Foreign hello and welcome to Binge Watch, the podcast where we take a look at the hottest new TV and film releases on streaming television platforms.

I'm Hannah Fernando, the group editor of Woman and Woman and Home magazine.

And I'm Ian McKeown, writer on TV and Satellite Week, TV Times, what's on TV and whatsawatch.com and today we're looking at the new releases that will be available On Friday, Friday, the 4th of July, 2025, Independence Day, including the second and final season of Neil Gaiman's fantasy drama the Sandman on Netflix and a NOW TV sports documentary about former F1 champion Damon Hill.

And we'll also be checking out the return of award winning comedy such Brave Girls on Iplayer and the new Canadian crime drama Sight Unseen on on Paramount plus.

But first, Ian, please do tell me what is in the news.

Alfie Allen and Jill Halfpenny will star in Paramount plus thriller Baby Doll about a young woman who is abducted by a teacher.

What else is in the news?

Hannah and Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden will be making another big impression as the gastro travelogue.

The trip heads to the northern light on Skye.

We're going to start on sky documentaries and now tv.

Well, it's very much the age of the sports documentary, isn't it Hannah?

And here's another one.

It's called Hill.

And here's a clip.

My whole life people had been asking me if I was going to be a racing driver like my dad.

And there I was within a point of winning the world championship.

He said, I'm going to race in Formula one and I'm going to become world champion.

It started the day my dad died.

Frost, Senna, Schumacher.

I had a steep hill to clim, but I want to win.

So yes, this is all about Formula one driver Damon Hill, who I think I mentioned last week.

He was the first person I ever interviewed for TV Times magazine.

And that was back when he was driving.

And of course his father, Graham Hill was a very famous racing driver, a double world champion.

So that's sort of where we start.

And he was incredibly charismatic, his dad.

So I think, I mean Damon says, you know, he's, he'll, I'm sure as a lot of sort of children of celebrities do feel he kind of rather his dad wasn't really famous and sort of popular and charismatic because he felt kind of in his shadow anyway.

I mean the family were very relieved when Graham gave up motor racing only for him to die in a plane crash in 1975.

And there was worse to come because it emerged that the plane wasn't properly insured, so the family lost all their money and.

And Damon grew up.

I mean, obviously, that was a huge tragedy early on in his life, and it really affected him.

And he was.

He was quite into motorbikes.

And it's interesting when you look at sort of old photos of him or archive footage, even when he was driving, you can see that kind of sadness behind the eyes, really.

But, yeah, he's very honest in this.

He talks about how for a while he wished he'd died in the plane crash.

His wife contributes, who I think has been, you know, a huge asset in his life.

And, yes, he just decided he would go into F1.

I mean, quite.

Quite old, really, for a Formula One driver to do it, but he decided, yeah, I'm gonna go and do it, and I'm gonna be a world champion.

And it was almost trying to sort of cling on to something of.

Of his dad, I guess.

And so, yeah, there's a lot about his time at Williams.

Michael Schumacher, I must say, comes across as a nasty piece of work in this, which I found quite interesting.

I mean, there was more tragedy for.

For Damon when Ayrton Senna died in a crash and he was his teammate.

And then, even though he'd won the World Championship, he had to leave Williams because they'd struck a deal that meant they had to hire a German driver.

They'd stuck a deal with a German car manufacturer.

Anyway, it's really good.

And Hill comes across so well in this.

He's great, great.

And it's not.

I mean, I know we've got the big F1 movie and we've had Drive to Survive.

This is slightly different.

This is much more about his own personal story.

It's not all about the racing, even though the racing stuff is fascinating, highly recommended.

And I, you know, I found it very moving, I must say.

What did you think, Hannah?

Oh, my goodness me.

I'm so pleased to have watched this, because he reminds me of my first outing with Formula one, because now, I'm sorry to say that there aren't that many names, apart from Lewis Hamilton, that I could probably reel off.

But at that time, there was a really big presence.

I don't know if it was just, you know, in my house or whatever, but Damon Hill was kind of key, a key player in that, I suppose.

And he always came across as a really decent bloke, didn't he?

And actually, then you watch something like this and you think, oh, no, Please don't ruin that.

Which often happens and it doesn't happen with this.

He is.

He does, as you say, come over really, really well.

Very, very genuine.

And as with all of these kind of documentaries, you get to know so much more about the person from the horse's mouth.

You get to hear it from their.

Their version of events through their eyes.

And you know, this sport is so dangerous, we know that.

But yet it has an outing during its season, what, every fortnight.

And it's just so incredibly dangerous.

And I suppose that's why you paid the big bucks or, or whatever, but what's the price on life?

And I think you really see that the paciness of this, this.

The sheer determination.

You've got to want to do this, haven't you, to get in that car and drive at that speed, because anything can happen, Accidents can and they do happen, as you say.

It's a really thorough story and I really don't think you need to be into F1 to love this.

I think it is having a moment again.

It does seem to be back on everyone's screens and the weekends with that kind of whizzing noise that my mum decided describes that seems relentless.

But I don't think you have to love Formula One to watch this.

I really don't.

I think this is a really interesting person with a really interesting story.

Yeah, thumbs up from me.

We move across to Paramount plus for a new crime drama called Sight Unseen.

And here's a clip.

I'm afraid it's conclusive.

You're clinically blind.

Think of this as a chance to it explore a new world.

It's the 21st century and we can do better than a grubby stick.

I brought you something that might help clip the camera.

The phone connects you to a guy that sees for you, describes everything around you.

Seeing eye.

It's called Eyes Up.

Well, if you like detective dramas, then I reckon this is one for you and you're going to be binging on it pretty quickly.

So, as you say, this is the new Paramount plus series and it revolves around a homicide detective called Tess Avery, played by Dolly Lewis.

And she's losing.

Losing her sight, hence the.

Hence the.

The title of this.

This actually has had its first outing in Canada last year and, and was heralded as something completely brilliant and in a league of its own.

And I think it's going to be a bit of a treat for us over here too.

I think from what I've seen a bit so far, you'll get hooked pretty quickly.

Because it is quite pacey.

It's.

It's a different take on, on this kind of genre, I would say.

And as I say, she starts to.

Tess Avery starts to lose.

Lose her sight during a crime case that she's.

That she's overseeing.

And it's.

It's really awful.

It's really sad.

I think it's one of those things that you can't even imagine.

You put yourself in that situation and how much changes in your world, particularly somebody who needs their eyes.

And we all need our eyes.

Of course we do, but you know what I mean, someone.

This is so important to, to their, to their job.

And it's, it's a genetic condition and it's rapid.

And so she, she doesn't really want to accept any help.

So you have the whole kind of personal side of that, you have a whole relationship side as well as the professional side.

And I think that's what makes this slightly, slightly unique, really.

And she's also.

She.

She as a person has quite a big story.

There's quite a lot of issues that she has to overcome anyway to get outside and do her.

To do her job and to kind of be the person that I suppose that we see to fight, to fight, to fight crime and do these big cases.

So you get entrenched pretty quickly in this.

It takes, doesn't.

It doesn't take long for you to be, you know, completely, completely into this because she's losing her sight and it's kind of reluctant to accept any help.

She pairs up and this is where the weird stuff happens, in my opinion.

She pairs up with this agoraphobic visual guide, Sunny Patel, via an app, and basically the app becomes her eyes.

And, well, you know, in the world of AI, in the world of, you know, things we've discussed before, Ian, you know, how.

How prepared are you to rely on that completely?

Are they really her eyes?

Can she really see things?

And so there are sort of moments where, you know, like a knife will come out or something will happen and can she.

Can she really see it?

Has she foreseen something before it actually happens?

Or can the app help her so that there's kind of like another element to this, which I suppose is the kind of the odd one, but also, again, quite, quite different.

For me, I found it quite intriguing.

I thought it was really, really very good.

I do think that this is one of those things that you're just going to want to just keep on binging.

It won't be something you can turn the television off, you Want to see the end of it.

And it was to say it was, it was a hit last year in another territory, so why wouldn't it be here?

What did you think?

In.

Yeah, I had a problem with this in that I just, just don't believe the basic premise.

It's just ludicrous.

So as you say, they're trying to.

They think a woman's been abducted who, who may be dead or dying, and they're trying to stop the guy that they think has abducted her.

And suddenly she just can't really see anything anymore.

It happens really quickly, but for some reason she decides to keep that a secret.

She doesn't tell anyone.

I mean, she resigns from her job, but she didn't say why.

It's just like, well, no one would do that.

So that's really odd.

And then, yes, as you say this, I think it's called something like Eyes up, this app.

So she has a little tiny little camera that she wears and then she has an earpiece.

And so this woman in New York, Sunny, played by Agam Darshi, is looking at what Tess is, is seeing and telling her, oh, you know, someone's trying to shake your hand, stand up and put your right, right arm out or, you know, just telling her where everything is, obstacles and whatever or things she needs to notice it.

I mean, that is quite an intriguing idea tech wise, but it just, I just, it wouldn't work.

But there is quite a funny scene, I must admit, where she's had a one early on, where she's had a one night stand somehow without the guy realizing that she can't see anything at all.

And then she needs to use the app to find all her clothes that are kind of scattered around the apartment, I mean, which is, you know, kind of comedic, I guess.

Deliberately so.

So I mean, I think Dolly Lewis is really good, but I just can't really get past the, the fact that the premise isn't really credible.

But yeah, filmed in Vancouver and as you say, I think it was, I think it was popular in, in Canada.

So I did enjoy watching it.

But at the back of my mind I just kept thinking this, this wouldn't happen.

But yeah, I did enjoy it.

I enjoyed it in my own way.

Over on Netflix, we have a second and final series of fantasy drama the Sandman.

And here's a clip.

It has begun.

Dream is returning to Hel.

Lord Morpheus comes to us in a futile attempt to free one he loves from our domain.

Hel is anticipating his visit most avidly.

Yes.

So one of one of the slight drawbacks of our job, Hana, isn't it that the fact that we end up watching just episode one of so many things and just not having the time to get through the rest of them.

And yes, I remember watching episode one of season one of the Sandman, which is based on the Neil Gaiman comic books, all about Morpheus, who sort of presides over the world of sleep and dreams.

And it was superb, basically.

I mean, you definitely want to go and watch season one before you watch this because you just won't have any idea what's going on.

But at the beginning of season one, he was kidnapped by this character called accidentally, sort of kidnapped by this character called the Magus, I think, played by Charles Dance, who lives in a big sort of stately pile.

And he was trying to capture death, but accidentally he captured Morpheus using sort of supernatural means.

And so he kept him in this glass sphere naked for a hundred years.

So that was the starting point.

Anyway, he.

So, yeah, go back and watch it.

But in.

In this second season, which actually drops in what they're calling two volumes.

So you get six episodes from this week and then you'll get another five episodes in volume two on the 24th of July, and then there's a bonus episode on the 31st.

Okay.

Very straightforward.

So, yeah, as we rejoin.

And obviously I wasn't really up to speed because I hadn't watched the rest of the episodes, but it's great because I just think tonally it's really good because there's a lot of stuff in it that could sound quite portentous and that kind of, you know, fantasy world gobbledygook.

And Tom Sturridge is terrific as Morpheus.

He really.

He looks very Goth, like a bit the way that Elijah Wood just was.

Looked perfect to play Frodo Baggins.

He really looks the part and he's.

He manages to deliver this kind of gloomy, portentous dialogue really convincingly.

He's great.

It looks amazing.

I mean, I think for many years it was thought that this is unfilmable.

These, these comic books are unfilmable.

But of course, with all the fantasy, massive fantasy series we've had now, it is.

It is doable and it looks amazing.

But one of the great things about it is.

So as we rejoin, he's meeting up Dream.

He's also known as.

He's got lots of other pseudonyms.

He's meeting his siblings.

So they are.

Imagine this family death played by Kirby Howell.

Baptiste Desire, who's hilarious, played by Mason Alexander Park Despair, played by Donna Preston.

Then there's also Destiny, played by Adrian Lester, and Delirium, played by Esme Creed Miles.

There's also another sibling who's not joining them for this reunion destruction.

And it's just so good because they are, like, bickering, typical bickering siblings.

And every time there's a quite a sort of formal, portentous sounding line, it's.

It's undercut by another line.

It's like, oh, well, that's typical of death to say that.

You know, it's just.

It's so well done.

And we also, in episode one, we kind of get a bit of a backstory of a relationship that dream.

Well, dreamed of, if you like, but didn't work out as he wished.

So that.

And there's so many great actors in this.

You've got Gwendoline Christie plays Lucifer.

And then you've got all these fantasy characters.

Like, one of them is a crow.

Another one from the world of dreams is a guy who.

His head is a pumpkin.

It's fascinating.

You've got Thor with his hammer.

Douglas Booth is in it as a.

As a royal emissary.

You've got the voice of Steve Coogan, who he mentioned a little bit earlier.

I think it's really, really top quality.

And if you like fantasy drama and, I mean, Neil Gaiman's got so many fans, hasn't he?

I think they've really done it justice.

It's excellent.

What did you think, Hannah?

Well, I.

You know how I feel about fantasy dramas, and I don't.

I don't love them and I don't particularly love this, but that doesn't mean to say it's not great.

It is.

It's top quality.

Like you say, there's some great acts in here.

The storyline's absolutely brilliant.

And, you know, if you.

If you're into your DC comics, this is obviously, you know, one for you, and I'm just not.

But I can see the brilliance of it and the kind of.

The very dark side, as you say.

A cheery family with all those names, aren't they?

I mean, really, really cheery.

Imagine.

Imagine conversation around the dinner table.

It's absolute fortune to produce something like this as well.

So you can imagine that the quality and the kind of.

The love and the kind of everything that's gone into it, really.

So I think it's 100 and I think $15 million per episode, I think, is what I read up of how much it cost.

So it's.

It's A reason it's gone so long.

It's a reason why people are still talking about it.

People will be upset because obviously this is, I think this is the final season, isn't it, Ian?

So you know, this is, this is it.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's good.

But if you're like me and you don't like this kind of genre, then it's, it's probably not for you.

But it's very well done.

We've had a documentary, we've had a crime drama, we've had a fantasy drama, so surely it's time for some comedy.

Yes.

And on BBC iplayer we have the return of such brave girls.

And here's a clip.

Did you know they've got problems with money?

Now you're saying that it is ringing a bell.

I will not have any more dead weight in this house.

She's released herself from the shackles of the patriarchy.

Look at yourself, woman.

Mascara down your face, unshaved armpits.

You know who you are.

I'm Josie.

Yes, we do.

And this will have you laughing, but not, it's not laugh out loud stuff, it's very, very dry humor, but it just has you sort of tickling, you know, all the way along and sort of like, oh my God, how could they say that?

Oh, wow, you know, it's so, so dry.

So I would suggest you watch, watch the previous outing of this because I think it will help set you up, but I don't think it's a necessity.

It's quite quick, quite quickly you'll get to, to know the characters, the main characters, Josie, Billy and their, their mum, Deb.

It's completely chaotic and it's all based around these women's love lives and it's not for the faint hearted, it's, it's, it's fairly rude, for want of a better word.

Quite, quite near the knuckle in at times.

But it's really raucous and it's really funny and it probably, it's just unfiltered, I suppose is the best way to say it.

Just completely unfiltered.

And so the first episode starts with Josie being forced, I would say, to marry somebody she doesn't want to marry.

Now, now, she, she's a lesbian, she doesn't want to marry a man, it's as simple as that.

But her mother is forcing her.

Her sister is kind of the princess sister who, you know, wants that fairy tale wedding and of course Josie doesn't.

And it's, it's Very, I suppose, slapstick in that way, because it's.

It's so chaotic.

She doesn't want to get married, but does everything that she.

That her mother tells us to.

Meanwhile, on the flip side, you can see the guy she's about to marry and his father.

His father is dating Josie's mum, Deb.

And so there's some issues kind of around them.

For example, she told him that her husband had died when actually he hadn't.

So that.

And I think one of the biggest things for me is this relationship between the mum and the daughter.

And by the way, Josie and Billy, I believe, are sisters in real life.

So there's a real, kind of.

There's a real massive chemistry there anyway.

And I think you can.

It's quite palpable, actually.

It feels very, very genuine, for good reason.

But it's the relationship between mother and daughter that I found particularly interesting.

Because, you know, you're always considering what you're saying to children, aren't you?

You're creating them, you're making a mold of them.

You're kind of, you know, they're impressionable.

And she just completely, literally is so horrible to her.

It's unbelievable.

You know, she's absolutely horrible.

And she's obsessed.

Obsessed with her getting married and being looked after because, of course, her husband walked away.

And she wants her to have the, you know, the.

The man that looks after.

It doesn't matter whether she loves him or not.

He.

He needs to provide for her and that's what she wants.

And of course, Josie doesn't want that at all.

And, you know, Josie's pretty neurotic, a pretty neurotic character.

She suffers with her mental health and it's.

It's.

It just tickles me the whole way through.

It's really, really.

I've watched the first two episodes of this and I did binge them.

And you can get on and do other stuff while you.

While you're watching it.

Actually.

It'll just sort of, you know, giggle away to yourself as you go and think, oh, my God, I can't believe she's saying that.

I can't believe that's happening.

It's all really quite incredible and really quite unbelievable, but it will have you laughing.

What do you think, Ian?

It is super.

Put me slightly in mind of the brilliant pulling, which was the comedy that sort of brought Sharon Horgan to everyone's attention.

And I feel the tone of it and the quality of the writing is very reminiscent of Sharon Horgan, all about kind of dysfunctional families.

And perhaps a little bit of Julia Davis in there as well.

And yeah, Cat Sadler, who stars and created it, she, she was actually sectioned for her mental health in 2020, so she knows what she's writing about.

The performances are hilarious.

Yeah.

As you say, you've got Josie, who's very neurotic, played by Kat, and yes, her real life sibling, Lizzie Davidson plays Billy, who in this Is now she's dating an older man who is played by Daniel Ryan from the Bay.

And yeah, the mum Deb, played by Louise really is just.

She's a monster, isn't she?

And it's sort of, it's a very funny look at, you know, dysfunction, isn't it?

And as you say, there's a lot of stuff about, you know, you're going to be a kept woman as if that's like the be all and end all of a woman's life.

So, yeah, I, I think it's, it's so good.

And it's one awards series.

One what?

Deservedly one awards.

It really is.

If you like Horgan and Davis, you're gonna like this.

We've got that time, Hannah, when we find out what the hell you've been binge watching.

Well, the first one will not be for you, I can tell you that straight away.

But I have had a little look at Princess Catherine Queen in Waiting on Amazon Prime.

Yeah, I know you've got your head in your hands, I don't even need to see you to know that.

But also one that I did think is what was very interesting was, I don't know if you saw it, you can watch it on Catch up is Zara McDermott's To Catch a Stalker on the BBC.

And we do articles like this all the time about women and still living in fear in 2025.

And it's not just about stalker.

It could be anything.

You know, the way you dress, the way you walk, you're taught to cross the roads, you know, and how women still live in fear.

And this is really, this is, this is a slightly different side of that, but it's about stalkers and it's really, it's really, it's very sad.

Definitely one to watch.

Well, it's been wall to wall Glastonbury for me.

I've discovered quite a lot of artists that I didn't know before about now I absolutely love.

So, yeah, all that stuff is on the BBC iPlayer and a lot of Wimbledon of course, again, lots of stuff on iplayer.

But I watched the latest in the documentary anthology series we discussed last week, Trainwreck.

And this one.

You've got to watch it, Hannah.

It's great.

It's all about the guy who created the clothing brand American Apparel and what happened there.

And it wasn't good.

Anyway, we've just got time to look ahead to next week's offering.

So what is on the binge watch menu?

Well, there'll be a new Netflix comedy drama, Too Much from Girls creator Nina.

Dunham, plus a look back at Spielberg's classic shark movie in Jaws at 50, the definitive inside story on Nachio and Disney.

So we look forward to those and much, much more.

But in the meantime, dear listener.

Watching.

Sat.