If Donald Trump destroys the BBC, there would be a horrible historical logic – so here's who I would pick as Tim Davie's replacement
With editorial failures and resignations at the top of the BBC, as well as the threat of an American takeover at ITV, broadcasting as we know it is facing the greatest challenge it has ever seen, writes Mark Lawson.
Historians may cite last week as the beginning of the end for British broadcasting. On Remembrance Sunday, 9 November, both the BBC and ITV faced threats to their existence as we know them. As the corporation lost its two most senior editorial figures at once – director-general Tim Davie and chief executive of news Deborah Turness resigned over the handling of complaints about an episode of Panorama that misleadingly edited a speech by President Trump – ITV was considering a reported bid of £1.6 billion from Comcast (the American owners of Sky) for all of its on-air networks and the ITVX streaming site. The ITV story is simply financial. Television advertising and sponsorship are collapsing and so ITV’s shareholders perhaps hope to release the value in the broadcast business before it falls further. The logic for Comcast is presumably the possibility of selling advertising and subscriptions across a super suite of digital and terrestrial channels. However, as ITV Studios, which provides most of ITV’s content, would now be separately owned, it’s unclear how the supply line of shows such as Coronation Street and I’m a Celebrity… might be affected in future. The BBC situation is also financial, though complicatedly and now doubly so. It is massively funded (and its pension scheme underwritten) by £3.66 billion of licence-fee income. But support for what some see as a legally enforced broadcasting tax has reduced during a series of scandals – and dissent will surely have been accelerated by recent events. Negotiation with the Government of a new BBC Charter (from 2027) – including funding methods – starts next month, though with the BBC currently lacking a team to attend and a Trump lawsuit still hanging over them. Having threatened to sue for $1 billion unless he received an apology and compensation he regarded as adequate, last week Trump got a qualified “sorry” (though the BBC still claims the speech tampering was accidental) and no money. Trump has not publicly accepted the apology and has warned he will still sue for “between 1 and 5 billion dollars.” The new risk for the BBC is whether to use licence fee money to fight a very rich American President in court. Doing so would please many staff, though further inflame enemies. So what went wrong at the BBC? On Monday 10 November on Radio 4, Today presenter Nick Robinson delivered an on-air monologue that described a right-wing conspiracy – of newspapers, politicians, think tanks – seeking to bring down the BBC. That’s half the story – there are businesses and politicians who crave a reduced or removed BBC. The crucial other half of the story is that the BBC, and especially BBC News, keeps handing lethal weapons to its enemies. If the BBC were to be destroyed by Trump, there would be a horrible historical logic. BBC News has a decade-long history of getting the 45th and 47th Presidents catastrophically wrong. On US election day 2016, a senior journalist (still on the payroll) announced that, as Trump had no chance of winning, discussion should turn to President Hillary Clinton’s policies. Again, last November, a BBC viewer might have concluded that Kamala Harris would win and perhaps (and this is where it becomes editorially problematic) should win. It’s understandable that many, even most, BBC staff might personally have preferred on two occasions a female president to an oddly coiffed, strangely tanned former presenter of The Apprentice, found liable in civil law for sexual offences and whom they regard as anti-democratic. But journalists should report what they see, not what they hope. (This seems also to have been an issue in some coverage of Brexit and the Gaza war.) Much of the BBC (with the exception of some on the Americast podcast) never took Trump seriously, but the current consequences of crossing him show how serious he can get. Another ominous aspect for the BBC is a sense of multiple crises gathering. As front pages of newspapers reported the downfall of Davie and Turness, middle pages contained stories about the BBC Complaints Unit upholding 20 complaints against newsreader Martine Croxall for changing the words “pregnant people” on her autocue to “women”, while making a facial expression interpreted as disapproving. Some titles also serialised or summarised Andy Webb’s Dianarama, a new book about the 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana that a retired judge later found to have been secured by reporter Martin Bashir through faked documents and false claims. For two Panoramas almost 30 years apart to be found guilty of serious journalistic malpractice – with Webb’s book further deflating the reputation of some former bosses – suggests something more endemic than occasionally accidental. After what can be seen as slow and clumsy reactions since the Trump Panorama problem was known months ago, BBC Chair Dr Samir Shah might not need his free 2026 BBC desk diary. A basic rule of journalism is that, if you call someone “litigious”, they sue harder and Shah foolishly called Trump that. In his statement on the departure of Davie and Turness Dr Shah seems to be representing and defending the interests of BBC staff and executives rather than licence-fee payers. That has long been a fault line in the corporation and apart from the future funding model, the supervisory and disciplinary structures of the BBC will be a huge part of Charter renegotiation, whoever leads it. If I were in the nightmare scenario of being BBC Chair, I would appoint Dorothy Byrne, smart and tough former head of Channel 4 journalism, for six months as interim DG. After that, who knows? The two current broadcast empire meltdowns may overlap because any sale of ITV could release senior talent, including CEO Dame Carolyn McCall and director of television Kevin Lygo. However, such is the BBC mess – with potentially more to come – that, were they to begin an application, family and friends would surely divert them at once to a psychiatrist. It has come to this: no sane person would take what was, until now, the biggest job in British broadcasting. Read more: So, is it all over for our national broadcasters like the BBC and ITV? Not so fast Former BBC News boss argues BBC's "survival is at stake" amid "chilling" political landscape Check out more of our TV coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. 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How anime has led the way in the battle against climate change
Tackling environmental topics is in the very DNA of the medium.
Storytelling naturally reflects the culture and climate it's produced in – yet few films and shows appear to be tackling the biggest threat to both. According to Climate.gov, 2024 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850 (by a wide margin) and the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred in the past decade. Floods and heatwaves are increasing as the climate crisis grows, yet Western takes on this issue remain few and far between, especially when it comes to children's fare where they could make the most impact. Since Ferngully left a lasting impression on millennials in the early '90s, not many animated films have continued where it left off. Just The Lorax and Pixar's Wall-E stand out as two notable exceptions when it comes to tackling environmental issues in animation. It's a different story in Japan, however. Anime has long incorporated themes of this nature, tapping into traditional Taoist and Shintoist beliefs that prioritise ecological harmony and respect for the natural world. The Godfather of Anime, Tezuka Osamu, did so as far back as the '60s with Kimba the White Lion, and more adult stories like the Black Jack manga, where an unlicensed surgeon used his money to fund environmental projects. It's Studio Ghibli that often comes to mind first, however. Even before the studio was named as such, co-founder Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a post-apocalyptic saga where the key to surviving a polluted world came from understanding the resilience of nature and the interconnectedness of all living things. View oEmbed on the source website Plenty of other Miyazaki films continued this outlook further including Spirited Away, where the cleansing of a polluted river spirit is vital to the story and My Neighbor Totoro, which celebrates the beauty of rural life and preserving natural spaces. Aside from Nausicaä, however, it's Princess Mononoke which comes up most regularly in these conversations, thanks to the central conflict between forest spirits and human encroachment where industrialisation threatens life itself. Crucially, Miyazaki avoided any obvious route in, offering up a more complex examination of both sides without outright condemning one or other. Humanity is violent throughout the film, for example, but Lady Eboshi, its leader, also cares deeply for those in need, building an entire community for lepers and other social outcasts. That's not to say Miyazaki let humans off the hook entirely. "I’ve come to a point where I just can’t make a movie without addressing the problem of humanity as part of an ecosystem," he said in an interview with Asia Pulse around the film's release in 1997 (via Asia Pulse). The same is also true for Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, who put his own unique spin on that conflict in Pom Poko, swapping out wolves and forest spirits for shape-shifting Tanuki (raccoon-dogs indigenous to Japan) who engage in extreme guerilla tactics similar to radical groups like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front. Such ecological concerns aren't just limited to Studio Ghibli. A host of different anime creators have explored similar issues, from child-friendly fare like Doraemon, Dr Stone and Miyori's Forest to more mature titles such as Parasyte: The Maxim and Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You. One that's endured longer than most is Pokémon, which has encouraged climate awareness since the '90s with a celebration of biodiversity that fosters love for all living things. Most Pokémon are inspired by real-life plants and animals, after all, including one whose transformation has been influenced by climate change directly. A species named Corsola is a coral-themed Pokémon that needs clean water to live. Polluted waters discolour and even break the growths on its back. The Pokémon games Sword and Shield introduced an evolved version of Corsola that's essentially dead as a result of global warming. The Cursola have changed type from water to ghost, bleached like real coral that's died due to ocean acidification and global warming. It's just as well that this franchise is using its power for good because the global popularity and impact of Pokémon cannot be overstated. Just this week, protesters showed up at the United Nations climate conference dressed as Pikachu, aiming to stop the financing of coal and natural gas projects across Southeast Asia. What this reflects so well is how anime often speaks to the power that systemic organisations hold in such cases, emphasising the need for structural change over individual consumer behaviours which come to the fore more in Western equivalents. Yet despite all this, climate education in Japan is nowhere near as strong as you might think. Despite the severe issues the island nation faces due to climate change, from massive rainfall to intensifying heatwaves, indifference to these problems is growing. According to a 2023 Cabinet Office survey that polled 3,000 adults (via The Japan Times), only 31 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 30.3 per cent of those in their 30s replied they were interested in climate issues. Meanwhile, 60.4 per cent of respondents over 70 said they were interested, which isn't ideal because you'd want this to flip the other way where the future of this planet is concerned. That's not to say anime can't inspire real change where the climate crisis is concerned. In a 2019 study, researchers from the University of Tokyo found that including animal characters in animated shows can increase public interest in real wildlife. Through their research, (now Associate) Professor Fukano Yūya and his team found that animals in a popular anime called Kemono Friends received 4.66 million more Google searches and 1 million Wikipedia page views than they had in the 18 months prior to broadcast. Crucially, this boost in interest led to increases in real-world conservation activity as the specific species featured received larger public donations across Tokyo zoos. Kelvin Tang, a postdoctoral climate education researcher at the University of Tokyo, tested this connection directly in a 2023 workshop (via The Japan Times) where he introduced 10 young children to ideas around climate change through simple cartoons and videos. Asking them to draw a picture of how they envision Japan's future climate 50 years from now, some drew a burning forest or even a burning Earth while others drew pretty flowers or grassy fields. "I see this as a hope," says Tang, "because some students, after learning about climate change, about this alarming situation, still have that hopeful future (in their minds),” he said. The resulting conversation led to students suggesting what they can do to help, whether it be turning off lights or reducing meat consumption. "The key is to find how to really harvest this hope," adds Tang, "for them to be an agent of change, to change these concerns into constructive action." In the same article, attention is drawn to a new series of anime shorts called Future Kid Takara, where the kid and a scientist go back in time to flee environmental disasters and discover the "beautiful Earth" that no longer exists for them in the future. Early signs of climate change here and now portend the apocalyptic era they hail from. The 11-episode series aims to inspire hope for positive change among elementary school students with educational, classroom use in mind. By organically conveying this vital message in an animated story like Future Kid Takara, the idea is to educate but also empower young people to change the future together, shaking off the mindset that hope is lost already. With such a long history in this field, anime remains the perfect vehicle to mainstream these concepts already and inspire further change. It's in the very DNA of this medium, after all. But it's not just Japanese animation that should aspire to make a difference. Powerful storytelling across the board is needed on a global scale to inspire action at a time when our reliance on fossil fuels is increasing as fast as the temperature is worldwide. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
It: Welcome to Derry risks ruining Pennywise for good with one fatal mistake
Welcome to Derry dares to hold Pennywise back – only to reveal far too much.
Eddie who? Richie whatshisname? As strong as the cast were in Andy Muschietti's IT, Pennywise is always the first name that comes to mind when you think of his twofold adaptation. As such, it didn't take long for Bill Skarsgård's deranged clown to dance its way into our hearts and nightmares alike (while showing up occasionally in my therapy sessions too). It's safe to say then that if there's one thing we'd want to see more of in the prequel series Welcome To Derry, it's Pennywise, even if it was reduced to a weird gross baby puddle by the end of IT: Chapter Two. The show is set 27 years before the events of the first film, making it easy to bring Pennywise back in its full splendour. Yet for the first few episodes, Skarsgård doesn't show up at all. IT is there, of course. It's in every nook and cranny of Derry, its evil seeping into every brick and the mind of every resident. Stephen King's most recognisable antagonist even shows up to terrify a new batch of kids each week, but not in his most recognisable form. Instead, IT appears as various nightmares made flesh, from Lilly's pickled father to a baby-faced demon in the premiere. It would have been easy to simply rely on the iconography of Pennywise, maximising the show's scares by giving viewers what they came for. But what you want isn't always best for you. Muschietti and his team smartly recognised that in writing this show, choosing to hold back on revealing Pennywise in full until five episodes in. Risky? Yes, but this was actually the best way to reintroduce a once-terrifying character who audiences have grown somewhat desensitised to. How could you not after Pennywise was meme'd into oblivion back when the films first came out? Building on the tension that comes with waiting to see it, this idea that Pennywise could leap out at any moment, helped remind us how scary IT really is while erasing those dancing memes from our minds completely. It's unfortunate then that Welcome To Derry risks undoing all this, not through how much Pennywise is shown but rather because of how much its backstory is. In King's original novel, we learned that Pennywise is a monstrous shape-shifting entity that crash-landed millions of years ago in Derry. This cosmic force of horror can shapeshift into your nightmares to feed off your fear, although its true form is that of golden lights, or "deadlights," that can drive anyone mad upon seeing them. Every 27 years, IT emerges to feast, mostly on children, before hiding away again below the town that's poisoned by IT's presence. This raises a number of questions. Why does IT favour the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown? Why doesn't this inter-dimensional entity venture out beyond Derry? And why does IT love to float so goddamn much? In an early interview with SFX (via GamesRadar), Muschietti teased that answers will be coming in season one of Welcome To Derry and beyond: "We're opening a window. Everything that we are setting up in season one, that will really manifest in two and three, is a look into all the bigger questions about IT. 'What does IT want? Why is IT here?' All the cryptic elements of IT that we're going to ruin and explain." View Green Video on the source website It's safe to assume that Muschietti was joking about his plans to "ruin" the wider mythology, but he accidentally did it anyway. The whole point of IT and Pennywise specifically is that this unknowable entity of unspeakable evil can't be explained away or ever fully understood. There's no logic to nightmares, and IT is a nightmare personified, the very essence of what you fear most sculpted out of the darkest recesses of your mind. Every horror fan knows that what you imagine will always be so much scarier than what's shown on-screen. That's why the '90s IT miniseries starring Tim Curry faltered when Pennywise's true form was revealed to be that of a janky-looking spider at the end. And it's not just what's shown that can have an impact either. Over-explaining is just as bad in its own way, especially with an evil as abstract and weird as this one. In episode four, Welcome To Derry dives deep into the origins of Pennywise, adding lore that wasn't even included in the original book. It's revealed that a dagger made from the same material as the meteor that Pennywise landed with can hurt the monster. In centuries past, thirteen sacred shards crafted from that metal were buried deep in the earth around Derry's western wood where IT lived, trapping it there. Each one was buried in a turtle shell, hinting at the role Maturin the cosmic turtle has long played in the battle against Pennywise. Sounds silly, right? What works on the page doesn't always translate well to screen, especially when it comes to aquatic reptiles of a cosmic nature. And that's also true of IT's expanded origin story, which Muschietti hints will be delved into further throughout future seasons. That's going to be a disaster if the military storyline we've seen so far is anything to go by. Lines like "Derry is a prison and we're looking for the bars," aren't just absurd in isolation. They also speak to just how odd and misjudged it is to see military officers try to weaponise something as unknowable as Pennywise. Even the name itself, IT, speaks to an ambiguity that's central to the power this idea has to unsettle us, a power which this narrative undercuts brutally. The result inevitably demystifies IT and robs the entity of its power. As smart as it was to tease Pennywise's physical appearance in the prequel, it was anything but wise to begin chipping away at its mystique. And therein lies the show's true horror. Because if Stephen King never explained why Pennywise stays in Derry, for example, why should the show? And more importantly, why should we care? It: Welcome to Derry continues on Sky Atlantic and NOW on Mondays. 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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond preview – worth the wait?
After eight years of development, Prime is back with a bang.
It's been eight years since Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was first announced. Eighteen years since Metroid Prime 3. Over such lengthy waits, you could forgive fans for losing hope in the game – that it was doomed to development hell, that it may not even arrive, or simply losing interest in it. But for the most part, Metroid fans are as excited for Metroid Prime 4 than they ever have been (if not more so), and following a hands-on preview, I can say that they are certainly right to be. Metroid Prime 4 opens up with a short, tutorial-like level that explains the basics of the game to you. After taking down a rather simple boss at the end, a mysterious explosion of energy ripples across the planet, and Samus awakes moments later in the jungle of an unknown world. Viewros is, or rather was, home to the Lamorn, a once-highly advanced but long since dead civilisation. Samus, lucky her, is the chosen one, selected by the last of the Lamorn to take their knowledge off-planet to spread their story with the universe. Unfortunately, she'll first have to find three keys to get the teleport working – thus begins our story proper. For anyone that has played previous Metroid Prime titles, Metroid Prime 4 doesn't massively shake things up, but polishes them to a mirror sheen. Gunplay is fantastic, and as someone that typically only plays shooters on PC and therefore cannot aim with a controller to save his life, I am exceedingly thankful for the Switch 2's new mouse functionality. At first, your weaponry is very bare bones, limited to just your most basic blaster shots. As you proceed, Samus will begin to restore her suit's capabilities, adding missiles and the like back into her arsenal. The jungles of Lamorn look fantastic, and are a joy to explore. As you proceed through, you're encouraged to make heavy use of Samus's visor to scan anything and everything you see. Beyond interesting factoids about the flora and fauna, this does deliver some very helpful information about how best to dispatch the various hostile creatures you come across. The world is also full of puzzles, none of which are particularly hard to solve, but are satisfying nonetheless. Between the jungle setting, puzzle-heavy gameplay and the concept of the Lamorn and their lost civilisation, I couldn't help but feel like Metroid Prime 4 has an air of The Legend of Zelda about it – a big plus, in my book. Central to Samus's abilities in Metroid Prime 4 are the psychic powers afforded her by the Lamorn. These abilities allow Samus to telekinetically interact with various doors, orbs, switches and more, shifting everything into the right place to solve some harder puzzles. They also have some combat applications, allowing Samus to guide missiles in slow-motion towards their target, something that comes in very handy upon fighting the next boss. View Green Video on the source website Going into this preview, the one thing I was most excited for was the prospect of the new motorcycle that has been so heavily teased, but alas, the motorcycle comes in a later section of the game. I had around 75 minutes to play Metroid Prime 4, and while that feels like enough to see the basics of what the game has to offer, I was certainly disappointed not to have longer. Not because I didn't think that 75 minutes was enough to see what Metroid Prime 4 has to offer, but the very opposite. The best thing you can say after one of these preview events is, "I wish I could have played more." It's safe to say that this was all I was thinking as I left the jungle for the next Lamornian vista to explore. When a game takes so long to come out as Metroid Prime 4, a certain mythos forms around it, with expectations growing higher and higher as the years pass. I can't say for sure whether Metroid Prime 4 will live up to those lofty expectations for some fans. What I can say, however, is that Metroid Prime 4 is shaping up to be everything I wanted from it, and certainly the follow-up to 3 that we've been waiting for. I just hope the rest of the game continues what this preview has started. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond releases on 4th December 2025 for Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch. Check out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
V for Vendetta isn't just another cash-grab remake – it could be the most important
I'm officially done with cash grab remakes. That's not a particularly hot take. In fact, I think it's how a lot of TV audiences have been feeling over the past few years. Particularly within the sci-fi and fantasy genres, finding a new, original series to watch instead of a sequel, prequel or, most dreaded of all, a remake, has been like finding a needle in a haystack. The reasons for that are pretty clear. The TV industry as a whole has been facing a funding crisis, making commissioners less likely to take a gamble on something new, and more likely to rely on an IP that's already proven itself worthy. It's a sad state of affairs but probably inevitable. But, while we've been bombarded with remakes, there are still some that are worth getting on board with, and a TV adaptation of V for Vendetta could very well be one of them. It's been reported that DC is developing a V for Vendetta TV series on HBO, with Pete Jackson penning the show and James Gunn and Peter Safran on board as executive producers. Based on Alan Moore and David Lloyd's graphic novel of the same name and released in 2005, the original movie followed Natalie Portman's Evey as she encountered masked freedom fighter V, an anarchist attempting to ignite a revolution against a fascist totalitarian regime. For the past 20 years, the film has stayed in the cultural and political zeitgeist in more ways than we could have predicted – particularly with the Guy Fawkes mask used as a symbol of anti-establishment rebellion (perhaps most recognisably by the hacktivist group Anonymous). So, if the movie is still culturally relevant, why do we need a remake? Well, it's the type of story we need to hear again and again, especially in the midst of the current political climate. Across the globe, we're currently facing the rise of the far right – and we have been for some time. To speak specifically of the UK, it's clear to me that a culture of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism has become normalised, with 'debates' about the rights of immigrants and trans people in particular permeating the media landscape on a daily basis, and the rhetoric of Nigel Farage and Reform becoming inescapable. View oEmbed on the source website It terrifies me that progress seems to be going backwards in some ways. Just yesterday, the US Supreme Court thankfully rejected an appeal to its same-sex marriage ruling, which was made a decade ago in 2015. But the fact that it's even a discussion, to me, is a clear sign of the lack of progress made in those 10 years. In a political climate like this one, we don't have the luxury of being subtle in our media and entertainment, and it's essential that we see our world reflected back at us – particularly in our sci-fi. In fact, if a sci-fi film or series isn't lifting a mirror to, and commenting on, our society, it's not doing its job. V for Vendetta certainly did its job on this front with its depiction of a totalitarian regime taking over Britain. With a remake, DC and HBO are going to place the story squarely back in the public consciousness, hopefully to the point that it cannot be avoided. Plus, crucially, there's more story to tell. The original movie may have done justice to the graphic novel, but it certainly didn't cover it all. There's a lot more nuance that can be explored in what will presumably be at least a six-part series. In the graphic novel, V is more ruthless and villainous, with the character being somewhat toned down for the movie. A series, however, would allow the time for a different, more ambiguous V to be explored. A series would also allow for a longer time frame to be shown. We can see the ins and outs of how Britain fell under the thumb of a totalitarian regime (which I'm expecting to be chillingly prescient), but also what happens after the end of the movie. Ultimately, even though the original film is still so culturally important, a V for Vendetta series would do two crucial things that not many remakes can offer: it would say something important about our society and current political climate, and it would give us something different to the original film. And that is something I'd take any day over a Harry Potter remake. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
I’m the new MasterChef judge and I was utterly surprised to be asked to take over
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. I'm over the moon about presenting the new series of Celebrity MasterChef. I was utterly surprised to be asked. For me, this was taking on the mantle of a show that I've watched religiously from the moment it began in 1990. In this country, we treat food very seriously. Yes, it's an entertainment show but, at the heart of it, it's about the joy of food, the science of food, the precision of food… I think when you ask people who work in television what it's like, they always say the same things about how thrilled they are, but I genuinely am – I've lived and breathed this show for ever, and now I’m front and centre! I'm reminded of home by… corned beef hash Specifically corned beef hash made in a pressure cooker. I remember standing in our kitchen on Harold Street in Currock, Carlisle, in the north west of England in 1978 and my mother opening up the pressure cooker and spooning this corned beef hash with carrots, onions, peas and potatoes into bowls. If it wasn’t runny enough, we’d have it with ketchup. Now, when I'm with Anna Haugh [Dent is presenting this series with JohnTorode, but from next year Haugh will be her MasterChef co-host], every time someone uses a pressure cooker, I turn to her and say, "1970s childhood"! The first dish I learnt to cook was… asparagus risotto I've cooked since I was a child, but the first fancy thing I learnt to cook was an asparagus champagne risotto with aged Parmesan — which was very, very glamorous in 1998. Back then I was living in Camden, in a big, shared house with five incredibly ambitious women who all worked in the media. Whenever I had a date night, I would try to woo whoever was coming round for dinner with my risotto. When I cooked on the MasterChef Battle of the Critics Christmas special in 2023, I made this dish. I knew two things – firstly, that if you can master that risotto with depth and manage to get it out on the plate, people are always impressed. And secondly, I knew it was possible in that amount of time, because I’d done it with rollers in while trying to choose a dress. My debut as a restaurant critic was reviewing… curried goat and jerk chicken It was 1996 and I was working at Marie Claire. They allowed me to edit a page called The London Section and it was the first time I’d written a restaurant review. I ate curried goat and jerk chicken at Mango Room in Camden. At that time, I hadn’t actually eaten much Caribbean food. I’d lived in Carlisle, and then Scotland, so to come down to London was incredible. It was like I was suddenly living in technicolor. I loved it, but that’s when I realised how hard it was to be a critic. I really liked people like Michael Winner who did Winner’s Dinners in The Sunday Times. I thought he had a wonderful job, because all you do is go and eat dinner and then say what you think — but writing that review made me realise that you go into a place like Mango Room and it’s a small, independent restaurant and the staff’s heart and soul. The money you spend pays for people’s children’s food, so you have to take it seriously. I’ll never forget the taste of… sheep's testicle mousse How did it taste? Exactly as it sounds. The restaurant world celebrates nose-to-tail eating, and I often have to eat things I don’t like — they want me to eat part of the spleen or the duodenum canal and it’s, "Isn’t this delicious, it’s part of the bowel?" It happens all the time, so I spend my life faintly smiling at valves that have been stewed in wine. Part of my job is to be adventurous, but I do spend a lot of my time thinking, "Are we being serious here?" The bit I will never be OK with is the amount of money that needs to be spent in some restaurants. When I pay £650 for two people, there will always be a part of me that thinks, "I could have given that money to [youth club charity] the Rock Youth Project in Currock." My MasterChef highlight is… Saucy steak with potatoes and buttery vegetables I didn’t have time for emotion during filming – I was too busy presenting to think about home or my family or anything else. Then one of the celebrities brought up this venison dish that was autumnal, and I just cried. But all of them were amazing — they all brought their personalities. I remember one celebrity coming on and I don’t think she’d really cooked that much until she arrived. She completely lacked confidence in herself. Everything she did cook was mega-healthy, I don’t think she ever allowed herself butter and sugar. But we got her cooking incredible steak and potatoes with sauces and buttery vegetables. From that moment, you could see her just come to life. As told to Steve O’Brien. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Celebrity MasterChef will air on Monday 17th November at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Add Celebrity MasterChef to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Get rid of the BBC? Careful what you wish for…
Once the pride of Britain, the BBC now faces its biggest crisis yet – but would we really be better off without it?
Decades ago, I joined a cruise in blue waters off the southern coast of Turkey, where our captain spoke no words of English except "tips here" – until somehow, through the usual blustering British-person-meets-rest-of-world chats, he established where I worked. For the next three days, I was summoned to mealtimes with a shout of "BBC" that echoed across the Med. It was a different time: when our national broadcaster’s brand was considered up there with Coca-Cola for global recognition, and the NHS for trustworthiness. 30 years later, and mentions of "the BBC" once again abound, but this time to a collective eye-roll at yesterday’s headlines that a catalogue of controversies has culminated in both the director-general and the CEO of BBC News falling on their swords over the editing of a 2021 Donald Trump speech. Monday saw the BBC Chair Samir Shah add his apology for the "error of judgement" that caused the furore. Tim Davie’s resignation speech included reference to the intense personal and professional demands that have punctuated his five years in British media’s top job – those years have seen a roll-call of on-air talent disappearing from screen after a litany of behaviour variously criminal (Huw Edwards), allegedly bad (Gregg Wallace) or political (Carol Vorderman, Gary Lineker). The departures of Davie and his news chief Deborah Furness are more redolent of 2004. I was among those queuing up, some in tears, to bid a fond farewell to Greg Dyke after he quit as D-G, as did his Board Chairman, after the government complained about the news coverage of the dossier – "sexed up" as alleged by reporter Andrew Gilligan – putting the case for Iraq’s nuclear weapons and justifying invasion. We know the rest. Possibly apart from some of those involved in that debacle, there were no calls then for the binning of the BBC – this week’s episode feels more rotten and existentially threatening. We learned through a memorandum leaked to The Telegraph that the BBC desperately tried to audit its own failings with an external report, both the act and results of which have given plenty of ammunition to those on both sides – that this whole thing is a politically-fuelled conspiracy to bring down the broadcaster, or that this internal, secret wrangling is more proof it’s the right time, with just two years to go before Charter Renewal – to completely disband the 103-year-old institution and rebuild in an entirely different image, one more fit for the commercial and cultural realities of 2025. Be careful what you wish for. Of course, the BBC has its faults – I cringe at some of its attempts to keep up with the kids: buying the rights to Drag Race about half a decade too late, pulling BBC Three off the linear platform before U-turning at great expense, the self-satisfaction it displays when it builds an entire schedule around one formerly charming event like Eurovision, its reliance on too few, over-exposed presenters... Nevertheless, it remains the gold standard, not just for the UK but for the world. Overseas friends cite The Goodies, Doctor Who, Kenny Everett as a central part of their childhood TV diet. They’re always surprised to learn dramas like Brideshead Revisited and Downton Abbey weren’t actually BBC titles — "it feels like something they’d do”"— pointing to the fact that the BBC’s production and training ecosystem has long ensured all broadcasting boats rise. Countries from Canada to Australia to South Africa have built their own national broadcasting institutions in the BBC image, citing the worthwhile aspiration of "trust", "authority", "grown up TV". It’s a point of abject embarrassment that, while these broadcasters build on that original vision and continue to flourish, our homebuilt mothership is left struggling to justify its existence. Among Winston Churchill's many famous quotes, he called "democracy the worst form of government, except for all the others" – and the same is true for the BBC and its place in the firmament. Look to your left, to Russia and neighbours, and you find state-sponsored, state-controlled, state-supporting TV – propaganda not programmes. Look to your right, and you have American TV. The transparently commercial imperative – the first ad break often coming straight after the opening credits – used to be a source of mirth for foreign viewers, but has now evolved into something far more nakedly and ruthlessly driven. Meanwhile, pushing against the two walls of legislation and commercial rivals like Chewbacca in the trash compactor, the BBC tries gamely to balance our diets with wholesome fodder and some glittering, expensive jewels, in a way that only it can. Of course, it needs tidying up, refreshing, streamlining, reforming – but let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Life without it would look very different, and we would all be the poorer. Check out more of our TV coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Pluribus season 1 review: Vince Gilligan's sci-fi masterpiece will take you to your happy place
Rhea Seehorn is magnificent in this unique sci-fi masterpiece.
TV titan Vince Gilligan is known for writing bad guys. Think Walter White in Breaking Bad or Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul. But for his highly anticipated follow-up, Gilligan dares to imagine a world where there are no bad guys, where evil has been eradicated in its entirety. And therein lies a very different kind of horror. Pluribus begins with a scientific discovery gone awry, as is often the case with post-apocalyptic stories of this nature. One simple mistake breaks the world as we know it, unleashing a virus that melds the globe into one collective group mind. The horrific imagery that follows evokes everything from the devastating stillness of 28 Days Later to the chilling paranoia embedded throughout Invasion of the Body Snatchers (in all its incarnations). So why was Pluribus surrounded by so much secrecy prior to its release? We've seen this all before, right? Well no, it turns out that Gilligan's twist on the genre quickly takes these familiar tropes in wildly unexpected directions that intrigue, unsettle, and might occasionally test your patience at points. Without spoiling too much, this global shift in thinking isn't hellbent on domination. The virus has essentially won already, yet that was never its goal. Melding the world's population into one singular mind was just necessary, a biological imperative akin to breathing. The result is a happy one, creating a utopia on earth where there is no more crime. Discrimination is a thing of the past and every caged animal has been set free. At its core, this apocalypse brings peace and happiness to everyone on earth except the one woman who can't stand it. Carol Sturka, an unhappy romance novelist who peddles "mindless crap" numbers among the very few people on earth who have retained their minds still, somehow immune to the virus. As such, the collective is keen to draw Carol into their embrace, quite happily informing her that they're working on ways to push through and infect her somehow. It's in this tension that the show's defiance of straightforward tone and genre is most evident. Much like Carol herself, Pluribus pushes back against notions of good and evil, what's right and wrong, in a funhouse mirror version of the grey areas Gilligan played with so adeptly in his previous works. With a placid smile (smiles?) and kind reassurances, the virus wishes to erase Carol's individuality and assimilate her completely. But would that be so bad? Other survivors reject Carol's idea of "saving humanity", believing themselves to be saved already in what could be considered a new utopia on earth. It would be easy to read this as a push back against group think or conformity, but Pluribus doesn't offer easy answers. Instead, the writing opens itself up to interpretation on multiple levels (unlike Carol's own tawdry fantasy series). This idea that the ones who wish you harm will smile at you as they do so also speaks to religious extremism, gay conversion therapy, and even our political reality, while assumptions that the virus is bad also touch on the differences between individualist and collectivist societies. Pluribus does offer easy answers in another sense, however, as the virus readily gives up information Carol seeks in her attempts to uncover what's really happening. These tranquil admissions might lack the tension that a puzzlebox mystery show usually provides — with one even going so far as to undercut its own horror almost immediately — but this in itself sets Pluribus further apart as an entirely unique viewing experience. That's also true of its scale. Gilligan's return to TV makes full use of that Apple TV budget with vast settings that ram home the global impact of what's happened. Jumps back and forth in time expand this even further again, plus international locales beyond Albuquerque, New Mexico (also the setting of both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) are just a plane ride away, easily accessible thanks to "The Afflicted" and their endless altruism. While you're sometimes left wondering at the implications of this global shift beyond Carol's perspective, Pluribus constantly finds ingenious new ways to touch on that through dialogue or outlandish scenarios that could only come from a premise this strange. Hearing a child draw on the group mind to discuss the ins and outs of gynaecology is as disconcerting as it sounds, for example, while a politician talking to Carol through her TV delivers one of the premiere's most shocking moments through what's essentially exposition. Pluribus is alien in more ways than one, so it was smart to ground this story through a protagonist like Carol, a cynical grump whose anger is as useful as it can be destructive. Her outrage at what's become of humanity spikes against the happiness of the collective, creating a push and pull dynamic that grows central to what Pluribus has to say. Gilligan wrote this story specifically for Rhea Seehorn following their work together on Better Call Saul, and it's the exact kind of calling card that could nab her an Emmy at last following three previous nominations. Whether she's seething or yearning, raging or grieving, Seehorn is magnificent, adding dimension upon dimension to Carol against the smoothed-out flatness on the faces of everyone who surrounds her. Pluribus is essentially a one-woman show in that respect, yet Karolina Wydra also does phenomenal work as Zosia, an avatar for the collective who Carol comes to rely on. Her prominence deliberately complicates our perception of what's happening while also giving us a face to connect with in this multitude of billions. Pluribus works as an inverted version of Sense8 in some ways, another marvellously inventive spin on what's possible within sci-fi. Elements of Lost's puzzle box enigma, the existentialism of The Leftovers and even the quirkiness of The X-Files — a show Gilligan worked on extensively before Breaking Bad — are also apparent in the DNA of Pluribus (not to mention the influence of seminal sci-fi authors such as John Wyndham or Kurt Vonnegut). Much like the virus does to everyone except Carol, Pluribus twists familiar storytelling beats into something new and otherworldly. The result is one of this year's most inventive stories across any medium, making Gilligan's return to TV a bonafide rarity in a sea of recycled ideas we've seen countless times before. Beyond the premiere — a truly perfect hour of television — you'll need to be open to seeing the bigger picture at points, and patience is vital if you're to go along with some of the wilder swings this show takes. But if you're up for it, prepare yourself for what could eventually turn out to be a genuine masterpiece on the same level as Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul. All it took was for Gilligan to make everyone and no-one the bad guy all at once. Pluribus is now available on Apple TV. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. 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These are the 10 stars who should be on a potential Celebrity Traitors season 2
The Celebrity Traitors has only just ended and has undoubtedly shot to the top of many people's best TV shows of the year lists. Whether it was Alan Carr getting the giggles, Celia Imrie's flatulence or Joe Marler's angelic walk down across a rickety bridge, The Celebrity Traitors has proven to be a must watch. With 11.7 million (and growing!) people tuning into the first episode alone, it's no surprise that audiences have been keen for yet another season with even more beloved famous faces taking part. The best thing about The Celebrity Traitors is its all-star cast, who have left all egos at the door and excelled in the game, and I reckon these 10 celebrities listed below could do the very same... Celebrities who should appear on a potential Celebrity Traitors season 2 Bob Mortimer Daisy May Cooper Charlie Cooper Nicola Walker Alison Hammond Olivia Colman Rob Beckett Chunkz Greg Davies Diane Parish If you need furthering reasoning as to why, scroll on. Bob Mortimer Bob Mortimer has been making audiences laugh for almost four decades and admittedly and ashamedly so, I only really got into his work in 2022 amid the release of The Satsuma Complex. But it was seeing him in Last One Laughing: UK that truly made me want to see every single TV show he'd been in, thus signalling a binge watch of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. The comedian was heavily rumoured for The Celebrity Traitors, but that sadly never came into fruition. However, with show execs reportedly wanting him for another season should the BBC re-commission, I have high hopes. Daisy May and Charlie Cooper The brother and sibling duo have been entertaining the nation since 2017 and were both reportedly set to take part in the series before dropping out due to timing constraints. But with their TV reunion on BBC Three's NightWatch, in which they sleep over at the UK's spookiest places, and their subsequent hilarious press tour that followed, has only cemented their need to be in the Traitors castle. All I can think about is that Daisy May being a Traitor and Charlie a Faithful would be absolute cinema. Nicola Walker Maybe I'm biased because I think The Split is one of the greatest dramas in recent years, but the dynamic Walker's Hannah Stern had with her sisters and mother is the exact kind of energy needed at a Traitors roundtable. Olivia Colman If you have ever had the pleasure of watching clips from Olivia Colman on press tours promoting her latest projects, then you'll know exactly why she needs to be on The Celebrity Traitors. Her hilarious and witty nature will give the castle the Alan Carr vibes that has made this series so enjoyable. And she's no stranger to sniffing out the truth, having starred in the acclaimed Broadchurch. So maybe she could give David Tennant a call too? Alison Hammond Alison Hammond was definitely on plenty of people's minds when the news of Celebrity Traitors was revealed. Having already appeared in a Traitors-themed sketch for Red Nose Day, providing all the laughs, it seems a natural progression for the TV presenter. Rob Beckett Another Last One Laughing alumni, Rob Beckett could quite possibly be the worst Traitor in the castle if he were to appear on the show. In the Prime Video series, Beckett's attempt at trying not to laugh or smile was a sight to be seen, which could only be a recipe for TV success when trying to keep hold of a secret. Chunkz Celebrity Traitors featured Niko Omilana this year, and would make sense for the BBC to follow suit with another content creator, but perhaps another whose pranking skills isn't used against him. Chunkz's YouTube career is fairly impressive, especially his videos in which he has to guess an intruder among a group of people... Greg Davies Greg Davies could be the best signing of the bunch. A good Faithful who would be banished quite soon, if his sarcastic comedy style has anything to do with it. Diane Parish Diane Parish needs to avenge the early banishment of Tameka Empson! Outside of her appearance as Denise Fox on EastEnders, the actor is incredibly funny and would provide laughs when needed. But I have a strong feeling she'd take the show incredibly seriously, as one should, and would be able to tap into her acting skills to progress further in the game. The Celebrity Traitors is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Add The Celebrity Traitors to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Kim Kardashian's All's Fair performance is indeed shocking – but the show's biggest problem lies elsewhere
The reviews of All's Fair are rightfully bad – but we need to point the finger of blame elsewhere.
*Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first 3 episodes of All's Fair, which are now available to stream on Disney Plus.* You may be sat wondering if all the negative reviews, the fanfare and the resulting memes are all true. Is All's Fair really that bad? It is – let's get that out of the way first and foremost – but nothing can quite prepare any viewer for the overwhelming onslaught of just how bad it is, that will leave many cringing for their favourite actresses. A lot of the reaction has, rightfully, been pointing its finger at reality star and businesswoman Kim Kardashian, who has been part of the cultural zeitgeist for decades now. Having had various small-time cameos in films nobody talks about over the years, her big acting break came in 2023 by way of American Horror Story and its series creator, Ryan Murphy. At the time of that show's release, reception to Kardashian's acting was a mixed bag. Some thought her lack of acting prowess left the general performance feeling flat, while others thought that Kardashian only dialled up the camp factor of the show. Some would take heed of that feedback and perhaps not initiate Kardashian into leading lady stardom – but not Ryan Murphy, oh no. Instead, he's put her front and centre in All's Fair as successful legal partner Allura Grant. We're introduced to her new life almost like an episode of The Kardashians or MTV Cribs, getting a walkthrough of her luxury wardrobe, her staff, and house that anybody would be envious of. However, by the end of the first episode, we quickly find out that not everything is a bed of roses in Allura's life, as her younger husband Chase (Matthew Noszka) admits to having an affair and wants a divorce. Heartbreaking stuff, right? Expect you wouldn't quite know it, as the archetypal girls debrief chat that we're thrown into after Chase's admission sees Kardashian looking as polished and straight-faced as ever, changing into a fur coat and kitten heels as her unlikely comfort outfit of choice. Why isn't she wearing a tracksuit and eating a tub of ice cream? You may ask. All's Fair seemingly doesn't have room for tired, unglamorous clichés, thank you very much. And you know what – as much as the show is painfully bad in every facet of what makes a TV show good, at least it doubles down on its ridiculousness. As a lead of any series, it's the job of that actor to prop up the series and embody the kind of performance you can't quite look away from. So, I understand why many are taking the opportunity to moan about Kardashian's execution. However, a bad workman always blames his tools, and while the buck could be passed to Kardashian, I think the biggest problem with All's Fair are the writers behind it: Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken. How the three of them have bandied together to create such awful dialogue that makes the likes of Sarah Paulson, Teyana Taylor and Glenn Close feel cringe-worthy is a complete and utter travesty. Murphy has certainly shown storytelling chops over the years with the likes of Pose, American Horror Story and even Eat, Pray, Love. Perhaps those titles are why the short-term memory starts to kick in for those who agree to work with him. But all you have to do is look at his recent controversial Netflix anthology series, Monster, to realise that crafting nuanced characters isn't exactly his specialty. We can't laugh out loud at the lines that are being delivered by the star-studded cast without also thinking of just how Murphy, Baitz and Baken crafted these women on the page. I'm not saying three men can't come up with a female-led series, but when their dialogue is full of sentences that sound like they've been ripped straight from the internet or someone's idea of how women would speak, it really does beg the question of why they didn't seek some help. There are multiple lines throughout the episodes that are so bad, they're like getting literal whiplash multiples times over. It's almost as though between them, these writers have never even known a woman, let alone written one. "Ten years ago today, we stepped away from the patriarchy and towards something of our own," Niecy Nash-Betts says in the premiere episode. You can almost hear the script writers shouting 'Girl Power!' when they came up with that one. "Pin your wig down Allura, because this might blow it back," is another especially memorable line delivered by Nash-Betts, while Paulson has been reduced to an angry enemy who dishes out insults referencing Ozempic, "fat, treacherous lawn chairs" and "c**t burgers". Even in somewhat reduced roles in the outset of the series, both Paulson and Taylor at least try to bring their skills to the table. They're natural scene-stealers in their own right, after all, but it's almost heartbreaking to think of someone like Taylor going from the heady heights of standout 2025 film One Battle After Another, to this. Wading through the mud of such clunky and genuinely mind-numbing dialogue is a job in its own respect, but it's one that none of these actresses seem to have come out of having achieved, sadly. The episodic legal cases that are supposed to keep everything moving forward and feeling procedural also just feel lazy and half-hearted. Judith Light's Sheila Baskin screams that she only slept with an unattractive man because he used to look at her the way her husband did all those years ago. Oh, how poetic! Another woman jumps from their legal office headquarters – and let's not forget Jessica Simpson, whose mildly sympathetic arc turns into an acid-throwing nightmare. In the midst of haphazard storytelling, no emotional buy-in to any of the characters, and various plots chucked onto one another that may leave you with a headache, it also seems that it was one step too far to ask for Nash-Betts's character to not be reduced to a stereotype. While being a partner at the firm is a big win for Nash-Betts's Emerald Greene, Murphy should've perhaps taken a lesson from the TV drama world of Shonda Rhimes's Scandal or How to Get Away with Murder if he needed to learn how to craft a Black woman with nuance – and not just a single mother who is regularly depicted as either shouting at her children or being 'sassy'. But it's abundantly clear that I'm not just asking for the impossible when it comes to All's Fair as a series, but also of this writing team in general. If they put nearly as much thought and consideration into the craftsmanship of the scripts as they did into the (admittedly excellent) wardrobe, perhaps we wouldn't all be complaining that it's currently the worst thing on TV. Episodes 1-3 of All's Fair are available to stream on Disney Plus in the UK now, with episodes being released weekly. You can sign up to Disney Plus from £4.99 a month now. Add All's Fair to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Squid Game: The Challenge has upped the ante in season 2 and is all the better for it
In this season of Squid Game: The Challenge, the stakes are higher than ever before.
*WARNING: Contains spoilers for Squid Game: The Challenge season 2 episodes 1-4* If, like me, you're often the cynic among TV watchers, especially when it comes to spin-offs, you may have been equally as hesitant about Squid Game: The Challenge. Though upon its initial release almost two years ago the series proved to be a popular hit among viewers on Netflix, with the series going on to win a BAFTA and 1.42 billion minutes of viewings in the US, for me, something was still missing. Sure, it had all the same games known from the drama series and a few new ones thrown into the mix, but it admittedly left me thinking: Is that all? Aside from the obvious, and legal, factor that no deaths occur in the reality series, it felt very much the same. So when season 2 rolled around, I was dubious – but I was immediately proven wrong. The second season opens to an immediate test of character, something which the contestants are tried on quite a lot throughout the episodes, and sees the 456 contestants split in half, with twin brothers Raul and Jacob going head-to-head as leaders of each group and split into two rooms. In each room is a podium, and the leader must press the button when the team believe 456 seconds have elapsed. The scenes are completely anxiety-inducing, as you soon realise 228 players will be wiped from the game and the brothers split up, ramping up the cash prize to extraordinary amounts. With so many programmes, particularly those made by Studio Lambert, excelling at leaving audiences at the edge of their seats, it's impressive that the series didn't fatigue me with its multiple twists and turns. Upon realising the brothers are safe, despite being on the losing team, you soon realise there are plenty more tricks up the producer's sleeves, ensuring no one can guess what's about to happen next – not even the players. Similarly to Studio Lambert's latest Traitors outing, audiences and players alike may think they know what's to come, but a spanner is thrown in the works each time to keep you on your toes. Whether it's the introduction of the hidden room in Squid Game: The Challenge or the secret missions given to players, the episodes become juicier by the second. And in an age with so many programmes attempting to replicate a shock factor that keeps people talking even after a series has aired, Squid Game: The Challenge hits the nail on the head. Perhaps the most stressful watch in the first four episodes is the newly-introduced Catch. While pretty simple on paper, given it's a literal game of catch, the layers of two people being at risk of elimination and player 098's incessant commentary grips you from the very start. But nothing can prepare you for when Viper takes to the middle spot and plays the game with a contestant unwilling to participate. Ultimately, Viper along with his fellow player 390 are eliminated from the game, also eliminating Jonti in the process, who chose Viper to play on his behalf. "My dreams have been shattered," Viper says upon his elimination, and it soon became clear how badly he wanted to win the money – how badly every single player wanted the money. "You've got the spectacle of all the players being in the same space. You've got the drama of the game playing out in the centre of the room," series director Diccon Ramsay said of the game. "It's a really good example of how we use a game to drive the story and not just be pure spectacle." And that couldn't be more apparent, with it becoming clear to audiences and players alike how important it is to have alliances in a game like this, even when the games become more childlike and on first glance, easier than before, which only leaves you gasping for more. It's clear that Squid Game: The Challenge isn't just a game of chance or luck, which makes it all the more enticing viewing. The first four episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge season 2 are available to watch now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Add Squid Game: The Challenge to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Liverpool fans booing Trent Alexander-Arnold is a raw, emotional reaction – don't police the pain
Who are we to tell hurt Liverpool fans how to feel betrayed?
First published on 12th May 2025, updated ahead of Liverpool v Real Madrid on 4th November 2025. "Liverpool fans are being told their reaction to Alexander-Arnold leaving is emotional more than sensible." On Monday 5th May, Jamie Carragher led a chorus of hot takes following the Liverpool club statement confirming Trent Alexander-Arnold would depart at the end of his contract. Real Madrid awaited. Several months later, the inevitable has happened, Liverpool welcome Real Madrid to Merseyside, Alexander-Arnold is back at Anfield. And he's wearing white. 'Football fans may or may not boo an opposing football player' is a tepid story at best. We'll wake up to highlights of the, err, team sheet being read out on BBC Breakfast over our cornflakes in the morning. It is boring – really boring. And yet, so long as the highest-profile football personalities and outlets continue to stoke the story with their scorching takes, the story will continue to burn. But this is why most of those prominent voices have completely missed the mark. They've fallen foul of the first rule of football punditry: don't tell football fans what they should feel. Back in May, during his piece for The Telegraph quoted above, Carragher wrote: "My response to that is who is really the naive and deluded one when analysing how fans feel about such transfers?" and questioning whether Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal fans would be happy to see one of their favoured sons departing for a European heavyweight. He continued: "If that image of the homegrown talent living the dream is an illusion, people feel let down ... Fans are obviously going to be upset ... By leaving Liverpool, Alexander-Arnold is making it harder for his own club to win their 21st league title and seventh European Cup. That is bound to stir emotions ... With Monday’s statement, the unconditional support Alexander-Arnold enjoyed from the Kop when he was fully committed to Liverpool has gone." Carragher, a one-club Liverpool legend, spoke with the emotion of a native. And he was right. He didn't call for boos, but he seemed to understand, with precision, the sadness of watching a homegrown hero fly the nest. That was Monday, then Sunday came. "I was shocked... don't boo your own player!" said Carragher on Sky Sports Super Sunday after Alexander-Arnold was subjected to hostility by a significant portion of the crowd at Anfield as he was substituted onto the field. "I'm surprised how many. For me, I don't believe any player putting on that red shirt who goes on to win trophies should be being booed. Booing one of your own players while they're playing is not for me." On Monday, Carragher judged the mood perfectly, which makes his Sunday surprise jarring – where did he expect that raw emotion, that hurt, would go? At this point, it's worth stating, as a football fan, I agree with Carragher's sentiment. Booing your own player is not a particularly clever, edifying or productive use of oxygen, but if that's how some choose to vent their sadness, their sense of loss and betrayal, who has a right to police the outpouring? You can't help but fall in love with the notion of the one-club, homegrown footballer. That's how football should work, right? Football should be about the young lad daydreaming of Anfield at school, knee holes in his eighth pair of school trousers this term, the bane of his mum's life, a pair of Clarks' finest black shoes scuffed and battered from clipping a prime Sports Direct Sondico against the wall outside his home, rudimentary goal posts chalked, scratched or marked with jumpers on either side. He doesn't see the red bricks behind the goal, he sees the Kop. He's not himself, he's Steven Gerrard. He's not having a kickabout with his mates after maths, it's a Champions League final. They're in Croxteth, but they're in Istanbul. The bright young thing goes to a half-term football camp down the local leisure centre, there's a scout there, who drifts over to the boy's parents for a chat. First contact. A decade passes, the lad has captained every rung of the youth ladder and finally breaks into the first team to rapturous applause from his own. It's all he ever wanted, and now it's everything he has. That story has been replicated across the land in every generation. Fans love it because their story ended at the camp. The scout didn't call back. The phone never rang. The locals' daydreams are imputed to those for whom the dream lived on. Homegrown players are often the most celebrated in the good times and most criticised in the bad times – or when they leave. Fans only ever dream of playing for their club, their beloved, and because 99.99 per cent don't get the nod, they're stuck perennially fantasising about pulling on their team's shirt, they don't progress to wondering how they'd feel playing for that boyhood club after a decade, after hitting virtually every target, after lifting every trophy. Humans always want more; our lot is never enough. Alexander-Arnold has spent 21 of his 26 years in the Liverpool ecosystem, won the Premier League twice, and added triumphs in the Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield, Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup to his CV. With that lot in the cabinet, it's hard to ignore the appeal of a few years in Spain: playing for arguably the biggest, most successful club in the history of world football alongside several of the world's brightest stars on one of the world's grandest stages... with a bit of sun thrown in for good measure. But for those fans who understandably can't yet see beyond the betrayal, it hurts. They're getting nothing in exchange for one of their own. Their favourite player, a local lad, is being exported to a direct continental rival, for free. What are they supposed to do? Cheer? Of course, when the keyboards stop clacking, Trent's legacy as a Liverpool all-timer will be solidified, he will be remembered for more than one quick-thinking corner versus Barcelona. And he's even young enough to come back. The prodigal son returned after all. But for now, don't police the pain. Don't sanitise it. The Premier League has fostered an increasingly sterile culture that demands non-celebrations from former players and nauseatingly inauthentic "RESPECT [clapping emojis – and remember more emojis equals more RESPECT]" for likes. Booing TAA is a raw, emotional, even uncomfortable response – but don't try to suppress it. Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
My daughter Caroline Flack died without a voice - and this is my biggest regret about her difficult final days
We mustn’t forget the woman behind the headlines, says her mother, Christine Flack.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. We found a handwritten note from Caroline the other day. Caroline’s twin sister, Jody, discovered it while packing up boxes of her things. Caroline loved leaving me notes, but this one was written for herself and was a list of all the things she loved, everything that made her happy. She’d included her job – hosting Love Island, the ITV dating show that she’d made her own – her close family and the beautiful London home that she had worked so hard to buy. Caroline had made a brilliant life for herself and most of the time she was happy. She loved musicals – we’d seen Hamilton and Waitress. She laughed a lot, loved dancing and was always singing in the car. Five years on from her death, these are the moments I try to remember. But Caroline was also vulnerable and suffered highs and lows, even while growing up. She was in hospital in her late teens after a relationship ended and feared talking openly about her mental health. I did my best to protect her as a child. Now I must protect her in a different way. Caroline died, aged 40, without a voice and with the world believing that she was a domestic abuser. I want the real Caroline to be remembered – not the Caroline that was portrayed in the press in the weeks before her death. Which is why I have made Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth, a two-part documentary for Disney+. View oEmbed on the source website It’s my biggest regret that I wasn’t shouting about the injustice before Caroline took her own life on Valentine’s Day in 2020, while facing prosecution for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend, Lewis Burton. Now I have nothing to lose. The worst thing in the world has already happened. I need to get the truth out there. I’m not here to defend domestic violence. Caroline hit Lewis with a mobile phone after becoming concerned he was cheating. But the facts are that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recommended Caroline receive a caution. She had no previous convictions, Lewis did not support the prosecution, and it was not deemed to be in the public interest. A senior Metropolitan Police figure appealed against that decision and Caroline was then charged with assault by beating. Caroline discovered she would be prosecuted the day before she died. When I have thought about how Caroline died and how awful she must have felt on that day, I’ve not been able to stop asking questions. Why did the police lock her in a cell for 24 hours after she was hospitalised for self-harming? Why did the CPS charge her amid a media frenzy? And how could the tabloids print such intrusive information? In 2023, the Met apologised for not keeping a written record of why they charged Caroline. But I couldn’t get more answers. That’s why I wanted to make this film. Having cameras with me, I hoped, would open doors. I firmly believe this was a show trial and Caroline was treated differently simply because she was a celebrity. In my documentary, a very significant figure agrees with me, having seen the evidence the producers and I have obtained. I remember my last conversation with Caroline. She had moved to a new flat, away from the press intrusion that was plaguing her life. She was happy and we all believed that the CPS wouldn’t press charges. I looked at her, with her hair scrunched up on top of her head and her tiny, size two shoes, and said to my partner, “How can someone so little be causing so much havoc?” And that was my thought that day. Then she heard that the CPS would charge her. With that, and the tabloid coverage, I think she just couldn’t see a way out. I’ve not been able to rest since Caroline’s death. Perhaps when other people see this documentary – which is, I hope, also a celebration of Caroline – and all the ways in which my beautiful daughter was failed, I might be able to finally stop searching for answers. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Both episodes of Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth will be available on Monday 10th November on Disney+. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why ‘hellraisers’ like Richard Burton, Oliver Reed and Peter O’Toole will always bewitch us
Why did some great postwar actors become better known for their hellraising than their performances?
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As Richard Burton appears on screen in kaleidoscopic colour, dressed in full armour and atop a horse, he is applauded by the adoring masses. The narrator proclaims, “In ten short years, he has conquered the world.” As it happens, he’s talking about Burton’s character, Alexander the Great, in the eponymous movie, but the words could apply to the actor himself. It was 1956, by when the young Welshman had already embarked on an extraordinary ascent, from the mining village of Pontrhydyfen, to Oxford University, to the London stage and Hollywood. Actor Siân Phillips remembers his West End debut – “he walked on and the whole theatre went cold” – while his first Hollywood role brought him an Oscar nomination, the first of seven. His voice, his presence, his love for poetry were all among his many splendid gifts, and he in turn offered them up to us. Why then, if you say the name “Richard Burton”, does a life of drama and diamonds immediately come to mind, one spent jumping between yachts and private jets in the glare of the paparazzi lens and, of course, a double marriage to Elizabeth Taylor? Because that’s all true, too. Burton was the primus inter pares of Britain’s still beloved mid-century stars, alongside the likes of Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and co – a group of talented actors for whom the term “hellraiser” became a shorthand, as famous for their reckless real-life behaviour as for their undoubted dramatic talents. What was the unifying element, and why do they still bewitch us? For a start, they were all preternaturally gifted. Peter O’Toole “appeared on stage like an electric light,” is how he’s remembered by Anthony Hopkins, while Richard Harris brought us the tenderest of Camelots and even MacArthur Park (a 60s anthem I didn’t even realise for years was the same Richard Harris!). And they all arrived in London during an era of still unresolved postwar trauma, class collision and hedonistic freedom, when their acting skills meant they were each given the keys to a sweetshop beyond their wildest dreams. Michael Sheen sympathetically describes the pull between Burton’s loves – stage versus screen, devoted first wife Sybil versus passionate lover Elizabeth, Wales versus the universe – asking if drink was the escape. Whatever, it must have turned all of these world-class performers into crashing bores and hell to live with. Siân Phillips remembers one drunken rage culminating in her husband O’Toole demanding she be packed and gone from the house in two hours. The saddest contributor in the new BBC2 Burton doc is the friend who first saw him on stage in 1952 and then again in the last chapter of his life – “he was performing, but he was lost”. Laurence Olivier’s tipped successor had become the man who screamed through a full glass at a late-era director, “I could have been Lear!” Burton was always fascinated by Faustus, the man who traded his soul for power, riches and the most beautiful woman in the world, but the fate of Icarus would seem just as pertinent. The ones who flew not quite as high – Albert Finney, Michael Caine – went on to enduring greatness and happy, long lives. Anthony Hopkins, now sober for 50 years, has twice played the Lear that Burton never did. Certainly, nobody, at least that we know about, behaves like this in 2025, which is no doubt a relief for all studio executives, pub landlords and stars’ loved ones. But it means, as Kenneth Branagh says, almost wistfully, “No one is going to tell stories about us in 50 years’ time.” Was it all worth it? Harris would say so: “At least you knew I was here.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Richard Burton: Wild Genius airs at 9pm on Wednesday 12th November on BBC Two and iPlayer. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ncuti Gatwa was the perfect ambassador for Doctor Who – his early exit changes nothing
Gatwa beautifully embodied the Time Lord's values.
Disney's deal with Doctor Who is officially over and everyone is trying to answer one question: why? No one, other than the higher-ups at Disney, really know the answer to this. Of course, there have been theories, that Deadline has attributed to sources at the House of Mouse, ranging from the show's apparent 'wokeness' to the series being too quintessentially British to translate to audiences across the pond. I've got my doubts about each of those theories. I'd be disgusted if Disney's departure ultimately boiled down to [checks notes] one gay kiss and the casting of trans actress Yasmin Finney and drag artist Jinkx Monsoon. Also, Doctor Who has broken America before – and already has a decent amount of fans across the globe. But one point has left me flabbergasted. One of Deadline's sources is quoted as suggesting Ncuti Gatwa hasn't been a good ambassador for Doctor Who, saying: “There is more to that role than performing. You have got to be an ambassador for the brand and embrace being that generation’s Doctor. Matt Smith and David Tennant fully understood the responsibility it carried.” I have to ask – at what point has Ncuti Gatwa not understood the responsibility of being an ambassador for Doctor Who? After being announced as the Fifteenth Doctor, Gatwa has dedicated a solid three years of his life to the role. While facing down a slew of racism and homophobia, that no one should ever endure after announcing a new chapter in their career, Gatwa quickly and convincingly offered up a genuinely new and fresh incarnation of the Time Lord – something that is no mean feat 15 actors in. His range as a performer has been beautiful to watch, as he brought us everything from unfiltered joy to unadulterated rage and everything in between. He seamlessly slipped into the role, following on from none other than fan favourite Tennant, and absolutely running with it. He had countless impressive moments over the course of his run, but perhaps no more so than the final scenes of Dot and Bubble, which saw Gatwa showing the Doctor's full emotional spectrum, from desperation, to incredulity, to hopelessness, to frustration, to utterly sad resignation. It was a moment that showed his utter skill as a performer and his complete dedication to the role. But, of course, the role of a Doctor goes beyond what you see on screen. It's in their interactions with the fans, how they embody the Time Lord's values in their life while they're playing the role – which Gatwa, again, did beautifully. Considering the amount of abuse he received during his run as the Doctor, Gatwa would be forgiven for not wanting to interact with the Doctor Who fandom at all. Instead, he focused on the positivity in the fandom, taking time out of his day to meet fans while he filmed on location and interacting with them on social media. He shared mountains of fan art on Instagram, sharing his love for the talented artists, and often shared his absolute adoration for any Who-related gifts he was given. But most of all, Gatwa embodies every value that fans have come to expect from the Doctor. He fights for what he believes in – he has been a fierce advocate for causes including LGBTQ+ rights, and has spoken out about Palestine. After experiencing homelessness, he became an ambassador for homelessness charity Centrepoint, and he's opened up about his ambitions to build a school in Rwanda. He's also got an unwavering dedication to inclusivity, and is clearly aware that his incarnation of the Doctor will have meant a lot to anyone who hasn't traditionally seen themselves represented on screen. "The character is a shape-shifting alien. It can be anyone," he previously said of the Doctor. "So for there to only have been one representation of the character, I think is just quite limiting... Who wouldn't want to see themselves in the shoes of the Doctor?" I don't know why it's been said that Gatwa wasn't a good ambassador for Doctor Who. Could it have been because he did the occasional sexy photoshoot for magazine covers? In response to that, I can only feel sorry for those who think the Doctor can't be sexy. What a sad little life, Jane. Perhaps it's because it's believed that Gatwa may have left Doctor Who a little earlier than originally planned. But, if that's true, it doesn't negate any of the brilliant work he's done as an ambassador for Doctor Who. In fact, it would have been nonsensical for him to hang around while the show was in limbo while he was, understandably, very in demand for other roles. Whatever you thought about the past two seasons, and about Disney's departure, Gatwa cannot be blamed. We were lucky to have experienced his Fifteenth Doctor, and Doctor Who would be in a much worse place without him. Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Add Doctor Who to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Witcher season 4's Liam Hemsworth recast makes complete sense for one key reason
Geralt's had quite the makeover in season 4.
The Witcher has fought all manner of monsters in his time, but four seasons in, the biggest threat to Geralt's existence might just be himself. Or at least, the new version of him that's been introduced in Netflix's latest season. Whatever your thoughts on The Witcher might be, fans and detractors alike usually agree that Henry Cavill has been pivotal to the show's success. Whether he was drawing his sword or drawing a bath, Cavill's take on Geralt felt intrinsic to the story being told. It's as if he was born to play The Witcher. So when Cavill suddenly left the show three seasons in, his exit understandably came as quite a shock. It was impossible for fans to imagine what The Witcher might look like without him, yet that's exactly what showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich was forced to do for the series to continue. Enter Liam Hemsworth, another statuesque bulk of a man who was asked to step in and take Cavill's place. Long before pics of him donning the wig surfaced online, fans were already quick to denounce Hemsworth as being unfit for the task at hand. These were big shoes to fill, after all. Never mind that Liam is 6cm taller than Henry. It didn't help that when trailers for season 4 did finally arrive, they included a scene where Hemsworth's Geralt rallies his friends by crying: "Let's f**king move." For fans still invested in the show, this felt like a betrayal of sorts, a sign that The Witcher had lost its way. "Geralt would never say such a thing," they claimed, with others criticising Hemsworth's delivery of the line as well. To be fair, Liam was going to be criticised regardless, no matter how good or bad he was in the role. Copy Cavill too closely and you're just a pale imitation of the real deal. Put your own stamp on the character and you risk losing Geralt's essence entirely. This was always going to be a lose-lose situation for Hemsworth, at least at the beginning when fans would be most resistant to change. Plus, it's not exactly easy to pull off a white wig of that gloss and magnitude. Yet even with all that going against Hemsworth, I'd argue his arrival in the show couldn't have come at a better time. In fact, replacing Cavill at this stage actually makes a lot of sense considering where Geralt himself is at in this stage of the character's journey. Witchers don't typically involve themselves in the affairs of humans. As Geralt himself says in the fifth episode of this new season, people like him are "destined to kill monsters and make coin". Yet that's no longer true for this Witcher. While this might hew closely to where he and this show first began, Geralt has been through a great deal these past three seasons. He's fallen in love with Yennefer, he's become a father of sorts to Ciri, and he's developed a somewhat homoerotic bromance with Jaskier too. The Witcher's heart and soul has become enmeshed with humans more than even he could have ever expected, and that's also the case in season 4 when he ends up leading a new hanza bonded by friendship. It wasn't where the Witcher saw himself heading, but here we are nonetheless. Over time, Geralt has become a friend, a lover, a father figure who's worlds removed now from the Geralt that Cavill first introduced to us at the start of season 1. Season 4 goes to great pains to emphasise this. In Hemsworth's first episode, Jaskier states that Geralt "just hasn't been the same since his injuries, since he lost the ones he loved". Nods to him changing, to Geralt embracing his emotions like never before, continue throughout, perhaps most noticeably when Laurence Fishburne's new character tells him that he's "evolving." And he's right to say it. The Geralt we once knew certainly wouldn't have trusted a vampire like Regis, for example. Cynics might suggest this has been emphasised so strongly to differentiate Hemsworth's version of the role from Cavill, perhaps with a knowing nod and wink that's rather typical of the show in general. But the truth is that Geralt's different anyway now. As such, any deviations from the Geralt we once knew can easily be explained away as such, which easily accounts for the different take Hemsworth inevitably brings to this character. Does Liam match up to Henry? No, not quite, but there's more nuance to this than arguments that Hemsworth is simply "bad" in the role. What is clear, however, is that the new episodes don't live up to past seasons regardless. If anything, that's what puts The Witcher in danger now. Not the 'new' Geralt, but lacklustre writing and directionless plotting that drags this season out far longer than necessary. In that regard, Hemsworth couldn't have signed up at a worse time. The Witcher seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Netflix. Season 5 coming soon. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. 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John Lewis Christmas adverts ranked – and the winner is not who you'd expect
It's the most John Lewis-y time of the year, but which is its best advert of all time?
The nights are closing in and it's safe to say we're going to be spending a lot more time in front of the television, wrapped under a blanket. That also means we're about to watch a lot more advertisements from our favourite retailers as they vie for our custom over the busy festive period. One brand that always delivers a memorable advert is John Lewis, and the retailer pulls out all the stops every year to ensure customers remember their shop when it comes to buying presents for their loved ones. There's been 18 (yes, 18) adverts to date, ranging from the cute and cuddly to powerful tear-jerkers, and we at RadioTimes.com have taken it upon ourselves to rank them. So, while we wait for the next John Lewis Christmas advert, check out our ranking of all the previous entries below. Do you agree? 18. Shadows (2007) Cast your minds back 14 years and you might just remember Shadows. A sweet and snappy advert which showcased plenty of John Lewis's gift range in the form of silhouetting. Who would have thought a coffee machine and a feather boa could make a pretty convincing dog? Well, maybe Britain's Got Talent winners, Attraction... A far cry from the tear-jerking emotion-fests we're used to, but pretty punchy nevertheless. 17. The Feeling (2009) In at number 13, this is really the advert that started them all. This was the first to feature a dramatic cover while a cute sentimental scene played out on screen. This time, to the tune of Sweet Child o' Mine, kids open presents typically given to adults, prompting us all to "remember how Christmas used to feel". Ahh. 16. Clues (2008) Another one from the-before-times in at 12, with Clues, a cutesy advert with puns at the heart of it. With a cover of The Beatles' From Me to You at the heart of the advert, we met different characters and got a snapshot of their perfect presents – a tired man wanted a coffee machine, and so on. If only gifting really was that simple, eh? 15. Unexpected Guest (2021) During another difficult year for the UK, John Lewis knocked it out of the park with a sweet advert about friendship. An alien crash lands on Earth and makes friends with a young boy who teaches her all about Christmas, including showing her what a Christmas tree is. The advert's song was Together in Electric Dreams, and while incredibly sweet and quite different, it might not be the most memorable they've ever done. 14. Buster the Boxer (2016) Happy boxer dog Buster just wants to play. When he sees foxes and a badger among the myriad of animals playing on a young girl's trampoline she isn't allowed until Christmas Day, Buster has one thing on his mind. As she runs out to play on her new toy, she's beaten by the pup, who just wanted a bounce. Vaults provided a cover of One Day I'll Fly Away for this pretty cute advert. The only problem – not really the most festive, was it? And the poor girl had to wait even longer for her present. 13. The Boy & The Piano (2018) Look, we love Elton John as much as everyone else, so it was a real treat to see him appear on John Lewis's 2018 Christmas advert. But again, like our Buster above, it felt like more of an advert for Elt's autobiography (which is great, would recommend) or his latest single, than a festive ad. A cool advert with some really swish effect, just needed more Christmas, to be honest. 12. Give a Little Love (2020) After a tough year with the COVID pandemic, John Lewis brought an honest and thought-provoking message to screens, prompting everyone to "give a little love" with small acts of kindness. Celeste performed A Little Love on this sweet and understated advert, which was a true reflection of the time we were living in. John Lewis worked with many charities in the UK so profits from the tie-in range were spent wisely, and in-keeping with the lovely tone of the advert. 11. The Gifting Hour (2024) View oEmbed on the source website For the 2024 offering, John Lewis told a sweet story of two believable sisters, where one of whom is looking for the perfect gift for her sister. While she's struggling to find a present, our main character Sally finds a door behind a rack, which transports her back through memories of growing up with her sister. She looks at jewellery, clothes and more, just trying to find the perfect gift for her sibling, before she finally spots the right present. The advert ends as Sally gives her sister the perfect present after a lengthy search. The tagline is simple: “The secret to finding the perfect gift? Knowing where to look.” The lovely, relatable, family-based advert has a gorgeous acoustic rendition of The Verve's Sonnet by Richard Ashcroft. John Lewis also opened up a competition for viewers who could take to social media with their own covers of Sonnet, and the best would be played on Christmas Day in a special version of the ad. 10. Moz the Monster (2017) Elbow sing a beautiful version of The Beatles' Golden Slumbers for adorable Moz the Monster, which would most certainly win if we were ranking the songs. Big and bumbling Moz lives under a little boy's bed – he's afraid of the dark, but this friendly giant tells him exactly why he shouldn't be. While they have fun playing at night, it's not sustainable for the poor lad, who just wants to kip during the day. Thinking of what's best for him, Moz gifts a nightlight to his new friend and says goodbye, letting him get on with his life. Completely adorable, and a John Lewis classic, even if some did find Moz a bit scary. 9. A Tribute to Givers (2010) The one you'll all remember – at least for the song. Ellie Goulding's cover of Elton John rocketed up the charts when A Tribute to Givers was released, marking a whole new wave of touching John Lewis adverts. In this cute video, people prepare to give gifts to their loved ones, often struggling with wrapping tricky objects or conceal a rocking horse from two kids (Santa clearly couldn't carry that one...). This one reminded us all of the lengths we go to to give the perfect present – and the next advert on the list highlights just how special that feeling is. 8. The Long Wait (2011) As a follow on from A Tribute to Givers comes The Long Wait. You know the feeling – you've got your loved one the most perfect present, but you have to wait ages to give it to them. That's what happens to the little boy in this truly lovely advert which features Slow Moving Millie's cover of Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want. All the way through the ad, you think this is a little boy just waiting for Santa to come, but BAM! You get an emotional gut punch when it's revealed all he was really excited for was giving his hand-wrapped present to his parents. TOO. CUTE. 7. Snapper: The Perfect Tree (2023) View oEmbed on the source website Who would've thought a Venus flytrap would leave us with all the feels? That's the power of the John Lewis Christmas advert 2023. A young boy called Alfie plans on growing his own perfect Christmas tree after finding a kit on the market. But when it starts to sprout, he discovers it's not a usual Christmas tree – it's a carnivorous plant! Cue hilarity as Alfie adorably tries to dress up Snapper to look like a tree, much to the dismay of his family, who want to keep their traditions right. But in a genuinely heartbreaking scene, Snapper paws at the window, begging to be able to play with Alfie, even if he did try to eat their Pomeranian (we all make mistakes). Alfie and his family learn to embrace new traditions as they head outside to put some presents underneath Snapper for him to guard... until he eats them. Thankfully, he puts his recycling hat on and spits out the perfect gifts for the family while turning the packaging into a glorious and festive confetti-d scene. One big plus for the advert is actually a huge change for the retailer. Usually, they put out a cover of a well-known song with a popular artist performing it, but this year they went for an original composition, performed epically by none other than Andrea Bocelli. Though Snapper isn't as memorable as perhaps Edgar or Monty as a character, he has plenty of heart. And just because he's a Venus flytrap that might eat your family pet if he grows big enough, we love him all the same. 6. Excitable Edgar (2019) Set in Ye Olde times, Edgar just can't wait for Christmas, but the only issue is he blows flames when he's happy. The advert, set to Bastille's cover of Can't Fight This Feeling, shows the village fed up with the adorable dragon who's always (accidentally) ruining the fun until his little friend Ava finds the perfect gift that always needs a flame – a Christmas pudding. Funny, witty and downright sickly sweet, this is one to remember. 5. The Bear and the Hare (2013) We guarantee with just the title alone you know exactly which advert I'm talking about. Set to Lily Allen's famous cover of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know, The Bear and the Hare tells the tale of winter wildlife in charming 2D animation. A bear heads on hibernation, missing all the festive fun, until a thoughtful rabbit buys him an alarm clock, so he can enjoy Christmas with all his friends from the forest. Simple, beautifully-made, and catchy, The Bear and the Hare set the precedent for Christmas adverts across the land – but none have ever matched this masterpiece. 4. The Beginner (2022) View oEmbed on the source website John Lewis's 2022 Christmas advert features the touching story of a foster dad who goes out of his way for his new child coming. Ellie loves to skateboard so the middle-aged man takes it upon himself to learn the art and though he suffers a few bumps and scrapes along the way, manages to acquire a few skills just in time for the teenager to arrive. The advert shows that a little goes a long way while also highlighting the incredibly important issue of vulnerable children in care. Moving and poignant, John Lewis' 2022 advert is understated and packs a powerful punch. Read more: Best Christmas adverts 2023: From John Lewis to M&S and Asda John Lewis Christmas advert 2023: Meet Snapper the flytrap John Lewis launches Christmas advert starring Snapper the Venus flytrap 3. The Journey (2012) Gabrielle Aplin covered The Power of Love and was actually the first of the retailer's soundtrack songs to head to number one in the UK charts. The premise was glorious and ambitious: a snowman travelled across mountains, rivers and UK high streets to find his snow(wo)man the perfect gift – a hat and scarf set. Now, we're not sure personally how helpful the gift was, but you can't blame a man for trying. Nevertheless, this certainly got the nation talking as we all wished our partners were as good at buying gifts as a – *checks notes* – snowman. 2. The Man on the Moon (2015) View oEmbed on the source website Norwegian singer Aurora covered Oasis hit Half the World Away for this emotional and powerful offering. A young girl spots an old man living on the moon by himself and tries her best to get his attention. She eventually wins by sending him a telescope via balloons so he can watch Christmas from his home. John Lewis teamed up with Age UK to raise awareness of loneliness at Christmas among the elderly, while also raising much needed funds for the charity. This was – and still is – a true tearjerker with the most important Christmas message at the heart of it: "Show someone they're loved this Christmas." 1. Monty the Penguin (2014) View oEmbed on the source website I dare you not to melt completely after watching Monty the Penguin. Little boy Sam and his penguin pal Monty do everything together, but the latter feels there's something missing, especially when it hits Christmas time. He just wants a lover. Sam surprises him on Christmas morning with a girlfriend, as Tom Odell hits the crescendo of Real Love, but the actual twist comes just moments later as you realise Monty and his new lover are just Sam's toys – and that's the real love. (We're not crying, you are.) The advert was so successful it spawned a thousand memes (many of which are simply too rude to share here) and turned Monty the Penguin into a household name, starting the beginning of John Lewis's popular character-based offerings. Truly one of a kind and so innovative, it was always going to be number one. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
I'm an expert historian and here's how accurate Robin Hood on MGM+ is to real events
Dr Sean McGlynn is a university lecturer and author of Robin Hood: A True Legend. He writes extensively on Robin Hood and medieval history.
The new Robin Hood series from MGM+, starring Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham and newcomer Jack Patten as Robin "Rob" Hood, offers a gritty version of the medieval legend for a 21st-century audience. How much of it is inspired by real events, and how much is fabrication? Amid the facts, it is riddled with historical inaccuracies and invention. But does this matter? Surprisingly, no. Indeed, in this regard, it is true to the spirit of the Robin Hood legend and its evolution. It will surprise no one that the TV series is set in Sherwood Forest and Nottingham. Where else would it be? While these places cannot be proven definitively as the settings for the origins of Robin Hood, they are named in the earliest surviving texts of the story from the mid-fifteenth century and have stuck ever since. More original for this series is the timing. Here, the story begins with Robin in 1186 during the reign of King Henry II. Historians tend to place Robin Hood (or at least his legend) between the early 1200s and early 1300s, with more consensus for the earlier period. Film and TV settings have long settled on the reign of King Richard the Lionheart (1189–1199): Robin of Sherwood, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and the Robin Hood films of 2010 and 2018. The 2025 version moves to 1189, the last year of Henry’s reign. The youngsters from 1186 must have been on some form of medieval growth hormones, as they now all appear 10 years older, not three. What of the characters? In 1189, it is indeed the case that Henry is king, Eleanor of Aquitaine is queen, and John and Richard are the royal princes vying to inherit the crown. The matter of Robin Hood is more problematic, and here we start finding historical errors. If Robin actually existed, it is highly unlikely that he was surnamed Loxley, as in the programme – a speculative association that came centuries later. Nor was he the rightful Earl of Huntingdon, a title bestowed only in 1598, when the Tudor nobility tried to recast the popular Robin as a hero of their own class. A historical Robin Hood is impossible to pin down. There are plenty of Robin Hood names, and variations of it, for criminals in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but it was a common nickname, and in many cases its usage was likely a matter of life imitating the legend. Sources also name a criminal Little John, and, in the early fifteenth century, Friar Tuck. As for Maid Marian, the earliest existing references to her in the Robin Hood legend come from the first decade of the sixteenth century. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a greyer area. That title was not introduced until the mid-fifteenth century, a time when the once-powerful role of sheriff had become greatly reduced in importance. However, there was a High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in the 1180s. It is a small step to truncate that to simply "Sheriff of Nottingham". Other changes are more obvious. Queen Eleanor appears to be acting as regent, ruling England in Henry’s absence. In fact, following her involvement in a rebellion against Henry in 1173–74, she had been imprisoned for at least 10 years. Thereafter, she was kept under close scrutiny, and her powers and lands were taken from her until Henry’s death. Friar Tuck does not add up in any form. The friars of the Franciscan and Dominican religious orders did not arrive in England until the 1220s. Here, he is somehow associated with a Trappist monastery, a monastic order founded four and a half centuries later! Nor is he tonsured. Two factual errors stand out above the others. The French rulers of England are called Normans. Henry and his sons were from Anjou and thus were Angevins, quite separate from the Normans who came over with William the Conqueror. When Henry became king in 1154, he established the new Plantagenet dynasty. The series’ repeated emphasis on unjust Norman rule over “Saxons” (i.e., the English) seems to echo Sir Walter Scott’s hugely successful Ivanhoe novel from 1819. The other is that the “Saxon” population is pagan, resisting the imposition of the Normans’ Christianity. But England had been Christian for centuries. Indeed, the earliest tales of Robin Hood are keen to express Robin’s devotion to the Virgin Mary. So why do these inaccuracies not matter? Because the Robin Hood stories were, from the very start, designed as entertainment. Popular stories from the thirteenth century of real-life heroes such as Hereward the Wake, Fulk FitzWarin, and Richard the Lionheart wove genuine historical events into fantastical tales that would be more at home in the genre of sword and sorcery. As the Robin Hood stories grew, they diversified into various, sometimes contrasting, tales. But all the while — whether as plays, songs, texts, or as part of May Day festivities — they were designed to delight audiences. After all, if the singers, writers, and actors behind them failed to please their listeners and viewers, there would be no money in it for them. The same goes for this Robin Hood. And all the future ones that will surely follow, maintaining a tradition of entertainment for over eight centuries. Robin Hood arrives on MGM+ on Sunday 2nd November 2025. Add Robin Hood to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Witcher season 4 review: Liam Hemsworth's Geralt falls flat as Netflix flagship fantasy loses its magic
Will Henry Cavill’s departure prove the final nail in the coffin for the "Witcherverse"?
Following the shock news that leading man – and self-confessed Witcher fan – Henry Cavill was hanging up Geralt’s swords and wolf medallion back in 2022, fans of Netflix’s flagship fantasy series were understandably left reeling. The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth was shortly announced as the new the White Wolf for the final two seasons. But with huge shoes to fill, as many considered Cavill’s portrayal of the beloved monster hunter definitive, the controversial announcement certainly left a dark cloud over the project. Casting concerns aside, there’s no denying that the writers have long played fast and loose with the source material in season 4, taking plenty of creative liberties with certain character arcs and events – much to the frustration of those who love Andrzej Sapkowski’s books and the CD Projekt games. While the third outing attempted to right the ship with a more faithful adaptation, season 4 faces even bigger challenges. Can Netflix win over returning viewers with the introduction of fan favourite characters such as Regis (Laurence Fishburne) and Leo Bonhart – or Cavill’s departure prove the final nail in the coffin for the "Witcherverse"? Picking up after the devastating (and Continent-altering) events of the Thanedd Coup, season 4 sees Geralt (Hemsworth), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan) once again scattered across the war-ravaged Continent. The former lion cub of Cintra embraces her “Falka” persona among the rebel gang of outlaws known as the Rats, while Geralt embarks on yet another (!) rescue quest, forming a new found fellowship of misfits along the way. Meanwhile, Yennefer seeks to unite the remaining sorceresses for a final showdown with Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), the mage who's secretly been pulling the strings all along. View Green Video on the source website Thankfully, the latest instalment isn’t split into multiple parts – as that month-long gap between volumes last season certainly hurt the pacing. Netflix has instead opted for a full release, to its credit. Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri’s intertwined stories are recapped through a clever narrative framing device, as book characters Storyteller Stribog and Nimue recount previous events, tying together the series’ legends and myths Sapkowski’s novels. While season 3 was buoyed by the heartwarming found family dynamic as the trios destinies finally converged, this season certainly suffers with their frustrating separation. After more than a two year wait – and with Cavill’s departure looming large – it’s admittedly difficult to feel excited about yet another search for Ciri. Overall, the fourth outing is unfortunately a frustrating and inconsistent entry, marked by a significant drop in quality. The shifting tone – paired with uneven performances and production elements – 0ccasionally tips the series into melodrama. The sprawling story has ballooned with an ever expanding roster of characters, locations, factions and shifting allegiances, resulting in an unwieldy amount of plotlines to juggle. Certain threads are also far more compelling than others. Sharlto Copley is an entertaining standout as the infamous bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, and is proves a much stronger antagonist than the naff(?) Vilgefortz. On the flipside, The Rats’ storyline is a slog to get through, lacking the charm and charisma of Shadow and Bone’s similarly rag-tag band, The Crows. It’s also disappointing that Ciri’s enigmatic father, Emhyr var Emreis (Bart Edwards), has seemingly faded into the background. Thankfully, many of Baptism of Fire’s major moments are faithfully adapted, including the introduction of fan favourites Regis (Laurence Fishburne) and Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley), Ciri’s dark arc with The Rats and the Battle for the Bridge on the Yaruga. However, Yennefer’s arc – and the events leading to the creation of the Lodge of Sorceresses – undergoes significant changes. It was always going to be a bold move to recast Geralt, and unfortunately, it just doesn’t work. It’s incredibly jarring to see and hear Hemsworth as Geralt. Rather than adapting a similarly deep, gravelly tone as Cavill, he questionably decides to channel his brother’s Thor-like accent. While the Aussie actor is competent in the action sequences, his stature and overall take on the monster hunter unfortunately just doesn’t measure up. He’s less physically imposing than his predecessor and lacks the stoicism and chemistry of his predecessor. As feared from the much-maligned trailer sequences (here’s looking at you, “Let’s f**king move!”) the writers still fail to grasp the show’s main protagonist, with awkward dialogue and inconsistent characterisation. Despite showrunner Lauren Smith Hissrich's insistence that the “show is bigger than one actor”, many fans tuned in purely for Cavill’s performance and his endearing dynamic with co-stars Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan. Hemsworth does his best with the material he’s been given, but his delivery and performance often falls flat – which may just prove the final straw for many long-time viewers. Jaskier (Joey Batey) fans are also dealt somewhat of a blow, as the bard’s development from last season regresses in favour of comic relief. While the renowned Bremervoord musician has brought to life a number of bangers, such as Toss a Coin to Your Witcher and Burn Butcher Burn, this season's musical interlude is a misfire in comparison. The baffling, Aladdin-esque musical sequence in the otherwise engaging, hansa-centric episode The Joy of Cooking will likely divide viewers. Inconsistencies also lie in the show’s production values. The large-scale Battle for the Bridge is a real standout (dodgy ogre VFX aside), while the Battle of Montecalvo falls flat due to lacklustre production design and unconvincing magic VFX. As Cavill’s absence looms large over a story weighed down by uneven writing and tone – plus questionable performances and production design – it’s clear that Netflix’s flagship fantasy series has lost its magic. Unless season 5 pulls off a (monster) miracle, this might be one quest even Geralt can’t complete. The Witcher season 4 is available to stream now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. 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How It: Welcome to Derry's genius Pennywise risk pays off – and makes it scarier than the films
The Dancing Clown is nowhere to be seen in Welcome to Derry's first episode.
**Warning – It: Welcome to Derry spoilers ahead.** If the opening episode of It: Welcome to Derry didn't leave you reeling, you might be dead inside. I'm not being dramatic. The opening episode of the long-awaited prequel doesn't just throw us in at the deep end, but holds us under the water until we're gasping for breath. The gory first instalment introduces viewers to the ill-fated Matty, who's trying to escape an abusive home environment. But, after he's picked up from the side of the road by a strange family, the showrunners hold nothing back as they force Matty (and us!) to witness the birth of a demonic baby, amping up the body horror as Matty is snatched before our very eyes. After Matty's classmates (AKA the current Losers Club) witness strange and nightmarish happenings, things go from bad to worse with the movie theatre scene – a brutal sequence that sees most of our new Losers Club toyed with and murdered, as our good friend, the demon baby, makes its gruesome return. Of course, we know whose handiwork this is. Despite manifesting in a different form, we know exactly who feeds on fear in this way. But, then, why don't we ever see the dread creature that haunts Derry, Pennywise? In fact, the showrunners have confirmed that we won't see Pennywise as we know and hate him for some time. Of course, his presence is felt all over the first episode, but for those hoping to get a glimpse of the Dancing Clown this early on, you might be disappointed. In my book, though, that's the best decision that could have been made. In hiding Pennywise from us, the showrunners master an age-old rule of horror movie magic: hiding the monster. Any horror fan will be familiar with the rule, which has been used in thrillers and horrors across the ages, from Jaws to Jurassic Park to the Blair Witch Project to Paranormal Activity to A Quiet Place and beyond. In short, hiding the monster allows our imaginations to run free. Nothing the filmmaker could ultimately show us on screen could match up to the horrors we could imagine. As horror researcher Mathias Clasen recently told RadioTimes.com, hiding the monster "allows us to build a model in our own mind that is worse than anything that you could put on a screen. The human imagination is a horror director, and the imagination very quickly runs to worst case scenarios". "That's just the way that the human imagination works, because one of its functions is to forecast, is to kind of create simulations of possible futures, very often running toward worst case scenarios," he added. "So the human imagination can produce ideas and images that are way scarier than anything you can see on a screen, also because it's personal. The imagination takes elements from your own biography and combines it with whatever stimulus is setting it off and and creates your own worst nightmare." Doesn't that actually sound a lot like what Pennywise himself does? In keeping the Dancing Clown off-screen, the filmmakers have, purposefully or not, emulated the impact of the very villain they're teeing up in a genius move. Just as Pennywise haunts the Losers Club on screen with their worst nightmares, feeding off of their fear, Andy and Barbara Muschietti and co have done the same to us, forcing us to bring our own fears to our viewing experience. But how It: Welcome to Derry hides the monster is obviously very different to our previous examples, all of which rely on the unknown. We've all seen the It films, and we're all very aware of what Bill Skarsgård looks like as Dancing Clown. As terrifying as it might be, a hint of that horror could be toned down with him being so familiar. Now, the terror is preserved in not knowing how or when he's finally going to appear. Throughout the first episode of It: Welcome to Derry, Pennywise is a looming and very real presence, but one you can never quite grip onto, much like a balloon floating away in the wind. Our anticipation is heightened. He's around every turn, in your periphery at every moment – simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, only to appear when you least expect it. View Green Video on the source website That's so much more effective in a series than it would have been in a film, too. It's the ultimate slow-burn, as we could be waiting weeks for Pennywise to finally spring into action. In the first episodes of Welcome to Derry, Pennywise haunts us not in his Dancing Clown form, but in the form of children's nightmares, filling them with fear as he effectively fattens up his meal, before eventually showing himself only when he's good and ready to feast, in a chilling and even theatrical scene that is sure to delight viewers (I promise, he's worth the wait). Hiding his most familiar and recognisable form away for so long was a huge risk for the showrunners. Due to the nature of the story, he and the town of Derry are some of the only constants in the franchise, with the cast of characters changing every time. The Dancing Clown is synonymous with It, so much so that I'm surprised hiding him hasn't gone badly wrong. It allows us to learn much more about the characters by seeing their worst nightmares come to life, and indeed about ourselves as we imagine every horrible way he could manifest before we finally see him in action. As he famously declares, he is every worst nightmare you've ever had – and this might be the worst of them all. New episodes of It: Welcome to Derry are released weekly on Sky Atlantic and NOW. Add It: Welcome to Derry to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Sophy Ridge argues why breakfast television is still the pinnacle of broadcasting
Breakfast TV needs an overhaul to make it fit for the digital age, says presenter Sophy Ridge.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When it comes to broadcasting, breakfast television is the premier slot, the pinnacle. It’s a privilege when people decide to start their day with you and it should never be taken for granted. The giants of breakfast television – Frank Bough and Selina Scott, David Frost, Angela Rippon, Michael Parkinson and more recently, Eamonn Holmes, Susanna Reid and Kay Burley – knew that. They somehow transcended the role of television presenter, becoming something much more intimate: almost an extension of the family, there in the background while you have your cereal, pester the kids to find their shoes or search for your house keys. But I’m going to be blunt: morning broadcasting needs an overhaul. The media landscape is going through an unprecedented change. I’m 40 years old and my peers almost exclusively get their news through their mobile phones. According to Ofcom, 52 per cent of adults now use social media as a news source and 71 per cent get their news online. It was a different world when Bough and Scott launched Breakfast Time in 1983 when there were only four television channels (Channel 4 having launched a year earlier). But “traditional broadcasters” shouldn’t fear change – it brings challenges, but far more opportunities. I’m optimistic about what it means. We have an audience that is more interested in the news than ever. A decade ago, I vox-popped people outside a Labour conference who couldn’t even tell me that the party leader was Ed Miliband. That would never happen today. People are hyper engaged in politics and international affairs – they have opinions and are more informed than at any time I can remember. Rather than turning away from the news, the audience is turning towards it. And in a world where it can feel like truth is under attack, we shouldn’t underestimate the public. Our audiences are discerning, informed and engaged and they want trustworthy and impartial journalism. As broadcasters, we need to follow the audience to where they are and not expect them to follow us. This is the context in which Sky News is launching its new breakfast programme: Mornings with Ridge and Frost. Along with my co-presenter Wilfred Frost and our programme editor Emily Purser, we hope to shake up the morning news and make it fit for a digital age. Before moving to Mornings, I presented a nightly programme on Sky News, The Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge. One of its most surprising – and heartening – successes was the opening monologue, which became known as “Sophy’s Thought”. This was unashamedly analytical. I remember persuading my sceptical team to do it on the “fiscal drag”, not exactly the sexiest subject, but we soon discovered a huge appetite online for going deeper into stories and issues, whether the nitty gritty of policy or topics like rape conviction rates and maternal healthcare. We’ll be continuing that on Mornings, with digital videos made for an engaged and demanding audience who get their news through their mobile phones. The podcast sphere is flooded with high calibre journalism – whether Electoral Dysfunction, The News Agents or Political Thinking. We’ll also have a 10-minute podcast – Cheat Sheet – on your feeds by 6am. It’s a fast-paced rundown of the five stories you need to know about, curated by Wilf and I, with information and analysis for busy listeners who want to stay up to date but don’t have time to buckle in for a 45-minute podcast. Breakfast television is the broadcasting pinnacle because of its intimate relationship with the audience, and that’s also the best thing about broadcasting in the multi-platform age. You get to know your viewers – they can talk back to you! We’ll be inviting our audience to do this, making the bond stronger than ever. I like to think that Frank Bough and Selina Scott would fully approve. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Current Affairs coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Alan Carr is the perfect star of Celebrity Traitors – and not for the reason you might think
Effervescent, clownish and clever — Alan Carr has played the Celebrity Traitors game to perfection.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Need a birthday card? You can now buy one that has Alan Carr on the front saying, “How old? I’m flabbergasted!” A canny publisher has swiftly responded to the buzz around the comedian’s antics in The Celebrity Traitors and proved what we suspected – banishment and victory aside, the show already has a winner. Carr’s stand-out role was clear from the off, the moment his selection as a Traitor proved the counterintuitive punchline of a gift that producers picked up and ran with. Even his two fellow Traitors laughed out loud when they first saw their co-conspirator, and it meant from day one, the comedian has been central to events – his “can’t keep a secret for toffee” schtick weaponised to clownish, thrilling effect. His effervescence meant he was the only player capable of murdering his close pal Paloma Faith in full view of everyone else, while his “hiding in plain sight” modus operandi successfully shielded him from almost all suspicion. You get the impression that his housemates would be reluctant to banish him even if they had their doubts. As Lucy Beaumont reflected, “It wouldn’t be Carry On Traitors without Alan.” Indeed, who else would punctuate a tense Trojan War challenge by shouting out to Clare Balding, “You’re going to love this, there’s a horse”? Or recruiting Celia Imrie to play badminton – “We need a bit of wind”? Gimlet-eyed Celia was one of the few to consider his possible treachery – “It would be remarkably clever” – but he escaped even her Round Table vote, and he’s proved just as irresistible to viewers. What’s his secret? Well, the list of players in this ratings juggernaut is a snapshot of the spectrum of British celebrity. There are the newbies on the rise – from now-banished content creator Niko Omilana and actor Ruth Codd to singer-songwriter Cat Burns, but their focus on the game, and relative youth, means they present as blanker canvases. So, too, do the other actors, including Nick Mohammed and Mark Bonnar. The latter aroused doubt thanks to one player having just seen him be a duplicitous egg in Line of Duty. “Stop watching it,” shrieked Bonnar, which must be a first for a jobbing thespian. At the other end of the scale are those so widely and long established – such as “big dogs” Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross – that their brands have proved bigger than them. Stephen Fry survived the first three weeks with barely a word against his name, thanks to him simply being Stephen Fry. But he spoke the truth when he reflected, “It’s not often in our sheltered world we are put in a position where we have no idea how we are going to react.” While such rarefied air is revered, it’s not entirely relatable. By contrast, Alan Carr inhabits a uniquely sweet spot. He’s famous enough to be best friends with Adele (if no longer Paloma), but he remains at heart one of us – the man who started in comedy after years of entertaining his call centre colleagues. He once explained to me the root of his fearlessness: “If people threw tomatoes and booed me off stage, at least you can wash out tomatoes, unlike nine hours of abuse from the general public.” That worldliness, along with his wit, has made for both a delightful celebrity and a dastardly Traitor. It’s been Alan Carr’s Scottish castle – everyone else is a mere houseguest. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday 23rd October at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Add The Celebrity Traitors to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who's best guest star isn't who you'd expect
Plenty of big names have guest starred in Doctor Who – but one outshone them all.
From Kylie Minogue and Andrew Garfield to Carey Mulligan, Simon Pegg, and the late, great Sir Michael Gambon, Doctor Who is in a league of its own when it comes to guest stars. Some of the biggest names on the planet have lent their talents to Doctor Who, and there's no doubting that their performances have gone down in the show's history. Blink, starring Mulligan and introducing the world to the terrifying Weeping Angels, is widely regarded as one of the best episodes in the sci-fi's history. Similarly, is there a single Christmas episode that could rival Voyage of the Damned, starring the iconic Kylie Minogue as Astrid Perth? But, while big names are a huge draw for Doctor Who fans, there's one guest star who overshadowed all of the others with his understated, heartwarming, and fiercely lovable portrayal of a historical figure – Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh. Of course, Curran had had an incredible career before guest starring in Doctor Who, which has continued since. Most recently, he's appeared in Marvel's Secret Invasion, the series Your Honor, and gave a devastating performance in Mayflies. But, from my very biased point of view, Doctor Who showed him at his best. View oEmbed on the source website Vincent and the Doctor could have been one of those episodes to have passed us by. In the midst of season 5, it sees the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) go back in time to Provence after seeing an ominous figure in one of Van Gogh's paintings. It was a risky move. Van Gogh's history has been told plenty of times before, so viewers would need to get something new out of that story. Plus, Doctor Who has to have a monster, and while the Krafayis fit into the story nicely, it didn't exactly prove to be a stand-out part of the show, instead becoming pretty forgettable among other season 5 villains. But, in the end, none of that mattered, because Richard Curtis's direction combined with Curran's performance gave us some of the most beautiful and tear-jerking moments to ever grace Doctor Who. One of them comes when Vincent, Amy and the Doctor lie down and hold hands and the artist describes his view of the starry night to them. "Everywhere we look, complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes," he tells them, with the Doctor responding: "I've seen many things my friend, but you're right. Nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see." Somehow in a two-minute scene, Curran managed to get across some of of the most beautiful parts of Van Gogh's artistry – his unique view of the world and his ability to turn pain into art in a way that no one else has before. But the one scene that has stuck in most fans' mind is that scene in the Musée d'Orsay. In a move quite unusual for the Doctor, he decides to take Vincent to present-day Paris to give him a glimpse of how important he would become. Vincent is visibly thrilled to be there, stopping and admiring Monet's Waterlilies in a beautiful touch. He's looking away so doesn't see the sign for the next exhibition which just to happens to be the busiest one in the gallery. Without saying a single a word, Curran reduced all of us to tears, with Vincent in disbelief as he looks at his life's work on display and being taken by avid admirers. An appearance from Bill Nighy as Professor Black, the art curator, is completely overshadowed, as Curran's eyes get watery when Vincent hears himself being described as one of the best artists of all time before showing him completely breaking down. To make the scene even more emotional, it can be inferred that the Doctor knew this visit wouldn't change the outcome of Van Gogh's life – he would still go on to battle depression and take his own life – but it could potentially give him a small bit of peace knowing his life had meaning. There are plenty of reasons Vincent and the Doctor resonates with fans. Curtis and Curran provided a delicate and compassionate depiction of mental illness – something that's all too rare on TV today, let alone more than a decade ago. Rather than focusing on the tragedy of the artist's life, the episode zones in on his humanity, his genius, and his legacy, providing a slightly more hopeful ending to that story than the one we all know. It's not hard to see how deeply the scene resonated with viewers. On the Doctor Who YouTube channel, which uploads all of the most iconic scenes in Doctor Who history, it's the most-viewed clip by far, currently sitting at 31 million views. Far behind in second place is the first meeting of Matt Smith and David Tennant's Doctors, the long-awaited moment from the 50th anniversary special, at a mere 13 million – less than half. From those numbers and the comments on the video, it's clear I'm not the only one who goes back to watch that heartwarming moment whenever I'm in need of a good cry. More than that, though, Curran's performance of Van Gogh achieves something so rare and something Doctor Who can only do at its very best – making us feel just that little bit better about the world. Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Add Doctor Who to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Strictly reaches end of an era as Claudia and Tess depart – so what now for the BBC's most glittering jewel?
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s Strictly exit marks more than a hosting change – it’s the end of an era for British Saturday night TV.
Another day, another Strictly headline that contains no mention of dancing. This time it was the announcement that hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have decided “the time is right” to step away from the show they have co-presented since 2014. My journalist pal reports a collective gasp in the newsroom when the news broke this morning. For sure, it doesn’t compete with some of the news headlines from recent weeks (and months, and years) for global significance – nevertheless, for the fragile and precious eco-system that is British entertainment, it is, indisputably, a big deal. The pair have for a decade presented the last remaining Saturday night ratings juggernaut. With a suitable nod to original Bake Off’s Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, we can’t overlook the importance of them as two women in this high-profile primetime role. Daly and Winkleman stepped into shoes previously worn by Bruce Forsyth (and before him Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, etc) and have made the show comprehensively their own. And what a show it is. In its 21st year, Strictly continues to defy viewing trends that saw off all competitors from around the time it started – Fame Academy, Pop Idol, X Factor, even Saturday Night Takeaway - its simple formula of 'celeb meets professional, learns to ballroom dance, wows audience, wins glitterball' is something familiar, glittery, yet endlessly novel with the new pairings and stories. And it transcends borders, cultures and languages. Shown around the world in more than 60 overseas territories, it remains one of the BBC’s finest (and most lucrative) crown jewels. And yet… like other shows, its dancefloor has shown cracks. Years after we enjoyed the efforts of John Sergeant, Anne Widdecombe and Nancy Del’Olio, the dancers have become increasingly high-profile, the celebrities increasingly competitive. With that has come scrutiny and pressure, culminating in last year’s unedifying catalogue of behind-the-scenes allegations of bullying and worse. In what should have been its celebratory 20th year, the show had to conduct internal inquiries and make sweeping changes to ensure care and good treatment for all involved. I said then, the BBC would be crossing fingers that the actual show would weave its customary magic and make us forget all that business – and so it proved, with the inspiring blind comedian Chris McCausland wowing us all. Five weeks into this latest series, the BBC would usually be hoping that the same thing would happen, that debates over whether politically-minded Thomas Skinner should be allowed to participate, over whether replacement celeb Amber Davies's previous West End training and experience made it a fair playing dancefloor for other contestants, would evaporate in favour of our oohs and ahhs about Alex Kingston’s Rumba. Throughout all those recent highs and lows, the stabilisers on this sometimes wobbly, sometimes wonderful bus have been our hosts Daly and Winkleman. No doubt someone high up at the BBC already has a few names scribbled on the back of an envelope wish list, the BBC press office will spin into life and discuss the value of the opportunity this creates for a rebrand, but with so many other "opportunities" like this coming the BBC’s way in recent months – Match of the Day, MasterChef – TV chiefs could really have done with one less thing to think about. Instead, arguably their most valuable juggernaut of all has just lost two of its wheels, elements they will have to replace with the utmost care and thought if the bus is not to veer completely off the road. Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 25th October at 6:20pm. Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Morgan's messy journey in Nobody Wants This season 2 delivers the show’s most powerful message
In the Netflix romcom's sophomore season, Morgan steals the spotlight once again.
**Warning: contains spoilers for Nobody Wants This season 2.** When the first season of Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This wrapped up, it wasn’t the relationship between agnostic sex-and-relationships podcaster Joanne and rabbi Noah that I couldn’t stop thinking about, but another duo entirely. The dynamic between Joanne's chaotic-good sister and podcast co-host Morgan, and Noah's outlandish brother Sasha, quickly became the most compelling part of Erin Foster's series – not only because it defied categorisation, but because of its delicious potential for naughtiness. Were they into each other – and en route to doing something very reckless? Or are they just two playful people tuned into their own weird frequency that no one else can access? Either way, it was deeply entertaining. While Joanne and Noah were undoubtedly the main course – and we devoured every crumb with relish – Morgan and Sasha were the perfect wine pairing, elevating Nobody Wants This from "should watch" to "must watch". And the 4.9 billion viewing minutes it pulled in after its debut attest to that. After initially being completely repulsed by him (she described him as "brutal" in a text to Joanne, followed by the ogre and vomit emojis – all of which played out on loudspeaker in front of Sasha himself), something inexplicable began to happen – from Morgan's perspective, at least. Their interactions became comfortable, teasing, and undeniably charged. Before long, they were secretly texting – messages Sasha kept from his wife – and then came Morgan's sex dream, though countless psychologists have since debunked the idea that such things signal attraction. Yet nothing ever actually happened. There was no messy drunken kiss à la Scrubs' JD and Carla; no text that crossed a line. Still, their dynamic was confusingly intimate. "Stop saying that it's not weird when we both know that it kind of is," Morgan tells him at his daughter's bat mitzvah – as Esther watches on, muttering to her mother-in-law Bina that "those f**king sisters have got to go". In the immortal words of Pamela Shipman: it's all the drama – I just love it. But in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in October last year, Foster – who based the series on her own experience of falling in love with a Jewish man and marrying him after converting – hinted that things would become less ambiguous and messy in season 2. "I think we’re going to wrap up their weird 'Is it romantic?' thing," she said. "We want to see them together in season 2, hanging out. We want to see Esther. I think we went down that road enough that now we're going to pull back and reposition so we can have them all in scenes together without [Morgan] being, like, a full homewrecker." Foster also teased "something very fun" for Morgan – something Justine Lupe (who plays her) was immediately on board with. And boy, did she deliver. Yes, Foster stayed true to her promise to steer Morgan away from homewrecker territory, because while the hint of something forbidden was fun, the reality of it would have been a massive downer. Morgan and Sasha's relationship is indeed cemented as a friendship in the first episode, when Esther boldly pulls them both into a room to get everything out in the open, an awkward but necessary intervention that forces any lingering doubt – or mystery – to quickly dissipate. From that point on, their dynamic crystallises. They confide in each other in ways that solidify a genuine platonic bond, rather than skirting the kind of intimacy that's off-limits when you're in a relationship. But while that change could easily have drained some of the show's spice, what we get instead is another inspired bit of writing – completely in step with what we know about Morgan – and one that adds a whole new layer of chaos to the narrative. When Noah encourages Joanne to celebrate her mum's birthday, she plans a small gathering, to which Morgan turns up with a surprise plus-one – someone no one has met before, and whom she hasn't ever mentioned, not even to Joanne, who she tells absolutely everything. "This is Dr Andy," she announces. "Hi," he grins, to a chorus of confused looks. Who is he? Cue the big reveal: "I'm Morgan's boyfriend." The room collectively freezes – especially Joanne, who knows something is way off. So, at her insistence, Noah tries to suss out what's really going on – and the truth is… bad. Very, very bad. Dr Andy is, drum roll please, Morgan's therapist. "I mean, he's not my therapist anymore," she insists. "We had our close-out session last week. Really intense. He cried." Oh, no. While Morgan's dynamic with Sasha in season 1 flirted with crossing a line, her actual, monogamous relationship with Dr Andy – the fact she still calls him doctor should've been enough to snap her out of it – is something else entirely. It's darker, more unsettling, and far more dangerous, with Morgan once again providing the season's most captivating storyline. In an effort to jolt Morgan out of her reverie, Joanne is quick to point out that they're "breaking the law by dating" – and in some US states, like California, it is actually illegal. But it's the ethical implications that truly scandalise: a therapist pursuing a relationship with a patient (or even a very recent former one) raises serious questions – certainly more seismic than those sparked by Morgan's flirtations with Sasha. Dr Andy knows all of her "trauma and baggage", which, unsurprisingly, he uses to his advantage in difficult moments and discussions when she's not in alignment with him. During one confrontation – when Morgan tries to end their engagement – he tells her that her "inner child" is afraid of being in love. Thankfully, she finds the strength to listen to her gut, spurred on by her mother. But she very nearly doesn't. "It feels very intrusive," she says, referring to his weaponising of the things she shared during their paid sessions – sessions that should have been a safe space. What's more striking, though, is what it all says about love itself: beautiful, orchestral and technicolour in Joanne and Noah's brightest moments – but dizzying, disorienting and spectacularly self-destructive in Morgan's. As independent, self-assured, and outspoken as she often is, Morgan is still susceptible to choosing the wrong path in pursuit of love – a desire that has only intensified after watching her sister and Noah. The aftermath of her divorce might not have stung so sharply if her sister had been struggling too – but now, with Joanne and Noah finding something solid (however imperfect), Morgan feels adrift. Isolated. Unwanted. "I wasn't sure I would ever be loved like that," she admits to Sasha as she reflects on her new, whirlwind romance. "I thought I would just be unlovable, period." And while she says she was "all ready to look inward and figure out what exactly was so wrong", it proved far easier to lose herself in Dr Andy – and his genetically engineered flowers. Still, even if the road to clarity is messy, Morgan gets there in the end: that love, even the right kind, can't save you – and that external validation will never lead to inner peace. Nobody Wants This has plenty to say, but its most powerful message of all, and one that stands in opposition to so many romcoms, is that sometimes, loving yourself isn't a consolation prize – it's the whole point. Nobody Wants This season 2 is streaming now on Netflix – sign up from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Add Nobody Wants This to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Are soaps letting down their power couples as Robron, Swarla and more face giant obstacles?
So much couple conflict across the board!
Soap couples have the strongest fanbases across the genre, with popular on-screen partnerships so beloved that they even have their own special names. But the likes of Emmerdale's 'Robron,' Coronation Street's 'Swarla' and more are all facing major obstacles, posing the question: are these serial dramas letting down their power pairings? Let's start with 'Robron'. Of course, we're talking about Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) and Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller), who recently reunited after almost 6 years apart. Their renewed relationship was never going to last at this point, due to the small matter of Robert's "unhinged but lovable" secret prison husband Kev Townsend (Chris Coghill)! There are also plenty of unresolved issues between Aaron and Robert, stemming from the latter's decision to cut off and divorce the former back in 2019. Given this, plus whatever Robert is concealing about his time behind bars and Aaron's role in the murder of Anthony Fox (Nicholas Day), these two already had enough to wade through on the road to getting back together long-term. Hawley has assured us that throwing Kev into the mix is rather different to the troubles 'Robron' have previously endured, and made a good point when he told RadioTimes.com and other press that "it would be pretty boring if it was just plain sailing. "There has to be some kind of conflict and obstacles for the characters to overcome to test their relationship and see them triumph against adversity." The promise of a special episode next month, due to shed light on both the Kev conundrum and Robert's prison trauma, may give this story the lift it needs. But at the time of writing, it's hard to understand why we needed to see Robert having "deep feelings" for someone other than Aaron, mere weeks after the character insisted he was all he wanted. Moving onto 'Swarla', and poor Carla Connor (Alison King) is still reeling after her fiancée Lisa Swain's (Vicky Myers) wife Becky (Amy Cudden) pitched up alive, four years after Lisa mourned her death. While we do have some clarity in that Becky is a confirmed cobbles villain, fans had barely had time to catch their breath after Lisa and Carla's joyous engagement! Yes, Becky's arrival allowed for some sensational scenes from Myers as Lisa struggled to comprehend what she was seeing; but she and Carla have been through the mill this year thanks to kidney failure and the dangerous Rob Donovan (Marc Baylis). As big a twist as Becky was, this arc is another example of soap land throwing extreme levels of chaos at their strongest couples. Over on EastEnders, Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden) and Callum Highway's (Tony Clay) marriage is no more. Affectionately dubbed 'Ballum', it all ended when Ben got day release from prison and Callum confessed to his affair with Johnny Carter (Charlie Suff). We've discussed before how Callum as a character has been let down by his choice to cheat, and it's not clear where his relationship with Johnny is going. But it's been jarring to see him and Johnny attempting to make a new family with Ben's reluctant daughter Lexi Pearce (Isabella Brown). It's a disappointing end to Ben and Callum's love story, and we're fearing another may have a more permanent conclusion on Hollyoaks. Known as 'Dancy' for many years, there have been several instances where we thought Nancy (Jessica Fox) and Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson) could withstand no more conflict. They've always proved us wrong, but it seemed like one cheating scandal too many when Nancy admitted that she slept with Tony Hutchinson (Nick Pickard) a few years back and conceived young daughter Morgan behind Darren's back. It's a twist that has caused history to be rewritten, and although Nancy is far from perfect, she certainly always had better morals than this. Caught up in the plane crash and ensuing fire during the soap's 30th anniversary week, Darren soon regretted his harsh words to Nancy when her life hung in the balance, so who knows whether they will even get the chance to patch things up again? The fallout surrounding 'Dancy' was, at least, skilfully handled by Fox and Dawson, and there has been equally strong work from everyone involved in the aforementioned plots. Meanwhile, Emmerdale knows bringing Robert and Aaron back into each other's orbit is a winning formula, and the vibe seems to be that they can get through anything - even if that isn't yet translating on-screen. As for Corrie, there's reassurance that Lisa's feelings for Carla outweigh those she has for Becky. Soaps thrive on testing such adored couples so they can emerge stronger for it, but with Ben and Callum currently unlikely to reconcile, and the hurdles faced by others getting bigger by the week, is it all too much? Many before them have survived worse, so perhaps the added intensity simply comes from there being so much unrest among these pairings concurrently. As for whether the genre is making a mistake with their power couples, it all rests on the pay-off, and despite our concerns, let's not forget that the journey is often the best part of any love story. The love will never die, but will it buckle under the pressure? We have hope that it won't. Read more: EastEnders airs shock crash aftermath in BBC iPlayer release - with major Jasmine Fisher twist EastEnders star 'to exit soap' following dramatic storyline Coronation Street's Catherine Tyldesley was asked to return to ITV soap before Coronation Street winter preview: Driscoll family drama, Swarla "explosions" and Theo shows his true colours Joe Absolom reveals Emmerdale villain Ray's truth behind Laurel connection amid "subservient" dynamic with Celia 5 Emmerdale spoilers next week: Kev Townsend threatens Aaron Dingle after Robert Sugden reveal Returning to Brookside is the perfect way to honour Hollyoaks' heritage Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Returning to Brookside is the perfect way to honour Hollyoaks' heritage
The crossover is a tribute to both groundbreaking soaps.
Soaps love to mark a significant anniversary by going back in time. Returning characters and knowing nods to the past are a reward for loyal viewers, and a way of reminding us of the show’s roots and the reasons we’ve watched it for so long. Hollyoaks is going bigger and shouting louder, as it does with most things, when it comes to the celebrations for its 30th birthday. In a gift to soap fans, Channel 4’s cheeky, rebellious flagship continuing drama is acknowledging the history of two shows – itself, and the programme it sprang from. In an audacious soap crossover, months before ITV’s much-anticipated Corriedale weaves together the worlds of Weatherfield and the Yorkshire Dales, Hollyoaks is mashing up with Brookside. This goes right back to the origin story for Hollyoaks, launched in 1995 as a sister show to Brookside by Sir Phil Redmond, who created them both. Forget the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is the Redmond shared soap universe. It’s been 22 years since Channel 4’s iconic continuing drama was cancelled, leaving behind a legacy of breaking boundaries and highlighting the taboo topics other dramas, not just soaps, were too scared to touch. Part of the epic storylines for Hollyoaks’ anniversary week takes detective Donny Clark to Brookside Close, the humble Liverpool cul-de-sac on an unassuming housing estate that was the scene of some of TV’s most groundbreaking drama. For reasons that will become clear when he interacts with some familiar Brookie faces, some of whom we haven’t seen on screen since the '80s, it turns out there’s a strong link between Donny and the Close. But the connections between Hollyoaks and Brookside run much deeper. Brookie’s mini-return has generated a wave of nostalgia and confirmed the respectful position it holds in TV history as the first truly daring continuing drama, which Hollyoaks inherited and continues to keep alive. Starting in 1995 as a shiny teen show about a gang of good-looking friends in their late teens from an ordinary, slightly aspirational suburb of Chester, Hollyoaks quickly showed it had substance as well as style and it wasn’t afraid to take risks. Pulling the rug from under the audience by killing off leading lady Natasha Andersen following a drug overdose just a few months in, it hit its stride as a place to tell hard-hitting stories to an adolescent demographic with a bold, brave spirit. Famously the first soap to portray male sexual assault in a late-night post-watershed special, a format innovation that also influenced the genre, the list of issues highlighted by Hollyoaks over 30 years is incredible. In the last 12 months alone it's tackled sibling sexual abuse (another soap first), child exploitation, conversion therapy, child-to-parent domestic violence and transgender hate crimes. Add those to previous pioneering storylines such as far-right radicalisation, self-harm, eating disorders and county lines grooming, among others, and you realise how seriously Hollyoaks takes its commitment to helping its audience navigate a complicated world at a complicated age. It broke the mould, but it couldn’t have done any of it without Brookside. The turning point not just for soaps, but arguably all British TV drama, Brookside was revolutionary when it began in 1982, on Channel 4’s launch night. Soaps had been a staple of the schedules since Coronation Street practically invented the genre in 1960 with its relatable depiction of working class life, but by the early '80s it had traded some of the early grittiness for whimsical cosiness. Crossroads was a cheap and cheerful melodrama, Emmerdale (back then) a slower-paced slice of village life, and US imports Dallas and Dynasty were pure high-octane escapism. Brookside took the template of day-to-day struggles and relationships within a close-knit community and made it modern and relevant. It had a more realistic approach and a social conscience that put politics front and centre, examining the socio-economic impact of Thatcherism on families everybody could recognise. It also raised awareness on issues such as sexual assault, mental health, violence, class, religion and provided an early platform the representation of LGBTQ+ characters. Nothing was off limits for Redmond’s fearless creation. The death of Trevor Jordache at the hands of the wife and daughter he abused in 1993 was an unflinching portrayal of a harrowing subject, and became Brookside’s most famous, and prescient, storyline. Burying Trevor’s body under the patio, and leaving it undiscovered for two years, happened in an eerie parallel with a notorious case of real-life domestic abuse – in 1994, police discovered the victims of serial killers Fred and Rose West hidden in their family home, including their own daughter, who was buried in the back garden. The Jordache story was the ultimate Brookside plot: shocking, controversial and rooted in truth. The year Trevor was dug up also saw Hollyoaks make its debut. Produced by the same team as Brookside at the same Liverpool-based studio complex, using shared sets still used today (did you know Dee Valley Hospital was once the night club on Brookside’s shopping parade?), Redmond always considered it to be a spin-off with a youthful skew. Seeing characters cross over between the two shows isn’t a new idea, it was happening right at the start, but over time the connection was lost, especially once Brookside was axed in 2003. Reviving it as a narrative device to mark Hollyoaks’ impressive three-decade milestone makes perfect sense. What better way to recognise the simple fact Hollyoaks would not exist without Brookie by strengthening the original relationship between them, and having legends like Sheila Grant and Billy Corkhill along for the ride. And this is not just one-off fan service – Billy will follow Donny back to Hollyoaks village next week, meaning there’s scope for more back and forth in the future. Having Brookside show up as a guest at its little sister’s metaphorical birthday party also recognises how Hollyoaks, while still having an eye on serving the younger end of the soap audience, has come of age as it hits the big three-oh. It’s bold, brash, sure of itself and ready to provoke difficult conversations. Just like Brookside was. Read more: 4 things we need to see in Brookside's big Hollyoaks crossover Episodes of Brookside are available to watch on STV player. Hollyoaks is available to watch on catch-up on Channel 4. Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ronni Ancona: The Big Impression aired 25 years ago – it would never get on TV today
With celebrities oversharing their lives, it’s hard to make a big impression, writes Ronni Ancona.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. So much comedy has moved online in the past decade and in some ways that’s liberating. Short sketches flourish on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Comics can experiment without worrying about whether they’re perceived as past their sell-by date or still in favour with a TV commissioner. Podcasts have created another outlet for comedy. In the podcast studio, you can jam together like musicians would. It can be more difficult to do that when creating a TV comedy because, in that arena, agents want to know, “Who wrote this?” and “Who has the intellectual property on that?” In my new podcast, Hal & Ronni in Pieces, comedian Hal Cruttenden and I seek advice from comics like Jo Brand, Omid Djalili and Sally Phillips on how to cope with stress. It’s also a parody, at our expense, about two idiots attempting to make a podcast 10 years too late. There’s much to celebrate. But the digital era has also been a challenge for comedy impressionism. In The Big Impression (which ran from 1999–2005), Alistair McGowan and I parodied the lives of David and Victoria Beckham, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, Jerry Hall, Nigella Lawson, Gary Lineker and the royals. With far fewer channels and no streaming platforms, we notched up millions of viewers on BBC One. We could imagine what the stars we played were like with a fly on the wall-style set-up, because their lives were shrouded in mystery. Before social media, we had no idea what their lifestyles were like, what they ate or where they went on holiday. Take the late England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and his partner Nancy Dell’Olio. We could imagine a world where Nancy was a footballing genius and Sven didn’t understand football. We’d have him sweating over his homework, trying to understand the offside rule and what a holding midfielder is. Today, any celebrity popular enough for us to satirise would already be on Instagram, showing us what they eat for breakfast, their gym workouts and their kitchen decor. There is less artistic licence to create comedic fantasies. View oEmbed on the source website The Big Impression aired 25 years ago and caught the zeitgeist of celebrities as brand-builders. We reflected that by playing Posh and Becks sitting on thrones at either end of a long table, discussing their Isas and other financial investments. It was perhaps a sign of the times that in the first series we received complaints from celebrities we parodied. Then, in subsequent series, we fielded calls from agents asking why we weren’t satirising their clients! This form of parody is more absent from our TV screens today. It’s not just social media that’s to blame. In the past, the impressionist Lewis MacLeod and I occasionally performed live as Trump and Melania. But even that is proving trickier, as many of our political and celebrity figures have become parodies of themselves as they attempt to be controversial, to be newsworthy and to stay in the public eye. In comedy, it’s not just on screen but behind the scenes where we’ve seen change. When I first started out, I experienced shocking sexism. We’d come up with ideas in writers’ rooms and were told “That’s not funny,” before the joke would be credited to a male writer. Female characters, even in sitcoms, were always sensible protagonists – “Oh, Gary, put your trousers back on!” – and constantly feeding lines to the guys. One commissioner turned down a great script as “We’ve already got a female thing.” There’s still work to do. There is a loyal TV audience out there, but they’re often patronised – that’s particularly the case with women of a certain age. Young people aren’t watching television, and perhaps that ship has sailed. We need to see more middle-aged women represented on screen in a funny, clever, pithy way. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Hal & Ronni in Pieces podcast is available now, with episodes dropping weekly until 19 December. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Has the rise of the "sad-com" killed studio sitcoms with a live audience?
Traditional sitcoms have made way for a quieter type of comedy.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Fifty years ago, the stars of the new BBC comedy The Good Life took to the floor of Studio 8 in Television Centre and played to its live audience. Producer John Howard Davies remembers: “It went quite well, but it wasn’t a rousing success. I went home and thought, ‘I hope it’s going to be all right.’” He needn’t have worried. By the time the show finished four series later, it had an average weekly audience of 17 million and the cast were household names. A year later, in 1978, a final one-off special was filmed with Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in attendance. The Good Life still tops TV sitcom popularity lists. But at the time, how did viewers know that Margo slipping in the mud in her yellow sou’wester and wellies was side-rippingly funny? Because 320 audience members laughed loud and long, and told us so. A laughter track formed a vital part of that era’s most popular comedies: think of Last of the Summer Wine, Keeping Up Appearances, Fawlty Towers – what comes to mind is physical, highly visual gags, invariably at the expense of the protagonist, from Hyacinth to Basil, with a beat for other characters to react, and a collective burst of laughter from somewhere in acknowledgement. It was comforting, infectiously upbeat stuff, enjoyed by huge TV audiences, so when and why did it change? I would say July 2001, when The Office took British comedy in a completely different direction. With the tiniest of eye-rolls, David Brent’s needy glances to camera and scene edits left deliberately hanging and awkward – including Keith’s solemn devouring of a Scotch egg – Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant perfected the mockumentary, and a vital part of the genre’s success was the brooding silence that studio (or canned) laughter had once filled. Did this fresh quietness open the door to a whole new way of creating, and defining, comedy? Certainly, with a couple of notable, crowd-pleasing exceptions (a pal reports a cracking night in the crowd for Not Going Out, and we must salute Mrs Brown’s Boys), any list of recent TV comedy bulges with quieter, calmer shows variously called “dramedies” or, more mournfully, “sadcoms”. Daisy Haggard starred in Back to Life, Lesley Manville in Mum, both shows that swapped crowd-pleasing punchlines for something gentler, and hoped in return for our chuckles not our guffaws. Toby Jones cemented his status as the standard bearer for such fare as Pete in Don’t Forget the Driver and Lance in Detectorists. We now watch comedy in the same way we watch drama, hoping for strong narrative threads, nuance, authenticity – all requiring creative precision not called for in previous years. Driver’s writer Tim Crouch once told me he’d written “a drama, just on a comedy budget”. A few modern comedies could have benefitted from having some loud chucklers to encourage the rest of us; their absence can leave a show horribly exposed, and it’d be fascinating to watch a hit vintage sitcom without the laughter track and see just how funny (or not) it still is. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Before David Brent, we had Basil Fawlty and Rupert Rigsby. Before Toby Jones’s brow-furrowed Pete, we had Richard Briers’s Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles. The best comedies have always relied not on how they’re presented but larger-than-life characters we root for through thick and thin. These richly drawn figures will stand the test of time, making us laugh loud and longest. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Emma Thompson: The spy thrillers I read as a teenager told me women should fall in love and get killed
As a life-long fan of the thriller and Mick Herron enthusiast, the actor couldn’t resist the offer to star in the adaptation of Down Cemetery Road.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. There’s something a bit Jane Austen about Mick Herron... Before the admirable Jane Austen Societies on both sides of the pond club together and take out a hit on me (they tend to the purist), let me explain. Like Austen, he doesn’t suffer fools, can skewer their folly with the flick of an adjective but also deeply enjoys them. He will keep coming back to them, keep giving them more to do. His world is as darkly witty and as drily unsentimental as hers. His monsters, like hers, are all too human. He confines himself to very specific social territory. If Austen described herself as working on two inches of ivory, Herron works on two inches of knackered linoleum: people trying to be as decent or as contemptuous as they can within sadly beaten-down or absurdly over-blown institutions. His streets are paved with gum. Neither he nor Austen ever gets “above themselves” either in style or content, which is how they would probably both put it. They are both incorruptibly humble. You can argue with me, but I fell in love with Herron quite as deeply as Austen when I first read her. I found Down Cemetery Road in 2016 It was under the “staff recommends” in my local bookshop and I read most of the book standing in the shop, sniggering and snorting to myself. I was thinking as I read – much in the way of those oft-repeated scenes in thrillers when someone (generally a man) does something unexpectedly violent in a brilliant way and someone else (generally a man but sometimes women are allowed to say it, too) says: “Who IS this guy?” Which segues uncannily into my next best thrill – women get to do stuff and say stuff. His books pass the Bechdel test (they have at least two women characters who talk to each other about something other than men) with lots of room to spare, you get the feeling he knows what we are capable of, and there were precious few thriller or spy writers doing that while I was growing up. I read and re-read all of Alistair MacLean, Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, John le Carré and Arthur Conan Doyle while a teenager, so it’s astonishing that I grew up into someone who believed in female power. By the laws of probability, I should still be looking for parts that require me to seduce and get killed, fall in love and get killed, be naked and already dead or manage a cigarette holder without burning myself. But I loved the thriller form – the darkness, the drives, the addictions, the hidden nastinesses. I was hooked from very early on. Herron’s work provides all of this but with a vital and unusual added ingredient – he’s extremely funny. Like Austen – he makes me laugh out loud. How can a thriller set in this kind of world be so funny? The thriller as comedy? But it’s not as simple as that. He just – again, like Austen – knows this world and its human elements to be absurd, often surreally so. Self-interest, self-absorption, pompous humbug, patriarchal idiocy, mind-numbing entitlement he presents with gleeful brio. His heroes and heroines are highly unlikely. And I am equally unlikely as a private investigator Quite apart from my historical devotion to Herron, that’s the reason I said yes immediately to playing Zoë Boehm, a super-bright, cynical, damaged Exocet of a woman who, for some reason in her distant past, decided she didn’t have to be a good girl. She didn’t have to be polite and assuage her way through life, apologising for her existence and trying not to take up too much space. She’s more likely to have a decent cup of char than a dirty martini (which she would consider an overpriced beverage) and to use her laptop as a weapon because why carry a gun, it’s only going to get you into even more trouble. You’re not going to find her hanging off a plane, put it that way. She’ll use her wits as her guarantee of survival, not that she’d ever put it like that, nor that she’d ever expect to survive or to mind much if she doesn’t. But she’s good at taking necessary risks. She’s rude, straight-talking, and not good at general conversation, uninterested in people’s private lives, highly moral while presenting as somewhat amoral, and fascinatingly resistant to affection. View oEmbed on the source website Zoë was intriguing to create I was helped a lot by our wildly creative costume designer Annie Symons. Annie looks like an eccentric Classics teacher who’s had an affair with Martin Amis. She’s got edge. She turned up one day and threw a three-quarter-length black leather jacket at me – it was a bit battered and lined with old red silk. “Found this in a bin-sale in Camden Town,” she said. Of course she did. I suddenly realised that Zoë might have gone to school in that gnarly part of London – full of addicts and proper, red-faced, steaming tramps and men who exposed themselves at the girls’ school gates. I knew that world, that was where I grew up – the jacket went on and was so right. All I needed was a pair of knock-off Doc Martens and I was back there – stomping about Camden when the market was a hole in the ground, people sold vinyl from ragged stalls and everything was made of cheesecloth. Then my mate Naomi Donne, make-up and hair guru extraordinaire, came over and said, “How do you want her to look?” I said, “Like she doesn’t care about her hair.” Naomi sat me on a chair in my back garden and jabbed at my head with some scissors for a bit. It was a nail-biting experience. It’s like having your hair cut by Zorro. Then, as is her wont, she stepped away and chucked the scissors onto the lawn. “It’s not what you’d call a haircut,” she said, “but it says something.” It says that Zoë probably cuts her own hair in the back garden (she doesn’t have a garden by the way) but it also says that she’s artistic without knowing it. That was all I needed. Plus a bit of smudged old mascara from the night before – this is not a woman who bothers with skincare. Morwenna Banks’s wonderful adaptation gave me a lot more action than I had anticipated Wen and I go back a long way and actually were both writing sketch comedy in our 20s, when we first met. When I say a lot more action, what I mean is a lot more than – occasionally, on the eight-month shoot – was entirely welcome. I realised quite early on that starting a career in this action form at the age of 66 was in fact reckless and possibly even stupid. I also realised, as I was being dragged by the ankles out of rat-infested tunnels, running on wet sand past exploding bombs that aren’t real but sort of do explode (it took me weeks to get the sand out of my ears), walking in and out of the Atlantic fully clothed in February and spending eight hours on a fishing boat in rough seas pretending to vomit while everyone else is actually vomiting, that this was where the resemblance to Austen abruptly ceased. But my luck was in – I had the doughtiest of companions in Ruth Wilson, a woman of mickle might who will happily do anything dangerous without demur. There were nights when we would meet over a stiff drink and, looking over the rim of our glasses into each other’s bloodshot peepers, say, “What was THAT?” We barrelled up and down the country with abandon, running, hiding, kicking and screaming our way through the story, wondering sometimes how we’d get through it but knowing all the while we would, because we had each other. But we were permanently astonished by the level of our exhaustion. It was a great comfort to me that Ruth also got tired because she is a good 20 years younger. But she also had more to do. I mean, I had prepared myself as far as possible – I trained more than usual, for instance, and tried to eat less pie. I lifted weights and did my squats and wore one of those watches that measures your heart rate and is constantly disappointed in you. I practised feeling pessimistic about human nature and only smiling when I felt like it, which was hard. I said no to a lot of things I felt I really ought to do, which was less hard. Zoë was a good influence in many ways. I’ve a penchant for trying to make everything better all the time and she would jeer at me for it. I ingested as much of her cynicism as I could manage and realised that if you don’t expect too much from life/humans/pie, you can often be pleasantly surprised. She’s a true Stoic though. Absolutely happy with a decent cheese sandwich and a bag of Wotsits as long as somewhere in the future there’s the odd glass of single malt. And as for sex – well, she can take it or leave it. One of the greatest things about doing a long-form telly is the wonderful cast of actors They come in and out of the story, weaving their own inimitable flavours into it and I was very lucky because Zoë’s sometime-squeeze, a copper called Bob Poland, is played by a cracking Scottish actor called Steven Cree. Who, on our first morning, cheerily stripped off down to just a strange little nylon bag over his genitals (we both decided this made them look weird and sinister) to do a post-shag scene where Zoë makes a chilling discovery. Imagine the craic. Other casting joys included Fehinti Balogun, who plays my nemesis, a frightening psychotic who wants me as dead as his soul. Oh, how we laughed. No, seriously. We laughed all the time – we would fight to the death in a blown-up church and then go back and Fehinti would cook an incredible Caribbean meal for me and whoever else was hungry. These are the true joys of filming on location. Then there are those – the locations We had about a million different ones. My favourite was in Cornwall – a place called Polperro. Those of you who already know it will be emitting those groans of pleasure that the perfection of the place inspires. It has the best pub pretty much in the world. The Blue Peter – which serves wonderful chips and seafood and has a great real ale called Tribute. I am quite strict with myself when shooting and try not to drink, but by the end of our two weeks there I was nipping into the Blue for a cheeky half of Trib in between takes. Maybe that’s why, in the scenes we shot there, Zoë seems that teeny bit more cheerful. I’ll leave you with the last diary entry I made Monday 3 February 2025: My final day. Started this dang thing on 10 June 2024. That’s mad. In London at King’s Cross, we ended the day on my last exit which was kind of weird. Mick H and his wonderful partner Jo were with us. Walking through the back of shot arm-in-arm and being delightfully sheepish about it. I feel grief and relief in equal measure. Our core crew are – miraculously – still alive and we clutched each other and expressed long-held affections, which was warming on a chilly platform in February. I have finished but feel like I haven’t or can’t or shouldn’t. Isn’t that Stockholm syndrome or something? My two saving graces, Fay (de Bremaeker hair and make-up) and Viv (Irish, PA) give me a hug at the end of the day. “Come on,” I say, “let’s paint this town red! It’s the end of eight months! We’re still here! It’s time to celebrate! Let’s break out!” In the end we share a couple of bags of Quavers and a negroni from a tin. “I hope people watch this bloody thing,” says Viv. 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