Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2024-11-07T17:52:01.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Who were the real Peaky Blinders?
items: In Plain Sight's Martin Compston on becoming serial killer Peter Manuel: “It’s the darkest thing that I’ll ever play"
items: Why we’re already loving new Sewing Bee host Joe Lycett
items: Meet One of Us star Joanna Vanderham: she’s had an Emmy nod and five hit TV shows at 25
items: How One of Us writers Jack and Harry Williams became TV's hottest talents
items: "You're not playing that berk are you?" The Crown's Matt Smith and Claire Foy explain how they've fallen for the royal family
items: Elizabeth Debicki: I’m a mining actress, trying to find what’s underneath and bring it out
items: Peter Capaldi on being an "older" Doctor, the Time Lord's favourite newspaper and why not-cool is suddenly cool
items: 10 things that made this Great British Sewing Bee brilliant
items: The Great British Sewing Bee's best quotes
items: Art Malik: television has gone backwards - it's no longer colourblind
items: Broadchurch: Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan on the chemistry that made the show so compelling
items: Alan Davies: I'm usually the butt of my own jokes

Who were the real Peaky Blinders?
type: item
date: 2022-03-08T16:45:56.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: BBC One
subject: On demand
description: History is silent on a decadent era when guns and gangs held sway. Zoe Williams reveals the extraordinary story of Birmingham’s very own Sopranos.
encoded: They're finally back on our screens. BBC drama Peaky Blinders has returned for its sixth and final season, which inevitably opened with emotions running high and threats of conflict amongst its principal characters. The drama follows Cillian Murphy's charismatic Brummie gangster Tommy Shelby, and his turbulent rise to power. It features the return of Anya Taylor-Joy as Gina Gray, Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Tommy's sister Esme, and Tom Hardy as the infamous Alfie Solomons. Many fans had thought Alfie had been killed back in season 4 after being shot in the face by Tommy, but the show's creator Steven Knight recently revealed that Hardy insisted on the character's comeback. "The plan [for Solomon to return] changed, let me put it that way – because Tom does love this character," Knight told Metro.co.uk. Meanwhile, Knight has also said that viewers should expect "chaos" from Alfie's return in an interview with RadioTimes.com. "I think it's difficult to explain without giving stuff away, but we might find Alfie in a position not quite as strong as he normally is. And the question is, can he build himself back up?" he revealed. Stephen Graham is yet to unveil his anticipated gangster character Hayden Stagg, who has so far been shrouded in secrecy. We were treated to our first look at Graham's Stagg this week to whet our appetite, and it looks as though he's going head-to-head (almost literally) with Paul Anderson's Arthur Shelby, who doesn’t look best pleased by the new gangster’s presence. With many historical figures also set to appear in season 6, it's left fans to wonder whether the Peaky Blinders were real-life people once upon a time. Read on to find out how historically accurate the figures are that we see on screen… Who were the real Peaky Blinders? The BBC's Peaky Blinders opens on a slum street of Birmingham. The year is 1919. There are horses and Chinese fortune tellers, barely dressed urchins and men in suits so sharp they could take your eye out. The atmosphere …

24306982-high res-peaky-blinders-vi-f2f9b41.jpg
width: 4285
height: 2857

In Plain Sight's Martin Compston on becoming serial killer Peter Manuel: “It’s the darkest thing that I’ll ever play"
type: item
date: 2021-06-07T17:00:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
subject: Interview
description: The star of ITV's new serial killer drama also talks working with Ken Loach and returning to Line of Duty
encoded: Interview originally published 21st December, 2016. You never expect a sunny nature from an actor who’s made his name as a policeman. It’s ridiculous, but it’s true: Martin Compston’s superb performance as the often isolated, frequently luckless, mostly good-guy Steve Arnott, in Jed Mercurio’s Line of Duty, primes you to expect, at the very least, a serious, laconic guy in a sharp suit and a moral quandary. Martin Compston as DS Steve Arnott in Line of Duty Instead, he has quite a playful, expansive manner, although he’s thoughtful with it. He has an athletic energy; standing on Dean Street in London’s Soho, he looks like a young, Brando-era boxer, who doesn’t much like the violence but enjoys jumping around and wearing shiny shorts. I discover this is partly true because he started his career as a professional footballer. To have had two dream careers before you hit 30 (he’s now 32) might cause a lesser person to be boastful, but he’s adamantly not. “I was playing Scottish first division,” he explains. “That’s a bit different. I was lucky enough to have a glimpse of a dream for a year, so it was a big decision at the time – am I going to choose football or acting? But it wasn’t a choice between Manchester United and SpiderMan. It was a choice between one more year at Morton or being an unemployed actor.” Line of Duty was the show that made him a face. “The scripts have always been phenomenal, and we started with a pretty solid cast, and were spoiled with all the people we’ve had as guest stars. “But I didn’t expect it to be such a big hit with audiences, because we don’t make anything easy for them. And we always have these cliffhangers that leave people waiting, and that’s been dying out. With the box set, binge culture, everything’s so immediate.” He lets that hang in the air for a quarter second then worries that maybe it sounds a bit po-faced. “I’m guilty of it as well! It’s great, watching Netflix with a hangover. You can waste a day. But there is something to…

124789.jpg
width: 3960
height: 2640

Why we’re already loving new Sewing Bee host Joe Lycett
type: item
date: 2019-02-12T21:40:44.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Entertainment
subject: News
subject: TV
description: Queen of Innuendo Claudia has departed - long live King of Punning Joe Lycett!
encoded: For a man who once joked about slaughtering a fox in his Live at the Apollo show, the transition to fronting cosy BBC2 stitch-athon The Great British Sewing Bee could have been a bumpy one. But Joe Lycett is taking it in his stride(s). From sporting a tattoo of judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young, to comfortably chatting about baggy bottoms (of the jumpsuit variety) with the contestants, softly-spoken Joe is already proving himself a natural successor to Queen of Innuendo Claudia Winkleman... He dresses the part What he lacks in sewing skill, Joe makes up for with his jazzy wardrobe – rather fitting for a show that prides itself on celebrating creativity and fashion flair alongside technical skill. He’s previously proven he’s a snappy dresser, both in his Instagram posts and in the hot pink feathered jacket we see in the show previews, but in episode one he’s upped his game. Sporting mint green nails and a rainbow jacket, he chats merrily about which print he’d pick for his underpants and rummages in the haberdashery for the most garish fabrics. He's keen to learn The fact that he’s learning dressmaking lingo along the way only adds to Joe's charm. The self-confessed sewing newbie gets to ask the questions we’re asking at home. Like what is an invisible zip? And “that’s a dart, isn’t it?” He has the required sense of humour Of course the wry sense of humour that made his name is one of the things Joe was hired for but when you're following a class act like Claudia, you need to be at the top of your game. In this first episode, Joe delights in Sheila’s glorious decision to make an outfit for Rhianna in the denim refashion challenge. “Yesterday you were making an outfit for Rhianna. Can I guess this is for Stormzy?” he remarks the next day as she gets stuck into a cotton jumpsuit. And in future weeks we can only hope for some punning of the quality he shared on Twitter after being announced as the new Sewing Bee host: “My mum loves this show and she’s bursting at the …

The-Great-British-Sewing-Bee-Joe-Lycett-and-Sheila-f52f584.jpg
width: 4283
height: 2857

Meet One of Us star Joanna Vanderham: she’s had an Emmy nod and five hit TV shows at 25
type: item
date: 2018-05-25T12:27:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: “I promised my mum that if I didn’t make it by 28, I’d retrain”
encoded: Joanna Vanderham has an air of sleeves-up, get-it-done practicality, spliced with mercurial beauty, winning mischief, and a deep passion for her work. However, she starts our interview by giving a really dodgy housekeeping tip – when I realised I’d got chewing gum on my skirt, she offered the following advice: “I’m sure you can iron it off. No, wait, is that wax?” She is instantly believable in all things, on screen and off, but don’t believe her on chewing gum. Meet the cast of One of Us How One of Us writers Jack and Harry Williams became TV's hottest talents One of Us review: a clever, chilling and original thriller In One of Us, she plays Claire, a nurse whose cherished brother has been murdered, along with his new wife. As she supports her mother and other brother – as well as the neighbours, who were parents to her dead sister-in-law – it’s plain that she is the lodestar of the group, its unwavering moral north: everyone else is either too immature or too messed up. One of Us So it’s a new gear in her six-year career, which started fast – her first job, a lead role in 2011 Sky1 drama The Runaway, earned her an International Emmy nomination – and only got faster. She’s played the arch, high-class beauty (in Dancing on the Edge), the grafting, plucky beauty (in The Paradise), and the heroine in Banished and The Go-Between, but she hasn’t, until now, been the grown-up of the piece. She gives a fascinating, big-hearted but small-gestured performance, especially in her scenes with Juliet Stevenson, who plays her mother. “At the start of filming,” she says, “I’d been thinking, ‘How do I get on with Juliet?’ And she grabbed my arm, and said, ‘I think I’ll hold on to you.’ And that was it. For three months, she held my arm. We were each other’s rock, you can see it in the episodes, when she goes to sit down, I’m right there with her.” She makes a face that I decode as, “Does that make us sound like luvvies?” and continues: “Juliet was quite good at making sure we’d al…

115782.jpg
width: 620
height: 374

How One of Us writers Jack and Harry Williams became TV's hottest talents
type: item
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: First they brought us The Missing, now the brothers are back with a new noir-ish thriller
encoded: Brothers Jack and Harry Williams are best known to viewers for their spellbinding BBC thriller The Missing. But they’re known in the business as the writers most likely to get a script onto a screen — or in the rather panto terminology of the television industry, “get it away”. So it’s no surprise to see their new drama, One of Us, stride into primetime. Stylish, moody, compulsive, a little bit Scandi, yet at the same time utterly British, from its Agatha-Christie-esque set-up — a small, two-family gang in remotest Scotland, one of whom must be a murderer — to its obsession with the weather, which, in episode one at least, is a character in its own right. Meet the cast of One of Us Meet One of Us star Joanna Vanderham: she’s had an Emmy nod and five hit TV shows at 25 One of Us review: a clever, chilling and original thriller The pair vie with one another to see who can look most awkward when given a compliment, but once that’s out of the way, they love to talk about the process. “Most shows that are bad,” Jack generalises, smiling but meaning it, “come from people underestimating an audience, thinking people won’t understand, that they’re stupid. You’re screwed if you do that. You have to assume the audience is brighter than you are.” This is one of the first things you notice about One of Us— that it has elegantly avoided any clunky exposition that a real-life family would never say. This isn’t only their skill, Harry adds hastily. “We’re not unique or alone or the first to think that audiences are sophisticated and can understand complicated things. Television has changed. What’s possible has changed. Developers have become more trusting.” This is partly, though not completely, driven by ambitious, epically long American dramas like Breaking Bad— “It was unbelievably good,” Harry says. “I still think about it most days.” “I wouldn’t want to live in LA, though,” Jack says, “we’d be way too hot.” “That’d be awful,” Harry agrees, “we’d be on a plane the whole time.”…

115817.jpg
width: 620
height: 374

"You're not playing that berk are you?" The Crown's Matt Smith and Claire Foy explain how they've fallen for the royal family
type: item
date: 2017-12-07T12:14:04.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
description: As the lavish Netflix drama returns to our screens, the two leads talk common misconceptions about Elizabeth and Philip
encoded: Matt Smith is on a one-man mission to rehabilitate the Duke of Edinburgh. Prior to the first series of The Crown, the Queen’s husband was primarily known for making unfortunate remarks on state visits. “There’s a common misconception about him,” Smith says patiently. “When I told my grandad about the role he said, ‘Bloody hell, you’re not playing that berk, are you?’ But if you read up on him, he’s quite the opposite – he’s very intelligent, he’s quite precise, he’s got great wit.” Watching Smith look effortlessly majestic in Prince Philip’s scarlet Grenadier Guards uniform during filming at Clarence House, you’re also reminded that he was incredibly dashing. Everything you need to know about The Crown season 2 Matt Smith's Prince Philip will be 'centre stage' as his marriage to the Queen is put under strain in The Crown season 2 What was Prince Philip really like as a young man? Olivia Colman explains how she got the part of the Queen in The Crown season 3 Discover the real history behind Netflix's The Crown “The facts of the situation are that she was completely infatuated with him. He was a dreamboat,” says Claire Foy, who has wowed audiences with her portrayal of the Queen. “But they also had a lot in common and they seemed to understand each other in a way that was really special. They had a common sense of humour, and a common way of communicating.” View oEmbed on the source website The Crown’s smash-hit first season for Netflix sprang a few surprises on the Windsors’ loyal subjects, not least of which was how much of a wildcard match Philip was for Elizabeth and how far he would have been from the first choice of a royal-marriage-arranger. It was a love-match island in a sea of duty. By the start of season two, however, their marriage is miserable. The year is 1956 and the Duke of Edinburgh is restless in his helpmeet role and missing his naval career. More importantly, he has fallen in with a bad crowd, and has a “thing” going on with a ballet dancer. Aliena…

the-crown-7b3c0e9.jpg
width: 1000
height: 603

Elizabeth Debicki: I’m a mining actress, trying to find what’s underneath and bring it out
type: item
date: 2017-02-15T08:00:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: The Australian star set Tom Hiddleston’s heart racing in The Night Manager – now she’s the lead in an Aussie take on Scandi-noir
encoded: Elizabeth Debicki’s career reminds me of Uma Thurman’s, and not just because both are so tall, and so extravagantly beautiful, that they look like people from the future. One minute, Debicki was the surprise newcomer, giving a spirited but wry and subtle performance as socialite Jordan Baker in Baz Luhrmann’s film version of The Great Gatsby – a big break she describes as “strange and unusual. Many factors contributed to it, mainly Baz, who throws the net out so wide. It was, like, my second audition out of drama school.” Cinephiles said that she stole the screen from Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. Next, for the rest of us, there she was as Jed in The Night Manager, stealing the screen from the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie. Jed was an archetype in some ways – the bad guy’s moll, missing her son, smiling wide, bleak smiles at a malevolent Laurie – but simultaneously unusual, ten warring emotions under every expression, haunting sadness in every gesture. Now her leading role in The Kettering Incident, which was actually filmed in Tasmania before The Night Manager, feels as natural as casting Judi Dench as M. She plays Anna Macy, who has fetched up as a doctor in London, having left her backwater Tasmanian birthplace 15 years previously, but is now back on home territory. And while it starts with notes of the supernatural – UFOs, disappearances, a dream-like pace – a detective story emerges that will inevitably invite comparisons with Scandi-noir. “You don’t really get the sense of pace, when you’re reading something, but I knew it was going to be a slow burn,” she recalls. “I was always doing so much that I didn’t really think of it being slow, it was an onslaught for me. It’s sort-of like The Killing or The Bridge, in that procedural way, but the characters are interesting enough that you understand it chunk by chunk, peeling until you get to the core.” In fact, she didn’t watch either of those Nordic thrillers until after she’d made …

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2017/02/130348.f4bc7911-9fa3-42a2-b10d-0508750dc645.jpg
width: 4899
height: 3266

Peter Capaldi on being an "older" Doctor, the Time Lord's favourite newspaper and why not-cool is suddenly cool
type: item
date: 2016-11-25T15:00:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: News
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
description: The Twelfth Doctor also reveals why the inter-galactic character is just like Santa...
encoded: Peter Capaldi is striding around the Tardis set in the Cardiff studio, fretting like a host whose oven isn’t working. “I can’t turn the lights on because we don’t have any electricians here today,” he says, apologising for the lack of technical support that means we are peering at each other in semidarkness inside television’s most famous time machine. “So you don’t really get a sense of what fun the Tardis is. It’s quite cozy. Quite wombish and warm. People are always happy to film here. It’s not like being in Midsomer Murders, is it? There isn’t another programme in Britain in which you get to roam around 21st-century Venus.” View oEmbed on the source website At the age of 58, the incumbent Doctor brought something quite new to the role, an element that the younger Who fan wouldn’t even remember, growing up with David Tennant and Matt Smith – a sober, grownup demeanour that some people might call grumpiness. When he talks about his Who, Capaldi is anything but cranky, always almost-smiling, on the brink of some joke that he sometimes tells and sometimes chooses not to. How does it feels to be an old Who after a string of young ones? “Surely you mean older? The Doctors I grew up with were not young. To me, Doctor Who was not a young man. Ironically, I’m older than any of those, except for William Hartnell.” William Hartnell, the first Doctor The Tardis itself hasn’t changed very much since Matt Smith’s time. There’s a stack of Marshall amps, a nod to the idiosyncrasy of Capaldi’s Doctor being madly into guitars, and the odd piece of 60s furniture, but “I think it cost so much that it would have been a poor use of taxpayers’ money to get rid of Matt’s and replace it with mine”. As a brand, the show is so successful, internationally, that surely no amount of Tardis-building could break its bank? “It’s complicated: it is a brand, so it has to be sold. But the actual spirit of it is quite personal and small. So you have to look after that a bit, but also go and be a sa…

123696.jpg
width: 800
height: 483

10 things that made this Great British Sewing Bee brilliant
type: item
date: 2016-07-04T20:20:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Entertainment
subject: News
subject: Talent Shows
subject: TV
description: The highs, the lows, the lingerie, the steely new judge, the wisecracking host and dedicated contestants from all walks of life have made series four one to treasure, says Zoe Williams
encoded: Phew! Who knew suit alterations or inserting a shirt collar could feel so tense? Monday night’s final of The Great British Sewing Bee saw Charlotte, Joyce and Jade grappling with pin tuckets, plackets and yokes to sew up beautiful evening wear and fight for the crown of Queen Bee of the amateur sewing world. But it's not all drama... Along with the tears, scandals (well, sort-of scandals) and some occasionally saucy sewing, we've had sartorial successes, heart-warming moments from a diverse bunch of contestants, one-of-a-kind judges and the ever wise-cracking host Claudia Winkleman – Simply Sewing magazine is here to round-up the best bits of series four... 1. When things go wrong View oEmbed on the source website Obviously we’re rooting for the contestants to impress the judges, aren’t we? But sometimes it all goes gloriously wrong and when it does we just can’t look away... Even the most promising sewists can crumble under the pressure of the sewing room cameras (think back to Jamie’s shock exit in week three after being undone by the stresses of lingerie week). We could barely watch when the usually cool and calm Charlotte became unraveled in the final by a dress shirt collar. Who knew a seam allowance could cause so much angst? After stitching her seam a mere 5mm out, her whole garment began to go downhill, sending into her into a panic rush that spiralled her into third place in the first challenge of the night. Did anyone else detect a note of barely disguised glee from the judges? While our hearts sank for Charlotte, the judges looked on with Esme commenting “She’s panicking a bit isn’t she? It’s a shame.” Hmmmm. 2. When things go right View oEmbed on the source website Seeing the contestants excitedly call home to share their triumphs was a staple of each episode, and the various facial expressions, yelps and screams of delight were contagious. Although possibly the most good-natured competitive sew along to grace our TV screens yet, the series four Bees sti…

111912.jpg
width: 750
height: 450

The Great British Sewing Bee's best quotes
type: item
date: 2016-07-04T07:49:00.000Z
subject: Entertainment
subject: News
subject: Talent Shows
subject: TV
description: Ahead of the final, we take a look back at some of the best comedy quotes from series four
encoded: As series four of The Great British Sewing Bee draws to a close, we'll miss that heady mix of glorious terminology (frogging? godets? peplums, anyone?), unique personalities and Claudia Winkleman’s wise-cracking commentary. Simply Sewing's Zoe Williams looks back at some of the quotes that have brought smiles to our faces... "I got two firsts and I'm going to have two Chardonnays” She may be a 71-year-old grandmother with an eagle eye for pattern matching, but finalist Joyce’s weekly confessions of enjoying a drink or two had us reaching for the corkscrew…“I got two firsts and I'm going to have two Chardonnays” she merrily proclaimed after a double success in sixties week. "It's gone wrong – in ways we couldn’t even have imagined it was possible to go wrong" Series four’s most disastrous garment award has to go to Ghislane for her baby gro in week two. Patrick summarised: “It’s all just gone really badly wrong, in all sorts of ways we couldn’t even have imagined it was possible to go wrong. I think you have to just put this one to the back of your mind…. and the back of the wardrobe.” "When they teach you pi at school you think 'I am NEVER going to use pi in my life'" View oEmbed on the source website Retired teacher Tracey could always be trusted to lighten the mood in the sewing room. When the Bees tackled puzzling patterns in last week’s semi-final she announced, “I’m making a circle skirt… I need to use pi to work out the circumference. When they teach you pi at school you think “I am NEVER going to use pi in my life.., and now I’ve got to use pi.” “I’m a changed woman today, I’m biddable…” After going rogue with her binding in International week’s pattern matching challenge, Joyce thought better of open rebellion in the sewing room, returning the next day in a more malleable mood. “I’m a changed woman today, I’m biddable…” she proclaims, to which Patrick responds wrily “I can’t imagine you ever being biddable.” "That bow looks like a dog biscuit" She’s a patter…

111856.jpg
width: 750
height: 450

Art Malik: television has gone backwards - it's no longer colourblind
type: item
date: 2016-03-13T09:00:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: The actor talked about his new show, Indian Summers, and the real state of diversity in Hollywood
encoded: Art Malik first came to national attention in 1984 in ITV’s The Jewel in the Crown, the living definition of “event television”. In those days, that meant the whole country was watching; it was like a national duty, and falling in love with Malik the nation’s new pastime. Then aged 32, he played English-educated Hari Kumar, who fell foul of Tim Pigott-Smith’s embittered policeman Ronald Merrick. “I wanted to take him home; who didn’t?” says Malik. “Who didn’t want to protect this boy from the horrors of what was happening to him?” It was a spectacular start to a career that has taken him from Hollywood to Bollywood, via Holby City. He talks about them all with huge affection: “I jumped at the chance of doing Holby, it’s a great show. It goes out at 8 o’clock, and is probably the last drama of the day when you can get a cross-generational family in front of the telly. And guess what: it’s about as multi-racial as you can get. Why wouldn’t I want to do that?” Now he has arrived at Indian Summers, which critics have been calling the new “Jewel” since the first series was shown on Channel 4 last year. In the series, which returns this week, he plays the Maharajah of Amritpur, a watchful, worldly new addition to the cast. Indeed, this second series has quite a different atmosphere to the first, both more mournful and more charged. Malik doesn’t see the programme in the same light as the drama that launched his career. “It’s set around the same time, yes. But for Paul Scott [who wrote the Raj Quartet of which The Jewel in the Crown is the first novel], it was all about apologising; people apologising for what their nation had done in their name. Indian Summers is different because now we’re looking at what those Asians were feeling. That’s why I wanted to do it. I thought, ‘Oh good, the point of view has changed. We’re generations removed from the apologists for empire.’” This isn’t to say that he thinks the empire has nothing to apologise for, far from it. “People say, ‘…

102728.jpg
width: 620
height: 372

Broadchurch: Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan on the chemistry that made the show so compelling
type: item
date: 2014-05-11T06:00:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: "Our characters weren’t nice to each other at all. But because we got on in real life, you believed we’d been together for 15 years"
encoded: Jodie Whittaker, dressed for RT’s photoshoot in a tomato-red jumpsuit, conjures up a whole timeline of glamour: she could be in a Sixties Peroni advert, or tie a hanky round her head and she’d look like the land girl every soldier fought for. She has the symmetrical, open features and watchful, curious eyes of a sad heiress from an EM Forster novel. The one person she doesn’t look anything like is Beth Latimer, the grieving mother who, with the rest of a peerless cast, made ITV’s Broadchurch so harrowing. Unshakeably, instinctively modest, she remarks, “If I haven’t got any make-up on, I look like someone who could play a very weathered woman. If you put slap on me, I could be a hot girl in an office.” Whittaker was just one of a thousand reasons why Broadchurch, which sprang into that endless-winter-never-spring of 2013, stapled us all to our sofas. Nothing about it looked like a classic British murder story. There was little artifice to the central couple: “You don’t look at Andy and me and think, ‘They’re a bit Hollywood-looking.’ We’re not Hollywood-looking, we look like people who live in that place.” At the same time, there was nothing depressing about the look of the series. “Usually, grim stories are told with grim backgrounds,” Whittaker continues. “The colours are ashen, greys and blues, it’s urban, it’s cold... But in this, everything clashed, the costumes clashed, the backdrop of summer, that exquisite beach... And then the worst thing happens.” Andrew Buchan, meanwhile, was a portrait of devastation, so it is equally surprising – despite loads of previous incarnations, swashbuckling in The Fixer, rugged in the Cranford Christmas special – to see him so chic and cheerful. He doesn’t really think of himself as popular, certainly not as a “Face”. He swears he never gets recognised unless he deliberately goes out dressed up as one of his characters. Describing his career just after he left Durham University, where he studied modern languages, he says: “My a…

rt-comp-thanks-placeholder-8fd64dd.jpg
width: 800
height: 600

Alan Davies: I'm usually the butt of my own jokes
type: item
date: 2013-04-01T06:00:00.000Z
creator: Zoe Williams
subject: Comedy
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
description: The star of Jonathan Creek talks QI, his cancelled series Whites and finding his way in the world of comedy
encoded: You don’t realise until Alan Davies walks into the room that you have entirely contradictory expectations of what he’s going to look like in real life. On the one hand, he is so much a part of one’s cultural history – Jonathan Creek, back this week for a special one-off, has been around since 1997 – that he ought to be solid, beyond familiar, like the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament. On the other hand, his comic persona, in his stand-up routines as well as on QI, is so puckish, so powerfully subversive, that he ought to be about 17, with the crazy, curly hair of the 1980s. When he arrives, he looks like neither Cromwell nor the 1980s – he has a furry parka, still-crazy hair and a faintly apologetic expression. Just turned 47, his children, Susie and Robert, are three and one, which explains the faintest whiff of a person who wouldn’t mind a snooze. He smiles at everybody in the restaurant, walking through it as if he’s just knocked over their drink. This humility spills over into the way he talks about his career; where things have worked out he’s always very keen to place the credit elsewhere. I suppose you could say that his comic persona demands it. It would be a rum old business if he came over as a prima donna, having made himself the butt of all his jokes for the past two and a half decades. But the person created the persona; there’s a well of self-deprecation lurking underneath this self-deprecating comic. Davies can scarcely believe the longevity of Jonathan Creek. “I have young people coming up to me after stand-up gigs saying they used to watch it when they were kids.” He shakes his head. “Makes me sound so old!” It makes us all feel old; I swear the guy on the table next to us is shaking his head as well. “I think David’s [he’s talking about David Renwick, the show’s writer] satirical pen has got a bit sharper in recent years, it’s really got meat on the bone. It’s a very intelligent, crafted piece of drama. But they’ve always …