This week on Screen Babble host Kelly is joined by resident TV Critic Steven Ross and National World reporter Hiyah Zaidi.
On the deep dive Steven tells us about Welcome to Wrexham Season 2 and Hiyah takes us through the classic that is Fleabag.
On the deep dive Steven tells us about Welcome to Wrexham Season 2 and Hiyah takes us through the classic that is Fleabag.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to Screen Babble, your guide to what to watch.
00:02 We'll be tuning into hours and hours of TV
00:04 so we can tell you what you need to be switching on and what's to be avoided.
00:08 I'm your host, Kelly Crichton.
00:10 And as ever, resident TV critic Stephen Ross is here.
00:12 In addition, this week, we are joined by National World Reporter
00:16 reporter Haire Zadeh.
00:18 Remember, if you want to see our faces, you can head over
00:21 to the brand new Freeview channel 276 Shads, which is brought to you
00:24 by a network of journalists across the country who are transforming stories
00:27 at the heart of your community into great TV.
00:30 You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis,
00:33 plus coverage of lifestyle, TV, film and much more.
00:37 If you haven't tuned in before each week, we'll be chatting about what we're
00:39 watching, as well as looking more closely at a new program
00:43 or something making the headlines in the deep dive.
00:45 This week, Stephen is talking to us about Welcome to Wrexham season two.
00:50 Or should not be like Welcome Back to Wrexham, maybe.
00:56 Finally, we go back to the future to tell you about a program
01:00 you may have missed when it first aired or streamed this week.
01:02 I am super excited.
01:04 Haire is going to talk to us about the one and only Fleabag.
01:08 How have we not talked about this before, Stephen?
01:10 Right. But first, we like to talk about what everyone has been watching recently.
01:15 Stephen, what have you been watching recently?
01:18 Recently, even.
01:19 Oh, I completely forgot about that bit.
01:21 Give me a sec.
01:24 This is episode 43.
01:27 Oh, yeah. Is that how the podcast starts?
01:31 Right. Well, off the back of Benji's recommendation last week,
01:37 I've started Arrested Development.
01:39 Oh, I thought you were going to go to anime again.
01:42 I was like three weeks in a row. Anime. No, we can't do this.
01:44 Arrested Development. OK, very good.
01:46 Yeah. How are you finding it? Yeah, it's great.
01:48 It's amazing how young Michael Cera is, isn't it?
01:52 I thought that he was in it in like a smaller role
01:56 as like a recurring guest star as Michael Cera.
02:00 And it realized it was like he's one of the family, isn't he?
02:03 He's your own son.
02:04 George Michael. Yeah.
02:07 And he's he's really good.
02:10 He's so awkward.
02:11 He's more awkward than like in the really awkward Michael Cera films
02:16 like June, Scott Pilgrim, etc.
02:19 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's great.
02:21 And Jason, I think he's such a lovable character, Michael Cera.
02:28 I just think it's because he's a total every man, isn't he?
02:30 Yeah. Well, I mean, as Benji said in in Arrested Development,
02:36 he's sort of got a weird infatuation with his cousin.
02:39 So hopefully he's not an every man in this sense.
02:42 Yeah, he's no, I think I think just in every role he plays,
02:45 he just does that kind of quite well. But yeah. Yeah.
02:49 Fair enough. So that's that's been
02:53 pretty good. Yeah.
02:56 What about you, Harry? What have you been watching?
02:58 I've been looking at Schitt's Creek.
03:01 So I'm oh yeah. Yeah.
03:03 So that's been really fun.
03:04 A little throwback.
03:06 And I've also been watching Annika.
03:08 So that's like a crime drama. Yeah.
03:11 Yeah. I feel like I maybe watched one or two episodes.
03:14 Is this the one where she's like a detective on a river?
03:17 And is that the one in Glasgow? Yeah.
03:20 And I love that actress whose name escapes me.
03:24 But I don't know if it didn't, you know, it didn't grab me
03:31 because I remember watching one or two and I didn't sort of stick with it.
03:33 But what do you reckon? How many episodes have you watched?
03:36 I've watched season one and the season two finale is out tonight.
03:40 So I've watched all of them. Yeah. I really enjoyed them.
03:43 They're quite like I think they go quite in depth.
03:46 It's a different kind of format than most crime dramas are.
03:50 Like I watched quite a bit.
03:51 So I really enjoyed it.
03:53 But I know it's quite hit and miss because season two
03:56 actually came out on Alibi instead of BBC.
03:59 So random. Yeah.
04:01 So it's not really like a bigger audience than you'd expect.
04:03 So. OK, so that's but it's been coming out weekly, has it?
04:07 So this is it's just airing for the first time.
04:09 Oh, that's interesting.
04:10 So the first series was on BBC and the second series on Alibi.
04:13 So Alibi bought it off BBC or something.
04:16 I have no idea.
04:17 I watched the first season on BBC like two months ago,
04:20 and then I just happened to catch season two on Alibi.
04:23 So I didn't even see it advertised or anything.
04:25 I was just like right time, right place kind of thing.
04:27 Interesting. OK, let's check it out.
04:30 Let's watch a few more episodes and see if it takes us anywhere.
04:33 I had a few random watches this week.
04:36 I watched a film on Netflix at the weekend called Outside In.
04:41 Do you know this one, Stephen?
04:43 It's Eddie Falco that was in The Sopranos.
04:45 And and she's the most recognizable person in it.
04:49 It's about a guy who goes to prison for a crime.
04:54 Right. That we're kind of given the impression he wasn't guilty of.
04:59 He was maybe took the rap for somebody or whatever.
05:02 Gets out of prison following.
05:04 After 20 years, so he must have had a life sentence. Right.
05:09 And they don't kind of go into the crime too much, which is a bit random.
05:13 But his ex like geography teacher or something played by Eddie Falco.
05:17 Works on his case and basically gets him gets him out, you know,
05:24 because he was sort of.
05:27 It was a miscarriage of justice or whatever, but having said that,
05:33 you see, they just don't go into much detail and we don't know the full
05:36 backstory because it's more about he's come out of prison and his life now,
05:40 you know, but he still has to go to the police station to check in.
05:44 He's still on parole.
05:46 So, you know, he's not totally it's as if he got out early rather than
05:50 and all like what's the word when their crimes get squashed or whatever, you know.
05:56 So anyway, he is a bit messed up,
06:00 but he seems like a genuinely nice guy.
06:03 And then he's trying to sort of build relationships again with his family
06:07 and with this woman who he's kind of infatuated with
06:11 and who was his teacher, and it's kind of about their relationship
06:16 and him trying to get a job and trying to get his life back on track.
06:19 And it's it's a nice watch.
06:22 Like, it's good.
06:23 It's kind of slow, but thought provoking.
06:27 And yeah, it's one of my classic.
06:30 If you're looking for something easy on the weekend, you can check this out.
06:33 It's about an hour and a half.
06:34 It's not very long.
06:35 Hour and 40, maybe, which is always a relief.
06:38 So and I think it's from like 2017, 2018.
06:40 So people might have heard of it, but it's called Outside.
06:44 Outside in. Yeah.
06:46 And the other thing I finished was The Tower.
06:50 So I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd started watching this
06:53 crime drama ITV second series just started.
06:56 I just finished the first series.
06:58 I like it like, you know, talking about female lead drama.
07:03 Did you watch this one higher?
07:04 Did you know?
07:06 So this is. Yes.
07:07 So crime drama missed me.
07:09 I missed me the first time around as well.
07:10 It was a couple of years ago for the first series.
07:12 But the second series has just come out recently.
07:15 And it was it's it's that kind of like there's a case, obviously.
07:22 But it was only four episodes on, which is always welcome.
07:25 There is a case and.
07:28 It's this cop and she's trying to investigate this case,
07:31 but it involved cops and it's a bit of like internal
07:34 issues within the police and dodgy dealings.
07:39 And so whilst this case is the sort of part of the first series,
07:42 you can see that the second series is going to continue this her versus
07:45 the internal bad people in the police, you know.
07:48 So, yeah, it was pretty good.
07:52 I would definitely watch the second series.
07:54 And what else?
07:56 Oh, I started last night something completely random.
07:59 You've probably seen it advertised on Sky. It's.
08:02 The following events are based on a pack of lies, and.
08:08 It's a kind of a black comedy.
08:12 There's six or eight episodes, so it's quite long and there are long episodes.
08:15 So it's kind of an unusual format, if you ask me.
08:19 But so far, so good.
08:21 It's slightly intriguing.
08:22 This woman is stressing one day on the way to do a presentation
08:27 and she bumps into her ex, who she thinks is either dead or disappeared.
08:33 He just went out one day and never came back sort of 10 years ago
08:36 and in the process took a lot of money belonging to her family
08:40 and her friends and stuff.
08:42 So she seems to be set on getting revenge now.
08:46 So that's what the next, however many episodes are going to
08:49 let it play out.
08:51 So, yeah, so it seems OK. It's funny.
08:54 They're not really my thing, to be honest with you, but
08:57 I couldn't resist it.
08:59 The advertising was so good.
09:02 So there you go.
09:02 That's what we've all been watching this week.
09:05 Right. Moving along, we go to Stephen now and welcome to Wrexham,
09:10 which is coming back for season two on Netflix.
09:12 This may be one of the biggest sports documentaries of the last few years.
09:17 Stephen. Yeah.
09:18 Should we call welcome back to Wrexham?
09:20 Am I right? Second season.
09:22 But yeah, we return to Wrexham FC and Ryan Reynolds
09:27 and Rob McInghelly, who bought the club in 2020,
09:31 have managed to, well, it's
09:36 keep going. We know from
09:38 it happening in real time in the news,
09:42 what's happened to Wrexham, and then we see the documentary
09:46 like a year later.
09:47 So after the season's ended.
09:49 So we already know that Wrexham have now been promoted
09:52 from the National League to the to League two, back in the NFL.
09:56 But it's amazing what millions of dollars of investment do for you.
10:00 But then we go back to the documentary and it starts with
10:04 them just missing out on promotion in the twenty
10:08 one, twenty two season.
10:10 OK, so the prospects are good in this new season then.
10:13 Yeah, they're probably probably in a good position.
10:16 Yeah. And they're talking about how they just sort of missed out.
10:21 And each episode of this series, I mean, I've seen the first three
10:26 and then a special standalone episode as well.
10:28 There's about 15 in total.
10:30 But so far, each episode is kind of like based around a theme.
10:34 So the first episode is just sort of looking back
10:36 what went well and what went wrong in the first season under their ownership.
10:40 And then there's an episode on like the fans and
10:46 specifically a fan who has autism
10:50 and is sort of meeting with Paul Mullen, their star striker,
10:55 whose son has also got autism and how
10:59 I think sort of the club has built like a safe place for the fans.
11:04 And it's like a real part of the community, which is really nice.
11:08 And you also look at how it's kind of breaking the fourth wall
11:13 and then it's a documentary, so it doesn't really count,
11:15 but how the documentary itself has impacted Wrexham
11:19 by virtue of it sort of bringing a lot more
11:21 interest to the club and the area.
11:25 And you have like American tourists coming in.
11:29 Obviously, it's helped the economy in that way as well.
11:32 The shirts are selling out
11:35 sort of more quickly than they were doing.
11:38 But I think one of the sort of more interesting parts of this new series
11:43 is the standalone episode, which is a 40 minute sort of special
11:46 just about the women's team.
11:48 Oh, good.
11:49 Didn't feature in the first season.
11:52 And it's sort of very eye opening
11:56 because I sort of just assumed that the women's team
12:00 would play at the race course on the same ground,
12:05 but the women's team play on a essentially like a school football field
12:09 and they don't really have space for fans.
12:11 So they've got like a little standing pen for friends and family
12:14 and they're completely unpaid.
12:18 So there's like a 17 year old who's at college
12:22 and then is working as a KP, kitchen porter,
12:27 and basically pot washing.
12:28 And then in between that, he's going to football practice.
12:33 And the sort of entire
12:38 point of that episode was that they're one of the best women's teams
12:42 in Wales at that level.
12:44 And they're playing in front of like no fans and they're getting no money.
12:48 And it's a real struggle to sort of
12:52 build up that side of women's football.
12:55 And then you, I'm not sure how it's going to go down because
13:00 it was really good to see it and to see them like taking an interest
13:04 in the women's team.
13:05 Then it is also a 15 episode season.
13:07 And they've given one episode to the women's team,
13:12 which is a standalone thing.
13:14 OK, is there you've not seen at all, though, maybe they'll revisit
13:18 at a later stage.
13:20 Yeah. OK, so they might.
13:22 However, the episode.
13:24 Sort of takes the full breadth of the season.
13:28 Oh, OK.
13:30 Where the women's team, where the men's, it's going
13:35 a couple of games. It's a minutiae.
13:36 Yeah. So it's good.
13:39 It's a bit sort of tokenism.
13:41 Yeah, tokenism is probably the word, especially like
13:44 you have Ryan Reynolds on like a video call to them
13:49 saying how proud he is.
13:51 And it's a bit like Prince William sat with his daughter saying to the lionesses,
13:55 Oh, I'm so proud of you guys getting in the final.
13:57 I wish I could be there, but I'm not going to turn up.
14:00 So there is a bit of that.
14:03 I mean, Rob did go and watch one of the matches.
14:06 I mean, they may have seen more and it's just not in the documentary,
14:09 but it did feel a bit tokenistic.
14:11 But then equally, they are helping the women's team
14:13 and do seem quite keen on raising the level.
14:16 Lake Lively is sponsoring the women's team through her Betty Buzz company.
14:21 So, yeah.
14:22 So they own, I presume they own the women's team as well, do they?
14:27 Yeah, so they've got like the women's team and the men's team,
14:29 I think like an under 21s, under 17s or something
14:32 all part and parcel of the Wrexham brand.
14:35 It's interesting because obviously, you know, Ryan Reynolds is quite squeaky
14:41 clean in terms of like you can kind of do no wrong.
14:43 But then when you look at things like this, it's like, oh, it's all well and good.
14:46 You've come over and splashed the cash and the men's team are doing great.
14:49 But like, you know, it's it's probably brave in a way to have that episode.
14:53 But then also at the same time, maybe not going far enough.
14:55 But I suppose the question is, and this is probably for a football podcast
14:59 rather than a TV podcast, but, you know, if they put a lot of money
15:02 into the women's team, are they just going to be the best as well?
15:06 Because none of the other women's teams have money, you know.
15:10 Maybe it'd be more helpful if they channeled money into,
15:13 you know, women's football in general, rather than just that team.
15:18 But, you know, you can't win, I suppose, when you get to a certain level as well
15:22 in terms of every celebrity's got to come in for curses and for something, you know.
15:26 Yeah, I think it'll definitely be worth checking X or Twitter
15:32 as was after that episode's dropped just to see what the sort of reaction.
15:37 So what number, what number episode is that?
15:40 I believe it's episode six.
15:42 I'm not sure when it'll be out.
15:43 I'm not sure of the entire release schedule, but it'll probably be out
15:47 three or four weeks or so after it premieres.
15:50 So Disney Plus first episode is coming.
15:54 First episode will be on now at the time of listening.
15:57 And then I believe two episodes each week on Wednesdays.
16:03 OK, but it may change later on in the schedule.
16:06 I'm not entirely sure yet.
16:08 I don't know if it's entirely confirmed.
16:10 OK. OK, thank you very much for that.
16:13 OK, moving on to the second part of the podcast now.
16:15 And Hire is going to talk to us about Fleabag,
16:20 one of the probably most successful British comedies of the past
16:25 sort of 10 years, especially written and fronted by a woman.
16:30 So tell us, tell us, Hire, tell us all about Fleabag.
16:33 Yeah, it is an absolute classic, in my opinion.
16:37 I really love it, both season one and season two.
16:40 So it first came out in 2016 and season two was 2019.
16:44 So it's been like seven ish years, if I got my maths right,
16:49 since the first season,
16:51 which I actually think is a bit timeless because I didn't realise it was that long ago.
16:55 Yeah. Yeah.
16:57 So, yeah, it's really good.
16:59 It's about six episodes per season and each episode is like 20 to 30 minutes.
17:04 It's such an easy watch as well.
17:06 I say easy.
17:07 I mean, if you're really like into existential crisis, maybe not.
17:10 I think the first few episodes are a little bit like
17:14 when you're kind of getting to know the characters, you're a little bit like,
17:18 oh, God, she's a bit of a head wrecker for what's her actual character called?
17:23 Fleabag.
17:24 What's her name?
17:25 They call her Fleabag, don't they?
17:26 Yeah. So I think those first few episodes, you're a bit like,
17:29 oh, she's a bit neurotic and a bit self-centred and blah, blah, blah.
17:33 But you warm up to her. Would you agree?
17:35 Yeah, definitely.
17:36 I mean, in season one, I didn't actually like her and I was like,
17:39 oh, she's the main character and I don't like her.
17:41 But then I always think that if you don't like the main character,
17:44 at least it provokes some sort of emotion from you.
17:47 So it's worth the watch.
17:49 Yeah. So it's just you kind of watch her grow across season one.
17:55 Yeah. And by the end of season one, I was like,
17:57 oh, I don't think I'm going to watch season two.
17:59 Like, I really didn't like this.
18:01 I didn't like the twist at the end.
18:03 It just didn't sit very comfortable with me.
18:05 And then my friends would like watch season two because I watched it post.
18:08 I think I watched it last year.
18:10 So like both seasons had to come out.
18:12 Yeah. And I was like, oh, do I really want to watch it?
18:15 And Andrew Scott's in it in season two as the priest.
18:18 And I love season two.
18:20 So I'm so glad I stuck with it.
18:22 Oh, he's so good. The hot priest. It's hilarious.
18:24 That whole storyline is absolutely hilarious.
18:26 Yeah, it's funny, isn't it?
18:28 I definitely didn't watch it the first time when it came out
18:31 because I was like listening to all the ferrari about it
18:34 and then like sort of missing out on the chat.
18:36 And I watched at a time.
18:38 I'm sure neither of the neither of the series were new.
18:41 But anyway, maybe the second series, maybe.
18:44 And boys, oh, was it worth it?
18:47 Like in the end, it's so worth it.
18:48 And it actually deals with some really heavy subject matter as well.
18:52 And this sort of dysfunctional families and
18:56 she's just a bit irreverent and sort of does her own thing.
19:01 And we don't see too many female characters like that on TV.
19:04 So I think, yeah, Phoebe Waller-Bridge just kind of landed with this thing.
19:08 And I mean, it was a stage show, wasn't it?
19:11 Before it was a TV series.
19:13 Memory serves me.
19:14 So the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, like it started off as like a one person play.
19:19 And then I developed into a TV show.
19:21 Yeah. So, yeah.
19:23 So I mean, she won loads of awards for it and everything.
19:25 She's gone on to do some amazing stuff since, hasn't she?
19:28 Yeah, she's in the latest Indiana Jones.
19:32 So like she really stepped up a notch, I think.
19:34 Yeah.
19:35 Which I hadn't seen, so I can't test for her acting abilities.
19:39 She wrote, she had written The Last James Band as well, didn't she?
19:42 Or did she? The next James Band, I think.
19:44 Yes, she was.
19:46 She was in No Time to Die.
19:48 She was involved in No Time to Die, wasn't she?
19:50 I think she had written.
19:52 Yeah.
19:53 Anyway, she's gone from like, you know, in reference to Hollywood, basically
19:58 in quite a quick period of time, I would say.
20:01 Yeah.
20:02 So, yeah.
20:04 So, yeah, so essentially it's Fleabag.
20:08 It's her story.
20:09 She's got a complicated life.
20:11 She's kind of trying to sort her sort of love life out.
20:17 But also her, her, she's kind of a bit neurotic.
20:20 A friend of hers died and she's sort of dealing with that grief.
20:24 And then her father is remarrying this terrible woman played by
20:30 played by Olivia Colman, which is
20:34 she plays her so well, she's so annoying.
20:37 Oh, my God.
20:38 So and then there's that kind of conflict between her
20:42 and this mother in law to be and then her mother, stepmother to be.
20:47 And then she's got this kind of love hate relationship with her sister as well,
20:50 which is quite sweet because they seem to hate, hate, hate, hate each other.
20:53 And then they have these little glimmers of where they actually really rely
20:56 on each other and love each other.
20:57 And she goes through some.
21:00 She's another kind of not very likable character,
21:03 but you warm up to her as well, the sister.
21:05 And then Andrew Scott is just like the best thing about Fleabag,
21:08 the hot priest who comes into as well, because he's the priest
21:12 that's marrying the mother, the father.
21:15 And I think that's how he comes in.
21:17 So anyway, if you haven't seen it, it's it's really, really worth a watch.
21:21 Do you know where we can watch it?
21:23 Is it available at the moment?
21:25 Yeah, so it's available on Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer.
21:28 So like if you don't have Prime, you can watch it on BBC iPlayer.
21:31 Still on BBC iPlayer.
21:32 OK, and yeah, two series.
21:34 And it was definitely finished after those two series.
21:37 Was it? Have we ever heard?
21:38 Do you know if they've ever mentioned whether they might do another one?
21:41 No rumors for season three at all.
21:44 I think it was like The Office.
21:46 You wanted to leave it as was, leave it on a high.
21:50 Yeah. Yeah.
21:53 Two series is quite brief, though, isn't it?
21:55 I think they could have gotten another one maybe.
21:56 But yeah, British sitcom way, innit?
21:59 The Office, Fawlty Towers, etc.
22:02 Yeah. How many series of The Office was it?
22:04 I thought that went on much longer.
22:06 Well, the UK Office two and then a couple of Christmas specials.
22:10 But two.
22:11 Oh, was it?
22:11 Well, maybe that's why I'm thinking it went on longer than it did.
22:14 And Fawlty Towers is only two as well, is it?
22:16 Yeah.
22:17 God, I would have thought that was more.
22:19 You just feel like it is because it's been around for so long
22:22 and you've probably encountered it so many times, you know.
22:24 I think people are thinking about Fleabag in like 10 years time.
22:27 Sorry?
22:29 I think people are thinking about Fleabag in 10 years time.
22:31 I know. I wasn't even sure it was two series.
22:34 I thought it could have been three in my head as well.
22:36 But there you go.
22:37 I think when you enjoy something so much like that, anyway,
22:40 kind of leaves a bit of an imprint on you, doesn't it?
22:42 OK, that's brilliant.
22:43 Thank you so much for joining us today, Hire, and talking about Fleabag.
22:46 We will be back again next week, but thank you for joining us.
22:50 Do look out for Friday morning's Screen Babble Weekend Watch,
22:54 which will preview what to watch over the weekend and beyond.
22:57 If you have any suggestions for what TV we need to get into our lives,
23:01 please do drop us a line via our social media.
23:04 You'll find us on Twitter at National World TV
23:07 and on all other platforms as National World.
23:10 We'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast
23:14 so we can reach as many TV lovers as possible.
23:17 We'll be back next week with more Screen Babble.
23:19 Thanks and bye.
23:21 Bye.
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