The Beast in Me, Malice, Trespasses, and Caroline Flack

Ian MacEwan: 00:00:00

Foreign.

Hannah Fernando: 00:00:06

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. I'm Hannah Fernando, the group editor of Woman and Woman and Home magazine.

Ian MacEwan: 00:00:17

And I'm Ian McKeown, writer on TV Times. What's on TV and TV and Satellite Week.

November: 2025

Hannah Fernando: 00:00:49

And we'll also be checking out Claire Danes as a grieving writer fixated on her new neighbour Matthew Reese in Netflix thriller the Beast in Me.

cross the sectarian divide in: 1970

Ian MacEwan: 00:01:11

The celebrity traitors. Goodness me. Hasn't had a lot of news coverage. Well, it's also boosted the Scottish economy to the tune of more than £20 million.

Well, of course it will return next year. How could it not? What else is in the news, Hannah?

Hannah Fernando: 00:01:27

Well, you can see little Anton deck when they were even smaller as the box set of Biker Grove lands on ITVX next week. That's exciting.

Ian MacEwan: 00:01:35

Biker Grove, man. Why, yay. Lovely stuff. Oh, and that also good timing for I'm a Celebrity. I'm sure they haven't done that by accident.

Well, if I was going to say a theme for this week's pod, I would say it's very much about uncomfortable viewing. Actually, we're going to start on Netflix with a new eight part thriller called the Beast in Me. And here's a clip.

Hannah Fernando: 00:02:03

Why are you here? Did you kill her? What do you think? Nile Jarvis moved in down the street from me. Maybe my next book should be about him.

Ian MacEwan: 00:02:16

This. This stars Claire Danes and I guess probably her biggest role was in the sort of espionage drama Homeland.

And she's reuniting with the team behind that series for this. Apparently the title is inspired by a Johnny Cash song. And you know, you wait for one grumpy author to come along, don't you, Hannah?

Then you get two in a row because last week we had in Pluribus we had a rather grumpy romantic fiction writer. Well, Claire Danes in this is playing Agatha Wiggs, okay, Who is an author. Her life has been visited by tragedy because her young son died.

And you hear more about that as it unfolds and anyway, a very wealthy real estate guy called Nile Jarvis, played by the brilliant Matthew Reese, moves into her New York neighborhoods and he writes to all the neighbours and he says, oh, I want to. It's a kind of suburban neighborhood. He says, oh, I want to put a little sort of paved road through the woods so that everyone can, like, go jogging.

Anyway, she doesn't want to sign up to that. And also he's got these dogs that he lets out and they kind of. Well, they're just a pain, as you know, we both know Hannah as dog owners, so.

And he delivers some wine to her front doorstep as kind of a sweetener, you know, and she's having none of this, so she. She goes up there. Oh, and also, he was accused but not found guilty of murdering his wife. And the body was never found. Okay.

So, meanwhile, so Aggie is kind of under pressure to deliver some chapters for her latest book because she had one book that was a massive hit and then, you know, she's got no money and, you know, she's late delivering this. This manuscript anyway, so she's. And, you know, it's the anniversary of her son's death, so she's not in a good place. And I mean.

And if there's anyone who can sort of play pa. Pained, strained, tortured, kind of absolutely on a knife edge in terms of emotion, it is Claire Danes. And. And she is. She's superb in this. But it's. Anyway, she, as I say, she goes to visit Niall just to. To take back the wine.

He invites her in for a chat. And my goodness, when the two of them are together, he is a really creepy, manipulative, Just a really nasty piece of work. And to see them kind of.

She's sort of vulnerable in a vulnerable place, but also, she didn't take any crap from anyone. You can tell that. And just seeing the two of them sparring is. It's compelling, but it is. I found it difficult.

Watch, you know, so God knows what's going to. I mean, presumably, I don't know, perhaps she's going to try and find out what really happened to the guy's wife.

She's thinking about making him the subject of her new book. Yeah, it's. And you meet. You meet her former partner, Shelley. You meet Niles father, Martin, who is a rather nasty piece of work.

He's got a sort of young, glamorous second wife played by Brittany Snow. So, yeah, I gotta say, it's superb. Two leads are fabulous. And yeah, it will. It will grip you and it Will not let you go. What did you think, Hannah?

Hannah Fernando: 00:06:07

Oh, do you know what? It's so dramatic, isn't it? It's really properly gritty. It plays on every kind of fear you might have.

And the idea that you kind of begin to come close to somebody and do you really know who they are? And then the more you research into somebody, the more the kind of. In his case, a deadly web of secrets kind of, you know, begins to be exposed.

And that person isn't really what you think. But then as a viewer, you can sort of see it in the glint of their eye. It's just really. I was on the edge of my seat. I absolutely wasn't.

And Claire Danes is brilliant in this.

I mean, she goes from sort of being a really kind of leveled kind of person, I suppose, to points being almost completely derailed by everything she's finding out and not wanting to believe it and kind of, you know, when you question yourself, you think you're almost going mad yourself. That's kind of how you. And she just plays it. It's so authentic. I think she's absolutely, absolutely brilliant.

And also that the part of Niall, I mean, there's something about that man's face, isn't it? This is so creepy and disingenuous. No, not really something that's in my wheelhouse usually, but I thought this was absolutely brilliant.

Ian MacEwan: 00:07:23

Well, are you sitting uncomfortably? Well, prepare to carry on because on Prime Video we have another new drama series called Malice. And here is a clip. Hi, you must be Jamie. Yeah, Adam.

So nice to meet you. A manny showed up.

Hannah Fernando: 00:07:44

Imagine me and you.

Ian MacEwan: 00:07:46

You're good for the kids. Yeah, I'm pre letting really. Well, let's see how the other half live. Well, welcome to our vacation. I believe that's our song. Sorry.

Hannah Fernando: 00:08:01

Yeah.

So this really interested me because I'm a big fan of Jack Whitehall and Jack Whitehall plays one of the main characters, if not the main character in this new drama, Malice. And we've also, you know, I'm a fan of him, but we've mainly seen him as a kind of particular person, haven't we?

Someone that's a bit silly, makes mistakes. A bit of a posh student. You know, we've seen him in all sorts of different things, particularly bad education.

And so this was something very, very different because I had to look twice. Because this is a psychological thriller. This is something completely different. Different.

Anything that Jack has done before, and he plays the part across from David Duchovny. The two characters work incredibly well together. So it's a very. It's a very, very sinister drama. He plays the part of a Manny.

For anybody who doesn't know that is a nanny who is a man. I remember that becoming quite a big thing in the States at one stage.

And he plays this Manny, Adam Healy, and he, on the surface, really is charismatic. He's great with the kids, he's. The girls fancy him. And also, although this is very sinister in their places and it really kind of.

It really ramps up throughout this. But there are places where it's really quite humorous too. You see a bit of the kind of the Jack Whitehall that we. We sort of know.

But this Manny, this Adam, he has a very bitter and vengeful obsession, particularly with this family that he is now working for. And Jamie, who's played by David Duchovny, he kind of straight away works out something not quite right about him.

I'm not quite sure what it is, but everyone kind of looks him to say, well, he's absolutely fine, no worries. But everywhere, anyone is, he's always there, lurking. You know, there's kind of lurkers.

That is the part that Jack Whitehall plays and it is incredibly sinister. I. I just can't. I was quite surprised at how far it went in terms of. Pretty violent in places, actually. There is a hammer involved in one scene.

And his vengeful nature again, I suppose you. I was reading the interview with Jack Whitehall and he. It was.

He filmed this at the time that he was just having his first daughter, his only daughter at the moment, and he was. He said it plays on the fear of the people. You.

You're trusting your children with somebody, you know, all the time, and how much do you really know about them? So over time, this vengeful nature comes out. And of course, this is. This is where this whole, whole drama goes. It's really different for him.

I really enjoyed what I've seen of it. I thought it was really well done and really credible because at first I thought, oh, here it's Jack Whitehall, he's going to revert to form.

But he doesn't. He's clearly spent a lot of time studying this kind of character. I think he.

He said he watched some really inappropriate things with his baby on his lap, you know, doing. Doing the night feeds, just to try and kind of, you know, get his head around some of this, as I say, more sinister stuff. What did you think, Ian?

Ian MacEwan: 00:11:13

I thought it was very good, I must say. And, you know, we knew that. He's so talented, Jack Whitehall. I mean, I never Particularly took to him as a stand up.

But he is a writer, we know he's a good actor. But as you said, it's tended to be sort of, yeah, comedic roles. Like I remember him in Fresh Meat, he was great in that as posh student jp.

But you kind of felt probably pretty close, quite close to home. I mean, obviously not such an idiot. He's no fool, Jack Whitehall. But yeah, this is something different for him and he absolutely smashes it.

It's great. And it's quite nuanced because this Manny, Adam, it starts off in Greece where David Duchovny's. Yeah, beautiful.

So Jamie, played by Duchovny, of course, Fox Mulder from the X Files. He's very wealthy. So they're in this beautiful villa in Greece which he owns.

But he kind of feels like there's quite a lot of freeloaders there, you know, like say his wife's friends has brought her family for kind of like a free holiday. And then of course Adam is there, Manny, and he kind of, he joins in.

So yeah, you can kind of feel like Jamie makes all these comments about well, you know, I'm paying for everything. But he's not, it's not that he's a kind of nasty character.

He, you know, he's obviously, he's a successful businessman so he's kind of fairly plain speaking and ruthless. But he seems to get on with his wife okay. It's not so like all their marriages on the rocks, you know. But yeah, and Adam again, he's very charming.

He's quite knowledgeable about unexpected things like Greek mythology and yeah, he's really good with the kids.

But as you say, yes, there's this agenda and you see him kind of snooping around the villa, looking at people's private belongings and then he takes Jamie to a strip club and gets him drunk and it's just a really creepy vibe and. And you just think, oh God, where is this going to end up? But yeah, I thought episode one was excellent.

Whitehall is really good as this sort of, you know, very, very charming young man who has, yeah, a dark side that is going to be revealed we think. And yeah, Decofne's great, as you say.

I mean certainly I think it starts off in Greece and then he's going to go and work for them in their home I think in New York. But yeah, it starts off really well and this is one I would certainly binge watch my way through over on Channel 4 streaming.

You might have caught an episode of this already this week. But it's available as a box set. It's a new drama called Trespasses. And here's a clip. Mixed marriages are an abomination.

Hannah Fernando: 00:14:14

Daddy was beat up for loving me mum.

Ian MacEwan: 00:14:17

I think about you all the time.

Hannah Fernando: 00:14:19

Come tonight, it's dangerous.

Ian MacEwan: 00:14:23

We must find the bravery to choose freedom over fear.

Hannah Fernando: 00:14:27

If he's anything like my husband, he love them off and find none of the things.

Ian MacEwan: 00:14:31

Are you happy?

Hannah Fernando: 00:14:34

Where have you been all night?

Ian MacEwan: 00:14:37

Gillian Anderson, Hannah. One of our all time favorites. And of course, she starred in the Fall, didn't she? As a detective trying to capture a serial killer.

et during the Troubles in the: 1970

And her daughter, she's a Catholic. Her daughter Kushla is a teacher. She's played by Lola Petticrew. She works in a family pub in Belfast.

And there she meets this Protestant barrister who is married. He's called Michael. He's played by Tom Cullen from Downton Abbey. He's just very charming.

And there's immediate chemistry between the two of them, however, because of the hatred and violence, the sectarian hatred and violence around the Protestants and Catholics. Good old religion there. And of course, the partition of Ireland. Um, it's a very dangerous game.

And you see her visiting a Catholic friend who lives in a Protestant area and the dad has been beaten to a pulp and you know, this, the, the neighbors throw dog poo over the fence and it's just very, very frightening and threatening. And anyway, she starts off, Michael says she's a native Irish speaker.

And so Michael and his friends ask her to come to dinner and, you know, teach them some Irish. So.

But again, because of this sort of backdrop of violence and hatred, it's a difficult watch because you, you know, obviously they've got this fantastic chemistry and connection, although, of course, he is married. But you just, you just know this is not going to end well.

It's a really great evocation of the era and of the Troubles, right down to the orange Austin Allegro that Kushler drives around in. So, yeah, and all the fashions as well. And of course, Gillian Anderson absolutely nails the accent very well.

Easy to overdo the Northern Irish accent, isn't it? But, yeah, I thought it was great. It's based on a book, actually. Really enjoyed it. Recommended. What did you think, Hannah?

Hannah Fernando: 00:17:17

Oh, I just thought it was brilliant. I mean, it's always. You just said it. Risky. Any accent but a Northern Irish accent. Particularly tricky, isn't it?

I thought she, she absolutely nailed it. I mean, she really did.

And she seems to be the sort of person that absolutely fully immerses herself in a character and does absolutely every bit of homework.

Because for me, from what I've seen of this and I, I want to binge watch the rest of it, I've got to be honest with you, is the fact that I'm, I'm learning something. I think we all know about the, the, the, the, the height of the violence and the troubles in Northern Ireland around that time.

But this really, really brings it to life and makes you realise you can't fall in love with the wrong person, the person on the different side and what that really looks like and how utterly terrifying that is.

And you know when she's begging them not to harm her family and hurt her family and it's just, it's a stark reminder of a time that was not that long ago really. And I just think every single person in this brings that whole scenario to life really, really.

Well, I don't think there's anyone in the cast who's a weak link in this. I think everybody plays an incredible part. You're immersed in it immediately. You're kind of on the edge of your seats, really.

And I say I'm learning something about an era that really wasn't that long ago.

Ian MacEwan: 00:18:45

Well, we're going to finish over on Disney plus with a two part documentary series called Caroline Flack Search for the Truth. And here is a clip.

Hannah Fernando: 00:18:57

Caroline Flack, one of Britain's most loved presenters.

Ian MacEwan: 00:19:05

Who'S been found dead in her flat.

Hannah Fernando: 00:19:08

You don't imagine your daughter's going to be so successful. You just sit back and watch in amazement, really. Love island, strictly X Factor. It's the best job in the world. She was top of her game.

The former Love island presenter has denied charges of assaulting her boyfriend. We saw the tide turn on her. Yes.

So this was screened to the press towards the end of last week, actually, and some people in our office went and watched it and there was a.

Ian MacEwan: 00:19:38

Real.

Hannah Fernando: 00:19:40

Sense after seeing this of just sadness and of course that's expected. But this sort of delves deeper into this, this dreadful tragedy. Losing a life, anybody's life is a tragedy.

And this is focused on the, the very brilliant Caroline Flack, who was a Love island host. She also hosted a number of other different shows, including X Factor Factor. And she, she was somebody who was, I suppose, arguably tabloid fodder.

You know, she was somebody who made headlines all the time. But this goes kind of deeper than that. We, I think we all pretty much know the story or think we know the story.

And she had been charged with assaulting her, her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, they'd had an argument at the London home. This was well kind of documented in the tabloid press, all the presses actually, to be fair.

And her mum, Christine believes that her death was really the result of a perfect storm. Right from the decision to prosecute her rather than issue a caution.

She feels if she was somebody else, perhaps she would have got a caution to the lies that she feels were printed in the tabloid press. And this two part documentary shows her her mission to fight for answers.

And so, as I say, it's, it's desperately sad because anybody losing their life is absolutely awful. But this is through the lens of a mother who, you know, argue you should never ever bury your children. Isn't that the saying?

And that's exactly what she had to do. And she is desperate to. Through phones, through voicemail messages, through voice notes, through text messages.

She wants to let the public know the truth. She says she's got nothing to lose now. She's sad that there's, that she feels there's no redress.

But if this in some way goes towards letting people know what really happened and maybe changing a future for somebody else, then that's what she wants to do. And it was, it's, it's a hard view, I would say, Ian. I think it's a really hard view.

I think anyone, whether you're interested in Cat Caroline as a, as a celebrity, as a presenter or not, is kind of irrelevant.

It's just the fight in her mind for justice and to really get the truth out there because she thinks people have in their mind what happened when really something else happened altogether. So it's, yeah, it's very moving. We had a lot of conversations in the office about this. It moved a lot of people, people who went and watched it.

There'll be lots of opinions on this, lots of feelings on this, lots of versions, I'd imagine too. You have to remember that too and keep that in the back of your mind.

There are lots of versions, but through her lens and through what she's doing, it's a hard view. What did you think, Ian?

Ian MacEwan: 00:22:43

It was very interesting and yeah, absolutely tragic. I mean, I didn't really watch Caroline Flack as a, as a TV presenter. I wasn't really watching those shows.

But it's fascinating to see, get more of an insight into what she was like. I mean, she was just had so much charisma and life, but was a complicated person, you have to say.

I mean, there's so many documentaries that we've watched, including the Girl Bands Forever, in which the tabloid press just come out looking absolutely appalling and responsible for terrible things, really. She was hounded by the tabloids, flat and being quite a vulnerable person. That was a contributory factor to her committing suicide.

Also, there were lies were told about the scene of the crime as well. It suggested that perhaps she was bipolar because she used to have these graves, great highs but also terrible lows.

And it's really interesting saying that, you know, she liked working really hard because it stops her thinking about other things. So clearly she, she had some mental health issues. I mean, she dated some very high profile people, didn't she? Including Harry Styles.

You get the impression that she didn't always choose her partners well.

So it's, it's mentioned that it's, it's suggested that the cause of this fight was because her boyfriend, who was kind of like a low level professional tennis player, was texting another woman. So, you know, if that's true, she'd picked her wrong.

And, and I think there'd been some sort of a very, she'd been in another very dramatic relationship before that.

There was lots of arguments and, you know, very stormy and perhaps that was, you know, perhaps she was like that to some extent because of this sort of bipolar type nature.

And yeah, you just get the impression that the family tried to raise the issue that it was clear that as the court case approached, I mean, the boyfriend said, I don't want to prosecute, but you can understand the CPS sometimes does have to go and prosecute in these circumstances. And the family tried to raise the issue that like, the prospect of this trial is really, really affecting her mental health.

They could see it, they could feel it, you know, and yeah, I mean, clearly the mum comes across very well actually, and her view, which is hard to disagree with, is that this was an avoidable tragedy, you know, and Caroline has been very badly served by various people, but notably the press. So, yeah, I mean, I don't really know if I can watch the second part because it was just, it's just heartbreaking really.

And it's this lovely archive footage of her. She was so full of life and just, you know, it really is, yeah, it's a sad, sad story.

Hannah Fernando: 00:25:49

But one of the things I would say about, about the press is the, there has to be some difference made between the press and social media. Because social media is also called media. And the media, the social media is completely unregulated. And you know how you.

I feel about unregulated social media. And the idea that those trolls were absolutely dreadful.

And you cannot underestimate the power of those trolls that celebrities are still facing with utterly no regulation, what whatsoever. And the other thing, and like I said about the bank, the girls, bands forever, is where are the people around them looking after them?

You know, the press is regulated. A letter needs to go to them to tell them to stand down, stand back.

And I would really, really hope that going forward, these people going into the public eye have people around them that can protect them. Better to stop this from happening, because it doesn't have to happen.

Ian MacEwan: 00:26:54

Now. We have got to that stage, young Hannah, my lads, where we find out what the hell you've been watching.

Hannah Fernando: 00:27:03

Well, it's quite random and I did say I'd speak about Strictly every week, but that's very dull. So I'm not. Well, Strictly isn't dull, but it's very dull, me saying the same thing every week.

But actually, I caught my daughter watching Bridget Jones, so I sat down with her and watched it. Because the most recent Bridget Jones we sat down with, with both girls to try and watch it with them and it was like, what is this? What is this?

And now suddenly they're going back to the originals and watching them. And I really, really enjoyed it.

Ian MacEwan: 00:27:29

Yes, I love Bridget Jones. Fantastic. Well, I did watch A True Crime, yet another true crime documentary on Netflix.

I can't remember what it was called, but it's basically about a murder by a neighbour.

And all of the footage is from body worn police cams who keep getting called to this area for someone complaining about things and you see it all play out, it's. Yeah, it's quite gripping. We've just got time to look ahead to next week's offerings. So what is on the agenda, Brenda?

Hannah Fernando: 00:28:09

Well, Matt Smith will play a chaotic dad on a road trip in an adaptation of Nick Cage the Death of Bunny Munro on Now tv.

Ian MacEwan: 00:28:18

I am very much looking forward to that. And oh, our favorite in the women of the moment, Amy Lee Wood and David Morrissey go from here to maternity. Do you see what I've done there?

As their comedy Daddy Issues returns on BBC Iplayer. So we look forward to those and much, much more. But in the meantime, dear listeners.

Hannah Fernando: 00:28:47

Watching.