The annual gathering of the people behind the shows that we see on TV has been taking place in Scotland this week.
The Edinburgh TV Festival has seen commissioners, press and some famous faces heading to Edinburgh to discuss the current television landscape and promote some of the new shows they have coming out in the next 12 months.
The team from Backstage – the film and TV podcast from Sky News – was there, and these were their five biggest takeaways from the event.
Image: Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux played it safe while discussing… not playing it safe
In previous years the MacTaggart lecture has seen Michaela Coel talking about the racism and sexual assault she’d experienced working in the industry and writer Jack Thorne using his time at the podium to criticise the business for how it’s treated disabled people – both behind and in front of the camera.
Last year journalist Emily Maitlis talked about the challenges journalists face reporting on Donald Trump, Brexit and populism.
Theroux though was less disparaging in his speech, titled The Risk Of Not Taking Risks, he urged TV bosses to continue to avoid playing it safe, in an era when it might sometimes be easier for them to do so.
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A fair point, but perhaps not the ground-breaking speech we’ve come to expect from the festival’s keynote lecture.
Image: Coleen Rooney The Real Wagatha Story. Pic: Ben Blackall/Disney+ 2023
Wagatha Christie continues to compel
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We’ve known that a documentary about Coleen Rooney and the Instagram post in which she accused her former friend Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories about her to The Sun was coming to Disney+ for a while.
The three-part series promises to tell Coleen’s story through interviews with her, and her inner circle.
The woman behind it, Julia Nottingham, said her jaw was “on the floor” after speaking to Coleen for the first time and we suspect viewers will be the same way when the doc drops this autumn.
Image: Claudia Winkleman clutching her BAFTA for Traitors
ITV’s new offering for fans of Traitors
Among the announcements from ITV at the festival was new show Fortune Hotel.
Filmed in the Caribbean with Stephen Mangan on hosting duties, it will see 10 pairs of contestants each given a briefcase which either contains the cash prize, an early checkout or nothing at all.
The series will see contestants deceiving one another and swapping cases – when commissioners used the word “subterfuge” while describing it, we immediately knew this would be one for fans of The Traitors (which incidentally won the best entertainment prize at the festival).
Image: Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley. Pic: BBC
Happy Valley writer Sally Wainwright’s new shows
The third and final series of Happy Valley was a monster of a hit when it aired at the start of the year.
At the TV festival a brief update on writer Sally Wainwright’s historical show The Ballad Of Renegade Nell for Disney Plus, about a highway woman with superpowers, was simply that it’s still in production.
While the BBC announced they too have a new show coming from Wainwright, Hot Flush is described as “a celebration of women of a certain age” who come together to form a punk band.
Like Happy Valley the six-part drama will be set in West Yorkshire.
Image: The Kardashians in their early days. Pic: Peter Brooker/Shutterstock
Sky dig deep on the Kardashians
During their panel at Edinburgh Sky announced a few new shows, including a nature documentary focusing on sound with Sir David Attenborough and the second series of Gemma Arterton’s Funny Woman.
But the one that really piqued our interest was House Of Kardashian, a documentary series looking at the reality star dynasty and their influence and impact.
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Using interviews – including one with Caitlyn Jenner – and previously unseen archive footage, this promises to be a considered look at one of the most divisive families in popular culture.
Hear more from the festival on the latest episode of Backstage – the film and TV podcast from Sky News.
Lisa Riley has reacted to reports that Peter Kay likened a heckler to her, insisting she’s “not offended”.
The Bolton comedian was performing his Manchester gig on Saturday night when a woman was removed by security guards after shouting “We love you Peter”. Kay is said to have likened her to Riley as she was being taken out.
The audience member has said she is “annoyed and upset” about the comments.
“To go to a show and feel like you’re having the mick taken out of you because of your weight, I was just a bit shocked,” she told the Manchester Evening News.
“The whole arena was laughing, I think they thought it was part of the show but there was a nastiness to his voice. It was like he was trying to get the crowd against me – it just wasn’t nice, to be honest.”
Riley, 48, is best known for playing Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale and also fronted You’ve Been Framed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Appearing to respond to her impromptu mention during the show, Riley posted a picture on Instagram on Monday which read: “Keep calm and laugh”. She added the message: “It’s a laugh, it’s funny!!!”
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She then followed it up on Tuesday with a post on Instagram which said: “Please draw a line under this now. I am not offended, never was offended. I love Peter Kay to pieces. Laughter is my favourite medicine”.
Kay was also understood to have thrown two men out of the same gig after one repeatedly shouted “garlic bread,” which is one of Kay’s catchphrases.
Kay told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he had taken action against hecklers as they were ruining the show for others, and it was “no longer fair” to the other audience members.
In response to his likening of one audience member to Riley, he said in a statement to the show: “I didn’t realise it was an insult. She did look remarkably like Lisa Riley, I didn’t realise that was an insult”.
One audience member told the Manchester Evening News that Kay had “shouted” at the hecklers for “a good three to five minutes” during the show.
They said the audience was mixed in their reaction: “Some couldn’t believe it and were obviously annoyed and others were laughing, either thinking it was part of the show or going along with it.”
Kay, 51, who has been performing his record-breaking Better Late Than Never Again tour since 2022, recently performed his 100th show at the AO Arena – the same venue the three hecklers were expelled from.
Tickets to watch the show start at £35, but go up to about £350 for top-notch seats.
Sky News has contacted representatives for Kay for comment.
Kay is currently scheduled to perform his tour into spring 2026.
A pilot has died after a private jet owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil crashed into another plane at an airport in Arizona.
Neil was not on board at the time of the collision, which happened off the runway at Scottsdale Airport on Monday afternoon.
Neil’s girlfriend Rain Andreani and her friend suffered injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.
They were taken to hospital with the jet’s co-pilot, who was also injured.
Image: Emergency responders work on Vince Neil’s plane after the collision. Pic: AP
“While details are still emerging, our hearts go out to the families of both the pilot who lost his life and the passengers who suffered injuries,” Motley Crue said in a statement.
“Motley Crue will announce a way to help support the family of the deceased pilot – stand by for an announcement very soon”.
Rain Andreani broke five ribs in the crash and the dogs the women were travelling with survived, TMZ reports.
Kanye West has been criticised over a TV advert directing people to a website selling a swastika T-shirt during the Super Bowl.
It shows him lying down, telling viewers: “I spent all the money for the commercial on these new teeth, so once again I had to shoot it on the iPhone… go to Yeezy.com.”
The site now features nothing but a single T-shirt with a swastika on the front – alongside the code “HH-01” – believed to be a reference to “Heil Hitler”.
The advert was shown in the Los Angeles area during the big game, but not nationwide.
Image: The listing is the sole item on West’s website
The rapper’s final entry stated: “I’m logging out of Twitter. I appreciate [X owner] Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent.
“It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board. It was like an Ayahuasca trip.”
“Love all of you who gave me your energy and attention. To we connect again [sic]. Good afternoon and goodnight.”
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Kanye’s wife shocks at Grammys
West made multiple posts on Friday, including statements such as “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi” – with the Campaign Against Antisemitism calling on Mr Musk to ban him.
The group said the T-shirt listing was another damning example of West’s dangerous prejudice.
“The swastika is the symbol adopted by Hitler as the primary emblem of the Nazis,” it posted.
“It galvanized his followers in the 20th century and continues to threaten and instil fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy.”
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West – also known as Ye – has been suspended from Twitter at least twice before.
In October 2022, his account was restricted over antisemitic comments but he returned the following month. The outcry prompted Adidas to end their lucrative trainer deal.
Two months later, he was locked out again after posts including one appearing to show a swastika inside a Star of David.
Elon Musk, who rebranded Twitter as X in 2023,said at the time the suspension was “for incitement to violence” but the account was back up and running the following summer.