Pilot TV
Empire Magazine
From the creators of The Empire Film Podcast, Pilot TV is your essential guide to every TV show that matters, providing a weekly rundown of all the new must-see TV shows dropping across streaming, terrestrial, satellite, cable, and beyond. Join Empire's James Dyer, Heat's Boyd Hilton, and Kay Ribeiro as they bring you breaking TV news, reviews of the week's major shows, and interviews with some of the biggest names in TV.Pilot TV is here to make sure every minute you spend in front of the box is a minute worth spending. Served with a heavy helping of insider knowledge, irreverence and humour, Pilot TV won't just keep you informed, amused and entertained, but is guaranteed to save countless hours of your life. Because you can’t watch *everything*.Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to Pilot+ for a bonus episode every Thursday, in-depth spoiler specials, and early, ad-free access to the regular show! Find out more at www.empireonline.com/pilottv
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 26, 2022 • 2h 31min
Review of The Year 2022. With guests Will Sharpe and Denise Gough
2022 is DONE! Well, nearly. And, in place of our regular show this week we bring you our official postmortem of the year that was, packed with our personal picks, our favourite episodes, a look at what we're excited about in 2023 and a bunch of year-related questions from you, our long-suffering listeners. But that's not all, because we also run though our final, canonical, completely unanimous and in no way divisive list of Pilot TV's best shows of 2022, and welcome a pair of very special guests from two of those shows, specifically The White Lotus' Will Sharpe and Andor's Denise Gough.
Happy New Year one and all! See you in 2023.
Dec 19, 2022 • 2h 7min
#217 The Witcher: Blood Origin, Happy Valley, and Vardy v Rooney. With guest Laurence O'Fuarain
Merry Christmas one and all! It's our last (regular) show of 2022 and, to celebrate, we have our very own Christmas elf on the show — specifically Fjall from The Witcher: Blood Origin aka Laurence O'Fuarain. And not only do we find said Witcher spinoff in our Christmas stockings this year, but we're also going full Wagatha Christie with Channel 4's Hardy v Rooney, and getting the greatest gift of all: the return of Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley, which comes back after a SEVEN year absence. But it's not all celebration on this week's show, for we are compelled to bid a fond farewell to one of our own as one member of the team heads off to pastures new (with arms full of presents, naturally).
Dec 12, 2022 • 1h 43min
# 216 Litvinenko, National Treasure: Edge of History, and His Dark Materials. With guest Amir Wilson
It's been two years since His Dark Materials last graced our screens but the Philip Pullman adaptation returns this week with the third and final instalment, and we have star Amir Wilson on the show to talk Daemons, dimension-hopping and waging war on heaven. Plus, we see if National Treasure: Edge of History can live up to the movies’ legacy, and watch David Tenant re-enact a political assassination in Litvinenko on ITVX. Oh and it’s Boyd’s birthday as well. All together now: “For he’s a jolly good fellow…”
Dec 5, 2022 • 1h 42min
#215 A Spy Among Friends, Strike, George & Tammy, and Tell Me Everything. With guests Guy Pearce, Holliday Grainger & Tom Burke
Strike is Back! Which is excellent news, but more excellent by far is that both Strike and Robin (street names Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger) are on the show this week to talk about it. Plus Guy Pearce is also around to chat A Spy Among Friends, which marks the launch of ITVX, a streaming service that also brings us Tell Me Everything, enabling us to get in touch with our inner Gen Z. Plus we delight in (or endure) a little country music (depending on taste) in George & Tammy on Paramount+, and we get back in touch with our European brethren as the Dutch take our pronunciation to task, and the Spanish take issue with us perpetuating falsehoods about their accent. It's been quite a week!
Nov 28, 2022 • 1h 41min
#214 The Patient, Three Pines, The Flatshare, and Slow Horses. With guests Gary Oldman & Saskia Reeves
You've got to give Apple's Slow Horses one thing, it's anything but slow. The brilliant espionage drama returns for its second season in one year this week and we have stars Gary Oldman and Saskia Reeves on hand to talk all about it.
Elsewhere, we're undertaking some unconventional therapy with Steve Carrel in The Patient, experiencing some even more unconventional living arrangements with Jessica Brown Findlay in The Flatshare, and solving snowy crimes in Canada with Alfred Molina in Three Pines. All that and Beth's toothbrush issue is vindicated, we take a detour on accents and there's even more Andor appreciation (sorry).
Nov 21, 2022 • 1h 51min
#213 Echo 3, Wednesday, and Ghosts (US). With guest Luke Evans
Luke Evans is with us on the show this week, talking Echo 3, Apple's new geo-political thriller set in the jungles of Colombia (there may be a little Strictly chat surreptitiously slipped in there by Kay as well). Elsewhere, we're heading back to school with the best member of the Addams Family in Netflix's Wednesday, and taking a look at what our cousins across the pond have done to beloved sitcom Ghosts. Plus, in a ludicrously extended postbag sequence, James stages a spirited defence of TV bellends and we find out all about Beth's weird vicarious toothbrushing phobia.
Nov 14, 2022 • 1h 46min
#212 Tulsa King, Tell Me Lies, and 1889. With guest Sylvester Stallone
Who do we have on this week's show? It's only Sylvester Stallone, who finally, after all these years, makes his scripted TV debut with Tulsa King on Paramount+. But that's not all because we also take a trip on Netflix's spooky ghost ship in polyglot creep show 1899 on Netflix, and discover that the only thing more horrifying than ghouls and ghosts is college-age men in Tell Me Lies on Disney+. All that and yet more cancellations of shows (some with fairies) as the streamers start swinging the axe with wild abandon.
Nov 7, 2022 • 1h 44min
#211 The English, Mammals, and The Crown. With guests Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer and Hugo Blick
Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer and The English creator Hugo Blick join us on this week's show to talk about their rip-roaring rampage of revenge through the Old West. Plus we unpick some marital strife with James Corden in Mammals on Prime and head off to Balmoral for the long-awaited (and Judi Dench-baiting) fifth season of The Crown on Netflix. Plus, James tries to come to terms with a week which not only saw drama come to his beloved Witcher, but also the demise of Fate: The Winx Saga. It's been a lot!
Oct 31, 2022 • 1h 23min
#210 The White Lotus, Reboot, and Dangerous Liaison
We're back on holiday at The White Lotus for season 2 of the Mike White's excellent comedy-drama. Plus we're revisiting a bit of saucy 19th century literature in Dangerous Liaisons on Lionsgate+, and getting meta about reboots with, well, Reboot on Disney+. Plus, no halloween episode would be complete without a little haunted house chat (aka what James did on his recent holiday — not to a White Lotus), plus there are some scintillating updates about Beth's recent eye test and the state of Boyd's boiler. Never let it be said that we don't bring you the most *essential* content.
Oct 24, 2022 • 1h 29min
#209 The Devil's Hour, SAS: Rogue Heroes, and The Bastard Son And The Devil Himself. With guest Nadia Parkes
The excellently titled witch drama The Bastard Son And The Devil Himself is on our watch list this week and star Nadia Parkes joins us to talk all things witchy, as well as turning rats into soup (sort of). Plus we catch up with See creator Steven Knight's latest show, SAS: Rogue Heroes, and discover that what goes bump in the night is actually Peter Capaldi in The Devil's Hour. All that and the usual generous helping of TV ramblings as we catch up with all the latest episodes.
