Keeping Faith: some questions
I am loving BBC's new drama, Keeping Faith, starring Eve Myles. Made by BBC Wales, it broke all iPlayer records in April and so Auntie sensibly shifted it to BBC1 and now everybody's talking about it. It's brilliant, but I do have a few questions...
Lucky Jim
I've interviewed Jimmy Nesbitt a few times and he's so friendly and easy-going, it's only when I get home and write up the piece – and list all the huge projects he's been involved in, from The Hobbit to Bloody Sunday – that I remember he's actually a pretty huge star. I got to fly to Hong Kong for this Lucky Man interview and watch Jimmy and Rupert Penry Jones rehearse their fight scenes - have a look at my exclusive behind the scenes pictures.
Nothing plastic fantastic about the cast of Age Before Beauty
The latest drama from Cutting It writer Debbie Horsfield swaps hair salons for the anti-ageing industry which is bliss for a journalist – it meant I got to grill the cast about plastic surgery and botox! None of them have had any work done but did allude to friends and colleagues who have. Annoyingly they were tight-lipped (as opposed to pillow-lipped, ha!) about the names. But it makes for an intriguing read... I also hosted the Q&A at Soho Hotel which was an absolute riot.
sometimes, just sometimes, it *is* okay to meet your heroes
I LOVE Dawn French. Like, serious love. I'd probably leave my husband for her. And the dogs. When I was little, my friend Jo Cherry and I would sing 'Cox and Cherry' to the French and Saunders theme tune, and pretend to be them. So if you'd have told me then that I'd have ended up interviewing the great woman herself so often that she now greets me with a big hug, I would have DIED.
sarah lancashire: discovering a sweet and shy side to the heavyweight actress
Sarah Lancashire's always been prolific, but it's only relatively recently that she's been getting the meaty roles she's always craved. I interviewed her for Radio Times (and hosted an on-stage Q&A at the launch for C4 drama Kiri) and found her to be shy, thoughtful - and petrified of messing it up
Britannia Rules
How GOOD was Britannia, the recent Jez Butterworth drama starring David Morrissey as a Roman general, Kelly Reilley and Zoe Wanamaker as celtic warriors, and Mackenzie Crook as a druid. But guess what? It's all based on real life - give or take a bit of poetic licence. I wrote a piece about the real-life story of the Roman invasion of 43AD and it is properly fascinating.
WORTHY WINNERS
It was my absolute pleasure to attend the Broadcasting Press Guild awards this week - and meet some serious TV heroes.
Why Peter Capaldi is the best Doctor Who
As we prepare to wave farewell to Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who this Christmas, I have a small tale to tell about my encounter with him. He is my favourite Doctor Who of all time - and it probably isn't for the reasons you think.
Why Fearless was a really important drama
The recent ITV drama Fearless got quite mixed reviews, and I can understand why. But whatever you thought of the story, I would argue that it marked a really important sea change in the feminist movement currently sweeping through TV drama.