Must Watch
Those About To Die | Piglets | The Turkish Detective
This is the BBC. This podcast is supported by advertising outside the UK. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At Mint Mobile, we like to do the opposite of what Big Wireless does. They charge you a lot, we charge you a little. So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. That's right, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time, unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows, full turns at mintmobile.com. It's summer in Britain, and the crimes are just getting started. We've found another body. Stream the best of British crime drama only on Britbox. Don't miss new seasons of acclaimed series like Blue Lights, which Time Act calls Belfast's answer to the wire. Back up, back up, either. And the responder, starring Martin Freeman in his international Emmy award-winning role. I can feel it, I'm going to crack. Stream the best of British crime drama on Britbox. No, this is why I want to be a detective. Watch with a free trial today. [MUSIC] BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. [MUSIC] It is 2.34, and it is my swatch from BBC Radio 5 Live. I'm Gethin, and Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan are back to talk about and review the big television releases. Good afternoon. Hiya, hello. Hayley, what have you got for us? We've got those about to die, which stars Anthony Hopkins, and it's a bit like gladiator, but different. Oh, that does sound good. Swords and sandals. Right up my street. That's Scott. A lot of green screen. What was it going to be reviewing? A lot of continuity errors probably. No, there was. There is one. The opening scene. It's already been picked up on Twitter. So I've said that as if you knew the actual continuity error. No, I didn't. I just know Braveheart's got 127, and I always cooked that to everyone. Well, this show starts with a continuity error. Anyway, we're also going to be reviewing the Turkish detective on BBC2 and ITV's new comedy piglets, which is brought to you by the same team as Greenway. Lovely staff. Before we get into the downloads, I just want to tell you, Hayley, and the rest of the listeners that I massively regret giving Scott my phone number. Oh, OK. Yep. After the IT crisis on Friday. Yes. Doing my other job, my main job, Morning Live. Presenting Morning Live on BBC1. And we got on here at 9.30, and about 10.35. We had a message saying we might be on till 1, because the BBC could only take live shows. They couldn't take anything sort of downloaded, ironically. And then I looked at my phone and Scott was, "What's going on? I'm just trying to find out, just my Twitter followers. What's going on with the TV and radio network? What did him... He's being an investigative reporter. It was. It was. It was really bizarre, actually. Like, like, tell it it's best going from one thing to the next, not knowing what's going on. But you were asking other people what was going on. What was going on, Scott? I mean, I mean, it was down to that kind of big computer update ever by CrowdStrike. And it knocked Sky News off the air for three hours, which I think is a broadcasting first. It knocked off a lot of channels around the world. Paramount, so MTV and Nickelodeon in the US and CBBC. And then, of course, it has other effects on shows, not necessarily able to air as planned, which, of course, affected your good show. I was very much seeing whether it was going to be coming morning live, afternoon live, evening live, late night live. Mate, at one point, I thought we were just going to link to the one show at seven o'clock, the way they were talking. I thought it was going to be a long... It's going to be like, asking people to fundraise. Were you panicking and thinking of things to talk about for three hours? I don't panic because we have a brilliant team, actually, because what happened was a few people came in and they were starting to work up some items. Was we were on air? Yeah, they're brilliant. They were fantastic. So we could have gone on until when, not just to fill a space. I think it would have been really, really good stuff. And all our experts were fantastic. We're on a WhatsApp group as well. So they were all coming in with suggestions and, you know, great stuff. In a weird way, I'm gutted that you weren't able to continue to work. Just to see how it tried. Scott loves this kind of stuff. I live for it. A TV crisis. To be honest, I love it too. I mean, live, tell it is best. I think it's about ownership, isn't it? I think, don't you think TV's changed a little bit rather than kind of going, "Let's hide behind what's happening and try and protect ourselves." We didn't know. So we were literally like, "We don't know what's happening here." We interviewed Linford Christie, our question was, who from Team GB are the ones to watch? He said, "Keely," and he got cut off. We have no idea where he's gone and if he's come back. And that was it. And I'm looking at Sarah Cox and she's looking at me going, "That's the IT crisis." So instead of trying, you know, imagine if you were trying to hide behind it, we'd have been in real trouble. So we kind of own in it, really. And I think that's a good thing, isn't it? Because otherwise, if you try to give the idea that everything's running smoothly and everything's fine, then... Yeah. People don't like being lied to when they're in on it. They're kind of rooting for you to do well. That's what we thought on Friday. Plus, the fact we didn't know what the truth was. We were learning as we were going, you know, and speaking to tech experts along the way. And hopefully it's sorted because, you know, if you're about to talk about downloads and Paramount is one of them, isn't it, Haley? I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. You're the most likely one. Yeah, so my download this week, I thought of this show recently because someone asked me what my favorite children's show was. And because I don't have kids, I haven't updated my files since the 90s. So I settled on what was my actual, like my actual favorite show when I was a kid, which was Ren and Stimpy. Did you ever watch Ren and Stimpy? Yeah, I remember Ren and Stimpy. It's all on Paramount Plus, which I watched through Amazon Prime. And if you've somehow never seen this before, I mean, how do you explain Ren and Stimpy? But it was an animation. It ran on Nickelodeon in the early to mid 90s. And it was about, it had Ren, who is an emotionally unstable, but psychotic Chihuahua. And it was his friend, Stimpy, who was lovely, but stupid and is a cat. And even though it's legitimately a kid's show, it was controversial at the time because it was so violent and bizarre and dark and it had so much adult humor in it. And all of that controversy ended up getting the creator of the show fired from his own show and they continued without him. But I missed all of that when I was a kid because when you're a kid, you don't really notice all of that stuff. It's just about a dog and a cat being nuts. And it's all slapstick nonsense. And the later seasons are voiced by Billy West, by the way, who does a lot of the future armor voices. Anyway, I re-watched a bunch of episodes the other day and I was stunned by it. I loved it. It's even better as an adult. It is as controversial as people say. So it's about like... So does this mean that when Biden announced that he wasn't standing for a second time, you were watching Ren and Stimpy? I was watching Ren and Stimpy. That's wonderful. I mean, the other one that was watching the Titanic when the rest of the nation were watching the Eurofinals. I got covered. That's why we have these jobs, Scott. But when you re-watch it as an adult, it's not like a slapstick thing between a cat and a dog. It's this abusive, co-dependent relationship where one half is being psychologically and emotionally crushed by the other one. But he's too soft to notice what's happening to him. And yet they can't live without each other. They both fall apart when they have to be apart. And it's grotesque and it's surreal and it's genuinely so funny and disturbing. And I can't believe they got away with it, but I'm so glad they did. I feel like I might look at it a bit like Ren, like the first thing in the morning sometimes. Just take a while. That's a slightly angry trembling thing that he does. Like you see on the Instagram. That must have been a lovely, must have been lovely to reminisce like that, Hailey, you know, and see it in a different light. Yeah. And you sit there and you go. Your brain. Yeah. And you go, I can't believe that they put this on for kids. Like now it would be, this is definitely an adult cartoon, but it was a legit kids show. That's the 90s for you. It's a good tease. I think a lot of people will download that just to see exactly what he's talking about there. Scott, you've got for something very different, but very topical. Very different. Yes. Simone Biles rising, which is the two part documentary on Netflix. Of course, did the Olympics start on Friday. And this is a new two part on the most decorated gymnast ever. The six time world all around champion. Of course, you know, she was the face of Tokyo 2012 Olympics. She was expected. There was the anticipation that she would be sweeping it. She was in the best shape and peak physical performance. But then after, well, during the women's team final, she then stumbled and then withdrew. And of course, this was all playing out live on television. Many people did not expect this to happen. She said that she couldn't get her body and her mind to sink together. But also there had been the overwhelming expectation that she was going to win gold medals at these events. This two part, which is pretty much kind of features interviews with her, those around her looks at that moment in particular. I think what stands out is how much she had to endure. Because when she withdrew, which she says was just the fact that she couldn't get it to, she couldn't get her mind to sink with her body. And of course, when you're doing flips in the air, you know, if you don't land correctly, it can really, really severely injure you. So she was deciding to go and take it out. Particularly in American TV and on social media, she experienced a significant amount of hatred and a lot of people saying that it was wrong for her to withdraw. And it also looks at the reasons why she might not be in the right headspace that day. I think she says that due to COVID, it meant that for herself and for a lot of other athletes, there was nothing that you could do but train. You essentially take into the training centre training all day and then you would go home. You wouldn't see your friends, you wouldn't see your family, your family wouldn't be able to travel with you to Tokyo either. And she says that she just felt very, very boxed in. And I think this is a good documentary because it looks at her and it looks at the sport. It's not falling too much. It gives good access, but it's not being kind of too celebratory. I mean, whilst of course highlighting her achievements, I think to me highlights the extraordinary amount of pressure it is to be an athlete performing at the highest level. The weight of expectation you get from your country, the weight of expectation you get from your teammates, from your coaches, but also the massive amount of pressure you put on yourself. And I think it lifts the lid under the pressure. I think that a lot of athletes experience have a very young age, of course, many of them, just in the early teens or up to early 20s and mid to late 20s. I felt when that news broke, you felt like there would be a documentary behind it because it was such a big story, wasn't it? And, Scott, I know you're not a massive sports fan, but did you need to be to sort of watch this story? No, I mean, I think the reason why I'm suggesting it is I don't think you need to be. I mean, I think I like this documentary because it introduces you to the elite level of sports with gymnastics, which can get incredibly technical, but it has that familiarity. Of course, she's incredibly well-known in pop culture too, Simone, but it feels accessible without being too much about sport either, in case you're not a gymnastics fan. I'm looking at the emails, you asked people to email, mustwatch@bbsc.co.uk. Oh my goodness, I've never seen so many emails. It's lovely, isn't it? It's really good for me. It's probably busier than the complaints team at Nickelodeon when Ren Stimpey's first came out. It's more emails than that. I'm not with you that often, but I sort of delved into the inbox and was like, "Wow, this is incredible." Usually it's because Nahal begs. Does he really? It really does. He gets on his knees. There must be some audio of that. I could just play out maybe at the end of this channel trying to find it for you. So you picked out some of your favourites, is that right? Yes, we start with Tom from Lancashire, has emailed this. He says, "Dear for TV reviewing gods and a blue Peter legend." Oh, cracking stars. I have a few suggestions of shows to watch. Instead of for sports, first would be a trip down memory lane is Grange Hill. 23 out of 31 series are available in ITV Premium, so that's ITVX, if you pay. And it's as brilliant as you remember. My last recommendation is Battle in the Box, which sees four celebrities. And there are seven episodes, and they get two episodes each. Trapped in a box for 24 hours, competing for challenges to win more space and items for their box. Battle in the box is Tuesday's and Wednesday's at 9pm on Dave, now called you and Dave. I mean, that's confusing in itself. It's available also right now on UK TV Play, which is the streaming service that has now been renamed to you. We've talked about this before. Thank you for the amazing show. Podcast Kind for Gods from Tom. I've had a look at this show. It's essentially the cube. Celebrities and Solitary, which was an actual show that Chen or Five wants when they put Professor Green in Solitary Confinement, and Taskmaster, basically all up at the same time. Now, legally, it's none of those shows, but it is those shows put together on Dave with Jimmy Carr. There we go. I was watching something last night, went viral. The American cube, that lady that had to just get out the balls from the box to win $50,000. Have you seen it? No, I know. She's got two minutes and all she has to is get the balls out. Did she do it? Yeah. Of course, it's like 50 grand. I'm like, good only. I was really happy for you. The Golden Age of Television. I'm so confused about the titles of those networks. Hayley, not anyone. We'll never learn them. No. It's like getting used to Twitter has been not Twitter. Yeah. And by the time Scott and I start saying the right ones, they'll change it again. So, I'm not getting involved. I've been in the pots. Hayley, do you have an email for us? Yes. There's this one from Barney in Sussex, who starts Hi, Hayley, Scott, and whoever is replacing Nahal this week. Wow. Wow. I've gone from Blue Peter Legend to Who the hell are you in the space of 30 seconds. Quite the fall. Barney, my friend, is show business. First, I must thank Hayley for recommending the plot against America. You wrote that yourself. You wrote that yourself. I did. My favorite actress, Winona Ryder, made by the wire team and an adaptation of a book I have read. This is the most perfect TV recommendation I have ever had. Can't believe it passed me by the first time. On the David Simon tip. So David Simon is the creator of the wire and also did the plot against America. I'd like to recommend watching The Deuce on Now TV. A few years old now and possibly a little sullied by double James Franco. It is nonetheless a really entertaining show with the incomparable Maggie Gyllenhol, giving an amazing bold performance as a prostitute turned porn film actor. It captures the sleaze of the 70s and 80s Times Square in New York, long since sanitized with M&M stores and Ripley's Believe It or Not side shows. For wire fans, there are plenty of appearances from Wire Actors too. Even that bold bloke from The Docs in season two. In case of any doubt, it is somewhat explicit. Cheers from Barney in Sussex. I think he means... Frank Zabotka from season two of The Wire. If you have watched The Wire, you will still have a broken heart. Oh yeah. That was good. You've made me want to watch that, actually. I was just thinking of James Franco there. I've not come across that many celebrities in my life, guys. I've only ever done one junket. Oh yeah. They're not nice. They're weird, aren't they? They're horrible. Just to explain a junket is weird. The actors come in and they sit in front of millions of interviews in different cities around the world, close in films. Sometimes it happens in a hotel and you as a journalist get to wait in a hotel corridor for an hour until you're called in for like... It's usually a weird amount of time, like seven minutes, weirdly specific. It is weird. No, actually that's exactly what I had, seven minutes. I'm going like Hugh Grant trying to sell the horse and hound. Exactly. But it's really weird. Odds. I never enjoyed it. I didn't do another one after that. Toby Maguire was Spider-Man. Kirsten Dunce was there and James Franco. And I was interviewing Spider-Man himself, Kevin Maguire. What do you ask Spider-Man? He's done 890 interviews. What do you ask him that he's not been asked before? I wouldn't know. I'm now having flashbacks to a junket interview that I once did in which... And I'm not going to name the person that he interviewed, but it's not fair on them. But they had a really bad cold. So they were barely able to speak. And then I came in and I was really nervous. I gave advice for a home remedy to sort of a sore throat. So, like, honey and lemon cut it up. My mum's got a certain recipe. And she was really attentive and wrote it down. And then the person went, "Yep, that's your time." And I realised that my entire seven minutes interview, I was just giving the star how to sort out that gold. Oh my goodness. So I can relate to this because I actually didn't get to the film either with Maguire because my question to him was, "How does a spider get into the bath but can never get out?" And we did five minutes on that. And then you could see the PR team going, "You need to ask about the film." Oh, yeah. And you said, "No, I don't." A spider-man about. But he actually picked up. He was such... Why is it such a weird experience? We digress lovely people. Nobody, though. This is the whole point of the show. That is wonderful. That is a wonderful one. Did he have a good answer, though? Yeah, he did. No, we just discussed it for ages because I did the whole, "Did you have Spider-Man Pajama's thing?" But they heard it before. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was just glad to ask him something. No one else had asked him before. He would have loved it. Junkets make both sides sad. Both the journalist and the star. Every time I watch for now, I just think congratulations to the interview if you've got them to talk a little bit because, you know, they've done millions of things. They're like, "Do you get £1,000 to be there? Do you want to be a bit happy about it?" Wow. Let's do another email. Come on, let's do another email. Sure, sure. Who? Scott Haley? And from Brittany, it says, "Dear team must watch. Unsure whether you're going to review this shortly, but thought I'd ask you what you thought of the new seven-part series in Apple TV Plus, Lady in Lake. Having read a five-star review in The Guardian, in which they gushed about Natalie Portman's first performance on TV, and then a free star review in The Times, I was intrigued to watch the first two episodes, which are currently available. It has creatively shot along the stories of two main protagonists, and of course, there are many flashbacks, as thrillers do. Portman is indeed mesmerizing, although a stressful watch, but being set in the '60s, we have the historical context of antisemitism, prejudice, and the women's emancipation. All very interesting, and of course, we've led up many different paths as the story is set. I'm intrigued and interested enough to continue, but my husband fell asleep during both episodes. What a review. Is it a really mix between Mehrmavistown and Twin Peaks help me out? It's on my list. We're not reviewing it this week, and we're now in the way that we are. We're not on next week or the week after, because of the Olympics. Blame sports. Blame sports. Add to the list. How long are your lists? Sometimes mine gets so long, because I keep a note on my phone, and sometimes it gets so long and overwhelming that I just open a new one, and then those shows get forgotten. I've got a list of about five shows that I need to watch. Okay. Is that five shows of five, like, box sets? Box sets. So I haven't seen 'Spent', which is on a new comedy in BBC this week. I haven't seen 'Lady in the Lake'. That's on my list, too. Yeah. All right. Yeah. And Hailey has no idea, but it sounds like a lot. One more email for you, Hailey. Yeah. Actually, is this from someone who's been thinking about it for a while, thinking about getting in touch for a while? Yeah, James has been thinking about it for a while. He says, "Hi there, must watch Trio, being very vague and inclusive there. I've been listening to the podcast for a few months now and have constantly been thinking, 'I should email in a recommendation.' And look, I'm finally getting around to it. Go around to the James. My recommendation is for a show on Disney Plus called 'The Owl House'. It follows a young girl obsessed with fantasy who runs away from attending summer camp and gets transported to a world filled with magic, witches, wizards, and demons, falling in with a powerful witch who is running from the law. Throughout her journey, she meets new friends, learns how to be a witch, all while searching for a way home. The show is aimed at mid to late teens, but will appeal to everyone. The show gained multiple award nominations, including an Emmy and also won a Peabody Award. I know animated shows typically fall outside of the scope of 'Must Watch', but I encourage everyone to please check out this show. I mean, I just recommended 'Run and Stimpy' earlier, so animated shows are fine. What's a Peabody Award? Quite a fancy one, actually. Is it? Peabody, I think it normally goes to journalism. Am I right? I love asking questions on that. I don't know the answer to. Brilliant. The honour, what are described as the most powerful and lightening and invigorating stories in all of television, radio and online media? It's amazing that you need that off by heart and you're like reading it. Don't you tell us reading it? No, you are. There's completely copper. It's brilliant. I was quite interested in Peabody. Peabody would. You obviously don't have one then. Wow. Wow. She called me names last week. She's ruining me this week. She doesn't know what I've done to deserve this. Straight from Blue Peter, legends. Yeah, it's gone down in the rabbit. Yeah, that word. Before we get to the news, because we've got loads more to cover after three o'clock. It's slightly different this week, because we're going to hear from the vet Cooper on boarders halfway through the next hour. So we've come into this a bit early. Before we head to the news, though, I mean, something that has been in the news quite a lot recently is strictly, of course. The Paralympian Will Bailey has been the latest former contestant to speak out about his negative experience on the show. This is after Zara McDermott, Amanda Avington, made allegations against their former dance partners, Gretzionna Di Prima, and Giovanni Peniche respectively. Scott, I know you follow strictly a lot. What have you made of all this and the latest? I mean, I think it's a story that is just running and running, isn't it? Last week, the BBC in Strictly said that they had come out with new protocols. They were going to have chaperones during the rehearsals. They were going to have new members of the welfare team for the dancers and also for the celebrities to be there if they have any issues. I think they hoped that maybe that would bring the end to the story. But I think what we've had is more -- It essentially continued with the papers making more tabloid reports. Amanda Avington did an interview with the Sunday during the weekend. Giovanni Peniche said that he's looking forward to clearing his name and that he denies any allegation. But it feels as if it's going to run and run. I think it really will come down to whether there are more celebrities who have had negative experiences who want to go and speak out about it. I think it also comes down to whether we have greater clarity on what the actual experiences were like for a lot of the people who take part in this programme. Because we have had many celebrities that said that they had an incredibly positive experience from participating on Strictly and they found it incredibly life-affirming. But any story that has sort of features kind of troubling allegations is going to affect the show in terms of negative light. So I think it really depends on where we're going to be in a week, where we're going to be in a month's time. Is the honours going to turn back to the good nature feeling of the show or is it going to continue to be about the allegations or reports about what is happening behind the scenes? You know, we talk a lot about downloads and box sets and what we can stream, Hayley. Strictly is a bit like life sport in the sense that it's still one of the most watched, but it's still one of the appointment-of-view programmes that we have in the UK, isn't it? Mm-hmm. It's one of those things that takes over Twitter or X, as I don't think anyone calls it. And there aren't many of those things around. And mums love it. They absolutely love getting involved. It's like gladiators. They have to exist. It's gladiators as well, isn't it? People like to... Pretty gladiators. No, no. I mean more like the show gladiators. It's been a show that people do sit down to on a Saturday night now and enjoys a family, don't they? That's the thing. They do. The new one we loved. We love it. Mustwatch from BBC5 Live. Yes, let's jump back into Mustwatch with Scott on Hayley. Do some review, shall we, Hayley? What have we got first? We've got those about to die on Amazon Prime, starring Anthony Hopkins, or at least he's the main guy on the poster. It's set in Rome 79 AD, where the population, who is bored, restless, and increasingly violent, is kept in line by two things, free food and spectacular entertainment. And as the taste in entertainment becomes more jaded and bloodthirsty, a stadium is designed for combat, the Colosseum. Underground, underneath the Colosseum, thousands of people work and live, and among them are thousands who will die for the games. Here's a clip. Life is a little value in Rome, living in the shadow of the rich and powerful. But all of this is about to change. So now shall cross the kingdom of darkness. But nothing is more important than protecting our beloved Rome. Our enemies in Rome are dangerous. It sounds very maximous, surrealious, dissimous. I wish. Oh, is it must watch? Not for me. No. So the headline of my review is "It's a load of old nonsense, but at least it'll make Gladiator 2 look even better when that comes out." I think. Is that coming out? It is in November. Oh, yeah, I did read that. Yes. Hang on. The trailer's out. Who's the lead? Oh, yeah. Paul Mescal. Yes, that's right. I've thought I was having a dream which now sounds really odd while I'm thinking of him dressing up in Gladiator outfit. Anyway, back to those about to die haily. What do you not like about it? What's the matter with it? Well, it's nonsense, but it's not even fun nonsense. It's weirdly boring. So it's based on the book by Daniel P. Mannix, which came out in the 1950s and was also the inspiration behind the Russell Crowe movie. So if it feels like you're watching something that kind of wants to be Gladiator, it's because you are. The thing is, it comes from good people. It's developed by a guy called Robert Rodat, who he won an Oscar for writing the screenplay to "Saving Private Ryan." I would say this isn't at the level of "Saving Private Ryan." And the early episodes are directed by Roland Emmerich, who is a pretty reliable action film director too. You'll have seen his stuff in a directed independence day and the day after tomorrow, and even Godzilla, stuff like that. So it comes from good, I want to say, breeding, but not really. The action scenes are over the top and fun to watch, but outside of all that, it's a bit dull and confusing and messy, and I stopped trying to figure out what was going on because it all seemed too interested in the dull bits of ancient Rome. I'm not sure I care about shares in horses when there are people being killed upstairs. It gets really bogged down in stuff where you're telling me this. Why are you telling me this? I just don't care. And also, if you're tuning in purely because Anthony Hopkins is on the poster, he's barely in it. It's a few while she's in there, though, isn't it? Yeah, there are. There are. She's probably going to get a little extra role at some point. She wants in it from Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones. And Rupert Penry-Jones, I think we claim as one of our own. Yeah. Do we claim? I think so. I think we claim as a Jones, my brother. My brother from another mother. Well, they're all wearing their little outfits, and yeah, it's a spectacle, but I'm not sure. It feels like something that should be exciting, but it was weirdly boring and increasingly so as it went on. How long is it? Ten episodes. Oh, sorry. I think it was a film for some reason. Yeah, it's gladiator. I'm thinking of gladiator again. Yeah, it does last about ten episodes, gladiator, isn't it? It's like two and a half hours, great though, isn't it? Yeah, although it's all worth it. Yeah, it is. I think I've watched that film more than any of the film ever. I rewatched it recently, and all the Oliver Reed stuff is so camp and funny. Yeah. I loved it. Yeah. You're kind of thing this Scott? Well, this series, those about to die, no. This is not a must watch for me either. I mean, I agree with Hailey. I think it takes you to Rome, takes into the corruption and the anarchy and the bloodshed and shows you all of the most boring parts of it. You sort of think it's yourself. Why am I looking into the intricacies of betting here? This is not what I'm really into. Or having people kind of concerned about losing their power. I think also, I mean, this is where I'm purely speculative. I sort of feel that Amazon has been desperately hoping for their own game of thrones. So they think that what they can do is that they can have a big story. We have many different characters and have it fly between different sort of places all for time. But the issue is you end up not really finding out that much about their character because there's so many of them. You also get confused by the plot because there is so much of it. And it also just makes you kind of look back fondly at the early ages of Game of Thrones rather than actually makes you want to invest your time in this. And this falls into that trap. It costs, reportedly, 140 million genuinely staggered because I put this on my TV. And the special effects in this are pretty bad. Like, they spent a lot of money on the screen, but when it's so CGI'd, it looks fake and just kind of a bit black. You know, it doesn't really feel grounded. It doesn't really make you feel all years looking at it going, "Oh, I'm looking at something that a computer's put together." And it's happening in every single scene. I thought it was my TV. I thought maybe I'm just watching it on the wrong resolution. Maybe there's something wrong on my TV. So I turned my TV off and then looked on my laptop. That was the IT crisis. It looked worse. It looked worse. And I was thinking to myself, like, the more stuff that it's actually real, that the actors can hold or the more backgrounds that are actually real, the better it actually is. Because this is, I think, the issue when you have so much CGI, it looks like you're just playing or looking at simsis. Someone else playing SimCity set in the Roman era for an hour, which is pretty tedious. I think it's also just the fact that you are having some interest in scenes, but they always feel a bit flapped because it's quite repetitive. The music's quite good. It's done by Run Boy Run. Sorry, no. Sorry, an artist called Wood Kid who made Run Boy Run. But I'm just surprised. This feels like another expensive streaming service folly that cost way too much and has absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. Is this more expensive or less expensive than Amazon's Lord of the Rings thing? Lord of the Rings by Amazon is reportedly more expensive. I mean, that seemed to be the most expensive TV programme of all time, which is ridiculous. This is certainly up there in terms of it being expensive. I think one of the most expensive, independently produced European series of all time, according to variety. So, expensive. Hopkins is getting a decent pay. Oh, he's sort of wearing a bed sheet and he gets to sit on a big throne and just shout enough a lot. So, it's quite a good gig. Happy days for him. Why am I getting flashbacks of that Jarrabutler film? 300. 300, that's it. Yeah. But also, like, so last night, so after I saw this TV series, I then went to the cinema and I saw Twisters. I saw in 4D where they blow wind in your face and make it rain on your face during the actual tornadoes, which is, may I say, a delight. I have friends who are obsessed with that whole 4D format. It's rather concerning also when you've recently recovered from a back operation when you're doing one of those experiences. That's my own ever. But anyway, the reason why I'm mentioning that is not only was it confusing because I left the cinema and checked my phone. That's how I found out that Biden was not seeking reelection. Very discombobulating. But directly before the film was the trailer for Gladiators 2. And instantly, I was like, oh, this is how it's supposed to look. This is, and I know that I'm comparing media. I'm now comparing cinema with television. But yeah, trust me. But the thing about Gladiator 1, and I assume 2, is the story in those films is simple. Yes. Like, it's the shots are complicated, the action scenes are complicated, but the story is simple. There's only two stories in Gladiator, really, isn't there? Yeah, exactly. Whereas this is telling you all sorts of stuff, and you go, can you just show me some, you know, the guys wearing the leather skirts and doing the fighting will be enough for a show. This is too much. Gladiator 2 is going to be good, isn't it? Oh, it looks amazing. But yeah, find the trailer. There's a rhino in it. What? Yeah, I know. Oh, I'm still going to do that. Despite what you've both said, I'm actually into it. I think I'm going to watch it. Really? I'm about to die on Amazon Prime Video right now. Yeah, I think you said that you made it. Really good point last week, Haley. One of the many good points you made last week. It's kind of what you're into, isn't it? And it's like, that's the kind of film I will go and find. Yeah. And I'll give it a chance. All right. What else have we got, Scott? We're now reviewing Piglets, which is a new comedy with all episodes available to watch and ITVX. It's also airing on Saturday night tonight, TV 1. It's a real comedy from the creators of the cult channel 4 series Green Wing. And it follows recruits in the fictional police training academy. The show stars many well-known names, such as Mark Keep from Green Wing and Sarah Parrish from W1A, along with a whole set of fresh faces. The show has already hit controversy before the first episode had even aired. Because of the show's name, the police federation of England and Wales said the show's name, Piglets, which has been used as a derogatory slang word for police officers. They deemed it to be highly offensive. Whilst ITV has defended it, calling it, quote, "a comedic and endearing play on words to emphasize the innocence and youth of our young trainees," end quote. But is the show any good? Here's a clip. Release officer. One of those words mean pretty thickening. What is there no I in? Mouse, table lump, Mercedes. Mum? There's no I in team! You have the mental and physical scores of an unborn child. Oh, cool. Come on, we don't want a public inquiry, do we? If you hold that. Nothing, it's simple. Nothing. Yeah. Don't come to my attention until passing out, do you? It sounds busy. It sounds fun. Oh. Ask the question. Is it a must watch? Who? Who wants to go first? Hayley, you go first. Okay. Not for me. Aside from the title, there's nothing controversial here. So, everyone got a bit upset for nothing. This could almost be set in any workplace. It's just inept people being inept. And very little of it is explicitly about policing. Or any of the things the actual police were probably worried about when they complained about the title of the show. The silliness of Greenwing is here, but I kind of remember Greenwing being funnier. This one feels a little limp and safe, and it's full of characters we all sort of know already. I do think that a police academy is a perfect setting for a comedy. I mean, otherwise, the 1980s police academy movie wouldn't have had six sequels, and I think it was two spin-off TV shows. But it feels like they haven't really done a lot with what they've got. There are some good lines, but not really enough to recommend a whole show of mediocre ones. I sound horrible, I know. But Mark Heap is always funny and watchable, but here it feels kind of a little strained. It feels like his job is basically to take a metaphor and then stretch it until it snaps. And he does it again and again, and it just feels a little forced. And I didn't think it was very funny. I'm sorry. You're throwing Hayley under the bus there, Scott. I'm not making a go first, but teamwork makes the dream better. And all that. Okay. There have been headlines about this show, haven't there? It's an off-coming being involved as well, but just in terms of the show itself, what you say in Scott? I mean, no, I agree with Hayley. I mean, I sort of think that when it comes to this sort of style of comedy, it's either a comedy that you either love or you don't love at all. I think, naturally, you will find it very particular down to your own taste. I personally think that it's my sort of type of comedy. But then I still feel that I can have an opinion on it because I sort of try to work out, "Okay, well, what are they trying to do here?" I mean, a lot of the jokes, just in case you haven't seen this show, but are intrigued. There's kind of a joke where the guy enters it. What he thinks is a cheese club, but it ends up being a chess club. There's a joke about how the drugs that criminals use keep changing names to weirder and weirder words. I mean, it is definitely in the style of green wing in the fact that it is very, sometimes kind of not like low is common denominator, but like sometimes pure old, sometimes silly, it's very unexpected. Sometimes the jokes are very obvious, but I feel that in agreement with Hayley, with green wing, it was quite clear what it was paradying or it kind of was highlighting about the ridiculous bureaucracy that can happen with some institutions such as within health care. With this, you're sort of thinking, "Oh, it can kind of make a mockery of the police, so it can make a mockery of police training." And it doesn't really do that. It sort of tries to, I think, rely on many different things happening at the same time. I just don't think it is consistent enough because it hasn't really, it feels like it's working its way towards a punchline sometimes and it never really gets there. It sort of feels quite close. I mean, however, I don't want to like, there has been a lot of criticism about this show, and I don't want to need to literally criticize it because it is incredibly hard to go and get, at the moment, a comedy to work on British TV. And I think also, this is not a channel, ITV, that you would expect this show to be on. And it's also got an existing team, but also a team of new writers. New writers are absolutely necessary within this industry to make the comedy. So, I don't want to say, "Oh, this shouldn't be on air," et cetera, et cetera, like some people have been saying. I'm just saying, unfortunately, it doesn't hit the mark in the same way that the legacy of the other shows, such as Green Wing, Vasein, and many of the other things that actors in this have been attached to. Those shows are better, unfortunately, and this doesn't really work. But, I mean, good on ITV for at least giving it a go. I was just going to say that, actually, Haley. There are shows that, you know, they will take a risk because people, you know, want new, fresh ideas. But based on your reviews, if it goes the other way, it's a difficult place to be, isn't it? It is. Like, there are some of my favorite shows, you know, like Scott mentioned, Brass Eye. I can't imagine how Brass Eye was ever pitched. Ran and Stimpy. And Ran and Stimpy. You have to take chances on the mad stuff, because sometimes you end up with a work of genius. And it's kind of hard to tell. I really don't know how -- because I've seen TV pictures, and I don't know how commissioners imagine a TV show from a pitch. Sometimes it's just -- and I'm the same with film scripts. Like, if you read a film script, it's -- I don't know how people picture a whole film from that. It's strange. So I fully support people taking chances on stuff like this. And sometimes it's going to be a miss, but that's why we're here. And I sort of think that, like, there was a report by Ofcom, the regulator last year that said that comedy specifically is at risk. You know, the fact that channels are making less shows being made, you know, they are committing less than they would normally do fewer shows than they would normally go and do. And of course, comedy is incredibly important to our national culture. And also the shows that end up becoming massive hits, like Gavin and Stacey, which came back with 18 million viewers when it came back for the Christmas special coming back again this Christmas. I mean, that started as a small show on BBC 3. So you really have to invest in new talent in new comedy. I know BBC comedy has just started a whole new set of new pilots as well. Yeah, so that's why I never liked bashing comedy or new comedy too much because it's incredibly important if it does work. So we've done those about to die and it's not a must watch. We've done picklelets. You're saying it's not a must watch. Just by the rule of thumb and just in terms of you two getting together in the week and planning what we're going to do on this show. I'm expecting some more positive news when we go into our third review Haley. Oh dear. Goodness and maybe just plainness and blackness. Look, we should just talk about exciting. It's too much for a Monday, if you ask me. You should be on a Wednesday and people are ready for you. We should just talk about Ren and Stimpy if we want positive stuff. Our last review is based on a long running series of books by the English crime writer Barbara Nadal. And it's already out on iPlayer, so you might have watched some already. It's the Turkish detective and in the series a Turkish-born British-raised police officer transfers from London to Istanbul where he solves crimes with his eccentric boss. Here's a clip. My name is Inspector Chetimicwa. I can be formidable. Meet our newest recruit. Our man from London. Protecting members of the limit. I think we can say if we call it some murder. We will find that he was behind us. So what brings you to Istanbul? There is more to the story than our friend is letting us know. Your duty has to this job and this job alone. I'm not going to try and fill. I'm not trying to be clever. I'm not going to say anything other than "Is it a must-watch?" It's the best thing this week. Is that a must-watch? Does that mean? No. I mean, there's a thing. It has many good qualities. Is it a show that I will talk about really positively and say you have to go out of your way for in six months time? No. Is it a good show to watch this week in the middle of July if you don't really want to watch the Olympics and when there's not that much else on TV anyway? Yes. I think there are good things within this and it's about a detective who's born in Turkey, raised in England but it never really felt like home to him and he's now returned back to Turkey again. He was in the Metropolitan Police. He worked in homicide there. It didn't really...he said that the work culture, he never really felt accepted so he's now working for homicide in Istanbul. He is very used to detective work being incredibly cold and calculating and not really being that sort of caring for the victim's family that much because you just got to get on with your job and now he's been frosting to a homicide team with people who actually do care a little bit more, have a different way of doing things, maybe would have unconventional methods such as interviewing people in their cars or not necessarily in the police station in the normal taped interview. They refined their own ways to go and catch the perpetrator. Now, it's quite formulaic in terms of people saying trust no one and there's dooms love interests and they're going up for one and they're going towards one suspect and then that kind of line of inquiry falls down and they go down with another line of inquiry and that doesn't work. It's a bit like playing pinball and it's trying to keep up the ball in the air. However, it's well acted. It's not going to change the game. It's very much, I think, a polished and very surprisingly quite comforting detective watch. And I think it manages, it ticks all of the conventions of all the types of detective shows that you've seen many times, but it doesn't well. So it's not going to rock the bow. It's not going to change the game. Is it good for now? Yeah. That's the quote. Comfortable detective watch, Haley. A comfortable detective watch is not usually my speed of detective show. I like the harrowing, horrible ones. I agree with everything Scott said and this is the best thing on our show this week. It feels a little Istanbul written by a tourist and that's not necessarily a bad thing in a silly detective show, but I think if you're expecting something more authentic, you might find it a bit annoying. The show is written by Ben Schiffer who worked on skins and the writer of the novels grew up in the east end of London and now lives in Essex. So the Istanbul we see is a kind of stylized ideal and it doesn't really use the setting to tell a different kind of story. The first crime is another dead girl like in every other show, but it's a great excuse to have cats roaming around the police station and I will never complain about having loads of cats in a TV show. The main detective is eccentric enough that I found him very watchable. He carries the thing and he's surrounded by characters who are either a bit bland or cliched but he's always there. The writing is a bit obvious and it's actually despite the fact that it looks grittier. It's actually kind of twee. It's very much a cozy English crime series but just with a different setting. It's like a murder happened in the village again but the village is Istanbul. I agree with Scott. It's actually quite soothing in how much it feels like something you've seen before. He even says, "Oh, just one more thing. He's Colombo at one point." I know this is not the kind of review that will ever get my quote on a poster but it does feel like the kind of show that you should put on when you know you've got about seven minutes before you fall asleep in front of the TV. It's one of those. It's just quite nice. Even though it is about murders. The lead looks a Scott kind of like pictures sort of Brian Cox's succession vibes about him. I know it's probably not the same at all but it does the way he walks around the table threatening behaviour. You talked about the acting moving a good Scott. I don't recognise many. No, no, no, no. Neither do I. I think a lot of them, I think one of them was in EastEnders. That's where you always start. That's where you always start. That's where you build up your acting chops. I think some of our greatest actors have been through soaps because you are literally thrown into absolutely everything imaginable. All the stories and all the stories. I think you've literally built up the clock of being on there for hundreds of hours and they were able to actually have proper acting credit, pedigree. That question both of you is, "Does it matter sometimes? Does that actually help if you don't recognise someone from something else?" Oh, I mean, I think because I think sometimes you actually think less about the actor and more about the acting. Yeah, because I like Scandinavian detective shows and judging only from those shows there seems to be about six actors in Denmark and they just swap roles. So someone else gets to play the detective this time and someone else gets to play the murderer and it can be a bit confusing because you've got these preexisting feelings. You're like, "That guy's the bad guy, but he's the good guy this time." So what somebody would be the victim one week, the next week would be the perfect guy. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I love it. And I think of him as, "Oh, he's my friend from that other show. I don't know this guy. He's just an actor." But yeah, he gets to play the baddie this time. So watching a show where I know no one is quite nice. Yeah, that's a bit like he stands, I suppose, when you put it like that. So we like it. All episodes of the Turkish detective are available to watch now on iPlayer episodes also in each Monday at 9pm on BBC2. The guy says, "If you're not into the Olympics, then you might fancy a bit of this, but who's not at the Olympics really?" And because of that, it's a case of have a good summer. See you soon. Is that right? See you soon. I'll see you again, do we know? We are on weeks and weeks away. Yeah, back in three weeks, because I think the Olympics are on for two weeks and we're on the first Monday after the Olympics end. Okay. Let me bring up the calendar. No, don't you worry. I want you to live on the radio. We'll find out on X. I know we will and I'm sure now you will tweet me. 12th of August. Oh, there you go, 12th of August. Let me go. There we go. We'll see you then. Hailey, have fun in the wardrobe over the summer. I hope she lets you out. You make it sound like it's a weird thing to broadcast from a cupboard. It is. It's absolutely fine. I was looking at you about half an hour ago and it's either the IT problem that's causing it or you just pay as you go or something because you've disappeared. There's always something with you. Hailey disappeared about 20 minutes ago and we couldn't see it. What's the light bulb just doing? What's the light bulb just doing? What's the light bulb? It wasn't the light bulb this time, but one time it did disappear and I just disappeared from the show. There you go. At any time that morning live starts having any technical issues in regards to upcoming programmes. Just jump into my DMs and let me know that WAs. We have pleasure jumping into your DMs, Scott. Wow. Ooh. What a way to finish. And now it is the podcast, part of the podcast where Hailey and I give another recommendation that you can be bingeing on. Probably wise because we're not on for the next few weeks. So here's another show that you could be investing time in. Hailey, what do you have? I've got a nearly normal family on Netflix because it's been a while since I recommended something bleak and Scandinavian. So I feel like I should. It's one of my things, you know. This one is a six-part thriller call and it follows the events before and after the murder of a 32-year-old man. And the family from the title is a married couple whose 19-year-old daughter ends up in police custody accused of his murder. And I think it's an interesting one because usually this kind of show revolves around a dead lady. So there's a lot more varied sexual politics involved in the story than the usual kind that we get. It goes into bleak places around childhood trauma and then it goes to the other end of what's actually going on in a marriage that looks good from the outside. And it also plays with ideas that are, you know, things that are legally fine but morally bad and the limits of the law and whether or not something is worth reporting or whether it would be more traumatic than doing nothing, you know, having to revisit it and talk about it. All in all, it's pretty horrible, which is exactly the kind of thing I would recommend, isn't it? Yeah, this feels very much like, you know, when shows are algorithmically led on streaming services to be down to your specific preferences, there's feels for like very much like the ultimate Netflix show for you, Hayley. Yeah, Netflix was pushing at it, pushing it towards me for quite some time and then I went fine, I will watch it. When you open the app, is it the thing that yells at you with a trailer before you were able to mute the TV? Yeah, and I went fine. I'll listen to Mr. Netflix and, yeah, it's good. Joy, what have you got? I've got 2012, spelt 2012, rather than the number 2012, is on BBC iPlayer, the comedy done by John Morton is now back on iPlayer. Now, this was out in 2011, the year before the Olympics, and it precedes W1A. Of course, W1A being the John Morton sitcom that absolutely everyone working at the BBC is absolutely terrified of because it feels like a documentary, rather than a comedy. 2012 was a spoof documentary which looked at a team of people organizing the London Olympics, and it parodies the preparation of the London Olympics, but also, I think, off this culture in the same way that W1A parodies the BBC, but also workplace culture feels quite universal. I watched an episode earlier, I'll rewatch it, I saw them all back when it originally aired, and it's molested for test of time. It's sometimes agonizing to watch because it is incredibly accurate. Everyone from Shavorn Sharpe, the kind of PR, that has no idea at all about how to PR anything down to people who just love talking during meetings, feeling time during a meeting that actually serves no purpose. But I think it's also the fact that John Morton is so good at jokes and makes things and references are so well that there's been many times that both shows, both W1A and 2012, have actually then followed real events that are eerily similar to what has actually been depicted in the show. So, the very first episode of 2012, they commissioned a clock counting down a thousand days to the London 2012 Olympics. Apart from that, they end up making a clock that has been done by a very arty designer. They've made a clock counting backwards away from the ceremony rather than towards it. So, at the start of the Olympics, it will actually show the date of the clock on the day that they announced the Olympics, and that's like the on-running joke. Turns out the following Monday, they actually unveiled the real London 2012 clock, only for that clock to fail. So, it sets the path. My favourite one was when they decided to go and change the name of the BBC to make it sound more like an app, and they changed it to basically be replaced by three lines. And then, lo and behold, six months later, BBC 3 announced a new logo, and it was literally that logo, which is just, you know, miraculous. And also, once they were filming W1A in the BBC, and the utter joy that they were painting and redoing some of the office space, so they filmed it within the BBC, but they changed, for some reason, they changed the office floors to be different than the ones that you were on. So, if you were on floor three, they would be a giant six, because on the show you'd be on floor six, but then that was next to a sign that said, "No, you're on floor three." Right. And I remember you, like, during early days of Covid, you were filming the floor of the BBC, and they were arrows telling you where to go, and they just kind of looped back on themselves, and you ended up in the same spot. The same spot, yeah, that was when I was around the back in the building, and I ended up going around in circles, because I was probably in the one-way system, and it was just leading me in the big circle. Another, and we're just talking about BBC Memories now, another one is when I turned up, when I was back up Buzzfeed a few years ago, it must have been nearly a decade now, I turned up at the BBC to go to a W1A screening, and I have, because it's me, I have a Brompton, I have a fold-up bicycle. I turned up at the front door, and the BBC security person said, "You're conquering your bikes in." To which I said, "Have you seen W1A, because it literally opens with somebody with turning up with their Brompton or their fold-up bicycle to the BBC to fold up and bring it in?" And the person at the door went, "Nah, I haven't seen that mate, sorry." So I had to leave the BBC on my fold-up bicycle to take it somewhere else, because I was not allowed to go into a W1A screening with a fold-up bicycle. Anyway... And the man didn't know how funny that was. Yeah, it's very matter. 2012, written 2012, stars Hugh Bondville, and Olivia Coleman's in this as well, and Jessica Hartings, great cast. Both 2012 and W1A are on my player. As we said during the main show, we're going to have another little mini summer holiday and then fourth break. We will be back in three weeks' time at the Olympics, which you can follow extensively on the BBC. Can I promote something, Haley? Is this on Coof? I'll go on. I won't tell anyone. Because I've got a BBC sound series coming out. It is available already, but it's now being put on BBC sounds. In the interim, whilst we are away, I've got a series called The Bachelor of Buckingham Palace. I nearly forgot the name of the show, though. Were you just typing your own desk, googling your own show? Wonderful. Doing really well here. I only watched a year on it, an actual year, and took all of my... Yes. So I've got a series called The Bachelor of Buckingham Palace. It looks into a reality show where 12 American women were made to believe that they were dating Prince Harry. And we speak to a lot of the people involved in the show. We also speak to the fake Prince Harry about why he agreed to go and do this show as well as the production team. So it's going to be on BBC sounds from the start of August. I understand that it also might appear in this podcast feed whilst we are away. So you can listen to it then. I think the first episode, and then you can listen to the rest of the series on BBC sounds as it drops throughout August. So that is on if you want a non-must-watch, but kind of must-watch, must-watch whilst we're not here. And promoting yourself also makes you sometimes sound and feel a little bit icky, but I've done it now. So we're fine. We got through it. We got through it. Hailey, have you got anything to promote, needlessly? No. No, I don't do anything, do I? You do loads of things. Half the things we can't even mention on the air because they're not within the BBC house. No, they're too exciting. And on that bombshell, thanks for listening. See you in three weeks. Must watch the BBC.com.uk with any of your reviews and recommendations and all the same stuff that you know we send us. Thanks so much and see you later. Bye. BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hi, I'm Graham Class, host of Technically Speaking and Intel Podcast. Join me for season two as we explore the future of technology evolving today. In each episode, I'll speak with the minds transforming medicine, healthcare, retail, entertainment, personal computing and more with the help of AI. Join me every other Tuesday and explore the latest technology changing our world today and creating a more accessible tomorrow. Listen to, Technically Speaking and Intel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.