Radio Times

breaking the mould

SOME TV PROGRAMMES are more talked about than watched, but you could never say that about Bridgerton, Netflix’s brazen take on costume dramas that has played to millions round the world. For our cover story Kirsty Lang left her seat at Radio 4’s Front Row to interview the creators of the most discussed TV series of the year so far. Based on the novels of Julia Quinn, Bridgerton follows the adventures of a debutante in Regency London. With its astonishingly vivid array of fabulous frocks (and frockcoats) – all 7,500 of them – colour-blind casting, breathtaking British backdrops and, to be frank, enthusiastic deployment of sex scenes, this is unlike any costume drama you have seen before. It has all the trademarks of its American producer Shonda Rhimes, who is famous for…

this week 30 january—5 february 2021

WHAT I’M WATCHING… KIRSTY LANG ‘I’m loving The Announcer on All 4,” says the broadcaster. “It’s a stylish, French murder mystery set in the early 1960s about a female TV newsreader, which is what I used to be. For pure escapist fun, I’m watching The Great, the funny period romp on Channel 4 about Catherine the Great.’ The Bridgerton effect — page 8 SHEILA DILLON ‘The drama Traces, on BBC1, is genius,” says this week’s columnist. “A murder is unravelled by complex, flawed, nuanced characters. Not a cliché in it. It’s also a primer in forensic and archaeological pathology. What’s not to love?’ Viewpoint — page 7 advertisement feature Stream Inspector George Gently from the beginning Martin Shaw stars as old-school detective George Gently in this long-running 1960s-set crime drama, with each intriguing case leaving him questioning where to…

a revolutionary in a sari

IT SEEMS AMAZING now, but when Madhur Jaffrey hosted the BBC’s first-ever programme on Indian food in 1982, Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, the show was commissioned by the corporation’s Continuing Education department. The idea was to help British people understand the new immigrants living among them. Four decades later, Indian cooking is indivisible from our national culture. When hundreds of lorry drivers were stranded at Dover before Christmas, it wasn’t fish and chips but vanloads of rice and curry that fed them, delivered by British Sikh charities. The nation’s shelves are laden with cookery books by women with names that have roots in India or Pakistan. None of this would have been possible without Jaffrey. She has been an actor, writer of the ground-breaking An Invitation to Indian Cooking in 1973 and…

from the rt archive… 29 january—4 february 1983

WHAT WE WATCHED Last of the Summer Wine was at the peak of its popularity, so RT travelled to Holmfirth in West Yorkshire, where the BBC did the location filming. People were coming in droves to visit Nora Batty’s house, but Sonia Whitehead, its real-life occupant, didn’t mind a bit. In fact, her proudest possession was a photo of actor Kathy Staff, posing in a mink coat alongside her. The Nora Batty star had signed it: “To my dear friend, Sonia. Lots of love, Kathy.” Meanwhile, Bill Owen (aka Compo) had told the local vicar he wanted to be buried in the churchyard of St John’s in nearby Upperthong. Owen’s wish was granted after his death in 1999. WHAT YOU SAID Elizabeth Mioduchowski of London loved The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolph…

‘it’s sexy, dangerous… and fun’

Bridgerton Available now Netflix ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT, my family, like millions across the world, sat down to watch Bridgerton, Netflix’s period drama set in Regency London. Having grown up with BBC and ITV Sunday-night costume dramas, I was expecting some genteel drawing-room action with a few stolen looks over the pianoforte. What I got instead was Jane Austen on acid: dazzling costumes in neon colours, heaving cleavages and not a single bonnet in sight. The cast is ridiculously good-looking and diverse with lots of black and mixed-ethnic heritage characters who deliver their lines at double speed. And sex. Lots of sex. “What is this?” grumbled my husband as our two sons buried their heads into their phones. But I was intrigued. True, it teeters on the edge of period parody, but we all…

“one day daphne is the perfect debutante, the next she has failed”

Phoebe Dynevor, 25, is the daughter of Coronation Street actress Sally Dynevor, and first appeared on our screens as a feisty teenager in BBC1’s Waterloo Road What makes Bridgerton different? The dialogue is fast, witty and modern. The women have agency. The cast is diverse. The music, the costumes, the set designs – everything is Regency with a modern twist. What did it teach you about the role of young women in Regency England? I loved getting to show the female gaze and a woman figuring out her sexuality. The nuances of feminism are interesting. You can watch Bridgerton and think, “Thank God we’ve moved on so far,” but there are aspects that make you realise, “Oh, OK, the patriarchy – we’re still suffering from that.” Bridgerton depicts women in the media being put on…