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Exclusive: Paradigm has signed veteran actor Ben Chaplin for representation.

Currently, Chaplin can be seen starring opposite Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro in September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s historical thriller examining the 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis from the perspective of the ABC Sports broadcasting team. The film delves into how the crew, initially covering the Olympics, swiftly transitioned to reporting on the unfolding tragedy involving Israeli athletes taken hostage by the Palestinian group Black September. This event marked a pivotal moment in live news coverage, as the world watched the crisis unfold in real-time.

Chaplin plays Marvin Bader, a seasoned ABC Sports producer who plays a crucial role in the network’s coverage of the hostage situation. His work in the film earned him the Best Actor Award from the Denver Film Festival.

Premiering to strong reviews out of Venice, September 5 hits limits theaters on December 13 before expanding nationwide on January 17 for MLK Day weekend.

Helena Bonham Carter will star in the film adaptation of “The Offing,” the bestselling novel by Benjamin Myers, a poignant tale of an unlikely friendship. Jessica Hobbs, who won an Emmy for “The Crown,” will direct the period drama, with Bonham Carter serving as executive producer. Beta Cinema is kicking off pre-sales at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film is set in North-East England shortly after World War II. It opens on Robert, 16, the shy, nature-loving son of a miner, who sets out to see a little more of the world before he follows his father down the pit. He gets as far as Dulcie (Bonham Carter), a hard drinking, foul-mouthed, bohemian recluse several times his age.

Under her eccentric tutelage, his life opens up to food, girls, and the transformative beauty of poetry as Dulcie recognizes a potential in Robert that he doesn’t yet see in himself.

But...

Jasmine Jobson, who plays tough street soldier Jaq in Netflix’s Top Boy, has been cast as the lead of Itvx psychological drama series Platform 7.

The series has been shooting in the north of England for several months. It follows Jobson as Lisa, who after a witnessing a cataclysmic event on platform 7 of a railway station, finds her own fragmented memory jogged to reveal a connection between her own life and that of the traumatic event.

Jobson’s star has been rising through her Top Boy role, which landed her a BAFTA nomination. She has also appeared in BBC One’s Noughts and Crosses. Toby Regbo, Yaamin Chowdhury and Phil Davis also star.

Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions is making Platform 7 for streamer Itvx, which gets the series premiere several months ahead of UK network ITV.

The HBO limited series “The Palace” starring Kate Winslet has added Martha Plimpton to its cast. In addition, Jessica Hobbs has boarded the series as a co-executive producer and director.

Along with Winslet and Plimpton, the cast for the show also includes Hugh Grant, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Andrea Riseborough. Exact character details are being kept under wraps, but according to the official logline for “The Palace,” the show “tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of an authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel.” It was originally ordered at HBO in July 2022.

Plimpton is a three-time Emmy nominee, winning the award for best guest actress in a drama for “The Good Wife” in 2012. She was also nominated in the same category for “Law & Order: Svu” and for best actress in a comedy for “Raising Hope,” the latter of which she starred in for four seasons.

Emmy winner Martha Plimpton has joined the cast of HBO’s limited series “The Palace,” HBO announced Wednesday.

Exact character details for the series are being kept under wraps.

Jessica Hobbs is also set to co-executive produce and direct episodes of “The Palace,” which tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of an authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel.

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Prior to this, Plimpton played Barb in the Amazon Freevee crime comedy series “Sprung,” and Gail Perry in the film “Mass.” Plimpton is also known for her 18 Emmy nominations, including those for shows like “Raising Hope” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” She won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work in the “The Good Wife” in 2012.

Over her 30-year career,...

Yvan Attal, the popular French actor-turned-director, has directed “Breaking Point,” a seductive thriller in which he will star opposite Guillaume Canet, Marie-Josée Croze, Maïwenn and Alma Jodorowsky.

Snd, the film arm of French commercial network M6 Group, has landed French distribution rights and worldwide sales to the film. The company will introduce the project to buyers at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, which kicks off Jan. 10.

Currently in post-production, “Breaking Point” is produced by Curiosa Films, the well-established banner behind Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon” and Xavier Gianolli’s “Lost Illusions,” with the outfit Films Sous Influence.

The movie revolves around two best friends, Vincent and Mathieu, who lead very different lives. Vincent is constantly having affairs that Mathieu, a convenient alibi, is always there to cover up. Mathieu, a rather loyal husband who leads a tranquil life with his wife, feels obligated to protect Vincent because he saved his life years ago.

(from left) Emily Watson and Paul Mescal in God’s Creatures. Photo: A24 Emily Watson has a face made for the movies. Like all the great actors, she can telegraph volcanic emotions with just a flicker of her eyes or a tightening of her mouth. Watson made her big screen debut...

Acting head of drama Ben Irving, senior commissioner Manda Levin to leave, while development head Tom Lazenby has deparated.

The BBC drama department has been hit with a triple departure: acting director of drama Ben Irving and senior commissioning editor Manda Levin are leaving the corporation, and head of development Tom Lazenby has already departed.

The trio of departures represents a significant change to the team, and will give incoming director of drama Lindsay Salt scope to reshape it after she joins from Netflix UK on Tuesday.

Irving is leaving to join Severance producer Fifth Season (formerly Endeavor Content) in...

Britain’s leading lady of the TV action thriller, Keeley Hawes, is back.

The star of “Bodyguard” returns in “Crossfire,” another nail-biting thriller for the BBC in which Hawes plays a holidaymaker whose sunbathing session on her hotel balcony becomes a nightmare when shots ring out across the complex, turning her world upside down.

The scenario will remind audiences of her turn as the U.K. home secretary alongside Richard Madden’s bodyguard in the eponymous BBC drama, which became a global hit when it was picked up by Netflix.

The setting for “Crossfire,” however, is a far cry from London’s Westminster, instead set at a luxury resort in the Canary Islands.

Produced by Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions (“The Salisbury Poisonings”), the drama is the first original series from author Louise Doughty, who previously adapted her novel “Apple Tree Yard” for a hugely popular BBC limited series.

Dancing...

Assad Zaman has joined the cast of AMC’s Interview With The Vampire, its series adaptation of Anne Rice’s book. Zaman will play Rashid, joining previously cast Sam Reid as Lestat, Jacob Anderson as Louis and Bailey Bass as Claudia. The seven-episode first season is set to premiere on AMC+ and AMC later this year.

Based on Rice’s novel, Interview With the Vampire follows Louis de Pointe (Anderson), Lestat De Lioncourt (Reid) and Claudia’s (Bass) epic story of love, blood and the perils of immortality.

Rolin Jones, who co-created and served as showrunner for the first season of HBO’s Perry Mason, is the creator, writer and showrunner of Interview with the Vampire. Jones, who has an overall deal with AMC Studios, executive produces alongside Mark Johnson, Christopher Rice and the late Anne Rice. The Many Saints of Newark helmer Alan Taylor will...

New Zealand director Jessica Hobbs is among this year’s Emmy winners, taking home Outstanding Directing For a Drama Series for her work on The Crown.

Hobbs, whose previous credits include episodes of Heartbreak High, Love My Way, All Saints, and Rake, won the award for the “War” episode of the Netflix series at Monday’s ceremony, beating out fellow director from the program, Benjamin Caron, as well as Bridgerton‘s Julie Anne Robinson, The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Liz Garbus, The Mandalorian‘s Jon Favreau, and Pose‘s Steven Canals.

After forging her career in Australia, Hobbs moved to the UK more than seven years ago to work on the second series of crime drama Broadchurch following a meeting with creator Chris Chibnall, and has since been behind the camera on BBC One series’ River, Apple Tree Yard, and The Split.

Hobbs accepted her award at a satellite event in London,...

Exclusive: Bodyguard and Line Of Duty star Keeley Hawes has been set to headline and executive produce Crossfire, a major BBC One miniseries about a hotel shooting from the producer behind The Salisbury Poisonings.

Deadline understands that Fremantle-backed Dancing Ledge Productions will team with Hawes’ Buddy Club Productions to produce the three-part series, written by Apple Tree Yard author Louise Doughty in her first original project for television.

Crossfire is set in a luxurious resort in the Canary Islands and centers on Jo (Hawes), who is enjoying a dream vacation with her family and friends. Sunbathing on her balcony, the tranquility is thrown into turmoil when shots ring out across the complex from gunmen wreaking revenge.

A story of survival and resilience, sources said Crossfire is a nail-biting thriller with an emotional, intimate, and relatable core. With the unsuspecting and vulnerable holidaymakers and hotel staff forced to make split-second life or death decisions,...

BritBox is ramping up its international manpower with the hire of Diederick Santer as its first Chief Creative Officer.

The streaming service, which is a joint venture globally between the BBC and ITV, has appointed Santer to oversee all aspects of programming on the SVOD service globally, including commissioning and acquisition across all genres and for all markets outside of the UK.

Santer was previously CEO of Endemol Shine/Banijay-owned producer Kudos, where he oversaw shows such as AMC and Channel 4 co-pro Humans, Sky’s Tim Roth-fronted drama Tin Star as well as BBC’s Apple Tree Yard, Gunpowder and The Boy With The Topknot. Before taking charge at Kudos, he ran his own production company Lovely Day, within Kudos, where he produced Grantchester.

Earlier this year, he finished an eight-month stint covering BBC drama commissioning. He also previously ran EastEnders, one of the UK’s largest soaps.

BritBox International, the ad-free SVOD (subscription video on-demand) service from ITV and BBC Studios, has hired Diederick Santer as its first chief creative officer.

Santer will join the company in September and will manage all aspects of BritBox’s programming, including commissioning and acquisition across all genres and for all markets outside of the UK, according to the job description. His role will include building production and distribution relationships with the UK creative sector to secure a future pipeline of shows to accelerate BritBox’s international growth in the SVOD world as part of its planned rollout to multiple countries worldwide.

He’ll report to BritBox International CEO Reemah Sakaan. Together, the two will lead continued global expansion and beef up the service’s original slate.

Santer was CEO of the TV production company Kudos, where he oversaw “Man in an Orange Shirt,” “Humans,” “Apple Tree Yard,” “Gunpowder,” “The Boy...

Amanda Coe has plenty of experience adapting big novels into TV series, winning a BAFTA for the 2012 drama Room at the Top and also penning her version of Apple Tree Yard. In the latest from the creator and writer of The Trial of Christine Keeler she took on Black Narcissus, an adaptation of Rumer Godden’s steamy 1939 novel, which Coe turned into a three-part limited series for FX and the BBC.

The finale, which aired in November, is the latest entry in Deadline’s It Starts On the Page, a series that highlights the scripts that will serve as the creative backbones of the now-underway TV awards season. The scripts are all being submitted for Emmy consideration this year and have been selected using criteria that includes critical acclaim, a range of networks and platforms, and a mix of established and lesser-known shows.

In the plot of Godden’s novel...

If Apple TV+ is slightly on the back foot in the war of the streaming services it’s not for want of trying. With this latest crime drama it has definitely brought out the big guns – and it’s really paid off in terms of quality. On a more widely subscribed service, Defending Jacob could easily become the next hot button series garnering buzz like Bodyguard or Apple Tree Yard.

Based on the best selling novel by William Landay, Defending Jacob is a clever and complex courtroom drama packed with ambiguities and moral quandaries that makes some smart deviations from the novel and adding extra layers of tension in the best possible way.

Framed around a court hearing to determine whether or not an unspecified case should be pursued, Defending Jacob stars Captain America’s Chris Evans as Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney whose 14-year-old son Jacob has been...

In this week’s International TV Newswire, Spain’s Laliga announces details of Saturday night’s LALIGASantader Fest; Argentina’s Incaa updates: Red Arrow wheels and deals; and Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions promotes Chris Carey to managing director.

La Liga, Universal Music Team for Laliga Santander Fest

More than fifty artists and high-profile soccer players have united remotely to participate in Laliga Santander Fest, a digital musical festival to be held Saturday night as part of the Spanish soccer league’s La Liga Stay at Home initiative to entertain fans and raise funds for the fight against the spread of Covid-19 while filling the broadcast hole left since the suspension of nearly all live sports worldwide.

The festival will be live broadcast in more than 180 countries simultaneously at 1 p.m. Est via La Liga’s traditional broadcast partners internationally and domestically. It will also be streamed on the league...

Exclusive: Alessandro Nivola and Gemma Arterton head a killer cast for a three-part adaptation of the 1939 classic Rumer Godden literary novel Black Narcissus, a tale of sexual repression and forbidden love. BAFTA-winning writer Amanda Coe wrote the three hourlong episodes and renowned Dp Charlotte Bruus Christensen makes her directing debut.

BBC One is producing with DNA TV and FX Productions. The exec producers are Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich and Coe for DNA TV and FX Productions and Lucy Richer for the BBC. Filming starts in October in Jomsom, Nepal and Pinewood Studios, UK.

Black Narcissus was previously adapted for screen in 1947 by Powell and Pressburger and subsequently won two Oscars for Cinematography (Jack Cardiff) and Art Direction (Alfred Junge).

Arterton plays Sister Clodagh, the leader of the nuns of St Faiths, who travel to Nepal to...

Joss Whedon’s new HBO series has found its principal cast members.

Whedon’s series “The Nevers” has cast Olivia Williams, James Norton, Tom Riley, Ann Skelly, Ben Chaplin, Pip Torrens, Zackary Momoh, Amy Manson, Nick Frost, Rochelle Neil, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Denis O’Hare. They join previously announced cast member Laura Donnelly, who will star as Amalia True.

“The Nevers,” which was ordered straight-to-series last July, is described as an epic science fiction drama about a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world.

Breakdowns for the characters are below:

-Williams will play Lavinia Bidlow, a wealthy spinster and champion of the “Touched.” Lavinia funds the Orphanage (where Amalia and many of the Touched live) through her vast family fortune. She is stern and old-fashioned, but as strong-willed and clever as anyone she confronts.

Williams’ past TV...

The temperature has been rising on “Chernobyl” in our Emmy predictions since it premiered on HBO in May. That may be good news for Emily Watson, who plays the composite character of Ulana Khomyuk, a Soviet scientist trying to avert a global catastrophe. She’s looking like a strong contender for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actress, which would be the first Primetime Emmy nomination of her career. But could she actually pull off an upset by beating the two Pattys: Patricia Clarkson (“Sharp Objects”) and Patricia Arquette (“The Act”)?

As of this writing Watson ranks third in our odds, which are based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. That includes 22 out the 24 Expert journalists we’ve surveyed who are confident that she will be nominated. However, none of those Experts are betting on Watson to win. Instead, 18 of them back Clarkson following her Golden Globe win...

Les Misérables producer Chris Carey has joined British producer Dancing Ledge Productions as the Fremantle-backed company looks to expand its drama slate.

Emmy Award-winning Carey, who produced the BBC and PBS adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic for Lookout Point, becomes executive producer at Dancing Ledge. The indie is currently working with Jack Reacher author Lee Child on a Black Mirror-meets-Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri-style true crime anthology drama series. The company recently produced Netflix’s Delhi Crime.

Carey has also produced BBC One’s psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard with Kudos, and Channel 4’s mini-series Run. Prior to this, he set-up and ran the independent production company The Welded Tandem Picture Co., which produced Douglas Adam’s Dirk Gently and This is Jinsy for Sky.

Carey said, “I’m delighted to be teaming up with Dancing Ledge at this pivotal point in their evolution. Laurence and his...

Zdf Enterprises will bring “Queens of Mystery” to a host of markets after striking a rights deal for the offbeat drama that streaming service Acorn TV ordered as one of it latest originals.

The deal with Acorn hands Zdfe the rights to the show in non-English-language territories. It is the second time Zdfe and Acorn have pacted on distribution after they worked together on “London Kills,” another original for the British-content-skewed streamer and which has been picked up by the BBC in the U.K.

Specifically, Zdfe has teamed with Acorn Media Enterprises, the AMC-owned firm’s content division. Its sales unit, Acorn Media International, will sell “Queens of Mystery” in English-language markets.

Olivia Vinall (“Apple Tree Yard”) plays Matilda. Her aunts are played by Julie Graham (“The Bletchley Circle”), Sarah Woodward (“New Blood”), and Siobhan Redmond (“Between the Lines”).

Andrew Leung (Doctor Who) also stars a dashing doctor in the series,...

Sky handed police comedy Code 404, starring Rogue One’s Daniel Mays and Boardwalk Empire’s Stephen Graham, a full series after a successful pilot.

Deadline first revealed the project was in development at the pay-tv broadcaster in October and it has now been ordered for six half-hour episodes.

The series, which is produced by Broadchurch and Tin Star indie Kudos and Water and Power Productions, also stars Against The Law’s Richard Gadd. It was written by Horrible Histories and Not Going Out writer Daniel Peak and directed by Al Campbell. The pilot was directed by Ben Palmer.

Code 404 is set in the near future and will revolve around two Detective Inspectors, Di John Major (Daniel Mays) and Di Roy Carver (Stephen Graham), who are the top crime fighting duo in the Unit. But when an undercover sting goes horribly wrong, Major is gunned down on the job and killed.

If anyone needs proof that peak TV is a global phenomenon, then a glance at the nominees for the 2018 Intl. Emmy Awards should provide enough evidence.

This year’s nominees come from all five continents — from Amazon Studios’ Indian cricketing drama “Inside Edge” and Spanish hit “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”) through to Netflix’s Mexican comedy “Club de Cuervos” (“Club of Crows”) and BBC Arabic’s Syrian war documentary “Goodbye Aleppo”.

“International television is booming,” says Bruce Paisner, president and CEO of the Intl. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which hosts the Intl. Emmy Awards on Nov. 19.

Paisner says there were 1,400 entries to this year’s awards, a 20% jump over last year. The quality of the entries is rising, too, he believes.

“Great TV is partly a question of enough money, and as more and more money has floated towards these countries, it has floated towards TV and...

Sky is developing a police comedy starring Rogue One’s Daniel Mays from Broadchurch and Tin Star indie Kudos.

I hear the pay-tv giant is making a non-tx pilot, which has the working title of Code 404, written by Horrible Histories and Not Going Out writer Daniel Peak and is being co-produced by Water and Power Productions.

Directed by Ben Palmer, who previously helmed The Inbetweeners and David Mitchell and Robert Webb comedy Back, the broadcaster is currently deciding whether to take the project to full series.

The full details of the police project have been kept under wraps, but I’m told the narrative comedy has a similar tone to Charlie Brooker’s A Touch of Cloth, the spoof cop comedy that ran on Sky One in 2012. Phil Temple and Diederick Santer exec produce for Kudos and Sam Myer exec produces for Water and Power.

It is an interesting role for Mays,...

The star of Little Women on her role in the BBC’s Little Women, why binge TV is good for female actors – and the virtues of Arsène Wenger

For Emily Watson, 2017 has been bookended in starkly contrasting styles. She started the year having wild sex in a House Of Commons broom cupboard in BBC One’s hit psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard. She finishes it in a much more wholesome role as much-loved matriarch Margaret “Marmee” March in a three-part Christmas TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. In between all the steamy scenes and bonnet-wearing, Watson also turned 50.

The Shakespearean stage actress came relatively late to the screen, making her film debut aged 29 in Lars von Trier’s 1996 drama Breaking the Waves (when Helena Bonham Carter pulled out at the last minute). She won an Oscar nomination for that film and was nominated again two years later...

The BBC has set a lineup of new drama and comedy series which are in the works for BBC One and Two in the coming year. Among them are epic WWII drama World On Fire from The A Word‘s Peter Bowker; The Trial of Christine Keeler from Apple Tree Yard‘s Amanda Coe; and House Productions’ half-hour Trigonometry, written by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods. BBC Drama Controller Piers Wegner unveiled the projects at the Broadcast Commissioning Forum this morning and also confirmed…...

Catastrophe and Apple Tree Yard star Mark Bonnar has joined the cast of AMC and Channel 4’s Humans as production begins on Season 3 of the critically praised sci-fi drama series. Written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, Kudos-produced Humans is set in a parallel present and focuses on what happens when the lines between humans and machines are blurred. It’s based on the award-winning Swedish sci-fi drama Real Humans created by Lars Lundstrom and produced by Svt and…...

ITV Studios, Sky execs join UK outfit.

Lookout Point has hired two drama heavyweights to aid its growth plan – ITV Studios drama exec Francis Hopkinson and Sky’s head of scripted production Louise Mutter.

Hopkinson, who has been with ITV Studios since 2011, has been named executive producer and will be tasked with developing and producing his own slate of original dramas.

He will also produce the company’s forthcoming Andrew Davies-penned adaptation of A Suitable Boy for BBC1.

He will also form part of the senior team at Benchmark Television, the high-end drama venture that Lookout Point established with Danny Cohen’s Access Entertainment.

Louisa Mellor Jun 1, 2017

Some exciting new UK drama and comedy commissions are making their way to TV over the next year or so…

We know, we know. You still have two episodes of Fargo season two before you can think about starting season three. You’ve already fallen behind on American Gods. Your planner memory is chock-a-block with Big Little Lies and that Oj Simpson thing and some Spanish prison series your workmate bullied you into recording. You’re struggling to make time for Twin Peaks. New Game Of Thrones is just around the corner. And guess what, Netflix UK have just added a whole new season of It’s Always Sunny, those sods. You need a list of new TV show recommendations like you need a hole in the head.

See related Metroid: Other M Nintendo Wii review

And yet, as long as they keep making them, we’ll keep recommending them.

BBC drama boss Wenger orders over 25 hours of drama.

Russell T Davies, Stephen Poliakoff and Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas have penned dramas for Piers Wenger’s inaugural slate, reports Broadcast.

The BBC drama boss unveiled over 25 hours of new drama commissions across BBC1 and BBC2 at an event co-hosted by director general Tony Hall.

The nine series, seven for BBC1, one for BBC2 and one for BBC3, join recently announced Wenger commissions including Kudos’ Gunpowder and The Forge’s Carey Mulligan-fronted crime drama Collateral.

BBC1

Doctor Who writer Davies has written A Very English Scandal, a 3 x 60-minute series directed by Stephen Frears.

Based on the book A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment by John Preston, it follows the true story of Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe’s conspiracy to kill his ex-lover Norman Scott.

Commissioned by Wenger and BBC director of content Moore, it...

If you're a fan of the eerie artificial intelligence featured on the TV series Humans, then you'll be pleased to know that AMC, Channel 4, and Kudos have renewed the series for an eight-episode third season that will premiere in 2018 and begin filming this fall.

Press Release: New York/London – March 28, 2017 – AMC, Channel 4 and Kudos today announced that the critically acclaimed drama series “Humans,” has been picked up for a third season. The series will return with eight new episodes in 2018. Production will begin in fall 2017 with key cast set to return.

“Humans” is written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley (Humans S1, Spooks: The Greater Good), and based on the award-winning Swedish sci-fi drama “Real Humans” created by Lars Lundstrom and produced by Svt and Matador Film. The new season is executive produced by Derek Wax, Emma Kingsman-Lloyd, Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley for Kudos in association with Wild Mercury Productions,...

The BBC seem to be doing well with dramas featuring big stars. Bringing in the likes of Tom Hiddleston these names attract a lot of attention, and very good performances. Apple Tree Yard is the latest, featuring one of the bests British actors in the form of Emily Watson. The question is does it make good use of her skills?

Adapted from Louise Doughty’s novel, Apple Tree Yard is the story of Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson). A married woman who has an exciting affair with an alluring stranger, Mark Costley (Ben Chaplin) she is at first excited by the danger of the new relationship. When things go terribly wrong though and she and her lover are accused of murder, just how much can she trust Costley and how well does she know him?

Apple Tree Yard is a lesson into the art of the reveal. Teasing a court case,...

Louisa Mellor Feb 7, 2017

Apple Tree Yard concluded with strong performances and worthwhile critique of the legal system, but was it great drama?

This review contains spoilers.

See related The Oa: 10 questions (sort of) answered Netflix's The Oa: spoiler-free review

Apple Tree Yard’s final episode aired last night to make room for next Sunday’s Bafta awards ceremony on BBC One. This time next year, might the thriller feature among the nominations?

Its performances absolutely deserve recognition. Emily Watson’s portrayal of Yvonne Carmichael has been detailed and nuanced. Mark Bonnar too, who played husband Gary, is clearly much more than just a safe pair of acting hands. Alongside them, director Jessica Hobbs told a clear-headed and empathetic sad story.

Best drama though? Not quite. Though the courtroom scenes made worthwhile points about the savagery and humiliation women, whether there as experts or defendants, can face on the dock, the...

Louisa Mellor Jan 29, 2017

Apple Tree Yard’s second episode paints a bleak but honest picture of the aftermath of sexual assault…

This review contains spoilers.

See related Amazon Prime UK: what’s new in February 2017?

If they weren’t already chastened by last week’s brutal final moments, anyone still rubbing their thighs over episode one’s sex scenes will feel suitably uncomfortable now. Until its last-minute shift into thriller territory, episode two of Apple Tree Yard was a sombre hour focused on the aftermath of rape.

The revenge plot didn’t make an appearance until very late, which gave due prominence to Yvonne’s dismal story, one told by director Jessica Hobbs and Emily Watson with restrained yet frank intimacy. We were shown the finger-shaped bruises on Yvonne’s thighs and how her psychological bruises outlasted them. Before she asked her 'spook' lover to step in, we saw her leave her job,...

Simon Brew Jan 26, 2017

Jeremy Saulnier is to head to Alaska with some wolves for his next thriller, Hold The Dark...

Chalk us up as sizeable fans of the work of Jeremy Saulnier around these parts. The writer-director has in recent times written and directed two of the best thrillers in recent years, Blue Ruin and Green Room. And now we learn what he’s up to next.

See related Apple Tree Yard episode 1 review

For his next feature, he’s staying with thrillers, with a film called Hold The Dark. It’s based on the 2014 novel by William Giradli, and the story is of a wolf pack that takes three children from an Alaskan village. A wolf expert comes in to investigate, and things don’t quite go to plan. We’re keeping that description very vague, as the colder you approach Saulnier films, the better. At least in our experience.

Simon Brew Jan 26, 2017

Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin star in My Cousin Rachel, based on Daphne du Maurier’s book. Here’s the first trailer…

Heading into cinemas in June is My Cousin Rachel, an adaptation of the novel by Daphne du Maurier. This one stars Rachel Weisz in the role of Rachel, with Sam Claflin co-starring as Philip. It’s been directed by Roger Michell, best known still for Notting Hill, but also Changing Lanes, Titanic Town and Venus, amongst others.

See related Apple Tree Yard episode 1 review

We’ve got a trailer, poster and synopsis for My Cousin Rachel, and here’s a taste as to what’s in store…

Here’s the synopsis…

A dark romance, My Cousin Rachel tells the story of a young Englishman who plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he...

Louisa Mellor Jan 23, 2017

Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin star in the BBC’s new four-part thriller Apple Tree Yard, adapted from Louise Doughty’s novel…

This review contains spoilers.

See related Stan Lee’s Lucky Man episode 4 review

Pfwoar! The BBC’s latest bonk-buster sizzled onto screens this weekend. Sunday nights are now sin-day nights thanks to this steamy shag-fest starring Emily Watson, 50, as a cheating, knicker-dropping mother-of-two. Viewers were shocked to see married granny-to-be Yvonne on the receiving end of regular knee tremblers in racy outdoor romps with Ben Chaplin’s sexy smooth operator. One saucy scene even saw the flirty fifty-year-old ditch her underwear and go commando. Literally. She took off her knickers. Where her lady parts are kept. And did it. Loads of times. With a man. And she’s fifty. Fifty.

We’re not grown-up enough to be cool about sex in the UK. Unlike our pals in continental Europe,...

Emily Watson tells why her role in Apple Tree Yard has been a delight

She made her name with raw and unfettered performances in films such as Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie, but at the age of 50 Emily Watson admits that she thought those days were behind her. Then she was offered the leading role in the BBC’s eagerly awaited adaptation of Louise Doughty’s acclaimed thriller, Apple Tree Yard, playing a middle-aged woman who begins an unlikely and increasingly dangerous affair.

Related: Louise Doughty: ‘I don’t think I write thrillers – but other people seem to’

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