Pilot TV

Pilot TV is officially one degree of Kevin Bacon as of this week as the City On A Hill star joins us to talk about the new season of that show which is airing now on Paramount+. Plus James, Boyd and Kay get into the viability of slow-burn shows in this era of peak TV, go round 2 over The Sandman, and catch up on the penultimate episode of Better Call Saul (no spoilers). Elsewhere, we review Sharon Horgan's new show on Apple, Bad Sisters, contemporary app-based horror series Red Rose on BBC3, and Nicola Walker and Sean Bean's incredibly affecting Marriage on BBC1. And there's still time to book tickets to our live 200th show on the 21st: https://bit.ly/3plL4hW

** BOOK TICKETS FOR OUR LIVE 200th EPISODE ON 21 AUGUST HERE: https://bit.ly/3A4lXWY** The Sandman stars Tom Sturridge and Vivienne Acheampong join us on the show this week to dream a little dream of Netflix's Neil Gaiman adaptation with Helen O'Hara. Plus we take a look at Apple's hurricane Katrina thriller, Five Days At Memorial, and nineties movie spin-off A League Of Their Own on Prime Video. Elsewhere, there's a quick, spoiler-free confab about the state of Better Call Saul and Boyd and James square off for Breedersgate part 2, only this time it's all about the Lord of Dreams.

On this week’s show we weigh in on Prime Video’s eighties teen time travel drama Paper Girls, watch Neil Patrick Harris enjoy no sex in his city as the star of Netflix’s Uncoupled, and join Alicia Vikanda in HBO’s meta-Hollywood satire Irma Vep. Plus James, who definitely hasn’t been on holiday this week, reveals his true identity as a West Country millennial with a love of workplace comedies.

This week's show sees us solving a double murder alongside Andrew Garfield in Under The Banner Of Heaven on Disney+, searching for answers with an amnesiac Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Surface on Apple TV+, and finally getting to find out what's going down in From, the creepy supernatural horror that kicks off the launch of Sky Sci-Fi, formerly Syfy, formerly The Sci-Fi channel. Confused? So are we. Plus we examine the films that really should have been able to luxuriate over a television runtime.

This week we not only dissect the nominations for this year's EMMYs, but James reveals the extent to which Covid (which, in the mother of all ironies, laid him out immediately after recording last week's show) has allowed him to put a dent in his mammoth watch-list, specifically around a certain Breaking Bad prequel. And speaking of which, in a cryptic review that plays out almost entirely in code, Beth and Boyd review Better Call Saul's home stretch while protecting James' delicate ears from any hint of spoilers. And we watch Witness No. 3 on Ch5 and cry (and laugh, but mainly cry) our way through season 3 of Trying on Apple TV+.

Michelle de Swarte is our guest on this week's show, chatting demonic offspring with Beth in honour of Sky comedy The Baby. Elsewhere, prompted by a recent episode of The Boys, the team discuss the most shocking scenes in all of tellydom, plus we announce our LIVE 200th episode (keep Sunday 21 August free!). Review-wise, we wade into The Control Room on BBC1, comedy Sneakerhead on Dave, and James and Boyd try (and fail) not to get into (another) fight about Breeders.

As promised a couple of weeks back, we welcome The Man Who Fell To Earth stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Bill Nighy to the show this week, where they were warmly greeted by Pilot TV superfan Chris Hewitt. Plus we run through our pick of the 20 best TV shows of the year so far, and even find time to do a quick rundown of the Stranger Things finale (at the very end if you want to avoid spoilers). We also look at Apple's Taron Egerton prison thriller Black Bird; Sky's parenting black comedy The Baby; Starzplay's true crime drama The Girl From Plainville, with Elle Fanning; and Prime Video's The Terminal List, which sees Chris Pratt kill everyone in sight as a vengeful Navy SEAL.

Simon Pegg joins us on the show this week, to talk about his new Channel 4 cyber security drama, The Undeclared War. Plus we head back to the future for the fourth season of Westworld on Sky, Atlantic, off to New Orleans for the US reimagining of Queer As Folk on Starzplay, and back to Atlanta for Season 3 of that show, which returns to Disney+. Plus Boyd catches up with the second season of Only Murders In The Building. All that and some Kate Bush love and musings on the pros (and cons) of book to TV adaptations.

Want to hear from The Master Chief himself? Of course you do, which is why Pablo Schreiber joins us on this week's show to talk all things Halo. Plus the team take sides on whether they're #TeamMaggie or #TeamBirdy in Everything I Know About Love, Beth and Boyd go into raptures about the Barry finale and we review ALL the shows. Why? Because Paramount+ launched this week, and with it everything from The Man Who Fell To Earth and The First Lady to The Offer, Halo and the new Star Trek show. There is a LOT going on and we do our level best to cover off the whole lot.

Paapa Essiedu and Anjli Mohindra join us on the show this week to talk all things time travel for Joe Barton's new series, The Lazarus Project on Sky. Plus Anson Mount — Christopher Pike himself — is also with us, sliding back into the captain's chair for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+. Not only that, but we investigate a murder among the miners with David Morrissey in Sherwood on BBC1, and finally get to talk about the latest addition to the MCU, Ms Marvel on Disney+.

The legend that is Murray Bartlett is our guest on this week's show, chatting all things Physical Season 2, as well as The Last Of Us and (most importantly) Farscape. Plus we finally get David Simon's Baltimore-set follow-up to The Wire, We Own This City, into our eyes; go out on the lash with Dolly Alderton in Everything I Know About Love; and catch up with Homelander, Starlight and the inimitable Billy Butcher in season 3 of The Boys. All that and James, Beth and Boyd still find time to talk about great musical moments in television and re-litigate Stranger Things.

Only a group as seismic as The Sex Pistols could bring the Empire Podcast and the Pilot TV Podcast together once again. Yes, to mark the launch of Danny Boyle's brand-new six-part series, Pistol, on Disney+, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb put their collective noggins together and discuss the show, which debuts on Disney+ on May 31, and which charts the rapid rise and fall of the British punk band towards the tail end of the 1970s. In a fun episode, Chris, James and Beth talk about the cultural impact of Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Sid Vicious and the boys; their legacy; their weird link to the Spice Girls, and much, much more. Plus, Chris sits down with two of the stars of the show, Maisie Williams and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and asks one of them about nicking Andy Serkis' arancini at the Empire Awards. It doesn't get much more punk than that. Never mind the you-know-what, here's [Empire and Pilot talking about] the Sex Pistols.

Not only do we have both Karl Urban and Jensen Ackles on this week’s show to talk about the new season of The Boys, but Empire’s Helen O’Hara makes her Pilot TV debut, finally getting the chance to lay her hands on one of the stars of Supernatural (figuratively speaking). Then, we nearly fail to get Obi-Wan Kenobi on the show but, thanks to some post-production tomfoolery, we were able to do a last minute drop-in to cover off all things Star Wars, and that was in addition to Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols biopic, Pistol and sci-fi adaptation The Midwich Cuckoos on Sky. All that and Beth (for she has returned) Boyd and James mull over some of the best shows that have filmed in their respective home towns.

We may not have been able to see Obi-Wan Kenobi this week but that didn't stop us inviting Indira Varma onto the show to talk all about the latest addition to the Star Wars canon. Plus we return to Hawkins for Stranger Things' fourth season on Netflix, see Kaley Cuoco return in season 2 of The Flight Attendant and head off to university with that wee English fella in Big Boys on Channel 4. Beth is in Cannes this week so we're instead joined instead by none other than Boyd's Heat magazine desk-mate Kay Ribeiro.

Heartstopper star Joe Locke joins us on the show this week to talk about that show's huge impact since its release. Plus the team not only get deep into the weeds on who'd make the best companion to Ncuti Gatwa's doctor but end up going off on an extended tangent about the worth of American remakes off the back of US Ghosts. Plus we review the latest adaptation of hit novel The Time Traveler's Wife on Sky, catch up with Claire Danes and Tome Hiddleston in The Essex Serpent on Apple and join JK Simmons and Sissy Spacek for a look at Prime Video's Night Sky.

The legendary Glenn Close joins us this week along with her Tehran co-star Niv Sultan to discuss the Apple show's second season, plus Bosch himself, Mr Titus Welliver, stops by to chat Bosch: Legacy, Star Wars and assorted geekery. Plus we get into this week's TV BAFTAs, the exciting new Doctor Who casting, and which shows from this year we think will stand the test of time. All that and we review Tokyo Vice on Starzplay, Conversations With Friends on BBC3, and The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix.

James gets to indulge his geek tendencies this week when Ella Purnell and Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway herself!) join the show to talk Star Trek Prodigy, and Boyd sits down with Jack Davenport and John Morton to discuss Netflix's Ten Percent. Plus the team talk immersive TV experiences and get properly stuck into Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Freevee, The Staircase on Sky, and DI Ray on ITV.

Elisabeth Moss joins us on the show this week to discuss Apple's brilliant, reality-bending serial killer thriller, Shining Girls. Plus Bill Hader drops by to talk bringing Barry back to our screens, taking the opportunity to also unleash his Matt Berry impression upon Beth. Elsewhere on the show, we take a deep dive into the current state of the streaming wars and take a peek at Prime Video's Call My Agent adaptation, Ten Percent.

We're awash with both guests and shows this week, with Sienna Miller and Rupert Friend joining us to talk all things Anatomy Of A Scandal, and Sarah Solemani sitting down for a very frank and interesting conversation about #MeToo, that Oscars slap, and her new Channel 4 Show Chivalry (all from the comfort of her 'fascist shed'). Meanwhile, we line-up a veritable marathon of new shows for review, including the aforementioned Chivalry, timeloop BBC2 drama Life After Life, the second season of Netflix's Russian doll, Starzplay's Watergate drama Gaslit (with Julia Roberts), and teen romance Heartstopper on Netflix. Better than a chocolate egg, we thing you'll agree.

Not only do we have Will Poulter on this weeks show, talking Agatha Christie and Arsenal with Boyd, but Derry Girl Saoirse-Monica Jackson drops by as well to discuss that show's final season. As well as Channel 4's Derry Girls and Britbox mystery, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, we also take a look at Catherine Tate's Hard Cell on Netflix and Apple's feminist anthology, Roar. Plus James is forced to watch Newark, Newark and the team celebrate the rather excellent casting of Terri's memoir adaptation.

Alison Brie joins us on this week's show to talk about her upcoming show Roar, reminisce about Community with Beth and walk us through her favourite wrestling move. Plus we finally get to talk about Moon Knight (Steven Grant impressions abound — you have been warned), there's something rotten in Westminster in Netflix's Anatomy Of A Scandal, and Beth tries to work out what in the name of Sol is going on in Season 2 of Sky's bonkers sci-fi series Raised By Wolves. All that and we still find time to talk about the finale of Peaky Blinders, which does contain spoilers so if you haven't seen it yet then skip everything between 21:46 and 39:18.

We're joined on this week's show by Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden, who drop by to talk Apple's new espionage drama, Slow Horses, and debate the merits of kitchen vs shower acting. Plus we take a look at basketball through the lens of Adam McKay in Winning Time, and finally get to see what all the fuss is about with Hacks, which arrives on these shores a year after its US debut. Plus we indulge in a little Peaky Blinders state of the union, and Boyd kicks off a debate about resurrecting limited series.

James has lost his voice this week, which makes for a particularly absurd episode in which he goes full Baron Greenback and croaks his way through the entire show. And what a show it is, because not only does Netflix's raunchy Regency show, Bridgerton, return for series 2, but Apple's generation-spanning Pachinko makes its debut, and Peacemaker *finally* lands on Sky after a torturous three-month wait. All that and the team talk through shows they loved but refuse to revisit and the lost joy of internet forums.

Beth is struck down by the Cove this week, leaving James and Boyd to run amok. However, they're not alone for long because the boys enlist the help of a *very* special friend to help keep them in check — and we won't spoil that surprise here. This week's show also sees the team tackle shows they've abandoned and come back to, litigating the trailer for Obi-Wan and taking a look at Apple's WeCrashed with Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, Netflix's resurrection of Top Boy and Irish murder mystery Holding on ITV.

The first three episodes of The Dropout, the new series charting the rise and fall of tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, the company she founded, have landed on Disney+, and in the latest team-up between the Empire Podcast and Pilot TV Podcast, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb have a good old natter about it. In this very special crossover episode, in association with Disney+, they talk about the real-life events behind the show (created by Elizabeth Meriwether), the reasons why Hollywood is drawn to stories like this, the incredible cast, led by Amanda Seyfried, and much, much more. So turn on, tune in and drop out for The Dropout...

Martin Compston joins us on this week's show, fielding Boyd's questions about his new ITV thriller Our House, bemoaning the state of modern football, and giving an update as to what might be next in store for Line Of Duty. Plus we're on the hunt for Satan's concubines in BBC2 comedy The Witchfinder, and trying to solve a mystery with Samuel L. Jackson in The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey on Apple. All that and the team talk through the things they most would (or wouldn't) want to see adapted, some of their other TV podcast picks and Boyd outlines the plot for the twelve-part miniseries of James' life.

This week's episode sees Joe Dempsie join us to talk all about his new show, Pieces Of Her on Netflix, as well as reflecting on sex scenes, intimacy and the pervading influence of Skins. Other than that, though, we have a particularly shambolic episode in which James, having come straight from an overnight flight with zero sleep and spectacularly failed to prepare, does his level best to derail the whole endeavour. But that doesn't stop us trying to reunite with Villanelle in the final series of Killing Eve on BBC1, watch Amanda Seyfried undermine the health system in The Dropout on Disney+, and chase demons with Courteney Cox in Shining Vale on Starzplay. All that and the team line-up their desert island streaming shows, Boyd and Beth have their weekly Euphoria rant, one of Boyd's famous friends calls mid-recording, and James falls asleep while Beth is talking.

We're a day late this week, by order of the Peaky Blinders (or more specifically the BBC's review embargo), but it's all good because Peaky creator Steven Knight drops by the show to talk about the show's final season and allow James to bend his ear about the joys of See. Plus we're mixing love and lycanthropy with Wolf Like Me on Prime Video and getting our Norse back on in Netflix's Vikings: Valhalla (where Boyd unveils his extraordinary Norse accent). All that and we give a loving (and belated) eulogy for Neighbours and officially rank our favourite Netflix originals.

It's a particularly anarchic show this week as chronology gets thrown entirely out of the window and sections collide, possibly as a result of too much Valentine's Day chocolate - who can really say? Still, we have a giggle looking at the most romantic shows every to grace our screens (Beth has absolutely no time for it), plus engage in an impromptu post mortem of The Book Of Boba Fett. All that and we take a look at Apple's Severance, Sky's Fresh Prince reconceptualisation, Bel-Air, and Netflix's teen detention murder mystery One Of Us Is Lying.

Adam Kay, author of bestselling medical memoir This Is Going To Hurt, joins us on the show this week as we look at the BBC adaptation of his work, starring Ben Whishaw as the man in the white coat. Plus we're investigating the kidnapping of Uma Thurman's son in Apple's Suspicion, getting stuck in a Turkish jail in No Return on ITV, and catching up with Rose Matafeo's celebrity shenanigans in the return of Starstruck on BBC2. Not only that but we take a long, hard (steady) look at the rapidly escalating penis count on our screens, list the TV characters we'd happily kill with fire, and get a much-needed update on the status of Risky the cat's drinking fountain.

If this week got off to a bumpy start for you, there can be no better medication than a prescription of Beth's raucous interview with Tiffany Haddish on this week's show, as the pair get surprisingly frank about the things they'd like to do to Jamie Demetriou (00:18:37-00:32:07). And not content with that, Beth also sat down with Mackenzie Davis to talk all things Station 11 and get tips on the finer points of knife-throwing (00:58:05-01:10:52). But that's not all, because we take a trip with man-mountain Jack Reacher in Prime Video's adaptation of the Lee Child novel series, Reacher, explore the origins of the world's most famous sex tape in Pam & Tommy on Star, and take up a sideline in cyberstalking thanks to Chloe on BBC1. Plus the team mull over their must-watch and must-skip title sequences and Beth explains why Risky, the world's most middle-class cat, has just acquired a drinking fountain.

Stanley Tucci and Carrie Coon are our guests on this week's show, talking to us about La Fortuna (23:00-32:51) and The Gilded Age (53:06-1:02:37), respectively. Plus we have a stupidly long lineup of shows to review, including Starzplay's post-apocalyptic drama, Station Eleven; Julian Fellowes' Downton-in-America drama, The Gilded Age; Apple's whodunnit comedy, The Afterparty; Martin Freeman's gritty BBC police drama, The Responder; and the long-awaited arrival of The Sinner Season 4 on Netflix. All of which was more than enough to keep James, Beth and Boyd glued to screens through most of last week. However, paying no heed to minor inconveniences like the laws of time and space, Boyd still found time to devour Archive 81 and bring us a full update, James gave The Tourist another go, and the team hoovered up the Yellowjackets finale (no spoilers) as well.

Ricky Gervais joins us on this week's show to discuss the finer points of blowing belly raspberries with Tony Way in After Life, plus Nell Tiger Free stops by to dispense childcare advice in the third season of Apple's Servant, where she and Boyd get into such varied topics as incest and the finer points of moth taming. In addition (and we apologise in advance) James finishes his rewatch of The Expanse just in time to watch the finale live, and proceeds to bang on about why it's amazing for what we can only hope is the last time (so sorry). Plus the team reviews bomb disposal thriller Trigger Point on ITV, comeback show Queens on Star, and Stanley Tucci's treasure-hunting adventure, La Fortuna, on AMC UK. NOTE: Ricky and Tony's After Life interview is, unusually, a spoiler interview and goes deep on lots of the third season's plot points, including the finale. If you've not seen it then you might want to do so first, or you can skip the interview entirely to preserve its secrets by avoiding 29:22-1:00:00.

Happy New Year! Can you hear us? We certainly hope so, because the first Pilot TV podcast of 2022 is brought to you by none other than Clem Fandango, Mr Shazad Latif himself, who joins us to talk all things Toast of Tinseltown. Plus, we take a look at all the TV we didn't cover over the Christmas break and line up Jamie Dornan's outback ordeal, The Tourist, for the full review treatment. Also in reviews are Maxine Peake-starring HR escapade Rules Of The Game, and the third (and final) season of Ricky Gervais' Afterlife (where Boyd decides that Ricky Gervais' character and James might share more DNA than is entirely healthy).

We have a BUMPER year-end special for you this week. We're joined not only by The Doctor herself, Jodie Whitaker, and her companion Mandip Gill, but — in a very special Christmas gift to James — we are also joined by the entire core cast of The Expanse! Aside from ushering in the new year with these titans of modern sci-fi, we take a look back at the year that was, run down our list of the top TV shows of 2021 and generally take a look at the highs and lows of the past 12 months over a glorious two-and-a-half hours. Happy New Year!

Sarah Phelps joins us on this week's show (39:14-1:01:37) to discuss her new BBC miniseries, A Very British Scandal, which pits Claire Foy against Paul Bettany in a break-up for the ages as the Duchess and Duke of Argyle. Plus we take a trip with David Tenant in Around The World In 80 Days, and find out what Agent Starling got up to after Buffalo Bill (and before eating Ray Liota's brains) in Clarice on Alibi. Plus, James, Beth and Boyd go through some of the shows they're most looking forward to in 2022 and you'll discover why Succession makes Phelpsie want to have a wee.

Henry Cavill, Geralt of Rivia himself, joins us on this week's show, to talk a little bit about the The Witcher's second season and a lot more about fantasy books, Warhammer 40k and general geekery (24:34-46:54). In addition to Netflix's returning fantasy, we take a look at Gugu Mbatha-Raw's living situation as she moves in to David Oyelowo's rather terrifying apartment in The Girl Before on BBC1, and we find out what Carrie Bradshaw's been up to since Sex And The City in follow-up show And Just Like That on Sky Comedy (first episode spoilers exist between 1:21:21 and 1:35:58). PLUS we record a special drop-in to talk about the Succession finale (1:09:20-1:20:16), mull over the best will-they/won't-they relationships, and James manages to trample all over Beth's Ex Machina analogy and she refuses to let him cut it out.

National treasures Olivia Colman and David Thewlis take time out of their busy schedules to drop by the podcast this week (31:27-52:09), telling us all about quirky black comedy Landscapers on Sky. Plus we take a look at Ragdoll on Alibi, and the team debate the reasons why directors in TV don't get the same credit as their big screen counterparts, while the reverse is true of writers. But all that pales into insignificance compared to the main event this week, as we dive headfirst into deep space for the televisual event of the year — nay, the decade! — when The Expanse returns for its sixth and *final* (for now) season on Prime Video. BELTALOWDA!

More Star Trek shenanigans abound this week as the team try to work out what in the name of the Prime Directive Pluto TV is. Elsewhere, we finally get to talk about Disney's Hawkeye series, take a trip to the wilderness with a girls' soccer team in Yellowjackets on Sky Atlantic, catch up with killer Charles Lee Ray in Child's Play spin-off series Chucky, on Sky Max, and get a little courtroom monologuing from Samuel Adewunmi in You Don't Know Me on BBC1. Plus, in perhaps the greatest upset in Pilot TV history, James voluntarily watches an animated series — listen now to find out what he thought of it.

I spy Aes Sedai on this week's show as we're finally able to talk about Amazon's The Wheel Of Time. Plus we explore the decaying carcass of small town Pennsylvania in American Rust on Sky, and see if we've discovered the new Squid Game in the form of South Korean supernatural thriller Hellbound on Netflix. All that and we vent our righteous fury over the sudden departure of Star Trek Discovery for Paramount+, plus take a trip down memory lanes to discuss some of the best (and worst) pilot episodes we've seen.

To herald the arrival on Disney+ of Dopesick, Danny Strong’s drama chronicling the devastating impact of the opioid crisis on America, the Empire Podcast and Pilot TV Podcast crews have, once again, set aside their differences and come together to have a good old natter. In this very special crossover episode, in association with Disney+, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb do a deep dive into Dopesick, which tackles the opioid crisis from the points of view of characters connected to the crisis in various ways. They talk about the crisis itself, about the show’s all-star cast (including Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard, Kaitlyn Dever, and Will Poulter), and much, much more. And if that weren’t enough, Beth also sits down with Danny Strong, Kaitlyn Dever and Will Poulter for an in-depth chat about the show. So sit back, relax, and enjoy Dopesick, an Empire + Pilot TV podcast special with Disney+.

Dougray Scott and Irvine Welsh drop by the show this week to talk about their new thriller, Crime, on Britbox (37:51-54:31), plus we get our Dan Brown on with The Lost Symbol on Sky and put our anime knowledge to the test (ably assisted by Anime-doctorate-holder Beth K Webb) with Netflix's live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Plus we look at which cancelled shows we still recommend people watch, the prevalence of Brit crime thrillers, the veracity (or not) of Squid Game's return, and how James managed to navigate 24 hours in the North of England (spoiler: not that well).

If you're wondering why this week's runtime is so long, it's because we have a big old Q&A with Gemma Whelan, Jim Loach, Tahirah Sharif, Jimmy Akingbola, and Patrick Harbinson, all to talk about ITV's rather excellent new drama The Tower, which runs at the very end of this week's show (for reasons you'll soon discover). Elsewhere, we're getting reacquainted with our Dark Passengers for Dexter: New Blood on Sky Atlantic, seeking some rather problematic therapy from Paul Rudd in Apple's The Shrink Next Door, and exploring the opioid crisis in America with Michael Keaton in Dopesick on Star. Plus you'll get to find out which place in the galaxy Beth describes as "scallywag central", what everyone (James) thought of the new Witcher trailer, and what shows we all should have kept up with but, well, haven't.

We're immersing ourselves in slick Sunday night drama this week with BBC1’s Showtrial, solving a PD James murder mystery with Bertie Carvel in Channel 5’s Dalgliesh, and taking a peek inside the mind of BJ Novak in topical anthology series The Premise on Star. But that’s not all because there’s an absolute landslide of new shows hitting the airwaves this week from What We Do In The Shadows to Narcos: Mexico, the final season of Dickinson and more! Plus james finally finishes Squid Game and would like to inform everyone that its actually rather good, the team bump up against gimmicky VR in the new Wheel of Time trailer and, thanks to a listener question, are everyone is forced to talk about their dreams. Of course, it’s a miracle they get through any of it given that Boyd watched approximately 800 shows this week and elects to tell us all about them.

This week's show sees us disappear down the rabbit hole of the BBC’s recently published list of the 100 greatest TV shows of the 21st century, poring over both their rundown (which all three of us contributed to) and each of our individual lists, which the Beeb was good enough to publicly name and shame us with. Not only that, though, but we’re banging on about Squid Game *yet again*, in this instance taking the show’s English dub to task and asking some key questions about its rather baffling age rating. All of that is just the amuse bouche for the main course, however, which sees us experience Apple TV+’s Invasion, ITV’s Devon-set murder mystery The Long Call, and Stephen Merchant’s new comedy The Outlaws on BBC1.

After a two-year break, Succession is finally back on our screens this week and what better way to mark the occasion than with a dedicated Pilot TV Succession special? James, Boyd, Beth and Nick sit down to chew over the phenomenon that is Jesse Armstrong’s backstabbing masterpiece, discussing everything from the secrets of the show’s success, to the writing, the best episodes for newcomers and, naturally, which Roys each of them identify with the most. But that’s not all, because we are joined on the show by no less than five members of the cast — Brian Cox, Matthew Macfadyen, Sarah Snook, Alan Ruck, and J. Smith-Cameron — each of whom give their takes on the show and give us a little insight as to what we might expect from them in the future. *Contains discussion of some plot points from Seasons 1 and 2 but no spoilers for Season 3.*

Ben Aldridge, joins us on the show this week (41:52-1:00:00) to talk about having one of the most excellent IMDb credits as Fleabag's 'Arsehole Guy', as well as his new ITV series, The Long Call. We then struggle through the rest of the podcast recording with James in a rather fragile state, as we get down with the Roys in season 3 of Succession on Sky, re-litigate Bill Clinton's extra-marital rumblings along with Ryan Murphy in Impeachment: American Crime Story on BBC2, and try to work out what the hell is going on in the second series of Locke & Key on Netflix. Plus you get to find out what 'Pika-Blinders' is (sort of), hear our pitches for TV show spin-offs, get a blow-by-blow account of the random, Ryan Murphy-inspired hotel James was forced to crash in last night, and learn all about Beth's interpretative Succession dance (TikTok to follow, we very much hope).

There was no getting around it, we needed to talk about Ted this week, prompting a 15 minute discussion of the recent Ted Lasso finale and whether the Season 2 as a whole was full of buttery goodness or just a salty bitch (if you've not yet seen it, avoid 3:45-19:19). Elsewhere, we seek some marital advice from Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in Scenes From A Marriage on Sky Atlantic, do the absolute opposite with Penn Badgley in Netflix's You, and follow Robert Carlisle as he tries to steer the UK away from disaster in Sky Max's Cobra: Cyberwar. Plus James attempts to lecture Beth on House Of The Dragon (she has none of it), we muse over the prospect of dish-free Sky, and Beth recounts her experience of Squid Game.

It's an ITV double bill this week as we bask in the golden glow of Sunday evening feels with The Larkins, before shifting tonal gears entirely for Joanne Froggatt's domestic abuse thriller, Angela Black. Then we head up into the big black for Disney's astronaut documentary, Among The Stars, and James gets saddled with some extra homework as Boyd and Beth decide he needs to watch something out of his comfort zone as retribution for #StarTrekForBeth. Plus we talk about the wisdom of Steve Coogan playing Jimmy Savile, Larry David's bald head, and the prospect of Babylon 5 getting rebooted.

On this week's show we have a story that slowly unfolds over a thousand years... we also talk about Foundation. While the runtime for this week's episode is undeniably immense (sorry!), we did have good reason because the delightful Sophie Petzal joins us a guest co-host, ostensibly to talk about her new show Hollington Drive but more accurately to debate the merits of Star Trek: Voyager, call out our anti-animation bias, shed light on the secrets of great screenwriting, and speculate about sex with fairies. PLUS, we have Empire himself, Mr Lee Pace, on the show to talk about Apple's new sweeping sci-fi series Foundation and we take a look at sixties fascism in Ridley Road on BBC1. All that and we even recorded an emergency drop-in section so we could dissect all things 'Tadum' and talk about Netflix's big announcements, plus Boyd had FEELINGS about Russell T Davies returning to Doctor Who. It may take you half a day to get through this episode but trust us when we tell you that it's worth listening to every minute.