The Rest Is Entertainment - The Adolescence Director Answers Your Questions

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

We're pulling back the curtain of Netflix's biggest drama of the year - Adolesence. In a show first, we've spoken to director Philip Barantini and Director of Photography Matt Lewis to answer your questions about the incredible cast, techincal challenges and that infamous drone shot. Join The Rest Is Entertainment Club for ad free listening and access to bonus episodes: www.therestisentertainment.com Sign up to our newsletter: www.therestisentertainment.com Twitter: @‌restisents Instagram: @‌restisentertainment YouTube: @‌therestisentertainment Email: [e-mail] Producers: Neil Fearn + Joey McCarthy Assistant Producer: Aaliyah Akude Video Producer: Jake Liascos Executive Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport The Rest Is Entertainment is proudly presented by Sky. Sky is home to award-winning shows such as The White Lotus, Gangs of London and The Last of Us. Visit Sky.com to find out more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are delighted to announce that our good friends at Sky are once again proud partners of the rest as entertainment. We are extremely delighted Marina. Sky has a huge 2025 planned and they're excited to share their unrivaled range of entertainment which has never been easier to discover. And there is no better way to enjoy their selection of new shows and films than by using SkyTV. SkyOS powers the SkyTV experience and it lets you control your SkyTV with your voice so you can find your favourite shows and movies from Sky and the other apps without lifting a finger, my favourite way. Oh, I love not lifting a finger, I love not lifting a finger. Just say hello Sky, followed by what you want to watch, who you want to see and it will be on your screen before you know it.

Without having to lift a finger you can get all your favourite entertainment quickly with both Sky shows and other apps in one place. Visit sky.com to find out more. Now streaming. What do you know about the happy face killer? He's my father. It's so good to see you, Missy. Experience the thrilling new series. He said he killed another woman. Inspired by a true life story. If I don't deal with him he will never leave us alone. You don't see how the words sing to you. Annaleigh Ashford Hello and welcome to this special Questions and answers edition of The Rest Is Entertainment with me, Marina Hyde. And me, Richard Osmond. It is special, isn't it? It is.

We spoke on Tuesday a little bit about adolescence. I don't think there's ever been a show that came out where we've had more questions from listeners who wanted to know lots of the technical aspects. I mean, so much stuff they wanted to know. So we thought we would do a special all about adolescence today. Can I just say, I do think that that's amazing that apart from being this thing that everyone is talking about the issues raised and what sort of national conversation that is starting, people who don't normally comment on how television is made, how the sausage is made at all, are really fascinated by because of the one shot technique, how it's done, how it was achieved.

I think it's like absolutely mainstream people going now, how on earth did they do that? Which by the way listeners to this podcast already do about a lot of things. It's fascinating stuff. We put your questions to Philip Berrentini who is the director and to Matt Lewis who's the director of photography. Put those questions to them. We've got lots of their answers coming up. Whole episode is just about adolescence. The spoilers, I mean a few probably. So I would say maybe watch it if you were if you want to watch it. But really, really hope you enjoy it. The first question we put to them is from Charlotte Green. How on earth did you find Owen Cooper, who was

the star of this thing, the young kid who's extraordinary? How did you find him? What was that process? And also, how did he learn all of those lines? How did he get everything done given the whole thing was shot in one take? Yeah, well, I'd received hundreds and hundreds of tapes through Shaheen Bagar, wonderful casting director. One of the first things I asked for was just an improvised moment of two sort of ideas. One of them was you've been brought into your head teacher's office

and you're guilty of something. And then the other scenario was that you were innocent of this thing, right? And I just wanted to see how they played it. Owen was someone who just was so real and so natural. And it's quite rare to see that in an actor, especially in auditions. And I think he just didn't really have any preconceptions about what acting was he'd done some acting classes and you know he was doing it for fun really we got him in and we put him through his paces really we gave me he had like five auditions and a couple of those were with Steven and towards the end of the of the of the process it just, every time he came in,

he just absolutely nailed it. And I sort of, you know, I would give him more and more things to do. And, you know, Matt even came in on one of the screen tests with Steven and filmed it. And we were all just like, as he left, we were just like, oh yeah, this kid is like different level, different level, you know.

So it was really special, yeah. He didn't know the full scope of what he would have to learn. You know, along the way I was saying to them, you know, this is gonna be all shot in one take. And I don't think he understood, he didn't quite grasp what that meant because he'd never worked before, you know.

When he finally got the script, you know, we sort of worked with him quite a lot and, you know, we sort of we got a wonderful sort of acting coaching to come and help him to sort of learn his lines, not to coach him in the acting side of it, but to help him to sort of get these lines in his head and, you know, just to be able to get off the page. But you know what, he was an absolute natural. The first day we came onto set, we shot episode three first due to Steven's schedule. The first day he came on set, we all sat around the table

and we sort of just, we're gonna go through the script and get the script off the page, read it. We all had our scripts in our hand. Aaron had a script in our hand. All the other actors had their scripts in their hand. And Owen just came in and he had a script, he put it on the table and he just went, he just did it. It was mind blowing.

He does what most actors train for most of their lives, which is to be real, be natural, be, you know, in the moment and just, and listen. It's so important to just listen as an actor and listen and respond naturally in the moment. And he just does that instinctively, like, you know, to, to the, to the point where, you know, I give him notes and I wouldn't think that he was taking these notes in. I was like, I don't know whether he's actually taking all that in. And he then he'd go and smash out to take and you'd be like, whoa, what did I do?

I'm just like, yeah, it was mind blowing, mind blowing. It was so exciting to watch. I've never been so excited about watching an actor. I'm not watching, certainly with episode three, I'm watching, I forget sometimes that I'm supposed to be making notes and checking on it because I'm so engrossed in it and I mean it. I was like, you know, so I have to watch it back again straight away.

Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. I think that, I mean, he's so unbelievably phenomenal. It's really interesting. So many skills in actually the arts or whatever do actually involve when you achieve peak level of it, it is unlearning all the sort of bad habits and, you know, that you achieve peak level of it is unlearning all the sort of bad habits and you know that the artifice really of it all and it's so

interesting that he hadn't worked as they described it hadn't worked very much beforehand so that you you don't have all that you haven't accrued all those kind of bad habits and the fakery of it really. Yeah that idea of saying we're doing it in one take and again yeah sorry is that not how is that not how you make telly. What's the take? Philip Barentino would never say this you've got to be a great director to get that sort of performance from someone as well it takes an awful lot of sensitivity from a director to

understand who you're talking to how to speak to that person what it is you want from the script how to get that across to somebody any actor will tell you working with a great director makes you a better actor but how many directors are gonna want to work with him it's such a you know it is it's a it's a risk of the problem of working with children and animals that guy can carry your movie he's gonna he's gonna win every award going isn't he I hope so like James Morgan and about 970 others said everyone's talking about the drone shot and going over to the murder site at this is the end of episode 2 how did

they do it and one wasn't one of the first things they decided and based everything else off it? It seems very smooth but I imagine technically it was really difficult. Yeah, we also wanted to get a bit more into the background of how that shot even came about as a possibility. It was my idea because it was a suggestion in order to replace an existing beat which was essentially that the camera moved down a street at eye level and I was a little concerned that that would read as a person moving and obviously we're talking about yes the camera is a character but it needs to only be motivated

by people. If you're going to detach from the characters it sort of feels like it has to be at the end of the piece because it signifies an ending, it signifies a change. I didn't know we could do it to be honest. I thought it'd be amazing if we could take off and fly away and use the motivation of someone crossing the road to fly us away to over the crime scene. Each episode would have its own three week block. So we'd do two weeks rehearsal, and then we'd do the shoot week.

So the shoot week would be five days. We'd shoot it twice every day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, right? So we were doing the takeoffs happy with some of them, you know what I mean? We didn't have the take that we were fully happy with, we were like, okay, we've still got a few days. It was Wednesday, right? Wednesday of the shoot week, we still weren't happy. Then Toby Bentley, who's our executive at Netflix, spoke to Mark Herbert, one of the other producers from warp and was like, I think we should have Stephen in this episode somewhat somewhere. Would it be possible that we could like Stephen could be at the murder site and we can like

maybe I don't know, could we potentially land the drone and is it probably a stupid idea? But I don't know, maybe not. And then Mark came to me and was like, Toby was asked if we could, what about this idea? And maybe in my brains, instead of saying, no, we're not doing that, it's ridiculous. I was like, oh my God, Matt, Matt, we need to land the drone, we need to land the drone, we need to try it at least. I think Matt probably, did you cry?

I think you probably cried. I'm getting PTSD from it. I mean, I get, I totally understand the suggestion. It was just at the time, obviously we were, I knew we didn't have an episode in the back yet. We were mid shoot. We were on the shoot week of a very sort of like a very planned piece. There's not a lot of room for changes. So yeah, part of me wanted to absolutely freak out, but obviously we knew there was a possibility that we could. So we explored it and we spent a little bit of time

where we essentially replaced one of our takes. I think what was it? No, it must have been Wednesday. It was Wednesday morning's take. We replaced with rehearsal of that of the landing. So we all sort of like went over to that crime scene and we tried to suss out how we would approach this, make sure it's smooth. The coming down was really tricky because a drone when it's moving really fast can kind of cut through the wind and apparently Pontefract is a really windy place. So when it moves fast, it's fine. But then when it slows down and it has to descend, you sort of you start to feel that sort of almost like a leaf falling from a tree that sort of zigzag it can create. So and we got the issue of the drone had to be controlled on it then

on a moving vehicle because the range wasn't long enough from the school. It was always going to cut out. So, so all of the, so the, the wheels for the gimbal were on the tracking vehicle and the controls for the drone was our pilot was also on the tracking vehicle as well. So, um, and that came, that just stayed sort of underneath the drone the whole time coming in. And then, and then me and the camera team, um, yeah, me, the focus puller, my loader who was controlling the exposure and two grips would came, hopped into a van and we'd drive down the road and park in the car park

and then get out and catch the drone. So it was just, it was rehearsing that. And we got to a point where it was working, it was a little tricky and Phil knows I was terrified because I was like, this is obviously it's a gamble. If it pays off, it's amazing. If it doesn't, I was a bit scared that the episode would, we wouldn't get it because it's so critical. And I was like this is obviously it's a gamble if it pays off It's amazing if it doesn't I was a bit scared that the episode would we wouldn't get it because it's so critical and obviously all of this is happening at the end of a 50-minute one already and we've done all of the other stuff. We've done stunts. We've done kids having a fight We've gone down all of these corridors and done all these things So it was it was you know, it was nerve-racking it came down to the Friday because basically the Thursday It was super windy. We couldn't really take off even, I think. I think it was a no-go.

We had to change the ending. We made like a little ending at the end where Stephen was near the school and all that. It worked enough, but it wasn't the ending that everyone wanted. So then it came down to Friday, came down to the last day. And so the morning take, I sort of slightly, I don't know if I threw my toys out of the pram or I put my foot down, but I was just like, I think we need to get safety here, like one where we just take off the drone, but we don't come into land, just so that we've got one in the bag, because I was just worried that the wind was still on the cusp of it being, you know, too much and they said, yeah, let's do it. So we got that.

And so there is a take where that happens and it works. That was when I cried, Phil, because I knew we got the episode at least, you know, we got it, we got something in and it was obviously still really good. But then we managed to get the second take of that day, the very last one we did was the landing of the drone and we got it in that one as well and therefore it was the winner. But yeah, quite the experience. Okay, well now I am 100% having an anxiety dream. technical achievements of the year are SpaceX catching that, you know, space rocket in the chopsticks. Yeah, and

that and that. There's not a lot to choose between them in terms of the achievements of humankind. But how love it, you know, it's fascinating that they've they've got about four separate endings there because they've they've they took off once they've done a shot with Stephen Graham near near the school. And then they finally get the thing that they've got about four separate endings there because they took off once, they've done a shot with Stephen Graham nearer the school and then they finally get the thing that they want which is, you know, just desserts for all the work that they put in. But that again, imagine they do that and then Stephen Graham sneezes. You're like, no, it's fine Stephen and listen, let's do, we'll go again. That's incredible. The craft, the art and the craft at the same time. Now I had a

question I was fascinated with. I spoke on Tuesday show about Pat Nunn, who did the sound on the EastEnders Live special and just talking to him and understanding what an unbelievable undertaking that was. So essentially I asked the question, how much did the crew obsess over making sure every battery pack on every actor was fully charged? That's my way into saying, Oh my God, this must have been a technical nightmare for everyone behind the scenes. I mean, I'm sure they did sound, yeah, I bet. Because there were so many, wasn't there?

I mean, everyone was laughed at. Especially on episode two, everyone was laughed at. I mean, that set up for the sound team and the camera team, to be able to move through that school was immense. Like, I'm pretty sure they, I can't remember the type of cable in that they brought in, but it was like, I don't know, military grade cable and not something like that.

I don't know. Is that for the video transmission or the? No, yeah, video and the sound team. Oh yeah. It was mega. Yeah, it was good. With video we had, because obviously we're moving between all these classrooms

and we're in sort of loads of concrete walls everywhere like you know, basically just absolutely end game for most kind of like receivers. We had to place receivers all over the school and hardwire them all back to one room, the room that Phil was in where Video Village was. So that was that in itself took about two weeks. That was the entire rehearsal, the video team were rigging that just to make sure it was, that it would work. And then they would like, you know, switch between all of the channels and find the strongest signal. Yeah. Episode one, basically the convoy that goes up to the house before they arrest Jamie,

the convoy of police, there's a police van in there. We dressed our video village van as a police van so we could be in shot and also be in range as well. And so that was episode one. Episode two, I was in one of the classrooms in the school, just sat there watching it on the monitors. Episode three, we should be shot in a studio, we built that set in a studio. So that was, I was just in the studio there. And then episode four, again, we were in that same van, but we just took all the police stickers off it and turned it into

our video village van and we were just following Eddie's van and yeah it was you know at times you would be it was like we'd we'd in the rehearsals and stuff like that we would lose signal a little bit so we had to like find the positions where the van could be so we could get the best signal and then sometimes when we were in the house they'd have to hard wire the van in and then they'd have to unplug the wire before we take off. But all of these things are going on. Honestly, the amount of people and the amount of hard work that everyone put in and effort and skill to create this mind blowing to me.

Because I'm watching the monitor and I'm across everything, but I can't be across everything. I don't know everyone's job. I don't ever claim to know everyone's job. I don't ever claim to know everyone's job. I'm so interested in, you know, like, for example, I just say, you know, this is where I want to watch it from. And then suddenly I'm able to watch it. You know what I mean? And hundreds of people are doing their jobs, like effortlessly to make this work. And that was the

beauty of this show was, you know, when we were talking and interviewing people about to give them jobs or whatnot, it was so important that we explained to them what we were doing. And if there's any seed of doubt, which there was on a few people, and I don't think it was doubt in terms of like, you're never going to be able to do it. It was more a case of like, oh, not sure whether that's possible or maybe we have to, then it's not the job for them. And then someone else would come in and you'd be like, this is what we want to do. And they'd be like, oh my God, you could try this or this is how you should, you know, and it was, that was the sort of family that we, that we created. And it really

was a family, you know. I think that's so interesting. When you, often people think that the director of course has sort of worked their way up and knows what absolutely every single person there does. They don't actually. It works because it's like a sort of, it's sort of almost like a highly regimented society. It's a fully functional society in which all the little cogs are spinning in the right way when it's something flawless like this. And it is extraordinary how everyone functions together. They are highly functional environments. I wish they'd remake the British state.

You rely on your heads of department a great deal. And so the director, everything the director wants goes through those heads of department, as I say, for setting up the video village, you know, there's someone who's in charge of that. But you know, so Philip will talk to the sound people, the head of sound will then have a team of 30, 40, 50 people. And that is their director. That is the person they listen to. And when Philip changes his mind, they have to go back. But that's the director for all of the sound stuff. And they do what they're told. And everyone, you know, is offering up solutions. It's such an incredible ecosystem. As you say, the director has got this overall vision, but absolutely has to rely on these incredible heads of department. And I loved when he said this, the people who offered up solutions, people who got excited by it because excitement and nerves are very similar things in this, in this context.

I think those were the people who are like, oh, come on, listen, we might as well. Should we take a quick advert break? I can listen to Philip and Matt all day, but we'll do a quick advert break. Well, we're cutting here for a moment. Oh, that's clever. This episode is brought to you by Sky, where you can watch unmissable shows such as the new season of Gangs of London, the BAFTA-winning Emmy nominated series starring Joe Cole, Michelle Fairley and Shopee DeRisou.

Now, Richard, in season three chaos erupts after a spiked drugs shipment floods the streets, killing hundreds of civilians. But here is the twist. I mean, it sounds like a big enough twist twist already but you know I love a twist. I know you love a twist. Despite shipment it wasn't an accident. It was a planned and calculated attack. Oh my god, knowing what I do about TV crime and writing and all that sort of stuff, I suspect this is just the beginning.

Correctamundo. I love your catchphrase. So bring me and maybe anyone listening up to speed who hasn't seen the first two seasons of Gangs of London. People absolutely love this show. In the first two seasons we saw the battle for power between Sean and Elliot. Let's not forget he's an undercover cop. It came to a climactic head with Sean's now in prison at the start of season three. Now the aftermath of all of that has sparked a brutal power struggle right across the capital's underworld. We're talking tested loyalties, shifting alliances, unexpected betrayals. Who can be trusted? Elliot, who we've seen

fight very hard to obtain power, struggles to hold onto it while behind bars, Sean is still able to wield influence and effect events outside the prison walls, meaning the various gangs are looking over their shoulders, not knowing who to trust. In my books, I have a drug dealer called Connie Johnson, who's always in prison, but she's always got like an espresso machine and her wifi is absolutely sensational. I cannot wait to see what unfolds. Generally, so many people have told me about this show. Watch season three of the BAFTA winning Sky Original Gangs of London on Sky right now. Welcome.

I'm Sarah Churchwell, author, journalist and academic. And I'm David Aldoushoga, historian and broadcaster. And together, we're the hosts of Goalhanger's latest podcast, Journey Through Time. We're going to be looking at hidden social histories behind famous chapters from the past. Like, what was it like to actually live during Prohibition? Or to have been there on the ground for the Great Fire of London? We'll be uncovering it all. And we'll have characters and stories that have been forgotten, but shouldn't have been. This week, we've got one of my favorites, Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for US President,

Woodhull, the first woman to run for US president all the way back in 1872, 50 years before American women could even vote. She was also the first woman to address Congress and to open a brokerage on Wall Street where she made a fortune. It's an incredible story, but it is also full of contradictions. She was a trailblazing woman in politics, but later in life she also turned to the pseudoscience of eugenics. So join us on Journey Through Time and hear a clip from the Victoria Woodhull story at the end of this episode.

Come back now, Isaac King and many others ask. While the show is amazingly done in one take I imagine there were parts that had to be cleaned up in post-production using some subtle tricks. At the end of the first episode, the laptop's important to the story. Was the video it plays edited in after to make sure it played on cue? What would happen if it was in sleep mode and needed a passcode? I mean, we've all been there. The laptop's real.

The laptop's real. We actually shot the stuff on the laptop. We shot that two weeks before we started the shoot. So we did like a pre-shoot that and also the fight that Jamie has in when, when Erin is looking at the monitor when, when he's been having a fight and he's punching that kid on the floor, that was all shots on the same day. So I think we shot like a night shoot, wasn't it? And we just went out to the car park. That's all real, you know, that's the because my one of my things is and Matt's the same as well as like, I want the actors to be able to I don't want the actors to have to look at a green screen, especially in a one take they need to be real. It needs everything needs to be real and functional and I'm working,

you know, that you almost need to forget that they're in a set or, you know, because we built the police station, we built the, we built the secure training center. But when you're in it, it, the tiny, tiny details, you know, attention to detail was key. There's so many factors that could have gone wrong. And a couple of things did, you know, there was a, there was a couple of moments. Go on, Matt, you want to say something? I was going to say every time that laptop came out in that at the end of that episode I was like, please hit the spacebar and it play

I don't think it never it never didn't like they're all over it Props and all that but but it was just like because imagine you do all of that and then it just doesn't play It would it would have been awful But and you're right there is so many there was so many things like little details the lift doors not opening it's not a real lift obviously we just go in and then we walk through it but that happened on one take oh it did that's what's in my head yeah they got stuck yeah they got stuck yeah just what it got stuck but like obviously and that no one would think oh that would be an issue but there's some there's two people pulling the doors open because you know it's not real so.

I had a question as well which we spoke on Tuesday about actors with theatre experience and I just wondered how many of the cast of this had theatre experience and how useful that was to the director and the DOP. Yeah it was I mean it's important because know, there's the two disciplines are very different, you know, in a way you've got with theater, it's about, you know, projecting and being bigger and sort of, you know, I mean, a lot of theater nowadays is like film acting, but it was important to find people who could have that

discipline and also have the stamina to do this, you know, in one take. It's nerve wracking. It's incredibly nerve wracking. So you obviously don't want to be the one who messes up. But one of the things I did say to all the actors when we were auditioning them, you know, I actually like it when actors fluff their lines, they style it out and make you feel like it was meant to happen or, you know, even if it wasn't meant to happen, they just

style it out. They're not like, oh, no, sorry, can we go again? I've messed up. You know what I mean? Give them the, give them the, give them the sort of confidence to be like, okay, it's okay to mess up and the other actors got my back and they're going to pick it up for me. You know, it's, it's, it's important that you give actors that, that sort of confidence and, and, and, you know, to be able to play a little bit as well and have fun with it and not feel like they're restricted to exactly what's said in the script. You know, we'd go through, you know,

the script and talk about how would you say that? Like, for example, with Owen, there's certain things in there that, you know, you were in the script and I'd say, me and Steve would be like, would you say that? And he's like, no, I wouldn't say it like that. Well, how would you say it then? And he'd say it how he would say it.

And he'd be like, well, that's how, that's how Jamie's gonna say it then, you know. Matt is also a character because he has to be there with them and what is amazing about Matt is, and I'm gonna blow smoke up his backside because I think he's, cover your ears. We worked together since day one and what Matt is, he is so empathetic

and so, you know, he will feel the emotion and he will really instinctively find the right moment. So, but if something was to change, if an actor did something differently, Matt wasn't, again, he wasn't fluffing his lines. He was in it and just so, you know, instinctive. And you could tell it a few times and it adds some so a good actor can add to the naturalness of their performance. A couple of times you can see especially in that episode three moments where they started saying the wrong thing and stopped and said the right thing or the response to what they said was using different words to the

thing that they had just said. There's just a few moments and I'd be fascinated at some point to take Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne's script and put it up against what's actually on screen and see what percentage made it. I'd imagine a very, very large percentage but there's always the odd bit and bob again that comes from being a theatre actor. You know that you have a little bit of leeway if you get the wrong word or two words in the wrong order and you've got a good actor working alongside you that the two of you can find can find your way through it and find your way back. I did read Ashley Walter saying he messed up one time and that would be my watching it. I was just thinking the fear I'm probably

going to have an anxiety dream about messing up one of these takes when you just see how many are involved in everything. The idea that you're messing up and say you're messing up that half day with this. Yeah, you're spending millions of pounds on each episode. The whole crew are there and it's like kind of 5pm and everyone's thinking, maybe we get to go home after this and you're kind of 47 minutes through the episode and you're like, oh don't. But that's the beauty of the whole thing because we sense that all the way through and the fact that they took those pains makes this a proper work of art. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Sky. Now Marina, regular listeners will know that

one of our favorite parts of Skyglass or Skystream is the voice control. It saves us a ton of time scrolling through lists of shows or moving between apps. I love this. Well because of that and because we loved it last year with Sky is the return of Say It To Play It. You have missed that reverb, haven't you? Now, Sky's voice control really is as simple as it sounds. If you love an actor, but maybe you can't remember what else they've been in, you can simply say their name into your remote and everything they're in will appear before you.

For you then, Marina, you could say, for example, I'm trying to think of an actor that Glenn Powell, you could say, I don't know why I picked him. To pluck a name? Suddenly everything he's in will appear across Sky, Netflix, Disney+, iPlayer, everything. I'd want to see Hitman again. If you haven't seen it, it's Richard Lincoln later. Okay, Glenn Powell is a fake Hitman. What is not to love? He's in a caper.

It's funny. That's what I'd call for. Although any of his huge body of work would be fantastic to watch. I prefer a fake Hitman to a real hitman You can also say for example Fulham FC headlines highlights YouTube clips all sorts We can watch one of the many many many goals. We've scored this season in our Quest to finish ninth and if you're really stuck for something to watch simply say what should I watch and sky will bring you Top picks just for you based on your viewing habits.

Now I actually did this and I was very pleased. It should, no, it showed me season one of The Last of Us, which of course I've watched, but season two is coming up. And therefore I thought, huh, I will rewatch the last episode. But this is the burden of the modern TV viewer that you wanna be right on top of it when it restarts. And a burden that Sky Streamer and Skyglass take from you.

And it brings together everything you might watch across all the Sky channels, the movie collections, Sky Sports, all that stuff. This technology genuinely feels like magic. If you fancy watching all this great stuff, you can add all of your favourite movies and suggestions to your own personal playlist on Sky TV. Head to sky.com to find out more. Samuel Bennett's got a question about the sort of technical kit to shows like when they're trying something different like this, need special kit, new lenses, new cameras, whatever

to make that to make it all work. Yeah, we did loads of testing, absolutely loads of testing. And the camera that came on top was the Ronin 4D, which is the sort of the chicken camera as it was got a little z axis and a smaller gimbal and you hold it by two grips on either side. Effectively because it's small enough to hold in front of you. You can pass it to another operator which was huge because all the other systems were so large that you could barely fit through a doorway or you had to strap to someone because it's too heavy. It limits you physically whereas something that small you can sort of move it between people and it does so much the movement

And that was the the priority obviously there's small like image limitations with it The lens choice was weird because obviously once you're in it you this is your one perspective and ideally I I mean I felt like maybe we could have changed lens between episodes and being on something slightly different But the second we shot the first episode it was like or rather the third one So we did that one first. I was like this is the point of shot the first episode it was like, or rather the third one, so we did that one first. I was like, this is the point of view if we change it, it's strange. Like if there's an audience expectation of what the world looks like, I think if we changed it per episode it would have felt entirely different. And it really, it was a 32 mil cook sp3 and we came to that decision because any wider and we saw too much ceiling,

so we started to see booms, lights, you name it, it was probably there. You also get like, I mean you had a nice sense of movement from it but it was, it was you know, your close-ups don't look quite so nice because everyone's faces have got a little bit more of a fish eye effect to them and then we could have gone tighter. The next one in was 50mm but then imagine how nauseating that could have been in some sections when you're cropping the image into this sort of smaller area and you're whizzing around it would have been super dizzying so so 32 and it was always like a 35 or so what I was thinking and that was what was on that set so so yeah that was that was how we

settled on it just just trial and error running around an empty warehouse before they built the set sort of playing with it and filming Phil sat on a chair in the middle of a warehouse and getting a sense of movement with it really. When you try something new actually the technology really sort of catches up with you. That's the one of the beauties on these things. That's why some people love working on them because they get to try something they haven't tried before. And you see the glee sometimes on people's faces because they just invented something that people are going to use for the next 10, 20 years. Alex Brown says at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks

on me when I saw Brad Pitt was listed as an executive producer. Was this a vanity credit or did he play some sort of bigger behind the scene role that hasn't been spoken about? He was going to come to the shoot, but I think he was busy on F1 because he was in town. But no, I mean, Brad, Brad, listen to me. Brad, Brad, listen to me. I mean, like, it's it's it. Bessie Bessie, right, Brad. By the buzz dog. And as though no, I, I would. Yeah. We basically when we saw pitch the idea, me and me and Steven pitch the idea to plan B. It was it was it was a weird one, because

like, you know, we were waiting for ages to get this meeting in and they were like, oh, we're just waiting for Brad, his schedule. And I was like, oh, it can't be Brad Pitt. There must be another Brad in the company. I know, yeah, sure enough, Brad was on the Zoom and he loved the idea. And then we had a bunch of other Zooms where we were pitching it out and stuff with Brad on the Zooms as well. He's such a lovely human being,

and he's also a really quite a hands-on producer. You know what I mean? He would feed back notes and stuff and amazing. Like amazing to have him on board. And yeah, mean I just I'd love to work with him again you know I mean maybe get him in in another one. Well I mean that's great to hear isn't it you know because you sometimes you see you sometimes see like the Will Ferrell in succession titles and I don't think you have a huge amount to do with the show. No it's lovely it's like um you know you often hear great stories about Danny DeVito,

who often gets like producer and executive producer credits on things and you talk to people and they go, oh no, he's really, really, he gets his hands dirty and he actually does the work and he shows up. If you're Brad Pitt as well, how lovely that this group of Brits have done this extraordinary thing and you were able to be in there at the beginning of it. It just, you know, must give you a warm glow. I'm now only going to be able to think of him as Bas Dogg. I have a question from Lily Watson, who says you've mentioned on the show before the WhatsApp group chats that Carson Crew have during recordings and how they kind of die off once it's finished.

When a show goes big like adolescence, does the chat fire up again? Are they all saying let's do it again? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think they are. I think, you know, it's, it's, I think we need a bit of time to process. I mean, honestly, and I'll speak for Matt as well, I guess. We've spoken, because we're currently working together on something else at the minute. We're out in Malta. But we feel like we've made something special. But, you know, it probably resonated in the UK because of the knife crime and the subject

matter and all of that. But did we expect what it's actually doing in the absolutely not so we're out here with all the crew like most most of the crew are with us on this new job every five minutes were like this has happened oh my god this is this person's message this person's watched it you know this person's put it on the like it's but it was in Parliament today they were talking about it in Parliament today it's like the Prime Minister's talking about it in Prime Minister's questions, it's like, wow, it's exceeded anything that I ever

imagined, you know, when we said we wanted to make this show. Incredibly grateful, you know, incredibly grateful for the whole team and everyone that worked on it as well and everyone who's watching it and you know liking it. Oh that's so great that they are actually together. A lot of people don't realise that, that you know crews have people they love working with and that they get great results with and so they can sort of migrate from project to project so it's amazing that they're together in real life while this is happening. That's so amazing.

The great writer Roy Clark who wrote Last of the summer wine and open all hours and things like that when he Got like a fellowship at the British Comedy Awards. He said he said I wish you all hits You know because that's the thing it's it doesn't happen often and when it does you got you absolutely got to Luxuriating it especially a hit like this that you've you've really really really earned And that suggestion that they could do it all again I remember talking to this grip who worked with Roger Deakins on Sam Mendes's 1917 and apparently Sandra to speech on the last night saying, Oh, I feel like I could do it all over again. And

they each other at the wrap party like so traumatized, still having to process the technical challenge of having to do it. So yeah, they probably need a little bit of space. It's like having a child, isn't it? You just think, listen, I guess one day I'll be ready to have another one, but don't ask me now. Well, as I said, it's so amazing that it's got people talking in two completely different ways about the issues, but also just as a technical masterpiece. We already know people are really interested in this kind of behind the scenes stuff, but how amazing to have

that insight. Thank you guys so much. That was amazing. I hope that was fun to listen to as well. We've never done a Q&A like this before, but I hope you can understand why we did. Greatly appreciated that Philip and Matt gave up their time. I know you guys are all over there in Malta and I know you don't want to do it again right now, but everyone in Britain would like you to do another one if that's okay. Take a couple of weeks off guys, but after that. Well, thank you very much and we will see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday everyone. I'm David Oleshoge. Here's that clip we mentioned earlier on.

You see spiritualism kind of working its way up the social hierarchy, up the ladder of respectability because people are desperate and they will cling to anything. And remember that we're still in an age of great religiosity. And so if kind of traditional Christian messages are not enough consolation, then you might seek something more direct like trying to speak to a lost loved one. It's also worth saying that historians have pointed out, I think this is really interesting, that in an age where telegraphy had just been invented, you suddenly have telegraphs which can send invisible messages across the ether, apparently. Almost magically.

Almost magically. And suddenly people can receive them. It's not really that much of a stretch to then start to imagine people receiving messages clairvoyantly. You start to think about telekinesis. You start to think about the idea of invisible movement of messages, invisible transmission. I never thought about that. It's a really interesting idea, isn't it? That's so fascinating. invisible movement of messages, invisible transmission. It's a really interesting idea, isn't it? I mean, I think it's a really, really smart idea. And it suggests the ways in which other cultural factors can help influence those kinds of trends. Why would you suddenly believe

in spiritualism all of telegraphs? Well, why not? Who says it's not possible, right? If you want to hear the full episode, listen to Journey Through Time wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was presented by Sky, proud partners of The Rest Is Entertainment. Sky has a huge 2025 planned and they're excited to share their unrivaled range of entertainment, which has never been easier to discover. And there is no better way to enjoy their selection of new shows and films than by using Sky TV. Sky OS powers the Sky TV experience and it lets you control your Sky TV with your voice so you can find your favourite shows and movies from Sky and the other apps without lifting a finger, my favourite way. Oh, I love not lifting a finger, I love not lifting a finger. Just say hello Sky, followed

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