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Sky set to adapt its 2025 political podcast The Wargame as an 'immersive' new documentary series of the same nameUK politicians, including Michael Gove, Nicola Sturgeon, and Penny Mordaunt, will form a mock government cabinet that is faced with the threat of war from RussiaWill come to Sky and NOW TV in September 2026 Sky has announced plans to adapt its hit 2025 political podcast The Wargame as an "immersive" documentary service coming to both the streamer and NOW TV in September 2026.The premise will remain the same across four 60-minute episodes, which "take viewers beyond the news cycle and behind closed doors into a sealed COBR-style crisis room where real-world senior politicians, military leaders and intelligence chiefs are challenged to confront a high-stakes scenario: a Russian attack on UK soil."The Wargame is set six months in the future and has been developed alongside leading academics, military, and defence experts to replicate the pressure of political decision-making at the highest level.The following core cast of former UK politicians will be assuming these (fictional) roles in the simulation:Prime Minister — The Rt Hon. the Lord Gove PCDeputy Prime Minister — The Rt Hon. Nicola Sturgeon PCDefence Secretary — The Rt Hon. Dame Penny Mordaunt DBE PC Home Secretary — The Rt Hon. the Baroness Harman KC PCForeign Secretary — The Rt Hon. Jim Murphy PCAttorney General — The Rt Hon. the Baroness Warsi PCDirector of Communications — The Baroness Hazarika MBEChief of Defence Staff — General Sir Richard Barrons KCB CBENational Security Adviser — The Rt Hon. the Lord Kim Darroch KCMGIntelligence Chief — Christopher SteeleNo exact release date has been confirmed as of writing, but the original podcast gives us a solid idea of how we can expect the episodes to break the "conflict" down.Opinion: One year on, and The Wargame is still the most horrifying podcast I've ever listened to(Image credit: Sky)Though the podcast was paced over fives episodes rather than four, we can expect the breakdown of The Wargame to follow the same format. Episode 1 sets the scene, with a number of seemingly unrelated attacks and issues across the UK potentially being orchestrated by Russian intelligence. In episode 2, Russia launches its first full-scale attack, with the Prime Minister having to address the nation in a time of unprecedented crisis in episode 3.Episode 4 is when the UK's defence starts to fight back, but is on the losing foot. This all culminates in a potential ceasefire being brokered in episode 5, which, as you might expect, isn't too straightforward.If this premise sounds horrifying, that's because it is. When the podcast first launched on Spotify, Apple, and other services, I made everybody I knew listen to it. Why? It addresses one reality that nobody in actual government wants to freely admit: the UK defence system is almost non-existent.The Wargame concludes that the UK is susceptible to almost every kind of combative attack possible, and would most likely be defeated (or at least left in a very worrying state). It encourages a greater sense of awareness among us all, and hopefully, will lead to some critical conversations.If you're wondering why a podcast would openly admit a country's lack of protection to an international audience, The Wargame's slogan answers that for us: "Russia knows our weaknesses, but do you?"

The 84-year-old actor has spent decades bringing Samuel Beckett’s plays to life. Does his recent diagnosis give him new insights into playing ‘sad clown’ Krapp in a drama about age and the battlefield of memory?What a lot of Krapp. Pardon my French but Samuel Beckett’s haunting 1958 masterpiece about regret and isolation is having a moment. Stephen Rea recently took Krapp’s Last Tape on an international tour, Gary Oldman returned to the stage after decades away to deliver the tragicomic one-man show and this summer Stockard Channing will direct it at the Edinburgh fringe, with David Westhead as Krapp. Beckett’s eponymous loner, who sits in his dark den and ritually listens to tapes he made as a younger man, is riding a new wave of popularity.Peter Marinker first played Krapp half a lifetime ago and is preparing to star in a new production, reusing the tapes he recorded in 1983. How does he feel listening back now? “I thought of redoing them – it could have been better,” he says when we meet at the tiny Cockpit theatre in London. That assessment matches the spirit of the self-lacerating Krapp who looks back not just in anger but anguish. Marinker quotes Dennis Potter, who said we should consider our past with “tender contempt”. He adds wryly: “That rang a bell.” Continue reading...