Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-05-09T11:31:42.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Danny Dyer reveals all in Rivals season 2: "I go full frontal in this series"
items: Mortal Kombat II's Adeline Rudolph on "honour" of bringing Kitana to life, her upcoming K-Pop thriller and future ambitions
items: Kingdom Come: Deliverance's Henry actor Tom McKay reveals who he wants to play in a Lord of the Rings game
items: Mawaan Rizwan talks saying goodbye to Juice: “I think it’s healthy to close chapters”
items: Things You Should Have Done creator Lucia Keskin talks ADHD medication, old comedies and dark humour
items: Rivals star reveals why her new Harry Potter TV series role was a no-brainer
items: Believe Me writer Jeff Pope talks his John Worboys drama: "I was very aware that I’m a man writing a story about women"
items: Former Death in Paradise lead recalls stint on beloved show: "I always knew whodunnit!"
items: Sarah Beeny: "Having cancer hasn't changed me"
items: Here We Go writer teases season 4 - while star and Ghosts favourite explains secret to its success
items: Am I Being Unreasonable? favourites Lenny Rush and Selin Hizli talk BAFTA nominations, Slow Horses, and creating comedy
items: Eric Morecambe’s son reacts to recovered The Morecambe and Wise Show episode: "It’s absolutely hilarious"
items: Big Boys creator Jack Rooke: "I’m bored of mental health shows"
items: How BBC's disinformation experts investigate deaths in Iran – and the simple ways you can spot fake content
items: Race Across the World 2026 line-up: Meet the pairs competing in this breathtaking journey from Europe to Mongolia
items: I wrote Conversations from a Long Marriage and this is how Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam moved me to tears
items: Legends star Steve Coogan argues Margaret Thatcher shouldn't be "sanctified" – and reveals how his "devil" while growing up impacted his career
items: British TV icon David Jason reveals why he almost didn't get cast as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses
items: Radio 4's Jenny Kleeman talks DNA journey: "We have a US president who will talk about good genes"
items: Judi Love reveals her acting ambitions and an iconic TV show she would love to present
items: Liz Bonnin reflects on the moment David Attenborough was handed a gun to shoot a caiman - and an explosion followed
items: Joanna Lumley talks turning 80, mortality and assisted dying: "I shall clearly make 90, and I can't wait!"
items: Philippa Perry talks the "cosy crime" renaissance, neighbour Richard Coles and husband Grayson Perry
items: Richard Gadd explains why Half Man doesn't "pull punches" and why its most violent scenes are essential
items: Me, a tough guy?
items: Richard Gadd’s Half Man pushes the BBC to its violence limits but will it ever match HBO’s extremes?
items: The Responder writer reveals the real-life personal inspirations behind his new Sheridan Smith drama
items: Scandal icon Kerry Washington talks new show and real-life family revelations: “I think secrets are always rooted in shame”
items: This Is England legend talks his new Sheridan Smith drama: "I worked my arse off for The Cage"
items: British TV legend Ross Kemp: "Nothing I've done fills me with fear more than EastEnders"

Danny Dyer reveals all in Rivals season 2: "I go full frontal in this series"
type: item
date: 2026-05-10T07:00:11.000Z
creator: Emma Cox
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Danny Dyer chats to Radio Times magazine about what's to come in Rivals season 2.
encoded: 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. …

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Mortal Kombat II's Adeline Rudolph on "honour" of bringing Kitana to life, her upcoming K-Pop thriller and future ambitions
type: item
date: 2026-05-08T09:15:37.000Z
creator: Adam Davidson
subject: Movies
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Exclusive
subject: Interview
subject: Pass the Mic
description: "I didn't want it to feel like a gimmick or mimic anyone else's performance."
encoded: 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 …

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance's Henry actor Tom McKay reveals who he wants to play in a Lord of the Rings game
type: item
date: 2026-05-05T14:10:40.000Z
creator: Alex Raisbeck
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: Interview
subject: News
subject: The Lord of the Rings (franchise)
description: Some quite hungry characters to choose from.
encoded: 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…

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Mawaan Rizwan talks saying goodbye to Juice: “I think it’s healthy to close chapters”
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:01:25.000Z
creator: Gareth McLean
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The creator, writer and star of sitcom Juice now has a Bafta nomination – and big ideas for the future
encoded: 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 imagina…

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Things You Should Have Done creator Lucia Keskin talks ADHD medication, old comedies and dark humour
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:01:24.000Z
creator: Gareth McLean
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The Bafta-nominated creator, writer and star of Things You Should Have Done loves everything from Carry On to Nighty Night.
encoded: 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.

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Rivals star reveals why her new Harry Potter TV series role was a no-brainer
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:58.000Z
creator: Gareth McLean
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Katherine Parkinson is nominated for Best Female Comedy Performance at the 2026 Bafta Television Awards.
encoded: 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…

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Believe Me writer Jeff Pope talks his John Worboys drama: "I was very aware that I’m a man writing a story about women"
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:53.000Z
creator: Emma Cox
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: 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.
encoded: 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…

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Former Death in Paradise lead recalls stint on beloved show: "I always knew whodunnit!"
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:36.000Z
creator: Ed Grenby
subject: Books
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: 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.
encoded: 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 hea…

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Sarah Beeny: "Having cancer hasn't changed me"
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:28.000Z
creator: Vicki Power
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: With cancer behind her, the property expert has hit the road with the family band.
encoded: 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 …

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Here We Go writer teases season 4 - while star and Ghosts favourite explains secret to its success
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:16.000Z
creator: Gareth McLean
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Here We Go is nominated for two awards at the 2026 Bafta Television Awards.
encoded: 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 d…

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Am I Being Unreasonable? favourites Lenny Rush and Selin Hizli talk BAFTA nominations, Slow Horses, and creating comedy
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:11.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: "If I’m not making it funnier, I’d much rather the writers tell me," says Lenny Rush.
encoded: 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 …

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Eric Morecambe’s son reacts to recovered The Morecambe and Wise Show episode: "It’s absolutely hilarious"
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T16:00:06.000Z
creator: Patrick Mulkern
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The finding of a missing Morecambe and Wise episode is very timely, says Eric’s delighted son Gary Morecambe.
encoded: 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 triu…

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Big Boys creator Jack Rooke: "I’m bored of mental health shows"
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T14:01:49.000Z
creator: Huw Fullerton
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: 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"
encoded: 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 …

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How BBC's disinformation experts investigate deaths in Iran – and the simple ways you can spot fake content
type: item
date: 2026-05-04T10:00:24.000Z
creator: Laura Rutkowski
subject: Current Affairs
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Interview
description: BBC Verify Correspondent Merlyn Thomas explains how she debunks false claims in our "bad information economy".
encoded: 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 clim…

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Race Across the World 2026 line-up: Meet the pairs competing in this breathtaking journey from Europe to Mongolia
type: item
date: 2026-04-30T08:52:45.000Z
creator: Katelyn Mensah
subject: Entertainment
subject: Reality TV
subject: TV
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: BBC One
subject: Exclusive
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The biggest race on telly is back!
encoded: 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 strange…

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I wrote Conversations from a Long Marriage and this is how Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam moved me to tears
type: item
date: 2026-04-29T07:00:59.000Z
creator: Jan Etherington
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Jan Etherington writes for Radio Times as the beloved BBC Radio 4 series returns.
encoded: 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 …

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Legends star Steve Coogan argues Margaret Thatcher shouldn't be "sanctified" – and reveals how his "devil" while growing up impacted his career
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:30:42.000Z
creator: Craig McLean
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: His latest role in political thriller Legends takes Steve Coogan back to the 90s – a time where he couldn’t be picky about parts.
encoded: 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 environ…

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British TV icon David Jason reveals why he almost didn't get cast as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:01:11.000Z
creator: Caroline Frost
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Fifty years after Open All Hours welcomed its first customer, the star is back behind the counter one last time.
encoded: 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. Th…

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Radio 4's Jenny Kleeman talks DNA journey: "We have a US president who will talk about good genes"
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:00:52.000Z
creator: David Crawford
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Ever wondered about your heritage and thought about taking an ancestral DNA test? Be careful what you wish for, says Jenny Kleeman.
encoded: 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 …

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Judi Love reveals her acting ambitions and an iconic TV show she would love to present
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:00:46.000Z
creator: Laura Rutkowski
subject: Entertainment
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The comedian sold out the London Palladium, but still suffers from stage fright.
encoded: 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 …

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Liz Bonnin reflects on the moment David Attenborough was handed a gun to shoot a caiman - and an explosion followed
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:00:32.000Z
creator: Terry Payne
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: 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.
encoded: 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 o…

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Joanna Lumley talks turning 80, mortality and assisted dying: "I shall clearly make 90, and I can't wait!"
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:00:27.000Z
creator: Ginny Dougary
subject: audio
subject: Radio
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Busier than ever on the eve of her 80th birthday, Joanna Lumley talks about sex, death, marriage – and holes in her trousers.
encoded: 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 s…

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Philippa Perry talks the "cosy crime" renaissance, neighbour Richard Coles and husband Grayson Perry
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T16:00:21.000Z
creator: Ginny Dougary
subject: Books
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Philippa Perry’s first foray into fiction is about a psychotherapist who turns to solving crime. A case of art imitating life?
encoded: 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 …

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Richard Gadd explains why Half Man doesn't "pull punches" and why its most violent scenes are essential
type: item
date: 2026-04-25T05:00:53.000Z
creator: James Hibbs
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: Interview
subject: On demand
description: Gadd, best-known for his Netflix mega-hit Baby Reindeer, is the latest guest on our interview series looking at the art of screenwriting.
encoded: "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 …

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Me, a tough guy?
type: item
creator: Pete Paphides
subject: App
subject: App features
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: 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
encoded: 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…

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Richard Gadd’s Half Man pushes the BBC to its violence limits but will it ever match HBO’s extremes?
type: item
date: 2026-04-23T06:00:13.000Z
creator: James Hibbs
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: HBO
subject: Interview
description: 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?
encoded: 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. T…

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The Responder writer reveals the real-life personal inspirations behind his new Sheridan Smith drama
type: item
date: 2026-04-22T09:32:55.000Z
creator: Gareth McLean
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Tony Schumacher reveals all about his new BBC drama, The Cage.
encoded: 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 als…

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Scandal icon Kerry Washington talks new show and real-life family revelations: “I think secrets are always rooted in shame”
type: item
date: 2026-04-20T16:01:57.000Z
creator: Isabelle Aron
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Apple TV
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: She was a star of hit drama Scandal, but in real life the actor doesn’t do secrets and lies.
encoded: 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? …

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This Is England legend talks his new Sheridan Smith drama: "I worked my arse off for The Cage"
type: item
date: 2026-04-20T16:01:26.000Z
creator: Gareth McLean
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: The Cage star Michael Socha gives his all to every role but remains true to himself.
encoded: 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?…

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British TV legend Ross Kemp: "Nothing I've done fills me with fear more than EastEnders"
type: item
date: 2026-04-20T16:01:14.000Z
creator: Pete Paphides
subject: EastEnders
subject: Soaps
subject: TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: 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
encoded: 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…

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