Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2025-10-03T13:54:40.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: The Rocky Horror Picture Show at 50: Richard O'Brien on why the cult classic is more important than ever
items: “Stan Lee made fun of my writing!” — Spider-Man PS1 boss celebrates 25 years since launch
items: How TV classic Poldark paved the way for Bridgerton and Rivals
items: How Batman: Arkham Knight changed my life 10 years ago today
items: Twin Peaks' Mark Frost: 'David Lynch and I had a unique alchemy that's never been duplicated'
items: Final Destination at 25: Bloodlines continues a franchise that never dies
items: Pride & Prejudice at 20: How the Elizabeth-centric version masters the balance of Austen and Hollywood
items: Black Mirror director on the challenge of creating TV's least festive Christmas special
items: The Simpsons, move over – 10 Years on, BoJack Horseman is the best animated show of all time
items: Torchwood's Gareth David-Lloyd: "I'd definitely go back – it changed my life"
items: Tom Cruise's best film is 10 years old - and broke new ground for sci-fi
items: Sorry Buffy fans, Angel's controversial ending was actually perfect
items: Why The Phantom Menace isn't as bad as you remember 25 years on
items: Bottom director Ed Bye: 'It couldn't be done today'
items: How Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef changed TV cooking forever
items: How The Matrix created the modern blockbuster
items: 10 years on, Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains the MCU's greatest movie
items: Wallace & Gromit creators look back on 5 decades of Aardman Animations
items: Ghosts stars on Yonderland: 'I can't believe that they put it on TV'
items: Charmed was a silly show - and that made it magic
items: Merlin co-creator looks back, 15 years on: 'We talk a lot about exploring the legend again'
items: Wentworth Prison turns 10: “Bea’s death made the show feel real and dangerous”
items: The Bill at 40: "The show didn't get the recognition it probably deserved"
items: Steven E de Souza on 35 years of Die Hard: "Bruce broke the steroid ceiling"
items: Jurassic Park at 30: Lex star Ariana Richards breaks down iconic scenes
items: Sonic's 32nd anniversary is here – these fast facts reveal surprising truths
items: After 25 years of Sex and the City, we demand justice for Steve
items: Warrior Nun creator on show's legacy: "We really connected to a big group of fans"
items: Looking director Andrew Haigh on show's legacy: "I wish it had got to continue"
items: Buffy’s James Marsters: “I would have killed Spike off in a heartbeat”

The Rocky Horror Picture Show at 50: Richard O'Brien on why the cult classic is more important than ever
type: item
date: 2025-10-03T13:47:11.000Z
creator: Patrick Cremona
subject: Movies
subject: Exclusive
subject: Interview
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Video
description: The creator of the beloved musical speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com as the film turns 50.
encoded: This year, several iconic films have celebrated 50-year anniversaries – from Jaws and Dog Day Afternoon to Nashville and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. But as enduring as each of those masterpieces undoubtedly are, none of them continue to maintain a fanbase quite so fervent as another film that's just turned half a century old: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Richard O'Brien's gleefully camp cult classic – which started life as a stage show a couple of years prior to the film adaptation – starred Tim Curry as Dr Frank-N-Furter, an eccentric, cross-dressing scientist from the planet of Transsexual, Transylvania. Frank-N-Furter resides in an American castle with an assortment of equally bizarre companions – including O'Brien's own Riff-Raff – and when newly-engaged couple Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) stop by seeking refuge on a stormy might, they soon find themselves caught up in a bonkers world of manufactured muscle men, motorcyclist murders and a myriad of magical musical moments. Although not a major hit at the time of release, the film found a devoted audience when it became a fixture on the midnight movie circuit. That audience has continued to grow ever since, with interactive, fancy-dress sing-a-long screenings still occurring on a weekly basis all around the world. Fifty years on, O'Brien remains overwhelmed by the popularity. "It's always been this astonishment, that it just goes on and on and on," he tells RadioTimes.com from his New Zealand home during an exclusive interview. He goes on to outline one particular incident from the last decade that sums up his levels of disbelief at the film's longevity. "I was sitting in Germany in the front row while there was a production on stage in English with the narrator in German," he explains. "And two little girls were sitting at the end of the row... they were 13 years old, something like that. "And they were singing along with all the songs in English! And of course you go, 'Bu…

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“Stan Lee made fun of my writing!” — Spider-Man PS1 boss celebrates 25 years since launch
type: item
date: 2025-08-30T17:15:13.000Z
creator: Rob Leane
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: Exclusive
subject: Interview
subject: RT Rewind
description: Are we too old for Kid Mode now?
encoded: Believe it or not, the Spider-Man PS1 game landed a whopping 25 years ago today (30th August), meaning Neversoft brought Marvel’s iconic web-slinger to life in a brand new video game form on this exact date. For many, it was a seminal game of that early 3D area, with wall-crawling and web-swinging looking and feeling better than ever before, bolstered by a great story and an impressive cast — the late, great Stan Lee even did the opening narration! To celebrate the anniversary of such an iconic superhero game, Radio Times Gaming jumped on a call with its lead designer, Chad Findley. You can see the full conversation in video form above, or on our YouTube channel, or keep on reading for some choice quotes from the interview. Back in the year 2000, did Findley think that he’d still be talking about his Spider-Man game two and a half decades later? View oEmbed on the source website “Not at all,” he tells us. “So back then, I was so early in my career, I was really happy just to be working on a game like this. I know I've been lucky with a lot of the games I got to work on over the years, but I knew at the time, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, you know? “Bringing Spidey to 3D, like, who gets to do that? 3D games were, in general, kind of new. And, you know, even characters walking around was generally pretty janky. And I think Superman 64 was around the same time. “So, you know, superhero games were getting started. So, I just wanted to make sure we did the source material justice and made a good game. “And so, I was happy that we ended up serving both really well, I think, for the most part, and setting a good baseline for Spidey games and superhero games in general. But I was not expecting it still to be beloved. But I love that. It makes me really happy.” There are so many iconic aspects to the game — from the ‘Kid Mode’ option on the start menu all the way through to the hybrid Doctor Octopus/Carnage that you face in the unforgettable final level. We get …

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How TV classic Poldark paved the way for Bridgerton and Rivals
type: item
date: 2025-07-16T09:43:06.000Z
creator: Jo Berry
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: RT Rewind
description: The Aidan Turner-led series is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary.
encoded: Ten years ago, a new adaptation of Winston Graham’s historical Poldark novels arrived on our screens. The books had previously been made into a beloved TV series in the 1970s, but the new version offered more than just dreamy images of the Cornish coastline and the twisting tale of a British army captain who returns home from the American Revolutionary War to find the woman he loves is to marry his cousin, and his father has left the family estate in ruins. As tousle-haired star Aidan Turner skinny-dipped in the second episode and waved around his manly scythe while bare-chested in episode 3, it was clear that the BBC had finally discovered that prime time period dramas didn’t have to be prim and proper literature adaptations — they could be sexy, and just a little bit trashy too. While some viewers’ hearts may have skipped a beat when Colin Firth emerged from a lake in a wet shirt a decade before in 1995’s Pride & Prejudice, prior to Poldark most mainstream period dramas on terrestrial TV were stuffy adaptations in which the only chests on display were the ones spilling out of the heroine’s corsets. (Sorry, Downton Abbey fans - that show, which debuted in 2010, is utterly lovely, but it will never, ever be sexy.) Poldark changed all that. It doesn’t actually have explicit sex scenes — the show was on BBC One on Sunday evenings, and we wouldn’t want granny to pass out from shock in front of the TV — but it does have sexiness at every turn. It’s most obvious in the budding romance between Turner’s Ross Poldark and his kitchen maid Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), and also in the smouldering looks between Ross and his former love Elizabeth (Heida Reed), but flirtatious plots involving villainous George Warleggan (Jack Farthing), Dr Dwight Enys (Luke Norris) and Caroline Penvenen (Gabriella Wilde) all contribute to the general feeling that the county of Cornwall is far steamier than any travel show would have you believe. Of course, the BBC’s delicious historical romp was …

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How Batman: Arkham Knight changed my life 10 years ago today
type: item
date: 2025-06-23T08:47:35.000Z
creator: Rob Leane
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: Batman (franchise)
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Video
description: It's the game's 10th anniversary!
encoded: It's been 10 years since Batman: Arkham Knight first released, and I still remember it so vividly. Reflecting on it now, it's safe to say that this game changed my life. In the build-up to the game's launch on 23rd June 2015, I noticed that Arkham Knight was skipping the old consoles and going straight to the new (at the time) PS4 and Xbox One. The problem, at my end, was that I hadn't yet upgraded from my PS3. I wasn't long out of university, and there hadn't been any releases yet since the PS4 came out (in late 2013) to tempt me into buying an expensive new console. As much as I had always loved gaming, I wasn't yet making a super comfortable living after graduating with a second-class Film Studies degree (who could've guessed that wouldn't lead to a high-paying job, honestly). However, the Arkham games up to that point were some of my absolute favourites. I remember playing the first one with my uni housemates, taking turns and passing the controller every time one of us died. So, when I realised that I wouldn't be able to play Arkham Knight on my trusty old PS3, I knew I had to find a way to make it happen. Luckily for me, one of my best friends was travelling to Australia for an extended period that year. And luckily for my bank balance, he wasn't planning to take his PS4 with him. After some fraught negotiations, I had my hands on a machine that could play Arkham Knight. Weirdly, I now see this as a Sliding Doors moment in my life. My girlfriend (now wife) and I had so much fun on PS4 (me with Batman, her with Crash Bandicoot) that I ended up buying a second-hand console after my friend got back from Australia. By that point, it wasn't such a big financial risk. It wasn't long after this that the editor of a website, which I had been freelance-writing for, asked if I was into gaming and set up on the latest generation of consoles. If I was, they could send some more work my way. Being able to truthfully say yes in the moment set my life on a path I'm still on …

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Twin Peaks' Mark Frost: 'David Lynch and I had a unique alchemy that's never been duplicated'
type: item
date: 2025-06-09T18:00:32.000Z
creator: Alex Hewitt
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Video
description: As Twin Peaks turns 35, its legendary co-creator Mark Frost speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about working with David Lynch and changing the landscape of television.
encoded: After the tragic death of visionary filmmaker David Lynch earlier this year, fans around the globe have taken to the internet to share their favourite moments from his extensive body of work. It’s no surprise that a significant number of memories come from the groundbreaking Twin Peaks — a TV show that uniquely blended cosy small-town drama with a surreal murder mystery. Launched 35 years ago in the spring of 1990, the eight-episode first season shook the world of television to its core. Mark Frost and David Lynch were keen to take TV further than it had ever gone before. Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Frost explains: "After World War II, television set up a kind of cosy and warm conformity that was best exemplified in situation comedies. It was always the nuclear family, the dad was a sweet, loveable goofball, the kids were all adorable, and it was utterly predictable. It was all designed to sell products to those people in the audience — television was an advertising medium. "It wasn’t until the ‘60s that I perceived television can do a lot more than that, if you gave it a chance. There were little sparks that would escape every once in a while like Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner, which blew the top of my head off. I didn’t think that sort of storytelling was possible. Believe me, I filed those sorts of things away." Frost spent the early days of his career writing for a variety of shows, including The Six Million Dollar Man, and eventually had a three-year stint on Hill Street Blues, after which he decided to turn his attention to writing films. Enter David Lynch. Frost recalls: "Hill Street Blues was tremendous, but three years of 22 episodes a season is exhausting, and I thought movies sounded kind of relaxing by comparison. That was what drew us together; we were paired up on a script that I wrote that David was going to direct, and we got along — as he used to say — ‘like Ike and Mike’." Whilst working on the (ultimately unproduced) film together, F…

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Final Destination at 25: Bloodlines continues a franchise that never dies
type: item
date: 2025-05-14T16:00:23.000Z
creator: Chezelle Bingham
subject: Movies
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Video
description: You still can't cheat death.
encoded: On 17th March 2000, flight Volée Airlines Flight 180 crashed onto our screens. Twenty-five years later, the Final Destination franchise continues to terrify audiences with its relentless, iconic legacy. From defective roller coasters to faulty tanning beds, Final Destination has taught us fear in the everyday – turning the most mundane experiences into death traps and making us wonder whether every intrusive thought that passes through our heads could be a premonition. What began as a standalone horror has cascaded into a cinematic phenomenon, spawning five sequels that have collectively grossed over $100 million at the box office. Each instalment has been bloodier and more brutal than the last, finding new, twisted ways to terrify us with every run. And now, Final Destination Bloodlines is set to arrive in cinemas, passing down the terror to a whole new generation of horror fans. Over two decades on, Final Destination’s legacy certainly loomed over the heads of the cast and creators of Bloodlines. Stepping into such a beloved franchise didn’t prove particularly easy, as the cast reveal exclusively to RadioTimes.com. "We tried not to think about it," laughs Rya Kihlstedt, who plays distant mother Darlene in Bloodlines. "It’s been so long since number five that if we leaned into that too much, there would be a lot of pressure, and yet it also allowed us to look at it as a separate film." Such a sentiment is echoed by Teo Briones, who plays Darlene’s son Charlie. "If we thought about it too much, we’d lose our minds," he laughs. For some, stepping into Final Destination was a dream come true. "I was a massive fan of the franchise," says Richard Harmon, who plays Erik. "I watched the first one when I was 11 years old without my parents knowing. I’ve seen them all multiple times, so it was an honour to be part of the franchise. It’s horror greatness." And he’s not wrong. From ladders through eyeballs to dismemberments by fences to nail guns to the head, it is the invent…

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Pride & Prejudice at 20: How the Elizabeth-centric version masters the balance of Austen and Hollywood
type: item
date: 2025-04-24T09:46:39.000Z
creator: Stefania Sarrubba
subject: Movies
subject: RT Rewind
description: Joe Wright's stripped-down, riveting adaptation starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet is back in cinemas this weekend.
encoded: Sorry, Mr Darcy — in 2005’s Pride & Prejudice, the fuss is all about Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet, a feistier version of the character responsible for the film’s enduring appeal. Joe Wright’s debut feature may divert from Jane Austen’s novel in more ways than one, but it stands out as the most Elizabeth-centric adaptation of the author’s beloved classic. Now marking its 20th anniversary with a re-release in UK cinemas, the movie’s popularity remains unaltered two decades on — the enthusiastic response from viewers when the period drama was added to Netflix last month only confirmed that. Upon its release, however, the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice was criticised in academic milieux for its faithfulness, or lack thereof, to the source material. Deborah Moggach’s initial script was reworked not just to make the constraints posed by the film’s runtime work in its favour, but to enhance a remarkably timeless story with a more contemporary flair. Rather than taking place in the heyday of the Regency era, Wright updated the drama to the late 18th century. This was in line with Austen’s first version of the novel, originally known as First Impressions, written between October 1796 and August 1797 and set around those years. This shift resulted in the movie trading the polished Empire outfits for muddy hems, that were present in the novel nonetheless. "She looked positively medieval," Kelly Reilly’s deliciously vicious Caroline Bingley says with contempt of Elizabeth who, frankly my dear, doesn’t give a damn. Moggach resorted to cutting some characters and subplots so that Roman Osin’s camera could capture more of the dewy landscapes. Meanwhile, some key scenes were moved out of cream-coloured parlours and into the outdoors, maintaining the focus on Elizabeth throughout. Marking her first collaboration with Wright, the movie sees Knightley effortlessly embody Austen’s headstrong heroine, a stellar turn that would earn her an Oscar nomination. Off the back of he…

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Black Mirror director on the challenge of creating TV's least festive Christmas special
type: item
date: 2024-12-16T08:00:49.000Z
creator: Louise Griffin
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Channel 4
subject: Netflix
subject: RT Rewind
description: 10 years after Black Mirror's first and only festive special, we're still dreaming of a White Christmas.
encoded: 'Twas the week before Christmas and on British TV, the 2014 schedules were as festive as could be - from Downton Abbey and Doctor Who to Strictly and more, it was fun and festive cheer all across the board. But one Christmas special came to darken the day, to turn our White Christmas Black and send the carollers away. Millions sat down and scooted much nearer to their TV sets for the first and only festive Black Mirror. As White Christmas turns 10, we sat down with director Carl Tibbetts to unpack the least festive Christmas special around. Black Mirror, White Christmas When he was first approached for a Black Mirror Christmas special, director Tibbetts – who had previously helmed the critically-acclaimed episode White Bear – understandably thought it "a bit of an odd choice" but he was quickly won over. White Christmas, broadcast on 16th December 2014, was the final episode of Charlie Brooker's dark sci-fi series to broadcast on Channel 4 before moving to Netflix. It explored three stories told by two men (played by Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall), involving a woman who is digitally cloned, a pickup artist whose night ends in horror, and a man obsessed with his ex-fiancee after their relationship abruptly ends. "I'd done another episode of Black Mirror called White Bear, which was a pretty dark episode - very similar themes to White Christmas, actually, crime and punishment," Tibbetts recalls, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com. "They came to me with another episode, a Christmas episode, which I was really surprised that they were going to do. I was thinking, 'How is Black Mirror going to smash into Christmas?!' But actually, obviously, it does quite well." "It was a great script - [although] it wasn't really a script at the time," he adds. "What it was at the time was four stories that were going to spin off one central idea...I guess [series creator, Charlie Brooker] had lots of other ideas for episodes, lots of other ideas for what could have been full episodes but…

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The Simpsons, move over – 10 Years on, BoJack Horseman is the best animated show of all time
type: item
date: 2024-08-22T05:00:28.000Z
creator: James Hibbs
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
subject: RT Rewind
description: Funny, silly, experimental, heartbreaking, profound - 10 years since its debut, BoJack Horseman remains an extraordinary televisual accomplishment.
encoded: First up, it's important to note that comparing animated shows with one another is largely to miss the point. Animation is a format, not a genre, and it has produced series varying from The Flintstones to Big Mouth, Invincible to Looney Tunes. Still, when most lists of the best animated series of all time are produced, a worthy winner will come out on top - The Simpsons. There's no denying that The Simpsons changed the game for animation, for comedy and for TV as a whole. It should not be understated how strong those early seasons of the show are, or how evolutionary the series has been. In spite of all this, I would argue there is one series which trumps it. The reason I can be so certain that it would top a list of the best animated shows of all time is because it also happens to be one of, if not the best show of all time, full stop. That show, of course, is BoJack Horseman. It's been 10 years since the first season of BoJack Horseman landed on Netflix and, for those who haven't seen it (which is, quite frankly, more people than it should be), it is set in a world filled with anthropomorphised animals. Centring around Hollywood (or Hollywoo or Hollywoob, depending on your preference), it follows the titular BoJack Horseman, a horse and former TV star who led critically reviled yet culturally beloved '90s sitcom Horsin' Around, a fictional show with an unfathomably catchy theme tune. The series follows BoJack years after the cancellation of Horsin' Around, as he strives to find a place in the world, reacquire the stardom he has since lost and, ultimately, achieve that ever-evasive state - happiness. Featuring the voices of Will Arnett as BoJack, Alison Brie as his ghost writer and friend Diane, Amy Sedaris as his agent and ex-girlfriend Princess Carolyn, Paul F Tompkins as his warm-hearted and irritatingly chirpy frenemy and Aaron Paul as his friend and house guest, it ran for six seasons between 2014 and 2020. In its first few episodes, it presented as a knock-ab…

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Torchwood's Gareth David-Lloyd: "I'd definitely go back – it changed my life"
type: item
date: 2024-07-09T15:11:50.000Z
creator: Louise Griffin
subject: Sci-fi
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Video
description: Fifteen years after Ianto Jones's heart-wrenching death aired, actor Gareth David-Lloyd looks back on the beloved character.
encoded: When you think of Torchwood's highly acclaimed mini-series Children of Earth, one scene sticks out above them all – Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) dying in the arms of the love of his life, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). Not only did it devastate fans at the time, prompting petitions calling for Ianto's return and even a shrine in Cardiff's Mermaid Quay, it's one of the biggest lasting legacies of Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off helmed by Russell T Davies. Fifteen years on from the fateful third season of the show, the shrine still exists and is regularly visited by fans, as well as having its own caretaker, Carol-Anne Hillman, who looks after the beautiful monument. Speaking to RadioTimes.com exactly 15 years to the day after Ianto's death aired in Children of Earth: Day Four, David-Lloyd recalls: "Firstly, we didn't know whether we were gonna get the third series. So to have the phone call from my agents to say that we would go again, we've got a third season, was really exciting. "He said that it was only gonna be five episodes and at first, I was a bit disheartened. I thought, 'We were a 10 to 12 episode series.' And then he explained that it was going to be one linear story over the course of five days, and it was going to be one of the first television events where everything was going to be shown over a week. And that was quite exciting. "And then he said, 'And you'll be needed for three or four out of the five episodes,' at which point it sort of clicked and I thought, 'Right, OK. So it is his time.'" He adds: "By the time we got to season 3, I felt lucky to have got that far. So it wasn't a massive shock. Of course I was disappointed. I was going to lose a job and, you know, it created a real sort of a family atmosphere among the cast and obviously it was sad, but I felt lucky to have got that far without being killed off sooner!" View oEmbed on the source website The scene itself remains one of the most heartbreaking in TV history. After a sl…

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Tom Cruise's best film is 10 years old - and broke new ground for sci-fi
type: item
date: 2024-05-28T18:00:34.000Z
creator: George White
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: RT Rewind
description: Edge of Tomorrow is a decade old today.
encoded: Repetition is boring. The same thing over, over, and over. It becomes easy to zone out, it’s difficult to stay engaged. Yet in Edge of Tomorrow - or 'Live Die Repeat', as it was once known for… reasons - repetition is anything but boring. In fact, it provides the basis for Tom Cruise’s best ever film - and one of sci-fi’s highest points in the 21st century. Now, achieving the honour of topping Cruise’s decades-spanning filmography is no mean feat, nor is bestowing that honour an easy decision. After all, in the past few years alone, the Hollywood icon has released several of the big screen’s most exhilarating blockbusters, with Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible – Fallout chief among them. Cruise has also shown his dramatic chops with Oscar-nominated turns in the likes of Magnolia and Born on the Fourth of July since his screen debut in 1981, and delivered one of cinema’s most iconic lines when he told Rod Tidwell to show him the money in Jerry Maguire. But for all of these highlights, it is Doug Liman’s 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow - a bit of a sleeper hit that underwhelmed at the box office but has since attracted a mass viewership on streamers - that sits at the summit of his big-screen achievements. On the surface, the blockbuster feels like it could offer a fun couple of hours, a brainless form of escapism that passes the time while you eat some popcorn and slurp down an Ice Blast. It feels akin to a Fast & Furious or later-stage Marvel movie at first glance, an enjoyable but forgettable adventure that likely won’t trouble many people’s Four Favourites on Letterboxd. But what Liman and co deliver is so much more than that - a uniquely thrilling sci-fi adventure that breaks new ground in the genre. Firstly, there’s the premise. The time loop has been done to death in cinema, of course - in comedies both old and new, for the most part, from Groundhog Day to Palm Springs, but also in horrors like Totally Killer and dramas like the Oscar-winning Two Distant S…

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Sorry Buffy fans, Angel's controversial ending was actually perfect
type: item
date: 2024-05-19T07:00:58.000Z
creator: Melissa Parker
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: RT Rewind
description: Twenty years on, Angel's finale still stands up.
encoded: Angel often gets overshadowed by the show it was spun off from, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, its controversial ending has sparked much debate over the years — it isn’t a finale; it’s the show’s ever-present, nitty-gritty mission statement. From the pilot’s opening moments to the finale’s closing seconds, a well-thought-out plan seemed consistently in place, although it often felt muddled in the middle. In the debut episode, vampire-with-a-soul Angel (David Boreanaz) moves to LA to start a new life and help those in need. He joins forces with the resourceful Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) and the half-demon Doyle (Glenn Quinn) to battle supernatural threats. We should always go back to the beginning, because it skillfully establishes the setting, develops characters, and lays the groundwork for the entire series. It also, almost effortlessly, ties in the last seconds of the finale. In showing Angel’s pain and how troubled Doyle coaxes and persuades him out of the darkness, it does so much work in its stripped-backness. Two troubled men, one-on-one, "'Cause you got potential. And the balance sheet ain’t exactly in your favour." When the final episode aired, I felt ripped off. But decades later, I get it. I have grown into it. It’s now my favourite ending — I have the biggest soft spot for the characters. After all, it’s so painfully, quintessentially Angel to end with the team still fighting, half already dead, and more clearly on their way out. Buffy fans who treat Angel as a continuation, an add-on, do it a disservice. Many popular fandom criticisms focus on comparing it to Buffy’s essence and foundations rather than what its own was meant to be — different. In aesthetics, mission statements, thesis, and the way they pull from various eras of life. Buffy is about growing up — Angel is about being grown. From the first episode, Angel is an intimate, up-close, staring-you-right-in-the-face experience of addiction, the need for redemption, and how a person earns i…

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Why The Phantom Menace isn't as bad as you remember 25 years on
type: item
date: 2024-05-19T07:00:25.000Z
creator: Daniel Bettridge
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: RT Rewind
description: Does it deserve a little more appreciation?
encoded: Has any film in history ever been hyped quite as much as the Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace? Released 25 years ago on 19th May 1999, George Lucas's long-awaited return to a galaxy far, far away was the cinematic event of the century. The initial reception upon its release was largely positive. Critics lavished Lucas's prequel with praise while fans lapped up the opportunity to revisit one of the definitive pop culture landscapes of their childhoods. But then came the backlash. Driven by the growing concept of "fandom" and the burgeoning world of online discourse, The Phantom Menace would become a byword for on-screen awfulness, the subject of near-universal disdain from the franchise’s ferociously protective fans. But were they right? Or does Star Wars' Episode I deserve a little more appreciation? Let's take a look. Bright, breezy and bombastic Looking back now, the most startling thing about The Phantom Menace is quite how different it is from any other instalment of the franchise. The original movies had given us a glimpse of a galaxy under the yoke of an evil empire, a grim and grubby world of outlaws and oppression. But The Phantom Menace provides an entirely different take on a galaxy that we all thought we were familiar with. This is an altogether more optimistic setting. Through a journey that takes in a kaleidoscope of colourful civilisations, the sprawling cityscape of Coruscant and the eye-popping panoramas of Naboo, viewers get to experience the Republic in its pomp. Even the spaceships are buffed to a polished chrome, gleaming with the kind of hope and optimism that’s in stark contrast to the darkness of the original instalments or the impending doom that surrounds the rest of the prequel trilogy. It’s not just the world-building that’s on point, either. Against this brightly-coloured backdrop, we’re presented with an equally luminous cast. From Liam Neeson's stoic Qui-Gon Jinn to the understated excellence of Ian McDiarmid’s would-be puppeteer Palp…

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Bottom director Ed Bye: 'It couldn't be done today'
type: item
date: 2024-04-18T07:00:33.000Z
creator: Paul Tanter
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: RT Rewind
description: Producer Ed Bye chats with Paul Tanter ahead of Bottom: Exposed, a new documentary which delves into the history and popularity of the anarchic '90s sitcom.
encoded: When Ed Bye took on directing and producing duties for the pilot of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's Bottom in 1990, then-BBC2 Controller Alan Yentob wasn't convinced he was up to the job. "He said, 'Who's in charge of this?' I said, 'I am.' He said, 'No, who's really in charge?' I said, 'Me,' and he replied, 'Oh s**t,'" laughs Bye, who helmed series 1 and 2 of the groundbreaking sitcom in the early 1990s. Having worked with the pair on seminal '80s smash-hit The Young Ones, Bye had faith in Mayall and Edmondson's abilities, though hesitancy manifested until the first laughs during the studio recording. Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, the director says: "Like all shows that are groundbreaking, there were doubts. Nobody quite knows how it's going to go down or what it's going to be like. So, you just have to have the courage of convictions to go, 'Look, this is going to work. We're going to give it our full blast.' "There were reservations from the BBC, particularly because it was very edgy comedy. But the audience went nuts and it went really, really well. We thought, 'Great. Now we have the confidence.'" From small acorns grow mighty oaks and Bottom was no exception, with audiences loving the exploits of sex-starved Richard Richard (Mayall) and violent drunkard Eddie Hitler (Edmondson), living together in a squalid Hammersmith flat and eking out an existence of petty crime and poverty. The show ran for three series and spawned five sellout live tours and even a feature film spin-off, Guest House Paradiso. More than three decades since that pilot, Bottom's popularity endures as new fans discover its mix of existential angst and cartoon violence, laced with toilet humour. Bye enjoys the continued affection for the show. "It's a huge compliment that people still take an interest in it. Things get very popular when they get repeated. Some of those people taking an interest in it aren't even 30 years old, discovering it through late night repeats and the Talking B…

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How Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef changed TV cooking forever
type: item
date: 2024-04-14T07:00:00.000Z
creator: Daniel Bettridge
subject: Entertainment
subject: TV
subject: BBC
subject: BBC iPlayer
subject: Comment
subject: RT Rewind
description: Twenty-five years on, Daniel Bettridge looks back at how Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef changed everything when it came to cooking on telly.
encoded: Chef, restaurateur, social campaigner and sworn enemy of the Turkey Twizzler - these days Jamie Oliver needs no introduction. But it was an altogether different story when he made his TV debut 25 years ago. On Wednesday 14th April 1999, The Naked Chef exploded onto our screens. The show introduced us to a then-unknown Oliver, a shaggy-haired sous chef from London’s River Cafe who whizzed around London on his Vespa before cooking up a feast for his friends at the swanky Islington apartment where the series was filmed. With a format that was as fresh as his food, The Naked Chef was unlike anything we’d ever seen on TV before. An overnight hit, it didn’t just launch Oliver’s career but changed the face of small-screen cuisine – shaping the way that TV chefs (and indeed an entire nation) cooked forever. "Cooking has got to be a laugh" A quarter of a century ago, the recipe for TV cooking was almost unrecognisable from the kind of shows we see today. Back then the format felt as stiff as the starched white aprons worn by the chefs who stood behind the stove. Pre-measured ingredients in little glass ramekins were put together with almost scientific precision, as impeccably-spoken hosts guided us through elaborate processes used to prepare pretentious dishes that would be out of place in all but a handful of households. Oliver however existed at the opposite end of the chef spectrum. The brand of slapdash simplicity that gave the show its “Naked” moniker stripped food back to basics, delivering big flavour with minimal effort. It was also fun, every bit the laugh that Oliver said it had to be during the show’s opening credits. Gone were the time-consuming techniques and precision measurements – instead Oliver "dolloped", "shoved", "smashed" and "chuffed up" his ingredients, guiding viewers through "pukka" recipes with a distinctive Essex patter that was more Del Boy than Delia Smith. He looked and sounded like someone you might know in real life, which only added to the fe…

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How The Matrix created the modern blockbuster
type: item
date: 2024-03-31T01:00:56.000Z
creator: Daniel Bettridge
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: RT Rewind
description: As the action classic turns 25, we look back on its legacy.
encoded: Twenty-five years ago, the Wachowskis gave cinemagoers a choice: They could choose the blue pill and stick with the tried and tested film formula that had come to dominate the box office, or take the red pill and follow the filmmakers down a rabbit hole towards a new era of cinema. Inspired by comic books, Japanese anime and French philosophical musings - little was expected from The Matrix when it first hit theatres on 31st March 1999. The movie, however, became a critical darling and a commercial smash hit, scooping four Oscars, hauling $467.2 million at the box office and spawning two sequels (a third would follow 22 years later). Beyond its success, however, the lasting impact of The Matrix was how it sparked a revolution that would ultimately come to shape the modern blockbuster. Before he was 'The One', Keanu Reeves was a far cry from the all-action superstar we’re used to seeing today. Though he’d had some success with 1994’s Speed, the Bill & Ted actor was better known for his air guitar skills than his action chops. He wasn't even the Wachowskis’ first choice for the role of Neo, only landing the part after the likes of Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio had all turned it down. Like those who’d been considered before him, Reeves looked nothing like the leading men who fronted the box office in the '90s. The decade was dominated by the likes of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Con Air and Cliffhanger - muscle-bound movies filled with vest-clad, square-jawed superstars performing physical feats in stories that were more concerned with pyrotechnics than plot devices. Thanks to the gravity-defying physics of The Matrix, however, the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone would soon be obsolete. Borrowing heavily from the choreographed kung-fu and balletic wire-work that was pioneered by Hong Kong action auteurs like John Woo - this was a new breed of film fisticuffs that demanded a new type of action hero. It wasn’t just physiques that changed after The Matr…

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10 years on, Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains the MCU's greatest movie
type: item
date: 2024-03-26T19:00:47.000Z
creator: George White
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: Disney Plus
subject: Marvel Cinematic Universe (franchise)
subject: On demand
subject: RT Rewind
description: It's been so long. So long.
encoded: Marvel’s fall from grace has been quite spectacular. With the past year bringing poor box office results, middling feedback from audiences and vocal criticism from some of its former stars, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is under pressure to revive the fortunes of the once seemingly indomitable empire. Such is the negativity around the franchise right now, in fact, that it’s easy to forget just how formidable said empire was at the height of its powers. Gripping storytelling, groundbreaking special effects, a line-up of genuinely world class actors fully committed to their roles – as tough as it is to remember right now, the MCU at its peak offered blockbuster filmmaking at its very finest. And no release epitomised this more than Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Somehow, it’s been a decade to the day since HYDRA attempted to topple SHIELD in explosive fashion, meaning it’s been a decade to the day since the best superhero movie of all time hit the big screen. What makes it worthy of this title? Well, the fact that it’s not really a superhero movie – it’s a spy-thriller interspersed with superhero shenanigans. Seeing a suited-up Cap leap off a motorbike to take down a Quinjet using only his shield is undoubtedly cool, as is witnessing a Helicarrier being blown to smithereens above Washington, DC, but extravagant set-pieces like these are few and far between. Instead, The Winter Soldier is a largely grounded, gritty film that puts storytelling first. The action is often breathtaking, but many of the fight scenes could ultimately be found in a Jason Bourne flick or Mission: Impossible movie. Whether it’s the opening sequence, as Captain America and his SHIELD agents infiltrate a warship and stealthily take down a group of mercenaries, or that knife fight between Chris Evans’s Captain America and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier on the busy streets of the US capital, directors Joe and Anthony Russo immerse the viewer in every punch, kick and slash. And the who…

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Wallace & Gromit creators look back on 5 decades of Aardman Animations
type: item
date: 2023-12-15T13:00:43.000Z
creator: Sabastian Astley
subject: Movies
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
subject: RT Rewind
description: Nick Park and Peter Lord discuss the studio's legacy as its latest film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget arrives on Netflix.
encoded: 'Is Aardman running out of clay?' was the worry on every British person's mind not too long after a Daily Telegraph report came out claiming such a horror – fortunately, the fears of a clay drought weren't entirely founded. "It is true that we heard that production was going to cease so we basically just stockpiled," Peter Lord laughs during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "We stockpiled! So wherever you go around the studio, there's piles of modelling clay wherever you look." As Lord explains, the clay houses Aardman are in touch with are developing vats of clay by the 100 kilos, and while they do need some clay, their heroes' pint-sized appearances mean it's much less than you'd expect. "I mean... how many chickens are there in Dawn of the Nugget? I think it's around 300 or something. So it's not a very, very large number." The animation studio was co-founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, with little plasticine bundle of joy Morph bouncing into the world in 1977. When you watch the early one-minute Morph shorts, everything Aardman has come to be known for is right there – its universal, charming humour anchored by a character with such vivid humanity it truly feels alive. In that same year, Aardman created Down and Out for the BBC – its first foray into adult animation, using vox pop recordings and animating them – the Animated Conversations and Conversation Pieces series would lay the groundwork for the iconic Creature Comforts, yet another idea with infinite steam to keep going, as Park agrees: "The joy of Creature Comforts is that it's the sort of thing that can run and run, as we will never run out of people to interview." All of this tinkering with adult animation led Aardman to a most unexpected place: 1980s Yugoslavia. "We visited a festival in Zagreb, and everything [animated] there was designed for an adult audience," says Lord. "That was an absolute revelation for us. From then on, we knew about this world, and it became part of o…

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Ghosts stars on Yonderland: 'I can't believe that they put it on TV'
type: item
date: 2023-11-10T09:30:20.000Z
creator: David Craig
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: RT Rewind
description: As the Sky comedy turns 10, we asked the creators to look back on their warped fantasy series.
encoded: The much-anticipated finale of Ghosts season 5 airs on BBC One tonight – but if you'd switched on the telly a decade ago to this very day, you would have seen the so-called 'Six Idiots' in a rather different series. Yonderland premiered on Sky One on 10th November 2013, and told the story of a stay-at-home mum named Debbie (Martha Howe-Douglas), who discovers she is actually the saviour of a faraway realm. The titular place is utterly unpredictable, governed by a council of dim-witted Elders and populated by a diverse range of species and communities, each one more surreal than the last. To mark the launch of the official Ghosts tie-in book – The Button House Archives – RadioTimes.com asked co-creators Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick and Mathew Baynton to share memories and lessons from their earlier project. Check out the video above for everything they had to say about Yonderland or read on for the highlights. It should come as no surprise to Yonderland fans that Howick's favourite character to play was The Crone, a hilarious figure known for her screeching tone and outlandish statements. "The Crone is probably the standout memory simply because she features in every series, and I think her part sort of grew," he began. "Her part was very much a story beat in episode one, which then became this kind of running joke. "I loved playing her. I absolutely loved it, it was really fun. Of all the characters in Yonderland, her and the Elder were the only two I kept coming back to." Baynton went on to reveal that, in its early stages of development, Ghosts was poised to be a similar show to Yonderland, with each member of the group playing several characters in a far busier Button House. He explained: "I don't think Ghosts could have been written before Yonderland – or certainly it wouldn't have come out the same. "We went into Ghosts having done Yonderland with the same multi-character mindset, thinking, 'We're going to play lots of characters.' "So Ghosts, when we wrote the pil…

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Charmed was a silly show - and that made it magic
type: item
date: 2023-10-07T07:00:31.000Z
creator: Melissa Parker
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: RT Rewind
description: 25 years on, we look back at the magic of Charmed.
encoded: Sometimes, we all need to experience uninhibited handmade hockiness — with an edge. For 25 years, Charmed, the iconic TV series about three powerful sisters, Prue (played by Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), and later, Paige (Rose McGowan), collectively known as The Charmed Ones, fighting demons and navigating love and life, has been providing just that. It’s pop culture comfort food, diamanté-encrusted, rose-tinted villainy, '90s shabby chic — feminism 101. I say that with immense love, admiration and gratitude because, as a disabled child, that attitude and space helped me endure. Even today, at 31, I still revisit — because who doesn’t occasionally crave the comfort and loving embrace of home? The manor, with its mouldings, enormous windows, staircase and stained glass, forms the very foundation of this world. And then there’s the decor—the quilts, the rugs, the lampshades, the dollhouse manor, the family photos, the overstuffed, mismatched, rumpled furniture, and an overall lived-in look which oozed comfort. I still yearn for that warm hug that the Charmed universe exudes. The show has crafted a vivid and enchanting world full of a unique female lineage and mythology, along with relatable growing pains — it has a knack for reminding you that you’re human and letting you lick your wounds about it. Its power also lies in its ability to seamlessly blend the female experience with raw, sincere human emotion and mythic, surreal, and silly. It also delved into important themes such as love, loss, and personal growth. Prue’s sober burden of responsibility as the elder sister after losing both her mother and grandmother, Piper’s desire for a life outside of magic, Phoebe’s relationships and later search for love while balancing her career and studies, and Paige’s introduction and her eventual search for her individual identity. As '90s fashion gave way to tighter clothes and glossier lips, they were transported through time and past li…

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Merlin co-creator looks back, 15 years on: 'We talk a lot about exploring the legend again'
type: item
date: 2023-09-20T16:25:16.000Z
creator: Morgan Jeffery
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: RT Rewind
description: Johnny Capps reflects on the creation of the BBC's popular fantasy hit, its final episodes and whether a revival could be in the offing.
encoded: In a land of myth and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name... Merlin! "When we made Merlin, we made 13 episodes every year, for five years – we were working round the clock, we never stopped," recalls Johnny Capps, co-creator of the BBC fantasy series originally aired from 2008 to 2012. "The show was commissioned at the beginning of the year and we had to deliver it in September. We were like, 'Yeah, we can do it' – because you're not gonna say you can't do it, but we got to a point where Merlin was transmitting, and we were still filming it. "Julian [Murphy, series co-creator] and I are going, 'My God, do we have to apologise to the nation if we can't get this episode ready in time?' "There was one time where episode 13 failed a technical test. We had to take it back on the Friday evening, sort out the technical problems, and it was almost literally me on a motorbike, holding the tape, rushing into the BBC and putting it into the machine." Though it might have included the odd stressful moment, Capps tells RadioTimes.com that he has "hugely fond memories" of his time spent working on Merlin, which premiered 15 years ago today, transmitting its first episode on BBC One on Saturday, 20th September 2008. Along with Julian Murphy, Capps had previously founded Shine Drama to develop series for television – the pair, along with writer Jake Michie, were big fans of Smallville, the US drama charting Superman's teenage years, and decided to try developing a fantasy show with a similar slant for a family slot. Delving into the various Arthurian legends, Capps says he and his co-writers were "like magpies", picking their favourite parts from Cornish, Welsh, Scottish and Irish traditions. "The myth is so fascinating and so rich, so we looked at all of those things and it was always about subverting expectations, twisting all of those legends." Though Smallville was very much "the blueprint" for the series, another more…

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Wentworth Prison turns 10: “Bea’s death made the show feel real and dangerous”
type: item
date: 2023-08-28T09:00:49.000Z
creator: Molly Moss
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
subject: RT Rewind
description: Wentworth’s originating writer, Pete McTighe, looks back at the ground-breaking prison drama, a decade on.
encoded: When Australian prison drama Wentworth – a remake of the wildly popular 80s soap opera Prisoner – first aired in 2013, there was scepticism about whether it would suitably honour the legacy of the original. But the contemporary reimagining soon won over diehards of Prisoner (called Prisoner: Cell Block H in the UK) and new fans alike, with the debut episode becoming the most-watched drama premiere in Foxtel history. Taking inspiration from characters and plots from the cult series but never binding itself to earlier incarnations or backstories, Wentworth became an international success in its own right over the course of its 9 seasons, winning over audiences around the globe with its dark and gritty portrayal of women’s prison life. “We looked at the legacy characters of Prisoner and who we wanted to bring back and we spent a lot of time figuring out how to invent them in surprising ways,” Wentworth’s originating writer Pete McTighe tells RadioTimes.com of the show’s beginnings. “I didn’t want to rehash what had come before but I also didn’t want to disrespect those characters in any way; I was a massive Prisoner fan.” McTighe wrote the pilot episode over New Year in 2012, which led to the show being commissioned, before penning most of the first season alongside a few guest writers. “From season 2 we had more of a writers' room setup where there was a core group of 3 of us – me, Marcia Gardner and John Ridley – and we basically were in charge of story for the show from that point and we’d bring in guest writers here and there but mainly it was the core group of the three of us." Season 1 mainly concerned itself with the shifting power dynamics between new arrival Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack), a forty-something-year-old hairdresser convicted of attempting to murder her abusive husband, prison top dog and murderer Jacs Holt (Kris McQuade) and Jacs’ rival, Franky Doyle (Nicole Da Silva). Fans entered the world of Wentworth through the eyes of lead protagonist Bea, and…

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The Bill at 40: "The show didn't get the recognition it probably deserved"
type: item
date: 2023-08-16T13:19:15.000Z
creator: Abby Robinson
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: RT Rewind
description: Jim Carver star Mark Wingett takes us on a trip down memory lane for RadioTimes.com.
encoded: Britain is, in many ways, a nation divided: but if you're a millennial or older, there's one thing that unites us - our love of The Bill. The ITV police procedural, which followed the comings and comings at fictional station Sun Hill, ran for a monumental 26 seasons, winning a legion of fans along the way and firmly establishing itself as a British institution. The key to unlocking that status was gripping storylines and characters who we became fiercely invested in, one of whom was Jim Carver, a man who was often in the eye of the storm. "The laughs we had," Mark Wingett reminisced with RadioTimes.com on the show's 40th anniversary. "Because the subject matter was so dark and you work hard on those shows, we made four episodes at a time, we'd often sit around giggling – between takes, during takes, after takes. It was so much fun. "To be served with those extraordinary scripts and a great cast, as an actor you couldn't wish for anything more." Wingett played Jim for 21 years, during which time the probationer-turned-DC suffered from alcoholism and a gambling addiction, was arrested for murder, and had his fair share of romantic turbulence with another iconic character, June (Trudie Goodwin), and his alcoholic wife, Marie. "That was great fun [laughs]," he said of his many dramatic storylines. "That's just my warped, warped mind, but the faults in a character are always the great things to play." And that was just Jim's private life. The job itself threw up an endless conveyor belt of challenges, from kidnappings to violent assaults to the time he survived an attack from masked men wielding an automatic rifle – and often before he'd even had his second cuppa of the day. The Bill wasn't always concerned with its characters' private lives. "When it originally started out, every scene had to have a police officer," explained Wingett. "It was seen through the eyes of the police and personal lives were left out." But following the death of former cast member Kevin Lloyd,…

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Steven E de Souza on 35 years of Die Hard: "Bruce broke the steroid ceiling"
type: item
date: 2023-07-15T08:00:02.000Z
creator: Sam Moore
subject: Movies
subject: RT Rewind
description: The screenwriter talks to RadioTimes.com about the actors who turned down the role, writing for Alan Rickman and coining the iconic "yippee-ki-yay" line.
encoded: John McClane was very nearly played by Arnold Schwarzenegger – and that would have made Die Hard a very different action classic. Steven E de Souza, the screenwriter of the iconic movie, is talking to RadioTimes.com ahead of the film's 35th anniversary and has opened up about the road of bringing the film to screen. “Arnold would not have worked because he was such a physical specimen," he says on the prospect of Schwarzenegger potentially playing McClane. "At the time when the Die Hard script went out, we were coming off Commando and Rambo and all these giant guys. "[Casting Bruce Willis] opened the door for a lot more normal looking guys like Keanu Reeves being in action movies. Bruce broke the steroid ceiling.” The number of action stars that turned down Die Hard is now the stuff of Hollywood lore. Virtually every big name in the business said no before TV star Willis was selected off the back of the success of Moonlighting. De Souza thinks he knows why all the big names were not eager to sign on: “James Caan passed on it. He said the first 25 pages were the guy hiding and trying to call for help and that he didn’t get it. And that was probably the reason every other actor turned it down. It was the antithesis of what we had trained audiences to expect from action heroes.” The role was also originally offered to Frank Sinatra, who at that point was in his seventies. The thought still makes de Souza chuckle: “The script had to be offered first to Frank Sinatra because of a contractual thing but fortunately he said he was too rich and too old to do it because, as I always say, the chases through the building would have been on a rascal scooter.” Die Hard, of course, made Willis one of the biggest and most beloved stars on the planet, and he would reprise his role as McClane three more times before his retirement in 2022, but it also ushered the very unusual phrase 'yippee-ki-yay motherf*****' into the popular lexicon. The line was a joint effort between de Souza an…

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Jurassic Park at 30: Lex star Ariana Richards breaks down iconic scenes
type: item
date: 2023-06-24T07:00:15.000Z
creator: Louise Griffin
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Video
description: As Jurassic Park turns 30, Ariana Richards speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about one of the most influential films of all time.
encoded: Ariana Richards's audition for Jurassic Park was intense to say the least. At the age of 12, when auditioning for the role of Lex Murphy, the granddaughter of park creator John Hammond (played by the late Richard Attenborough), she wasn't asked to read lines - simply to scream at the top of her lungs. As the iconic film turns 30, the actress and artist tells RadioTimes.com: "I had been acting for a few years before Jurassic Park so I was pretty used to the audition process, but this was an unusual one because it was highly top secret. They were keeping everything under wraps so I was not given a script, I wasn't even given a standard section of a script, called sides, to look over before I auditioned, so it was very much a mystery. I was just called in to do an audition and be put on tape screaming." She recalls: "The casting person just said to me, 'So, Ariana, we're going to put you on tape to share with Steven [Spielberg] and you're going to act like a dinosaur is attacking you. You just have to imagine this is happening and we want you to let loose and scream.' That was my entire audition, it was the weirdest audition I've ever done in my life!" Clearly though, she smashed it, as weeks later, while planning a trip to Disney World, she was invited to meet Spielberg, who told her she got the role. Not long afterwards, she was surrounded by a cast of Attenborough (Hammond), Laura Dern (Ellie Sattler), Sam Neill (Alan Grant) and Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm) - and, of course, a set full of dinosaurs. "I enjoy the cast so much," she recalls. "When it comes to dear Richard, I miss him so much. He was so special, just being on set with him. Richard was so grandfatherly as a person as well, just hanging out with him, hearing his stories, hearing what it was like for him directing, he was just happy to regale me with stories in between filming. There was always that time in between takes where we would get to spend time sitting with the other actors and we got to talking. …

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Sonic's 32nd anniversary is here – these fast facts reveal surprising truths
type: item
date: 2023-06-23T12:29:29.000Z
creator: Jo-Anne Rowney
subject: Gaming
subject: Technology
subject: RT Rewind
description: Sonic the Hedgehog reaches his 32nd anniversary today. It's time we really got to know him.
encoded: It's been 32 years since Sonic the Hedgehog first sped onto our screens - the original game came to the Sega Mega Drive in western territories on 23rd June 1991, and the blue blur is still an entertainment staple three-and-a-bit decades later! Today (23rd June 2023) is technically the character of Sonic's 47th birthday, according to Eurogamer, who've added the 32 years of pop-culture fun onto Sonic's supposed age in the original game. You could argue, of course, that Sonic is like a cartoon character in that he doesn't really age in real time. He's a perpetual teen with attitude in our eyes, like Bart Simpson but blue and with spikes. Semantics aside, there's no denying that today is the anniversary of the original game. And thanks to the Sonic Superstars trailer, embedded below, we know that the blue blur will be returning to his 2D roots very soon indeed. View Green Video on the source website Furthermore, Sega has plans at 4pm BST today to host a Sonic showcase online, where the speedy hedgehog will be celebrated and his future will be teased. When the clock strikes 4pm in the UK, you should be able to tune in via Sonic's official YouTube channel. You may be here to celebrate his birthday, but how well do you actually know Sonic? Sure, we all love guiding him through colourful levels with such speed that his legs look like a red and white circle, but not many of us have taken the time to really get to know Sonic on a deep and personal level. Now that Sonic is turning 32 (that midlife crisis gets closer by the day), let's give the guy some respect and really listen to all the weird and wonderful things he has to tell us about. Read on, then, as we journey back through 32 years of Sonic with 16 fast facts about the much-loved hedgehog and bonafide gaming icon! 16. A ball in a tube was how it all started Programmer Yuji Naka’s prototype for Sonic was a basic character just rolling through a tube while inside a life-sized ball. This basic system was then used to crea…

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After 25 years of Sex and the City, we demand justice for Steve
type: item
date: 2023-06-22T06:00:13.000Z
creator: Minnie Wright
subject: Comedy
subject: TV
subject: Comment
subject: RT Rewind
description: Steve fans, rise up!
encoded: Season 1 of And Just Like That wasn't the first time Steve Brady faced injustice at the hands of Sex and the City's writers. It was 2008 when we got our first taste of ill-treatment of the beloved character in Sex and the City: The Movie. The first film (which is not, in the grand scheme of the franchise, a bad movie) saw Steve – hitherto thoughtful, kind, witty, generous and the dream life partner – go right ahead and cheat on Miranda because she was so busy acing her high-flying law career and raising their baby that their sex life dried up a bit. Never, it seems, did this Steve, 'Movie Steve', think to, I dunno, talk to his wife about the fact he was struggling with the lack of romance between them. While it spawned a beautiful storyline, an opportunity for both Miranda and Steve to grow as individuals and come together again, stronger, we should have seen this as a warning sign. We should be kicking ourselves for not hearing alarm bells 15 years ago. The Steve we caught up with again in 2021 isn't just a shadow of the man we knew and loved, he's a differently person entirely. Barely recognisable (in personality only – he’s still gorgeous of course), 'And Just Like That Steve' just isn’t the man 'Sex and the City Steve' would’ve grown to be. This guy is cranky, not easygoing; this guy has forgotten how to have good sex; and, worst of all, this guy is boring. Don't blame the hearing loss – this Steve doesn't seem to want to listen. He's supposedly given up engaging properly with Miranda, drifting away to become a vague spectre of the man she (and we) fell in love with. He's distant, dull and bumbling, the spirited, Knicks-loving, Miranda-loving man we knew a faded memory that gaslights us (and, it appears, Miranda) into wondering: did he ever actually exist? But he did. I've checked. Lest we forget, this is the down-to-earth, flirty bartender whose charm was so addictive even the cynical Miranda couldn't shake him; a one-night stand who became a forever love – or …

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Warrior Nun creator on show's legacy: "We really connected to a big group of fans"
type: item
date: 2023-06-16T12:44:57.000Z
creator: Molly Moss
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
subject: Netflix
subject: On demand
subject: RT Rewind
description: This Pride Month, RadioTimes.com talks to Warrior Nun creator Simon Barry about the show's beginnings, its huge fan base, and its premature cancellation.
encoded: Warrior Nun has a fan base like no other. When Netflix cancelled the show in December after just two seasons, its loyal followers weren’t going to take the news lying down. Billboards bearing the hashtag #SaveWarriorNun soon appeared outside Netflix’s offices in cities including London, Los Angeles and Milan, while fans also hosted meets-ups across the globe, shared selfies with #SaveWarriorNun signs while paragliding and scuba diving, and launched a petition calling for the show to get a third season, which currently has more than 120,000 signatures. It’s this “really strong and vocal and engaged fan base” that creator Simon Barry is most proud of when looking back at the show, which was based on a 1990s comic book by Ben Dunn and saw 19-year-old Ava (Alba Baptista) resurrected in a morgue only to discover she’s been imbued with superpowers and become the chosen halo-bearer for the Order of the Cruciform Sword (OCS), a religious sect of demon-hunting nuns and priests (yes, really). Warrior Nun not only pushed the boundaries of the fantasy genre itself by blending science fiction, action, fantasy, period and young adult fiction but, led by an almost entirely female cast of warriors who hold the fate of the world in their hands, also offered refreshing female and LGBTQ+ representation rarely seen in fantasy shows. “We really connected to a big group of fans who felt that their show was telling a story that they had not been told, and that they were seeing themselves represented in a way that was really not just entertaining for them but also empowering and joyful and sort of, I guess, satisfying,” Barry tells RadioTimes.com. “I’m proud that there’s a really good community that we helped build of people that connected with each other as a result of the show and now have formed a strong community that is self-sustaining and built on friendship and shared interests.” Barry was first introduced to Dunn’s comic book by friend and film producer Dean English, who had the ri…

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Looking director Andrew Haigh on show's legacy: "I wish it had got to continue"
type: item
date: 2023-06-13T16:08:39.000Z
creator: Lewis Knight
subject: Drama
subject: TV
subject: Exclusive
subject: RT Rewind
subject: Sky
description: This Pride Month, RadioTimes.com looks back at acclaimed HBO drama series Looking with its British director and co-writer Andrew Haigh.
encoded: It’s been almost a decade since the announcement of HBO producing a gay-themed dramedy in the form of Looking. Created by writer Michael Lannan and directed by acclaimed Weekend director Andrew Haigh, there was a great deal of buzz for the series ahead of its premiere, with many labelling it the "gay" version of Girls or Sex and the City. The series premiered in 2014 on HBO and on Sky Atlantic in the UK and followed the lives of three gay men and best friends living in San Francisco, California. The lead trio of protagonists comprised neurotic video game designer Patrick (Jonathan Groff), the self-destructive artist Augustin (Frankie J Alvarez), and the jaded but ambitious chef Dom (Murray Bartlett). Over the course of its two-season run, we saw each of the men deal with their family relationships, friendships, and complicated love lives, not least Patrick’s divisive love triangle with humble barber Richie (Raul Castillo) and his determined but partnered boss Kevin (Russell Tovey). Despite the critical buzz and a dedicated fan base, Looking failed to pick up enough viewers for HBO, resulting in the network ending the series but providing Lannan and Haigh with the opportunity to provide a resolution to the story with the feature-length television film Looking: The Movie, which brought the narrative to a bittersweet close in 2016. Now director Andrew Haigh - acclaimed for his work on films and series including 45 Years, Lean on Pete, and The North Water - has spoken with RadioTimes.com for Pride Month 2023 about his work on the acclaimed series as it nears a decade since its debut. Of course, it's important to begin with where Haigh became involved in what would become an important period of his creative life. Well, much of Haigh's input into the series could be traced back to his acclaimed 2011 British independent film Weekend, which is now considered by many to be a modern classic of LGBTQ+ cinema. “So that film was released and then basically, they got in touch wit…

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Buffy’s James Marsters: “I would have killed Spike off in a heartbeat”
type: item
date: 2023-05-20T06:00:52.000Z
creator: Louise Griffin
subject: Fantasy
subject: TV
subject: RT Rewind
description: As the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer turns 20, Spike actor James Marsters speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com.
encoded: This feature contains discussion of sexual assault that some readers may find upsetting. "We may be talking about this scene for the rest of our lives. Would anyone like some coffee?" James Marsters recalls telling his cast mates on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. True to his word, here we are 20 years on from the airing of the finale episode of the wildly popular fantasy series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as the Slayer. And we're delving into the story of Marsters' truly iconic character, Spike, the punk vampire who writers tried – and ultimately failed – to stop audiences falling hopelessly in love with. "They never really knew what to do with Spike," he admits to RadioTimes.com. "Because the original idea for Buffy was that that vampires were just metaphors for the challenges of high school, or the challenges of life. They were designed to be overcome, they were designed to die. Buffy is not an Anne Rice kind of thing, where you're supposed to feel for the vampires. It's why we're hideously ugly when we bite someone, they did not want that to be a sensual kind of thing. It was supposed to be horrific. "So trying to fit Spike long term into that kind of show is a weird fit. And so they were always like, coming to me at the beginning of every season saying, 'We don't know what to do with you! We have a plan for the season, we have a plan for all the other characters, we have all the arcs of all the other characters, we just don't know what to do with you again.' "And because they were so creative, they were able to figure something out. But what it meant was I think that I was plugged into the other arcs. I was the villain, and then I was the wacky neighbour, and then I was the wrong boyfriend, and then I was the fallen man trying to redeem himself. And then ultimately a kind of guinea pig hero by the end." He recalls: "Most secondary characters, their dialogue is kind of like, 'Good job, Buffy. What do we do now Buffy? Everybody wait for Buffy!' and I was absolutely …

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