Asia | Ensurance | Until I Kill You | Meet Me Next Christmas

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Well, hello and welcome to Binge Watch, the podcast where we take a look at the hottest

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new TV and film releases on streaming television platforms. I'm Hannah Fernando, the group editor

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of Woman and Woman at Home magazine. And I'm Ian McEwan, writer on TV and Satellite Week,

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TV Times and What's on TV magazines. And today we're looking at the new releases that will

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be available from Friday, the 8th of November, 2024, including David Attenborough's landmark

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new BBC Chilling true crime drama Until I Kill You, starring Anna Maxwell Martin and Sean

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Evans on ITVX. And we'll also be checking out The Hunt for the Wreck of Shackleton's Antarctic

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Expeditionship Endurance with Dan Snow on Disney+, and feel-good festive film Meet Me Next Christmas

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on Netflix. Oh yes, I cannot wait. But Ian, tell me, what is in the news? Well, Michelle

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Monaghan and Mark Wahlberg will star in a sequel to the Apple TV action comedy The Family Plan.

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What else is in the news, Hannah? Well, Mrs Davies, the ITVX comedy sci-fi starring Betty

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Gilpin will see a nun take on the world's most powerful AI. Yep, it's the same old story.

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Well good selection. This week a true crime drama. We've got a couple of documentaries

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for you and yes, as mentioned, Christmas starts here with a festive film. So we're going to

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start on BBC iPlayer with a new natural history series called Asia. And here's a clip. There's

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nowhere else on earth with so many untold stories.

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Welcome to Asia. So you might have seen episode one of this on Sunday, the 3rd of November,

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but it also dropped as a box set on iPlayer so you can whiz through the whole lot. Narrated

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by Sir David Attenborough, who actually was at the screening that I attended. He's in remarkably

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good nick. And I was wondering actually, because they've used AI to sort of recreate the voice

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of Michael Parkinson, I wonder if they'll do the same thing with Attenborough, because I

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for one cannot imagine watching a wildlife series like this in future without his distinctive

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narration. Anyway, as the title suggests, this is all about the world's largest continent,

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which has very varied range of habitats and it's sort of the episodes are themed by habitat

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so you've kind of got deserts mountains grasslands cities and we start Underwater so I watched

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episode one. It's got some good stuff in it It's got a lovely sperm whale calf sort of

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practicing using its sonar Ecolocation and trying to sleep they sleep vertically in the water

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near the surface sperm whales and we see this little calf trying to sleep the way the adults

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do. There's also quite an amusing sequence with a mudskipper. Yes, of course, you're going

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to get some sharks. There's something called a sea bunny, which is quite an interesting

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looking creature. So I guess the thing with these wildlife shows is sometimes you think,

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well, is there new stuff for them to film? Because you do occasionally see quite similar sequences.

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And I think what's really been a game changer is drone technology. Because using drones,

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they can get completely different type of footage. And in this series, I think there's an episode

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called Tangled World. And they get amazing footage of the sort of iconic Asian creature, the tiger.

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Because these drones are quite quiet now, so they can get in pretty close. And you see the

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most amazing. behavior and they managed to capture hunting behavior as well, which you wouldn't

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normally be able to see because tigers sort of hunting quite high thick foliage. It's become

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a thing now that the end of the episode they show you that the lengths that the crew had

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to go to get these incredible pictures. So that's fascinating. Coming in later episodes, there's

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lots of good stuff. There are these elephants that have kind of stopped buses on the road

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to sort of beg for. food from all the pilgrims who are on the bus. Yeah, there's lots of good

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stuff. There are also elephants that go really high up, sort of through the tea plantations

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to get to the grasslands, high up in the mountains. Yeah, all sorts of great footage. It looks

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amazing. And then it finishes, as again has become quite a regular thing. The final episode

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is all about conservation. So yeah, another wonderful landmark BBC Wildlife series. with

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the stamp office of David Attenborough all over it. So yeah, absolutely terrific. What do you

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think Hannah? I absolutely love stuff like this. And as you know, I've been away for a couple

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of weeks and I have to say I felt at times like I was doing a bit for David Attenborough because

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we did so, we went on, well, first of all, we went on a safari. So we saw all these animals

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really up close and personal. And it's just so. incredible and you know in HD now on the

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TV screen like you're watching this it's amazing and then in actual real life it's absolutely

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incredible but it's beneath the waves you know into the ocean which I think is absolutely

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terrifying for many of us and like you're talking about sperm whale and you think of dolphins

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and go they're so lovely you can go and swim with them of course you can't swim with all

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of them can you but it's what lurks beneath but you actually tranquil and incredible. And,

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you know, we had reef sharks, you know, swimming around us and turtles. I swam with a manta

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ray. And it made, it may just made me think of this is what David Attenborough does for

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a job and this crew and how incredible it is to get that footage. Cause we were with train

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divers, um, who were getting footage for us down there, which is going to be not a patch

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on what they're getting, of course, but that's what's really nice about this is learning.

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the lengths that they go to, to get this, this footage for us all to watch. And not only enjoy,

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but absolutely learn from because wildlife is just so absolutely incredible. And when it's

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unspoiled and untouched in the ways that we see it sometimes, it's so sad to think it's

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being, it's being ruined by so many. So I absolutely brilliant. I absolutely love things like this.

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Over on ITV and ITVX, we have A new true crime drama called Until I Kill You which dropped

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at a box set on Sunday the 3rd of November. And here's a clip. Well why do you want me

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to store it? I'm going to take such good care of you. He framed you with a gun. Open the

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door. Tell the court about the events of 22nd of December 1994. Why is the law allowed to

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treat people like this? Yes, Ian. So this stars Anna Maxwell Martin, who of course is having

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a real moment at the moment, isn't she? And she plays the part of a woman who survived

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at the hands of a killer. But this is set, I think this is what's the scary part of this,

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this is set and based on a true story. Now, I don't remember... this new story. But it

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was, it's the terrifying ordeal of a nurse called Delia Barmer. And she meets a man she thinks

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he's everything and more, he's called John Sweeney, when really he's, you know, absolutely not

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what she thought he was. And he admits to killing his previous girlfriend, he's increasingly

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controlling in their relationship. And he admits to her that he has dumped her body in this

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canal in Amsterdam. Now Delia, who is played by Anna, she is really quite a strong woman.

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And I think this is where this does feel quite different in as much as it's not unusual for

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us to see, you know, document, well, not just documentaries, but sort of, you know, dramatizations,

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I should say, of controlling men over women and them being hurt, sadly. But this is sort

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of different because from her perspective, and she's quite a gritty, strong woman, and she

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stands up to him, she goes to the police, but the judicial system is just not strong enough,

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it's not good enough, and it doesn't protect her. And he attacks her on her doorstep with

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an axe, and she survives it. And then you see her going through the process of, you know,

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the police then wanting her to give. evidence and information and it's really chilling. It's

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the toll that anything like this takes on a human being, no matter how strong you are.

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And Anna does a really good job of this. I mean, she turns her hand, doesn't she, a lot to anything

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that she does. And she kind of, with this one, she said that the nurse actually did visit

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the set while they were filming. I don't think she was there for very long. but she kind of

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watched her mannerisms and the way she spoke and the way she was. She wanted to get into

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the mind of that person and be true to who she was. And she says that Delia is unlike anyone

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that she's ever played before. It is chilling. It's really good. I really enjoyed it. And

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I think that Anna was absolutely the right person to play this part. I did enjoy it, albeit.

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You never want to think of something like this as a true story. What do you think Ian? I think

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we're going to, when we look back at the end of the year on what's been on TV, this will

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be one of the outstanding dramas. It's so, so good. I've watched the first two episodes which

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were on ITV1 this week. And I mean, Maxwell Martin, she's incredibly versatile, you know,

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for it's from, say from Line of Duty, she was brilliant in that, to doing comedy in Motherland.

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And she's excellent in this. And as you say, Delia is, she's quite a very unusual character.

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She's quite eccentric in many ways. And she's incredibly plain speaking, which does create

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some kind of humorous moments in the first episode. Just the way she interacts with people is just

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rather surprising. Yeah, Sean Evans, who people may know from Endeavor, the Morse prequel,

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he's really good as Sweeney because- He has to make him charismatic enough for Delia to

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fall for him. And he does that very effectively. And there's a really excruciating few scenes

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where they go up to visit his family in Skelmersdale and they have Christmas meal and it's just

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toe curling. But yeah, the whole thing is incredibly well done. It's a shocking story. I mean, of

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course the violent treatment is shocking, but equally shocking is how Delia was really failed

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by the police and the justice system. And there's also a companion documentary, Until I Kill

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You, the real story, which will be shown, well, which was shown, I should say, on Thursday,

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the 7th of November on ITV, but will be available on ITVX. And in that, you'll hear not just

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Delia's story, but also you'll hear about Sweeney's other known victims. Over on Disney+, arriving

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on Saturday the 2nd of November, we have a new feature-length documentary called Endurance.

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And here's a clip. In 1914, Shackleton was convinced the greatest Antarctic journey was yet to be

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done. Crossing the Antarctic continent from one side to the other. So he dragged his men

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on a doomed quest. We tried once before in 2019. search for endurance it felt like my whole

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life had been converging upon that moment and then it all went wrong. Well endurance was

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the name of Ernest Shackleton's ship and Shackleton famously attempted to cross Antarctica but

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the expedition went seriously wrong. His ship was crushed by the

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He managed to save his entire crew, but they just went through the most horrific ordeal

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before finally being rescued. And that whole story, which is an amazing story, people may

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be familiar with it, but it's retold by Dan Snow, who is also on board a modern day expedition

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to look for the wreck. And what makes the retelling all the more vivid is that they've used AI,

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we've got the old AI. to sort of bring to life the diaries of the crew members. And you've

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also got the amazing film footage that was actually shot on the original expedition. They took

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a filmmaker with them and it just looks incredible. Then you're also gonna get the story of the

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search for the wreck, which equally has its ups and downs. There was a previous attempt,

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but the submersible that goes down to look for the wreck. That was lost. So they've got a

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new one. Now there's sort of like a false dawn when they think they discovered it. And no,

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it's, it's not, it's just a debris field. And then, I mean, you people, it's not really a

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spoiler because it's been in all the newspapers that they, they did finally just, they were

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running out of time, they found the wreck and the images of it are quite astonishing because

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it's very, very well preserved partly because of the very cold water. And you can see, like,

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on the deck, you can see these personal effects, like you see someone's boot, you can see a

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flare gun. It's astonishing. So both the modern day story of the search for the wreck and the

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retelling of Shackleton's incredible journey are intertwined really effectively. And it's

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a very, very good watch. And it did actually get a cinema release as well. So yeah, this

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is for history buffs. It's really worth a look. What does you think, Hannah? I find things

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like this incredibly chilling, you know, when you see, like you say, so everything's so well

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preserved really and that boot and, you know, just the gun, it kind of, I don't know, it

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just makes you, what went through my head is what people have gone through and, you know,

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what was, what secrets are held onto the ocean. I suppose it kind of almost fits into the David

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Asimber, doesn't it? What's going on in the ocean. In fact. Again, there are shipwrecks

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everywhere, aren't there? And they've got a real eerie, don't know if you have a swan around

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any, but they're eerie, there's something about it. And this sort of did, it got to put the

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hairs on the back of my neck came up, but really interesting, and also kind of this race against

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time to find it. And the fact that they kind of saw a bit, I suppose they counted their

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chickens a bit early and they hadn't quite hatched until they did finally find it. So yeah, it's

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got a real pace about it. And... If you don't know much about it, you'll learn a lot. And

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if you, if you do know about it, then this will absolutely interest you. Well, we're going

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to finish on Netflix with a feature film, which is available from Wednesday, the 6th of November.

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It's called meet me next Christmas. And here's a clip. Somebody sitting there? No, go for

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it. When James and I met, it was like magic and we made a deal. What if we meet next Christmas

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at the Pentatonix concert? Shut up. Try a personal concierge service. They can get you anything

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you can think of. Hey, I'm Teddy. I've worked with almost every ticket broker in the city.

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Listen, Teddy, my entire romantic future might hinge on this ticket. Well, you know my feelings

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on Christmas, Ian. Halloween is over, so let's welcome Christmas. Mariah Carey says it's Christmas,

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I say it's Christmas too. And brilliantly, we're already talking about our first Christmas film.

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This is a romantic comedy. It does what it says on the tin. Don't get too excited. It doesn't

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break at the boundaries of anything that's gone before. However, it is a lovely love story.

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And it stars R&B star Christina Milian. She's a music fan and it followed basically, she

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goes to the airport, she ready for Christmas. Oh, I mean, I've never known an airport at

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Christmas so Christmassy as this one, but it really is. It's really lovely. And then across

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the board, all the flights are cancelled. And

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she meets a... a chap as you do, you know, of course you just start talking to people. I

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mean, I'd be in tears on the floor, the fact I couldn't get home or wherever she was off

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to. But no, she meets somebody who says, well, I'll see you next year at a concert, which

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she then can't get tickets to. So she spends the next year trying to find tickets for a

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concert to meet the man of her dreams. But of course, love is not an easy path. And is he

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the one? or is somebody else the one who she meets along the way? So yeah, it doesn't really,

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as I say, break any boundaries or it's gonna be up for any nominations, but it is a lovely

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tale of love. It is very sweet and it is very, very festive. So get your Terry's chocolate

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orange ready, a glass of wine, happy days. Ian? Touch of the humbugs. I mean, these Christmas,

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especially rom-coms are absolutely churned out. especially by Hallmark. I mean, there are so

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many of them.

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I mean, I do think the performances are strong. Christina Millian, I think she's great as Layla.

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And yes, as you say, there's this meet-cute in the airport and to try and get the tickets,

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there's this band called Pentatonix. Did you know about them? Do a lot of close harmony

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singing and they appear in the film. They're quite good actually. good performers but yeah

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it's a ticket to see them and so she employs this concierge service this guy called Teddy

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played by Deval Ellis who claims yeah I can get you whatever you need that's what their

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service says whatever you need we can get it for you so that's the quest is to get the tickets

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but as you know Hannah sometimes when you're absolutely infatuated with one person the right

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person could be right in front of you and you don't even realise it. That's all I'm going

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to say. It's obviously, I mean, it's made quite cheaply, I think, looking at it, but I did

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think the performances were good. So if you're just ready to just suspend your disbelief and

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you just want to feel good, Christmasy movie, yeah, it's got all that. So why not, I say?

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I don't want to be too much of a grinch this early on. Well, we've got to that time, Hannah,

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where we find out what the hell you've been binge watching. Well, nothing very current,

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I'm afraid, Ian, because I spent a long time on an aircraft, but I did watch back-to-back

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movies, two of which was a man called Otto, one of the first one, with Tom Hanks, which

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if you haven't seen it, is really, really lovely and quite a sad story, but I definitely would

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recommend. The second one that I'm gonna mention is A Winter's Tale with Colin Farrell, one

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of his early pieces, I think. Not quite so good, but it did keep me amused. What are you watching?

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Well, what with the American election going on, I watched a really good documentary on

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BBC iPlayer, which is all about the election that Trump lost and the lengths that he went

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to try and prove that, in fact, it had been stolen, which of course it hadn't. That is

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absolutely chilling. And I also went to the... cinema to see The Apprentice, which is a feature

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film about the young Donald Trump and the lawyer who was very much his mentor. And again, that

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is utterly terrifying, but worth a look. We've just got time to look ahead to next week's

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offerings. So what is on the binge watch menu, Hannah? Hit Western saga Yellowstone draws

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to a close on Paramount Plus without its star Kevin Costner. And in season two of the dystopian

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Apple TV sci-fi silo, Rebecca Ferguson's Juliet looks for life outside the subterranean sanctuary.

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Yes, so we look forward to those and much, much more. But in the meantime, listeners, keep

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watching.