Ted Lasso

Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw to lead new Doctor Who spin-off

Headshots of Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient

Russell Tovey (Being Human) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki) will star in the five-part series, created by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies. Davies co-wrote the show with Peter McTighe, who has also written for the long running sci-fi staple.

Jemma Redgrave (Grantchester) will reprise her Doctor Who role as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, commander-in-chief of military outfit UNIT, while Alexander Devrient (Ted Lasso) will return as Colonel Ibrahim.

ITV releases trailer and first-look images for new comedy-drama Douglas Is Cancelled

Hugh Bonneville and Karen Gillan sit side by side in a news studio

The eponymous Douglas (Bonneville) is an esteemed news presenter who finds himself in the middle of a social media storm after telling an off-colour joke at a wedding.

“It was sexist, not misogynist!” an exasperated Douglas insists in the trailer.

Though initially on good terms with co-anchor Madeline (Gillan), Douglas’s wife Sheila (Alex Kingston) warns him that his colleague isn’t always to be trusted.

Apple to its core: the slow and steady rise of Apple TV+

Two statistics released in recent months have made people sit up and pay attention to the burgeoning progress made by the streaming service Apple TV+. In May, the Jason Sudeikis-fronted football comedy drama, Ted Lasso, became the first Apple show to feature in Barb’s SVoD average UK monthly audience top 20.

It came in at number 18, with around 963,000 viewers – well below the most-watched (Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, seen by around 3 million) but a milestone nonetheless.

New Ted Lasso gets release date as first look hints at showdown

Apple also posted the first image from the series, which sees Ted (Jason Sudeikis) face off with Nate (Nick Mohammed) at West Ham, the club owned by AFC Richmond's owner Rebecca Welton's (Hannah Waddingham) vindictive ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head), who watches on in the background. It's captioned: "Time to win the whole f***ing thing."

The tense meeting looks to follow on from the events of series two's finale, which saw a frustrated Nate shock fans by switching allegiances from Richmond to West Ham.

Ted Lasso shows 'Fútbol is life' for Apple TV+

From left: coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), head coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) and kit man Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed) (credit: Apple TV+)

It’s odd to think now but, before kicking off on Apple TV+, you may not have bet on football comedy drama Ted Lasso as a winner.  

Originally, Jason Sudeikis’s loveable Mr Nice Guy character fronted a US advertising campaign. As an American football coach turned “head coach of Tottenham Spurs” [sic], his cheerful cluelessness about the beautiful game made him ideal to bring soccer to American culture and thus promote NBC’s Premier League coverage back in 2013.