If you’re Andrew Davies and your career portfolio includes the likes of Sanditon, Les Misérables, Pride and Prejudice, War & Peace, Vanity Fair, Bleak House, Middlemarch, A Very Peculiar Practice and, let’s not forget, the brilliant House of Cards, you could easily hang it up and retire to the Cotswolds or you could ramp it up a notch and create […]
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As the dreaded and feared concept that the year 2021 could be virtually devoid of any new drama series inches closer to reality as every day passes, UK broadcasters have announced a new slate of guidelines to resume filming on television without a 2-metre separation. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. A BBC spokesperson told Variety: “Getting TV production back up and running safely is our priority. The BBC has already produced popular shows during lockdown following social distancing – from Have I Got News For You to Talking Heads.”
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With the recent news that World on Fire would return for a second series, PBS Masterpiece caught up with writer and creator Peter Bowker to find out what fans of the series might expect in the way of plot points, character arcs, and even battlefields. In addition, series stars Julia Brown (Lois Bennett) and Zofia Wichlacz (Kasia Tomaszeski) […]
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It seems like only yesterday that we were over the moon with the simple announcement that Lesley Manville would be joining the cast of The Crown as Princess Margaret for series 5. It was almost enough by itself to make one forget that, as recent as January of this year, it was series creator Peter Morgan who […]
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Hugh Laurie (Jeeves & Wooster, Blackadder, The Night Manager, House) and Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders, MotherFatherSon) star in Roadkill, a new 4-part political thriller from David Hare (Collateral, The White Crow) which will come to PBS’ Masterpiece series beginning in November. Peter Laurence (Hugh Laurie), a self-made Conservative minister who “embodies the fictional future of the Conservative party. Described as ‘forceful and charismatic’, Peter’s public and private life seems to be falling apart – or rather is being picked apart by his enemies.
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Lesley Manville becomes the latest addition to the cast of The Crown as the Oscar-nominated actress is set to take over from Helena Bonham Carter in playing Princess Margaret when the fifth and final series begins filming next year. Many public television viewers will recognize Manville for her brilliant portrayal as Cathy Bradshaw in “Mum” and also in PBS Masterpiece’s “World on Fire”.
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Hopefully, there is a point in everyone’s career where you have such an awesome day that you can take a step back for a moment and think it really can’t get any better than this. A recent conversation with Anne Reid, the absolutely delightful star of Sanditon, Last Tango in Halifax and Hold the Sunset, provided me with one of those days I’ll never forget.
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This week is lockdown telly at its must-see finest. On Tuesday, BBC1 premieres the revival of a late 80s masterpiece, Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologue series with a line-up of stars that reads like a who’s who of the British acting world. The rebirth of the masterful series of to-camera monologues features the likes of Sarah Lancashire […]
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As production filming in the UK gets set to resume in the near future, the gripping psychological drama, Baptiste, has been commissioned for a second series by the BBC. With filming originally set to have begun back in February, Tchéky Karyo returns as retired detective Julien Baptiste. For series two, Killing Eve star Fiona Shaw will join the […]
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Creativity just doesn’t get any better than it has recently during these unsettled times. In today’s offering, orchestrated by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio in aid of Asks For Masks which is raising money for PPE where it’s most needed, the sketch sees Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) video call his AC-12 colleagues Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and […]
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