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Radio Times|10-16th August 2024From the EditorTHIS WEEK’S COVER star needs no introduction. I’m sure that most of you were watching and cheering on Super Saturday at the London 2012 Olympics as Jessica Ennis (as she was then) won a gold medal in the heptathlon. It was the pinnacle of a sporting career that consumed every minute of her life. When we ask her in this issue if she had to be selfish to be the best, she replies, “You’re not going to be the best in the world if you’re not selfish.” Read more in our fascinating interview on page 12, where we also discover why she finally agreed to take part in Who Do You Think You Are? The BBC1 genealogy series is now 20 years old and in that time it has revealed…2 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024GRAPEVINEPURLS OF WISDOM After baking, sewing and pottery, knitting is set for its turn in the TV spotlight. Inspired by the success of “KnitTok”, with more than 101 million videos on social platform TikTok, The Game of Wool is about to cast off. Its ten ambitious knitters will face team and individual tasks, from clothing to furniture and even a bit of knitting’s answer to graffiti, “yarn bombing”. Look out for it on More4 next year. SEA WHO LATER Next year Russell Tovey returns to the Whoniverse 18 years after he appeared in a Doctor Who Christmas special. He will star in a spin-off that pits Earth defenders Unit against classic monsters the Sea Devils. The five-part series, The War Between the Land and the Sea, is written by Russell…1 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU’LL MEETWHEN WE TRAVEL, it’s very easy to cut ourselves off from our fellow passengers, to bury ourselves in movies on our laptops or audiobooks and podcasts on our phone. But if, just for a little while on a train, say, we took time to have a conversation with somebody we don’t know, then we’re likely to hear the most amazing stories and learn something new about the world around us. This is something I’ve learnt in the roughly 150 hours I’ve spent travelling up and down the country for my Radio 4 series, Strangers on a Train. The producers Peter Lowe and the late Nick Symonds came to me with the idea for the show: that I should board a long-distance train and ask any passengers who would talk to…4 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024Stranger than fictionCOLETTE FLIGHT HAS NEVER investigated her own family history. “I wish I could find the time,” she says, laughing. It’s deeply ironic considering her day job, because she is the executive producer of Who Do You Think You Are? The series has remained relevant, she says, because it has such a strong idea at its core. “It hasn’t changed too much, either – we’re still watching our favourite celebrities go on genuine voyages of discovery.” Who Do You Think You Are? might have fundamentally stayed the same over 20 series, but the “game changer” has been the digitisation of newspapers across the UK. “When the show started, a researcher would need a whole day to search for something that can now be accessed very quickly. However, there are also records…4 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024MY LONG ROAD BACKFreddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams on TourTuesday 9.00pmBBC1 ANDREW ‘FREDDIE’ FLINTOFF, casually dressed in dark blue track suit, white socks and white Crocs, squeezes into the second row of the screening room in a bijou central London hotel. Already seated in the row in front of him are nine animated young men from his home county of Lancashire, one of whom is still chomping on the burger he arrived with. He greets them all as he would old friends. The strength of their bond is strikingly evident. Flintof is about to relive the aftermath of the crash in December 2022 in which he received severe facial injuries and that he now admits has changed his life for ever. The profound physical and mental impact of that Top Gear accident meant…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024Murder most foulThe Body Next DoorSunday 9.00pm Sky Documentaries WHEN A SLEEPY Welsh village, whose name in English means graves, became the centre of a modern murder mystery, it sparked both anxiety and intrigue. A body had been found in macabre circ*mstances, wrapped in multiple layers of plastic, in the garden of a woman whose brazen exploits had alienated her from village folk. Leigh Sabine, the woman in question, was in her 50s when she arrived in Beddau in 1997, and is remembered for flouncing around in tight denim shorts and hitting on any man who caught her eye. There was even talk of her having abandoned her five children in New Zealand, but with Sabine the locals found it impossible to separate fact from fantasy. That she didn’t seem to be…3 min
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Jezebel fallout 4 redditRadio Times|10-16th August 2024StreamingROMANTIC COMEDY Emily in Paris Part 1 of series 4 available Thursday onNetflix Forget the Olympics: this is the biggest event to hit Paris this summer. When we last said au revoir to Emily (Lily Collins), she was reeling from Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) having called time on their relationship, and the baby-shaped bombshell that had just been dropped by Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), after he’d been left at the altar. So, is there now a smooth path for Emily and Gabriel? Of course not — then there’d be no fourth series! Alongside Emily’s tumultuous love life, Mindy (Ashley Park) enters Eurovision and there are upheavals in the workplace for Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu). As always, the visuals are a treat: the French capital looks unrealistically beautiful and the clothes are as fabulous…9 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024SundayEVENT Olympics 2024: Closing Ceremony 7.00pm BBC1, Eurosport 1; without commentary 8.00pm Olympics Extra (on red button/iPlayer) Catch up via iPlayer LIVE Weighing up the never-ending catwalk shows, Last Supper parody and Papa Smurf-styled deity against the metallic horse, breathtaking Celine Dion comeback and Olympic Flame drifting heavenwards, Thomas Jolly’s Parisian Opening Ceremony certainly divided opinion. Tonight, away from the Seine and in the more controlled environment of the Stade de France, Jolly will unveil his second grandiose production, entitled Records. The titbits released by the organising committee are vague: Records will be in part airborne and feature an immersive journey into the past, the future and “ultimately to a timeless universe”, promoting the message that we can all make a difference. But you can rest assured that more than…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024TuesdayDOCUMENTARY Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams on Tour 9.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer The first series of Field of Dreams, in which Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff used cricket to offer direction, discipline, encouragement and opportunity to a ragtag collection of disadvantaged teens from Preston, was a wonderful counter to the usual self-aggrandising celebrity vanity project. Yet while a follow-up was inevitable, Flintoff’s subsequent near-fatal car crash made this sequel an entirely different proposition. We begin before the accident, with Freddie proposing to his gobsmacked charges some intensive training and a tour of India, before fate intervenes and an already touching, uplifting series takes on startling new weight. Even in the middle of his convalescence, Flintoff is determined to fulfil his promise, and the manner in which his players rally around…5 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024FridayMUSIC BBC Proms: Modern Movie Soundtracks at the Proms 8.00pm BBC4 Catch up via iPlayer For contemporary composers, the scores for cinema and television have become rewarding terrain — in terms of scope for experimentation, reaching wide audiences and, of course, financial dividends. Certainly, this playlist has earned its place in the BBC Proms. A glance at the tracks announced so far shows they’ve gone for the hypnotic, trippy end of the spectrum. These include: All Quiet on the Western Front (by Volker Bertelmann), Tár (Hildur Gudnadottir), Everything Everywhere All at Once (Son Lux), Poor Things (Jerskin Fendrix), Knock at the Cabin (Herdis Stefansdottir), Shirley and The Last Thing He Wanted (Tamar-kali), Postcard from Earth (the Echo Society), The End We Start From (Anna Meredith), The Menu (Colin Stetson) and…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024Streams of ConscıousnessTHE GREATEST VOICEOVER in the history of TV documentaries begins, “Down this road on a summer day in 1944, the soldiers came.” Laurence Olivier is arguably more revered and remembered today for the weary grandeur of his narration on the 1973 TV series, The World at War, than he is for any of his starring roles. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has watched the whole thing more than once. Anyone who hasn’t should take advantage of the fact that it can now be found on UKTV’s streaming service, U. Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series Civilisation, in which he carefully outlined all the received truths about our culture that succeeding decades of telly has done its best to dispute, is also available on BBC iPlayer. It remains highly recommended,…2 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024PuzzlesONLY CONNECT with Victoriia Coren Mitchell The connecting wall from Only Connect combines general knowledge, wordplay and lateral thinking to give your brain cells a workout! How to play Your task is to sort the 16 seemingly random words/phrases below into four groups of four connected words. You may find some clues fall into more than one category, but there is only one complete solution. If you get stuck, have a look at the clues on the side of the page… TRY THESE CLUES: GROUP ONE: BULLSEYE. GROUP TWO: IMPOSSIBLE. GROUP THREE: TROLLEY. GROUP FOUR: TENABLE. SCRIBBLE PAD TRACKWORD How many words of three letters or more can you find by tracking from one square to the next, going up, down, sideways or diagonally in order? You may not use…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024Tell us more about the drama New TricksI loved Amanda Redman, Alun Armstrong and James Bolam Remember… New Tricks (24 July BBC4/iPlayer). Can you tell us more about it? There’s never been anything like it since.Virginia Middleton-Smith, Wiltshire Executive producer Mike Dormer — who more recently was involved in the development of ITV1 drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office — tells RT how New Tricks came about: “In 2002 I was at the BBC, working with Gareth Neame in the new independent commissioning unit, and one Friday afternoon Gina Cronk of Wall to Wall Television came in with writer Roy Mitchell to pitch a police show to us. It had a rather creaky format, it was midsummer and Gareth and I were both falling asleep! On the way out, Gina said to Roy, ‘I told you…4 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024THIS WEEK1 TV Who Do You Think You Are? Thursday 9.00pm BBC1 Vicky McClure is tracking down her ancestors rather than bent coppers in her latest TV appearance. Along the way she discovers why her beloved Nonna Jean was adopted, and what her great-grandfather Harry did in the war. FEATURE P17 ▸ 2 TV Freddie Flintoff: Field of Dreams on Tour Tuesday 9.00pm BBC1 A follow-up to the series in which the former Test player turned a group of disadvantaged teenagers into a cricket team. Now Flintoff (left, with fellow coach Kyle Hogg) is taking his team to India. But between series was the car crash that left him mentally and physically scarred… FEATURE P24 ▸ 3 TV Celebrity Race across the World Wednesday 9.00pm BBC1 Jeff Brazier and his son…2 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024AIMEE LOU WOOD‘I’m usually the only northern actor when I do a job’ After her breakthrough role in Netflix’s Sex Education, Aimee Lou Wood has gone on to star in films including The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Seize Them! and Living. The 29-year-old’s latest role is in the new BBC3 comedy Daddy Issues, where she plays Gemma, a girl who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand and has to reluctantly seek support from her clueless father, Malcolm (David Morrissey). Now the in-demand actor reveals all about corpsing on set, getting attached to prosthetic baby bumps and why she’s scared to take on another theatre role. How would you describe Gemma, the character you play in Daddy Issues? She’s been let down a lot in life, so she’s got this spiky, slightly…5 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024‘I wasnervousof what they would find’Who Do You Think You Are?Thursday 9.00pmBBC1 JESS ENNIS-HILL PROMISED herself she wouldn’t cry on TV when she agreed to take part in the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? “I’m the kind of person who only cries behind closed doors,” the former golden girl of British athletics says. “When I was competing, I was a poker face. I wouldn’t give too much away.” But sure enough, she did break down in front of the cameras. And not surprisingly, given what she discovered about her family. We meet at a London studio for Ennis-Hill’s RT photoshoot. The 38-year-old mother of two is posing in a dazzling red suit and looks as athletic as she did when winning the heptathlon gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. Ennis-Hill, who…10 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024‘I longed for a better sense of identity’For as long as I can remember I have wanted to know more about my family history, what makes my family the way we are, and where our forebears had been enslaved in the Caribbean. Not to mention family rumours about our Carib and Portuguese ancestors. So when I was invited to take part in the first series of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2004 I couldn’t resist. Particularly when I knew I would be taking a DNA test (which was not as accessible as it is today) because, like so many peoples who were uprooted and scattered across the world, I longed for a better sense of identity. However, despite confirming that my origins were obviously African, the DNA test couldn’t establish that I came from a…3 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024‘HE’S A SPECIAL LAD’Apart from the aftermath of Freddie Flintoff’s accident, the greatest sadness of the new series is that two of the original team members were refused visas to travel to India because they are of Pakistani heritage. But one of the group who did get to go on the trip — and whose story surely has Hollywood film stamped all over it — is Adnan Miakhel. Miakhel sought sanctuary in the UK in 2021 after fleeing his native Afghanistan, eventually arriving in Preston in the back of a lorry from Calais. He handed himself in to police and as an unaccompanied minor with no English he was fostered by a local couple, Elaine Jefferson and Barry Brocklehurst, until his asylum application was considered. In the first series of Field of Dreams…1 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024LAST BUT NOT LEASTTHE MEN’S MARATHON is traditionally the final event of the Olympic Games, but this year in Paris they have delivered a switcheroo. The honour of closing the Games instead goes to the women’s marathon, which is a fitting expression of the progressive nature of these Games. It’s hard to believe, but women’s stamina was doubted and they had to fight for the right to run the 26 miles and 385 yards of the marathon. It has only been an Olympic event for women since it was introduced at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The gold was won back then, in two hours, 24 minutes and 52 seconds, by Joan Benoit Samuelson of the USA, who made an early break from the pack and ran alone for the next 20-odd…3 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024MondayQUIZ Mastermind/Only Connect/University Challenge 7.30pm, 8.00pm, 8.30pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer Is it just me, or is everything just a bit more right with the world when BBC2’s triumvirate of quiz hosts are reinstated in the swivel chairs, their cards (or screens, for that matter) in hand, ready and poised to pose the questions? All three return for reassuringly familiar new series, beginning at 7.30pm with Clive Myrie, who warmly tees up a fresh run of Mastermind where we can expect “thrills and spills, quickfire questions and family fun. Unless, of course,” he adds, “you’re sitting in the black chair.” Specialist subjects are Jürgen Klopp’s tenure at Liverpool FC, Jane Austen, Shania Twain and — a treat for many RT readers — Dad’sArmy. At 8pm, Victoria Coren Mitchell welcomes…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024WednesdayREALITY Celebrity Race across the World 9.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer “This is way harder than I thought it would be,” says Ted Lasso’s Kola Bokinni two days into the journey from Belem in Brazil to Frutillar in Chile with his cousin Mary Ellen. Don’t these people do any research before signing up? Or do they think the challenges are all for the cameras? Kelly Brook, meanwhile, is so determined to enjoy herself and see as much of South America as possible that she and husband Jeremy Parisi don’t even leave the start town on the first night. By day three let’s just say they haven’t made the best progress. Four pairs of celebs (there’s also DJ Scott Mills with his fiancé Sam Vaughan and Jeff Brazier with his…5 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024COMETH THE HOURWoman’s HourMon—Fri 10.00am, Sat 4.00pmRadio 4 PATIENCE PAYS OFF. After 27 years in radio, including an award-winning stint in New York for National Public Radio (NPR), numerous shifts at the BBC World Service, bits and bobs on 5 Live and a stint covering for the main presenter, Nuala McGovern is formally installed behind the Radio 4 mic, and has been hosting Woman’s Hour Monday–Wednesday since May, when Emma Barnett moved to the Today programme. “It’s my dream gig,” says the 52-year-old Dublin-born journalist. “Best job in the BBC.” Does she finally feel, now, that she has “arrived”? It seems wrong to compare BBC outlets, but Radio 4 does have a sort of top dog feel about it. Everyone knows it, even if they don’t admit it publicly. “Well, I don’t…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024COUNTDOWN TO CRIMEIS THERE A word for a self-confessed worrier who constantly saddles herself with more things to worry about? Susie Dent laughs. “You mean a word for a catastrophising person, because I am absolutely it.” I suggest masoch*st, but she can imagine the headlines already, so seeks time to ponder. We’re talking about her first foray into the world of fiction, Guilty by Definition, and the reviews – “I’m sure I’ll be hurt by some of them” – that will follow. “Every time I write a book, I feel happy that it’s written, but I don’t want anyone to read it. It’s a very odd thing. I’m just a mass of contradictions.” Quite how deeply embedded those contradictions are, we’ll discover, but first the book. It’s a contemporary crime mystery set…4 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024WHEN THE TOOTH HURTSSOME PEOPLE ON low incomes are entitled to free NHS dental care. But if you get the rules wrong and claim when you’re not entitled, you’ll have to pay for the treatment and normally a fine of £100. People over pension age whose income is low enough to get the means-tested pension credit often expect to qualify for free dental treatment. But not all of them do. There are two different parts to pension credit: one part is called guarantee credit, the other, savings credit. Only guarantee credit entitles you to free dental care. If you get both guarantee and savings credit, you also qualify. But if you only get savings credit then you’re not entitled to free dental care. ‘Claim when not entitled and you’ll pay a fine’ This…2 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024FeedbackCOURAGEOUS CHRIS What an extraordinary story was told in Hell Jumper (24 July BBC2). Amid the heartbreak of losing him, Chris Parry’s family can be rightly proud of his courage and selflessness in helping to evacuate Ukrainians from a terrible situation. It was life-enhancing to see both social media and young people portrayed in a positive light at a time when both generally appear to get a very bad press. As Chris’s father pointed out, there is indeed a lot of good humanity out there. Nicky NeillEvesham, Worcestershire PETROC’S TRAVELS Congratulations to Petroc Trelawny and Radio 3 Breakfast for making their Northumbrian odyssey (22–26 July) such compelling listening. Local people, history and objects of interest were skilfully woven around the musical pieces. I hope that next year Petroc can be…7 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024CHARLIE COOPERWhat’s the view from your sofa? We’ve got two very young kids, so it’s total chaos. Normally I’m on the sofa, not watching a programme of my choice but, instead, some sort of dinosaur YouTube video. I take it you and your partner Rebecca Howlett have little or no control over the remote, then? I’ve been away working so as soon as I’m back, Becca dumps the kids on me. We sort of tag each other in – so we spend no time together. We’re like ships in the night. The kids rule the roost! But actually, cartoons like Bluey are so good. The standard of children’s TV is much better than when I was a kid. It used to just be Art Attack and SMart, which were so dull!…4 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024BACK TO THE SWINGING SIXTIESIn the first series of Sky’s Funny Woman, working-class comedian Barbara Parker (Gemma Arterton) took 1960s London by storm. But as the comedy drama returns, with her hit sitcom behind her, Barbara has an even bigger mountain to climb. “The first season was very much about a young northerner who’s coming to town, and is a sort of accidental revolutionary,” series director Oliver Parker tells RT. “In the second season, she’s more conscious of what she’sdoing — the ranks of the patriarchy she has to break through. The stakes are slightly higher.” Parker and series writer Morwenna Banks have also upped the ante when it comes to the vibrant, Swinging Sixties world Barbara is living in — literally swinging, in fact, in the first episode, when she gets trapped on…2 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024to be a radio sound designerSharon Hughes is a senior technical producer for Radio 4 and Radio 3, based in BBC’s Salford offices. She has been mixing and recording radio dramas for 28 years and won Best Use of Sound for dystopian play The Invisible at the 2020 BBC Audio Drama Awards. BRINGING A SCRIPT TO LIFE I introduce sounds and music to enhance emotions and build connections with characters. It’s all to support the script and lead the listener through that narrative in the way the writer intended. Essentially, I make stuff sound good! SETTING THE STAGE I was always involved in the theatre while at secondary school. I later worked at Oldham Coliseum Theatre as a sound designer, where one of the first things I went out to record was a Morris Minor.…2 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024Digging up their rootsVicky McClure The Line of Duty star wants to solve a mystery: why was her beloved grandmother abandoned as a baby? She also sets out to discover what happened to her great-grandfather Harry, who was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War. It’s an emotional journey that takes Vicky on an unexpected visit to Taiwan, where she learns the painful truth about Harry’s fate. See preview on page 90 Mel C The Spice Girl-turned-solo artist wanted to find out how deep her roots in Liverpool go, so she traces her family back to migrants fleeing the Irish Famine in the 1840s on her father’s side. On her mother’s line, she learns about an ancestor from Devon who rose from poverty to become an insurance salesman in the 1850s.…3 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024ON YOUR MARKS!Celebrity Race across the WorldWednesday 9.00pmBBC1 IN THE SECONDcelebrity series of Race across the World, four famous faces and a family member travel from Belem in the north of Brazil to Frutillar in southern Chile. As they pass five checkpoints en route there will be no VIP treatment for radio presenter Kelly Brook and her husband Jeremy Parisi, DJ Scott Mills and his fiancé Sam Vaughan, Ted Lasso actor Kola Bokinni and his cousin Mary Ellen Moriarty, and TV presenter Jeff Brazier and his son Freddy. The contestants cannot grab a flight or use a mobile phone and have to rely on a map, a GPS tracker and a small amount of cash: £72 per couple per day. The heat is overwhelming and communication is challenging – fewer than five…7 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024‘Fame was the bane of her existence’Elizabeth Taylor: the Lost TapesSaturday 9.00pmSky Documentaries THINK OF ELIZABETH Taylor and who do you picture? The child star of National Velvet? The pioneering 1980s campaigner on behalf of people with Aids? One half of the alcohol-soaked on-off romance with Richard Burton? She was all these things but also much more, as American film-maker Nanette Burstein’s new documentary reveals. “I’m 54, so my version of her during my lifetime, outside of the cinema, was her relationship with Michael Jackson,” says Burstein, recalling a period in the 80s when Taylor was seldom out of the tabloids. “It was a tawdry type of image, but after working on this film I have a much better understanding of her.” Born in Hampstead, north London, in 1932 to American parents, Taylor died, aged 79,…5 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024SHE’S NO ANTIHEROI ADMIT I’M a little late to the Taylor Swift party. “What’s the big deal?” I asked my pals as we watched the military band outside Buckingham Palace perform her song Shake It Off when she first brought her Eras tour to these shores in June. “Doesn’t she just write lovelorn songs about her famous ex-boyfriends?” Well, as it turns out, the deal is big. One friend chaperoned his teenage daughter to a concert in Edinburgh, where the youngster spent two years’ worth of pocket money on a hoodie. Another splashed the cash for two VIP seats – in Portugal! Now, as Swift returns to round off her London season with five nights at Wembley Stadium, we hear more talk of her tour’s effect on Britain’s GDP, how her friendship…3 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024SaturdayDOCUMENTARY Elizabeth Taylor: the Lost Tapes 9.00pm Sky Documentaries Catch up via Now Elizabeth Taylor, like other 20th-century icons Jackie Onassis and Princess Diana, is one of those celebrities we remain endlessly fascinated by. Director Nanette Burstein’s enlightening exploration of the film star’s inner self is hung on the discovery of newly unearthed audio interviews with Taylor conducted in 1964 by American journalist Richard Meryman, the last person to interview Marilyn Monroe before her death. This is a man who knows how to allow his subject to be open and vulnerable. Taylor barely had a private life: every move (and marriage) was scrutinised. Here she is candid, amusing and driven, displaying insight into her dual roles as a person and a commodity. Nothing is off-limits, from her early days as…5 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024ALSO ON TODAYAnimal Park 9.30amBBC1 Ben Fogle and Kate Humble (right) are back to bring stories of the animals and keepers at Longleat House and Safari Park in Wiltshire. Death in Paradise 9.00pmBBC1 DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little) investigates the death of an ex-SAS soldier who’s been doing a survival course in a 2020 episode. The Sky at Night 10.00pmBBC4 Dr Nicola Fox, Nasa’s head of science, talks about her upbringing in Hertfordshire and reveals how she fell in love with astronomy.…1 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024ThursdayGENEALOGY Who Do You Think You Are? 9.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer “I don’t like the unknown,” Vicky McClure tells us as she starts her family tree investigations. She’s worried the experience won’t be worth all the anxiety and indeed what she discovers about her beloved and jolly Nonna Jean, who was abandoned as a baby and treated appallingly by her adoptive mother through her childhood, isn’t exactly uplifting. However, it’s when McClure learns about her great-grandfather Harry Millership, a Yorkshire miner who was taken prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War, that she gets overwhelmed with emotion. The reports of brutality and unbearable hardship that he and others like him endured in a prisoner of war camp really affect her and the tears fall. She also…6 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024WHAT’S THE REAL STORY?TRUE CRIME The Apartheid Killer In the final years of white-minority rule in South Africa, one man was on a deranged “crimefighting” mission. Louis van Schoor was employed as a security guard, but his working practices included patrolling barefoot so that he could creep up on petty thieves and shoot them: the very definition of silent-but-deadly, with at least 39 lives lost to this serial killer. A remorseless Van Schoor died from sepsis days after this BBC series was released — but not before the journalistic team secured a chilling interview with him. ANNA JONES STORYTELLING Desert Oracle Radio From the online sphere of American political satire (Gawker), Ken Layne came back to earth in 2015 to launch Desert Oracle, a now cult print magazine for strange tales of the…4 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024She knows how to tell ’emOH MIRIAM! MIRIAM MARGOLYES A New Australian Adventure Friday 9.00pmBBC2 Using a phrase that she has heard throughout her life, actor Miriam Margolyes’s second memoir Oh Miriam! (John Murray, £25) is another rollicking read through her life, told in anecdotes. Featuring a stellar cast list, many a swear word, and a few pearls of wisdom, it’s as outrageous as you might expect, and Margolyes’s unabashed honesty on all topics — from marriage to politics to sex and back again — results in a collection of stories that might well have you exclaiming the title yourself. BAD MONKEY CARL HIAASEN Bad Monkey From WednesdayApple TV+ In a classic scene for a crime novel, Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey (Sphere, £9.99) opens with disgraced former detective Andrew Yancy (now a health inspector), who…1 min
Radio Times|10-16th August 2024CrosswordPRIZE CROSSWORD ACROSS 7 Team being second one of four? (5) 8 Wildly run at friend, of course! (9) 10 Long to have new content in quiche (4) 11 Identical despite that (3,3,4) 12 Makeover for burly Europa at salon (6,7) 15 Being tall, Irish amongst blunder (7) 16 Sack-maker, this man’s with Welsh girl (7) 18 The risotto can fly apart with little notice! (2,5,6) 20 BBC crime series in which heritage comes ashore? (10) 22 The ultimate in cobbling equipment (4) 23 Usual mayor’s cut off (9) 24 Attack at a film studio (5) DOWN 1 One pin, one in water plant (9) 2 Containing gold-chopped ice, a flat white drink (4,2,4) 3 Disturbed at a blue scene (7) 4 Small American hides tatty lederhosen for TV’s Marlene…3 min
