself, and I know that they expect the best from themselves as well.” This year, the theme is “Great Britons”, with chefs drawing inspiration from notable figure…

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Ten Questions with Parminder Nagra
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: She shot to fame by bending a ball like Beckham — now she’s telling it like it is as Brummie detective DI Ray
encoded: Add DI Ray to your watchlist Parminder Nagra got her big break in 2001 aged 26, when she was cast as the football-mad teen Jess in Bend It like Beckham. After moving to the US, she joined ER as Dr Neela Rasgotra, a role she played until the final episode in 2009, becoming its longest-serving cast member. Since then, she’s appeared in Agents of SHIELD, Fortitude, Intergalactic and Maternal, and in 2022 made her debut as DI Rachita Ray in ITV1’s police drama DI Ray, which is now in its second series. It’s been 23 years since Bend It like Beckham, which helped launch yours and Keira Knightley’s careers. Has there ever been any talk of a sequel? I heard Gurinder [Chadha, director] had said somewhere she’d got an idea of where a sequel would go, but I don’t know – sequels can be tricky. The expectation is so up there, especially with something so beloved. Can you imagine if Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or The Breakfast Club had sequels? Some things need to be left alone. View oEmbed on the source website So you don’t ever wonder what Jess would be doing now? I don’t know what she’d be up to. Would she be coaching? Would she have a daughter who was getting into football? I almost don’t recognise that girl that was in Bend It. I know it’s me, but it feels like I’m watching someone else. Have you been able to play football since then, or does everyone get their cameras out if you go near a ball? When friends’ children are kicking a ball around, I think there’s an expectation that I’m suddenly going to bust out some moves. The training for that film was intense, and I do sometimes think, what if I’d have carried that on? I’d probably be a lot fitter! There’s a second series of DI Ray currently on ITV1 — was the character easy to get back into? I felt more settled with her this time, even though she’s unsettled at the start of series two. I get who she is – fundamentally, she’s someone who wants to do the right thing and get to the truth, even if it ruffles a few feathers. But in…

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Myths and legends
type: item
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: App
subject: App features
description: This Country’s Charlie Cooper now delves deep into UK folklore
encoded: Add Charlie Cooper's Myth Country to your watchlist Rural myths and legends have always bewitched Charlie Cooper. “I’m a country bumpkin at heart,” the writer and actor laughs from his cottage in Gloucestershire. “I love history and nature – and folklore, in all its forms, just combines those things.” There weren’t any mythical beasts or pagan sacrifices in This Country, the pastoral sitcom he co-created and starred in with his sister Daisy May Cooper, but there’s definitely some connective tissue between that show and his latest documentary series for BBC3. Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country (get it?) sees the 35-year-old Bafta-winner exploring some of the UK’s more eccentric myths and legends, from Black Shuck, a giant dog that’s said to roam the hills of East Anglia, to UFOs over Wiltshire. Though he’d always had an interest in all things folkloric, Cooper reveals that it was the making of This Country that really fuelled his passion for these agrarian myths. “I came across so many peculiar rituals and traditions, and it just opened my eyes to a whole new world,” he says. “We were really analysing our upbringing and the characters around us and the stuff we did, and that’s all folklore, really.” For this series the actor travels the UK in his converted AA camper van to visit, in his words, “weird little historical places”. The documentary, made up of three half-hour episodes, is clearly a labour of love for the actor, and he’s an endearingly wide-eyed host, talking to everyone from Black Shuck eye-witnesses to crop circle devotees. Anyone, he says, “with a strong connection to our pagan past”. It’s a timely series. In recent years, there’s been an explosion of folk horror movies and TV dramas, stories that plug into ancient traditions and the mystery and menace of the British countryside. Cooper believes this resurgence of interest in folklore and our far-away past has a lot to do with us wanting to break free from an increasingly hurried and noisy world. “Everything’…

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Charlie Cooper: "It would be criminal not to revisit This Country"
type: item
date: 2024-09-24T11:43:35.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: The writer and actor talks to Radio Times about exploring the UK's most fascinating folklore in new BBC Three documentary Myth Country and working with sister Daisy May Cooper on a new project.
encoded: Rural myths and legends have always bewitched Charlie Cooper. "I'm a country bumpkin at heart," the writer and actor laughs from his cottage in Gloucestershire. "I love history and nature – and folklore, in all its forms, just combines those things." There weren’t any mythical beasts or pagan sacrifices in This Country, the pastoral sitcom he co-created and starred in with his sister Daisy May Cooper, but there's definitely some connective tissue between that show and his latest documentary series for BBC Three. Charlie Cooper's Myth Country (get it?) sees the 35-year-old BAFTA-winner exploring some of the UK's more eccentric myths and legends, from Black Shuck, a giant dog that's said to roam the hills of East Anglia, to UFOs over Wiltshire. Though he'd always had an interest in all things folkloric, Cooper reveals that it was the making of This Country that really fuelled his passion for these agrarian myths. "I came across so many peculiar rituals and traditions, and it just opened my eyes to a whole new world," he says. "We were really analysing our upbringing and the characters around us and the stuff we did, and that's all folklore, really." For this series the actor travels the UK in his converted AA camper van to visit, in his words, "weird little historical places". The documentary, made up of three half-hour episodes, is clearly a labour of love for the actor, and he's an endearingly wide-eyed host, talking to everyone from Black Shuck eye-witnesses to crop circle devotees. Anyone, he says, "with a strong connection to our pagan past". It’s a timely series. In recent years, there's been an explosion of folk horror movies and TV dramas, stories that plug into ancient traditions and the mystery and menace of the British countryside. Cooper believes this resurgence of interest in folklore and our far-away past has a lot to do with us wanting to break free from an increasingly hurried and noisy world. "Everything's so hyper-connected now and we spend most hour…

Colourising classic Doctor Who shouldn't be sacrilege
type: item
date: 2023-01-11T17:01:29.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: The BBC is reportedly revamping old episodes for the 60th anniversary.
encoded: To colourise or not to colourise – that is the question. It’s a thought at the forefront of Doctor Who fans’ minds at the moment, after reports that the BBC are looking into colourising old black-and-white episodes as part of the series’ 60th anniversary celebrations. But why now? If this idea had been floated 30 years ago there would have been uproar, such as in the 1980s when the company Color Systems Technology screen tested 10 minutes of colourised footage from Orson Welles’ monochrome masterpiece Citizen Kane. There was similar spluttering when festive fave It’s a Wonderful Life was given a digital paint job, with one of its surviving stars, Jimmy Hawkins, saying, "I like the black-and-white version, because that's the way it was shot and meant to be. The depths of the black and the white, a lot of work went into getting that look." Of course, the technology that was available then is a universe away from what’s around now. Where some of those colourised films from the '80s looked like a child with a crayon set had gone to work on the negative, recent colourisations, such as the WWI footage from Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old documentary, have been stunning in their verisimilitude. But it’s not just the technology. There seems to be an acceptance now that these colourised versions won’t oust or eclipse the black-and-white originals. When it was announced that Gold would be colourising two episodes of Hancock’s Half Hour, there was barely a whiff of outrage from the comedian’s fanbase. If you want to see The Blood Donor and Twelve Angry Men in their original grey tones, they’re not going away. But if there’s a chance that some monochrome-phobes might give these freshly painted episodes a try, then surely it’s worth a shot? Those black-and-white Doctor Who stories that we have now are already far from the versions that were first put out on VHS in the 1990s. Now, software can restore the original video look to these smudgy old tele-recordings. With our t…

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Doctor Who monster spin-offs would be a scary gamble for the show
type: item
date: 2022-11-29T11:45:00.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Are Weeping Angel, Cybermen and Dalek spin-offs a great idea or a terrible one?
encoded: Before Russell T Davies was announced as the returning showrunner of Doctor Who, he floated the idea of a vast ecosystem of small screen spin-offs that would, in an ideal world, orbit the mothership show. "We should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return of Donna Noble," he told Paul Kirkley (who writes for Doctor Who Magazine and RadioTimes.com). "The whole science fiction world is so creative and so money-making right now, I think your wildest dreams can come true." Since then, we’ve had no official news on spin-offs, but if recent tabloid scuttlebutt is to be believed, the folks at Bad Wolf have a number of offshoots in the planning stages, including shows centring on some of Doctor Who's most iconic baddies. “Fans can expect to see Sontarans, Weeping Angels and Sea Devils in separate series showing what they get up to when the Doctor isn’t there to stop them, along with Daleks and Cybermen," a source told The Mirror. If true, this is a pretty radical plan. Every Doctor Who spin-off before now – on TV at least – has focused on the good guys of the Whoniverse, whether it’s K-9 (K-9 & Company), Sarah-Jane Smith (The Sarah-Jane Adventures), Captain Jack Harkness (Torchwood) or, er, the pupils of Coal Hill School (Class). Yet over at Big Finish – the audio company who, since 1999, has been producing officially licensed Doctor Who stories – villain-centric ranges have been a mainstay of its output for years. Dalek Empire was one of the company’s first offshoots, yet crucially it wasn’t told from the Daleks’ point of view, instead zeroing in on a fresh set of protagonists. Ditto its Cyberman series of plays. Even though their TV voice, Nicholas Briggs, was in charge of these ranges, he was savvy enough to know that an hour of Daleks or Cybermen talking among themselves is likely to send even the most devoted fan crazy. “Showing what they get up to when the Doctor isn’t there” is the slightly concerning detail. These spin-offs don’t necessarily ne…

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What does the Disney Plus deal really mean for Doctor Who?
type: item
date: 2022-11-03T11:10:15.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Disney Plus
subject: On demand
description: The House of Mouse will now act as a distribution partner overseas – but how will this impact the BBC series we know and love?
encoded: "This is the best of both worlds," Russell T Davies said when the news dropped that Disney Plus would be the new home for Doctor Who internationally, "with the vision and joy of the BBC and Disney Plus together we can launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK." The message was meant to excite and reassure. Yes, Disney Plus would – from November 2023 – be the platform on which the rest of the world could watch Doctor Who, but this wasn’t a takeover by the Mouse House, oh no. Doctor Who, to UK viewers, would still be a BBC programme, screened on BBC One, as it has been for the past 59, soon to be 60 years. Even Charlotte Moore, the BBC's Chief Content Officer, went out of her way to refer to Doctor Who as "this very British show" when talking up the deal. "Joining forces with Disney..." she said. "...will elevate the show to even greater heights and reach new audiences so it's an extremely exciting time for fans in the UK and across the world." Doctor Who 'is critical to the BBC', says boss Charlotte Moore This, then, is a very different proposition to when George Lucas sold Star Wars to the Walt Disney Company in 2012. Yet the fear then was similar to some of the more hysterical reactions to last week’s Who news, that it would lead to Star Wars’ rougher edges being smoothed out, and that somehow Disney’s parentage would end up ‘kid-ifying’ Star Wars (not like it was ever Solaris to begin with, mind). Of course, that never happened. Under Disney’s auspices, we’ve had Rogue One (surely the bleakest Star Wars movie ever), the risk-taking The Last Jedi and the adult-skewed Andor. So much for Luke Skywalker suddenly adopting a wisecracking womp rat. So, let’s be clear, Disney don’t now own Doctor Who. Instead, it’s a deal between the BBC and Disney Branded Television, one that will provide a platform for the series overseas, and one that should, in all likelihood, bring in a lo…

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So what the hell is going on with Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who?
type: item
date: 2022-10-26T13:28:09.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Confused? You and us both, Ncuti.
encoded: “Will somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?” That may have been the Fourteenth... sorry, Fifteenth Doctor’s single line in that agonisingly brief Doctor Who trailer that aired on Sunday, but it was also the question we were asking at home. What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On. Here? Of course, the first surprise occurred in those closing seconds of The Power of the Doctor, when David Tennant’s perfectly coiffured Doctor emerged from that gush of regeneration energy. There had been fan speculation that it might be Tennant’s face that appeared in those final moments, ever since he was announced as returning to Doctor Who back in May. At the time, incoming showrunner Russell T Davies teased: “What on earth is happening? Maybe this is a missing story. Or a parallel world. Or a dream, or a trick, or a flashback.” Well, within minutes of this latest regeneration, the BBC confirmed that, crazily, David Tennant was officially the **Fourteenth** Doctor (that’s on top of being the Tenth). “The path to Ncuti's Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger and fun,” RTD said in a statement. “And how is it connected to the return of the wonderful Donna Noble? How, what, why? We’re giving you a year to speculate, and then all hell lets loose!" So, who is this latest Doctor and why did his clothes regenerate with him? OK, so the Time Lord’s togs changed in between the First and Second Doctors and his boots inexplicably transformed into shoes during the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration into Five, but that was more of a continuity screw-up than something vital to the story. This was actually intentional, with the new Doctor even patting down his new threads. So why has the Doctor regenerated into an already-used body? We know that the Doctor can subconsciously affect who he or she regenerates into. In The Girl Who Died, the Twelfth Doctor finally remembers where he’s seen himself before. “I know where I got this face, and I know what it’s for,” he says, re…

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Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power review – Dazzling prequel doesn't let Tolkien fans down
type: item
date: 2022-08-31T14:00:47.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: Amazon Prime Video
subject: On demand
subject: Review
subject: The Lord of the Rings (franchise)
description: Amazon's ambitious new series is a worthy successor to Peter Jackson's original big-screen trilogy.
encoded: It’s been 21 years now since that first Lord of the Rings film and eight since the last Hobbit movie, and, truth be told, none of us really expected another tour of Middle-earth. After 2014’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, some even wisecracked about Peter Jackson directing a version of the famously unadaptable The Silmarillion. Sadly, save for any scavenging of the appendices for The Lord of the Rings, it seemed like there was nowhere else to go, screen-wise, in JRR Tolkien’s mythology-rich land. But that was then and this is now. Who could have predicted that the Tolkien Estate, who for so many years had been ferociously protective of the late scholar’s work, would agree to new stories being created in his world? When Amazon Studios scooped the rights to The Lord of the Rings and its appendices (a chunky part of the final book that details the Second Age of Middle-earth) in November 2017, it was billed as the priciest TV deal in history. But the agreement wasn’t for a remake of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, it was to create fresh stories in this densely-detailed world. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power arrives as one of the most anticipated TV shows of all time, then. Not that it’s guaranteed an easy ride. Not only is it likely to be compared, rightly or wrongly, to Jackson’s Oscar-hoovering trilogy, but there’s also an army of Tolkien loyalists to deal with, many of whom are deeply suspicious of anyone but their favourite author playing in the Middle-earth sandpit. Its timing though, is unfortunate. When Game of Thrones debuted in 2011 it couldn’t escape being judged next to Lord of the Rings. And with spin-off House of the Dragon having premiered just two weeks before the first two episodes of The Rings of Power drop, it’s inevitable they're going to pitted against each other. In many ways, though, it’s an unfair comparison. Game of Thrones was always the Rolling Stones to The Lord of the Rings’ Beatles – darker, edgier, lustier. JRR’s…

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How Bernard Cribbins brought magic and warmth to the world of Doctor Who
type: item
date: 2022-07-28T13:33:17.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: Following the sad news of Bernard Cribbins' death, Steve O'Brien looks back on what made him - and his character Wilf - a Doctor Who legend.
encoded: The words 'national treasure' are often overused, but there are few people who would argue against them being applied to describe the late Bernard Cribbins OBE, who sadly passed away this week. It was only a few weeks ago that Doctor Who fans’ hearts swelled upon seeing paparazzi shots of the at-that-time 92-year-old actor, back as fan-favourite character Wilfred Mott, alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate for the upcoming Who 60th anniversary special. When we last saw Wilf at the end of 2010’s The End of Time Part 2, tears in his eyes, saluting the regenerating Doctor, we were bidding adieu to him as much as to David Tennant. Then, lo and behold, 12 years later, we discover that Bernard Cribbins and Wilfred Mott are coming back – only this time it really will be goodbye. Of course, Cribbins’ relationship with Doctor Who stretches back further than Wilf. In 1966’s feature film Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD he starred as the bumbling police officer Tom Campbell in the sequel to the previous year’s Dr Who and the Daleks. He was already a familiar face by then, from movies such as Two-Way Stretch (1960) and The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) along with a couple of Carry Ons, 1963’s Jack and 1964’s Spying. He’d also been something of a success in the pop charts too, having scored with a trinity of comedy songs overseen by The Beatles producer George Martin – 'The Hole In The Ground' (UK No.9), 'Right Said Fred' (No.10) and 'Gossip Calypso' (No.25). Cribbins’ return to Doctor Who 41 years later was never intended to be permanent. In 2007’s Kylie Minogue-headlining Christmas special Voyage of the Damned, the actor cameoed as a newspaper seller, still fearlessly manning his stand even when everyone else has stayed at home ("London at Christmas?" he tells the Doctor, "Not safe, is it!"), but that character was only retroactively ID’d as the grandfather of Donna Noble. View oEmbed on the source website It was when Howard Attfield, who’d played Donna’s dad in The Runaway Br…

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Doctor Who: Is Beep the Meep David Tennant's new nemesis?
type: item
date: 2022-06-15T15:28:19.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: Rumour has it that Russell T Davies is drawing from Doctor Who comics for David Tennant's next foe - and it wouldn't be the first time he's taken inspiration from these kinds of sources.
encoded: Until the last few weeks, Beep the Meep was a name known only to the most hardcore of Doctor Who fans. A character first witnessed in the pages of the nascent Doctor Who Weekly in 1980, he w​​as, at first glance anyway, a furry, eyelash-fluttering ball of heart-melting cuteness. It was only later in that story – penned by the writing duo that created Judge Dredd, Pat Mills and John Wagner (and drawn, fact fans, by future Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons) – that we discovered that Beep wasn’t quite the adorable saucer-eyed critter that we thought he was, instead being a merciless, gun-toting killer on the run from the Wrarth Warriors. So why are we suddenly talking about Beep the Meep and that strip, ‘The Star Beast’, all these years later? Well, it’s because something looking very like it has been recently spotted in Cardiff, leading to fevered talk that the currently lensing David Tennant episode (or episodes) may be some kind of adaptation of that comic strip classic. What gives some weight to this theory is that aliens that look somewhat like the Wrarth Warriors (a sort of biologically constructed police force bred specifically to deal with the dreaded Meeps) have been papped clomping down a residential road in Cardiff. In the original story, Beep crash lands on Earth and is befriended by two school kids, Sharon and Fudge, before the Doctor, in the shape of Tom Baker, turns up. Could this Russell T Davies-penned episode be substituting Sharon and Fudge for the Noble clan and could it be David Tennant’s Doctor who will be facing off against this homicidal furball? This, of course, is all highly speculative. Nothing’s been confirmed by Bad Wolf or the Beeb, but if it is the case, then this isn’t the first time RTD has cribbed from a Doctor Who story from another medium. Series one’s Dalek was very much a small screen rewrite of writer Rob Shearman’s own Jubilee, from the Big Finish range of audio stories. Similarly, the Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel two-parter …

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Doctor Who has a bright future of potential spin-offs
type: item
date: 2022-05-25T14:38:54.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: Russell T Davies once wished for a shared universe of Doctor Who spin-offs - but now he's back in charge, is this plan already in motion?
encoded: Before he was revealed as the returning showrunner in September 2021, Russell T Davies pondered Doctor Who’s future with Paul Kirkley (sometimes of this parish). "There should be a Doctor Who channel now,” he told Waitrose Magazine. “You look at those Disney announcements, of all those new Star Wars and Marvel shows, you think, we should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return of Donna Noble, and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together in a 10-part series. Genuinely." Did Russell know then, in January 2021, that he’d be handed back the keys to the TV show he helped relaunch back in 2005? Have his plans for RTD2 been hiding in plain sight all this time? Eight months on from that September news bomb, we know Donna Noble is indeed back, alongside the Tenth Doctor, Wilf, Sylvia and hubby Shaun Temple. How many episodes are the class of 2008 back for, though? Is it one special? Is it three? Might it even be a limited series of its own? Don’t expect clarification anytime soon, as one thing RTD is brilliant at is teasing his audience. All that talk of spinoffs, though... is there anything in that? Doctor Who has a patchy history with offshoots. Disregarding the Dalek TV series that Terry Nation valiantly tried to launch in America in the 1960s, the first actual show to be spun off from Who was 1981’s K9 and Company. Producer John Nathan-Turner clearly intended this 50-minute special, which buddied up Doctor Who’s shooty dog thing with one-time companion Sarah Jane Smith, to kickstart a full series, only episode 2 never came. It would take another 25 years before Doctor Who’s first long-run spinoff, the adult-skewed Torchwood. The next year, The Sarah Jane Adventures debuted, and RTD’s master plan was clear. There was Sarah Jane over on CBBC for the kiddies, Torchwood on BBC Three for the older teens and grown-ups, and BBC One’s Doctor Who sitting comfortably in the middle. Sadly, both programmes failed to survive for long after RTD’s e…

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Is it time for Doctor Who to embrace the multiverse?
type: item
date: 2022-01-06T17:44:54.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Multiverse movies are all the rage in 2022, but what could the concept of different universes mean for Doctor Who?
encoded: The multiverse, the OED dependably informs us, is “a hypothetical space or realm consisting of a number of universes, of which our own universe is only one". Of course, we barely need telling that now. These days, we’re all multiverse experts. We’ve had Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where a gaggle of Spider-Men, Spider-Women and, erm, a Spider-Pig from different universes bunch up to save our reality from the Kingpin. Then there was last month’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which deftly retconned Sam Raimi’s and Marc Webb’s Spidey movies into the MCU. And arriving later this year is Andy Muschietti’s The Flash, which will introduce Ben Affleck’s Batman to Michael Keaton’s Caped Crusader, forging some connective tissue between the DCEU and Tim Burton’s duplet of Bat movies. Add to that, Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Michelle Yeoh starring as a woman who exists across multiple realities in March’s Everything Everywhere All at Once and 2022, it seems, is shaping up as the year of the multiverse. With that in mind, and given that the most recent series hinted at the possibility of other universes, is Doctor Who ready to embrace its own limitless possibilities? Despite its lengthy TV life, the show has only dabbled with parallel universes, as this multiverse thing used to be called. Third Doctor story Inferno had the Doctor and Liz shifted to a parallel Earth where the normally homey UNIT is now a fascistic military force headed up by the murderous Brigade Leader, while 2006’s Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel had the TARDIS materialising in a Britain where zeppelins pepper the sky, and Jackie Tyler is a moneyed fashionista with a Yorkshire Terrier named Rose. As the Tenth Doctor mused a few episodes later, “There are billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other.” It’s odd then that the show has had so little time for these billions of alternate universes. If, as the Doctor told Jackie, "every single decision w…

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Superman & Lois review: Full of sincerity and old-world optimism
type: item
date: 2021-12-04T12:00:39.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Review
description: Despite an awkward title, this charming superhero story is a great acquisition by the BBC.
encoded: It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper Superman TV series. Sure, there was Smallville, but it was only in that show’s closing episodes that Tom Welling finally donned the blue and red, so it barely counts. No, we have to go all the way back to 1993 for the last show to feature all those classic Supes tropes, from flowing capes to heat vision to Perry White slamming his fist on a desk. The CW’s latest entry in the now-seven show-strong Arrowverse shares a near-title with that ABC series, though Lois & Clark trips off the tongue somewhat easier than the clunky Superman & Lois. But where that gleefully campy classic refashioned Superman as a Hallmark movie dream date, this latest Super-series defines itself by its sincerity and old-world optimism. Though it nods to the present day (The Daily Planet, once a muscular force for good in the world of journalism, has been stripped bare by its new owner Morgan Edge, while Smallville is now the kind of decimated rust belt town that powered Trump’s rise), its unironic, earnest tone feels like it’s been beamed in from another decade. Whereas Zack Snyder’s movies forever struggled to find a way of making their Man of Steel relevant in the 21st century, this series, developed by Arrowverse titans Greg Berlanti and Todd Helbing, posits the question: what if Superman’s greatest challenge wasn’t defeating Lex Luthor or Brainiac, but simply how to be a good father? It’s one thing to put on a klutzy mask for your work colleagues, but something else entirely to pretend to your teenage twins that you’re an unremarkable, milquetoast parent, 24/7. "Dad can’t put up a Christmas tree without falling off the ladder," scoffs Jonathan, the quarterback brother who Lois and Clark quietly think may have inherited his pa’s powers. They’re not looking at all at poor Jordan (why, we wonder, didn’t the Arrowverse bigwigs name the brothers Joe and Jerry, after Superman’s famously ill-treated creators?) whose social anxiety and all-round geekine…

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Lost in Space season 3 ending explained
type: item
date: 2021-12-02T11:37:53.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
description: As the Robinsons face off with SAR and try to save Alpha Centauri, here's our recap of every big moment. **CONTAINS SPOILERS**
encoded: So it’s finally over. Three seasons, 28 episodes, and a truckload of peril. It’s satisfying to be able to write that Lost in Space got to conclude its story, as that’s not something the original series ever managed. The 1960s version lasted three seasons, too, but was retired before its makers had a chance to finish off the Robinsons’ tale. Luckily, that’s not the case this time. "From the beginning, we've always viewed this particular story of the Robinsons as a trilogy," showrunner Zack Estrin said last year. "A three-part epic family adventure with a clear beginning, middle and end.” Whether it really was always the case that Lost in Space would climax with its third season, there’s little to suggest that its makers have had to rush to tie things up. It’s been a largely successful season and its final episode, ‘Trust’, packs a decent emotional punch. Sure, a few characters feel desperately underserved, but that’s a problem inherent for a show with a cast as overspilling as this one. The episode kicks off with Alpha Centauri already under attack from the robots, while Smith is stalking the hospital with the aim of murdering her old nemesis, Captain Radic, who’s there in a medically-induced coma. That’s the plan, anyway, until Robot interrupts her with a “Help, Dr Smith”. “Help who?” she asks, but it becomes clear Robot means her as he reaches out to take the syringe from her. Meanwhile, Will, Penny and Judy have been sent away to the planet’s copper mine, for safety, supposedly. But the convoy of chariots is stopped when an army of robots land in front of them. It’s then that Will figures out what the invaders are after – it’s the engine from SAR’s ship, which the robots plan to use as a bomb. An incapacitated Will (he’s still recovering from his heart transplant) tells Penny she must keep the engine away from the robots. “It’s got to be you,” he tells his sister. “You’re smart, brave, and you’re stronger than you think.” Penny saves an injured robot, names it Sal…

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Lost in Space season 3 review: Netflix sci-fi's final outing is the show at its best
type: item
date: 2021-12-01T12:06:59.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
subject: Review
description: As the Robinsons and Robot face their final challenge, it's a strong end for the Netflix sci-fi series. **CONTAINS FULL SEASON 3 SPOILERS**
encoded: Well, this has been a long time coming. Sadly, we on Earth didn’t have the option of going into cryogenic suspension after the cliffhanger ending of Lost in Space season two in 2019, so it’s been an agonising two-year wait to find out what happened after the robots’ attack on the Resolute and after the Jupiter escaped through that rift. Given that two years is a long wait in production time and that child actors grow up fast, season three picks up some time after that season two closer. It’s Will (played by the ever-excellent Maxwell Jenkins) who’s aged the most noticeably, with a newly broken voice and having shot up a good few inches (even Dr Smith acknowledges he’s now taller than she is). Having the 97 children parted from the adults for a full year means these kids have matured a lot in that time, and it’s been Judy who’s been keeping them together. With the adults elsewhere and much of the first few episodes here focusing on the teens, much of season three has more of a YA vibe than ever before. And be warned because this is a full spoiler review. It takes a few episodes for the Robinsons to be reunited, and by mid-season, season three Lost in Space feels much like season one Lost in Space. It’s here that the gang speculate why the robots have recently scanned, but not killed Don (“like they were trying to guess my price at a supermarket,” he quips). It turns out that the human body is, at an atomic level, regularly impacted by its environment (“some scientists think this makes our bodies like a point on the map of the universe,” points out Maureen) and that by following these cosmic breadcrumbs anyone with the right technology can travel to wherever that person has visited. And Don has been to Alpha Centauri. Desperate to stop the Robots from setting off to the humans’ new home, Will confronts SAR and is stabbed through the heart. With the teenager close to death, the Jupiter sets off to alert the colonists of the imminent attack. While there, Will is given a…

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Who Killed Sara season 2's ending explained: What did that final scene mean?
type: item
date: 2021-05-20T11:16:06.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
description: The Netflix drama's season two finale had a twist at the end – which may be game-changing.
encoded: So, after 18 episodes, the answer to ‘who killed Sara?’ is… well, we’re still not sure. For a while in season two’s dramatic, fiery finale, it looked like we’d been gifted an answer – it was Marifer who slashed the rope that led to Sara’s death 18 years before. Certainly she believes she was to blame, confessing all to Álex and Elisa before being hit by a falling piece of casino ceiling. Then, in a last minute twist, we cut to Nicandro rifling through a filing cabinet in an undisclosed location. As he opens one of its files, we see a picture of Dr Alanis, Sara’s psychiatrist, and then a photo of Sara with the words ‘SG - First patient of the project’ written on the back. “Dr Alanis,” we hear Nicandro say, “the money is in your bank account, just like my father promised. I’m very glad you accepted the money, instead of risking your life.” He goes to tell him, “Let [Álex] believe that [Marifer] is the murderer. No one can know that we were behind it. There’s too much at stake. Is that clear, doctor?” Of course, the big question now is: what is this mysterious project and what does or did Sara have to do with it? We know that Sara was, in Dr Alanis’ words, a “paranoid schizophrenic”, so was the ‘project’ she was a part of something to do with that? And what is Nicandro’s role in all this? He mentions his father in that closing voiceover, but – as far as we know – we haven’t met him yet. In fact, Nicandro’s role in this season, as in season one, has been pretty minimal. In the first season, even in the flashback scenes, he seemed a character on the peripheries of the action, and his role in season two looked to be fairly straightforward – he was a street-level drug dealer who got screwed over by Sara who then tried to kill him by cutting the brakes on his motorbike. But it appears something even more sinister was going on… Of course, this wasn’t the only cliffhanger for season two. We also saw Chema hand himself in, confessing to the murder of Moncho and – somewhat biza…

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Jared Leto's Joker wasn't the problem – it's DC's Extended Universe that's the real failure
type: item
date: 2019-10-21T11:26:47.000Z
creator: Steve O'Brien
subject: Movies
subject: News
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: Leto's days playing the Clown Prince of Crime are reportedly "over" – but is he really to blame?
encoded: How many Jokers are too many? That’s the question Warner Bros. was no doubt asking when it green-lit Todd Phillips’ Joker origin movie, mere months after the release of David Ayers’ Suicide Squad misfire. Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is the third big-screen take on the character in just 11 years. And those 11 years have given us three very different interpretations of Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson’s Clown Prince of Crime. In many ways, Suicide Squad's Jared Leto had an impossible and unenviable task - to step into the clown shoes of an actor whose portrayal of the character won him critical acclaim, as well as a posthumous Oscar. Said actor, The Dark Knight's Heath Ledger, had it noticeably less hard. The previous big screen Joker had been in 1989 when a portly and clearly-past-his-prime Jack Nicholson had breathed three-dimensional life into Batman’s most famous foe. (How good would Nicholson have been if that Batman movie had been made around the time of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest?). As impressive as Nicholson was, Ledger’s deranged, origin-less Joker was soon labelled definitive. The first question marks over Suicide Squad’s take on the Joker came with those first released pictures. That tattoo reading ‘damaged’ on his forehead and that fluorescent green hair made him look more like a member of a rubbish punk band than a crazed criminal mastermind. In the event, Leto’s Joker had just 10 minutes of screen time in 2016's Suicide Squad. Both Leto and Ayer confirmed that much more footage was shot, suggesting that the Joker played a much more crucial role in earlier versions of the film. Despite this, Leto – who, it’s said, became completely absorbed by his character on the film, gifting a live rat to Harley Quinn actress Margot Robbie, bullets to Deadshot actor Will Smith and a dead pig to the rest of the cast – appeared to have been looking forward to future outings as the Joker. But Suicide Squad’s critical drubbing (the sequel, helmed by Guardians of the Galaxy’s J…

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