Danny Dyer reveals all in Rivals season 2: "I go full frontal in this series"
Danny Dyer chats to Radio Times magazine about what's to come in Rivals season 2.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Were you thrilled by the reaction to the first series? We were all quite shocked. There’s something about Rivals that the world needs at the moment. It’s unapologetic. It's not filtered. You don't need trigger warnings. It’s just the eighties in all its glory. Freddie’s not like the other boys with their six-packs. He’s chubby and lovable and kind and friendly, and I adore playing him. Do people ask you when Freddie and Lizzie are going to get together? People have really taken to them. You don’t normally root for people having an affair, but they’re soul mates. Plus, Lizzie’s husband is a t***. Freddie and Lizzie should be together, but they didn't meet at the right time. Do you worry about doing sex scenes? I just go with it, baby. I've been around a long time and it’s part of the job. It always feels a bit weird but you’ve got to laugh about it. I go full frontal in this series, if they keep it in the edit. It’s a night shoot, and it was cold, and I’d better not say any more. Nobody’s under any pressure to be naked if they don’t want to, but if a woman’s getting her breasts out, why shouldn’t I get it all out? I’ve got breasts as well, to be fair. Have you told your family? Yes, and my daughter’s asked for the time codes so she can skip that scene! What are your memories of the eighties? I was at school, looking up at the adults who were smoking and drinking and dancing with big shoulder pads. I grew up in a single parent family on a council estate so there wasn’t any glamour in my life. You started working in television in the early nineties, not long after this period. Do you recall the intense rivalry or misogyny depicted in Rivals? Not really, but my first ever job was Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren, a powerhouse of a woman. In fact, a lot of my first jobs were with very strong women. Rivals is available to stream on Disney+. Season 2 premieres on Friday 15 May 2026. Sign-up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month. Add Rivals 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 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.
Mortal Kombat II's Adeline Rudolph on "honour" of bringing Kitana to life, her upcoming K-Pop thriller and future ambitions
"I didn't want it to feel like a gimmick or mimic anyone else's performance."
After breakthrough roles in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Riverdale, Adeline Rudolph takes on her biggest challenge to date as the iconic Kitana in Mortal Kombat II. The video game adaptation follows a group of fighters who must defeat the dark force of the tyrannical Shao Kahn, who threatens the very existence of Earthrealm. Rudolph takes on the role of Kitana, one of the most popular characters in the franchise ever since her debut in the original Mortal Kombat II game in 1993. Like any beloved franchise and game-to-screen adaptation, there’s a certain level of pressure in nailing a fan-favourite character. It’s something that the casts of The Last of Us, Silent Hill and Five Nights at Freddy’s (to name just a few) are all too aware of but Rudolph remarks that embodying Kitana was an incredible experience. Most importantly, she says, it was an honour to bring the iconic character to life. As Rudolph was stepping into a world with such a big pre-existing fanbase, she knew it was her duty to dive into the backstory of her character to do her justice. “I had so much source material to go off of,” she told Radio Times. “I played the games, but more than that, I delved into the lore and [explored] the story and rich history and relationships between all of these characters, which was important when stepping into this new world. “It was important to understand which realm Kitana comes from. Who is she when she is born? What does she stand for? Who are her people? And where does her moral compass lie? Those were the things I hung onto most when it came to this character.” Despite the fantasy worlds and exhilarating action of Mortal Kombat II, Rudolph believes that in order to create a real connection with the audience, it's important to show the vulnerability and humanity of the various characters. “The best way to hopefully do Kitana justice was to be as truthful and as honest as I could be with the character, dive into who she is as a person and then bring her to life in that way. I didn’t want it to feel like a gimmick or mimic anyone else’s performance or try to be Kitana in the video game,” said Rudolph. “I was looking to portray the interesting and incredible story on a very human level and I was looking to channel that into my performance.” As well as being inspired by the rich history and lore, Rudolph remarked how welcoming the returning cast of the 2021 movie were, saying that they “held her hand” and helped immerse her and the new cast members into the action-packed Mortal Kombat universe. The iteration introduces new characters to the screen such as Kitana, and starring alongside Rudolph is The Boys star Karl Urban, who leads the cast as Johnny Cage. “Karl is awesome. He is the kindest and chillest human being," Rudolph said of working with him. "He is so perfect for Johnny Cage. To be able to work with someone like Karl, who is so professional and so talented and funny, was a true joy. He brought a lot of comedy to the role that is nuanced and fans will be extremely happy with his portrayal.” As for Rudolph's portrayal, when we talk of her role, I mention the fact that some celebrities of East Asian descent, such as Michelle Yeoh and Jessica Henwick, have talked openly about being hesitant to take on various roles throughout their career as they could have been considered stereotypical for Asian actors. As an actor who was born in Hong Kong, educated in Britain and is of Korean and German descent, Rudolph is upfront about the fact that it was a challenge at first to find her place in the industry. When we speak of Henwick – who was initially hesitant to take on the role of Colleen Wing in Iron Fist as she had previously avoided martial artist roles – Rudolph says she didn’t share the same concerns when taking on the role of Kitana. She explains that Kitana was such an established character in pop culture history with rich lore and backstory that there was no risk of it being a one-dimensional portrayal. “I looked at this from the standpoint of, 'This is an iconic character'. Was I mindful of overstepping one way or another? No, not really. I had so much lore and original IP to go off of. I was mainly concerned with doing Kitana justice with the way she stands and exists as she does in the game." View Green Video on the source website Following the release of Mortal Kombat II, Rudolph will next be seen in the hotly anticipated psychological thriller Perfect Girl. The movie, led by Arden Cho, Jeon Somi and Rudolph, follows a competitive K-Pop group preparing for their debut when suddenly, contestants are being attacked one by one. Details for the movie remain limited and Rudolph is tight-lipped when I probe about the K-Pop thriller. However, she asserts that Perfect Girl is a passion project which “healed the inner child in her”. The supporting cast of the movie features prominent and successful K-Pop artists such as Jeon Somi, Nancy from Momoland, Siyoon from Billlie and Chaerin from Cherry Bullet. It was the process of working with these real artists that provided Rudolph with a depth of knowledge that helped inform her performance. “We had such an incredible cast and such unique insight into the industry by incredible talent who have lived through the training system. It was a dream. Those girls are superheroes. I take my hat off to all of them. I think they are so cool, so talented and down to earth. They’re amazing,” said Rudolph. While that upcoming role is one that showcases Rudolph’s own cultural background and will undoubtedly be one that gets people talking, Rudolph’s path into acting hasn’t always been a smooth one. But rather than letting previous experiences hold her back or make her feel limited by specific roles, Rudolph has turned her diverse background into a superpower as she looks to transition between different markets and film industries. “I would love to do Korean movies. I would love to do German movies. And I’m so grateful to be working in America [and Hollywood], so anything that I’m able to get my hands on, I’m grateful for,” Rudolph beams. Mortal Kombat II is out now in cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance's Henry actor Tom McKay reveals who he wants to play in a Lord of the Rings game
Some quite hungry characters to choose from.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance's Tom McKay has some thoughts on who he would play in a potential Lord of the Rings game, though really, he'd be happy to play anyone. McKay has provided the voice of Henry of Skalitz, the protagonist of both Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, and was recently nominated for best lead performer for the role at the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards. With KCD developer Warhorse Studios rumoured to be making a Lord of the Rings game, Radio Times Gaming asked McKay on the red carpet who he would like to play in Warhorse's Middle Earth. "There are loads," he began. "You know, those worlds are filled with such incredibly rich complex characters. I mean, definitely a kind of Aragorn vibe would be great. "But there are so many. And actually, if I were to do it – and I flatter to think that anybody would want me to do it – I'd probably rather nudge it away from the Henry vibes a little bit. I quite like playing a sort of broad palette of characters." View oEmbed on the source website McKay proceeded to flip the script and ask us who we thought he should play in a Lord of the Rings game, to which we said we'd like to see him as Pippin. "Yeah, yeah!" he replied, I could definitely throw my hand in at that!" Since the interview, other fan casts that have arisen include everyone from Bilbo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee to Saruman, but perhaps the most popular choice has been the one and only Tom Bombadil. Last year's Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was a smash hit for Warhorse Studios, selling more than 5 million copies and raking in a slew of awards. Reports last month that the studio is moving on to an open world Lord of the Rings game will no doubt be a bitter pill for fans of KCD, but considering the quality of the series, there many be no better studio in the world right now to take such a project on. We just hope that, if it does come to pass, there's a place in the Shire reserved just for Tom. 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.
Mawaan Rizwan talks saying goodbye to Juice: “I think it’s healthy to close chapters”
The creator, writer and star of sitcom Juice now has a Bafta nomination – and big ideas for the future
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It’s the morning after the night before and Mawaan Rizwan has a languorous air about him. Tired but satisfied, almost post-coital, he reclines in the back of a car leaving London for Stratford-upon-Avon where, until 30 May, he’s on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Bertold Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. As the city’s edifices of steel, sandstone and glass give way to suburban sprawl, Rizwan is in a reflective mood. “I’m really alive right now,” he says. “Like, every cell in my body is creatively fulfilled.” The night before was the Bafta Craft awards, where those who work behind-the-scenes in TV are recognised for their creativity and talent. There, Juice’s Philippa Mumford picked up the award for production design, declaring it “a dream come true” before Rizwan crashed the stage to sing her praises. “It’s unheard of that a comedy wins this category because we were so low-budget,” he said, as the ingenious and inventive Mumford beamed beside him. “Philippa worked her arse off and the team were incredible and everything was made by hand. In the age of AI, we need people like Philippa.” We need people like Rizwan too, says Seán Linnen, who directs him in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a parable about the rise of Hitler that has clear resonance for today. “He has such a hunger to tell a story in the most entertaining way and if you give him a note or an idea, he’ll run into it head-first and explode it – which then gives permission for the actors around him to do the same thing. And they go to places that you think are impossible to reach. He makes other actors bolder and braver. He has such precision and poise, and then is also fearless in being messy and ugly and raw and mischievous.” When I relay Linnen’s comments to Rizwan in the back of his car, he sits up and is palpably moved. “That Seán sees all that is beautiful,” he says. “If I had a CV, I’d put that on it.” At the top of that imaginary CV would also be Juice, the series Rizwan created, written and stars in, which has earned him his own Bafta nomination at the Television Awards. It’s a series he loves – not least because it has been the making of him. “Five years of my life doing two series, it’s such a privilege being at the epicentre and having creative control of a project like that, but it’s a lot of pressure and a really intense process,” he says. “You can write on your own but unless it’s a one-person show, you need other people to embody it and then it takes on a life of its own. I love that transition moment where the caterpillar of the script becomes the beautiful butterfly of performance.” And, Rizwan says, you have to let that butterfly fly. “You can’t control it too much. You have to let other people do their thing. On Juice, it was a constant dance – being a leader, but getting out of people’s way, particularly my mum and brother [who also star in the series]. And look what happened yesterday [at the Bafta Television Craft Awards] – Philippa took the ideas and ran with them on series two. There were things where, if I tried to control it, it just wouldn’t have been as beautiful and magical as the stuff she made.” Rizwan draws an analogy from Of Mice and Men. “You can love the rabbit too much and squeeze it to death.” Win or lose, the Baftas will be his goodbye to Juice. “It will always be my first love and there isn’t anyone involved with that show that I don’t adore, but I think it’s healthy to close chapters.” Though he’s upfront that his work is therapeutic, Rizwan is adamant that he’s no tortured artist. “Some people work great in that energy but I need to feel hope to make stuff. Even if I’m writing something really dark, I need to feel hope to be disciplined and get to the desk or the rehearsal and be a ‘yes, and…’ person. I need to be alive, lively.” And with his relish at being part of someone else’s show, alive Rizwan most certainly is. His languor has evaporated as he leans forward to tell me of a new goal he has to aim for. “The day before we came up to Stratford from London, we went to the Together Alliance march against fascism. It was such a nice way of finishing the rehearsal process and seeing all these different communities coming together – Muslim aunties and uncles dancing to a trans[gender] DJ, Jews Against Genocide – was just joyous and beautiful. By the end of it, I was just crying. We’ve been so indoctrinated into believing there’s nothing we can do, but there is resistance and hope that comes from just showing up, congregating and listening to each other. “My goal is to show up and the more I show up, the less I’m at home alone and doomscrolling. After all, it’s the resistible rise. Stress on the resistible.” The Bafta Television Awards are on Sunday 11 May at 7pm on BBC One. BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises Shot at Sea Containers London Photography: Rachel Louise Brown @rachellouisebrownstudio Styling: Natalie Read @natreadstylist Set Design: Propped Up @propped_up_ltd Hair and make-up: Niki Mark @makeupby_niki 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.
Things You Should Have Done creator Lucia Keskin talks ADHD medication, old comedies and dark humour
The Bafta-nominated creator, writer and star of Things You Should Have Done loves everything from Carry On to Nighty Night.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. From YouTube sensation to Bafta nomination, yours has been quite the journey. How are you enjoying it? I never go out and I’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s fine. Plus I’ve just started new ADHD medication. And how is that? I don’t feel any different yet as it takes ages to get on the right dose, but it’s the road to focusing. I really struggle with it – it takes me ages to get anything written down. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/BBC-comedy-96ee4bd.jpg" width="4241" height="2827" alt="A young woman stands outdoors beside a black-and-white horse, which is close to the camera and slightly out of focus in the foreground. She wears a colourful padded jacket and a scarf, with a mildly unimpressed expression, while trees and greenery fill the background." title="Things You Should Have Done Series 2" /> We hear a lot about younger generations being horrified by the political incorrectness of old comedies like the Carry On films. What do you think of them? I watch loads of old comedies like Carry On… and Hancock’s Half Hour. And unless something’s incredibly offensive to the point where it’s not funny, it doesn’t bother me. I enjoy a very dark humour, though. I love Nighty Night and I did really enjoy After Life. The Bafta Television Awards are on Sunday 11 May at 7.00pm on BBC One BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises Shot at Sea Containers London Photography: Rachel Louise Brown @rachellouisebrownstudio Styling: Natalie Read @natreadstylist Set Design: Propped Up @propped_up_ltd Hair by Philipp Haug & Eden Thomson for Schwarzkopf Make-up by Armani Beauty 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.
Rivals star reveals why her new Harry Potter TV series role was a no-brainer
Katherine Parkinson is nominated for Best Female Comedy Performance at the 2026 Bafta Television Awards.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It has been 12 years since Katherine Parkinson won her Bafta for Best Female Comedy Performance for her role as Jen Barber in The IT Crowd. Now, ahead of this year's ceremony where she is up for the same award as matriarch Rachel Jessop in Here We Go, she shares her thoughts on the nomination, her on-screen husband, and her upcoming role in the new Harry Potter TV series. Last year, you were nominated for Lizzie in Rivals and this year for Rachel in Here We Go. What do they have in common? I knew I wasn’t going to win last year and I know I’m not going to win this year, so there’s that. The amazing Jessica Gunning won last year for Baby Reindeer, and rightly so. I’m not going to say who I think will win this year but it won’t be me and I’m totally OK with that. It means that you don’t have to prepare a “funny” speech and you can just relax. Would you say that you and Jim Howick, who plays your husband Paul and is also nominated for a Bafta, are very much a double act? Even though playing it can leave you feeling really stressed, I do really enjoy how quickly they get to such a fever pitch of being incredibly cross with each other. When we started, I remember thinking, “Is this potentially over the top?” at how hysterical I get, and then – and I hope they don’t mind me saying this – I spent time with my parents and realised that Paul and Rachel’s is a very authentic relationship. Next up, you’re playing Mrs Weasley in the new Harry Potter TV adaptation. Was it an easy decision to take the role? I’m a mother and my children would never have forgiven me if I hadn’t taken the part. So from that point of view, it was a complete no-brainer. The Bafta Television Awards are on Sunday 11 May at 7pm on BBC One. BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises Shot at Sea Containers London Photography: Rachel Louise Brown @‌rachellouisebrownstudio Styling: Natalie Read @‌natreadstylist Set Design: Propped Up @‌propped_up_ltd Hair by Philipp Haug & Eden Thomson for Schwarzkopf Make-up by Armani Beauty 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.
Believe Me writer Jeff Pope talks his John Worboys drama: "I was very aware that I’m a man writing a story about women"
Jeff Pope had much to learn when he set out to dramatise the real-life story of the victims of the “black cab rapist” and their treatment by the police.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When “black cab rapist” John Worboys was arrested for drugging and attacking 12 women, there was widespread revulsion. His victims believed they were being taken home safely, having flagged down the licensed vehicle, yet they woke up from their journey confused and groggy, with a growing realisation that something terrible had happened to them. A new ITV drama, Believe Me, gives a voice to those women who spent years fighting for the police to investigate the crimes. Its writer Jeff Pope – who has established himself in the true-crime drama genre, having also executive-produced See No Evil: the Moors Murders, This Is Personal: the Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and The Reckoning about Jimmy Savile – says the show really opened his eyes to the fear that ordinary women live with every day. “I was very aware that I’m a man writing a story about women,” he says. “I talked to all the female members of my family about it. A friend’s wife told me that if a man is walking behind her on a dark street, he should cross the road so that she doesn’t feel like she’s being followed. I do that all the time now, but I wouldn’t have thought of it before. “Writing this opened the door to a room I didn’t know existed. This was a wake-up call. Women have to be able to get home safely, for God’s sake.” Believe Me, starring Daniel Mays as Worboys, follows the story from the viewpoint of two victims, whose identities are protected but are known as “Sarah” and “Laila”. They got into Worboys’ taxi where he struck up conversation and pretended he’d just won a lot of money, before begging the women to drink a glass of champagne to help him celebrate. Despite initially refusing, they relented, unaware the drink was laced with sedatives. Pope, who talked to the real-life victims, explains how Sarah’s story unfolded after a night out in 2003, her first since giving birth to her son. He says, “She’d got into a black cab, which is such a big thing with women. She had the money for the cab in a special compartment of her bag. She was doing all the right things. “In the show we have a long sequence between Sarah and Worboys, which was important because I wanted the audience to understand how it happened. You can’t truncate it and have the driver giving Sarah a drink because you’d think, ‘Wow, that was silly of her to drink it.’ You have to play it out to show her saying no three times, and all of the detail of that conversation. “You have to understand how these women got into this situation. They hadn’t done anything stupid. They hadn’t got into an unlicensed cab. None of them said ‘Yes please’ to the drink straightaway.” Peaky Blinders and Slow Horses actor Aimee-Ffion Edwards, who plays Sarah, says she immediately related to the scripts as she’s often been aware of her vulnerability as a lone woman. “You’d struggle to find a woman who hadn’t had some sort of experience of feeling unsafe at night,” she says. “That scene is important because viewers need to imagine what it’s like to be in the back of that cab trying to gain some control, or working out the best way to handle the situation. You don’t want to get out of a cab in the middle of nowhere. “But the onus shouldn’t be on women to stay safe. Women should be allowed to walk down the street or get into a black cab without any fear.” Pope adds that every aspect of the four-parter tells the story accurately, thanks to in-depth conversations with Sarah and Laila, their lawyers, and serving police officers involved in the case, as well as court transcripts. “I was very lucky that the women were so open with me,” he says. “I wanted to let them have their voice, rather than imposing anything on them. “I learnt a lot. One of the aspects of the story that really shook me is what women physically go through after reporting a sexual assault: the interviews, the intimate examinations. It goes on and on and on. It’s not like they’ve had a telly nicked, you know? It’s so draining for them. “I spent a lot of the writing process in a foul temper, but you can’t let that spill onto the page because that would have done these women a disservice, to have done something manipulative or crude, to have conversations that you couldn’t prove. The approach was to let the material speak for itself.” For that reason, the attacks aren’t shown, because the women can’t remember what actually happened to them: they only know they woke up bleeding, or with ripped clothes, or painful genitals. But much of the dialogue in Believe Me is verbatim: one of the most shocking quotes is from a police officer who asks Laila, “What kind of woman are you? The kind of woman who wears red nail polish?” The quote reflects the attitude of many of the investigating officers who didn’t want to believe the women’s stories, as investigating rape is such a difficult exercise. The police, in fact, used many excuses not to investigate properly: such as their argument that a black cab driver would not risk raping from his easily identifiable vehicle, to the fact Sarah had taken a small amount of cocaine during her night out. Edwards, who spoke to the real Sarah before shooting the series, says, “Sarah said the way the police treated her was worse than the actual attack. Those feelings of horror and violation will always be there, but then she was gas-lit and that was the hardest bit. A lot of people have asked, ‘Were you shocked?’ The sad thing is that it makes your blood boil, but it’s not necessarily that shocking.” “The Met guidelines say that women should be believed, but the police were trying to get them off their books, as it were,” Pope adds. “Why would they make this up? Imagine having this awful thing happen, then you think you’re on the path to justice, but that journey is even worse. There’s something fundamentally wrong there.” In the series, as in real life, Sarah keeps knocking down doors to get the police to take her seriously. Eventually, in 2009, six years after her rape, DCI Tim Grattan-Kane was investigating another attack and noticed similarities between the cases, joining the dots and arresting Worboys. He was convicted of 19 offences, including one rape and 12 drugging charges – but the trial judge said he had carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults. In 2014, victims including Sarah and Laila took the Met Police to the High Court, accusing them of breaching their duty under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act by failing to act upon earlier opportunities to stop Worboys. They won the case and received payouts, with the judge accusing the Met of “systematic failures”. Edwards says the years-long battle took an immeasurable toll on Sarah, yet she remains an inspirationally strong woman. “She was so open and generous and really funny when we spoke. She had me laughing within seconds and told me she was conscious of not wanting her children to live in a sad house. These women have to live with something huge and not allow it to affect the people around them. It’s silencing and isolating. It’s a long journey that continues to be their reality.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. 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.
Former Death in Paradise lead recalls stint on beloved show: "I always knew whodunnit!"
Ardal O’Hanlon is a busy man. Not content with meeting the Pope and hearing people’s secret confessions, now he’s joining the band of cosy crime novelists.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. So an Englishman, an Irishman and an American go off to meet the Pope. At first it sounds like a joke – especially since I’m being told the story by a comedian. Then it sounds more like a surreal dream – especially when the Englishman turns out to be Stephen Merchant, and the American Whoopi Goldberg. But no, it’s an honest-to-God account, from stand-up (and actor and writer) Ardal O’Hanlon, of the time he and a conclave of comics were invited to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2024. “It was totally bizarre,” marvels O’Hanlon. “They invited all these major US comedians [including Goldberg]; a lot of Italian comics; Tommy Tiernan, Patrick Kielty and me from Ireland; then there was only one English guy, Stephen Merchant – I didn’t get to speak to him, but [as he’s 6ft 7in] I obviously did see him across the room. Then the Pope gives this lovely speech about the value of comedy – and he was kind of funny, he got some laughs, but it was in Italian, so I’m not sure what they were all laughing at. Then we got to shake his hand, and I gave him my parents’ rosary beads to bless, so I’m the golden boy at home.” But wasn’t he worried that His Holiness might have seen the show that made young O’Hanlon’s name? Because while Father Ted (and O’Hanlon’s sweetly fat-headed character, Father Dougal) was a largely affectionate portrait of Irish priesthood, it was fairly unflattering, too, no? “Well, somebody told me once that Cardinal Basil Hume [then Archbishop of Westminster] was a big fan of the show. So I like to think Pope Francis handpicked his favourite comedians to come to the Vatican, but I don’t know. I mean, you do wonder what goes on in the Vatican – is it bingo in the morning and then they watch boxsets in the afternoon?” The Pontiff might approve more of O’Hanlon’s latest venture, anyway. After two fairly dark previous novels, his new one, A Plot to Die For is a cosy-crime murder mystery with a distinctly warm heart wrapped up in its twisty plot and excellent jokes. (“I don’t love the term ‘cosy’,” he curmudgeons mildly, but will hold his hand up to “fluffy” or “gentle”.) The book’s hero is Finn, a celebrity gardener in the UK who returns to his small Irish home town to care for his elderly mother – not unlike O’Hanlon, it turns out. “The starting point of this novel was that my mother had a pretty bad accident, and she was in recovery for a long time. So I was spending quite a lot of time with her and getting to know her as a person, which was wonderful. I wanted to write the kind of book she would enjoy, but also wanted to celebrate mother-son relationships – so Finn and his mum form this investigative team. “The other theme I was interested in was the whole notion of fame. There’s a line in the book where Finn says he doesn’t like being labelled a celebrity – or, as he puts it, ‘libelled a celebrity’. I can identify with that.” O’Hanlon gets plenty of humour out of both themes. There’s a nice gag about Finn’s bitter TV-gardening rival, ‘Alan Titmouse’ – “and I read that paragraph out when I was a guest on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh recently. I think he was a little aghast.” Likewise, you can almost hear the writer’s wry smile when he has Finn sit down to watch an episode of Death in Paradise at one point: O’Hanlon, of course, played the lead role in the Caribbean-set crime show from 2017 to 2020. In fact, in his book’s earliest incarnation, “I thought it would be a brilliant premise, imagining myself back in Guadeloupe being an actor on the show, who off-set was investigating a real murder.” A bit far-fetched, no? “I think I would be a good detective! When I was doing Death in Paradise, I didn’t even have to read the scripts to the end; I always knew whodunnit! Also, for both Finn and me, people do confide in us. I don’t know if it’s my angelic face or that I’m familiar off the TV, but strangers will tell me their innermost secrets.” Sounds like the 60-year-old is a shoo-in for the role if a mooted screen version comes off then? “I’ve done the audiobook, but this is how stupid I am: I wrote a main character that’s about 15 years younger than me – so I’ve blown it for myself. If the show ever gets made, then by the time it does I think I’ll be ready to play Finn’s elderly father.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Books 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.
Sarah Beeny: "Having cancer hasn't changed me"
With cancer behind her, the property expert has hit the road with the family band.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? We’ve got two sofas by the TV, so we all have a seat [Sarah and her husband, Graham Swift, have four sons]. I dyed the sofa covers plum to hide some stains, but I didn’t do it that well, so it’s patchy in places. But I like a home to look lived-in. What have you been watching? I’m an absolute sucker for a stand-up comic. I love Russell Howard, Dara Ó Briain, Sarah Millican and especially Michael McIntyre – he’s hilarious and never unkind. One of my favourite things he said was that leaving your dirty plates on top of the dishwasher is like taking your kids halfway to school and saying, “That’s it. I’m done. You can walk the rest of the way.” From Channel 4’s Property Ladder in 2001 to your most recent show Help! I Bought It at Auction, do you feel you have helped influence the rise of property shows on TV? I think Channel 4 was just following public interest. It’s probably rather cynical to say, but that show came at a time when budgets were being cut for television, and so instead of having proper researchers, they thought, “We’ll just get people who are already in the industry who know all the stuff anyway.” From day one, they’d say, “We’re going to do this,” and I’d say, “No, no, that’s not right.” Have property shows changed? We now have so many channels that everyone’s grabbing a headline. One of the things I think may be a mistake in television is that they’re all chasing the TikTok audience. Instead of thinking, “We’ll educate and TikTok can titillate,” they’re thinking they’ve got to titillate, too. Would David Attenborough get a show commissioned now or would they be thinking, “My God, no, that’s so boring?” And yet he is the man, isn’t he? In 2022 you were diagnosed with breast cancer. Why did you decide to share your journey so publicly in the 2023 documentary Sarah Beeny vs Cancer? Because when they say, “You’ve got cancer,” what you hear is, “What kind of coffin do you want?” It was about dying. Eventually I realised that treatments have come on so much, it’s more likely that you won’t die, and I wondered if other people had thought the same as me. Also, I wanted my sons to be able to talk to anyone they wanted to about it, so I didn’t want it to be a secret. And I was going to lose my hair, so I just thought I had to go public and that way I could tell the story the way I wanted. I’m proud of it, because I had thousands and thousands of letters from people saying it helped them and their families. Has your experience of cancer changed your definition of success in any way? No. I don’t think I would want to honour cancer with anything. Each to their own, but cancer doesn’t define me. It’s not changed my life. Having four kids has defined me – and having a husband, being on telly, meeting lots of people and having loads of successful businesses. Did you ever worry about showing your family on screen? I was very protective of the boys when they were little, but when we made New Life in the Country [2020-25], we asked them individually if they wanted to be in it. They were all old enough to make their own minds up. I strongly disagree with the implication that under 18, you haven’t got a brain and then on your 18th birthday you suddenly have all the wisdom in the world. They say home is where the heart is. But where do you feel most at home? It’s so trite to say this, but wherever my family is. I’m lucky, because I’ve got my kids, husband and a really big extended family who I’m incredibly close to. I’m currently on tour with the band that my husband and boys formed, called The Entitled Sons. I love being their groupie. The latest issue of Radio Times is on Tuesday – subscribe here. 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.
Here We Go writer teases season 4 - while star and Ghosts favourite explains secret to its success
Here We Go is nominated for two awards at the 2026 Bafta Television Awards.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Since debuting in 2022, Here We Go and the Jessop family have gone on a three-season run, with the BBC sitcom earning two nominations at the upcoming Bafta Television Awards. Creator, writer and actor Tom Basden and star Jim Howick share what it is that has made the comedy such a success. Tom Basden Creator, writer and actor in Here We Go What’s your writing process for Here We Go? I’m actually in the middle of writing series four. I’m very, very bad at admin in general, so I have lots of notes all over the place, in notebooks or Word documents or on my phone or on random bits of paper in my bag. So the start of the process is always trying to unearth everything, to do an audit of all the ideas that I’ve ever had for Here We Go – and everything else – and then just go through them. How is writing comedy different to drama? I don’t want to generalise but in drama, the stakes are usually a lot higher, and therefore characters’ responses are usually the same. It’s like, “We’ve got to catch the murderer” or “We’ve got to keep this hospital patient alive”. It doesn’t really matter who the detective is, or who the doctor is. Whereas in a comedy, the stakes are often coming out of relationships, and quite personal. I think that’s a lot of the reason why the characters become funny – they respond to things in a way that the audience doesn’t necessarily expect them to, but completely recognises. Jim Howick Star of Here We Go Nominated for actor in a comedy Why do you think Here We Go has become such a success? It follows family dynamic tropes very well, but the stories can often be quite goofy and mad. Also, sitcoms really benefit from a sort of “open house” culture. Often, when the doorbell goes – and that’s actually a joke in the show – you know that it’s going to offer a new flavour and texture to the comedy. As part of the collective behind Ghosts and Horrible Histories, what’s the difference working with scripts you didn’t co-write? It’s a lot more relaxing to be an actor for hire on someone else’s script, especially when it’s one of Tom’s scripts. Tom is a quiet genius and his scripts make me laugh out loud. I would never laugh out loud at my own script – that would be sort of psychopathic. How much latitude is there for improvisation? Tom can be particular sometimes, but as long as it’s not disrupting the story beats and as long as you’re not being self-indulgent, there’s a real value in ad-libbing, especially as it fits with the guerrilla film-making format of Here We Go. The Bafta Television Awards are on Sunday 11 May at 7pm on BBC One. BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises Shot at Sea Containers London Photography: Rachel Louise Brown @‌rachellouisebrownstudio Styling: Natalie Read @‌natreadstylist Set Design: Propped Up @‌propped_up_ltd Hair by Philipp Haug & Eden Thomson for Schwarzkopf Make-up by Armani Beauty The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – 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.
Am I Being Unreasonable? favourites Lenny Rush and Selin Hizli talk BAFTA nominations, Slow Horses, and creating comedy
"If I’m not making it funnier, I’d much rather the writers tell me," says Lenny Rush.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Lenny Rush Star of Am I Being Unreasonable? Nominated for actor in a comedy Congratulations on your BAFTA nomination. You must be feeling a sense of déjà vu, after your win for the first series. What are your memories of that night? I was shocked, I genuinely didn’t expect to win. This year, it’s strong competition again, and even being selected alongside these people feels crazy to me. What’s changed for you personally between filming series one and two? People started coming up to me and shouting, “Lenny!” I thought, “Do I know you?” It felt a bit odd at first, but now I just find it lovely. I went on holiday with my family and some of them hadn’t experienced it before, so they found it a bit weird. What’s it like on the set of Am I Being Unreasonable?, with the writers also acting? I’ve never had a job with so much improvisation. I think it makes the comedy funnier. You can tell when something is improvised, in a good way. Are they happy for you to change your own lines? They pretend to be! I think so, yes. And if I’m not making it funnier, I’d much rather they tell me. You’ve appeared in drama, too, including A Woman of Substance and the next Slow Horses. How different is it from working in comedy? I think it’s similar, but even a serious show like Slow Horses has lots of funny things in it. I’m probably most comfortable with comedy, but I want to do other stuff. I want to be able to do a bit of everything. Selin Hizli Co-creator, co-writer and co-star of Am I Being Unreasonable? and co-star of Things You Should Have Done, which is nominated for best scripted comedy You’re in two of this year’s BAFTA-nominated comedies – Am I Being Unreasonable? and Things You Should Have Done. What quality do they share? I think they both bring a unique, clear voice that has not really been heard before. What drew you to them? Things felt completely new and I was excited to be part of it. With Unreasonable?, Daisy May Cooper [co-creator, co-writer and co-star] and I describe it as a love story, but with friends. We connected over being at home during lockdown, with children. We wanted to convey as much of our friendship as possible. How does the writing process with Daisy work? We live quite far apart, so first of all we reconnect, then there is procrastination, but out of all that ideas will come. Daisy usually paces a lot while I tip-tap on the computer, saying, “We can’t say that,” and Daisy saying, “Yes, we can.” Do you change things on the fly while you’re filming? The whole of series one felt like it was on the fly because it was so new. We both know when it feels right, so we’re never wedded to any particular words. Now you’re a writer/actor, do you still enjoy “just” acting? It’s what I came to first. I love turning up, being told where to stand, what to wear and what to say. Actors are essentially like children, and I love making no decisions. 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.
Eric Morecambe’s son reacts to recovered The Morecambe and Wise Show episode: "It’s absolutely hilarious"
The finding of a missing Morecambe and Wise episode is very timely, says Eric’s delighted son Gary Morecambe.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. There’s always a fever of excitement when a slice of classic television is miraculously returned to the archives, and this time no one is more chuffed than Gary Morecambe. A long-thought-lost 1968 edition of The Morecambe and Wise Show provides another chance to see his father Eric in his heyday with his comedy partner Ernie. The duo were watched and adored by record-breaking millions in the 1960s and 70s. “And what timing!” says Gary. “Fantastic that it should happen right now, this being his centenary year.” Indeed, it has been found almost to the week. Eric was born on 14 May 1926, and with Ernie having been born in November 1925, it’s almost a double centenary. “How can you not celebrate 100 years!” says Gary cheerfully. “My sister and I have a whole week planned up in Morecambe of unveilings, attendances and Q&As.” (Eric’s real surname was Bartholomew and he took his stage name from the seaside town of his birth.) “It’s really amazing,” says Gary. “I mean, how do they find these things? It’s usually me who finds them.” He’s referring to a happy day five years ago when he was clearing the attic in his old family home and stumbled upon a missing 1970 edition of Morecambe and Wise. It was cleaned up and shown on BBC Two on Christmas Day 2021. “I thought that would mark the end of anything turning up, but now I just don’t know. What next?” The latest recovery has been meticulously managed by Film Is Fabulous, the same charitable trust and repository for rare film collections that recently returned to the BBC two long-lost Doctor Who episodes. This gem hails from the collection of a deceased “industry professional”, whose estate has requested anonymity. It first aired on BBC Two in colour on 16 September 1968, was then repeated in 1969 on BBC One in black and white – and has never been seen since. “I would’ve been 12 then and probably caught this one,” says Gary. Eric and Ernie’s 1968 series marked the pair’s triumphant return to the BBC after a long spell at ITV and was heralded on the cover of Radio Times. By then, they’d already been a comedy duo for 28 years – in fact, since their teens – and Eric joked with RT, “I’m thinking of divorcing him – he talks too much.” Several editions of that initial colour series remain lost. This latest find is actually a monochrome “telerecording” on film. As FIF head John Franklin explains, “This is a ‘cutting copy’ made for technical review within the BBC, and was probably later stored in cupboards by staff – just like the recent Doctor Whos. These aren’t items that have come back from overseas sales.” He’s delighted with the episode. “There’s a stand-out sketch at the end set in a nudist camp. It’s absolutely hilarious.” Structured as a half-hour variety show, it also features a vocal trio, the Paper Dolls, and actresses Jenny Lee-Wright and Ann Hamilton, who were regular foils for Eric and Ernie. The show’s writers were Sid Green and Dick Hills, “so that’s very embryonic in terms of what they later did with Eddie Braben,” observes Gary. Though Eric died in 1984 and Ernie in 1999, their appeal is undiminished. And Morecambe’s comedic influence should gain new currency later this year. His children’s book The Reluctant Vampire has been filmed by the BBC. “We’ve got the wonderful Lenny Rush starring in it,” says Gary, “and the Gibbons brothers, Neil and Rob, who’ve done a lot of Alan Partridge, came in and wrote their own scripts but they did it without ‘losing Eric’ – which is a fantastic achievement.” John Franklin promises further announcements from Film Is Fabulous in the coming months. So stay tuned… 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.
Big Boys creator Jack Rooke: "I’m bored of mental health shows"
Jack Rooke has had great success as the Bafta-winning writer of Big Boys – but "I'd rather be at the Edinburgh Fringe, performing in a tiny hovel"
Jack Rooke, double Bafta-winning comedy writer, has a confession. “I actually don’t like writing,” he laughs. “I find it really boring and time-consuming. I find other writers all really awkward and anxious and full of neuroses. I’m a stand-up comedian! I would way rather be at the Edinburgh Fringe performing in a tiny hovel, sharing a dressing room with 12 drag queens, than I would in a writer’s room. It’s not my vibe.” It must be a burden to be so good at something you hate. The 32-year-old has already won two Bafta Craft Awards for writing Big Boys, Rooke’s tongue-in-cheek riff on his own university days, starring Dylan Llewellyn as the younger “Jack” alongside Jon Pointing as best mate Danny. Now, at this year’s Television Awards, Big Boys is nominated for best comedy, alongside Pointing for actor in a comedy. And a scene they appeared in together – where Rooke plays a version of himself, talking back through time to Pointing’s character – is the only scripted comedy nominated in the “memorable moment” category. All in all it’s a long way from the series’ inauspicious origins. “When I was first writing Big Boys, the show had been with previous broadcasters. They turned it down. The show had been cancelled twice!” Rooke recalls. “We got cancelled when we made a pilot and then we took it to someone else, then Covid happened and we were cancelled again. “We made that show on the smallest possible budgets. Series one was half-funded by the Young Audiences Content Fund through the BFI, so we almost didn’t make it. Nobody ever really wanted to fully commit to Big Boys. Thankfully Fiona McDermott, when she was at Channel 4, said, ‘I love this show. I think it should be a unique comedy, but also a family comedy.’ “I think the 14 nominations we’ve had over three series is pretty good. I could die happy with that.” In his Bafta Craft winner’s speech last month, Rooke spoke passionately about the need to invest in comedy early, and the class barrier that means some people never have a chance to take their first steps into the industry. “It’s really challenging to make comedy in the UK at the moment,” he explains. “I think it’s because it’s devalued constantly against drama, and gets less spend than drama, especially at the public service broadcaster level. It gets way less marketing. “You look at shows like Gavin & Stacey and at writers like Michaela Coel or Phoebe Waller-Bridge or Jesse Armstrong, all of whom stem from scripted comedy. And we just aren’t giving anyone the right setup to launch their career in the same way.” A big issue, he explains, is that more “regional” or specific comedies – he cites Alma’s Not Normal, Smoggie Queens, Juice, The Change and Things You Should Have Done – are harder to sell to America, which means they can’t secure the same investment as more universal stories. “International investment means you’ve got bigger budgets, which means bigger names and better marketing,” he says. “It ends up meaning that way more privileged stories get told than stuff that feels very specific to this weird little island.” On or off his keyboard, Rooke is a funny man. Believe it or not, that’s not a prerequisite for comedy writers, and given his campaigning mien and the themes of his work (which has covered grief and suicide), you might expect him to be more earnest than he is. Instead, he spends our shoot riffing with Pointing and sending himself up, comparing his work unfavourably to older comedies like Only Fools and Horses. “I just don’t think that anything will ever be as funny as the bar fall,” he says. “That and when the Vicar of Dibley drops in the puddle. To me, as a child, that’s comedy. Less of this Big Boys-y male mental health stuff. I’m bored of that. Put some slapstick in. Let’s get some people falling over. Let’s get some people injuring themselves in a permanent way.” He laughs, warming to his theme. “I’m bored of mental health shows. There you go. We’re sick of them now. Just get a therapist and take some vitamin D, get outside and have a walk. All right?” Next up for Rooke is a stint writing on David Nicholls’ Adrian Mole adaptation, and a planned return to stand-up. But could there ever be another return for Big Boys? “I’m really proud that we ended it with series three, and it was always going to be a three-season arc, because you have three years of uni,” he says firmly. “Sometimes, you have to end on a high – like with these Bafta nominations.” But he does also have one final confession. He admits, “Sometimes, I think, ‘If I was doing season four… I actually think I’m a better writer now than I was then.’” Albeit, of course, a reluctant one. Jon Pointing, star of Big Boys, is nominated for actor in a comedy at the Bafta Television Awards 2026. Jack wrote this character for you, Jon — does that give you more leeway to tinker with the script? I think with this show in particular, Jack wanted me to do it because he saw something in me that he knew worked for this part, for Danny. So I sort of took that as licence to bring something to the role. That said, you can get carried away by the improvising. You’re so keen to make people laugh in the room that it sort of takes away from what the scene is doing. You’ve also been in hit comedy Small Prophets recently — how different is a Mackenzie Crook script to a Jack Rooke one? Crook or Rooke? That’s the question. The pace is different – with something like Big Boys, you’re charging through the years with this group of people. With Small Prophets, it’s more like Mackenzie is trying to slow the world down a little bit. What’s your favourite classic sitcom quote? From Peep Show… I probably say “That’s my bit of lager” the most. Or the other one I say from The Royle Family quite a lot is, “Bye bye, baby David.” But I quote Peep Show the most because it works for so many scenarios. The Bafta Television Awards are on Sunday 11 May at 7.00pm on BBC One. BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises Shot at Sea Containers London Photography: Rachel Louise Brown @rachellouisebrownstudio Styling: Natalie Read @natreadstylist Set Design: Propped Up @propped_up_ltd Hair by Philipp Haug & Eden Thomson for Schwarzkopf Make-up by Armani Beauty 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.
How BBC's disinformation experts investigate deaths in Iran – and the simple ways you can spot fake content
BBC Verify Correspondent Merlyn Thomas explains how she debunks false claims in our "bad information economy".
BBC Verify Correspondent Merlyn Thomas is part of the unit that launched in May 2023 and is made up of about 60 journalists on the front line of fighting disinformation that spreads through images, video and audio. The specialist team use open-source intelligence (gathering and analysing publicly available information), satellite imagery, data analysis and forensic techniques to debunk information that is usually about areas of conflict including Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and Iran. In June 2025, the BBC launched Verify Live, a blog that tells audiences in real time what claims it is investigating and how they are being checked. “More and more, we're being fed information that we don't really understand – from every single angle. Finding out what’s true is really hard,” Thomas explains. “Misinformation doesn't always spread because people are trying to twist a narrative – they are sharing things because they're worried or care about a particular issue, but in doing so, they’re acting really quickly. It all contributes to such a bad information economy.” According to an Ofcom study from November 2024, 26 per cent of UK adults say they have used a fact checker website or tool at least once. BBC Verify is most likely to be used and heard of, with one in five saying they’ve used it at least once, and one in 20 saying they do so regularly. BBC Verify’s aim is to give its audience the full picture, saying what it knows, what it doesn’t know and how it knows, providing answers for the who, what, when, where and why questions. “There's two questions we ask ourselves about misinformation: is it having real world harm? And how viral is it? We don't want to be the ones platforming misinformation, but if something has already been seen by so many people, we will address it,” says Thomas, who studied French and Arabic at university in order to speak to people in places where events are happening. She joined the BBC as a Creative Access trainee, starting off in radio, then climate disinformation. Thomas explains that you don’t need special tools to do your own checks at home, as open-source intelligence is accessible to everyone. Reverse image search, like Google Lens, allows you to check whether a frame from a video has previously been shared online. “A classic example is wildfires,” she says. “You’ll see people sharing videos of wildfires saying, ‘This is in XYZ,’ but it’s actually a video from years ago. We had it a lot with misinformation about strikes between India and Pakistan. By doing a simple reverse image search, you’ll see it’s not true and it’s old.” Geolocation is purely down to the human eye if you’re trying to find out where something is. “You’re looking for clues: a pylon, an intersection of a field, the direction of sunlight to help with timing,” says Thomas. “It is down to gut instinct. Sometimes you’re like, ‘Does this feel like it’s real?’ It’s better to be cautious than not. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” She also shares the top things you can ask yourself: “Who shared it? Why is this person sharing this? Do they have an agenda? Is this new? Is this old? Is there something fishy about this video? Can you hear any sounds? Can you hear the language? We also now have to ask: is this AI-generated or manipulated? Can you read the signs in the video? Do the fingers, the mouth and the teeth move weirdly?” If you’re unsure, it’s best to visit a trusted news source. BBC Verify’s stories are put out on television, radio, digital and social media. “We are trying to reach people where they are, so we're doing more and more social media videos to try and debunk or cut through the noise of what's happening in a particular place. “People in echo chambers, and not having as much conversation across different political spectrums, is an issue, especially during an election. If you think one thing, you're probably only going to be fed one thing, and if you think another thing, you're probably only going to be fed another thing. Those two streams are just completely different, so that's obviously a huge problem when it comes to really big stories, which can be really divisive. Those both in tandem can just create chaos.” Read more: Meet the BBC's last reporter remaining in Russia: "It feels like we're in the eye of the storm" I'm Cathy Newman, and this is how I'm embracing our new political landscape with my brand new show Some videos might take just 10 minutes to verify. Thomas says they were quickly able to verify the synagogue attack in Manchester in October 2025. “There were really obvious signs of where it was. There were local reporters on the ground.” Others can take much longer. “With a very foggy, misty video in Ukraine over some fields, where the only thing you can see is a pylon, we try to find any other videos that might be easier to verify to help us understand what's happening. If not, we plough on with that same video and just keep going.” All the different teams across the BBC work together to verify the information, including different language services, the World Service, people in the location and trusted experts on AI manipulation. If there’s a breaking news story, everyone tries to find as many videos as they can online to see what it reveals about a situation. As part of the job, Thomas often deals with really graphic material. She says the story she’s proudest to have worked on is when sources shared a secret folder full of hundreds of faces of victims who were killed by the Iranian government. The close-up images leaked to BBC Verify were taken from inside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre. Some of the people had multiple pictures taken of them from different angles. After analysing 392 photos, BBC Verify identified 326 people. In that instance, they explained why they couldn't share more about how they knew what they knew to protect their sources. Thomas says, “It was really hard, because I’m looking through faces and faces of dead people, matching them up, asking colleagues who are peer-reviewing me, ‘Do you think this face is the same as this face but from a different angle and the light’s a bit different?’ We found people mourning them online, so we could confirm that they were dead. They’re names, faces and numbers we wouldn't have otherwise. For example, there were 18 women. “In a situation where we still don't really know what's happened, and the death toll, and with so many different numbers flying around of how many people have been killed, when it’s so hard to get information about what’s happening on the ground, to be able to bring some clarity and some information that we painstakingly verified – that's when I feel like my work is impactful. It has the power to bring information and clarity where there's a lot of confusion and misinformation.” AI-generated content, including images, video and audio, is a large source of misinformation and disinformation, and is only going to become more prevalent as AI advances so rapidly. “AI-generated audio is the scariest thing, because it is the hardest to detect. I think we’re going to see more and more of that. In the future, it will probably be a big issue we're going to have to tackle,” says Thomas. “There are loads of AI detection tools, and we are developing our own, but they are developing much slower and are nowhere near as good as the AI being used to generate those images, videos and audio.” We no longer just consume news in a daily, scheduled way, where we pick up a newspaper in the morning or turn on the TV in the evening. We now have access to 24/7 updates. In an age of increasingly fake news and misinformation, trust is at a premium. While the BBC remains a major source of news in the UK, a 2026 study by the Good Growth Foundation think tank found that public trust in the BBC has plummeted more over the last decade than any UK institution except for the government, with 50 per cent of the public trusting the corporation less than 10 years ago. And BBC Verify has faced criticism for its accuracy. When asked about this, a BBC spokesperson told us: “Our reporting goes through robust accuracy checks before being published. In instances where we are made aware of any errors in our reporting after publication, we will investigate quickly. This is done by senior editors. “Where necessary, we will make changes to our output. We aim to be as transparent as possible for audiences, and publish updates that reflect any changes we make.” Thomas says, “We always prioritise accuracy over fastness. We have peer reviews to make sure that everything is double-checked before it gets to the editing stage. Then we do AI checks.” View oEmbed on the source website In September 2022, a promo for the BBC’s editorial guidelines was released, concluding with the words “Trust is earned.” Deborah Turness, CEO, BBC News and Current Affairs, wrote, “And we can’t take it for granted.” BBC Verify’s mission is to combat misinformation through transparency. “It’s really hard, it’s a challenge,” Thomas admits of her role, “but we are a team that's totally up for it. I'm really proud of what we do. I genuinely feel really privileged to be able to work on the stories that I do. We have a responsibility to deliver the truth.” 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.
Race Across the World 2026 line-up: Meet the pairs competing in this breathtaking journey from Europe to Mongolia
Race Across the World season 6 has now reached its halfway point, as the teams face the longest leg of the race so far. Tonight (30 April), the remaining teams will travel through the world's largest landlocked country, Kazakhstan, and into Uzbekistan, they must navigate the vast Kazakh steppe with its endless horizons and limited English speakers. To keep the race moving, the pairs will have to adapt to a whole new way of travelling. So, who else is left in the race? As the series continues, find our more about the cast and read our exclusive interviews with this year's cast of Race Across the World below. Race Across the World 2026 line-up Mark and Margo Katie and Harrison Andrew and Molly Kush and Jo Puja and Roshni This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Five intrepid duos – best friends, a father and daughter, cousins, siblings and the show's first set of in-laws – set off on a 12,000km journey from Palermo in Italy to Hatgal in Mongolia in the sixth series of Race Across the World. Stripped of their phones, they each have a budget of just £23 a day to survive and make it to the final checkpoint ahead of the other contenders. Puja and Roshni Puja, 31, is a doctor and is racing with her cousin software engineer cousin Roshni, 32. Whose idea was it to sign up? Puja: I applied a few years ago with another friend. I was advised to do it with someone I’ve known for a really long time so I reapplied with Roshni. I’m so glad we did it together. Roshni: We’d both just got married and I was house hunting and trying to be an adult. Leaving work for three months didn’t sound like the smartest idea… Was it hard not being able to contact home? Puja: Definitely. We come from Asian families. We’re both married, but our parents still want to know what we’re doing every day. What were you nervous about? Roshni: For me, it was food. Given we’re vegetarian, I knew we would have to make sacrifices. Puja: Running out of toiletries. Who was better at approaching strangers for help? Roshni: Puja did take the lead at the start and watching her pushed me to do it. Did the race change you? Roshni: Definitely. We found out a lot about each other. Puja: There’s nothing now that we won’t be able to work past. Mark and Margo Mark, 66, a retired architect from London is racing with his sister-in-law Margo, 59, a hypnotherapist from Liverpool. You’re in-laws, who at one point didn't get on and yet you took on this journey — why? Mark: My late wife Julia was a big fan of the show but she would never have done it, she liked five-star hotels! One of Julia’s last wishes [before she died in July 2022] was that Margo and I continue the friendship we’d been building while caring for her. This was a way of doing that. What was your reaction when you learnt the final checkpoint was in Mongolia? Margo: I don’t do cold! Mark: I had an inkling it could be Mongolia. Very few people go, so I was thrilled. What were you most nervous about? Margo: We probably weren’t as nervous as we should’ve been! We had a little bit of chutzpah. We’re used to travelling, we’re grown-ups and we were a little bit gung-ho. Did you agree to prioritise sightseeing or the race? Margo: We thought that it would be nice to see things but how we got along was my priority. Mark: Our intention was to be the oldest couple to win. What did you learn about yourselves along the way? Mark: It was a turning point in my life. I’m quite shy and introverted. But on one particular leg of the race, I had an out-of-body experience in a way and it changed my view of life. Margo: We were both surprised at how much we were there for each other. We read the world in different ways, our brains work completely differently but we found common ground and connected. Would you go on another adventure together? Margo: Absolutely! Mark: It was great fun being with Margo and we work well together and enjoy each other’s company. I could see us doing something again. Looking to plan your next holiday? Request brochures for European and worldwide escorted tours, plus ocean and river cruises from our travel partners Katie and Harrison Account manager Katie, 21, is racing with her brother Harrison, 23, a finance assistant from Manchester. Whose idea was it to sign up? Harrison: It was my idea. Our mum sent us the link. It’s a show I’ve always watched. I just needed to convince Katie because she was scared of doing it until we got there. Katie: I was excited for the race, but nervous about the TV aspect. What was your reaction when you learnt that the final checkpoint was in Mongolia? Katie: I was stressed because I’d packed for Brazil, I really thought we were going there so I was worried about my clothes! What made you most nervous about the task? Harrison: I was concerned about being hungry. Did the race test your relationship? Katie: It strengthened it. Our race relationship was slightly different to our home relationship because we were nice to each other. At home, it’s constant banter and taking the mick out of each other. Harrison: We do everything together, so we had a strong relationship and foundation going into the race, but we made a conscious effort to not wind each other up. Was there an item you were happy you packed? Katie: My face masks, especially because your skin gets so dry. It was a nice luxury. Harrison: I was pretty practical. My calculator and my notebook made me feel better. What did you learn about yourselves on the race? Katie: To be a bit more confident in myself. It made me view the world differently. Harrison: I live quite a regimented life so I think I discovered a different side to me that maybe I didn’t know existed. Would you go on another adventure together? Harrison: We’ve been waiting to finish my exams, then maybe South America. Katie: You keep saying maybe, but it’s a definitely! Andrew and Molly Geography teacher Andrew, 54, is racing with his daughter Molly, 23, a junior doctor from Northern Ireland. Whose idea was it to sign up? Andrew: I decided to fill out the form. Molly was sitting her finals. Never in a million years did we think we’d be picked. What were you most nervous about? Andrew: Would we fall out? That was my biggest fear. Molly: Just doing well. I thought we’d get there eventually, but how was that going to happen? Did the experience change you? Andrew: It gave me confidence and courage. To stop overthinking and seize the moment. Molly: For me, it was realising you can’t plan the future. Stop worrying about it because you’ll get through it and it’ll be OK. Was there a luxury you wish you’d taken with you? Andrew: A spare razor! Molly: A nice outfit. Who was better at approaching strangers to ask for help? Molly: There was a strategy. Daddy went to older people and I approached young people. Did you agree to prioritise sightseeing or the race? Molly: We said that we live and die by whatever call we make at that moment. There’s no “You said that” or “That was a bad idea”. Andrew: We just wanted to enjoy it. Kush and Jo Kush, 19, a gap-year student is racing with best fried Jo, a 19-year-old college student from Liverpool. Whose idea was it to apply? Kush: It was mine! I was on Instagram and saw the advert. I called Jo and said, “Do you want to sign up for this?” and he was like, “Yeah, sound.” Jo: We felt like we didn’t have anything to lose! Were you worried your friendship would be tested? Kush: We were confident it was strong enough to overcome any sort of challenges. Was it difficult to live without your phones? Kush: It was a blessing in disguise. The worst part was not being able to contact my mum and family. Jo: In the first week I was craving it quite a lot, but the race requires so much attention. Did you agree to prioritise sightseeing or the race? Kush: We decided to compromise. When we applied, I was more “Let’s just experience everything”. But Jo was very determined and said, “We’ve got to win.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Race Across the World continues on Thursday 30 April at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Seasons 1-5 are available to watch on iPlayer. Add Race Across the World 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. 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I wrote Conversations from a Long Marriage and this is how Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam moved me to tears
Jan Etherington writes for Radio Times as the beloved BBC Radio 4 series returns.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. On 1 December 2017, I could hear my heart beating as I walked into the recording studio, clutching the script of the pilot episode of my radio show, Conversations from a Long Marriage. I had written it for them – but I was meeting Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam for the first time. Joanna’s first words to me were, “You’ve been listening at my window, Jan.” A huge compliment. I couldn’t stop smiling during the recording. I began comedy writing with my husband, Gavin Petrie, in 1987, when we submitted a script to the Radio Times Sounds Funny competition and won. Our writing partnership lasted 30 years, until one day, I told Gavin I wanted us to write about a long-married couple, still passionately in love with wine, music, life and each other. I could tell his enthusiasm and creative energy were fading – early signs that he had Alzheimer’s. “Write it on your own,” he said, generously. “It’ll be great.” Gavin died last November, while I was in the middle of writing series seven of CFALM (yes, we have become an acronym). I was helpless with grief for many weeks, until a discreet note from producer Claire Jones reminded me we had a recording date in January. I went back to my desk. Writing is great therapy and I hear Joanna and Roger’s voices in my head. I feel now that series seven may be the strongest ever. Roger described it as, “Lots of sex, lots of laughs and some tears. It’s really gripping.” I used to claim I created CFALM because I was tired of the doddery portrayals of older women, but when Emma Freud sent me a message, offering consolation that “you’ve lost your magnificent Gavin/Roger...” I realised what everyone else seems to know – that Conversations from a Long Marriage is, and always has been, a love letter to Gavin. On 27 January 2026, almost a decade on, I walked into the same studio to record series seven, just hoping I could hold it together. Joanna and Roger had sent wonderful cards and messages, but being swept up in the hugs and warmth of the CFALM Massive comfort blanket brought many tears – not all of them mine. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Conversations from a Long Marriage returns to BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on Monday 4 May at 2:15pm. Past episodes are available to listen to on BBC Sounds. Check out more of our Audio 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. Add shows 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-auth="NotApplicable" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.
Legends star Steve Coogan argues Margaret Thatcher shouldn't be "sanctified" – and reveals how his "devil" while growing up impacted his career
His latest role in political thriller Legends takes Steve Coogan back to the 90s – a time where he couldn’t be picky about parts.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. “We’re not the police. We’re not the spooks. There’s no safety net,” Steve Coogan’s Don – a lugubrious Mancunian, who’s himself a former undercover officer – tells a group of dissatisfied, but ambitious, employees of HM Revenue and Customs gathered in his dusty 1990s classroom. In reality we’re at a private school in St Albans, which is shuttered for the spring 2025 half-term, where Coogan and his fellow cast members are filming Legends, a new six-part true-crime thriller by writer and showrunner Neil Forsyth (The Gold, Guilt). Tom Burke’s Guy, among others, has passed the test to join a secret anti-drugs taskforce, set up by the historical Customs and Excise after Margaret Thatcher declared war on the gangs flooding Britain with heroin. Before they can go under cover, though, Don explains that this dangerous work means the new recruits have to leave their old lives behind and take on new identities – the “legends” of the show’s title. And then they’re sent off into the field: Guy infiltrating Turkish heroin importers in London, while Don stays back at base, directing operations. It’s a role, Coogan tells me in a break between scenes, he was happy, as “an older actor”, to take on. View oEmbed on the source website At 60, portraying the “authority figure… a puppet master…” came easily. Not least as, unusually for a chameleonic actor and comedian best-known for playing Alan Partridge and, more recently, Jimmy Savile, he’s acting in his own accent. “Don’s a bit more dyed-in-the-wool, a bit more working-class,” Coogan says when we talk again, nearly a year on. “But I’m not a million miles from that. I’ve met people like him. So it felt familiar to me. But also something I hadn’t really done. So I thought: well, I can tick that one off. I don’t want to be always repeating myself.” As he puts it, there are actors “who play the same thing over and over again. And they’re really good at it. They do it in different environments. But they’re essentially themselves. I have the opportunity to try and be mercurial and vary what I do, whether it’s broader comedy, or nuanced drama, or something that’s in the middle”. So he wasn’t envious of Burke’s action scenes as the no-nonsense Guy, who’s based on a real-life figure interviewed by the assiduous Forsyth as part of his research while writing the drama? Coogan laughs. “It’s a bit unedifying when you see a guy who’s over 60 knocking out a 32-year-old bloke who’s really fit. You just think: ‘Nah, I’m not having that!’ So, play to your strengths. Don’t try and be something that’s just too outlandish.” When we met on set, Coogan talked of his memories of the period depicted in Legends: “It’s set in the 90s. To me that’s like last week. I remember it very clearly. I was a real, functioning human being. I had a job, a car and a house.” Specifically, in 1990, when the action opens, a 24-year-old Coogan was on the sofa at the BBC’s Daytime Live, wowing Alan Titchmarsh with his array of impersonations. When we speak again, he chuckles at the memory of his younger self. “I was doing – inverted commas – ‘showbizzy’ things. Because I went where the work was. Right now, am I doing what I want to do? Yes. Was I then? No. But it was like: get your foot in the door, get a gig, get work and figure it out later. Don’t be too precious.” Those “showbizzy” things included a voice-star role on Spitting Image, then a hugely popular show – “I was the John Major… people of our age might remember him. A lot of people won’t, like the two ladies who are staring at me in this room,” he says, smiling at the Netflix PRs accompanying him today. “They’ve no idea what we’re talking about! But in 1990, he was prime minister. So, yeah, I was a young Turk, trying to hustle.” Major’s government were tasked with following through on Thatcher’s agenda-setting pronouncement. But as Forsyth’s script points out at the beginning of Legends, that was as much a distraction technique in the dying days of her premiership; don’t look at the failing economy, look at the resolute action on this societal scourge. “I like that Neil pointed to that,” says Coogan. “Because these people are not all on the same virtuous path. These campaigns, these individual acts of bravery and nobility, can be set against a background that is only there because of political decisions. Had the economy been going well there might not have been any kind of hunger to resolve or curtail an endemic drugs problem.” Still, even Thatcher couldn’t win a war on heroin, with misuse still a problem. Do we need a firmer stance on drugs? Or, alternatively, should we legalise them? “Getting away from the judgmentalism about it is probably the first thing,” replies Coogan. “Away from the Daily Mail attitude to drugs, which is: they're bad people who sell them, they're bad people who take them. Because people who run antique shops in Tunbridge Wells don’t sell or do drugs. That world view is all-pervasive. And doesn't actually help anyone tackle the problem. People who say they want to legalise them are demonised as nut jobs.” Last year Coogan played Brian Walden in Brian and Maggie, the Channel 4 drama about the former PM’s favourite TV interviewer, with Harriet Walter as Thatcher. Would the younger Coogan have believed that somebody who was, as he puts it, the “devil incarnate when I was growing up”, could be such an active figure in his acting career? “Funnily enough, no,” he says with another smile. “She represented everything that was wrong with Britain… However, the one thing I will say in her favour is that she had a very strong ideology. That is something notably lacking in almost every politician today.” That said, “people shouldn’t sanctify her. That irritates me. People who are too young to remember just think, ‘Oh yes, she was great.’ No, she effing wasn’t.” The latest issue of Radio Times is on Tuesday – subscribe here. Legends begins on 7 May 2026 on Netflix. 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.
British TV icon David Jason reveals why he almost didn't get cast as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses
Fifty years after Open All Hours welcomed its first customer, the star is back behind the counter one last time.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Sir David Jason has for decades been a jewel in the British TV crown, entertaining audiences in shows from Only Fools and Horses and The Darling Buds of May to Porterhouse Blue and A Touch of Frost. From 1976 for nine years he also played Granville opposite Ronnie Barker’s Arkwright in Open All Hours, before returning for the 2013 reboot Still Open All Hours. Now he’s reunited with his grocer’s overalls in a final outing for the feature-length retrospective, Open All Hours: Inside Out. Taking you back to when you first signed up to play Granville 50 years ago, what drew you to the role? Two words: Ronnie Barker. I’d worked with him three or four times previously, including in one of his great showcases, Porridge, and I was a great fan of his. I wanted to just work in his shadow, really. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/02/open-all-hours-david-jason-ronnie-barker-fef289f.jpg" width="2517" height="1666" alt="David Jason as Granville and Ronnie Barker as Albert Arkwright, standing in a shop next to each other. Granville has his arms crossed and Arkwright is holding toilet roll and looking confused." title="David Jason as Granville and Ronnie Barker as Albert Arkwright in Open all Hours" /> What made him so special? He was such a master at the craft of comedy, and I hoped that if I worked with him, something might rub off, you never know. The one thing I enjoyed more than his huge ability was his humility, because he knew you don’t get good comedy from just acting. You need the help and confidence of everyone around you, like wardrobe, make-up, props people, scene shifters. Everybody is an important part of delivering what comes out of the television. If you can get that joy of working, of communicating with your fellow workmen, you’re halfway there. Then it’s not like work, it’s like getting paid for nothing. Who inspired Granville? That all came from our writer Roy Clarke. The writer is always the unsung hero of any series – they bring the foundations of the house that you can build on. With Granville, he created this grown-up man who was really a vulnerable lad who missed his mother. That, with the humour, became sweetness. How did it feel coming back in 2013 and putting on your great mentor’s overalls, with Granville now in charge? I’d always wondered what happened to Granville after Arkwright had left the shop, so that’s how the journey started. The first show is when it hit me: the boy had become the man. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/12/OnlyFoolsAndHorses201111086MfnTboNv-f953c25.jpg" width="1200" height="800" alt="Buster Merryfield as Uncle Albert, David Jason as Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses. They are stood together with a large boat in the background." title="Only_Fools_And_Horses20111108_6_MfnTboNv" /> After Open All Hours came an even bigger comedy hit, Only Fools and Horses. Why do you think that sitcom was so successful? Basically, it’s about family. Not only was the writing brilliant, it had a classic structure of three people sharing a home. You have the governor/father figure, Derek Trotter, then Rodney the lad, plus the paternal figure in Grandad and then Uncle Albert. When we read the first script, we were all very excited because it was so funny and clever. I said, “The secret is, this isn’t a sitcom, it’s a situation drama. It’s the journey of these people living together. It just so happens that the characters do or say things to make us laugh. But it’s not joke-telling.” Did you ever change a line? Constantly. I’d spent many years doing comedy, theatrical farces, pantomimes and summer seasons, so I brought all that knowledge to the shows I did. For example, one day we were rehearsing and I asked the director, “Can Derek and Rodney go into the kitchen?” We’d never used it before. Then we had Albert coming in and making a sandwich, which led to a great joke nobody had thought of. You also played Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, making a uniquely successful run of shows. What is the magic ingredient that you were able to bring? I just think, whatever show I was working on, that stimulated other people to say, “We could do with him in ours.” Except John Sullivan, the writer of Only Fools, originally said, “Oh, we don’t want him. He always plays a loser,” because he’d seen me as little dreamy Granville. In his mind, I couldn’t possibly play a clever, witty hustler, but the director convinced him to at least meet me. As well as comedy, you’ve played serious roles including Skullion in Porterhouse Blue and DI Jack Frost. Same body, different muscles? My approach has always been through the character, finding what it is that makes them tick. Lots of military men became university gatekeepers like Skullion, so that inspired his attitude, efficient and clipped. Frost became a detective at a time the minimum height was 5ft 8in, and I’m two inches shorter, so I had him always trying to carry himself to be taller than he was. Those kind of elements have always stuck with me. You’ve given a lot of laughs over the years, but what makes you laugh? Really, it’s old-fashioned, often physical comedy like Laurel and Hardy, where you have the knowing fool and the unknowing fool. When you put those two together, that magic just happens. You could be describing Derek and Rodney, or Arkwright and Granville... Ah, yes, of course! That, plus you must have warmth for your characters. I have to love them, in order to get the audience to enjoy them as much as I do. The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – subscribe here. Open All Hours: Inside Out is on U&Gold on Thursday 7 May at 8pm 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.
Radio 4's Jenny Kleeman talks DNA journey: "We have a US president who will talk about good genes"
Ever wondered about your heritage and thought about taking an ancestral DNA test? Be careful what you wish for, says Jenny Kleeman.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When Jenny Kleeman took a DNA test, she waited for the results with trepidation. “It was really nerve-racking,” she recalls, which is understandable when you consider that the award-winning journalist took it for her Radio 4 podcast The Gift and that she already knew how they can unearth shocking secrets: babies switched at birth; IVF fraud; and even people born of incest. While the title The Gift ostensibly refers to people gifting at-home DNA tests from the likes of 23andMe and Ancestry to friends and relatives, it’s also a gift for Kleeman in the ever more incredible stories each series brings – the third starts this week with one so jaw-droppingly rare, it will make headline news (I’m sworn to secrecy over its details). Kleeman is astonished at the reaction to the series. “I thought it’d be a cautionary tale… but it’s amazed me the number of people who’ve chosen to do DNA tests because they’ve listened to The Gift. I feel incredibly grateful that anything I’ve made could be a part of these extraordinary human stories.” What’s equally astonishing is that no one in the series ever regrets taking a DNA test, no matter how dark the revelations, and Kleeman speaks regularly with many of them. “I take it very seriously that they’ve trusted me with their story, and I will be there for them as long as they want me. These stories are so personal and sometimes it can feel a bit like a therapy session. But I’m always very clear that I’m a journalist and this is going out on the radio.” It’s that journalist who sees the bigger picture beyond the human interest stories, the social history of babies for sale in 1950s Canada, the Wild West of early, unregulated IVF clinics and the increase in the use of donor sperm. But the knottiest story is how we seem quite happy to share the most intimate personal data online. When asked whether the rise of at-home DNA testing could lead to a dark, dystopian future, Kleeman is blunt, “I think we’re already in that dystopian future.” She knows well the possible dangers as, after taking her test in 2023, 23andMe was later hacked and the personal data of Ashkenazi Jews (Kleeman’s heritage) sold on the dark web. Yet it’s not necessarily hacking that has her most concerned but who legitimately owns this data. When 23andMe went bankrupt in March 2025, it was bought by a medical research institute that now owns the DNA of millions. Kleeman says she has no idea who could own her genetic code in 50 years’ time and what they’d use it for. “We shouldn’t kid ourselves that any protections we have in place now are going to protect us for ever. We need to adjust our expectations of privacy. We also need to be realistic about the fact we’ve made the decision to digitise the most private things, our medical histories and genetic code, because of the answers that the digital world can give us. There are unintended consequences and we need to be wise to them.” There’s one other aspect of the tests we need to be wise to. “You’ve got to take them with a pinch of salt when it comes to ethnicity. They can’t tell you who you are, culturally or ethnically, but can tell you who your parents are.” This has provided Kleeman with a fair amount of amusement. “I like nothing more than going on white supremacist forums. It’s very funny – ‘Guys, I’ve just got my results back Jewish, but that’s OK, isn’t it?’ ” Confused racists may amuse her, but Kleeman knows they’re a clear sign of a worrying trend. “We have a US president who will talk about good genes,” she says, “and we’re living in quite dark times where the clarity apparently provided by these tests can be quite seductive, which is why I’m keen to debunk that side of them.” Another side of the at-home tests that really needs debunking is what they can tell you about your propensity for certain diseases. Kleeman explains, “NHS doctors say there have been huge problems caused by these tests, of people coming in and saying, ‘You need to give me a mastectomy, you need to give me whatever,’ when they don’t.” Whether any of these concerns will deter people from taking at-home DNA tests or giving them as gifts to their nearest and dearest is unlikely however, because while she describes the idea of a DNA test as “Marmite” – not for everyone – Kleeman notes, “We find ourselves eternally fascinating”. She, however, is not. There were no surprises lurking in her results, she says relieved, “I was very happy to be boring.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Audio 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.
Judi Love reveals her acting ambitions and an iconic TV show she would love to present
The comedian sold out the London Palladium, but still suffers from stage fright.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What’s the view from your sofa? A little footstool. I keep it very simple, really – dimmed lights and no interruptions. Who controls the remote at home? Obviously, I do. I like a thriller. I’ve been enjoying Ripple [Netflix], All Her Fault [Now] and Reasonable Doubt [Disney+]. Then again, it’s been quite nice when my kids [Love has a 20-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son] come down before dinner and they watch what they want to watch. Or, we watch something that we all like, because that’s the only way to keep them down there. You were a social worker and then got into comedy when you were 30. How did you know you wanted to go down that path? When I did comedy, it just felt right. As much as it was scary, it felt like, “This is where I want to be.” I’m grateful that I had the experience. Psychotherapy is an area I’d like to work in – it helps when it comes to comedy, relationships and being relatable. Would you like to pursue a degree in psychotherapy in the future? Yes, definitely. Entertainment is always my first love, but understanding how humans think is something of a personal goal for me. You were the first Black British female comedian to headline and sell out the London Palladium, you’re a well-known TV presenter and you recently appeared on Celebrity Sabotage. How do you find time for it all? I ask myself that a lot. I try to prioritise my time. My children always come first – providing for them and being able to look after them. If I’m heavily filming for one week, I make sure the next week I’m at home. I try to make sure I’m home in the evening, even when I film somewhere and it’s far away. I’ve travelled for four or five hours, but I want to wake up in my house with my kids. How do you think comedy has changed in recent years? Things have obviously become more PC [politically correct], which has governed a lot more of what we can and can’t say. This has been good in some areas because some of the stuff was definitely not appropriate. Most of my material is relatable to me. I can’t make stuff up – it’s usually something I’ve experienced. If someone finds it offensive, they will just have to deal with it. You can’t be upset with me for telling my own story. I don’t have time to look at the comments. I just keep it moving. You’ve spoken about getting stage fright. How do you deal with that? I get really nervous before I go on. My stomach is in knots. I like to have a bit of a routine. I play a particular song, so I’ve got that power music in my head, and I don’t talk too much. I’m always very clear on what my first joke is, because if I get my first bit of interaction done and get into my first joke, then I can get into the flow, and take the moment in. You’re also dyslexic. Is that a challenge with work? A tour is not so bad, because it’s just me. The only thing I get nervous about is autocue or live TV. I’m so open with it now. On all the shows I’ve worked on, I ask them to write words in the way I should pronounce them. People in TV are really supportive. What would you love to do next? I’d love to do more Saturday-night TV and a little bit more acting. I’d like to play a cop, someone in a period drama, or a mum saving the world! I would also love to host a show like Blind Date. Or, something about non-toxic couples that actually work – who love each other and have gone through good times and hard times. They can give some real advice. People need something to aspire to because the dating scene is – from what I hear from a lot of people – messy. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. 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.
Liz Bonnin reflects on the moment David Attenborough was handed a gun to shoot a caiman - and an explosion followed
Liz Bonnin will be among the stars marking Sir David Attenborough’s milestone birthday in a TV special hosted by Kirsty Young from the Royal Albert Hall.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. It’s unlikely there will be any birthday banners, balloons or party poppers in the Attenborough household on Friday 8 May. For there’s one thing that centenarian-to-be Sir David isn’t a fan of, and that’s a fuss. Which is a shame. Because on this very special day in his extraordinary life he’s likely to be at the centre of quite a lot of it. His typically heavy postbag will be further swollen with cards from scores, perhaps hundreds, of well-wishers both familiar and unknown. There’ll be calls from family and from his many colleagues and, of course, messages from royal admirers to savour. And then there’s the birthday bash – the star-studded tribute, led by his good friend Kirsty Young, that’s being held in his honour at London’s Royal Albert Hall and will air that night on BBC One. “Oh, he is going to hate all of the attention,” laughs Liz Bonnin, who will be one of many people on stage and screen helping celebrate his birthday milestone. “He will not be comfortable with all the love and the gushing because he is just so modest.” One of the themes of the evening – which is likely to feature a few surprises alongside Chris Packham, Steve Backshall and music from the BBC Concert Orchestra – will be how Attenborough has changed not just attitudes about the environmental challenges we face, but the lives of those now responding to those challenges – Bonnin among them. “I was nine at the time and I remember Life on Earth being repeated on TV. “When the gorillas sequence came on, I was captivated by this man and how engaging he was. It changed my life.” So much so that Bonnin went on to gain a Masters in wild animal biology and later started work with the BBC. It was while she was still learning her craft that she was introduced to Attenborough for the first time. “I got the opportunity to say hello but I was overwhelmed and couldn’t string a sentence together. But I also remember feeling that everyone wanted a piece of him.” It was something she observed in later years after she’d got to know him much better and, in her eyes, made his star shine even brighter. They were both attending the reopening of the Cambridge Museum of Zoology and Attenborough was, as usual, in great demand. “Standing quietly in the corner of this busy room was the son of one of the curators,” she recalls. “I saw David clock the boy and just walk over and start talking to him. That humanity, that generosity of time. That was the day I realised who he truly was. It’s always stayed with me.” One memory that’s stayed with Attenborough is an incident that he described to Bonnin in an online interview he did with her in 2021. He revealed that when he was travelling through what was then British Guiana in the mid-1950s for his series Zoo Quest, he was handed a gun by a cattle rancher and invited to shoot a caiman – a south American alligator – that was resting in a swamp. “I foolishly, no innocently pulled the trigger,” he told her. “There was an explosion and the caiman arched into the air with a huge splash and the entire scene was destroyed. All the birds screamed and disappeared and I sat there appalled. It was the first and last time I shot anything. That moment of the wonder, of this community of diverse birds and reptiles and what I had done to it, has lingered in my mind ever since.” “It’s an extreme example,” says Bonnin, “but to have had that experience and for it to have stayed with him says a lot about who he is.” Who he is, as will be clear during the 90-minute, televised Royal Albert Hall celebration, is an inspiration to millions, particularly those working in conservation. Bonnin has seen first hand just what an impact a handshake or a quiet word has. “I don’t think many people realise how much time David has spent travelling the length and breadth of the country, and the globe, connecting with conservationists and policy workers.” So if, through Radio Times, Bonnin could send Attenborough a birthday greeting, what would she want to say? “It would be a little less happy birthday and more of a thank you. Thank you for inspiring us, thank you for your humanity, for being the voice of our conscience and the voice of our planet and thank you for showing us what we can be when we’re at our best.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. 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.
Joanna Lumley talks turning 80, mortality and assisted dying: "I shall clearly make 90, and I can't wait!"
Busier than ever on the eve of her 80th birthday, Joanna Lumley talks about sex, death, marriage – and holes in her trousers.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Dame Joanna Lumley is talking make-up. We’re discussing her birthday in early May, when she will be turning 80 (I know, look at her, ridiculous!), and the words just pop out from me: “Well, if you’ve had work done, it’s bloody good!” The radiant apparition peers into the camera and says: “No, look closely... I’ve got a sort of regular face, if you know what I mean, and my make-up is like drawing on a face. “I put it on to see you,” she adds, “because if I didn’t you’d think, a) I hadn’t tried, and b), ‘Gosh, she looks a bit washed out!’” It was as a model in the 1960s that La Lumley learnt how to create different looks. “It was less frantically expensive then,” she explains, “and less in your face, less always saying, ‘You’ll die if you don’t have these peptides’ and how, in 20 seconds, your whole face could look like a child!” In that era, she says, models had to carry all their own make-up – and even wigs – so that in a flash they could change from “pert office girl to hostess entertainer at home to a young mother… it was a very imaginative, almost theatrical way of looking at things. But I’m really not obsessed with appearance. I think what you should do is try and look nice and then forget about it.” Our interview is wide-ranging, swooping from surface matters to the meaning of life, from what grosses her out (sex scenes, vomiting) to the importance of reading, tolerance and kindness, smoking (she still does), immigration, dying and the law around it. The strongest feeling is one of a person who is thoroughly engaged in the now, loving her work, her husband of four decades, Stephen Barlow – conductor, composer, and her co-host on their 2024 Joanna Lumley and the Maestro podcasts – the joys of friendship, travelling (for documentaries and pleasure entwined), art. There is something luminous about her through and through, but also down to earth and, yes, as so many friends have asked, funny. You can definitely see why the role of outrageous reprobate Patsy, created for her in Absolutely Fabulous, so appealed to her. One of the first sentimental ideas to be dispatched, spit spot, is the absurdity of any kind of celebration on turning 80. On the day itself, she will be filming in Ireland as Grandmama (a wondrously gothic Glam Gran, with a complex towering concoction of a wig), mother of Morticia Addams and grandmother to Wednesday, in Tim Burton’s Netflix drama of the same name. “People say the big 5-0, the big 6-0, the big 4-0 and they see it as, well, it’s an awful thing to say, but…” Lumley thinks better of speaking out. “I think birthdays are completely lovely, but they always fell at school in term time when I was a boarder. I got birthday cards but it was never sort of my day. So I’ve never thought, ‘Oh, I must have a birthday party where people think of ME.’” What’s much more thrilling to her is that “it’s completely normal for people like me to be 80 and still working, apparently fit and not having lost too many of my marbles. When I was very young, people over 60 were pretty much past it and 70 was – woaaahoooo.” She makes a hand gesture to imply totally off the planet. She has cornered the market in tricky mothers and grandmothers: see Amandaland, which is also back this week; and she’s off to Argentina shortly for another one of her travel documentaries. But we are here to talk about one of her other on-going projects, the long-running Radio 4 two-hander, Conversations from a Long Marriage by Jan Etherington (series seven begins this week). Inspired by Etherington’s own long marriage to fellow writer, Gavin Petrie, who died last November [see right], Conversations was first broadcast in 2018 and written with Lumley in mind. When Etherington asked her who she’d like to play her husband, the actor had no hesitation in plumping for Roger Allam: “Every person I meet wants to marry Roger but they can’t, because he’s already married [to fellow actor, Rebecca Saire].” It’s a clever conceit, charting the ups and downs of a couple who love each other very much but have some serious challenges (heart attack, knee op being the least of it) and even long periods of separation. In series five, ‘Joanna’ discovered that ‘Roger’, unbeknownst to him, had fathered a son (in Chicago, at a time when he thought their marriage was over), now in his 40s, with children, and wanting to connect with his father. This was a particularly painful bombshell since, as regular listeners will know, ‘Joanna’ had a miscarriage during their first separation as a young couple, in the Summer of Love, and was unable to conceive thereafter. What is artful about the writing is that you feel you know all the different friends in their group – the old friend who has dementia, the pal who puts up with her husband’s affair and love-child, the Pilates chum for her, the cycling buddy for him – without ever hearing their voices. It is relatable for those of us who still like dancing and rock’n’roll and refuse to countenance the idea of having one foot in the… But, surely, what is exaggerated is, well, how can one put it, the sheer amount of S-E-X the 70-somethings engage in? “Oh yes,” Lumley says, with a big grin. “She’s ready to jump his bones in the morning, in the evening, when he comes back from washing the car, whenever…” It tends to be her instigating the action, doesn’t it? He quite often demurs saying he’s reading a good book! “I think she’s much keener on sex than he is. He’s a quite willing partner, to be fair, but it isn’t usually his idea. She seems to have a much higher libido… but how do you measure it? Certainly, she’s always up for it!” I wouldn’t be so indelicate to ask you if it reflects your appetite… “As my parents would say, it’s not really the sort of thing you talk about! But, really, it doesn’t reflect anybody! I think that’s just the most gorgeous caprice of Jan’s, that somehow, several times a day, almost every day, you jump the bones of your husband. I don’t think that happens even when you’re young and hot and crazily, madly in love.” None of them are friends socially, although she and Allam exchange the odd text and she went to see him in one of his plays, along with Etherington and the show’s producer: “We adore him so much that we went along as his fan-girl groupies.” She talks of his beautiful voice and how he sung in Les Misérables [he played Javert in the London premiere at the Barbican]. I had no idea he was a singer, I say. “Bloody hell, he can sing the pants off you!” Lumley is talking in her study, lined with paintings and many books. On the far wall, it looks like ballerinas in tutus à la Degas. “I love you, Ginny, but I haven’t got a Degas – it’s called Precious Cow, by a naive artist, with two lovely people – not really ballerinas. But cows, ballerinas, all the same to me.” Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google Keep up to date on what’s worth watching with your favourite entertainment news from Radio Times – see more of our exclusive news and interviews featured prominently in Top Stories when using Google. She was a journalist, herself, for a short while, with a column in The Times, and also wrote opinion pieces, book reviews and travel pieces. At the Daily Express and Today (the short-lived Eddy Shah enterprise) she did big interviews and remembers one with the late Martin Amis: “He was a funny boy.” Remembering his books and those of his father Kingsley sets her off. “I’ll tell you what I hate now, Ginny, the way people are treating reading as a sort of niche activity. I can’t bear the way we’ve managed to pull books out of our lives. I could not live without books. We’ve got them in every room [PG Wodehouse in the loo], on every chair, so that wherever you are, there’s a book.” For those who have turned their back on books, Lumley says, “You are missing at LIFE!” For our interview, she is dressed in elegant shades of cream, while her long blonde hair has a black base at the tips, a necessary part of her elaborate wig process for Wednesday. She always makes an effort to dress up, when required, but “when I go to Sainsbury’s, I get out of bed, comb my hair and don’t put any make-up on.” At home she wears the same old thing every day. Not a track suit, Joanna, surely? “No, but clothes that you couldn’t even give away to a charity shop they’re so sad. Old trousers, shirts and jerseys – not necessarily with holes in them, although some of them do. And I’m happy going out in the garden, where it doesn’t really matter.” She has various medical conditions; one is prosopagnosia – not being able to recognise people’s faces – “so I quite often greet complete strangers as if they’re my dearest friends,” she explains. She also suffers from emetophobia, which is unfortunate because of what she sees as a growth in scenes on television showing people being violently sick: “I think they should give people sick warnings!” As for sex scenes, “I just think, ‘Poor old actors, there they go again, having to hammer away at each other, and look good while doing it’ and it’s pathetic. But lots of people adore it. I just don’t like it. I love the heart, the falling in love, the brush of the hand, the glance across the room, those are the things that you remember.” Lumley has been outspoken in her views on how immigrants are talked about and treated. “A lot of people say they don’t think actors should be given the platform to say what they think. But if you feel strongly about something and you feel that it’s setting up a bad feeling among people, hurting them, dispossessing people who you ought to love and greet, then it’s good for you to stand up and say what you think. “We’re all just creatures. We don’t own anything, we don’t own the land, we’re just people on the earth. And most of the people who are coming here are getting away from something that’s completely horrible at home. Nobody wants to leave their homeland. But if they can’t bear to live there, can’t get work, are persecuted, if there’s a drought, a famine, if there’s a war, then we have got to understand that. So, I think we should be kinder, just be kinder.” Her attitude to our final bow sounds remarkably considered. “I think about dying every day because I think about living every day and I can’t see them as separate. It seems to me completely normal to be born, to live and to die. It doesn’t seem like an insult or a loss or tragedy, it’s just what happens. I don’t think we should see it as this colossal enemy. “I’ve thought it would be nice to see it as a friend who’s waiting around and you never know when the friend is going to come through the door, so you mustn’t be cross or sad about it. You hope it won’t be now, because you have lots to do and things you still want to see, but maybe you get to the time when you feel bloody awful and alone and hurting all the time and then you might think, ‘I’d like to go now.’” She hasn’t spoken out about the assisted dying bill, “but you can tell by the way that I’m speaking that I think it would be a nice thing for all the people whose opinions I respect, like Esther Rantzen, who’s a friend. And I’d love to have it in the arsenal, should the time come that I just go, ‘This is too bloody awful’. It would be so nice not to have my family sent to prison for helping me go.” Lumley is cheerful about growing older. “I’ve always wanted to be older. I can’t really work out why, but I have always longed for it. And now I shall be 80 – incidentally I thought I was 80 last year, so I’d forgotten it – but I shall clearly make 90, and I can’t wait!” And so say all of us. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Audio 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.
Philippa Perry talks the "cosy crime" renaissance, neighbour Richard Coles and husband Grayson Perry
Philippa Perry’s first foray into fiction is about a psychotherapist who turns to solving crime. A case of art imitating life?
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry first became known as a public figure, with what was then her trademark silver and badger-black-striped bob (now caramel and strawberry blonde), it was as the wife of the Turner Prize-winning artist Sir Grayson Perry. Over the years, her own profile has changed as the books she has written – full of generous wisdom arising out of her practice – became global bestsellers, with 2019’s The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) selling more than a million copies and being translated into over 40 languages. Now she has moved into fiction with a cosy crime novel, Shrink Solves Murder. And if the reader had any doubt that its heroine Patricia Phillips (yes, same initials and, yes, the echo of the surname) is at least partly based on its author, there is the familiar bob-and-bright-specs face in the O of the “Solves” on the book’s cover to give you a clue. It’s set in a village very similar to the one near Eastbourne where Philippa bought a cottage 28 years ago, so that she could swim in the sea all year round (like her heroine) and Grayson could go mountain-biking in the hills. It’s where she wrote most of the book and where they spend summers and go for weekends. She likes the genre herself: “I enjoy reading them and they are good for indulging my love of village gossip, and to invent a load of characters who we either want to spend time with because we like them or we enjoy despising them. “In real life we never really get endings because life moves on all the time. We all have terrible problems and we’re not quite sure how they’re going to end up. So it’s very comforting when there is an ENORMOUS problem [her voice becomes very loud for effect] of a MURDER – that gets solved.” Richard Coles is a friend and she likes his forays into soft murder; ditto Richard Osman, Janice Hallett and her favourite, Anthony Horowitz: “It’s a bit like you’re in a group and you’re listening to all these voices and I kind of wanted to join the group and go, ‘I can do cosy crime, too!’” There are a lot of in-jokes: the florid character Prichard Knowles is a playful take on neighbour Richard Coles who lives just over a field from her. “His sub-personality is a bit like Prichard – always telling you what road he is on, the A21 or the A267.” But does he make filthy drinks like the character (pineapple and cheese vodka, for instance)? “No, but Richard is a very brilliant chef like Prichard – he won MasterChef! It was just a little private joke, me copying Richard because he writes cosy crime.” I ask if she wrote the book as a cynical exercise of cashing in on her name. “No, I’m not doing it for that,” Perry answers evenly. “I’m doing it because I want to enjoy myself. I don’t really need to cash in on anything. But having said that, if I was a brand new author I’d probably find it more difficult getting a deal. I got a very good deal and I think that’s to do with my name.” Her response to a reader of her agony column who wanted to write but was afraid of doing badly was: “The courage to fail is the same courage you need to succeed, so welcome failure. If you are not failing, you’re not trying, so keep failing.” Philippa went on to say that she couldn’t get an agent for her first book and that it took five years to find a publisher. The end of the novel leaves the possibility of a sequel. “I intend to write another and I started sketching the plot, but I never know if I’m going to be able to do it. It’s a bit like climbing a mountain – I don’t know if I’ve got enough puff to get to the top.” As for a television adaptation, she is “in talks”. There’s something pleasingly authentic about Perry: she’s not terrified to say what she thinks. “With my character Pat Phillips I’ve taken that to new extremes. She’ll be rude to strangers if she disapproves of them. I’d like to say that I’m not as authentic as she is. I think she may take authenticity a little bit too far.” Well, she is northern. “I’m northern as well, so I just made her a bit further north!” It has always irritated Perry when people come up to her at parties, when she is mid-conversation, to ask her if she thinks it will be OK for them to interrupt her husband when he is talking to someone. “People do that all the time. I say, ‘He’s much nicer than I am but I’m quite pissed off that you interrupted me!’ To treat me like a receptionist is a bit mad.” She certainly didn’t need his input on the book. Both her husband and the couple’s daughter Flo have read Shrink Solves Murder – but only when it was finished. “Grayson liked it very much,” she says. “Flo wasn’t quite so sure.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Shrink Solves Murder (out 7 May) is available to pre-order at radiotimes.com/shop19. For all the latest RT Book Club news, interviews, Q&As with the authors, reviews of previous books and more, visit The Radio Times Book Club. Looking for more reading recommendations? Join the Radio Times Book Club – we offer 3-month or 6-month memberships as well as monthly or quarterly subscriptions where you'll receive a new hardback chosen by the RT team delivered directly to your door!
Richard Gadd explains why Half Man doesn't "pull punches" and why its most violent scenes are essential
Gadd, best-known for his Netflix mega-hit Baby Reindeer, is the latest guest on our interview series looking at the art of screenwriting.
"Everything was a discussion," says Richard Gadd, talking about his new BBC series Half Man. "Everything in television is a sort of discussion all the time." Gadd was specifically addressing the level of violence seen on screen in the drama, and whether there were questions about presenting such material on the BBC. The six-part drama is a co-production between the broadcaster and HBO, with the latter company arguably more at home with graphic on-screen violence. "We talked at length about the violence in the show," he explained. "The thing with the violence in Half Man is it's never, in my opinion, frivolous or there for violence sake." It's a strong case to make. Half Man follows Niall and Ruben, two young men who are brought together by circumstance but who are different in so many ways. While Ruben is fierce and loyal, Niall is meek and mild-mannered. The two become like brothers, yet when Ruben turns up at Niall's wedding 30 years later, an explosion of violence takes place. The series has been described as exploring "brotherhood, violence, and the intense fragility of male relationships". "In order to explore a show about male violence, to pull punches on violence would be quite a bizarre thing to do," Gadd continued. "To experience the extent of a character like Ruben, you have to see the extent of what he's capable of, otherwise we're just told. We're just told that this guy is really violent, but I don't see it, the whole show would have failed as a result of that. And I feel that very strongly." He explained: "I think the mistake that people make in television and film with violence is when it's just there purely for gratuitous sake, and it's part of grossing people out, or it's there to add style or just get people talking. You can feel it emanating from the screen, sometimes, when people use violence superfluously. "But every single time there was a piece of violence in the show that was extreme, I always asked myself, and the discussion was always, ‘Is it important for the character? Is it important for the story moving forward?’ And every single time I felt like it was." Gadd made the comments as he joined us as our latest guest for The Radio Times Writers' Room. Gadd started out in stand-up comedy, beginning on that journey when he was at Glasgow University and attended a student union event. He started performing annually at the Edinburgh Fringe, before moving to London to pursue comedy further. He got TV work writing on entertainment shows like The Last Leg and Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier. While working as a bartender in London, Gadd would go on to have experiences which he later dramatised in 2019 Edinburgh Fringe show Baby Reindeer, which was met with critical acclaim and won multiple awards Around this time, Gadd also started to get acting roles in TV series such as Humans, Outlander and Code 404, and co-wrote an episode of Sex Education. He was brought to global prominence when Baby Reindeer was adapted into a seven-part series for Netflix. A surprise smash hit, the series was both critically acclaimed and won almost every award going. It was a whirlwind reception, which Gadd has admitted was "innately destabilising". Now, Gadd brings us Half Man, which he has not only created, but also stars in as Ruben, alongside Stuart Campbell who plays the same character earlier in his life. Meanwhile, Jamie Bell and Mitchell Robertson both play Niall at different stages ages. As well as these four actors, the series also features a host of stars, including:Neve McIntosh, Marianne McIvor, Charlie De Melo, Bilal Hasna, Julie Cullen, Amy Manson, Anjli Mohindra, Tim Downie, Tom Andrews, Philippine Velge, Stuart McQuarrie, Sandy Batchelor, Piers Ewart, Scot Greenan, Charlotte Blackwood, Calum Manchip and Kate Robson-Stuart. During our chat, Gadd spoke about his future inclinations when it comes to writing, acting, stand-up and potentially even directing, the genres he is drawn to writing and why Bell's "vulnerability" made him perfect for Niall He also spoke about developing the time-jumping structure of Half Man, the advice he's taken from an iconic Franz Kafka quote, and the aspect of Baby Reindeer of which he is most proud. "I am very proud of a lot of it," he said. "I think the impact it had on charities and stuff like that was the thing I'm most proud of. I remember 53% of abuse charities went up, 47% of stalking charities went up. "And that's something I take great pride from with the show. You want to have an affecting piece of art that kind of moves people, but when you see figures like that, I think it feels special, in a way." You can watch the full video at the top of this article right now, and look out for more trips to The Radio Times Writers' Room soon. In the meantime, you can catch up with our previous chats with Mark Gatiss, Harry and Jack Williams, Noah Hawley, Neil Cross, Steven Knight, Chris Chibnall, Jack Thorne, Sarah Quintrell and Stefan Golaszewski. Half Man will release new episodes each Friday on BBC iPlayer at 6am. Add Half Man 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.
He may be back in Walford as Grant Mitchell, but Ross Kemp is now a family man who would rather go fishing than pick fights
Add EastEnders to your watchlist Ross Kemp insists he’s not “any sort of a hard man, really”. And, of course, you can’t help but smile, because the very act of hearing him say it triggers a mental slideshow of moments that suggest otherwise. Long-time Kemp watchers will have their own favourites. Perhaps the episodes of his Extreme World documentary that saw him dodging sniper fire in Afghanistan and Syria. Or the time he was in Colombia reporting on the drug trade there only to be stopped in his car by a man with a knife looking for a bribe. And what did Kemp do? “I told him to f*** off.” The list goes on. How about the time he was told to get down on his knees by armed guerrillas in Papua New Guinea and, instead, he reached for one of their gun barrels and said, “You’re not going to kill me.” Fans of Kemp’s 2023 memoir Take Nothing for Granted may also recall the story of the night he drunkenly went swimming in crocodile-infested waters in Australia and, with almost no recall of what he’d done, was told the next day that he challenged any crocs nearby to “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough”. So, when Kemp claims that “nothing I’ve done fills me with fear more than EastEnders,” it’s hard to judge your reaction. But he really isn’t joking. Thirty-six years since Grant and Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) first stepped onto Albert Square, Kemp says, “EastEnders is still the one that pushes me the most.” And his latest return to Walford has been no exception. This week we'll see Grant return from Portugal as he finally comes face to face with his estranged son, Mark – their first encounter since Mark discovered who his biological father is. Coming after Grant’s flying visit to the Square for the show’s 40th anniversary last year, he’s due to stick around considerably longer, this time as he comes to terms with the deterioration of the Mitchell brothers’ dementiastricken school-friend Nigel Bates, played by Paul Bradley. Between sips of botanical lemonade in a north London café, Kemp says he didn’t need to have his arm twisted on this occasion. The challenges of playing Grant as a 61-year-old, “with all the life you’ve experienced in the intervening years”, were what sealed the deal. “I think Steve [McFadden] is still brilliant when it comes to playing a guy who could hit you with a piece of wood, but could also break down in tears. Which is something you can also say for Grant.” For Kemp, the fear set in when he read his first scenes and realised what lay in store for him. “You get up so early to get to set, and then at the top of the first page, it says, ‘Grant heaves with tears on seeing Nigel.’” What Kemp couldn’t have foreseen on the first week of shooting was that he’d be shuttling between a hospital set and an actual hospital. “I won’t go into detail, but something happened to my mum on the third day on set. And so heaving tears wasn’t difficult. I was like, ‘Cut! We’ve got that.’ And it’s still not even 8am. “Then we walk into another set where everybody is having a sort of wake. In the script, there’s a conversation about what a good dancer Nigel was as a lad. I say, ‘You should have seen him in 1977, pogoing in all the clubs.’ Then someone goes, ‘What’s a pogo?’ And suddenly everyone’s chanting, ‘GRANT! GRANT! GRANT!’ trying to get me to pogo. There I am, pogoing at the tender age of 61. And there’s not much pogoing left in these knees.” The more time you spend with Kemp, the more you realise that it’s not the shadow of Grant Mitchell that looms over him; it’s that of his father John, a former serviceman and life-long policeman – who, in a Facebook post announcing his death last year, he described as “my hero; my role model”. In Lost Boys, Deadly Men, Kemp’s recent exploration into the crisis in masculinity affecting young men, he entered a male-only retreat called The Unmasked Man, where he was encouraged to open up to strangers and reveal the one thing he wanted to hear from his father. His answer? “It’s not always about competition.” But what sort of a career would he have without that competitive streak? I’m reminded of the scene during his return to Albert Square last year, in which he tells his daughter Courtney, “Perhaps if I’d been a better dad, you wouldn’t be the person you are.” Whose emotions are we watching in moments like that? Is it Grant – or is it Ross, rationalising what his father wasn’t always able to give him? “Oh, you definitely draw from real life,” he says, “unless you use a tear stick, that’s the only way.” While Kemp seemed to take away a lot of positives from his time at the retreat, one thing that sticks in his mind was “transformational coach” Alexander Cottle’s description of the Mitchell brothers as “stereotypical alpha males”. He’s not sure that’s entirely fair – and back in 1994, if you were one of the 25 million people who saw Grant tearfully confront his wife Sharon in a packed Queen Vic over her affair with Phil, you won’t need Ross Kemp to remind you that, “we were bawling our eyes out 30 years ago. We were doing it long before people suddenly thought, ‘Oh, it’s ground-breaking drama.’ ” In the event, it’s been quite handy sharing a body with Grant Mitchell. It’s allowed him to lean into the stereotype not just when it suits him, but also to surprise those who dare question his range. Former EastEnders script editor and screenwriter John Yorke is on hand to bear testament to the full breadth of that range. He gleefully recalls their first encounter back in 1994 when Kemp, “just about the biggest star in Britain at that point, walks into my office and says, ‘I want to complain.’ I replied, ‘How can I help?’ He prodded me in the chest and said, ‘I haven’t hit anyone in over a month!’ ” When this encounter is relayed to Kemp, he hoots with delight and, within seconds, pivots from outright denial to admitting, “Yeah, I think I probably could have done that! Steve and I got on well with a number of the writers. We had things in common – be it a sense of humour, or a view of the world that was similar. Not all of the cast members had that same relationship, and that certainly didn’t harm our storylines! But also, if you’re given a storyline, you can throw it down the toilet or you can charge it up the hill: it’s up to you.” By contrast, in 1998, when Yorke left the soap and set about casting the role of a gangster who moonlights as drag queen Dilly Dally in the ITV cop show City Central, there was only one name on his list: “Ross was literally in costume the whole time,” remembers Yorke, “and he just loved it. He was playing to the extras all day – a natural born drag queen!” Kemp rocks forward on his chair. “Shall I tell you a story about that? There was a song I had to do in that role – I Will Survive. And at the time, I’m living in Essex. I’m due to meet the guys down the pub, but first I’ve got just enough time to rehearse ahead of the next day’s shoot. So I’m wearing my neoprene bottoms and I put the little heels on because you have to be able to walk convincingly in stilettos – and I’m holding the hairbrush and belting out I Will Survive. When I’m satisfied with it, I head off to the pub. Next thing you know, slow handclaps. Three of the neighbours had been watching out the window.” When talk turns to regrets, I’m struck by his candour. He winces as he reflects upon how insecure he felt throughout his 20s: “I was a bit of a w****r, to be honest with you.” He shares a story about starring in Dick Whittington alongside Rod Hull and Emu. “I wouldn’t let him goose me. And he was very upset about that,” says Kemp, now laughing at the absurdity of what he’s about to describe. “That’s the difference between the old Ross Kemp and the new one. He could goose me now. Do you know what else has stayed with me? I was in the dressing room next door to Rod and even when he was out, if Emu was asleep, you had to be quiet!” Happily, the span of Kemp’s personal growth extends beyond personal space issues around sock puppets. In the 2000s, his marriage to former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks (then Wade) launched him into circles he couldn’t have imagined as a boy growing up in Barking, “just to the right of the EastEnders map”. He had dinner in Chequers with two prime ministers – Tony Blair and David Cameron – but neither impressed him as much as the American dignitaries he met at that time: the “natural magnetism” of Bill Clinton and the “powerful calm” of war hero turned Republican Presidential nominee John McCain: “He was the most impressive for me, just because he was shot down over Vietnam [where he was imprisoned for five years]. I thought he was just an incredibly stoic individual.” The interest in politics awakened in Kemp by his marriage to Brooks has outlasted it. After their divorce in 2009, he campaigned for Gordon Brown before, in 2024, issuing a surprising endorsement for Conservative MP Mark Francois – on the basis of his work with Armed Forces veterans. In 2012, Kemp’s time spent in Hugo Chávez’s “socialist utopia” of Venezuela was a dramatic eye-opener. In the resulting documentary, we saw Kemp’s visible shock as he visited a hospital whose staff simply couldn’t work fast enough to triage the victims of shootings arriving every few minutes at Caracas’s infamous El Helicoide jail, which had been run by its own inmates for the previous five years. As revealing as Kemp’s trips to the world’s most fractious hot spots are, one thing he withholds from viewers is the effect that these trips have on him. In the past, he’s said that his experiences following troops fighting in the Helmand province in Afghanistan left him “self-medicating”. Not just Afghanistan – his final day in El Helicoide affected him so profoundly that his time there climaxed in a messy night on Johnnie Walker that saw him smash several of his teeth. It doesn’t look like he’ll be leaving a Tripadvisor review for the dentist who treated him any time soon. “It was my first time on whisky and I managed to fall out with the people around me. The next day, they had to wake up the local dentist on her day off and try and stick something on me that would pass as teeth for the rest of the filming. She went at me with a chisel, no anaesthetic. The pain was awful, but the humiliation was worse.” This, being 2012, was also the year Kemp met his current wife, corporate lawyer Renee O’Brien – and, should he ever get the call, the story of how they met is surely one he can use on Would I Lie to You? In Afghanistan, he learnt that one issue faced by some soldiers was that the conditions there caused their underwear to “rot on them as they got soaked in ditches in 40 degree heat”. Leaning on the contacts he had, he pitched an idea for underpants containing silver (for its antibacterial properties) to his friend Bobby who worked for the luxury lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. The pants never happened but Bobby did tell him about his friend Renee, with whom he thought Kemp might hit it off. For Kemp, one of the big draws from the outset was the fact that O’Brien “hadn’t seen a single thing I was in”. Fourteen years after that first blind date in a Marylebone private members’ club, Kemp says that O’Brien still hasn’t seen any of his TV work. “That’s definitely part of the attraction!” he laughs. “In terms of what you see on paper, we’re probably incompatible. And yet…” And yet the pair went on to have three children: Leo (10) and eight-year-old twins Ava and Kitty, in addition to Oliver, Kemp’s 15-year-old son from a prior relationship with make-up artist Nicola Coleman. Childcare is shared between them. Yesterday it was Kemp’s turn and his account of the day has the feel of one of his frontline reports. “With it being Easter, they’re off school so I was being a taxi for most of the day, taking them to different clubs and things. Then it was cooking dinner. One wanted a bit of barbecue, but his sister wanted to have something cooked in the oven – so I was trying to juggle two meals while they were fighting over who was on the trampoline and who was pushing who. Also the dog wanted feeding and… You know, these are very simple things, but often a day in the field can be easier because all you’ve got to look after is yourself as opposed to three children under the age of 11. And no one was satisfied at the end of it!” Except that, having reached a point in his career that allows him to pivot between drama, documentaries and his BBC One game show Bridge of Lies, Kemp says, “Life is about as good as it can be right now.” He can recall the occasion he was running from sniper fire in Karachi and a woman in a tuk-tuk shouted, “Oi! Are you Grant Mitchell?” in a Brummie accent – but at the same time, he’s also tickled when I tell him that my Gen Z daughters only know him through YouTube clips from Extreme World. He insists that “there’s never been a strategy to any of this, so I don’t see any reason to start now.” Beyond this current spell in EastEnders, the only plan to which he’s committed to is a trip aboard Steve McFadden’s 72ft-long fishing boat with McFadden and Paul Bradley – “sort of a three-men-in-a-boat type of thing”, he explains. “We’ll go off down the Thames and end up having a nice dinner together, which is what gentlemen of our age should be doing.” And is there room for a new documentary series to boot? “I think there should be!” Watch this space.
Richard Gadd’s Half Man pushes the BBC to its violence limits but will it ever match HBO’s extremes?
Half Man is a co-production that straddles the line between the BBC and HBO's attitude towards on screen violence. But will the public broadcaster ever fully embrace graphic content on the level of Game of Thrones and The Boys?
This article contains references to sexual violence that some readers may find distressing. In the opening moments of Richard Gadd's new series Half Man, his character Ruben punches Jamie Bell's character Niall in the face so hard that his head cracks on the wall behind him. This sequence, and what follows its chronologically, has been described in the show's synopsis as an "explosion of violence" which takes place at Niall's wedding, 30 years after the moment the series subsequently flashes back to. It's a brutal example of what is to come, in a series which contains a handful of pretty graphic, violent moments. For anyone who has read up about the series, it should come as no surprise – it has been described as a show which explores "brotherhood, violence, and the intense fragility of male relationships", as it charts Ruben and Niall's friendship over the years. It will also come of no surprise to viewers watching in the US or elsewhere around the world, who will be finding the series on HBO. It is, after all, a BBC and HBO co-production. Alongside its reputation for high-end, prestige drama, HBO is also known for the inclusion in many of its series of graphic content. A prime example of this would be Game of Thrones, the company's acclaimed (up to a point) fantasy series which included scenes of beheadings, pregnant women being stabbed in the stomach and a man having his eyes gouged out and his dead crushed. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/01/game-of-thrones-rains-of-castermere-15bfeef.jpg" width="4256" height="2832" alt="Michelle Fairley, as Catelyn Stark, holds a knife to the throat of Kelly Ford, who plays Joyeuse Erenford, amidst a tense scene in a dimly lit banquet hall with candles and a feast set on the table, from the television series Game of Thrones." title="Game of Thrones" /> Given all of this, my surprise coming into Half Man was not how violent it was, but in many ways how restrained it felt on this front. There is certainly violent, sometimes gory content, but it never once shocked me and always felt dramatically justified. The shocks came in the content of the story, not the graphic visuals. On the back of this reaction, a question arose in my mind – could and would the BBC ever go full HBO? As the two companies collaborate more and more, including on the sex scene-filled Industry, could a BBC show ever reach the levels of violence seen in shows like The Sopranos or Westworld, or non-HBO shows like Prime Video's The Boys, AMC's The Walking Dead, or Netflix's recent addition, Detective Hole? To get his thoughts, and learn more about the BBC's history when it comes to on-screen violence, I spoke with Spencer Murphy, Assistant Professor in Media and Communications at Coventry University. Murphy noted that the BBC has "a really interesting history in terms of its relationship with violent content", before clarifying that this regards "what the viewers perceive to be as violent content". This is a crucial point. An Ofcom study in 2023 found that audiences' attitudes to on screen violence had changed over time, with viewers feeling that violence shown on post-watershed shows, airing after 9pm, "was widely regarded as the norm". It was also deemed to have become "more graphic, intense, and realistic", although this wasn't necessarily seen as a negative – participants in the study said that violence in dramas added a "greater degree of realism or excitement", could make "dramatic content more immersive and intense" and felt "more honest than the more staged portrayals in the past". These changes were deemed to be reflective of changes in society and audiences’ tastes. Murphy noted that historically, in part due to its status as a public service broadcaster, the BBC has actually been "no stranger to pushing the envelope and pushing the boundaries" of audience expectations in this arena. He said: "Many years before The Boys or HBO shows, the BBC were offering really provocative programmes, which not just depicted violence for the sake of violence, but they reflected the time and the attitude and questioned things. "Going back even into fantasy, back into the 1950s you've got shows like Quatermass, which provoked a lot of complaint at the time. Even the flagship BBC programme of Doctor Who produced huge public outcry, which we might look back on now as kind of quaint. But the idea of Daleks going around exterminating people at 6pm on a Saturday was quite problematic. "When I think about Half Man, the thing that strikes me as a kind of historical counterpoint to that was The Wednesday Play in the '60s, which was a series of short dramas that were put on every Wednesday. There was one called Cathy Come Home, and another called Up the Junction, which were incredibly violent for its time. We have to remember, contextually, they were violent. "They were dealing with trauma, homelessness, abortion, domestic abuse. And it caused a lot of complaint at the time, but what it demonstrates was the BBCs commitment to pushing boundaries, pushing the audience, but also moving with the times, trying to show things and represent things and challenge their audience. And I think it’s carried on." Murphy also pointed to the 1984 apocalyptic anti-war drama Threads, which was first broadcast on BBC Two, and depicted the concept of a nuclear winter taking place in the UK. It is still known as a particularly haunting, harrowing piece of work. Jumping forward to the present day, Murphy references shows like Peaky Blinders and Luther as more modern examples of violence in BBC dramas. However, it has to be acknowledged that, at least in what is actually seen on screen, these are far less graphic than shows like Game of Thrones or The Boys. "The real issue, when you think about where this new show is sitting, is a broader, bigger issue around the position of the BBC in the age of streaming," Murphy said. "In these shows that we think about, HBO’s The Wire and things like Game of Thrones, the violence depicted in these is for a very different audience now, and it's contextual. "The question with these shows is, why is the violence there? And what is it trying to accomplish?" This is a question which was clearly on Gadd's mind throughout the production of Half Man – as well as on minds of those around him. As he was speaking to us for our video interview series The Radio Times Writers' Room, I asked Gadd whether the level of violence seen on screen was a discussion with the BBC, given the fact that its audience are perhaps less expectant of it than those tuning into HBO. "Well, everything was a discussion," he said. "Everything in television is a sort of discussion all the time. And we talked at length about the violence in the show." He continued: "The thing with the violence in Half Man is it's never, in my opinion, frivolous or there for violence sake. In order to explore a show about male violence, to pull punches on violence would be quite a bizarre thing to do. To experience the extent of a character like Ruben, you have to see the extent of what he's capable of, otherwise we're just told. "We're just told that this guy is really violent, but I don't see it, the whole show would have failed as a result of that. And I feel that very strongly." He's right. For my money, Half Man is an exceptionally powerful show, the best I've seen so far in 2026, and it's been a year of strong contenders. This is in part due to its exploration of violence, which I agree, would have been damped or felt less egregious were we not to see it and its ramifications. "I think the mistake that people make in television and film with violence is when it's just there purely for gratuitous sake, and it's part of grossing people out, or it's there to add style or just get people talking," Gadd said. "You can feel it emanating from the screen, sometimes, when people use violence superfluously. "But every single time there was a piece of violence in the show that was extreme, I always asked myself, and the discussion was always, ‘Is it important for the character? Is it important for the story moving forward?’ And every single time I felt like it was." The idea of the violence being "important" or justified is a key one – in fact, it's crucial to the entire mission of the BBC. As a state-funded public broadcaster, the BBC has a constitutional basis in a Royal Charter, and has an agreement regarding its activities with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The Charter states that the "Mission of the BBC is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain." It also says that "the BBC must carefully and appropriately assess the views and interests of the public and audiences, including licence fee payers, across the whole of the United Kingdom". Meanwhile, the agreement says that "the BBC must protect audiences from offensive and harmful material unless it has sufficient editorial purpose," before noting that "content that is potentially highly offensive will need the strongest editorial justification". "The BBC must balance its right to freedom of expression, which allows it to publish innovative and challenging content, with the responsibility of avoiding unjustifiable offence," it says. "Content makers should take account of 'generally accepted standards' as well as audience expectations when considering publishing potentially offensive or harmful material. "The publication or broadcast of such content must be justified by the context. Potentially offensive content includes strong language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, and discriminatory treatment or language." Without spoiling anything for viewers, Half Man does have specific subjects its exploring, even beyond those which have been confirmed. It does this both in terms of the specific characters of Ruben and Niall, but also in a wider, societal sense. The violence is pivotal to that exploration. "It goes back to the role and status of the BBC as a public service broadcaster," Murphy says. "It has a charter. It has its purpose, it has its relationship with not just the British public but globally. It has a responsibility, which I don't think Amazon Prime, for example, does. It does not have that heritage. "And also, these platforms have enormous swathes of content every single week, loads and loads and loads. The BBC will defend, as it always has, all these shows over the decades that have received huge kinds of moral outrage. The BBC defended those things, and rightly so. It will not do things or show things without a very clear editorial justification for it." This then brings us back to HBO, Netflix, Prime Video and other platforms, which are not governed by such regulations. Is the way they present violence justified? Back in 2016, Casey Bloys, now chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, was asked by journalists specifically about the sexual violence against women, which was depicted in shows like Game of Thrones and Westworld. "I don’t necessarily see it as specific to women," he answered. "The point of is there a lot of violence in Westworld and Game of Thrones? Yes, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s specifically isolated to women. No, you haven’t seen men being raped. "But the point I would make in Game of Thrones for example is men are castrated, a guy is fed a cake made of his sons. The violence is pretty extreme on all fronts. I take your point that so far there have not been any male rapes, but my point is the violence is spread equally." The response was criticised at the time as to its justification in particular of sexual violence against women, but for the purposes of this discussion, it doesn't appear as though he is at all fazed by the levels of violence more generally in the series. In many ways, that is a selling point. Of course, that's not to say he should be, or that it isn't. In Ofcom's study, a change was noted by participants that there is "more intense and graphic violence found in some drama programmes" today, which was "seen to be driven by increased competition from channels like Sky Atlantic, in particular the HBO content shown on that channel, and subscription services such as Netflix". This wasn't necessarily seen as a bad thing. As noted before, HBO has a reputation not only for its level of violence, grit and edge, but also as a home for prestige, premium dramas – even if the storytelling is key, those things can't fully be divorced. Editorial justification can also take many forms. One is of course a piece's societal benefits and its exploration of topical discussions, but another could be its willingness to challenge taboos, or simply its own comprehensiveness as a work of art. Murphy says he watches and enjoys The Boys himself, which is extremely graphic, but notes the key difference between its presentation of violence, and how it would be utilised in a BBC show. "Their whole marketing angle is around how far they can push the boundary in terms of violence. Sometimes, some of the shows – Game of Thrones was very guilty of this – have these almost like TikTok moments, moments in the show that are hyped up because of their levels of violence. Where it seems to be there in order for it to generate traction on social media. "Perhaps people are worried, looking at a show like Half Man, that the BBC is going to slip into making the kind of content that other streaming platforms make. Maybe I'm looking at the BBC through rose tinted glasses, but I just cannot see the BBC joining that. "When I look at Half Man, I don't look at that as something that the BBC have commissioned because it's violent. Clearly, it's going to address themes surrounding toxic masculinity." Still, it's notable how those who have seen Half Man, and even those who haven't have already reacted to it. It has received wildly mixed reviews, with a number of critics giving it five stars, while others have given it two. The Telegraph's review calls the show "just cruel and violent", while even The Guardian's five-star review says the show brings you "violence so vivid, you’ll think you can taste blood in your mouth". Decider says: "After a certain point, the series also resorts to violence in a way that feels gratuitous and dreadful, making it difficult to watch at times." Read more: Half Man review: After Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd faces a difficult second album It appears that the BBC was prepared for this. The show's release schedule is notable. Each episode is being released weekly on a Friday, at 6am on BBC iPlayer - that's nothing new, The Capture just followed the same pattern with its third season on Sundays. Instead, though Half Man is following a release pattern more closely aligned with Industry, another HBO co-production, and one which has been remarked upon for its provocative sexual content (and even led to some interesting edits). That show released at 6am on BBC iPlayer on Mondays, before airing later that night as late as 10:40pm. Half Man's BBC One release will take place the Tuesday after each Friday release, once again at 10:40pm. Could this be intended so that audiences don't happen upon the series and find themselves offended? To be watching it at that time, or to watch it on iPlayer, you would in many ways have to have sought it out. Of course, this is almost always the case with streaming-only programming – it's something Ofcom found audiences have clear views on in their study. "Based on their experiences, many felt that SVoD [streaming video on demand] services also offered edgier content, pointing to examples of more graphic programmes (e.g. containing sex and violence) they could access and the themes addressed," it said. "Participants who mentioned this point of difference generally liked it, as they felt SVoDs gave them access to a greater variety of shows, some of which they felt were more appealing than they might find on linear TV." Participants in the survey felt that British content "tended to be more restrained in pushing boundaries, whereas other countries may be more liberal and open to violence, nudity and other adult themes". One participant said: "With British platforms, we have more of a polite background. The stuff we put out is more PC and more filtered. When you go to Netflix, you get more grit and less filtered content." However, the participants did note that "SVoDs can push boundaries further, given the fact viewers need to seek out content to watch". "They started linking it with their experiences of content information (e.g. warnings, ratings, classifications) being more prominent on SVoDs compared to linear TV, and more robust access tools being in place (e.g. PINs, child profiles)," the study said. "These features of SVoDs were seen as enabling greater viewer autonomy in deciding what they want to watch compared to linear. On linear TV, content information and warnings were considered less effective, as someone could accidentally stumble across content if they switched channels and started something part way through." Murphy says that, if the BBC One air time is intended to make sure people don't stumble upon Half Man unexpectedly, then it's "a sensible strategy". "It’s almost that idea of the magic line, the watershed, post 9pm moment on the BBC, when audiences will tolerate more morally serious, realistic material. "But then therefore, how is that material presented on when you open up the app, for example?," he says of the show being on iPlayer. "Is it there front and centre? I think it's something that all streamers, including the BBC, need to think about. "I've got a young son, he's only 11 years old. If we switch on Amazon Prime and the first thing that comes up is The Boys, which to his eyes just looks like a superhero show… "They all have these different profiles for adults and children, they're thinking about it at least. But it is something which I think all streamers, and certainly the BBC have got to really think about. How is this material presented to its audience?" While these questions may linger, Murphy argues that while the BBC should never, and likely will never go in for the greatest excesses of on-screen violence, given that it is unlikely to ever be editorially warranted, at least from a social standpoint, the corporation shouldn't be deterred from making series that "really push and challenge the audience". "That, to me, is at the heart of what public service broadcasting is all about," he says. "It's not just giving the audience natural history programmes and such things. It's about challenging the audience as well, asking questions that are relevant to that society. "When I approach shows such as Half Man, I want to watch it, ironically, because it is the BBC. I don't think I'd be as interested in it if it was on just HBO Max. I'm really interested in that show because it has that editorial – not stamp of approval – but it has the context of the BBC. "I believe that this is going to be something that has something to say, or at least is making the audience reflect and think. Which I think, when it comes to a lot of material we watch, particularly on streamers, so little of it seems to do that." Half Man will arrive on BBC iPlayer at 6am on Friday 24 April. Add Half Man 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. 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The Responder writer reveals the real-life personal inspirations behind his new Sheridan Smith drama
Tony Schumacher reveals all about his new BBC drama, The Cage.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. On the wall of Tony Schumacher’s bright, airy office in the heart of Liverpool, there hangs a collection of pictures, posters and things that tell the story of who he is. A montage of a man – a memento, trophy or talisman in every frame. There’s one of his book covers from when he wrote novels, a poster of a 1970s housing estate like the one he grew up on, his “Dad corner” full of photos and scrawly drawings. “I’ve got a five-year-old son,” he says, proudly. There’s a front page of the Liverpool Echo from when Everton won the FA Cup in 1966, a poster of his hit cop show The Responder, another for the 1938 Will Hay film Ask a Policeman (a gift from former colleagues in the police force), and a map of the Shipping Forecast. “I’ve always wanted to write something about the Shipping Forecast. It reminds me of being a taxi driver... listening at 1am and 5am.” Finally, there are two Bafta nomination certificates (“I’ve got a few awards but I don’t like putting them out because it’s embarrassing”) a guitar he’s never played and never will and a poster of The Sopranos – “the ultimate in TV writing”. And in the middle of it all, there’s Schumacher’s prized possession – a sketch of Yosser Hughes from Boys from the Blackstuff as drawn by the writer of the 1982 drama, Alan Bleasdale. Holding it as if it’s a holy relic, Schumacher speaks reverentially of the inspired, inspiring Scouse writer, and later he’ll talk in similar tones about another local writing titan, Jimmy McGovern. The sketch is, of course, extraordinary in and of itself – a cultural artefact from Margaret Thatcher’s Britain and a time when television drama dared to be genuinely political. But it’s also significant for what it might symbolise. When Bleasdale handed Schumacher that sketch, you might surmise that he did so because he was all out of batons. If Schumacher’s life is up there on his office wall, distilled into a handful of images and objects, it’s also in his work, but there it informs every script, is diffused into every scene. The Responder – raw, brutally truthful and a drama that really connected with audiences – was based on his experiences, not all of them pleasant, as a police officer. When Martin Freeman read the script, he noted admiringly that it had clearly been “written by someone who meant it” – and Schumacher meant it because he’d lived it. It’s that sincerity that gives Schumacher’s writing its power and, to employ a much over-used word, its authenticity. And so to The Cage, his new drama about casino workers Leanne (Sheridan Smith) and Matty (Michael Socha) who each discover the other is stealing from work. Their reasons differ, their desperation doesn’t. In telling the story of two people trapped by their circumstances and caught in a system seemingly designed to not just disadvantage them but use them to others’ advantage, Schumacher delivers a tense, funny, humane thriller that’s also a scathing critique of consumer capitalism and an exploration of addiction. Schumacher says that he writes what he knows – “I definitely dip my pen in my head and feel those experiences” – so whence The Cage? “My brother Philip was an alcoholic who passed away last year. In 2019, when I came up with the idea, I was going through a bad period with Phil, who was drinking quite badly. I had a meeting with two brilliant producers Hilary Martin and Simon Judd, and I think I brought it up. We started talking about addiction, but alcoholism felt too close to home. I used to work on cruise ships and everyone who worked in those casinos would gamble like mad the minute they weren’t working. They all had, and I can say this with a degree of certainty, a bad relationship with money, which fascinated me.” That idea became one script, then several and Schumacher was soon ready to approach the actor he had in mind when he wrote the scripts: Smith. She, then Socha, signed up and Schumacher was almost ready to go. Just one last casting to confirm – that of Liverpool itself as the location. Was Schumacher conscious of depicting the city as having a grubby underbelly populated by gangsters, liars and delinquents? “When I did The Responder, I was genuinely scared that I was going to get abuse for it,” he admits, “and I’ve spoken to other Liverpool writers who shall remain nameless, who won’t set stuff in the city for that reason. But I think about what making a show here gives back to the city. Financially, the three series I’ve made cost in excess of £30 million to make and a large percentage of that’s been spent in this city. “We made a bit of profit on The Responder that we fed back into the Liverpool Film Office. We spent money on training apprentices on The Responder who were fully qualified working on The Cage. And on top of that, you’ve got Martin Freeman travelling the world, on chat shows and at awards shows, saying how fantastic this city is – and it is.” So what does he say to those who complain about representation of Liverpool as some sort of Gomorrah on the Mersey, “Have a bit of confidence about yourself. This city is incredible. I’m fairly certain people in Birmingham aren’t complaining about Peaky Blinders.” As with everything he says, Schumacher is utterly sincere. However, he does allow himself a smirk when he says, “Imagine I set a show in Manchester. I mean, I love Manchester – I used to do stand-up comedy there, badly – but imagine how people in Liverpool would kick off…” For like so many Liverpudlians, native and transplant alike, Schumacher is rooted in the city. His resolve to stay true to those roots, in his work and in his life, is what assures him of that sincerity, his subsequent authenticity and, ultimately, his success. “I still go to the same café in the morning, I’ve still got mates on the taxis, and I’ve never been to a f**king dinner party. I’ve never been to a party where people have made dinner as it seems anathema to me. You have your dinner before you go to a party. Apart from Martin [Freeman, star of The Responder for whom he wrote the part], I don’t have showbiz mates. And I hated going to the Baftas.” Excuse me? But they always look so much fun. “Like any award show, they’re awful. Absolute hell on Earth, I can’t stand them. But I went because I might never get the chance to go again and I love the people I work with and I want to be with them enjoying their moment because it isn’t just mine.” Schumacher would probably go so far as to say that he enjoys going to the tip more than awards shows. “I used to work at a council tip and, the other week, I took a load of cardboard to the tip and had a cup of tea with the lads for three quarters of an hour because they’re friends and I love them. If anyone asks me what I do, I tell them I drive a cab.” Safe to assume that Schumacher won’t have his head turned by the intoxicating world of telly, then. Partly, this is because he got into it “older and less concerned whether or not people like me” and also because living in Liverpool gives him distance from “the industry”. “I’m forever going backwards and forwards on the train, which costs a fortune, but I do think that distance enables me to defend what I’m doing from too much outside influence.” View oEmbed on the source website Schumacher has a “no d**kheads rule” about the people that he works with, which clearly serves him well. But overall, he sees “the industry” as, well, unwelcoming to people like him. “By calling it imposter syndrome, it makes you feel as if it’s in your head and you’re the one that’s in the wrong. But it isn’t and you’re not. The television industry wasn’t built for working-class people. We’re not meant to be here. When I go to a meeting, I find it astonishing that, not always but more often than not, I’m the only one who grew up in a s**tty house. Someone said to me recently that they were too embarrassed to get their laptop out in a meeting, and to me, it’s unbelievable that we still live in a world where that’s a thing. But that’s not just this industry, that’s this country.” I ask Schumacher if he sees himself in the mould of Bleasdale and McGovern and he actually blushes. “I’d love to be in that canon but I’m not.” Not yet, anyway. “I’d do the petition for them to replace the liver birds [as emblems of the city]. I still get a buzz when I get a message off them and it’s astonishing that I have the opportunities to sit with them lads and listen to them. I never met them before they were Alan and Jimmy but I doubt they were any different 50 years ago than they are now. If I was working with young writers and they asked who they should model themselves on, I’d point to Alan and Jimmy.” He’d be too humble to point to himself, of course. “I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to be recognised,” Schumacher says. “I just want to sit in this office and do what I’m doing. That’s enough for me.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Cage starts Sunday 26 April at 9pm on BBC One, and will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer. Add The Cage 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. 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Scandal icon Kerry Washington talks new show and real-life family revelations: “I think secrets are always rooted in shame”
She was a star of hit drama Scandal, but in real life the actor doesn’t do secrets and lies.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Born in the Bronx in New York, Kerry Washington’s breakthrough role was as political fixer Olivia Pope in Shonda Rhimes’s Scandal. On the big screen, she’s appeared in Django Unchained, American war drama The Six Triple Eight about an all-Black, all-female battalion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Her latest role is Eleanor in Apple TV’s Imperfect Women, which concludes this week, alongside Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara. An adaptation of an Araminta Hall novel, the show features three friends grappling with deception and a shocking crime... Imperfect Women began with your character talking about how deep the friendship is between three women – do you think there’s something specific about that female bond? For so long our narrative traditions have centred on men’s experience. We’ve been the love interest, the wife, the mother, or the sister. When you centre women’s stories and our emotional complexity, it feels refreshing and revelatory. I also love the title because there’s so much pressure for women to be perfect. When you have material that unpacks women’s complexity and our messiness and the fact that we are not perfect, it can be really riveting. Is that what made you sign on for the show? Well, I got a call from Elisabeth Moss. She’s tremendously talented. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time but I’ve never had the opportunity to work with her. We’re two women who have carried our own shows [Moss led The Handmaid’s Tale]. A lot of times when you’re in that number one position, you don’t have a chance to collaborate. When she reached out to me, I thought, “This could be extraordinary.” How was it working with her and Kate Mara? So special. We weren’t friends but I’ve known Kate for a long time and obviously I’ve met Elisabeth. But now we have become obsessed with each other. It was really fun for us three women to carry the show together. What makes this series particularly relevant right now? Well the show models the novel, and the novel switches protagonists. When you shift to another character’s point of view, you realise that we all have very different versions of the same situation. I think we’re living in a world where that’s something we all need – the ability to imagine someone else’s point of view and be curious about their perspective. The characters have been friends since college. In real life, do you find it hard to keep up with old friends? For me, the friendships that have lasted are the ones where we offer each other a lot of grace. Life is life-ing all the time and grace is really important in friendship. Speaking of old friends, is it true you learnt to dance from Jennifer Lopez? I did. Jennifer and I went to the same after-school centre. She’s older than me so she was one of the big girls. Our dance teacher was hospitalised when I was eight, so Jennifer would step in and teach the younger girls. So yeah, I learnt to dance from her. I wish I had better moves to prove it! Jennifer is very dear to me. You wrote in your 2023 memoir Thicker Than Water about finding out that you were conceived by a sperm donor, and that your dad wasn’t your biological father. What impact has that had on you? It has illuminated for me why I’m so drawn to truth in my work and to work that explores themes of honesty, transparency, authenticity and emotional intimacy. The themes of [Imperfect Women] resonate deeply for me – the idea of the secrets we keep from the people we love the most, because that’s an experience I had to walk through with my family. Do you think secrets are always damaging? I say to my kids that we don’t do secrets in our family. Surprises are OK, but secrets are not. I think secrets are always rooted in shame. There were a lot of secrets in Scandal – was there a moral to that story? The search for truth was a real throughline in that show. I always feel like jobs come to me when there’s something I need to learn and explore. Towards the end of the show, I kept asking myself: what are all these themes of fatherhood? Why does this keep coming up? I look at my notes on the finale and marvel at how it was as if my subconscious was ready to deal with my own issues around my father. You found out about your father after Scandal finished – what was that time like for you? It was fascinating because when Scandal ended I was in this period of asking myself, “Who am I now?” And the universe was like, “Well, you’re not who you thought you were”. There was an opportunity to take on myself as the main character in my life. I had been devoted to Olivia Pope and so many different characters through the years. But I had never really devoted myself to understanding me – and now I had the room. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Imperfect Women is streaming now on Apple TV – sign up to Apple TV. 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.
This Is England legend talks his new Sheridan Smith drama: "I worked my arse off for The Cage"
The Cage star Michael Socha gives his all to every role but remains true to himself.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. You did a two-hour audition for the role of Matty in The Cage. Surely, that isn’t how long they all last? Normally you get 15 minutes to half an hour, if you’re lucky. But I’ve known [director] Al McKay since we worked together on This Is England, so we’d had a chat about the intricacies of the character beforehand, which helped me figure out who Matty was. I take every audition seriously – I make sure I’m off-book [don’t need a script], make sure I understand the character – but I worked my arse off for The Cage. So in the audition itself, I got to play, to try stuff, to mess around. It was my favourite ever audition and when I left, I knew I’d done my best. Have you ever done an audition in which you felt you didn’t do your best – but were offered the part anyway? Yeah, and I don’t understand how – and that always gives me anxiety on the first few weeks of the project, like they’ve got it wrong. That sounds like a case of imposter syndrome. Is that something you feel? I definitely have my days of insecurity and times when I’m like, “How the f*** has this happened? How am I here? How am I working with these amazing people?” Because I didn’t go to drama school, sometimes I do feel out of my depth and there have been times over the years when I’ve felt I don’t fit in. But I just have to forget about all that and get on with the job at hand. How have you stayed grounded? Being from where I’m from [Socha grew up in Derby] and having lived the life I’ve lived. I wasn’t a child actor. I was a late teen actor, so I know a life outside of work and I have a grounding there. And I live a very normal life in which I’m not Michael Socha the actor. Don’t get me wrong – I love my work. But I also really enjoy my own life outside of work. I don’t identify as An Actor. I identify as me. I’ve got other responsibilities. Your breakthrough role was in Shane Meadows’s This Is England. What was your biggest revelation from that time? I couldn’t believe that the crew got paid. I thought it was a hobby, something people did for fun. I didn’t know that people made money out of it and paid their bills from it. Your CV since – Chernobyl, Showtrial, What It Feels like for a Girl, and further Shane Meadows projects – suggests excellent taste in scripts. My agent has good taste. As an actor, I’m very lucky that I get to express myself. I get to play the range of ups and downs and express emotions that in real life you can’t necessarily get away with. So we’ve got to harbour it, control it, and just forget about it. Is acting, if not therapy, then certainly therapeutic? I’m always scared of saying that sort of s**t but I think it is. If, to play the truth of a character, I have to rely on some aspects of my own personality or I have to examine something in my past, I’ll do it. As a result, I delve into things I don’t necessarily want to. But I do, I deal with them and I release. But all art is therapy. The other week I went to the Tracey Emin exhibition [at Tate Modern in London] and it’s incredible. And it’s the same thing – it’s gotta come out. As an artist, you have to be able to release and get whatever’s in your head out of your head. If you don’t, I don’t know what happens… Have you ever played a character you’ve grown sick of? In a therapeutic sense, once I’ve got to a level where I’ve expelled all the darkness within or whatever, there are certain characters I’ve needed a break from. Again, another cliché, but I’m an actor: I try and feel the actual emotions of each character, and sometimes that can give me a headache. Sometimes it can be stressful and it drains me. It makes me feel like a w****r when I say that’s what happens. But I get spent. How do you recharge? I would say I’m really into hiking, but every person’s into bloody hiking these days. I did the Camino de Santiago and I’ve walked England coast to coast, west to east. But the other day, I went on a hike with my mate Badger and we both agreed that we’re done with it. So we have to find a new obsession. I like keeping fit. I like boxing. I like kickboxing and watching movies and going to museums and art exhibitions. I like walking. I don’t like hiking any more. The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – subscribe here. The Cage begins Sunday 26 April at 9pm on BBC One. 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.
British TV legend Ross Kemp: "Nothing I've done fills me with fear more than EastEnders"
He may be back in Walford as tough guy Grant Mitchell, but Ross Kemp is now a family man who would rather go fishing than pick fights
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Ross Kemp insists he’s not “any sort of a hard man, really”. And, of course, you can’t help but smile, because the very act of hearing him say it triggers a mental slideshow of moments that suggest otherwise. Long-time Kemp watchers will have their own favourites. Perhaps the episodes of his Extreme World documentary that saw him dodging sniper fire in Afghanistan and Syria. Or the time he was in Colombia reporting on the drug trade there only to be stopped in his car by a man with a knife looking for a bribe. And what did Kemp do? “I told him to f**k off.” The list goes on. How about the time he was told to get down on his knees by armed guerrillas in Papua New Guinea and, instead, he reached for one of their gun barrels and said, “You’re not going to kill me.” Fans of Kemp’s 2023 memoir Take Nothing for Granted may also recall the story of the night he drunkenly went swimming in crocodile-infested waters in Australia and, with almost no recall of what he’d done, was told the next day that he challenged any crocs nearby to “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough”. So, when Kemp claims that “nothing I’ve done fills me with fear more than EastEnders,” it’s hard to judge your reaction. But he really isn’t joking. Thirty-six years since Grant and Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) first stepped onto Albert Square, Kemp says, “EastEnders is still the one that pushes me the most.” And his latest return to Walford has been no exception. Next week, we’ll see Grant return from Portugal as he finally comes face to face with his estranged son, Mark – their first encounter since Mark discovered who his biological father is. Coming after Grant’s flying visit to the Square for the show’s 40th anniversary last year, he’s due to stick around considerably longer, this time as he comes to terms with the deterioration of the Mitchell brothers’ dementia-stricken school-friend Nigel Bates, played by Paul Bradley. Between sips of botanical lemonade in a north London café, Kemp says he didn’t need to have his arm twisted on this occasion. The challenges of playing Grant as a 61-year-old, “with all the life you’ve experienced in the intervening years”, were what sealed the deal. “I think Steve [McFadden] is still brilliant when it comes to playing a guy who could hit you with a piece of wood, but could also break down in tears. Which is something you can also say for Grant.” For Kemp, the fear set in when he read his first scenes and realised what lay in store for him. “You get up so early to get to set, and then at the top of the first page, it says, ‘Grant heaves with tears on seeing Nigel.’” What Kemp couldn’t have foreseen on the first week of shooting was that he’d be shuttling between a hospital set and an actual hospital. “I won’t go into detail, but something happened to my mum on the third day on set. And so heaving tears wasn’t difficult. I was like, ‘Cut! We’ve got that.’ And it’s still not even 8am. “Then we walk into another set where everybody is having a sort of wake. In the script, there’s a conversation about what a good dancer Nigel was as a lad. I say, ‘You should have seen him in 1977, pogoing in all the clubs.’ Then someone goes, ‘What’s a pogo?’ And suddenly everyone’s chanting, ‘GRANT! GRANT! GRANT!’ trying to get me to pogo. There I am, pogoing at the tender age of 61. And there’s not much pogoing left in these knees.” The more time you spend with Kemp, the more you realise that it’s not the shadow of Grant Mitchell that looms over him; it’s that of his father John, a former serviceman and life-long policeman – who, in a Facebook post announcing his death last year, he described as “my hero; my role model”. In Lost Boys, Deadly Men, Kemp’s recent exploration into the crisis in masculinity affecting young men, he entered a male-only retreat called The Unmasked Man, where he was encouraged to open up to strangers and reveal the one thing he wanted to hear from his father. His answer? “It’s not always about competition.” But what sort of a career would he have without that competitive streak? I’m reminded of the scene from a previous return to Albert Square, in which he tells his daughter Courtney, “Perhaps if I’d been a better dad, you wouldn’t be the person you are.” Whose emotions are we watching in moments like that? Is it Grant – or is it Ross, rationalising what his father wasn’t always able to give him? “Oh, you definitely draw from real life,” he says, “unless you use a tear stick, that’s the only way.” While Kemp seemed to take away a lot of positives from his time at the retreat, one thing that sticks in his mind was “transformational coach” Alexander Cottle’s description of the Mitchell brothers as “stereotypical alpha males”. He’s not sure that’s entirely fair – and back in 1994, if you were one of the 25 million people who saw Grant tearfully confront his wife Sharon in a packed Queen Vic over her affair with Phil, you won’t need Ross Kemp to remind you that, “we were bawling our eyes out 30 years ago. We were doing it long before people suddenly thought, ‘Oh, it’s ground-breaking drama.’” In the event, it’s been quite handy sharing a body with Grant Mitchell. It’s allowed him to lean into the stereotype not just when it suits him, but also to surprise those who dare question his range. Former EastEnders script editor and screenwriter John Yorke is on hand to bear testament to the full breadth of that range. He gleefully recalls their first encounter back in 1994 when Kemp, “just about the biggest star in Britain at that point, walks into my office and says, ‘I want to complain.’ I replied, ‘How can I help?’ He prodded me in the chest and said, ‘I haven’t hit anyone in over a month!’ When this encounter is relayed to Kemp, he hoots with delight and, within seconds, pivots from outright denial to admitting, “Yeah, I think I probably could have done that! Steve and I got on well with a number of the writers. We had things in common – be it a sense of humour, or a view of the world that was similar. Not all of the cast members had that same relationship, and that certainly didn’t harm our storylines! But also, if you’re given a storyline, you can throw it down the toilet or you can charge it up the hill: it’s up to you.” By contrast, in 1998, when Yorke left the soap and set about casting the role of a gangster who moonlights as drag queen Dilly Dally in the ITV cop show City Central, there was only one name on his list: “Ross was literally in costume the whole time,” remembers Yorke, “and he just loved it. He was playing to the extras all day – a natural born drag queen!” Kemp rocks forward on his chair. “Shall I tell you a story about that? There was a song I had to do in that role – I Will Survive. And at the time, I’m living in Essex. I’m due to meet the guys down the pub, but first I’ve got just enough time to rehearse ahead of the next day’s shoot. So I’m wearing my neoprene bottoms and I put the little heels on because you have to be able to walk convincingly in stilettos – and I’m holding the hairbrush and belting out I Will Survive. When I’m satisfied with it, I head off to the pub. Next thing you know, slow handclaps. Three of the neighbours had been watching out the window.” When talk turns to regrets, I’m struck by his candour. He winces as he reflects upon how insecure he felt throughout his 20s: “I was a bit of a w****r, to be honest with you.” He shares a story about starring in Dick Whittington alongside Rod Hull and Emu. “I wouldn’t let him goose me. And he was very upset about that,” says Kemp, now laughing at the absurdity of what he’s about to describe. “That’s the difference between the old Ross Kemp and the new one. He could goose me now. Do you know what else has stayed with me? I was in the dressing room next door to Rod and even when he was out, if Emu was asleep, you had to be quiet!” Happily, the span of Kemp’s personal growth extends beyond personal space issues around sock puppets. In the 2000s, his marriage to former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks (then Wade) launched him into circles he couldn’t have imagined as a boy growing up in Barking, “just to the right of the EastEnders map”. He had dinner in Chequers with two prime ministers – Tony Blair and David Cameron – but neither impressed him as much as the American dignitaries he met at that time: the “natural magnetism” of Bill Clinton and the “powerful calm” of war hero turned Republican Presidential nominee John McCain: “He was the most impressive for me, just because he was shot down over Vietnam [where he was imprisoned for five years]. I thought he was just an incredibly stoic individual.” The interest in politics awakened in Kemp by his marriage to Brooks has outlasted it. After their divorce in 2009, he campaigned for Gordon Brown before, in 2024, issuing a surprising endorsement for Conservative MP Mark Francois – on the basis of his work with Armed Forces veterans. In 2012, Kemp’s time spent in Hugo Chávez’s “socialist utopia” of Venezuela was a dramatic eye-opener. In the resulting documentary, we saw Kemp’s visible shock as he visited a hospital whose staff simply couldn’t work fast enough to triage the victims of shootings arriving every few minutes at Caracas’s infamous El Helicoide jail, which had been run by its own inmates for the previous five years. As revealing as Kemp’s trips to the world’s most fractious hot spots are, one thing he withholds from viewers is the effect that these trips have on him. In the past, he’s said that his experiences following troops fighting in the Helmand province in Afghanistan left him “self-medicating”. Not just Afghanistan – his final day in El Helicoide affected him so profoundly that his time there climaxed in a messy night on Johnnie Walker that saw him smash several of his teeth. It doesn’t look like he’ll be leaving a Tripadvisor review for the dentist who treated him any time soon. “It was my first time on whisky and I managed to fall out with the people around me. The next day, they had to wake up the local dentist on her day off and try and stick something on me that would pass as teeth for the rest of the filming. She went at me with a chisel, no anaesthetic. The pain was awful, but the humiliation was worse.” This, being 2012, was also the year Kemp met his current wife, corporate lawyer Renee O’Brien – and, should he ever get the call, the story of how they met is surely one he can use on Would I Lie to You? In Afghanistan, he learnt that one issue faced by some soldiers was that the conditions there caused their underwear to “rot on them as they got soaked in ditches in 40 degree heat”. Leaning on the contacts he had, he pitched an idea for underpants containing silver (for its antibacterial properties) to his friend Bobby who worked for the luxury lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. The pants never happened but Bobby did tell him about his friend Renee, with whom he thought Kemp might hit it off. For Kemp, one of the big draws from the outset was the fact that O’Brien “hadn’t seen a single thing I was in”. Fourteen years after that first blind date in a Marylebone private members’ club, Kemp says that O’Brien still hasn’t seen any of his TV work. “That’s definitely part of the attraction!” he laughs. “In terms of what you see on paper, we’re probably incompatible. And yet…” Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google Keep up to date on what’s worth watching with your favourite entertainment news from Radio Times – see more of our exclusive news and interviews featured prominently in Top Stories when using Google. And yet the pair went on to have three children: Leo (10) and eight- year-old twins Ava and Kitty, in addition to Oliver, Kemp’s 15-year-old son from a prior relationship with make-up artist Nicola Coleman. Childcare is shared between them. Yesterday it was Kemp’s turn and his account of the day has the feel of one of his front-line reports. “With it being Easter, they’re off school so I was being a taxi for most of the day, taking them to different clubs and things. Then it was cooking dinner. One wanted a bit of barbecue, but his sister wanted to have something cooked in the oven – so I was trying to juggle two meals while they were fighting over who was on the trampoline and who was pushing who. Also the dog wanted feeding and… You know, these are very simple things, but often a day in the field can be easier because all you’ve got to look after is yourself as opposed to three children under the age of 11. And no one was satisfied at the end of it!” Except that, having reached a point in his career that allows him to pivot between drama, documentaries and his BBC One game show Bridge of Lies, Kemp says, “Life is about as good as it can be right now.” He can recall the occasion he was running from sniper fire in Karachi and a woman in a tuk-tuk shouted, “Oi! Are you Grant Mitchell?” in a Brummie accent – but at the same time, he’s also tickled when I tell him that my Gen Z daughters only know him through YouTube clips from Extreme World. He insists that “there’s never been a strategy to any of this, so I don’t see any reason to start now.” Beyond this current spell in EastEnders, the only plan to which he’s committed to is a trip aboard Steve McFadden’s 72ft-long fishing boat with McFadden and Paul Bradley – “sort of a three-men-in-a-boat type of thing”, he explains. “We’ll go off down the Thames and end up having a nice dinner together, which is what gentlemen of our age should be doing.” And is there room for a new documentary series to boot? “I think there should be!” Watch this space. Photography: Nicky Johnston @nickyjohnston Grooming: Bryony Blake @bryony_blake The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. 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.