BBC has high hopes for Call the Midwife

One of the hits of our recent trek to Liverpool for the 2012 BBC Showcase was the opportunity to screen the hit new kid on the BBC drama block, Call the Midwife. The series, which follows a group of midwives working in London’s East End in the 1950s and stars the likes of Jenny Agutter, […]

Read more

Selfridges next up for Downton Abbey producer

While we’ve been tracking what Downton Abbey writer, Julian Fellowes, is up to next, one can’t help but wonder what’s inside ITV1’s bag of tricks that will, hopefully, build upon the success of the series that has taken the world by storm? Easy. A simple 10-part drama profiling the place that, in 2010, won the […]

Read more

R.I.P. Davy Jones

Manchester born, Davy Jones, died Wednesday in Florida of an apparent heart attack at the age of 66. Many of us remember Jones as the British front man for The Monkees, the American Beatles alternative band put together in 1965 for a television series following the 1964 release of the Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night feature […]

Read more

Downton Abbey 3 – a first look

As we close down another BBC Showcase, time to take a quick look back at our time in Liverpool. With over 2500 hours of comedy, drama, natural history and documentary from the BBC catalogue available to view, just over 40 hours of screening were logged over the past 4 days looking for that hidden gem […]

Read more

Scattershooting and more drama from BBC Showcase 2012

Even though it’s all things BBC all the time this week, there is still quite a bit of ‘industry shop talk’ going on in an around the convention centre and the hotel. Couple of things we’ve been able to pick up this week while taking a quick break from screening that seem to be making […]

Read more

Terry Jones talks about writing Python sketches

Ever since that fateful day in 1974 when KERA, the public television station in Dallas, became the first PBS station in the U.S. to broadcast Monty Python’s Flying Circus I have wondered just what went on in the heads of Oxford graduates, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, and Cambridge graduates, Eric Idle, John Cleese and […]

Read more

As the sun sets on Downton Abbey, take a brief peak into series 3

Aside from the massive anticipation of the first Maggie Smith/Shirley MacLaine battle of the mothers-in-law, the internet is already abuzz with thoughts on series 3 of Downton Abbey. While the U.S. is only 3 days removed from Sundays series 2 finale, Julian Fellowes sat down with The New York Times to reflect back on the […]

Read more

Printable Downton Abbey characters to combat separation anxiety

As Downton Abbey closes its doors this evening on PBS stations across the United States, viewers that have already begun their separation anxiety classes can, at least, cling to the knowledge that series 3 is currently in production with a target transmission date of Fall 2012 in the UK and January 2013 on PBS in […]

Read more

The ultimate 21st century Sherlock? Up to you.

CBS gets more ‘Elementary‘ every day We’re all aware of CBS’ plan to produce a pilot for a 21st century Sherlock series for possible pick-up by the network beginning in Fall 2012. And everyone knows how I feel about this idea given some earlier comments about NBC’s failed attempt at Prime Suspect. This one, however, […]

Read more