Indice dei contenuti per 11-17th April 2026 in Radio Times

WHAT TV PROGRAMMES our children and grandchildren should be watching, and how often, is rarely far from the headlines these days. When many of us were young, television felt simpler and more magical. Trumpton was a favourite of mine and, yes, I can still recite the roll call of the fire brigade. In fact, I fear that in the years to come as I forget other names those will be the ones that stick in my fading memory. Which is why one hopes that today’s young viewers are quietly building their own treasury of television moments, whether sparked by something educational, imaginative or simply silly. Those early encounters with storytelling, character and colour matter more than we sometimes realise. In this issue, we celebrate the return of Balamory, a show…

AS BEAUTIFUL AS a Mahler symphony is, I wouldn’t expect a young child to sit through an 80-minute performance in a concert hall. The capacity of children to enjoy classical music, however, is so often underestimated. That’s why, when composing Bluey – the smash hit TV series that follows Bluey, a lovable, inexhaustible blue heeler dog alongside her mum, dad and her little sister Bingo – I weave elements of Vivaldi, Holst, Mozart, Bizet, Bach and Ravel into the soundtrack. I don’t dumb down and I hope that by taking this approach to enhance the wonderful and clever animation, we’ve helped create a new generation of classical music fans. Bluey has become a phenomenon since it first aired in 2018 and its success, with parents as well as children, has…

THERE USED TO be a sense of occasion with children’s television. At its best, it could be a bonding experience, equal to sharing a great children’s book. From Clangers and Bagpuss to Rosie and Jim and Blue Peter, our shows were some of the best in the world. Today, that landscape has completely changed. It is dominated by YouTube, where Cocomelon is one of its biggest children’s programmes. There is nothing nourishing about this show. It’s simply a distraction, pleasing to the eye. I don’t know of any children who are actually invested in the story. There’s no development. It has all the feeling of an algorithm. Our company, Ragdoll Productions, specialises in programmes for young children. It was established in 1985 and over subsequent decades enjoyed hits with shows…

Cabaret ★★★★★ 15 Available until Tuesday iPlayer A magnificent musical classic from Bob Fosse, with Liza Minnelli (above) dancing her troubles away in Berlin’s decadent Kit Kat Club as Germany is gradually gripped by Nazism. Election ★★★★ 15 Available until Tuesday iPlayer Ambitious high-school student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) comes into conflict with her bitter teacher (Matthew Broderick) in this stellar black comedy. Wild Rose ★★★★ 15 Available until Thursday C4 streaming Affecting drama with a breakthrough role for Jessie Buckley, who stars as a Glasgow single mum and house cleaner who yearns to become a country singer.…

Women’s Six NationsEngland v Ireland Saturday 1.30pm (k/o 2.25pm) BBC One “THE HAIR IS a big giveaway,” jokes Ellie Kildunne. Thanks to her striking curly locks the England full back has been recognised daily since the Red Roses’ Women’s Rugby World Cup triumph last year, an indicator of the swell of enthusiasm for the game. Almost 82,000 fans watched the Red Roses defeat Canada in the World Cup final at Twickenham. But for Kildunne, that’s still not enough. More must be done to grow women’s rugby. “It takes time but I’m not a patient person,” she says, with the all-conquering England team having won 33 consecutive matches going into the 2026 Women’s Six Nations. “I don’t want to look back on my career and say the game has changed just…

Savage River 10.15pm, 11.15pm ITV1 Katherine Langford (above) stars in a new Australian small-town mystery. See Streaming: page 29 Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage 8.00pm, 8.30pm TLC Series two of the Young Sheldon sequel starring Montana Jordan and Emily Osment. Krapp’s Last Tape 9.00pm BBC Four The Royal Court Theatre’s 2006 production of Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece, starring Harold Pinter. The 2019 documentary Searching for Sam: Adrian Dunbar on Samuel Beckett follows at 9.55pm.…

AT THE START of the millennium the dot.com bubble was expanding at an exponential rate – CDs, DVDs and books would be gone by 2010, and we’d all be happily streaming or downloading. Analogue radios would be replaced by digital sets in all our cars and homes. In the midst of all this excitement, Matt Deegan and Gregory Watson saw an opportunity to serve what they saw as the “digitally disenfranchised” when it came to audio, and put in bids for various London-based stations aimed at LGBTQ+ listeners, young Asian communities, country music fans and, most important to them, children. And “serve” is the key word. In 2005, they joined forces with former Magpie presenter Susan Stranks, who remains an active campaigner for children’s radio. She ran a short-lived station…

NO DISRESPECT TO the science of modern learning and all that, but I increasingly feel that most of the really useful things I learnt in life I learnt early, and very often I learnt them by rote. When I was a teenager, entire terms were taken up trying to introduce me to branches of mathematics that I’ve since entirely forgotten (and are probably no longer taught). Nonetheless, the times tables that my parents had dinned into the seven-year-old me over the dinner table still ring loud and clear in my memory. The same applies to lines of poetry, the number of days in the months, the proper way to spell words involving i and e, certain Bible verses and even at a stretch the kings and queens of England. It’s…

GARDENING WITH CHILDREN is not only a great way to spend time together but also fun, healthy, educational, creative and rewarding. Kids learn about the natural world around them, where their food comes from, how to help our pollinators – and they perhaps develop a little patience too. When starting out, it’s lovely to garden together but ownership over a small patch can mean a lot. Ensure the area has decent soil (dig over and add some compost; get them involved), and ideally choose a sunny spot. Make it easily accessible so it can be observed, weeded, and watered easily. Growbags and large pots also work well. To kick off with, sowing seeds and watching them germinate is thrilling to all ages (including me!). Start with large seeds that are…

JUST THREE WEEKS ago, I wrote here about the deluge of TV shows with a celebrity’s name in the title, lamenting the low-quality content on our screens. Right on cue, along comes a BBC Two documentary with Miriam Margolyes’s name up front and centre, in which she basically wanders around, chats to a few people and, in her unique fashion, gets through her day. Is the result sub-optimal fare? As with many things, it seems Miriam is the exception that proves the rule. Simon Draper’s flm, Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me, started out as a podcast until he, like everyone else, realised his subject is incapable of staying between the lines of any one format. Thus, when she’s not entertaining a sold-out Sydney Opera House or giving a gentle bollocking…

What’s the role of children’s television? Children are affected by what they see. You need to give them something that doesn’t just entertain but helps them grow, develop their identity and their own sense of the world. I think society has lost understanding of the importance of this genre. Should parents be concerned about reducing screen time? The struggle now is that, with the bombardment of all kinds of content coming our way, parents haven’t really understood the difference between content made specifically with children in mind, and content that might look like it’s for children but hasn’t been made for them properly. It’s not just about stopping kids using screens, it’s what’s on the screens. Screen time can be enriching if it’s the right kind of content and done…

DRAMA Euphoria Series 3 episode 1 available Sunday HBO Max Not many dramas can claim to have birthed as many megastars as this often outrageous saga about self-destructive, disaffected American teens: Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi and Colman Domingo are all vastly more famous than they were when the show debuted in 2019, but they’re all back for the third season. The series, which also airs on Mondays at 9pm on Sky Atlantic, jumps forward five years to find the high-school students are now young adults, but their foibles are still the familiar ones, so prepare to clutch your pearls anew as the gang continue their extremely unhealthy relationships. Mainly, though, it’s a show that draws its power from its unflinching portrayal of modern drug culture, and narcotics look like…

STOP-MOTION ANIMATION Bagpuss All episodes available now ITVX In a modern world focused on the shock of the new, there’s something deeply soothing about the lived-in look of Bagpuss and his friends. This saggy old cloth cat, forever mending lost and broken things, feels like pop culture’s first upcycling expert, each episode unfolding like a miniature version of The Repair Shop. Created with handmade precision by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate and first shown in 1974, the show remains an oasis of calm compared to more hectic children’s fare, its atmosphere gently melancholic yet quietly uplifting. A film version is currently in development – here’s hoping it captures the same patient magic.…

IF YOU WIN the Masters golf tournament you join another order of humanity. You become (golf) royalty. Or perhaps divinity. This weekend, at Augusta, Rory McIlroy will park in his own space in the champions’ car park. He will change in the champions’ locker room. He has already chosen the menu for the pre-tournament dinner: grilled elk sliders to start and Irish champ (mashed potatoes with spring onions) to go with the main. “It’s all going to be about enjoying my week,” he says. Does that include winning it again, as he strolls at his royal (or divine) ease among the dogwoods and azaleas? Or was his life fulfilled forever last year when he became only the sixth man to do a career slam? He completed the set of crown…

Eric Morecambe: My Comedy Hero by Miranda Hart 700pm BBC Two Miranda Hart travels across Britain to find out more about her comedy idol (above). The Adventures of Mansour: Age of Al 6.15pm, 6.259m CBBC Series two of the animated series about a young lad, Mansour, who has accidentally created an evil technology called Blink. Tonight, it seeks to break free of human control. The Jonathan Ross Show 10.00pm ITV1 Guests tonight are Sir Michael Palin, Catherine Tate, Anna Maxwell Martin and singer/songwriter Myles Smith.…

Great British Menu 7pm (Wed in Wales) BBC Two Andi Oliver (above) hosts as four chefs from south-west England serve up their starters, canapés and fish dishes in the hope of cooking for the banquet. Ligas 9.00pm, 10.150m Sky Atlantic Lorenzo defends a former bodybuilder accused of murder and a radio host charged with incitement to commit a crime. The Copenhagen Test 11.00pm, 12.10am C4 In the first of a double bill, Alexander (Simu Liu) goes off-plan, but at what cost? In the second episode, he faces an impossible choice.…

DMV: Department of Motor Vehicles 10.05pm ITV1 Anew American sitcom following the employees of the East Hollywood DMV. Starring Harriet Dyer as Colette (above) and Molly Kearney as Barbara. This Farming Life 8.00pm (not Wales) BBC Two Andrew and Gayle are hoping their produce impresses a very special, royal visitor at a local farmers’ market. Inside Barlinnie 9.00pm BBC Two Behind the bars of Scotland’s largest prison, where long-term addict Bobby enters rehab and Billy tries to show he really has changed for the better.…

FIRST LESSON: DON’T do what they do in the movies. “In Masters of the Air (Apple TV), pilots will quite often whip their oxygen masks off,” observes Hattie Hearn, “and in the 1990 film Memphis Belle a member of the bomber crew removes his glove to handle the machine guns. But if you really did those things at 25,000 feet your hand would freeze to the machine gun and without oxygen you’d become unconscious within a couple of minutes.” Dr Hearn is a Second World War aircraft historian and a curator at Imperial War Museum, Duxford – not to mention a consultant for those screen productions that want to get their facts a little more accurate. And for her new book, How to Fly a Spitfire, she raided technical archives,…

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair All episodes available now on Disney+ MALCOLM HAS IT easy – if he wants things tough, he should try a luxury holiday at one of the best resorts in the Maldives. Hang on, that sentence probably needs some explaining. Available this week on Disney+, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair reboots the US sitcom from the noughties, updating its original premise (teenage Malcolm is a smart middle child navigating life with his cheerfully dysfunctional parents and brothers) to a strangely familiar new one (adult Malcolm is a smart middle child navigating life with his cheerfully dysfunctional parents, brothers, girlfriend and daughter). But he only has to do that at home. I’ve foolishly chosen to wrangle my two sons (11 and 14) and my…

WITH VICTORIA COREN MITCHELL ONLY CONNECT The connecting wall from Only Connect combines general knowledge, wordplay and lateral thinking to give your brain cells a workout! HOW TO PLAY Your task is to sort the 16 seemingly random words/phrases below into four groups of four connected words. You may find some clues fall into more than one category, but there is only one complete solution. If you get stuck, have a look at the clues on the side of the page… THE ENGIMA CODE Can you crack the Enigma code? Each grid number represents a letter. Every letter of the alphabet is used. Use the given letter or letters — below the main grid — to start. The solution is on the previous page. Difficulty: 13/20 Target time: 26 minutes…

RIBBETING STUFF CBeebies is bringing us a new series based on creations from Game of Wool winner Holger Auffenberg – Froglets. The series will rely on knitted frog puppets that “stand out in a media landscape that is dominated by CGI”, Auffenberg tells RT. Froglets premieres in May. HAPPY SNAPPING BBC Studios has confirmed that there is a brand new Bluey video game on the way. Called Bluey’s Happy Snaps, it will allow the whole family to go on a journey and take pictures for their own scrapbooks, and is scheduled for release later this year. NO SPINS FOR POTTER While HBO has confirmed that work on the second season of the Harry Potter TV series has begun, don’t expect any more prequels or spin-offs like the Fantastic Beasts movies…

MISS HOOLIE’S NURSERY has had a big upgrade for the new series in a larger studio in Glasgow. Art on the wall changes to match each episode, and as an avid gardener now, Miss Hoolie has an outdoor space. If you look closely, you’ll even see her original green striped cardigan in the see-through cupboard. “It’s just sitting there, a little nod to the gal she was,” says Julie Wilson Nimmo. You only notice you’re in a studio when you look up to see the gigantic lights, which the kids often stare at, with Wilson Nimmo vaguely answering their smart questions of: “You don’t live here, do you?”, “Why aren’t you getting the ferry back to Balamory?” and “Whose jackets and bags are those?” Andrew Agnew also returns as PC…

Noah Kahan: Out of Body Available Monday Netflix Cameras follow the musician (above) as he returns home to Vermont following the breakout success of his debut album Stick Season. Bandi Available 9 April Netflix French-language drama about a group of orphaned siblings in Martinique who turn to crime. Family Budget Switch Up Ep 1 available Monday C4 streaming Children take financial control of a household in a new series presented by Mollie King and Peter Komolafe. Scrubs Ep 9 available Thursday Disney+ The final episode of the revival of the hospital-set US sitcom.…

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BOXING Tyson Fury v Arslanbek Makhmudov Saturday 7pm Netflix Guess who’s back again? Tyson Fury, of course. The self-styled “Gypsy King” returns to the ring after coming out of retirement for the fifth time, 13 years after originally hanging up his gloves. This is Fury’s first fight since a bruising pair of defeats, the first of his career, to Oleksandr Usyk in May and December 2024. RUGBY LEAGUE Challenge Cup: Wakefield Trinity v Wigan Warriors Sunday 1pm BBC One The Challenge Cup continues with Wakefield and Wigan set to duel at Belle Vue for a place in the final four. The last time these two teams met last August, Wigan ran out 44-2 victors with Zach Eckersley scoring two of eight tries. The young back ranks among the top try-scorers…

Euphoria 9.00pm Sky Atlantic The returning drama - starring Zendaya and Jacob Elordi (above) - tracks a group of young adults as they deal with love, loss, sex and drugs. Submarine Jim 4.30pm CBBC Jim, a young dolphin is recruited to rescue sardines that were lost during a routine newspaper run. Can he find them? Mastermind/University Challenge 8.00pm, 8.30om BBC Two First up is Mastermindwith Clive Myrie as he hosts the last of the semi-finals, followed by Manchester facing Imperial College in University Challenge.…

COMEDY You’re Dead to Me Presents Dead Funny History Greg Jenner’s guide to historical figures you ought to know about has its hands full keeping to the terms of its laugh-a-minute guarantee when dealing with the Brontë sisters, the 19th-century novelists who practically invented teenage gloom. Indeed, had black goth make-up been available in Haworth, the Brontës would presumably have been all over BookTok. This treatment solves the problem of the sheer quantity of funerals involved in the family story by sounding a baleful bell every time a character dies before the end of the very same sentence that introduced them. This is often. I’m a fool for trivia so I never got over learning that their father changed the family name from Prunty. Probably a good thing. It’s difficult…

Margo’s Got Money Troubles Rufi Thorpe Margo’s Got Money Troubles episodes 1–3 available from 15 April Apple TV A young, single mother, a college dropout and an OnlyFans creator are just a few of the monikers one could use to describe the eponymous heroine of Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Sceptre, £9.99). Newly pregnant, she knows that she can’t rely on her family nor the father of her child, and so turns to content creation – of the explicit variety. A story of humour and pathos, while also asking pertinent questions about motherhood. See what it’s like: page 7 City of Lies Ravita Navai Book of the Week Mon–Fri 11.45am, 12.30am Radio 4 A timely choice from Radio 4, Ravita Navai’s City of Lies (Orion, £10.99) was written following the journalist’s…

WHAT IS THE best way to save some money for my children or grandchildren? It’s a question many ask, and the answer is often a Junior Isa (Jisa). If a child already has one, then putting money into that is the simplest way for people to contribute. A Jisa can only be opened by a parent or guardian – but once opened, anyone can pay into it. The maximum contribution allowed is £9,000 per tax year, from all sources combined. An astonishing 78,000 Jisas have that maximum paid in each year; but, at the other end, almost a million had nothing paid in at all in 2023/24 (the latest figures). Junior Isas come in two flavours: cash or investments (which usually means shares). A child can have one of each…

A CANTERBURY TALE I was delighted to see that the BBC had allocated a generous amount of time to present live coverage of the installation of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally (25 March BBC One), and paid particular attention to the monumental importance of this historic event. Not without controversy and some resistance, it marks a landmark shift in attitudes and a major step towards true inclusion and equality. Geoff Righton Nottingham …Congratulations to the BBC team for the wonderful broadcast of Sarah Mullally’s enthronement. The atmosphere of delight, humility, and reaching out to everyone was beautifully presented, and Paddy O’Connell‘s input was exactly right. A moment of light and joy in our currently rather dark world. Angela Ashwin Southwell, Nottinghamshire …My wife and I watched the…

What’s the view from your trash can? Looking out of my can, all I see is birds chirping, happy monsters, and sunshine. YUCK! That is why I prefer to stay in my can or keep my eyes closed! What’s it like living on Sesame Street? Miserable. Next question! Everyone is always singing and dancing. And that little red furball is always laughing! It’s so cute. YUCK! Elmo told us he thinks he saw you smile once and that deep down, you’re a big softie. Is that true? What?! Smile. Me? No, never. Grouches don’t smile. Our motto is to turn that smile upside down! Are you able to watch TV in the trash can? Yes, but the signal is all fuzzy and I only get one channel! What do you…