The Custard TV Podcast

Matt and Luke are back aboard their TV Time Machine to look at the TV landscape of November 2001. Swallow is a bleak 3-part drama from the master of social-issue-based drama, Tony Marchant. This follows a woman struggling to cope after she stops taking her medication to help with her mental illness, and those in power at the drug company looking to discredit her when her struggles gain attention in the news media. Our views of mental health have vastly improved since the drama was made and broadcast, so it feels a little clunkier than other Tony Marchant-penned dramas. Where it excels is in its smaller moments, particularly between two central characters away from the main story. Next, The Kumars at No. 42, the faux BBC chat show that saw Sanjeev Bhasar host a comedy chat show playing a fictional version of himself and other members of the Kumar family, including his proud mother and father and his grandmother, who uses her position to flirt with the celebrity guests who appear on the show and put her grandson down. The show puts its famous guests on edge because the interview is improvised to make them laugh and enjoy the show as much as the audience, while always reminding them: The Kumars are the real stars. Next, as ITV lost the rights to Aussie Soap Home & Away to Channel 5, the channel is banking on a brand-new soap, Night & Day. The series had an interesting airing pattern. Three episodes aired in the teatime slot. Those episodes were then re-edited for a night broadcast, which included scenes unsuitable for the earlier time. For a soap, it featured a lot of things never seen before in the genre. Voiceover, a central mystery, fantasy sequences and flashbacks.  Lastly, Dr Terrible's House of Horrible, a new comedy vehicle for Steve Coogan, who stars as the titular figure, but also plays various different characters throughout the horror spoof. This first episode stars Coogan, Julia Davies and Alexander Armstrong as three strangers trapped in a lift heading for the 13th floor.

Matt and Dawn are joined by podcast regular Mo Walker to discuss four new shows available this week. BBC One has a new series of Celebrity Race Across the World. It's the first series where Matt and Dawn have been genuinely concerned that a team may not surivive the perils of the race. Apple TV has Stephen Graham, giving a good, but scenery chewing performance as a terrifiying killer locked away in a special facility. It's everything else about the thiller, Nocturne, that needs a bit more work. Unsually for us, we cover two shows from Canada, and even stranger, the shows come from the same network - Crave. First there's supernatural drama Yaga - which has potenital but is ruined by one character, and comedy, It Gets Worse which is currently airing on Channel 4 which suffers from not being quite up there with recent comedies that focus on the same group of people.  

Matt, Luke and Dawn (she's still stuck on the Time Machine) look back at what was on television in October 2001. A very young David Mitchell and Robert Webb get their very first sketch show, which aired on UK TV Play. Next, fresh off the success of Popstars, ITV launches a new singing competition in the form of Pop Idol. Looking for the next big name in music. It's the debut of Simon Cowell who seems to be struggling, at least in the early episodes of the show, seems to struggle to standout and is far from the dominating figure he would become just a few years later. BBC Two has Babyfather, a four-part relationship drama set in London about a group of male friends. It deals with issues of race, where you fit within a community and also features a cast who have gone on to big things. Lastly, a big favourite of Dawn's, Linda Green. Another show created by Paul Abbott, starring Liza Tarbuck as the titular Linda Green, who is unlucky in love, but loves her friends and her time singing at the local social club. Co-starring Claire Rushbrook and Daniel Ryan, it's a fun, flirty gem of a show that feels just as relevant now as it did then. The first episode stars Christopher Eccleston as a pair of twins who Linda falls for, which can only mean trouble, and in the second David Morrissey plays an old school friend who the friends have written off. The idea of the half hour episode, with a new male lead in each episode, is unique, but it's the core cast that really make the show work as well as it does. Lastly, Matt tests Luke's music knowledge on the UK charts in October 2001.

Matt and Dawn are back reviewing four shows available to watch this week. On BBC One, Jimmy McGovern's prison anthology series Time returns for its third series. On ITV, their new Sunday night drama The Party, is a mix of many genres but closely resembles Rivals on Disney+ but without anything that makes that show work. As we approach Halloween, Prime Video has Mike Flanagan's remake of the cult horror film Carrie. The main question here is, did we need it? Whilst on Netflix, Below feels as if it may have worked out better if Widow's Bay hadn't become such a big hit earlier this year.

Matt and Dawn are back reviewing four shows available this week. On Sky Atlantic, there's glossy legal drama War, starring Dominic West and Sienna Miller, which is written by podcast favourite George Kay. The series has been heavily advertised using its two well-known leads, but the show is at its best when it focuses on the brilliant characters at the heart of both legal teams. Unbelievably, David Harewood leads his very first British drama, in another legal drama, Channel 4's new series Pierre.  Next, and also on Channel 4, Dawn falls hard for the new romantic comedy Break Clause, which is anchored by two strong leads you really care about. Lastly, the two mega Traitor fans break down what worked and what didn't in the first two episodes.