ALL may not be as it seems when you watch the first episode of new BBC1 sci-fi drama Outcasts.
There are secrets and lies to be uncovered, along with things the human race has never encountered before.
Just who are the outcasts? What lies beyond the boundaries of frontier town Forthaven? And what exactly happened back on Earth after the Shanghai Uprising?
WE met yet again in a typical Midsomer country pub.
One last annual press gathering before John Nettles said goodbye to Midsomer Murders.
His final episode – Fit For Murder – is on ITV1 at 8pm tonight.
But the series lives on with Neil Dudgeon as a new leading man.
I’ve already interviewed Neil and his incoming screen wife Fiona Dolman and seen their first scenes in the next series.
And while sad to see John go, it looks to me like he’s left Midsomer Murders in safe hands.
SHE’S told the story before.
But it’s one worth repeating in the wake of ITV’s decision to move out of its historic Manchester HQ in Quay Street.
“When I went to Granada in the 1960s it was like a cottage industry,” recalls Anne Reid.
“One night it was foggy and before the Law Courts were built there was a wonderful pub called the New Theatre Inn, where we all used to go as a Granada watering hole.
“And we got stuck, some of us.
“We actually climbed over the back wall of Granada and went and opened the dressing rooms and slept in there all night.
“You couldn’t do that today. You’d set off every alarm in the world.
“Different days.”
That was one tale I didn’t have room to fit into my feature interview with Anne, which appeared in the Manchester Evening News last Saturday.
THE rather wonderful Being Human returns for a third BBC3 series tonight.
With a brilliant opening episode featuring Mitchell’s quest to rescue Annie from purgatory.
Plus a move to Wales, the arrival of Robson Green and Michael Sorcha, an impressive guest appearance by Lacey Turner and just the odd twist in the tale.
Also screened on the BBC HD channel.
I met up with Russell Tovey, Sinead Keenan and Michael last October to discuss the new series.
SHE may be 90, but there’s still a twinkle in Betty Driver’s eye.
Corrie’s hotpot queen has been in showbusiness for 80 years and was a leading lady of stage, film and TV long before Weatherfield came calling.
Betty is the subject of tomorrow’s (Sunday) Desert Island Discs at 11:15am on BBC Radio 4, expertly presented by Kirsty Young.
I’ve already listened to the programme and written a story to go online after the embargo expires at midnight tonight.
WE met in the canteen of the Shameless HQ in Manchester.
But it wasn’t until Manny Ighodaro stood up that I realised just how tall he was.
Of which more below.
Episode six of the new series is on Channel 4 at 10pm this evening, after last week’s burst of episodes one to five.
With a first screening of next week’s episode seven following tonight on E4.
Including a scene involving guest star Pookey Quesnel which is definitely not for the squeamish.
“WHAT we’re facing goes beyond everything we know.”
The first media screening of Outcasts in London last night.
We saw episode one of BBC1’s new eight-part series – due on screen next month – plus a long press showreel of what follows.
Outcasts stars Liam Cunningham, Hermione Norris, Daniel Mays, Jamie Bamber, Amy Manson, Ashley Walters, Michael Legge and Eric Mabius.
A group of pioneering humans has created a new home in the settlement of Forthaven on the planet Carpathia.
ANOTHER day on the Chatsworth to interview the cast of Shameless.
Including an afternoon in The Jockey, where the regulars still pay no heed to the smoking ban.
A month or so later, having cleared my lungs of herbal cigarette smoke, I also caught up with series creator Paul Abbott.
THE final episode tonight of ITV1’s latest Above Suspicion story.
So perhaps a good time to post my feature interview with leading lady Kelly Reilly online.
I met up with her in London last month.
VERY sad news today about the death of actor Pete Postlethwaite.
He died yesterday in hospital near his Shropshire home at the age of 64.
I interviewed Pete several times and learned last year that he was ill with cancer.
Life of Wylie 