TV diary

Andy Harries’ TV diary

I leave Corfu airport (a week’s holiday sailing around the coast with pals) for Düssel­dorf and England’s opening match in the Euros against Serbia. James Graham and I are guests of the FA, all part of the research for Dear England 2.0, a four-part BBC series adapted from his hit play, which we will shoot in 2025 with Rupert Goold directing and Joe Fiennes reprising his alter ego England manager Gareth Southgate.

Jessica Hobbs’s TV Diary

Picture of Jessica Hobbs

Thursday

Last day of the sound mix for The Regime, starring Kate Winslet as the tyrannical leader of a fictional European country. Great fun to sit in a room full of talented people discussing how this made-up country should sound.

We spend a lot of time calculating the right levels for the off-screen, unseen war. A deluge of helicopters is silenced as we decide the rebel army can’t be that well-equipped.

TV Diary: Dawn Airey

The art of relaxation has always eluded me, which is probably why, in my plural life, chairing three boards and sitting on another three makes my diary resemble a detailed train timetable. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I have been looking forward to the CEO meeting of the Women’s Super League and Championship Clubs. It’s a chance to have a constructive, focused dialogue outside the board about our mission to be the most competitive and innovative leagues in the world.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce's TV Diary

Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Credit: ER Entertainment)

I’ve got two films coming out this year so it’s going to look as if I’m really busy. In fact, one of them was written in 2006 and the other in 2009. Years of frustration and fiddling are now behind me.

At the end of last year, I was working frantically on a film and my new book. I finished the book, and the film was placed in a medically induced development coma. I know it will be woken from sleep any day but, for now, for the first time ever, I could just, you know, write. I could write that thing that I have always wanted to write. Face the blank page at last.

Cait FitzSimons's TV Diary

Cait FitzSimons (credit: Channel 5 News)

Being the editor of a national newsroom is one of the most fun and most challenging jobs around. And the run-up to Christmas heightens it all. After months of relentless agenda-shaping stories, we’ve finally returned to what feels like more normal times for news. A breakthrough drug for Alzheimer’s gives us the chance of a more positive lead on the programme – we jump on it.

Narinder Minhas' TV Diary

Narinder Minhas

In April, I was doing some online research. “Boil the ocean”, “jump the shark”, “blue ocean market”, I read. What are they talking about? Are they advocating moving offshore, I wondered? I was preparing to become CEO of Cardiff Productions, taking sole charge of the indie I co-founded in 2020, and wondering whether I should immerse myself in business books. So, I did what any telly person would do, and jumped on Google.