This light hearted show focussed mainly on UK TV characters and actors, but included Pamela Anderson, Farrah Fawcett and Kim Catrell from Sex & the City. Considering XENA is not very big in the UK it was a very pleasant surprise to see Xena featured at all, even if she was only at number 10...
The segment was about 7 or 8 minutes long and included chats with Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, Ted Raimi and Rob Tapert. It also included a few bits of film of Lucy that I hadn't seen before - her on a roundabout with a little girl - Daisy perhaps? Plus some shots of her doing fitness training in a rather striking grey leotard.
Lucy was looking great and seemed relaxed, Renee was looking cute and chubby cheeked - either just before or after having her baby.
It said Lucy was a fitness instructor before landing the role of Xena - (not sure if that's quite right) and repeated a story about Rob's first impression of Lucy. He thought she was crazy! He said the producers went down to New Zealand to meet Lucy and she was at this party (sobbing in a corner according to Lucy as she was going through marriage problems at the time) dressed in a school marm-ish dress and looking NOTHING like Xena!
Lucy revealed that the armbands were the secret to making her look like she had biceps as she has none - and never had!
They had a brief look at Xena predilection for bad boys, with clips of Draco and Ulysses, and also covered the subtext angle. Rob came on and said that the one thing the studio definitely said was that she was NOT to be a lesbian! We then got a few of the subtext moments. Renee spoke about how someone had to scrub Xena's back. Lucy repeated that she enjoyed that fact that they might or might not be together. Ted popped up with a funny comment on how Joxer was never sure whether they were or weren't - and they showed the "is that a hickey" scene from Been There, Done That. Rob said he was pretty sure they had experimented sexually!
They had a little snigger at fans - as is always the case. Ted Raimi commenting on how they are often secluded people. Lucy just grinned and said she wasn't going to say anything. We saw an English guy with a room full of Xena stuff who said if Lucy and Renee played their cards right they could have him - he was just being funny though. We got a brief look at some marching Xena's from some parade too.
Then there were mega spoilers for UK viewers who haven't seen the finale, as they showed clips from A Friend in Need and said that Xena 'came out' in the final episode - showing the "kiss" from A Friend in Need 2, and Lucy repeated that she saw that episode and just threw her hands up and said "she's gay!" Lucy said how she was relieved that she show had ended as it was so exhausting, but said how proud she was of it. Renee said how they wanted to go out with a bang - and that they certainly had done that.
Generally, the clips shown and the tone of the piece were just right. It repeated something that UK broadcasters never seem to get - that it is NOT a kids show - but showed that it was a fun show, with Xena herself being a fascinating character and the subtext being a large part of it.
I did a bunch of screengrabs of Lucy, Renee, Ted and Rob. Here are a few. Click on the thumbnail images below to see a bigger version.
You can see ALL my screen grabs on their own page here
Lucy
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Renee
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Ted
Rob
