Keeley Hawes is menopausal and murderous in new TV drama
British screen star Keeley Hawes plays the aforementioned, a woman who was once a feared gun-for-hire, now living out her retirement on an idyllic Greek island, suffering hot flushes and random bouts of irritability like the rest of us.
Though she'd probably like to unleash her very particular set of skills on some of the village's more annoying inhabitants — there's a very funny scene where she gets unreasonably peeved with having to wait in line at the butchers for a steak (I've never related to something more) — she's so far managed to rein in her worst impulses and is living a pretty mundane life.
That is, until her estranged adult son, played by The Good Doctor's Freddie Highmore, comes to visit, and her entire life is upended.
To elaborate would be to spoil things for viewers, but let's just say the show begins as one thing and does a radical 180. By the time you get to the end of the second episode, it's very evident this is something else entirely. Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore in The Assassin, coming to Stan. Credit: Supplied
I probably should have known it would veer in a different direction — the creative duo responsible for Stan's equally twisty-turny drama The Tourist are also behind this, and it shows. The Williams brothers love a plot twist and a savage fight scene or two, so you can guess where this is headed.
Joining Hawes and Highmore is a stellar ensemble cast, including Jack Davenport (a personal fave since my days watching This Life in the 90s), Neighbours legend Alan Dale, Perth-raised Baby Reindeer star Shalom Brune-Franklin and screen siren Gina Gershon.
Something tells me this series is going to make quite the splash when it lands. Mark your diaries. Outrageous is streaming on BritBox. Credit: Supplied
Almost a century on from when they were kicking around, the Mitford sisters continue to fascinate and now they're the subject of this period drama.
Not heard of these historical ladies? Ooh boy, are you in for a treat as you take a deep dive down the Google hole to research the six wildly different, wildly glamorous aristocratic sisters 'who shocked 1930s Britain with their scandalous choices and deeply divided loyalties'. Think of them as the Kardashians of old, if you will.
Nancy was a novelist and probably the most famous of the clan at first. In later years, her sisters Unity and Diana overtook her in the notoriety stakes, the latter by marrying the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley and the former by being close friends with Hitler. Rightly repulsed, Jessica, known as Decca, left home and became a committed communist, well-known journalist and author.
Interest piqued? You won't want to miss this one. Sold! Who Broke The Australian Dream is streaming on Binge. Credit: Supplied
Spoiler alert: it wasn't anyone under the age of 45! Mark Humphries goes deep into the Aussie housing market to find out why so many of us are locked out of home ownership. Depressing and illuminating in equal measure.
Based on May Cobb's book, this series sees Brittany Snow play Sophie, who moves with her family to a new town and becomes close with society queen bee Margot (Malin Akerman). She lives an affluent life in a small East Texas town — but all is not as it seems. Chrissy Metz and Dermot Mulroney also star. Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming on Netflix. Credit: Scott Yamano / Netflix
The legendary character comes back to life via a sequel, only 30 years in the making. Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen and Christopher McDonald all reprise their roles. Can't wait!
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Perth Now
17 hours ago
- Perth Now
Sad truth behind F1 Movie's haunting real-life crash: ‘Is this me?'
Almost everything in the blockbuster F1 movie is fictional, but the protagonist's spine-chilling origin story really happened exactly as depicted on screen. Brad Pitt's character Sonny Hayes is haunted by a high-speed crash which initially cost him his Formula One dream, but for the man who survived that crash in real life, there would be no Hollywood ending. In 1990, Martin Donnelly was a promising British racing driver with the Lotus Formula One team, but a suspension failure in a practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix sent him hurtling into the Armco barrier at around 257km/h. The aftermath is one of the most horrifying scenes ever witnessed in motorsport. Donnelly says he has no memory of the crash, but he told CNN Sports that his car effectively became a bobsled without any steering or braking control prior to the moment of impact. 'The carbon fibre tub shattered like a car bomb, and I went with the energy,' he said. 'I got thrown out by about 60 metres and travelled through the air and along the ground like a rag doll.' Donnelly remained strapped to his seat, coming to rest awkwardly in the middle of the track. As cars navigated their way past him and through the field of debris, the marshals in Jerez waited for the arrival of doctor Sid Watkins, but the assumption was that Donnelly was already dead. When Watkins flipped open the visor of his helmet, Donnelly's face had turned blue. He was unconscious having swallowed his tongue, had broken many of his bones — including both of his legs — and his internal organs had been so traumatised that he would be clinging to life on a respirator and kidney dialysis for weeks. Martin Donnelly was lucky to escape with his life, let alone his legs. Credit: Getty After being helicoptered to hospital in Seville, a priest was summoned to read him his last rites. Donnelly was lucky to escape with his life and both of his legs, and although he was subsequently able to resume his motor racing career, he never returned to Formula One as a driver. At least, not in real life. Over three decades later, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and the other producers of the movie perused F1 archives to find the crash upon which to base Hayes' narrative arc, a decision that was quickly made once they viewed Donnelly's dramatic incident in Jerez. Hamilton made the call to seek permission, blindsiding Donnelly one Saturday night at home. 'I thought it was going to be one of those cold calls for central heating or double-glazed windows,' he recalled. 'I was quite aggressive ... it's not every day you receive a call from a seven-time world champion!' When asked what had made him so good as a young racing driver, Donnelly joked with CNN Sports: 'Well it wasn't my good looks, that's for sure.' So, he could scarcely have imagined that one of Hollywood's biggest heartthrobs would end up playing a character based on his life experience in a movie. Donnelly said it was surreal to find himself filming in a garage at Brands Hatch, with Pitt asking for advice on where to stand and how to enter the car. ''Hey Brad, if I were you, just stand at the back of the car, walk around it, touch it, just ask the car to be good to you today, pray that you're going to be both quick and safe',' he recalled saying. Martin Donnelly with Brad Pitt during production of the F1 movie. Credit: CNN Donnelly said that he never dwelled upon the inherent dangers of high-speed racing. 'If you have something in the back of your mind about having an accident, you're not driving that car at 100 per cent, you're at 99 per cent,' he explained. 'In my mind, (accidents) happened to other drivers, not me.' Nevertheless, as he described telling Pitt to climb from the left-hand side of the car, he accepted that he has always been a superstitious driver. 'My daughter once did a feature on me at school and said, 'Dad, can you write down all the superstitions you have,' and there were two A4 pages of it. She says, 'Oh my god, dad, you need some help!'' In assisting with the production of the movie, Donnelly was forced to relive the most traumatic experience of his life, experiencing it for the first time in the third person. The director recreated the crash and filmed it repeatedly, prompting him to wonder: 'Is this what I'm known for?' 'I watched them get a mannequin in yellow overalls and a helmet fly out of this car 15 times and all these cameras are taking pictures,' Donnelly said. 'And then it would drop and be dragged along the ground. For me, that was a reality check because I've never seen it happen.' Donnelly said that footage was never used in the final edit, perhaps because nothing could match the intensity of the original television recording, which he said he didn't know would be used until he saw the movie in the cinema. While he said that he feels 'honoured and privileged that Brad Pitt chose my accident and my life to document', the 61-year-old admitted that the whole thing is bittersweet; his crash came at a cost. 'This is what I've been reenacted for,' he lamented. 'And my friends at the time — Damon Hill, Jonny Herbert, Eddie Irvine, David Coulthard have all gone on to be very successful and very rich. Why wasn't I given a chance to have that? Because when they were my teammates, I kicked their asses!' But then he stops himself, recalling the fate of one of F1's greatest ever drivers Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian famously walked to the site of Donnelly's accident at Jerez and watched as the rescue teams fought to revive him on the track. Senna was close to Donnelly and clearly affected by his friend's clash in 1990. Credit: Getty/CNN They were close, and Senna offered anything he could do to help with his recovery. Four years later, Senna himself was involved in a devastating crash at the San Marino Grand Prix, and he was not so lucky. 'I do believe that I could easily have become a world champion but then I come back to reality. I'm still talking to you,' he said. 'My friend Senna is dead. He had all the millions in his back pocket, three-time world champion, but who's he going to share it with? 'His death on May 1st, 1994, was the final nail in the coffin for me to say, 'Hey Martin, look around you, you're in the paddock, you're still involved with the sport that you love. You've got no right to complain'.'
7NEWS
19 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Sad truth behind Martin Donnelly's haunting real-life crash depicted in F1 Movie: ‘Is this what I'm known for?'
Almost everything in the blockbuster F1 movie is fictional, but the protagonist's spine-chilling origin story really happened exactly as depicted on screen. Brad Pitt's character Sonny Hayes is haunted by a high-speed crash which initially cost him his Formula One dream, but for the man who survived that crash in real life, there would be no Hollywood ending. In 1990, Martin Donnelly was a promising British racing driver with the Lotus Formula One team, but a suspension failure in a practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix sent him hurtling into the Armco barrier at around 257km/h. The aftermath is one of the most horrifying scenes ever witnessed in motorsport. Donnelly says he has no memory of the crash, but he told CNN Sports that his car effectively became a bobsled without any steering or braking control prior to the moment of impact. 'The carbon fibre tub shattered like a car bomb, and I went with the energy,' he said. 'I got thrown out by about 60 metres and travelled through the air and along the ground like a rag doll.' Donnelly remained strapped to his seat, coming to rest awkwardly in the middle of the track. As cars navigated their way past him and through the field of debris, the marshals in Jerez waited for the arrival of doctor Sid Watkins, but the assumption was that Donnelly was already dead. When Watkins flipped open the visor of his helmet, Donnelly's face had turned blue. He was unconscious having swallowed his tongue, had broken many of his bones — including both of his legs — and his internal organs had been so traumatised that he would be clinging to life on a respirator and kidney dialysis for weeks. After being helicoptered to hospital in Seville, a priest was summoned to read him his last rites. Donnelly was lucky to escape with his life and both of his legs, and although he was subsequently able to resume his motor racing career, he never returned to Formula One as a driver. At least, not in real life. Over three decades later, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and the other producers of the movie perused F1 archives to find the crash upon which to base Hayes' narrative arc, a decision that was quickly made once they viewed Donnelly's dramatic incident in Jerez. Hamilton made the call to seek permission, blindsiding Donnelly one Saturday night at home. 'I thought it was going to be one of those cold calls for central heating or double-glazed windows,' he recalled. 'I was quite aggressive ... it's not every day you receive a call from a seven-time world champion!' When asked what had made him so good as a young racing driver, Donnelly joked with CNN Sports: 'Well it wasn't my good looks, that's for sure.' So, he could scarcely have imagined that one of Hollywood's biggest heartthrobs would end up playing a character based on his life experience in a movie. Donnelly said it was surreal to find himself filming in a garage at Brands Hatch, with Pitt asking for advice on where to stand and how to enter the car. ''Hey Brad, if I were you, just stand at the back of the car, walk around it, touch it, just ask the car to be good to you today, pray that you're going to be both quick and safe',' he recalled saying. Donnelly said that he never dwelled upon the inherent dangers of high-speed racing. 'If you have something in the back of your mind about having an accident, you're not driving that car at 100 per cent, you're at 99 per cent,' he explained. 'In my mind, (accidents) happened to other drivers, not me.' Nevertheless, as he described telling Pitt to climb from the left-hand side of the car, he accepted that he has always been a superstitious driver. 'My daughter once did a feature on me at school and said, 'Dad, can you write down all the superstitions you have,' and there were two A4 pages of it. She says, 'Oh my god, dad, you need some help!'' In assisting with the production of the movie, Donnelly was forced to relive the most traumatic experience of his life, experiencing it for the first time in the third person. The director recreated the crash and filmed it repeatedly, prompting him to wonder: 'Is this what I'm known for?' 'I watched them get a mannequin in yellow overalls and a helmet fly out of this car 15 times and all these cameras are taking pictures,' Donnelly said. 'And then it would drop and be dragged along the ground. For me, that was a reality check because I've never seen it happen.' Donnelly said that footage was never used in the final edit, perhaps because nothing could match the intensity of the original television recording, which he said he didn't know would be used until he saw the movie in the cinema. While he said that he feels 'honoured and privileged that Brad Pitt chose my accident and my life to document', the 61-year-old admitted that the whole thing is bittersweet; his crash came at a cost. 'This is what I've been reenacted for,' he lamented. 'And my friends at the time — Damon Hill, Jonny Herbert, Eddie Irvine, David Coulthard have all gone on to be very successful and very rich. Why wasn't I given a chance to have that? Because when they were my teammates, I kicked their asses!' But then he stops himself, recalling the fate of one of F1's greatest ever drivers Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian famously walked to the site of Donnelly's accident at Jerez and watched as the rescue teams fought to revive him on the track. They were close, and Senna offered anything he could do to help with his recovery. Four years later, Senna himself was involved in a devastating crash at the San Marino Grand Prix, and he was not so lucky. 'I do believe that I could easily have become a world champion but then I come back to reality. I'm still talking to you,' he said. 'My friend Senna is dead. He had all the millions in his back pocket, three-time world champion, but who's he going to share it with? 'His death on May 1st, 1994, was the final nail in the coffin for me to say, 'Hey Martin, look around you, you're in the paddock, you're still involved with the sport that you love. You've got no right to complain'.'
Perth Now
20 hours ago
- Perth Now
TikTok meets Real Housewives in nepo baby drama
With Clare Rigden sick this week — no doubt bingeing a stack of excellent shows to report back on (between well-deserved naps) — it feels like the right time to reflect on my own go-to sick-day viewing. Watching TV while sick is a very different beast to your usual screen time. The shows don't need to grip you completely because you'll be drifting in and out of sleep, missing scenes between coughing fits and nose-blowing. There will be no Emmy nominations in this line-up, and chances are the shows will fall into either a guilty pleasure or hate-watch category. During a recent bout of the flu, I dove into The Real Housewives universe. And wow, what a world it was. We're talking handbags worth more than the average Aussie's annual salary, drama that veers from petty bickering to near fist fights, and housewives actually going to jail for real-life crimes. It's unhinged — and sick me couldn't get enough. While I'm saving the rest of RHOSLC for my next sick day, I have continued dipping into Next Gen NYC as it drops weekly on Hayu. Please don't judge me — I also watch Severance, The Studio, Hacks and all the other highbrow stuff. I have some taste. But if, like me, you need a bit of sugar with all that substance, this series delivers. It follows 'a tangled web of friends raised in the spotlight — or at least close enough for good lighting — as they stumble into adulthood one brunch, break-up and spontaneous decision at a time'. It's like if TikTok and the Housewives had a baby. Literally. The show features the children of some of the franchise's most iconic reality mums, and they're putting their parents to shame, shouting their way through their own chaotic episodes. There are characters being called 'dirt poor' because they don't get a $10k allowance from their parents, arguments over who should foot the $14k bill for a nightclub booth, and a full-blown spat over . . . something I've already forgotten (but felt very important at the time). And yet, it's all set against an iconic New York backdrop, has flashes of genuine friendship and surprising glimmers of growth. Sick or not, it's the kind of show that lets you switch your brain off — and sometimes, that's exactly what you need. Get well soon Clare! This creepy horror is currently streaming on Binge. Credit: Universal Pictures Australia / TheWest While we're talking nepo babies, this vampire horror featuring Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny Depp and singer-model Vanessa Paradis) and Bill Skarsgard (son of actor Stellan Skarsgard) is dropping on Binge. This is one you'll want to watch at full health, phone face down with all the lights on. Everyone's favourite angry chef is back with Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service. Credit: Supplied Back bef or e there was streaming and we had to hope something decent was on TV or that our pocket money could cover a new release at the video shop, it was always a great day when you stumbled across a Gordon Ramsay show. Whether he was calling someone an idiot sandwich, saving a restaurant that didn't particularly appreciate his style of tough love or making rising chefs reconsider their career path, it was nothing if not entertaining. It's fair to say he's softened a little over the years, so it will be interesting to see how spicy his new series is. This time Ramsay sends an insider undercover at a struggling restaurant who squirrels out information back to him. What could go wrong except for, well, everything. Ingrid (Sally Phillips), Austin (Michael Theo) and Julian (Ben Miller) are all back for season two of Austin. Credit: Supplied For viewing that feels like a warm hug, it's hard to go past this lovely show starring Michael Theo, Sally Phillips, Ben Miller and Perth's Claire Lovering. Season two picks back up on Austin's Game Of Scones: Doing Britain On The Spectrum (my book club would read that!) snapped up by a publisher before the newfound fame goes to his head. Can't wait to jump in the back seat with Claudia Karvan and Steph Tisdell for Great Australian Road Trips. Credit: Supplied There is nothing like a road trip to really get to know someone — the good, the bad and the 'let me out here please' — though we can't imagine there will be any of the latter between the hosts of this new series. Claudia Karvan joins Steph Tisdell while Melissa Leong is in the driver's seat with Nazeem Hussain as they take on some of Australia's best drives, including the Great Barrier Reef Drive in Queensland to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
