Screen Babble podcast: Dreaming Whilst Black, Good Omens, Barbie, and the 2023 World Cup – episode 36

Screen Babble is your essential guide to everything on television, from the mainstream to the marginal. NationalWorld’s podcast producer Kelly Crichton, news and trends expert Steven Ross, and critic Alex Moreland discuss what is – and what isn’t – worth watching. 

This week, we’re without both Kelly (hopefully enjoying her holiday) and planned special guest Susanna Sealy (hopefully feeling better soon), so Steven steps in as host and Alex steps in as football expert; as you might imagine, one of them fares better than the other in this new role. Still, we start as always by discussing what we’ve been watching recently. Alex has started the second series of The Bear, and has done one half of Barbenheimer, while Steven went to see While We Watched in his local independent cinema. Alex has also been watching the World Cup, which everyone should be checking out, and does his best to answer some of Steven’s slightly-more-informed questions.

Our closer look this week is new BBC Three comedy Dreaming While Black, which stars Adjani Salmon as a struggling young filmmaker balancing a dead-end job with aspirations to bring his first script to life. How has the series evolved since its 2018 beginnings as a YouTube webseries? Who makes up the show’s cast of rising stars? And is it one of the best new comedies of the year? (Spoilers, but yes.)

Finally, Steven brings us back to the future as he revisits Good Omens ahead of its Series 2 return later this week. What does he think of the David Tennant/Michael Sheen chemistry? How does Good Omens compare to the likes of American Gods and The Sandman? And should Tennant and Sheen have switched roles?

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Steven’s Weekend Watch Mini-Babble, previewing all the best TV to watch over the next few days.

Listen to Screen Babble #36 here…

Where can we watch this week’s shows?

Dreaming Whilst Black is available now as a boxset on BBC iPlayer

Barbie and While We Watch are currently playing in cinemas

The World Cup is available on both BBC One and ITV

Good Omens is available on Amazon Prime Video

Screen Babble: how to follow the show

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Do you have a TV question you’d like the Screen Babble team to answer on a future episode, or a recommendation of your own? Send it to [email protected] or [email protected]