Notizie

German Historical Docu-Drama ‘Nuremberg 45’ Hits International Market

Exclusive: An historical docu-drama about the Nuremberg trials for German pubcaster Ard is set for launch on the international market. OneGate Media, the sales subsidiary of the Ard/Ndr network, has picked up global rights to Nuremberg 45, a 90-minute single that will debut in Germany later this year. According to producers, the doc combines fictional scenes, original archive footage and contemporary interviews to tell the story of the post-World War II trials carried out by Allied forces against members of the defeated Nazi Germany. The story will be seen through the eyes of two young Holocaust survivors – Ernst Michel, who is driven by the loss of his parents and friends and returns alone to witness justice as a court reporter, and Seweryna Szmaglewska, who testified as one of the very first survivors. The Nuremberg trials not only brought several architects of Nazi atrocities to justice,...

Lee Mack and Chris McCausland star in festive comedy Bad Tidings. Here’s the trailer for the upcoming Sky TV production.

Comedians Chris McCausland and Lee Mack are building up quite a portfolio of work together. They previously collaborated on an episode of the latter’s hit sitcom Not Going Out last year, in which McCausland played a passenger travelling in the same carriage as Lee’s family. They also presented at the BAFTAs together, and McCausland appears alongside Mack on game show Would I Lie To You.

They are now starring together in festive film Bad Tidings for Sky. The synopsis reads as follows:

This year’s Sky Original Christmas special revolves around grumpy home-security expert Neil (Mack) and his neighbour Scott (McCausland), who insists on keeping his Christmas lights illuminated all-year-round. And mixing up their bins, criticising Neil’s ‘project’ car and generally winding him up. Basically, Scott’s a git.

“Black Mirror’s” Samuel Blenkin and “House of the Dragon” star Emily Carey have been cast as the leads in upcoming indie feature “Misper.”

A darkly comic film, “Misper” follows Leonard Lowry (Blenkin) and his colleagues as they deal with the disappearance of their friend Elle Pritchard (Carey).

“The employees of a dying seaside hotel have their lives upended when their colleague, Elle Pritchard vanishes,” reads the synopsis. “In a redirection of dramas featuring a missing person, the police investigation and focus on the perpetrator are traded for intimate and darkly comedic portrayals of the psychological impact on her co-workers.”

“Mis-per” is a portmanteau for “missing person.”

Joining Blenkin and Carey are Christine Bottomley (“Sherwood”) as Pam Shade, Daniel Ryan (“The Bay”) as Gary Jenkins and Oliver Ryan (“Dune Part One”) as Roy Pritchard along with from Sunil Patel, Rosalind Adler, Iona Champain and Jordan Brookes. The film, which recently wrapped,...

Former Great British Bake Off presenter Mel Giedroyc will front a British version of Pictionary, the TV series adapted from the Mattel game.

Based on the sketching and guessing game, the series will pit two teams led by celebrity captains against each other. Each player’s mission is to draw images to match a word or phrase from a specific category so their teammates can correctly guess.

The 25-episode ITV show will run on the broadcast network and streamer Itvx at the end of 2024. Whisper North is producing after Laura Burrell, Vice President, International Formats, Paramount Global Content Distribution, brokered a deal with ITV.

The series has been commissioned by Katie Rawcliffe, Director of Entertainment & Daytime Commissioning, ITV and Leanne Clarke, Assistant Commissioner, ITV. Exec producers are Kerri Reid and Tom McLennan from Whisper North, which also produces the current UK versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune on ITV.

Chris McCausland and Lee Mack will star as feuding neighbours in Sky Max Christmas comedy Bad Tidings.

Comedians Chris McCausland and Lee Mack are building up quite a portfolio of work together – they previously collaborated on an episode of the latter’s hit sitcom Not Going Out last year, in which McCausland played a passenger travelling in the same carriage as Lee’s family, and they also presented at the BAFTAs together, as well as McCausland making appearances on Mack’s game show Would I Lie To You.

They are now starring together in festive film Bad Tidings for Sky Max. The synopsis reads as follows:

This year’s Sky Original Christmas special revolves around grumpy home-security expert Neil (Mack) and his neighbour Scott (McCausland), who insists on keeping his Christmas lights illuminated all-year-round. And mixing up their bins, criticising Neil’s ‘project’ car and generally winding him up. Basically,...

Chris McCausland & Lee Mack Set For Sky Festive Special

British comedians Chris McCausland and Lee Mack will front Sky festive special Bad Tidings, about two perpetually feuding neighbors in Northern England who become unlikely heroes after saving their street from notorious burglars with wacky booby traps and British banter. Laurence Rickard & Martha Howe-Douglas are writing, with production commencing this month at Sky Studios Elstree. Also cast are Rebekah Staton, Sarah Alexander, Ben Crompton, Emily Coates, Josiah Eloi, Millie Kiss, Tupele Dorgu, Sunil Patel, Susan Kyd and Donna Preston. Sky Studios is producing, with Tim Kirkby directing. Adnan Ahmed from Sky Studios is the producer and Ail Gupta exec produces. Sky’s Comcast stablemate NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution will handle international sales. Bad Tidings is the latest Sky original festive special, following last year’s The Heist Before Christmas, 2022’s Christmas Carole and 2021’s The Amazing Mr Blunden.

Get ready to meet Alice & Jack.

No, really — ready yourself. Because the “unfiltered” love story heading Stateside via Masterpiece on PBS this Sunday at 10/9c will take your heart on quite a roller coaster ride.

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Created by Mad Men writer Victor Levin and set in modern-day London, Alice & Jack stars Andrea Riseborough (an Academy Award nominee for To Leslie,...

A screening of Isabel Herguera’s San Sebastian winner “Sultana’s Dream” will kickstart the inaugural edition of AniMela, India’s first-ever international festival for animation, VFX, Xr, gaming and comics, in Mumbai.

The screening will be followed by a Q&a with Herguera, alongside her Spanish and Indian crew, including Indian animation expert Upamanyu Bhattacharyya. AniMela’s film program includes features “The Peasants,” “Slide,” “Josep,” “Calamity,” “Unicorn Wars,” “Hokkyoku Hyakkaten No – Concierge San,” “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” and shorts under the thematic headings “India Collection,” “Queer Collection” and “Diversity & Identity: Dutch Shorts.”

AniMela’s Knowledge Center hosts workshops, panel discussions and masterclasses with Indian and international stalwarts from the animation, VFX and gaming industries including Annecy Festival director Mickaël Marin, Annecy Film Market director Veronique Encrenaz, VFX Supervisor Srinivas Mohan and filmmaker and educator Nina Sabnani. Highlights include a behind the scenes look at Milind D. Shinde’s “Bandits...

Masterpiece will premiere Alice & Jack, the U.K. TV series starring Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie) and Domhnall Gleeson (The Patient) on March 17.

Created and written by Victor Levin, Alice & Jack features Riseborough and Gleeson as the titular characters in what distributor Fremantle described as a “love story for the ages.” Logline adds: “When they first meet they’re bound by a connection so powerful it seems nothing can break it, but will their path lead them to a place of happiness and togetherness? Or will life and their own emotional complexities get in the way.”

Alice & Jack premiered at TIFF in September. Masterpiece exec Susanne Simpson described the show as an “exceptionally beautiful and profound series that we are proud to add to our lineup.”

Alice & Jack brings together major production companies in Academy Award-nominated Groundswell Productions, the BAFTA-winning Me + You Productions,...

BBC Radio 4 has today launched Jokes, a new comedy podcast feed that brings together top picks from the station’s original comedy in one place. Available to subscribe on BBC Sounds and RSS, Jokes will combine brand new series with highlights from the archive, providing comedy fans with an easy way to find the latest content from their favourite comedians.

First up in the feed will be Nora Meadows’ Week of Wellness, a new sitcom starring Katy Wix as a therapist trying to help her clients (and herself) find wellness. This series is a joint commission between BBC Comedy and Radio 4 following a non-broadcast pilot last year.

Jokes is set to include further TV co-commissions too, including Icklewick FM, written by and starring Amy Gledhill and Chris Cantrill of The Delightful Sausage. Set in a fictional Yorkshire radio station, the show follows the residents of Icklewick as they discuss...

Andrea Riseborough takes on the pleasure and pain of love in Channel 4 series “Alice & Jack,” created by Victor Levin.

“This frustration of really appreciating someone and also not being able to understand them or be understood, that’s such a common connection we have in life,” she tells Variety ahead of the show’s MipCom premiere. She also serves as an executive producer.

“Also, it’s not just frustration – there is excitement as well. It can take you to your highest highs, it’s the most elated feeling in the world and it’s also brutally hard. There is nothing harder than true love.”

That’s what Alice and Jack (Domhnall Gleeson) are about to find out, as following a supposed one-night stand they realize they can’t be together. They also can’t be apart.

“When Vic sent me that first episode, it felt so… Awkwardly, heartbreakingly,...

Ah, love. Is there anything it fails to overcome? In reality, the answer is a resounding, “yes, obviously, so many things” — ranging from physical separation and infidelity to your partner’s sudden preoccupation with Aaron Rodgers or their repeated mispronunciation of “picture” as “pitcher.” But if you’re a head-in-the-clouds romantic, nothing so trivial could tear apart two people whose destiny is written in the stars. Logic and practicality don’t apply, the heart wants what it wants, yada yada yada. Love is thee reason for being, and thus it can be a reason to justify almost anything — all sorts of behavior, be it swooning or sordid, can be overlooked in the name of love.

“Alice & Jack” appears over-reliant on this type of romanticism. The Channel 4 (UK) and PBS Masterpiece (US) series, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows Domhnall Gleeson’s Jack and Andrea Riseborough...

Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson are set to star in the romantic drama “Alice & Jack” for U.K. broadcaster Channel 4.

The series is lead directed by Juho Kuosmanen, helmer of the Golden Globe-nominated Cannes title “Compartment Number 6,” with a second block directed by BAFTA-nominated “Lilting” helmer Hong Khaou. The show is written by “Mad Men” scribe Victor Levin. It is a Fremantle production in partnership with BAFTA- and Emmy-winning Me + You Productions (“I Am Ruth”), Academy Award-nominated Groundswell Productions (“The Visitor”) and De Maio Entertainment. Fremantle is handling global sales on the project.

Rounding out the cast are Aisling Bea (“Greatest Days”), Aimee Lou Wood (“Sex Education”) and Sunil Patel (“This Time with Alan Partridge”).

Created and written by Levin, “Alice & Jack” is billed as “a love story for the ages.” An official synopsis for the show reads: When Alice (Riseborough) and Jack (Gleeson) first meet, they...

Graham Norton will host the U.K. reboot of “Wheel of Fortune” on broadcast channel ITV1 and streamer Itvx.

The game show, based on the U.S. format, is being produced by Whisper North, part of the Sony Pictures Television-backed Whisper Group.

“Wheel of Fortune” was broadcast for 14 seasons between 1988-2001 on ITV. Returning for an 8 x 60′ run, which includes two celebrity specials, the game show will again be centred around a giant carnival wheel as the contestants spin to win for a cash prize. The turn of the wheel secures a cash value before they pick a letter to help them solve the puzzle. For every correct letter they reveal in the puzzle they win multiples of that amount. They could lose everything at a spin of a wheel which contains ‘bankrupts’ and ‘lose a turn’ and the contestants’ entire winnings could be wiped out. In addition to cash,...

A bizarre yet relatable dystopian future 2024 is the setting for Nick Flügge’s witty mockumentary The Last Bee On Earth where the wondrous race we call human beings has finally managed to drive all but one lone bee to extinction. This bee serves as the protagonist in a comedy centred around a man who finds himself tasked with its care only to unexpected become part of a love triangle of apocalyptic proportions. The short sees Flügge working with the talented Sunil Patel – who previously graced Dn’s pages with his turn in Rosco 5’s Insecurity Questions – and Roxy Dunn whose alluring mystery is only accentuated by her, presumably government mandated, hazmat garb. It also has a script which brings a delightfully dry wit to a subject matter which is most often associated with portentous proclamations of future doom – and it has tiny bee furniture too. We spoke to Flügge about...

Stars: David Earl, Chris Hayward, Louise Brealey, Jamie Michie, Nina Sosanya, Lynn Hunter, Lowri Izzard, Mari Izzard, Cara Chase, Sunil Patel, Rishi Nair, Colin Bennett | Written by David Earl, Chris Hayward | Directed by Jim Archer

After seeing him perform in a variety of Ricky Gervais’s films and shows and have become more and more of a fan of David Earl, who co-wrote and stars in Brian and Charles. And then when I saw the trailer, I knew I’d be seeing it as soon as it was released.

Earl plays Brian, a slightly eccentric guy who, after falling into depression, isolates himself in a small Welsh village and starts to make things. Initially these inventions he makes aren’t very useful – a belt that holds eggs, a flying cuckoo clock – but then he has the idea to make a robot. And that’s when the fun begins. Soon the...

Reed Midem head of television Laurine Garaude joined presenter Justin Crosby on TV industry news review podcast TellyCast where the two discussed the current state of Mipcom, set to be one of the first major global marketplaces to return to an in-person format when it kicks off in Cannes this October.

Predictably, much of the conversation focused on health and safety concerns, and Garaude outlined some ways Mipcom is adapting, while acknowledging that other changes are likely to come in the intervening months.

Traffic flow in the exhibition hall will be regulated and additional entrances and exits added. Conference halls will be limited to 50% capacity and cleaned and sterilized for 45 minutes between presentations. Facemasks will be mandatory and hand sanitizer will be widely available. Face-to-face meetings are being redesigned to allow for one-meter social distancing, as are all areas where queuing may be necessary.

Garaude also said there won’t be any major social events,...

Sony Pictures Television has invested in U.K. sports-focused production outfit Whisper Group.

Effective immediately, the business will replace Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund as a minority stakeholder in Whisper, which has become a leading voice in sports entertainment.

Founded by BAFTA-winning CEO Sunil Patel, broadcaster Jake Humphrey and F1 commentator David Coulthard, Whispers covers NFL, the Paralympics, Formula One, SailGP, Women’s Super League, and the International Cricket and W Series with a range of programming that mixes coverage and commentary. The firm also holds the Formula One rights for the U.K.’s Channel 4.

“Whisper have become one of the most talked-about production companies in the U.K.,” says Wayne Garvie, president of international production at Sony Pictures Television.

“Very quickly, they have established themselves as an innovative leader in sports content. We are thrilled to be joining Sunil, David, Jake and the team in helping to...

Sony Pictures Television has finalized a deal to take a minority stake in The Whisper Group, a sports production company that makes live coverage of Formula 1 racing for British broadcaster Channel 4.

Sony will effectively replace Channel 4 as Whisper’s minority investor after the broadcaster first backed the company in 2015 as part of its Indie Growth Fund. Financial details were not disclosed.

Whisper was co-founded by CEO Sunil Patel, BT Sport broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former F1 driver and F1 commentator David Coulthard.

As well as F1, Whisper produces The NFL Show and NFL This Week for the BBC and swathe of other sports coverage, including the Paralympics, SailGP, Women’s Super League and International Cricket.

Sony’s president of international production Wayne Garvie said: “Whisper have become one of the most talked-about production companies in the UK. Very quickly, they have established themselves as an innovative leader in sports content.