What happened to Morgan Duncan? True story behind Netflix's Missing: Dead or Alive
Morgan Duncan's case is explored in Netflix's Missing: Dead or Alive?.
Netflix has released a second instalment of its gripping series, Missing: Dead or Alive?. Across the second season, viewers follow officers from the Richland County Sheriff's Department Missing Persons Unit in South Carolina as they search for people in the immediate aftermath of their disappearances, providing long-awaited answers to family members. The first episode follows officers as they take a closer look at the disappearance of Morgan Duncan, and their findings soon devastate his family. Read on to learn more about what happened to Morgan Duncan, as explored in Missing: Dead or Alive? on Netflix. Who is Morgan Duncan? Morgan Duncan was a 27-year-old father of two who disappeared from his home in 2023 in South Carolina. As explored in the Netflix documentary, multiple people described Duncan as a "nice guy" but hadn't heard or seen him in quite some time. Investigators grew increasingly concerned as Duncan was in need of his medication and it was "unlike" him to disappear. At the time of his disappearance, Morgan Duncan had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been missing for months. What happened to Morgan Duncan? Law enforcement at Richland County Sheriff's Department discovered Morgan Duncan's remains in a woodland area in 2024. According to investigators, Morgan Duncan was killed over a dispute about drug debt of $300. Law enforcement uncovered that Duncan was strangled during an argument about money he allegedly owed for drugs. Witnesses who lived in an apartment building told investigators they saw Eric Greene strangle Duncan. Who is Eric Greene? Eric Greene is the man convicted of Morgan Duncan's death and was a local drug dealer in the area of Columbia, South Carolina. Where is Eric Greene now? In July 2025, circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman sentenced Greene to 57 years in prison. Greene did not testify but denied the charges made against him. Greene addressed the court prior to his sentencing and said: "I told my lawyers, I'm like, 'I want to testify.' They told me it wouldn't be a good idea. But now I'm glad that I get to at least speak my peace because I did not do nothing wrong." Greene is currently serving his sentence in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Missing: Dead or Alive seasons 1 and 2 are available to watch on Netflix now. 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 Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock speaks on space travel future and aliens: "I'm not sure about alien abduction"
Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock tells us why the future of space exploration matters and how she hopes to inspire the next generation.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock has been blown off course by cancelled trains. She has finally arrived at the Royal Institution in London to rehearse her Christmas Lectures on the furthest reaches of the known cosmos, but the journey was challenging. She laughs at the irony: “I was stranded. I was like, ‘Beam me up, Scotty’, but no one was listening.” The Sky at Night presenter – whose dream of becoming a space scientist took root after watching an episode of Clangers – has slept for just three hours, but she’s fizzing with the energy that both fuels her insomnia and has made her a household name. “I have dyslexia and ADHD, my head is a-buzz with ideas. Sometimes it’s overwhelming,” she explains. She’ll be pouring a slice of those thoughts into her three-lecture series, entitled Is There Life beyond Earth? and showing on BBC Four, covering Nasa’s plan to return humans to the Moon, potential signs of life on exoplanets, whether future human settlements could survive in space and how the James Webb Space Telescope – on which she worked in the design stages – is rewriting the story of the Big Bang. Dame Maggie’s story is compelling – her parents separated when she was four, she was diagnosed with dyslexia at eight and attended 13 different schools. But she made her name in science because, she says, “I was lucky to have a powerful dream.” She also wants to hammer home the message that space is for everyone. “Growing up, I thought space and astronomy were done by white guys in togas. You hear about the Greeks and Romans, you don’t really hear about everybody else. But every culture has looked up at the night sky. It’s the heritage of all of us,” she says. However, our ancestors could never have imagined this current era of billionaire-fuelled galactic adventure, led by the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson. While Dame Maggie is optimistic that “more of us will get out there” despite the eye-popping cost of a ticket ($28 million for a maiden flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepherd rocket in 2021, for example), she has concerns. “Space is too important to leave to the vagaries of billionaires,” she says. “There might be life out there. How will we interact with that? The nightmare is that we exploit rather than embrace space. We need to get legislation in place before we spread our wings because, as humans, we have a tendency to make a mess of things.” Is she confident that we will find other lifeforms some day? “I’m pretty convinced there’s life out there. I’m not sure about alien abduction, because space is vast! Even if aliens are there, I think they might find it quite challenging to find us.” As a space educator who’s spoken to some 650,000 people through her talks – “I’m knackered, but it’s a joy” – what’s the one thing she would change about our perception of space? “People say, ‘You spent all this money on space. What’s it for?’ They don’t ask that about art or poetry. I worked on the James Webb telescope, but most of my time is spent on observation satellites that look at our planet and tell us about climate change or help when a disaster hits. They benefit our planet, but people don’t really see that.” She’d also like us to prise ourselves away from our phones and marvel at the sky, just like our ancestors did. “Stuck at the station this morning, people were on their phones. It’s a beautiful day, the sky was blue. I looked up and felt the sun on my skin. Every so often, look up, because it makes your heart sing.” Despite all her achievements – from developing hand-held instruments to detect landmines to becoming the first black woman to win a gold medal in the Physics News Awards – Dame Maggie has one ambition that she is yet to achieve, to actually get to space. “So far, 12 people have walked on the Moon. They’ve all been white, they’ve all been American and they’ve all been male. Now Nasa has said they need to send a woman, they need to send someone who isn’t American and they need to send someone who isn’t white. “I keep saying, ‘Me! Me!’, so we’ll have to see.” Train timetable permitting, expect to see her there. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: Is There Life Beyond Earth? air Sunday 28th to Tuesday 30th December at 7pm on BBC Four and iPlayer. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Legendary photographer Martin Parr looks back on his work and recalls the way we were
Speaking to Gareth McLean in Radio Times magazine back in August 2025, Martin Parr shared his singular vision of Britain.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine in August 2025 – just months ahead of Parr’s death on Saturday 6th December 2025. “Yellow card!” Martin Parr admonishes. “You’re intellectualising these things a bit too much for my liking.” I have earned his reproach for suggesting that the razing of the Lido in New Brighton — as featured in The Last Resort, the series of photographs that made his name — could be seen as a metaphor for the hollowing-out of Britain’s working-class communities over the past 40 years. “There’s politics in my images if you want to find it, but I don’t push it down people’s throats,” Parr proclaims. “People should just sit back and enjoy the images, really.” People certainly do enjoy Parr’s photography. As well as chronicling changing life in Britain, Parr’s work has transformed photography itself, with his garish but gritty signature style influencing everything from fashion editorials to war-zone reportage. Why does he take photographs? “It’s just what I do naturally,” he says. “I have a desire to go out and capture these images, and the crazier the scene in front of me, the happier I am.” The subject of a BBC4 documentary and co-author of an upcoming memoir, Utterly Lazy and Inattentive, which looks at his life by reflecting on 150 of his best-known photographs, Parr says that of the hundreds of thousands of photographs he’s taken, not one of them has been perfect — though he’s got close. “You know when you’re out shooting that most pictures you take aren’t going to be perfect or great. But you keep shooting to have that momentum so, as and when, things start to fall into place.” Parr ponders. “It’s just the luck of finding a scene.” Mayor of Todmorden’s Inaugural Banquet, West Yorkshire 1977 “Between 1975 and 1980, I lived in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and would attend all the different social events that were going on. This photograph was taken at the inauguration of the mayor of Todmorden, and it’s the best buffet scene I’ve ever managed to shoot. I’ve done buffet scenes many times since, but I’ve never managed to equal it. It’s the guy in the middle squeezing his way through that makes the picture.” Sedlescombe 1995—99 “I started using a macro camera, which I bought in 1995, and that was a real revelation: using the camera to focus on the foreground and letting the background fall out of focus. I started out doing pictures of things like British food, then different days around Europe, and then ended up doing these series of pictures in England. You can see here the flash on the Union Jack and you can see the outline of the woman sitting behind. Those two things combined made the picture really work.” New Brighton 1983—85 “We moved to Wallasey in 1982, and just down the road was New Brighton, a resort that I knew would be very interesting to photograph. And so it was. I got there when it was looking very shabby, lots of litter on the ground, which I liked, and I worked on this project over the next three years. It turned out to be the most successful one I’ve ever done. The flash and the palette of quite bright colours done with a colour negative for quite intense rendition was novel, very different to other colour documentary images.” Skegness 1992 “Whenever there was a dramatic news headline, I used to go out and try to capture people reading newspapers. It’s not something you’d do now, because newspapers have virtually disappeared, especially the red tops. If you went to the seaside today, you probably wouldn’t see anyone reading a paper — maybe a few older people — but everyone else would be looking at their phones. Smartphones affected everything. Cameras are being replaced by smartphones and everyone’s a photographer now. I take proper pictures on my phone because the quality is so good, especially when there’s no light.” New Brighton 1983—85 “This is the burger bar at the New Brighton Lido. Obviously everyone at the front is concentrating on either getting their burger or putting the tomato sauce on it, but as for the others… I’ve been back to New Brighton a few times, but the energy that was there in the 1980s has disappeared because the Lido, which was one of the best and biggest buildings there, has been pulled down. It’s gone — levelled [after a storm in 1990] and nothing was built on the site for years.” Sand Bay 1997 “You couldn’t get a better cup of tea if you went to a studio and set it all up. I got this at one of our favourite cafés in Weston-super-Mare, Monks's Rest, where they also did great scones. It’s closed down now. The teacup and the saucer are perfect, the colour of the tea is pretty good, and the tablecloth with the gingham is also good: this cup of tea is the classic cliché. Therefore it gets used quite a lot, on things like T-shirts, and imitated. I encourage pastiche of my work. I take milk in my tea. Just milk.” If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Dame Judi Dench opens up on her declining eyesight, family history, and having a temper: "Oh yes, I’m sometimes very cross"
At 91, acting legend Judi Dench speaks candidly about sight loss, memory worries, her inherited temper, and the comfort of Shakespeare.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. The snow is falling sluggishly, barely settling, as we drive down ever-more-winding country lanes and draw up to Dame Judi Dench’s fairy-tale cottage, with its heavy wooden door. It emerges beyond a barn and outbuildings, a lake, swimming pool and six acres of her beloved woodland in which, each time a dear friend dies (and there are a lot of them by now), a tree is planted with their name attached: recent additions being Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg. The grounds are tended by a friendly young man (the son of one of the longstanding group of women who help the actor), dressed in tweeds, a bounding dog at his side. Dench would doubtless demur at "grounds" – being the least given to airs and graces of any interviewee of her stature. Last time we met, in 2017, she told me how much she loathes being called an "icon" and actively despises "national treasure", relishing Tracey Ullman’s hilarious portrayal of her (available to watch on YouTube) as a swearing, boozing, shoplifting, dog-poo-throwing tearaway hiding behind her revered status. Outside is perishing, but inside all is warmth and good cheer. Indeed, it feels Christmassy, down to the glass of champagne from which Dench takes the occasional sip. Age has not withered her. Jude – as she is known to her friends – is so warm and fun (God, is she fun! And so game!), as well as funny, making spontaneous quips that reveal a still-lively mind even if she worries about losing her marbles. But on 9 December she turns 91 and the passing of time has had an impact. Her bright blue eyes, which can turn to steel when playing a part like M in the Bond films, no longer see. Her sight has been declining for some years, due to age-related macular degeneration. When I ask whether she can see my face – we are seated very close to one another, she at the head of her kitchen table – peering intently, she says, "You’re in a fog." She suffers from both eyes being "wet", the worst condition, and so there’s nothing to be done. "It’s a crusher," she says, her voice low. It was a blow to her independence when she could no longer drive, and then having to give up embroidering (swear words on dainty cushions; the soft furnishing equivalent of the Ullman skits), reading and watching television. Is there anything she particularly misses? "Well, I miss seeing Clive Myrie doing Mastermind, but I can hear the questions." So you still have the TV on, but just for listening? "Yes, that’s what it is now." She gets her temper, she says – wait, what? Dame Judi Dench has a temper? "Oh yes, I’m sometimes very cross" – from her red-haired Irish mother. (Her doctor father, Reginald Arthur, was English but grew up in Dublin, where he met Eleanor Olive Jones, who became his wife.) Dench breaks into a strong Irish accent as she recalls one of her mother’s "fiery" outbursts: "Daddy had bought her an Electrolux to replace her old Hoover. It arrived and she was standing at the top of the stairs – we had a long, long, long staircase going down to our front door – and she shouted, ‘Will ya give me back me old Hoover!’, and then she threw the Electrolux down the stairs! She had a furious temper." In her documentary, Judi Dench: Shakespeare, My Family and Me, which we are here to discuss, every so often she says she hopes she’s not going to lose the plot. Does she worry a lot about that? "Oh yes, and I do now." She feels lucky to still be able to remember great reams of Shakespeare, which she has been performing her whole life; even as a child it was the practice of her family to learn his words. "But I can’t remember what I’m doing tomorrow, I swear to you – just ask them," she points to the assistants who are lined up at the other end of the kitchen so as not to disturb us, but on hand to help if need be, which does occur. "It can be true, yes," they say as one, like a Greek chorus. The documentary has been made at the behest of director Harvey Lilley who – among other projects – helmed her episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2021, when her Danish connection first came to light and took her into the orbit of Shakespeare, who is her hero for life. In that programme, it transpired that Dench’s ten-times-great-aunt was a lady-in-waiting in the Danish king’s court at Kronborg Castle in Denmark, which inspired Elsinore, Shakespeare’s setting for Hamlet. But it was her eight- times-great-grandfather, Anders Bille – who came to England as part of the royal entourage in 1606 – on whom the new documentary turns, with its key question: could Dench’s ancestor have actually met, or at the very least brushed shoulders with, William Shakespeare on that visit, given the playwright himself was an important member of the court of James I? If at times the thread of the conceit seems in danger of snapping in its tenuousness, the great charm of its protagonist – her lovely face as the words she has said since she was a young girl flow unbidden from her, in this or that grand historic hall – prevails and you’re left feeling terribly moved, grateful, even. It’s the long decades of familiarity with the words, elucidating as they do all there is to know about the human condition, that bind her to her childhood, her family, her whole big career and the love of her life, Michael Williams, her late husband – and father of her daughter Finty (born Tara Cressida), also an actor – who died of lung cancer at 65, in 2001. Judi and Michael met in the 60s, when they were both with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and married in 1971. There are paintings and photographs of him in prominent positions in every room. He is staring at me now from the counter on the other side of the kitchen – a particularly golden, luminous blown-up photograph of him looking lovingly at the camera, which makes your heart skip a beat. I ask whether it’s at times like Christmas that she particularly misses Michael. "No," she says. "All the time." If you met Shakespeare now, what would you ask him? "Are you writing another play? Is there a part for me in it? Some old bird sitting in the corner with a nice speech at some point, not too much. And could she drop off during the play?" Dench has been a Quaker since boarding as a teenager at The Mount, a Quaker independent secondary school in York. After attending the meetings, she discovered that they were meaningful for her and has remained a Quaker ever since. Is her faith a source of strength and consolation? "Certainly." But friendship is more than important to her: "It’s absolutely vital. That’s what the Quakers are called – the Society of Friends." One such dear pal is Pierce Brosnan, about whom a story comes up on the back of me asking if she has an interest in who the new Bond might be (answer: not really). Her old 007 mucker came for lunch and she’d completely forgotten the doormat because it’s been there for so long: "The door was open, he looked down and there on the mat are the words, ‘I’ve been waiting for you, Mr Bond’." Was he tickled? "Oh, yes." Forgiveness is a central tenet of the Quaker belief system – that everyone, regardless of the crime, deserves a second chance, and that through compassion and empathy a person can change and is worthy of care, regardless of the outcome. I start to recite some lines that come into my head: "Love is not love…" and she joins in – "Which alters when it alteration finds / Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark." Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey were very good friends to her – the latter was a great comfort when her husband died, the former made her career in Hollywood. She was quick to condemn the predatory sexual behaviour of the producer when it first came out. I wonder how she feels now. Can she forgive both men? What sort of accommodation do you make when a friend has erred so egregiously? Is every good deed or accomplishment erased for ever? Can they be more than the worst thing they have ever done, even if it was persistent behaviour? Will there be a Weinstein tree in her woods when he dies? At this point, the Greek chorus has broken into a Mexican wave of alarm, but I press on because she has spoken about this to Radio Times before and time has elapsed – perhaps her views have changed? She says: "Kevin has been exonerated and I hear from Kevin, we text. I saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks and you think, 'Well…' 'I knew Harvey and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience – very fortunately for me,' she says, with empathy for his victims. 'I imagine he's done his time…' she pauses. 'I don't know, to me it's personal – forgiveness. I just think…' her voice trails away and we leave it at that. The subject is clearly painful to her, so to lighten the tone I ask whether she has a celebrity crush. "Oh God! Well, I can't see anybody, can I?" OK, so in the past? "I don't know!" The Greek chorus coughs off-stage and looks over to something clearly significant on the wall. "Oh," Dench clocks. "Are we talking about… Yes, I expect we are… Johnny Depp?" Why? "WHY? Pull yourself together!" She points to the wall. "Up there is a framed earring that he bit off my ear in Pirates of the Caribbean." He bit off your ear? "Well, of course, he had to. I had to sit in a carriage in Greenwich and they said, 'Johnny Depp will jump in through the window, give you a kiss and jump out.' He jumped in, but he didn't give me a kiss, he went for my ear and took my earring off with his teeth. And I said [disappointed voice], 'Is that it?' and that is actually kept in." So, was that a bit of a moment for you? "Well, of course Johnny Depp, he's…" she fans herself. She’s looking forward to Christmas with her family – her daughter, Finty, her grandson Sammy and his girlfriend, Lizzie. They don’t watch TV except for the King’s speech. "If you are lucky enough to be together with the family, round the table, then that’s what I like best. A group of people talking, exchanging things and delighting in each other. There’s nothing better than that." We talk about her rapping with Lethal Bizzle, dancing in lockdown with her grandson on TikTok, the tattoo she got at 80 on the inside of her wrist – carpe diem (which looks so cool with her silver rings on every finger). The same legend is framed on a wall, alongside another one: "I love you to the moon and back," a saying her family have for one another. Oh, to be in her presence is such a tonic. She is so very present that it has the effect of making you feel more vividly alive. But does she fear death? "Oh, yeah!" she says almost enthusiastically, which makes us both laugh. "But he’s not coming in here now, is he?!" "Aye, but to die, and go we know not where," I start, and she joins in and then we are reciting together the great speech from Measure for Measure: "To lie in cold obstruction and to rot / This sensible warm motion to become / A kneaded clod…" Stop it, Judi! Is there any Shakespeare you don’t know? "It’s only because I’ve done the play twice." But they’re not even your lines! "He wrote about everything that we might fear or look forward to, or delight in, or love. You feel it. He wrote it." The Christmas double issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Shakespeare, My Family & Me will be available to watch on Channel 4. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Meet the man who inspired Ralph Fiennes’s Conclave character - and learn the true secrets of selecting a Pope
As the world watched the Vatican chimney, Cardinal Vincent Nichols was sealed inside – and now he tells the story of electing Pope Leo XIV.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. For a man who helped inspire Ralph Fiennes's masterful performance in the Oscar-winning movie Conclave, Cardinal Vincent Nichols is remarkably relaxed about watching himself on screen. "I haven't seen the film yet," says the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, to give the spiritual leader of the four million Catholics in England and Wales his full title, as he welcomes me into his study, an enclave of tranquillity tucked behind the neo- Byzantine grandeur of Westminster Cathedral. "But we did have a long chat before he played the part. He came here and we talked for three hours. Then I said, 'Do you want to try on the kit?' I went to get it and he got dressed, looked in the mirror and said, 'OK, I feel all right now.' It's amazing being able to switch character like that. He's a remarkable man." Nichols also hasn't asked to see a preview of the BBC Two documentary Secrets of the Conclave, in which he plays a leading role recounting what happened behind closed doors during the real conclave that took place in Rome to choose a successor to Pope Francis. For Nichols, it was the highlight of his life in the Church. A tall, softly spoken 80-year-old, born and brought up in Crosby and still carrying enough of a Merseyside accent to make sense of the framed Liverpool FC shirt hanging above his study door, Nichols radiates the same quiet charisma in person that he does on television. He may not have seen Hollywood's take on Robert Harris's 2016 novel about the power plays, political wrangling and court intrigue surrounding the election of a fictional pope, but why would he need to, having been part of the centuries-old process that elected Pope Leo XIV? For two days in May, with millions around the world watching the Vatican chimney on news networks and YouTube, it was one of the biggest live television events of the year. Not that Nichols knew that at the time. Because, along with the other 132 cardinals who took part in the papal conclave, he was locked away in the Vatican – "clave" being Latin for "key" – living under a communications blackout imposed by the Church. "When we moved into the Santa Marta [the Vatican guest house next to Saint Peter's Basilica], I was given a more thorough search than at any airport security I have been through," he says. "My phone was put into a sealed bag. I had a Kindle reader that I use to say prayers, but that had to go. I have hearing aids with a charger and they tested those, but they eventually allowed me to keep them. When I was shown to my room there was what looked like a convector radiator that I was told was there to pick up any electronic signals coming into – or going out of – the room. The wooden shutters on the windows were sealed shut." This enforced seclusion, initially a shock, became transformative. "It changed the world in which we lived for a few days," he says. "It became an enrichment because there was this shared focus on a remarkable task in hand." The cardinals – some familiar to Nichols, others complete strangers, like the 45-year-old from Mongolia whose church is a tent that travels with nomads across the plains – had no choice but to get to know one another. He describes the atmosphere in the guest house as contemplative – "we didn't say a lot of prayers; that was all done in the Sistine Chapel" – and says they used their digital detox to concentrate fully on their deliberations. "Unlike in the film, I believe, I never heard a word of anyone promoting themselves. Or the opposite. I never heard a word of somebody saying, 'Keep away from him, there's trouble there.' There was a quiet exchange of views, but more about qualities than personalities." In the Catholic tradition, the pope is the successor to Saint Peter, a direct line that can be traced back to the original apostle charged by Jesus with spreading the gospel. As such, selecting a new pontiff – leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics – is not a task to be taken lightly. "Everybody in the conclave understood the weight of the office of being pope," says Nichols. What about the American cardinal, formerly known as Robert Prevost, who now finds himself as Pope Leo XIV? "He showed an utter calm. I was about as far away from him as that chair over there when the conclave came to the decisive moment," he says, gesturing to the corner of his study. "We all had a sheet to keep the score on, so everyone knew when the decisive two-thirds majority had been reached. When Cardinal Parolin came across and stood in front of Robert Prevost and said, 'Do you accept this legitimate election to be Supreme Pontiff?', he just said, 'I do'. Then the second question: 'By what name shall you be known?' He said simply: 'I am Leo'. In his heart, he was already stepping into his new life. Even his new name." The documentary shows the stove used to burn the ballots being wheeled into the Sistine Chapel, the chimney being erected to carry the news to the crowds outside, and a temporary floor being installed above the uneven mosaics so that aged clerics didn't trip on their way to post their ballot in the urn on the altar. There's also footage of the new pope, freshly clad in his white cassock (various shapes and sizes are run up beforehand), being acclaimed on the balcony of Saint Peter's, seemingly in tears. "He was visibly very emotional," recalls Nichols. Read more: BBC confirms Christmas 2025 TV schedule – from The Traitors season 4 to The Night Manager season 2 Of course, he might have been mourning his previous life. "You lose all privacy," says Nichols. Even for him, returning from Rome, the attention was astonishing. "Coming back through Heathrow Airport," Nichols recalls, "I was stopped five or six times by people asking, 'Have you been to the conclave?'" Why did a papal conclave captivate so many of us? "People are hungry for something that appeals to an innate truth in as much as, sometimes today, truth has been subjectivised. Everybody knows that there are some traits and human aspirations that are shared. And if they are denied, we get into trouble. Who is disinterested enough in politics and power to speak up for these things? "There was a moment in the Santa Marta when one of the cleaning ladies stopped me as I was walking past to go to the Sistine Chapel, and she said, 'Just give us someone dressed in white.' She was expressing that sense of there being a gap, an empty space that needs to be filled to complete our picture. "It's the same thing that underpins the experience of being a parent – giving birth to a child, having a succession, a sense that life has got a purpose other than just me. And it's going to go on: a promise of fulfilment." Which brings us to Christmas. Perhaps His Eminence will finally find time to watch Conclave? "It's upstairs, I've just never got round to it," he says, pointing out that most of his television time is devoted to following Liverpool. "But I hope everyone will watch this documentary on the conclave," he adds, inviting us all to share the quiet deliberation and shared purpose of those spring days spent behind locked doors, sealed off from the digital whirl in which we live. A world without phones but full of meaning. Read more: Conclave review: Ralph Fiennes is imperious in this finely-scripted papal thriller The Christmas double issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Secrets of the Conclave airs on Monday, 22nd December at 9pm on BBC Two. Add Secrets of the Conclave 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 Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Downton Abbey icon's "intimate and emotional" new wildlife series gets first look trailer
Apple TV has unveiled a closer look at its brand new wildlife series, Born to be Wild, narrated by award-winning actor Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Paddington). Filmed over several years across three continents, Born to be Wild follows six endangered young animals who are raised by humans, but destined to return to their world. The six-part series charts the challenges, triumphs and resilience that defines the survival for both the animals and the people working to raise and protect them. The new trailer offers a closer look at the majestic animals running throughout the wild, offering viewers a taste of what's to come. You can watch the full trailer above. Debuting on Friday 19th December, the series follows each animal as it finds its place in the world after being orphaned or born through conservation programmes. From an elephant calf and two young cheetahs, to a ring-tailed lemur pup, a moon bear cub, Iberian lynx kittens and rescued African penguins – there is quite the mix of stories! The synopsis continues: "Born to be Wild offers an intimate and emotional look at the powerful relationships between these animals and the heroic humans dedicated to raising, rehabilitating and rewilding them to help save their species." Read more: Grenfell: Uncovered's Olaide Sadiq – "I wanted to honour the victims but also make people angry" British acting royalty confirmed to join King Charles III's 'landmark' new documentary project Bonneville's narration will be on TV aplenty this December, with the actor also lending his voice to Channel 4's festive-themed travel special Nordic Train at Christmas. The special has been described as a "picturesque rail expedition" – will take viewers aboard the Bergen Oslo railway as it travels from Norway’s coast to the capital. Channel 4 has teased that the journey will begin in "the photogenic city of Bergen, surrounded by ancient fjords and mountains, through the spectacular Nordic landscapes, including the snowy hills of Finse – home to one of Europe’s highest altitude hotels, before ending at the festive frivolity in the stunning capital of Oslo". Born to be Wild premieres on Friday 19th December on Apple TV. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How I discovered The Real Salt Path from my investigation into Raynor Winn's hit memoir – and it started on Instagram
Raynor Winn’s memoir The Salt Path sold millions of copies, but how “true” is her story, asks journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Earlier this year I received a message from a stranger on Instagram. They knew Raynor Winn, the author of The Salt Path and they had a tip off: her husband, Moth, the subject of her book, didn’t seem to be as ill as she claimed. Since its publication in 2018, The Salt Path has sold more than two million copies, making it one of the most successful memoirs in decades. In 2024, it was adapted into a film, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. Raynor Winn seemed to be everywhere – on TV chat show sofas and on the stage of literary festivals up and down the country. Readers had opened their hearts to this woman and her true story of how her husband Moth had received a terminal neurological diagnosis just days after they had been conned out of their home and left destitute. The couple had then made a radical decision: to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path of England, rough camping and surviving on a pittance. They told how the physical exertion of the hike, and the beauty of nature, helped to reverse many of Moth’s symptoms. The message of hope and redemption proved a bestselling formula, repeated in two sequels with publisher Penguin calling Raynor Winn’s books “unflinchingly honest”. But my source believed the couple were covering things up. Looking into Moth’s neurological condition, I saw immediate red flags. Corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a rare disease with similar symptoms to Parkinson’s, usually kills sufferers within six to eight years of diagnosis. They can experience muscle stiffness and shaking, have issues with balance and eventually lose the use of their hands and legs, often slipping into dementia, before they lose the ability to swallow. Moth, 65, claims to have had the condition for more than 18 years and has no visible symptoms. He has put this down to the challenging walks described in the books. But neurologists told me it was impossible for the damage done to the brain to be reversed. At this point, my editor at The Observer warned me that it would be difficult to publish. Medical histories are private and this probably wasn’t a story we could pursue. But he gave me a few days to follow up on other information the anonymous tip-off had provided. It’s not unusual for authors to take on pen-names, but Raynor Winn and her husband’s real names, Sally and Tim Walker, were not publicly available. My source provided the names and the location in Wales where they’d lost their house. I travelled to Pwllheli, in north-west Wales, and learnt of rumours that Sally Walker, aka Raynor Winn, had stolen money from her employer and got away with it. A local woman confirmed that Sally Walker had been arrested for stealing more than £64,000 from her late husband’s company. Walker had made good the company’s losses by borrowing money against the family house, leading to its repossession. I also discovered that the couple owned land in France despite claiming to be penniless. Memoir is never entire truth; omission and curation is part of the creative process. But Winn had painted herself as a victim when that seemed far from the truth. And knowing that she’d lied about how she lost her home, cast more suspicion on inconsistencies with Moth’s health. It now seemed plausible that readers may have been sold a lie. Most of all, the suspicion that very sick people might have been misled by Moth’s miraculous recovery felt like a pressing issue of public interest. In my two decades as a journalist, no other story I’ve worked on has received the response that the Salt Path revelations did on publication this summer. Working on a new documentary for Sky has now allowed me to dig deeper into the story. We travelled from Wales to Cornwall and along some of the coastal path, tracing the footsteps – real and imagined – that Winn and her husband took. We made new discoveries: we found a novel that Winn had written years before The Salt Path that contains a level of autobiographical truth absent in her memoirs, and found members of their two respective families who have been prepared to talk to me, lifting the lid on more revelations from their past. On her website, the author called my original investigation “grotesquely unfair” and she has said that The Salt Path was the true story of the couple’s physical and spiritual journey. But when her truth and the facts clash, it seems only fair that readers of her books should be furnished with both so they can make up their own minds about what to believe. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. The Real Salt Path will air on Sky Documentaries and NOW this December. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning on Netflix - where is Sean 'Diddy' Combs now?
The streaming service has just released a documentary about the disgraced music mogul.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning has finally been released on Netflix, after almost a year since it was announced for the streamer. The four-part docuseries examines the disgraced music mogul, and his rise to fame and subsequent fall from grace. Combs's spokesperson has criticised the new documentary, saying in a statement: "Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalise every minute of Mr Combs's life, without regard for truth, in order to capitalise on a never-ending media frenzy. "If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr Combs's legal rights, it would not be ripping private footage out of context – including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party." However, director Alexandria Stapleton has insisted to The Hollywood Reporter that "the footage was obtained completely legally", also telling Tudum of the footage: "It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights. "We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades. "We also reached out to Sean Combs’s legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back." Each episode focuses on a different part of Combs's life, with the first detailing his origins and becoming 'Puff Daddy'. The subsequent episodes dive into his rivalry with Death Row Records, the death of The Notorious B.I.G. and Combs's 2024 arrest and high-profile trial. But what was the outcome of that trial and, with Combs not featuring in an interview for the documentary, where is he now? Read on for more information. Where is Sean 'Diddy' Combs now? In October, Sean Combs was sentenced to four years and two months in prison after being convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution under the Mann Act. He was acquitted of the most serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. Before Judge Arun Subramanian delivered his sentence, Combs apologised to his victims, specifically Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and Jane, the latter of whom testified under a pseudonym. "My actions were disgusting, shameful and sick," he said. "I got lost in excess, I got lost in my ego." He is currently serving the sentence in New Jersey and is set for release in May 2028. Sean Combs: The Reckoning is available to watch on Netflix now. 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 Documentaries 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.
P Diddy documentary on Netflix - When is Sean Combs: The Reckoning released?
The series will be released on Netflix soon.
Over a year since it was first announced, Netflix’s documentary focusing on Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will be released on the streamer tomorrow. Executive produced by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, the four-part documentary has been described as a "staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend and convicted offender". Netflix hadn't previously responded to speculation that it was involved in the documentary, after Jackson had said the streamer won "the bidding war". Read on to learn more about the documentary and when viewers can tune in. When is Sean Combs: The Reckoning on Netflix? All four episodes will be released on Tuesday 2nd December on Netflix. What is Sean Combs: The Reckoning about? As per Netflix, the documentary will tell the story "of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built – and the underworld that lay just beneath its surface". The full synopsis reads: "Born with an insatiable drive for stardom and a knack for spotting talent, Combs made a quick ascent through the ranks of the music industry with Bad Boy Entertainment and was crucial in bringing hip-hop to the pop masses and launching the careers of dozens of generation-defining artists like The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, and Danity Kane. "But along the way, and as detailed by his former associates, childhood friends, artists, and employees, something darker began to colour his ambitions. Through explosive, never-before-seen materials, including exclusive interviews with those formerly in his orbit, this documentary tells the story of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built – and the underworld that lay just beneath its surface." In October, Sean Combs was sentenced to over four years in prison after being convicted on prostitution-related charges involved two of his ex-girlfriends. Before Judge Arun Subramanian delivered his sentence, Combs apologised to his victims, specifically Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and Jane, the latter of whom testified under a pseudonym. "My actions were disgusting, shameful and sick," he said. "I got lost in excess, I got lost in my ego." Is there a trailer for Sean Combs: The Reckoning? Yes. Netflix has released the trailer for the documentary, just hours before it is due to be released on the streamer. You can watch the fill trailer below. View oEmbed on the source website Sean Combs: The Reckoning will be available to watch on Tuesday 2nd December 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 Documentaries 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.
David Dimbleby reveals why he’s investigating the monarchy as royal institution must "adapt or die"
The veteran broadcaster on the monarchy's power, wealth and public role and how it may evolve ahead of his new BBC series, What's the Monarchy For?
Over the years, I’ve broadcast on many royal events –jubilees and weddings, state occasions and funerals. In my BBC series, What’s the Monarchy For?, I’m doing something quite different – looking in depth at the institution, how it works, its power, its privileges and how it tries to retain public support. The late Queen, in a famous speech, once said that no institution – including the monarchy – should expect to be free from scrutiny. I am taking her at her word. I have always been curious about the role of the monarchy in Britain’s public life. My father, Richard Dimbleby, who provided the commentary on the Queen’s coronation in 1953, was both an admirer of the Queen and an ardent monarchist. He called it, “the enduring strength of Britain and the wonder and envy of a large part of the world”. His passion was founded on the belief that the monarchy was a powerful force in keeping Britain united against the misery and chaos he had witnessed as a reporter during the Second World War. I came to monarchy from a different angle. I did not revere it in the way he did and I never understood the bowing and scraping that seemed to accompany the Queen wherever she went. That said, I followed in my father’s footsteps by accepting the job of commentator on a variety of formal state occasions, all of which provided fascinating challenges as a broadcaster – how much information to give, when to speak and when to stay silent. You could say I accepted the idea of monarchy without endorsing the flattery and flummery that went along with it. So, my enquiry into the nature of monarchy is not into whether Britain should be a monarchy or a republic, though inevitably I touch on that. It is a look at the institution itself, the powers and influence it wields, the inordinate wealth it has accumulated and the way it goes about creating an acceptable public image. This last being crucial, since only by retaining the support of a sufficient number of its citizens can it ensure its survival. In making this series, I learnt how Buckingham Palace devotes great energy to keeping abreast of public opinion and how sometimes – as with the death of the Princess of Wales, or the Andrew saga – they’ve misjudged public feeling. Over the past two years I have interviewed a wide variety of people, both those who support monarchy and those who do not. I have talked to the Sovereign’s closest advisers, including former private secretaries and press officers at the palace, as well as senior politicians. It is not as easy to get people to open up about what they do as you might think. The palace, in particular, has always seemed to adopt the Mafia principle of omertà. Speaking out was not of course met by death, although in earlier reigns it would have been. The modern punishment is exclusion from the enchanted circle, whether as a friend or an employee. It took some persuasion to find politicians who would agree to be interviewed. David Cameron bravely stepped forward and talked about his audiences with the late Queen Elizabeth. George Osborne robustly defended giving the Sovereign Grant, a generous financial settlement that meant the royals’ spending would no longer be scrutinised yearly by the House of Commons. Two powerful private secretaries to the late Queen talk about crises the monarchy has faced – though you have to concentrate to catch their admission of failures to keep in step with public opinion. In this three-part series, I explore the influence the monarch has and at Charles’s attempt to abandon the role of an opinionated Prince of Wales for that of an opinion-free king. I look at the much-vaunted constitutional powers of the Sovereign to appoint prime ministers and to open and close Parliament, and how, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, that went catastrophically wrong. I also look at the impact of the institution at home and abroad, where the royal family has celebrity status; an international brand used by successive governments for their own purposes, whether wooing Donald Trump, repairing relations with Ireland, or insisting on state visits from dictators it thinks it politic to woo. We start the series with a reminder of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s invitation to President Trump to come to Britain on a second state visit, producing an envelope from his inside pocket like a magician producing a rabbit from a hat for the astonished children at a birthday party. “This is really special,” he cooed. “This is unprecedented.” Like a good conjuror, Starmer knew how to grab the attention of his audience. But what is most interesting is what goes on behind the scenes, hidden from public view. I did not realise, for instance, that the monarchy has the power to see any proposed legislation that affects its private interests before it goes to Parliament – and has the prerogative power to suggest amendments to anything that it believes may adversely affect it. The late Queen saw over a thousand such pieces of legislation and saw changes made to at least 160 of them. Some of these exclusions are from important laws that affect everyone else: the Race Relations Act, for example – which guarantees equal employment rights for everyone – does not apply to royal staff, whether working at the top of the tree or employed as a cleaner in one of the palaces. The same with the Equality Act and Health and Safety regulations. Royal finances have always been murky territory to explore, with obfuscation seeming the easiest resort when awkward questions are asked. The two Duchies – Cornwall, whose profits go to the Prince of Wales, and Lancaster, which goes to the King – are often portrayed as benign landlords and champions of the local economies. There was a telling confrontation in 2005, when a parliamentary committee tried to understand how the two Duchies ran their operations. Faced with public scrutiny, their representatives answered in a somewhat opaque fashion. And little wonder, given the revelation that the Duchy of Cornwall – which owns land in 23 counties and in London – charges market rents for the use of its land by NHS trusts, charities, the prison service, the armed forces and schools. You might wonder why they need further public funding at all, let alone the settlement invented by George Osborne as Chancellor of the Exchequer, which guaranteed an income stream based on the profits of the Crown Estate. Read more: King Charles III confirmed to star in all-new documentary special for Prime Video Channel 4 documentary on AI in the workplace reveals unprecedented presenter twist This is another curious institution. It is made up of lucrative property given up by George III in 1760 in return for a fixed royal salary, the Civil List. If you ask who the Crown Estate belongs to, you are assured that it is not the private property of the monarch to dispose of as they wish, but it is nevertheless owned by the monarch “in right of the Crown”. The distinction may elude many. Its declared aim is to maximise profit for the good of the whole nation. Whether leasing a huge house to Andrew for a peppercorn rent lasting 75 years maximises profit for the nation is for them to explain. I had not realised that while in recent years the Sovereign has paid income tax and capital gains tax, it is all on a purely voluntary basis and they don’t have to pay other taxes to which everyone else is subject, including death duties. Royal wealth, therefore, grows year by year. The King is the first billionaire to take the throne. The public mood is all important to monarchy, for obvious reasons. Once the monarchy had abandoned its executive role, gradually giving it up to Parliament (no more executions of opponents), it existed only with the consent of the public. Keeping in step with public feeling became a matter of pressing concern for the Sovereign and the Sovereign’s advisers. But judging the public mood is notoriously difficult. It is subject to irrational shifts and, with their first response to the death of Diana and the snail’s pace abandonment of Andrew in the face of his relationship with Epstein, the palace can get – as they put it – “behind the curve”. The series has been a fascinating voyage of discovery into the workings of the institution. At a time when opposition to the very idea of monarchy is rejected by small majorities in Scotland and Wales and is growing across the UK as a whole, an in-depth examination of the institution is timely. As the old adage goes, “Adapt or die”. Watch this space. The next issue of Radio Times is out on Saturday 29th November – <a class="_mizu194a _1ah3dkaa _ra3xnqa1 _128mdkaa _1cvmnqa1 _4davt94y _4bfu1r31 _1hms8stv _ajmmnqa1 _vchhusvi _kqswh2mm _syaz14q2 _ect41gqc _1a3b1r31 _4fpr8stv _5goinqa1 _f8pj14q2 _9oik1r31 _1bnxglyw _jf4cnqa1 _30l314q2 _1nrm1r31 _c2waglyw _1iohnqa1 _9h8h16c2 _1053w7te _1ienw7te _n0fxw7te _1vhvg3x0" title="https://www.buysubscriptions.com/print/radio-times-magazine-subscription" href="https://www.buysubscriptions.com/print/radio-times-magazine-subscription" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">subscribe here. 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7 reasons to watch Tom Hiddleston's new documentary series Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age features animals that have never been seen on screen before – marsupial lions (essentially carnivorous koalas), kangaroos so huge they can’t hop and dwarf elephants only three feet tall. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston and executive produced by Hollywood film-maker Jon Favreau alongside creative director of the BBC’s Natural History Unit and long-term David Attenborough collaborator Mike Gunton, the Apple TV series was a (woolly) mammoth effort. The production took three years, was filmed in 15 countries, and for the first time used technical reference puppets – Gunton was convinced after seeing the puppet of the baby stegodon. These could be filmed on location, thereby providing essential references for visual effects company Framestore to create the CGI (computer-generated imagery) animals. Crucially, everything seen is backed by science – as well as gut feeling. “If you’ve spent your life watching animals, when you see one of these creatures brought to life on screen, there’s this final filter where it looks weirdly right… or rightly weird,” Gunton tells RT. That’s what lead scientific consultant Dr Darren Naish, who has been the show’s palaeontologist since the first series in 2022, was in charge of. Here, he explains how he helped bring the unusual animals of the Ice Age to vivid life. View oEmbed on the source website The man for the job "I’m an expert on the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, which we featured in seasons one and two of Prehistoric Planet, but I’ve also published enough on Ice Age animals to be considered an expert for season three. I also provide detailed, specific information to the people at Framestore building the digital animal models." Sketch to screen "We consulted with more than 50 Ice Age specialists, using their expertise to compile asset packs on the animals, containing up to 30 pages of diagrams, drawings and information. I draw tons of stuff, and we work with various concept artists and paleo artists [who depict prehistoric life]." Facts from the fossil "Everything we do is grounded in science. How do we know how these animals moved and what they would have done? Well, we go to what we understand from the fossil record. We’ve got frozen bodies in permafrost. We can use fossil footprints to work out animals’ speed and gait. Since humans were Ice Age creatures, too, we drew these animals, so we can also look at rock art." Scientific storylines "Science establishes facts. But also, a woolly mammoth is a kind of elephant, so everything that’s true for African and Asian elephants, woolly mammoths would have done as well. Animals get themselves into all kinds of extraordinary situations. What happens if a woolly mammoth is trapped in a snowstorm and about to give birth? It must have happened, so it’s justifiable for us to come up with that storyline." A lion that's not a lion "Thylacoleo, the so-called marsupial lion, is a leopard-sized, predatory marsupial related to koalas and wombats, but fundamentally unlike anything alive today. It had a big opposable thumb with a giant claw, and fang-like teeth, but they weren’t canines, they were giant incisors. It had this ridiculously broad, muscled head. It took many, many iterations to make it feel like a real animal — it looked like a weird teddy bear at one point. There is Indigenous Australian rock art depicting it, so we’ve got some idea of what its pigmentation was like." Prehistoric peeves "Some animals in this series are not CG, they’re real animals, like the vole. We’re pretty confident people won’t be able to tell them apart. I have a massive list of pet peeves in CG animals. If you watch all the Jurassic World films, the dinosaurs roar and do this head wobble where their cheeks flutter as they’re blasting air out… nothing does that. Someone made that up in a film with a dragon or something, and it’s been copied. Some like to over-animate everything, but Framestore is the real deal." Answering the unknown "Some of the animals were an absolute challenge, and they might never have been reconstructed well before, because nobody’s understood them. We have to come up with answers to questions that people haven’t really considered. For example, the next time someone asks how an extinct snow sloth [Megalonyx jeffersonii] walks, we’ll be the only ones that have ever done it right. None of the work we do on the show, and that the VFX team does, ends up published in technical papers, but it should. It is actual science." The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Saturday – subscribe here. All seasons of Prehistoric Planet are available to watch on Apple TV. Find out how to sign up for Apple TV here. Add Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age 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 Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Downton Abbey legend confirmed for "picturesque" Christmas TV journey through "captivating" Norway
The special will transport viewers from Norway’s coast to the capital.
Hugh Bonneville is lending his voice to Channel 4's festive-themed travel special Nordic Train at Christmas. The special – described as a "picturesque rail expedition" – will take viewers aboard the Bergen Oslo railway as it travels from Norway’s coast to the capital. The journey will begin in "the photogenic city of Bergen, surrounded by ancient fjords and mountains, through the spectacular Nordic landscapes, including the snowy hills of Finse – home to one of Europe’s highest altitude hotels, before ending at the festive frivolity in the stunning capital of Oslo,” Channel 4 has teased. Along the way, viewers will also meet the staff, passengers and locals. The special is being produced for Channel 4 by Salford-based indie King of Sunshine Productions with WPP Media’s Motion Entertainment. It follows 2024's Alpine Train at Christmas, which was also voiced by Downton Abbey star Bonneville and was a big hit for Channel 4. Channel 4’s Jasper Hone said: “We’re delighted to be working with King of Sunshine again following the success of Alpine Train at Christmas last year. We’re excited for viewers to see the captivating landscape that lies between Norway’s two largest cities, and the amazing towns and places you can stop along the way.” King of Sunshine Productions MD Sohail Shah added: “The world-famous Bergen Line covers miles of stunning landscapes from Bergen to Oslo. We are thrilled to once again give Channel 4 viewers a behind the scenes Christmas treat, this time with a truly Nordic flavour.” Next year, Bonneville will be seen reprising his popular Twenty Twelve and W1A role of Ian Fletcher in new BBC comedy Twenty Twenty Six. The series, which reunites Bonneville with Hugh Skinner as bumbling Will Humphries, will see Fletcher appointed BBC's director of integrity for the 2026 World Cup. Nordic Train at Christmas will air on Channel 4. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Grenfell: Uncovered's Olaide Sadiq – "I wanted to honour the victims but also make people angry"
Named as one of the BAFTA Breakthroughs for 2025, Grenfell: Uncovered director Olaide Sadiq sits down with Pass the Mic to talk about the documentary, its impact and the wider industry of unscripted TV.
Having helmed one of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year, director Olaide Sadiq remains humble and smiling as she beams about the "nice surprise" of being named one of the BAFTA Breakthroughs for 2025 (an initiative supported by Netflix). When we speak, Grenfell: Uncovered has just bagged a Rose d'Or nomination – testament to Sadiq's hard work on a production that became so much more. While some people around Sadiq have questioned why she was so surprised at the accolade, she reflects on the fact that the industry has seen some "amazing projects" in the past year with "a lot of great people". It's also a privilege, she tells me, to be part of a cohort of people that has seen the likes of Adjani Salmon and Letitia Wright grace the lists, both of whom Sadiq personally admires. "It's weird to be amongst them... but I feel very grateful that I'm recognised in that same way," she says. It must feel like a strange whirlwind of a year in general, I remark to Sadiq, with it now marking just over five months since the release of Grenfell: Uncovered. The Netflix documentary was Sadiq's directorial debut and was one that, surprisingly, Sadiq says she thought may be a "very quiet debut" – in reality, it was anything but. The response to the film was heartwarming, Sadiq says, admitting: "I feel like it got a much bigger response than I was anticipating." Working on the documentary "was way more than a job", adding that "it became a massive responsibility, one I'm really proud that I was able to handle". Whilst directing it has continued to put her further into the industry spotlight, Sadiq wastes no time in underlining the true importance of the production – saying that she's just glad the affected community of Grenfell has had this kind of recognition. In the aftermath of the film's release, Sadiq has done the screening circuit, having had various companies (within the housing industry also) reaching out and wanting to include it in journals, talks and in schools. "I wasn't expecting it to affect people in the industry the way it has done, but I'm glad it has done because I feel like when you get to work on documentaries where you can actually see real change taking place afterwards, it's quite rare," she says. When it came to sitting down and thinking about what route the documentary would take, Sadiq says that she simply wanted it to be balanced. "I wanted to – in a condensed and digestible way – show people what happened, those who might not know the story," she shares. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/251025BAFTABREAKTHROUGHCOMPBENCHR3-3fbf91d.jpg" width="19833" height="5111" alt="Owen Tooth, Ellis Howard, Pinny Grylls, Jodie-Simone Howe, Laura Carreira, Nathaniel Price, Matthew Gurney, Marie-Elena Dyche, Vivian Eguridu, Kyle Banks, Mark Choi, Alderney Middleton, Nathalie Pitters, Stanley Baxton, Megumi Inman, Olaide Sadiq, Cara Ellison, Stephanie Taylor and Sally Beaumont for BAFTA Breakthrough UK 2025-2026." title="BAFTA Breakthrough UK 2025 Photoshoot" /> "I think there's an assumption everyone knows the story, but not actually everyone – even from my family – knew it to the extent that it was shown on the documentary. So that's one aim. But then also to make people angry. I feel like there's a lot to the story that makes me angry and this is someone who didn't live in the building and didn't come from that community." That feeling of anger that Sadiq gets when thinking about what unfolded on the night of 14th June 2017 was exactly what she wanted people to feel when watching the documentary. "I wanted there to be some sort of anger in the film but not a forced anger, one that people might just feel from hearing people's stories and seeing what people had to deal with. So that was definitely one of the very early aims, but to have revelations in it too." She adds: "I basically wanted to, first and foremost, honour the victims of Grenfell, but then tell their stories in a way that would enlighten people, would inform people but also make people angry. I thought the combination of that would naturally then – hopefully – lead to conversations where people think about change, people think about impact. We think about what they can do differently, what they did wrong. "There was lots of different aims and hopes that folded into one project in the end, but it wasn't as clear as 'I just wanted this to be spoken about and have some impact'. That's not something you definitely know is going to happen. That depends on what you've put together and how people feel about it. I wanted the impact to be a byproduct of what the aims were." While it's now eight years on from the night that claimed 72 victims, Grenfell remains a pertinent issue, not least because nobody has ever been charged over the national tragedy. But also due to the looming reality of the tower itself being taken down. Sadiq may have stepped up to the job of being the director of Grenfell: Uncovered but with that role must come a certain expectation from viewers, I suggest. Stepping into a position of authority around any topic would naturally feel daunting for anyone, but it's a fact that Sadiq has taken in her stride. "I think the weight of responsibility following Grenfell: Uncovered has been difficult, but I don't mind it. I don't mind being seen in that way. I also have to manage people's expectations that I'm not a fire expert, I'm not a housing expert, I'm not a planning expert either, I'm not a regulation expert. "There's so much about Grenfell I learned along the way before ever working on it, but also whilst working on it. There's still a lot for all of us to still learn about it. So I recognise that I become someone who people will come to with these issues or these stories," she says. When the documentary was released back in June, Sadiq went from hardly ever really using LinkedIn to it being a platform that was exploding for her, with hundreds of messages flooding her inbox. A couple of people from the industry used LinkedIn to message her, but that steady stream of messages came from people all over, sharing their own personal stories. Whether it was telling Sadiq of a fire that happened in the '70s or regulation issues they were having with the council about their buildings, Sadiq said she felt "a responsibility to ensure that eventually I responded to everyone". "I didn't want to be someone who's worked on something that has now had the impact that we wanted it to have, but then ignore the impact," she says. Prior to working on Grenfell: Uncovered, Sadiq had made a name for herself as a producer in the TV industry, having worked on productions like Ambulance, 999: What’s Your Emergency, Ibiza Weekender, The Final: Attack on Wembley and Boybands Forever, as well as episodes of the Louis Theroux Interviews… series. "I realised as a first-time director that everything matters," she tells me. While Sadiq has always known that the story and people matter the most in documentary-making, she wasn't aware of just how much aspects like music, graphics and a location can be vital to a production. Having worked on documentaries about a range of topics, Sadiq says her mixed career background has led her to have a varied mindset when it comes to tackling different problems. "I feel like lots of different experiences I've had in the past came to the forefront of Grenfell: Uncovered. I'd worked on emergency programmes and blue light shows which are extremely traumatic and have a lot of compliance issues, a lot of sensitive filming, sensitive contributors. I felt like I'd done that a lot in the past and I was very comfortable with revisiting that space because I knew what it involved." Her work in the past involved "filming with institutions, politicians, or companies and individuals that are quite hard to access or engage with", so it all proved to be invaluable experience when it came to conducting Grenfell: Uncovered interviews with survivors, the bereaved and even former prime minister Theresa May. View oEmbed on the source website Sadiq continues to honour the people at the heart of the story in her work, it's clear. But in a TV landscape that often feels as though it may be regressing in terms of the stories and people it platforms, how do you remain committed to ethical, character-driven storytelling? It's all about sticking to her guns and personal morals, she tells me. "I have to see a purpose with the project and if I struggle to see the purpose then maybe that's answered my question a little bit. I feel like obviously, in this true crime space especially, a lot is being made. There are a lot of opinions about true crime and I understand people feel like it might be gratuitous, or it might feel like, 'Why are you just revisiting something dark?' "I feel like there can be purpose to revisiting something dark when you think about the bigger picture, you think about the wider impact. Some people call Grenfell: Uncovered a true crime. To this point, we can't say it's a crime yet because there haven't been any criminal charges." She continues: "But the proof was in the pudding of why we went back because there was still a story to be told, there's still people who want their voices to be heard. I feel like as long as that feels like it's central to any project where there's a genuine purpose for the people involved and for the story platform, then I think that's how I stay committed to doing it. I'm not afraid to speak up and speak out on things I'm not sure about; ask questions, raise concerns. I think that's how I stay committed." Sadiq says that funnily enough, she was asked a few years ago about the possibility of directing. At the time, Sadiq thinks she wasn't even a producer yet and she'd been asked what she'd want to make a documentary about one day. "I said that I would love to make something that has a very big social impact, maybe something about Grenfell. It was a passing conversation but that was probably one of the few things that I had a clear answer for because most of the time, I have no idea what I'm doing," she smiles. Coming off a directorial debut like Grenfell: Uncovered must also come with its own set of challenges, I offer, especially in regards to taking on the 'right next role'. "It's been really hard," she admits. "Actually, navigating afterwards has been hard because there's been so many comments and questions about what's next. I think there's an expectation of, 'Oh, that's the thing you do now – you do these big social justice stories'." Her CV is a testament to the range of topics, stories and people she's interested in shining a light on, which continues to make Sadiq open-minded about what's to come next. "I don't really want to be pigeonholed into doing one thing and it's very easy for that to happen. Why does that have to be my one thing? I can do loads of things. But I'm trying not to overthink the next step as much," she says. More often than ever before, factual and fictional continue to bleed into one another in the TV realm, with factual dramas becoming regular hits for broadcasters and streamers alike. So, could Sadiq envision a future that includes a step over to the world of scripted television perhaps? "I've always loved scripted, it's what I watch the most. When I was younger, I used to do a lot of creative writing, used to write lots of stories. I definitely felt like that's somewhere I'd be interested in going. I think that documentary was more of a natural calling to me and I think over time, especially when you work in documentaries and factual programmes, you do think, 'Oh, this could be a really good drama'." Sadiq recalls various screenings of Grenfell: Uncovered where viewers told her that it was a very hard watch, with some saying the documentary felt akin to a gut punch. "I feel like there's something quite unique about factual drama... documenting something without overwhelming people in the same way that documentaries sometimes can," she says. We speak about the way that Netflix's Toxic Town shone a light on a real-life scandal that many people didn't know anything about prior to watching. It was a series that lingered with Sadiq and prompted her to get into a research wormhole of her own about the Corby toxic waste case. Drama can still have a similar impact to a documentary, Sadiq says, and if things were to align in that way in the future, it's a genre that she'd love to try working in. As for the industry itself, I can imagine that the "weight of responsibility" that Sadiq experienced with Grenfell: Uncovered also filtered into the decision-making that went into ensuring there was ample diversity behind the scenes of the production as well. "I think when I first started in TV, I was very aware of the lack of diversity, not just with race but also with class. I always felt like once I got to a position where I could have that influence, I wanted to make sure I was using that privilege that I had. I feel like it's really hard with television, particularly. It's an issue that people just don't always like to embrace that exists," she states. "I definitely felt like with Grenfell, there was an expectation from other people in the industry that, 'Oh, you've got make sure that everyone you hire is Black'. I feel like that isn't always the goal, because also, it's not realistic. I think I'm very realistic. I'm not an executive producer, I'm not a commissioner. Those are the roles that hold, I think, the most power in the industry. "I wanted to make sure that I saw different faces, different backgrounds, different cultures within my team because I feel like it has to reflect not just what we're making, but also reflect who's going to watch it. I feel sometimes it gets forgotten that we're not making TV for our peers, we're making it for the general public." She adds: "We come from all walks of life, all creeds, all colours, all races. I feel like if the industry becomes more in tune with that, I think it will definitely benefit the projects that we end up seeing. I did feel when stepping into a director role, I also had a responsibility to ensure that I was practising what I preach." In terms of those conversations around the intersections of race and class within the TV industry, Sadiq isn't sure whether the tides are changing. Like many can attest to in various industries, there was a real spike in 2020 but Sadiq has noticed a decline in recent years. "I don't think people want to be put in roles and feeling like they're just ticking a box, that's really important to say. I feel like sometimes people think, 'Just put them somewhere!' and then you've done your job. I don't think people want to feel that way because people do feel it – I know when I've been called about something because I'm Black. I don't want to be called about something just because I'm Black, I also want to be called because you think I'm good enough for the job." Sadiq says that over the years, she's had to be strict with herself and passed on opportunities that she felt she was only being approached for in a box-ticking capacity. "I just want people to have a shared care about the direction that the industry is going in when it comes to diversity in all its forms. I don't always think people are ready to have that conversation or want to have that conversation, but I feel like it's an important conversation to have. If everyone comes from the same background, has the same interests, has had the same schooling, lives in the same area of London, whatever it may be, you're just going to keep getting the same output." Having just spent the past half-hour aware of the fact that Sadiq is being seen as a beacon of information for everything Grenfell-related, it feels slightly redundant to wrap up our interview asking about how we continue the conversation around the national tragedy after the release of the documentary. Sadiq tells me of a friend who, just the other week, had watched the film and asked her the exact same thing. "What can I do?" is the question left at the forefront of many people's minds after watching and it's a good question to ask, the director reassures me. "What I've taken from being in that community and meeting all those people is what they want is for people to not stop talking about Grenfell. It's a community that is worried that their story is being erased long before any justice has been delivered and they're feeling that, in a very literal sense, with the building being demolished," Sadiq tells me. "They feel like once people can't see it anymore, they're going to forget about it. They feel like people only talk about it once a year, sometimes twice a year. I think what people can do is keep reading up about it, keep being engaged with it, keep resharing what they're putting out, keep engaging with the community, keep going to silent walks, keep showing up for the story." She adds: "If we say we care, then we have to show we care. I think that's what people can do at the very bare minimum – that's something that the victims, the bereaved and the wider community would be very grateful for." Grenfell: Uncovered is streaming 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 Documentaries 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.
Judi Dench "wants to carry on" amid sight issues as British acting legend investigates her family history with Shakespeare
Having discovered a 17th-century ancestor, Dame Judi Dench embarks on a hopeful search for links to the Bard.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. When Dame Judi Dench tries to teach her recalcitrant African grey parrot, Sweetie, the name of her literary hero, she’s met with stony silence. “Shakespeare!” the Oscar-winning actress coos, before sighing. “It would be wonderful if you said it!” The parrot has other ideas. “I was with my nephew and suddenly she said, ‘Drop your trousers. You’re a slag’. It’s very rude! She didn’t get that from me!” she laughs. However, while Dench has no luck with her pet bird, she hopes to reap more rewards in an intimate documentary on her passion for Britain’s famous man of letters and the possibility of uncovering an ancient family connection. During Channel 4’s Shakespeare, My Family and Me, she examines new evidence about the life of her eight times great-grandfather, the nobleman Anders Bille, who was a member of the Danish royal court in the 17th century and whom she first discovered during a 2021 episode of the BBC series, Who Do You Think You Are? Ideally, Dame Judi would like to find out whether Bille ever met the Bard, which – if true – would be an incredible discovery given the profound influence he has had on her own life, both professionally and personally. Her late husband, Michael Williams, who performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company himself, famously called the wordsmith “the man who pays the rent” and Dench even has a tree in her garden dedicated to him. Dame Judi’s passion for the writer began in childhood and today, she says, the rhythm of his language is in her blood. She has played most of his female roles, from Ophelia in Hamlet to Lady Macbeth and ruefully admits: “I can’t remember what I’m doing the day after tomorrow or the day after that, but I can remember reams of Shakespeare”. Indeed, in the documentary, there are spine-tingling moments when she fluently recites passages from his plays. “She’s in the library in Denmark and does a soliloquy from Antony and Cleopatra,” exclaims director Harvey Lilley. “It’s spontaneous, unrehearsed. She hasn’t been in Antony and Cleopatra since 1987! We had no idea that was coming. She has this love of Shakespeare. It’s the language, the rhythm. For her, it’s not an ancient language. It’s something completely natural.” Dame Judi searches through the Danish archives to find out whether her ancestor may have met the playwright in 1606, just a year after the Gunpowder Plot and as plague returned to England – but also, adds Lilley, the year “Macbeth and King Lear may have been performed for the first time and possibly when Antony and Cleopatra was being written.” Lilley, who directed the episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in which Dame Judi’s Danish roots were first discovered, continues: “You have this detective story, which is astonishing in itself – did her ancestor actually meet her hero? But this also allowed her to talk about her life and her relationship with Shakespeare.” The director has a long history of working with Dame Judi, including on My Passion for Trees in 2017 and Wild Borneo Adventure in 2019. “We hoisted her up a tree twice the size of Nelson’s Column. She’s just up for it!” he says. But clearly there’s also a level of trust between them. In the documentary she touches on the deterioration of her vision due to age-related macular degeneration. “As you see in the film, she’s determined,” says Lilley. “She has a fear of boredom. Yes, her eyesight is an issue, but moving forward she wants to do stuff, and she wants to carry on. She makes it easy because she’s such an enthusiast.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Shakespeare, My Family & Me will be available to watch on Channel 4. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What happened to Nathan Carman and did he kill Linda Carman and John Chakalos?
The deaths of Linda Carman and her father John Chakalos are explored in a new documentary.
Netflix is examining yet another disappearance in new documentary The Carman Family Deaths. The series details the story of Linda Carman and her son Nathan, who went out on a fishing trip that turned into what Netflix describes as "a modern-day Greek tragedy". Featuring interviews with Nathan Carman's father and Linda's ex-husband Clark Carman and those who worked closely on the case, the documentary illuminates "long-standing tensions and divided loyalties". Read on to learn more about what happened to Linda Carman, and how her disappearance soon sparked an interest in a previously unsolved murder. What happened to Linda Carman? In 2016, Linda Carman and her son Nathan set out on an overnight fishing trip from South Kingstown, Rhode Island. But when Linda failed to contact a friend the following day, the authorities were alerted and she and Nathan were reported missing. This sparked a Coast Guard search for the two, which covered roughly 64,000 nautical square miles. Eight days later, Nathan was spotted drifting on a life raft and was rescued, but Linda's body was never recovered. Did Nathan Carman kill Linda Carman? During interviews with law enforcement, Nathan said he had told his mother to bring in the fishing lines, but as he was carrying emergency gear out of the wheelhouse, the boat gave way beneath him and he was submerged into the water. He told Alfred Bucco III, deputy chief of the South Kingstown Police Department, that he did not see or hear his mother. During the police's investigation, they learned that Nathan had filed an insurance claim for his lost boat, but it was denied, citing "holes in his story". A judge found that Nathan made faulty repairs to the boat and ruled in favour of the insurance companies, but it did not determine if he had intentionally sunk the boat or murdered Linda. In 2022, Nathan was criminally indicted over the murder of his mother Linda, to which he pleaded not guilty. What happened to John Chakalos? In late 2013, John Chakalos was found shot dead in his home. Law enforcement determined that Chakalos had likely been shot by a Sig Sauer rifle, the same gun that Nathan had purchased weeks before the murder. "Well, he acknowledged that he bought this weapon," Christopher McKee, former Lieutenant of the Windsor Police Department, said in an interview on 20/20. "When asked about it, he said he lost it, and he didn't know where the gun was." Did Nathan Carman kill John Chakalos? The police did not manage to find the murder weapon and as such, there was no key evidence strong enough to make an arrest. Nathan was never charged with the murder of John Chakalos. To this day, the case remains unsolved. What happened to Nathan Carman? Before the case of Linda's alleged murder went to trial, Nathan took his own life while in prison. The charges against him were then dismissed. The Carman Family Deaths is available to watch on Netflix now. 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 Documentaries 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.
Five vital issues raised in Disney+ documentary Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth
The documentary is available to watch today.
This article contains discussions of suicide and mental health which some may find upsetting. "I want the real Caroline to be remembered – not the Caroline that was portrayed in the press in the weeks before her death," Christine Flack writes in Radio Times. Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth follows Christine's pursuit for answers about the final months of her daughter's life, and examines Caroline's vilification in the press and failures from institutions that led to Caroline tragically taking her own life in 2020. Weeks before her death, Caroline was due to face trial on assault charges, to which she pleaded not guilty. The alleged victim, her boyfriend Lewis Burton, did not support prosecution. The subsequent coverage of the presenter's departure from her role as host of Love Island and her legal issues have been widely criticised following her death, both of which are further examined in the documentary. As the documentary follows Christine's investigations for answers, here are six key learnings from Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth. 1. The police had originally decided to caution Caroline Flack In December 2019, Caroline Flack was charged with assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, after an incident reported by Burton at her London flat. As relayed in the documentary, the pair had allegedly got into a drunken argument after Caroline found messages from a third party on Burton's phone, which she confronted him about. When police arrived at her home, it was reported Caroline had admitted to striking Burton. "I did it, I whacked him round the head like that," the TV presenter told police. In the documentary, Christine discusses looking through the "original decision" from the Crown Prosecution Service, which read it did not believe "that the case is in the public interest to prosecute, as the injured party does not support the allegation". The report continued: "There is no domestic violence history between the parties. The suspect is 40 years old and has no previous convictions. The cut the injured person did not require medical intervention." It was shown that the CPS had initially wanted to give Caroline a caution, but that was until a detective allegedly challenged the decision, saying she believed Caroline should be charged. In the documentary, Christine spoke with former Metropolitan Police detective Jess McDonald, who examined the email challenging the CPS's original decision. McDonald explained: "She writes that the crux of the CPS's argument is that there are sufficient grounds to issue a caution, as there is a clear admission of guilt. But she says, 'We argue there is not', however, from reviewing all the evidence, Caroline admits guilt consistently. "She never denies that she hit Lewis with the phone. She admitted guilt 12 times. So I don't understand how this is the opening line. "But also, she writes of Caroline, 'She has caused a significant injury as such, this is most certainly not a minor offence'. Well, that's absolute nonsense. Louis didn't even receive treatment." A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Caroline's death was a tragedy and our thoughts remain with her friends and family as they continue to come to terms with their loss and the circumstances that lead to her death. "All decisions in this case were made on the basis of the medical opinion available to us at the time. A person's celebrity status never influences whether a case is taken forward. We are satisfied that the prosecution was correctly brought." 2. The CPS "ignored" Caroline's mental health assessment The night of the incident, Caroline was treated in hospital for harming herself, and as such, "it was evident that there should have been a greater mental health assessment and impact that a prosecution would have on her mental health". A psychiatrist had said Caroline's mental health state was "very poor" and a decision was made to "disclose that to the prosecution". Caroline's agent Louisa Booth shared that a psychiatric report was sent to the CPS, but claimed it "was ignored". "We were so taken aback, actually, that they dismissed the report from the psychiatrist," Booth said. 3. Misrepresentations over what hit Lewis Burton's head It had been alleged that Caroline hit Burton over the head with a lamp, though there were several inconsistencies in police reports. During the magistrates hearing, prosecutor Katie Weiss said: "He [Burton] said he had been asleep and was hit over the head by Caroline with a lamp, causing a visible cut to his head. "She had also smashed a glass and she had sustained an injury." The documentary features a discussion between Christine and Caroline's older sister, who looked at the report written on the night by the police. This reported stated it was "unclear what object was actually used to assault Mr Burton, he initially said to officers that he assumed it was a desk fan or a lamp. Mr Burton stated, I don't know what it was". "There was no compelling direct evidence that anyone had been hit with a lamp during Caroline's interview and caution, and Caroline's position always was that she had the phone in her hand," Caroline's lawyer explained. "She went to rouse him awake and the phone connected with him. It couldn't have been more clear to anyone that read that transcript." The police report further added: "Ms Flack's phone has been seized as it has a significant amount of blood on it and a crack on one of the corners, suggesting this may have been the weapon." A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service said: "Caroline's Flack tragic death had a profound impact on many, not least her family and friends who continue to come to terms with their loss. "The Commissioner has previously written to Caroline's mother to offer his condolences on behalf of the Met. We recognise how terribly difficult the past five years must have been. "It is understandable that those closest to Caroline have questions about everything that happened to her in the months before she died, including the police investigation. "We have been open to those questions and have engaged with a number of independent reviews and an inquest. While there was organisational learning for us on points of process, no misconduct has been identified." 4. Caroline had to move houses at 3am to avoid press intrusion During the period between her arrest and trial, Caroline was forced to live in hotels, unable to return to her home due to intrusion from press and paparazzi. After a while, it became clear Caroline needed her own home, and to escape the eyes of photographers, she and her family helped her move in the early hours of the morning. Caroline's friend Mollie said: "Everything was so, like, cloak and dagger, because the fear of being caught or people knowing where she was so scary that all of this had to happen in the middle of the night." Her mother added: "She had to move out at three o'clock in the morning. But luckily, Jodie knew of a removal company that would do that, and they were lovely." All of her belongings were moved into a gated apartment "that actually nobody ever found out where she was". "I think that gave her a sense of normality," Mollie said. 5. The former chief prosecutor who defended the CPS's decision to prosecute Caroline admitted she should have been given a caution Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who had once been in support of the CPS's charges against Caroline Flack, told Christine that the case against Caroline doesn't make sense. He said: "A prosecutor doesn't do their work in isolation. It relies upon what the police provide them with. So if the police tell them serious injury, blood is everywhere and we are really concerned that it might be repeated, I can see how a prosecutor might come to conclusion that we need to put this before a court. "You have to accept the police to tell you the truth, otherwise, the whole system collapses doesn't it? That said, having looked at all your evidence, I can't understand why they rushed judgment. This was a case where there's no previous history, where there is no controlling or coercive, powerful dynamic. "Mr Burton never, ever wanted this case, was adamant this case should not be prosecuted. It wasn't just reluctant, adamant. This was a one-off situation where she lost her temper, whatever the reason was, and she did what she did, which she accepts. For all of those reasons, the very worst thing that should have happened is a caution." He went on to say that, knowing what he knows now, "none of it makes sense". He continued: "Almost immediately, in the cold light of day, prosecutors looking at this case, would have formed the view this case is going nowhere, and they should have stopped the case. "In fact, they're required to stop the case where there is insufficient evidence, where it's not in the public interest to proceed, and I can't think of any reason to proceed, other than being scared of what the media will say about them. But you know, it's not about you losing face. This is about justice. "My takeaway is that Caroline would still be with us if certain decisions weren't taken back in that month or two." Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth is available to watch now on Disney+. You can sign up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month now. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Caroline Flack revealed to have had plans to work on a documentary of her own just days before her death
"[This is] the story that Caroline wanted to make when we met her over five years ago and says everything that she wanted to say."
A new Disney+ original documentary, Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth, aims to correct the narrative about the late TV presenter, amid an investigation from her mother Christine, who sets out to find the truth about her daughter's final days. In fact, this documentary is part of a story that Caroline wanted the public to hear and had initiated plans to work on in the days before her death and after her arrest. The former Love Island host took her own life in 2020, aged 40, weeks before she was due to face trial on assault charges, to which she pleaded not guilty. The alleged victim, her boyfriend Lewis Burton, did not support prosecution. The coverage of the presenter's departure from Love Island and her legal issues were widely criticised following her death. In the two-parter, now available to watch on Disney+, voice notes from the late star are featured throughout, and in one particular recording, she can be heard telling one of her friends she was thinking about making a documentary about her ordeal: "I had an idea like, sorry, I know you're in a shower, I think I should make a documentary about all of this. What do you think?" Flack's friend Mollie opened up about the days leading up to Flack's death, saying she felt as though the TV presenter was "getting stronger". "I could tell that she was getting stronger because she was talking about doing a documentary," she explained. "She was saying, 'I just really want to get out, like, what's happened and my side of everything.' And so it felt like she was turning a corner and, you know, we felt that actually the case was going to be dropped." Dov Freedman, the CEO and founder of Curious Films, the production company behind the documentary, shared that Caroline was "adamant about wanting to set the record straight and combat the lies that were being told about her". He shared that he, along with his business partner Charlie Russell, had met with Caroline and her agents "to see if we all got on and what the doc could look like". "Caroline spoke candidly about why she wanted to make a film and the real story she wanted the world to know, and also how hard it was watching the stories spread knowing they weren't accurate," he said. He continued: "She also spoke very lovingly about her family, especially her mum, Chris [Christine], and suggested we start filming a few days later in Norfolk. The meeting went well, and we were green lit a few hours later, suddenly, that doc never happened, as the devastating news of Caroline's death hit the world just a few days later. "We didn't know if Christine knew that Caroline was about to embark on a project with us, but we just felt compelled to write to her and send our condolences so we couldn't imagine the pain her and the family must be going through." Christine agreed to take part in this new documentary as she felt like she needed a bigger platform to find the answers she was looking for. "[This is] the story that Caroline wanted to make when we met her over five years ago and says everything that she wanted to say." Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth airs on Monday 10th November on Disney+. You can sign up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month now. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
My daughter Caroline Flack died without a voice - and this is my biggest regret about her difficult final days
We mustn’t forget the woman behind the headlines, says her mother, Christine Flack.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. We found a handwritten note from Caroline the other day. Caroline’s twin sister, Jody, discovered it while packing up boxes of her things. Caroline loved leaving me notes, but this one was written for herself and was a list of all the things she loved, everything that made her happy. She’d included her job – hosting Love Island, the ITV dating show that she’d made her own – her close family and the beautiful London home that she had worked so hard to buy. Caroline had made a brilliant life for herself and most of the time she was happy. She loved musicals – we’d seen Hamilton and Waitress. She laughed a lot, loved dancing and was always singing in the car. Five years on from her death, these are the moments I try to remember. But Caroline was also vulnerable and suffered highs and lows, even while growing up. She was in hospital in her late teens after a relationship ended and feared talking openly about her mental health. I did my best to protect her as a child. Now I must protect her in a different way. Caroline died, aged 40, without a voice and with the world believing that she was a domestic abuser. I want the real Caroline to be remembered – not the Caroline that was portrayed in the press in the weeks before her death. Which is why I have made Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth, a two-part documentary for Disney+. View oEmbed on the source website It’s my biggest regret that I wasn’t shouting about the injustice before Caroline took her own life on Valentine’s Day in 2020, while facing prosecution for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend, Lewis Burton. Now I have nothing to lose. The worst thing in the world has already happened. I need to get the truth out there. I’m not here to defend domestic violence. Caroline hit Lewis with a mobile phone after becoming concerned he was cheating. But the facts are that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recommended Caroline receive a caution. She had no previous convictions, Lewis did not support the prosecution, and it was not deemed to be in the public interest. A senior Metropolitan Police figure appealed against that decision and Caroline was then charged with assault by beating. Caroline discovered she would be prosecuted the day before she died. When I have thought about how Caroline died and how awful she must have felt on that day, I’ve not been able to stop asking questions. Why did the police lock her in a cell for 24 hours after she was hospitalised for self-harming? Why did the CPS charge her amid a media frenzy? And how could the tabloids print such intrusive information? In 2023, the Met apologised for not keeping a written record of why they charged Caroline. But I couldn’t get more answers. That’s why I wanted to make this film. Having cameras with me, I hoped, would open doors. I firmly believe this was a show trial and Caroline was treated differently simply because she was a celebrity. In my documentary, a very significant figure agrees with me, having seen the evidence the producers and I have obtained. I remember my last conversation with Caroline. She had moved to a new flat, away from the press intrusion that was plaguing her life. She was happy and we all believed that the CPS wouldn’t press charges. I looked at her, with her hair scrunched up on top of her head and her tiny, size two shoes, and said to my partner, “How can someone so little be causing so much havoc?” And that was my thought that day. Then she heard that the CPS would charge her. With that, and the tabloid coverage, I think she just couldn’t see a way out. I’ve not been able to rest since Caroline’s death. Perhaps when other people see this documentary – which is, I hope, also a celebration of Caroline – and all the ways in which my beautiful daughter was failed, I might be able to finally stop searching for answers. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Both episodes of Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth will be available on Monday 10th November on Disney+. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why ‘hellraisers’ like Richard Burton, Oliver Reed and Peter O’Toole will always bewitch us
Why did some great postwar actors become better known for their hellraising than their performances?
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. As Richard Burton appears on screen in kaleidoscopic colour, dressed in full armour and atop a horse, he is applauded by the adoring masses. The narrator proclaims, “In ten short years, he has conquered the world.” As it happens, he’s talking about Burton’s character, Alexander the Great, in the eponymous movie, but the words could apply to the actor himself. It was 1956, by when the young Welshman had already embarked on an extraordinary ascent, from the mining village of Pontrhydyfen, to Oxford University, to the London stage and Hollywood. Actor Siân Phillips remembers his West End debut – “he walked on and the whole theatre went cold” – while his first Hollywood role brought him an Oscar nomination, the first of seven. His voice, his presence, his love for poetry were all among his many splendid gifts, and he in turn offered them up to us. Why then, if you say the name “Richard Burton”, does a life of drama and diamonds immediately come to mind, one spent jumping between yachts and private jets in the glare of the paparazzi lens and, of course, a double marriage to Elizabeth Taylor? Because that’s all true, too. Burton was the primus inter pares of Britain’s still beloved mid-century stars, alongside the likes of Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and co – a group of talented actors for whom the term “hellraiser” became a shorthand, as famous for their reckless real-life behaviour as for their undoubted dramatic talents. What was the unifying element, and why do they still bewitch us? For a start, they were all preternaturally gifted. Peter O’Toole “appeared on stage like an electric light,” is how he’s remembered by Anthony Hopkins, while Richard Harris brought us the tenderest of Camelots and even MacArthur Park (a 60s anthem I didn’t even realise for years was the same Richard Harris!). And they all arrived in London during an era of still unresolved postwar trauma, class collision and hedonistic freedom, when their acting skills meant they were each given the keys to a sweetshop beyond their wildest dreams. Michael Sheen sympathetically describes the pull between Burton’s loves – stage versus screen, devoted first wife Sybil versus passionate lover Elizabeth, Wales versus the universe – asking if drink was the escape. Whatever, it must have turned all of these world-class performers into crashing bores and hell to live with. Siân Phillips remembers one drunken rage culminating in her husband O’Toole demanding she be packed and gone from the house in two hours. The saddest contributor in the new BBC2 Burton doc is the friend who first saw him on stage in 1952 and then again in the last chapter of his life – “he was performing, but he was lost”. Laurence Olivier’s tipped successor had become the man who screamed through a full glass at a late-era director, “I could have been Lear!” Burton was always fascinated by Faustus, the man who traded his soul for power, riches and the most beautiful woman in the world, but the fate of Icarus would seem just as pertinent. The ones who flew not quite as high – Albert Finney, Michael Caine – went on to enduring greatness and happy, long lives. Anthony Hopkins, now sober for 50 years, has twice played the Lear that Burton never did. Certainly, nobody, at least that we know about, behaves like this in 2025, which is no doubt a relief for all studio executives, pub landlords and stars’ loved ones. But it means, as Kenneth Branagh says, almost wistfully, “No one is going to tell stories about us in 50 years’ time.” Was it all worth it? Harris would say so: “At least you knew I was here.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Richard Burton: Wild Genius airs at 9pm on Wednesday 12th November on BBC Two and iPlayer. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
British acting royalty confirmed to join King Charles III's 'landmark' new documentary project
Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision will launch on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories worldwide next year.
Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet will narrate Prime Video’s upcoming documentary about King Charles III. The feature-length TV film Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, which was announced earlier in October, will explore the King’s lifelong commitment to promoting a more balanced and sustainable world. It will feature the King’s own reflections and archival footage, chronicling the origins and evolution of the Monarch’s ‘Harmony’ philosophy. Harmony, for those unaware, is a philosophy that encourages us to see ourselves as “part of nature, not apart from nature”, and was first explored in the King's 2010 book Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World. The King has expressed his hope that the film will “encourage a new audience to learn about the philosophy of harmony – and perhaps inspire the same sense of determination it has given me to help build a more sustainable future". The film will also showcase the practical application of the harmony philosophy by highlighting the work of The King’s Foundation across the UK and overseas, with a particular focus on the charity’s headquarters, Dumfries House. Winslet, who became an ambassador for The King’s Foundation earlier this year, said on being announced as the narrator of the documentary: “It is both a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of this film, which is a fascinating insight into the King’s work as an environmentalist." She continued: "I share His Majesty’s passion for protecting our planet and building sustainable communities, so it's been really rewarding to work with The King’s Foundation on this exciting project. I know audiences will learn, laugh and feel inspired by what’s featured in the film, and I hope the impact of Harmony will be felt in years to come.” Kristina Murrin, chief executive of The King’s Foundation, said: “This documentary is incredibly important to The King’s Foundation, and we are delighted to have the support of our ambassador Kate Winslet in helping to bring the film to life. “Through the film we hope that viewers will gain a better understanding of His Majesty’s Philosophy of Harmony, which is so central to our work at The King’s Foundation. We are thrilled that Kate is a part of this journey with us and look forward to sharing the film with the world next year.” Scroll through King Charles III's Radio Times covers through the years below: View Gallery on the source website Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Where is Aileen Wuornos's girlfriend Tyria Moore now?
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is now available to watch on Netflix.
Netflix is widening its true crime catalogue with a brand new documentary centred on the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos. From 1989 to 1990, Wuornos robbed, shot and killed several men across Florida. She received six death sentences for her crimes, and was executed in 2002 after spending over 10 years on death row. The new documentary, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, re-examines Wuornos's life and crimes, featuring audio interviews with those who knew her best along with prison interviews with Wuornos herself. One major figure in Wuornos's life was Tyria Moore, who has been immortalised across popular culture, most notably by Christina Ricci, who played a fictionalised version of Moore in the 2003 movie Monster. Read on to learn more about Aileen Wuornos and Tyria Moore's relationship. How did Aileen Wuornos meet Tyria Moore? Aileen Wuornos, then 30 years old, met 24-year-old Tyria Moore at a bar in Daytona Beach called Zodiac. The pair then moved into together, with Wuornos providing for them while working as a prostitute. During her trial, Aileen said of Moore: "It was love beyond imaginable. Earthly words cannot describe how I felt about Tyria." View oEmbed on the source website Did Aileen Wuornos's girlfriend Tyria Moore help the police? In 1991, Wuornos was arrested in Volusia Country and the next day, police were able to locate Moore. Moore then called Wuornos, under police guidance, allegedly asking for help to clear her name. Days later, Wuornos confessed to the murders, claiming the men had attempted to rape her and she kill them in self-defence. Where is Aileen Wuornos's girlfriend Tyria Moore now? As of 2025, Tyria Moore is reportedly still alive and leads a private life in Pennsylvania in the United States. Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is available to watch on Netflix now. 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 Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Real Salt Path release date for documentary about true story that "stunned the public"
The documentary follows claims about how true the inspirational story was.
The Salt Path was hugely praised upon its release earlier this year, telling the "true story" about couple Raynor and Moth Winn, who embarked on an inspirational trek in 2013. The film starred Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs and received mostly positive reviews, but months later a report emerged, putting into question the contents of the famous story. The allegations put forward by The Observer, which have been denied and described as "grotesquely unfair" by Raynor Winn, claimed that both the book and film were "spun from lies, deceit and desperation". Now, with exclusive access to journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou's ongoing reporting, Sky has commissioned a one-off feature documentary "to dig deeper into the truth". Hayley Reynolds, Acting Director of Sky Documentaries, said: "This film brings together world-class journalism and filmmaking to explore one of Britain’s most remarkable modern-day literary phenomena – and the truth that lies beneath it. "At Sky Documentaries, we’re always drawn to stories that challenge perceptions and ask difficult questions, so there couldn’t be a better opportunity for us to partner with The Observer and reunite with the award-winning team behind Libby, Are You Home Yet?" Read on for further details about the documentary and the allegations made about the best-selling memoir and subsequent film. What are the allegations about The Salt Path? In July 2025, a report in The Observer suggested that the true story behind the movie and book weren't as clear-cut as originally portrayed. The article, led by journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, alleged there were a number of misrepresentations of the events that happened. The article claimed that the couple – whose real names are reported to be Sally and Tim Walker – became homeless after Sally was reported to have defrauded her employer out of £64,000. The couple are said to have borrowed money in order to repay the allegedly stolen sum of money, building up debts in the process that exceeded the value of the house. Following the article, Raynor Winn released a statement via literary agents Graham Maw Christie, in which they claimed the report was "highly misleading". It continued: "We are taking legal advice and won't be making any further comment at this time. "The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives." At the end of her statement, she added: "This is the true story of our journey." Winn later posted a statement on her website to address the claims in greater detail, calling them "grotesquely unfair" and "highly misleading". She shared images which appeared to show medical experts referring to Moth's diagnosis, calling The Observer’s claims on the legitimacy of his condition "the most unbearable of the allegations". She also claimed that the embezzling case referred to in The Observer was a separate matter not related to the court case which saw her and Moth lose their home, and reiterated that the version of events put forward in her book and the film were true. In a statement to Deadline, a spokesperson for the film's production company – Number 9 Films and Shadowplay Features – said: "There were no known claims against the book at the time of optioning it or producing and distributing the film." The statement added that the film was "a faithful adaptation of the book that we optioned", and also said: "We undertook all necessary due diligence before acquiring the book". It concluded: "The allegations made in The Observer relate to the book and are a matter for the author Raynor Winn. We have passed any correspondence relating to the article to Raynor and her agent." When will The Real Salt Path be on TV? Sky has confirmed that The Real Salt Path (w/t) will be released in December. Details on the exact day the documentary will be released are yet to be announced. But we'll be sure to keep this page updated with the latest. The Real Salt Path will air on Sky Documentaries and NOW this December. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
"Unprecedented" Caroline Flack documentary fronted by her mum Christine confirms release date
The documentary is coming to Disney+ next month.
Disney+ has confirmed the release date for the upcoming two-part documentary, Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth. Fronted by the late presenter's mother, the original documentary will be released on Monday 10th November, with both episodes premiering on the same day. Caroline Flack, best known for being the host of Love Island, took her own life in 2020, two months after stepping down from Love Island and weeks before she was due to face trial on assault charges, to which she pleaded not guilty. The alleged victim, her boyfriend Lewis Burton, did not support prosecution. The coverage of the presenter's departure from Love Island and legal issues was widely criticised following her death. The powerful two-parter follows Caroline's mother, Christine, as she investigates the truth about her daughter's final months - uncovering new details, asking difficult questions and exposing "the misrepresentations, pressures, and failures from institutions and decision-makers that shaped Caroline’s final days". The synopsis continues: "With access to powerful testimony from Caroline’s inner circle and those who were there, the series tells the story she never got to share and reveals an unprecedented look at what really happened to Caroline Flack." The documentary is executive produced by Dov Freedman, Charlie Russell and Jessie Versluys for Curious Films, the production company behind 2021 documentary Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death. The Disney+ documentary was announced in January, with Christine previously saying in a statement: "I still have so many questions about what happened to Caroline in her final months, and it's something I feel deeply compelled to explore, even though I know it will be challenging. "I'm pleased to be working with the team at Curious Films once again, in the hope of bringing clarity and understanding to Carrie's story – not just for her, but for everyone who cared about her." Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth airs on Monday 10th November on Disney+. You can sign up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month now. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ben Stiller says new Apple TV film allowed him to ‘process the grief’ of losing his parents
Ben Stiller has made a film about his parents, who were comedy stars in 1960s USA. But does the film actually say more about him?
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Comic double act Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were huge in the 60s. They regularly appeared on the American variety programme The Ed Sullivan Show, while Jerry went on to play the short-tempered Frank Costanza, George’s father, in Seinfeld, and Anne – who died in 2015 – appeared in movies like The Boys from Brazil and Fame. Now, in his documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, actor-director Ben Stiller paints a tender portrait of his famous folks. When Jerry died in 2020, Stiller began filming the New York apartment his parents shared. A way to remember the place he grew up in before it was sold, it was the start of something highly personal. “I thought, ‘I want to do something that is going to be some sort of tribute to my parents,’ ” he explains, over Zoom. “This was at the beginning of Covid, and there was no chance to do a memorial for my dad. I just felt like this was a way to connect with him after losing him.” From Jerry’s home movies to cassette recordings, photos and newspaper clippings, the archive was plentiful. Stiller and his sister Amy (also an actor) even found love letters. The silver-haired Stiller, 59, was particularly taken by this intimate insight into his mother and father’s inner life. “When you think of your parents, you don’t think of them in that first blush of young love. And it was amazing to see how much passion they had for each other. I knew my dad was so devoted to my mom his whole life. But to read this frisky back and forth… it was pretty surreal, I have to say.” Stiller has always been close to his parents, lines between family and work blurring. His mother appeared in his 1994 directorial debut Gen X romance Reality Bites and hit comedy Night at the Museum, while his father played the shell-suit-wearing manager Maury Ballstein in Zoolander, Stiller’s cult 2001 comedy about a dumb-bell fashion model. “I wasn’t stupid – they were funny… I was completely using them,” he admits in the documentary, clearly unconcerned about the “nepo baby” tag. For a long time, their fame cast an uncomfortable shadow, though. “When I was a teenager, I thought I wanted to be a serious director and make serious movies,” he explains. “I think I was rebelling against my parents, the comedians, but at the end of the day you just go with what makes you happy, and what you enjoy. It’s also a period in your life when you’re trying to separate yourself from your parents, so it’s complicated. As my parents were in the business, it took me a while to figure out what I liked doing for myself.” If the film sees Stiller explore complex feelings towards his upbringing, fame and the vagaries of showbiz, it’s also a very public form of therapy after the loss of his parents. “I was definitely processing the grief of losing them, but also trying to connect with them more, too,” he says. That his dad obsessively documented their lives – even recording arguments between him and Anne – surprised him. “That deep interest he had in that history and exploring his own issues is something that I really came away with, something that maybe people who know him just from television might not know about him.” For an entertainer famed for precision-tooled Hollywood comedies like Dodgeball: a True Underdog Story and Meet the Parents, this first documentary of Stiller’s career was a learning curve. “Documentaries are hard. You have to live in the world of not knowing for a very long time, and that’s not something that really comes naturally to me,” he says. “I went through different phases with it. There were times when I was excited by the process. There were times I was really daunted by it and didn’t want to deal with it, to be honest. I was like, ‘Oh no, I’ve started this thing, what is it going to be?’” What emerges, ultimately, is also a frank look at his own life and a career that frequently took him away from his family. He notes how he’d fly home from shoots on weekends or organise “special places” for his kids to visit on set – “I thought I was doing so much better than my parents,” he says in the film. But he wasn’t. On camera, his son Quinn, 20, vents his frustration about a recent restaurant visit, when Stiller fussed over a photo with a fan rather than spending quality time with him. Home truths were spilled with Quinn and his daughter Ella, 23, who was cut out of Stiller’s 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, much to his shame. “I was able to really hear what my kids were saying to me and really accept the reality of being who I am, as opposed to the idea of who I wanted to be, and that reality of not living up to something you want to be,” he says. “I’m talking in terms of family relations and really being able to accept that more… which, honestly, I think has helped us.” Showbiz also put a strain on his marriage. In 2017, Stiller split from wife, actor Christine Taylor, after 17 years. Compared to his parents’ 50-plus years union, he felt like a failure. But, during Covid, he and Taylor moved back in together, forming a bubble for the sake of the kids, and began what Stiller calls in the documentary “a sort of coming together”. Five years on, their marriage is back on track. “I’m really happy right now,” he smiles. “I’m in a great place in my life. I’m very grateful for that.” Recently, Stiller’s pivoted into television, as one of the creatives behind the Emmy-winning Severance – fulfilling that teenage dream of directing more serious fare. Of course, he still adores comedy, but compared to his parents’ more innocent time, he says things have changed. “We live in a world where taking chances with comedy is more challenging. You’re seeing that front and centre in our country. But I think it’s important that comedians keep doing what they’re doing, speaking truth to power and being free to say what they want. That’s the most important thing.” He is alluding, of course, to the recent issues faced by Jimmy Kimmel, whose chat show was suspended after comments he made on screen in the wake of political activist Charlie Kirk’s murder – even if that suspension has since been revoked. In his line of work, social media has changed everything, for good and bad. “You have things that go out to huge audiences very quickly,” he says. But are bite-sized, TikTok-friendly gags dumbing down comedy? “I think we’ve reduced our attention spans down a little bit,” he nods, sighing. “I feel lucky to have grown up in the analogue world.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Channel 4 documentary on AI in the workplace reveals unprecedented presenter twist
"This stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be."
Channel 4's Dispatches has taken a radical approach to show the nation how convincing artificial intelligence can be. As part of a deliberate on-screen stunt, the documentary series has become the first British television programme to use an AI presenter. Now available to stream on Channel 4, the Dispatches episode investigates how AI automation is reshaping the workplace, pitting humans against machines in a series of real-world tests across medicine, law, fashion and music. But as revealed at the end of the episode the programme's presenter – who appeared throughout – was entirely AI-generated, with their face, voice and movements all created through AI technology, without a single frame of real-world filming. "AI is going to touch everybody's lives in the next few years. And for some, it will take their jobs. Call centre workers? Customer service agents? Maybe even TV presenters like me. Because I’m not real. In a British TV first, I’m an AI presenter," the AI said. "Some of you might have guessed: I don’t exist. I wasn’t on location reporting this story. My image and voice were generated using AI." View Green Video on the source website Louisa Compton, head of news and current affairs, specialist factual and sport at Channel 4, said: "The use of an AI presenter is not something we will be making a habit of at Channel 4. Instead our focus in news and current affairs is on premium, fact-checked, duly impartial and trusted journalism – something AI is not capable of doing. "But this stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be – and how easy it is to hoodwink audiences with content they have no way of verifying." The AI presenter was produced by AI fashion brand Seraphinne Vallora for Kalel Productions, and used prompts to create a realistic digital human capable of delivering nuanced on-camera performances. Adam Vandermark, commissioning editor for news and current affairs at Channel 4, commented: "Kalel Productions worked hard to make the reporter feel and appear as authentic as possible, but of course AI couldn’t do the work of an investigative journalist. Or could it? It’s far too early to tell, but it’s certainly a revelation to see this imaginary presenter front a Dispatches in such a clever and realistic way." Nick Parnes, CEO of Kalel Productions, added: "This is another risky, yet compelling, project for Kalel. It's been nail-biting to create the AI presenter in time. Ironically, it gets even more economical to go with an AI presenter over human, weekly. "And as the generative AI tech keeps bettering itself, the presenter gets more and more convincing, daily. That's good for our film, but maybe not so good for people's careers." Dispatches' Will AI Take My Job? is available to stream on Channel 4. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Sean Bean's new investigative crime series confirms release date – and it's soon
The series details the rise and fall of notorious criminals such as the Kray twins and Al Capone.
Sky has announced the release date for Original Gangsters with Sean Bean – and there isn’t too long to wait. The four-part series, which will guide viewers on a journey into the rise and fall of history’s most notorious criminals, is set to kick off on Tuesday 4th November at 9pm on Sky History and History Play. Combining cinematic reenactment with expert interviews, the series will "bring these infamous characters to life, like never before” and “find out what they mean today and why their legacies have lasted". Each episode will follow different subjects – from Al Capone and The Peaky Blinders, to Stephanie St Clair and Billy Hill and the Krays. Original Gangsters with Sean Bean was announced back in May as part of the Sky HISTORY line-up for the remainder of 2025. Sam Pearson, Head of Short Form Commissioning & Social Media at Hearst Networks UK, said at the time: "It is immensely exciting to continue the expansion of our digital-first commissioning slate in the history space, continuing our collaboration with some of the brightest producers and original emerging voices. "We have some truly fresh series on the way that take a unique look at the past, and I can’t wait for our audience to see and appreciate what’s on the way." Read more: BBC's Ozzy Osbourne documentary confirms new release date and a title change after being pulled from schedule Michael Palin reveals whether there’s any chance of a Monty Python reunion Victoria Beckham Netflix series finally gets a confirmed release date – and it's soon Sadie Frost reveals why Twiggy's legacy should be one of immense power for women Original Gangsters with Sean Bean will begin on Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play on Tuesday 4th November at 9pm. Add Original Gangsters with Sean Bean 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 Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
If you want a reason for Channel 4 to exist, it's Unreported World, says Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Today’s news agenda is too narrow, says the Channel 4 newsreader.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. I remember my first editor, almost 35 years ago when I worked on BBC’s Newsround, explaining our mission and responsibility as journalists for the programme: “We sandwich the stories we believe the audience should be told about, but wouldn’t necessarily choose to watch on first glance, in between the things they’re naturally attracted to.” Our job was to keep the news agenda as broad as possible and hope viewers stuck with the unfamiliar, to inform and explain, not just give people what they know about. In 2025 that’s almost a quaint notion. Viewers are very much in control of what they watch; so much of what we put into a crafted programme is consumed individually on social media feeds or falls victim to the fast-forward button. Far from broadening or democratising the agenda, the fragmentation of news and current affairs has narrowed it. Our bulletins and feeds are hyper-focused on a smaller number of stories. We all became experts during the Covid pandemic, debating the finer points of policy as entire news programmes were mainly about one story. During the pre-Brexit years the debate reached fever pitch on every channel. Today Gaza, Ukraine, Trump and issues such as immigration are the stories that dominate. But while those things are important, there has also been a cost. News organisations too often chase the same agenda, counting online views and hoping for viral moments, while huge parts of the world go uncovered and important stories go untold. It’s why I’m thankful to work at Channel 4, where our remit demands that we go beyond the norm and tell the stories others don’t. View oEmbed on the source website Amid this shrinking news agenda, Unreported World, the UK’s longest-running foreign affairs series, has never been more necessary. If you haven’t watched any of its 300 episodes since it was first broadcast 25 years ago on 8 September 2000, the clue is in the title. Reporters travel the world bringing us overlooked stories, from the Taiwanese civilians preparing for Chinese invasion, the Mexican town addicted to Coca-Cola and life inside the K-Pop dream machine to charting the uprisings in Syria and Myanmar before they started dominating the news, albeit briefly. Shortly after I joined Unreported World in 2011, I bumped into Alan Yentob, then the BBC’s creative director: “If there’s one programme I wish I could poach from Channel 4, it’s Unreported World,” he told me. I was on my way to South Africa to find out what was causing the riots in townships. Fourteen years later, in February, the series sent me to Sudan: one of the most inaccessible and terrible wars on the planet. It took us days to get in to tell the stories of some of the most desperate people I have ever seen, receiving no help from the outside world having fled from horrific fighting and massacres. These kinds of expeditions are expensive and require the kind of time and commitment that is increasingly difficult for most news organisations to find. It was depressingly similar in 2016, when I went to Yemen to cover the impact of the civil war. We found starving babies and children, and mothers too malnourished to breastfeed. And yet nobody in Britain really knew this was going on, the news bulletins dominated by Brexit. Our new series features episodes on South Africa’s ‘slay queen’ phenomenon, the drug war in Colombia displacing thousands of people, and the US undercover agents throwing migrants into detention. I’ve just filmed a story in Israel about the explosion in unsolved murders in Israeli Arab communities, where criminal families and gangs rule the streets, and where the far-right policing minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is accused by Arab citizens of abandoning them. While all eyes are on Gaza, that story is very much off the news agenda. If you want a reason for public service broadcasters, and Channel 4 specifically, to exist, it’s Unreported World. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Unreported World returns on Friday 24th October at 7:30pm on Channel 4. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour docu-series gets confirmed release date on Disney+ in the UK
A new concert film will also be released on the same day...
Taylor Swift has announced that a six-part docu-series about her record-shattering Eras tour is set to premiere on Disney+ on Friday 12th December. The six-part documentary, which is titled The End of an Era, will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at The Eras Tour, which encompassed 149 concerts across 51 cities between March 2023 and December 2024 and became a global phenomenon in itself, smashing touring revenue record with more than $2 billion in ticket sales. Taking to social media to share the news of the docu-series, Swift – who recently released her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, which was inspired by her life off-stage while doing the Eras Tour – also revealed the documentary will be accompanied by the simultaneous release of a new concert film, which was shot at the tour finale in Vancouver. "It was the End of an Era and we knew it," she wrote. "We wanted to remember every moment leading up to the culmination of the most important and intense chapter of our lives, so we allowed filmmakers to capture this tour and all the stories woven throughout it as it wound down. And to film the final show in its entirety." She added: "The Eras Tour | The Final Show, featuring the entire Tortured Poets Department set, and the first two episodes of The End of an Era, a 6-episode behind-the-scenes docuseries will be yours December 12th on @disneyplus." A short teaser trailer was also unveiled alongside the announcement, which you can watch below: View oEmbed on the source website The documentary series is described as "an intimate look at Taylor’s life as her tour made headlines and thrilled fans around the world”, which will spotlight “performers, family members, and friends – including Gracie Abrams, Sabrina Carpenter, Ed Sheeran, and Florence Welch” and offer "never-before-seen insight into what it took to create a phenomenon". The first two of the six episodes will be released for streaming on 12th December, with two more episodes set to be released at a time each week after that. The End of an Era will be available to watch on Disney+ from Friday 12th December. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
King Charles III confirmed to star in all-new documentary special for Prime Video
In the film, the King will reflect on his decades of campaigning for a more balanced, sustainable world.
King Charles III is set to star in a new documentary in which he will explain his philosophy of “harmony” and the need to "work with, rather than against, nature". The feature-length TV film, which has the working title Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, will launch on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories worldwide next year. In the documentary, the monarch will reflect on his decades of campaigning for a more balanced, sustainable world. “Nature is our sustainer – we are a part of Nature. Therefore, what we do to her, we do to ourselves. For much of my life I have sought to promote and encourage ways we can work with, rather than against Nature. In other words, to restore balance to our planet which is under such stress," he said. The special will delve into the King’s “Harmony” philosophy, which he explored in his 2010 book Harmony: A New Way of Looking At Our World. He added it was his "fondest hope that this film may encourage a new audience to learn about the philosophy of harmony – and perhaps inspire the same sense of determination it has given me to help build a more sustainable future". The documentary will show how the philosophy of harmony can be applied to many areas including food production, sustainable textiles, traditional skills, architecture and town planning. "This film will, I hope, demonstrate just some of the remarkable work being done around the world to put harmony into practice, from the forests of Guyana to sustainable communities in India – and, closer to home, through the work of my King's Foundation at Dumfries House and Highgrove," added the King. “Never has it been more important for the world to make a concerted effort to protect and prioritise our planet, and to restore our relationship with it." To mark the announcement, a new photograph of the King was released (above), showing Charles standing in the arboretum at Highgrove Gardens, Gloucestershire, during filming. Director Nicolas Brown said: "Remarkably few people around the world know the full depth of the King’s lifelong battle to bring nature and humanity into harmony." He added: “Even today, His Majesty’s work with The King’s Foundation is transforming the world in so many inspiring ways. “This is a story of hope and resilience. People who watch this film will leave feeling uplifted and motivated. “The King’s philosophy offers something for everyone. Mostly, he shows us the power of resilience – and how following your intuition can transform the world.” Courtenay Valenti, head of film for Amazon MGM Studios, added: “We believe this collaboration, championed by Amazon MGM." She added: "We believe this collaboration, championed by Amazon MGM Studios Head of Documentary Features Brianna Oh, will not only showcase The King's remarkable vision but also inspire viewers across the globe to consider their own relationship with the natural world." Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Molly-Mae: Behind It All season 2 start date confirmed as award-winning series returns
A second season of Molly-Mae Hague's award-winning documentary series is fast approaching - and it's just under two weeks away. Molly-Mae: Behind It All season 2 launches on Prime Video on Saturday 18th October, one month after the influencer scooped the National Television Award for authored documentary. The second instalment follows the success of the first run, which became the most-watched series on Prime Video by young women aged 18 to 34 in the UK. In this second outing, the series offers exclusive access to the star as she embarks on an exciting new chapter taking her business empire to the next level, while navigating the challenges of motherhood under the scrutiny of millions. As well as the impending release date, Prime Video has also released a trailer, offering a glimpse at Molly-Mae as she works on her business and juggles being a mother. "There's a really strong-minded, determined women and there's also a girl that doesn't believe she's worthy of this," Molly-Mae's manager can be heard saying, before Molly-Mae begins: "My motherhood journey is just so full on." The trailer also features a glimpse of Tommy Fury, as Molly-Mae confirms that she and the boxer have got back together. You can watch the full trailer below. View oEmbed on the source website Prior to the release of Behind It All, Molly-Mae had hardly appeared on television post-Love Island, let alone front one by herself. Earlier this year, she shared with RadioTimes.com and other press her motivations to be on television again, explaining that the show had to feel right. "I've not done any TV, really, since doing Love Island, so it needed to feel right. And just like I say, it came at the right time," she said. "I knew that the launch of [online clothing store] maebe would be an incredible thing to show, and that was my main motivation behind it, was to really just showcase that." She continued: "I had a lot of things that I felt like I wanted to talk about, that I wanted to share, especially with my brand launching, especially with motherhood. "There were topics that I felt like I'm ready to delve into a little bit more. It just came at the right time. But like I say, it wasn't an easy decision to make. "I've always sort of avoided TV a little bit just because it wasn't really my avenue, but this just felt right, and I was ready to share." Episodes 1-3 of Molly-Mae: Behind It All season 2 launch exclusively on Prime Video on Saturday 18th October. Episodes 4-6 will follow in 2026. Add Molly-Mae: Behind It All 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 Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.