Following the Kenneth Branagh tradition of ensemble cast Agatha Christie adaptations, the BBC’s version of the 1939 crime classic stars Industry’s David Jonsson as retired policeman Luke Fitzwilliam.
What have we done?” bemoans the decapitated head of Sir Humphrey Bone, after the nation’s favourite spectres make a defining decision in the final episode of Ghosts, which goes out as a Christmas special on BBC One. “We did the right thing,” Julian Fawcett, the trouserless MP ghost, says confidently.
Discussing the BBC’s Across the UK strategy – which seeks to shift creative spend and decision-making out of London – the BBC’s Chief Content Officer praised Blue Lights and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland.
Moore said: “What both Blue Lights and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland demonstrate so brilliantly, is that thinking bigger about how we harness and showcase the creativity of the whole of the UK is paying huge dividends – for us and for audiences.”
By a delicious irony, Yes Minister is being rerun on BBC Four at the same time as the Covid inquiry grills the country’s leading civil servants and politicians.
No one, though, could confuse the fictional Sir Humphrey Appleby with Party Marty or the deputy cabinet secretary who brought a karaoke machine to one of the illegal lockdown parties at 10 Downing Street.
The scheme will be comprised of workshops, expert-led sessions and networking opportunities across an eight-week period. From June 2024, the soon-to-be script writers will learn each stage of writing for screen, covering all bases.
This will be the second “Write Across” scheme the BBC has initiated after the successful “Write Across Liverpool” last year.
The awards ceremony was hosted this evening by comedian and presenter Eddie Kadi at the London Hilton on Park Lane, commending the exceptional skills and processes that are involved in programme making.
Across the 28 competitive categories, the BBC had a victorious night receiving 14 awards, with The English winning both Costume Design – Scripted and Design Titles, and The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II for both Director – Multicamera and Multicamera Work categories.
Nicolas Winding Refn (byNWR) and Matthew Read (Moonage Pictures) have come together to bring Enid Blyton’s classic children’s novels to the screen. Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ are comprised of George, an only child, whose three cousins, Dick, Julian and Anne come to stay at her home in Kirrin for the summer.
Although initially George is dubious about trusting these new friends, she soon learns that adventuring with them is more fun than without them. The five are completed by George’s loyal dog Timmy.
With a Lebanese father and a mother from Sierra Leone, Big Zuu grew up with Islam on both sides of the family. Although faith has remained hugely important for Zuu, growing up in London has meant living completely by the book hasn’t always been easy.
In Big Zuu Goes To Mecca, Zuu will go on the Umrah pilgrimage (a religious journey to Masjid al-Haram), visit one of Islam’s holiest cities, and examine what it means to be a “good Muslim.”
What does the job involve?
I guess the simple answer is that the clue is in the title: it’s about having a clear direction in which you want to take a project.
You’re the hand on the tiller, making sure all the departments and actors are going in the same direction.
I started in documentaries, so I’m trying to make things feel real and truthful. I’m not just trying to deliver the script, which is what a lot of people think a director’s job is. You have to breathe life into it so it doesn’t feel written, or even directed.
Dope Girls is inspired by the buried history of post-World War One London, where female gangs controlled the drugs, clubs and bootleg liqueur.
Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) leads the cast as Kate Galloway, a single mother who has begun a life in the hedonistic Soho criminal underworld, by establishing a nightclub to provide for her daughter Evie (Call the Midwife). Umi Myers (Bob Marley: One Love) plays a bohemian dancer whose world gets turned upside down when she begins performing at Kate’s nightclub.
