The Custard TV Podcast

Matt, Luke and Dawn (she's still stuck on the Time Machine) look back at what was on television in October 2001. A very young David Mitchell and Robert Webb get their very first sketch show, which aired on UK TV Play. Next, fresh off the success of Popstars, ITV launches a new singing competition in the form of Pop Idol. Looking for the next big name in music. It's the debut of Simon Cowell who seems to be struggling, at least in the early episodes of the show, seems to struggle to standout and is far from the dominating figure he would become just a few years later.

BBC Two has Babyfather, a four-part relationship drama set in London about a group of male friends. It deals with issues of race, where you fit within a community and also features a cast who have gone on to big things.

Lastly, a big favourite of Dawn's, Linda Green. Another show created by Paul Abbott, starring Liza Tarbuck as the titular Linda Green, who is unlucky in love, but loves her friends and her time singing at the local social club. Co-starring Claire Rushbrook and Daniel Ryan, it's a fun, flirty gem of a show that feels just as relevant now as it did then. The first episode stars Christopher Eccleston as a pair of twins who Linda falls for, which can only mean trouble, and in the second David Morrissey plays an old school friend who the friends have written off. The idea of the half hour episode, with a new male lead in each episode, is unique, but it's the core cast that really make the show work as well as it does.

Lastly, Matt tests Luke's music knowledge on the UK charts in October 2001.

Matt and Dawn are back reviewing four shows available to watch this week. On BBC One, Jimmy McGovern's prison anthology series Time returns for its third series. On ITV, their new Sunday night drama The Party, is a mix of many genres but closely resembles Rivals on Disney+ but without anything that makes that show work. As we approach Halloween, Prime Video has Mike Flanagan's remake of the cult horror film Carrie. The main question here is, did we need it? Whilst on Netflix, Below feels as if it may have worked out better if Widow's Bay hadn't become such a big hit earlier this year.

Matt and Dawn are back reviewing four shows available this week. On Sky Atlantic, there's glossy legal drama War, starring Dominic West and Sienna Miller, which is written by podcast favourite George Kay. The series has been heavily advertised using its two well-known leads, but the show is at its best when it focuses on the brilliant characters at the heart of both legal teams.

Unbelievably, David Harewood leads his very first British drama, in another legal drama, Channel 4's new series Pierre. 

Next, and also on Channel 4, Dawn falls hard for the new romantic comedy Break Clause, which is anchored by two strong leads you really care about.

Lastly, the two mega Traitor fans break down what worked and what didn't in the first two episodes.

Matt, Luke and Dawn are back aboard the TV Time Machine to look at the TV landscape of September 2001.

First, the utterly charming romantic comedy drama Bob & Rose, which starred Alan Davies as a gay man whose life was turned upside down when he met and fell for a woman played by Lesley Sharp. The series, written by Russell T Davies, was based on the real-life events that had happened to a friend of his.

Next, 'Orrible, a BBC comedy written by and starring Johnny Vaughn post Big Breakfast. Vaughn stars a cheeky chappy cabbie with ideas above his station. You can see what Vaughn is going for: a Delboy-type character for the new era, but the show lacks the charm and gag level of what makes the best comedies work.

Still relatively new, E4 is still buying up US shows that no one really remembers. Namely Stark Raving Mad, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Tony Shalhoub as unlikely work colleagues.

Lastly, The Corner, a series from The Wire co-creator David Simon, which serves as a soft but no less bleak version of the groundbreaking HBO series. Set in Baltimore, the show feels exactly like The Wire, and you can see the groundwork of that series here, though it uses some storytelling devices that don't exactly come together.

The trio shares their memories of September 2001, including Luke's memories of September 11th.

Matt and Dawn are back, joined by site contributor Ruthie Nugent, to review shows available this week. ITV has a new police drama starring Michelle Keegan. The Blame puts police misogyny at its centre and is actually better than the trio is expecting. Next, Channel 4 has a new social experiment/ reality show in Apocalypse. On paper, it could have been an interesting look at how ordinary people would survive in the worst of circumstances, but instead, it's another forgettable reality show populated by online influencers. The result is a show that feels unfocused, silly, and pointless. 

Next, True Detective stars and firm friends Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play fictional versions of themselves in Apple TV's meta-comedy Brothers, which works when it doesn't put too much focus on its famous leads. Also, Luke joins Matt and Dawn to review Apple's jewel in the Crown, Slow Horses, which continues to deliver one of the most consistently fun shows on television.

Matt, Dawn, and Luke return to review 4 shows available on platforms this week. The adorable but also brilliantly funny Australian comedy Colin From Accounts for its third and final season. The series does a clever thing to keep things fresh for the age-gap lovers Ashley and Gordon, moving things forward in time to find the pair in a very different position than they were when we last saw them.

Also starring Colin From Accounts star/writer Patrick Brammall, Last Seen is a tense Australian drama about a man struggling to keep his life together in the 11 years since his three-year-old daughter was kidnapped, which is available on Apple TV. On paper, it reads like a drama we've been covering on the podcast a lot, but it does feel like it has more to offer, including the brilliant Maxine Peake.

Next, from one of our favourite writers, George Kay, who brought us Apple's Hijack, Netflix's fun French spy drama Lupin, and ITV's retelling of The Yorkshire Ripper story, in The Long Shadow. He's back now with a 5-part crime drama set in Sweden with the slightly clunky title of Blood Sacrifice. Its Swedish setting makes it feel like it has elements of the best Nordic-Noir of old about a killer targeting police officers and killing them in the most horrific way possible. It's stylish, with sharp dialogue and an interesting central pairing that works really well.

Lastly, and certainly last, is ITV's latest attempt to find a new Saturday night hit, The Box, which is a strange strange show in which Gary Lineker oversees a group of celebrites who compete in chalenges for no real purpose. It's a show that makes one of the podcasting group VERY VERY ANGRY.

For our Quiz, Matt asks Dawn and Luke to name as many of the best International show nominees from the BAFTAs as they can.

Though TV has been rather quiet this summer, Matt was given the chance to attend the final Edinburgh TV Festival to learn about what the channels and the streamers are looking for in new commissions, as well as to preview the things they are excited for in the autumn and beyond. The highlights from this year's festival include a long chat with Slow Horses legend Gary Oldman as well as a panel on the state of comedy on television. In this special podcast, Matt breaks down the biggest takeaways from the festival, telling co-host Dawn Glen what to look for in the next few months.

Matt and Dawn are back to mop up the shows they've missed in a lackluster August. Beginning with the return of Ted Lasso on Apple TV. This fourth season, three years after the third, wasn't planned, and it sees Ted return to coach an all-female team, but does the new series still work?

Next, Possession, a spooky Sky Original drama which could be promising, but it gets lost in less interesting plots. Over on U&Dave, the channel has its first original drama series, Hit Point, a quirky crime drama from Misfits creator Howard Overman. Lastly, Luke joins the podcast to rave about the new Hulu/Disney+ crime drama Furious - a brilliant cat-and-mouse story that puts two powerful but scarred women at the centre of the story. For our quiz, Luke comes with another category with a frustrating number of possibilities. 

Matt and Luke are still aboard their TV Time Machine, looking back at the TV landscape of August 2001. Like in 2026, the TV isn't at its best in the summer, but we have found 4 shows to discuss, and each one is worthy of discussion.

On UKTV Play, which became Dave, Iain Lee hosts an innovative but rough-around-the-edges music quiz entitled Mental. Off the back of Drop the Dead Donkey, comedian and satirist Andy Hamilton writes and directs a new comedy drama Bedtime, which focuses on three couples in the same street as they settle down to bed. 

Before The Thick of It, but after the huge successes of Knowing Me, Knowing You and I'm Alan Partridge, writer and producer Armando Iannucci puts himself front and centre in his Channel 4 sketch show The Armando Iannucci Shows. It's a strange sketch series with overarching themes, and it features future names like Stephen Mangan and Tony Gardener, but it doesn't quite hang together.

Lastly, over on E4, we have the American comedy Grosee Point, which goes behind the scenes of a popular teen drama. Not all of it works, but it's a show incredibly ahead of its time, and because of that, it is entirely possible that the audience who are watching Sabrina The Teenage Witch weren't ready for it at all. The series came before The Comeback and 30 Rock.

Lastly, as always, Matt tests Luke's bizarre music knowledge of the time.

Luke and Matt are back aboard their TV Time Machine to observe the TV landscape of August 2001. Luke is still struggling to remember what he was doing, but Matt was working at the company his dad worked for alone in an empty warehouse! On television, satirical Channel 4 series Brass Eye returns for a special on paedophiles, which is still viewed as highly controversial. Famous older people are given their own sketch show on BBC Choice called Revolver, whilst relatively new channel E4 is showing The Fugitive, another TV adaptation of the story that less than ten years prior was made into a film starring Harrison Ford.

Lastly, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant change the comedy landscape with their mockumentary comedy The Office. Gervais stars as the fame-hungry boss from hell, David Brent, but the heart of the show is the brilliantly paced love story between Dawn and Tim, which remains one of the best depictions of a friendship turned romantic relationship on television.