Television Magazine

Thirteen years after the dramatic finale, co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa have reunited for Talking Sopranos, a new re-watch podcast that takes fans through each episode from the very beginning.

The pair recount behind-the-scenes stories, their favourite memories from filming and some surprising facts about the real mob lifestyle they portray on screen.

The friends give fans an insight into their own lives and friendship. They discuss their experiences in the TV industry and the intriguing characters they’ve met on their journeys to stardom.

It’s the end of an era. The country is slowly easing out of lockdown. Against the odds, we’ve delivered a show to the BBC and become surprising best mates with the Bank of England, and I’m leaving the Beano for new adventures.

Our brilliant Beano team adapted to lockdown at lightning speed, despite some becoming quite poorly with Covid-19 symptoms. We mobilised everyone to work from home early and we’ve kept all content production across TV, digital and the comic on track. Endless innovation, creativity and cheer has shone through.

Father Ted is one of TV’s greatest British sitcoms – up there with other giants of the genre such as Fawlty Towers, Gavin and Stacey and The Thick of It. It is plain loopy – daft, surreal, edgy in its debunking of the Church and blessed by four timeless characters.

What does the job involve?

There are two sides to the job: safety and creativity. We identify scenes that are potentially hazardous and, where possible, remove those risks, or reduce them to an acceptable level. That may involve using a stunt double instead of an actor or using safety equipment, such as elbow pads under costumes, out-of-shot crash mats or complex wire-rigging. Creatively, we could be choreographing fight sequences or staging shoot-outs.

How did you become a stunt co-ordinator?

Jay Blades, TV’s favourite furniture restorer and the king of “make do and mend”, has just surprised himself with his own skills. “I’m blown away!,” he declares from his workshop near Ironbridge in Shropshire. The reason for his delight? He’s thrilled to have made some home-made furniture polish.

At a time when many of us are learning new skills, Blades – best known for presenting the breakout hit and RTS award-winner The Repair Shop – is joining in for his new 10-part BBC One show, Jay Blades’ Home Fix, screened every weekday morning.

March 2020 was by far the most surreal month of my working life. For the safety of our staff, we decided to close our offices on 18 March, the day after St Patrick’s Day, which usually means mass celebrations here in Belfast and one hell of a hangover. This year, it brought only an eerie silence.

I will never forget calling the staff together and telling them it was going to be our last day in the office. We all packed up, laughing and joking, but when it came to saying goodbye, the realisation hit us that we didn’t know when we would all be together again.

“Bill came early one morning into the bedroom. He sat on the side of the bed and he said, I have to tell you something…” is how Hillary Clinton begins her excruciating personal recollection of one of the most scandalous episodes in American history, when her husband, the President, admitted to having an affair with a White House intern.

"Never waste a crisis,” is the oft-quoted cry in the business press of late, and those with financial muscle are getting ready to pounce on distressed stock. The pandemic has seen the price of many media shares plummet, while borrowing remains cheap, setting the scene for a demonstration of Darwinian economics.

It is doubtful whether Sally Wainwright’s writing has ever been described as inauthentic – her TV drama is populated with real people, speaking natural, colloquial English. “My imagination doesn’t seem to click in if what I’m writing doesn’t feel real, or if it’s phoney, or if something feels a bit cheesy or sentimental,” she told Endemol Shine UK COO Lucinda Hicks, who hosted an RTS webinar with the writer in May.

Anna Mallett, CEO of ITN for the past 12 months, could be forgiven for looking a little wearied. Even before coronavirus struck, the news organisation was working full tilt, covering such seismic events as Brexit, the Conservative Party leadership contest and a particularly fractious pre-Christmas general election. And now this.