Latest news with #IAmCelt
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: why Mhairi Black swapped parliament for standup comedy
7pm, BBC Two'This place is a farce. Absolute farce.' Last year, the SNP's Mhairi Black – the youngest elected MP since 1832 – stood down as an MP, and swapped parliament for standup comedy (she was describing the former there). In this candid film, she talks about rising to prominence after the Scottish referendum, the anxiety she constantly felt as a young, gay, neurodivergent woman in politics, and her first show at the Edinburgh festival fringe. Hollie Richardson 8pm, Channel 4Nick Grimshaw – who is dog daddy to bull terrier Pig and jack russell Puppy – is back to train naughty pooches with his team of experts. First up, cane corso Ghost is a giant guard dog adjusting to family life, while cavapoochon Mr Bollinger is testing his owners' relationship. HR 8pm, Sky ArtsIs there a through-line from Frankenstein's monster, dreamed up by Mary Shelley in Regency England, to the robotic visions of 20th-century American author Isaac Asimov? If there is, then this thorough, four-part series will uncover it. Along the way, there are reflections on how Oppenheimer's bomb influenced other works of science fiction. Ellen E Jones 9pm, U&DramaThis weirdly bleak and creepy reimagining of the 80s detective series reaches its climax. The villainous John Blakely is homing in on Kim, while Bergerac is beginning to panic as he's sidelined from the case. Finally, our hero has a gamechanging realisation – but has it come too late to save his daughter? Phil Harrison 10pm, Sky AtlanticAs Wendy returns to Drumbán for the I Am Celt premiere ('Is it supposed to be funny?'), Séamus, Pubba and the gang confront their pasts ('Dad, I can't believe I'm actually going to say this: were you abducted by aliens?'), and there's a final interspecies confrontation, in the concluding part of Chris O'Dowd's comedy drama. Ali Catterall 10pm, Channel 4There's a lot of secrecy around this new hour-long Dispatches investigation, which suggests it's one to definitely keep an eye on – as, over the past couple of years, the strand has launched headline-making exposés on accusations against Russell Brand, an NHS emergency ward in crisis and the royal family's 'secret millions'. HR Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Anna Hints, 2023), 2.10am, Film4The smoke sauna tradition in Estonia is recognised by Unesco, and Anna Hints' season-traversing documentary pays due homage to its rituals and idyllic woodland setting. But the female visitors to the isolated cabin are the film's real focus. In this safe space, they sit and talk – about body image, sex, relationships, family. While naked physically, they're also exposing themselves emotionally. Viewed in a beautiful play of light and steam, it's a moving insight into troubled individuals given succour through a collective endeavour. Simon Wardell Racing, Grand National Festival, 1.30pm, ITV1. Day one from Aintree.
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Stacey Dooley on the UK's shocking rape conviction statistics
9pm, BBC ThreeProsecuting rape is notoriously difficult in the UK, with an estimated 5% of cases making it to trial, and only about 45% resulting in a conviction. Amid such discouraging headlines, four young women have allowed Stacey Dooley to tell their difficult, complex stories about reporting being raped by someone they know, in the three-year run-up to trial. Ellen E Jones 8pm, Channel 4More outrageously cute canine redemption stories, as pooches go on first dates with potential owners. Charlotte meets a badly behaved American bulldog cross. Will she see past Breeze's unfortunate first impressions? Elsewhere, terrified terrier Austin meets Eileen – but can his nerves take it? Phil Harrison 9pm, BBC Two During the miners' strike, the tight-knit workforce of Polmaise Colliery near Stirling were the first to walk out in February 1984 and the last to return to work. Among flying pickets, they were known as the 'Polmaise Piranhas' for their tenacity and resolve. Via first-hand testimony and archive footage, this vivid documentary charts a tumultuous 56 weeks. Graeme Virtue 9pm, ITV1The second part of a jaw-dropping investigation in which women suddenly deserted by their partners discover that they were in fact undercover officers. Helen and Alison realise that their former partners belonged to a Metropolitan police squad that infiltrated leftwing groups. But who will believe their claims? Hollie Richardson 9pm, Sky AtlanticChris O'Dowd's oddball Ireland-set drama continues with the first day's shoot for I Am Celt. Christina Hendricks's Hollywood producer Wendy definitely isn't taking any nonsense, while local doctor Séamus Proctor (the awesome Paddy Considine) is about to receive a broken nose, during a glorious, if frankly unrepeatable, exchange. Ali Catterall 9pm, U&DramaUntil now, whispering widower Jim Bergerac (Damien Molony) and his mother-in-law Charlie Hungerford (Zoë Wanamaker) have been at odds in this moody reboot of the 1980s Jersey cop series. But they set personal feelings aside as they team up to investigate Arthur Wakefield (Philip Glenister), the bolshie tycoon caught up in Jim's murder-kidnap case. GV
The Independent
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Christina Hendricks on Small Town, Big Story: ‘My husband saw a UFO!'
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter C hristina Hendricks has seen an alien. Well, a UFO, really – but still. She's even got a picture on her phone to prove it. I am told this story matter-of-factly by the Mad Men actor when I enquire as to whether she and Chris O'Dowd believe in extra-terrestrial life. 'I think there has to be,' she says simply. It's a relevant question, given the plot of their new joint venture, Small Town, Big Story . Created by O'Dowd (who also cameos in a few episodes), the six-part Sky Atlantic show follows Hollywood producer Wendy Patterson (Hendricks) as she returns home to the fictional Irish town of Drumbán where she was born in order to shoot a ludicrous 'historical' fiction adaptation called I Am Celt . It soon transpires that Wendy and her former flame Seamus (Paddy Considine), now the local doctor, underwent a mystifying, out-of-this-world experience as teenagers – one that forever altered the course of their lives. The tone sits somewhere between comedy and melodrama – O'Dowd was aiming for 'opera', he says – as the cast of misfit characters uncover more about the town's long history of attracting interstellar visitors. Yes, alien abduction might seem a somewhat fantastical notion, but, suggests O'Dowd, it's no more outlandish than the fae and woodland spirits that often typify tales set in Ireland – or, in fact, the idea of God. 'Inarguably, it's not even close that those two things are as likely. It's very un likely that we are the only species in the universe. We're too imperfect for that to be the case. And if we're so imperfect, how could somebody have bothered creating us?' He's not ruling out Area 51-style conspiracy theories either. 'It may be that we've had many first encounters that we haven't treated with violence – and they're all being held somewhere that you'd never know about.' Following in the footsteps of recent dramadies (see Netflix's excellent Bodkin ) that capitalise on our collective fascination with all things Ireland – history, folklore, superstitions – Small Town, Big Story cannily subverts the genre by centring around a different supernatural element altogether. This, says O'Dowd, was intentional. 'There is a train of thought that's going on during this Gaelic Revival period we're going through now, where a lot of those folk stories are maybe trying to tell us about biodiversity issues and a lot of native knowledge that gets lost when you're colonised and your language is taken from you,' he muses. 'A lot of these stories, particularly in the middle cycle of Irish mythology, could almost be about more cosmic stuff. And we don't yet know that it's not.' He cites medieval Irish-language narrative The Voyage of Bran , in which 'space and time are interpreted in a very different way than we would interpret them now'. But back to his cast's 'UFO' sightings. Considine has allegedly seen one too – an object in the sky that shot straight up in the air and then back down – while unpacking the shopping. 'He was with his wife, and they were putting away groceries, and he was like, 'Wait! Stop! Look!'' says O'Dowd. 'And she said, 'Oh, yeah, that's mad. Would you get the last of the things from the car?'' Hendricks and her husband George were met with similar ambivalence after their own close encounter, which happened when they were settling into South Dublin prior to filming. 'She said, 'George just saw a UFO from out on the balcony',' remembers O'Dowd. 'I went out real quick to try to see it, and I didn't see it…' 'But we showed you a picture!' comes Hendricks's indignant response. 'And it was clear as day,' O'Dowd says placatingly. Chris O'Dowd cameos in his new Sky show 'Small Town, Big Story' alongside leading lady Christina Hendricks (Sky) They make a quirky double-act, one that gives a sense of art mimicking real life when it comes to the show. Wendy is a larger-than-life force of nature, gilded by a lacquer of LA glamour that makes her stand out in saturated technicolour against the soggy backdrop of rural Northern Ireland. 'I remember somebody mentioning Christina's name. And I was like, f***, can you imagine if we got Christina Hendricks?' O'Dowd recalls of casting his lead. His wife, Dawn O'Porter, provided the missing link via a fashion contact. 'We thought, 'God, she'd be great',' continues O'Dowd. 'She's comedically adept, and she's so strong and so… Hollywood, in a way.' 'I'm not Hollywood!' 'Yes, you are.' I'm afraid I have to agree with O'Dowd on this one: Hendricks emanates pure, unadulterated La La Land. In a good way – she cuts a dazzling figure, her perfectly coiffed red hair, demurely high-necked flamingo-pink dress and matching kitten heels about as far away as you can get from O'Dowd's laid-back style. Sitting beside her and dressed in jeans, a black tee and muted green shirt, he looks indistinguishable from his much-loved IT Crowd character, Roy. It's very unlikely that we are the only species in the universe. We're too imperfect for that to be the case 'The shorthand of that is there's a powerful glamour to Hollywood, and then Wendy comes into the middle of this town…' he says. 'It seemed to make sense to make her American, and that she had moved away. She was trying to discover and reinvent herself.' Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free This speaks to another big theme of the show: that of homecoming, and the pull our roots inevitably end up exerting. O'Dowd wrote it partly in response to spending lockdown in Toronto, Canada. 'I was walking through a ravine that was filled with fir trees, and it just reminded me of being home in the northwest of Ireland. I felt very far away, and everybody felt very disconnected and untethered.' Even when you've been away longer than you lived in a place – in O'Dowd's case, 25 years – home still acts 'like a magnet'. Christina Hendricks stars as Wendy, a Hollywood producer who returns home to rural Ireland (Sky) For Hendricks, the question of home comes with its own complications. 'I moved around quite a bit as a kid, and anytime anyone's asked me, 'Where's home?', I don't really have an answer,' she explains. 'So I chose the one that I felt was a very happy time in my life.' That was Twin Falls, Idaho. There are very few people still there who she knows; 'When I go back, I don't know what I'm looking for,' she admits. 'But also there's this draw to go back, and the memories and the feeling that I had when I was there…' The UK also serves as a strong point of connection – though Hendricks's dad moved to the States as a child, he was born in Birmingham. 'As I got older, I realised we had these Britishisms in our house that maybe other kids didn't have,' she says. 'We were a tea-drinking family, and my dad put butter and marmalade on his sandwiches.' Hendricks lived in London for a spell while working as a model in the Nineties and 'absolutely fell in love', surrounded by Britpop, art, fashion and, of course, the Spice Girls. 'I was living here at a spectacular time,' she remembers excitedly of her Cool Britannia days. 'And I just became a crazy Anglophile, and now I come back all the time.' I am such a blabbermouth, I don't think I could keep something that massive to myself Is the notion that all Americans are obsessed with their heritage and ancestry really true? 'We want roots so badly,' she says. 'But there's also this thing, because I colour my hair red – I'm not even a natural redhead – people go, 'Oh, you must be Irish.' And I go, 'No, actually, I'm not.' And they go, 'There's some Irish in there.' Basically, everyone in the United States thinks they're Irish.' Perhaps it's unsurprising. There are an estimated 60 million people in America with Irish heritage; that's 'a vast wave of people who have very, very short roots,' says O'Dowd. And roots aren't so much of a problem for native Irish people. 'Especially if you've stayed where you are your whole life – there's an O'Dowd castle from the 10th century 10 miles from Boyle,' he adds. 'So we haven't moved far.' Boyle, O'Dowd's hometown, gets a nod in Small Town, Big Story , as the rival potential filming location for I Am Celt . It's not the first time he's taken a camera crew home with him: O'Dowd set all three seasons of sitcom Moone Boy there over a decade ago. His new series is, in part, a TV show about making a TV show, and highlights the inevitable overwhelm that occurs when the circus of Hollywood descends upon a tiny community. Was he conscious of not upsetting the locals with his production? Action: 'Small Town, Big Story' is a TV show about making a TV show (Sky) 'I know how people react when you come back and come back and come back, and the novelty wears off fairly quickly for them,' he says. It's 'an awful lot of pressure' filming when you have skin in the game: 'If you're in a random town somewhere, and somebody's complaining that their driveway is blocked for a bit, you're like, 'Oh, I hope somebody sorts that out.' But if it's your hometown, it's like, ' I better go and sort that out…'' In a small town, it's hard not to care what other people think – a fact that's crucial to Small Town, Big Story 's driving narrative. After their mind-bending abduction experience, Seamus keeps schtum, too scared of being judged to admit the truth. Wendy, meanwhile, speaks out – and pays the price, becoming an instant laughing stock. Again, art imitates life, says Hendricks. 'I am such a blabbermouth, I don't think I could keep something that massive to myself. Case in point – I did blab to everyone. I literally stopped someone on the street and said, 'My husband saw a UFO!' And pretty much no one believed me.' And O'Dowd? 'I don't know if I would tell anybody, because I don't think anybody would believe you,' he says. 'Maybe I'd just write about it?' 'Small Town, Big Story' is available on Sky Atlantic and Now
Sky News
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd on aliens, returning to a 'broke' and 'down' London, and his new show Small Town, Big Story
Why you can trust Sky News Actor and comedian Chris O'Dowd has described moving back to London from the US, finding people in the city are "down" after a decade of cutbacks. The IT Crowd star returned to London from Los Angeles with his wife Dawn O'Porter and their two children a year ago. "It's just gone through 10 years of austerity, and you can feel it off it," he told Sky News. "People are down, is the impression I'm getting. I don't know if it's because of the divisive political culture or whether it's because people are broke as s**t because they haven't put any money into public services for so long, and now they've said they're not going to do it either because they're not going to raise taxes, so I don't know what they're going to do. But everybody is… it would be hard to say it's improved." Asked if he sensed any optimism that things would change for the better, he replied: "Not yet." O'Dowd said the decision to return to the UK "wasn't because Trump got in or any of that crap", but that he wanted to "get out before the political cycle starts, because it just gets a bit heated". He added: "It actually didn't this time, because he won so easily." The Irish star was speaking ahead of the premiere of his new Sky Original series Small Town, Big Story, which comes to Sky and NOW on Thursday 27 February. Set in the fictional Irish border village of Drumban, the dramatic comedy follows Wendy Patterson, portrayed by Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, a local girl who found success as a TV producer in Los Angeles. She returns with a film crew in tow and is forced to confront a secret from decades ago - visitors from outer space. So does the show's creator believe in alien existence? "I find it hard to believe we're it, we're just too imperfect," O'Dowd replied. He hails from Boyle, County Roscommon, which is considered a "UFO hotspot" in Ireland. "In the vastness of the universe, or the multiverse or whatever we're existing within, it seems highly unlikely that you and me are the best we can do, no offence," he added. Patterson's show-within-a-show, titled I Am Celt but described as Lame Of Thrones, appears to satirise Hollywood's often inaccurate portrayal of Ireland. "Some of them can be heavy-handed, or a little bit off-piste," laughs O'Dowd. "I think the thing to remember is we're guilty of it too. "Whenever I hear Americans being depicted from Irish people, very often they're stuffing themselves with cheeseburgers and they're morons. There's got to be a bit of give and take with that."
