Category Archives: Television & radio

Ann Dowd: ‘My closest brush with the law? Stealing lamb chops from a Chicago supermarket’

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The Handmaid’s Tale actor on her crush on Clint Eastwood and selling frozen food over the phone

Born in Massachusetts, Ann Dowd, 65, appeared in the films Lorenzo’s Oil and Philadelphia, and had various roles in the TV series Law & Order. She received award nominations for her performances in the 2012 film Compliance and the HBO series The Leftovers. Since 2017, she has played Aunt Lydia in the drama series The Handmaid’s Tale, winning an Emmy. Her more recent movies include Hereditary and Rebecca; her latest, Mass, is in cinemas and on Sky Cinema from January 20. She is married to actor Lawrence Arancio; they have three children and live in New York City.

Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
My children’s education.

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The ultimate sex tape scandal: how Pam and Tommy’s stolen video shook the world

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She was a cartoon beach beauty. He was a tattooed drummer. As the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s stolen sex tape is turned into tense TV, we remember the events that changed celebrity culture for ever

By Christmas 1995, it was moderately common knowledge that a “sex tape” existed of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, privately filmed on their honeymoon that year, after a whirlwind 96-hour romance. As the star of Baywatch, Anderson was so globally famous that other, also famous TV shows had storylines about her. Lee, the Mötley Crüe drummer, was also extremely well known, mainly as a sex, drugs and rock’n’roll poster boy, partly for mooning whenever he went on stage.

Their union, and its impact, was a molecular chemistry kind of affair; like oxygen and hydrogen, each, alone, was a powerful element, but combined they were altogether more culturally powerful – her eroticism slightly neutralised by marriage, his trouble-seeking rendered a bit safer beside her all-American (actually Canadian) smile.

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Dare I whisper it? I’m really enjoying And Just Like That

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The Sex and the City sequel has taken a while to settle into its new skin. But, despite its many flaws, it is developing new charms of its own

And Just Like That did not have the smoothest of landings. The Sex and the City sequel found itself draped in controversy from the moment its return was announced. There would be no Samantha Jones, with the core group reduced to a trio, after Kim Cattrall did not return to the franchise. (Was she invited? Did she decline? I look forward to an inevitable Ryan Murphy dramatisation of events – Feud: Cosmos and Cupcakes.) The films had been middling, then terrible, then a third thankfully ditched before it got too far. Could a series that was built on being so brassy and brash survive in the tetchy 2020s?

Then it finally arrived, and the drama rolled on. The big twist, or the Big twist, at the end of episode one was briefly a moment, controversial largely for the fact that instead of weeping and hugging her still-conscious husband as he had a heart attack, Carrie might have considered calling an ambulance instead. To think that the reputation of Peloton was the main topic of conversation. Shortly after it aired, allegations of sexual assault were made against Chris Noth by multiple women. He issued a denial, but his co-stars published a message of support for his accusers, and a rumoured cameo at the end of the season was reportedly scrapped.

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Golden Globes: The Power of the Dog and Succession win at celebrity-free ceremony

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Jane Campion’s Netflix drama and HBO hit triumph as stars distance themselves from Hollywood Foreign Press Association

The Power of the Dog and Succession were the big winners at an unusual, stripped-back Golden Globes.

Traditionally, the ceremony is a glitzy telecast with A-listers in attendance but after a year of controversies surrounding diversity and amoral practices, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association lost its footing in the industry, with publicity firms, studios and celebrities choosing to distance themselves.

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Bob Saget, Full House actor and comedian, dies aged 65

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Saget was found unresponsive in an Orlando hotel room on Sunday

Bob Saget, the actor and comedian most famous for his role in the much-loved 80s sitcom Full House, has died at the age of 65.

The Orange County sheriff’s office confirmed Saget’s death on Twitter on Monday, saying he had been found unresponsive in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida on Sunday. The sheriff’s office confirmed that no cause of death had been determined, saying in a statement there were no signs of foul play or drug use.

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The Doctor Who treasure trove in a Northumberland village cellar

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Neil Cole’s Museum of Classic Sci-Fi, hosted in cellar of his Allendale townhouse, holds costumes and props from numerous TV classics

At first glance the Northumberland village of Allendale, with its pub and post office and random parking, is like hundreds of sleepy, charming villages across the UK. It’s the Dalek that suggests something out of the ordinary.

Behind the Dalek is a four-storey Georgian townhouse. In the cellar of the house is a remarkable and unlikely collection of more than 200 costumes, props and artwork telling classic sci-fi stories of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Star Trek, Flash Gordon, Marvel and many more.

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‘People said I didn’t have enough talent’: the rise of Italy’s graphic novel gonzo

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Michele Rech aka Zerocalcare’s book signings attract huge crowds and now he has a hit Netflix animated series inspired by his life

Michele Rech is uncomfortable with success. The shy 38-year-old comic book artist, who works from a modest apartment on the outskirts of Rome, does not use the word “fame” but refers instead to his rise to national prominence as a “thing” he struggles to manage.

In the art world, he is known as Zerocalcare and is the cartoonist’s equivalent of Hunter S Thompson. Rech’s graphic novels are a form of gonzo journalism – inspired by his own adventures as a protester on the frontlines of police violence in Italy, and in Syria, where he was embedded with Kurdish forces.

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The BBC’s Ros Atkins: ‘I do a bit of body-boarding… posting videos is like catching a wave’

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The journalist behind those ‘explainer’ videos on seeing his No 10 Christmas party video go viral, being a drum’n’bass DJ and wearing ‘an awful lot’ of blue

Ros Atkins, 47, grew up in Cornwall and the Caribbean before reading history at Cambridge. His BBC career began on Radio 5 Live shortly after 9/11. He now presents Outside Source on the BBC News Channel and recently went viral for his “explainer” videos, broadcast on BBC Breakfast and posted online. He lives in south London with his wife and two daughters.

How are you finding newfound fame?
Well, I’ve neither been mobbed nor chased down the street, but it’s always pleasant if people pay attention to what you do.

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The person who got me through 2021: Miss J and America’s Next Top Model transported me to carefree times

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Three years after it ended, scandal surrounds the show, but its familiarity and formula provided a comfort blanket. I really hope they bring it back

It sounds troublingly shallow, but when I saw the tweet that said “Holy shit, ANTM [America’s Next Top Model] is on Amazon Prime” my heart soared. I am not one who can pretend the pandemic isn’t still raging but, in that fleeting moment, I felt a spiritual lightness I hadn’t experienced since 2019.

I dropped everything to binge the episodes, then fell deep into a rabbit hole of detective work: where are the contestants now? Are they on Instagram? I found a whole subsection of TikTok dedicated to calling out where the show was problematic, and YouTuber Oliver Twixt has a highly viewed series of interviews with ANTM contestants levelling accusations of maltreatment at the show’s producers. Whatever the reason, ANTM is back in the cultural sphere.

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On my radar: Moses Sumney’s cultural highlights

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The singer-songwriter on Balenciaga’s visions, the mountains of North Carolina, and the haunting power of Eve’s Bayou

Singer-songwriter Moses Sumney, 29, grew up between Ghana and California and studied creative writing and poetry at UCLA. His piercing falsetto and genre-defying music have brought him critical acclaim, starting with his self-recorded 2014 EP Mid-City Island, followed in 2017 by his debut album, Aromanticism, and the 2020 double album Græ. Sumney has collaborated with musicians including Bon Iver and James Blake and toured with Solange and Sufjan Stevens. His latest project is Blackalachia, a self-directed concert film created in association with WePresent, shot over two days in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, where he lives.

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Golden Girls star Betty White dies aged 99

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The actor’s career spanned more than 80 years – but role as Rose Nylund on 80s sitcom cemented status

Betty White, the actor best known for roles in sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, has died aged 99.

White died at her home on Friday morning, just two weeks before she would have turned 100. Her agent Jeff Witjas told People magazine: “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever.”

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The person who got me through 2021: Dr Karl Kennedy in Neighbours was strangely reassuring

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He became a stand-in for the family I couldn’t see – a paternal character who comforted me amid the loneliness and uncertainty

For the past 20 years there have been a handful of constants in my life: my family, my best friend and Neighbours. Not neighbours like the people you borrow a cup of sugar from, but rather that sunshine-filled Australian soap you probably stopped watching once you left university.

When I graduated, I carried on. First, out of habit (I needed to know the fate of Toadie’s mullet), but later for its nostalgic continuity and reassurance.

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Guardian readers nominate their person of the year

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From the frontline of Covid to inspirational sports personalities, our worldwide audience name their choices

Guardian readers were asked to offer suggestions of who they would choose as their person of the year. Dozens of names were put forward – from scientists to sports personalities, from healthcare workers to climate activists.

And in a sign of the ongoing debate overgender issues, many readers also nominated the author JK Rowling, and online content creator Ranboo.

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Only Murders in the Building to Cooking With Paris: the unsung TV heroes of 2021

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Paris Hilton’s disgusting dishes! Martin Freeman as a bad dad! A history of swear words! Here’s another chance to discover the incredible shows of the year you may have missed

“The sci-fi murder mystery doctor dramedy Earth needs now!” That was the US marketing blurb for Resident Alien, a plucky attempt to turn the show’s audacious genre-mashing into a marketing angle. While it certainly has a lot going on – an alien crash-lands in small-town Colorado and attempts to evade detection by hijacking the identity of a big-city doctor – it only took a few episodes for me to realise why I was enjoying it so much. This story of a fusspot out-of-towner clashing with the rhythms of a town full of curious eccentrics is a spiritual descendant of 1990s fish-out-of-water touchstone Northern Exposure, complete with snowy setting and covetable local bar.

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‘We would discuss how dislikable I was’ – what’s it like to see your life story on TV?

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Telling your story in a book is hard enough. But what if it ends up on screen? Adam Kay, writer of This Is Going to Hurt, and Dolly Alderton, who penned Everything I Know About Love, relive the shocks

Most people find seeing themselves on screen distinctly squirm-inducing. Even an unintended glance in the mirror can trigger a minor identity crisis, as we glimpse the gulf between how others see us and how we imagine ourselves. But for writers whose life stories are adapted for television – their flawed personalities painstakingly recreated by actors – the experience can be even more bewildering.

“Bizarre is the only way to describe it,” reflects Adam Kay, whose 2017 bestseller This Is Going to Hurt, a memoir of his hellish and hilarious years as a junior doctor, lands in 2022 on BBC One. On TV, Kay is played by Ben Whishaw, who evidently took his research seriously. “I watched an early cut with my husband,” Kay recalls, “and he said: ‘It’s amazing how he’s got all of your weird mannerisms.’ I didn’t even realise I had weird mannerisms!”

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Police ‘ineptitude’ contributed to Stephen Port murders, says producer

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Shoddy investigation into serial killer also result of underfunding, says producer of BBC drama about murders

Three victims of the serial killer Stephen Port might still be alive today were it not for a shoddy police investigation that was the result of “ineptitude, poor systems and underfunding”, the producer of a new drama about the crimes has said.

Jeff Pope is senior producer of Four Lives, a dramatisation for BBC One of the murders of four young gay men: Anthony Walgate, 23; Gabriel Kovari, 22; Daniel Whitworth, 21; and Jack Taylor, 21.

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The person who got me through 2021: Huey Morgan comforted me amid a deluge of human waste

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I had plumbing problems and his radio show transported me from the faecal hellscape in my garden. It became the ideal soundtrack for my pandemic reality

It was spring, and human excrement was pumping into our garden. I watched through the window as a perplexed young plumber with a long metal pole excavated the dark, gurgling drain. As if lockdown hadn’t been bad enough, our kitchen was now heavy with the stench of a thousand flushes. No one knew how to stop it. There was only one thing to do: brew weapons-grade black coffee and switch on the radio. That’s how I discovered Huey Morgan’s Saturday morning breakfast show on BBC 6 Music. It made everything feel a little more right in the world.

What started as a way to distract from the tide of hot, liquid excrement on our patio quickly became the highlight of the week for my girlfriend and me. Huey – of Fun Lovin’ Criminals fame – thumbing you through his records: early 90s rap, early 80s disco, and early 70s soul to blow away the cobwebs, with choice modern selections marbling the retro soundscape.

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Russell T Davies: ‘I genuinely thought – who wants to watch a show about Aids?’

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It’s a Sin has been voted the Guardian’s best TV show of the year. Russell T Davies reveals why it took him 30 years to write, who the real Colin is – and why he just can’t keep away from Doctor Who

• The 50 best TV shows of 2021, No 1: It’s a Sin

Russell T Davies doesn’t hold back. If he’s thrilled, he shouts about it. And sure enough, the 6ft 6in giant of a man is shouting today. “I’m gobsmacked. I’ve never come first in this. Ever,” he exclaims, admitting that he has always had his eye on the Guardian’s list of the best TV of the year. “If I’ve had a show on, I spend every December watching that countdown wondering if I’ll be on it – I think A Very English Scandal got to No 2.” He’s right, it did. Three years on, his wonderful Channel 4 mini-series It’s a Sin has been voted the Guardian’s best TV show of the year. “I’m ridiculously thrilled,” says Davies, who is Zooming from his home in Manchester.

It’s 30 years since his first TV series – Dark Season, featuring a 15-year-old Kate Winslet – aired on the BBC. Since then, Davies has created any number of groundbreaking dramas (including Queer as Folk; Cucumber, Banana and Tofu; Years and Years) as well as breathing new life into Doctor Who. But he is particularly pleased to have won for It’s a Sin, the five-part drama about a group of young gay friends living – and dying – through the Aids era of the 80s and early 90s. This is the show he knew he had to write 30 years ago, and spent the intervening decades years putting off, because it was simply too personal and painful.

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The person who got me through 2021: Larry David helped me embrace life as a bald man

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I have finally admitted that my hair has gone for ever, and taken great comfort from the reigning king of baldness

This year will go down in history as the year I went bald. Well, actually, 2018 went down as the year I went bald. But still, 2021 will go down as the year that I stopped fastidiously brushing three long wisps of cobweb over my scalp in the berserk belief that it somehow made me look less bald. I am bald now. Hello.

Obviously, being bald is rubbish. A bad roll of the genetic dice means I am now conclusively unattractive in the eyes of most of the world. Of course I am – I’m 85% forehead now. I can never go out and commit a crime, because a witness would only have to draw a face on their thumb and show it to the Photofit guy and I’d be in handcuffs by teatime.

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