TV Time Machine #1: September 1998: Who Wants to be a Millionaire, The Royle Family, Supply & Demand, Ally McBeal.

In the first episode of a brand new podcast, the team from The Custard TV Podcast, jump into a 'Time Machine' to travel back in time to a different year of TV to look at the BIG popular shows with a more critical eye and discover shows they've never seen which, in some cases, shows that have been completely lost to time. It's also a chance to revisit different times in their lives. For the first episode, Matt and Luke travel to September 1998. ITV launches a brand new and innovative game show which offered, for the first time, contestants the chance to win the biggest cash prize ever given away on British television. One Million Pounds! Hosted by Chris Tarrant, Matt and Luke uncover the first episode of the series to see how it compares to the show which is still running on ITV and across the world in different versions, and why it became such a phenomenon in the late '90s. Meanwhile on BBC2, Caroline Aherne, still riding high from the success of Mrs. Merton, joins forces with colleague and close friend Craig Cash to quietly revolutionise the 'sitcom' with The Royle Family. On ITV, the autumn drama season launches with Supply and Demand. To be fair, the show from accalimed writer Lynda La Plante, actually had a pilot episode the year before in 1997, but in 1998 it launched properly. Largely forgotten, the series follows a team tasked with stopping illegal drugs from getting into the UK. Starring Larry Lamb, Martin Kemp and with a truly bizarre lead performance from Miriam Margolyes, is the show actually good or does it serve as an interesting look at a particular era of British drama? Lastly, a show that had a show that had BIG impact when it launched in the US and on Channel 4 in the UK. But has David E. Kelley's legal drama Ally McBeal aged well and why has it faded from the conversation 25 years after its debut? 5 hours ago