Episode 262
Live and Let Danny Dyer
Ian and Hannah review the biggest new films and bingeable shows on UK streaming services for the week beginning Friday 25th July, including:
A retired assassin reunites with her estranged son, but her dangerous past catches up with them, forcing them to go on the run together while uncovering a dark conspiracy that threatens their relationship. Freddie Highmore and Keeley Hawes star in Prime Video's The Assassin.
Danny Dyer returns in the offbeat comedy about two estranged and opposite brother forced together, in season two of Mr. Bigstuff on NOW TV.
From critical emergencies to the operating room, this documentary series follows London's trauma centres as they treat the most severely injured in Netflix's Critical: Between Life and Death.
The Jessops continue navigate everyday family (mis)fortunes as Alison Steadman and Katherine Parkinson return for series 3 of Here We Go, on BBC iPlayer.
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Transcript
Foreign hello and welcome to Binge Watch, the podcast where we take a look at the hottest new TV and film releases on streaming television platforms.
Speaker A:I'm Hannah Fernando, the group editor of Woman and Woman and Home magazine.
Speaker B: th of July: Speaker A:We'll also be checking out Netflix medical documentary series Critical between life and death and rejoining Danny Dyer and friends for a second season of of riotous comedy Mr. Big Stuff on NOW TV.
Speaker A:But first, Ian, what is in the news?
Speaker B:Well, move over posh and Bex because Wayne and Colleen Rooney are to star in their own reality TV show on Disney plus.
Speaker B:What else is in the news?
Speaker B:Hannah?
Speaker A:Yes, that Wayne and Colleen Rooney reality TV show I do hope you'll be giving me to review.
Speaker A:Thank you very much.
Speaker A:I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker A:Also we have to look forward to is Apple TV plus soon Sci Fi Murderbot which will be starring Alexander Skarsgard as a troubled cyborg who will return for a second series.
Speaker B:It's a top notch week, I won't lie.
Speaker B:We've got an amazing new thriller, we've got two excellent returning comedies and a very good medical documentary series.
Speaker B:So we're going to start on prime video with a new drama series called the Assassin.
Speaker B:And here's a clip.
Speaker A:What did you think that your mom did for a living?
Speaker B:She told me she was a headhunter.
Speaker A:I used to do bad things.
Speaker A:No money.
Speaker A:Did he say he do Hit Woman?
Speaker A:I'm retired.
Speaker A:Except you didn't.
Speaker A:Otherwise you would never have taken the job to kill me.
Speaker A:Which I did not do.
Speaker A:So you should probably get some credit for that.
Speaker B:Well, Hannah, one of my all time fave drama series was Bates Motel which was like a prequel to Psycho about the young Norman Bates.
Speaker B:He was played by British actor Freddie Highmore.
Speaker B:He was superb in it.
Speaker B:And of course Keeley Hawes is a delight in pretty much everything.
Speaker B:This is set in Greece and the last time Keeley Hawes was acting in Greece it was as Mrs. Durrell, wasn't it in the Durrells?
Speaker B:This one's a little bit different.
Speaker B:So she is playing Julie who is a Former contract killer who is living a quite sort of solitary but happy life on this remote Greek island.
Speaker B:And her grown up son Edward, who is played by Highmore.
Speaker B:He turns up for a visit, but he's got some questions about his father, about this mysterious trust fund that he's come into.
Speaker B:Meanwhile, Julie is approached to come out of retirement for, yes, one last job.
Speaker B:And of course, as you can imagine, it all kicks off and they have to go on the run.
Speaker B:Now this is created by Jack and Harry Williams who made the Missing and the Tourist amongst other things.
Speaker B:And it's just great because the relationship between the two of them is very, very funny.
Speaker B:It's so well done, they're both perfectly cast, but it's also absolutely action packed.
Speaker B:And I got to say, in episode one there's an incredibly high body count.
Speaker B:I mean, it's staggering.
Speaker B:And then.
Speaker B:And a beautifully choreographed action set piece which I don't want to spoil.
Speaker B:But yeah, it starts with a flashback to, to when Julie was working as an assassin and just this all action sequence which I think is done all in one take where she's just, you know, mowing down bad guys.
Speaker B:It's pretty good.
Speaker B:So I, I absolutely loved this and it's just got such confidence.
Speaker B:You can tell the writers just are, are all over it and having a good time and basically the pair of them are going to leg it across Europe together.
Speaker B:You've got some other great actors in this.
Speaker B:Richard Dormer from Blue Lights and Fortitude.
Speaker B:Love him, he's Julie's handler.
Speaker B:You've got Jack Davenport.
Speaker B:Yes, from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Speaker B:He is playing another contract killer.
Speaker B:You've also got Alan Dale from Neighbours as a billionaire.
Speaker B:So yes, this billionaire's family also gets caught up in the whole mystery.
Speaker B:It's great fun, it's very funny, it's absolutely action packed and I loved it.
Speaker B:What did you think, Hannah?
Speaker A:As you say, Ian the assassin is.
Speaker A:It really is action packed.
Speaker A:And what a stellar cast.
Speaker A:I absolutely adore Keely Halls and she's absolutely brilliant in this, as you'd expect.
Speaker A:You know, this is got all the markings of something absolutely brilliant, you know, real quality.
Speaker A:And I absolutely love the part that Keely Hawes plays where she's just completely growing old, disgracefully, you know, spending her days drinking, sunbathing, arguing with the locals and in this beautiful coastal backdrop, this Greek island makes for.
Speaker A:It's just beautiful and you kind of have that.
Speaker A:And then her son arriving, as you say, Edward, looking for answers about his father and she's kind of approached to come out of retirement.
Speaker A:And I love the fact, you know, quite often it'll be a man, won't it?
Speaker A:This kind of story revolves around.
Speaker A:But it isn't.
Speaker A:It's around a woman.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:And I absolutely love it.
Speaker A:And the dysfunctionality between these two is really credible.
Speaker A:I've really enjoyed it.
Speaker A:I mean, it's season one.
Speaker A:I've seen a couple of episodes.
Speaker A:I feel like this can run and run and run.
Speaker A:Really good.
Speaker B:We're going to move over to SkyMax.
Speaker B:And now for the return of the comedy Mr. Big Stuff.
Speaker B:And here's a clip.
Speaker B:Trauma thought my dad was dead.
Speaker B:Turns out he just left us.
Speaker A:So we got some questions.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Morning, Lee.
Speaker B:What's that number 32.
Speaker A:We're throwing it out by J. Maureen Yoghurt pots are going to Bramping, don't they?
Speaker B:My darling comes in.
Speaker A:Andy delighted that Mr. Big Stuff is returning for a second outing.
Speaker A:This is just great.
Speaker A:I mean, Danny Dyer is phenomenal in this.
Speaker A:I mean, when he turned up in EastEnders, I think, you know, everyone wondered if this is a bit of a one trick pony.
Speaker A:He's absolutely not.
Speaker A:I think this is arguably one of the best things he's done too and really shows his kind of ability to not only make people laugh but also make people cry.
Speaker A:So I do think it's worth going back and watching the first series.
Speaker A:If you haven't done so, it kind of gives the context you'll catch up.
Speaker A:But I think it's better too if you can do.
Speaker A:And this is just a real, again, quite a dysfunctional family.
Speaker A:It's a whirlwind of kind of capers and chaos and, you know, general debauchery at times.
Speaker A:And Danny Dyer plays the part of Lee Campbell and his brother is a carpet salesman.
Speaker A:Glenn and I didn't actually realise that Ryan, who plays Glenn is.
Speaker A:Was actually wrote it all.
Speaker A:And I watched them on the one show talking.
Speaker A:Danny wasn't on it, but I watched Ryan talking and I didn't realize quite how close they were.
Speaker A:And if you cast your mind back, Danny Dyer won the best male performance in comedy for this year's BAFTA TV Awards.
Speaker A:And I was reading an interview and he actually cried when Danny went up.
Speaker A:He's just like, you're kind of absolute wreck.
Speaker A:Just so, so proud of him.
Speaker A:And he almost wrote this for Danny Dyer and you can absolutely see it.
Speaker A:But it's not just all fun and everything else, because I think even Danny Dyer himself, that it's when you can make someone laugh and cry in the same sentence in the same minute you're doing something special.
Speaker A:And actually that's what this does here.
Speaker A:So there's a real dynamic because we left the last series thinking that their father had died.
Speaker A:In actual fact, he'd just left them.
Speaker A:Lots of questions, lots of things to be answered.
Speaker A:And this shock discovery kind of rocks these, the siblings.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:It's kind of.
Speaker A:I suppose it's.
Speaker A:It's multi layered because of that.
Speaker A:So it's not just the kind of.
Speaker A:The capers and all the silliness that goes on.
Speaker A:Just a word of warning, you will see Danny Dyer wearing next to nothing.
Speaker A:So for those of you who love Danny Dyer, there you go.
Speaker A:You're welcome.
Speaker A:Although he does have, he said a little sock over his little friend or big friend, whatever.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:We don't actually see that, but there we go.
Speaker A:Definitely one to watch.
Speaker B:So this is the first of two comedies this week featuring and written by people who were in the Roman Empire comedy plebs.
Speaker B:Yeah, get that.
Speaker B:Anyway, yeah, he's kind of having his big Lebowski moment in episode one because he's in this filthy dressing gown.
Speaker B:He.
Speaker B:He's sitting outside Glenn's house in a.
Speaker B:In an armchair with a Walkman on and just drinking endless Bloody Marys.
Speaker B:And I love it when, when Glenn tells him off for drinking Bloody Mary's, he says it's a morning drink.
Speaker B:But, yeah, he's just.
Speaker B:He's superb in this role.
Speaker B:It's very, very funny.
Speaker B:But also, I've got to say that Samson is terrific as Glenn, who there's this sort of subplot that his.
Speaker B:His wife's kind of trying to get him into all this sub dom sex stuff because he's got erectile dysfunction.
Speaker B:Anyway, you'll.
Speaker B:You'll get the gist.
Speaker B:But, yeah, it's got some good supporting actors in it as well, including the brilliant Adrian Scarborough, who plays the boss at the carpet shop.
Speaker B:If you like Danny Dyer, you're going to absolutely love this.
Speaker B:But it's just a very, very funny and original comedy.
Speaker B:Over on Netflix, we have a new documentary series called Between Life and Death.
Speaker B:And here's a clip.
Speaker B:There are four major trauma centres in each corner of London.
Speaker A:Airflow everywhere.
Speaker A:What's the blood doing at the moment?
Speaker A:Is it trickling down his.
Speaker A:Or is it spurting out?
Speaker A:Across the 6,000 calls that we take every day, we identify the most critically injured patients.
Speaker A:That's when London Ambulance Service gets involved.
Speaker B:No matter how old you are, everybody wants their mum.
Speaker B:This is a six Parter.
Speaker B:And it's all about the people who work in London's major trauma response system, which is run across four different hospitals.
Speaker B:And one of them is just around the corner from me, King's College Hospital.
Speaker B:And episode one is all about this funfair ride accident that happens again very close to where I live in Brockwell park in Herne Hill.
Speaker B:And it's a terrifying story.
Speaker B:So all these people were having a lovely sunny day out at a country fair, went on this fun fair ride, there was a major mechanical failure and quite a few people got injured.
Speaker B:So, yes, we follow them as they get taken into two different hospitals, including this young couple.
Speaker B:And then there's a little girl and her grandfather that both got injured.
Speaker B:And yeah, we hear from people who work in various different arms of the trauma team, from, you know, the people who take the call initially to the medics who are doing the surgery.
Speaker B:It's, I mean, it, at the end of the day, it just makes you think what an incredible NHS we have and we're so lucky.
Speaker B:I mean, this is like world class level of care.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So there will be more stories across the six episodes we'll be visiting, so we go to St. George's and Kings in this, but we'll be visiting the two other hospitals as well and meeting other medics and various other bods who work in this trauma service.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's a really well made documentary with some truly inspirational people working in the nhs.
Speaker B:What did you think, Hannah?
Speaker A:As you say, Ian, this just shows our NHS at its very best, doesn't it?
Speaker A:And it's, it shows what it can really do.
Speaker A:It's incredibly moving.
Speaker A:This is the first season, six episodes, as you say, and I guess that is, I always think this, but the very fine line between life and death and how it really brings home.
Speaker A:I can't watch anything like this without crying.
Speaker A:I've got to be honest with you.
Speaker A:Seeing people go out normal day like we all do, go and choose to do something that you think is going to be fun and it ends in some form of tragedy where you just wouldn't ever expect something like this to happen.
Speaker A:And this fun fair ride accident is, it's unbelievable.
Speaker A:And seeing the major trauma response system in action is absolutely incredible.
Speaker A:And knowing that these people do this day in, day out, whatever it might be, is just incredibly moving, I think.
Speaker A:And also seeing people's journeys, this looks at the journey of how this happened, when it happened, the, the, the, the, the what happened to them and looks at the kind of the catastrophic Mechanical failure of that ride and how they've lived with it, how they.
Speaker A:How they've come out the other side and it's.
Speaker A:It's incredibly, incredibly moving.
Speaker A:But I think for something like this brings those moments.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's real life, isn't it?
Speaker A:We read it in the papers, we see it on the news, but this feels.
Speaker A:You're there.
Speaker A:You can feel, you know, you can feel everything.
Speaker A:And that's what happened next.
Speaker A:Almost is the missing part of the Jigsaw.
Speaker A:So well worth a watch.
Speaker B:We're going to finish over on BBC Iplayer with another returning comedy.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Here we go and here's a clip.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So I just want to keep things super duper.
Speaker B:Chill.
Speaker A:Out.
Speaker A:Croggy.
Speaker A:Yeah, sorry.
Speaker A:This is, what, Granny's old house?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And our kitchen was similar to theirs, actually.
Speaker A:Really Less, you know, chicken.
Speaker A:Well, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I'm naturally quite a flexible person.
Speaker A:You're about to get the money shot.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:This is the third outing for Here We Go.
Speaker A:So it must be good, right, because it wouldn't keep coming back.
Speaker A:And you're right, it is absolutely, absolutely brilliant.
Speaker A:This just has the markings of the Office all over it.
Speaker A:So if you like the Office, I think you'll really like this.
Speaker A:If you haven't watched it already, which you should have done, please catch up, binge, watch, go and do it.
Speaker A:It's seven parts.
Speaker A:And we're back with the very hapless police constable, Paul Jessup.
Speaker A:He's a neurotic wife, Rachel, played by Catherine Parkinson.
Speaker A:A very sarcastic daughter, Amy, played by Freya Parks, and her loyal girlfriend Maya, played by Micah Ricketts.
Speaker A:And then the stoic son, Sam, played by Jude Morgan Colle.
Speaker A:And the best one of all for me is his very cheerful, happy mum, sue, who's played by Alison Stephan, who I absolutely love.
Speaker A:Lots of you will know her from Gavin and Stacey, Pamela.
Speaker A:And she's just got so many strings to her bow, hasn't she?
Speaker A:She's just so brilliant.
Speaker A:I just love the characters that she kind of consumes and for me, it's worth watching for her alone.
Speaker A:But this is really hearty.
Speaker A:It's really brilliant.
Speaker A:I really enjoyed it.
Speaker A:What did you think, Ian?
Speaker B:I have watched a lot of them and yes, as I said, it's created by and also stars someone else from Plebs, Tom Baston, who is just ridiculously talented.
Speaker B:He's done quite a lot of work with Ricky Gervais.
Speaker B:He's adapted lots of plays for the theater and written his own plays.
Speaker B:This year, he Wrote and starred in the Ballad of Wallace island with Tim Key and Carey Mulligan, which has got, you know, everyone absolutely loved it.
Speaker B:It's a brilliant film.
Speaker B:Go and see it if you haven't.
Speaker B:And yes, and now this.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, you kind of think reinventing the domestic sitcom is challenging, but this is just an absolute delight.
Speaker B:And as you say, it's got that office style vibe because they've.
Speaker B:They're using the conceit that the son loves filming stuff.
Speaker B:So he's.
Speaker B:He keeps filming what the rest of the family are doing, which unfortunately for that character, means he doesn't really get involved that much.
Speaker B:But yes, episode one, they're booked in to do an escape room, the family.
Speaker B:But, but they get lots in the house, so, yeah, that's how it pans out.
Speaker B:And it's just an absolute joy.
Speaker B:It's just a perfect bit of escapism and, you know, they're just such a.
Speaker B:Such a great family.
Speaker B:It's very, very funny.
Speaker B:I absolutely love it.
Speaker B:Well, we've got to that time, young Hannah, we find out what the hell you've been binge watching this week.
Speaker A:Well, I've been binging on Better man, which a lot of you may have watched at the cinema.
Speaker A:It was a huge box office hit with Robbie Williams, A story about Robbie Williams life you probably remember because it's kind of like a monkey's face on the billboards.
Speaker A:And this basically catalogues the.
Speaker A:The rise of Robbie, the fall of Robbie and then the meteoric rise once again, him finding happiness.
Speaker A:And it's, it's, it's really brilliantly done, I think.
Speaker A:And I mean, I'm a huge fan of Robbie Williams and in fact, he's the only member of Take that that I haven't met and I've never wanted to in case it ruins my.
Speaker A:He was the.
Speaker A:He was the one that had all my posters on the wall when I was growing up.
Speaker A:And I just.
Speaker A:But I met someone the other day who said, he's lovely, so it's okay, you can.
Speaker A:So I will.
Speaker A:Next time I get an opportunity, I'm there.
Speaker A:But this is really sad because although it's brilliant, it's really sad in places because yet again, and we've spoken about this so many times about this child stars and just how he's famous so much and so many.
Speaker A:Unless you've got a really robust framework around you, you really do fall.
Speaker A:And he's fallen a few times and he's managed to pick himself up and he seems in an incredibly good place, his amazing wife.
Speaker A:They seem to be brilliant together.
Speaker A:So it's really lovely.
Speaker A:But definitely want to watch.
Speaker B:Very nice.
Speaker B:Well, I have watched the second season of the Netflix sports documentary Quarterback, yeah, which is all about American football.
Speaker B:And it's following three quarterbacks from three football teams.
Speaker B:You've got the Detroit Lions, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker B:And yeah, if you're into your American football, it's, yeah, it's just really, really good.
Speaker B:Well, we've just got time to look ahead to next week's offerings.
Speaker B:So Aquaman's Jason Momoa will star in the Apple TV plus period drama Chief of War set in the islands of Hawaii at the turn of the 18th century.
Speaker A:And a student and her poetry professor fall in love in Oxford set Netflix romance My Oxford Year.
Speaker B:So we look forward to those and much, much more.
Speaker B:But in the meantime, dear listeners.
