Mr Bates vs the Post Office belongs to that handful of British TV dramas – think Cathy Come Home or Queer as Folk – that changed the world we live in, but the shocking truth is that it almost didn’t get made.
This was one of several remarkable insights shared with the RTS into the four-part ITV series that finally drew the public’s attention to what may be our broken nation’s gravest miscarriage of justice ever.
You were the lead medical advisor on Breathtaking. How did that come about?
I know Prasanna Puwanarajah, a former doctor, and had a little bit of input, along with a few other doctors, into the script he wrote with Dr Rachel Clarke and Jed Mercurio. The production felt they needed somebody on the ground as a medical advisor and I was available.
What did the job involve in pre-production?
The show will select players based on both their brains and social intelligence. Those looking to get ahead in the programme’s all-new game formats will need to use their heads in more ways than one.
As well as mental acuity, contestants will need to use the dark art of manipulation to cheat each other out of the cash prize.
Yesterday, ITV tweeted out a brain teaser hinting that Tennant was the host.
In the sleepy northern town of Chadder Vale, Katie Wells goes missing. Then, she comes back. Most of the villagers are content all’s well that ends well, except one.
Police officer Riya Ajunwa is relatively new in town, having been here for five years after a decade-long stint in the Met. Bored of investigating bins, she smells something fishy in Wells’s disappearance. As a series of devastating and unnatural crimes begin to be committed, her suspicions are confirmed. However, several questions remain unanswered.
The four-part drama stars Lucy Boynton (Murder on the Orient Express) as the real-life 1950s London club manager, then the youngest in the capital.
Ellis later found an entirely different kind of fame, becoming the last woman in Britain to be hanged, after shooting her partner David Blakely. The drama is based on A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story, the biography by Carol Ann Lee.
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story follows the impresario’s story through clubland and the abusive relationship she had with Blakely.
From Love Island’s Chloe Burrows, to Wagatha Christie victim Rebekah Vardy, to Reggae Reggae sauce creator Levi Roots, there are many rumours floating around social media as to who will be the next household names turned housemates. But fans will have to wait a little longer to lay these rumours to rest.
ITV revealed via X (formerly Twitter) that the cast will only be announced live in the launch show – a major shake up from the 2023 civilian series, where the cast were pre-announced, and the show was pre-recorded.
Malpractice won favour with both critics – “intricately plotted and beautifully, leanly written”, said The Guardian – and audiences: it was ITV1’s most watched drama launch episode of 2023 when it aired last spring. Ahead of filming starting on series two, the RTS talked to some of the talent behind the show, including its creator, former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah.
She pitched an idea for a hospital-set thriller about medical malpractice to Simon Heath, CEO of World Productions, whose award-winning dramas include Line of Duty and Save Me.
Four years ago, the UK identified its first cases of a new, highly infectious disease. Within two months, Covid-19 had claimed the lives of thousands of people and the country found itself in an eerie lockdown.
Behind closed hospital doors, the scene was very different: it was one of chaos, as an unprepared and overwhelmed health service struggled to keep people alive.
Ex-partners, best friends, and those jilted at Casa Amor; this new batch of islanders have a rich interpersonal history – all of which is detailed over 10 series of Love Island on ITVX.
Taking the place of the winter series, Love Island: All Stars hopes past islanders can forge new connections with each other - their shared experience perhaps leading to a stronger foundation.
Let’s catch up with some old favourites and see what brings them back to old faithful – the Love Island villa…
