
HBO Max launch frustrations, how Alan Sugar got the gig on The Apprentice, and the shows you couldn’t make today...
From Insiders: The TV Podcast by Expectation / Hat Trick
April 10, 2026 · 36 min · Season 3 · Episode 14
About this episode
The episode discusses HBO Max's impact on subscription services, television content acceptability, and memorable moments from HIGNFY.
This week, Peter and Jimmy ask whether the arrival of HBO Max might be nudging us all dangerously close to peak demand for subscription services. Does the subscription model thrive as much on inertia as it does on the content they offer? And is that really sustainable? We talk revisionism when it comes to the question of what’s acceptable on television, and ask what are the shows that we love today that we’ll one day be embarrassed by? And with a new series in full swing on BBC1, Jimmy shares fond memories of some left-field HIGNFY bookings. Some of whom were memorable for all the right reasons (Play Your Iraqi Cards Right, anyone?). Some of whom were just memorable... Plus, the BBC Twat Memo, Peter’s irrational fear of watching medical dramas, and wishing David Dimbleby well in his retirement. Jimmy Mulville is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Hat Trick Productions. His list of hit shows includes Have I Got News For You, Father Ted, Derry Girls, Outnumbered, and Episodes. In the US Hat Trick launched Whose Line Is It Anyway in 1997 which ran on ABC for seven years and was the first British series to be recreated for American network television by a British…
People in this episode
Hosts: Jimmy Mulville, Peter Fincham
Topics covered
- HBO Max
- subscription services
- television revisionism
- acceptable content
- HIGNFY bookings
- medical dramas
- retirement
Keywords
- HBO Max
- subscription model
- television shows
- HIGNFY
- David Dimbleby
- Alan Sugar
- medical dramas
- revisionism
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Hat Trick Productions, BBC1, Expectation
Books & works: Have I Got News For You, Father Ted, Derry Girls, Outnumbered, Episodes, Whose Line Is It Anyway, I’m Alan Partridge, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Da Ali G Show, Play Your Iraqi Cards Right
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