‘I’d rather be a Bond villain than 007’
7—13 OCTOBER 2023
‘I miss Paul O’Grady — but I’ll still talk to him’
‘Joan Bakewell has the best gossip’
Dame Helen Mirren is without question one of the greatest actors this country has ever produced. Even at a still-youthful 78, the parts she is offered seem to get better and better. Following the success of the film Barbie, which she narrated, we talk to her about her latest movie, Golda, playing Golda Meir, Israel’s prime minister during the Yom Kippur War.
It’s a role that she said yes to immediately because, as she explains, she had fallen in love with the country as a young woman when she lived and worked on a kibbutz. There have of course been many questions raised about why Mirren is playing such a high-profile Jewish woman as Golda Meir. Questions that she and Meir’s grandson answer in an interview on page 12.
The subject of controversy brings us to The Reckoning, which for many reasons is possibly the most challenging drama ever to be shown on the BBC. Its subject is the downfall of serial sex abuser Jimmy Savile, which isn’t a name we expected to be printing in RT again. On page 16 we talk to Jeff Pope and Neil McKay, the drama’s producer and writer respectively, to find out from them how and why they have brought this story to our screens. The Reckoning will doubtless raise many questions among viewers and the press – read what they have to say and make up your own minds.
On a much lighter note, we also hear from Julian Clary about his touching friendship with the late Paul O’Grady and how he misses their regular phone calls. And on page 7, read our tribute to one of our most stylish actors, the great David McCallum.
Tom Loxley & Shem Law Editors, Radio Times
Contact Radio Times by email on RTeditor@radiotimes.com
David McCallum 7
A tribute to the star of The Man from UNCLE and much, much more
Stephen Mangan 8
The actor thrives on variety — and gossiping with Joan Bakewell
Sakari Oramo 9
What’s it like to be the conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra?
Viewpoint 11
An update on the health of Radio 4 favourite Susan Rae, by her son Rory
Helen Mirren 12
She jumped at the chance to play Golda Meir — but does she now regret saying yes?
The Reckoning 16
Jeff Pope and Neil McKay explain why they’ve made a drama about Jimmy Savile
The Full Scottish 20
Meet Morven Christie and Peter Mullan, stars of the ITV thriller Payback
Big Little Journeys 22
Take a close-up view of six tiny creatures’ battles for survival
The RT quiz 25
How well do you recall the 1960s?
Richard Armitage
Big Little Journeys
Cricket World Cup 27
Simon Barnes looks forward to 46 days of white-ball action
Caroline Frost 29
There are two problems with the return of Big Brother in 2023…
Any Questions? 108
Celebrating 75 years of fierce political debate on Radio 4
David Hepworth 111
Never get rid of your CDs and DVDs
View from my sofa 146
Julian Clary
Books 130
Actor Richard Armitage has a new addition to his CV — thriller writer
Gardening 132
Plant rose hips for autumn colour, says Joe Swift
Travel 134
Take a trip to Boston, home of the new Frasier reboot
Money 136
Financial advice from RT’s expert, Paul Lewis
Puzzles 137
Your favourite brainteasers
Feedback 142
You have your say — plus all the answers to our special centenary picture quiz
Streaming 30
Your guide to on-demand TV
Television 38 The week’s programmes
Podcasts 110
Listen to the latest releases
Radio 112
Our unbeatable daily guide
Dreaming of an Italian getaway? Save £50 on Italian lake destinations with Travel Department — see p143 for details.
TV
Big Little Journeys
Sunday 8.00pm BBC2
A new nature series that focuses on the worlds of six small animals. In Canada, a turtle hatchling struggles to find suitable wetland, while in South Africa an abandoned bushbaby is looking for a new home.
FEATURE P22
TV
The Reckoning
Monday and Tuesday 9.00pm BBC1
Controversial doesn’t feel strong enough a word for the problematic nature of this four-part drama. Steve Coogan portrays Jimmy Savile in a docu-drama that features testimony from four of his victims.
FEATURE P16
p Licorice Pizza 1111 j Sunday
10.30pm BBC2 (11.20pm in N Ireland)
Musician Alana Haim makes a mighty impressive acting debut in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Bafta-winning yarn. She stars as an aimless young woman in 1970s LA who runs into all sorts of kooks — including Sean Penn’s boozy actor.
RADIO
Poet Laureate in the Arctic
Tuesday 11.30am Radio 4
A lyrical documentary in which Simon Armitage travels to the Arctic to capture the majesty and vulnerability of the area in a series of new poems.
Portrait Artist of the Year
Wednesday 8.00pm Sky Arts
Joan Bakewell and Stephen Mangan present the first in a new series of the art competition. The three sitters are Richard Curtis and Emma Freud (have there ever before been co-habitee subjects?) and singer Fleur East.
FEATURE P8
TV
Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico
Sunday 7.20pm BBC2
The Desperate Housewives star throws herself into her exploration of Mexican food with surprising gusto. She’s charming, fun and even laughs when she drips salsa everywhere.
Any Questions On…
Thursday 4.00pm Radio4
Alex Forsyth marks the 75th anniversary of Any Questions with a series in which she and expert guests — including former hosts Jonathan Dimbleby and Chris Mason — delve into the show’s archive.
FEATURE P108
Frasier Eps 1 and 2 available from Friday Paramount+ Dr Frasier Crane is back in the building. After two decades away, the sitcom has been rebooted with Kelsey Grammer and new sidekck Alan, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, above right. The psychiatrist faces his trickiest case yet — trying to forge a relationship with his adult son, Freddy.
Lessons in Chemistry
Eps 1 and 2 from Friday Apple TV+
A sharp new period drama adapted from Bonnie Garmus’s novel. Brie Larson is superb as a scientist in the sexist 1950s who won’t allow men to keep her down… and is secretly a worldbeating cook.
TV
Barbara Knox at 90 Friday 9.00pm ITV1
The world’s longest-serving female TV soap star opens up to Bradley Walsh about a career spent on the cobbles of Coronation Street.
n v e i e
In a post-Bridgerton world, every channel and streaming service is looking for a steamy, corset-busting period drama, but Apple TV+’s The Buccaneers, adapted from an unfinished novel by Edith Wharton, has a loftier pedigree than some.
“It’s about a group of young, excitable American girls who come over to England from New York in the 1880s,” explains Katherine Jakeways, who has adapted the book for the screen. “In their parents’ eyes, they’re looking for aristocratic husbands
but, in actual fact — like all young girls — they’re seeking laughs and adventures with their friends.”
Imogen Waterhouse, Alisha Boe, Josie Totah and Kristine Froseth lead the pack as the debutantes, watched over by Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks. Josh Dylan, Matthew Broome, Simone Kirby and Mia Threapleton make up the home contingent for the series that was filmed largely in Scotland to simulate 19th-century England, with Glasgow filling in for New York.
If any of this sounds familiar,
you might be remembering the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of the book, a series Jakeways tells RT she deliberately didn’t watch.
“It was important to me to do my own version and not have other interpretations in my head. Ours is inspired by Wharton’s characters and stories, but we wanted to expand her world and explore themes that resonate with more contemporary audiences.”
HUW FULLERTON
ON LOCATION
The TV and film legend on The Man from
David McCallum was in reflective mood last November, when he gave his last interview to RT. “I have so many memories, so many people and places,” he said from his home in New York, looking back on his 70-year career (including NCIS, the show he was still working on).
Of course, a big part of that career was the spy series The Man from UNCLE (1964–8), playing Illya Kuryakin, a Russian agent alongside Robert Vaughn’s American, Napoleon Solo.
Kuryakin and Solo were markedly different characters who blended well – but that wasn’t always the case off screen with Vaughn. “We worked together and went to our separate lives and that was it,” McCallum recalled. “I think I went out to dinner once with Robert. He invited me to a very early health food restaurant, and I was dreadfully sick the next day. I thought, ‘Health food is not for me, I’m going to eat my bacon and eggs!’”
Still, they were the perfect TV double act, and the show was a massive hit. Asked about the fan mail, McCallum remembered “huge sacks of it. Obviously, we couldn’t possibly deal with it ourselves, there was a whole department back then.”
On the big screen, the Glasgow-born actor memorably played “dispersal” expert Eric Ashley-Pitt in the classic war film The Great
‘I said the scripts have to be Puttock-proof’
Escape, whose premiere he recounted fondly. “I remember the Odeon Leicester Square… we sat there, that enormous red curtain parted, with Elmer Bernstein’s music playing… it’s a moment I can remember as if it was ten minutes ago,” he said. “Imagine you’re in a film like that and you’re seeing it – and everybody else is seeing it – for the first time. It was quite amazing.”
McCallum went back inside as RAF officer Simon Carter in the BBC series Colditz (1972–4) – “a wonderful thing to play; it was all very hail-
fellow-well-met” – and another winner was the supernatural series Sapphire and Steel (1979–82), co-starring Joanna Lumley. Was that an enjoyable experience? “Enormously, because I got to meet Jo and she’s now a good friend.”
Initially, he admitted, the show left some viewers baffled, until he took the writer and director to task. “I said, ‘My mother’s cleaning lady, Mrs Puttock, used to say she loved watching Sapphire and Steel but she didn’t understand a word of it.’ I said the scripts from now on have to be made Puttock-proof!”
When we spoke, McCallum and his wife, model and actor-turned-interior designer Katherine, were both still busy – “Retirement is a work in progress, shall we say!” With continuous employment from his teens to his 90th year, it was that tireless drive that landed him so many famous roles. But did he have a favourite? “Too many!” was all he could say. MARK BRAXTON
Stephen Mangan, 55, may claim that he has a “negative talent” for art, but clearly he’s a man of many other skills. He’s a familiar face in dramas and comedies including The Split, I’m Alan Partridge and Episodes, a writer, a documentary narrator and a regular guest host on Have I Got News for You? and Pointless. And, for the past five years, he has co-presented the Sky Arts series Portrait Artist of the Year with Dame Joan Bakewell. Series ten starts this week on Sky Arts and the celebrity sitters range from former MP Rory Stewart to Sue Barker and Alan Titchmarsh. Before that, on Wednesday 5 October, a special edition saw previous Portrait Artist of the Year winners aim to capture the essence of Dame Judi Dench.
We know you as an actor, presenter, panel-show guest, screenwriter and children’s author… Will the real Stephen Mangan please stand up?
I thrive on variety. I can be in a recording studio one day doing the voice of a horse, the next I’m at my laptop trying to work out how to adapt a book into a movie, then off to meet the artists. When I started in theatre, I did foreign ads to pay the bills. The industry doesn’t owe me anything – any part of the work could dry up and I’ve got three kids to feed! I’m not strategic about it, I’m just grateful that the phone keeps ringing.
‘I’m not strategic about my career – I’ve got three kids to feed!’
What was it like to step into Richard Osman’s giant shoes as a guest co-host of Pointless last year?
It was daunting because Richard had done thousands of episodes, but I was at university with co-host Alexander Armstrong, so we didn’t have to fake any chemistry. And, like Portrait Artist, the contestants are half-excited and half-terrified, and my role was to be warm and encouraging – while looking much cleverer than I am.
Your last TV acting role was in BBC1 drama
The Split, which finished a year ago. Is that a tough one to follow?
Yes, I was slightly spoilt by The Split, like Episodes before it. I’m picky and nothing’s come along since that’s made me want to commit.
The Split really hit a nerve with viewers
– anyone who has been in a relationship could relate to it, and people still tell me how they cried watching it. It’s a shame it had to end, but you can only do the “will they, won’t they divorce?” story for so long.
You’ve played fictional characters like Adrian Mole and real-life figures like Tony Blair (in The Comic Strip Presents). Which is harder to pull off?
With someone like Blair, there’s a bit of leeway – I can’t look any more like him than I do, but I can try to capture his essence. I’ve met Alastair Campbell a few times, and didn’t dare ask if I got it right! But everyone has their own image of what their favourite character from a book looks like, which makes it much harder.
Portrait Artist of the Decade featured previous Portrait Artist of the Year winners painting Dame Judi Dench. What was it like to see them return? It’s actually quite moving to see how we’ve launched the careers of so many great artists. It can be difficult for an artist to get their work seen and this programme gives them a platform. It was a real treat to have them back. Then there was Dame Judi, who has those incredible blue eyes and a youthful face, with an energy that belies her age. She sparkles.
What do you think celebrities get out of being sitters?
They’re very used to being photographed, sometimes on a daily basis, and they’re used to being the centre of attention. A good portrait artist sees the person slightly differently and will
touch on something a photo can’t capture. It’s interesting how much sitters engage with the process and how they want to be portrayed.
How did this year’s subjects approach the challenge?
Rory Stewart wanted to be painted standing up; I think he imagined himself looking across the Scottish Highlands. He was really disciplined, standing for four hours in what was probably not a comfortable position. Lenny Rush was a joy – it’s a challenge to paint someone that young because they don’t have the wrinkles and lines that give us character.
Would you like to sit for a portrait? Absolutely! I’d be quite nervous, though. As an actor, your image is important: you may have the soul of a poet, but if you look like a bruiser, you’ll play bruisers. I don’t know if I could handle a portrait of myself in my own house; maybe an unfortunate relative would get it.
Speaking of family, what’s it been like working with your sister on your children’s books and Celebrity Gogglebox? I cannot draw and my sister has no desire to write. I’ll send her the full script and she’ll send back the pictures, so we don’t have much chance to get into a sibling fight. Gogglebox is a throwback to us as kids sitting around watching telly – we very much regress to our childhood roles. At one book reading, a kid asked, “How horrendous was it having Stephen as an elder brother?” As a trained TV lawyer, I have to say that is a leading question…
What’s the best thing about working with Joan Bakewell? Her House of Lords gossip! She’s got the inside track on the entire calamitous political soap opera of the past few years. We actually live about 100 yards away from each other and she tells me stories of when Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath lived in the neighbourhood. Though before we did the show together, I wouldn’t have dared approach her. ROBIN PARKER
Portrait Artist of the Year is on Wednesday 8.00pm Sky Arts
IN HIS ELEMENT
Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo in action
After a hugely successful Proms, Sakari Oramo leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra into a new season of broadcast performances.
THE CONDUCTOR IS KING Conductors reign over the entire work, bringing the music to the orchestra and chorus and, through them, to the audience. It’s all about preparation, getting to know absolutely everything that’s in the piece, then being able to convey what you think the work is about. Waving your arms is just a small part. You’ve got to immerse yourself in the composer’s world.
NO BOOZE ALLOWED I start a concert day slowly. I’ll take a walk in the park, then have a hefty lunch — absolutely no wine, as it affects the physical performance. I won’t look at the score any more, I’ll just let my thoughts revolve around the concert.
THANKS, BRUM
When I was younger, I hovered between being a violinist and a conductor. The manager of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra saw a video of me conducting and decided maybe I was worth inviting. I have about 20 batons. I don’t have a
preferred one; I choose them according to weight, and if they give me a good feeling.
UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS
TV lights are very hot, but being recorded for broadcast doesn’t really affect the performance. We try to do our best, whether being watched by 3,000 or three million people. But anything can happen, from a key player falling ill to the realisation that, “I’ve got this piece all wrong. I can’t stand behind my own interpretation!” I’ll change it instantly, and try to get the musicians to follow me, or go with it and feel terrible. But a brilliant orchestra like the BBC Symphony has a capacity for self-repair as they are playing.
TÁR ISN’T TRUE The film Tár wasn’t all bad for the profession if you don’t take it too seriously — it can pique interest in conducting. But the way the main character lives is nothing like anyone I know. You have to respect your musicians, and be aware of the mental and physical strain of the profession.
MICHAEL HODGES
Sakari Oramo opens the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s new season at the Barbican Centre, London, on Friday 6 October at 7.30pm. barbican.org.uk
Don’t write her off, says Rory Cargill, the son of BBC presenter Susan Rae
It was one year between my mother, broadcaster Susan Rae, being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at 65, and the moment that the cause of her sudden absence from the airwaves was splashed across the news.
That was in April, and I had written in these pages about how the state can fail people with Alzheimer’s. In general, the theme of the chapter leading up to Mum’s diagnosis was confusion. For her bosses, and herself, it was over why she could no longer work the faders at the BBC. For me and my brother, it was over why she had uncharacteristically forgotten our birthdays. As for the GPs, their initial results didn’t pick up on Alzheimer’s, as is often the case with younger patients, and Radio 4 fans went to Twitter after she stopped reading the news and asked, “Where did Susan Rae go?”
“Time heals all,” you might tell yourself in times of stress. It’s an expression that doesn’t quite apply to terminal illness; there is currently no cure for dementia. The words of Mum’s memory doctor as he broke the news to me will always echo in my head: “It will not get better, it will get worse.”
But dementia isn’t a full stop. Mum is now at mid-stage and if you didn’t know about her condition, you probably wouldn’t know anything was wrong. She continues to learn new things, has deep conversations, laughs heartily at episodes of Frasier, and goes to the cinema to see Barbie
Banal moments are now filled with gratitude, like when Mum remembers something I wouldn’t
expect her to. After I recently performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, I called Mum and said I had been ill while I was there. “Remember to steam, it’s good for your throat,” she said. I had missed being mothered.
Although there is an acute awareness of the finitude of time left with someone who is ill, in April it was a year after the diagnosis and Mum was now safe and cared for. We’d all had time to adjust and process, so we decided to go public.
Although infamously underfunded and under-mentioned compared to cancer, dementia is increasingly in the spotlight these days. This could be down to other recent high-profile cases like Bruce Willis, Ken Livingstone, Fiona Phillips and Alastair Stewart, or breakthroughs in treatment with drugs like Donanemab. Or perhaps the rise in cases is simply becoming too hard to ignore. We don’t yet know the effect that modern lifestyles, with increased air pollution and diets full of ultra-processed foods, will have on us decades down the line. Society needs to start dealing with this as though it isn’t rare, because with 900,000 UK cases, it isn’t.
The news cycle that followed our going public ran with sensationalist headlines using words like “tragedy”, “downfall” or “suffering”. These words didn’t reflect the full spectrum of our experience, naturally focusing only on the darkness. And there is plenty of darkness; I don’t mean to suggest that there isn’t. But those words felt like Mum was being written off. They imply a detachment; look at this horrible thing that happened, but it didn’t happen to you. But it will happen to you. If not exactly this, then something like it. Illness, or some adjacent bumpy ride, is in store for all of us. Should we be defining the inevitabilities in life as “tragic”? Author Wendy Mitchell has written about moving forward in life with positivity despite her early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Whether that’s skydiving, as in Mitchell’s case, or rekindling treasured friendships as with my mum, life goes on and you find new purpose. Mum’s life is not a tragedy, but a continuing triumph.
The TV stories that are getting us talking…
Netflix has set a date for Squid Game: the Challenge, its epic game show that re-creates the dark challenges from the hit Korean drama. Coming to the streaming platform on 22 November, the show will put 456 contestants through a series of intense games at a former RAF base in Bedfordshire. A whopping $4.56m — £3.7m — is up for grabs.
Despite already operating the ad-supported Freevee, Amazon is now adding adverts to Amazon Prime too. From early next year, ads will feature so that the service can, it says, “continue investing in compelling content”. Subscriptions will be locked at £8.99 per month, or £95 a year — although Amazon will be hoping to tempt users to upgrade to a more expensive ad-free option, at a price yet to be revealed. ROBIN PARKER
As we went to press the results of the UK’s largest study of television viewers were being unveiled at the BFI on London’s Southbank. More than 21,000 people completed our survey, run by our partners at Sussex University, and the findings show the positive impact of television on our lives today. Please see next week’s issue for a full report.
We continue to celebrate the centenary year of Radio Times with a sprinkling of magic and memories from the magazine archives
“I’ve always found travel puts your life into context,” Michael Palin told RT. As pictured by Clive Arrowsmith, the intrepid ex-Python was following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg with a mission to travel Around the World in 80 Days, albeit by land and sea. Palin lost sleep as he travelled by train from Bombay
to Madras, Canton to Shanghai, and by dhow from Dubai. And there were the hours worrying over what excuse he could use for being late. Once home, however, people didn’t seem interested: “Going round the world is a real conversation killer. They can cope if you’ve just got back from King’s Lynn!” MARK BRAXTON
TIMES CENTENARY MUG — £25 INCL P&P Celebrate 100 years of Radio Times with this collectable Emma Bridgewater mug for just £25. To order, visit radiotimes.com/ shop41 or call 03302 232 639
