Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-02-02T17:01:03.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: I'm Susie Dent and in the age of AI I believe being a geek may never have been so important
items: Bridgerton finally gets a lot more interesting by stepping into Downton Abbey territory in season four
items: This year the BAFTAs have a great opportunity to differ from the Oscars in one key way
items: ER is coming to Netflix – and it's time we recognised it changed television forever
items: Bridgerton finally gets a lot more interesting by stepping into Downton Abbey territory in season 4
items: The BAFTA Film Awards have a great opportunity to differ from the Oscars in one key way
items: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's The Rip proves the upsides and downsides of using real-life Hollywood friends
items: I'm Clive Myrie, and my new BBC ancestry series left me angry about history – but with a constructive way to use it
items: Resident Evil Requiem preview: Remixing the greatest hits
items: Call the Midwife's Nonnatus House jeopardy storyline has lost its edge – and here's why
items: LEGO Smart Brick preview: These next-gen blocks rock
items: Forget the doof-doofs – The Traitors' cliffhangers may have just outplayed the soaps
items: The Oscars should be about celebrating groundbreaking films – so why has Brad Pitt's unremarkable F1 movie been nominated?
items: The Oscars completely snubbed the year's most daring film – and it doesn't make sense
items: Death in Paradise season 14 teased an exciting Catherine development – but season 15 won't deliver
items: How Blake's 7 was massively ahead of its time when it first aired – and why it fits perfectly in the modern TV landscape
items: When did TV documentaries become all about celebrities and 'being' and stop being about people actually doing something?
items: The Night Manager's most surprising romance is probably doomed – but it's not too late for Teddy
items: I'm Ben Fogle and this is how my small breakdown made me stronger – and why I no longer strive for perfection
items: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' most graphic scene so far makes a crucial point about the show
items: Forget Game of Thrones – Industry season 4 just aired Kit Harington's finest hour
items: I wrote the book on Tomb Raider - here's how Sophie Turner and Alix Wilton Regan will rewrite Lara Croft's history
items: Everything The Traitors gets right about disability and neurodivergence – and what it doesn't
items: Game of Thrones's next sequel idea risks falling into a major TV trap – this is what it should do instead
items: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 review: Game of Thrones spin-off is best visit to Westeros in nearly a decade
items: I'm Winterwatch ornithologist Jack Baddams and this is why feeding birds might be doing more harm than good
items: After the Golden Globes some Oscar races already look tied up – but here's why we shouldn't rule out upsets
items: Industry season 4 takes a risky step away from Pierpoint – and it’s all the better for it
items: The Night Manager season 2's shock return is a frustrating twist that could do real damage

I'm Susie Dent and in the age of AI I believe being a geek may never have been so important
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T17:00:47.000Z
creator: Susie Dent
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Magazine
description: We need to encourage our kids to celebrate, not mock, their intelligence, says Susie Dent.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As someone who has spent decades charting language, I’ve learnt to push aside any personal bugbears when it comes to the evolution of our words. English has always been a democracy, going its own merry way without government from above. But one recent development has found its way under my skin, for very personal reasons. It is the appearance of the word “neek”, a blend of “nerd” and “geek” that describes someone with a strong – and, by extension, “uncool” – interest in a particular subject. It takes me back to my childhood, when I discovered that a love of learning was something to hide rather than celebrate, for fear of being labelled a swot. For a long time, I hid it away as something shameful, despite the pleasure it gave me and the encouragement of my teachers. Decades later, while filming our new series Secret Genius, Alan Carr and I discovered that not a lot has changed when it comes to the desire to fit in. The aim of our show was simple: to illustrate how genius can be found in any walk of life. Mensa estimates that there are over a million secret geniuses walking among us, which means most of us will know one of them: the friend who gets to the punchline of a joke way before the rest of us; the colleague who can make complicated calculations at the drop of a hat; or the partner who spots a pattern in an apparently random sequence. They might be a stay-at-home parent or a bus driver, pharmacist, paramedic, carpenter, train guard or singer – all professions represented in Secret Genius by people who have little idea just how brilliant they are. We are not talking about academic cleverness here, but rather an innate intelligence that sets someone apart from the crowd. Time and time again, the individuals (ranging in age from 20 to 63) we invited onto the show to participate in fiendishly clever and immersive puzzles told us of their struggles at school, of how they wanted desperately to fit in and so suppre…

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Bridgerton finally gets a lot more interesting by stepping into Downton Abbey territory in season four
type: item
creator: Morgan Cormack
subject: App
subject: App features
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
description: The romantic drama is back with an upstairs-downstairs twist!
encoded: Add season four of Bridgerton to your watchlist. Four seasons in, standing firm as one of Netflix's biggest original series success stories and based on a fan-favourite collection of novels, Bridgerton doesn't really need to switch up its format. It's the series that many started off watching as a steamy guilty pleasure, with fans continuing to tune in each season to see what love story will unfold for each of the Bridgerton siblings. First, it was Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) then it was Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and more recently, Colin (Luke Newton). Now, all eyes are on the unserious lothario that is Benedict (Luke Thompson) and as we know, the course of true love never did run smooth. While this new season does certainly ground us in Benedict's quest to find his mysterious Lady in Silver, the real draw of this instalment is the fact that it goes where Bridgerton hasn't really ventured. It peeks behind the curtains, if you will, offering viewers a window into the goings-on of these lavish homes and wealthy families, while crafting an emotional and complex story for Sophie (Yerin Ha) in the process. Arguably, this season of Bridgerton always had the bones to be its most interesting. But it is TV after all and the small matter of execution always leaves fans slightly trepidatious at what's to come. By following Sophie's incredibly sad story, though, we ground the series in real human emotion. It's not just the airy fairy cloud of love and sex that is an escapist viewer's dream – instead, it's a version of the series that's a bit more realistic. Sure, many of us come to Bridgerton for that snippet of escapism, those hours of TV where we don't have to think about the nasty, mean world and can instead just get lost in wet shirt scenes and yearning. But, I'd say, four seasons in and the show was at a risk of becoming stale and predictable. Now, by venturing into the territory of Downton Abbey, Bridgerton has opened up its doors to new possibilities, characters and stories …

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This year the BAFTAs have a great opportunity to differ from the Oscars in one key way
type: item
creator: Patrick Cremona
subject: App
subject: App features
description: A win for I Swear's Robert Aramayo in the best actor category would be a welcome shake-up in an awards season which risks becoming stale.
encoded: Add I Swear to your watchlist. The BAFTA Film Awards will take place at London's Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 22 February 2026. See the nominees in full. When the BAFTA Film Award nominations were announced yesterday (Tuesday 27th January), there can't have been too many people shocked by most of the films and actors that made their way onto the shortlists. Although BAFTA broke from tradition this year in announcing their nods after the Oscars rather than before, in pretty much every other way the nominations still make the upcoming ceremony look more or less like a carbon copy of the Academy Awards – as is the case with so many of the "precursor" award shows that seem to serve primarily as dress rehearsals for the main event. Sure, there were a couple of minor changes to the line-up – for example, One Battle After Another's Chase Infiniti and Hamnet's Paul Mescal made it into their respective categories after missing out last week – but for the most part it's the same names (and in a few notable instances, the same snubs) as it has been all awards season. Of course, consensus is not necessarily a bad thing, and it's often the case that the films being honoured time and time again very much deserve their seat at the table. But it's always felt rather pointless to me to have so many different awards ceremonies only to repeatedly see the same winners crowned at every single one. Surely it would make more sense for each of these various voting bodies to have their own unique character and personality and opt for some slightly more offbeat picks, rather than just continuing to honour the big hitters that already look set to be rewarded with multiple Oscars? This is why the inclusion of five nods for Kirk Jones's incredibly moving true story film I Swear – about the life of Tourette's activist and campaigner John Davidson – is so welcome. It's exactly the kind of small British film which, like fellow nominees Pillion, The Ballad of Wallis Island, and My Father's Shadow,…

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ER is coming to Netflix – and it's time we recognised it changed television forever
type: item
creator: David Brown
subject: App
subject: App features
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Netflix
description: The classic US hospital drama set the gold standard back in 1994.
encoded: Add ER to your watchlist. We all have an example of a TV show like this, right? The one that holds an outsized importance in our affections? For me, it’s undoubtedly and wholeheartedly ER, the 15 seasons of which are coming to Netflix in the UK on 9 February. It’s a method of accessing the series that would have been inconceivable to the undergraduate version of myself who, back in the mid-1990s, was watching on a 14-inch portable TV with his girlfriend in manky digs. It felt, at the time, like an impossibly sophisticated drama. All that frantic talk of Chem-7s, CBCs, Coags, EKGs being clean or otherwise. No real idea what any of it meant, but it sure seemed as though we were eavesdropping on the way things truly worked at the sharp end of hospital life. And the acts of heroism on display, such as reckless Doug Ross (George Clooney) risking all to rescue a boy trapped in a storm drain as the rain waters rose. It felt filmic, almost mythic. Well, as much as anything can on a tiny, boxy Sony without Nicam Stereo. For the two of us, ER had staying power. We, like the nebbishy and lovable Dr Carter (Noah Wyle) were students when it began. But when it ended, a decade and a half later, we were bringing our second-born son home from hospital. Those real-life births, incidentally, made all-the-more fraught by us having witnessed on TV every late-stage pregnancy complication known to the medical profession. But such awareness mattered not. Each winter, we’ll still watch season one’s Blizzard because nothing says Christmas like a multi-car pile-up in the snow. And every festive season, we’ll tell our now-grown-up kids just how much ER meant to us when we were their age. They’ll smile indulgently for a second or two and then go back to thinking of us as they ordinarily do. As index fingers with a banking app attached. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/er-season-6-ec8f04f.jpg" width="3000" height="2000" alt="Anthony Edwards as Dr Mark …

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Bridgerton finally gets a lot more interesting by stepping into Downton Abbey territory in season 4
type: item
date: 2026-01-29T09:00:11.000Z
creator: Morgan Cormack
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
description: The romantic drama is back with an upstairs-downstairs twist!
encoded: Four seasons in, standing firm as one of Netflix's biggest original series success stories and based on a fan-favourite collection of novels, Bridgerton doesn't really need to switch up its format. It's the series that many started off watching as a steamy guilty pleasure, with fans continuing to tune in each season to see what love story will unfold for each of the Bridgerton siblings. First, it was Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) then it was Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and more recently, Colin (Luke Newton). Now, all eyes are on the unserious lothario that is Benedict (Luke Thompson) and as we know, the course of true love never did run smooth. While this new season does certainly ground us in Benedict's quest to find his mysterious Lady in Silver, the real draw of this instalment is the fact that it goes where Bridgerton hasn't really ventured. It peeks behind the curtains, if you will, offering viewers a window into the goings-on of these lavish homes and wealthy families, while crafting an emotional and complex story for Sophie (Yerin Ha) in the process. Arguably, this season of Bridgerton always had the bones to be its most interesting. But it is TV after all and the small matter of execution always leaves fans slightly trepidatious at what's to come. By following Sophie's incredibly sad story, though, we ground the series in real human emotion. It's not just the airy fairy cloud of love and sex that is an escapist viewer's dream – instead, it's a version of the series that's a bit more realistic. Sure, many of us come to Bridgerton for that snippet of escapism, those hours of TV where we don't have to think about the nasty, mean world and can instead just get lost in wet shirt scenes and yearning. But, I'd say, four seasons in and the show was at a risk of becoming stale and predictable. Now, by venturing into the territory of Downton Abbey, Bridgerton has opened up its doors to new possibilities, characters and stories that make the tapestry of the Regency drama only …

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height: 1366

The BAFTA Film Awards have a great opportunity to differ from the Oscars in one key way
type: item
date: 2026-01-28T17:22:16.000Z
creator: Patrick Cremona
subject: Movies
subject: BAFTA Film Awards
subject: Comment
description: A win for I Swear's Robert Aramayo in the best actor category would be a welcome shake-up in an awards season which risks becoming stale.
encoded: When the BAFTA Film Award nominations were announced yesterday (Tuesday 27th January), there can't have been too many people shocked by most of the films and actors that made their way onto the shortlists. Although BAFTA broke from tradition this year in announcing their nods after the Oscars rather than before, in pretty much every other way the nominations still make the upcoming ceremony look more or less like a carbon copy of the Academy Awards – as is the case with so many of the "precursor" award shows that seem to serve primarily as dress rehearsals for the main event. Sure, there were a couple of minor changes to the line-up – for example, One Battle After Another's Chase Infiniti and Hamnet's Paul Mescal made it into their respective categories after missing out last week – but for the most part it's the same names (and in a few notable instances, the same snubs) as it has been all awards season. Of course, consensus is not necessarily a bad thing, and it's often the case that the films being honoured time and time again very much deserve their seat at the table. But it's always felt rather pointless to me to have so many different awards ceremonies only to repeatedly see the same winners crowned at every single one. Surely it would make more sense for each of these various voting bodies to have their own unique character and personality and opt for some slightly more offbeat picks, rather than just continuing to honour the big hitters that already look set to be rewarded with multiple Oscars? This is why the inclusion of five nods for Kirk Jones's incredibly moving true story film I Swear – about the life of Tourette's activist and campaigner John Davidson – is so welcome. It's exactly the kind of small British film which, like fellow nominees Pillion, The Ballad of Wallis Island, and My Father's Shadow, should be honoured by the BAFTAs and whose presence in the line-up we should celebrate. Not out of any tub-thumping sense of patriotism, of course, but be…

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Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's The Rip proves the upsides and downsides of using real-life Hollywood friends
type: item
date: 2026-01-28T08:00:24.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Movies
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Magazine
subject: Netflix
description: When real-life bromance meets movie rivalry, the stars’ off-screen friendships become the real story we’re watching.
encoded: It may come as a shock to learn that, despite playing the "it’s for work" card, I occasionally lose control of the TV remote, which is how I ended up sitting through The Rip, a heist-based, gun-heavy, F-bomb-flooded thriller that I will describe, without apology, as "probably a film for boys". On the plus side, it starred – nay, was almost rescued by – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and when I wasn't watching another shootout through my eyelids, it got me thinking about them and how we feel when film-star friends appear together on-screen. It’s almost 30 years since this golden pair arrived in our lives. The story of how two longtime friends co-wrote Good Will Hunting, defying all their Hollywood doubters and going on to score box-office millions and an Oscar each for best screenplay, has become as rich in mythology and inspiration as the film itself. The film’s most moving moment comes when Affleck's blue-collar loyal friend Chuckie tells Damon’s maths genius Will he's worth more than the life he’s settling for: "You’re my best friend. I call for you every day. The best part is when I knock on your door and I think maybe you won’t be there." Cut to 2026, and The Rip proves that day has not yet come – the Affleck-Damon alliance still tight in life as on screen. View Green Video on the source website A similar challenge is posed by the George Clooney-Brad Pitt pairing in Wolfs. As in The Rip, the film sets two solitary operators in competition and seemingly reluctant comradeship. Except, of course, they’re played by two of the world’s most recognisable men, famous for being handsome, successful and, most pertinently, great friends ever since they dazzled together in Ocean’s Eleven. Studios have long used the same trick to seduce audiences, repeatedly pairing equal and sort-of opposites like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, or channelling the unstoppable-force-meets-unmovable-object charisma of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. We happily sit through hours of fictional …

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ER is coming to Netflix – and it's time we recognised it changed television forever
type: item
date: 2026-01-26T21:00:25.000Z
creator: David Brown
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Netflix
description: The classic US hospital drama set the gold standard back in 1994.
encoded: We all have an example of a TV show like this, right? The one that holds an outsized importance in our affections? For me, it’s undoubtedly and wholeheartedly ER, the 15 seasons of which are coming to Netflix in the UK on 9 February. It’s a method of accessing the series that would have been inconceivable to the undergraduate version of myself who, back in the mid-1990s, was watching on a 14-inch portable TV with his girlfriend in manky digs. It felt, at the time, like an impossibly sophisticated drama. All that frantic talk of Chem-7s, CBCs, Coags, EKGs being clean or otherwise. No real idea what any of it meant, but it sure seemed as though we were eavesdropping on the way things truly worked at the sharp end of hospital life. And the acts of heroism on display, such as reckless Doug Ross (George Clooney) risking all to rescue a boy trapped in a storm drain as the rain waters rose. It felt filmic, almost mythic. Well, as much as anything can on a tiny, boxy Sony without Nicam Stereo. For the two of us, ER had staying power. We, like the nebbishy and lovable Dr Carter (Noah Wyle) were students when it began. But when it ended, a decade and a half later, we were bringing our second-born son home from hospital. Those real-life births, incidentally, made all-the-more fraught by us having witnessed on TV every late-stage pregnancy complication known to the medical profession. But such awareness mattered not. Each winter, we’ll still watch season one’s Blizzard because nothing says Christmas like a multi-car pile-up in the snow. And every festive season, we’ll tell our now-grown-up kids just how much ER meant to us when we were their age. They’ll smile indulgently for a second or two and then go back to thinking of us as they ordinarily do. As index fingers with a banking app attached. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/er-season-6-ec8f04f.jpg" width="3000" height="2000" alt="Anthony Edwards as Dr Mark Greene, Laura Innes as Dr …

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I'm Clive Myrie, and my new BBC ancestry series left me angry about history – but with a constructive way to use it
type: item
date: 2026-01-26T17:00:29.000Z
creator: Clive Myrie
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Magazine
description: Use your identity as a positive force, writes Clive Myrie, who has embraced his African roots.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. In a confusing world, we search for our origins. Within many of us there is a deep yearning to find our roots, to discover where our own unique stories begin. This yearning is behind the remarkable popularity of ancestry DNA tests and the success of television shows like Who Do You Think You Are? In making my series African Adventure, I’ve fed penguins in South Africa and explored the wonderful and chaotic exuberance of Lagos in Nigeria. But I’ve also experienced a traditional naming ceremony in Ghana, where I was metaphorically welcomed back into the African fold and given an African name – an origin. As well as this new name, I had a flag made by a craftsman of the Fante people, who still practice this ancient folk-art in Ghana. It’s beautiful, vibrant with colour and designs that include symbols representing my Jamaican history. It’s hanging above my desk at home and I take pleasure in this layer being added to my identity. You might think I have enough identity already. I was born in Bolton in Lancashire, so I’m a Northerner and proud of it. But I’m also very proud of being British and then there are my Caribbean roots, that come courtesy of my Jamaican parents. Thanks to them I remain Caribbean in my bones; I love West Indian food and Jamaican culture. So, do I have room for another Clive Myrie? My answer is yes, for if you want to be true to who you are, then you really do need to know who you are. In my case, I have parents from Jamaica but before them my ancestors were African. I’m not sure exactly where from, but a DNA test suggests somewhere on what was once called the Gold Coast, most likely modern Ghana or Nigeria. Whichever it was, they were sent across the Atlantic as slaves on the terrible Middle Passage journey to the Caribbean. In my new series, I’ve visited the slave fort in Ghana where my ancestors could well have been kept in appalling conditions before they were taken through the “Gate of No R…

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Resident Evil Requiem preview: Remixing the greatest hits
type: item
date: 2026-01-26T16:34:00.000Z
creator: Rob Leane
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: Comment
subject: Exclusive
description: Is RE9 trying to do too much?
encoded: Did you enjoy piecing together a whole police station's worth of puzzles in Resident Evil 2? Did you enjoy the unsettling shift to first-person in Resident Evil 7? Did you enjoy Leon’s big kicks in Resident Evil 4? Did you enjoy being chased by a giant creature in Resident Evil 8? Did you enjoy protecting a weaker ally as you made your way through hordes of enemies in Resi 4? Did you enjoy seeing a tall woman in a white dress in Resi 8? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions — or all of those questions — boy does Resident Evil Requiem have something in store that will play to your tastes! In fact, the game is starting to feel like a greatest hits album that’s determined to replay your favourite bits from the last few entries in the franchise. Indeed, RE9 has no shortage of baggage, and it’s got no problem with letting you rummage through said baggage and pull out whatever you like. At a preview event for the game, I got to spend three hours playing it, and by the end, my right arm was sore from all the [insert meme here of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV because he spotted something he recognised]. You can hear my thoughts on the Radio Times Gaming podcast feed or YouTube channel, or keep scrolling for the written version! Our demo began with Leon S Kennedy, the beloved backflipping hero of Resi 2 and 4, arriving at a medical facility. Of course, it didn’t take long for the alarms to go off and for zombies to burst in. We soon got to see how action-oriented Leon’s chunk of the game will be, with the combat’s over-the-top nature even going so far as to let Leon parry a chainsaw attack with a small knife. Yep, you read that right — there are zombies wielding chainsaws in this game! And in a neat bit of coding, if one zombie drops the chainsaw, someone else can pick it up (either Leon himself or another enemy). All of this was feeling very RE4, which made for a jarring change when Leon’s segment ended and the player’s viewpoint switched to Grace (the othe…

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Call the Midwife's Nonnatus House jeopardy storyline has lost its edge – and here's why
type: item
date: 2026-01-25T18:00:31.000Z
creator: Abby Robinson
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
description: If Nonnatus House is in danger, why does Call the Midwife feel so safe?
encoded: Nonnatus House is in peril. As the National Health Service undergoes widespread restructuring to create a more unified system in Call the Midwife, the status of smaller, community-led programmes and initiatives remains under threat. And with more people choosing hospital births over home ones, questions about how much longer it will survive remain ever present. But for now, it does survive, continuing to provide essential care to the people of Poplar – although Sister Julienne has been informed that funding will cease from the end of the year if they don't ditch their religious garb. A deliberate nudge towards extinction? Or simply a way to keep them in line? Only time will tell. "That's fine in itself," Jenny Agutter said of the order to ditch their habits. "But it's actually a bigger question, which is that Sister Julienne sees the nuns as being missionaries in the East End. And she, as a nun, is very much aware of the fact that the first service they have is to God. The habit is very much to do with showing that they are a part of serving the community. "So it's not just a matter of identification, it's a matter of knowing what one's role is and what they're meant to be doing, and feeling that one’s no longer wanted." <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/BBC-CTM-d6eea96.jpg" width="4284" height="2856" alt="A nun in a blue habit and white apron gently tends to a baby lying on a weighing scale in a clinic setting, smiling down at the infant. A young woman, likely the baby’s mother, stands beside her smiling, holding a leaflet and wearing a brown top and patterned skirt with a shoulder bag. Behind them, other women and nurses sit among yellow privacy screens in a brightly lit maternity hall." title="Call The Midwife s14" /> But of course, this jeopardy is nothing new. Funding pressures have always been a part of Nonnatus House's story, and it wasn’t that long ago that Matthew stepped in to rescue them, before he was sunk by hi…

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LEGO Smart Brick preview: These next-gen blocks rock
type: item
date: 2026-01-24T08:00:27.000Z
creator: Guy Cocker
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: Comment
subject: Exclusive
subject: Video
description: We go hands-on with the first genuinely new LEGO upgrade in decades.
encoded: There have been a few major innovations in LEGO's history: LEGO Technic in 1977, and the minifigure a year later, but those are nearly 50 years ago now. In the interim, the LEGO brand has kept its place as the world's favourite toy mainly by pairing up with kids' favourite intellectual property, including Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft and Super Mario. Enter the Smart Play system, out this year, which incorporates modern digital technology such as sensors, speakers and lights to offer the first new way to play with LEGO in decades. We went hands on at the CES conference in Las Vegas to find out more! So, what actually is this new range? The Smart Play system incorporates the Smart Brick itself, which is the hub of the whole experience thanks to the built-in sensors, speakers, lights and custom chips it houses. Check out LEGO Smart Play at LEGO These allow it to be aware of data such as movement, as well as proximity to other Smart products. Those include the Smart tags and Smart minifigures, both of which tell the Smart Brick how to behave — for example, make duck noises if the tag is attached to a duck, or mimic Darth Vader's breathing and vocals if it's a Smart minifigure of the Sith Lord. The real genius, though, is how LEGO's engineers have programmed the Smart Brick to enhance LEGO play and make it more fun and interactive. Maarten Simons, the Design Manager on the project for the last few years, started our CES session with a relatively simple demonstration, attaching a Smart Tag to the Smart Brick to play simple musical notes and flashing lights when you tilt and move the brick around. Another Smart Tag tells the brick to be a car, making engine noises as you move, tyre screeching noises as you go round a corner, and a crashing noise when you hit something. There were similar demos with a helicopter, a duck and a dinosaur. However, things get a lot more fun when you combine multiple LEGO items that feature Smart Bricks, as they interact with each other in both …

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Forget the doof-doofs – The Traitors' cliffhangers may have just outplayed the soaps
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T14:14:49.000Z
creator: David Brown
subject: Entertainment
subject: Reality TV
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: BBC One
subject: Comment
description: The Traitors is giving us a whole different slice of melodrama.
encoded: When lists are compiled of seismic TV cliffhangers, it’s to drama that critics ordinarily turn, be it The Walking Dead's Negan with his baseball bat, JR’s bullet to the guts in Dallas or EastEnders' Kat redrawing the Slaters’ family tree with the three words, "Yes, I am!" But if last night’s edition of The Traitors proved anything, it’s that fiction no longer has a stranglehold on unresolved friction. If the job of a cliffhanger is to compel an audience to keep watching, then the fate of the treacherous Rachel ought to be offered up in a masterclass on heightened stakes. Yet, what marks it out as different to acclaimed deferred payoffs from the past is the key ingredient of irrational human behaviour. Real people are unpredictable at the best of times, but put them under pressure at a roundtable where money and safe passage are at risk, and the messiness becomes momentous. Which is not to say that The Traitors is free from editorial manipulation. Each episode is as expertly designed and layered as Claudia’s wardrobe on a windswept Scottish morning. And those tasked with editing each show must have felt a whopping amount of job satisfaction when work was completed on Thursday’s jaw-dropper. But, for viewers, the tension crucially doesn’t feel manufactured. That sense of the Faithful and Traitors having agency over their fates puts events in a state of real flux, something that can’t really be said whenever a line-up of suspects is issued for the latest soap whodunnit. In those instances, the resolutions have usually been predetermined by a storyline team bound by the usual rules of characterisation, foreshadowing and the necessity of scheduling a big reveal to coincide with either a major anniversary or the festive season. And canny soap fans, being well-schooled in such tricks, are sometimes able to outsmart the writers. But in the case of knee-jerk Faithful James, it’s impossible to rely on convention. We can speculate, argue, and maybe take a side, but guaranteein…

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The Oscars should be about celebrating groundbreaking films – so why has Brad Pitt's unremarkable F1 movie been nominated?
type: item
date: 2026-01-22T17:31:23.000Z
creator: Patrick Cremona
subject: Movies
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Oscars
description: The inclusion of the formulaic sports movie from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski is utterly baffling.
encoded: The term "Oscar-bait" is one that has been thrown around for decades when awards season rolls around. Traditionally, it was used to describe a film that was made with the express purpose of winning awards but with little thought for its lasting legacy beyond that. These films tended to be relatively safe true story period pieces or perhaps inspirational tales about an underdog overcoming terrible odds, and were generally defined by solid but unremarkable filmmaking and sentimental scripts that tended towards the formulaic. In other words, they were in-the-moment crowd-pleasers that pulled on the heartstrings but did little to truly shake up the film world. In recent years, however, the old criteria for what was considered an "Oscars film" has begun to shift, and the sorts of movies described above have largely been absent from the, admittedly, still imperfect best picture line-ups. Recent trends point to an Academy that is now more inclined towards auteur-driven cinema, international features and even films belonging to once awards-resistant genres like horror – just look at the monumental, record-breaking success of Sinners in today's nominations for one example of the latter. In keeping with these changes, this year's list of 10 films up for best picture includes plenty of nominees that deserve to be there – including Joachim Trier's incredibly moving family drama Sentimental Value and Paul Thomas Anderson's thrilling masterpiece One Battle After Another. And then, there's F1. View Green Video on the source website The racing picture's inclusion in the list has been treated by many pundits as baffling and – in this writer's opinion – with good reason: how on Earth is such a middling blockbuster worthy of a place among the finest 2025 had to offer? The film – which is directed by Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski and stars Brad Pitt – was made in conjunction with the governing body of the titular sport, and that is very much apparent while watching: it plays as a…

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The Oscars completely snubbed the year's most daring film – and it doesn't make sense
type: item
date: 2026-01-22T17:02:55.000Z
creator: Chezelle Bingham
subject: Movies
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Oscars
subject: Review
description: Oscar nominations are out – there's just one problem...
encoded: Every Oscars season, us film fans are met with the inevitable snubs: from films of certain genres not being considered serious enough, to quiet, brilliant performances being dropped in favour of louder ones that sit within the rigid framework of what the Academy considers 'worthy'. Of course, we’re also then often met by the rogue choices that leave everyone blinking in disbelief at their television screens. (I, for one, received a few surprised texts when one certain Best Picture nominee was read out this afternoon…). This year, however, one particular snub has stuck out like a sore thumb – Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee. And not only was Ann Lee snubbed – it was completely ignored from the nominations list, with its name not falling under a single category in this year’s slate. That’s right. Daniel Blumburg’s staggering, hypnotic score (which I actually have on in the background while writing this) was erased; Woman Clothed by the Sun, one of the most angelic original songs of the year (I challenge anyone to listen to it and try to tell me it’s inferior to any of the five nominees) was blanked, Fastvold’s writing and brilliant direction were both nowhere to be seen. Not even Best Actress, which once seemed the only category Ann Lee could get a look in, served plaudits. It is that latter snub for Best Actress that perhaps is the most shocking. Until about a month ago, Amanda Seyfried receiving an Oscar nomination for pouring her entire heart and soul into playing Mother Ann Lee felt almost inevitable. And yes, while the Best Actress category is undoubtedly stacked this year, Seyfried’s Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe nominations had me convinced that her flawless performance as the founding leader of the Shaker movement would get at least a small nod. To be clear, The Testament of Ann Lee isn’t some kind of niche, underground film that only four of your biggest cinephile friends have seen (not that obscurity would have made its snub acceptable, but you g…

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Death in Paradise season 14 teased an exciting Catherine development – but season 15 won't deliver
type: item
date: 2026-01-22T15:37:56.000Z
creator: Abby Robinson
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
description: Sorry, Catherine Bordey fans.
encoded: There's much to look forward to in Death in Paradise season 15. From Selwyn officially stepping back into his role as commissioner, to Mervin's ongoing personal growth – he's set to meet his half-brother Solomon for the first time – the theme of the murder mystery's upcoming chapter is undoubtedly new beginnings Well, for some, anyway. For Catherine, Saint Marie's much-loved mayor and owner of the best bar in town, the word stagnation springs to mind – particularly given what was hinted at in season 14. "I've started seeing someone," she previously confided in Naomi and Darlene, a twinkle in her eye. But it was "early days, we're having fun." And that was all we got. Catherine kept her cards close to her chest as we were left to wonder, with justified anticipation, what the writers had in store for her. Surely they would pick up where they left off? We assumed, with confidence, that her mention of a new romantic partner – and one shrouded in so much secrecy, we should add – would eventually lead somewhere. That teasing moment was brief, sure, but it was a moment nonetheless. Read more: Death in Paradise confirms season 15 departure of long-running fan-favourite Death in Paradise season 15 confirms special guest stars – from Happy Valley to EastEnders icons Because to not take things any further would be completely pointless and random — why mention it at all? It would also feel like a feeble attempt to remind us that she has a personal life and isn't just a vessel for other people's problems. But more than that, it would be genuinely irritating, not to mention entirely at odds with good storytelling, especially given that a section of the fandom has been calling for Catherine to find love for quite some time – and not without reason. She briefly dated Adrian Dunbar's Aidan Miles in the first season of the show, but that crashed and burned when he was arrested for murder. Such is life in Saint Marie… There has also been some casual dating here and there, but the deta…

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How Blake's 7 was massively ahead of its time when it first aired – and why it fits perfectly in the modern TV landscape
type: item
date: 2026-01-21T19:00:43.000Z
creator: Morgan Jeffery
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
description: Decades before TV embraced anti-heroes, moral grey areas and brutal endings, Blake’s 7 was already rewriting the rules.
encoded: When Blake’s 7 launched on BBC One in 1978, it barely resembled the sleek, prestige science fiction audiences now expect. The budget was tight, the sets sometimes wobbled and the production constraints were obvious. Yet nearly 50 years later, the series looks less like a curiosity of its era and more like a quietly revolutionary text – one that anticipated where television drama, and science fiction in particular, would eventually go. With a reboot now in development, Blake’s 7 is returning to a TV landscape it helped to shape – and its renewed relevance has little to do with nostalgia. Instead, it lies in how boldly the show embraced anti-heroes, moral ambiguity and brutal consequences at a time when genre television still preferred comforting certainty. Creator Terry Nation – also the inventor of that great Doctor Who menace, the Daleks – once described Blake's 7 as "The Dirty Dozen in space", and that framing proved crucial. This was never a story about noble explorers or spotless rebels. Series protagonist Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas) begins as an idealistic freedom fighter opposing a totalitarian Federation, but the series steadily dismantles his moral authority. As his obsession deepens, Blake becomes reckless and absolutist, responsible for civilian deaths the show refused to excuse. Rather than improving, he deteriorates – an extraordinary narrative choice for late 1970s BBC drama. Even more radical was Blake's second Kerr Avon (Paul Darrow), who remains one of the most uncompromising anti-heroes science fiction television has ever produced. Brilliant, sarcastic and emotionally detached, Avon regularly questions whether doing the "right thing" is worth the cost. Sometimes he decides it isn’t. Crucially, Blake’s 7 never rushed to redeem him. Avon is allowed to be selfish, cowardly and cruel, punctuated by moments of reluctant heroism. Decades before Tony Soprano or Walter White, audiences were being asked to follow – and occasionally root for – someone morally c…

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When did TV documentaries become all about celebrities and 'being' and stop being about people actually doing something?
type: item
date: 2026-01-21T08:00:46.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Channel 4
subject: Comment
subject: Magazine
description: The good news is that there are green shoots of fresh geek-dom on our screens.
encoded: My friend and I used to be fans of a big documentary festival until about a decade ago. After yet more films about a boy wearing mascara, or a girl holding a Kalashnikov, we walked out after a screening and she said, "It’s all about being. When did people stop doing stuff?" To be fair, documentaries remain a crucial platform for investigative journalism, but when it comes to our TV screens, my friend was right. We aren’t short of what TV commissioners call "factual entertainment", but it feels like a million variations on a single premise: two celebrities in a car swapping their "stories", between stops where they buy a house and a surprisingly valuable bit of art. Or, if it's Channel 4, an intentionally provocative session with some kind of sex practitioner. If an expert is called upon, it’s to answer the questions of yet another celebrity. Where are the people doing stuff? It wasn’t always this way. I grew up watching people like Keith Floyd, Ann Ladbury and Fred Dibnah and their infectious enthusiasms for, respectively, cooking without a recipe (but with a glass of red), cutting sewing patterns and demolishing chimneys. They were all doing it anyway; fame came through their passions, not the other way round. The word "geek" – which just means a deep, tireless interest in a subject, often niche – has been given a bad rap, associated with a bad haircut and passion for planes over personal grooming. Well, give me an unsmoothed expert enthused to share over a slick celebrity paid to learn any day of the week. The good news is that there are green shoots of fresh geek-dom on our screens. With a doffed cap to the storytelling talents of scientist Dr Hannah Fry, the numero uno of nerds is Guy Martin. First spotted by TV producers on his bike in a 2009 TT race, the Grimsby-born presenter brings his love for all things mechanical to TV, from building a boat to breaking the world record for the fastest toboggan. Refreshingly averse to celebrity over substance (he said no t…

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The Night Manager's most surprising romance is probably doomed – but it's not too late for Teddy
type: item
date: 2026-01-19T19:00:23.000Z
creator: David Craig
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Believers in the 'Jeddy' relationship would be wise to keep their expectations low...
encoded: *Warning: spoilers for The Night Manager season 2 episode 4* The bullets sent flying were the least dramatic part of the shoot-out that brought The Night Manager's latest chapter to a close. Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) finally revealed his true self to Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), in order to rescue an innocent teenager tricked into aiding the assassination of Alejandro Gualteros (Alberto Ammann). But the sequence didn't play out like a typical double-cross, the likes of which spy fiction is filled with. The swelling music, teary eyes and anguished outburst made one thing clear: this was a matter of the heart. Pine's earlier flirtations with Teddy certainly hadn't gone unnoticed (a gentle touch here, a stolen glance there), but even after last week's steamy dance scene, it remained unclear whether the deep cover agent was just exploiting him. Well, consider that case closed. In contrast to Pine's unhesitating brutality towards season 1 rivals Corky (Tom Hollander) and Freddie (David Avery), we can clearly see that he's distraught to be raising his weapon against Teddy – despite having legitimate cause. Both Hiddleston and Calva deserve high praise for this powerful stand-off, but especially the latter, who is dragged through a dizzying cycle of confusion, heartbreak and fury as Teddy wakes up to his deception. It's gut-wrenching enough to make you briefly forget who the 'villain' is in this scene, which is impressive given that one character just executed a public servant for no other reason than he couldn't be bought. To Calva's credit, even in the grotesque inhumanity of that action, we can still see the dying embers of a soul in Teddy – which is perhaps what draws Pine to him as well. It begs the question: can he be redeemed for his many grave sins? Well, the seeds might already be planted. In episode 4, we saw how slippery Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) can be to even his own flesh and blood – but it could come back to haunt him. After decades spent at arm's …

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I'm Ben Fogle and this is how my small breakdown made me stronger – and why I no longer strive for perfection
type: item
date: 2026-01-19T17:01:24.000Z
creator: Ben Fogle
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Magazine
description: Writing in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, TV presenter Ben Fogle says he changed his life by limiting social media and embracing nature.
encoded: I used to strive for perfection. It was, partly, my own drive for personal achievement, but also an ever-increasing societal pressure – borne through social media – to be faster, better and to have more. In 2023, overwhelmed by noise and chaos and the negativity of social media, I had a wobble, a small breakdown, experiencing anxiety and paranoia for the very first time. There’s a mental health epidemic and its tentacles reach us all. Unfortunately, there remains a stigma that, if you admit to having ever struggled with your mental health, you’re somehow weak and fragile; a precious fruit that must be handled with great delicacy. But, just like a broken bone, our brains can heal with time and patience. Our experiences form a part of who we are and that does not make us weak or vulnerable. We’re moulded and shaped by our past, both good and bad. My own mental health challenges have made me stronger and more resilient. Those challenges have also given me compassion, a heightened awareness of our fragility and a shared experience with the people I visit in my series New Lives in the Wild, who have often fled a conventional life, turning their backs on the rat race, due to their own mental health struggles. Some 25 years ago, I was on one of the first reality shows, Castaway, and marooned for a year on a remote Scottish island. That also gave me an empathy for those who have chosen to live a simpler, humbler life. Filming New Lives in the Wild – which is back for a 20th series – I’ve seen how living off-grid in the wilderness has been a help following illness, bereavement, financial troubles or difficulties with mental health. Our contributors have found a sense of purpose, whether that’s living alone on a crocodile- and snake-infested remote island in Uganda; spending day and night in a small, simple narrowboat on the edge of the Peak District; or moving their family to a “wild west” mountaintop in Montana, USA, where daily life can be a matter of survival. Often they …

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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' most graphic scene so far makes a crucial point about the show
type: item
date: 2026-01-19T15:00:08.000Z
creator: David Opie
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: HBO
subject: NOW
subject: Sky
description: It's not just for the shock factor.
encoded: Plenty of people have had a s**t time of it in Westeros, but few have had it quite as bad as Dunk (Peter Claffey). A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins with the modest hedge knight in mourning. Once Dunk has wiped away his tears, the plan is to honour his late master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), in a jousting tournament nearby. But before he heads off to compete, another task must be completed first. It's all very serious as Dunk buries Arlan with all the gravitas you might expect from a show set in this world. The music swells and builds ceremoniously as the hero's journey is about to begin… And then we suddenly cut to Dunk defecating by a tree. It's not a brief dump either. The camera cuts from a modest overhead shot to a wide angle where we can see the full extent of the poop spraying out from Dunk's behind. Targaryens will get down and dirty in all kinds of ways, often with their own siblings, but you'd never catch one of them doing that. Not on camera anyway. Of course, Dunk doesn't know he's being watched by us either. Poor guy. And things are about to get a whole lot worse for him before they get better… It's tempting to assume the graphic nature of this scene has been included this early on just for shock value. Games of Thrones is hardly known for taming things down, after all. But like a doctor looking through a stool for answers, we too can learn a lot about Dunk and this show's outlook through a messy scene like this. There's the abrupt shift in tone for one. While both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are rather serious (for the most part), leading with this bowel movement early on establishes that this ain't your nana's Westeros — not by any means. Humour is as integral to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as knights and kingdoms are. It's there in the way people greet each other — "What you gawping at, you blue eyed c**t?" — and it's there in the crueller putdowns too, like when a woman says early on, "A hedge knight is like a knight, bu…

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Forget Game of Thrones – Industry season 4 just aired Kit Harington's finest hour
type: item
date: 2026-01-19T03:00:41.000Z
creator: Morgan Cormack
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
subject: HBO
description: Kit Harington impressed in Industry season 3 but season 4 is him at his heartbreaking best.
encoded: *Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Industry season 4 episode 2.* Although green energy company Lumi was at the heart of Industry's third outing, Kit Harington's Sir Henry Muck wasn't really the main character that bowled everyone over last season. Admittedly, there was a lot going on, what with the scandal surrounding Yasmin's father Charles, Rishi's mounting debts from his gambling addiction and, lest we forget, the downfall of Pierpoint & Co. So, it's safe to say that I – like many other Industry fans, I'm sure – wasn't really expecting all that much from Henry's story this season. Nor, if I'm being totally honest, really wanted much from it. Henry's reeked of entitlement since first exploding into the series and what with Yasmin (Marisa Abela) picking him over Robert (Harry Lawtey), that sense of self-assurance was only set to grow tenfold in the show's fourth instalment, right? It's a role that, for Game of Thrones actor Harington, didn't seem all that challenging. The actor had postulated about how the character was "molded" on "various people" he's known in life. With a personal background that includes a knighted baronet father, as well as various familial connections to the Gunpowder Plot, I'd hazard a guess and say that encapsulating someone in that upper echelon of society wasn't as alien to Harington as being Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. But there's reading lines on a page and there's acting, as we all know. While Industry is a glowing example of stellar writing in a TV landscape that often prioritises quick wins over steady character development, that sentiment really takes on new meaning with Henry this season. However, Sir Muck simply wouldn't be the character he is without Harington, who surprisingly comes into his own as an Industry scene-stealer in his own right. Lumi is no more and as we see in the closing scenes of season 4's premiere episode, Henry is licking his wounds playing a harpsichord in his grand manor. It signals …

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I wrote the book on Tomb Raider - here's how Sophie Turner and Alix Wilton Regan will rewrite Lara Croft's history
type: item
date: 2026-01-17T08:00:26.000Z
creator: Daryl Baxter
subject: Fantasy
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Exclusive
description: Lara is back - in more ways than one.
encoded: Since its 1996 debut, Tomb Raider has remained an iconic franchise, with protagonist Lara Croft jumping, shooting and plundering tombs for almost three decades. Tomb Raider is a series that’s been a constant presence in my career. There’s no greater example than having a book published about the first two games in 2021, along with a follow-up coming out later this year. 2026 marks the series’ 30th year, and Crystal Dynamics, the current custodians of Tomb Raider in gaming, have announced two new titles. The first, called Legacy of Atlantis, is a re-imagining of the first game, out later this year, while Catalyst is the latest all-new entry in the series, coming out in 2027. New Tomb Raider games usually feature a new voice actor for Lara, and Alix Wilton Regan was indeed announced as the latest to voice Croft. I suspected as much when I saw her interviewed on Radio Times Gaming’s TikTok channel. And with the Sophie Turner-starring Amazon series looming a little further on the horizon, there’s a clear theme being instilled — the classic retro Lara that you remember from the old days is back, in more ways than one. An old favourite for a new audience This year’s Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis game is a reimagining of the 1996 original. However, I have heard that the game is leaning more towards 2007’s Tomb Raider Anniversary remake in its narrative and level design. It makes sense, as Crystal Dynamics long ago said that every mainline entry was going to be part of a unified timeline. This means that the 2013 reboot is the earliest game, speaking from Lara’s point of view, and 2008’s Tomb Raider Underworld is the most recent in her timeline. Confused? Understandable. But with Atlantis and Catalyst coming soon, both with Alix Wilton Regan voicing Lara, it should be easier than ever for new players to jump in and understand what’s going on. As Legacy of Atlantis will be set early on in Lara’s timeline, this means that we'll hopefully get to see the wit and British humou…

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Everything The Traitors gets right about disability and neurodivergence – and what it doesn't
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T14:06:00.000Z
creator: Charli Clement
subject: Entertainment
subject: Reality TV
subject: TV
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: BBC One
subject: Comment
description: As a neurodivergent and chronically ill fan of The Traitors, it has always been so impressive to see such inclusive casting with thoughtful storytelling in the edit.
encoded: Disability representation in television is still on the come-up, and often done badly to this day: full of pity, ableism or inspiration porn. But ever since its first season, The Traitors UK has continually seemed to buck that trend. Each season has seen multiple disabled and neurodivergent cast members with a variety of experiences, and their stories are generally handled sensitively, with all of them included in the show as easily as anyone else. On mainstream, primetime television, The Traitors is being quietly revolutionary when it comes to showing disabled people on screen. Viewers get to see the breadth of ways that disability and neurodivergence can look, instead of just one version. Across all the seasons, casual representation is done extremely well – disability is allowed to be part of the person’s story, and is allowed to be key to their identity, but this is done without it being all they are allowed to be. We often do not find out about someone's disability until a fair amount into the series, when their personality has been established and they are part of the wider story we are viewing. As disabled people, this is so often what we want and do not receive: our disability being acknowledged and not dismissed, but also being able to be ourselves. Various disabilities (that have often been left out of other shows due to the physical missions) have been seen across the four seasons, including season 1 winner Meryl, who has dwarfism, and multiple individuals with limb differences, such as season 2 runner-up Mollie. In the case of Mollie, we hear her note in one of the missions that "it’s a blessing to have one hand" as she slips out of the ropes. Commenting on the inclusion of those with limb differences, Steve Haynes – trustee at the charity Reach – said: "At Reach charity, we are delighted to see Upper Limb Difference (ULD) represented on The Traitors. "Historically, many adults with ULD tell us they grew up never seeing anyone who looked like them on tel…

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Game of Thrones's next sequel idea risks falling into a major TV trap – this is what it should do instead
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T14:03:34.000Z
creator: Nicola Austin
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: The real challenge now is showing the restraint to recognise when a character’s story - like Arya Stark’s - is already finished.
encoded: As A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms edges closer to landing on HBO and Sky, fresh details have emerged about yet another possible Game of Thrones spin-off, along with an update on a separate project long in development. Let’s be honest: since the controversial final season of Game of Thrones came to a close almost seven years ago, there’s been no shortage of prequel and spin-off HBO projects bandied about. Whether that’s Flea Bottom, Bloodmoon, Ten Thousand Ships or Snow, the list goes on. And now we can add another to that ever-growing tally. It’s no surprise that fans of the fantasy franchise are feeling a certain fatigue and disenchantment when a new project is teased, as many haven’t even made it past the starting point before they’re quietly shelved. You can certainly empathise with Star Wars fans on this basis. Interestingly, the latest talks about a Game of Thrones spin-off (not prequel) are definitely not expected, but have come from quite the left (or should we say, west?) field. That’s right: the very first spin-off sequel would revolve around legacy character (and assassin extraordinaire) Arya Stark. Yes, it’s a baffling decision, as the character was last seen embarking on a new adventure aboard a Stark ship, teasing: "What's west of Westeros? That's where all the maps stop. That's where I'm going." However, details of the news emerged from an in-depth profile of the revered scribe George RR Martin by The Hollywood Reporter, in which an insider revealed that the project is in "very early development" at HBO, with Drops of Jupiter writer Quoc Dang Tran already on board. Other details revealed around the Stark spin-off include the (very random) setting of the “Mediterranean-like land of Essos” - which is very much not west of Westeros - and no actors have yet been cast, including Maisie Williams. Depending on the show’s timelines, this shift for Arya Stark to be in Essos risks lessening the impact of Game of Thrones’s already controversial finale by undoing …

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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 review: Game of Thrones spin-off is best visit to Westeros in nearly a decade
type: item
date: 2026-01-13T22:00:28.000Z
creator: Lewis Knight
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: HBO
subject: Review
subject: Sky Atlantic
description: It's time to return to Westeros for a rather different adventure.
encoded: Game of Thrones fans have long been used to mixed fortunes - even more so if you’re a book reader. Arguably the biggest show of the 21st century, Game of Thrones took the world by storm in 2011 with its adaptation of George R.R. Martin's game-changing fantasy book series. With dramatic backstabbing, bloody battles and political intrigue, it gripped pop-culture in its first six seasons, providing absolutely exhilarating television. Sadly, when the show truly ran out of source material to adapt, the writing quality took a nosedive. Indeed, the final two truncated seasons often worked with strange logic (don’t talk about the episode Beyond the Wall) and what resembled a rushed summary of events without proper build up to make the bolder plot swings work. Thankfully, fans were soon treated to a strong prequel series, House of the Dragon, which adapted Martin’s history book of the Targaryen Dynasty, Fire and Blood. A truly Shakespearean series with an excellent cast of characters and amazing dialogue, the first season was great television, and despite some inconsistent pacing, it gave a strong conclusion. However, the much-anticipated second season proved even stranger with sluggish pacing in its second half and something of a damp squib finale. There were also some questionable adaptational choices which neutered some of Martin’s most explosive work, including some which the author himself was unhappy with. So, anticipation has lessened somewhat for its return. So, it is in this context that HBO delivers A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on Martin’s prequel novella series of the Tales of Dunk and Egg. Set 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones, this lean six-episode season is based on the first novella, The Hedge Knight, and begins with the hulking squire "Dunk"(Peter Clauffey) mourning his late master Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). Dunk decides to honour his mentor by heading to compete for glory in a tourney, along the way acquiring a squire of his ow…

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I'm Winterwatch ornithologist Jack Baddams and this is why feeding birds might be doing more harm than good
type: item
date: 2026-01-12T17:00:19.000Z
creator: Jack Baddams
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
subject: Magazine
description: Writing for Radio Times magazine, the Winterwatch star explains why the common practice might not be for the best...
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. I’ve fed the birds for as long as I can remember, and I’m not alone. We love seeing birds on our windowsills and balconies and in our gardens, and want to help them. In the UK, it’s estimated that every year 17 million households spend £250 million, collectively, on bird food. There is, however, growing chatter among conservationists about whether feeding the birds is all it’s cracked up to be. It’s an issue we’ll address on this year’s Winterwatch – might we be doing more harm than good? One of the biggest concerns is that bird feeders spread disease, sometimes with devastating consequences. In 2005, the disease trichomonosis made the jump from pigeons to greenfinches after they shared feeding stations. The greenfinch population crashed by 62 per cent and the species is now on the red list. Their close cousin, the chaffinch, is suffering a similar fate, with almost 40 per cent disappearing in just 11 years. The RSPB has stopped selling bird tables and other flat-surface feeders while it awaits the outcome of a review into the issue. We should also consider the staggering quantity of food we leave out for birds. In the UK we buy more than 150,000 tons of bird food every year. Where does it all come from? Bird food is farmed, like any other crop. The ground is worked and often sprayed with chemicals to suppress native plants that might compete. Some of our favourite bird food, like peanuts, is grown in warm climates and so shipped here from around the world. A third issue is the ecological effect of all that bird food. Does feeding favour all birds equally? Some of our garden bird populations are thriving, with 40 per cent more great tits and 152 per cent more goldfinches than 30 years ago. Other populations, though, like that of the pied flycatcher, are plummeting. After flying to Africa for winter, the pied flycatchers should return to UK woodlands to find that the colder months have knocked back numbers of some …

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After the Golden Globes some Oscar races already look tied up – but here's why we shouldn't rule out upsets
type: item
date: 2026-01-12T16:17:58.000Z
creator: Patrick Cremona
subject: Movies
subject: Comment
description: Previous years suggest that the Oscars could well go in a different direction to the Globes.
encoded: We're at the stage of awards season where it's tempting to treat some of the big Oscar races as foregone conclusions. After last night's Golden Globes, major acting wins for both Timothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley saw the pair continue their strong momentum as they look to secure Best Actor and Best Actress prizes. Meanwhile, wins for One Battle After Another and Hamnet in the separate Best Film categories (Musical or Comedy and Drama respectively) means many pundits will now be looking at the Best Picture battle as a two-horse race between those two films. But is it wise to completely rule out some of the other contenders? Well, a look back at previous years suggests there's still plenty of time for things to shift. View Green Video on the source website It's certainly understandable that people would lock in Chalamet and Buckley as probable winners. The former's main opponents for this year's Academy Award have long been considered Leonardo DiCaprio (for his role as Bob Ferguson in One Battle After Another) and Ethan Hawke (for his turn as Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon), with both being Chalamet's direct competition in the Comedy or Musical category. Meanwhile, despite an extensive list of exceptional performances from a number of big name actresses this year – including Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love and Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee – Buckley's heart-wrenching turn as Agnes in Hamnet has emerged as the clear frontrunner, already securing wins from a host of critics groups. And so with both Chalamet and Buckley adding the Globe wins to last weeks successes at the Critic's Choice Awards, it is admittedly hard to see how either of them will be usurped when the Oscars roll around in March. But while the Globes can certainly be used as an interesting barometer to forecast where awards might go at the Oscars, this is by no means a fool proof method of predicting. Last year, the film that emerged from the Globes as the most successful was Emilia Perez – wh…

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Industry season 4 takes a risky step away from Pierpoint – and it’s all the better for it
type: item
date: 2026-01-12T08:00:03.000Z
creator: Morgan Cormack
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
subject: HBO
description: Industry continues to knock it out of the park – this time, with its strongest and most unpredictable season yet.
encoded: Industry has always been the financial drama that plummets those of us with no knowledge of that high-stakes world directly into its fiery hot centre. "Is it just about banker bros and gilets?", many have often asked me when I proclaim it to be one of the best shows on telly. While both of those things admittedly do appear in plentiful supply throughout the show, the draw of Industry is the chaos and the impending sense of doom of a world that not many of us get a real window into. Previous seasons of Industry were defined by the overarching way in which it encapsulated what one person's worst day ever could look like – then putting it against the backdrop of a fast-paced and cutthroat working world that doesn't take any prisoners. We saw as much in season 3, where things took an even darker turn than ever before in what many fans felt like was Industry's last hurrah. Not because anybody wanted it to be, but rather because it felt as though storylines and characters had been tied up in a way that many showrunners would see as a perfect time to bow out. But series co-creators and ex-bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay got their early renewal and a chance to open up Industry to shores anew, going to places the HBO/BBC show has never gone to before. No longer can it really fit into the neat box of "financial drama" because, while we certainly still have one major foot in that world this season, these new episodes are all about taking risks and opening up the parameters of what people think Industry (and its characters) are capable of. Those gilet-clad previous seasons were contained within the walls of Pierpoint & Co, a prestigious investment bank in London that chewed up and spat out our plucky group of grads in season 1. Now, only two of them remain with Harper (Myha'la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) returning for their own positively twisty stories. But with Pierpoint having reached its own demise and being bought by Egyptian investors at the end of season 3, where exact…

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The Night Manager season 2's shock return is a frustrating twist that could do real damage
type: item
date: 2026-01-11T22:00:00.000Z
creator: David Craig
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Comment
subject: Contains Trailer
description: Pine is horrified to be reunited with a ghost from his past – and so am I, but for different reasons.
encoded: **Warning: major spoilers for The Night Manager season 2 episode 3.** Do not adjust your set: the wild, yet grimly predictable, resurrection of Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) really just happened. If you don't know how to feel, join the club – we have biscuits. Tonight's episode of The Night Manager saw Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) delve deeper into the murky affairs of his latest target, Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), who he'd already learned is the secret son of his late nemesis. As if that wasn't a strong enough link to season 1, screenwriter David Farr tightens ties to the point of near-strangulation in episode 3, when it emerges that Teddy's business partner is, in fact, dear old dad himself. Operating under the stolen identity of Gilberto Hanson, who died many years earlier, Roper is still up to his old tricks – and emphasis on 'old', as his modus operandi seems not to have changed even slightly in the decade since. It speaks to a lack of ingenuity that, I'm afraid to say, also permeates the scripts, which were already feeling overly familiar prior to this bizarre twist. Suffice to say, Roper's return seems unlikely to generate points of difference. Of course, an inability to allows stories to end or characters to rest is endemic in today's pop culture landscape. It's why you see the same exhausted film franchises continuing to limp along, or once-celebrated TV shows painfully outstaying their welcome. But if The Night Manager season 2's very existence was questionable, its prologue seemed like a step in the right direction. We saw Roper's corpse laid out on a slab for Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) to identify, in what then appeared to be a powerful statement of intent. The definitive end of one chapter, and the start of another. In light of Laurie's spritely return at the tail-end of episode 3, it now plays like the cheapest of misdirects; one that will presumably be hand-waved away, perhaps by some kind of pulse-slowing tranquilliser or other cartoonish decept…

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