Radio Times

THERE USED TO be a phenomenon that sports photographers called “Kodak courage’’. It was applied to thrill seekers who stretched that extra yard, leapt a deeper chasm or climbed a steeper rock face than they would have done had they not had a camera lens trained on their every move. Bear Grylls has lived out most of his adult life with a TV camera crew in tow. Thanks to them, we know he likes to live life on the edge – literally so, as anyone who last year saw him showing Louis Theroux around the precipitous cliff paths that surround his Welsh island home. Having watched nearly 20 years of Grylls doing whatever it takes to survive in the wild, it seems every bit of derring-do has been captured on…

1 TV The Gallows Pole: This Valley Will Rise Wednesday 9.00pm BBC2 Writer/director Shane Meadows re-energises the often staid world of the period drama with this nuanced and naturalistic 18th-century-set three-parter about Yorkshire fraudsters. Michael Socha (right) and Sophie McShera star. 2 STREAMING Changing Ends Available Thursday ITVX Oliver Savell (below) is an absolute delight as young Alan Carr in this semi-autobiographical comedy about the stand-up’s early years. It’s so evocative of the 1980s you can almost feel the wet-look hair gel. 3 TV Springwatch Monday 7.30pm, Tue–Fri 8.00pm BBC2 There’s a new home for Michaela Strachan, Chris Packham and co this year, with the team poised to film reptiles, red squirrels, birds and insects at RSPB Arne near Poole in Dorset. FEATURE P28 ▶ 4 TV Who Do You Think You Are?…

After bringing a taste of Nordic noir to ITV for three series of Marcella, Swedish screenwriter and The Bridge creator Hans Rosenfeldt is adapting The Burning Girls — CJ Tudor’s bestselling psychological thriller — into a six-part drama for Paramount+. “After 13 years of crime shows, it was really fun for me to be able to do something still dark and a bit horrifying and a little bit brutal, but completely different,” he tells RT. Samantha Morton stars as Reverend Jack Brooks, who moves to the sleepy village of Chapel Croft with her teenage daughter Flo (Bridgerton’s Ruby Stokes) in the hope of leaving past traumas behind. But, once there, they learn about its dark history of disappearing children and sticking martyrs on fiery stakes. Academy Award nominee Morton was…

100% FAITHFULS Fancy being on the next series of The Traitors hosted by Claudia Winkleman (below)? Good luck with that: producer Studio Lambert reveals that it’s had 40,000 applications to date — 26 times the 1,500 who requested to be on series one. And for those who have scrutinised every moment and think they’ve cracked how to win, a word of warning. The slogan that the BBC is adopting is: “You think you know how to play the game. You don’t know anything.” A NEW TASK FOR ROSE Writer/star of BBC3 romcom Starstruck Rose Matafeo (below) has the daunting task of stepping into Greg Davies’s shoes as Channel 4 launches Junior Taskmaster. Second-placed in series nine of the regular show, she’ll no doubt be out to settle a few scores — as will…

After blockbusters like Mission: Impossible, The Greatest Showman and Dune, Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson is back on the small screen with Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller series Silo. Co-starring alongside David Oyelowo and Harriet Walter, she plays Juliette, one of a group of people living in a community deep underground in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s yet another all-action role for the 39-year-old Ferguson. No wonder Tom Cruise loves her… You’re known for big-budget movies — did making a TV show mean rethinking everything? It was different. I remember walking onto the set thinking, “I’m doing TV for the first time.” And then I remembered, “No, I’ve done TV!” – I did The White Queen at the beginning of my career. To be honest, the sets on Silo were bigger than most…

Eight-time Oscar-winner Alan Menken is responsible for the soundtrack to many people’s childhoods, writing the music for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid, as well as musicals Little Shop of Horrors, Newsies and Sister Act. Now, Menken has collaborated with Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda (both pictured, right) for the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, re-imagining his own tunes. I WALK THE LINE For live-action movies, I let the director call the shots on their vision for an adaptation. The huge upside is it’s going to reach a new audience and it’ll be a nice pay day, but it’s also work. I want to hang on to the most important original elements, but I want to give it a freshness. There are moments where I’m torn between…