TV and Culture Guide: What to Watch, Read and Listen to this May

The Idea of You

Prime Video
If you can’t make it to the cinema, Prime Video is streaming The Idea of You starring Anne Hathaway. Based on the love story of the same name by Robinne Lee, Anne plays a single mum who starts an unexpected relationship with a 24-year-old lead singer of a band.

Grey’s Anatomy

Disney+
The seemingly never-ending and binge-worthy medical drama Grey’s Anatomy is back (and streaming on Disney+ for the very first time), and it’s all hands on deck at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

Clarkson’s Farm

Prime Video
Season three of Clarkson’s Farm has come to Prime Video. This time he’s pig-rearing and jam-making at Diddly Squat and Kaleb Cooper (now promoted to farm manager) is there as always to offer a helping hand.

Bridgerton

Netflix
Lady Whistledown tells us part one of season three of Bridgerton is finally heading to Netflix on 16th May and we can’t wait! This time, at the centre of it all is Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and world traveler Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton).

Doctor Who

BBC One & BBC iPlayer
Doctor Who returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 11th May. For the first time ever two episodes will premiere on iPlayer at midnight so you can watch them before the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final (when we’ll be backing Harrogate-born Olly Alexander).

Read More: Up and Coming Yorkshire Filmmaker Ava Bounds on Her New Projects and Future Ambitions

We Loved

FERTILE GROUND
Sally Grey
Newcastle-based and Northallerton-born writer Sally Grey released her debut novel Fertile Ground in January and I was keen to get my hands on a copy. This suspenseful story had me gripped from the first chapter and the twists and turns had me feeling all sorts of emotions for Clementine Finch. Set in a terrifyingly convincing version of our future, Clementine is struggling with infertility in a world of overpopulation. Returning to her childhood home following the death of her parents she reconnects with her past, but when her brother arrives, paranoid about the wellness brand he works for, she discovers her mother’s hidden laboratory and begins to join up the dots of her legacy which could save so many lives. Read our interview with Sally here.

WE ARE NOT OURSELVES
Matthew Thomas
A touching multi-generational portrait of an Irish-American family’s struggle through the 20th century, and the unreachable goal of the American Dream. Born in 1941 to unstable parents in a tiny apartment in Queens, Eileen Tumulty does not suffer fools and longs to live a life of easy luxury. When she meets and falls in love with soft-hearted scientist Ed Leary, she soon realises their aspirations are not the same, and they must reckon with the life they’ve built together and the choices they have made, for better or worse.

THE ISLAND COTTAGE
Jane Lovering
Sent on a mission to tidy up and sell her great aunt’s cottage on the Orkney Islands, Brid Harcus plans on being in and out with minimal fuss – but the island seems to have other ideas. Between the cottage needing some serious TLC, including dealing with a rather belligerent family of geese, and the locals who are convinced that she must be the Orkney Witch, Brid starts to realise this cottage is more than she bargained for. But is it all a waste of her time? Or can Brid find her own piece of magic in the wilderness of Scotland?

Personal Podcasts

ALL THERE IS
Tough but so worthwhile, this podcast from CNN journalist Anderson Cooper is a heartfelt examination of real stories of grief and how we can all share in the same pain. Each episode, Anderson interviews a person who has experienced a loss, including late night TV host Stephen Colbert who lost his father and two brothers at the age of 10.

GLAMOROUS TRASH
Give this podcast a try for a fun and relaxed listen, as the host and her friends go over celebrity memoirs searching for meaning and providing some much-needed cultural context. Start with the episode on Julia Fox, pop culture icon and ex-girlfriend of Kanye West.

FOUNDERS
Learn from the greatest entrepreneurs in history. Each week, the host finds ideas and lessons from biographies of great thinkers and doers that you can implement into your life. We recommend jumping in with episode 326, on the rise and success of Vogue editor, Anna Wintour.