Noticias

The British are ruling Netflix, at least when it comes to the streaming charts. According to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos (via Deadline), the streamer's top four most-watched series for the first half of the year all hailed from across the pond. Episodes of Netflix's British hits Fool Me Once, Bridgerton, The Gentlemen, and Baby Reindeer collectively racked up 360 million views from January through June 2024. These numbers and the streamer's other most-watched shows for the first half of the year will be released by Netflix later this week.

Sarando spoke on the numbers while appearing at the Royal Television Society London Convention, where he also sang the British entertainment industry's praises, calling the UK "one of the best countries in the world for TV and film." Despite lagging behind the BBC in the UK market, Sarandos expressed optimism about reaching a 25% market share by keeping "the audience upfront." According to an August report from Deadline,...

Dlt Entertainment has bought Juniper Productions, the indie producer owned by BBC Chairman Samir Shah.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t announced, but London-based Dlt said the acquisition marked “a significant expansion of its portfolio in the factual programming space.” Juniper will continue to operate from offices in London.

Juniper (aka Juniper TV) is behind shows such as Politics London and Politics South East for the BBC and The Political Slot for Channel 4, all of which have been commissions taking them into 2025.

Dlt said that, “in a time when politics has taken center-stage for UK audiences, particularly following the recent election, these programs have become essential viewing for those seeking to understand the complexities of local and regional governance.

Shah has owned Juniper since 1998, when he acquired it from Michael Wills, who left the TV business to become an MP. Upon being appointed BBC Chairman to replace Richard Sharp,...

As Alex Horne tells it, Taskmaster was born out of professional jealousy. In 2009, he became a parent and so broke with almost a decade of tradition by not taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe. That same year, his friend and former flatmate Tim Key won the festival’s top comedy award, for which Horne had been nominated in 2003.

At home and envious, Horne sent out emails inviting 20 comedians – including Key – to take part in a new competition in which he would set them a different task each month for a year. The results would be shared in a live performance at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe called The Taskmaster.

The result was organised chaos. An overdraft of comedians (a Fringe-specific collective noun) plus a pianist joined Horne on stage to reveal the results, set tie-break tasks, and eventually crown a winner.

“So this is The Taskmaster,” Horne told the crowd, “It...

Warning! This article contains Spoilers for Dumb Money.

"Dumb Money" is a comedy-drama film based on the GameStop short squeeze and its soundtrack adds to its humor. The film flopped in theaters but is now streaming, allowing new audiences to discover its funny and entertaining true story. The soundtrack features popular songs like "Wap" by Cardi B and "Humble" by Kendrick Lamar, which enhance key moments in the film.

Craig Gillespie’s comedy-drama film Dumb Money is based on the true story of the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021 and effectively uses its soundtrack to add to its humor. Dumb Money is now streaming, bringing new audiences to the film after it unfortunately flopped in theaters last year. Despite Dumb Money’s positive reviews, it only made $8 million at the box office. Luckily, viewers can revisit Dumb Money and discover the surprisingly funny and entertaining true story of the short squeeze.

It’s certainly a good time to be a Taskmaster fan. Series 15 had one of the best casts yet, becoming an instant fan favourite (and making the top 5 of our series ranking), and series 16 has a seriously promising line-up. Channel 4 has confirmed we’re getting at least six more series of Taskmaster-y goodness over the next three years, and the show is even getting its first spin-off: Junior Taskmaster, fronted by former Taskmaster alumni Rose Matafeo and Mike Wozniak.

Now that Junior Taskmaster is confirmed, there’s been a rumour that there’s a second spin-off on the way: the culinary-themed Foodmaster. If rumours in The Sun are true (!), there’s a pilot in the works already for this foodie version of the show, but Greg Davies and Alex Horne aren’t on the menu.

What if this is true and – more importantly – what if this is just the start?...

Canadian actor, comedian, and activist Tommy Chong is best known for his string of marijuana-themed Cheech and Chong movies with Los Angeles actor, comedian, and activist Cheech Marin. While Chong has gone on to enjoy a fruitful acting career, appearing in thirty-plus films since 1978, the Up in Smoke actor’s eldest daughter Rae Dawn Chong, might not be as recognizable as her father. Although not the most famous actress in the entertainment industry, Chong has worked hard to solidify herself as a skilled actress with minimal involvement from her more popular father.

After Chong enjoyed a successful career throughout the 1980s, her star gradually faded in the 1990s and continued to do so well into the new millennium. As many familiar with Hollywood and its politics know, it is difficult for people to start a career in the entertainment industry, and this is especially true for women and people of color.

Taskmaster is chaotic enough as it is – that’s why we love it so much – so can you imagine the kinds of unbroadcastable mayhem that occurs during filming?

Well, you don’t need to imagine, because we’ve rounded up a wild array of anecdotes from former contestants podcast interviews, the Taskmaster book and Little Alex Horne himself about all kinds of secret shenanigans that occurred but didn’t (and mostly couldn’t) make the cut:

Task Attempts Nixed For Legal Reasons

The producers certainly have their hands full trying to prevent the contestants from going overboard, with some attempts at tasks being either illegal or simply unbroadcastable.

Mark Watson also revealed that one unaired task in series 5 – in which contestants had to make five far-fetched predictions come true – was cut because Sally Phillips predicted something “legally compromising.” We’d love to know what that was…

In Doc Brown’s episode of the Taskmaster podcast,...

When Taskmaster premiered back in 2015, it’s unlikely that Greg Davies or Alex Horne could have predicted just how gargantuan and global the show’s fan base would become. 15 series, 13 international spinoffs, two podcasts and a BAFTA later, this quirky comedian game show is still going strong, with a Junior version in the works and six new series confirmed over the next three years.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how Taskmaster is filmed then read on:

Filming Tasks Takes Place Over About a Week – Not Always Consecutively

Naturally, co-ordinating the schedules of five popular comedians is quite the challenge, so their tasks aren’t all filmed in one go. Depending on their schedules, some contestants do a solid block of filming while others visit the Taskmaster house more sporadically over the course of a few months to attempt their tasks.

Series 11 contestant and Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie explained:...

Warning: This contains spoilers for all series of Taskmaster, including Series 15

Series 15 of Taskmaster has been delightfully ruthless already. So far we’ve had Ivor Graham sabotaging Kiell Smith-Bynoe in the first Live task and Greg Davies letting all the contestants get away with touching things in a task that said “you must not touch anything at any point”.

Then, in episode 4, the show joyously almost descended into full anarchy both over the definition of “throwing” and what a banana is (more on this later).

We suspect Taskmaster fans will be arguing over #throwgate for a while, but it’s not the first controversial decision to go down in the show’s history. In fact, for many, the mere mention of the words “potato”, “hula hoop” and “Mark Watson” are enough to trigger an epic Taskmaster rant to this day. Let’s take a look back at some of the show’s most questionable rulings.

Contains spoilers for the Taskmaster series 11 finale

The suit. The ‘tache. The smile. The preternatural speed with which he’s able to snatch a marshmallow from an opponent using a pair of kitchen tongs. There’s a great deal to admire about Taskmaster series 11 contestant Mike Wozniak, so admire him we will. Right here. Starting now. Tick tock: it’s Wozniak o’clock.

Who is Mike Wozniak?

He’s an absolute bloody milk guzzler, that’s who.

Like Harry Hill, Graham Chapman, Graeme Garden and Paul Sinha before him, Mike Wozniak trained and worked as a doctor before becoming a stand-up. Healthcare’s loss was comedy’s gain. His 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show, in which Wozniak played an outmoded light entertainer, received a Best Comedy Show nomination.

On the subject of Edinburgh, series 11 isn’t Mike Wozniak’s first Taskmaster experience. Before he developed the format for television, Alex Horne performed...

WarnerMedia Pulls Plug On South Asia Channels

WarnerMedia has announced that it plans to close its linear HBO and WB TV channels in India, Pakistan, Maldives, and Bangladesh from December 15. Siddharth Jain, SVP and managing director of WarnerMedia’s entertainment network in South Asia, said: “After 20 years of successes for the HBO linear movie channel in South Asia and more than a decade with the WB linear movie channel, this was a difficult decision to make. The pay-tv industry landscape and the market dynamics have shifted dramatically, and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for further change.”

Rainmaker Content Hires Karen Wise As Sales Chief

Rainmaker Content, the sales house set up by former Kew Media Distribution execs Greg Phillips and Graham Begg, has hired former Sky Studios executive Karen Wise as head of sales. Wise spent seven years at Sky Studios, formerly Sky Vision, rising to head of...

‘Dancing With The Stars’ Heads To Mongolia

Dancing With The Stars is waltzing into its 60th territory after BBC Studios sold the dance competition format to Mongolia’s Mongol TV. The 13-part series goes into pre-production this month and is set to air in early 2021. Dancing With The Stars’ first international sale was to Australia’s Channel 7 in 2004 and there have now been 350 series and 4,000 episodes of the show made worldwide. Dancing With The Stars airs on ABC in the U.S.

HBO Europe Commissions Romanian & Polish Series

HBO Europe has commenced shooting on two new series in Central Europe: Ruxx in Romania and Still Here in Poland. Eight-part Ruxx is a modern relationship drama that examines a young generation of Romanians who live in a country caught between the past and the future. It is written by Vera Ion and stars Raluca Aprodu and Alec Secăreanu. Poland’s...

In today’s film news roundup, Universal is moving ahead on a supernatural romance, the Napa Valley Film Festival delays the event for a year and the Frameline unveils a variety of offerings after postponing its festival to the fall.

Project Launched

Universal Pictures is developing supernatural romance “Dan and Sam,” based on the 2015 graphic novel of the same name, with “37 Seconds” director Hikari on board.

“Dan and Sam,” written by Mark Watson and Oliver Harud, centers on a happily married couple who own a popular London restaurant. When Sam dies in Dan’s arms after an accident, Dan is granted a reprieve in which Sam can return to him for one night of the year, every year, until he falls in love again.

Hikari directed, wrote and produced “37 Seconds,” which won the Audience Award in the Panorama section at last year’s Berlin Film Festival. Molly Smith Metzler...

Deadline has confirmed that Universal is developing a feature take on Mark Watson and Oliver Harud’s 2015 graphic novel Dan and Sam from Picador publishing.

Japanese director Hikari, who helmed the Berlin Film Festival Audience Award winner 37 Seconds, will direct. The drama, which follows a young Japanese woman who suffers from cerebral palsy, was acquired by Netflix which streamed it earlier this year. Molly Smith Metzler will adapt the story about a prosperous London couple when Sam dies in Dan’s arms after an accident. Dan is granted a reprieve – Sam can return to him for one night of the year, every year, until he falls in love again. And though Dan knows that no one could ever take Sam’s place in his heart, he faces an impossible choice.

More from Deadline'The Secret Life Of Pets 2' Meows Moola At No. 14 On Deadline's 2019 Most Valuable Blockbuster TournamentUniversal & Amasia Entertainment...

Universal is going on a date with a ghost.

The studio is developing Dan and Sam, a supernatural romance based on the 2015 graphic novel of the same name by Mark Watson and Oliver Harud.

Hikari, the filmmaker behind the Berlin International Film Festival award winner 37 Seconds, will direct the adaptation, which will be penned by Molly Smith Metzler, who has written on Shameless and Orange Is the New Black.

Marc Platt and Adam Siegel will produce through Universal-based Marc Platt Productions, alongside Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger, who will produce through Automatik Entertainment.

Dan and Sam tells of a young couple who ...

Universal is going on a date with a ghost.

The studio is developing Dan and Sam, a supernatural romance based on the 2015 graphic novel of the same name by Mark Watson and Oliver Harud.

Hikari, the filmmaker behind the Berlin International Film Festival award winner 37 Seconds, will direct the adaptation, which will be penned by Molly Smith Metzler, who has written on Shameless and Orange Is the New Black.

Marc Platt and Adam Siegel will produce through Universal-based Marc Platt Productions, alongside Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger, who will produce through Automatik Entertainment.

Dan and Sam tells of a young couple who ...

Another Adpocalypse could be afoot.

After the creator Mark Watson revealed in an exposé video last weekend that pedophiles were swarming the comments sections of ostensibly innocent children’s videos, Disney and Nestle have reportedly joined Fortnite publisher Epic Games in temporarily pulling their YouTube ad spend. All Nestle brands in the U.S. -- including Carnation, Butterfinger, Arrowhead, and more -- have paused YouTube ads, a spokeswoman told Bloomberg, though Disney has not confirmed its decision publicly.

Last weekend, Watson brought to light the "wormhole" of children's videos -- made easier to find by YouTube’s algorithm -- in which young children were doing everyday activities, like posing in front of a mirror or taking a gymnastics class. In the comments, however, users were time-stamping moments they found to be arousing, and exchanging links to child pornography on external websites.

For its part, YouTube told Bloomberg that less than...

You can’t always trust the veracity of stuff posted online — and obviously YouTube is no exception.

On Monday, Google’s YouTube announced that it is committing $25 million to help support legitimate news organizations, and also detailed new features intended to flag misinformation and highlight authoritative news sources.

YouTube’s role in promoting conspiracy theories has flared up in recent months. In February, for example, a YouTube video suggesting that one of the high-school students who survived the mass killing in Parkland, Fla., David Hogg, was an actor hired by gun-control advocates briefly became YouTube’s No. 1 trending video. YouTube removed the clip within a few hours, citing violation of its policy on harassment and bullying.

In the wake of such incidents, Google and YouTube have since seen the need to take more proactive steps to support news on YouTube as well as educate users about spotting fake news. YouTube executives Neal Mohan,...

Funny people of London, the summer is here and it’s time to grab new opportunities and get seriously comical. Buckle up, laugh fans, here we go. Open Mic Nights‘Alex Williams Presents The Dial-Up’ is a mixed bag of an open mic night held on June 15 at the London Improv Theatre. Comedy, music, and spoken word all feature and bagging a spot is easy, just turn up and say hello! (Free) Every Thursday over in Stoke Newington is the White Hart’s Open Mic night, mixing amateurs and pros for one laugh-out-loud night of open mic fun. To book your spot, check out their Facebook page. Gigs + EVENTSNot strictly in June but if you don’t book soon, this one will be gone. SNL’s Michael Che is in London for one night only on July 30 playing north London’s beautiful and intimate Union Chapel. Not to be missed.

Louisa Mellor Sep 13, 2017

Taskmaster returns for a fifth series tonight on Dave, featuring Bob Mortimer, Sally Phillips, Nish Kumar, Aisling Bea and Mark Watson...

“I think I could probably fit all that lot in my trousers,” says Tim Key gesturing at the crowded kitchen worktop of a London flat in this 2008 YouTube video. He then tests the hypothesis, starting with a loaf of bread, a bunch of bananas and a silver espresso maker. Into the trouser leg they go, followed by a parade of unlikely items - a cheese grater, a bottle of orange squash, an unwieldy marble bowl. Every so often, a hand reaches out from the camera to assist. It belongs to comedian Alex Horne, seen intermittently in the back of shot drinking a coffee and checking his watch.

See related John Wick 3 already on the cards John Wick 3: Keanu Reeves confirms his interest

“Yeah, we had a lot of free time,...

A bike fest on the Belfast Waterfront, the Turner Prize exhibition at the Baltic, a film festival on Jersey and hip-hop at Sadler's Wells – here's our pick of cultural events in the coming months

August

Comedy

Camden Fringe London

With an eye for the experimental and the strange, this festival spreads out over venues across the borough, with theatre, stand-up, improv and shadow puppets from the likes of comediennes Morris & Vyse and puppet company Pangolin's Teatime.

1-28 August, camdenfringe.com, tickets from £5

Theatre and dance

Five Truths at the V&A, London

Multi-screen installation brings together five interpretations of Ophelia's madness in Hamlet. Five Truths explores the differences in approach of five of the most influential European theatre directors, including Bertold Brecht and Peter Brook, and how they might have imagined the scene, in a film created by National Theatre associate director Katie Mitchell.

• Until 29 August, vam.ac.uk, admission free

Peter Hall Company,...

Alan Carr and Mark Watson have been named amongst the latest additions to this year's Latitude festival bill. Organisers have also confirmed that Shooting Stars scorekeeper Angelos Epithemiou, Perrier Award winner David O'Doherty and Let's Dance for Comic Relief winner Charlie Baker will be a part of the festival's comedy programme. They join a stand-up bill which already includes Omid Djalili, RIchard Herring and former BBC 6Music DJ Jon Richardson. A special performance of Never Mind The Buzzcocks will also take (more)...

Frankie Boyle has launched a stinging attack on fellow comedian Mark Watson. Boyle made the comments in response to one of Watson's old blog posts, in which the We Need Answers host debated the merits of a joke made by Boyle about Down's Syndrome in front of a mother of a 5-year-old who suffered from the condition. In his original post, Watson wrote: "Pretty much since I became a comedian, I've wondered whether comedy awards itself too much licence by playing the hey-calm-down-we're-just-joking-here card, and thus making anyone who objects feel like... well, like a Daily Mail reader. "I've seen scores and scores of gags at the expense of fat people, gay people, disabled people, women, pretty much every minority group other than 45-year-old, slightly paunchy stand-ups in suit jackets. "A lot of them are just jokes, and everyone (more)...

Stand-up comic Mark Watson has claimed that he is not worried about being criticised for going on a reality TV show. The We Need Answers presenter, 30, will appear on ITV1's Marco's Kitchen Burnout this week, alongside Ruth Langsford and former Wag Elen Rives. However, Watson insisted that he is unperturbed by rival comics who may mock him for his latest TV venture. "It would be quite easy for people to do that because on the show I don't get much opportunity to be funny apart from burning things and knocking things over," he told Digital Spy. "You could quite easily say, 'He used to do funny stand-up and now he messes around in a kitchen'. But what I would probably say about people who criticise comedians that have become more well-known is that they usually (more)...

The BBC has announced that Never Mind The Buzzcocks will return this autumn with a brand new lineup. Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding joins Phill Jupitus on the show as a team captain, while the series will be presented by guest hosts David Walliams, Alex James, Dermot O'Leary, Jack Whitehall, Rhod Gilbert, Frank Skinner, Mark Watson and James Corden. "I am so excited about Buzzcocks. I am leaping across the Camden rooftops dressed as a small white kitten," Fielding said. Executive editor Katie Taylor added: "It's great (more)...