Episode 219
The Penguin | A Very Royal Scandal | Nightsleeper | Frasier
Ian and Hannah review the biggest new films and bingeable shows on UK streaming services for the week beginning Friday 20th September 2024, including:
Watch the transformation of Oswald Cobblepot from a disfigured nobody to a noted Gotham gangster, in DC origin story The Penguin, on Sky Atlantic and Now TV.
Riding the coattails of Scoop, Prime Video's A Very Royal Scandal follows `Newsnight' journalist Emily Maitlis' journey leading up to her interview with Prince Andrew.
Time is running out. When hackers send a train hurtling towards death and destruction, can two strangers stop it before it meets its final destination? Adrenaline-fuelled thriller Nightsleeper is on BBC iPlayer now.
Kelsey Grammar returns as Frasier Crane in the return of the return of Frasier, and that's about as clear as we can make it. Frasier season 2 is on Paramount Plus.
Follow Bingewatch on all major podcast players for your weekly rundown of the best binge-worthy shows across Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and more.
Remember to leave a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser and Goodpods AND you can now show your support and leave a tip for Ian and Hannah.
You can also stay in touch with the team via Twitter AND if you like Bingewatch but you're looking for a specific review, check out BITESIZE BINGEWATCH, our sister show making it easier to get the bits you want!
If you're a brand interested in sponsorship or collabs, email hello@podcastsbyliam.com and chat to us now!
Transcript
Well, hello and welcome to Binge Watch, the podcast where we take a look at the hottest
Speaker:new TV and film releases on streaming television platforms. I'm Hannah Fernando, the group editor
Speaker:of Woman and Woman in Home magazine. And I'm Ian McEwan, writer on TV and Satellite Week,
Speaker:TV Times and What's on TV magazines. And today we're looking at the new releases that will
Speaker:be available on Friday, the 20th of September 2024, including Prime Video Drama, A Right
Speaker:Royal Scandal, Wilson as Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis and Colin Farrell as Gotham City crime
Speaker:kingpin the Penguin on Sky Atlantic and Now TV.
Speaker:We will also be getting on board the gripping BBC thriller Night Sleeper, starring Pee-wee
Speaker:blinders actor Joe Cole and checking out season 2 of the reboot of sitcom Frasier, starring
Speaker:Kelsey Grammer of course on Paramount+. But first Ian, what is in the news? In the Netflix
Speaker:thriller Out of the Dust, Aysa Butterfield and Molly Windsor will star as Adam and Rosie,
Speaker:a married couple who live in a Christian community. What else is in the news Hannah? Well, a Netflix
Speaker:documentary will chart take that's highs and lows. Oh, I love this already. Over more than
Speaker:three decades in the music business. I look forward to hearing your anecdotes about take
Speaker:that from your pop journalism days. We're starting on Sky Atlantic and Now TV with a new drama
Speaker:series that arrives on Thursday, the 19th of September. It's called The Penguin. And here's
Speaker:a clip. The world ain't set up for the honest man to succeed. That should be the American
Speaker:dream right there. An old beautiful story with a happy ending. That ain't the way the world
Speaker:works. America's a hustle.
Speaker:So if you watched the 2022 film The Batman, you might have been unaware as I was until
Speaker:the end credits rolled that you'd just seen Colin Farrell playing the penguin because he
Speaker:was unrecognisable and he's reprising that role in this new series from the DC universe. So
Speaker:he's got a lot of prosthetics and he's got... a fat suit and a gold tooth and a scar. He
Speaker:looks great and he is superb in this. So yes, I'm sure most people will be familiar with
Speaker:the fact that the penguin is one of the villains in the Batman's world, being played over the
Speaker:years by various people including Burgess
Speaker:staring out over Gotham City. Well this new series starts with the Penguin doing the same
Speaker:thing. It's really good, but it's very much like a classic kind of mafia crime drama really.
Speaker:It certainly doesn't start off in what you would consider familiar sort of Batman territory.
Speaker:I guess it's kind of doing for the Penguin what the Joaquin Phoenix version of the Joker did
Speaker:for that character. Anyway, I'm rambling on. So we're picking up from where the Batman left
Speaker:off, which was the Riddler had sort of caused a big flood in Gotham City and a crime kingpin
Speaker:has died. So there's a, yes, there's a power vacuum. Classic situation of course. And this
Speaker:version of the Penguin, well he kind of looks like a sort of, he looks like a mobster basically.
Speaker:He's got that familiar Penguin waddle because he has a sort of deformed foot, which we see.
Speaker:and he is the proprietor of a nightclub, but he's heavily involved in the underworld, basically,
Speaker:and drug dealing and that kind of thing. It starts off with a kind of a showdown between
Speaker:himself and the son of the deceased crime kingpin who is kind of taking over his empire. It's
Speaker:a great sequence, and I like the fact it's quite bold in that it just lets the two men sit opposite
Speaker:each other and talk for a while. is great to see. And then he kind of falls in with this
Speaker:young delinquent who's trying to nick the wheels from his Maserati. So they go on a kind of
Speaker:journey into the city's underbelly, which is really well done. And then later on, we're
Speaker:going to meet the daughter of the deceased mobster. She's called Sophia, aka Hangman. She's played
Speaker:by Christian Malotti, who's very kind of wide-eyed. Look. and she's been released from Arkham Asylum.
Speaker:So yes, these two are going to meet and... I'm not going to say too much more about it because
Speaker:it's much more fun just to let it unfold, but I think it is really, really good. Farrell
Speaker:is fantastic. The Penguin, this version of the Penguin is a fascinating character. He's incredibly
Speaker:violent and ruthless, but there's also a slightly kind of brooding, almost kind of melancholy
Speaker:side to him as well. So... Yeah, superb. I absolutely loved it. You don't have to be a Batman fan
Speaker:at all to enjoy this. You don't even really need to know anything about the Batman universe.
Speaker:It is a one. What did you think, Hannah? Well, I'm a massive fan of Colin Farrell anyway,
Speaker:so I'm there all the way. I'm not a massive Batman fan. I've watched them. You know, I've
Speaker:kind of my brother was into it when we were growing up. But you're right. You don't have
Speaker:to. have seen everything before and know everything about it at all because this is kind of standalone.
Speaker:But it's just so different. And I think that's the different shifts. If you haven't seen anything
Speaker:before, I suppose you wouldn't understand like you were explaining the kind of the difference
Speaker:between the penguin as we know the penguin versus the penguin, you know, that we're faced with
Speaker:here. Four hours worth of makeup, I think Colin Farrell said of prosthetics to make him look
Speaker:like he does. and it's just, it's really, it's gritty, it's pretty violent in places and as
Speaker:you say the penguin is completely ruthless but I quite like it when we look at the underdog
Speaker:sometimes and then make them like a really big character and that's exactly what has happened
Speaker:here so it's completely action-packed. I think that even if you're like me and not massively
Speaker:into this franchise you'll still really enjoy it. because it's pacey and exciting. Most importantly,
Speaker:it's got Colin Farrell. Okay, we're gonna move across to prime video for another new drama
Speaker:series, also arriving on Thursday, the 19th of September. It's called A Very Royal Scandal,
Speaker:and here's a clip. Emily Maitlis, BBC. I've been warned about you.
Speaker:bit of a reputation. Well for you I'll try and behave.
Speaker:I'm sure you will. Yeah, we really are making hay while the sun shines here, aren't we? Because
Speaker:of course you will remember that there was a scoop earlier in the year which we reviewed
Speaker:and the brilliant Gillian Anderson was in that and it was great. We both really enjoyed it
Speaker:and it did really, really well. So I suppose this is just kind of... taking this on to a
Speaker:degree. So there's three episodes in this. So this is all focused around that fateful day,
Speaker:evening that Emily Magless interviewed the now infamous Prince Andrew interview for BBC Two's
Speaker:Newsnight. 2019 that was, I can't believe it was quite that long ago, but it was, you know,
Speaker:it was jaw-dropping wasn't it? Some of the stuff that was said, it was quite unbelievable, still
Speaker:being spoken about now and living relatively close to Waking often comes up in conversation
Speaker:because the man doesn't sweat remember anyway I digress but this delves deeper into it so
Speaker:this looks at the events leading up to the interview the aftermath of it kind of the full story
Speaker:and what it was really like now how accurate that is you know sure but it's probably a bit
Speaker:like the crown I want to believe it all And it's, I suppose what you're seeing is, is that
Speaker:the, the way in which you have, the lengths she had to go to, to secure an interview correctly,
Speaker:properly, to make sure this happened. And I think that everybody probably even Emily Mayless
Speaker:was relatively surprised that this, that this happened, that this was agreed to, because
Speaker:it does seem an odd thing to, for him to have done or for his advisors to have agreed to,
Speaker:or perhaps they didn't and he did it anyway. So yeah, you see the whole kind of lead up,
Speaker:the aftermath of it, and you see the people within it and how that, and the cogs and how
Speaker:that works too. So it's kind of the behind the scenes, I suppose, of Scoop, which we saw as
Speaker:the main thing. This is kind of a behind the scenes element. Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson
Speaker:step into these roles. So Michael Sheen, Andrew, Ruth Wilson, Emily Maitlis, she's also executive
Speaker:producer of the show. So there's got a lot of skin in the game here and it has to be right.
Speaker:People will enjoy it. It's fascinating. It just is fascinating. There is something fascinating
Speaker:about when the wheels come off, I think, and seeing something so raw and so awful and so
Speaker:ugly and something that he's still having to live down today. And also the horrors around
Speaker:this story too. So, you know, really this all started in 2010, didn't it? When, you know,
Speaker:Well, I did in this series where, you know, he's made aware of the allegations surrounding
Speaker:Epstein and he tries to back them away and he kind of always has done. And I think that's
Speaker:fascinating too, because we've lost a part of that history, if you like. This takes us right
Speaker:back. I think all of us in our minds is just that interview, if you like. So I think this
Speaker:puts meat on the bones, really. Fascinating. Definitely want to watch. I agree. It is unfortunate
Speaker:for them that they are this is the second adaptation to come out, but they always knew that they
Speaker:were going to be second. So I would say Rufus fuel in scoop. I think he very much looks like
Speaker:Prince Andrew. And obviously, they'd use prosthetics. Whereas Gillian Anderson, I kind of we felt
Speaker:she was doing a bit of her Margaret Thatcher. And she was doing Emily Maitlis. So I think
Speaker:in this, Michael Sheen, yeah, he doesn't particularly look like Prince Andrew, but from seeing him
Speaker:play people like Tony Blair, Brian Clough, he can just get under the skin of real life people
Speaker:that he's portraying and he's brilliant. And his Andrew is, you know, as you expect, very
Speaker:arrogant, very rude. Like he tells all of his sort of minions to F off all the time. And
Speaker:we see Fergie, we see his daughters. And yes, you're right. So it's there's much more. background.
Speaker:And interestingly, because the things that you mentioned that made all the headlines in the
Speaker:interview about the not sweating and the pizza express, they show in this that they'd finished
Speaker:the interview. I mean, this is Maitlis is sort of authorised version of this. So we I think
Speaker:we can, it's pretty, you know, going to be true to what happened. They finished the interview.
Speaker:And then Andrew remembers that he hasn't given his kind of alibis, which are these two weird
Speaker:claims. And so he says, oh, can you ask me about these two things? Because we didn't touch on
Speaker:them. And so and also it does go into more detail about how on earth was this terrible decision
Speaker:to give this interview ever made. And it does explain that. So yeah, I would say don't feel
Speaker:like, oh, I've kind of seen the drama about this already, so I won't bother because it's
Speaker:it really is very, very good.
Speaker:BBC One and BBC iPlayer for yet another new drama series, Hannah They Keep Coming, which
Speaker:arrives on Sunday and Monday of next week. It's called Night Sleeper. And here's a clip. Hello,
Speaker:I'm on a train to Glasgow to London. Night Sleeper service.
Speaker:We may have a problem. We'll be in control remotely. There's been a hack check-in. Hijacks are so
Speaker:20th century. This train is now a guided missile. One of the passengers may be working with the
Speaker:hackers. Don't trust anyone. This is very exciting. As the title suggests, it's set aboard a train.
Speaker:An overnight train, traveling from Glasgow to London, haven't been on a sleeper train for
Speaker:a while. It stars Joe Cole, who you may know from Peaky Blinders, and it's set in real time,
Speaker:which is quite interesting. It's a six-parter. Anyway, we start off in thrilling fashion.
Speaker:So the train is at the station. It's about to set off from Glasgow to London, and a thief
Speaker:snatches a laptop bag from a woman on the platform. and off-duty cop Joe, played by Joe Cole. He's
Speaker:getting the train, but he swings into action and chases this guy, and he's trying to retrieve
Speaker:the laptop bag, and it's a great chase sequence. It's brilliantly executed, so you're jumping
Speaker:straight into the action, and it's really well done. And they used this set, which had, I
Speaker:think, quite a few train carriages on it, so it looks very, must have been incredibly difficult
Speaker:to film. But all the classic things that you want in a chase is obstacles. You've got a
Speaker:pensioner, a baby in a pushchair, a disabled person, a drinks trolley, someone carrying
Speaker:a tray. So it's really well done and it's fast and furious. And then there's a big twist.
Speaker:Yes. So, I mean, the trailer gives away the fact that basically someone has, has hijacked
Speaker:the train, but they've done it remotely. So it's a cyber attack basically. And so Joe is
Speaker:on board the train and then you've got Alexandra Roach from No Offence. She is playing the technical
Speaker:director of the National Cyber Security Centre, Abby. So between the two of them, it's a bit
Speaker:like speed when you know there's a bomb on the bus and it's out of control. It got a bit of
Speaker:hijack in it, the Idris Elba series. So I loved it. I really liked Jo Cole. I love Alexandra
Speaker:Roach. She's terrific. So yeah, it's an absolute thrill ride from start to finish. What do you
Speaker:think Hannah? Yeah, really good. So, so fast paced. And as you say, really probably quite
Speaker:hard to execute actually, because, yeah, cause it's just so busy, isn't it? And it's in real
Speaker:time. I always love the fact that when actors play their same name in it, it must be so much
Speaker:easier, mustn't it? Jo playing Jo. Why I always think that. Must be so, why don't they do that
Speaker:all the time? Anyway, I digress again. I just, like you say, I absolutely love the fact that
Speaker:every sort of thing that could get in their way does, but I also love the sort of traitor's
Speaker:vibe about it, which is who can you trust on that train? You know, who, because there's
Speaker:more at play here and so who can they actually trust or who can he actually trust? Who is
Speaker:the decent one who's not? What turns out to be something... sort of seemingly not small
Speaker:but a petty crime, I suppose, turns into something much, much bigger. So I think it's really,
Speaker:it's really exciting. Like I always say this, but it's not something that you can get on
Speaker:and do the dinner with. You need to sit down with a glass of wine and watch this. You just
Speaker:got to watch it because there's no, you'll, the dinner will burn. You'll just get too involved.
Speaker:Well after all that high stakes drama, Hannah, we're going to finish with a bit of comedy.
Speaker:arriving on Paramount Plus on Friday the 20th of September. It's season two of the rebooted
Speaker:Frasier. And here's a clip. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, welcome back to the room in which
Speaker:I changed your lives forever. Does it seem like he's daring up for something? Yep, gonna be
Speaker:late. Oh, hey dad, I got a question about punctuation. Ooh, no, stay on task.
Speaker:we bought a ham an 18 pound acorn fed harmon Iberico oh wow this is better than sad Yeah,
Speaker:it doesn't seem that long ago that we reviewed season one actually, so it must have been a
Speaker:massive hit, of course it was. For season two now to be out, there are ten episodes in this
Speaker:outing. First two dropping and then released weekly like they often do on Paramount+. And
Speaker:it does what it says on the tin, if you like, if you like Frasier you'll like this too. So
Speaker:you've got the dynamic between obviously Frasier played by Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Lynn
Speaker:Hurst, which I think is really fun. In the first season, I kind of watched it and I thought,
Speaker:oh, I don't know how I feel about this. It kind of feels like a weird one, but it actually
Speaker:totally, totally works. And they kind of cover a lot of ground in here because sort of later
Speaker:on in the series, you get Frasier going and reuniting with a lot of his former colleagues
Speaker:at the Seattle radio station. You see him hanging out there and I think it's got that real nostalgic
Speaker:moment. I was reading the other day that nostalgia at the moment apparently is a big thing. People
Speaker:love looking back. So perhaps they've hit on it here because that's exactly what this probably
Speaker:should be doing, isn't it, really kind of slightly naval gazing to a degree whilst also tracking
Speaker:forward, which they absolutely do here. There's the kind of the whole dynamic between Frasier
Speaker:and Freddie though. And the fact that in the first season, of course, he announced that
Speaker:he was relocating to Boston. becoming a son's neighbour. You've got the whole kind of dynamic
Speaker:there. So the thing with Frasier is that it's funny, but there's also kind of other elements
Speaker:to it as well. I mean, it's not particularly deep, I don't think, but it's certainly got
Speaker:other elements that kind of keep you interested. There's a Valentine's Day episode. That'll
Speaker:be interesting, a bit of romance, perhaps for some of these characters throughout the season.
Speaker:Shall we tease that? And it... Do you know what, as I say, if you like Frasier or like this,
Speaker:but I do think there's an element of you having, I do think you do need to go back with this.
Speaker:It's not one that you just come into. I think you do need to see some of these episodes previously
Speaker:to kind of understand the background. Otherwise it probably all feels a little bit odd diving
Speaker:in at this point. You're a big fan though, aren't you, Frasier? I'm a big fan of the original
Speaker:Frasier, which was huge hit. And I mean, it's still to this day running. Channel 4 isn't
Speaker:it in the mornings and I still watch it. The problem they had, I feel, is that they lost
Speaker:so many great characters from the first season. So Martin Crane, obviously the actor who played
Speaker:him, John Mahoney passed away, Niles played by David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leaves as Daphne,
Speaker:all of the radio station crew, great characters and I hate to say it but I don't think the
Speaker:new characters apart, you know, Nicholas Lintert is quite good value as a university lecturer
Speaker:and friend of Frazier's, but I don't think all of the new characters are that interesting.
Speaker:So Freddie, for instance, the son played by British actor Jack Cutmore Scott, who I was
Speaker:lucky enough to have a quick chat to about this season. I kind of feel like he's very much
Speaker:playing the straight man in this. So episode one. Frazier and Alan by Anabarra Koham. So
Speaker:there's lots of fun and games around that. So if you, yeah, I think if you like Frazier,
Speaker:I mean Kelsey Grammer, absolute master of comic timing. Lindhurst is great in this. I think
Speaker:the two of them work very well together, but I can see why they've decided, okay, let's
Speaker:bring back, because they brought back Roz at the end of season one, Perry Gilpin, and so
Speaker:we're going to see some more familiar faces, and I think that's a good idea. But yeah, if
Speaker:you like the original Frazier, I think you will enjoy this. But it is slightly different, but
Speaker:still worth a look, I think. Well, we've got to that time already, Hannah, where we find
Speaker:out what you've been binge watching. Four in a bed, which Amazon Prime hang out there a
Speaker:fair amount, Prime Video, and where all the people have bed and breakfast and they go and
Speaker:basically open their bed and breakfast to other people, which is always very interesting and
Speaker:people are always incredibly harsh. It's all about the quality of the sausage. It's true.
Speaker:I have been checking out Love Rats documentary series on Netflix, which is about people who
Speaker:kind of pull off sort of romance scams basically. So the first one I watched was this poor lady
Speaker:from Scotland who in her 50s who went to Sri Lanka was romanced by a young guy in his 20s,
Speaker:ended up marrying him and moving there and you can kind of guess. the rest I'm sure. Now we've
Speaker:just got time to look ahead to next week's offerings. So what is on the binge watch menu, Hannah?
Speaker:Sam Neill and Annette Benning star in Apple's Never Fall, a thriller about the disappearance
Speaker:of a family matriarch on BBC iPlayer. And Will Ferrell takes a road trip with his recently
Speaker:transitioned close friend in the Netflix documentary Will and Harper. So we look forward to those.
Speaker:and much, much more, but in the meantime, listeners.
