Alex Kingston Central

Alex Kingston as editor Sheila Bellowes in Steven Moffat's "Douglas Is Cancelled" on ITV1 (UK)

Alex Kingston as Sarah Bishop, a powerful witch detemined to save her family in a battle of creatures (vampires, dark witches) in "A Discovery of Witches" based on Deborah Harkness' "All Souls Trilogy" books

Alex Kingston as Sarah Bishop, the outspoken, protective, brash witch who lives with her life partner, Emily Mathers (Valerie Pettiford) in Madison, New York and promised to protect Diana Bishop, the inexperienced but powerful young witch, reach her magical potential while fighting evil vampires, witches, warlocks, and demons.

Alex Kingston and Valerie Pettiford as Sarah Bishop and Emily Mathers: Our favourite wlw witchy aunties on "A Discovery of Witches".

Now streaming on Netflix (geolocation limited) or SkyTV (UK).

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

"A Discovery of Witches" is now available to stream on Netflix (geolocation limited)! (and on Sky TV in the UK)

It's one of my all-time favourite book-to-series ("All Souls Trilogy" by Deborah Harkness) productions - obvi co-starring Alex Kingston, as a witchy, sassy (hello, sweetie!), LGBT Auntie - and the entire series is just perfect?! Time travel, witches, vampires, werewolves, unrequited love, broken hearts, baddies, fab CGI, beautiful cast, great story...what more could you ask for?

CAST (some Doctor Who vets): Matthew Goode, Teresa Palmer, Alex Kingston, Lindsay Duncan (😍), Sophia Myles, Louise Brealey, James Purefoy (😍), Tom Hughes, Valerie Pettiford, Alysha Heart, Trevor Eve, Owen Teale, Paul Rhys...and on and on!

The first season was released in 2018 but there are 3 seasons altogether and it's absolutely worth the watch.

I'm on my fifth watch 🤓 since its initial release. So good!

Share your thoughts on the series by replying to this post, if you've watched/will watch the series.

Q&A with Alex Kingston, who plays Sheila Bellowes on Steven Moffat's upcoming ITV black comedy, "Douglas Is Cancelled"

(Air date: 27 June, 2024)

What appealed to you about Douglas Is Cancelled?

I'd say what appealed first of all was that the piece was written by Steven Moffat. I would do anything that Steven wrote because he's just such a brilliant writer.

The characters he creates are such a delight to play. I've had that experience of working with him on Doctor Who. It was just a joy to read the script. I laughed out loud. I even cried with laughter in some places. It's so superbly written.

Were you also taken by the idea of playing opposite Hugh?

Absolutely. Oh my gosh, Hugh and I have worked together many times over the years. We go way back to literally when we were teenagers. And so, I was definitely attracted by the opportunity of working with Hugh again. We already have that shorthand between us. That relationship doesn't need even to be acted because we know each other so well and are so comfortable in each other's presence. It's not a new person who I've got to get to know, so that married relationship was already a given. I was thrilled to have the chance to do that.

How would you describe Sheila?

She is amoral, she is ruthless. But I'm assuming that's what the paper wants. I'm also guessing that in the world these sorts of people inhabit, in order to get a good story, they have to be prepared to throw even their best friends under the bus. To be in that position as the editor of a national newspaper, you've got to be not only incredibly ambitious, but also, I would imagine, highly-strung because you are carrying a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. It's just a joy to play somebody who's so on the front foot. Sheila is also really inappropriate. That's what's so great about the script because all the characters behave inappropriately in a world where we're supposed not to anymore. I don't feel like I'm that sort of person at all, which is why it was great fun to play!

How would you summarise the relationship between Sheila and Douglas?

I would definitely say that she wears the trousers in the household. What's so interesting is that they are this high-powered celebrity couple at the start of the story. He is the nation's favourite news broadcaster, and she's this very, very successful editor of a hugely popular newspaper. But I rather like the scene that Steven wrote for them where they are on holiday because that shows a little bit more of who they are as a family before all the stuff hits the fan. They are a unit, and they love each other. But it is an unusual marriage. She is very strong, and he just allows her to be like that. If Douglas was a similar personality to Sheila, the marriage wouldn't ever have lasted. But he just lets her sail on forward, and he's in her slipstream being dragged along.

How does Sheila get on with her daughter?

The relationship she has with her daughter Claudia is much more volatile because her daughter is actually a bit more like Sheila. She's got a bit more fight in her. In a way, Sheila is terrorised by her daughter as she can't hold her daughter down. Also, Sheila doesn't understand young people and all these words like "boomer" that drop out of their mouths. For Sheila, it's just so frustrating. She thinks, "Who is this person we brought into the world who seems like a creature from another planet?"

The drama has lots of very topical things to say about cancel culture.

Yes. It's really interesting because Steven originally conceived this as a stage play several years ago. That's what I found so brilliant and so prescient about it. Steven was working on this way before all the recent scandals involving popular broadcasters. Obviously, cancel culture was already swirling around then, but I feel like Steven has the courage to put the conversation on the table in a way that is super important. But he does it in a darkly comic way, which allows people watching to laugh, but hopefully also to be able to have conversations and ask questions such as, "Where are we going with this? And how dangerous is this becoming?"

What do you hope audiences might take away from Douglas Is Cancelled?

I hope people will be a little bit more thoughtful and a little bit more careful about how they treat people or what they say about people. We need to be more conscious and kinder and aware of other people's feelings and how they wish to be perceived in life. But I think some men of my generation struggle with having to make those changes. I certainly remember sitting in the pub as a young person and hearing jokes about women that were awful. Men would safely say horrendous stuff. But that's just how it was, and you just had to suck it up. But men cannot behave like that anymore. I think there are still elements of our generation that struggle to remember to be a little bit more thoughtful before they say something. That's not out of malice. It's because they're still trying to learn the new rules of the world.

After many years working together on Doctor Who, how did you find it being reunited with Karen?

It was a real joy. It was great just spending time with her. It was very funny because she played my mother in Doctor Who. So it was really lovely to do something different with Karen, and for us both to explore this new relationship together. In Douglas Is Cancelled, there is one big scene that we have together in the toilet. They're these two alpha females who are prowling around each other, and they both absolutely know each other's game.

Did all the cast get to hang out together on set as well?

Yes. When everybody came together for the grand finale, we ended up sitting in the studio control room between scenes, all just chatting, reminiscing, sharing, messing around. Working on Douglas Is Cancelled was just a lovely, lovely, lovely experience.

Alex Kingston: ‘Cancel culture is fascistic – my generation is treading on eggshells’

Ahead of her new ITV drama Douglas is Cancelled, the actress discusses online mobs, the ‘casting couch’, and changing her mind on Doctor Who [x]

Actress Alex Kingston, 61, has shared her honest opinions on cancel culture as she prepares to return to screens on ITV's new drama based on the subject.

Kingston will star in Douglas in Cancelled later this month, a series created by Steven Moffat in which a respected newsreader's world is turned upside down. Kingston plays Douglas’s wife Sheila Bellowes in the four-part comedy-drama, a tabloid newspaper editor who has to choose between her marriage and exclusive insight to the scandal.

Ahead of its release, Kingston admitted she finds cancel culture a "terrifying" phenomenon, adding: "(It's) sort of fascistic, really. I don’t think people realise how dangerous cancelling people is, what that has meant historically. "My generation is treading on eggshells, not knowing whether what you say will unintentionally hurt somebody."

One aspect of modern life Kingston admits she struggles with is correctly identifying someone's preferred gender pronouns. "I get really confused about pronouns, for instance. I’m just not confident with how and when to use them.

Exposing the flaws she feels lie with those who make it their mission to cancel someone, she added: "There is no empathy or sympathy, opinions are immediate and black and white. "I hope we’ll start coming back to a place where people can be kinder to each other, both in thinking about what they’re going to say and hearing what’s being said."

IS EVERYONE ALIVE? (Jodie mouthing "YEAAA!" to the audience after Alex makes out with her ear, then saying to Alex "That was bloody brilliant" ahahaha)