Latest news with #SmallTown
Sunday World
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Comedian Peter McGann on how Irish comedy has come a long way from gags about the ‘gas Irish'
Wicklow-born Peter says: 'The Irishness of Tommy Tiernan is brilliant but in a really good way, like it's from the earth Viral comedian Peter McGann says Irish comedy has come a long way since bad jokes about the stereotypical drunken Irishman. Naming Tommy Tiernan and D'Unbelievables as some of the country's finest funnymen ever, Peter said mindless gags about the 'gas Irish' and the 'locked Paddy' have mostly been wiped from the comedy stage. Wicklow-born Peter says: 'The Irishness of Tommy Tiernan is brilliant but in a really good way, like it's from the earth. 'I think people learned the wrong lessons from Jon Kenny and Pat Shortt. 'Like you know the jokes, 'do you remember this used to happen in school?' And everyone's like, ha-ha. Or 'remember fizzy seven up, ha-ha', that's not funny. 'I think that even Tommy railed against the Irish aren't we gas. 'Or the, 'I came home, I was so drunk, I put the rashers in the toaster. Tommy he was making fun of that, like kind of back slap kind of thing, he was so right.' Peter is the latest guest on this week's episode of the culinary podcast, Under the Grill, with Kevin Dundon and Caoimhe Young. The Dublin-based dad-of-one continues: 'I loved Tommy Tiernan in the early years. 'To this day I'll catch myself and think 'jeez, that sounds like something Tommy would say', just in how it is phrased, not how funny it is. 'I do get inspiration from other comedians; I like the League of Gentlemen, and I've watched that a million times. 'It's stuff that I just soaked into me as a kid, and then it's kind of coming out unconsciously. There's very few of us really that comedy just comes to us completely, naturally.' Peter picked a delicious seafood chowder – served in a bowl made from sourdough – for chef Kevin Dundon to cook up in the podcast kitchen. Peter says: 'I haven't had it in years, but I feasted on seafood chowder every second day on what I now remember it as the best summer of my life. 'I was in college in Galway that summer, I was chasing a girl who is now my wife, and there used to be a stall in Galway selling seafood chowder in a bread bowl. I love fish, any kind of fish and a good chowder is heaven.' Peter has had a string of acting roles, with his latest being in Sky's Small Town, Big Story with Mad Men star Christina Hendricks, and created and directed by Chris O'Dowd. Peter, who plays a schoolteacher who is having an affair, says: 'It was a beautifully shot series, and I loved working on it. I can only hope there will be another series. 'I feel like TV shows these days there can be like five years between a season on all the big ones. So, who knows?.' In Small Town, Big Story a Hollywood production rolls into a small Irish town and throws the spotlight on a secret that's been kept hidden since the eve of the millennium. 'Chris O'Dowd was bang on. I got to know him on the shoot, and he was just gentle, and like such a good leader as well. He got everyone's blood pumping to make something good. 'It was a passion project for him, and I think it came off on the screen. He had a vision, and it works.' Watch Under the Grill on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Caoimhe Young, Kevin Dundon, and Peter McGann Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 15th 2025
New York Post
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Kelley Wolf is ‘ready to begin again' after ex Scott gets sole custody of their 3 kids amid divorce drama
Kelley Wolf is ready to move on from the drama of her divorce from Scott Wolf. On Friday, the 'Party of Five' alum's estranged wife posted a message on Instagram with insight into how she's handling their contentious split. 'Love makes the world go round… and in the times you feel heavy… KNOW… you are special,' Kelley, 48, wrote alongside a video of her spending time on her deck. 9 Scott and Kelley Wolf at SiriusXM Studios in NYC in 2016. Getty Images 'Peace is a state of mind,' Kelley continued. 'And your mind is all that can tell you otherwise… I love you all and I am HAPPY. And that's okay… it's okay to hold many things at once.' She added: 'We are dynamic… and I am ready to begin again…' 9 Kelley Wolf posts a message amid her divorce. kelleywolf/Instagram In the clip, which was set to John Mellencamp's 'Small Town,' Kelley filmed her dog, a burning candle, a bottle of red wine, a few unopened packs of cigarettes and several books and journals on her deck. Kelley recently lost temporary legal and physical custody of her and Scott's three children amidst their divorce. 9 Scott and Kelley Wolf. kelleywolf/Instagram 9 Kelley Wolf in a selfie with her three children. kelleywolf/Instagram Scott, 57, was also granted a temporary restraining order against his estranged wife, with whom he shares sons Jackson, 16, and Miller, 12, and daughter Lucy, 11. Kelley, according to court documents obtained by People, reportedly 'engaged in an escalating pattern of behavior that poses a substantial threat of immediate and irreparable harm to the parties' minor children.' The temporary restraining order suspended Kelley's custody or parent time with her children until a private guardian ad litem can meet with the children and provide feedback to the court, per People. 9 Kelley Wolf in a selfie. kelleywolf/Instagram Scott filed the order after Kelley was detained by police in Utah on June 13 and later hospitalized. Kelley, who was on MTV's 'The Real World: New Orleans,' posted footage of her run-in with cops to her Instagram Live. One of the officers told Kelley she wasn't going to jail, adding they were there to get her 'some help.' 9 Scott and Kelley Wolf at the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards in 2023. Getty Images for Critics Choice Association An audio clip from the 911 call connected to the purported incident heard an unidentified female telling the dispatcher that she was 'terrified' and 'needed help' after clashing with her brother-in-law and 16-year-old son. Kelley later addressed her hospitalization, claiming it was 'horrible' but adding she's 'happier than I have ever been.' 9 Scott and Kelley Wolf with their three children. kelleywolf/Instagram 9 Kelley and Scott Wolf with their kids. kelleywolf/Instagram 'Apparently, I'm also one of the strongest women a certain mental hospital has ever met,' she wrote in an Instagram post on June 19, regarding her hospitalization. 'I was offered medication. I refused every single one. I laid in bed for five days – sober, clear, and calm.' Scott and Kelley announced last month they were splitting after 21 years of marriage. 9 Scott Wolf and Kelley Wolf at Universal Studios Hollywood in July 2018. Getty Images 'It is with a heavy heart that Scott and I are moving forward with the dissolution of our marriage,' Kelley wrote on Instagram. 'This has been a long, quiet journey for me—rooted in hope, patience, and care for our children,' she added. 'While I will not speak publicly about the details, I feel peace knowing that I've done everything I can to walk this path with integrity and compassion.'
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
W NETWORK DEBUTS ITS SPRING SCHEDULE WITH THIS SEASON'S FRESHEST PICKS
New Series Include Peacock Comedy Laid, Sky Original Series Small Town, Big Story, Plus Hallmark Channel's The Chicken Sisters and Small Town Setup This Spring Will Also See the Season Finales of The Way Home, Season 3 and Based on a True Story, Season 2 Stream W Network on STACKTV For additional photography and press kit material visit: To share this release socially visit: TORONTO, March 10, 2025 /CNW/ - This spring, W Network, a Corus Entertainment top 10 specialty network*, is blooming with freshly picked new series featuring star-studded performances, humour and heart. This season, W Network ushers in new comedies such as Laid and Small Town, Big Story as well as Hallmark's family drama The Chicken Sisters and Hallmark's unscripted series Small Town Setup. All series are available to stream on STACKTV. First to spring onto the schedule is Peacock's twisted romantic comedy, Laid, starring Academy Award®-nominee Stephanie Hsu and Zosia Mamet. Premiering on Monday, March 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, a woman (Hsu) finds out her former lovers are dying in unusual ways and must go back through her sex timeline to confront her past in order to move forward. Laid is a dark rom-com where the answer to "why can't I find love, is there something wrong with me?" is a resounding "Yes. There is. The problem is definitely you." Up next is the dramatic comedy Small Town, Big Story premiering Thursday, March 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Created and directed by Emmy® Award winner Chris O'Dowd (Moone Boy), the series stars Emmy® nominee Christina Hendricks (Good Girls, Mad Men) and BAFTA award-winner Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon, The World's End), and looks at the untold chaos caused when a big budget Hollywood production rolls into a small, rural Irish town. Wendy Patterson (Hendricks) is a local girl who found success as a TV producer in Los Angeles, returns to her hometown in Ireland after over 20 years, having left under something of a cloud. Back in the chaotic microcosm of Drumbán, this time with a film crew in tow, Wendy is caught in between her past and her epic new production. Séamus Proctor (Considine) is the local doctor and pillar of the community. He has a neat and well-ordered life, or at least he thinks he does. Soon, he will find himself in the eye of a storm as a celluloid circus descends on the town, threatening to shine a spotlight on a secret he's been harbouring for ages. On Sunday, March 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, W Network serves up new Hallmark series, The Chicken Sisters, based on the New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club selection of the same name by KJ Dell'Antonia. Created for television and executive produced by Annie Mebane (Shrinking, Atypical, The Goldbergs), the eight-episode series is a family drama dipped in southern charm and served up with a saucy side of romance. The setting is the fictional town of Merinac, where a generations-old rift between dueling fried chicken restaurants – Mimi's and Frannie's – has left the founders' families fractured and the locals taking sides. When the popular cooking competition show Ultimate Kitchen Clash comes to town, it could be the recipe for ending this feud once and for all. But things are fixing to heat up both inside and outside of the kitchen as the reality show spotlight causes sparks to fly as secrets are spilled and feathers get ruffled. The series boasts an impressive cast, including Schuyler Fisk (Sam & Kate), Genevieve Angelson (The Handmaid's Tale), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) and Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me!) as the women at the heart of the restaurant rivalry. James Kot (Virgin River), Rukiya Bernard (Yellowjackets), Ektor Rivera (Groundswell) and Jake Foy (Ride) round out the supporting cast. Emmy® Award-winning actress Margo Martindale (Justified) lends her voice as the nearly omniscient narrator, who serves up history and offers country fried context the way only the best town gossip can. Following the premiere of The Chicken Sisters on March 30, Small Town Setup debuting at 9 p.m. ET/PT, explores the unique charm of small-town America and its welcoming community in this heartwarming unscripted, romantic comedy docu-style dating series, hosted by Ashley Williams. In each episode, viewers meet different hometown parents with a big problem – their successful adult child is living far away in a big city – and is still single. The couple gathers their neighbours and asks for help to find a match for them to go out with. Now, the entire community is on the hunt to find the best three daters for the "city single" to go on dates with, in the hope that they will fall in love, move back home and live happily ever after. This spring will also see the Season 3 finale of the multi-generational family drama and top 5 specialty entertainment program** The Way Home on Sunday, March 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and the Season 2 finale of the dark comedic thriller Based on a True Story on Monday, March 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. W Network can be streamed via STACKTV, available on Amazon Prime Video Channels, Bell Fibe TV app, Fubo, Rogers Ignite TV and Ignite Streaming. The network is also available through all major TV distributors, including: Shaw, Shaw Direct, Rogers, Bell, Videotron, Telus, Cogeco, Eastlink and SaskTel. *Source: Numeris PPM Data, Total Canada, FL'24 (Aug 26 – Dec29/24), SP'25 STD (Dec 30/24 – Feb 9/25) confirmed to Feb 2/25, A25-54, AMA(000), CDN SPEC COM ENG, M-Su 2a-2a**Source: Numeris PPM Data, Total Canada, SP'24 (Jan 1 – May 26/24), 3+ airings, SP'25 STD (Dec 30/24 – Feb 9/25) 2+ airings, confirmed to Feb 2/25, CDN SPEC COM ENG excluding sports SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Follow W Network on Facebook, InstagramFollow STACKTV on Instagram @stacktv W Network is a Corus Entertainment Network. About Corus Entertainment Inc. Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX: CJR.B) is a leading media and content company that develops and delivers high quality brands and content across platforms for audiences around the world. Engaging audiences since 1999, the company's portfolio of multimedia offerings encompass 30 specialty television services, 37 radio stations, 15 conventional television stations, digital and streaming platforms, and social digital agency and media services. Corus' roster of premium brands includes Global Television, W Network, Flavour Network, Home Network, The HISTORY® Channel, Showcase, Adult Swim, National Geographic and Global News, along with streaming platforms STACKTV, TELETOON+, the Global TV App and Curiouscast. Corus is also the domestic advertising representative and an original content partner for Pluto TV, a Paramount Company, which is the leading free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service. Corus is an internationally-renowned content creator, producer and distributor through Corus Studios and Nelvana. For more information visit SOURCE Corus Entertainment Inc. View original content:
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in TV: Toxic Town; Small Town, Big Story; Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October; Dope Girls
Toxic Town (Netflix)Small Town, Big Story (Sky Max)Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7 October (BBC Two) | iPlayerDope Girls (BBC One) | iPlayer Sometimes TV drama has a job to do: drag skeletons out of closets and let them rattle. So it is with Toxic Town, the four-part Netflix real-life drama from Jack Thorne, initially set in the mid-1990s, about industrial poisonings in 1980s/90s Corby, Northamptonshire that led to birth defects, including missing limbs. The son of outspoken Susan (Jodie Whittaker) has a hand affected; the daughter of gentle Tracey (Aimee Lou Wood) dies soon after birth. Maggie, played by Claudia Jessie from Bridgerton, has a son with a disfigured foot. Many others are born with abnormalities, caused by lethal dust irresponsibly churned up by the protracted and mishandled clean-up and redevelopment of a former steel plant in the 1980s and 90s, leading to a 2009 court case that set a legal precedent for a link between airborne toxins and birth defects. Corby is another character here – an area struggling to regenerate, with some people prepared to cut health and safety corners to ensure it does so. Scottish accents are everywhere (so many Scots settled in Corby, it was dubbed 'Little Scotland'). Toxic Town also features male acting powerhouses: Downton Abbey's Brendan Coyle as the council boss ('New Labour, new Corby'); Robert Carlyle as a whistleblowing councillor; Michael Socha and Joe Dempsie as fathers; Rory Kinnear as a dogged decent lawyer. At heart, though, Toxic Town is about working-class mothers who refuse to belt up. In a drama so steeped in maternal anger and grief, it's crucial that the women are convincing, and they are, in particular Whittaker as fiery, lairy Susan ('Keep your wig on!'). At times, exposition billows around almost as much as the noxious dust, and there's too much emphasis on woolly legal minutiae. Nor is it quite at the level of Mr Bates vs the Post Office, though (spoiler alert) it is stirring to witness the mothers win their case (even if, as stated in a postscript, no one faced criminal charges and there are still toxic landfills everywhere). Those concerns aside, Toxic Town emerges as a complex, devastating story told with heart. Respect for its subjects pours from the screen. What exactly is Small Town, Big Story, the new Sky Max series created, written and directed by Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd)? It's a comedy-drama about a Hollywood TV production invading the fictional Irish town of Drumbán to make a terrible Games of Thrones-esque fantasy series called I Am Celt. It also has a sci-fi element, with dead birds falling from the sky, and an incident involving a Hollywood producer (Christina Hendricks of Mad Men fame) and Drumbán doctor (Paddy Considine) back when they were teenage sweethearts. O'Dowd shows up as a rascally creative, but the cast is led by Hendricks and Considine, whose wheelchair-user teacher wife (Eileen Walsh) steals the show with her unabashed sexual antics. Elsewhere, much of the humour lies in the eccentricity of the locals, which gets a little wearing (it's funniest when it's character-based and dry). At the end of six episodes, STBS remains confusing – kind of an Irish Local Hero meets Seth Rogen's Paul – but at its best it's entertaining – and the fantasy show spoofing ('Oi am Celt!') is genuinely funny. Any chance Sky could make it for real? Documentarian Norma Percy is known for tackling huge, serious subjects (from The Death of Yugoslavia to Putin vs the West). Her new three-part BBC Two docuseries, Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7 October, largely focuses on the two decades leading up to the Hamas atrocities in Israel in 2023. Some may consider this too tight a time-frame for such a sprawling, labyrinthine subject, but it enables Percy to focus on her speciality: accessing central players and letting them speak. Interviewees include former prime ministers (Israel's Ehud Omert and Tony Blair) and also, controversially, Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh (the latter was assassinated weeks after his interview). Elsewhere, there are diplomats, politicians and former US secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. 'American secretaries of state are like moths to a flame when it comes to the Middle East,' observes Rice, wryly. You watch as sundry US presidents (Obama, Trump, Biden) attempt to help establish the two-state solution with Palestine's former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime ministers, including Ariel Sharon, Omert and Benjamin Netanyahu. As shown here, everything fails: from the time it is elected, Hamas refuses to recognise Israel as a state or lay down arms; in turn, there is the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank in violation of international law, and the bombing of the Al-Aqsa mosque. A torrent of reasons are aired, too numerous and complicated to list here. The events of 7 October barely feature, which feels jarring (especially considering the ongoing hostage situation), but then neither is there much on the bombing of Gaza. In the main, this is a docuseries that opts to stay impartial and maintain strict focus on the two decades of Middle Eastern and international politics. Percy's take isn't perfect (you sense she was overwhelmed with material and could have easily included a fourth instalment), but as a detailed, measured overview, it delivers. Having caught up with new BBC drama Dope Girls, I've learned that it's not the failed female Peaky Blinders I was expecting. Created and written by Polly Stenham and Alex Warren, it's set in London in the chaotic, violent aftermath of the first world war and focuses on women embracing lawlessness to set up a nightclub while a vicious Italian crime family hovers in the background. Delivering a tale of butchered bodies, drugs, occultism, sexual excess and more, the cast is strong: Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) is a mother driven to desperate lengths; Umi Myers plays an avant-garde dancer; Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects) is a dead-eyed undercover policewoman. Over six episodes, Dope Girls is scuppered repeatedly by grating production flourishes (scribblings on the screen, and the like) and overcooked symbolism (the first episode has Nicholson wandering around in angel wings like a festival teenager addled on CBD gummies). But the atmosphere is less Steven Knight, more Sarah Waters meets Angela Carter: left-field, dreamlike, female-centric, wild. Dope Girls can be overblown and messy, but it's also passionate and promising. Star ratings (out of five) Toxic Town ★★★★Small Town, Big Story ★★★Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October ★★★★Dope Girls ★★★ 1923(Paramount+) Much-anticipated second series return for Taylor Sheridan's gnarled, gritty western (a Yellowstone prequel), starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. David Frost Vs (Sky Documentaries) A fascinating retrospective series of excerpts from Frost interviews, in which he verbally spars with everyone from Muhammad Ali to the Beatles. One for fans of the classic 20th-century long-form television interview. Loch Ness: They Created a Monster(BBC Two) Offbeat documentary about 'Nessie' that's also about the people from all over the world, from scientific teams to eccentrics, who yearn to glimpse the beast of Scottish Highlands legend.
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Small Town, Big Story review – Christina Hendricks is terrifying in Chris O'Dowd's wacky Irish comedy
How much you enjoy Small Town, Big Story will depend on how you feel first about whimsy and second about genre mashups. If your appetite for both is large, then Chris O'Dowd's creation (he wrote and directed) has plenty to make you happy. If not, you might find the whole thing a little too underpowered to keep you going. Christina Hendricks, of Mad Men fame, plays hard-bitten TV producer Wendy Patterson. She is in charge of her first big Hollywood production and returns to her tiny home town of Drumbán in Northern Ireland (after 25 years in Los Angeles surrounded by fat-cat bosses and patronising colleagues) to shoot it there. This follows shenanigans by Drumbán's more colourful and eccentric characters to keep the location scouts from choosing a more tax-advantageous site across the border; these shenanigans include a pig's head on a stick and a sign saying 'Death to the infidels', which, you know … well, OK, all right. Not even so much from an offence-giving point of view but from an 'Is this remotely credible in this particular world?' position. Trying to keep the gang of misfits in order is, for some reason, the town GP, Séamus Proctor (Paddy Considine), a happily married man – unless he finds out about the affair his wife, Catherine (Eileen Walsh), is having with a fellow teacher – and leading a life of contentment until Wendy reappears. It is clear by the end of the first episode that they have history and by the end of the second episode, not exactly the history you might assume. Though there is a bit of that kind of history, too. ('I went for your tit,' Séamus recalls of their pivotal night in the woods on the eve of the millennium, 'and that move proved contentious.') There are lots of things jostling for the viewer's attention. An elderly patient who keeps warning the good doctor 'They're coming for you.' A fellow producer, Brad (Tim Heidecker), back in LA trying to undermine Wendy from afar. The mandatory comic scenes as local residents try out for parts as extras. The location scout Jules (Patrick Martins) falling for world-weary barmaid Shelly (Evanne Kilgallon) – though Jules himself is such an abject simpleton as to be wholly unemployable in the real world, and the necessary suspension of disbelief in the whole takes another knock. There is the terrible young football team whose unremitting badness Séamus (the coach) puts down to them all having been born the year the reservoir was poisoned by sheep carcasses. A gentle air of amusement pervades the episodes, with some nice touches strewn about (from the TV boss with an immunocompromised dog to Catherine's speech to her class about the difference between myth and legend). A certain charm begins to exert itself as a plot begins to cohere, too. Wendy and the crew become increasingly enmeshed with Drumbán life – especially once Wendy is forced to cast gym owner and would-be entrepreneur Jimmy (Sam C Wilson) in the starring role when her A-lister drops out. Jimmy is desperate to pay off his IVF bills and court cases of an unspecified nature after the failure of Big Jim's Jim-Jams ('Covid dampened people's spirits for two-person pyjamas') and is overjoyed by the prospect of fame and fortune. Brad does CrossFit with Armie Hammer's orthodontist and offers to see if he can get the blacklisted star on the comeback trail, but Wendy declines. The meat of the story, though, is in the relationship between Wendy and Séamus and his betrayal of her after the events in the woods, the ramifications of which forced her out of town. The comedy drama takes on better shape and heft around the question of how much we need to be believed and how cruel the world – and parents – can be if we are not. Now Séamus has a chance to right that wrong but at huge cost to himself. Does he owe it to his erstwhile girlfriend? Must we always tell the truth, no matter how absurd it sounds and when it can do us no good whatsoever? What if it's Christina Hendricks standing in front of you, alternately ice and fire, and equally terrifying in either mode? I don't think anyone would envy Séamus his choice. Small Town, Big Story airs on Sky Max and is available on Now
