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The excitement builds as “Big Boys” returns for Season 3, Episode 4, titled “Eurovision, Brexit and Shloer.” This episode promises a blend of humor and relatable moments, set against the backdrop of impending deadlines that every student knows all too well. As the final year races to a close, the gang finds themselves buried in the Brent Uni library, each member tackling their workload in their own unique way.

Cousin Shannon adds a twist to the chaos by organizing a joint birthday and Eurovision party for baby Lauren-Sienna Millah. The anticipation of the Eurovision event brings a festive spirit to the otherwise studious atmosphere. As the characters juggle their academic pressures with party planning, viewers can expect a delightful mix of laughter and heartfelt moments.

Fans can look forward to the quirky dynamics among the friends as they navigate their challenges. With the air date set for 11:30 Pm on Sunday, February 16, 2025, on Channel 4,...

Star Trek Origins is a go, and it'll tell the story of the earliest days of the franchise. It'll focus on the developing relations between humans and aliens; most likely focusing on the developing dynamic between humans and Vulcans. It sounds like it may be akin to the old sci-fi film/show Alien Nation in its presentation.

Funny enough, the show version of Alien Nation starred Gary Graham, who would feature on Star Trek: Enterprise as Solar.

With the film now officially in development, who are the people behind the project? Well, the director of the franchise is Toby Haynes, while long-time producer and writer Seth Grahame-Smith will write the story. A story that some fans are nervous about seeing. Yet, should they be?

What have Haynes and Grahame-Smith done and should that give fans pause or excitement about the project?

Grahame-Smith seems to be the more accomplished of the...

James Graham, the creator of Sherwood, Dear England and Brexit: The Uncivil War, has urged the creation of “new universes” and greater risk taking in place of TV’s gatekeepers “falling back on tried and tested IP.”

Delivering this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart lecture, the prolific British scribe argued passionately for greater working class representation in the TV industry, along with criticizing commissioners’ ongoing temptation to opt for “source material, adaptations and expanded universes.”

Graham used the annual Edinburgh platform to plead for “new universes, which means – taking risks.”

He added: “New stories have to be at the heart of commissioning – scripted, non-scripted, factual, fictional … even in the most difficult climate, where the temptation, and we’re witnessing it, is to fall back on tried and tested IP.”

The industry should see “risk” as a long-term “vital” investment in the future health of the sector, Graham said, coming...

Calculus Capital, the investment firm that has backed companies including Jude Law’s Riff Raff Entertainment, has picked up the £60m film & TV production finance business of Great Point Media (Gpm), which went into administration in March.

Gpm subsidiary Illium previously provided production finance for shows including the BBC’s Small Axe, ITV’s Manhunt and Channel 4’s Brexit: The Uncivil War. It is currently backing around 20 upcoming high-end scripted and documentary projects.

Illium was technically owned by Great Point Investments (Gpi), itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Gpm, which was not placed into administration.

But its future was...

Prolific British screenwriter and playwright James Graham has revealed he has been diagnosed as a workaholic and described the addiction as “no different really from drink, drugs or sex.”

Graham appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs yesterday and opened up about the problem, which he said led him to seek help from family and friends and eventually attend Workaholics Anonymous meetings.

“I knew something wasn’t quite right in my late 20s,” said the Sherwood and Brexit: The Uncivil War writer. “I would go into periods where I would be far too isolated or would self-sabotage relationships as soon as they became intimate and important. I was working around the clock continually and not looking after myself.”

He added: “The moment I realized I had a problem was when I had started to lie to family and friends about stupid things like I’d say I got up at 8 a.

Disney+ exec Luke Bradley-Jones is set to join The Economist to speed up the iconic magazine’s pivot to becoming a digital-first global product.

Bradley-Jones, most recently senior vp and general manager of Disney+ Emea since Jan. 2020, helped launch the studio’s flagship streaming platform across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will remain at Disney+ until this summer, before becoming president of The Economist.

Jan Koeppen, president of The Walt Disney Co. for Emea, will continue to oversee the Disney streamer in the key world markets. “It’s been a privilege to lead the incredible launch and growth of Disney+ across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and I know the business will continue to flourish under Jan’s stewardshipand the brilliant Dtc teams across the region,” Bradley-Jones, who completed executive stints at Sky and BBC Worldwide before joining Disney+, said in a statement.

Disney+ initially launched in the U.

Exclusive: Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell do not court publicity and when the duo welcome Deadline to their London office in early February, it is the first interview they have given about House Productions since they set up the film and TV outfit nearly seven years ago.

The Zone of Interest and The Iron Claw are in UK movie theaters when we speak, serving as a timely reminder of the company’s film credits, which have been built brick by brick. A second season of James Graham’s drama series Sherwood will drop in coming months on the BBC and the House principals are fresh back from L.A. as they line up U.S. partners for new projects.

Drama in the works include a series about the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, a TV adaptation of the musical Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, and an early-stage project with Ncuti Gatwa.

Event cinema title Dear England is the widest new release at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, playing in 716 UK venues through National Theatre Live.

The play first screened in 694 venues yesterday (Thursday 25), grossing £541,000 with several venues still to report. As well as cinemas, it is screening in many non-cinema venues such as community centres and village halls.

Dear England is a recording of James Graham’s play, following the fortunes of the England men’s football team across three tournaments: the 2018 World Cup, the 2020 European Championships, and the 2022 World Cup.

Directed by Rupert Goold and starring Joseph Fiennes as England manager Gareth Southgate,...

Event cinema title Dear England is the widest new release at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, playing in around 800 UK cinemas through National Theatre Live.

The play first screened in 694 cinemas yesterday (Thursday 25), grossing £541,000 with several venues still to report. The exact weekend location number is to be confirmed; should it be above the 777 sites of James Bond film No Time To Die from 2021, it would be the widest opening ever in UK-Ireland cinemas.

Dear England is a recording of James Graham’s play, following the fortunes of the England men’s football team across three tournaments: the 2018 World Cup,...

As reported in Deadline today, Paramount has officially announced that they are developing a new "Star Trek" feature film. It will be the first "Star Trek" movie since the release of "Star Trek Beyond" in 2016, but the fourteenth "Star Trek" film overall.

The new film will be directed by Toby Haynes, a prolific British television director who has helmed episodes of "M.I. High," "Doctor Who," and the British version of "Utopia." His most recent directing job was six episodes of the hit "Star Wars" series "Andor." Interestingly, he also directed the celebrated "Black Mirror" episode "USS Callister," which was a darkly humorous riff on "Star Trek" and science fiction fandom. He also directed the 2019 TV movie "Brexit: The Uncivil War" starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The new "Star Trek" film is slated to be written by Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of the books "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Kill List, Free Fire, and High-Rise director Ben Wheatley announced plans for the Brexit zombie drama “Generation Z” for UK’s Channel 4 back in 2019. Our friends at Fangoria report that Wheatley teased upcoming plans for “Generation Z” at a recent screening of his latest feature, Meg 2: The Trench.

“Generation Z” was initially set to go into production in 2020, but we all know how that year went. The series will be Executive Produced by Wheatley, Mark Pybus, and George Faber. It is written and directed by Ben Wheatley.

“What I’m doing next is six hours for Channel 4, [a] TV series, a horror-based thing […] In the same way I did In The Earth after Rebecca, I’ll do something that’s back to [the] Kill List-y, Sightseers-y world,” Wheatley told the attendees at the Empire VIP screening of Meg 2: The Trench.

The plot for the six-part series: “In a small British town,...

Exclusive: Orlando Bloom is set to play an American linguist in a series based on Maggie O’Farrell’s This Must Be The Place.

Bloom is also set as an exec producer on the project, which is in the works at Amazon, where the Pirates of the Caribbean star has a first-look deal.

Suzanne Heathcote, who served as showrunner on the third season of Killing Eve, will write and exec produce the adaptation. It comes from Bloom’s Amazing Owl, BBC Studios, Brexit: The Uncivil War producer House Productions and Amazon Studios.

This Must Be The Place crisscrosses time and continents to reveal the redemptive power of love and how the choices of our past have unexpected consequences in our present, as an American linguist and a reclusive Anglo-French actress find their marriage threatened by their earlier lives.

The book follows Daniel Sullivan, who leads a complicated life. A New Yorker...

This new Italian series The Good Mothers, offers a unique twist on the crime genre: this is the mafia seen entirely from the women’s perspectives. The series is a multifaceted, choral work that tells the true story of three women, raised within the fiercest and richest clans of ‘Ndrangheta. They decide to cooperate with a courageous magistrate working to destroy it from within. These women will then have to fight against their own families for the right to survive and build a new future for themselves and their children.

A Star Original for Disney+, the series is directed by BAFTA and Emmy nominee Julian Jarrold and Elisa Amoruso (Sirly, Chiara Ferragni: Unposted) and executive produced by Juliette Howell and Tessa Ross for House Productions (Brexit: The Uncivil War) and Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside, written by BAFTA Award-winning Stephen Butchard (Baghdad Central), and based on the...

Digital U.K., the platform operator of Freeview and of its satellite twin Freesat, which provide free British television, has been renamed as Everyone TV, it was revealed at the 2023 Outside the Box conference in London on Thursday.

Everyone TV is backed by U.K. public service broadcasters (PSBs) BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The name change comes with a revised mandate for the org – “to lead the evolution of free, universal, high-quality television, in a way that protects and strengthens the social glue provided by Britain’s broadcasting heritage.”

The conference reignited the ongoing debate in the U.K. that often pits the PSBs against the global streamers. Some of the opening salvos were fired by Everyone TV CEO Jonathan Thompson in his keynote. Thompson spoke about the concept of universality where shared experiences on PSBs – like the England women’s soccer team winning the UEFA Women...

Streamers such as Netflix, Prime Video and Paramount+ are “perplexed” by government threats to the UK’s Public Service Broadcasters (Psb), according to Sherwood scribe James Graham.

Graham, one of Britain’s foremost TV and theater writers, flagged the example of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who broke through the theater system to create the BBC’s Fleabag before being snapped up by Amazon in a ‘Golden Handcuffs’ deal.

He was reflecting on the BBC’s funding struggles due to the government’s freezing of the license fee for two years, along with threats to Channel 4’s position as a public broadcaster, although this was recently reversed.

“We’ve got the best of both worlds [in the UK],” said Graham, in conversation with Banijay UK Chair Patrick Holland at today’s Freeview Outside the Box 2023 event. “Streamers benefit from Psb development. The likes of Amazon would be utterly perplexed by the threat to that pipeline.

When you look at his body of work, it’s hard to believe Rory Kinnear is only 44: the man’s covered a hell of a lot of ground. He’s earned his place as a household name with roles like Tanner – M’s efficient Chief of Staff in several Bond films including Skyfall – and Detective Nock in Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, but while many actors would be rightly chuffed to bag these roles, they’re merely the tip of Kinnear’s acting iceberg.

Few actors, for instance, can claim to be responsible for a scene that has been burned onto our retinas, never to be forgotten, no matter how hard we try. For Rory Kinnear, that scene is in Black Mirror episode ‘The National Anthem’, the very first instalment of this disturbing dystopian anthology series, where he plays a Prime Minister forced into doing the dirty...

Click here to read the full article.

There’s a certain rite of passage that every British male actor of a certain age who has recently displayed a certain set of skills onscreen must go through — at some point they’ll be talked up as a possible James Bond.

For Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, this happened shortly after the first season of Gangs of London, the Gareth Evans-created brutal and blood-soaked crime thriller series, which aired on Sky in the U.K. in 2020 and the next year on AMC+ in the U.S.

The first episode alone — in which Dìrísù’s undercover cop character, Elliot Finch, takes out an entire pub’s worth of Eastern European bruisers (with fists, feet, pint glasses, ashtrays and a solitary playing dart) and, in a later more Saw-like scene, battles a man wearing only boxer shorts and rubber boots and brandishing a meat cleaver...

Just in time for Halloween, Netflix has announced another brand new horror series that’ll premiere this month, titled “The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself” and arriving on October 28.

Described as an “edgy, YA drama that’s grounded in the modern day,” the Netflix series is set in a world where witches live amongst us. “Expect magic, sarcasm, banter, potions in zip-lock bags, hunters, romance, loyalty and unbreakable friendship…it’s a truly f*cked up ride.”

Watch the bloody official trailer below and read on for details.

In “The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself,” sixteen-year-old Nathan (Jay Lycurgo) is the illegitimate son of the world’s most dangerous witch. Fearing he will follow in his father’s footsteps, Nathan is closely monitored throughout his childhood. As the boundaries between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fray, Nathan – along with mischievous Annalise (Nadia Parkes) and charismatic Gabriel (Emilien Vekemans) – will soon discover who he truly is.

Netflix has debuted the trailer for YA drama series ‘The B*st*rd Son & The Devil Himself’ series in which is grounded in the modern day where witches live amongst us.

Based on the Half Bad books by Sally Green, The series follows sixteen-year-old Nathan (Jay Lycurgo), the illegitimate son of the world’s most dangerous witch. Fearing he will follow in his father’s footsteps, Nathan is closely monitored throughout his childhood. As the boundaries between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fray, Nathan – along with mischievous Annalise (Nadia Parkes) and charismatic Gabriel (Emilien Vekemans) – will soon discover who he truly is.

Directed by Colm McCarthy (Black Mirror: Black Museum, The Girl with all the Gifts), Rachna Suri and Debs Paterson, the series stars Jay Lycurgo, Nadia Parkes and Emilien Vekemans (Transferts), Isobel Jesper Jones, Paul Ready (Motherland, The Terror), David Gyasi (Carnival Row, Troy: Fall of a City), Kerry Fox (Conversations with Friends,...

The crisis of leadership Britain has been plunged into over recent years merits sustained study as a cautionary tale. But it demands deeper and sharper analysis than is available in “This England,” a curiously indifferent six-part miniseries notionally centred on former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak, currently limping out on Sky’s U.K. arm.

When Winterbottom’s Revolution Films announced the project (originally titled “This Sceptred Isle”) last year – with Kenneth Branagh unveiled as the project’s Johnson – speculation was rife. Would the series be an ensemble satire, along the lines of Winterbottom’s rambunctious “24 Hour Party People”? Or an artfully sober inquiry, in the vein of the director’s Amanda Knox-inspired “The Face of an Angel”? In fact, it’s neither: what we’ve got is a hurriedly assembled primetime procedural that undermines its claim to rigorous accuracy from the off...

British broadcaster Emily Maitlis has warned that populism has overcome the power of the mainstream media to hold politicians to account in the wake of Donald Trump’s popularity and Brexit, and unveiled a blueprint for wrestling back control in her MacTaggart lecture Wednesday.

Delivering this year’s annual Edinburgh TV Festival address as she takes a “deep breath” following her recent BBC exit, the former Newsnight presenter, globally recognized as the journalist behind the notorious Prince Andrew interview, said “one set of rules had been replaced with another” when Trump won the U.S. presidency in 2016.

She used a string of examples from the past five years, including the infamous Robert De Niro rant against Trump, to explain the way in which the media has allowed populists to dominate. It was part of her thoughtful speech entitled “Boiling Frog: Why We Have To Stop Normalising The Absurd.”

The mainstream...

The BBC has greenlit a second season of Sherwood from Brexit: The Uncivil War and Quiz creator James Graham, immediately after the conclusion of the first.

The first run of the whodunnit thriller ended on BBC One in the past few minutes and the network has committed, after millions of viewers tuned in each week to the show from Juliette Howell and Tessa Ross’ BBC Studios-backed drama indie House Productions.

Starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Sherwood is a murder mystery six-parter inspired by events that took place in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up. The second series will once again take inspiration from the pit villages and surrounding towns, continuing the theme of examining the lives and legacy of those governed by Britain’s industrial past and especially the mid-1980s miner’s strikes that rocked the nation.

Graham said he...

British director Michael Winterbottom will start shooting his long-gestating “Promised Land,” a thriller set during the leadup to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel, this fall in Italy.

U.K. actors Douglas Booth and Harry Melling (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”) and Russia’s Irina Starshenbaum, who was in Cannes in 2018 with Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Leto,” are attached as the pic’s main cast.

Italy’s Vision Distribution, which is headed by veteran sales agent Catia Rossi, is launching pre-sales on “Promised Land” in Cannes.

Based on real events, “Promised Land” is a political thriller that unfolds during the British Mandate in 1930s Tel Aviv. It follows two Brit police officers Thomas Wilkin (Booth) and Geoffrey Morton (Melling) in their hunt for charismatic poet and Zionist freedom fighter Avraham Stern, who was plotting to evict British authorities.

Wilkin is torn between his duty...

Kate Atkinson’s bestselling 2013 novel “Life After Life” has been brought to vivid life as a four-part BBC series by a heavyweight team.

The story centers on Ursula Todd who dies one night in 1910 before she can draw her first breath. On that same night in 1910, Ursula is born and survives. She finds herself time and again, living and dying in different circumstances only to be reborn into a new, alternative iteration of life once more. Ursula navigates her way through an era spanning two world wars, an encounter with Hitler and major life events.

At just 21, Thomasin McKenzie, who plays Ursula, already has a list of impressive credits including “Leave No Trace,” “Jojo Rabbit” and “Last Night in Soho.” The four-part series is produced by BBC Studios’ House Productions, run by co-CEOs Juliette Howell, Emmy and Rts nominee for “Brexit: The Uncivil War,” and Tessa Ross, BAFTA winner for outstanding British contribution to cinema,...

“Doctor Who” star Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark are set to star in supernatural horror film “Starve Acre.”

From BAFTA-nominated “Apostasy” writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo, “Starve Acre” explores “inherited trauma and loss within a world ruled by supernatural folklore.”

The film is based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel of the same name.

BAFTA and Emmy Award nominee Smith (“House of the Dragon”) and BAFTA Cymru winner Morfydd Clark (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) will play a disconnected couple worried about their son in the “brooding and stylistic modern horror.”

Set in their family estate, Starve Acre, in rural 1970s England, Richard (played by Smith) and Juliette (Clark) find their idyllic family life disrupted when their son Ewan starts acting strangely. The formerly happy couple grow farther apart when Richard buries himself in local folklore -— including the myth that an ancient oak tree set...

‘Animals’ And ‘Black Pond’ Producer Sarah Brocklehurst Launches UK Studio; Ties With BBC Studios

BAFTA-nominated Black Pond and Animals producer Sarah Brocklehurst has launched a production company and struck a partnership deal with BBC Studios. BBC Studios will help develop, produce and distribute Brock Media’s content, which will include TV and film projects for global audiences. BBC Studios has the option to take an equity stake further down the line, having invested in several drama indies recently such as Brexit: The Uncivil War’s House Productions and The End Of The F***ing World’s Clerkenwell Films. Brocklehurst’s Animals was nominated for two BIFAs and she previously picked up an Outstanding Debut BAFTA nom for 2012’s Black Pond. She has hired former ITV and Big Talk exec Katie Brown as Head of Development, Empress Films’ Rohina Cameron-Perera as Associate Producer and Film4’s Mélys Codo as Development Executive.

Previously, BBC Studios held a 25% stake in the ’Brexit: The Uncivil War’ producer

BBC Studios has upped its 25% stake to take full ownership of the Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell fronted drama production outfit, House Productions.

Upcoming projects from House Productions include Sebastian Lelio’s Netflix feature The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh a co-production with Element Pictures and Mafia series The Good Mothers for Disney+, which is a co-production with Wildside, written by Stephen Butchard. It is now in pre-production in Italy.

House was launched in 2016 by former head of Film 4 Ross and Working Title TV head Howell. Its...

BBC Studios has upped its 25% stake in “Brexit: The Uncivil War” producer House Productions to take full ownership of the London-based production company.

Launched in 2016 by the former head of Film 4 Tessa Ross and Working Title TV boss Juliette Howell (left), the company specializes in both film and TV with forthcoming credits including BBC One thriller “Sherwood”; an adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s bestselling novel “Life After Life”; Netflix feature film “The Wonder,” starring Florence Pugh, and “The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle”; and Disney Plus original “The Good Mothers” for Star.

Two more TV dramas are in the works, along with several film projects that will be fully financed and in production from 2022.

The full acquisition marks another heavy-hitting domestic investment for BBC Studios, which now has equity stakes in 12 independent production companies, including full ownership of “The End of the F—ing World” outfit Clerkenwell Films and...

BBC Studios has taken full control of Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell’s prolific Sherwood and Brexit: The Uncivil War producer House Productions.

The BBC’s commercial arm has upped its stake in the London indie from 25% to full control, similar to the relationship that it has with Gentleman Jack producer Lookout Point, Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow and End Of The F***ing World’s Clerkenwell Films.

Ross and Howell, the former heads of Film4 and Working Title TV respectively, launched House in 2016 and the outfit has won a wealth of commissions in the past 18 months following the success of Channel 4’s Benedict Cumberbatch-starring single Brexit from Quiz creator James Graham.

Graham is also behind the indie’s upcoming BBC1 mini-series Sherwood, while it is also producing Netflix’s The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and Stephen Butchard’s The Good Mothers for Disney+ vertical Star.

Meanwhile on the film side,...

Dramatist and screenwriter James Graham has a knack for skewering venerable British institutions, from the royal family in an episode of “The Crown,” to the tabloids in his play “Ink,” to politics in Channel 4-HBO special “Brexit: The Uncivil War,” which starred Benedict Cumberbatch.

Even his own industry hasn’t escaped Graham’s examination with last year’s ITV limited series “Quiz,” in which Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”) and Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) played a real-life couple convicted of defrauding the gameshow “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

So the Metropolitan Police have good reason to be nervous now Graham has turned his eye to law enforcement in upcoming BBC series “Sherwood” starring David Morrissey (“The Walking Dead”) and Lesley Manville (“The Crown”). The six-part show is loosely based on the true story of two unrelated murders that took place within weeks of each other in 2004 in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up.

HBO’s “House of the Dragon” has added seven new actors to its cast, including Ryan Corr as Ser Harwin “Breakbones” Strong and Jefferson Hall as Lannister twins Lord Jason and Tyland.

Also joining the cast of the 10-episode “Game of Thrones” prequel series, which is set to debut in 2022, are David Horovitch, Graham McTavish, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson and Gavin Spokes.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood,” “House of the Dragon” is set 200 years before the events of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” It tells the story of House Targaryen and stars Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, “The Sea Snake,” Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon, Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria and Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole.

The UK Government’s Minister for Media and Data, John Whittingdale, waged battle with UK TV professionals over the future of Channel 4 at this year’s Closing Debate at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

Reiterating his previous explanations for wanting the channel to be sold, Whittingdale referred to the changing TV market and the squeeze of advertising revenue, meaning Channel 4 could not be sustained in its present business model.

But he went further, intimating that the sale could actually protect some of the values fans of Channel 4 in its current form hold dear, and even help protect small independent producers, saying:

“Channel 4 has always been a combination of very commercial content balanced with extremely distinctive, more edgy content. The brand is one of the attractions, and that will be preserved by the remit. We’re going to make it clear that the remit is there and will stay.”

Whittingdale pointed out that,...

With his new film The Courier finally due out in UK cinemas this week, we had the pleasure of catching up with star Benedict Cumberbatch to discuss the new thriller that shows an important part of history that we – and many more, we suspect – would not have been aware of before.

The Courier sees Cumberbatch star as British businessman Greville Wynne, unwittingly recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. Forming an unlikely partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) hoping to prevent a nuclear confrontation, the two men work together to provide the crucial intelligence used to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Like us, Cumberbatch himself had no idea about the story of these two men but, as with other roles he has taken on, that was part of the mystery and why he signed on.

“I think my parents might remember it but I shamelessly knew nothing about it,...

“The Comey Rule” premiered on Showtime over two nights on September 27 and 28 of last year telling the story of James Comey’s (played by two-time Emmy winner Jeff Daniels) tenure as the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The two-part limited series frames Comey’s time as the head of the FBI through two of the most high profile investigations the agency conducted. The first is the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary and Comey’s decision to announce that the investigation was being reopened (due to a connection with former congressman Anthony Weiner) less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. The second part of the series examines Comey’s navigation of the agency’s investigation into the campaign of President Donald Trump (played by Emmy winner Brendan Gleeson) and possible connections it had with the Russian government.

Distinguished British actor Tim McMullan is playing the role of detective Atticus Pünd in the PBS Masterpiece, BritBox U.K. and Eleventh Hour Films series adaptation of “Magpie Murders,” Anthony Horowitz’s international bestseller.

Previously announced actor Timothy Spall had to step away from the production due to a scheduling clash.

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art trained McMullan’s theater credits include “Anthony and Cleopatra,” “Twelfth Night,” “Man vs Superman,” “Father and Sons” and “The Master and Margarita.” His screen credits include “The Crown” as Robin Woods, Bernard Jenkins in “Brexit” and Sonny in “Patrick Melrose.”

Joining McMullan in the cast is BAFTA-nominated Daniel Mays.

“Magpie Murders” revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, played by Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville (“Phantom Thread”), an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript by bestselling mystery writer Alan Conway, featuring Conway’s detective Atticus Pünd – and has little idea it will change her life.

The BBC has set the cast for its four-part adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s best-selling and award-winning novel Life After Life.

Produced by Brexit: The Uncivil War producer House Productions, the series will feature fast-rising actress Thomasin McKenzie, star of Jojo Rabbit and Leave No Trace, and BAFTA-winning Fleabag star Sian Clifford.

James McArdle (Man in an Orange Shirt), Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey), and Jessica Hynes (Years and Years) will also feature, alongside Patsy Ferran (Black Narcissus), Harry Michell (Yesterday), Laurie Kynaston (The Trouble with Maggie Cole) Joshua Hill (Small Axe), and Maria Laird (Derry Girls).

Outlaw King and Traitors writer Bash Doran has adapted the novel, while John Crowley, the two-time BAFTA-winning director who helmed Saoirse Ronan starrer Brooklyn, directs.

Life After Life tells the vivid story of the alternate lives of Ursula Todd (McKenzie), who dies one night in 1910, only to be born and survive on the same night.

Exclusive: Sky’s buzzy series on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has found its latest protagonists in the shape of Elementary actress Ophelia Lovibond and Brexit: The Uncivil War star Simon Paisley Day.

Deadline can reveal that Lovibond will star next to Kenneth Branagh as Johnson’s fiancee, Carrie Symonds, in This Sceptred Isle. Paisley Day will play Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s most senior adviser at the height of the coronavirus crisis, which provides the backdrop to the five-part series.

Co-written and directed by The Trip helmer Michael Winterbottom, This Sceptred Isle is based on first-hand testimony from those close to Johnson. It will chart the events surrounding the Pm, the government, and the country in the face of the first wave of the global coronavirus pandemic.

There is little doubt it was an extraordinary period for the British leader, who fell critically ill with Covid-19 and weeks after his discharge from hospital,...

Disney+ has green lit its first slate of European originals, including projects for its international brand Star, which launches in Europe later this month.

10 new originals have been officially unveiled, with projects spanning dramas, comedies and documentaries from France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and from creators and producers including the likes Juliette Howell (Brexit: The Uncivil War), Stephen Butchard (Baghdad Central), Quoc Dang Tran (Marianne) and Jörg Winger (Deutschland 83).

The new titles — revealed almost a year after Disney+ officially launched in Europe — takes Disney a fifth of the way to hitting its target of commissioning ...

Disney+ has green lit its first slate of European originals, including projects for its international brand Star, which launches in Europe later this month.

10 new originals have been officially unveiled, with projects spanning dramas, comedies and documentaries from France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and from creators and producers including the likes Juliette Howell (Brexit: The Uncivil War), Stephen Butchard (Baghdad Central), Quoc Dang Tran (Marianne) and Jörg Winger (Deutschland 83).

The new titles — revealed almost a year after Disney+ officially launched in Europe — takes Disney a fifth of the way to hitting its target of commissioning ...

James Graham, creator of hit ITV, AMC and Sony show “Quiz,” and writer of Emmy nominated “Brexit: The Uncivil War,” has created crime drama “Sherwood” for U.K. broadcaster BBC.

Inspired in part by real events, the six-part series is set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up. The contemporary series sees two murders shatter an already fractured community leading to one of the largest manhunts in British history. Suspicion is rife and the tragic murders threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the miners’ strike that tore families apart three decades before.

Graham reunites with House Productions, the company behind “Brexit,” for the series. He will serve as an executive producer on the series. Lewis Arnold (“Time”) is lead director and an executive producer, and the producer is Rebecca Hodgson (“The Irregulars”). Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross and Harriet Spencer are executive producers for House Productions and Ben Irving...

Exclusive: James Graham, the writer behind Brexit: The Uncivil War and Quiz, is returning to his Nottingham roots for a BBC One crime thriller that he is making with House Productions.

The writer is penning six-part series Sherwood, a fictionalized drama based on real-life events, set in the Nottinghamshire mining village in which Graham grew up. It centers on two shocking and unexpected murders that shatter an already fractured community leading to one of the largest manhunts in British history.

Police inspectors Ian St Clair, from the local constabulary, and Kevin Salisbury, from the Metropolitan Police, must bury an old rivalry to solve the murders. Suspicion is rife as the deaths threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the miners’ strike that tore families apart in the 1980s.

Graham worked with House Productions on Emmy-nominated Benedict Cumberbatch starrer Brexit: The Uncivil War, while he enjoyed ratings success last year with...

Here’s our rundown of the 10 storylines set to dominate the international film business in 2021.

Covid, of course

What a difference a year makes. The pandemic that pretty much no one foresaw has re-shaped the entire world, including the entertainment business. 2021 will give us a better idea of which aspects of that re-shaping will be permanent. The pandemic has disturbed every aspect of the film and TV sectors, from development right through to distribution. Many have lost their lives and businesses have been brought to their knees. The film and TV calendar for early 2021 is already being re-shaped. Releases dates continue to be pushed, the same for many productions, and most of us continue to work from home. All eyes will be on the vaccine rollouts in the hope that some of what we knew can return in the coming year.

Distributor woes

What’s the biggest trend of 2021, I...

Just a week before the deadline, Britain and the European Union struck a tentative free-trade deal Thursday that should avert economic chaos on New Year’s and bring a measure of certainty for businesses after years of Brexit turmoil.

The deal, reached after nine tough months of negotiations, would ensure Britain and the 27-nation bloc can continue to trade in goods without tariffs or quotas after the U.K. breaks fully free of the EU on New Year’s Day.

“We have taken back control,” declared British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who posted a picture of himself, beaming with thumbs ...

The BBC has commissioned a four-part adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s bestselling novel “Life After Life” from House Productions.

The story centers on Ursula Todd who dies one night in 1910 before she can draw her first breath. On that same night in 1910, Ursula is born and survives. She finds herself time and again, living and dying in different circumstances only to be reborn into a new, alternative iteration of life once more. Ursula navigates her way through a critical era which spans two world wars, an encounter with Hitler and major life events.

The drama is adapted by playwright and screenwriter Bash Doran and will be directed by BAFTA-winning director John Crowley. Kate Ogborn (“The End of the F***ing World”) will produce. Doran and Crowley will be executive producers, as will Atkinson.

The novel was published in 2013 and won the Costa Book Award.

House Productions is the production company set...

Amazon Donates $600,000 To Germany

Amazon Prime Video has donated €500,000 to a German relief fund for entertainment industry workers who have been left without income by the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon, which counts Deutschland 89 among its German originals, has donated to Backstage Heroes, a fundraising campaign led by Stern magazine. Amazon’s support is part of a $6M commitment announced earlier this year to support the European production community.

Arrow Options Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski Books

UK producer Arrow Media has optioned journalist Nicole Weisensee Egan’s Bill Cosby investigative book Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America’s Dad, as well as Samantha Geimer’s memoir The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski. Both will be turned into documentary series, with the latter co-produced with Handel Productions. Anna Davies, executive producer, development, Arrow Media, said: “Both of these stories are ultimately about the abuse of power and the power of celebrity.

Benedict Cumberbatch had a very busy 2019 after starring in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers: Endgame, Sam Mendes’ stunning World War II drama 1917, irreverent comedy Between Two Ferns: The Movie, British television film Brexit: The Uncivil War and having a voice cameo as Satan in Amazon’s cult favorite Good Omens. The 44 year-old has been mostly absent from our screens in 2020, though.

That’s probably because he’s about to dedicate the next year of his life to the McU, with Cumberbatch set to start shooting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in a matter of weeks, while he’ll also show up in Spider-Man 3 to lend support to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as his new mentor, presumably in an effort to guide him in the ways of the multiverse.

The Sherlock star isn’t expected to have a huge amount of screen time in the pic,...

Channel 4, the British broadcaster behind global hits including The End Of The F***ing World, has said that it will end 2020 on a sure financial footing after it was ravaged by a 50% drop in advertising revenue at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Great British Bake Off network provided an update on its 2020 performance as it published its annual report for last year. The company, which is wholly-owned by the UK government but commercially self-sufficient, said it would end 2020 with a “significant” surplus that it can reinvest in content.

This would have seemed unthinkable just a few short months ago, when Channel 4 was forced to slash its programming budget by £150M ($195M), cut other costs by £95M, and furlough 100 staff. This followed its ad sales being cut in half — an existential issue for a broadcaster that makes 95% of its revenue from advertising.

As well as posting a surplus (which...

Exclusive: As Disney+ prepares to start production on its new Rogue One spinoff series, it will be doing so with a new director as sources tell Deadline Toby Haynes will helm the first three episodes, replacing Tony Gilroy.

Sources say Gilroy dropped off as director for Covid-19-related travel reasons. Gilroy lives in New York and had to make a decision quickly on whether he would head over to the UK for the shoot; in the end, he thought it would be best that he stay in New York and have Haynes take over his directing duties.

Haynes already was high on the list of directors who would helm future episodes and since he also already was in the UK, all parties thought this would make the most sense. Gilroy will stay very much involved with the series as exec producer and showrunner.

The series centers on the Cassian Andor character and is in pre-production with plans to start shooting next month. Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard and Kyle Soller also are in the cast.

A Disney spokesperson declined to comment.

2020 Disney+ Pilots & Series Orders

The untitled show focuses on Rebel agent Andor prior to the events of Rogue One in the early days of the bebellion against the Empire. The show had been described as a “spy thriller” when plans for it first were revealed last year. It also was previously announced that Luna would return as Andor, while Alan Tudyk is set to reprise his role as K-2So, Andor’s droid sidekick.

Following the huge success of The Mandalorian, Disney+ has ramped its development on other Star Wars series, which include this one, a second season of The Mandalorian and a series focused on young Obi Wan-Kenobi with Ewan McGregor reprising the role.

Haynes has been on a roll as of late, which started with directing the Emmy-winning Black Mirror episode “U.S.S. Callister,” starring Jesse Plemons. The special had a Star Trek-meets-Twilight Zone feel and is a fan favorite. He followed that up by directing the HBO movie Brexit starring Benedict Cumberbatch and also has the highly anticipated Amazon series Utopia, which premieres this Friday.

He is repped by WME and by Joe Phillips at Curtis Brown in the UK.

Updated With Winners: Chernobyl was the big winner at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards on Friday after the Sky and HBO drama scooped seven awards.

The Sister-produced nuclear disaster series beat competition from the likes of The Crown, Killing Eve and The Virtues at the pre-recorded ceremony, triumphing in categories including Director: Fiction for Johan Renck. Other wins included best Production Design and Editing: Fiction.

Elsewhere, other winners included Jesse Armstrong, who took home best Writer: Drama for Succession, while Jamie Demetriou scooped best Writer: Comedy for Stath Lets Flats. This Was Up creator Aisling Bea won the Breakthrough Talent gong. BBC and HBO drama His Dark Materials won in two categories: Special, Visual and Graphic Effects, and Titles and Graphic Identity.

The BAFTA TV Craft Awards was one of the industry’s first major awards ceremonies of the pandemic era. The event, which celebrated the best of British TV’s behind-the-scenes talent,...

UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and his own crippling battle with the disease are to be the subject of a new TV series helmed by BAFTA-winning director Michael Winterbottom.

Deadline understands that deals were done to develop the drama this week, with the project being housed at Fremantle in partnership with True Detective executive producer Richard Brown’s Passenger and Winterbottom’s Revolution Films. Fremantle signed an overall agreement with Brown last year.

24 Hour Party People filmmaker Winterbottom will direct and co-write the series, while Brown (Passenger) and Melissa Parmenter (Revolution Films) are executive producers. The Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman will serve as a consultant on the show. Shipman’s book All Out War provided the inspiration for Channel 4 and HBO’s drama Brexit: The Uncivil War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Although no network or streamer is yet attached, there is hope...