News

Amazon MGM Studios’ giant robot movie Voltron is getting bigger with the addition of Alba Baptista, Samson Kayo and Tharanya Tharan to the cast.

They join previously announced Sterling K. Brown, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Henry Cavill, Rita Ora and John Kim.

Rawson Marshall Thurber is directing off a screenplay he wrote with Ellen Shanman. The story, though under wraps, will feature a new generation of pilots, according to Thurber. The live-action take of the anime TV series is being produced by Todd Lieberman via Hidden Pictures, Bob Koplar, Thurber and Hobie Films’ David Hoberman.

Baptista recently wrapped shooting David Lowery’s Mother Mary opposite Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel for A24. She can most recently be seen in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, opposite Lesley Manville and Isabelle Huppert for Focus Features. Next up, Baptista, who was awarded the prestigious European Shooting Star Award at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, will be...

Following her recent Oscar-nominated role in Bradley Cooper’s dramatic biopic “Maestro,” actress Carey Mulligan is switching it up and returning to the world of comedy. Variety reports that Universal’s Focus Features has acquired the new Mulligan film “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” formerly known as “One For The Money.”

The pic hails from the director James Griffiths (“Cuban Fury”) and is produced by veteran British comedian Steve Coogan via Baby Cow Productions with a supporting cast that includes Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) and Akemnji Ndifornyen (“Famalam”).

Continue reading Carey Mulligan Lottery Comedy ‘The Ballad Of Wallis Island’ Lands At Focus Features at The Playlist.

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Carey Mulligan comedy “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” Variety can confirm exclusively.

They will release the film in the U.S. while Universal Pictures International is handling global distribution.

The film, which was previously titled “One For The Money,” is directed by James Griffiths (“Cuban Fury”) and produced by Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow productions (“Philomena”).

The screenplay was written by Tom Basden (“After Life”) and Tim Key (“Great Expectations”), who also star in the film alongside Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) and Akemnji Ndifornyen (“Famalam”).

“The Ballad of Wallis Island” tells the story of Charles (played by Key), an eccentric lottery winner who tries to reunite his favorite musical duo Mortimer-McGwyer (Mulligan and Basden) despite the fact they split up many years ago. Making things even more awkward, the musicians – Nell Mortimer and Herb McGwyer — were also once romantically involved with each other a la Sonny and Cher.

Here is a wrap-up of all the news you need to know from Thursday, November 30, 2023.

Griselda is ready for her close-up.

Today, Netflix unveiled the official trailer for its upcoming Sofia Vergara limited series, Griselda.

The six-part series will debut on Thursday, January 25, 2024.

Griselda is inspired by the life of the savvy and ambitious Griselda Blanco, who created one of the most profitable cartels in history.

In 1970s-80s Miami, Blanco's lethal blend of unsuspected savagery and charm helped her expertly navigate between business and family, leading her to become widely known as "the Godmother."

This looks set to be a massive departure for Sofia Vergara, who was a lead on Modern Family before moving on to judge on America's Got Talent.

Vergara is also set to executive produce the series alongside Eric Newman and Andrés Baiz. Baiz is set to direct all six episodes.

Ingrid Escajeda (Justified) and...

“Hot Flush,” the new show from BAFTA-winning “Happy Valley” creator Sally Wainwright, is one of several series greenlit by the BBC.

A six-part drama from ”Doctor Foster” producers Drama Republic, “Hot Flush” centers on the lives of five women of a certain age who come together to create a makeshift, butt-of-the-joke punk-rock band in order to enter a talent contest, but when they rehearse together they suddenly discover that they have a lot more to say than they ever imagined, and this is the way to say it.

The BBC has commissioned also “Virdee,” a six-part detective series based on A.A. Dhand’s bestselling crime novels and starring Sacha Dhawan (“Doctor Who”), from newly formed production company Magical Society, headed up by Paul Trijbits (“Jane Eyre”).

The Bradford-set series introduces Detective Harry Virdee (Dhawan), a Bradford cop disowned by his Sikh family for marrying Saima, who is Muslim. Virdee struggles with the abandonment,...

If you’ve been counting down the days for the second season of Good Omens so fervently that the mere thought of its arrival makes you exclaim “I am having a moment here!” then you might need to have a sit down: Good Omen Season Two Is Finally Here.

If you’re new to Good Omens, now’s the time to catch up: this fantasy series is based on the 1990 book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and stars a demon, Crowley and an angel, Aziraphale who are unlikely best buds/soulmates.

Season one saw them try to prevent the end of the world after the antichrist is born, and as for season two? Well, Crowley and Aziraphale are only just getting used to being exiled from their respective heavenly/hellish bosses when Aziraphale’s former boss, Archangel Gabriel turns up dazed, confused and totally nude. It’s up to...

“I fell in love with her,” declares Gbemisola Ikumelo about portraying fan-favorite character Chance Morgan on “A League of Their Own.” For our recent webchat she adds, “A lot of it was in the writing. She jumps off the page and you just go, ‘don’t screw it up, it’s all here!’ But also, there’s a real freedom given to us on set to play and to improvise and to go, ‘Ok, this take is for you guys to mess around, so I think in playing, you’re finding other layers for the character. I didn’t think she was funny. Actually, I wasn’t setting out to play this comic role. But when it’s improvised and you get to see what the bond looks like between two friends, it is funny and you come into the world of in-jokes between two friends, but your audience become...

Crime dramas can sit on a pretty broad spectrum: some are campy, cosy and even comfortingly formulaic, whereas others make you need to sleep with the light on. The one guarantee is that in the UK at least, there’s such an appetite for detectives and crime stories that TV will never run out of new cases to solve.

We’ve already had some top examples in 2023, from the Happy Valley and Endeavour finales to the excellent Belfast-based Blue Lights, but there are plenty more fresh crime dramas on the way, from police procedurals to true crime and murder mysteries. See what’s coming up below.

After The Flood

Very much what it says on the tin, After The Flood begins… after a flood, which devastates a town, but when the waters clear they leave behind an unidentified dead man in the lift of an underground car park. PC Joanna Marshall is on the case,...

The Sandman proved to be a critical success for Netflix after the cast managed to bring the iconic comic book characters to life. Based on the Neil Gaiman comic book series, which ran from 1989-1996, The Sandman mainly follows the life of Dream/Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), who is forced to track down totems of power after he is captured by a wizard and imprisoned in a glass bottle for 106 years later. However, complications soon arose when Dream/Morpheus discovers that many of these totems are in the hands of several powerful entities, and he must bargain with them if he wants to restore his kingdom, the Dreaming, back to its natural state.

While Sturridge perfectly embodies Morpheus/Dream's stubborn and complex personality, he isn't the only character to stand out in The Sandman. Also among the cast are several recognizable and high-profile stars, including Gwendoline Christie, David Thewlis, Joely Richardson,...

Chris Sussman, previously director of U.K. scripted for Netflix, has signed a first look deal with Banijay U.K. to develop original scripted projects.

The deal was struck with Banijay U.K. CEO Patrick Holland. It is part of the recently revealed £50 million ($59.3 million) Banijay U.K. Growth Fund which enables the group to partner with high profile talent, as well as investing in new businesses, to enhance growth.

During his time at Netflix (2019 – 2022), Sussman executive produced scripted series, including comedy series starring Rowan Atkinson, “Man Vs Bee,” satirical series “Black Mirror” and drama series based on Harlan Coben novel, “Stay Close,” starring Cush Jumbo, Jimmy Nesbitt and Richard Armitage.

Previously, as head of scripted comedy at BBC Studios (2016-2019), Sussman oversaw several commercial and critically-acclaimed series, including “Trying” (Apple TV), “This Country” (BBC 3), “Good Omens” (Amazon/ BBC2), “Famalam” (BBC3), “Inside No 9” (BBC2), “Upstart Crow” (BBC2) and “Wia” (BBC2).

Prior to this,...

BBC Comedy Director Jon Petrie has said his team would be “happy to talk” with John Cleese about the upcoming Fawlty Towers revival, as he unveiled the next generation of “very British” shows.

Cleese has already said that the surprise revival, which he is making with daughter Camilla Cleese and Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment, will not appear on the BBC because the UK broadcaster would not give him sufficient editorial freedom.

But addressing a BBC Comedy Showcase Tuesday, Petrie described BBC original Fawlty Towers as a “legendary show” and said he would be open to discussions.

“We found out about [the Fawlty Towers revival] when everyone else did,” he added. “I don’t know if it would work for us and we’ve not spoken to John Cleese but it’s obviously a legendary show and we would be happy to talk to John if he wanted to talk about it.

The London-born actor is taking Luther’s tweed coat to the big screen in The Fallen Sun, and dreams of kicking off a franchise to rival Mission Impossible. And he’s still finding time to write, direct, DJ and work for the Un

A couple of years ago on the BBC show Famalam, comedian Tom Moutchi did an amusing sketch called Idris Elba Can Do Anything. Wearing Elba’s trademark long Luther coat and soundtracked with a parody rap (“Bitch. I’m. Idris. Elba”), he saunters into various scenarios – a coffee shop, a cancer research lab, the Large Hadron Collider – and basically bosses the situation, despite his obvious lack of expertise. “I’ll tell you why I know I’m an excellent barista: I’m Idris Elba. I’m an actor, writer, director, DJ, influencer, producer, rapper, comedian, kickboxer.” Elba himself found the sketch so funny, he invited Moutchi to appear with him,...

Exclusive: Black British culture is reaching a “sweet spot” and creatives no longer have to move to the U.S. to achieve stardom, according to the creators of BBC comedy-thriller Black Ops.

Speaking exclusively to Deadline as BBC Studios shops the show at the London TV Screenings, creator and producer Akemnji Ndifornyen said cultural touchstones such as Netflix’s Top Boy are “accessible to our American cousins like never before.”

“Black British culture is reaching this really sweet spot,” said Ndifornyen, who played Mr Fergusson in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. “[Americans] now understand that we’re not just ‘tea and crumpets’ but can really subvert their expectations.”

Alongside fellow Black Ops creator Gbemisola Ikumelo and star Hammed Animashaun, Ndifornyen branded the “one in, one out” Black talent experience in UK TV a thing of the past, partly because “we can go to the U.S. and come back with...

Club

Pandemic-born initiative Female Film Club (Ffc), has developed a networking space, a new separate area in the online members club where members come together specifically to network. It will be open for existing members and it allows 100 additional filmmakers to join the space for free on a first come, first serve basis.

Interested applicants need a minimum of two years in the film industry or have worked on an award-winning short film or on a feature film.

Members will gain access to the Ffc app, online speed networking events, 20 discount on all Ffc courses, a 90-day Mubi membership and can watch to selected replays from masterclasses and Q&a’s.

Ffc offers film recommendations and streaming links from films made by a female director, female writer, or a film shown from the female gaze; connections with international female and non-binary filmmakers; and masterclasses, Q&As, film festival meet-ups, goal setting and inspiration sessions.

Click here to read the full article.

“You never know when it’s going to happen for you,” says Vivienne Acheampong. Speaking from the living room of her London flat, the “it” she’s referring to is the often-elusive role or series of opportunities that establishes one as a regularly employed, in-demand actor — an actor who can leave the job they’ve been working to pay the bills. After several years supporting herself as a primary school teacher between acting roles, Acheampong hit that professional stride in 2019 as a regular on the BAFTA-winning sketch comedy show Famalam, and recently appeared at London’s Royal Court Theatre in Aleshea Harris’ revenge drama Is God Is. Next, she stars in the Netflix series The Sandman.

“I’m biased, but I think people are going to love it,” she says of the show, which is based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy comic and sees her character,...

Following Jon Petrie’s appointment as the BBC’s director of comedy in July, he has now revealed his commissioning team, including the newly-created role of head of comedy talent development.

Tanya Qureshi (“I May Destroy You”) stays on as head of BBC comedy alongside commissioning editor Gregor Sharp (“Starstruck”) and assistant commissioner in the norther Hannah Rose.

They will be joined by two new commissioning editors, Emma Lawson (“Trying”) and Ben Caudell (“Mandy”) as well as acting commissioning editor Seb Barwell (“Hattie”), who is joining in a temporary capacity from November until April 2022.

Lawson brings over 20 years’ experience in scripted television. She produced Apple Plus’s first scripted comedy, “Trying” and has developed a sitcom for Sky One. She also counts Objective, Fremantle and Roughcut TV on her resume.

Caudell moves into his role after executive producing two series of “Mandy” and “Famalam” as well as a number of other shows.

BBC Three, the digital platform behind such global-facing hits as “Fleabag” and “Normal People,” is on track to return to TV screens early next year.

U.K. media regulator Ofcom provisionally approved the return of BBC Three as a channel on Thursday — six months after the transition was first announced by the BBC after months of speculation.

“BBC has proposed to relaunch [BBC Three] as a broadcast channel. We have analyzed this proposal in detail and have provisionally concluded that the public value of BBC Three’s return as a broadcast channel justifies the limited adverse market impact that might arise from it,” said Ofcom in a statement.

The regulator points out that the relaunch “would increase [BBC Three’s] availability and reach to people who don’t currently have access to it. These include people from lower income households and those living outside of London and the south east.”

Ofcom has opened a consultation...

After playing a cocksure City boy and a MI5 officer, the actor is back in a play about blackness, family and grief. He talks rubbing shoulders with the A-list

There were kids riding past on scooters, like: ‘Nah man, I don’t know what they’re filming, man! Move!’” David Jonsson dials his London accent up, laughing breathily as he recalls a film shoot a few weeks earlier in south London. He was working on a new romcom created by two of the writers of the BBC comedy Famalam, soaking up the culture in the sweltering city, and – somehow, despite being 27 and looking precisely nothing like him – being mistaken for another actor by a group of teens. “They were like, who is that … is that Idris Elba?”

Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips...

Steve McQueen and Michaela Coel shows dominate with eight awards.

Steve McQueen’s Small Axe and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You were the big winners at the Bafta Craft Awards, taking home eight of the 21 awards between them.

Small Axe, the BBC1 drama anthology about the lives of West Indian immigrants in 1960s, 70s and 80s London, claimed five gongs including: JoJo Williams for make-up & hair design; Jacqueline Durran for costume design; Helen Scott for production design; Shabier Kirchner for photography & lighting: fiction and Gary Davy for scripted casting.

Coel’s BBC1/HBO true-life inspired dramedy about a...

Steve McQueen’s anthology series Small Axe and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You dominated the BAFTA TV Craft Awards on Monday.

Small Axe clinched five wins, the most on a night that celebrated behind-the-scenes craftspeople, but it was I May Destroy You that secured two of the biggest gongs for Coel: Director: Diction, and Writer: Drama. The BBC/HBO series was also victorious in the Editing: Fiction category.

Coel, who beat McQueen in the directing category alongside co-director Sam Miller, accepted her writing win. “I would like to thank every draft. There are hundreds of them, each living only briefly and sacrificing themselves so the version we watched that won this BAFTA could exist,” she said.

BBC/Amazon series Small Axe’s prizes included JoJo Williams for Make Up & Hair Design; Jacqueline Durran for Costume Design; Helen Scott for Production Design; Shabier Kirchner for Photography & Lighting: Fiction; and Gary Davy for Scripted Casting.

Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” were the big winners at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ (BAFTA) TV Craft Awards on Monday.

BBC/HBO’s “I May Destroy You” won the key awards of director, fiction, editing, fiction and writer, drama. BBC/Amazon’s “Small Axe” had the most wins with five BAFTAs, including for make up and hair design, costume design, production design, photography and lighting, fiction and for scripted casting.

The BBC’s “Lee Miller – A Life on the Front Line” and “His Dark Materials” won two BAFTAs each.

“Small Axe” had nine nominations, while “I May Destroy You” had five. Netflix’s popular Royal drama “The Crown” was shut out, despite having six nominations going in.

The ceremony was broadcast live on BAFTA’s social channels and hosted by actor and writer Gbemisola Ikumelo (“Famalam”).

The Television...

Shane Allen, BBC’s director of comedy, is leaving the broadcaster to team with recently departed head of comedy commissioning Kate Daughton to launch a new outfit.

Boffola Pictures Limited will specialize in scripted comedy and comedy drama and is backed by “Les Miserables” producer Lookout Point.

The BBC will begin recruitment immediately for a new director of comedy. Allen is due to leave in August. Kate Phillips, director of BBC entertainment, will oversee new scripted comedy commissioning decisions while Allen oversees ongoing productions and works on the BBC Comedy Association’s inaugural plans for a city of comedy, the appointment of a Young People’s Comedy Laureate and the TV re-boot of The New Comedy Awards.

At BBC Comedy, Allen commissioned a range of hits including “Fleabag,” “Man Like Mobeen,” “Detectorists,” “Peter Kay’s Car Share,” “This Country,” “The Young Offenders,” “Upstart Crow,” “Inside Number 9” and “Famalam.” During his tenure,...

The Banff World Media Festival has revealed the full list of nominees for its 2021 Rockie Awards International Program Competition.

In the English comedy category, contenders include FX’s “Better Things,” HBO Max’s “The Flight Attendant,” Hulu’s “The Great,” FX’s “What We Do In The Shadows,” Hulu’s “Woke” and Sky One’s “Brassic.” English-lingo drama nominees include AMC’s “Gangs of London,” HBO/BBC’s “His Dark Materials,” BBC America’s “Killing Eve,” BBC’s “Noughts + Crosses” and Bell Media’s

“Transplant.”

BBC Studios leads all producers, with 28 nominations, followed by HBO, with nine. Among countries, the United States was tops with 50 nods, then United Kingdom with 47.

“We’re ecstatic with the range of high-profile international and Canadian programs that entered and are nominated for the 2021 Rockie Awards,” said Jenn Kuzmyk, Executive Director of the Banff World Media Festival. “This year’s nominees are a showcase of the spirit,...

Exclusive: The BBC’s head of comedy Kate Daughton and comedy commissioner Sarah Asante are both leaving the British broadcaster after more than five years, Deadline hears.

Daughton is stepping down after first joining the BBC in April 2016. She declined to comment on her next move, but there is speculation that she could return to program making. Daughton previously produced Matt Berry’s BAFTA-winning Toast, a show that she helped revive for the BBC earlier this year, with the cult character heading to Hollywood.

During her time at the BBC, Daughton’s commissioning credits included the second season of Emmy-winning Fleabag and two seasons of Stephen Merchant’s upcoming community service series The Offenders, which will star Christopher Walken and is co-produced by Amazon. Other hits on her watch included Ghosts and Steve Coogan’s This Time With Alan Partridge.

Meanwhile, Asante is joining UKTV as a commissioning editor. She...

Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” capped a triumphant edition of the U.K.’s Royal Television Society program awards for the BBC as the broadcaster scored 14 wins.

Coel won actor – female, and writer, and the show also won best miniseries.

In addition to the 29 competitive categories, three further awards were presented. The Judges’ Award was presented to Anne Mensah, VP, original series at Netflix, for her commitment to reflecting society’s diversity on screen; the Outstanding Achievement Award went to “It’s a Sin” creator Russell T. Davies; and the Special Award went to trade association Pact, for its contribution and support to the U.K. television industry throughout 2020.

Chair of the awards, Big Talk Productions CEO Kenton Allen, said: “The incredible range of programming we have seen across all genres and categories in this uniquely challenging year has been exceptional and a terrific representation of the thriving and...

Hit BBC shows “I May Destroy You,” “Small Axe” and “Normal People” lead the nominations at the U.K.’s Royal Television Society (Rts) 2021 program awards.

Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” scored three nominations, as did Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe.” “Normal People” leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal were nominated in the acting categories.

The BBC leads the field with 40 nominations across the 28 categories, followed by Channel 4 with 17 and Sky with 12.

The nominations were announced on Tuesday via livestream by British television presenter Ore Oduba, and the winners will be announced March 16 at a ceremony streamed live on the Rts website, hosted by “The Masked Singer” judge Jonathan Ross.

Chair of the awards, Big Talk Productions CEO Kenton Allen, said: “The standard of entries has been outstanding and demonstrated the breadth of high-quality content that has informed, entertained and kept audiences going through what has been such a uniquely difficult time.

An inter-generational zombie horror-comedy, an Alan Partridge-presented travelogue, Rowan Atkinson fighting a bee… 2021 British TV comedy is a broad church, and that’s before we’ve come to all the stand-ups slicing up their Edinburgh shows into streaming half-hours and Daisy May Cooper playing a 17th century witch. Here’s the info about those new shows and more.

This list will be kept updated through the year as new commissions, casting and release dates arrive. Here’s a look back at the new British comedies that arrived in 2020, here are the new British dramas on their way this year, and here are 2021’s best returning British TV series.

And Did Those Feet

In addition to a second series for The One Show-spoofing This Time With Alan Partridge, the son of Norwich is back to poke fun at the history TV genre. With a working title of And Did Those Feet,...

2020 brought many things with it. Brexit. Another iPhone. The 30th anniversary of Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. A Crackerjack revival, the increasingly critical state of our burning planet, the inauguration of a Gangsta Granny rollercoaster at Thorpe Park, and a global pandemic that shut down life as we know it.

A mixed bag, all told.

One thing you can largely rely on in worrying times is television, and below are the top returning British shows that fought their way through the Covid-19 lockdown to come back in 2020.

After Life series 2

Release date: Friday 24th of April, Netflix

Ricky Gervais’ emotional Netflix comedy about a misanthrope widower (Gervais) struggling to cope after the death of his wife (Kerry Godliman) will return for a second six-episode run. Filming began in September 2019, and it arrived on Netflix in April. Diane Morgan and Mandeep Dhillon co-star.

Read more:the best stand-up specials on Netflix here.

Have we ever been in more need of a laugh than in 2020? Amidst a historic global pandemic, a tumultuous American political election, civil unrest, wildfires, Murder Horne… alright, you get the picture. 2020 has been the pits, man. Thankfully, this year from hell featured some bright spots on television, even if rays of sunshine were sorely lacking in reality.

If the shows on our list weren’t making us laugh, we would have been ugly-crying since March. While we were all locked in our homes, we got reacclimated with the Warner Brothers (and sister), said goodbye to BoJack Horseman, and met regular human bartender Jackie Daytona, making quarantine a bit more bearable, if only in 30 minute increments. From brand new series like How To with John Wilson, to swan songs for Den of Geek favorites like Schitt’s Creek, TV comedies in 2020 kept us cackling through the chaos.

To determine the best...

Epic Films’ First Day, Ludo Studio’s Content, and More Sauce’s Cancelled are among the Aussie nominees for this year’s prestigious Rose d’Or Awards.

Commissioned by the ABC, First Day will compete in the Children and Youth category, against projects from the UK, Canada, US, and Belgium.

The series, which has sold the BBC and Hulu, stars young transgender actor Evie Macdonald as Hannah Bradford, who is about to start her first year of high school.

As a transgender girl, Hannah not only has to navigate the challenges that come with starting a new school but find the courage to live as her most authentic self.

Created and written by Julie Kalceff and produced by Kirsty Stark and Kate Croser, First Day has already won a slew of awards including the Diversify TV Excellence Award for Kids’ Programming at MIPCOM 2018, the Gender Equity Prize at the Prix...

BBC sketch show Famalam has been “backed to the hilt” by comedy boss Shane Allen in the row over a sketch featuring a satirical Jamaican version of Channel 4 quiz program Countdown.

The clip was tweeted by BBC Three last week ahead of the show’s Season 3 premiere on Sunday. It went viral, stoking anger after it appeared to invoke stereotypes about Jamaican people. You can watch the sketch below.

Your first look at #Famalam series three: Jamaican Countdown. pic.twitter.com/5ZITnEQhJ9

— BBC Three (@bbcthree) August 20, 2020

Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson-Smith tweeted that she would be ”writing formally” to the BBC about the matter. She said the parody “is outrageous and offensive to the incredible country which I am proud to represent along with every Jamaican at home and within our diaspora.”

It followed a complaint from the Global Jamaica Diaspora Counsel representative for South UK, Nathaniel L Peat,...

Forever underlining the strangeness of the Primetime Emmy Awards calendar, the BAFTA TV Awards were held Friday, celebrating several previous Emmy winners and nominees, including HBO’s “Chernobyl,” Netflix’s “When They See Us,” in addition to Sian Clifford of Amazon Prime Video’s “Fleabag.”

Speaking of “Fleabag,” the BAFTA awards body appeared to officially end its lukewarm love affair with Phoebe Waller-Bridge before it truly began. The “Fleabag” creator and star was nominated for Female Performance in a Comedy Programme as well as Scripted Comedy and lost in both categories, in addition to losing out in the Best Writer — Comedy category at the BAFTA TV Craft awards announced earlier this month. The losses bring Waller-Bridge’s overall BAFTA TV record to 1-8, with her only win coming in Best Female Performance in a Comedy for the first season of “Fleabag.”

“Chernobyl,” which took home 10 Emmy Awards last September, nabbed...

The Fleabag team are sharing the spoils after Sian Clifford, who plays Claire in the comedy series, beat Phoebe Waller-Bridge to win a BAFTA TV Award.

Clifford won the award for Female Performance In A Comedy Program at the virtual BAFTAs.

Clifford’s highly-strung Claire, sister to Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, has an increased role in the second season of the BBC and Amazon co-pro.

“This is so unexpected,” Clifford said on a digital hook-up alongside her colleague and creator of the show. “I don’t even believe in competition… I wouldn’t be here [without these other women]. This is unbelievable. Thank you to everyone involved in our project. There is no Claire without Fleabag.”

She joked that it was “all kinds of nonsense” and a “beautiful mess”.

Clifford also beat out Sarah Kendall, who stars in Frayed, the Merman and Guesswork Television-produced comedy that airs on Sky and HBO Max in the U.

One of the BBC’s most loved U.K. TV channels — once the home of “Mad Men” and “The Killing” — is facing uncertainty following the departure of a key executive.

Last week in a surprise move, the BBC announced that BBC Four editor Cassian Harrison will leave his post to take a new international job at BBC Studios overseeing global networks including BBC Earth and BBC Brit.

The reshuffle has set tongues wagging that Harrison’s decision to jump ship will lead to the demise of BBC Four, once the undisputed home of TV arts and culture in the U.K. and a magnet for older, upscale audiences. The BBC has denied this is the case, pointing out that BBC Two controller Patrick Holland will now oversee BBC Four.

But whatever the future of BBC Four, tough choices will have to be made in the months ahead regarding the line-up...

Exclusive: Netflix’s swelling ranks of commissioners in the UK is about to grow even further with the addition of an executive who played a vital role in bringing Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s smash hit comedy Fleabag to the screen.

Deadline can reveal that Chris Sussman will join the streamer next month as director of the UK scripted team, reporting to vice president of content, Anne Mensah.

It follows a spell of more than three years running the comedy unit at BBC Studios. During his time at the BBC’s commercial production arm, he oversaw shows including This Country, Famalam and Inside No 9.

Prior to that, Sussman worked as a BBC comedy commissioner for five years and responsible for ordering the first series of BBC Three’s Fleabag, the runaway global hit that was later picked up by Amazon and bagged four Emmys for its second season last month. His other credits include Rev,...

Fleabag may be the show that Netflix boss Reed Hastings claims he is most envious of, but at least his company can now boast having its commissioner among its ranks.

The Svod giant has hired Chris Sussman as director of its U.K. scripted division, with the exec joining next month and adding to Netflix's burgeoning London team. He will report to its vice president of content, Anne Mensah, who joined late last year from the now Comcast-owned Sky. 

Sussman was most recently head of comedy at BBC Studios, overseeing shows including This Country, Famalam and Inside No 9.,  and prior ...

Viacom-owned Channel 5 and Comedy Central have joined BritBox, the “best-of-British” subscription streaming service created by the BBC and ITV. The platform, already available in North America, is due to launch on home turf in Britain by year’s end.

Under the deal with Viacom, shows from the U.K.’s Channel 5 can appear on BritBox following a 30-day catchup window on the channel’s VOD platform My5. Comedy Central will contribute a selection of its British-produced shows.

The addition of content from those two sources strengthens BritBox’s content lineup, which already includes shows such as “Victoria,” “Happy Valley,” “Broadchurch,” “Les Miserables,” “Downton Abbey,” “Love Island,” “Famalam,” “Gavin & Stacey,” “The Office” and “Benidorm.” These series will be on the service at launch in the U.K. or become available shortly afterward, when licensing agreements with other Svod operators end. BritBox will be available for £5.99 ($7.53) per month.

“We...

ITV taking an initial 90% stake in the forthcoming SVoD venture, which will launch in Q4 this year.

ITV will be the driving force behind BritBox after taking an initial 90% stake in the forthcoming SVoD joint venture with the BBC.

The two partners have laid out a series of details about the service, which will launch in the final quarter of 2019 at a cost of £5.99 a month - undercutting Netflix’s standard UK tariff by £3 a month.

In keeping with the 90/10 equity split, BritBox will be an ITV-controlled venture, but the corporation will contribute to the development of its core purposes and its strategic direction.

ITV and the BBC have officially unveiled the launch of UK streaming platform BritBox with ITV holding 90% equity in the venture. The two companies have also revealed the first shows that will be available on the service, which launches in the fourth quarter of the year, including Love Island (above) and HBO co-pro Gentleman Jack.

The service, designed to protect the broadcasters against the growing power of Netflix and Amazon, has been long in the works but today’s news comes after the two parties officially signed the agreement. It will be priced at £5.99.

BritBox, which is separate to its U.S. counterpart, will be an ITV-controlled venture with the commercial broadcaster holding 90% of the equity with the BBC controlling 10%. The public broadcaster has an option to acquire additional share over time up to 25% and ITV will have the ability to bring other shareholders on board. It is expected that...

BBC drama “A Very English Scandal” was the big winner at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards on April 29, scoring three trophies, including costume design, editing (fiction), and director (fiction) for Stephen Frears.

Distributed in the United States by Amazon, the three-part limited series starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw and was based on an actual English sex scandal from the 1970s involving a Liberal Member of Parliament named Jeremy Thorpe.

BBC America’s “Killing Eve” and the Sky Atlantic/Showtime miniseries “Patrick Melrose” each took home two awards, with the former winning for original score and sound (fiction) and the latter for production design as well as writer (drama) for David Nicholls.

The wins serve as a feather in the cap for both “Killing Eve” and “A Very English Scandal,” both of which hope to make a splash in the year’s Emmy race.

Sunday night’s event was the...

As with the Emmys, BAFTA divides its TV awards into two parts, with the main ceremony taking place in London on Sunday, May 12. At the craft awards on April 28, the big winners were two limited series — “A Very English Scandal” and “Patrick Melrose” — and the first season of the drama series “Killing Eve.”

“A Very English Scandal,” based on the Jeremy Thorpe scandal, won Costume Design, Director (Fiction) for Stephen Frears and Editing (Fiction). “Patrick Melrose” claimed Writer (Drama) for David Nicholls as well as Production Design “Killing Eve” took Original Music and Sound (Fiction).

Among the other marquee categories, Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper won Writer (Comedy) for “This Country”; Barbara Wiltshire took Director (Multi-Camera) for “Inside No 9 Live: Dead Line”; Woo-hyung Kimin landed Photography & Lighting (Fiction) for “The Little Drummer Girl”; and Make-Up & Hair Design went to “Vanity Fair.”

See 2019 BAFTA TV Awards nominations: ‘Killing Eve’ slays with 14 bids,...

Exclusive: Roxy Sternberg is set as a lead opposite Julian McMahon in FBI: Most Wanted, the planted spinoff of Dick Wolf’s freshman CBS drama series FBI. The spinoff has a series commitment, making an episodic pickup for next season likely.

As the name suggests, FBI: Most Wanted centers on the division of the FBI tasked with tracking and capturing the notorious criminals on its Most Wanted list.

Sternberg will play FBI Agent Sheryll Barnes, an ex-NYPD detective with elevated street smarts. Alana de la Garza, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Kellan Lutz also star.

The planted spinoff is written by Wolf and one of his trusted writer-producers, Law & Order alum Rene Balcer, and will be directed by another Law & Order veteran, Fred Berner, who also has been directing episodes of Wolf’s Chicago dramas on NBC.

Sternberg’s TV credits include National Geographic’s sci-fi series Mars,...

“The Crown” won only one of its three races at the 2018 BAFTA TV Awards on May 13 when Vanessa Kirby claimed the supporting actress prize for her riveting portrayal of Princess Margaret. While this lavish historical drama had taken home three BAFTAs at last month’s TV Craft Awards, it was bested here for Drama Series by another period piece, “Peaky Blinders.” And although Claire Foy has already collected a Golden Globe and SAG Award for capturing the essence of Queen Elizabeth II, she lost Best Drama Actress to Molly Windsor who won for the docudrama “Three Girls,” which was named Best Miniseries. (See the full list of BAFTA TV Awards winners.)

There is a threshold of six installments to qualify as a drama series at these kudos; the cap is 19, after which a show is deemed to be a continuing drama. Also up for Best Drama Series were the police...

The 2018 BAFTA TV Awards programs took place at London’s Festival Hall on Sunday, May 13. “The Great British Bakeoff” presenter Sue Perkins hosted this celebration of the best of British television for the second year running. Scroll down to see the complete list of BAFTA TV Awards winners (and nominees).

As with the Emmys, the British academy divides its TV awards into two parts. The BAFTA TV craft awards which are equivalent to the Creative Arts at the Emmys, were handed out in a ceremony on April 22 that was emceed by Stephen Mangan (“Episodes”). The lavishly produced drama series “The Crown,” which screened on Netflix on both sides of the pond, won three of its seven races at these kudos honoring the best behind-the-scenes artists and professionals.

“The Crown,” which chronicles the first years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, also leads the BAFTA TV Awards nominations for the...

The BAFTA TV Awards honor programs across a wide range of genres. Winners will be revealed in a ceremony at London’s Festival Hall on Sunday, May 13 with “The Great British Bakeoff” presenter Sue Perkins hosting for the second year running. See the full list of BAFTA TV Awards nominations below and come back to Gold Derby for complete coverage of the ceremony.

See 2018 BAFTA TV Awards full list of winners (and nominees too!) [Updating Live]

The historical drama “The Crown,” which chronicles the first years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, leads the BAFTA TV Awards nominations for the second year in a row with bids for Best Drama Series, Best Drama Actress (Claire Foy) and Best Drama Supporting Actress (Vanessa Kirby). Not surprisingly, this lavishly produced series, which screened on Netflix on both sides of the pond, won three of its seven races at last month’s BAFTA TV...