Katja Meier was told to make the protagonist of her television series 20 years younger … so she decided to find funding and film the pilot herself

When Katja Meier got on to a leading scheme for female writers over the age of 40, she could not have been more delighted.

After finishing her script, production companies loved it – but had just one request: could she make the female protagonist 20 years younger?

Continue reading...

JB and Amy jive to Outkast, Pete and Jowita rumba to Oasis, while Wynne and Katya quickstep to ELO. Who will get sent home? Will we see more perfect 10s? And will there be any more controversies this week?

Tick them off when they happen! Take a drink for each! Get the giggles and hiccups! Here’s this week’s 10-point spotter’s guide :

Shirley tells a celebrity “I’m going to call you Mr/Miss Something”, then never calls them that again

Craig says there was no connection between the couple but the other three judges disagree

Celebrity uses ye olde “busy week in the day job impacting our training time” excuse

Judges openly laugh at Paul Merson’s samba hip action

Claudia asks after Sarah Hadland’s cat Percy and is shown a pic of him in fancy dress

Motsi cries after Montell and Jojo’s Couple’s Choice

Someone says the quickstep “is quick with lots of steps”

Rictus grins from Wynne and Katya on the balcony, knowing cameras will be trained on them

Anton Du Beke harks back to past “saaarm-bas” he danced himself

Claudia looks to camera while Vito Coppola embarks on a rambling description of a dance step

Continue reading...

The chef and broadcaster on peeling prawns by the kilo, his bicultural pride and being ‘addicted’ to fish and chips

Ducks don’t like me when they look at me . I’ve cooked countless peking ducks, probably several thousand. On my first TV series [ Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery on BBC Two, first broadcast on 29 October 1984 ] we did peking duck in the first programme and there was a run on ducks the next day in all the supermarkets. I’m their nemesis.

My father died when I was eight months old , he had a heart attack. So I grew up in Chicago with a single mum who, because she came from China, never spoke English. I had to speak Cantonese to her and it’s been a blessing in disguise. Because of that, I became bicultural. I spoke English in a western world, but at the same time, I kept my Chinese-ness, which I pride just as much. And it makes me proud too to do Chinese cooking and to have my books translated into Chinese. I mean, wow!

Continue reading...

Unique experiment in German-language public broadcasting 3sat faces pressure from populist right

In many countries around the world, breakfast TV means cele­brity interviews, soap operas and last night’s football highlights. On the German-language channel 3sat this Sunday morning, it means a one-hour philosophical discussion on trauma psychology, followed by a book review programme and a classical concert by the Munich Radio Orchestra.

The collaboration between public broadcasters in Austria, Germany and Switzerland is a unique experi­ment in pan-European broadcasting that has defied doubters for almost four decades: highbrow television.

Continue reading...

The TV presenter on pet lions and monkeys, moving to the UK from Sudan, and his love for the Scottish Highlands

Born in Sudan in 1990, Hamza Yassin is a wildlife cameraman and TV presenter. With a BA in zoology with conservation, and a master’s in biological imaging and photography, Hamza had his first presenting experience on The One Show, and went on to front Countryfile and CBBC’s Ranger Hamza’s Eco Quest. The champion of 2022’s Strictly Come Dancing, he lives on the west coast of Scotland. His book, Hamza’s Wild World, is out now.

My neighbour had a few animals that he kept as pets, and one of them was a lioness who had just given birth. I was super-excited to meet the cub. Shortly after this photo was taken, my neighbour asked: “Do you want to go in and say hello to the lioness too?” I said: “No, um, thank you. I think I’m OK!”

Continue reading...

When I started looking at how the superhero movie sausage gets made for a new HBO comedy, I found a world of dysfunction, missed deadlines and utterly frazzled film-makers

When the wheels are coming off, there is no more exquisite humiliation that can be visited upon an adult human than being the director of a big-budget superhero franchise movie. Not even working as the guy who had to wipe a medieval king’s arse. “Groom of the Stool” is sometimes a more covetable credit than “Directed by”. And as even the most fearsome talent agent will tell you, both guarantee you get shit on the back end.

But that’s confusing, you might think, because aren’t directors supposed to be god tier? That’s definitely what I thought, back when I started as one of the writers on The Franchise, a new HBO comedy set behind the scenes in the world of superhero movies. Except the more we talked to people inside the comic-book movie machines of Marvel and DC – and we talked to huge numbers of people – the more dysfunctional the picture that emerged became.

Continue reading...

The 12 Years a Slave star on hoarding, lying about running, and getting torn to shreds for driving badly

Born in London, Chiwetel Ejiofor, 47, trained at the National Youth Theatre and Lamda. In 2008, he won an Olivier for his Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, London. His performance in the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave gained him an Oscar nomination and the best actor Bafta. His other work includes Rob Peace, which he also wrote and directed, Endgame and Doctor Strange. His latest Marvel movie is Venom: The Last Dance, out on 25 October. He lives in London with his partner and child.

What is your greatest fear?
It’s actually people knowing how fearful I am.

Continue reading...

From Doctor Who to Men Up, Cardiff’s creative sector has become one of the fastest growing in Britain

Back at the turn of the century, it could be something of a challenge to persuade film and television talent that Wales was the place to make world-class drama.

Twenty-odd years on, figures reveal that Cardiff’s creative sector is growing more rapidly than any UK city apart from London. And this weekend Bafta Cymru is celebrating a “golden age” for film and television production in Wales at its annual awards ceremony.

Continue reading...

After a turbulent few years, she is now hearing voices from the other side. Has the creator of This Country lost her mind?

• ‘I tried to get jiggy with a ghost’: read an exclusive extract from Daisy May Cooper’s new book

Daisy May Cooper is being haunted. Her first ghost sighting was two years ago – a disembodied pair of child’s legs, running around the bedroom of her new-build house. Then there was an invisible presence, tugging her duvet off her. She’s been hearing voices, too – a Spanish woman, and an ethereal voice in a hospital room offering words of comfort. “It’s like a veil has been lifted,” she says.

You sound crackers, I say. Not something I’d usually voice in an interview – but there’s an infectious, gossipy ease to being in Cooper’s company. “I do! Completely,” she sighs. Then she opens the door of the glass room we’re in, and shouts down the spiral stairs to the photo studio below for her partner to bring his phone up. She wants me to hear something.

Continue reading...