Unmissable shows?
I’m a sucker for the dark Scandi stuff, so I’m really loving The Bridge at the moment, and also River, which has echoes of Scandinoir even though it’s set in London. In terms of comedy, Peep Show is bowing out on a hysterical high. And I’m loving Catastrophe and Toast Of London as well. I don’t go out much!
Earliest TV memory
Me and my sister doing our homework in front of Dallas. That was real appointment-to-view TV, and a major part of my adolescence. No one did anything the night Dallas was on. I think the “Who Shot JR” storyline was the first time anyone brought out a novelty mug. It was huge.
Bring back…
[BBC anthology drama series] Play For Today. I remember growing up watching such incredible dramas, with amazing casts of actors. You’d have your life changed by them. My absolute number one film is Nuts In May and that was a Play For Today. It was such a revolutionary style, Mike Leigh’s. I remember laughing my head off but also thinking the form of acting was so different from anything I’d seen.
TV turn off?
I’ve had enough of the warbling talent shows, where people do that mad vibrato and sing 50 notes when they could be singing one. I find it deeply unpleasant to listen to.
Pitch us a TV show…
I’d like to see a comedy show similar in its honesty to Lena Dunham’s Girls, but about older British women, women in their 50s. It would star Imelda Staunton, Vicki Pepperdine, Jo Scanlan, Julia Davis, Alison Steadman and lots more. They wouldn’t have to necessarily be really famous to appear in it, just really good actors.
Mastermind specialist subject?
The Sound Of Music. I was obsessed as a child. Have I been to a singalong screening? Of course, dressed as a nun!
Hunderby airs on Thursday, 10pm, Sky Atlantic
