News

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.

Sumotherhood, the upcoming British urban action-comedy that marks the much-anticipated return to filmmaking for BAFTA winner Adam Deacon, is set to hit cinemas later this year following a major worldwide deal with Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal.

Paramount Global Content Distribution and Paramount Pictures U.K. have acquired the feature, now in postproduction and coming from Piece of Pie Productions, Deaconstructed and Belstone Pictures. Paramount Pictures U.K. is planning a theatrical release in the U.K. and Ireland later in 2023.

Sumotherhood features an ensemble cast, including Deacon (Kidulthood, Rogue), Jazzie Zonzolo (Anuvahood), Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous), Danny Sapani (Black Panther), Ed Sheeran (Game Of Thrones), Leomie Anderson (Glow Up), Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Mary Poppins Returns, Paddington 2), London Hughes (London Hughes: To Catch a D*ck), Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick), Richie Campbell (Top Boy, Blue Story), Ella VaDay (Ru Paul’s Drag Race) and Jaime Winstone (Kidulthood), alongside several cameos

Written by Deacon,...

Universal International Studios and Jenna Bush Hager’s Thousand Voices are teaming with author Jessica George to develop a series adaptation of her keenly anticipated debut novel “Maame.”

The book rights to “Maame” were acquired in a competitive deal and auction by St Martin’s Press in the U.S. and Hodder & Stoughton in the U.K. German rights were pre-empted in a two-book deal by Sarah Leibl at btb, with translation rights handled by David Higham Associates.

Released on Jan. 31 in the U.S. and on Feb. 14 in the U.K. “Maame,” which has many meanings in Ghana’s Twi language, means woman in the context of the novel. It revolves around London-based Maddie, who is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. When her mother returns from a sojourn in Ghana, Maddie, a self-acknowledged late bloomer, leaps at the chance to get out...

The BBC’s long-awaited update on the progress of a 2020 fund set up to improve diverse content on the public broadcaster has been met with scepticism from some U.K. industry leaders who have called it “smoke and mirrors.”

The BBC’s Creative Diversity Commitment — made in the wake of the renewed Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020 — pledged to spend £100 million (124 million) of its existing commissioning budget over three years (from April 2021 to March 2024) on diverse and inclusive content, which spans racial representation as well as social mobility and disability. That divides into roughly £33 million a year. (The BBC’s total spend on TV in 2020/2021 was £1.4 billion.)

The fund is intended to apply to a range of genres, and commit the corporation to create content with at least two of the following three priorities: diverse stories and portrayal on-screen; diverse production teams and talent; and diverse-led production companies.

The BBC revealed on Thursday that,...