Welcome to this week’s issue. We have two covers for two very different appetites. For our subscribers, it’s MasterChef and a fresh chapter for one of television’s most enduring formats. Grace Dent and Anna Haugh step into the kitchen as the new presenters: sharp, funny, exacting and, crucially, generous to the contestants.
As you’ll read inside this week’s issue, they understand the chaos and the nerves. Dent captures the thrill of the competition perfectly: “To anyone who can get through those first few rounds, I think, wow… it’s like going to a holiday cottage and trying to make a simple omelette.”
Haugh adds, with admirable understatement, that it’s all happening “with a film crew and two scary judges interviewing you”. Between them, there’s a clear warmth and enthusiasm that makes me feel optimistic about this new chapter.
In contrast, Richard Gadd’s Half Man, his follow-up to Baby Reindeer, is a drama that pulls no punches – emotionally, psychologically or morally. Is it a difficult watch? Yes, but it’s also utterly compelling.
And as you can read in the piece written by Gadd himself, he is refreshingly honest and forthright, arguing that, “If you lose faith in what you’re doing, or start writing for other people more than yourself, it will not work.” It’s a credo that runs through every frame of this extraordinary series.
Two covers, then. One that celebrates joy, the other that confronts something dark and, perhaps, equally necessary.
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Also in this week’s Radio Times:
- Lindsay Duncan plays the sidelined, sexually unapologetic matriarch of a Scottish crime family.
- Graham Norton shares a look at his new reality experiment The Neighbourhood and his own viewing habits.
- Christopher Eccleston reflects on masculinity, failure and the writers who shaped his life.
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Authors
Shem Law is the brand editor of Radio Times, and the 20th person to hold that esteemed position in over 100 years. He wasn’t allowed a television growing up, but over the years he has rather overcompensated for that fact.
