During what will prove to be 2020’s most astonishing opening sequence – even this early in the year – Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) tries and fails to control his newly discovered sexual urges in a scene that ends in excruciating embarrassment in front of his therapist mother (Gillian Anderson).
ITVs comedy-drama Cold Feet returns for its ninth series on Monday, following a group of five friends.
“I had got to a point before this happened where I was thinking about retraining. I’d just turned 30 and I thought, I’ve been doing this for so long and I can’t see it happening.” This frank admission by Laurie Nunn might bring some comfort to the thousands of other aspiring writers, hoping to emulate her apparently instant success and become Netflix’s next creative wunderkind.
The trailer shows Otis' (Asa Butterfield) nightmare coming true as his mother (Gillian Anderson) gives a very open sexual health talk at his school.
While dealing with his continuing embarrassment of his mother's profession seeping into his personal life, he is faced with the challenges of having a new girlfriend...who also happens to be the daughter of his mother's new boyfriend.
The first series saw the socially awkward and introverted Otis (Asa Butterfield) become an unlikely sex and relationships advisor to his teenage classmates as he followed in the footsteps of his sex therapist mother, Jean (Gillian Anderson).
The brand new eight-part series will follow Otis’s first ever relationship with his girlfriend Ola (Patricia Allison), and the new sexual urges and awkward encounters that come with it.
Jessica Barden returns as Alyssa, runaway teenager turned café waitress, who adjusts to normal life after being detained by the police in connection with the death of rapist and murderer Professor Clive Koch (Jonathan Aris).
Killed by Alyssa’s boyfriend and fellow runaway James (Alex Lawther), the teenager was last seen being fired upon by the police, with his fate still to be revealed.
The series takes place during a rapidly changing Britain that faces a failing financial climate and the rise of political agendas against royalism.
The new trailer opens with The Queen reflecting on her reign and the inner tensions within the Royal family as they endure personal struggles in service of their subjects.
The UK is facing “a total loss of cultural sovereignty”, which risks leaving the country culturally impoverished unless action is taken to stop US giants such as Netflix from dominating the media landscape.
This was the frank message from Mark Thompson, the former Director-General of the BBC who, for seven years since 2012, has been engaged in a wholesale transformation of The New York Times from a print company into a digital-based global news operation with 5 million subscribers.
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.
At this year’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture, former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson recounted a conversation he had had with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in 2007, during discussions concerning the launch of the iPlayer. According to Thompson, Hastings told him: “I don’t know why you’re bothering, Mark, you’ll never beat my algorithm. Why not just give us all your content instead?”
