Backstage With… Michael C Hall on bringing Dexter back: ‘I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve missed him’
When Dexter ended after eight series in 2016 it suggested a new start for its protagonist – so perhaps it was always inevitable that the serial killer with a conscience would return to our screens one day.
Michael C Hall, who plays the killer, told Sky News’ Backstage podcast that it took the right opportunity for him to return to the beloved – if somewhat controversial – character.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’ve missed him, but I have periodically considered him and periodically considered him in part because the possibility of returning to the character and the show has been presented over the years,” he said.
The series picks up the serial killer’s story after five years off our screens. Pic: Sky UK
“I think now is the right time… with as much time having passed since we last saw Dexter, we’re afforded certain storytelling opportunities that we weren’t until now.
“So that was a big part of it and also just having had some time so that the revisitation of the character doesn’t feel fraught with the residue of whatever the old experience was, enough time has passed, enough experience has been had in my own life that there feels adequate distance between me and him, and now and then.”
That residue may in part be to do with the reaction to the final series, and episode, which wasn’t overwhelmingly positive.
But this new season sees the killer in a whole new place – both literally and metaphorically, as he’s now living in a small, snowy town in New York State and has settled in to a murder-free lifestyle.
Hall says returning to the part was like shrugging on an old jacket. “I remember how this fits and, oh yeah, like I never even noticed there was a pocket there,” he said.
“Like maybe, hopefully discovering new things that you hadn’t discovered and being reminded of things that you’d forgotten.
“But I did find that the character, you know, I spent a long time with him and considering him and playing him and living in that imaginative place, so there was a lot that was still very much there – just add water, you know?”
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With Dexter choosing his victims based on their failings, he could perhaps be interpreted as being the ultimate posterboy for cancel culture.
Hall says it’s not a comparison he’s drawn before.
“I mean, Dexter certainly isn’t choosing as his victims, nor did he ever choose people as his victims, people who 15 years ago said something unsavoury in passing.
“I think the people who fit the bill for him are maybe a little more deserving of cancellation, however you land on serial murder, which is another question entirely.
“I suppose he is cancelling or has cancelled a number of people, but I think his motivations are a bit a bit less motivated by any prevailing trends.”
It’s not just Hall returning for the new series, as Jennifer Carpenter is back as the killer’s sister – though this time in a more spiritual advisory role – and original showrunner Clyde Phillips and other behind-the-camera talent also on board.
Hall says getting the band back together certainly has its benefits.
“On the creative side, you know, as far as Clyde Phillips’ involvement and Scott Reynolds, who wrote throughout the course of the eight seasons and was back in this case, and Marcos Sieaga, who was our main director and sort of executive producing director, that just gave a sense of assurance that there was a collective sense of the fundamental DNA or connective tissue that we needed to maintain in spite of the fact that we were doing something very different and telling a different story, contextualised totally differently.”
Dexter: New Blood is coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW on 8 November – hear our review in the latest episode of Backstage, the film and TV podcast from Sky News
Entertainment
A third of daily music uploads are AI-generated and 97% of people can’t tell the difference, says report
Do you care if the music you’re listening to is artificially generated?
That question – once the realm of science fiction – is becoming increasingly urgent.
An AI-generated country track, Walk My Walk, is currently sitting at number one on the US Billboard chart of digital sales and a new report by streaming platform Deezer has revealed the sheer scale of AI production in the music industry.
Deezer’s AI-detection system found that around 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are now uploaded every day, accounting for 34% of all daily uploads.
File pic: iStock
The true number is most likely higher, as Deezer’s AI-detection system does not catch every AI-generated track. Nor does this figure include partially AI-generated tracks.
In January 2025, Deezer’s system identified 10% of uploaded tracks as fully AI-generated.
Since then, the proportion of AI tracks – made using written prompts such as “country, 1990s style, male singer” – has more than tripled, leading the platform’s chief executive, Alexis Lanternier, to say that AI music is “flooding music streaming”.
‘Siphoning money from royalty pool’
What’s more, when Deezer surveyed 9,000 people in eight countries – the US, Canada, Brazil, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany and Japan – and asked them to detect whether three tracks were real or AI, 97% could not tell the difference.
That’s despite the fact that the motivation behind the surge of AI music is not in the least bit creative, according to Deezer. The company says that roughly 70% of fully AI-generated tracks are what it calls “fraudulent” – that is, designed purely to make money.
“The common denominator is the ambition to boost streams on specific tracks in order to siphon money from the royalty pool,” a Deezer spokesperson told Sky News.
“With AI-generated content, you can easily create massive amounts of tracks that can be used for this purpose.”
File pic: Reuters
The tracks themselves are not actually fraudulent, Deezer says, but the behaviour around them is. Someone will upload an AI track then use an automated system – a bot – to listen to a song over and over again to make royalties from it.
Even though the total number of streams for each individual track is very low – Deezer estimates that together they account for 0.5% of all streams – the work needed to make an AI track is so tiny that the rewards justify the effort.
Are fully-AI tracks being removed?
Deezer is investing in AI-detection software and has filed two patents for systems that spot AI music. But it is not taking down the tracks it marks as fully-AI.
Instead it removes them from algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists, a measure designed to stop the tracks getting streams and therefore generating royalties, and marks the tracks as “AI-generated content”.
“If people want to listen to an AI-generated track however, they can and we are not stopping them from doing so – we just want to make sure they are making a conscious decision,” the Deezer spokesperson says.
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Deezer’s survey found that more than half (52%) of respondents felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music.
“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human-made tracks or not,” said the company’s boss Alexis Lanternier.
“There’s also no doubt that there are concerns about how AI-generated music will affect the livelihood of artists.”
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Musicians protests AI copyright plans
Earlier this year, more than 1,000 musicians – including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush – released a silent album to protest plans by the UK government to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.
A recent study commissioned by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers suggested that generative AI music could be worth £146bn a year in 2028 and account for around 60% of music libraries’ revenues.
By this metric, the authors concluded, 25% of creators’ revenues are at risk by 2028, a sum of £3.5bn.
Entertainment
BBC apologises to Donald Trump over editing of Panorama but says there isn’t ‘basis for defamation claim’
Saturday Night Live UK has announced its top creative team ahead of the series launching next year.
An American pop culture institution, SNL launched the careers of stars including Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell – and now a “new generation” of British comedians is set to be cast in the first UK spin-off on Sky.
While the show’s stars are yet to be revealed, details of the creative team behind it have now been announced.
Kim Kardashian hosted the show in 2021. Pic: Sky UK/NBC
Two-time Emmy winner James Longman will serve as lead producer, BAFTA winner and live broadcast specialist Liz Clare will direct the series, while writer, comedian and composer Daran Jonno Johnson takes on the role of head writer.
Longman’s credits include The Late Late Show With James Corden, for which he produced famous sketches with stars and notable figures including Sir Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and then president Joe Biden.
He also worked on the Friends reunion special in 2021 and hit UK shows such as Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, The F Word and The Friday Night Project.
L-R: James Longman, Liz Clare, Daran Jonno Johnson. Pic: Sky UK
Clare’s directing credits include An Audience With Adele, The Brits and MTV awards ceremonies, Glastonbury, the BAFTAs and shows such as The Voice UK and Britain’s Got Talent, while Johnson, who is part of the acclaimed sketch group SHEEPS, has written for shows including Wedding Season for Disney+, Siblings for the BBC and Rose d’Or winner Parlement for France.TV.
Saturday Night Live UK marks the first time the US producers have adapted the show, which celebrated 50 years on air earlier this year, for a British audience.
Channel 4 ran several series of a similar programme on Saturday and Friday nights in the 1980s, featuring comedians like Ben Elton and Harry Enfield, but it was domestically produced.
‘A lot of big US comedy is stolen from the UK’
Pete Davidson at SNL’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Pic: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages/Cover Images/AP Feb 2025
Comedian Pete Davidson, another SNL star, told Sky News he’s excited about the UK version – and that it is about time the UK is able to take from US comedy, rather than the other way round.
Speaking in the summer during promotion for The Pickup, Davidson said: “I think it’s a smart idea to have SNL over there because… not that it’s a different brand of comedy, but it is a little bit.
“A lot of the biggest stuff that’s in the States is stuff that we stole from you guys, like The Office or literally anything Ricky Gervais does… there’s just tonnes of great comedy over there. Jimmy Carr is a great stand-up.”
Also highlighting Jack Whitehall, he continued: “I think anything that’s great over there, we just kind of steal… and it doesn’t seem like the other way around. This is the first time I’ve ever heard anything American going to the UK, so I think it’s great.”
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Producers say the UK series will follow the same format as the original, featuring “a new generation of comedy players in the core cast, alongside guest hosts and musical performances”.
The UK show will be overseen by US producer Lorne Michaels. Along with his production company Broadway Video, which has made The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and 30 Rock, the show will be led by UK production team Universal Television Alternative Studio.
Saturday Night Live UK will be broadcast on Sky Max and streaming service NOW in 2026.
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