No-one could have expected that a 1966 film would win a 2020 RTS Yorkshire Centre Award for post-production excellence. But that's exactly what happened when a restored version of Carry On Up the Khyber caught the attention of judges.
The new cast members will guest feature as suspects in the first film of the Bath-based detective drama series, currently filming, alongside leads Jason Watkins and Tala Gouveia.
Gouveia and Watkins will reprise their roles as the unlikely pairing of the gutsy DCI McDonald and the humble DS Dodds.
James Murray also returns as Chief Superintendent Houseman, handing McDonald and Dodds three new murder mysteries to solve. Lily Sacofsky joins as DC Milena Pachiorkowski.
Neil Morrissey (Unforgotten) will star alongside Emily Head (The Inbetweeners), Taj Atwal (Line of Duty), Katherine Rose Morley (Thirteen) and Kieran Urquhart (Vera).
British YouTuber Joe Sugg will make his TV acting debut in the series alongside fellow castmates Liberty Hobbs (Grey’s Anatomy) and Mark Benton (Shakespeare & Hathaway).
BritBox has the biggest set of British boxsets from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and will now debut originals A Spy Among Friends, The Beast Must Die, Crime and Magpie Murders.
A Spy Among Friends is set to be a limited series based on the novel of the same name by Ben Macintyre and explores a world of espionage and duplicity in the time of the Cold War.
The first of two new series, starting in autumn this year, will be lampooning the likes of Boris Johnson, Harry & Meghan, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Co-creator Roger Law will head the creative team once again, having previously established the original series.
“The new Spitting Image will be global through a uniquely British eye, it will be more outrageous, audacious and salacious than the previous incarnation,” said Law.
Marcus Arthur may be a BBC veteran, but the winds of change blowing through UKTV these past nine months or so have been like no other in his lengthy BBC career.
Last June, he succeeded Darren Childs as the outfit’s CEO. His appointment followed the end of the joint venture with Discovery, which finally gave BBC Studios full control of UKTV and its seven-channel portfolio (its three lifestyle channels were acquired by Discovery as part of the separation) and the online hub, UKTV Play.
Writer Kay Mellor has penned another six episodes of the drama, which will follow the fortunes of staff at a dog kennels in Leeds.
Facing potential redundancy after the owners announce a takeover by a larger company, the team turns to the weekly lottery as a last resort, and win.
But will the syndicate receive their rightful winnings? Set between Leeds and Las Vegas, the kennel workers will be forced to spend every last penny in pursuit of them.
The new streaming service offers content from ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
BritBox, created by ITV and the BBC, marks the UK’s entry into the paid streaming market alongside international giants such as Netflix and Amazon.
Priced at £5.99 per month, BritBox will offer the biggest collection of British boxsets such as Broadchurch, Doctor Who, Gavin and Stacey, Wolf Hall and Downton Abbey.
The late-September event was hosted by the University of Westminster, and chaired by media producer and consultant Aradhna Tayal. It featured Bloomberg media reporter Joe Mayes, London Centre Chair Phil Barnes and James Cordell, a London committee member and first-time attendee at the convention.
The panel noted that one of the key themes throughout was the rise of streaming and whether the already established subscription video on demand (SVoD) companies – with more set to enter the market – will dominate the UK broadcast industry.
Will the future of streaming be defined by SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) or free, advertising-funded video-on-demand – or can they both prosper? Those were the big questions addressed by BritBox launch director Reemah Sakaan and Viacom International Media Networks chief David Lynn.
Speaking on the day that the “best of British” SVoD announced a deal with Channel 5, Sakaan was asked by session chair Wayne Garvie how she was going to “persuade my mum and dad to spend £5.99 a month on BritBox”?
