Dolly Wells on ambition, the beauty of ageing and Emily Mortimer

Joining me, Kelly-Anne Taylor, this week is the writer, director and actor, Dolly Wells. She grew up off of Kensington High Street in London – the youngest of six children. Aged 18 – she discovered that her stepfather was actually her biological father – the great comic actor, John Wells. In her 20s, Dolly worked as an actress – but also as a photographer’s assistant, she had a stall in Portobello Market and wrote book reviews for the express. It was only when she had her daughter in her 30s that she really decided to go for it. Since then, she’s made her mark – and there seems to be very little that she can’t do. She’s played a vampire-hunting nun in Steven Moffat’s Dracula, a woman locked in a basement with David Tennant in Inside Man and an incompetent assistant in the Sky comedy Doll & Em (which, she co-wrote with her best friend, the actress, Emily Mortimer). Now, she turns her hand to directing BBC3’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – which follows a bright-eyed, precocious teenager Pip (who decides to investigate the unsolved murder of a schoolgirl. In this episode, we talk about the beauty of ageing, her life-changing friendship with Emily Mortimer, and how female directors are changing the industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Om Podcasten

We’ve all been there – sat in front of the television, flicking through channels, getting increasingly frustrated – there’s so much on, but nothing to watch. TV critics Caroline Frost and Shem Law have you covered. Each Friday, they serve up short, sharp television recommendations to mark your cards for the week ahead. They’ll tell you what to watch – and what to avoid. They watch it all, so you don’t have to.   No more asking: what’s on TV tonight? What to watch? Or, what should I watch? Instead, listen to Smart TV for your weekly round-up of TV programmes and film reviews. You’ll find out about the latest series dropping that week, what to binge and what television show will become the next watercooler moment.   Radio Times’ journalists Caroline Frost and Shem Law will cover all things terrestrial as well as what’s on the streaming sites – they’ll cover what’s broadcast on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky to NOW, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Netflix and Apple TV.   Whether you like Entertainment, Current Affairs, Documentaries, Dramas, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Thrillers, Sports or Radio – they’ll have you covered. If you enjoy our weekly round-up of television reviews, do search for the View From My Sofa podcast which sees Kelly-Anne Taylor sit down with a celebrity guests to talk about their lives through the prism of TV.