MY SIX FAVOURITE TV PROGRAMMES OF RECENT MONTHS:
5. Celebrity Traitors
The Celebrity Traitors is a spin-off of the British version of the television series The Traitors, first broadcast on BBC One on 8 October 2025. It is presented by Claudia Winkleman. I watched it on iPlayer.
I am not generally a fan of either game shows or Reality TV, and I don't usually find that the addition of celebrities improves either. However, on this occasion, the celebrities improved the show.
I watched the first series of The Traitors in order to pacify my mum. We rarely like the same sort of TV shows. She's a huge fan of the Britain's-Got-Strictly-On-Ice-in-Big-Brother-I'm-A-Celebrity type of TV offering, while my idea of a game show is Taskmaster, WILTY, QI, University Challenge and Only Connect, and I generally avoid Reality TV altogether. So I am rarely able to chat about TV to her, which is a pity as I think watching TV is the main source of entertainment for many older people and being able to chat about it makes them feel less isolated. So I watched the first series of The Traitors on iplayer, skipping through the particularly dull bits. I found it mildly entertaining though I skipped much more rapidly through subsequent series, and haven't discussed those with her.
Anyway, when I heard that Stephen Fry was going to be a contestant on the recent Celebrity Traitors series, I decided it might be worth a watch. The celebrities were generally more well-known [by P and us, anyway] than the usual run of people who are dragged out for sleb versions of popular shows - Fry, David Olusoga, Jonathan Ross, Mark Bonnar, Clare Balding, Kate Garraway, Joe Wilkinson, Celia Imrie, Alan Carr, Nick Mohammed, Paloma Faith, Lucy Beaumont, Charlotte Church, Tom Daly, Joe Marler. There were still some we had no idea about, however [Niko Omilana? Cat Burns? Tameka Empson? Ruth Codd?], but the programme has brought them to our attention.
Both P and I found ourselves thoroughly enjoying the show and becoming quite invested in the outcome. No, we didn't engage in the apparent multitude of social media discussions about the show, and I found the bits where they just show endless extracts from what are presumably lengthy discussions between the contestants quite boring. In fact, I actually fell asleep during some episodes, several time. Nevertheless, somehow the show was more interesting when you know most of the contestants. Joe Marler has become my crush of the year.
I enjoyed the imaginative challenges they all faced. I found it amusing how no one appeared to take any notice of Stephen Fry's sensible, calm and intelligent suggestions despite frequently stating that he was a 'genius'. Fry isn't a genius - on QI, he has the answers to the questions on cards in front of him, you know! - but he is certainly clever. P and I enjoyed speculating about how little Claudia Winkleman weighed and how she seemed to be getting thinner all the time, while her feet grew bigger, and her dress sense more ridiculous with every show. I actually like Claudia - I think that, for a TV presenter, she seems surprisingly genuine and natural in her responses, and has an infectious giggle.
Like the ordinary Traitors, this sleb version might wear thin quickly, but I could probably manage at least one more series, if they could get the same quality of celebrities.
And my mum and I both predicted that Alan would win, from around episode three!
**** FOUR STARS
4. Film Club
Film Club is a British TV sitcom, written by and starring Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood. Kaos's Nabhaan Rizwan also stars. It premiered on 7 October 2025 on BBC Three. I watched it on iPlayer.
This is an original and sensitive little drama, described as a 'sitcom' but to be honest, if you're looking for laughs, it isn't the best thing to go for. The humour is subtle and quirky. Personally, I found Suranne Jones [as the mother, Suz] the funniest and most compelling character.
I found this tale of a young woman, Evie, who is recovering from an emotional breakdown, frequently poignant and occasionally uplifting. Having found herself sitting on the road outside her family home, Evie is taken inside by her mum and has been living there for some time when the story begins. She uses the garage to have weekly 'film club' get-togethers with three close friends from university, one of whom is an old flame, Noa, about whom she still has strong feelings. Decorating the room, dressing in character and showing the chosen films is something she and her friends used to do at university and it seems to calm Evie. It is an outlet for her creativity, and she and Noa know the films they show so well that they can quote them, in character, and often do.
Evie has a serious boyfriend, the apparently perfect Josh, a young man who gets on very well with Evie's mum and sister and treats Evie with great sensitivity and kindness. However, it turns out he has a secret. Evie also has a sister, the rather sullen dog-lover Izzie.
What I liked about this is the way it subverts the genre. It seems to be a heartbreaking love story, but then undermines the conventional cliched resolution of such a tale. Evie is surrounded by people who love and value her, but she doesn't really recover until she starts to love and value herself. Her friends seem to have outgrown the film club, but in fact it is helping them too. And there is a small but perfect recurring cameo from Owen Cooper, the young actor who was so excruciatingly upsetting in Adolescence. In Film Club he plays a baby-faced drug dealer who turns up with his mate on pushbikes every so often to verbally spar with Evie. It is weird but engaging.
The story is focused mostly on Evie but the other characters, particularly Suz, Evie's mother, have their own lives rounded out to some extent. This breaks the love-story convention that all the bit-part players simply exist to be supporting roles for the main character, with no independent lives of their own.
I enjoyed this much more than I expected to.
**** FOUR STARS
3. Road Trip
The Road Trip is a comedy-drama from 2024 which I watched on Paramount+ recently.
It stars Emma Appleton as Addie, a young school teacher, and Laurie Davidson as Dylan, the young man she fell in love with while working as a housekeeper in a Spanish villa a couple of years earlier. She, her sister Deb, Dylan and his best friend Marcus, plus Rodney [played by Celia Imie's son Angus Imrie], a young man who has organised a lift via social media, journey together in an old camper van to the wedding of two friends in Malaga.
It is aimed at a young audience, but is still an engaging drama for all ages. There is genuine humour in this story and the characters are well-drawn, though there are some cliched moments. The best thing about it was the way it was structured. The 'present day' road trip itself was a series of misadventures which helped the five central characters [and the audience] learn more about each other. The backstory of Addie and Dylan's relationship is told in flashbacks, with occasional switches to the pov of other characters. Addie's story is privileged above the others, and actually I would have liked more about the 'gang'. This might be a device to keep enough back for potential future series, though I haven't heard about a new series being made.
This is a more conventional romance than Film Club, and occasionally the various obstacles preventing Addie and Dylan from getting back together are a little forced, but it is well-paced, with good dialogue, attractive actors and lovely scenery.
**** FOUR STARS
2. Leonard & Hungry Paul
Leonard and Hungry Paul is an Irish comedy-drama series for RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland. Released on 17 October 2025, it is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Rónán Hession.
This is a weird but perfect little drama, acted beautifully by Alex Lawther [Leonard] and Laurie Kynaston [Hungry Paul]. Leonard and Hungry Paul are best friends, both young introverts. Leonard is the more 'normal' of the two, a young man with potential as a writer who works for a publishing firm, ghost-writing children's non-fiction books for his selfish boss. His mother has recently died. He embarks on a sweet but awkward romance with Shelley [played beautifully by Derry Girls' Jamie-Lee O'Donnell]. Meanwhile, Hungry Paul works on his silences, visiting elderly people in the local hospital, working one morning each week as a postman, winning a prize for best slogan, and eventually getting a job as Marketing Manager for a local mime group. Yes, it's that sort of weird. Laurie Kynaston is actually English, I believe, but he was completely convincing as an Irishman, channelling Andrew Scott perfectly.
The sitcom is narrated by Julia Roberts [yes, the Julia Roberts] in the style of a Wes Anderson movie. The series resembles Anderson's films in its peculiarity and its quirky humour too. Hungry Paul's mum always thought her son was like a sunfish she saw in an aquarium, swimming round keeping his thoughts to himself, letting life happen without interfering with it too much, and she allows him the freedom to be like this and develop in his own odd way. At one point she says about another mother 'Well, she didn't have a sunfish, did she?' - at least, that's how I remember the line. That has stuck with me for some reason and has begun to sound like a profound existential insight that I now intend to use in my own life.
I was drawn to this series by its unusual title [I still don't really know why Paul is known as Hungry Paul], and I was drawn in immediately. It pivots beautifully between pathos and humour. It is essentially the story of a quiet, deep, good-hearted friendship between two weird but lovable misfits, which plays with the distance between narrator and character, and between watcher and character, with great skill. Unusual, original, warm-hearted, unflashy, mildly comic and Irish. What's not to like?
***** FIVE STARS
1. Riot Women
Riot Women is a 2025 British television series written by Sally Wainwright and produced by Drama Republic. It stars Tamsin Greig, Joanna Scanlon, Lorraine Ashbourne, Amelia Bullimore and the utterly fabulous Rosalie Craig. I watched it on iPlayer.Five women in Hebden Bridge decide to form a punkish rock group for a charity talent competition, and they turn out to be pretty good. But that is only a device to hang the story on. A big part of the narrative is the strong friendship and mutual support that develops between these women. Another strand is their fight against the misogyny in modern life - institutional misogyny in the police force, domestic violence, criminal gangs, football hooligans, judgemental neighbours, sleazy in-laws...
Joanna Scanlon plays Beth, a music teacher in a local school, who is trying to commit suicide when the series begins. Beth's adopted son is married and lives elsewhere, rarely visiting her, and her husband left her for somewhere else. Meanwhile, pub-owner Jess, played by Lorraine Ashbourne, has been learning to play the drums and wants to start a band. She has problems with her daughter who is having a relationship with Ines, a woman who was once Jess's close friend but they fell out some time ago.
Holly [Greig] and Yvonne [Bullimore] are sisters, Holly a recently retired police officer and Yvonne a midwife. Holly is aware of misogyny and corruption within the local police force but struggles to do anything about it. Holly and Yvonne have a mother with dementia played by Anne Reid.
Rosalie Craig is Kitty, a deeply damaged younger woman who can sing. She first appears in a supermarket where she is drunk and threatening violence and Holly has to arrest her. It turns out that Kitty is the daughter of a local gang boss, now in prison, and had a traumatic childhood. She has spent time in prison and is unstable, frequently drinking and taking drugs. She is also a victim of domestic violence.
I won't say more about the plot as it would spoil it for you.
This is classic Sally Wainwright material. If you liked Happy Valley, you'll probably love this. P and I began watching it half-heartedly but were completely hooked by the end of the first episode. We could overlook the implausible coincidences, and the fact that this and Happy Valley together present a portrait of Hebden Bridge and its surroundings as being a terrifying place full of hideously violent, women-despising men, which I'm sure it isn't really. But I've decided that Sally Wainwright is my favourite TV writer.
'Riot Women' has been the best thing I've seen in ages. If you don't like screen violence or swearing, don't watch it, but you'd be missing out on something very moving, often funny and completely compelling.
***** FIVE STARS
