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, Steph Seelan, 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 27, 2021 • 2h 29min
Review Of The Year 2021. With guests Jodie Whitaker, Mandip Gill, Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, and Nadine Nicole
We have a BUMPER year-end special for you this week. We're joined not only by The Doctor herself, Jodie Whitaker, and her companion Mandip Gill, but — in a very special Christmas gift to James — we are also joined by the entire core cast of The Expanse! Aside from ushering in the new year with these titans of modern sci-fi, we take a look back at the year that was, run down our list of the top TV shows of 2021 and generally take a look at the highs and lows of the past 12 months over a glorious two-and-a-half hours. Happy New Year!
Dec 20, 2021 • 1h 55min
#167 - A Very British Scandal, Clarice, and Around The World In 80 Days. With Guest Sarah Phelps
Sarah Phelps joins us on this week's show (39:14-1:01:37) to discuss her new BBC miniseries, A Very British Scandal, which pits Claire Foy against Paul Bettany in a break-up for the ages as the Duchess and Duke of Argyle. Plus we take a trip with David Tenant in Around The World In 80 Days, and find out what Agent Starling got up to after Buffalo Bill (and before eating Ray Liota's brains) in Clarice on Alibi.
Plus, James, Beth and Boyd go through some of the shows they're most looking forward to in 2022 and you'll discover why Succession makes Phelpsie want to have a wee.
Dec 13, 2021 • 2h 7min
#166 - The Witcher, The Girl Before, And Just Like That. With Guest Henry Cavill
Henry Cavill, Geralt of Rivia himself, joins us on this week's show, to talk a little bit about the The Witcher's second season and a lot more about fantasy books, Warhammer 40k and general geekery (24:34-46:54). In addition to Netflix's returning fantasy, we take a look at Gugu Mbatha-Raw's living situation as she moves in to David Oyelowo's rather terrifying apartment in The Girl Before on BBC1, and we find out what Carrie Bradshaw's been up to since Sex And The City in follow-up show And Just Like That on Sky Comedy (first episode spoilers exist between 1:21:21 and 1:35:58).
PLUS we record a special drop-in to talk about the Succession finale (1:09:20-1:20:16), mull over the best will-they/won't-they relationships, and James manages to trample all over Beth's Ex Machina analogy and she refuses to let him cut it out.
Dec 6, 2021 • 1h 52min
#165 - The Expanse, Landscapers, and Ragdoll. With Guests Olivia Colman and David Thewlis
National treasures Olivia Colman and David Thewlis take time out of their busy schedules to drop by the podcast this week (31:27-52:09), telling us all about quirky black comedy Landscapers on Sky. Plus we take a look at Ragdoll on Alibi, and the team debate the reasons why directors in TV don't get the same credit as their big screen counterparts, while the reverse is true of writers.
But all that pales into insignificance compared to the main event this week, as we dive headfirst into deep space for the televisual event of the year — nay, the decade! — when The Expanse returns for its sixth and *final* (for now) season on Prime Video. BELTALOWDA!
Nov 29, 2021 • 1h 13min
#164 - Hawkeye, Yellowjackets, Chucky, and You Don't Know Me
More Star Trek shenanigans abound this week as the team try to work out what in the name of the Prime Directive Pluto TV is. Elsewhere, we finally get to talk about Disney's Hawkeye series, take a trip to the wilderness with a girls' soccer team in Yellowjackets on Sky Atlantic, catch up with killer Charles Lee Ray in Child's Play spin-off series Chucky, on Sky Max, and get a little courtroom monologuing from Samuel Adewunmi in You Don't Know Me on BBC1. Plus, in perhaps the greatest upset in Pilot TV history, James voluntarily watches an animated series — listen now to find out what he thought of it.
Nov 22, 2021 • 1h 35min
#163 - The Wheel Of Time, American Rust, and Hellbound
I spy Aes Sedai on this week's show as we're finally able to talk about Amazon's The Wheel Of Time. Plus we explore the decaying carcass of small town Pennsylvania in American Rust on Sky, and see if we've discovered the new Squid Game in the form of South Korean supernatural thriller Hellbound on Netflix. All that and we vent our righteous fury over the sudden departure of Star Trek Discovery for Paramount+, plus take a trip down memory lanes to discuss some of the best (and worst) pilot episodes we've seen.
Nov 15, 2021 • 51min
Dopesick: An Empire Podcast + Pilot TV Podcast Deep Dive, In Association With Disney+
To herald the arrival on Disney+ of Dopesick, Danny Strong’s drama chronicling the devastating impact of the opioid crisis on America, the Empire Podcast and Pilot TV Podcast crews have, once again, set aside their differences and come together to have a good old natter. In this very special crossover episode, in association with Disney+, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb do a deep dive into Dopesick, which tackles the opioid crisis from the points of view of characters connected to the crisis in various ways. They talk about the crisis itself, about the show’s all-star cast (including Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard, Kaitlyn Dever, and Will Poulter), and much, much more. And if that weren’t enough, Beth also sits down with Danny Strong, Kaitlyn Dever and Will Poulter for an in-depth chat about the show. So sit back, relax, and enjoy Dopesick, an Empire + Pilot TV podcast special with Disney+.
Nov 15, 2021 • 1h 54min
#162 - Cowboy Bebop, The Lost Symbol, and Crime. With guests Dougray Scott & Irvine Welsh
Dougray Scott and Irvine Welsh drop by the show this week to talk about their new thriller, Crime, on Britbox (37:51-54:31), plus we get our Dan Brown on with The Lost Symbol on Sky and put our anime knowledge to the test (ably assisted by Anime-doctorate-holder Beth K Webb) with Netflix's live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop.
Plus we look at which cancelled shows we still recommend people watch, the prevalence of Brit crime thrillers, the veracity (or not) of Squid Game's return, and how James managed to navigate 24 hours in the North of England (spoiler: not that well).
Nov 8, 2021 • 2h 13min
#161 - Dexter: New Blood, Dopesick, The Shrink Next Door, and The Tower. With guest Gemma Whelan (along with almost everyone else from The Tower!)
If you're wondering why this week's runtime is so long, it's because we have a big old Q&A with Gemma Whelan, Jim Loach, Tahirah Sharif, Jimmy Akingbola, and Patrick Harbinson, all to talk about ITV's rather excellent new drama The Tower, which runs at the very end of this week's show (for reasons you'll soon discover). Elsewhere, we're getting reacquainted with our Dark Passengers for Dexter: New Blood on Sky Atlantic, seeking some rather problematic therapy from Paul Rudd in Apple's The Shrink Next Door, and exploring the opioid crisis in America with Michael Keaton in Dopesick on Star.
Plus you'll get to find out which place in the galaxy Beth describes as "scallywag central", what everyone (James) thought of the new Witcher trailer, and what shows we all should have kept up with but, well, haven't.
Nov 1, 2021 • 1h 40min
#160 - Showtrial, Dalgliesh, and The Premise
We're immersing ourselves in slick Sunday night drama this week with BBC1’s Showtrial, solving a PD James murder mystery with Bertie Carvel in Channel 5’s Dalgliesh, and taking a peek inside the mind of BJ Novak in topical anthology series The Premise on Star. But that’s not all because there’s an absolute landslide of new shows hitting the airwaves this week from What We Do In The Shadows to Narcos: Mexico, the final season of Dickinson and more!
Plus james finally finishes Squid Game and would like to inform everyone that its actually rather good, the team bump up against gimmicky VR in the new Wheel of Time trailer and, thanks to a listener question, are everyone is forced to talk about their dreams. Of course, it’s a miracle they get through any of it given that Boyd watched approximately 800 shows this week and elects to tell us all about them.
