Latest news with #TheMadameBlancMysteries
The Guardian
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: a big night in with Elton John and Brandi Carlile
9.05pm, ITV1 The two musicians have been friends for more than two decades and have a new duets album, Who Believes in Angels?. They perform these songs for the first time at a special gig at the London Palladium, along with covers of each other's hits. But that's not all: Dan Levy is host for the evening and will be sitting the pair down to get all the gossip. Hollie Richardson 7.15pm, BBC One With wary nurse Belinda (Varada Sethu) now along for the ride, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) sets down in 50s Miami. But strange things are afoot in the pastel paradise. Might it have something to do with cinema fixture Mr Ring-a-Ding, a tuneful cartoon character voiced by Alan Cumming? Get your popcorn ready. Graeme Virtue 8.30pm, Channel 4 Previously shown on More4, Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel go on holiday together in a genial travelogue, which at least benefits from them being friends in real life. Having known each other for 40 years, the comics are cycling around France: week one takes them from Arcachon on the Atlantic coast to the Garonne valley. Jack Seale 9pm, Channel 5 The actor – who is now basically the queen of Channel 5 – hosts a lively quiz about all things 70s. Comedians Shaparak Khorsandi and John Thomson are the team captains, with Tiswas host Sally James, Stars in Their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly, Hi-de-Hi! star Su Pollard and The Madame Blanc Mysteries star Steve Edge. HR 9.35pm, BBC Two This concert film opens with an aerial shot of the Manhattan skyline that slowly zooms in on a 600,000-strong crowd, gathered in Central Park to hear Paul Simon. It's a powerful illustration of the success of Simon's internationally flavoured albums Graceland (1986) and The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), music from both of which he plays here. Ellen E Jones 10.20pm, ITV1 Rebel Wilson has been spotted in Yorkshire filming her upcoming Christmas film, but this weekend she's in Jonathan Ross's London studio. Also in the lineup: Freddie Flintoff, who has a documentary coming out, Government Cheese star David Oyelowo and Alma's Not Normal creator Sophie Willan. HR Lightyear, 5.40pm, BBC One This is the film that (fictionally) inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy in Toy Story – but Pixar's 2022 meta-animation takes a different trajectory to its forebear, visually and comedically. We meet space ranger Buzz (voiced by Chris Evans) as his mistake leads his spaceship to crash on a dangerous planet. Test-flights of a new hyperdrive lead to time dilation, so his ground crew age more quickly than him. Then Emperor Zurg appears … Buzz here is smarter than his plastic avatar, and the action is in the stars not the suburbs, but it retains that Pixar focus on the strength of family. Simon Wardell The Game, 9pm, Legend Xtra What do you get the man who has everything for his birthday? How about an existential crisis? David Fincher's tightly wound 1997 thriller about banker Nicholas Van Orton delivers peak Michael Douglas – a smug man brought low but learning valuable lessons. The gift of a mysterious game by his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) is the start of a dark few days of the soul for Nicholas, as a series of increasingly fraught role-playing scenarios (or are they actually real?) – bring up memories of their father's suicide and focus his mind on his own empty life. SW Snooker: The World Championship, 10am, BBC Two The morning session on day one, as Kyren Wilson begins his defence of the title. Women's Champions League Football: Arsenal v Lyon, noon, TNT Sports 1 A semi-final first leg at the Emirates. Super League Rugby: Leigh v Warrington, 1.25pm, BBC Two At Leigh Sports Village. Premiership Rugby Union: Harlequins v Sale, 2.45pm, TNT Sports 1 Saracens v Gloucester is at v Leicester is on Sun, 2.30pm. Women's Six Nations Rugby:England v Scotland, 4.30pm, BBC Two From Welford Road, Leicester. Premier League Football: Aston Villa v Newcastle, 5pm, Sky Sports Main Event Ipswich v Arsenal is on Sun at 1pm; Leicester v Liverpool at 4pm.
Telegraph
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Tony Robinson: ‘People are supposed to say 'I have no regrets' – but I do'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Tony Robinson 7am I'll write. I've been immersed in my new book, The House of Wolf. It's like steel shutters being slammed down, and I concentrate on what I'm doing, regardless of what's going on around me. I was an only child – my parents doted on me and were always talking to me, but I wasn't listening as I was always doing something else. My mum took me to an ear specialist because she thought I was deaf. 9am A slow-burn breakfast because I don't want to eat again until evening. Microwaved porridge, zero-fat yogurt, and blueberries and raspberries decorating it in a pyramid, so you can't see the boringness of the porridge underneath. 10am I drive to see my granddaughters, who are 16 and 13, play football. It's one of the most exciting new things in my life. Women's football has exploded exponentially. If you watch boys' football, from about age 13, you could cut the ambition with a knife. With girls, there's a whole different spirit about it. I shout praise, which might be embarrassing for them to receive from a 78-year-old man, but I would say, honestly, it's when I'm at my happiest. 12pm Down the M4 to watch Bristol City. They're an extraordinary football team. Every year for the past 10 years – and I think I'm only slightly exaggerating here – they have come between 11th and 13th in the Championship, so a really exciting year is when they come 11th and a really depressing year is when they come 13th. This is not what most football supporters see as excitement. At the moment, it looks like we may make the play-offs this year, and consequently I'm in seventh heaven. 5pm Back to west London, listening to the radio. There's been a real renaissance of Radio 4, the imagination of the programmes is great. It could be a show about Ray Charles's childhood, then 'Who's best, Aristotle or Plato?' followed by a documentary about tap dancers with disabilities. If I'm part-way through a programme and get home, I sit in the car until it finishes. 7pm I'll read scripts, like the ones for The Madame Blanc Mysteries [Thursdays at 9pm on Channel 5; or streaming on In fact I didn't even need to look at the script at first, I just thought, '[Co-creator] Sally Lindsay is lovely and it's filmed in Gozo,' but then I read it and it was fantastic. I had a cameo role that turned into a whole series this time. As an actor, the length of your employment is normally so short that there's always part of you thinking, 'How am I going to pay the phone bill?' 8pm My wife and I always have Saturday evenings together; I can't remember the last time we didn't. I've been cavalier in my relationships as far as time is concerned – I think people are supposed to say, 'I have no regrets,' but I do. I wish I'd had the integrity to spend more time with partners. Sometimes you've got nine things on the go and the one you can put at the bottom of the list is your partner, but it's so damaging. 8.30pm Around 60 paces from home, we have an Everyman cinema, which knocks every other cinema experience into a corner. I feel like a little boy living next to a sweet shop. The last thing we enjoyed was the Bob Dylan movie [ A Complete Unknown ]. I'd have thought that, as an actor, I would recognise great actors, but I've never particularly noticed Timothée Chalamet is the truth. He is stunning in it. 11.13pm I turn to my wife and say, 'I'm thinking about going to bed,' and when we look at our watches, it is always 13 minutes past 11. In the middle of the night, I get up, go to my study and write down notes or plot ideas – 'his sister kills him', 'buy choc ices', 'get a new razor'…
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Death in Paradise has finished, here's what you should watch instead
There's nothing better than cwtching up, ordering a takeaway and watching a cosy crime drama. With one of our favourite shows, Death in Paradise's fourteenth season recently coming to an end, like us you may be thinking 'what can I watch instead?'. Of course, our Friday night will still have an element of paradise with a series that's a bit closer to home. Beyond Paradise, the show's spin off is back on our screens on BBC One at 8pm every week. It features the actor Kris Marshall, who plays Humphrey Goodman, after his stint on Death in Paradise he took up the position of DI in the Devon town of Shipton Abbott. That being said Death in Paradise, isn't like most crime dramas, because of it's beautiful location, it's even in the title, "paradise"! Most programmes in the same genre are typically, dark and emulate the noir genre. You may be wondering what other crime dramas, that have a similar gorgeous setting, are lingering around. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter. READ MORE: Death in Paradise's Don Warrington has a famous son and fans of BBC show may recognise him READ MORE: Wynne Evans says 'truth wins' as he gives career update after Strictly Live scandal Well, you're in luck, a new season of The Madame Blanc Mysteries is back on our screens on Channel 5. The series stars British actress and Coronation Street legend, Sally Lindsay as Jean White, an Antiques expert who moves to France when she is suspicious of how her husband had died. She then uses her skills to become a PI aiding the local police in solving mysteries in the village. Described as "Sunshine on screen" by the UK Time News, it's the perfect show to take the place of our favourite sunny crime drama. However rather than the Caribbean, the series is filmed in Malta and Gozo, despite being set in the fictional French village of Sainte Victoire. Despite her soap opera roots, Sally is quite the comedic actress, and truly a National Treasure in the eyes of fans. Viewers of the show may originally tune in for the thrill of the crime drama, but they will definitely stick around for the actress. Whilst promoting the series, Channel 5 shared a video of the actress saying, "The one and only Sally Lindsay," alongside some of her onscreen best bits. The series itself started in 2021, and will be returning for its fourth season. Greg Barnett, Channel 5's commissioning editor, said: "The Madame Blanc Mysteries has won over the hearts of our audience, and we can't wait to say 'Bonjour' to our Sainte Victoire favourites once again. "The crime rates may be sky-high in this village but we're in great hands with the brilliant Jean White and trusty sidekicks to crack every case." In past series we have seen precious treasures, stolen paintings and family dramas, but what could the new series entail? Earlier this year, Sally opened up on what fans can expect from the new episodes while attending the Radio Times Covers Party. She said: "We open with two 75-year-old hotties on jet skis flying across the Mediterranean, and then they find a dead body. So, I don't think I've seen that on television before. I hope I haven't! "And my husband's done an amazing Hawaii Five-0 riff to it. So, that's what I want everyone to start off with. But, actually, the edit's come out really well. We've got some brilliant actors, brilliant friends in it again, so yeah, I'm very proud." Sally's husband, Steve White is a famous drummer who has collaborated on music for the series, performed with Paul Weller and has also presented and consulted on Sky Arts' series "The Art of Drumming". Not forgetting his other claim to fame, aa he is also the older brother of Alan White, the official drummer of Oasis from 1995 to 2004. The series started back on Thursday, March 20 and you can catch up on the series online here. New episodes will be available to watch on Channel 5 or online every Thursday at 9pm.
Telegraph
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Sally Lindsay: ‘If they axed Coronation Street there'd be civil war'
Prowling into the hotel room in which we're meeting, dressed head to toe in black, Sally Lindsay looks every inch Avengers-era Honor Blackman. 'It fascinates me how easy it is to commit murder,' suggests the 51-year-old, worryingly as we sit down to chat. 'We've written an episode this time about poisoning and it's all household products. Just mix with the wrong thing and there you go!' But there's no cause for alarm. Even if she does know how to commit the perfect crime, she saves all that for The Madame Blanc Mysteries, her Channel 5 show, which began in 2021, about a crime-solving antiques dealer and is about to return for a fourth series. Disarming, open and honest – even about her two-stone weight loss which she's achieved through not eating before midday; 'It's all to do with my HRT' – she's the most non-threatening person you could meet. But running through her is a streak of sheer determination (The Traitors? 'Oh, I'd totally win that,'), and it's this attitude that has got her where she is today; a successful actress with her own production company creating the shows that she wants to be in. Along with RTS and Bafta award-winning producer Caroline Roberts-Cherry and the actor Don Warrington, Lindsay runs Saffron Cherry, which makes The Madame Blanc Mysteries and has set itself up as a 'safe space' for women writers to work. 'When I was a younger actress, women got to 50 and then vanished for 10 years,' says Stockport-born Lindsay. 'And then it was like, 'You can come back now, love, you're playing Grandma'. Why were they not relevant? They're going through teenage kids, menopause, all sorts of things – it's a fascinating time in life and one that I'm in now. I like putting us on the telly. It's important.' When she and her Coronation Street co-star Suranne Jones developed the ITV police drama Scott & Bailey, which eventually ran for five series from 2011 to 2016, it took six years to get made because there was no main male role. But Lindsay didn't let that stand in her way. 'My first job was on The Royle Family with Caroline Aherne,' she recalls. 'She was absolutely the boss on set and a real influence. And so my first-ever TV experience was with a female director, writer and producer. And then on Coronation Street [in which she appeared between 2001 and 2006], it was equal female directors, male directors, female writers, male writers. It was a world in which there were opportunities. It was only when I left that I saw how male-dominated the industry was.' And now, like a modern-day Jessica Fletcher, Lindsay toils away creating The Madame Blanc Mysteries with co-writer and co-star Sue Vincent. 'When we're starting a series, we always spend a day in my shed talking about stories we've heard and seen and put these little kernels of ideas into what we call our 'ingredients sheet'. After that, we work via Facetime. 'I'm the more plotty one with the criminal mind, and Sue's brilliant at research – she could find a pair of nylons in the war. Sometimes we've come up with an idea and pitched it to the channel, and they don't believe it, but all our stories are based in truth. I'm a bit funny about that, I like it to be real. The antiques we talk about all exist too, although we may say it's on loan from The Louvre to Saint Victoire, when in reality it's in a museum in Tehran.' When Lindsay originated the concept for the show, which is filmed in Malta doubling for France, it wasn't a case of having to shop it around. 'I was on set of Still Open All Hours, sitting in a s--t caravan in a rainy carpark in Manchester and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice to be somewhere sunny?' Escape to the Château was a big hit at the time and I found antiques fascinating. I gradually put it all together. I had written [four-part scammer drama] Cold Call in 2019 which had done well for Channel 5 and they asked me what I was up to next. I told them about this idea, and they commissioned it the following day! 'Then I panicked, because I'd never done a murder-mystery. I phoned Sue and we came up with something. It was rubbish, but it got us over the line. Channel 5 are brilliant; they're like old Granada TV. They know their audience really well and give them what they want – and sometimes that doesn't happen elsewhere. They're also dead honest, which is refreshing. 'The budget's awful, though. Sometimes we worry about having a dog for a day, it's right down to the bone. But every penny goes on screen. It punches way above its weight.' And viewers love it. But it could all have been very different had Lindsay followed another path. 'After I did The Royle Family, I thought I'd cracked it. You know, biggest show on television – but I couldn't get arrested. I got down to the last two for everything; Clocking Off, all those big shows of the time, and this went on for about two or three months. And so I just started doing stand-up because I didn't know how else to express myself. I've never been one to wait for the phone to ring. Then I got a seven-episode trial for Corrie, and the rest is history.' She had, however, already appeared in Phoenix Nights with Peter Kay, who memorably later guest-starred as one of her character Shelley Unwin's dates in Coronation Street. Do they still see each other? 'Not really,' she says. 'Nothing weird. It's just you lose touch, don't you?' When she joined the soap, the genre was still on a high, but that's not the case today, with both Coronation Street and Emmerdale having episodes cut back next year. What does she think of them now? 'I think there'd be a civil war if they took Corrie off,' she says. 'I do think sometimes they lose their way. With Corrie, it's usually when it tries to be something it isn't. One thing I've learned from that show is that people will follow you to the end of the earth if they believe in your character, even if the storylines are a bit dodgy.' In addition to being good at her job, and proactive in making her own opportunities, Lindsay – who lives in south London with husband Steve White, former drummer with The Style Council, and their twin sons – is aware that it's also important in this industry to be, well, nice. 'I've never worked any other way,' she says. 'But I tell you, I learned from the best: Betty Driver [legendary Coronation Street character Betty Williams]. She'd steal your scene every time just with one look, but she was joyous, very humble and just a nice person. 'And Sue Johnston. I didn't have a pot to p--- in when I did The Royle Family and she said, 'Come and join us upstairs, because it's free sandwiches and champagne'. That was so kind for a young actress. You pay it forward, don't you? When there's no ego at the top, then there's no space for anybody to misbehave. I don't understand these sets where there's a hierarchy.' Talking of which, she did work with the formidable Julie Goodyear, who played leopard-print clad Bet Gilroy in Coronation Street. 'I only worked with her for three days,' says Lindsay, referring to Goodyear's return to the show in 2002 which was curtailed when the actress complained she was suffering from exhaustion. 'And then she made a sudden departure. That was an interesting three days. I used to buy clothes for Shelley to wear and one morning I couldn't find an animal-print top I'd bought. I asked where it was, and everyone's looking at their feet. Julie had had them removed...' Right now, Lindsay's in a good place. A Madame Blanc stage show is planned, as is a board game, and even a Richard Osman -style cosy crime novel is not out of the question. The series, meanwhile, continues to find an audience both here and overseas. 'As long as Channel 5 want to make it,' she says, 'I'll write it.'
