Insiders: The TV Podcast

TV Insiders Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville are joined by Channel 4's Head of Comedy Charlie Perkins to discuss the importance of comedy for a channel identity, monetising comedy on YouTube, SNL's budget, talent deals and how hit comedies can prove a good investment years after their first release.

Topics discussed:

Channel 4's sitcom commissions

Comedy + YouTube

SNL UK

New comedy talent

Producer's rights

Monetising comedy on You...

TV Insiders Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville debate whether it’s coming home after 60 years of hurt in this 2026 World Cup episode that covers The Rest Is Football’s lucrative Netflix deal, extortionate live sport paywalls, and nostalgic chat about previous world cups. 

Topics discussed:

• England winning the World Cup in 1966
• The Rest Is Football Netflix series
• World Cup Coverage tussles between BBC and ITV
• Are s...

TV Insiders Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville debate the BBC's controversial Sarah Everard drama and whether a man should be writing it, explore how the Married at First Sight UK fallout could threaten Love Island, and confirm your suspicions: your favourite TV shows DO keep disappearing for longer and longer…

Topics discussed:

• The 400 female screenwriters who signed an open letter against the BBC commissioning Jeff Pop...

TV Insiders Jimmy Mulville and Peter Fincham discuss whether Euphoria is on its final series, how to end a TV hit properly, why killing off characters can backfire, how prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are spoiling reality TV shows like Survivor, and what the BBC can learn from YouTube.

They also talk about:

• The Bear and Emily in Paris announcing their final series
• The endings of Derry Girls and The Sopranos compa...

TV Insiders Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville are joined by Michael Grade to talk about the challenges facing new BBC Director General Matt Brittin, questions asked of Channel 4 after allegations made about Married at First Sight UK and Blackadder, Doctor Who, Father Ted and more!

In this episode:

• What the new BBC Director General needs to do first, and why coming in from the outside can be a strength
• Why Michael Grade thinks t...

TV Insiders Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville tackle Eurovision's biggest controversy yet, the BBC getting called out at the BAFTA TV awards, and why Wordle could actually work as a prime-time TV show.

In this episode:

• Why Eurovision 2026 final has been marred by the row over Israel’s inclusion and why the contest has become more political than ever
• The BBC’s handling of the Gaza: Doctors Under Attack BAFTA speech a...

TV Insiders Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville break down Helena Bonham Carter’s shock exit from The White Lotus Season 4, discuss the huge Celebrity Traitors line-up and celebrate Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday.

In this episode:

•The White Lotus announcement from HBO and what “creative differences” actually means in television

•The surprising omission from the Celebrity Traitors cast

•Why the BBC sti...

Peter and Jimmy catch up on Expectation’s new gameshow pilot, as well as Jimmy’s attendance at a charity event for the Andy Taylor Foundation, before turning to the week’s TV news.

They discuss the cancellation of Football Focus after 52 years on our screens, and what it says about how audiences now consume football content.

From there, they debate whether an AI editing technique used on a TV show should hav...

Peter and Jimmy bid farewell to Ian Katz, the outgoing Chief Content Officer at Channel 4, reflecting on what really happens when a top TV executive steps down before answering listener questions. 

They unpack who really holds creative power in TV versus film — from auteur directors and “final cut” culture in Hollywood to why, in television, producers and writers often overrule directors in the edit. They ...

This week, Peter and Jimmy discuss Christopher Eccleston’s claim that TV executives think audiences are “stupid”, and swap war stories from the front line of tricky commissioning meetings.

Later, they chat about the actors and producers in the US rallying together to oppose the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger. They then set about unpicking the BBC’s announcement of 2,000 job cuts, a hiring freeze, and th...

This week, Peter and Jimmy ask whether the arrival of HBO Max might be nudging us all dangerously close to peak demand for subscription services. Does the subscription model thrive as much on inertia as it does on the content they offer? And is that really sustainable? 

We talk revisionism when it comes to the question of what’s acceptable on television, and ask what are the shows that we love today that we’ll o...

Jimmy and Peter are joined by former Director General Greg Dyke as he talks the highs and lows of his time running the BBC, and what advice he’d give to Matt Brittin as he prepares to take on the top job.

During his 4 years as DG, Dyke oversaw huge changes at every level of the organisation, from the birth of the iPlayer to a concerted effort to make the BBC less London-centric. But it was the row with the government over...

This week, Peter and Jimmy discuss the challenges that lie ahead for Matt Brittin as he’s (finally) confirmed as the next DG. While he’s doubtless a vastly able and experienced corporate leader, his in-tray already looks unenviable. We wish him well. 

The British iteration of SNL launched last weekend. There was a bit of sniping from the critics, but it was fundamentally a really strong start, and a very funny s...

Jimmy and Peter are joined by broadcaster and soon-to-be media entrepreneur Amol Rajan to talk about the smaller but even more important future for the BBC, the rise of the creator economy and why YouTube versus Netflix is the media battle of our age.

They also unpack what it takes to build a media company in 2026, from audience-first thinking to monetisation challenges, and why individual creators are becoming more powerful tha...

Jimmy kicks us off with his tales from the Writers Guild Awards in New York and the feeling on the ground around David Ellison’s takeover of Paramount and the future of CNN. Then, Peter outlines the BBC’s latest ideas as to how it will fund itself in the streaming age where licence fee evasion costs the BBC more than £1 billion a year.

Later, they discuss what we can learn from the end of Meghan Markle’s partnershi...

Jimmy and Peter unpack the Banijay / All3Media merger, and ask what the creation of a €4.4bn mega indie with some 170 creative labels across 25 countries could mean for the rest of the sector. 

As Paramount prevail over Netflix in the battle for Warner Bros Discovery, we discuss what the future holds for Warner’s output - not least Donald Trump’s bete noire CNN.  

And we talk all things BBC, an...

Jimmy and Peter welcome Lisa McGee into the studio, creator of the BAFTA and Emmy-winning Derry Girls and the writer behind Netflix’s new comedy-drama How to Get to Heaven from Belfast.

Lisa explains how she moved from pure sitcom into mystery, how writers’ rooms are now her preferred way to work and why music is so central to her storytelling, even when the rights negotiations get painful.

Together, they also dis...

Jimmy and Peter chat about whether the music industry’s rights-roll-up model could ever work for television after a listener question about untapped TV archive potential. From there they tackle the thorny question of how channels like Sky still run adverts on premium subscription channels and what that says about the future of ad-funded TV. They also unpack the latest BBC cost-cutting plans ahead of charter negotiat...