Radio Times

THE ACTORS ON this week’s cover, Hugh Bonneville, Charlotte Spencer and Dominic Cooper, are the stars of a gripping new drama that begins on BBC1 this week, based on the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery. It was Britain’s biggest bullion heist. The action is more concerned with the pursuit of the criminals than the actual crime, and Bonneville’s depiction of the detective who brought the criminals to book is a reminder of a time when trustworthy policemen were all you’d expect to see depicted on screen. But, as Bonneville tells us in his interview on page 18, our expectations of the archetypes of good and bad are not always based on reality – and that stolen gold resurfaced in some unlikely places. If any of that makes you think this sounds like a throwback…

TV 1 Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip Thur 9.00pm C4 Prue Leith and her politician son Danny research legalised assisted dying in the USA and Canada in a sensitive documentary that may make you rethink your views. INTERVIEW P30 ▶ TV 2 The Gold Sunday 9.00pm BBC1 The Brink’s-Mat robbery of 1983 gets the Sunday-night treatment in this winning drama, as Hugh Bonneville stars as the DCI tasked with tracking down stolen gold worth £26 million. FEATURE P18 ▶ STREAMING 3 Star Trek: Picard Season 3, ep 1 available from 17 Feb Amazon Prime Video Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) reunites with the full complement of his Next Generation crew for a final mission in space that will delight the many fans of 1990s Trek. For one last time: engage! TV 4 Better Monday 9.00pm BBC1 We’re on a redemption journey with Lou Slack (Leila Farzad),…

Radio Times held a Covers Party with a difference to kick off our centenary year. The likes of Damian Lewis, Sir Michael Palin, Angela Rippon, Sir Lenny Henry and Dame Denise Lewis rubbed shoulders in the ballroom of Claridge’s Hotel, London, before receiving covers that represented not just the stars of 2022 but also a century of broadcasting. But there has been no person more famous or on more RT covers than the late Queen. And so in a poignant presentation, Kirsty Young handed HRH Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, a special framing of her covers from 1940 and 2022. He thanked broadcasters for how they’d sensitively covered his mother’s death, and praised the photographers who’d immortalised her on more than 50 RT covers over the decades. “It’s a fantastic tribute…

THE POPLAR VOTE Call the Midwife hits 1969 in the next series — and yes, Nonnatus House will gather to watch the Moon landing — but some themes are eternal. Creator Heidi Thomas plans to feature the “raise the roof” campaign, in which nurses campaigned for — and got — better working conditions and a 22% pay rise. “If that doesn’t make us reflect on what’s going on today, then I don’t know,” she said. TONY’S MAID UP Could Tony Robinson’s long-awaited reboot of Maid Marian and her Merry Men finally be on the way after almost 30 years? Robinson told us that the project has been on and off for a few years, but is “back on again, and everyone’s got excited”. It’s not nostalgia that’s driving him, either. “I love the…

A Tony winner (The Boy from Oz), Oscar nominee (Les Misérables) and a comic-book icon (as Marvel’s mutton-chopped hero Wolverine), Hugh Jackman’s talents are many. But you won’t have seen the 54-year-old Australian in anything as heartrending as his new film, The Son, based on Florian Zeller’s play. He plays Peter, a New York businessman forced to deal with his teenage son’s depression… This is your darkest role to date playing a traumatised dad. Was it easy to switch off at night? My wife said to me, “You’re the last person I would describe as a hot mess. But during this you have been a hot mess.” My sleep was off. I don’t think I thought so at the time, but I look back now and see that there was a real…

ON 9 FEBRUARY 1998 I was humbled to win two Brit Awards as a member of the all-women group All Saints – best British single and best video. We had released our debut album in November of 1997 and just three months later we were up against prestigious bands and artists. In best British single, they included Elton John, Blur and Radiohead. In the shortlist for best video we were alongside David Bowie and Oasis. I still remember the all-consuming energy we had that night at the London Arena in a room full of record company executives, publishers, producers and artists. Our dream as teens, like many young female singer/songwriters, was one day to perform on Top of the Pops and here we were, winning two Brit Awards, live on television.…