Prisoner 951 review: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe drama is fittingly infuriating and heart-rending
Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes shine in this powerful four-part series.
Unless you've been living under a rock or have been avoiding the news entirely for the past 10 years (and, honestly, it would be hard to blame you), then chances are you'll have some knowledge, however fleeting, of the story surrounding Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. That is in no small part thanks to the work of her husband Richard, whose tireless and personally brutal campaigning shone a light on Nazanin's plight, which could otherwise have gone so much deeper under the radar. Now, a BBC drama, Prisoner 951, is set to bring Nazanin's story to even greater prominence and recognition, while also deepening the understanding of those who are only aware of it on a cursory level. Based in part on Nazanin and Richard's upcoming book, A Yard of Sky, which is set to be released next year, the series is a powerful, unflinching piece of drama, which is at once both deeply upsetting and utterly enraging. To fill in some of the blanks: in 2016, a British-Iranian citizen, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe travelled to Iran with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella to visit her family. Her husband, Richard, stayed at home in the UK. As the mother and daughter were waiting to board a flight back to the UK, they were arrested at the airport, and Gabriella's passport was confiscated. Iranian officials accusing Nazanin of leading a "foreign-linked hostile network" and plotting to overthrow the Iranian government. She was sentenced to five years in jail. Nazanin always denied those allegations and said that she was only in Iran to visit her family. Over the following years, Richard worked to bring her home in any way possible. As he became disillusioned with the political response, he turned to making waves in the press to draw attention to Nazanin's plight. Both he and Nazanin became convinced that she was a pawn in a decades-old political dispute between the Iranian government and the UK, relating to a debt the latter owed. The UK government has always denied that the two issues were linked, but her freedom, and the freedom of other imprisoned dual nationals, was only secured after the debt was paid. That was six years later, in 2022. Prisoner 951, which has been written by Stephen Butchard and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, retells this story in detail, backed up not only by Nazanin and Richard's accounts, but also by extensive research. It's an interesting prospect, given that the story is still so fresh in recent history. This recency suggests that the intention behind the programme is not necessarily just to make you aware of Nazanin's plight, but to make you understand it, both in greater detail and on an emotional level. Throughout the first episode, I have to admit that I worried the drama was focusing too keenly on the former, while neglecting the latter. As the piece speedily ran through Nazanin's detainment, the bogus charges she was levelled with and Richard's response to events, everything felt strangely detached. It turned out that was the drama's genius. Just like Nazanin and Richard themselves, you as a viewer are thrown into a chaotic, confounding situation, where events are escalating at a mile a minute and it's hard to truly reckon with the enormity of what is happening. Then come the final scenes of the episode. One particular sequence, in which Nazanin is briefly reunited with Gabriella, is so moving, so deeply upsetting and so profoundly human, I'd challenge anyone not to well up. From there on out, the four-part series is an emotional hurricane, buffeting you from one crisis scenario to another. This is not in any way easy or light watching, nor should it be. The programme reckons with the real horrors that Nazanin and her family faced, as she was repeatedly given false hope only for it to be squashed. So many of the sequences are utterly infuriating, as she protests her innocence, yet it becomes clearer and clearer the truth really doesn't matter here. There are other factors at play, and she has no agency is securing her own freedom, and reuniting with her daughter and husband. Nazanin's journey is brought to life wonderfully by Narges Rashidi, in a transformative performance which never breaks the immersion of the viewer. It's a performance which could so easily have been one-note, given the suffering Nazanin is seen experiencing, but Rashidi manages to make it anything but, layering her portrayal with additional elements of hope, joy and wit. Thousands of miles away, the other portion of the series, the other side to this coin, is dedicated to Richard's efforts to investigate the real reason for Nazanin's detention, and to spur British politicians into meaningful action. Like Rashidi, Joseph Fiennes is phenomenal in his role. It's a profoundly un-showy performance, one full of restraint, compassion and perseverance, with Richard's frustration and despair almost always bubbling under the surface rather than being out in the open. In so many ways, this is a story of duality. There are Nazanin and Richard's dual stories. There are the two emotional levels it's operating at, balanced perfectly between sorrow and fury. And then there's the genre elements, as the series shifts between profound love story and political thriller. The political narrative is entirely told through Richard and Nazanin's eyes. There are no scenes trying to guess at the conversations the Iranian officials were having privately, nor are there any meeting shown between the British government ministers regarding the situation, without Richard being present. This is absolutely a wise choice, particularly given the recency of events. It also helps to put us firmly in their shoes – for instance, while work may have been going on with regards to Nazanin's case behind closed doors, from Richard's perspective it appeared as though little to nothing was happening, a state we are made to endure as well. However, one downside is that it does leave the scenes with real-life British political figures feeling somewhat artificial and incongruous with the rest of the series. The decision was actively made not to cast and actor to play Boris Johnson, as Butchard explained when speaking with Radio Times magazine. Instead, Johnson appears only in archive footage. In contrast, there are three politicians and former Government ministers that do feature and are played by actors – Tobias Ellwood, James Cleverly and Liz Truss. It's tricky knowing what the team should have done here, given that they wanted to showcase examples of the meetings Richard really did have, and the frustration he felt as he kept pushing for greater focus and action. However, there's no denying that it is jarring seeing Liz Truss brought to life as a character (and a little bit of a caricature), not long after witnessing the real Boris Johnson. Perhaps there is no right answer for what should have been done here. It's certainly a relief we didn't get Truss and Cleverly turning up to play themselves, like the bizarre sequences featuring Nadhim Zahawi in Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Still, the scenes featuring them do stick out, particularly when the rest of the drama is so engrossing and involving, and feels so real. The rest of the cast play their parts ably, with strong performances from the likes of Kavé Niku and Behi Djanati-Atai as Nazanin's brother and mother, as well as from the young actors playing Gabriella at various points of her life. It has to be said none of them get any particularly huge, showcase moments. This really is Nazanin and Richard's stories, as it should be. The end of the drama does go on to highlight another prisoner and activist, whose journey we have seen glimpses of, but in a way which feels slightly out of the blue and doesn't really feel earned by the series. It's clear what the drama is trying to do here, but unfortunately it doesn't entirely land, given the highly personal route it has taken with the rest of its runtime. Regardless, these are such minor quibbles in the face of what is a profoundly impactful watch. Prisoner 951 doesn't break any moulds or feature any particularly notable directorial flourishes, but nor should it. The team behind the series clearly know that in telling a story like this, it is key not to lose focus on the elements that matter. This is a story about resilience, about love, about justice and injustice, but predominantly, it's the story about Nazanin and Richard, two unremarkable people who were forced to become remarkable through horrific circumstance. In its small, limited way, in the way that any drama can, this series does them justice. Prisoner 951 will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Sunday 23rd November 2025. Add Prisoner 951 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.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review - A strong multiplayer and Zombies mode offsets a dull and poor campaign
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 shines with a nostalgic multiplayer experience and a strong continuation of Zombies, even if the campaign is a big step back.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a fascinating game, in that it is a direct follow-up to last year’s Black Ops 6 that, for the most part, abandons everything that made it one of the strongest releases we have seen for a while. As a result, Black Ops 7 feels like a muddled release that doesn’t quite warrant a new game, even if the multiplayer and Zombies are an excellent refinement of its predecessor's offerings. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign is also a direct follow-up to 2012’s Black Ops 2. Main character David Mason is Alex Mason’s son, and the game connects characters from across the Black Ops timeline like Troy Marshall from Black Ops 6. There are even some fun nods to the beloved Black Ops 1 that offer some highlights. Emma Kagan, the CEO of evil robotics company The Guild is using Raul Menendez and a Fear Toxin to consistently torment Mason and the other characters with nightmares from their past or their worst fears. This is where Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign gets pretty wacky. The series has always played around with supernatural or Lynchian narrative beats, but here it feels like a runaway train, and not in a good way. After the first mission, and once you kind of accept this is the nonsense we're dealing with, it isn’t as jarring to see a huge horde of Zombies support you as you break out from Vorkuta prison, or have to fight a giant Harper who spits out attacks from his mouth. Alas, it isn’t really what I wanted from the Black Ops 7 campaign. Previous campaigns in the series were memorable because they kept things grounded while fiddling around with some of these ideas. The bigger, more fundamental problem with the campaign is that it just feels like it wasn’t treated with the care and respect that campaigns in the series usually receive, especially after the excellent Black Ops 6 campaign last year. Here you blaze through everything in about four hours, hopping between the linear levels and exploring Avalon, the endgame map, which is like a giant battle royale map. This cadence is dreadful and Avalon is a bland conglomerate of dull objectives, bullet-sponge enemies, and reused areas and maps from Black Ops 6 and other games. It just feels tacked on and has almost no actual relevance to the larger story taking place in the background. On top of that, because of this endgame mode, campaign co-op now has a full progression system which just dilutes the actual campaign even more with level pop-ups, camo unlocks, random power upgrades, and Warzone style caches to find weapons. That endgame experience is also pretty dull after an hour or two. While it is interesting to see Call of Duty experiment with a PvE style extraction shooter mode, the enemies you fight are almost all reused enemies from the Black Ops series or from the Black Ops 7 campaign, the objectives are boring, and it’s just a grind to level up your operator until you reach the final boss. One area that really shines though here with Black Ops 7 is the multiplayer, however. I enjoyed the Black Ops 6 multiplayer, but Black Ops 7 feels like the closest we have ever come to going back to the golden era of Call of Duty between the years of Black Ops and Black Ops 2. The entire experience feels reminiscent of Black Ops 2, with a similar time to kill, a dozen or so returning weapons from that game, and maps that feel inspired by the design and flow that made that game’s multiplayer so special. Gunfights feel so much better than they did in Black Ops 6 and the wall jumping adds a splash of Black Ops 3 and Advanced Warfare’s jetpacks, growing the skill gap in the game without feeling too overwhelming for players to deal with. The weapon selection is stronger and the maps are outstanding, some of the best we have had in Call of Duty in a long time. Some favourites include Toshin which has great visual design and also flows fantastic with some key power points, and back alleys to flank around. Blackheart is also a strong map which takes the idea of creating a tight, small map and executes it better than we have seen in the past. You can even level up and add bonus abilities to your scorestreaks, grenades, and field upgrades that deepen the class system without changing the structure drastically, as this iteration is the best we have had in a while. The progression supporting that multiplayer is also a refinement of what we saw with Black Ops 6. There are more challenges to earn and more pinnacle rewards to go after. Camo challenges have been simplified to be slightly less frustrating, while still requiring a lot of time investment. But now every weapon has two prestiges you can go through, as well as an additional 150 levels after that once you reach Prestige Master with unique camos to earn throughout that grind, and a unique pinnacle camo for each weapon, most of which are classic camos from the Black Ops series. There’s a lot of nostalgia here that appeals greatly to someone who grew up with Call of Duty during the Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 era, and whose favourite Call of Duty is the latter. The removal of the strict skill-based matchmaking is also the best decision the franchise has made in years. With Zombies, the focus here is on Ashes of the Damned, which asks the bold question, “What if we made TranZit again from Black Ops 2 but didn’t make it ghastly to play?” Yes, Treyarch is back with another big map but it is miles better than TranZit. While it isn’t a direct remake, there are a lot of fun nods and similarities such as the return of T.E.D.D., the bus driver who rides around the vehicle in this map, an armoured truck called Ol’ Tessie. It’s a pretty fun map, although the experience does lose the condensed, focused feeling that Black Ops 6 Zombies had. There’s a lot to do and even more to keep track of but the map is teeming with Easter eggs, fun side activities to get free perks and ways to upgrade your gun. It’s enjoyable in the same way most of Black Ops 6’s maps are, and the map does seem to signal a return to form when it comes to the narrative. It looks like Treyarch is finally bringing the sprawling storylines of the series together to lead up to an impactful conclusion. This is where Black Ops 7 feels like it makes a lot of the same mistakes the lambasted Modern Warfare 3 (2023) did. While every element here is much stronger than that game, with the multiplayer being the best we have seen in years and Zombies also being a robust continuation of the storyline, it does just feel like an expansion pack to Black Ops 6. The once treasured Black Ops storyline feels like it was an afterthought with this game, and the endgame mode that replaces it isn’t nearly engaging or exciting enough to warrant the campaign being mistreated in this way. If you are really into the Black Ops Zombies mode and multiplayer, then Black Ops 7 is worth grabbing, but if you plan to spend most of your time elsewhere, then you can skip this year’s mixed entry. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. 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.
Kirby Air Riders review: Friendship ended with Mario Kart, now Kirby is my best friend
The best way I can describe Kirby Air Riders is that it is, at its core, an intensely GameCube-coded game. For some, that might be a turn-off; why would you want to play a game reminiscent of a gimmicky console from 2001? For others – myself included – a game like Air Riders harks back to an era that may have been a bit quirky and off-kilter, but was nothing if not fun. Air Riders is a sequel to 2003's Kirby Air Ride, and unsurprisingly, it plays very similarly. The controls are simple, and while it can be a touch difficult to get used to the way you turn and drift if you're used to games like Mario Kart, within a few races you'll be absolutely flying. One of the core mechanics is the classic Kirby concept of absorbing enemies to steal their powers. By absorbing enemies during a race, not only will you get a nifty speed boost, but you'll also get their corresponding ability, letting you blast enemies with balls of fire or slash them with vast sword swipes. Races are fast, chaotic, and surprisingly tough once you turn the AI difficulty up a few notches. Before each race, you'll have the chance to choose one of 20 iconic characters, as well as a vehicle, each of which has its own spread of stats and its own unique quirks. Depending on how you want to play, the combination of rider and vehicle you choose can have some major impacts on your approach to the race. Meta Knight on the Winged Star may not exactly speed through the more grounded tracks like Floria Fields, but stick him on Airtopia Ruins where his penchant for flying can truly shine and you're golden. The fact that your approach to the game is so heavily influenced by the vehicles you use means that there's a surprising amount of skill expression, and plenty of flexibility. Two players can race with entirely opposing strategies and still perform well, as opposed to a game like Mario Kart, in which (at least for the average player) how well you perform is determined by how well you can drift and how lucky you get with item pickups. There are a few different modes to choose from, each with a slightly different offering. Air Ride is simply a one-off race; choose your rider and vehicle, choose your track and off you go. Top Ride is essentially the same, but from a top-down perspective instead. A brand-new mode for Air Riders is Road Trip. One could say that it's Air Riders's closest thing to a story mode, but that would be a bit of a stretch. Instead, it feels much more like a spin on the Classic Mode from Super Smash Bros., in which you take on a series of challenges, increasing in difficulty as you go, collecting upgrades along the way as you journey to where your vehicle apparently longs to go. As far as story-adjacent modes go, it's good fun, although after playing it through around one-and-a-half times, I can't say I have much interest in playing through it much more. Undoubtedly, though, Air Riders's best mode by far is City Trial, a racing-slash-party game collectathon. Players are given a set amount of time to wheel around the floating island of Skyah, flitting between city, pirate ship, volcano and more, collecting upgrades, exchanging vehicles and smashing up other riders and even a world boss now and again. At the end of this madcap rush for upgrades, players are then chucked headlong into a minigame, almost reminiscent of a vehicular Mario Party, with each minigame tailored to a particular build. Again, depending on your choice of rider and vehicle, you will be stellar at some minigames and hopelessly outmatched in others, adding a bit of strategy when it comes to voting for the minigame you want to play – in multiplayer the game does thankfully recommend which option your build is best suited for. And that brings me onto where Kirby Air Riders truly shines. This is an absolute blast to play in multiplayer. Single player is great fun as well, don't get me wrong, but when you're thrown into the frenzied melee of City Tour along with 15 other players freewheeling around, smacking each other all over the map, it's hard not to sit there grinning like a child. Unfortunately, since this is just the review period, my multiplayer experience has been limited to playing online, but I am already excited to head home for Christmas and bust this game out with some friends and just go nuts. Air Riders is an interesting game. Thinking about it, I'm not convinced that there's a huge amount of replay value on offer here. Once you've run the gauntlet of modes in single player a few times, I can't say I have much desire to play any more of them on my lonesome. But Air Riders isn't really a traditional racing game – as I've alluded to a few times already, it's much more fitting to think of it as a party game. When you do that, what you'll find is that Kirby Air Riders is riotously fun, and manages to modernise the GameCube original without losing any of its zany, eccentric charm. When I sit down solo with my Switch 2 over the next few weeks, this is probably not a game I'm going to boot up. But when I'm dossing about with friends and looking to just kick back for some ridiculous, rip-roaring multiplayer fun, Kirby Air Riders is going to be very high on my list. Kirby Air Riders releases on 20th November 2025 for Nintendo Switch 2. 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.
Wicked: For Good review – Oz saga conclusion will satisfy its extensive army of devotees
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form in another wondrous, multi-colour extravaganza.
After last year’s Wicked: Part I, we’re back for some more Ozploitation. Jon M Chu’s two-part adaptation has already been a wild ride, tapping into the perennial enthusiasm for the long-running stage show by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which itself came inspired both by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and, of course, Hollywood Golden Age musical The Wizard of Oz. Part I conjured a healthy $756 million global box office, followed by ten Oscar nominations and two wins. There’s no reason to think Wicked: For Good won’t perform the same trick, or better it, with Chu bringing events to a rousing close. While he infuses enthusiasm into every frame, the same can be said for his leading ladies. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form as, respectively, the pink-hued Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the green-skinned witch who has been cast out of Oz, thanks to the machinations of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, wickedly charming as ever), the ultimately carney-man. Now in exile, the demonised Elphaba’s name has been stained by the Wizard, in league with her one-time tutor, the former Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh, still wearing that delicious Mr Whippy ice-cream hair-do). The slightly vapid Glinda, meanwhile, thinks they need to be trademarking the word "good", while she’s also caught up in preparations for her impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who has been charged with capturing Elphaba. Early on, we see her deftly flying her broomstick and causing disruption as workers build the famed Yellow Brick Road – and that won’t be the only reference to The Wizard of Oz. Wicked: For Good weaves around events of the 1939 movie, as a certain house from Kansas comes tumbling from the sky. Chu, wisely, never makes this about Dorothy, Toto and the others, but rather places them in the backdrop – a move that respectfully doesn’t trample on the memory of the iconic star of the original, Judy Garland. There are new songs penned by Schwartz – No Place Like Home and The Girl in the Bubble. But you’d be hard pressed to claim these lift the show into a new stratosphere. And in truth, whether or not splicing the stage show in two was a cash grab, you’re always left wondering what a one-movie approach would’ve been like. Try as he might, Chu doesn’t quite generate the same emotional heft as the previous film, but that’s always likely when the audience has been made to pause halfway through the story. View oEmbed on the source website Despite some cool visual treats (flying monkeys!), there’s also some questionable CGI/make-up effects involving both Goldblum and Bailey, in a meme-worthy transformation, and a lot less of Bowen Yang, as Pfannee, which is a shame. But gripes aside, it hardly matters when you’ve got Erivo and Grande hitting the highest of notes. Both Oscar nominees last time out, in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively, it’d be no shock if Academy voters were keeping their powder dry to award these divas this time around. In both cases, it’d be richly deserved. Read more: Keeper review: An unsettling, compelling but ultimately unsatisfying chiller from Oz Perkins The Running Man review: Glen Powell proves a charismatic hero in Edgar Wright remake There are some lovely interactions – including one hilarious fight – as Glinda confronts her feelings about Elphaba, whose quest to save the animals, banned from Oz along with the Munchkin people, has led her to this life on the outside. Once again, Nathan Crowley’s production design is wondrous, a multi-colour extravaganza that truly brings Oz to life. Simply spending time there – with its fields of tulips and fireworks in the sky – is one of the great pleasures of this movie. A film that will surely satisfy Wicked’s extensive army of devotees. Wicked: For Good is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Mighty Nein review: Critical Role level up with magical new adventure
The Wildemount adventures begin as Critical Roles expands its animated universe.
Critters can once again delve into the world of Exandria with the long-awaited adaptation of the nerdy-ass voice actors’ most viewed – and undoubtedly most beloved – live-action tabletop role-playing campaign, The Mighty Nein. The animated version of their second live-streamed games has long been on the wishlist of fans following the release of The Legend of Vox Machina, and it’s certainly been quite the wait since the show’s announcement back in January 2023. Spanning over 550 hours and six major story arcs across three and a half years, there’s plenty of source material for the Critical Role gang and Titmouse, Inc to sink their (mimic) teeth into, with at least two seasons on the way. The team has evidently taken on board viewer feedback about TLOVM’s rushed pacing, with the first season of The Mighty Nein starting from a session-zero perspective – laying the groundwork for this brand-new collection of complex characters. Set around 20 years after the events of The Legend of Vox Machina, The Mighty Nein unfolds on the continent of Wildemount, on the brink of war. Political tensions are at breaking point between the two powerful nations of the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty. Drawn together by a tragic event – and seemingly by circumstance – the “motley group of assholes" find themselves at the centre of a major play for power, as a powerful arcane relic known as The Beacon falls into dangerous hands. The group of fugitives and outcasts attempt to band together to expose the false flag that’s been set in motion, and in turn, help save the realm from all-out war. The adventuring party has seriously levelled up with a treasure trove of arcane magic – there are brand new spells, new powers and new feats this time round. Unlike their more stereotypical predecessors, this band of misfits consists of a more intriguing collection of classes and species. There’s the utterly chaotic Tiefling cleric Jester (Laura Bailey) and her travelling companion Fjord Stone (Travis Willingham), an orphaned half-orc warlock and sailor who’s exhibiting strange powers from an acquired arcane sword. Nott the Brave (Sam Riegel), an alcoholic goblin rogue with certain pick-pocketing tendencies, soon partners up with the dishevelled and deeply depressed wizard Caleb Widogast (Liam O'Brien), who’s currently wanted for murder. The pair bump into Beauregard "Beau" Lionett (Marisha Ray), an abrasive monk from the Cobalt Soul who’s investigating potential corruption in her order. The group converge at the Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities, where Mollymauk "Molly" Tealeaf (Taliesin Jaffe), a tiefling blood hunter and tarot card reader, currently resides. The show also lays the foundations for Yasha Nydoorin (Ashley Johnson), an Aasimar barbarian and famed mercenary from the wastes of Xhorhas. Straight from the get-go, it’s clear that The Mighty Nein is a different beast to the high fantasy of its predecessor. This is an undoubtedly bigger and darker world, with a greater focus on the complex political machinations and moral ambiguities at play throughout the various warring factions. The story itself feels more developed, with higher stakes and an exploration of mature themes, delving into the follies and corruption of power. And the longer episodes – coming in at around the 45-minute mark – are a marked improvement, giving more room to establish and explore the characters while setting the stage for the intricate setting. Packed with court intrigue, political plays, clandestine organisations and plenty of twists and turns, the overarching narrative is also a more gripping outing. View oEmbed on the source website Despite the more ambitious setup and mature tone, the CR gang have retained the incredibly character-driven storytelling, with the endearing pairings and party dynamic front and centre. There’s also a greater focus on backstory – particularly Liam O'Brien's scruffy wizard Caleb, and Travis Willingham's orc warlock, Fjord. Adapting a second D&D campaign brings with it more complex and refined character builds, and the MN are certainly a fascinating bunch. They’re more morally grey than Vox Machina, but also far more compelling and nuanced, especially as the VM party intentionally leaned into more straightforward fantasy tropes. There’s also plenty more inner demons and buried pasts to unearth – with some tantalising teases at what’s to come – and while Liam’s characters can occasionally veer into overly emotional territory, overall there’s a stronger balance struck across the band of misfits. Rest assured, the adult humour is still in abundance too, with some genuinely hilarious moments – primarily courtesy of fan favourite Jester. Laura Bailey is a genuine standout, and there’s some brilliant moments throughout the party members as they capture the amusing chaos of failed roll attempts (“Oh f**k you, water!). And yes, there are a lot of changes from the original campaign, with certain events and key players from arc three onwards – namely Essek Thelyss and Trent Ikithon, the Luxon beacons, the Volstrucker and the Cerberus Assembly – introduced much earlier. But this makes for a much more rounded story and a stronger jumping-on point. There’s also something here for both new and diehard fans, with the inclusion of events that Critters didn’t get to see in the original campaign, along with an impressive roster of guest actors, including Mark Strong, Ming Na Wen, Nathan Fillion and Jonathan Frakes. The animation from Titmouse, Inc once again brilliantly brings this more magical outing to life, featuring vibrant, distinctive character designs and richly detailed environments – particularly the stunning Lucid Bastion of the Kryn Dynasty. The studio excels at translating D&D’s intricate magic systems to screen, impressively depicting the array of incantations and components that make each spell feel tactile and real. Two gorgeously animated dungeon crawls – both taking the form of heists – also stand out, alongside fun and immersive locations such as the Lavish Chateau (complete with its own musical sequence), a travelling circus, a certain beloved shopkeeper’s establishment, and the prestigious Soltryce Academy. Eagle-eyed fans are once again rewarded with a treasure trove of Easter eggs to spot – “318008” being a particular favourite! The biggest drawback of this first outing is simply that you don’t want it to end. As the credits roll on the final episode, it’s hard not to feel a pang of disappointment that the CR gang chose to wrap things up just as the characters and storylines start to meaningfully converge. It’s a conclusion that feels a little premature. Still, it’s an excellent slice of magical mayhem that lays the groundwork for a more expansive outing and deeper character development – with some very exciting teases for what’s in store… The Mighty Nein will begin on Prime Video on 19th November. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Keeper review: An unsettling, compelling but ultimately unsatisfying chiller from Oz Perkins
The best bits are frightening, memorable and distinctive but the plot reveals don't exactly hold up to scrutiny.
Modern love meets ancient evil in Keeper, a folk horror-hybrid from Osgood Perkins, son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins. This is his second chiller out this year after solid Stephen King adaptation The Monkey and it’s a far more ambitious offering, though for all Keeper’s flair it doesn’t always hit the mark. Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany stars as the inscrutable Liz, a city-girl artist, who is taking a break with her physician boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland – son of Donald Sutherland, half-brother of Kiefer) in his plush cabin in the woods. They’ve been together a year and she’s very happy, apparently (tell your face that!), but suspicion runs deep between the two, and being stuck in the wilderness in a lodge full of tall glass windows with no blinds, doors with no locks and no privacy anywhere, isn’t helping. Add in weird cousin Darren (Birkett Turton) and his Eastern European girlfriend Minka (Eden Weiss) (she’s from one of the “-ainias”, we’re told) and it’s a recipe for tension and distress for already skittish Liz. Elemental imagery including frequent overlays of rushing water and screaming women suggest something bigger than relationship anxiety is occurring here. Exactly what won’t be revealed until the exposition-heavy third act, and even then it doesn’t entirely hold up to examination. She-Hulk star Maslany has a lot of heavy lifting to do here and she copes admirably, bringing an occasional jolt of much-needed humour – she knows she’s in a horror film – but Sutherland as Malcolm, who has a tough job anyway with clunky dialogue and bizarre character beats in Nick Lepard’s uneven script, isn’t quite able to convincingly carry off the required mix of lover/doctor/enigma. And as a couple the two don’t gel at all. There’s a mid section plot line that means Malcolm is not even there for a chunk of the action which is, perhaps tellingly, the most unsettling part of the film, leaving Liz alone to handle her paranoia, intrusions from Darren and increasingly strange hallucinations. Perkins does a great job of messing with our sense of time – days, or even years, seem to have passed in mere hours, and the use of light and shadow in the corners of the swanky but sinister dwelling recalls the creepiest bits of Ari Aster’s Hereditary. Keep your eyes on the outskirts of the frame for the most terrifying moments. An excellent pre-title sequence to Mickey & Sylvia’s Love Is Strange kicks off the action energetically, and though that pace isn’t maintained throughout the rest of the film, the sound design remains impressive: here the quiet moments are eerily silent, the needle drops are pointed and the whispers from the woods are pervasive. View oEmbed on the source website Like Perkins’ 2024’s hit Longlegs, Keeper is a slow burn, leaving viewers in the dark until the end, though when revelations about what’s really going down in the woodland retreat are revealed they don’t exactly hold up to scrutiny. Keeper doesn’t even seem to be especially concerned with internal logic or the details of its own lore. This is an unsettling, compelling but ultimately unsatisfying effort in terms of plot, coherence and pacing. It attempts to talk about contemporary gender politics through a folk horror lens but doesn’t really manage to say very much about either. It does, however, come with indelible visuals – if this is a hit, Halloween costumes for 2026 are in the bag. Move over Longlegs, meet Long Neck… The best bits are frightening, memorable and distinctive. Hit and miss then, but Keeper does at least further cement Perkins as one of the boldest independent voices in horror around. Keeper is now showing in UK 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.
The Beast in Me review: An embarrassing blunder for 'Peak TV' icons
Netflix's latest dud marks a low point for Emmy winners Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys.
If you needed any more evidence that the golden age of television is well and truly over, look only to how its mighty have fallen. The Beast in Me unites three actors whose work represents major pillars of the 'Peak TV' era – Claire Danes (Homeland), Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) – but renders them all somewhat laughable. You might remember that Saturday Night Live (back when that was worth watching, too) staged a savage viral parody of Danes's Homeland performance back in 2013, enlisting Anne Hathaway to play CIA agent Carrie Mathison at her most hysterical. It's hard not to be reminded of that during The Beast in Me, which sees Danes constantly amped up to 11, while co-stars Rhys and Banks chew the scenery until there's nothing left but a damp pile of mulch. The story begins when real estate tycoon Niles Jarvis (Rhys) moves into the wealthy neighbourhood of author Aggie Wiggs (Danes), who is struggling to crack the follow-up to her celebrated best-selling debut. It isn't long before Niles becomes a subject of interest, as the super-rich, hyper-aggressive businessman is plagued by unproven accusations that he murdered his missing ex-wife. Is there more to the story than meets the eye? Aggie herself is wracked with guilt over the death of her young son in a car accident that occurred while she was driving, causing her marriage to disintegrate and her world to become much, much smaller. That profound, agonising grief (plus intimidation from this enigmatic new neighbour) is the catalyst for an extreme turn from Danes, in which almost every line of dialogue is shakily blurted out in a state of mild to moderate panic. Though you wouldn't know it from this review, I am actually quite a fan of Danes's work – from Homeland to 2022's highly underrated Fleishman is in Trouble – but even admirers will be quickly desensitised to her intense emoting here. Equally, The Americans is one of my favourite shows of all time, so I am keenly aware of how masterfully menacing Rhys can be in a quality role; alas, Niles Jarvis more closely resembles a second-rate Bond villain or Succession reject (whichever is worse). Rhys does elevate a script full of clunkers, but Niles is just as cartoonishly heightened as Aggie; whether he's a murderer or not, he won't be on your Christmas card list after you watch him devour an entire chicken in 60 seconds flat (yes, a real scene). Admittedly, the two leads are such a bizarre pairing that they do keep The Beast in Me watchable in spite of how utterly preposterous it is, so there's a compliment in there somewhere for those willing to go digging. Banks takes a supporting role as Niles's father, Martin, who has a contentious relationship with the heir to his empire, which is why he's continued to produce new Jarvis children – and makes them physically fight, to remind us he's mean. Although his career pre-dates Breaking Bad, Banks is now best known as Mike Ehrmantraut and, much like co-star Giancarlo Esposito, seems doomed to riff on his character from that show for the rest of his career. Well, at least it's a steady pay cheque. There's more strangeness from David Lyons as unravelling FBI agent Brian Abbot (perhaps his silliest role since The Cape), but Brittany Snow (The Night Agent), Natalie Morales (Grey's Anatomy) and Hettienne Park (Hannibal) escape relatively unscathed. Ultimately, The Beast in Me is a far cry from the most painful shows I've had to watch in this job; the episodes (mostly) come in under 50 minutes, the characters are larger-than-life, and the plot is so silly that you feel anything could happen. It's the kind of daft assembly line thriller that you'd normally expect to see fired out of Netflix's Harlan Coben machine, or perhaps aired across three consecutive nights on 5; but the money and star-power behind this one does give it a certain charm. So while it's tough to recommend The Beast in Me, I also can't deny that it was entertaining – just for all the wrong reasons. And that might be enough to draw a crowd on Netflix, where popularity and excellence are rarely in alignment. The Beast in Me is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Add The Beast in Me to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Running Man review: Glen Powell proves a charismatic hero in Edgar Wright remake
Wright delivers plenty of kinetic set-pieces in this Stephen King adaptation – but the plot's episodic nature leads to some lulls in momentum.
On-the-rise action man Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters) takes on a role originally played on screen by his Expendables 3 co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger in this explosive, big-budget remake of the 1987 thriller. Set in a dystopian, totalitarian United States where violent television programmes have become the opium of the people, the original film was based on a 1982 novel by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman pseudonym), but co-writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho) has opted to stay even closer to the source material for his adaptation. So, instead of Arnie’s Ben Richards being a cop coerced to participate in the game, Powell’s Richards is a working-class Everyman living in an overcrowded slum, whose frustration with his inability to hold down a job and look after his waitress wife and their ailing toddler forces him to volunteer for the financially lucrative if lethal Running Man TV show. Avoid capture for 30 days and $1 billion is the ultimate reward. However, contestants are also hunted across the United States by an elite team of assassins led by a merciless masked mystery man. The action is televised to an audience happy to dob them in to the authorities for a slice of the financial pie, all under the auspices of ever-smirking network CEO and smug puppet-master Dan Killian (Josh Brolin). Read more: Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film Die My Love review: Jennifer Lawrence is superb in this absorbing and quietly devastating drama Killian and motor-mouthed MC Bobby T (Colman Domingo) consider Richards a ratings winner, especially when he continues to evade his murderous pursuers and their ever-present drone cameras, and then survives by the skin of his teeth when they do get close, as in one fiery encounter at a down-at-heel Boston hotel. However, could Richards’s resilience and apoplectic defiance inspire something other than bloodlust from viewers and threaten their best-laid corporate plans? No stranger to delivering breakneck action (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), Wright produces plenty of nerve-jangling, kinetic set-pieces, whether it is a deadly game of chicken on a bridge or the climactic airborne stand-off. The fact the deadly contest takes place across the US (rather than a murky underground labyrinth as seen in the 1987 movie) also expands the scope of the story, revealing an America riven by economic inequality and manipulated by a self-satisfied few who have no qualms about using fake news to control the narrative. View oEmbed on the source website A similar theme fuels The Long Walk – released earlier this year, and also based on an early King story – in which televised survival of the fittest is used to distract ordinary folk from their impoverished plight. It’s the type of allegory that Wright’s director idol George A Romero (of Night of the Living Dead fame) would have applauded. However, the episodic nature of the plot, with Richards having to don a variety of disguises to lay low and avoid recognition, occasionally leads to a lull in the pace and a lessening of tension. Nevertheless, Powell proves to be a charismatic hero, bristling with anger but also able to stay alive thanks to his own ingenuity and much-needed assistance from those he meets on his travels, such as cameoing William H Macy, Emilia Jones (CODA) and Michael Cera (star of Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World), whose mercurial rebel lives in an elaborately booby-trapped bolt-hole worthy of Rambo. Oh, and regarding cameos, keep your eyes peeled for a left-field appearance from Schwarzenegger himself. The Running Man is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 12th November 2025. 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.
Now You See Me: Now You Don't review – A disposable but fitfully fun reunion
The script for this threequel is rarely as clever as it thinks it is and hardly ever as fresh as it should be.
Combining legacy characters with a new trio of younger illusionists, the third film in this action-comedy series is a busily disposable – if fitfully fun – combination of reunion gig and new-generation franchise spruce-up. Director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Uncharted) replaces predecessors Louis Leterrier and Jon M Chu, stepping in to juggle the expected ingredients of a tangled heist, some tricksy set pieces, a couple of crowd-pleasing cameos and splashes of globe-trotting glitz. Yet as the crowded cast grapple with the script’s patchy supplies of sparkle and finesse, it can be hard to care which way the plot’s cards end up landing. The opening piles deceit on deceit with a show seemingly involving the returning Four Horsemen, star magicians whose ranks number cocky frontman J Dallas Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), hypnotist Merritt (Woody Harrelson), escapologist Henley (Isla Fisher) and card-sharp Jack (Dave Franco), reunited after almost 10 years away. A rug-pulling segue then introduces a fresh-faced gang of magicians, namely Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa), June (Ariana Greenblatt) and Charlie (Justice Smith). When Atlas infiltrates their secret hideout to reprimand them for imitating his crew, he also recruits them. Their mission, should they choose, etc? To help engineer a diamond heist and take down a crime syndicate fronted by Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a woman whose callous activities, we’re told, “make the world’s worst people possible". Read more: Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film Die My Love review: Jennifer Lawrence is superb in this absorbing and quietly devastating drama The film’s prologue tries to big up the Horsemen’s comeback to a degree that might seem excessive even if Elvis were resurrected. While it’s hard to share the excitement at their return after the shallow romp of 2016’s Now You See Me 2, a nifty on-screen switcheroo at least revitalises the franchise’s mild pleasures: watching charming rogues wrongfoot all-comers and fleece the rich remains the rough gist. A clumsy reliance on exposition muffles that magic, however, and the problem is exacerbated by a script that insists on congratulating itself when it’s not flagging up its subtexts. The idea that audiences need magic in dark times is presented as if the series requires legitimising, a risky suggestion when spry fun and cleverer-than-thou misdirection should be the aims. The cast do their best to deliver on these fronts even if the script glues their characters to type, presumably to minimise complications in an already messy plot. Eisenberg is playfully verbose, while Harrelson’s line in laconic asides bears repeating – "This liver’s not going to destroy itself," he quips, accepting a drink. Pike has fun with the hissable Veronika, her silky self-assurance, smirk and camp accent offering fun compensations for slender characterisation. View oEmbed on the source website Fisher makes a welcome franchise return after sitting out the previous film, but gets little to do. The new trio show potential, notably Greenblatt during a gymnastic fight sequence in a tight space, but spoiler-y appearances from former series cast-members leave ever-decreasing room for the newcomers to register. A disappearing act is one thing, but the new trio threaten to vanish from memory whenever they’re off-screen. Meanwhile, any subplots about legacy character relationships barely get a second thought, beyond rote nods to their “weird” interpersonal history. It's the set pieces that lift proceedings, with action sequences at a public diamond display and in a house of illusions showing flashes of pacey wit, levity and invention – though Christopher Nolan might want his rotating corridor set back. The narrative linking them is, however, frustratingly loose even for a franchise that revels in the ridiculous. One or two twists prove inconsequential, while the script is rarely as clever as it thinks it is and hardly ever as fresh as it should be. When the final, creaky reveal recalls the first film’s climax, you hope the series manages to conjure up some new tricks before the proposed fourth outing apparates. Now You See Me: Now You Don't is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14th November. 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.
Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film
This new film from writer/director Paul Andrew Williams is a bleak but captivating study of loneliness and social care set in contemporary Britain.
Two actors, among the very best of their respective generations, come together for Dragonfly, a bleak but captivating study of loneliness and social care set in contemporary Britain. Brenda Blethyn plays Elsie, an ageing pensioner who lives in a semi-detached bungalow. Elsie has been a widow for 13 years and has one son, John (Jason Watkins), who rarely visits. The only people she regularly sees are the carousel of care workers who bustle in to wash her and fix her tea before scooting off to their next appointment. Next door is Coleen (Andrea Riseborough). She lives alone with her bullish-looking dog, an animal she loves dearly but barely has control over. Her hair scraped back, her skin is pale and, despite her protests to the contrary, she looks far older than her 35 years. Living on benefits, she slouches on the sofa all day watching TV, sinking into a malaise. But gradually, she finds company when she offers to buy provisions for Elsie from the corner shop. From this little acorn, an oak tree of friendship grows, as these two lost souls find solace together. Writing and directing is British filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams, who adds yet another intriguing addition to his body-of-work, one that kickstarted with the visceral London to Brighton almost two decades ago. Williams errs on the darker side in his films, as his last movie, the 2021 hallucinatory revenge tale Bull shows, and Dragonfly is no different. The companionship that Elsie and Coleen conjure is destined to take a disturbing twist, although it’s likely you won’t see it coming until it’s too late. The film toys with social realism, albeit on Williams’s terms. The low-key electronic score by Raffertie, who previously scored Oscar-nominated horror The Substance, occasionally punctuates unsettling shots of Elsie’s home, empty hallways and so on that suggest how little she has left in her life. Shooting in natural light, there’s a gloom that envelops this film, made more poignant when Elsie suddenly cries out at one of her care workers, “What’s my name? You don’t know, do you?” Casually, this is a portrait of Britain at breaking point. A busted flush. Opening with shots of a depressed-looking British town centre (it was filmed in West Yorkshire), Williams never patronises his characters, or the positions they are in. Despite the bleakness, he mines a strain of gentle humour, notably when Coleen buys a walkie talkie set so the two can chat. Needless to say, Elsie struggles with the buttons. “I can hear you better through the door,” she wails, amusingly. But, as funny as this is, those rudimentary communication devices take on a more poignant meaning later in the film. Blethyn arguably hasn’t had a role this good since Mike Leigh’s 1995 Cannes-winning Secrets & Lies, although any comparisons to Leigh should be dismissed. Williams’s approach has sharper teeth than Leigh’s domestic portraits, as good as they are. Riseborough, meanwhile, is at her chameleonic best here. It’s remarkable that two decades into her career, one that’s seen her work frequently in Hollywood, she’s still almost unrecognisable from role to role. Here, she sinks right into Coleen, a woman who has suffered a painful existence, living on government hand-outs, her mental health hitting the red zone. Williams handles her with care for the most part, although one shot of her face pressed against Elsie’s door feels overcooked. She and Blethyn have been nominated at the forthcoming British Independent Film Awards for Best Joint Performance, and it feels an entirely apt choice. They play off each other brilliantly, the centrepiece in this highly astute and frequently heartbreaking film. Dragonfly is in UK cinemas from Friday 7th November 2025. 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.
Robin Hood review: MGM+’s reimagining eventually finds its target with Sean Bean as Sheriff
Sean Bean takes on the iconic role of the Sheriff of Nottingham in MGM+’s reimagining of Robin Hood.
Robin Hood has been retold across countless mediums, most recently in Disney’s family-friendly adventure Robin and the Hoods. Now, John Glenn and Jonathan English have reimagined the tale as an origin story with psychological depth and mythological and historical undertones — a portrait of a man fighting for justice under oppressive rule in MGM +'s Robin Hood. Stripped of their lands and ancestral homes, the Saxons struggle to adjust to their new status as outlaws after the Norman conquest of the Middle Ages. Their usurpers sit comfortably in their manors, while Rob (Jack Patten) and his parents, Joan (Anastasia Griffin) and Hugh (Tom Mison), are turned out of their home and into a modest hut in the forest. The series begins in Rob’s childhood, when the Normans first seize power, exploring the devastating effect this has — particularly on his father. Robbed of his title, position, and home, Hugh’s dangerous rage puts the family at risk, as his wife tries to temper his fury for the sake of survival. Driven by pride and ego, the opening episode dissects Hugh’s shortcomings as a man forced to kneel before a king and authority he does not recognise — a conflict Rob will later inherit. Most crucially, Hugh introduces his son to the bow and teaches him to control his emotions in order to always hit his mark. Rob’s relationship with his father is pivotal to this adaptation, and it’s a testament to Mison’s performance that the full weight of that bond — and its undoing — lands within the first hour. His father’s death becomes a powerful motivator, shaking Rob from his submissive slumber and igniting the rebellion that defines him. Read more: I'm an expert historian and here's how accurate Robin Hood on MGM+ is to real events Sean Bean is a ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham in dramatic trailer for new Robin Hood Heavily influenced by Vikings (and, at times, Game of Thrones), this is unmistakably an adult watch. Graphic sex scenes, power plays, and gruesome tableaus are framed to haunting effect, illustrating the depth of devastation caused by invasion. Justice and equality are now hollow ideals, twisted by the Normans to serve their own ends and exploit honour as a weakness. The Saxons’ one hope – and a strange supernatural force – lies in their connection to the forest and the faerie Godda (Jelena Gavrilović), said to dwell within and protect her devoted followers. Prayers are whispered like spells on the wind, strengthening the hearts of believers who cling to the hope that something – or someone – will save them from the evil that has claimed their lands. It’s a fraught, richly grounded story that feels both historical and eerily relevant to the present day, where mass displacement, loss of land, and the manipulation of power are ongoing realities. The anger towards conquerors – those who rewrite history and reshape culture and faith – is easy to understand. That sense of enormity carries through to the series’ production. Compared with earlier adaptations, such as the BBC’s 2006 version, this Robin Hood is vast in scale. Backed by Amazon and MGM’s budget, the 10-part series unfolds across expansive real and CGI-enhanced sets, from the forests and Nottingham to London and the royal palace. Dramatic licence is balanced with medieval realism, creating an immersive take on the legend that truly finds its footing in the second episode. After an exposition-heavy opener that establishes tone and historical context, the story gains momentum as Rob’s revolution begins to take shape. A welcome addition is the influx of women in this world. Marian (Lauren McQueen) is far more than Rob’s love interest — she’s a woman reckoning with her abusive upbringing, complete with her own ambitions and convictions. Told almost as a Romeo and Juliet-style romance between two people from opposing worlds, Rob and Marian sit at the emotional heart of this retelling. After a fleeting childhood encounter — when Marian, frog-hunting in the forest, meets Rob — the truth of her father’s sins begins to surface. Huntington (Steven Waddington) is a cruel, calculating presence who stops short of pantomime villainy, but his blind malice starkly contrasts with the story’s traditional antihero: the Sheriff of Nottingham (Sean Bean). Bean excels as the conflicted Sheriff, given more depth than ever before – a man burdened by the power he wields as judge, jury, and executioner. He’s humanised, tormented by the constant state of war around and within him, as it becomes clear that peace is an impossible dream. The cast balances seasoned talent – Bean, Waddington and Connie Nielsen as the formidable Queen Elena – with rising stars like Patten, McQueen and Lydia Peckham, who all leave lasting impressions. Priscilla (Peckham), the Sheriff’s daughter, is another dynamic addition – a woman who wields her sexuality as a weapon of control, initially over the Captain of the Guard. Defiant and sharp-willed, she adds a compelling shade of villainy and serves as a foil to the initially meek Marian, who gradually finds her voice and purpose as an informant to the rebellion. Across 10 hours of action, shifting allegiances and reimagined legend, Robin Hood delivers the familiar beats with fresh grit and emotional resonance. Will it be the definitive version? Perhaps not. But it carries a surprising weight, heart and ambition – a series that rivals even the most acclaimed historical dramas. A must-watch for fans of the lore and the genre alike, and a timely tale of defiance against those who seek to oppress, censor or erase. Robin Hood arrives on MGM+ on Sunday 2nd November 2025. Add All Creatures Great and Small 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. 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Midsomer Murders on stage review: A killer debut for the classic crime drama
DCI Barnaby is back on the case in this thrilling stage production.
28 years after it first launched on our TV screens, Midsomer Murders makes a thrilling stage debut. Retaining all the heart of the beloved TV show, writer and director Guy Unsworth welcomes you to the county of Midsomer with a brand-new look at the episode and book that started it all: The Killings at Badger’s Drift. The play takes place when well-loved spinster Emily Simpson is found dead and her friend Lucy Bellringer refuses to accept it was an accident. DCI Tom Barnaby and Sergeant Gavin Troy are called in to investigate, uncovering a world of hidden passions, long-buried secrets and deadly rivalries. Leading the cast is Daniel Casey, the original DS Gavin Troy, who has been promoted to DCI Tom Barnaby. In an interview with Radiotimes.com, Casey admitted feeling a little “daunted” and “a little bit trepidatious” about the role, but he takes on the mantel left by John Nettles with ease. Casey brings a quiet authority and warmth in the part that helps to ground the play. He’s the calming presence in the manicured wilderness of Midsomer, giving the audience a steady guide throughout. Surrounding him is an assortment of eclectic characters, all expertly played by a handful of supporting cast; most of whom are playing two or three roles. It was quite a surprise to realise how few actors there were when the show ended. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/10/Daniel-Casey-Barnaby-James-Bradwell-Troy-Rupert-Sadler-Dennis-Rainbird-in-The-Killings-at-Badgers-Drift-Manuel-Harlan-062a01f.jpg" width="5000" height="3333" alt="Daniel Casey (Barnaby), James Bradwell (Troy) & Rupert Sadler (Dennis Rainbird) in The Killings at Badger's Drift, ©Manuel Harlan" title="Daniel Casey (Barnaby), James Bradwell (Troy) & Rupert Sadler (Dennis Rainbird) in The Killings at Badger's Drift, ©Manuel Harlan" /> Barnaby’s protégé, DS Troy, is now played by James Bradwell; delivering the same bad-driving and conclusion jumping fans of the show would be expecting. While the play is scattered with funny moments, Bradwell shows up for a lot of them; whether he’s the butt of the joke or simply being an over-eager detective, he offers up that touch of lightness the show is known for. Casey told us in the run up that “if you’re a fan of the television series, you’re going to love the play”. As one of those said fans, it truly felt like I was watching an episode in action. The staging rolls between cottages to manors to murder scenes in seconds. It creates the feeling of escapism the TV show is known for. Accompanying this is a familiar score that brings tension and warmth throughout each scene, underscoring the mystery, the brutality and the quintessential English charm that its famous for. More than anything, Midsomer Murders delivers exactly what theatre goers could hope for: a sharp, thoroughly entertaining whodunnit. It’s two hours of intrigue and charm that keeps you guessing until the very end. Just don’t be too confident you’ll solve it before DCI Barnaby. Buy Midsomer Murders tickets at ATG Tickets When can I see Midsomer Murders on UK tour? 15 dates and venues have been announced so far for the Midsomer Murders UK tour: 24th Oct – 1st Nov 2025 – London, Richmond 4th – 8th Nov 2025 – Malvern, Festival Theatre 11th – 15th Nov 2025 – Chester, Storyhouse 18th – 22nd Nov 2025 – Eastbourne, Devonshire Park Theatre 25th – 29th Nov 2025 – Sheffield, Lyceum 20th – 24th Jan 2026 – Truro, Hall for Cornwall 27th – 31st Jan 2026 – Guildford, The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre 3rd – 7th Feb 2026 – Brighton, Theatre Royal 10th – 14th Feb 2026 – Blackpool, Grand 17th – 21st Feb 2026 – Glasgow, Theatre Royal 24th – 28th Feb 2026 – Nottingham, Theatre Royal 10th – 14th Mar 2026 – Birmingham, The Alexandra 17th – 21st Mar 2026 – Norwich, Theatre Royal 24th – 28th Mar 2026 – Derby, Derby Theatre 14th – 18th Apr 2026 – Leicester, The Curve 21st – 25th Apr 2026 – Cambridge, The Arts Theatre 29th Apr – 2nd May 2026 – Oxford, New Theatre 12th – 16th May 2026 – Bromley, Churchill Theatre 19th – 23rd May 2026 – Darlington, Hippodrome 27th – 30th May 2026 – Manchester, Opera House 2nd – 6th Jun 2026 – Dublin, Gaiety Theatre How to get Midsomer Murders UK tour tickets Tickets for several of the shows are available on ATG Tickets. Buy Midsomer Murders tickets at ATG Tickets Make sure you read our chat with Tom Fletcher on the Paddington Musical and how to watch the New Year's Eve Fireworks in London.
Football Manager 26 review: FM26 is one step forward, two steps back
FM26 feels like a strong foundation to build on, but for now, the switch to Unity hasn't paid off.
You don't know what you've got until it's gone. That sentiment very much sums up my feelings about Football Manager 26. A yearly game like FM needs to evolve – of course it does – and the switch to the Unity engine promised to be the jolt in the arm that FM deserved, if perhaps it didn't necessarily need it. A technological leap forward for the series, Unity would bring the graphical update fans had been clamouring for, as well as lay the foundations for a new era for the series. Following a chaotic two years in which FM25 had to be scrapped, FM26 is finally here. The graphics may have been updated, those foundations laid, but has all that trouble and strife resulted in a better game? For me, sadly not. Let's start off with the good, shall we? Those graphics are indeed a huge step up for the game. Gone are the repetitive blank slate players of the past, replaced with more detailed and lively ones, replete with animations that feel far more like you're watching a real football match. Now and then, that added realism does swerve a touch into the uncanny valley, when a particularly odd animation or player decision occurs, but for the most part, it's hard to argue that SI hasn't done a bang-up job here. I will miss the option to take a grainy webcam photo so that the game can make my manager's face a grotesque baby man, but I'll let it slide. Another great addition is how tactics have been changed, now giving players the option to choose players positions and roles both in and out of possession. In practice, there are still some exploits that need tweaking, but it's a nice extra bit of flexibility, even if I do currently hate all of the new role names. We also finally have the addition of women's football, which has been implemented excellently, and I can't wait to see more leagues added into the game in future years so I can manage my beloved hometown of Rugby Borough. Unfortunately, when it comes to new changes, that's about it for the good. That, of course, begs the question of how FM26 still gets three stars. Well, that's because, despite all the changes, at its core this is still Football Manager. And while not a huge amount has fundamentally changed about the actual core gameplay, that does mean that it's still extremely solid, and good fun. That is to say, if you gave me this game with the exact same custom skin UI I used in FM24, I would be having as good a time, if not better, than I had with FM24. If you've read any coverage of FM26 so far, or indeed tried out the beta for yourself, then you will already know how shockingly poor the UI is. For most games, a poor UI is a very minor part of the game; an annoyance that has little bearing on the overall experience. Unfortunately, Football Manager's UI is an overwhelmingly important part of the game, and it's very hard not to find it extremely off-putting. When visiting the SI offices last month, I was told that because of the switch to Unity, the entire UI had been rebuilt from the ground up. Initially, I felt like this was just a matter of getting used to a new layout, the more I have played, the more it feels like it really is just poorly implemented. While this update provided a chance for SI to reinvent the wheel, it also meant that decades of quality-of-life changes, added incrementally as the UI was tweaked from year to year, were gone. Some of these missing features that I found most frustrating during my preview have since been fixed, but many other glaring omissions are still missing. It's simple things like saving your team selection so you can quickly reload it later, or being able to mash the spacebar to sort through your emails. Some things that required me to click one button in FM24 to do now required me to embark upon a veritable odyssey through a sea of different menus and pop-ups. Individually, these are minuscule complaints, and I do feel a tad whiny for making them, but these issues stack up, and the minuscule issues I and many others have with FM26's UI are so numerous that they are truly impossible to ignore. Another issue I have with the game is how it runs. Again, if you had given me this game in a vacuum, I would have said that it ran pretty well. But this game doesn't exist in a vacuum, and in comparison with FM24, which has run extremely smoothly, and more importantly extremely quickly, for me over the past two years, there is a very noticeable drop in performance. Everything from navigating menus to waiting for the results of other matches and leagues to load simply feels slower. FM24 was a phenomenally optimised game, and whether I had one league loaded or ten, I felt as if I was gliding through seasons at lightning speed, while FM26 feels rather more sluggish. Again, these are minor qualms, and they are ones that I imagine I wouldn't be making of a standalone title. But this is far from a standalone title. FM26 was billed as the beginning of a new era of Football Manager, a series that has been around for two decades – three once you include Championship Manager. The three stars I'm giving FM26 are by virtue of it being Football Manager, a game and series that I love, and one that's core gameplay is strong enough that despite my issues, I still cannot call this a bad game. But what it is, is a game that feels like it needed more time in the oven. I empathise deeply with the developers at SI, as they have been put in a rather impossible position. Having cancelled last year's game, I can't imagine that a delay to FM26 was ever on the cards, even if it would have resulted in a more polished game. The fact that international management is not in the game from launch, instead returning as a revamped new mode later in the year speaks, at least for me, to the fact that this is not a game that is ready to launch to the standard that the developers at SI want and expect. Just as we have the Championship Manager stalwarts who continue to refuse to make their way onto the Football Manager bandwagon, I think it's an inevitability that a similar schism is about to take place between 24 and 26. I am confident that we will get the new era of FM that we have been promised eventually. In the short-term, we will hopefully soon be able to paper over the horrendous UI with a custom skin reminiscent of FMs of old (two years ago). Across the year, SI will deliver us fixes and tweaks to further improve the game, ironing out some of the creases and adding back in some of those missing features. I wholeheartedly believe that by FM27, and certainly by FM28, we will well and truly be in the midst of the new era of FM that we were promised; a golden age, if we're lucky. For now, the new era of Football Manager is off to a rocky start. While the ever-moreish gameplay loop will no doubt eke another 1,000 hours out of me while I laze in front of the telly, I cannot truthfully say that this is the game I had hoped to wait so long for. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a česká fotbalová liga trophy calling, and I intend to answer. View Green Video on the source website 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.
The Witcher season 4 review: Liam Hemsworth's Geralt falls flat as Netflix flagship fantasy loses its magic
Will Henry Cavill’s departure prove the final nail in the coffin for the "Witcherverse"?
Following the shock news that leading man – and self-confessed Witcher fan – Henry Cavill was hanging up Geralt’s swords and wolf medallion back in 2022, fans of Netflix’s flagship fantasy series were understandably left reeling. The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth was shortly announced as the new the White Wolf for the final two seasons. But with huge shoes to fill, as many considered Cavill’s portrayal of the beloved monster hunter definitive, the controversial announcement certainly left a dark cloud over the project. Casting concerns aside, there’s no denying that the writers have long played fast and loose with the source material in season 4, taking plenty of creative liberties with certain character arcs and events – much to the frustration of those who love Andrzej Sapkowski’s books and the CD Projekt games. While the third outing attempted to right the ship with a more faithful adaptation, season 4 faces even bigger challenges. Can Netflix win over returning viewers with the introduction of fan favourite characters such as Regis (Laurence Fishburne) and Leo Bonhart – or Cavill’s departure prove the final nail in the coffin for the "Witcherverse"? Picking up after the devastating (and Continent-altering) events of the Thanedd Coup, season 4 sees Geralt (Hemsworth), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan) once again scattered across the war-ravaged Continent. The former lion cub of Cintra embraces her “Falka” persona among the rebel gang of outlaws known as the Rats, while Geralt embarks on yet another (!) rescue quest, forming a new found fellowship of misfits along the way. Meanwhile, Yennefer seeks to unite the remaining sorceresses for a final showdown with Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), the mage who's secretly been pulling the strings all along. View Green Video on the source website Thankfully, the latest instalment isn’t split into multiple parts – as that month-long gap between volumes last season certainly hurt the pacing. Netflix has instead opted for a full release, to its credit. Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri’s intertwined stories are recapped through a clever narrative framing device, as book characters Storyteller Stribog and Nimue recount previous events, tying together the series’ legends and myths Sapkowski’s novels. While season 3 was buoyed by the heartwarming found family dynamic as the trios destinies finally converged, this season certainly suffers with their frustrating separation. After more than a two year wait – and with Cavill’s departure looming large – it’s admittedly difficult to feel excited about yet another search for Ciri. Overall, the fourth outing is unfortunately a frustrating and inconsistent entry, marked by a significant drop in quality. The shifting tone – paired with uneven performances and production elements – 0ccasionally tips the series into melodrama. The sprawling story has ballooned with an ever expanding roster of characters, locations, factions and shifting allegiances, resulting in an unwieldy amount of plotlines to juggle. Certain threads are also far more compelling than others. Sharlto Copley is an entertaining standout as the infamous bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, and is proves a much stronger antagonist than the naff(?) Vilgefortz. On the flipside, The Rats’ storyline is a slog to get through, lacking the charm and charisma of Shadow and Bone’s similarly rag-tag band, The Crows. It’s also disappointing that Ciri’s enigmatic father, Emhyr var Emreis (Bart Edwards), has seemingly faded into the background. Thankfully, many of Baptism of Fire’s major moments are faithfully adapted, including the introduction of fan favourites Regis (Laurence Fishburne) and Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley), Ciri’s dark arc with The Rats and the Battle for the Bridge on the Yaruga. However, Yennefer’s arc – and the events leading to the creation of the Lodge of Sorceresses – undergoes significant changes. It was always going to be a bold move to recast Geralt, and unfortunately, it just doesn’t work. It’s incredibly jarring to see and hear Hemsworth as Geralt. Rather than adapting a similarly deep, gravelly tone as Cavill, he questionably decides to channel his brother’s Thor-like accent. While the Aussie actor is competent in the action sequences, his stature and overall take on the monster hunter unfortunately just doesn’t measure up. He’s less physically imposing than his predecessor and lacks the stoicism and chemistry of his predecessor. As feared from the much-maligned trailer sequences (here’s looking at you, “Let’s f**king move!”) the writers still fail to grasp the show’s main protagonist, with awkward dialogue and inconsistent characterisation. Despite showrunner Lauren Smith Hissrich's insistence that the “show is bigger than one actor”, many fans tuned in purely for Cavill’s performance and his endearing dynamic with co-stars Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan. Hemsworth does his best with the material he’s been given, but his delivery and performance often falls flat – which may just prove the final straw for many long-time viewers. Jaskier (Joey Batey) fans are also dealt somewhat of a blow, as the bard’s development from last season regresses in favour of comic relief. While the renowned Bremervoord musician has brought to life a number of bangers, such as Toss a Coin to Your Witcher and Burn Butcher Burn, this season's musical interlude is a misfire in comparison. The baffling, Aladdin-esque musical sequence in the otherwise engaging, hansa-centric episode The Joy of Cooking will likely divide viewers. Inconsistencies also lie in the show’s production values. The large-scale Battle for the Bridge is a real standout (dodgy ogre VFX aside), while the Battle of Montecalvo falls flat due to lacklustre production design and unconvincing magic VFX. As Cavill’s absence looms large over a story weighed down by uneven writing and tone – plus questionable performances and production design – it’s clear that Netflix’s flagship fantasy series has lost its magic. Unless season 5 pulls off a (monster) miracle, this might be one quest even Geralt can’t complete. The Witcher season 4 is available to stream now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Hazbin Hotel season 2 review: Hell's most ambitious project has a score to settle with naysayers
A power vacuum, a traumatised princess, and a defeated heaven is the perfect storm for the Vees' ambitions.
Renovated to near perfection, the Hazbin Hotel is open again for business in season 2. It’s been over a year since the original hotel was decimated; the fierce battle with Adam and the exorcists nearly broke Charlie (Erika Henningsen) and her band of misfits. Yet, they survived, albeit by a hair. But hell’s redemption remains a giant unknown, especially now that the overlords have scattered to the four winds, and with Vox (Christian Borle) attempting to monopolise on the chaos Charlie has wrought. Everything hangs in the balance, and not just in relation to the characters’ predicament. The first season of Hazbin Hotel was met with mixed reviews from critics, and while its fandom is fiercely loyal, season 2 has something to prove. Never one to shy away from the critics, Vivienne Medrano’s creation comes out swinging, delivering a musical extravaganza that doubles down on being unashamedly chaotic. More often than not, the anarchy of the show succeeds, largely due to the fact that it follows its own rules. However, some mistakes from the first season remain, potentially jeopardising the cult classic status the show has claimed. Compared to its sister show, Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel played it safe. There was still the adult humour, musical numbers, and the oppression of hell juxtaposed against entertaining hijinks, but Hazbin Hotel was tamer. For a new animated show leaving behind its YouTube pilot and pivoting to Prime Video, it made sense. And it paid off. Now that security has been assured, the safety net has been cast off and Medrano has allowed those fever-dream-esque traits from Helluva Boss to permeate Hazbin Hotel. Much like Helluva Boss did in its second season, Hazbin Hotel hits its stride, delivering a story that continues to blur the lines between conventional good versus evil, with a threat looming large much closer to home for Charlie and co. The growing malevolence of the Vees – hell’s equivalent to the Heathers – was established early on in season 1. They operated in plain sight but never posed a threat because attention was pulled elsewhere. It created a sense of unease for viewers who could see what Charlie couldn’t, with that unease now becoming palpable as Vox digs his claws in to drag the Vees up to god-like heights. The narrative has expanded, placing threats both without and within, creating a hell and a heaven in turmoil. It’s a far riper breeding ground for the backstories of beloved characters, like Sir Pentious (Alex Brightman) and Alastor (Amir Talai), to finally be revealed. Moreover, it allows new blood to be introduced, such as Baxter (Kevin Del Aguila) – who isn’t the new Sir Pentious – Abel (Patrick Stump), and The Speaker of God (Liz Callaway). Each new face has its place in Hazbin Hotel, but much like the Vees in season 1, its potential is left unrealised, most likely due to plans for the already greenlit season 3. The only faltering step Hazbin Hotel takes here is with one specific character, who we expected to see more of yet remains obscured, frustratingly out of reach. Nonetheless, Hazbin Hotel has mostly managed to tread the fine line in balancing established characters alongside new ones. Abel, especially, is such a delightful contrast to Adam, his father, that fans will want to see more from him in the future. More so due to his fraught relationship with Lute (Jessica Vosk), a character who was only just warming up with her lust for vengeance in season 1. All of these different components make for a giant melting pot of emotions that fuel some truly incredible musical numbers written by Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg. Fans have already been given a sneak peek at a couple of these catchy songs, in the form of Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us) and Gravity, the latter of which placed 52nd in the UK’s Official Singles Chart Top 100. Once again, I’m reminded of Helluva Boss. Its musical prowess far outshone Hazbin Hotel’s because it embraced being a musical, whereas Hazbin’s first season only flirted with the idea. View oEmbed on the source website A rigid formula of two songs per episode was followed, and while each song had its place, there was a predictability about the structured nature of them that lacked the depth seen in Helluva Boss. The music never lacked substance, as such, but now Hazbin Hotel’s profundity has been better brought out by the fluidity of its soundtrack. It’s come into its own. All of this is but a scratch on the surface of what Hazbin Hotel season 2 tries to pack into a mere eight episodes. This is largely the reason the show stumbles at the finish line. The limitations of an on average 25-minute-long episode mean that, once again, the finale is rushed. Even an additional 10 minutes for the final episode does little to remedy this problem. Arguably, this is what holds the series back: it’s not given enough room to properly tell its story. An extra one or two episodes would have allowed the season more breathing room. Without spoiling the events that lead up to and define the ending, what we’re left with is a season too neatly wrapped up. Questions and other threads to pull still remain, but we’re left wondering what else could possibly unravel here. Still, there’s no denying that the drip season 1 had has turned torrential this time around. I just hope that Prime Video gives the series more room to be, rather than trying to condense it down to fit the eight-episode rule many shows now adhere to. Hazbin Hotel is a sprawling world; it needs to be given room to stretch its legs properly. Hazbin Hotel season 2 will begin on Prime Video on 29th October – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Add Hazbin Hotel 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 Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Outer Worlds 2 review: A game that begs to be played
Society is run by farcical corporations that only care about the bottom line – in The Outer Worlds 2, that is. This satirical science-fiction roleplaying game allows you to create your own character and stumble into a conspiracy of galactic importance, where you're just as likely to chuckle at an unexpected joke as you are to feel your adrenalin pumping in an explosive gunfight. You'll collect colourful companions for your spaceship as you travel between planets, unravel the plot and pull your hair out over massively important decisions. With all-new characters and locations, newcomers to the series are very much welcome here. If you did play the first game in the franchise, you might be surprised to jump into a sequel that feels totally unrelated to the first game. Your brand new character is thrown straight into a high-stakes mission, and it’s not long before you’re unleashed on a planet with almost total freedom to wander about and do whatever you want. As you explore the manifold wide open areas of the game, which are rendered beautifully (if somewhat overstuffed with violent creatures), you’ll do all sorts of random tasks, from solving murders to resolving workplace disputes and everything in between. In typical Fallout fashion, it’s not long before you’re given some difficult choices to make and warring factions to choose from. Things can go very badly wrong, and you will be held accountable for decisions that you make along the way. Even something that seems noble, like saving some innocent people, can backfire on you in major ways. However, in the first few hours of the game, the writing doesn’t do an amazing job of communicating who the different factions are and why exactly they are warring. And, trust me, I was really trying to take in all the dialogue. (As more of a visual learner, reams of text is rarely the way I understand things!) To start with, I was worried that the overarching space opera story was lacking anything engaging. It felt like the space war was purely there to provide a backdrop and some narrative thrust. But, around the five hour mark, my understanding of who’s who and why is any of this happening started to come together. As my in-game to-do list grew and my list of places to explore expanded, so too did my emotional bond to the characters and my desire to see where it’s all heading. By the 12 hour mark, I’d collected all the companions and noted how, in a similar vein to Mass Effect 3, the group had been designed to represent various different sides of the galactic conflict. At this point, I was locked in. There are some characters in the mix here that have the potential to become huge fan favourites, with cool designs and zany backstories and great acting to make you believe it all. The developers from Obsidian have once again decided not to include romance with your companions, though, which will be disappointing to some players (including me). Despite that, character and dialogue are clearly very important to the writers of The Outer Worlds 2. Heck, they’ve even turned the game’s start menu into a dialogue scene! The gag rate is very high, and for a comedic video game, it stays on the right side of that intangible invisible line and never goes too far into being crass or unfunny. This is a cliche thing to say, but I did genuinely laugh out loud a few times. To say too much about the plot would spoil the surprises that are coming your way. Suffice it to say, we always wanted to keep playing and see what happened next. This is the kind of game that will make you regret having evening plans to go out and see your friends. The combat is one of the areas that feels a little bit less enjoyable, and despite the fact that I kept picking up more and more guns, I settled on one type that I liked fairly early and only replaced/upgraded it when absolutely necessary (triple-barrelled shotgun, if you were wondering). Swapping between weapon types means having the right ammo, and having the right ammo means having the right crafting materials, and that felt like too much busy work after a couple of hours. By the time you've got out the weapon you want, the enemy has probably run away to hide behind cover somewhere else. To save yourself some stress, it’s easier to pick one weapon type and just stick with that. 60 per cent of the time, it works every time. Using the menus is a pain, too. With fast-travel points and mission markers often overlapping on the map screen, it’ll take you a few too many of your precious seconds to click on the thing you actually want to interact with. Finding what you want in the crafting menu or your inventory also feels a little clunky. You might feel a bit bogged down in the admin if you really care about equipping the best gear and the best weapons for every scenario. Gadgets are more fun, though, and you’ll still be finding new tools to help you through specific scenarios quite far into the game. Some of these are quite imaginative, and it almost starts to feel Metroidvania-esque at points (meaning, the new gadget you just found will help you unlock areas that you couldn’t access before). The Outer Worlds 2 is a game that begs to be played. Its jovial tone seeps through its every pore, and its quirky characters will literally beckon you towards the next fun idea. And the game will reward you for exploring its nooks and crannies, either with some cool loot or a fun little story beat. View Green Video on the source website That being said, it’s worth noting that some very important plot moments happen in the blink of an eye and you might not even realise that you’ve made an important choice until after you’ve seen the horrific consequences of it. The game could do a little more to signpost its big turning points, and its missable content, as it doesn’t hesitate to throw pop-ups at you for other things (the new flaws system, for example, which is a fun little addition). It’s a very good sign that, even with limited time before the review embargo lifted, I still wanted to chase down side quests and tick off everything that took my fancy (even if it was clearly marked as Optional). If The Outer Worlds 2 had a combat system that played more to my tastes, menus that were less clunky, it would be verging on RPG perfection. These worlds are well worth exploring and the characters are well worth getting to know. If you’re into Fallout-style RPGs, this will scratch that itch perfectly. Just be careful along the way that you don’t make any choices you’ll regret! The Outer Worlds 2 launches in early access on Friday 24th October for players that pre-ordered the Premium Edition. The game will have its full launch on Wednesday 29th October across Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass, PC and PS5. We reviewed on Xbox Series X. Read more Gaming reviews: Jurassic World Evolution 3 review: It's good to be back, but it's not perfect ROG Xbox Ally review: I don't really know who this is for Battlefield 6 review: Old-school Battlefield action 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.
It: Welcome to Derry review – Blood-soaked prequel has its frights, and its flaws
Pennywise is back – this time, in a prequel series.
This review is based on the first five episodes of It: Welcome to Derry. As a lifelong Stephen King fan – with over 30 of his books in my collection and almost every film adaptation watched – you can probably imagine how excited I was when I heard that HBO was creating a prequel series to the It film series. A potential origin story of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with Bill Skarsgård himself set to return? Yes please. The 2010s It movies, while obviously not perfect, always held something of a soft spot in my heart. Maybe it's because of the stellar cast, led as children by the likes of Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Martell and Finn Wolfhard, and as adults by Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and Bill Hader, who managed to tap into King's iconic original universe in a way that was so wonderfully unsettling – from screaming in blood-soaked bathrooms to investigating monster-infested sewers. I went into It: Welcome to Derry with high hopes, and while the pay-off was far from a flop, it didn't quite reach the heights of its predecessors. The series follows a similar premise to the original films, only this time set in the 1960s. A kid goes missing and a bunch of other kids try to work out what's happened to him, only to discover that a certain ancient alien presenting most commonly in the form of a dancing clown is behind everything. Where this series differs, though, is with its adult characters. Several of them are the parents of the Derry kids, who also find themselves embroiled in their children's nightmares, while others – including a group of marines – are trying to end Pennywise for good. It's a strong set-up. And there's certainly a lot to enjoy in the series. The opening sequence, for example, is particularly stand-out. Without spoiling anything, it's remarkably nauseating, atmospheric and easily one of the best scenes across the first five episodes – making a solid return back to the monstrous horror that made the town of Derry so terrifying in the first place. The show is also visually impressive. Set in the '60s, there's enough to admire in the set and costume design, with the pastel hues of domestic suburbia juxtaposing against the literal horrors lurking under the surface of Derry – it's intelligently crafted. Notably, the opening credits are also hugely eerie – accompanied by a lullaby that sets the scene for scary before the action's even really kicked off. The problems arise, predominantly, with the characters. While some, like Lilly (Clara Stack) and Will (Blake Cameron James) have enough development across the episodes to resonate with, a large portion of the characters just simply don't land. Several are underdeveloped, underused and borderline uninteresting, with not enough time spent on them to make us care about their fates or even really remember their names. If the It films made us fall in love with the Losers Club in only two films – it's fair to question why Welcome to Derry struggles to do so over the course of a season. The plot itself also isn't the cleanest. With so many characters and storylines weaving together, from the kids, to the marines, to telepathic Dick Hallorann, to the parents, to the origins of Pennywise, the narrative can at times feel a little cluttered, unable to decide exactly which storyline is the most important and struggling to find a through-line between them. (Though there still may be time to repair this issue in the final three episodes.) Welcome to Derry does have all the tropes of a successful horror – enormous gore, dark rooms, childhood trauma. At times, it's guaranteed to make you jump. When the show leans into the uncanny – a creepy stranger following you around a supermarket, or having a conversation with a friend who's suddenly stopped blinking – the scares are massively effective, and truly skin-crawling. There are times, though, that it shifts into overexposure – revealing far too much of the alien and, in doing so, losing its fear factor. Because, really, is anyone actually that scared of a CGI monster-baby with multiple heads? I'm not sure. What I do know is that the show is far more effective when it's not trying to do too much, because ultimately, the more we see of It, the less frightening he becomes. Another of the show's strengths lies within its connections to the wider Stephen King universe. From nods to Shawshank Prison to an unexpected role for telepathic Dick Hallorann from The Shining (this time played by Chris Chalk), the Easter eggs are well handled. They don't solely serve as forceful, distracting fan service, but are cleverly connected to the storyline, and I'm excited to see how much further the references could go. (If we could get a glimpse of Rose Madder or Desperation in there somewhere, I'd be elated, but that's probably asking for too much). Of course, Bill Skarsgård is just as inhumane as ever as Pennywise – with his characteristic iconic grin and creepy, inflection-filled voice. And although his appearances in the show aren't exceptionally frequent, his monstrous presence is large, and you're always left awaiting his arrival. Skarsgård constantly remains the true horror of the show, even when he's not on screen. Taylour Paige's performance as protective mother Charlotte Hanlon was another standout. While not unexpected – this is the same woman who played Zola, after all – Paige's character remains one of the most interesting in the show, and despite not having the largest role in early episodes, what she does bring is compelling, and I look forward to seeing what the show does with her character beyond the first half. So, while Welcome to Derry perhaps isn't quite the nightmare I was hoping for, it's also not a total disappointment. For horror fans, and those who consider themselves to be Constant Readers (apparently that's the name of Stephen King's fandom), it will likely scratch an itch, especially as we head into the Halloween season. But if you're tuning in to Welcome to Derry and expecting to return to exactly the same sewers as It Chapters 1 & 2, perhaps you won't be floating too. It: Welcome to Derry is coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW on Monday 27th October 2025 – sign up for Sky TV. 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Jurassic World Evolution 3 review: It's good to be back, but it's not perfect
It’s good to be back, but Jurassic World Evolution 3 isn’t a perfect game. And that’s coming from a long-time fan of this dinosaur-stuffed theme park management series. When Frontier Developments stepped away from their fossil-dusting kits to make Planet Coaster 2 a few years ago, I feared the worst. I thought the Jurassic World Evolution franchise was dead in the water like the victims of a Mosasaurs attack. With that in mind, it’s a cause for celebration that JWE has returned with a whole new game, outlasting the original Jurassic World movie series (which has now been relaunched with a new cast including Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey). Let’s start with the movie connections. While Owen Grady (Chris Pratt’s role from the films) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) were key characters in the campaign last time, with Howard even lending her voice to the game, this new release only refers to them in passing. On the upside, Jeff Goldblum is still present and correct, voicing Ian Malcolm once again. The good doctor constantly quibbles and questions whether any of this is a good idea, and Goldblum’s inimitable line deliveries really add a layer of fun authenticity to proceedings. View Green Video on the source website The story, set after Jurassic World Dominion, tasks you with travelling to sites around the globe and helping dinosaurs in various different ways. In some places, you’ll find a good old-fashioned theme park. In others, a scientific project or a breeding programme that needs your assistance. Speaking of breeding, that’s one of the big new upgrades this time around, and it makes the gameplay so much deeper and more engaging than before. In previous entries, once your dinosaurs were happy in their enclosure, you could leave them alone for huge stretches of time without anything going wrong. In this new game, if you have a breeding pair and you give them a nest, you will eventually see a juvenile dinosaur coming to life in your midst. Not only is this a beautiful moment (if you enjoyed watching new dinosaurs arrive in their enclosures, you’ll love this), but it’s also a major shake-up to the gameplay. You see, juvenile dinosaurs don’t always have the same needs as their parents. They might want a different kind of food, for example, or a different sort of company. This forces you to think twice about your enclosures, to revisit them regularly and mix things up to keep everyone happy. Another new addition is that parks can exist on multiple levels, allowing some verticality and cool visuals like cascading waterfalls or enclosures at the top of mountains. Security cameras are a cool new feature, too, allowing you to automate more of your maintenance in a way that will feel familiar to fans of Two Point Museum and its burglar system. We’re very confident that if you enjoyed either of the previous Jurassic World Evolution games, you’ll have an absolute blast with this one. You’ll lose – once again – days of your life to mastering it and unlocking more goodies as you go. The upgrades are strong, while the core gameplay and vibes are exactly what you’ll want. (Shoutout, as ever, to the music of Jurassic Park.) However, that’s not to say the game is perfect. Playing on a controller may not be the primary way that people play this sort of game, but I always do, and I did find it particularly fiddly this time out. Trying to get the item I wanted to see actually in the frame and visible was very fiddly at points, particularly coming in and out of aviaries. Without the use of a mouse, getting around the menus felt arduous at times as well. Finding the thing you like, and remembering whether it counts as an ‘enclosure’ or ‘attraction’, for example, did get a bit annoying at times. I’d find myself pausing time just so I could find the right thing. Also, with the amount of overlapping systems in the game, there were one or two points where I got stuck for longer than I’d like trying to work out how to chain the different elements together. How to hire the right scientists, to research the right dig site, to find the right fossils, to get the right genome, and so on. There will always be busy work in a game like this, but you don’t want it to go beyond the point of being engaging, and you definitely don’t want it to feel like managing the menus takes up more of your time than the park building. All things considered, Jurassic World Evolution fans will be happy that the franchise is back and there will be enough shiny new elements to keep them entertained. But if you’ve never gotten on with this series before, you probably won’t start now. Jurassic World Evolution 3 launches 21st October for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. You can order your copy now. We reviewed on Xbox Series X. 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.
Lazarus review: This supernatural mish-mash should've stayed a cut-and-dried thriller
Coben and Danny Brocklehurst team up again for a new Prime Video series that's frantic and frustrating.
The Harlan Coben book-to-TV pipeline has become quite the well-oiled machine over the years. While his various Netflix shows may not be the stuff of five-star critical reviews, fans love them, they're produced at pace and they satiate that thriller itch. What more can you really ask for as a casual TV viewer? Now, Coben has turned his attention to creating another Prime Video series, partnering once again with BAFTA-winning Brassic creator Danny Brocklehurst – the pair have worked together on the likes of Safe, The Stranger and are set to bring us another Netflix show, Run Away, with yet another star-studded cast. But while it's easy to wax lyrical about the unquestionable success of Coben's expansive television universe, his latest offering, Lazarus, will likely be forgotten almost as soon as you've finished watching it. The series follows Sam Claflin as Laz, a forensic psychiatrist who has gone about his life suppressing his emotions by throwing himself into work. That all catches up to him when, one day, he receives the tragic news that his father, Dr L (Bill Nighy), has died by suicide. That in itself would be enough to deal with, but this being a Coben thriller, there's clearly more to the story... We see Laz become subject to a series of strange experiences once he sets foot in his father's office, originally in the pursuit of answers surrounding his death. These apparitions see Laz take the form of his father in these visions, witnessing how Dr L's various therapy sessions and personal moments played out. They give insight into his patients, their life problems and also pave the way for some cold-case investigations. With his childhood best friend working as a detective sergeant, Laz starts ingratiating himself into various cases, discovering bodies and eventually having to come clean about the fact that he's seeing ghosts. The people around Laz seem to take it in their stride, though, begging the question of whether Laz has demonstrated similar behaviours previously. We glimpse snippets of his past through the exploration of the tragic night of his twin sister's murder. There are still questions that remain 25 years later and it seems, right after the death of his father, everything has reached one dramatic crescendo... We're figuring out everything and finding out details through Laz, who veers on the side of being an unreliable narrator. The problem is, there are just too many gaps in our knowledge of him and his past to really pin him down as a character, or give us a reason to care about him. Aside from a pained father-son relationship and the blame of his sister's death being shifted onto a young Laz, we don't see anything of his inbetween years. So, we're never really sure if Laz seeing dead people is a regular occurrence that should be swept under the rug or not... It doesn't help that this is far from Claflin's best performance – his portrayal of a grieving son lacks serious nuance – but the problems within Lazarus really lie with its clunky writing, languid pacing and attempts at adding in horror and supernatural elements into what should've stayed a cut-and-dried thriller. It's what Coben is known for, after all. The premise of the series may initially seem promising, but Lazarus gets too caught up in many different investigations, characters and narratives, before attempting to pull everything together for a climactic finale that, instead, falls flat. On top of trying to deal with the loss of Laz's father and figure out Dr L's state of mind in his last days, the series also throws up storylines relating to murder, infidelity, stalking and addiction, to name a few. With all this coming on top of the ghosts, visions, flashbacks and Laz's histrionics, everything just leans way too into the melodrama. It'd be a different story if the melodramatics paid off and we had a pulsating storyline, intriguing characters and cliffhangers that genuinely left us guessing – Lazarus does try, but it just falls short on all of the above. The handling of suicide and the grief-ridden aftermath of it initially does strike a chord, but while there are a handful of genuinely heartfelt scenes, the final episode undoes all the impact that having such a storyline at the heart of the series might've provided. Without giving away any spoilers, when all is revealed and the truth becomes (somewhat) clear, you'll be left in as much of a state of confusion as you were before the denouement. The season ends on a note that tees up a potential sequel, but with these six episodes proving to such an unsatisfying watch, I'll be plain: there really is no need for any more. Lazarus premieres on Prime Video on Wednesday 22nd October – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime. Add Lazarus 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.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere review – is the biopic worth a cinema trip?
This biopic works best when its sharper focus is on a troubled thirty-something burying himself in the creation of what would become one of his most celebrated records.
Early on in Deliver Me From Nowhere, the man of the hour is shopping for a new set of wheels when the smooth-talking dealer tells him "I do know who you are". Bruce Springsteen, checking out the dashboard cassette player on a sporty little number, shrugs and says: “Well, that makes one of us." It’s an awkwardly glib exchange, unnecessarily reminding viewers they’re watching an account of a musician familiar to millions struggling with his own identity, and an example of the weak dialogue that occasionally threatens to derail an otherwise solid drama. We’ve been here before, and not that long ago; it’s less than a year since the release of A Complete Unknown and Timothee Chalamet’s Bob Dylan navigating an equally soul-searching creative crossroads. As voices of their generations, Bob and Bruce are cut from not entirely dissimilar cloth, so it’s inevitable that fans of either or both will indulge in studious games of compare/contrast between the two offerings. One intriguing difference is that while the earlier film is inspired by events leading up to Dylan infamously "going electric," The Boss biopic largely concerns itself with Springsteen doing practically the opposite. We first see Jeremy Allen White’s Springsteen drenched in sweat during the closing number of the last show of a lengthy arena tour to promote his and the E Street Band’s 1980 album The River, Bruce’s first US chart-topper and the global breakthrough that would go on to sell seven million copies worldwide. All is not well, though, as rapidly escalating fame sits uncomfortably on his shoulders, further scratching an itch to dial down the bombast and get back to basics – it’s time to buy a primitive tape machine and retreat to a weather-beaten cottage in semi-rural New Jersey. That, in a nutshell, is the central theme of the source material, author Warren Zanes's acclaimed book of the same name about the making of Springsteen’s next LP, the low-key and decidedly lo-fi Nebraska. Consequently, the film shadows a Springsteen shorn of superstar trappings, to fashion a compelling portrait of self-examination, and song as a form of therapy. The premise largely requires White to cut an introspective figure, far from the strutting peacock of Bruce’s stage persona, confronting unresolved issues from his past. Prominent in those memories is a difficult, frequently violent relationship with his father (an intense Stephen Graham, mostly seen in cold monochrome flashbacks), resulting in the slow realisation that many of these new songs are unwittingly autobiographical; at one point we see Bruce poring over a notepad and changing the tense of his lyrics from third person to first. There’s no shortage of images of White staring into the middle distance, arguably a little too doe-eyed and baby-faced to fully convince as a grown man wrestling with increasingly less dormant inner conflicts, and frustrated when trying to articulate his fresh artistic vision to others. A love interest subplot involving Bruce’s reluctance, perhaps inability, to commit to a relationship with a local single mother (Odessa Young) is more a distraction than key to the narrative, while the first few scenes he shares with manager and mentor Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) are painfully pedestrian. Landau’s lasting importance to Springsteen’s success cannot be over-emphasised, but his initial purpose here seems to be as a pragmatic feet-in-both-camps buffer between his charge and the big bad hits-hungry record label, dispensing soundbite exposition so simplistic he may as well be wearing a succession of sandwich boards. Thankfully, Strong has more to get his teeth into as the film progresses, and director Scott Cooper eventually establishes a powerful bond between the two men, his actors expressing a totally believable mutual tenderness. Springsteen’s writing has walked hand-in-hand with cinema for decades, from his 1973 street-smarts serenade Rosalita mining the romance and cultural divides of West Side Story, to pockets of the 2019 album Western Stars exploring the vanishing America of director Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show, and it provides touchstones in Cooper’s screenplay. When figuring out where he’s going with Nebraska’s contents, White/Springsteen catches a re-run of early ‘70s murderous youth classic Badlands on TV, and there’s a brief glimpse of boyhood Bruce and his dad in a darkened fleapit watching Robert Mitchum in The Night Of The Hunter (a film about a violent father figure, no less). Those scenes, however short, play a part in cementing the intimacy of the film and of its subject’s thought processes – significantly more than sequences with the E Street Band that expose White as lacking the physical presence of Springsteen the performer. Deliver Me From Nowhere works best when it’s small, when its sharper focus is on a troubled thirty-something burying himself in the creation of what would become one of his most celebrated records, digging deep into music both haunting and healing. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th October 2025. 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.
Black Phone 2 review: Gripping sequel embraces gruesomeness and the paranormal
Ethan Hawke returns as the Grabber in Scott Derrickson's follow-up to his 2022 horror film.
After watching race-against-time retro-horror The Black Phone (2022), you may wonder how a sequel is possible. Ethan Hawke’s prolific, masked child-killer “The Grabber” had been “dispatched” by latest teenage victim Finney (Mason Thames), thanks to supernatural aid from a phone line to the ghosts of the dead, helpfully situated in the boy’s soundproofed basement prison. However, when it comes to movie monsters and celluloid serial killers, it’s hard to keep a “good” fiend down, especially if a low-budget flick is a box-office hit (over $160 million worldwide). After all, the slasher antics of the likes of Michael Myers (Halloween), Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th), Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Ghostface (Scream) spawned lucrative long-running franchises, if with diminishing critical returns. However, writer/director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C Robert Cargill have upped the supernatural ante for the sequel with ghoulish and gory aplomb. They achieve this by taking the original film’s characters (and cast) out of small-town suburbia and stranding them at an isolated, blizzard-hit Christian youth camp where boys had vanished mysteriously back in the 1950s. It’s 1982, four years after Finney escaped from becoming another grim statistic, but his ordeal has left him traumatised and prone to violence, much like his alcoholic dad (Jeremy Davies) became after the suicide of Finney’s mother. Meanwhile, younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), whose dreams helped to save her sibling in 1978, is finding her psychic ability (inherited from mum) more of a curse than a gift, and is sleepwalking around town not knowing what is real, a nightmare or a prophetic vision. Indeed, it's a dream about a frozen lake – and its mutilated ghostly denizens – that inspires Gwen, Ernesto (younger brother of a Grabber victim) and Finney — numbing himself with smoking weed in the hope he’ll stop receiving phone calls from beyond — to go to Alpine Lake Camp. Once there, however, the trio are snowed in with camp supervisor Armando (Demián Bechir), his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas) and a couple of devout Christian helpers, who don’t take too kindly to Gwen’s expletive-laden tirades (a hilarious tonic to the increasingly oppressive atmosphere). It’s then that the beyond-the-grave evil of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke, back behind the mask) starts to rear its ugly head, generating bloody real-world consequences, especially for Gwen — now the killer’s main prey — who discovers getting wounded while asleep is no protection to actual harm. Of course, horror fans will spot allusions to all sorts of fright flicks, whether it’s Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist or The Shining. But Derrickson is navigating his own creepy groove here, sustained by Thames and McGraw, who have literally grown into their roles and deliver emotionally compelling performances as they struggle to process their own personal angst, whether it’s Finney’s survivor guilt or Gwen’s fear she will end up like her mother, all the while trying to survive the Grabber’s nefarious, ever-deadly telekinetic attacks. The first Black Phone was a serial-killer horror with a side order of supernatural, but this gripping sequel embraces the paranormal and gruesomeness in all its gory glory, too. Meanwhile the dream sequences, seemingly shot on scratchy 70s film stock and recalling Derrickson’s 2012 spine-chiller Sinister, ooze unsettling menace and deliver some hearty jump-scares. Black Phone 2 is now showing in UK 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.
ROG Xbox Ally review: I don't really know who this is for
The ROG Xbox Ally is a solid console in a vacuum, but doesn't offer the value of its competitors.
In August, I had the chance to try out the ROG Xbox Ally at Gamescom, and I was rather impressed by what I saw in the 10 minutes of Forza Horizon 5 that I was afforded. Two months on, after a few weeks with one in the comfort of my own home, I would be lying if I said that I was not underwhelmed by the console. For the sake of clarity, I want to make clear now that this is a review of the weaker, white ROG Xbox Ally, and not the more powerful, black ROG Xbox Ally X. The Ally retails for £499.99 in the UK ($599.99 in the US), a whole £300 ($400) cheaper than the Ally X, for which you get a weaker CPU and GPU, 16GB RAM instead of 24GB RAM, and 512GB storage compared to 1TB. They represent a collaboration with Xbox and ASUS, rebranding ASUS's existing ROG Ally duo with the Xbox stamp of approval. The clearest example of this is that Armoury Crate, the original Ally's means of tweaking and optimising your device's settings as well as launching games, has been replaced on the latter front by the Xbox App. This thankfully removes the need to use the rather clunky and bloated Armoury Crate as a launcher in favour of the Xbox App, which can detect and launch games from Steam, Epic Games, Battle.net or any other separate launchers you may have. This is a godsend, and aside from a few dodgy interactions where it launched Steam's Big Picture Mode instead of the game I had selected, works like a charm. In tandem with this, we now have a nifty Xbox button on the Xbox Ally which gives you easy access to the App as well as the Xbox Game Bar. Though it takes a touch of getting used to using all of this as your main means of navigating your games, once you get the hang of it, it's a breeze to use, and probably my favourite thing about the console. Unfortunately, that really is about it for what's new, and indeed, what stood out about the console. When it comes to actually playing games, I was rather underwhelmed. I was, of course, not expecting the Ally to be able to comfortably run the newest games, which it cannot, for the most part. At 720p and the lowest settings, Borderlands 4 averaged around 20fps and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sometimes crawled up to 30fps. I had, however, expected decent performance on some older titles, encouraged by my time with Forza at Gamescom, which does hit a reliable 50-60fps even at higher settings. That being said, many other titles from a similar time struggle significantly more. Elden Ring, for example, just about managed to hit 40fps on the lowest settings while standing idly by, before very quickly tanking to under 30fps as soon as I entered any kind of combat – not exactly ideal for such a demanding title. I had similar experiences with Alan Wake 2, Ghostrunner 2, Marvel's Spider-Man and more. Even The Witcher 3, a visually impressive game but a game that released in 2015 nonetheless, would drop from 50-60fps to below 40fps when using the dedicated Steam Deck graphics preset. The Ally should not be struggling with a decade-old game. Each performed slightly differently, though none to the level that I would expect from a device that retails for £150 more than a base Steam Deck, and this is all while plugged in – good luck trying to play anything more demanding than Dead Cells on a long journey. I have spent a tremendous amount of time in Armoury Crate testing various combinations of RSR, RIS, Radeon Boost and more. The exorcism I have performed to purge the likes of Copilot and its fellow Microsoft bloat may have helped marginally, but largely to no avail. The solution here is likely to mod the ever-loving hell out of some of these games, as you would on any weaker PC, and I'm sure that reckoning will take place in the weeks after release, but it's worth bearing in mind that this is the performance you will get out of the box. But the Ally does provide one excellent workaround, or rather, it did. View oEmbed on the source website Xbox Cloud Gaming allows you to stream games from the cloud, relying upon Xbox's more powerful hardware to do the heavy lifting while your console simply displays the output. This does require a good internet connection, so it's certainly not something that you would be doing away from home, but is a nice option to be able to play the newest games on your Ally. The reason I say "it did" as opposed to "it does," is that Xbox locks the highest 1440p streaming quality for Cloud Gaming behind its Game Pass Ultimate subscription, with the cheaper tiers getting 720p and 1080p respectively. This is still a decent option, but considering how big a selling point Cloud Gaming could have been for the Ally, it makes it all the more baffling that Xbox would choose to so rampantly increase the price of its Game Pass subscriptions mere weeks before release. I say this as someone that has been a Game Pass subscriber for many years until the price hike – the prospect of Game Pass on the go was my main reason for wanting a ROG Xbox Ally. Now, not only are you paying £500 for the Ally itself, but you're shelling out nearly £300 a year on top of that just to cover your Game Pass Ultimate subscription to make the most of it. View Green Video on the source website This reveals the real issue of the ROG Xbox Ally– its price point. For around £150 more than the base Steam Deck, you aren't really getting anything extra. The 1080p resolution is nice, but again, I have been forced to run most things at 720p anyway, so I would argue you're better off with the more expensive OLED Steam Deck, which you can fairly easily mod to use Game Pass on if that's a must for you. On the flip side, if you do want to play more modern games, once you factor in the exorbitant cost of Cloud Gaming, you may as well just purchase the more expensive and powerful ROG Xbox Ally X instead, or even waiting for the Lenovo Legion Go 2. The question I have been asking myself is: "Who is this for?" My simple answer is that I don't really know. It's too expensive to buy over a Steam Deck. It's not powerful enough to buy over its more expensive sister console. It doesn't add enough to be worth upgrading from the old Ally to. It doesn't excel at anything, leaving it lagging behind its competitors in every regard. It's the Xbox Series S of its duo, but while the Series S has a role as a cheaper console for a casual gamer, the Ally is inherently a more enthusiast piece of kit – nobody willing to drop £500 on a handheld console is a casual gamer just looking to play a few rounds of Call of Duty! That isn't to say it's a terrible console – it's not (hence the three stars). If you buy an Ally, I am sure you will get a huge amount out of it. My criticism is instead that I do not believe that it's worth buying over any of its counterparts. My main takeaway from my few weeks with the ROG Xbox Ally is that it showcases how good value the Steam Deck really is, and that is really not what you want from your new console's review period. The ROG Xbox Ally releases on 16th October 2025. 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.
The Woman in Cabin 10 review: Keira Knightley's whodunnit sinks without a trace
A look at the talented cast list for this stagnant murder mystery promises riches that never surface.
The ensemble crime mystery has been a fiction staple since long before Agatha Christie was bulk-buying typewriter ribbons, and is catnip for filmmakers. It enables them to fill the screen with an often starry cast of equally often exaggerated characters, teasing viewers as to which will ultimately be revealed as the culprit – but can there be culprits when there’s no evidence of a crime? Welcome aboard the “superyacht” Aurora Borealis, where investigative journalist Keira Knightley is the square peg in a round hole of mega-rich fellow guests; deep-pocketed donors awaiting an important announcement from their similarly philanthropic hosts Guy Pearce and his terminally ill wife. All’s as it should be for the first few hours of the voyage (although Knightley is slightly irked her ex-boyfriend photographer David Ajala is also a passenger), but when our intrepid reporter hears a scuffle in a neighbouring cabin, followed by the sound what she thinks is a woman being thrown overboard, cats are well and truly among pigeons. However, after raising the alarm so that the crew can carry out a spotlight search of the waters below, she’s informed a head-count shows that everyone is accounted for, and there’s no signs of anything remotely like foul play in the cabin – which nobody was berthing in anyway. The suggestion is floated (ha!) that she’s imagined the melee, especially after her erstwhile beau lets slip details of a trauma from an earlier newspaper assignment, but our Keira is determined to get to the bottom of the puzzle and figure out who knows more than they’re letting on. And who do we have? In addition to smoothie moneybags Pearce and his automaton-like staff, there’s his wife’s hangdog doctor Art Malik, boozy gallery owners David Morrissey and Hannah Waddingham, arrogant alpha male model Daniel Ings, flighty social media starlet Kaya Scodelario, wizened cartoon cut-out rock star Paul Kaye, and taciturn tech genius Christopher Rygh, a big noise in AI and facial-recognition software. Yet, having assembled his roll call of potential rogues, director Simon Stone does very little with them, each ambling in and out of proceedings while barely leaving a mark, as Knightley alternates between frowns and widening her eyes in melodramatic terror. Ruth Vale’s 2016 source novel was a best seller, but much of its depth and doings has been sacrificed in a slender 95-minute screenplay, co-written by Stone and two others, and based on an earlier, unused but credited adaptation. It hints at a tricky, difficult process that ultimately falls foul via plot threads abandoned before they’ve had time to pick up speed, logic-defying actions by Knightley, and a pivotal shock/twist near the halfway point that’s both utterly incredulous and delivered in such a ham-fisted fashion it may have viewers shouting “Do you think we’re stupid?!” at the screen. That spin, if done well, might have been the perfect kick-start for the remainder of the film, paving the way for a punchier tale of how greed and power midwife ruthlessness; instead, it largely disengages the audience and elicits laughs where no self-respecting writer or director wants them. A modicum of claustrophobic tension is achieved, thanks to the setting, the yacht’s narrow corridors and labyrinthine upper and lower decks helping to escalate Knightley’s desperation – it’s when the characters have to interact with each other that things go awry, the script struggling to escape the twin anchors of fortune cookie cliches and clunky exposition. The pity is that one look at the cast list promises riches that never surface; these are hugely talented actors feeding on the scraps of a solid premise made stagnant by the screenplay’s myriad shortcomings. So, welcome aboard the Aurora Bolearis, but you may find yourself wanting to disembark before it sinks without a trace. The Woman in Cabin 10 is released on Netflix on Friday 10th October 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our 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.
Battlefield 6 review: Old-school Battlefield action
According to its developers, Battlefield 6 is the game that is going to right the ship and return to the series' roots. After pumping many hours into its campaign and multiplayer across both the review period and open beta, old-school Battlefield is certainly back. Set only a few years in the future, in a world where NATO is crumbling at the hands of private military contractor Pax Armata, the game focuses on the elite marine unit Dagger 1-3, a veritable cog in an all-out global conflict. The campaign's gameplay is about what you would expect. A series of linear missions where you shoot the baddies. At times, it throws in some rather boring stealth sections, but makes up for it with some absolutely fantastic vehicle sections – put me in a tank over crawling through a sewer any day. As for the story itself, the concept for the campaign is excellent – or rather, it could have been. An enfeebled NATO struggling to hold itself together against the overwhelming power of an enormous private military contractor practically begs for critique, whether that is of the impotence of organisations like NATO in the face of real threats, or of the inseparable ties between capitalism and the military-industrial complex that make Lockheed Martin, Palantir, and the potential Pax Armata so inconspicuously powerful. But aside from a few grandiose moments, Battlefield 6's campaign routinely veers away from these more interesting concepts, instead choosing to focus on the melodrama of the crew of Dagger 13. In the end, it's a perfectly serviceable story, and one that I enjoyed by all accounts, but I do feel as if a far better tale was lost in the pursuit of something more generally digestible. Story is all well and good, but for many, Battlefield is about one thing only: the multiplayer. I spent god knows how many hours in the open beta a couple of months ago, and after topping up in the last week or so, these developers have really nailed the classic Battlefield experience. There are no flashy skins to overpower the atmosphere, and the gameplay feels a bit slower and more calculated than some of its peers in the shooter sphere. The various classes and their unique gadgets add a nice bit of personality to the way you approach the game, although being able to choose your entire load out does detract from that. Also, if my entire team could choose something other than Recon in Tajikistan, that would be wonderful. The gunplay is great, and after practising with some of the zanier recoil patterns, almost every gun feels like it has its place; I felt much more as if personal preference played into my weapon choices than what was powerful. I have also been very pleasantly surprised by how smooth the performance is. In a year in which several games have pushed my GPU to its limit in pursuit of about 23 frames per second, Battlefield 6 immediately launched on the highest settings to a pretty stable 60fps, although I did choose to turn them down as I tend to value performance over quality. Again, like in the campaign, Battlefield really is at its best when you've got a tank in play. Beyond simply how fun it is to demolish the map in a tank, having one in play adds a dimension to the game that you simply do not get in any other shooter, especially on certain maps like Cairo that feel purposely designed for them. Unfortunately, map design is one of the areas where BF6 falls a tad short. Many of the maps feel far too small for the scale of match that BF aims for, with certain maps effectively funnelling your squad into choke points, transforming into a fish in a barrel simulator. This is especially apparent in the Rush game mode, a 12 vs 12 mode, limited to small chunks of maps and no vehicles. I am not complaining about more game modes existing, but Rush is certainly the least enjoyable in a game that is at its best when you're in a large scale infantry battle, and I hope that the developers understand that when new maps and modes arrive in the future. Another aspect I am not convinced by is destruction. Bringing back destruction in a big way has been one of the flagship features of the game, but in my opinion, BF6 does not go far enough. We are still nowhere near the spectacular Levolution of the Battlefield 4 days, and at times it can feel like much of the destruction happens for the sake of it, rather than as the result of organic player interactions. View Green Video on the source website Ironically, the closest thing we have to that BF4 heyday is The Finals, a game made by a team of former Battlefield developers and that has destruction mechanics completely unrivalled in the current gaming market. The same doubt rears its ugly head regarding monetisation. Like its peers, BF6 will feature a Battle Pass system, adding in what the developers claim will be non-obtrusive cosmetics. I understand that Battle Passes are now the be-all and end-all of the shooter genre, but I cannot help but dislike them on principle, especially in a game that already has a £60/$70 cost of entry. But these issues are, by and large, things that can be fixed over time by the developers. My greatest issue with my time reviewing Battlefield 6 has been that, after having so much fun with friends during the beta, I have had to enjoy the last few weeks without them – you can't get much higher praise for an online multiplayer title. I'm not sure that Battlefield 6 lives up to the lofty heights of BF3 and 4, but whether that is nostalgia talking, who knows? What I do know is that Battlefield 6 is certainly an excellent entry in the series, righting the wrongs of 2042 and setting the series back on the right path. Maybe one day we'll get our Levolution back, but for now, I think fans of the series should look forward to this one very much. Battlefield 6 releases on 10th October 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. We reviewed on PC. 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.
Is The Traitors Live Experience worth it? How to get tickets to this faithful recreation of the BBC series
Despite being the best reality TV show for decades, can anyone really explain what makes The Traitors so good? From the Agatha Christie-style sneaking around, to the unhinged reactions that would sit comfortably in any Carry On film, to the ruthless moments of genuine psychological warfare, the show just has it. Well, whatever it is, they've bottled it, and transported it to London for the Traitors Live Experience, a 100% faithful recreation of the BBC series now open in Covent Garden. Whether you're a die-hard Diane fan or more of a casual viewer for when the January blues hit, the experience is a perfect match, down to the dramatic pop covers and dead-pan attitude of its tweed-clad host. Two members of the RadioTimes.com team were invited to try the experience and I, dear reader, was selected as a Traitor – so you can trust me when I say the tension on the show is real. The experience takes place in groups of 10 to 14 and allows players to compete in a range of mini-games in order to earn "money" and gain a higher spot on the overall league table. The challenges range from memory tasks to treasure hunts and present the players with a special chance to earn shields that grant immunity from murder. Although simple and mainly isolated to the one room, these tasks were fun and accessible for everyone and still managed to pose a challenge, especially when it came to working with people you'd only just met. As in the show however, all this paled in comparison to the dreaded round table, where as a team you must accuse and ultimately banish a fellow player. As a Traitor, I can say it was genuinely uncomfortable trying to come up with reasons to banish people I knew, for a fact, were Faithful, all the while attempting to stay under the radar as the group diminished. Although there is definitely nowhere near as much drama and animosity as on TV, the stress of discussion and voting is palpable, very much helped by the suspenseful tones of our host. After banishment, it is of course, time to murder, but I won't spoil how that works – best you experience those moments of dread for yourself. The design of the experience is just as bang on, with the grandiose Scottish castle perfectly encapsulated in our little room. The lighting and music also do wonders for the atmosphere and, if you get far enough in the game, you might get to take a short trip to the legendary Traitors tower. Just to clear things up too, when you die or get banished you leave the room but not the game. Afterwards you're taken into another room where you can continue to watch the players and still participate in challenges. Overall, this is a perfectly stylised, gripping and fun experience, as enjoyable as it is suspenseful, and one that leaves you with a lot more understanding for why the show's actual players act the way we do. And for my part, I'd say I was definitely more of a Mina than a Linda, but didn't quite reach the levels of deception and mastery as Charlotte did. Now it's time to see how you get on. Buy The Traitors Live Experience tickets at Ticketmaster Buy The Traitors Live Experience for two at BuyaGift View Affiliate Playlist on the source website How does The Traitors Live Experience work? The Traitors Live Experience runs very similarly to the TV series. You play in groups of 10-14 – which can be either one group or a collection of smaller groups put together – and get taken to a room with the round table. You'll stay within the room for the majority of the experience, completing mini games that involve searching for clues, remembering images, answering riddles and more. Throughout the challenges you're trying to earn "money" which will go towards your group's final score on the leader board at the end – however you can also use that time to win shields. After challenges you sit at the round table and, in an exact copy of the series, discuss who you think is a Traitor in your midst. One by one you'll name the player you wish to banish, who must reveal their status as Traitor or Faithful. Once banishment is over, it's another night where the Traitors must decide who to murder – there is never an option to recruit. Fear not, anyone who is murdered or banished is taken to a room to watch the rest of the experience and can still participate in a series of challenges where the players must "commune with the dead". At the end, if only Faithfuls remain, the total money you've won goes on the leader board, but – if there's a Traitor amongst you – the money is wiped away. Where is The Traitors Live Experience? The Experience can be found in 60 Short's Gardens, Covent Garden. It's only a short walk from Covent Garden station so you can either head there on the Piccadilly Line or get the Central, Northern or Elizabeth Line to Tottenham Court Road and walk five minutes from there. It's easy to spot thanks to the huge red and orange logo on the side of the building and the venue is also accessible for wheelchair users. How long does The Traitors Live Experience last? The experience itself lasts roughly two hours with no break once you get started. However, I'd recommend building in at least three to four hours for the whole thing as there's a bit of time at the start where you check in and wait to be called in your group – make sure you use this time to go to the toilet because you won't want to miss anything once you go in. Plus, you'll definitely want time afterwards to grab a drink with your team and go over all the scandalous details! What age is The Traitors Live Experience for? The Traitors Live Experience is for 18+ only, however they do also have specific family runs for anyone aged 12+. You can find these by selecting the "Family Friendly" filter on the official website. How much are The Traitors Live Experience tickets? There are three tiers of ticket prices depending on how early you book the experience. If you book an Early Bird ticket you're paying £29.50 for an off-peak time (weekdays and school term times) and £34.50 for the peak periods. The standard tickets then cost £34.50 for off-peak and £39.50 for peak, followed by the last few for £42.50 and £47.50 respectively. You can also hire out Private Tables for your own groups of 10-14, which start from £65 per person. How to buy The Traitors Live Experience tickets Tickets are available on Ticketmaster, which will then take you through to the official Traitors website, or you can buy the experience as a gift for two on Buyagift or Red Letter Days – this would be a solid Christmas present. Buy The Traitors Live Experience tickets at Ticketmaster Buy The Traitors Live Experience for two at BuyaGift Make sure you also take a look at more immersive TV experiences and pre-theatre dinner menus in London. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. Make sure you read our chat with Tom Fletcher on the Paddington Musical and how to watch the New Year's Eve Fireworks in London.
Tron: Ares review – A beautifully designed but slightly hollow blockbuster
At times watching this sequel feels like stepping into the future – but it requires a much-needed humour injection.
"We are a hundred per cent expendable." So says Jared Leto’s Ares, the military-grade AI soldier at the heart of this third film in Disney’s Tron franchise. No doubt Leto and the acting community at large are probably feeling that this week following the unveiling of AI actress Tilly Norwood, which has left Hollywood up in arms. Still, that development is an unexpected, if weird, publicity boost for Tron: Ares, a beautifully designed, if slightly hollow, blockbuster. With its landmark visual effects, the first Tron (1982) sucked Jeff Bridges’ programmer Kevin Flynn into the mainframe ‘grid’ of the company he once worked for, a world where computer programs appear as living human entities. The franchise went back online with 2010’s Tron: Legacy, a disappointing sequel distinguished by Daft Punk’s thunderous score. Fifteen years on from that, Tron is back – with a twist. This time, the computer programs come into our world. Evan Peters plays Julian Dillinger, grandson of David Warner’s character from the original. Drunk with power, he’s recently taken over the Dillinger company from his mother Elizabeth (Gillian Anderson, in a thankless role), as he looks to create the ultimate security software. Ares, along with several other cohorts, live inside the ‘grid’, but can materialise in our world. “Military AI is the future,” Dillinger beams to his investors, who aren’t aware of one fatal flaw in his plan. After 29 minutes, these AI beings evaporate. Dillinger is seeking what’s called "the permanence code" to change all that, but he’s not alone. Over at ENCOM – the company that Flynn once worked for and Dillinger’s grandfather unscrupulously ran – rival tech genius Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is doing the same. Whoever finds it first will have quite the breakthrough on their hands. Peters, who famously played real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix show, is of course the unhinged villain of the piece, only interested in profit and gain. The film comes directed by Joachim Rønning, the Norwegian filmmaker who has become a sequel specialist, after 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and 2019’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. He competently handles the action, especially a thrilling chase through the city when Ares and his fellow program Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) pursue Eve on Light Cycles, the digital motorbikes previously only seen on the grid. View oEmbed on the source website Watching the Cycles trail deadly beams of light in their wake through the cityscape is a compelling sight, and Rønning exploits this to the max. Same goes for the splendid black-and-red colour scheme that runs through the film, neatly deployed by production designer Darren Gilford. With its gleaming feel, Tron: Ares feels truly like stepping into the future at times. Jared Leto and the excellent Jodie Turner-Smith add to this with their otherworldly sentient soldiers. The music is courtesy of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the ubiquitous composers who are producing the soundtrack under their Nine Inch Nails banner. No doubt, there’s something cool about NIN and Tron together, but this electronica-driven score (which feels highly indebted to Radiohead’s Kid A at points) doesn’t touch what Daft Punk achieved for Tron: Legacy. Still, it’s atmospheric, energising and befits Rønning’s heart-pumping action. Without giving too much away, there is room for a Jeff Bridges appearance, and also a nostalgia-driven sequence that fans of the original Tron will love. What a pity the script itself flounders, hampered by the fact Hollywood has churned out numerous AI stories of late. Certainly, this lacks the cheekiness of, say, M3GAN. With the exception of an amusing riff about Depeche Mode (better than Mozart, according to Ares), it requires a much-needed humour injection. In Tron terms, the future is less bright than po-faced. Tron: Ares is in UK cinemas from Friday 10th October. 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.
Murder Before Evensong review: Grantchester meets Agatha Christie in this cosy crime drama
Reverend Richard Coles's bestseller gets the TV treatment, with Harry Potter's Matthew Lewis and New Tricks star Amanda Redman on fine form.
Cosy crime is the TV trend that's here to stay. Offering light escapism, all the nation needs is an amateur sleuth with a barrage of compelling mysteries to solve, and my dear Watson, the game is afoot! With Bookish, The Marlow Murder Club and pretty much any Agatha Christie adaptation proving popular, 5's Murder Before Evensong is a welcome addition to the genre, and I suspect Matthew Lewis has a multi-season contract in his future. Based on Reverend Richard Coles's bestselling novel, Murder Before Evensong has all the trappings of a classic murder mystery. A charming English village full of busybodies, where long-running rivalries, secrets and betrayals lurk beneath the surface? Check. An unlikely hero on the trail of a methodical killer? Check. Sure to resonate with fans of ITV's Grantchester, as well as Agatha Christie stans, Murder Before Evensong is set in the fictional village of Champton during the 1980s. Introducing viewers to Canon Daniel Clement, Matthew Lewis steps into the lead role with expert precision, imbuing the character with an innate softness and sincerity that has you rooting for him. Tasked with keeping the peace, Daniel is pushed and pulled between the wants and needs of his fierce and overbearing mother Audrey (Amanda Redman), not to mention the clergy and the many demanding members of his local Parish. So, when he and his adorable dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda, discover the body of a man stabbed to death in the church, Daniel's life is thrown into chaos. With too many loose threads to count, Murder Before Evensong succeeds as a gripping whodunit, with every one of Champton's residents treated as a potential suspect. Was it the jealous journalist at the local newspaper? Or the mysterious groundskeeper with a criminal past? The possibilities feel like a never-ending Cluedo board. Getting off to an intriguing but somewhat slow start, the first two episodes delve into the power dynamics and rivalries at play in Champton. Stirring up trouble, Tamzin Outhwaite's portrayal of meddlesome shop owner Stella Harper is a particular highlight, while Adam James is just the right amount of pretentious as stately home owner Bernard de Floures. While the show took a while to get cooking, I'd advise viewers to stick with it – by episode 3, I was totally hooked. Read more: Murder Before Evensong star explains book changes and teases darker twist on best-selling novel Reverend Richard Coles reveals if Murder Before Evensong's crime-solving vicar is based on him Make no mistake, the entire cast is phenomenal, but many of the show's standout scenes come courtesy of Daniel and his mother, Audrey. Struggling to let her son make decisions for himself, Audrey can't help but interfere with Daniel's choices, whether it's his resolution to stray from the clergy by publicly supporting those affected by the AIDS crisis, or his laid-back approach to finding out who's been sending him threatening letters. With their comedic timing and palpable on-screen chemistry, Matthew Lewis and the inimitable Amanda Redman are well-matched sparring partners. While the cosy crime genre typically adopts a more lighthearted tone, make no mistake, Murder Before Evensong isn't afraid to take itself seriously, confronting some of the biggest social and political issues of the 1980s. Delving into Daniel's struggles to remain kind and compassionate in a time when the world seems devoid of it, the Canon struggles with his own morality throughout the series, wondering if he should offer mercy to a cold-blooded killer. It's this willingness to have difficult conversations that gives the show edge, making it more than a formulaic murder mystery. View oEmbed on the source website Rest assured, you won't find any spoilers about the killer, but after more bodies begin to pile up in Murder Before Evensong, the final episode offers a worthy and twist-filled conclusion that I didn't see coming. While DS Neil Vanloo (Amit Shah) proves pretty useless in his investigation, Daniel's ability to get people to open up comes in handy, cementing the start of a beautiful friendship which could easily lead to a Grantchester-style partnership. With colourful characters, moments of levity and a central mystery that kept me guessing, I hope that Canon Daniel Clement finds success as one of TV's best-loved detectives, and thanks to Reverend Richard Coles, there are three more sequels just waiting to be adapted. Your move, 5… Murder Before Evensong premieres on 5 at 9pm on Tuesday 7th October. Add Murder Before Evensong 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.
Frauds review: Jones and Whittaker fight typecasting in bold heist drama
Both actors strike out of their comfort zone in a series that is both admirable and flawed.
Note: This review is based on Frauds episodes 1-3, which were screened in advance for critics. Frauds may not be perfect, but Suranne Jones and co-creator Anne-Marie O'Connor still deserve credit for injecting life into a drama landscape that can all too often lean on the strictly familiar. At a time of funding woes and fragmenting audiences, widely marketable detective shows and true crime dramas have come to dominate our schedules more than ever, seemingly leaving little room for much else. By design, Frauds isn't wholly original – its influences in the heist caper genre are clear to see – but its vibrant setting and eccentric leads still offer a welcome break from smartly dressed sleuths standing morosely against a grey sky. Indeed, between all of the violent atrocities and calculating sociopaths in our TV diet, it's no wonder that the country seems perpetually on the cusp of a nervous, paranoid breakdown. Frauds is a holiday by comparison. The story picks up after loose canon Bert (Jones), a fraudster and thief, is released from prison on compassionate grounds due to ill health, bringing her back together with former partner-in-crime, Sam (Whittaker). It isn't long before old habits rear their head, with the quiet sundown that Bert had promised swiftly mutating into a pitch for one last job, intended to leave a lasting impact – and potentially set Sam up for life. As is tradition, a crew is assembled, including magician's assistant Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington), forgery pro Bilal (Karan Gill) and mentor figure Miss Take (Talisa Garcia), all of whom are overlooked and facing pressures of their own. Alas, the full potential of this line-up doesn't present itself until the third episode (by far the strongest of the first half), which sees our gang finally collaborate on a mission where their chemistry rapidly builds. Prior to this, Frauds drags its feet through a flat introduction, where perhaps the most memorable moment is Bilal eagerly guzzling a can of room-temperature baked beans – mainly for how it made me feel viscerally nauseous. (Let the record show that I am a chronic beans-on-toast eater, but cold from the can is just wrong – and I'm sorry, but it's something I won't budge on.) That this moment has lingered so long in the mind exposes not just my own firmly held beliefs around cupboard essentials, but also that Frauds is at its best when being silly or downright bizarre. In the first two episodes, too long is spent airing Bert and Sam's historic grievances (as well as creating a few new ones) in scenes that creak as Jones and Whittaker get settled into these new roles. Frauds represents a striking departure for both of its prolific stars (a fact acknowledged on the press tour), but neither actor immediately disappears behind the hair dye, fake tattoos and elaborate costumes deployed here. Jones just doesn't quite fit the mould of a reckless, bawdy burnout, nor Whittaker as a brooding, angry thug, although their respective roles do become more believable as the series progresses and your brain has a chance to recalibrate. Of course, actors should be given the chance to escape typecasting and flex new muscles – and fans of this duo can expect to see just that – but Frauds is arguably a case of too much, too soon. At least that, again, speaks to its ambition as a work of genre fiction clearly trying to defy expectations of not just its lead actors, but of primetime programming more broadly. Having only seen the first half, I can't yet say whether Frauds will stick the landing; but if it doubles down on the zany action, team camaraderie and genre elements in the chapters to come, then we might yet have something as enjoyable as it is admirable. Frauds premieres ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday 5th October 2025. 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. Add Frauds 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.
Film Club review: Aimee Lou Wood's dramedy has real potential – but it's yet to be unlocked
The sweet and charming series is a cosy, easy watch, but could be so much more.
While as a critic it's always important to start watching every series with an open mind, there are some shows you just want to love. One of those, for me, was Film Club, the new BBC Three comedy-drama series co-written by and starring Aimee Lou Wood. For one thing, Wood has already proven herself to be a delightful and engaging screen presence, so getting to hear her own screenwriting voice was a fascinating prospect. For another, it's always a thrill to see new British comedy series come to air, at a time when there are so many unique, funny and vibrant comedies out there (despite what some many would have you believe). Then there's the show's charming concept, it's quirky visual aesthetic, a central turn for Nabhaan Rizwan, I could go on – the point is, there were a lot of selling points. It's therefore a strange feeling to come out of watching all six episodes of Film Club and feel that it hasn't quite made its mark yet, or fulfilled that desire I had. That's not to say it wasn't an enjoyable watch, or that it couldn't achieve that potential in future – just that, right now, there are a few bumps in the road. Film Club stars Wood as Evie, a young woman who hasn’t left the house in six months after suffering from a mental health episode, described as a 'wobble'. Every Friday, as a weekly escape, she and her friends, including best friend Noa (Rizwan), meet up in her mum's garage and celebrate film. There's a different film chosen for each week, decorations are put up to recognise that, costumes are required, phones are banned and a movie-related quiz takes place. It's delightful. There's just one snag. That is that Evie and Noa are quite clearly in love with each other, despite never having expressed their feelings to one another. Oh, and Evie has a boyfriend, Josh. Oh, and Noa is moving to Bristol for his dream job, meaning film club won't be continuing. It's all rather a lot for Evie to deal with, and over the subsequent weeks she goes on a journey of discovery, to reflect on her feelings for Noa, as well as to learn more about herself. First things first, there are a lot of things about this set up that are really winning. The idea of the actual film club itself is so charming as to be almost ridiculous. It's crucial to note here, that this is not some hang-out for real, hardcore cinephiles. The films they watch each week are the most classic of classics that everyone will have heard of, and the vast majority of viewers will have seen – think Alien and The Wizard of Oz. This gives the whole thing are a far more wholesome vibe, and the sense that this really is an excuse for socialising first and foremost. The characters have a passion for film (well, most of them do), but it's their friendship that binds them, and this is just a fun way to express it. It's telling that this was conceived of during the Covid pandemic, at a time when physical meet-ups were impossible, yet it also feels deeply resonant today. Even without restrictions, society has still become so much more virtual and isolated. A series preaching about the joys of social interaction, and showing characters simply enjoying each other's presence by being a bit silly, with no fear of judgement, is not only endearing, but also kind of critical. The characters here are also a complete joy to have on our screens, and Wood and her co-creator Ralph Davis have assembled a brilliant cast to bring them to life. Wood herself is magnificent as Evie, whose positivity and passion are infectious and whose mannerisms are so fantastically specific and clear. Rizwan's Noa is more straight-laced and, as is commented on at numerous times, formal, but has a habit of breaking out into incredibly bold accents and performances. As a duo fronting the show, they're both fantastic, with superb chemistry which feels like a real, long-lasting friendship. Meanwhile, there are excellent supporting turns throughout, including from Liv Hill as Evie's sister Izzie, with that sibling relationship between really well-drawn and observed. Two real MVPs are Suranne Jones as Evie's mum Suz, a genuinely distinct, brilliant character and such a departure from the typical 'on-screen mum' figure, and Adam Long as Josh, who may not be right for Evie, but has an endearing turn of phrase and a excitable energy. Set up, all great, characters, delightful, intentions, utterly good-natured. So, what are these issues? Well, these come, instead, in the detail of the narrative and in the tone. On the latter, it's key to note that reviewing comedy is hard – it's so subjective and every individual will find different things funny. Unfortunately, I personally just didn't find Film Club all that funny. It's operating on a grounded, low level of humorous interactions, and sure, there are some funny character beats throughout and some sequences that evoke a chuckle, but for the most part it's just not something that provided me with any real, deep laughs. Part of the reason for this is that, despite being billed as a comedy-drama, the synonym dramedy might work better, simply because the drama is really the first port of call. That brings me neatly to the plot, and in particular, the central romantic tension between Evie and Noa – these two are perhaps just too meant for each other. Of course, that concept has a long history in romantic comedies, both in film and on TV, but here it's kind of absurd. Evie doesn't seem to have any particular chemistry with Josh, she and Noa are practically an old married couple from the word go, and even his moving away doesn't feel like enough of an impediment to giving it a go. There's barely even the standard question of both parties being worried to ruin the friendship if they were to be rejected – their chemistry is so utterly blatant that even they so don't seem entirely oblivious to how one another feels. Every time there's a roadblock in their journey, it just feels like a slightly forced and mechanical way to drag out the will-they-won't-they storyline. However, if you're not vibing with the central romantic story, there are still plenty of other subplots to go down. In fact, there are slightly too many, with this scattershot approach leaving some of the most crucial ones feeling under-developed. For instance, Evie's mental health storyline is drawn in the broadest brush strokes, and never really honed in on in any substantial or meaningful way. The lack of specificity may be universalising, and therefore a comfort to some, but it means that when Evie does start to get better it's slightly harder to feel her catharsis, simply because we've never been entirely sure what she was struggling with to begin with. Again, this could be an intentional statement on the ways in which we relate to others in times of crisis, and everyone's experiences surrounding the topic will be different. Purely from a dramatic standpoint, it can be somewhat frustrating, as though the show is keeping us at arm's length. However, on a real-terms level, if this series helps some people who are struggling feel more seen, then that is wonderful, and a real, tangible good. The way this storyline is dealt with just does seem to be part of a piece with a number of the other decisions made across the board. For instance, the film club conceit should be grounds to commit to a real episodic structure, wherein the films chosen are used as themes for the instalments, expressing what they're trying to explore and doing so with aesthetic links. At times, it feels this is the route the show is going down, and those are arguably some of the best moments of all. One dreamlike sequence involving a spacesuit, inspired by Alien, is fantastic. However, as in a number of other areas, it fails to commit to this as a long-running structure, or indeed any structure or unifying concept. This keeps you on your toes, for sure, but sometimes a defined framework for episodes is good, helping to act as the glue holding everything else together. Instead, we get what feels like many different versions of this show, with a number of different branches and characters being underserved – Adolescence breakout Owen Cooper in particular is largely wasted as local kid Callum. As already expressed, none of this is to write Film Club off. If you're looking for a really easy, cosy watch of an evening, something fairly light where you can spend time with likeable characters and superb performers, then this could very well fit the bill. It's also not to say that a second season couldn't completely win me round on some of these quibbles. There's so much potential here that I'd love to see a second iteration of this, one where some of the screws are tightened and a really clear theme, story and structure are honed in on. But for now, Film Club isn't quite the knockout personal favourite I wanted it to be – even if it's still delightful to have a series which firmly celebrates friendship and film. Film Club begins on Tuesday 7th October at 10pm on BBC Three and iPlayer. Add Film Club to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. 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Punch review: James Graham's play is a marvel on London's West End
This remarkable true story is a testament to the power of restorative justice, and it features one of our favourite young actors at the moment, Alec Boaden.
4 stars Growing up in Nottingham, the story of Jacob Dunne – the man who fatally punched another man unprovoked – is one I already knew. Friends at a nearby school learnt about it in assembly, but the rest of us knew about it like some kind of urban legend, except it was true. Punch, which premiered at the Nottingham Playhouse before transferring to the Young Vic, then to the Apollo Theatre in the West End, recounts the events which led to Dunne fatally punching paramedic James Hodgkinson and the redemption which followed. The play is based on Dunne's book, Right from Wrong, and it's been brought to life for the stay by Nottingham's own James Graham (Dear England, Boys from the Blackstuff, Best of Enemies), who proves time and time again why he deserves his flowers as one of Britain's great modern playwrights. A lot happens in Graham's Punch, but the play is immaculately paced, and no moment feels rushed. David Shields takes on the role of protagonist Dunne, and the audience meets him as he cuts about from Yates's to Thirland to Bluebell to Slab Square, talks of rivalries with neighbouring districts St Ann's and Radford, and visits mates in Meadows and Holgate. We quickly learn that Dunne is a character who lives for the weekend, partying and petty fights, like many young lads, but it takes just one blow for Dunne's life as he knows it to come crashing down. Winner of the Best Performance in a Play award at the 2025 UK Theatre Awards, Shields is remarkable as Dunne; the actor explores Dunne's self-protection which manifests itself as anger and cockiness – a much-needed coping mechanism if you're growing up in the Meadows. When Dunne meets Hodgkinson's parents, Shields expertly navigates his character's feelings of guilt and grief, all while coming to terms with the accidental nature of the punch. The relationship that forms between Dunne and Hodgkinson's parents is the most pivotal part of the play, and you can hardly believe it's based on a real-life relationship. Julie Hesmondhalgh (Coronation Street) and Tony Hirst (Hollyoaks) play James’s bereaved parents, Joan and David, who meet their son's killer through restorative justice charity Remedi. Punch is nuanced in how it explores the parents' pain, as well as their will to help Dunne turn his life around, so that two lives haven't been lost to the attack. We learn that Joan stayed by her son's side until he died, but by which point, his death had become a murder investigation, and she's ushered away for questioning rather than being able to join the rest of her family. The play is also a story about 'what ifs', Hesmondhalgh asks what would've happened if Hodgkinson wasn't treated like another Saturday-night-out drunk and told to 'sleep off' his injuries, and what if Dunne wasn't failed by the institutions designed to help him? As Dunne's probation officer points out in the play, people are so obsessed with fixing potholes but they're less interested in helping people. Besides Shields, the cast in Punch play multiple roles, and one of the standout actors for me was Alec Boaden who plays Raf, Dunne's brother, among other roles. Earlier in the year, I'd seen Boaden play the role of Jude in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's adaptation of Noughts & Crosses, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else the young actor features in. This remarkable story of the power of restorative justice is performing for a limited time only, and we'd urge everyone to see it. Buy Punch tickets from £23 at TodayTix Where and when can I see James Graham's Punch? Punch has transferred to the West End's Apollo Theatre for a strictly limited time only, until Saturday 29th November. Punch has had two sold-out runs at the Nottingham Playhouse and Young Vic, so while ticket availability is good at the moment, this might change. Buy Punch tickets from £23 at TodayTix How to get Punch tickets at Apollo Theatre Tickets for Punch are available right now at TodayTix, and at the time of writing (Monday 29th September), tickets cost from £23. Buy Punch tickets from £23 at TodayTix For more of the latest reviews, take a look at our Born With Teeth review and five star The Producers review, and for the latest ticketing releases, check out how to get Doja Cat tickets.