Fear not – from sci-fi to period dramas, sitcoms to romcoms, we have the perfect alternative viewing guide
‘I WAS SCARED TO BE AMBITIOUS’
Actor, writer and director Dolly Wells may have had a famous dad and best friend, but she was fearful of success. Not any more…
INTERVIEW BY KELLY-ANNE TAYLOR
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Available now BBC iPlayer
There seems to be very little that Dolly Wells can’t do. She’s played a vampire-hunting nun in Steven Moffat’s Dracula, a woman locked in a basement with David Tennant in Inside Man and an incompetent assistant in Sky comedy Doll & Em (co-written with her best friend, actor Emily Mortimer).
Now she has turned her hand to directing with BBC3’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Based on the bestselling book of the same name, it follows precocious teenager Pip (Emma Myers), who decides to investigate the unsolved murder of an older girl from her school.
“It was Emily who told me about the series,” the 52-year-old explains over videocall from her home in Brooklyn. “It’s made by the company that produced The Pursuit of Love – which she worked on. I remember her saying, ‘They’re looking for someone really interesting and I thought you should do it’. I said, ‘They’re not
Dolly Wells is Kelly-Anne Taylor’s guest on the podcast available from 2 July
Go to radiotimes.com/ podcast See page 111 for full details
of the whole school, saying this girl likes to be called ‘Dolly’ like it was a bad thing! She said, ‘We’re not going to allow that. She’s going to be called Dorothy’. I had to stay behind after class and learn how to write Dorothy, not Dolly.”
Years later, she would change her surname from Gatacre to Wells. She was 18 when she discovered the man she had thought was her stepfather –comic actor John Wells – was actually her biological father. “I was the only child of my mum and dad. My other five siblings have a different father [Edward Gatacre] and I’d been brought up with his name. I didn’t want to be disloyal [by changing it] but I thought in the arena of acting it wouldn’t matter because he doesn’t really watch telly. Dolly Wells is my actual name, and it’s much simpler and shorter
‘It’s quite nice getting older. I wish people had told me that’
DOLLY WELLS
than Dolly Gatacre – and it was a nice way of making it all OK.”
Dolly and John were thick as thieves. She tells me about an incident at school where her classmate knocked her into a table and her tooth went missing, nowhere to be found. It was only after a trip to the dentist that they realised the tooth had been shoved up into her gums.
“My dad was so adorable. He made a little voodoo doll of the boy [who pushed me], because we were so upset. He made it out of plasticine and we put pins in it. When I went to school the next day and the boy walked past calmly, I couldn’t believe that the plasticine and candles hadn’t worked!”
going to want me!’ It’s hilarious. She’s like a proud mum. She always thinks everybody would want me to do everything and they’d be crazy not to.”
But, it was indeed Wells whom they wanted and went with. It’s shot beautifully – with a hint of Sex Education. We’re in a twee British town, with a slightly Americanised high school and teenagers getting up to more than you’d like to think.
Wells was raised just off London’s Kensington High Street, the youngest of six siblings. She was christened Dorothy Gatacre, but was always Dolly.
“I have a horrible memory, from when I started school, of the headmistress holding me in her arms on stage in front
There are plenty more examples of how John Wells shaped Dolly’s career path. “I was eight and my dad had Peter Cook and Dudley Moore round. I put on a hat and pretended to be a man, and they all went along with it –saying, ‘It’s so sweet of you to give us your time’. I sat there thinking, ‘How am I going to stop this because they totally believe me?’ I said I had another meeting and walked off.
“I also remember hours of me and my dad playing doctors. He would come in on his knees pretending to be different patients and I would tell him what was wrong with him. He would play with me for hours. It was probably almost as fun for him as it was for me. I know that feeling with my own kids. You’re so desperate to make your children laugh, it’s pathetic.”
Despite a creative start, it took Wells a
NUN ON THE HUNT Wells as Sister Agatha in Steven Moffat’s Dracula
PIP, PIP!
Emma Myers (above centre) with her co-stars; with Dolly Wells (also left) on set — in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
SHOWS
YOUNG ADULT TO STREAM THIS SUMMER
◁ while to establish herself as an actress. After finishing at Manchester University she did odd jobs alongside acting; she was a photographer’s assistant, had a stall at Portobello market, wrote for the Daily Express and Evening Standard. It was only when she had her daughter (Wells also has a son with ex-husband Mischa Richter) in her 30s, that she decided to go for it.
“I had this feeling of… you have to push in the world. I think I was scared to be ambitious, and I didn’t massively understand what it was to be that. My mum, with the greatest respect, who is 91 and adorable, never really worked. If you asked her, ‘What do you do?’ she used to say, ‘I do my face. I do my hair.’”
Wells was once quoted in an interview saying, “If you’re a character actor, it doesn’t matter if you get older and can no longer play the pretty ingénue.” Have times changed?
“It’s quite nice getting older. I wish people had told me that as a woman. So much has changed. Beauty is everywhere and everything and every size or colour or shape or height or age. It’s so embarrassing to think in the past that people thought that after 40 you wouldn’t get any acting work. What? People haven’t got a story to tell over 40? That’s bonkers!
EMMA MYERS
The Good Girl star on fame and skipping school
How did you land the role of Pip?
I was flying home from London [Myers was born and raised in Orlando, Florida] and I got an email asking if I would meet with the director, Dolly. I read the first three episodes, and I really liked it. We ran through a scene together and they said that if I sent in a tape with a British accent, the role would be mine.
How did you channel your Britishness?
I used to do a British accent for fun – but I was never really good at it! I was nervous because by the time I joined the project, I only had two weeks to nail it before we started shooting. I had a dialect coach, we went through every single scene a million times. That helped – but it wasn’t something I picked up right away!
Pip is a great female role model — who were yours growing up?
Susan and Lucy from Narnia were always my role models! I was homeschooled so my curriculum consisted of reading books that focused on diferent eras of history – they were niche! I loved it because it gave me so much freedom. We used to live close
“When I had my daughter, I had an instinct of, I’m not going to make her looks very important. I’m going to push for the funny and the clever and the interesting, the odd and the peculiar. It makes me and my daughter laugh – but my mum really thought her biggest claim to fame, her biggest achievement, was her legs. It’s odd to think there was a time when that was enough.”
It’s not just on screen that we’re seeing genuine change – it’s also behind the camera.
“I think more women directing and being in charge is a really good thing. It doesn’t need to be really stressful on set. People don’t need to be scared of a director.”
Wells now writes, directs and acts. Will she be hanging up her boots any time soon?
“Directing gives me real respect and empathy for actors. It’s a very odd thing to put yourself in situations – be it funny or awful, where you give it your all so that people can come home from a long day at work and watch something that moves them or makes them feel happy.
“I’m also writing a film, which is really hard. I love writing with Em but she’s writing a film and I’m writing a film, so that’s quite lonely. And we’re longing to do a third series of Doll & Em. But right now, I’m also filming And Just Like That. I really love acting and I don’t want to hang up my boots!”
2
Umbrella Academy
S1—3 Netflix.
S4 8 Aug 2024
A billionaire adopts seven children, each with a unique superpower.
3
Heartstopper
S1 & 2 Netflix.
S3 3 Oct 2024
A coming-of-age drama with a progressive love story between Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor).
4
Wednesday
S1 Netflix
7
Renegade Nell
S1 Disney+ Derry Girls’ Louisa Harland is the plucky Nell, in Sally Wainwright’s 18th-century drama.
8
The Summer I Turned Pretty
S1 & 2 Amazon.
to the Disney resort and there were passes for residents. Me and my three sisters would go for the day and do our schooling at night!
What made you want to act?
I was really into fantasy – The Lord of the Rings was my favourite book and the films were why I became an actor. Peter Jackson used to make vlogs of behind-the-scenes content; I watched those and thought, ‘Man, that’s such a cool job’.
You play the character of Enid in Wednesday. The reaction to the show has been huge — how have you coped?
I didn’t even realise how much of a hit the show had become because I was busy with work. My mum sat me down and said, ‘Do you realise how big this show is?’ People don’t really understand that [you’re a real person]. They can cross boundaries. That gets overwhelming – but it helps to have a good support system at home.
Has fame stopped you doing what regular 22-year-olds do?
I’m pretty much a homebody. I don’t like going out – so it’s not been an issue for me! K-AT
This stylish, supernatural dramedy about Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) — a girl with psychic powers.
5
Geek Girl
S1 Netflix
Harriet Manners (Emily Carey) is a socially awkward 16-year-old who’s bullied at school, but then she’s spotted by a model agency…
6
Red Rose
S1 iPlayer
The perils of smartphones are taken to extremes when Rochelle (Isis Hainsworth) opens a new app. Tested friendships and tough decisions await.
S3 due in 2025 US teen drama charting the romantic whims of Belly (Lola Tung).
9
Shadow and Bone S1 & 2 Netflix Map-making orphan Alina’s (Jessie Mei Li) story melds a pseudo-Victorian aesthetic with a dark imagination.
10
Tell Me
Everything S1 & 2 ITVX
A whirl of school, friendships and relationships based on writer Mark O’Sullivan’s own experiences growing up.
ODD ONE OUT Jenna Ortega as the eponymous Wednesday
HEARTSTOPPER
Joe Locke (left) and Kit Connor
ON THE CASE
Myers as Pip in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Jay Hunt and Eddy Cue, the brains behind streaming giant Apple TV+, say making programmes that people talk about means you have to leave them wanting more…
THE END OF THE BINGE?
INTERVIEW
BY EMMA COX
PHOTOGRAPHED EXCLUSIVELY FOR RADIO TIMES BY ADAM LAWRENCE
In a market saturated with broadcasters and streamers, Apple TV+ seems to be finding a way to sort the wheat from the chaff. Since launching in 2019, it has had success with hits including Bafta-winning Slow Horses starring Gary Oldman and Idris Elba’s Hijack. Senior vice president of services Eddy Cue, who’s been with Apple for 35 years, and Jay Hunt, who joined six years ago as creative director for Europe, and was previously chief creative officer at Channel 4 and Controller of BBC1, reveal the secrets behind what they commission, why they prefer putting out shows weekly and how they measure success.
Jay, when you joined Apple TV+, what was your strategy for commissioning programmes?
JAY My role is to find brilliant European storytellers to make shows that feel ambitious,
distinctive and have something to say about the world. We’re in the business of intelligent entertainment. From Hijack to Criminal Record and Slow Horses – they’re all different but we go into all of them asking, “What are we trying to say?” You can go on our platform, and not all of it will be to your taste, but you can understand the craft in it, the authorship of it, and that’s a really important differentiator for us.
Eddy, why did you hire Jay?
EDDY If you want to do great things, it always starts and ends with great people: the leadership of the team, as well as everybody on the team. It’s hard to make great TV look easy, but Jay and her team do that. Talent wants to come here because she’s well respected and she’s really good at what she does.
Most of your shows involve A-list talent like Idris Elba, Gary Oldman
and Sir David Attenborough narrating Prehistoric Planet. Is that a must for you?
JAY I’ll let you in on a secret – Slow Horses was commissioned without Gary Oldman. I tell you that because in the end we are looking for great stories and great writing. So yes, of course Gary has turned this man with a dubious sense of personal hygiene into a global icon, but the truth is we initially picked up something that we fundamentally believed in.
EDDY I think if we continue to execute that quality, the answer to your question is that the talent will want to come to us.
JAY That’s a really good point, because that’s exactly what is happening now. We’re really proud of our track record so far. We haven’t made that much, but what we have made feels like a quality offering to the audience. And you see agents and stars coming and saying, “We want to be part of that.”
‘Shows deserve that weekly anticipation... it’s event TV’
EDDY CUE
Many of your shows are put out weekly instead of dropped as a box set like other streamers. Is that a strategy that will continue?
EDDY I hope so. We don’t have any rules, so we do have some shows where we’ve put out all the episodes. But we think other shows really deserve to have that weekly anticipation – it’s really hard to have conversations if you’ve watched the whole season but your friend’s only watched two episodes. If it’s weekly, you’re all on the same level and we like that. At least for the foreseeable future, we’re going to continue doing that. It’s “watercooler” – when you’re into a show you’re like, “I know it comes out on Wednesday at 9pm, and I am there.” It’s event TV.
In such a competitive market, do you need that word of mouth for shows to become popular?
EDDY Yes. That wasn’t the
APPLE EXECS
Jay Hunt and Eddy Cue
BIG HITS
Second World War drama Masters of the Air (top) and Idris Elba in Hijack
101 SHOWS
primary reason we did it, but that’s another reason.
JAY It’s funny, we talk about it as though it’s an extraordinary new discovery but that’s how we all used to watch TV, all of the time, until quite recently. But it also has a powerful impact on the creative process, because you cannot be complacent about an audience coming back. You have to think:
“Have I intrigued and fascinated them? Have I got under their skin to the extent they want to come back and see more?” It helps us to make better shows.
Jay, you clearly have a bigger budget now than you had at the BBC or Channel 4. What are the other main differences for you?
EDDY A nicer boss.
JAY Oh, the boss! He is a cracking guy! I’ll be honest with you, I’ve always been really tight on budgets. We’ve got to get the value on screen; that’s what I’m employed to do. We’ve run things like Prehistoric Planet, an epic reimagining of the world of 66 million years ago, through to a much smaller show like Criminal Record, and audiences have embraced both of those all the way around the world. They’re at very different price points, but they’re both about quality in their genre. Money doesn’t buy you a great show; storytelling does.
Genuinely, one of the most surprising things about joining Apple was that there weren’t that many differences. I’ve built my entire career at public service broadcasters and the thing that took me a long time to get my head around is how shared those values were. I came to a commercial organisation and heard people say, “But why are we telling this story? What’s the conversation we want to start?” Well, that is absolutely part of the DNA of the way I’d have thought at the BBC or Channel 4.
Does Apple TV+ allow more creative freedom for directors, writers and actors?
JAY I’m very happy to own this. We don’t say to people, “What is it you want to make? Go off and tell me when you’ve made it. Great, thanks very much.” That’s absolutely not what happens. It is absolutely a
Slow Horses
S1—3 now; S4 from 4 Sept
Slow Horses is Apple TV+’s laconic yet savvy take on classic espionage dramas. Based on the bestselling books by Mick Herron, it’s set in an MI5 shadow office that’s staffed by reject spooks who are led by the repulsive but mentally sharp Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman, right). The supporting cast is terrific and includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Freddie Fox and Rosalind Eleazar. See also page 6
A + TO STREAM THIS SUMMER
collaboration. I look at the successes we’ve had and I know how they came about, we focused on every detail – from what a wig looked like to whether the end of episode eight was exactly right.
You don’t release viewing figures. Is that ever going to change?
JAY I honestly don’t know. One of the things that’s quite fabulous about being here is that we have a chance for shows to grow. The metrics for success across all platforms now are so much more sophisticated: giving shows a chance for an audience to find them is a real luxury.
How do you measure success?
JAY There’s not one metric for success. Of course it matters that audiences watch the shows, but it’s incredibly important that they are well reviewed, and that we can see the quality of them.
Finally, what have you got coming up in the future?
JAY I can exclusively tell you that there’s another English language show called The Dispatcher, based on an American book, that’s rather extraordinary. It’s a thriller about a man who was a policeman and lost his child when she was three years old. She appears to have been abducted and it devastates his life, he loses his marriage and turns to drink. He’s now working in a 999 dispatch centre. One night he takes a call and becomes convinced it’s the daughter that he’s lost, and he goes out to try and find her. I’m really excited that we’ve cast Patrick Brammall, from Colin from Accounts, who’s an extraordinary actor and we’re shooting in Australia. It’s going to be really big.
12 Lady in the Lake 19 July
In 1966, two women’s lives entwine after a girl vanishes. With Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram.
13 Time Bandits
24 July
Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris and Taika Waititi’s adaptation of the fantasy film. With Lisa Kudrow.
14 Criminal Record
Available now
This urgent thriller pits a rookie detective (Cush Jumbo) against a veteran (Peter Capaldi).
15 Masters of the Air
Available now
Epic drama following the US Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group on some of WW2’s perilous raids.
16 Trying
S1—4 available now
17 Hijack
Available now Idris Elba stars in a hijacked-plane thriller that squeezes every drop of tension from its situation.
18
Prehistoric Planet
S1—2 available now
This Attenborough series is a technically impressive guide to what we know about dinosaurs.
19 Ted Lasso 1—3 available now A joyous hug of a show about an American football coach who takes over a soccer club.
20 The Reluctant Traveller
S1—2 available now Schitt’s Creek’s Eugene Levy hosts a funny but spiky travelogue.
Adorable comedy drama about a couple (Rafe Spall and Esther Smith), who are desperate to start a family.
TRYING Esther Smith and Rafe Spall
INTERVIEW BY MARK LAWSON
It’s 25 years since former prison psychologist Barbara Nadel, from east London, published her first novel set in Istanbul, showcasing Detective Inspector Cetin Ikmen. Neatly, the Silver Jubilee is marked by the arrival on BBC2/iPlayer of an eight-part thriller based on her DI Ikmen stories, called The Turkish Detective.
“There were previous approaches from TV but they came to nothing,” says Nadel. What helped this time was the rise of foreign crime drama: whether subtitled or featuring British cops abroad. “I think people are now used to foreign and subtitled shows. There wasn’t the concern there might have been earlier on.”
In form, The Turkish Detective falls between the original Danish version of The Killing and Death in Paradise. Turkish characters speak to each other in their own language, but use English with Ikmen’s detective partner, Mehmet Suleyman, who, in a change from the books, is an English cop of Turkish heritage who has left the Metropolitan Police to work in his homeland. The two-language approach is neatly explained in the series: Suleyman is keen to improve his Turkish, but his Istanbul colleagues want to practise their English with him. “I enjoyed the way they do that very much,” says the novelist. “Even though they don’t follow the books closely, it feels true to them.”
Another aspect of Ikmen’s behaviour was more problematic than his language – his chain-smoking. As The Turkish Detective is an American-Canadian-Turkish co-production, you might think the strongest scruples would have come from puritanical North America, but the bigger block was in Istanbul: “In Turkish TV now, there are rules about blanking people out if they are smoking,” Nadel explains.
Depictions of alcohol consumption and adultery are also banned, as part of a moral crackdown instituted by Turkey’s hardline President Recep Erdogan. DI Ikmen is a faithful husband and a bit of a boozer, but it was his tobacco habit that mattered most to Nadel: “It’s so integral to who he is. You think as an author, ‘What are the hills I would die on?’ And Ikmen smoking isn’t a hill I’d die on, but I was prepared to get mortally wounded on it!”
For her, the nicotine addiction represents “a side of him that doesn’t like being told what to do”. But is it also a form of self-medication for the accumulated damage he’s suffered from what he has seen? “Goodness, yes,” she says. “You can’t get away with it in jobs like that. You can’t un-see those things. I know that, having worked in mental health.”
SINISTER CITY
Barbara Nadel’s novels of crime and corruption in Istanbul make compelling TV
Was she ever frightened in her previous career, working in prisons? “No. You’re working with disordered people so the trope is that they might attack you. But that’s rare. They are much more likely to attack themselves. So you may witness someone trying to take their own life. But it made me aware that it has an effect on the people working these cases. You don’t get out unscathed. And I gave that to Ikmen.”
Though favouring cigarettes rather than a pipe, Ikmen – a deep-thinking family man – seemed to me to have aspects of Georges Simenon’s
Maigret, plus some of the gloominess of Inspector Morse, but Nadel says: “I wasn’t thinking of other fictional detectives. I think most of the characters we create are amalgams of many people. I probably recognise things in my characters that other people wouldn’t because they’re based on aspects of a friend or a relative.”
As Nadel is a trained psychologist, I suggest that Sigmund Freud might think she was drawing on her father for the warm but complicated male authority figure? “Yes! He is very much like my dad. I started writing the books when my father died. But I’m fully aware that Ikmen is a way of keeping him going as I miss him.”
AUTHOR Barbara Nadel
The Turkish Detective Full series from Sunday BBC iPlayer
SHOWS
FOREIGN DRAMA TO
when they got him. He’s brilliant.”
The novelist acknowledges that one element of the character is autobiographical. The production designer has great fun with the spectacular debris in Ikmen’s car, which he uses as an office and occasional kitchen. “I have to admit that’s based on my own car,” says Nadel. “It’s full of crap because I’m not very tidy and my life is very busy.”
That industry stems from Nadel writing two other novel series – one about wartime undertaker Francis Hancock and the other featuring modern private detective Lee Arnold and his agency partner Mumtaz Hakim. In football terms, these two novel series are home games, set in the writer’s native East End, while the Ikmen books represent an annual away season in Europe: her 26th book to feature Ikmen, The Darkest Night, was published in May.
Why did she choose Turkey as her literary second home? “I first went when I was very young because I have some relatives there. And it had a profound effect on me. It’s like falling in love with a person. I have a deep, abiding love for my birthplace – London – but I also fell for this other place.”
Nadel uses stories heard during her research trips there: such as a rich man with a house on the Bosphorus who didn’t use CCTV because he kept wolves that he released into the grounds at night. Such dark details are useful. Istanbul, in The Turkish Detective, is a complex and unsettling place. “Yes, whatever country you’re writing about, you have to take on the corruption and politics and terrorism and the rest of it.”
Viewers of The Turkish Detective, though, can’t be complacent. “Yes, that is one of the things I was trying to get across,” says Nadel. “These problems are everywhere.”
22
Pachinko
S1 Apple TV+. S2 23 August
Based on the bestseller by Min Jin Lee, this Korean family saga charts forbidden love.
23
Lupin
S1–3 Netflix
A classy and stylish retelling of the French story of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin (Omar Sy).
24
Money Heist
S1–5 Netflix Gripping Spanish series about a gang of robbers targeting Spain’s Royal Mint.
25
Deutschland 83, 86, 89 C4
Sleeper hit about a border patrol guard from East Germany who goes undercover in West Germany.
Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) as foreign secretary.
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Prisoner iPlayer
Visceral portrait of prison life in Denmark, with Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt as rookie guard Sammi.
28
Astrid: Murder in Paris
S1–3 C4
Odd-couple French crime drama, with Sara Mortensen as an autistic police records clerk who helps to crack murder cases.
BOSPHORUS BEAT
DI Cetin Ikmen (Haluk Bilginer, centre) is assisted by detectives Ayse Farsakoglu (Yasemin Kay Allen) and Mehmet Suleyman (Ethan Kai)
‘Ikmen is very much like my dad – it’s a way of keeping him going as I miss him’
Haluk Bilginer lights up the screen as the title character – even when not smoking a cigarette. The actor is probably best known to UK audiences as Mehmet Osman in EastEnders from 1985 to 1989 and for films including Masumiyet (1997). Nadel had also seen him on Turkish TV during research trips: “He was the person I’d always wanted to play Ikmen. So I was thrilled
The books are published in Turkey but they are some way behind the series as it’s available here. The market for translation from English has “dropped off in recent years”, she says, and the foreign fiction industry has also been hit by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Digital translation tools now make it technically possible for a publisher to work on a book in a language they don’t speak. (Using AI for subtitling is also now widespread in the screen business.)
“One of my friends is a translator from German and Romanian,” says Nadel. “And AI is a huge threat. Translation is a skill – it’s not just about matching words, you need to know the culture and context. It makes my blood run cold. What they can do is get a basic AI translation and then just pimp it up a bit. But I don’t think that’s respectful of your audience – readers will be able to tell.”
Your RT Travel: see page 130
26
Borgen
S1–3 Netflix
After a long hiatus, this classy Danish political drama returned in 2022 with
29
Spy/Master iPlayer
Ceausescu’s security adviser, Victor Godeanu (Alec Secareanu), wants to defect to the US in this Romanian Cold War thriller.
30
Babylon Berlin S1–4 Now Travel to the Weimar Republic of 1929 to open the casebook of Gereon Rath and police clerk Charlotte Ritter.
MONEY HEIST Spain’s Royal Mint is the target
BORGEN With Sidse Babett Knudsen
Before The Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln was best known as the soft-boiled Egg in This Life, the BBC’s beloved drama from the late 1990s about young London lawyers. Then the role of Rick Grimes in the American blockbuster zombie series made him a transatlantic action star. Now Rick’s back in the mini-series The Ones Who Live, in which the 50-year-old reprises the blood-and-guts role he left behind in 2018.
What are you recognised most for: The Walking Dead, This Life, Teachers or Love Actually? Certain people my age will be This Lifers; there’s the kids, who know Rick Grimes; there’s my mother-in-law – Love Actually; and quite a lot of cabbies know me from Teachers.
You left The Walking Dead in its ninth series — why return now? Because people would stop me in the street and go, “Where’s Rick?” There was an unfinished story. And I was talked into it by Danai [Gurira, who plays Grimes’s love interest, Michonne] and Scott [M Gimple, one of the series showrunners]. But I didn’t want it to feel like a spin-off. I wanted to complete a story that we left unfinished. It was about reuniting two lovers and seeing if their love could survive time and distance apart. Also, I felt that six hours gave us an opportunity to tell a bigger story. The Walking Dead characters have been scrabbling around in the dirt for years. What if we tell a more operatic story of what the grown-ups have been up to in the apocalypse –rebuilding society? What if there was a viable restart going on?
You’ve said that you never watch yourself on screen. As an executive producer on The Ones Who Live, have you had to change your own rules? On This Life, I watched a couple of episodes and got self-conscious about my curly hair and big nose. It was complete vanity. It became an exercise in self-consciousness, so I pulled the plug. [Watching this] was like aversion therapy. Not good! Fortunately, I let my
‘THERE
WAS AN UNFINISHED STORY’
Andrew
Lincoln left hit zombie drama
The
Walking Dead after nine series. So what drew him back to
the role of everyman hero Rick Grimes?
The Walking Dead: the Ones Who Live Full season available via Now
children and wife watch a very raw cut. They encouraged me to watch ten seconds, 30 seconds… They were helpful in weaning me into a place where I wouldn’t vomit.
Making The Walking Dead meant that your wife and two kids had to shuttle bi-annually across the Atlantic for extended periods — was that tough?
Every time, the journey in the car to the airport was horrendous. I was already homesick. I would view with dread the prospect of being away for eight months of filming. We were fortunate that my wife is such an extraordinary woman and was able to up sticks and build a life anywhere. I just didn’t want to be the Brit abroad. My mother’s South African, I’m from an immigrant family in the UK. We’re travellers – I like joining the circus. And I think my wife does as well – she’s the daughter of someone in the music business, so she’s actually even more able to get in a camper van and run. I said to her the other day, “Shall we just sell everything, get a camper van and go?” She went, “Yeah! I’ve still got that in me.”
You’ve been part of The Walking Dead world for the best part of a decade and a half. How hard is it to take on other roles after that?
R
It’s a really interesting question because it occupied my life for so long, and because it was an unfinished symphony, to a degree. I needed to complete it. That’s why this is such an important, momentous full-stop – with a bow on top – to that story. The next
‘People would stop me in the street and ask, “Where’s Rick?”’
thing that I’m about to do is the polar opposite of Rick Grimes. It will be a palate cleanser, shall we say… I’m now returning to a British role and my own accent. My daughter has been doing her GCSEs, so we’re staying here and I’m about to go up to Glasgow to start work on a new ITV drama, Cold Water, with playwright David Ireland [writer of Sky’s romcom The Lovers].
After playing an American for so many years, are you happy to be using your own accent again?
I recently did an interview with a millennial from Manchester and she said, “I had no idea you were English!” Yeah, it’s nice.
In 2007 we saw This Life + 10. Would you do another reunion show in a couple of years’ time — This Life + 30?
32 The Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power
Amazon Prime.
S2 29 August This prequel to Peter Jackson’s film trilogy explores the rise of baddie Sauron.
33 KAOS
29 August Netflix
Jeff Goldblum is king of the gods in this extravagant, Successionesque fantasy.
34 The Boys
S1—3, S4 weekly (finale 18 July)
Amazon Prime Superheroes are the villains in this pitch-black, laugh-out-loud satire.
35 Star Trek: Discovery
S1—5
36 Doctor Who All series BBC iPlayer Adventures across time and space with Ncuti Gatwa and all the other Doctors.
37 The Wheel of Time
S1 & 2 Amazon Prime. S3 due in 2025 Dark lords and dangerous magic abound in an epic fantasy drama.
38 Stranger Things
S1—4 Netflix. S5 due in 2025 Back to the Upside Down as kids fight monsters in the 80s.
SURVIVORS
Ha! It’s a funny one. I mean, did it even work in 2007? All those guys are dear friends. It was an extraordinary, seminal show for us all… But is there an appetite for This Life + 30? Surely it would just be all of us watching Netflix for an hour-and-a-half…
CRAIG McLEAN
All series of Walking Dead and the various spin-offs are available to stream on Now
Paramount+ Alien worlds, space battles and boldly going galore from this modern Trek tale.
39 The Witcher S1—3 Netflix Monster-hunting and intrigue from Henry Cavill’s gruff hero. Liam Hemsworth takes over in season 4, filming now.
40 Fallout
Amazon Prime Apocalyptic video-game dramatisation from a Westworld co-creator.
NEW WHO Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson
NEW WORLD Ella Purnell in Fallout
Andrew Lincoln as Rick and Danai Gurira as Michonne in The Walking Dead: the Ones Who Live
HE’S A GOD Jeff Goldblum rules Olympus in KAOS
Love Is Blind UK
Available from August Netflix
It is a proud boast by Emma Willis. One of her best friends was on the original series of Blind Date. “I only found out years later. He still has his tape,” she says.
As the co-presenters of upcoming Netflix dating show Love Is Blind UK, Emma and husband Matt are in no doubt that Cilla Black’s Saturday-night ratings juggernaut was, and remains, the big daddy of the genre. Matt remembers watching with his family. “They were always so quick with their answers. I thought, surely they prep those,” he recalls. For Emma, it was “appointment to view television”.
Indeed it was. Launching in 1985, Blind Date drew massive audiences for most of its original 18-year run (a revived version hosted by Paul O’Grady ran from 2017–19) and proved a pioneer of TV dating shows. Prior to its debut, couples on game shows tended to be familial (The Generation Game, Family Fortunes) or already married, as in Mr and Mrs, Derek Batey’s long-running 1970s/80s ITV show where couples proved how well they knew one another. A genuine sample question: “If your husband is having some cheese with a cream cracker or some bread, does he put butter on really thick? Or a fair covering? Or very sparingly?”
TV romance has come a long way since such innocent times, when Cilla asking if she should buy a hat for a possible wedding was as risqué as it got. By contrast, the cameras on Love Island –flming toned and tanned young people cooped up for weeks in a villa searching for “the one” –capture every embrace, no duvet left unturned.
Love island began back in 2005 with a group of celebrities, before producers made the fortuitous decision in 2015 to reboot the format without famous faces and instead invite a bunch of unknowns to fnd their perfect partner in paradise. The result, as every ITV advertiser will know, was sweet ratings nectar, particularly reaching the hard-tocapture 18–30 demographic, with audiences glued to the Islanders’ every move.
Despite claims of editorial manipulation, plenty of screen romance has spilled over into real life: a dozen or so couples from the series are still together, and nine Love Island babies have arrived. But such a formula of exposure, emotional and otherwise, has not been without its challenges. Some charities and commentators have welcomed the show as an effective platform for discussion of issues such as sexual
‘EVERYONE LOVES LOVE’
From Blind Date to Love Is Blind – the format is familiar but finding “the one” never gets old, say Emma and Matt Willis
consent, misogyny, bullying and gaslighting –but viewers have witnessed as many tears and tantrums as frolics, and sadly, there has also been tragedy. After three people connected to the show took their own lives, the Government stepped in and Ofcom tightened up the duty-ofcare rules for reality show contestants.
While no other British dating show has yet matched Love Island for column inches or viewers, Australia has found its own phenomenon with its version of Married at First Sight. It started out on Danish television in 2013 as a noble social experiment: introducing two
strangers who agree to marry when they frst meet, watching them walk up the aisle to say “I do,” then sitting back to watch the fallout. The format has gone global, but it’s the high-octane version Down Under that has really caught the imagination and been imitated by broadcasters including, now, the UK. Contestants have become overnight celebrities, as viewers come for the love stories and lush settings – Sydney Harbour the background to many a kiss – and stay for the intrigue and inevitable marital clashes.
A long overdue need for some inclusivity was
‘Emma was the hot girl from MTV, I couldn’t believe she wanted to speak to me’
101 SHOWS LOVE
addressed in 2023 with I Kissed a Boy, BBC3’s dating show for gay men hosted by Dannii Minogue, who has returned this year with its counterpart, I Kissed a Girl. And for anyone wanting to watch TV through their fngers, I recommend Celebs Go Dating, where well-known singletons are paired up with “civilians” for a night out. The combination of Rob Beckett’s irreverent commentary and the contestants’ inability to leave their fame at the door makes for irresistible telly, particularly when the celebs go rogue and pair with each other instead.
BLIND DATE
1985–2003
Soon we’ll see Emma and Matt’s British version of Love Is Blind, Netflix’s US ratings behemoth, also promoted as a social experiment. Here, contestants must chat, flirt and ultimately choose one person to get engaged to – and all without meeting face-to-face. This modern-day Pyramus and Thisbe are then whisked away for a “honeymoon,” before settling down to all-tooreal life. For Matt Willis, it’s the “faceless” aspect that sets the show apart. “You fall in love with someone’s personality, then you see them and have to discover whether you fancy them.”
Despite the happily married hosts agreeing they would enjoy chatting through a wall, as featured in the series, Emma and Matt confess their frst meeting in 2004 was one not of minds but of pretty faces. Then an MTV presenter, Emma was about to interview Matt, of boyband Busted, and remembers him walking past. “I thought, underneath all that make-up he’s really cute. I was attracted to him visually, but his personality and charisma were the best.”
For Matt, it happened even earlier. “Emma was the hot girl from MTV, but you think that really attractive people will be dismissive. I couldn’t believe she wanted to speak to me. I thought, ‘I have to see her again’.”
CELEBS GO
Twenty years and three children later, their union appears as enduring as the dating format they’re now hosting. With so many variations on a theme – including Rylan Clark’s Dating Naked also due this year on Paramount+ – what keeps us all tuning in? Emma smiles: “It makes me hopeful. These are people who are tired of dating and online apps and just want to meet someone. Everyone loves love. I just want to see it happen.” CAROLINE FROST
DATING
42
Dating Naked UK
Due on Paramount+ Aug 2024 Singletons live together — yes, completely starkers — in their quest for love. Rylan Clark hosts.
43
Too Hot to Handle
46 I Kissed a Boy/ I Kissed a Girl Both iPlayer
S1—5 Netflix. S6 July 2024 Love Island-style dating contest with a catch — all sexual contact is banned. Will the contestants be able to control themselves?
44 Love Island
Various series ITVX
Singles descend on an island hoping to pair up with their dream match and win £50,000.
45
Married at First Sight
Various series C4 streaming Couples meet for the very first time as they walk down the aisle. After the “I dos,” there’s drama aplenty as they get to know each other.
The UK’s first gay dating shows, both of them hosted by Dannii Minogue.
47
My Mum, Your Dad S1 ITVX. S2 due in 2024 Davina McCall hosts this “mid-life Love Island” featuring singletons in their 40s and 50s.
48 First Dates S1—21 C4 streaming Maître d’ Fred Sirieix has been matchmaking at the restaurant for over ten years.
49
90 Day Fiancé UK S1 & 2 Discovery+ Long-distance romances are tested in this British spin-off of the US series.
50 Love Triangle C4 streaming People choose from two potential suitors while all living together.
Cilla Black hosted the hit ITV show between
DATING
Tom Read Wilson, Anna Williamson and Paul C Brunson
LOVE ISLAND Maya Jama
NAKED UK
Rylan Clark
LOVE IS BLIND UK Emma and Matt Willis co-host the new show
In a post-Bridgerton world, there are high expectations for period dramas –viewers want to be transported and transfixed by extravagant sets, flamboyant costumes, a good-looking cast and big, modern characters. On these points, The Great ticks all the boxes.
As it returns to Channel 4 this week for its third and final series, we’re back in the decadent court of the Russian Emperors as the newly minted Empress Catherine (Elle Fanning) struggles to rule a nation while balancing the needs of motherhood and a budding romance with her husband-turned-enemy-turned-prisoner-turnedboyfriend Peter, played Nicholas Hoult.
“Well, a lot has happened,” laughs Fanning. “She has changed quite a bit from that young woman who arrived in Russia in series one. Now she’s fully in power and she and Peter have this great love for each other. But their relationship is very complicated and very messy.”
Like many a modern period drama, The Great is filmed on a grand scale. When RT visits the purpose-built set in east London, we’re welcomed into a labyrinth of glamorous, highceilinged cream-and-gold palace apartments, ballrooms and corridors. There are hundreds of wigs, incredibly complex costumes (each dress takes two to three designers five days to make) and an army of make-up artists with a bag of tricks hanging off their arm, ready to jump in with a powder brush at a moment’s notice.
“I think most people watching this show just assume it’s a castle somewhere,” says Belinda Bromilow, who plays Peter’s Aunt Elizabeth.
“But we’re in east London, next to a McDonald’s!” adds Fanning. “The sets are so elaborate and gorgeous. You’re transported…”
While it’s not quite the extravagance of the real-life court of Peter (and Catherine) the Great in 18th-century Russia, it’s not too far off. As RT watches on, the cast is filming a sumptuous candlelit dinner in a huge parlour, where Peter and Catherine show off their newfound relationship stability to their friends. Even when it comes to the food, no expense has been spared.
“If it’s written into the script, a specific dish –like chicken heart on skewered rosemary on cheese – the food tech people make it for real, and it’s delicious. For the first couple of takes… ” says actor Gwilym Lee who plays Grigory “Grigor” Dymov (a childhood friend of Peter’s, and one of Catherine’s lovers), shortly after filming the dinner scene with Hoult and Fanning. “I feel slightly sick because we had to eat throughout that scene – for about four hours, nonstop.”
In other ways, The Great is less concerned with historical accuracy. Like The Favourite –the Oscar-winning movie written by The Great’s creator Tony McNamara, which also stars Hoult – the series takes some pride in its outrageousness and lack of fidelity to the facts. The series’ subtitle An Occasionally True Story tips the
The Great Series 3 begins Monday 10.00pm, 11.10pm C4 Series 1 and 2 available now on C4 streaming
A LAST HUZZAH
Russian imperial drama
The Great is back for one final fling – but there’s a serious side to its smouldering sauciness
BY HUW FULLERTON
‘The feel of the piece is about how corrupting power is’
wink to this, with the production team describing themselves as “ruthlessly opportunistic” regarding which events they adapt from real life and what they create from scratch.
“You know, it’s always fast and loose with history,” admits Hoult. “There’s things you actually find out are quite factual, and you think, “Oh, that actually did happen.” And there’s other things where you realise, “Oh, we’re nowhere near the truth at this point.”
Though of course, sometimes reality is stranger than fiction – and no matter how weird
and outrageous this story gets, once or twice it has stumbled on a larger truth. Hoult recalls an “art imitating life” moment in the first series, which was filmed long before the Covid pandemic began but still featured a storyline about a deadly plague and vaccinations. And more recently, the political standing of Russia and its leadership has become a hot-button issue thanks to the invasion of Ukraine.
“Of course, there’s more awareness around it, because of the horrible nature of what’s happening in Ukraine,” Hoult says. “But at the same time, the story we’re telling is far enough removed from factual Russian history that it’s not necessarily commenting on it directly.”
“I think we’re all pretty pleased that what we depict is not the most complimentary side to Russian power,” adds Phoebe Fox, who plays Catherine’s friend and former servant Marial.
“I think we all wondered, ‘Do we need to make some sort of reference to what’s going on in what we’re doing?’ But the feel of the piece is very much about how corrupting power is, and that is enough of a reference for now.”
In fact, Fox believes that commentary might be delivered more successfully behind all the paint, powder and pageantry of a costume drama, rather than in a more earnest political drama.
“I think a lot of people want to watch period drama, and not that many perhaps want to watch political realism,” she says. “There’s a huge audience for stuff in corsets. And then you give them all the politics as well. That way you’re reaching a whole other level of people.”
In other words, don’t underestimate the costume drama, because there is real substance beneath all those faux furs and beautifully hand-embroidered costumes.
THE ODD COUPLE
Peter (Nicholas Hoult) and Catherine (Elle Fanning) return
PERIOD DRAMAS
52
My Lady Jane Amazon Prime
The story of Lady Jane Grey (Emily Bader) is reimagined with more sex, swearing and, er, shapeshifting.
53
The Serpent Queen
S1 MGM+.
S2 due 12 July
Samantha Morton delivers a rollicking performance as Catherine de Medici.
54
The Decameron
25 July Netflix
A silly and sexy dramedy set in 1348, when the Black Death ravages Florence.
55
Bridgerton
S1—3 Netflix Corsets bust across the Ton as the Bridgerton brood (and friends) get hot and heavy in Regency England.
56 Sanditon
S1—3 ITVX
Andrew Davies’s fun and frothy continuation of Jane Austen’s unfinished final novel.
THE CROWN
OUTLANDER
Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe as Jamie and Claire
57
Wolf Hall
S1 iPlayer. S2 autumn 2024
BBC2’s 2015 drama was built on a mesmeric, daringly still performance by Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.
58 Mary & George Now
A raunchy romp that stars Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine as the titular mother and son.
59
The Gilded Age
S1 & 2 Now. S3 likely in 2025
Creator Julian Fellowes brings his Downton Abbey stylings to late 19th-century New York society.
60 The Confessions of Frannie Langton
ITVX
Sara Collins’s drama about the clandestine romance between Frannie (KarlaSimone Spence) and Madame Benham (Sophie Cookson).
61 Shardlake Disney+
Arthur Hughes plays Matthew Shardlake, seemingly one of the few men in Tudor England who is dedicated to honesty and justice.
62 The Crown S1—6 Netflix
A must-watch dramatisation of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, inspired by real historical events.
63
A Gentleman in Moscow Paramount+
Ewan McGregor sparkles in an artful adaptation of Amor Towles’s 2016 novel.
64 Outlander
S1—7 MGM+
Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe smoulder in the time-travelling historical romance.
65
Shogun Disney+
Cosmo Jarvis stars in a lavish dramatisation of James Clavell’s epic novel.
Claire Foy played Elizabeth II in the drama’s first two series
With a season of classic sitcom repeats under way on BBC2, you might find yourself wondering: what is the funniest British sitcom of all time? Well, the polls are… confusing. In 2004, the public voted for Only Fools and Horses. In 2015, Mrs Brown’s Boys was deemed the best of the 21st century. In 2019, Radio Times readers voted Fawlty Towers the greatest of all time. While in 2022, another poll’s top three was The Office, The Inbetweeners and Are You Being Served? But whatever the victor, such rankings always lead to anguished thinkpieces about how the situation comedy is dead –that these days, we just don’t make them like we used to.
In May, the BBC’s director of comedy Jon Petrie seemed to confirm this. Talking to producers, he cited last year’s Radio Times Screen Test survey showing that comedy increases viewers’ happiness levels. “Audiences are telling us they want a laugh to combat the gloom,” he said. And to serve that, he made a plea – “Send us fewer shows that are ‘an exploration’ of something and more that know where their funny bones are.”
Does he think the sitcom is, if not dead, then in grave peril? “Mainstream sitcom is hard,” he explains when we catch up with him again. “It’s a lot of pressure to make ten million people laugh. It needs a consistent joke level, clear comic characters and big set-pieces but no convoluted plot – so much of the humour in a great sitcom comes from character. We feel that we’ve skewed too much into comedy drama recently. It’s time to push back.”
Channel 4’s head of comedy Charlie Perkins agrees. She’s looking for “a long-running sitcom, an ensemble show with gangs of characters like Ghosts”. So if there’s so much demand from channel bosses, why aren’t we in a golden era of sitcoms?
“There’s definitely a big audience,” says comedian Lee Mack – and he should know. His sitcom Not Going Out is the second longest-running in British TV history (after Last of the Summer Wine), and it’s been commissioned for a 14th season. “But there aren’t younger comics coming through wanting to write them. You can have a whole debate about why. I think part of it might be class-based.”
Nerys Evans agrees. She’s the creative director at Expectation, producer of returning BBC sitcom Alma’s Not Normal (and commissioned
IS THE SITCOM D ?
They’re expensive, risky and tricky to write, but if you get them right, says Lee Mack, there’s a big audience wanting a laugh
Derry Girls at Channel 4). “Most of the huge studio sitcoms had working-class writers like Victoria Wood and John Sullivan,” she argues. “There are so few working-class people in telly –and a lot of middle-class writers are horrified to have their comedy described as broad. Tom Basden really resisted writing a family sitcom when he created Here We Go. It started as a mockumentary, and he was coaxed into the sitcom format in development.”
RT has spoken to comedy producers and found, on the one hand, an abiding love of the sitcom. “There’s such pleasure in watching for joy, not jeopardy,” says Hannah Farrell, creative director at Fable Pictures, the company behind Lucy Beaumont’s comedy Hullraisers. “Sitcoms don’t often present any real life and death stakes in their stories of the week – which means we can relax and just enjoy the
‘Younger comics don’t want to write sitcoms. I think it’s class-based’
LEE MACK
purely ridiculous situations. Sitcom characters become people we want to hang out with – like meeting a mate for a cosy pint after work and having a laugh. They make us feel better about the world.”
But certain themes keep coming up. Perhaps the biggest (after near-universal admiration for the recently concluded Ghosts) is that launching new comedy is a risk. “If you’re setting out to say this is funny, and people don’t agree, they’re offended,” says Neil Webster, whose fatherson sitcom Only Child launches on BBC1 in the near future. “You can’t predict what will be successful – you can have the best writers, best performers and best idea, but the moment you launch, people are thinking, ‘I’ll see about that.’” Some producers also note that broadcasters want big talent from the outset, meaning growing new
FUNNY BONES
Brendan O’Carroll as Mrs Brown
DADDY OF SITCOM
Lee Mack’s Not Going Out has now been running since 2006
101 SHOWS
COMEDY TO STREAM THIS
talent is harder. There’s a demand for new voices and YouTube can help – This Country and People Just Do Nothing both started there – but passionate, authored sitcoms may not produce long-running hits.
“The problem is authored stories can be told often in two or three series, then the writer moves on,” says Josh Cole, head of comedy for BBC Studios, producer of Apple TV+’s Trying and Amazon’s Good Omens
Evans agrees. “We need to develop longer-running shows with ensemble casts and a writers’ room so that the writer doesn’t get exhausted,” she says.
For Mack, this is key. “When I was writing the first series of Not Going Out, I looked at American sitcoms,” he recalls. “The difference was the rate of gags. UK producers have a joke on every page. In America they slave over every line. On average ten per cent of a US sitcom budget goes on the writers, whereas in Britain about five per cent of the money goes on writers. Writers are twice as important there.”
Everyone RT spoke to also pointed out that there’s less money around, and that compared with other programming, comedy is an expensive risk as it takes time to develop. Sophie Willan, for instance, took 18 months to write her Alma’s Not Normal pilot – and she later won two Baftas. Stath Lets Flats, meanwhile (which won four), went through four pilot scripts, two readthroughs, a Comedy Blap (a short showcase slot) and a taster episode.
“[Roisin Conaty sitcom] GameFace started as a Blap,” recalls its producer Charlie Lewis, head of comedy at Objective. “That’s always been part of hit sitcom culture. Porridge and Open All Hours both came from a run of pilot shows starring Ronnie Barker. That’s more development than a drama usually needs and that costs money.”
“There are increasing production costs and shrinking opportunities,” explains Shane Allen, co-founder of Boffola Pictures and the man who commissioned Fleabag, Upstart Crow and Inside No 9 at the BBC.
“Channel 4 has advertising woes, the BBC’s licence fee freeze has a huge impact. But comedy punches well above its weight. Ten years ago, it was seen as a highcost high-fail genre, while reality shows cost a fraction of the
price. But broadcasters now know that comedy becomes incredibly good value and reaches young viewers. Ghosts will be watched for generations to come and has sold to America.”
One solution to money woes can come from international co-productions – although Allen warns that brings creative problems. Fleabag’s first series was BBC-funded “with the creative freedom that provides”. But after Amazon co-financed series two “a whole raft of US male execs turned up to the read-through and – bear in mind this was a piece exploring self-destructive feminism – proceeded to tear the show apart and demand Andrew Scott was recast with only four days until the shoot started,” he sighs. “Anyone less effervescently charming and smart than Phoebe would have buckled.”
We could also be stuck in old ways of thinking about sitcoms. The top ten comedy programmes of 2023 were Ghosts, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Not Going Out, The Cleaner, Two Doors Down, The Power of Parker, Gavin & Stacey, Queen of Oz, Black Ops and The Windsors. Most of those are sitcoms, but only two have old-school studio audiences.
But maybe those old-fashioned laughs are now drawn out in different shows. Jon Thoday, co-founder of production company Avalon, says that pitching Taskmaster to broadcasters, Alex Horne insisted on the same cast of comics for an entire season “because it becomes an unscripted sitcom”, he explains. “Have I Got News for You was like a sitcom at the beginning with the three main presenters. If I was Jon Petrie, I’d cancel one episode of EastEnders and put Ghosts and other sitcoms in that slot. That would change the face of comedy and make ITV think about it too.”
67 Extras
S1–2 iPlayer
Cringeworthy celebrity encounters, with Ricky Gervais and Ashley Jensen.
68 Only Fools and Horses
ITVX Premium Wheeler-dealer Del Boy and his plonker brother Rodney try to get rich quick.
69 Ghosts
S1-5 iPlayer
The good spirits of Button House pass the time — and make mischief — as they while away eternity.
70 The Office iPlayer
73 The Black Adder S1 Now
See where Rowan Atkinson’s comedy classic began.
74 The Royle Family
S1–3 iPlayer
Revisit Caroline Aherne’s beloved Manchester clan.
75 Here We Go S1 & 2 iPlayer
Family comedy starring Katherine Parkinson and Alison Steadman.
76 The Thick of It S1–4 iPlayer Peter Capaldi stars as splenetic spin doctor Malcolm Tucker.
Overall, Petrie says the BBC understands the issues and plans to experiment with writers’ rooms He cites Tom Basden, Holly Walsh and Simon Blackwell as potential British comedy showrunners and cites forthcoming sitcoms Amandaland (a Motherland spin-off) and Smoggie Queens, about a gang of bitchy Middlesbrough drag queens, as possible long-running shows of the future.
“We’re prepared to make a few shows that might not hit in the way we hope,” he says.
“Big audiences for the first series is hard – look at Blackadder and Only Fools and Horses
“We have to hold our nerve. And the rewards are not just financial. If you create a great sitcom, you’ve got a place in TV history.”
STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
Ricky Gervais’s mockumentary delivers the ultimate in workplace cringe.
71 Fleabag
S1 & 2 iPlayer
Phoebe WallerBridge’s feminist masterpiece is a modern classic.
72 Keeping Up Appearances
S1—5 iPlayer
Patricia Routledge is social-climber
Hyacinth Bucket, with Clive Swift as her long-suffering husband.
77 Two Doors Down S1–7 iPlayer Arabella Weir and Alex Norton put up with demanding neighbours.
78 Detectorists
S1–3 iPlayer Bucolic bliss from Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones.
79 Motherland
S1—3 Netflix Playdate and PTA politics are sharply critiqued in this school-run classic starring Anna Maxwell Martin.
COMIC SPIRIT The cast of Ghosts
CUSHTY Only Fools trio
80 Alma’s not Normal
S1 iPlayer
Sophie Willan shines as an offbeat escort/actor (and all-round disaster).
81 Hullraisers
S1 & 2 C4
Three working-class women based in Hull are the focus of this Hull-arious sitcom about life, love and friendship.
85 This Country iPlayer
Siblings Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper play layabout cousins.
86 Stath Lets Flats S1—3 C4
The ups and mainly downs of a letting agency run by Stath (Jamie Demetriou).
87 Mrs Brown’s Boys iPlayer
82 Derry
Girls S1–3 C4
Lisa McGee’s hit has star-making performances.
83 GameFace
S1 & 2 C4
Roisin Conaty plays an unlucky-in-love actor who leans on her life coach.
84 Mammoth
S1 iPlayer
Frozen in the 1970s, Tony (Mike Bubbins) has to adjust to the 21st century.
Brendan O’Carroll’s foul-mouthed
Mammy has become a Christmas staple.
88 The Inbetweeners
S1—3 C4 and both films
Horribly accurate noughties teenage antics with Simon Bird and Joe Thomas.
89 People Just do Nothing
S1—5 iPlayer
Kurupt FM’s hapless DJs cause havoc in Brentford. Asim Chaudhry and Hugo Chegwin are among the ensemble.
90 Gavin & Stacey iPlayer
DRAMATIC CHOPS
from
AND FINALLY…
11 MORE DRAMAS NOT TO BE MISSED
91 Emily in Paris
S1—3 Netflix. S4 15 August
Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) has wilfully feather-light adventures in this romcom.
James Corden and Ruth Jones plan a Christmas 2024 finale, so catch up on series 1 to 3 now.
SCHOOL’S OUT
The
92 Those about to Die coming 19 July Amazon
Anthony Hopkins, Iwan Rheon and Rupert PenryJones star in this actionpacked saga set in Rome.
93 The Split
S1–3 iPlayer, S4 autumn
Abi Morgan’s drama starring Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan. A new two-part special is due in the autumn.
94 Sherwood
S1 iPlayer, S2 this autumn
A masterly drama from James Graham starring David Morrissey and Lesley Manville.
95 The Bear S1—3 Disney+
The word-of-mouth smash hit about a driven chef (Jeremy Allen White) as he transforms a Chicago sandwich shop into a top-end restaurant.
96 Eric Netflix
Benedict Cumberbatch is unforgettable in Abi Morgan’s thriller about a missing child.
97 Ripley Netflix
Andrew Scott is a vessel of distilled venom and rage in this handsome monochrome drama set in 1960s Italy.
98 One Day Netflix
A beguiling and bingeable
adaptation of David Nicholls’s classic, starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall.
99 Baby Reindeer Netflix
Compulsive, headline-making drama starring Richard Gadd as a stand-up and Jessica Gunning as his stalker.
100 True Detective: Night Country Now
Jodie Foster plays police chief Liz Danvers in the next instalment of the anthology series.
101 Expats Amazon
In Hong Kong, Nicole Kidman is a well-to-do wife and mother whose perfect world is falling apart.
cast of Derry Girls
CHIPS ARE DOWN
Sophie Willan in Alma’s Not Normal
Clockwise
top: Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicole Kidman and Lily Collins
