The Lowdown, The Hunting Wives, and A Ghost Story For Christmas. With guests Paul Bettany and Will Sharpe

26:36You don't have to tell me. Just making sure you don't get it wrong. I was going to message you because did you see what other Apple TV show had dropped onto our previews website thingy? I know about your friends and neighbours. No, no, no. The last two episodes of Hijack. Oh, have they? Last time I checked, they weren't there. Okay, that's exciting. Robert Frost has done it. He's finished them. Thanks, Robert. Exactly, yeah. That guy always delivers. Yeah, that's exciting. Okay, great. I'm going to watch those later on. That I'm pleased about. That's my evening sorted. so that'll be what I am going to be watching this evening.

27:06But yeah, so I finished Pluribus. I'm keeping the finale of Pluribus for some reason. To watch it live? No, no, no. Christmas Day? No, no, no. I'm going to watch it pretty much as soon as I get home tonight. But did it work? Did it stick the landing? Well, see, the thing is, and I was asked that exact same question when I came into the Empire Office, did it stick the landing? To which I said, no, because there is no landing. Like, it's an ongoing thing. There is no landing. And I think that's important. It's an ongoing concern. So the flight continues without turbulence, is what I would say, if we're using aviation metaphors.

27:36Okay. So, yeah. But it did not disappoint. No, it did not disappoint. In fact, I had a big old smile. Didn't crash and burn. Yes, I very much enjoyed it. Pluribus is wonderful. And you can hear more about our thoughts on Pluribus when we talk about it in our review of the year's special, which will be going out next week. Roti. Yes, Roti. Yes, Roti. The Roti special. Yeah. But I honestly think I'm starting to realize one of the reasons why I haven't watched more this week, because you, Kay, even though you've watched Absolute Drivel, have watched a heroic amount of it, which is very impressive, is that I got my PlayStation wrapped, was sent to me.

28:11And I posted this on my Instagram yesterday, but I am going to read it out here because I'm going to name and shame myself in doing this. I got my PlayStation. And this is just the PlayStation. This is not the only... This is a new section we're incorporating into the podcast. This is not the only console I own. But my PlayStation wrapped said hours played PlayStation in 2025. Is this a day? 469 hours. What? A month? No, total, for the year. For the year, not a month. I mean, even I'm not that much of a maniac. 469 hours. That's a lot of hours. I mean, given the amount of stuff that I watch. How do you, how?

28:43Right. I mean, people ask me how I watch so much TV, but you're watching lots of TV and you're doing that. 469 hours. Although, to be fair, he's never going out. This is true. I have no social life. You have to go to screenings and stuff. Maybe I'm playing games and screenings as well. Oh my God. Yeah, 469. specifically 158 hours playing Elden Ring Night Reign, which was my number one game of the year. And I'm still obsessed with it because the DLC dropped recently. And actually, this wrapped, I've probably put in another 20 hours since this was done. Claire Obscure Expedition 33, which was my game of the year.

29:13I did 82 hours on that. Just note that I'm trying really hard to look interested in this. I did 46 hours in Ghost of Yotei. Yeah. I did 39 hours on Baldur's Gate 3. And I know what you're thinking, that's actually not a lot. but yes, that's in addition to about the 170 I did in that game the year it came out. This was just replaying chapter one. And then 27 hours on Elden Ring, the original Elden Ring, which again, I started again. 469 hours. I mean, it's a lot. So if you ever wonder why... James, I urge you, let 2026 be the year that you go and get some fresh air. Yeah, I need to get outside more.

29:50Yeah, that's fine. Because that in and of itself, 469 hours, is maybe not the end of the world. but then if you add that to the sheer volume of TV that I have watched over the last year and then the number of films I've watched for the Empire podcast which admittedly is a lot less than hell and also the number of hours of shows that you're re-watching like a mania I think you overstate that I don't think I do I re-watched the West Wing this year obviously again but did I re-watch anything else? oh yeah Night Manager but other than that that's about it isn't it you always throw in you know that is true I'll occasionally go oh I've just re-watched a random show that I pull out yeah that is true can I just correct myself?

30:23yeah always I said as I was saying I thought this isn't right is it I was talking about the Simon Cowell documentary being made by the people who made the Formula 1 documentary Need for Speed and that's a lie no no no the title is Formula 1 Drive to Survive that's what I thought not Need for Speed you should have corrected me no it wasn't that I thought you'd I just thought oh they've made another show no Drive to Survive Need for Speed Drive to Survive it's much the same thing Need for Speed of course being a video game franchise and a terrible film yeah exactly so there we go no need to re-edit No need to.

30:53No, no, Boyd is having to own his mistake. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Professional. Okay, should we have a listener question? Yes, let's. It's a message from Lucy who says, wishing you all a Merry Christmas. My question is, what non-Christmas TV shows do you prefer to watch while wrapping your presents? Mine has always been Father Ted, but recently it's been superseded by Alan Carr's Changing Ends. I think it's the mix of feel-good and nostalgia that makes it so good for this. I think your podcast has been even better than ever this year and I will be listening regularly in 2026 oh thank you very much so it has to be a specifically non Christmas themed show that's what Lucy says but I think I mean I've got an answer ready oh good yeah because my answer was that we are going to review The Night Manager the new series 5th of Janet episode of the pod and I did a James I re-watched because I remembered that I hadn't actually finished what?

31:48I know insane I know, let's not get into that. But anyway, let's skip over it. Let's just say I did a re-watch. Wow. But because it's so super-duper dense, the only way I could do it was if I was wrapping presents at the same time. Hang on. That's so counterintuitive. It's so complicated that you have to be doing something else while you're watching it. Well, James, I didn't find it complicated. You just said it was really dense. No, tense. Oh, I thought you said dense. I thought you said dense as well. Oh, did I say dense? I think you did say dense. Oh, if I did say dense, I was being dense. If I did say dense, I was being dense.

32:16I meant tense. Tense. Yes, it was so extraordinarily tense that I couldn't just... Did you watch it in the tent? In the tent, yeah. That's exactly what happened. But no, so if I was wrapping and doing something with my hands and looking down occasionally, it just made it easier to watch. See, this is probably how I would get through cringe comedy, by wrapping presents while watching it. Or pruning a tree. Or pruning a tree or painting the ceiling. I, in the past, have watched both Supernatural and Gilmore Girls while wrapping presents. And the reason is because they were shows way back when that were on my sofa list and I didn't really care enough about them to focus.

32:50I imagine with Gilmore Girls that there were scenes where they were wrapping presents. Almost certainly wrapping presents, yes. Where they wrap beautifully. It's one of those. Yeah, that's probably a good... Yeah, so normally it would be something because I'm going to be doing something else while I'm doing it. It would be something that's on my sofa list that I don't really care about which I'm like, I can just half watch. I just want to tick off the list. It'd be something like that. Well, listen, I just want to say I did want to watch The Night Manager and obviously it deserves full attention.

33:15It does. I cannot handle the level of stress in that first series. The tense, dense nightmare. Yeah. Seen in a tent or a den. That shows you how tired I am. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We should say we are, all three of us, absolutely just dead on our feet. I genuinely, this morning... I just don't go and bang on a bell like you two do. No. As I mentioned, this week's been very... I woke up this morning and I thought, I don't know if I've got the words for the podcast. Yeah. I mean, we will obviously have cut it out, but there was a little bit earlier on in this podcast where you literally lost the ability to form words.

33:44Oh, my God. I don't know why we have to drag out this fact. This just won't have heard it. I know, but it was quite funny. No, it was. I came in saying, oh my God, this week I've done like 30 previews, five podcasts, two interviews and like script homework. I list all the stuff and I said, I don't know if I'll be able to talk. And then for the first 10 minutes, we spent us re-recording everything because I literally couldn't get a word out and then got hysterical. It was pretty entertaining. It was. That's not going on the blooper. I mean, you say that. Hideous. Hideous. anyway while I'm wrapping presents I will be watching Alan Partridge and the most recent one I probably I think I watched which I've mentioned another of our like 7 million podcasts that were recorded this week I can't remember which one oh no it was the review Roti review of the year I talked about how the new most recent Alan Partridge series I've watched like 2 or 3 times already maybe even 4 times I'll watch it again while I'm wrapping presents for sure I thought it would have been Curb interesting well Curb I just watch on I watch that probably as often as he watches Friends and etc but I just don't bang on it I don't mention it I don't need to mention it You don't like to bang on it It's part of the general fabric of my life And in fact I felt very Larry David-esque at the Ivy Incident when I had to point out what a reservation was Were you wearing slacks?

34:59I think I probably was wearing slacks, yeah This is a reservation and I am Boyd Hilton What are you doing? No, it wasn't like that It doesn't sound like Larry David either I don't know who that sounded like Lord Grantham possibly. Oh yeah, maybe. Maybe that's who you're going for. Okay, well that's the question answered. Thank you, Lucy, for getting in touch and for listening. Thank you. Yes. Literally, if you paid me£1 ,000, I don't think I could tell you what the question was. Oh, I've remembered. Yeah. Sorry. I'm not going to pay you£1 ,000. No, but I mean, if you had, that would be nice. He could just throw it at me from there.

35:35I think now it's news. Is it news? Do you know what? I'm actually very pleased that you are here to shepherd me through this because I've lost the ability to do it. However, you're wrong because it's time for this week's guest. Oh, okay. Nice try. Nice try. Even though I was tired, I was trying to be helpful. Yeah, he's corrected me and suddenly come alive through my correcting me. Ooh, one-upmanship. I'm back in the room. You're such a tip. Oh, some things never change. We reviewed Amadeus last week. You can catch it now on Sky and Now. Now. Not just now, but literally now on now. And this is Joe Barton's adaptation of the Peter Schaffer play and depicts one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

36:12You may have heard of him. Played by Will Sharp and his rivalry... Rivalry? Rivalry? I can't even say the word. His rivalry... There we go. Did it. Well done. I'm getting there. Falling apart before our eyes and ears. I'm struggling, but I'm doing my best. What we should do for the rest of the show, there's going to be no outtakes. We're just going to keep on going. There'll be no edits. We're just going to plough through. People will be unsubscribing. They may well do. But his rivalry with Antonio Salieri, played by Paul Bettany, piano offs abound. and they spoke to Boydie very recently, and this is what occurred.

36:42Paul Betten in Willshott, welcome to the Pilot TV Podcast. Yes, I am a last of the fan, you've noticed, Paul. Yes, I have. I'm not wearing a specialty for you now, but I'm going to the match later. Are you going later? I'm not going, but I have packed my kit to wear whilst watching the game. That's good. I haven't washed it. It hasn't been washed since we last lost. Wow, that's a long time ago. That was a long time ago. and my wife is like you have to wash that god damn shirt and I can't because it's got lucky sweat in it yeah Will are you a football fan no not really so much anymore I watch like the World Cup or the Euros but I don't follow the Premier League fair enough fair enough you should say Joe Barton who wrote Amadeus of course I know he's a friend of the podcast and his love of Spurs often gets in the way of normal relations well it's so weird as well because he grew up in Brighton or somewhere.

37:38It's like, you chose that. Misguided. It's not... Totally, yeah. He could have absolutely avoided a lifelong misery. Exactly. Have you got a special message for Joe? Come. Yeah. Come to the dark side. The bright side. Yeah, the bright side. London's red, I guess. Exactly. Joe's script is, I guess, key to this whole project, right? Because if you're just doing another version of this story that was a play in a film, fine. but he has found something else in the story. So what do you think he has brought to the script for the show? Well, I feel like because it's across five hours, there's necessarily more space to kind of explore.

38:20We've talked a bit about the sort of domesticity of these characters and what are they like at home, away from the kind of world of music, and also kind of to explore different points of view. You know, the play, the film, like very much like driven almost entirely by Salieri's perspective and his kind of burning envy and that's absolutely a big part of this show but there are other points of view as well including Constanzas and so I found that sort of quite an interesting part of this new iteration I think that's the very reason why I took the job I wanted, I loved the idea of playing Salieri, I was a bit frightened by it because F.

39:03Murray Abraham is so great. And then I had the kind of Milos Forman movie as a masterpiece. And then I was like, why do this again? And then read the script and realized, oh no, that there is, he's asking the question, what does that burden of that genius feel like? You know, because it is a very modern perspective in both the film and the play is about what does it feel like to not have that genius. And I thought, actually, that's right there is a good enough reason to have a new version. And also, I think that the TV show is, our TV show is quite self-consciously trying to be accessible to a broader audience and an audience that might normally think, oh, this isn't for me.

40:02It's going to make me feel stupid or whatever. And it really doesn't. And sort of to invite a new audience to see something like this. Yeah, to some extent, there's a kind of bawdiness to it, which I guess was partly in the film play, but I think you bring that out particularly in your, I mean, if you play this character, I guess you have to have a whale of a time, But is it as much fun to do that role as it is written down, if you like? I mean, it was definitely fun. Like, there were enjoyable aspects to him, like, that he's very impulsive and sort of chaotic in his behaviour. He's very, like, appetite-driven.

40:39I enjoyed that sort of animal part of him. And also, you know, it's quite funny sometimes that we talked about, like, is there a sort of neurodiversity to, without getting too specific or trying to retro-diagnose him, like, he says what's on his mind. And if he thinks it's true, it comes out of his mouth. And that often causes offense or hurts Salieri's feelings. Or, you know, that was fun, like that he doesn't really understand society or how you're supposed to behave appropriately. I mean, there were other parts of him that were still fun. But I would say, like, there are sort of darker aspects to him as well.

41:11And that was like as much a part of him, I felt like, as the kind of like playful, frivolous, you know, boy, man child. There was also this kind of like, you know, we talked a bit about how Salieri and Mozart almost feel like two brothers to a common father in God. And there was that sort of like darker, as you said, like sort of like what's the cost of carrying the burden of that expectation, whether it be from, you know, Constanzi, you need to use your talent to make money or his father. Like you need to not waste what we've given you or from God where it's like I'm going to speak through you and that will have a physical and psychological toll.

41:49but it's your purpose and duty, you know. Yeah, that dance really comes out when he goes home, doesn't it, and sees his dad. Yeah, there's the beginnings of it, yeah. And then Salieri is driven mad by God's abandonment, a perceived God, his perception that God has abandoned him and chosen Mozart. Yeah, he really goes for the debauched kind of anti-Christian way of life. He embraces that, doesn't he, once. he sure does you both get to do scenes of intimacy not with each other but separately how is that, you mean you're both experienced actors how is that doing that now it's still dreadful it's always been dreadful and it's still dreadful and it's embarrassing and I frankly thought I'd aged out of it but apparently not but what I do like is I think that they I feel more comfortable if the scene tells a story yeah and whilst I am in the room with the sex worker even though he's not there Amadeus is is in that room too and it's it's actually more a scene about his relationship with him and Paul asked me to be there to help him film it inspiration Yeah.

43:17It was really inspiring. Good. I agree. I think so long as you understand what is the story purpose of this scene, that becomes your focus. And the rest of it is basically just making sure everybody is working within the bounds of their comfort. And it's almost like rehearsing, you know, like any choreographed scene. It's just serious. If, for instance, that scene, one of the main reasons for it is to show the audience that Salieri has now chosen a life of transgression. Absolutely. And so then I go, all right, well, I get it then. Damn. Yeah. Because before that, there's a scene of self-pleasure.

44:04Yes. Which I always think is supposed to be the most embarrassing thing to have to do. Also embarrassing. I was there for that scene. Yeah. I knew it. I actually brought you back off holiday. Yeah, yeah. Most of your time was spent as inspiration, clearly. Sure. Could you get more in my eye? How did you have met before you embarked on this? No, I was obviously aware of Paul's work and was a big fan. And so I was slightly intimidated about the idea of us working together. But actually, as soon as we met, it became clear that you're a very approachable and very generous scene partner. And so I was relieved to find that actually we were like, It felt weirdly the more toxic the relationship of our characters got.

44:46The closer we got. The closer we got. That probably says more about you and me. Maybe, yeah. But I had a similar experience. I had admired Will from afar, and then I foolishly watched his Flowers, which he wrote and directed in Stars. And I was super intimidated and then met him, and it was just lovely. It was really lovely. I think we work in very different ways, but those ways really complemented each other. And by the end, I don't know how much of a show you've seen, but by the end of it, the whole thing. By the end of it, there was a scene that was really, I had no idea how you were going to accomplish it.

45:32To accomplish it, I mean by telling the story. Forget whether you've done it well, I just didn't know how we were going to tell the story.

45:43and some and i would have not i don't think we would have would have accomplished it earlier on i think we just by that point had such sort of i had such trust in him and felt so safe uh and he with me i believe yes we could go to uh places and go i guess it was like that those scenes and that scene in particular it felt like you know there were big ideas around what was happening in a sort of stylistic way or sort of like a theoretical way that but actually what was happening on a human level was two men were being vulnerable with each other and honestly with each other and i felt like it required of us like to take i suppose like well it felt like we needed to sort of take some risks in the playing of it for it to work and also needed to be feel comfortable being vulnerable in each other's company and I agree like that would have been harder to do towards the beginning of the shoot I also felt Alice Sebright who directed that episode handled it really well and that's how it sort of almost like was distilled down in the end from almost like magical realist concept to something that was just very simple yeah it gets very daring and kind of bold the longer it goes on the more kind of its own thing is I think it was very different to the previous versions certainly yeah in terms of the music you you um there's various shots where you're playing piano and the piano and the camera pans up to you and you're clearly actually doing it so you is that part of your skill set anyway or did you hone up on playing the piano no i had to practice a lot like i could play sort of chord z i can google some chord some radio head chords and play along to a sort you know but i couldn't read music very well and i I couldn't play anywhere near sort of, I couldn't play a Mozart piece.

47:31But Ben Holder, who supervised the music, started teaching, coaching me on that sort of, I think about six months before we started filming. And so, yeah, the pieces I needed to play, I needed to be confident on. And then sometimes the pieces would change quite soon before we shot them. And thankfully, by then, I was sort of like had practiced enough that it would go in a bit quicker. But then I'd forget all of them immediately after we shot. I couldn't play any of those pieces now. Did you delve into the format of music? I actually spent about 30 hours learning this Mozart piece and then I sat down at the piano to play it in the scene and Julie and the director went, oh no, you're not actually playing it, you're imagining it.

48:20Why? At which point I went, okay okay that's funny there's a discussion about relatability i think with them particularly with the marriage of figaro which i think i felt joe barn was saying something here about i don't know you know the writing of tv and film and stuff and characters that because they're constantly being told that things have to be relatable do you think that's true is he kind of sneaking in a discussion there about making things relatable i mean i think you'd have to ask him you know it's possible that there's like subconscious dust from script development but I don't know. No fair enough.

48:56Yeah. I'll ask Joe when he's not busy supporting the wrong football team. What's the most fun element of this whole football team? Barely even. Yeah exactly. He can be really horrible about us by the way. I should emphasize that like nasty. Yeah. I hope you didn't have to encounter a deal with him. I did. I did yeah. You worked with him in Giri Hadji of course. Correct yeah. He does have a unique kind of the dialogue wise I thought that this explores different things that possibly couldn't have explored in previous versions there's quite a lot of swearing effing and jeffing and c-wording etc which i think adds to the texture of the whole thing yeah it's like i guess it's like a sort of hybrid you know sort of english that feels slightly period and then english that's very modern and i feel like that's your sort of accessibility point like that does sort of let you in i suppose and across all the departments you know Lisa and Vicky I remember Vicky talking about like leaning on sort of period accurate silhouettes in the wigs but also taking influences from like rock and roll or jazz or folk music and sort of trying to just break it in a little bit to make the world feel sort of lifted.

50:00And you get to call him that foul shit talking bastard which I thought was a great line Yes, that's actually Schaeffer. Is it? That whole speech in the church is lifted from the play and it's I was really intimidated by that that's the other thing that I was really intimidated by because it's tonally quite different and I I I don't actually talk out loud to gods do you know what I mean I was like how am I going to do it so I didn't really I was really intimidated by that I think you pulled it off thank you very much thank you so much thank you Paul and Paul great to see you thank you nice to see you too cheers that was Will Sharp and Paul Bettany and now Yes K it is time for news what have you got for me okay so I've got news about The Pit which I was reluctant to say because you know I'm bearing a grudge against The Pit because I haven't watched it yet I mean I can tell you all about it if you like but anyways there's been an update with new cast members announced for Series 2 oh tell me because I haven't seen this oh okay well I will tell you that Luke Tenney is going to be in it and he's going to be playing a fourth year resident named Dr.

51:12Cruz Henderson okay We have Travis Van Winkle, who will play an aggressive patient named Curtis Larson. Mette Golding is going to play a nurse called Noel. I don't know how to say that. Hastings. Noel. Noel. Okay, fine. And Christopher Thornton will star as Dr. Caleb Jefferson, a psychiatric attending physician. I just got to tell you, everyone, boys just started yawning. Sorry. That shows how interested he is in that. I guess I'm not sure. Do we know any of those people? No. No. So I suppose it's just actors joining show. But it's good. By the way, I wasn't yawning deliberately. No, I know, I know.

51:49It wasn't a theatrical yawn. Yeah, but also Tenny was in Abbott Elementary. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not familiar with them personally, but I'm very excited about The Pit returning. Also, we know when it is returning. It's returning on the 8th of January in America. I thought you were going to say, yeah, you're just tauntilising us. Tauntilising us. I'm tauntilising. I'm taunting you. Yeah, so it returns on the 8th in the US on HBO Max. It can help us. But, so last one I think was like 15 episodes. I think it's a 15-week run. So it's one a week for 15 weeks. Stop telling us about a show that we're coming on.

52:19I'm coming to it. I'm coming to it. So HBO Max, I believe we now know, launches at the end of March here in the UK. Right? End of March. We haven't got a date though. End of March. End of March. There's no date yet. We don't have a date, but it's the end of March. Okay. I believe. Okay. It's the end of March. So, what will then happen at the end of March? We will get the whole season one of The Pit in our eyes in one go at the end of March. Okay. presumably now and this is this is gonna be the question will they drop everything from season 2 of The Pit that has aired and then do it in real time I'm saying that's a big no I suspect what will happen is at the end of March season 2 of The Pit will start you'll get the whole of season 1 the first episode of season 2 and then 15 weeks from then yeah that makes sense it will play out so we'll be we'll be essentially I'll just be happy to get the first series to be honest yeah we'll be like three months behind the US yeah okay good news yeah there's a show on that's been massively talked about on social media and on the internet called Heated Rivalry, which is a love story.

53:14It's a romance between two professional male hockey players. And it's based on a very popular book. And everyone's been talking about it on the socials and saying, when the fuck is it going to come to this country? Well, Sky have snapped it up. Good old Sky. Good old Sky. And it's going to be on Sky Atlantic on the 10th of January, Saturday, the 10th of January. And it will be on now as well. And I think it will all be available from that date. which is very good news because, yeah, apparently it's really good. Apparently this is not train viewing. No. It's raunch. Described as a steamy six-part smash hit.

53:48It's a raunch fest. Now, is this news, is this film news or is it TV news? I'm saying it's TV news. Do you know what I'm going to say? Not a clue. The Oscars are coming to YouTube. Yes. Wow. Now, I don't know how I feel about this because, you know, the Oscars, I'm obsessed with the Oscars and, you know, to the point where I used to be on the Sky coverage. Back when you were invited. Back in the day. Well, back when Sky covered it. When I was invited. Yeah, thank you. I've never been invited. Then moved to ITV in the UK. And still, I think, with ITV. And it's been shown on ABC in America for decades.

54:27Decades has been part of their deal. And this is a huge moment, I think, in many ways. A very symbolic moment. Because the Oscars, pretty much, you in, you're out, is the second most watched event on American TV after the Super Bowl. So even though ratings fluctuate and have declined, I think last year it was up a bit. Were you on the sister show? I wasn't on the sister show, no. I wondered if that's... It's a show, Jonathan Ross's coverage, Jonathan Ross hosts the ITV coverage show, and he has guests on. I haven't been a guest on. I wondered if that's why the ratings peaked. I see, obviously, because I'm not on, the ratings peaked, yeah.

54:59Anyway, but I think this iconic, to use the overused word, but in this case it's obviously true, a TV event moving from a traditional US network to YouTube is huge really and it's a very interesting move by them and I think it speaks of YouTube's desire to be taken seriously or more seriously perhaps by old school old people like me when they've got the whole they've got the youth they don't need to worry about that people flock to YouTube in their gazillions to watch short-form videos of cats, etc. But to have the Oscars, then they're going to have the whole thing, the red carpet, the Governor's Ball.

55:42Brilliant. I think it's brilliant. Yeah, I think it's definitely interesting. I think you've got to embrace it. And by the way, for free, but you won't have to pay for it or anything. So it'll be for free globally around the world. And I wonder how that affects the... I mean, presumably, the ITV coverage will be null and void by then. I mean, by the way, this isn't happening until 2029. So we've got a while. So we've got a while. Yeah. 2026 next year. Three years after that. I mean, the machines will have wiped it out by then, so it really doesn't matter. Oh, great. Thanks for that. Brilliant.

56:08And brackets in other awards hosting news, awards coverage news, Alan Cumming is confirmed again to host the BAFTAs, the BAFTA Film Awards next year. This year. When's this going out? This year, next year. Who am I? This year goes out this year. Right. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. In February next year. A whole year away. Okay. Indeed. I bring you now some Sam Claflin news. In other words, I bring you now some Sam Claflin news. And now we head over to a Claflin bulletin. You're not going to be able to spring a sentence together, frankly. Let's not quibble. Yes, he's in a new mystery thriller called Vanished, and it's got a date.

56:47So it's going to be on Prime Video in the US and the other territories on the 1st of Feb. Did I say Prime Video? You did. Yes. and we all get it on MGM Plus on the 27th of Feb in the UK it also stars Kayleigh Cuoco and the synopsis reads, when a couple's trip to Paris takes a dark turn with the sudden disappearance of her boyfriend Tom, played by Claflin aboard a train to the south of France Alice, Cuoco, is plunged into a web of intrigue and danger uncovering shocking secrets about the man she thought she knew this reminds me of the butterfly incident we've got some two things on our live show because that's such a generic I know plus summary I know yeah we will still watch yeah we will of course watch the cluff can we say Boots has been cancelled on Netflix yeah that's a shame I think which one was that that's the one about the gay guy in the army in the marines actually based on a true memoir do you know what though sentimentality aside I think it was a really good show when it got to the end I didn't feel like the need to I don't think it was essentially necessarily much more story to tell I don't want to sound harsh but having said that was a really good show and any show that good you'd hope would be recommissioned but maybe someone else would snap it out maybe so yeah that's been cancelled but Down Cemetery Road is renewed for a second season which I think is good news yeah did you finish Down Cemetery Road?

58:10I haven't finished it yet I will do I did so there Captain Smug it was decent three stars so you must be particularly happy about the renewal news no I'm happy it was interesting to me that because this is obviously Mick Heron who did Slow Horses Slow Horses is a superior I think book series and I think in this case I think it's a very superior TV series because the books do revolve around Emma Thompson's character but I think Ruth Wilson's character persists I don't think she's a one and done oh good down Cemetery Road will return we'll be back down Cemetery Road also a weird one there is a point break the 90s Catherine Bigelow film with Keanu Reeves there's a point and Patrick Swayze a point break sequel series now in the works.

58:55Oh, God. Yeah, indeed, indeed. That's points verdict. And this is the plot. The series is set 35 years after the events of the original film and is focused on a dangerous heist crew with ties to the ex-president's gang. This is like one of those IP things where intellectual property things where they could just as easily make a new show about roughly that thing, but they stamp it with an existing IP just to draw attention to it. Yeah. I mean, it's not going to stop Keanu Reeves, is it? Or who's the other person? well Laurie Petty well Patrick Swayze he's dead Patrick Swayze he's no sladding no longer with us so yeah I mean I just don't get the point of calling it Point Break apart from to to get attention the short cast has already worked so we're talking about it which we wouldn't have done otherwise so clearly it has paid off for them what else have we got Kurt Sutter who abandoned the abandons we may know he's got a new show so he is developing this at the moment it is an untitled drama and it is a noir it is a noir series he's putting together yes exactly so unnamed noir yeah an unnamed noir and all it says here is it's a it's a series it will transport viewers to 1950s Los Angeles and there's a private investigator navigating a world of crime and corrupt police officers another generic synopsis but I like 1950s LA that might be fun it says LA Confidential basically I mean it does sound a bit like that doesn't it yeah so yeah that's that and the only other thing I would say is there is a title for the you know Netflix is you know the Extraction the Chris Hemsworth Extraction and Extraction 2 the movies where he plays Extraction 2 he plays the brilliantly named Tyler Rake and at one point literally kills someone with a rake well there is a TV series obviously coming from that but it now has a title and it is called Mercenary Colon and Extraction Series and apparently stars Omar Sy what's a terrible oh great yeah he's great see see yeah it can still be a terrible title in fact I think it's pronounced C is it C Funnily enough, C, it's Omar C.

1:00:54Omar C. I think so. I fucking remember. I ain't too dim and I fucking always remember. Yes, I think you're right because I think my instinct is to say, sigh, and you know I'm always wrong. It's Omar C. We've had that discussion before, I think. Yeah. Okay. Any other news? No. No other news. I mean, honestly, we barely got through that news. It's been... Honestly, listeners, if you had any clue, the amount of giggle breaks we've had, complete meltdowns, inability to finish sentences, all coherent thoughts, it's been quite extraordinary. It's been a long old year. We've been in the studio for eight hours recording this episode.

1:01:22And has it been worth it? Not really. Absolutely not. Okay, let's move on to the reviews. If we get through this, it will be a Christmas miracle. First up this week, we have Mark Gatiss' latest festive chiller in A Ghost Story for Christmas. And this year's version, this year's incarnation, is The Room in the Tower, which stars Tobias Menzies and Joanna Lumley, and is the story of a haunted room in a haunted house that appears in a series of haunted dreams, as recounted by Tobias Menzies sort of troubled insomnia whilst sheltering in the underground during the Blitz. Boyd-y, this haunted mansion, I'm sure, bore a striking resemblance to your own palatial abode.

1:02:00So why don't you tell us why there is indeed no place like home? Yes, so this is, as you said, I think he's done eight now. Didn't he do one in 2013 but then didn't do another one until I think 2018 or 19 and then he's done them pretty much every year since? I think so. Sure. That sounds right. Sounds like good research to me. This one is adapted from an E.F. Benson story. And it's like a lot of these one-off stories, one-off ghost stories. It kind of has a framing device. And then there's like a story within a story. And this is like a kind of recounted nightmare within a story within a story.

1:02:41And it all kind of, it's basically, it's being told. the main character is telling this story to a woman he meets in the underground bunker during World War II, played by Tobias Menzies. And he's recounting the fact that he keeps having a recurring nightmare in which he's called to this lavish mansion, and there's this kind of foreboding, weird, freaky-looking family, he presumes, kind of sitting outside this mansion on the lawn. As he approaches, the matriarch, played by Joanna Lumley, tells him that she is reserved for him the room upstairs in the tower. And he finds that chilling and he's reluctant to go up into the tower and stay there.

1:03:26And the kind of story just involves him slowly coming to terms with what on earth is going on in this nightmare and what the significance of the nightmare is, what the significance of Joanna Lumley's character is, and what the hell is going on in terms of him telling this story, particularly in this setting of an underground bunker during the war. I love these shows. I'll just put it out there. Some are better than others, though. Some are better than others. I think this is a pretty good one, I would say. It's my favourite. Oh, it's your favourite? Okay. Well, I think there's enough story in it that it feels like the half-hour running time is exactly right for it.

1:04:07but there isn't that much excess stuff going on it focuses pretty it hones in pretty carefully on the main story and there is an absolute creepiness to the whole thing and Joanna Lumley particularly she is horrible in it and in a quite subtle way and I think the genius of Mark Gatiss with these shows is that obviously these are fairly low budget you know BBC 2 one-offs for Christmas but he makes them he writes the scripts in such a way and they're shot in such a way he directed it as well that you don't even think about for a minute that it's probably a low budget theme because it tells the story in exactly the way it should and the effectiveness of the direction and of the script and of the performances make it what it is which is a brilliantly creepy half hour of ghost story fun and I think it's like a I think it's brilliant that this even exists you know every year BBC commissions our gators to adapt one of these types of things into a perfect little half hour um of of creepiness and sometimes it is I used to wear perfect loosely and some and it's always worth watching but I do think this is one of the better ones yeah like what was last year the vengeful gargoyles like the statues that's right and the year was the mummy oh I can't remember Anyway, but this is my favorite, because it's lean, it's very...

1:05:35Lean, yes, that's the word. Economically put together. There's not a lot to it, but everything about it works wonderfully, from the framing device in the Blitz, in the underground, to just this kind of hazy, sort of woozy, dream-like nightmare scenario. And it feels like a dream, and I think they've captured that slightly dissociation that dream narrative. And even it says in that, because no one speaks, like it's silent, because people do stand in silence in dreams. It's slightly weird and disjointed and discombobulating. And it really creeped me out. I thought it was really effective in what it did.

1:06:08I really, yeah, really, really liked it. I agree with everything you've said. And I think that, like, the listeners should definitely watch it for all the reasons you've outlined. I just, I don't know, I just couldn't get on board with it. Is it because ghosts aren't real? No, do you know what it is? I had the same sort of, like, and I can recognize all the things you're saying and it has got a fantastic cast and it's well made on the budget and all these things. yet for me I had like I mean I enjoyed it at first and then it sort of had the sedative effect of some you know the similar effect of someone telling me their dream do you know what I mean as in my interest waned you know and I was you were just like alright wrap it up it's been half an hour yeah I was but I can see the merit of it this is a me problem not did you like the previous ones?

1:06:49I like them to a degree but I think it's just not my bag yeah ghost stories you don't like not a big ghost story fan no perhaps not it's the supernatural again isn't it yeah maybe Maybe that's my bias playing out. Yeah. Yeah, apologies. Well, if you, unlike Kay, enjoy the supernatural, then A Ghost Story for Christmas, The Room in the Tower, airs on Christmas Eve? Yeah, Christmas Eve. Not Christmas Day, Boyd. Not Christmas Day. No. Christmas Eve. You need to specify that. Get it right. Don't get it wrong. Christmas Eve, BBC Two, 10pm 2025, still. Still. Next up, we have The Hunting Wives on ITVX.

1:07:25and this is an adaptation of the novel by May Cobb. This stars Brittany Snow, who you may remember from Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 and probably Pitch Perfect 3, Malin Ackerman and Dermot Mulroney, among others. And it's a Boston woman, played by Snow, who is inducted into a toxic circle of Texan socialite wives, known as the hunting wives. There is murder, boobage, all manner of sexual deviancy that looks lifted from someone's Pornhub playlist. In fact, when we said we were reviewing this, our very end, Steph Seeland, basically said, oh, that's porn. So make of that what you will. To that end, we turn now to notorious porn hound and NSFW aficionado, Kay Ribeiro.

1:08:04Oh, you doofus. She's not wrong. I mean, like, I would describe this as desperate housewives with guns and raunch. It's, yeah, it's an interesting one. It starts off in that classic way of, so we see a woman being shot in a forest and then it obviously flashes back three weeks earlier and we get to meet the character of Sophie. She's a PR played by Brittany Snow. And she's relocated to Texas from Boston with her husband and kid. And she's a liberal fish out of water, right? So she just thinks this life is not for her. And then she meets Margot, played by Maylin Ackman, who I kept on watching. I was like, now, who is she?

1:08:45Like, I really recognize her. She's from The Proposal. She's also Silk Spectre in Watchmen, but you wouldn't have seen that. Okay, fine. Yeah, she's from The Proposal. and yeah her husband's running for governor and basically Margot stops her in her tracks literally right and she's in a bathroom boobs out and Sophie's like what the hell's going on but in time she becomes quite intoxicated by Margot's lifestyle she's surrounded she's socialized surrounded by these other housewives who don't know what's the expression she says one of them says we don't have jobs we wife and they stand around drinking and go out on the boat with guns that's their vibe and um you know sophie initially finds it repellent and then as i said gets seduced by it and so get seduced by margot and um we see how that all sort of like plays out and the whole thing is how far will she go because she's very like sophie as a character she's the complete opposite obviously and she's very sensible and her husband sort of like has a tight rein on like what she like her drinking there's stuff that's gone on in the past that we're obviously going to learn more about um and the whole thing is like finding out how far she'll go the other way with Margot and also finding out who the hell this woman is who's been shot in the woods.

1:09:57It is, do you know what? I would say it's very watchable. You're not going in there for the sophisticated storytelling. You are watching it if you do watch it because it's daft and as James says, you know, there's lots of sex. Because of the boobage. There's boobage, there's just koozie, wanking, there's other wanking as well. There's a lot going on in this. It is a little bit porny. Oh, not, yeah. It's a lot porny. It's a lot porny. And there's a lot of sapphic action. Oh, yeah, a bit of that too. There were various points that I had to kind of shield my iPad screen while I was travelling on the train while watching this.

1:10:29Stop watching these things on the train, you nutter. You're going to get thrown off your train. Yeah, people are like, oh, that perv's on here again, watching porn on the train. So, yeah, I mean, like I said, it's not a high-quality prestige drama. Why are we reviewing this, by the way? Well, it kind of is. It's a major American drama. You're saying this is prestige drama? No, I'm about to, well, I will explain what I think in my review imminently. Well. But it's definitely, I'm sure the makers of the show consider to be a Prestige show. It's actually originally made for stars, right? This is the, people need to know the origins of it.

1:11:03And stars, it used to be called Stars Play Here, now no longer exists. But stars was a, in quotes, premium cable channel in America that kind of specialized, was famous for raunchy, nudity, swearing, and ultraviolence in its show. That's where the Spartacus shows began, isn't it? it's where the Spartacus shows began but certainly I'm sure the people who make this show I'm sure Malin Ackerman gets it to be a prestige drama oh that's so funny because I think it's quite low rent is this your ITV bias coming into play Kay is that what's happening here it airs on ITV and if you're like why are we reviewing it because it airs on ITV on Saturday night at 9.30 the only other show to review this week was about witches and I thought I'd spare you that Kay as an act of Christmas goodwill that's true this is really interesting okay but I know what you mean because it's got a trashy veneer, right?

1:11:52Because of the subject matter and because of the way it's made. And I don't think it is as cinematic as it could have been. And in fact, I think it's disappointing in a way because, in fact, when we had that message from Steph Zeland, that erstwhile contributor to the podcast saying it was porn, I was like, oh, wow, that's interesting. But the problem with this show is that production values aside, It's not, it is fairly flatly directed, I would say, and shot. It's not particularly visually interesting. It's fine, but it's not particularly, you know. Basic. It's fairly basic. I would say if you compare it to some other, I think it's what you were talking about, you know, in terms of is it premium peak TV.

1:12:33I think it's trying to be, but it's just fake. And I think the problem is, is that it seems to think that because the subject matter is raunchy and daring in quotes, you know, suddenly there's a shot of the husband in the pool with two naked women, right? and they think, ooh, you know, this is daring and edgy and James has been through the various, in quotes, daring and edgy sex moments but actually, it's not as much fun and it's not as daring as it really thinks it is and actually, and I think like, stuff like, you know, the Nicole Kidman show on Netflix, what was that called? Take a pick. Yeah, there's quite a few.

1:13:07Which one? The Perfect Couple, right? Oh, yes. That, this is nowhere near as good as that. I was going to say, this feels like, if this had had Nicole Kimmon in the Malin Ackerman role and it's a more energetic direction you can kind of see that it kind of would be of a piece with that kind of show exactly 100 % yeah exactly big little lies it's like big little lies this is like but not as good but not as good and it's a bit like Real Housewives meets Desperate Housewives you know it's got I think this is a post Real Housewives is a global TV phenomenon right half the people who are in the American traitors which has celebrities in it are from various real housewives.

1:13:44By the way, I forgot to mention this in news. You know, Kelsey's thing is, mom is in the new series of The American Traitors. Kelsey who? You know, the football player, fiance of Taylor Swift. Oh, James should, interest should be piqued. I do love a football player. What's his name, Kelsey? Travis. Travis. His mom is in the next series of The Traitors US. Right. Anyway, I've been sidetracked. The point is, in terms of it's daring, it's just not particularly exciting or thrilling, even though there is kind of quite a lot of nudity, which even now in this day and age, it's still a little bit surprising, particularly that it's, by the way, this is directed by a woman, it's written by a woman, but there's definitely more attention paid to female nudity than male nudity, right, in this, from what we've seen so far, in the two episodes that I've watched so far.

1:14:33And it feels quite old-fashioned in a way. It feels almost like something from the 80s, that half the female characters get their boobs out, as has been referred to. But the most interesting thing for me about the whole show is that it's quite political. So you've got this... The woman who's been forced to move by her husband, so to speak, and I think there's a little hint of coercive control from him, although they don't seem to be fully going... Well, both of the husbands actually have a nasty side to them. So this poor woman's been forced to move from their Harvard-slash-Boston home with their kid to this fictional small town in Texas where these women are, where the potential Republican politician is holding a fundraiser for the gun lobby.

1:15:19Yeah, that's Margot's husband. Margot's husband. And they actually explicitly, it's so unsubtle in its kind of political take that, you know, this poor liberal woman now has to survive among these clearly right-wing gun nuts. Not only that, she actually refers to them as Marjorie Taylor Greene's, right? What's interesting is Marjorie Taylor Greene is like the icon of right-wing MAGA, Trump-supporting women. Of course, she's got completely split from him. So this must have been made, though, intriguingly, while she was still a huge MAGA figure. Yeah, before all that happened, because that's for a reason.

1:15:51Yeah, now she's completely split from Trump. So there's a whole political undercurrent, which kind of makes this more interesting than it actually is to me. But it's definitely taking a stance, and I think this will be frowned upon now. Because they must have commissioned this, what, two years ago? I think it went out about a year ago we've waited quite a while for this to arrive on UK shows but I don't think they'd make, I think they would get so much criticism now from a lot of political, from you know more right wing people, I'm not sure this would be made because it's definitely taking a start to that look at these you know gun nuts and what they're doing etc so I thought it was interesting in that point of view but just nowhere near as much fun as it could have been or should have been considering it's subject matter.

1:16:30I'm still reeling that you think this is prestige. No it's trying to be I'm not saying it is, I think it's failing. But I think as with all these things there's prestige TV that works and prestige TV I think that doesn't work I think this definitely tries to be prestige TV it definitely thinks it is but it's a bit of a noble failure or not even so noble it's just a failure oh yeah I don't think so I mean it was reasonably well received in the US not failure yes I think it was reasonably well received in the US when it aired mixed yeah but it's one of those I think it summed up for me that there's like at least two scenes where people stumble upon people having sex right and then they stand there at the window staring at you.

1:17:05Like, you get away with it once. Yeah. Come on. The second time was just like, come on. The second time was insane because she's just told the young guy that they've got to be really careful and they immediately then have sex in this room in front of the window with music blaring over it so she can't hear the front doorbell going. I mean, come on. It's ridiculous. The Hunting Wives then, which is on ITVX. No, it's on ITV1. It's on ITV1. That's even more, I was explaining why we're reviewing it. It's ITV1, primetime, Saturday night 27th of December 9.30 Oh all the way through this I've said it's on ITVX Oh yeah no no So I've lied all the way through You have yeah Even the intro By the way everything on ITVX is also on ITVX So you're not wrong So I'm not wrong I'm 100 % correct But it's not an ITVX exclusive or anything This is getting a proper He just made his Christmas look And a lie of omission is what you're saying I'm saying of more interest this is a primetime ITV1 show Yeah that is interesting That is interesting Crazy So interesting It is interesting Finally this week we have the lowdown on Disney Plus which aired in the US in September, and has, as we said, shot to the top of a lot of critics' shows of the year list.

1:18:09This is a series by Sterling Hayo, and it stars Ethan Hawke as Oklahoma truth-storian Lee Rayburn, and he's an intrepid digger-up of dirty secrets and inconvenient facts. There are also Nazi bondage suits, actual Nazis, and an awful lot of books. Boydie, books are, of course, food for the style, but what is this food for? Give us a lowdown on the lowdown. Very good. This is very much catnip for me. This is right in my wheelhouse. Because I remember reading about this when it came out on FX in the States, and I was like, why hasn't it arrived yet? This is classic Disney Plus behavior, by the way.

1:18:49Months go by without transferring to the UK, to the Disney Plus streaming service, and then suddenly it does arrive. This arrives on Boxing Day, but there was no press release saying it was going to be on Boxing Day. There's a list of, to be fair to Disney Plus, I'm trying to be fair to the lovely publicity people who work there. But they put out a list of all the shows that are coming each month, and it is in that list. But this is such a great show. They've left it under the tree. I've seen this now in two American critics' number one slot on their favorite shows of the year. This is the year of Pluribus and blah, blah, blah.

1:19:23Some absolutely brilliant shows. So it's right up there in terms of critical acclaim in America. And as soon as you see it, I can see why. because you've got Ethan Hawke, the great Ethan Hawke, who I absolutely love anyway in everything he does. And he's having a kind of brilliant late career renaissance, being in fantastic films. And this show is like a brilliant showcase for him because he plays this, as you say, this guy who's basically like a kind of a journalist, kind of investigative journalist who's working for like, like freelance guy who intrinsically thinks that the whole system is corrupt, that he's living in.

1:19:59He's living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he thinks like the whole, as I say, the fabric of that whole place from the rich people who run it to the people who are exploiting, those rich people who are exploiting black neighborhoods and buying up property in black neighborhoods, which is the thing that happens in actual America. And he's investigating the skinheads and what they're doing to the local community and he's getting beaten up for his daring challenges. Boy, really, boy, is he getting beaten up, exactly. And then he kind of stumbles across this person who's died, played by Tim Blake Nelson, and he's intrigued, and he finds his notes, and there's loads of books in his area which have a clearly kind of liberal left feel to them.

1:20:48So he's immediately attracted to this mystery of what happened to this guy, who's also secretly gay, by the way, and he's drawn to this mystery, and it's kind of like the whole show I feel like it's like a tribute to Raymond Chandler type 40s, 50s But it's set in the present day But it's set in the present day but it's got that vibe Yes So if he wasn't vaping and whatnot you actually would probably think it's set in that time period Do you see iPhones and stuff? I can't remember I think so but even just the existence of vapes And it even gets to the point where he himself talks about the character Lee Raybon talks about liking you know 40s, 50s mystery novels and the one it particularly reminded me of, the film that it reminded me of, Raymond Chandler adaptation, is The Long Goodbye, the 70s version with Elliot Gould, which is, what is it, Kay?

1:21:37One of your favourite films of all time. I mean, it is absolutely one of my favourite films of all time. Definitely in the top 20. And it's got, that film is a brilliantly laid back, kind of like woozy, you used the word woozy about something earlier, and this has got a wooziness to it as well. Because you're just kind of hanging out with him, and there is story as well, but I think that combination of hang out with this really interesting character the likes of which you don't see that much on TV now but has clearly got the influence of Raymond Chandler and these other great writers from the 40s and 50s and that film, it was in 1973 with a pretty interesting mystery at the heart of it as well and I just think it's fantastic.

1:22:18We should mention of course Sterling I think it is Harjo or Harjo rather than Harjo I don't know how to pronounce it that way but this is the showrunner behind Reservation Dogs which we really like which we really like and is critically acclaimed Ethan Hawke guest appeared in that series and that's so they've got this working relationship and I think he's partly created this for Ethan Hawke and he's a great character and he has a fantastic introduction when he goes in a boardroom full of kind of like well they're property developers but he just goes in there with his hat on and describes himself as a truth story and he's obsessed with the truth and he doesn't seem to care how much trouble he gets into he's perpetually broke he's generally unemployed but you know the man does love the truth I love him in this the underdog taking on the wealthy who doesn't want to see that?

1:23:03who doesn't want to see that? yeah it's got a lot in that sense as well it's got a lot of Chinatown a little bit of Chinatown in it which is very much that kind of what is going on with the corrupt rich people the cast by the way as well I mean Tim Blake Nelson Tracy Letts who I love in everything absolutely brilliant Karl McLaughlin and others. Keith David, absolutely brilliant. He's kind of like a person. I like all the collection of people who are sort of helping him along the way. Yeah. There's a whole gaggle of people he kind of calls upon. Goes to diners and people, you know, he's kind of, it's just the whole fabric of it.

1:23:38Fellow shopkeepers. Yeah. It's quite, I mean, it is bold, the B word, which is bold. It doesn't, it's absolutely gonzo, like it's mad, but it's also, exactly as you say, it feels like a pulp crime paperback that you find at an airport and it has that whole and that's 100 % deliberate. Like, it's almost an homage to all that stuff. But yeah, it's really good stuff. I'm a big fan. Yeah. So? That is The Lowdown on The Lowdown, which airs on Disney Plus on Boxing Day. Yeah. Unheralded. Boxing Day, not Christmas Day. Yes. So, you know, watch it over Christmas. So, you know, watch it. Is that how you're ending?

1:24:14That's a recommendation. You know, watch it. What a way for us to go out. I'm very tired. I know. I'm very, very tired. We all need to have a lie down separately. what else is out this week let's have a look obviously there was the witch show that we mentioned which was Sanctuary colon A Witch's Tale which airs on Netflix also on Boxing Day but as my gift to you Kay I didn't make you watch that thank you James boy there's a lot of other Christmas stuff on isn't there oh yeah I mean do we have to go through it again probably not why don't you pick out three great scripted things that are also out this week Amanda Land which we're going to be reviewing Amanda Land the Christmas special show we're going to be covering on the final podcast well I guess it's not because we've also got the review of the year but this Christmas Day podcast we have a Christmas Day Pilot Plus dropping on Christmas morning into your stocking where we I honestly if we can barely function today I do not know what we're going to be like tomorrow when we record that so I you know just brace yourself oh god are we doing that tomorrow yes Christ yeah it's endless boy it never ends it really is endless are we stretching into New Year's Eve with this bit or is that sure go for it well the Here We Go special is brilliant yes I've watched Here we go.

1:25:22Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't mention that. I can't believe I forgot. No, because this is Christmas stuff, so I didn't mention it. Right, yeah, I mean, who knows what we should be... Who knows what's going on? I don't know, it's too confusing. There's a thing called Stuffed on Tuesday the 23rd, which does Giz Khan, and that's like a one-off family romp where he's been laid off, and I think he's supposed to be taking his family to Lapland, and then he has to work out how to fulfil the dream of going to Lapland. But that looks pretty good. So yeah, those would be my picks of the scripted offerings this Christmas.

1:25:58But everyone should sit down and watch Amanda Land, of course. Oh yeah, for sure. Spoiler for tomorrow's recording of Christmas Day's podcast. I'm not saying it's any good. I'm just saying people should think about that. Okay. What is our pick of the week? Oh, absolutely, The Hunting Wives. Not really. Not really. The Lowdown. The Lowdown. and that is it for this last regular podcast of 2025 we're all just going to collapse in a heap just honestly my bags are so big now my eye bags I can barely see through my eyes especially if I smile yeah it's quite extraordinary so apologies it's been a slightly anarchic slash shambolic episode of the podcast yeah it's not please leave us a five present rating or just send us Christmas presents you know either is fine I'm receptive to presents please send them into the office some nicer lint for James some lint yes a great big dairy milk bar that would be great and we will be back in your ears if you're a Pilot Plus subscriber and you all should be and if you're not why not what a great last minute gift for all the people on the 21st of December thinking oh god I've got to hit the high street get some stuff oh I can't get something posted it's gone the last shopping day for Christmas just go online that's it subscribe to Pilot Plus for your friends families and foes and enemies yeah 100 % so that will be going out on Christmas day then the review of the year podcast will go out on the 29th and then the first podcast back in the new year will be the 5th of January and we've already recorded it good chase so yeah we're ahead of the game we're doing well we're starting as we mean to go on in 2026 please follow us on social medias if you'd be so kind it is at pilot tv pod at boyd hilton at k ribera and at james c dyer we're done we're finished that is it I mean for today well I mean yeah until tomorrow when we record the next podcast but that is doing on that one?

1:27:49That is the Amanda Land Christmas special, Boydie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly. We've taken it all week to try and get to grips with what the hell we're doing each day. It's a struggle. It's the last one. It's Amanda Land. What a way to go out. What a way to go out. What a way to go out. Okay. Happy Christmas one and all. Do you want to wish everyone a happy Christmas? Wish everyone a happy Christmas. Happy Christmas, everyone. Thanks for listening. More importantly, thanks for listening and I hope you have a very happy and healthy Christmas. Yes. As do I. Pod bless us, everyone. Pilot out.

1:28:25I'll see you next time.