Harry Enfield often tells people he’s retired, even though he hasn’t. “It feels better than saying ‘I’m not working’,” smiles the comedy legend. “I’m not ambitious, that’s the problem. I was when I was young. I look at people like Steve Coogan, who I knew back when we were both starting out, and he’s stillContinue reading “Harry Enfield: “There’s a new apartheid in comedy, which feels like a backward step. But that’s my age.””
Tag Archives: Television
A complete history of the history of Doctor Who
On November 1963 – coincidentally, just a day after the assassination of President Kennedy – British viewers sat down to watch a new science fiction programme designed to fill the grandstand at Juke Box Jury. Minutes later, a mysterious figure with a flowing white cloak and a Victorian frock emerged from the fog – andContinue reading “A complete history of the history of Doctor Who”
James Graham: “You can’t just put people on stage you agree with”
“I think we’ve lived through a chapter of our national life where we’ve all slightly lost faith in the country working for normal people,” says James Graham. “Whether that’s the trains, the health service, or the justice system, our institutions just feel overwhelmed. Times are really tough. And yet I’m an optimist. Because when youContinue reading “James Graham: “You can’t just put people on stage you agree with””
Mark Bonnar: “I’m not sure being an actor was of any use in The Traitors”
“Just flagging,” says Mark Bonnar’s publicist, a couple of days before Weekend’s scheduled audience with the Bafta-winning actor, “that other than confirming he’s in it, Mark can’t really talk about The Traitors.” Well this is awkward. Because it’s the 56-year-old Scot’s forthcoming appearance in the TV phenomenon’s hotly-anticipated celebrity spin-off that, in theory at least, we haveContinue reading “Mark Bonnar: “I’m not sure being an actor was of any use in The Traitors””
Lost in space and time: the story of Doctor Who’s missing episodes
“I am being diminished. Whittled away, piece by piece… Great chunks of my past, detaching themselves like melting icebergs” – The Doctor, The Five Doctors People have been underestimating Doctor Who for a very long time. In 1963, cautious BBC execs were reluctant to commit to more than 13 episodes of their new teatime adventure serial,Continue reading “Lost in space and time: the story of Doctor Who’s missing episodes”
Celia Imrie: “I’ve spent a long time trying to jump out of any box anybody tries to put me in”
Celia Imrie is that rarest of creatures in modern Britain – someone who hasn’t read The Thursday Murder Club. “I didn’t want to spook things, is the truth,” says the actress, who’d “got wind” a while back that she might be in the frame for the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s mega-selling comic crime novel. “SoContinue reading “Celia Imrie: “I’ve spent a long time trying to jump out of any box anybody tries to put me in””
Joanna Lumley: “They asked me to be the voice of the four-minute warning”
To call Joanna Lumley a ‘national treasure’ feels somehow inadequate. In truth, she is closer to a sacred monument – one of that rarefied group of people, like David Attenborough and Michael Palin, who are as essential to Britain’s idea of itself as Shakespeare and spotted dick. From her early days as a 60s cover girlContinue reading “Joanna Lumley: “They asked me to be the voice of the four-minute warning””
Richard Osman: “If you’re worried I don’t have enough failure in my life, I can assuage those worries”
When I last spoke to Richard Osman, in the strange, uneasy summer of 2020, the genial TV exec-turned-Pointless host was still waiting, slightly anxiously, to see how his debut novel would be received. “I’m very proud of it,” he told me. “But as to what happens next… I don’t know.” Flash forward to today, andContinue reading “Richard Osman: “If you’re worried I don’t have enough failure in my life, I can assuage those worries””
David Nicholls: ‘I don’t know if authors should think too much about where they come on the brow scale.’
The year is 2009. Gordon Brown is Prime Minister, Slumdog Millionaire sweeps the board at the Oscars, and Susan Boyle outsells Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to become the UK’s unlikely new queen of pop. In publishing, meanwhile, the year marks the arrival of two very different, but equally cherished, literary sensations: Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winningContinue reading “David Nicholls: ‘I don’t know if authors should think too much about where they come on the brow scale.’”
Mark Gatiss: “My career is partly a long revenge against P.E…”
Mark Gatiss is a busy man. No surprises there, of course: over the past two decades, the writer, actor, director and all-round pop-cultural polymath has racked up a CV longer than his beloved Doctor Who’s stripy scarf. When he’s not reinventing literary icons like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula, reuniting with his old pals from TheContinue reading “Mark Gatiss: “My career is partly a long revenge against P.E…””
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