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The Guardian
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
In Flight review – the Bulgarian tourist board is going to hate this TV show
I wonder, sometimes, if Katherine Kelly misses her days as Becky McDonald in Coronation Street. Yes, Becky was a once-homeless, thieving ex-con who worked her way through the full panoply of soap storylines (abuse, miscarriage, drink problem, buying a child, marrying Steve, smashing up Tracy Barlow's front room with a sledgehammer, a stint in the Rovers Return) before her departure from the cobbled streets for a new life in Barbados after a triumphant wedding-reception-wrecking, but, y'know, she got to have a laugh while she was doing it. This was during the early 00s, when Coronation Street still dealt in comedy as well as tragedy, recognising them as two sides of the same life coin, especially among the barmaids – fully formed or embryonic battleaxes all – gazing out on the world and its punters as they wearily pulled pints behind the bar. Since then, Kelly's output has largely been one of unrelenting grimness. I can't remember the last time she took a main role in anything that required a lightness of touch, let alone the exercise of her comic chops. And never more so than in her latest outing, the exhausting six-part thriller In Flight, in which she plays a desperate single mother, Joanne, whose son, Sonny, is sentenced to 15 years in a Bulgarian prison for a murder he swears he did not commit. Oh God, the suffering! The bleak, bleak suffering! Joanne sits opposite her boy as he cries and gibbers at the thought of spending years – if he is not shanked by breakfast time – in the terrifying hellhole run by thugs (it is safe to say that the Bulgarian tourist board will not be happy with In Flight). She goes home and trawls through his case files again, in preparation for a hearing that promises to be just as unsuccessful as all the others. It is almost a relief when the thriller proper begins; give me raw suspense over emotional battery any day. Joanne, a long-haul flight attendant, is approached by a menacing man called Cormac (Stuart Martin) and presented with a non-opportunity: start smuggling drugs for the cartel he represents and get her son protected in prison – albeit at the risk of life imprisonment or the death penalty herself, depending on whether she gets caught and in which country – or refuse and get him killed. Cormac hands her a suitcase with a false bottom, tips on how to disguise the smell of the heroin she is told to pick up in Istanbul, and vanishes into the night after warning her not to tell anyone. She tells Dominic (Ashley Thomas). He is a customs officer and they had a thing while he was separated from his wife. He is now back with his wife and trying to make a go of things, but he and Joanne still gaze at each other yearningly across the baggage carousel. Thus the stage is set for – well, hours of ordinary people being terrorised into acts of increasingly inventive desperation, really. There are lots of set pieces ratcheting up the tension as Joanne is nearly caught in the act again and again and kilos of drugs have to be hidden in tampon dispensers. Ambiguous conversations are held and more and moren trusted folk turn out to be corrupt horrors; you would simply give anything to make it stop. Partly so Joanne and Sonny's anguish can end, partly so yours can. I don't know if this counts as a successful thriller or not. Clearly, it works to the extent that the viewer is invested enough to be discomfited along with the characters. Equally clearly, the choking airlessness of it all is … not entertaining, especially with a script that dispenses necessary information in as unadorned a manner as possible. But I am a coward when it comes to the drug-smuggling thriller format. I feel as if I am being forced to watch a dog chew off its own leg to escape from a trap. But for those who love precisely that about it, In Flight will be a classic of the genre: the claustrophobic nature of it all, the endangerment of hapless innocents and the reminder of the evil that spreads untrammelled across space and history are a cluster of superb selling points. It's brisk, it's well made, it's entirely harrowing. I wish you your strange, strange joy of it. In Flight airs on Channel 4 and is available online now
The Irish Sun
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Blind Date reboot will return with HUGE twist inspired by another ITV game show
IT is one of the most nostalgic TV reboots of the year – but I can reveal the return of Blind Date will come with a very modern Love Island-style twist. Earlier this month I revealed the programme, made famous by host Advertisement 4 The Blind Date revival will be set on a tropical island — just like Love Island, hosted by Maya Jama But it will have a different flavour because much of the show will be spent on a tropical island — just like Love Island, hosted by A TV insider said: 'This sounds like a radical departure from the old Blind Date, one that definitely has hints of Love Island about it. "But fans will recall a lot of the dates took place in hot, sunny climes abroad, and producers want to recapture some of the steamy fun, and expand upon that. 'Even the wedding element has hints of the old show, because the dream was always that the dates on the programme would lead to couples tying the knot.' Advertisement read more on blind date The TV insider added: 'In the reboot, the creators are not entirely dispensing with all of the old characteristics either as there are still plans to incorporate the show's famous sliding wall and hire a top female host just like Cilla.' Disney+ is imminently expected to confirm it is reviving Blind Date, though all details have been kept firmly under wraps. Advertisement Most read in News TV No presenter has signed up as yet but the channel is targeting some big names in British TV, with the main criteria being that they have to be hugely famous women. Here's hoping whoever gets the role doesn't mind getting a bit of sand between their toes in the course of the job. 4 Cilla Black hosted Blind Date for 18 years Credit: Getty Images - Getty Blind Date most successful couple Alex and Sue Tatham talk about their time on the show KATH TAKES FLIGHT KATHERINE KELLY is back dishing out the drinks . . . 13 years after pulling pints in the Rovers Return. Advertisement On Corrie she played feisty barmaid Becky McDonald, while now she's cabin crew on new Channel 4 thriller In Flight. 4 Katherine Kelly stars in new Channel 4 thriller In Flight Credit: Channel 4 / Peter Marley 4 Katherin played feisty barmaid Becky McDonald on Coronation Street Credit: ITV Advertisement Through the airline she works for, she finds herself blackmailed into drug smuggling after her son is imprisoned in Bulgaria for a murder he claims he didn't commit. The six-parter, set in Bangkok, Bulgaria, Istanbul and London, wrapped filming this spirng and is set to air later this year. STEPHEN IN TECH LESSON STEPHEN FRY wants to make a futuristic TV drama series where e-mails, TikTok and SnapChat are 'uncool' and people return to basic communication in 'an unplugged life'. Advertisement The pupil asks the teacher how to submit his essay as he doesn't have a computer so can't email it. Stephen continues: 'All the other (pupils) think 'Who is this ridiculous child?' "But then he starts influencing everybody. They think this is quite a fun way to live. 'We've come to a tipping point now where the uncoolest thing in the world is Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok. Advertisement "We know they're harmful, but they are also vapid and shallow and silly. 'Imagine an unplugged life using all these fabulous old tools. You'd be the coolest people.' Bizbit THE BBC has un- veiled two new podcasts. Double Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams will host the LGBT Sport Podcast, which begins today. And 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle tells the stories of the people who helped change space exploration. It launches on July 14. SEX JOKE BIT MUCH FOR WILL BRIT actor He cringed as US actress Advertisement At this week's launch of the show, which drops on July 10, Lena said: 'One of Meg's favourite things to do is to ask you after a take: 'What face were you making during that?' "One time it was right after a sex scene and Meg was like: 'What face were you making during that?' 'And I heard Will's mic, like: 'Jesus f***ing Christ, Meg!'' Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme - Sun Club. Advertisement
