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Virgin Radio
23 Jun 2022, 13:34
Credit: Sky / AppleTV / Netflix
It’s been a fine year of telly so far. As we head towards the midway point in 2022, let’s revisit just a few of the shows you should have watched.
This is just scratching the surface of all the good stuff that has been on TV and streaming platforms, but hopefully you’ve seen some of these crackers.
THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS
Adapted from John Wyndham’s 1957 novel, this series is set in a small English town where nothing seems to happen - until a mysterious blackout occurs one day and people begin to pass out on their feet. On top of that, the women of the town all suddenly fall pregnant, and their children are anything but normal.
This is a seriously creepy series starring Keeley Hawes, with an amazing soundtrack by Mercury-nominated artist Hannah Peel. Watch it and you may never complain about your own kids’ behaviour again!
BETTER CALL SAUL
Jimmy returned for the first half of the final season of the Breaking Bad prequel, and boy did the show leave us shocked with its midseason finale. We won’t give away any massive spoilers here, but safe to say there were some mind-blowing moments, and Jimmy and Kim were left in quite the situation.
When Better Call Saul returns to Netflix for its final conclusion in July, it will bring to an end Jimmy/Saul’s origin story and presumably take us to the start of Breaking Bad. Lead actor Bob Odenkirk joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky earlier this year to talk about first appearing in the series.
SLOW HORSES
The Apple TV+ series stars Gary Oldman, who plays a world-weary but funny character in charge of a somewhat dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents whose careers have basically been left to rot.
When Gary joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about Slow Horses, he told Chris: “It's a spy genre, which is familiar to us, but [writer] Mick Herron has turned it upside down. I mean, you never see spies in a movie leaving work and doing their laundry and going off to the pub. It's a character piece.
“It's like The Office set in the world of espionage.”
DERRY GIRLS
The much-loved Channel 4 sitcom came to an end after three brilliant seasons.
Show creator Lisa McGee said: “I’m so proud of this show and of our incredible cast and crew and everything we’ve achieved over the past 5 years. What a journey it’s been.”
Episode one of the final season featured a very unexpected cameo from a Hollywood star.
STRANGER THINGS
Netflix’s sci-fi series returned for its fourth season, and brought with it more 80s reminiscence, and a terrifying new baddie.
The first half of the season saw the gang in all kinds of bother, while Hopper found himself stuck in Russia.
Meanwhile, Kate Bush’s classic hit Running Up That Hill shot back to the top of the charts thanks to its inclusion in the show, not least because of that scene with Max. You know the one.
THE GILDED AGE
The Sky show from Downton creator Julian Fellowes is set in New York City in the 1880s.
When the writer and director joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about it, he revealed how he got the idea. “I was just literally reading a book about the Vanderbilts, and I suddenly got fascinated by this extraordinary period of history in America, where literally America kind of came of age, after the end of the Civil War, at the end of the 1860s,” he said.
“And in that period leading up to the First World War, kind of half-a-century, they refined the notion of being America. They didn’t, anymore, imitate Europe. They devised a new way of doing things, a new way of being rich, a new kind of society.”
OZARK
Marty and Wendy Byrde were back for the Netflix show’s final outing which, as is often the way these days, was split into two parts.
The couple were in all kinds of mess with the Navarro cartel, seemingly ever close to getting out, yet always somehow being pulled back in. And as for Ruth, well she was hellbent on revenge.
As the series came hurtling towards an end, there were deaths, betrayals, and a whole lot of tension. What a series.
OBI-WAN KENOBI
The Star Wars spin-off on Disney+ rejoined its titular character 10 years after the events of movie Revenge of the Sith, in which Obi-Wan battled his pupil Anakin Skywalker - which led to the latter becoming Darth Vader.
With the Jedi being hunted by Vader’s mob, Kenobi started the series laying low on Tatooine and keeping a close eye on a young Luke Skywalker from a distance, but he was soon drawn into action after a young Princess Leia was kidnapped…
AFTER LIFE
The third and final season of Ricky Gervais’ emotional, and very funny, series aired on Netflix in January, and saw Tony (played by Gervais) doing some seriously good deeds and finally finding a semblance of hope and purpose, before (spoiler alert) the final scene saw him walk into the distance with his dog, Brandy.
Tony’s late wife Lisa (played by Kerry Godliman) appeared next to him and the couple briefly walked hand-in-hand before she faded away again. Then the dog and Tony, in turn, did the same, leaving us with tears for souvenirs.
PISTOL
When Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about his Disney+ new punk biopic series about the Sex Pistols, he told Chris about the influence of punk.
Danny said: “It was an extraordinary force in all our lives at the time, I think whether you became a punk or not. And it just liberated you from what you were destined to be, I think. It gave you a kind of freedom. They just broke something. They didn’t have anything positive to suggest to put in its place, apart from just do it yourself, or just waste your life if you want. That option was open to you as well. They broke that pattern that you were meant to follow, and since then, I don’t think we have stepped back into what the 70s were like, which were grim.”
THE OUTLAWS
Season two of the hit comedy, created by Stephen Merchant and starring Christopher Walken, recently hit our screens.
When Stephen joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the show, he said of Walken’s inclusion: “We always liked the idea that there was a character who sort of felt like a man who'd fallen to earth - you didn't quite know why he was in Bristol… and we thought an American could bring that and he was a top of the list.”
TASKMASTER
The 13th season of the hit show certainly didn’t disappoint, with Chris Ramsey, Bridget Christie, Sophie Duker, Ardal O’Hanlon and Judi Love all taking on challenges with varying degrees of success/dignity.
The season finale took place last week (we won’t spoil it here for you if you haven’t seen it), and the second Taskmaster: Champion Of Champions airs TONIGHT (June 23rd) on Channel 4.
It will feature winners of seasons 6-10, Richard Herring, Liza Tarbuck, Kerry Godliman, Lou Sanders and Ed Gamble.
Let’s hope the second half of the year is as good for telly as the first. If so, we’re in for a treat!
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