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Catherine Zeta-Jones talked about the welcome impact of winning an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2003 for Chicago on Friday while during an informal conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“It’s actually the beginning, because there’s the precedent, with your name being preceded with the Academy Award winning Catherine Zeta-Jones,” she told the festival. Zeta Jones was also pulled in two directions in having to choose between winning an Oscar and a best actress Tony, and which was more satisfying.

“To be acknowledged by the Broadway lights, that was wonderful. But the Academy Award was something that was totally unexpected. It blew my mind,” she insisted. But now aged 55, Zeta-Jones talked about stepping back and into an indie film world, well away from the commercial demands of a Hollywood she mastered as a film and TV star.

“I can’t talk about it right now,...

Star Wars actor Michael Culver has died aged 85.

The British actor played a small but famous role in Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back as Captain Needa, whose failure to capture the fleeing Millennium Falcon results in Darth Vader force-choking him to death aboard a Star Destroyer.

“We are very sad to confirm the passing of our friend and client Michael Culver,” said his agency, Alliance Agents, in a statement reported by several websites. The actor passed away on February 27, Alliance Agents added.

The agency noted Culver’s was “a career spanning over 50 years with notable roles in Sherlock Holmes, A Passage to India, Secret Army and of course one of the most memorable death scenes in the Star Wars franchise.”

Culver had largely stopped acting in the early 2000s to concentrate on political activism, unusually becoming more outspoken as he got older. He was a major...

Bradley Walsh’s ITV co-star has addressed claims that their show has been cancelled.

Last week, it was claimed that comedy drama series The Larkins, starring Walsh and Joanna Scanlan, would come to an end due to low ratings.

While ITV is yet to officially announce the show’s cancellation, one of its stars shared a message in response to the claims on social media.

“Thanks for watching #thelarkins,” Tony Gardner wrote.

In the series, Gardner, whose other credits include Last Tango in Halifax and My Parents Are Aliens, plays the wealthy Alec Norman.

He continued: “Made lots of memories and new friends. Can’t ask for any more than that.”

The Larkins, which debuted in 2021, is inspired by He Bates’ novel The Darling Buds of May. The book received its own TV adaptation in the 1990s.

A third series of The Larkins has been filmed, and will be broadcast later this year.

Bradley Walsh has denied reports that The Larkins has been cancelled by ITV.

The Chase host stars opposite Joanna Scanlan as Pop Larkin in the channel’s adaptation of H E Bates’ novel The Darling Buds of May.

The series, which follows a family in rural Kent in the 1950s, made its debut in 2021. At the time, it divided critics, with The Independent’s Sean O’Grady calling it “a Brexit television abomination”.

Last week, reports emerged in The Sun claiming that the show was being axed after losing two million viewers between series one and two and alleged “cast disagreements” on set.

However, appearing on This Morning on Tuesday (10 January), Walsh vehemently denied the claims.

Walsh said that he’d “had a few calls” about the rumours which he said were attributed to “some problem with the viewing figures”.

“The viewing figures were absolutely fine, there was nothing wrong with the viewing figures,...

The American state of Montana is big. Properly big. So big that we Brits can’t quite grasp how very big it is. The setting for Paramount ranch drama Yellowstone bleeds outside the page gutters of the UK mind. The US state is so many times bigger than a double decker bus or Wales that it needs a totally different scale. To really appreciate its size would require a lengthy explanation video by Professor Brian Cox involving a Rowntree’s Fruit Pastille, a snooker ball, and The O2.

Montana isn’t just big, but compared to the UK, it’s also empty. The average Brummie will inhale the recycled breath of more people in a single trip to Greggs than a Montanan will in their whole life. That place is one and half times larger than the United Kingdom but contains 66.1 million fewer people and almost three times the number of cows.

Exclusive: You’ll be familiar with All3Media as a global production empire, spanning 40 companies and international hits including Fleabag and Undercover Boss. What you might not be so familiar with is the empire within the empire. Meet Objective Media Group (or Omg as it is affectionately known internally), which in the space of five years has gone from one company, famed for series like Peep Show, to a mini-group with 10 production units under its wing and a slate of notable transatlantic series. Highlights from the past 12 months alone include getting entertainment format The Cube away in the UK and the U.S. almost simultaneously, sprouting Netflix scripted hit Feel Good, helping Gordon Ramsay become a re-energized TV force, and successfully launching and clinching a second season renewal for HBO Max reality series 12 Dates Of Christmas.

Omg’s Russian doll strategy is the brainchild of Layla Smith, a former ITV commissioner and Hell’s Kitchen producer,...

Lenny Henry, the British comedian, actor and diversity campaigner, is collaborating with A Very English Scandal scribe Russell T Davies on a deeply personal ITV drama series inspired by his mother’s move from Jamaica to the UK in the 1950s.

Henry’s Douglas Road Productions and Tiger Aspect — both part of the Banijay group — will make Three Little Birds for ITV, with Davies consulting on the script and serving as an executive producer.

The six-part series will narrate a Windrush-era story of two sisters, Leah and Chantrelle, and their Bible-loving acquaintance, Hosanna, as they leave the Caribbean to embark on a new life in Britain.

On arriving in Notting Hill, they quickly realize that London is not for them and flee to the Midlands, overcoming racism and integration issues to make a new home for themselves.

ITV drama head Polly Hill said Henry’s scripts are funny, moving and life-affirming,...

Exclusive: Irish producer ShinAwiL has launched a drama division and has set a slate that includes a crime drama from Ballykissangel writer Barry Devlin, a period drama from author Ann-Marie Casey and a tween Canadian co-pro.

The company, which is best known for producing Irish versions of unscripted hits such as Dancing with the Stars and The Voice, has tapped Vikings and The Borgias producer Aaron Farrell to run the unit with Mary Callery, former commissioning editor of drama at Irish public broadcaster Rte.

ShinAwiL is launching its inaugural scripted slate ahead of Series Mania in Lille, France, where it will talk with broadcasters and production partners about its projects.

Kill is a six-part contemporary crime drama written by Devlin, who produced a number of music videos for U2 in the 1980s and has written episodes of The Darling Buds of May, PBS and BBC co-pro My Mother and Other Strangers...

Dawn French is to star in Doc Martin-style drama Glass Houses for ITV.

The British commercial broadcaster has ordered the six-part series from Genial Productions, the nascent ITV-backed producer formed by The Durrells and Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye and ex-Tiger Aspect boss Sophie Clarke-Jervoise.

Created and written by Shameless and Cold Feet writer Mark Brotherhood, Glass Houses is set in a picturesque small coastal town with a close-knit community. It follows the stories and fall out for Maggie Connors, played by French, who doesn’t pay attention to the cautionary adage that ‘those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’.

Connors is a central character in town who makes it her business to know a bit about everyone’s lives. When a radio journalist interviews her for a small reportage piece about local life she gives him far more detail (and embellishment) about the locals and their...

James Corden looked a lot different for his first TV gig in his native U.K.

The Late Late Show host has lost 85 pounds since he debuted on the British TV series Fat Friends in 2000. In one clip from the show, Corden's character reveals the plight of millions of people who struggle with their weight.

Watch: James Corden Pokes Fun at the Oscars Flub With 'La La Land' Spoof

"When I go out, I want to eat whatever I want or there's no point going," his character says.

Elizabeth Hurley has truly aged like fine wine based on clips from early in her career as a 23-year-old fresh face, and Catherine Zeta-Jones hasn't aged a day since her role in The Darling Buds of May in 1991.

The TV series turned Zeta-Jones into a household name, giving her the confidence to move to Los Angeles to pursue roles that showed her as more than just...

On Tuesday, Ryan Murphy made his return to Twitter by announcing some pretty big news - Catherine Zeta-Jones will play Olivia de Havilland in his new FX mini-series Feud! "Thrilled that Oscar-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining Feud as Oscar-winner Olivia de Havilland," the screenwriter wrote. Thrilled that Oscar-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining Feud as Oscar-winner Olivia de Havilland.— Ryan Murphy (@MrRPMurphy) August 16, 2016 The eight-episode mini-series, which stars actresses Jessica Lange (Joan Crawford) and Susan Sarandon (Bette Davis), will showcase the classic rivalry between the Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? stars. Set to air in 2017, the show will also feature Alfred Molina...

Valencia

John Goodman is in talks to star in Dan Trachtenberg's low-budget thriller "Valencia" for Paramount Insurge and Bad Robot. J.J. Abrams will produce and Dan Casey penned the most recent draft of the script.

Set primarily in an underground cellar, the story follows a teen girl who wakes up in the cellar after a car accident, at which point her eerie companion (Goodman) tells her a nuclear attack has devastated society. [Source: Variety]

The Briny

Francesca Annis, Larry Lamn and Stephen Campbell Moore have joined the cast of Lucy Kirkwood's directorial debut "The Briny" from Film4. Filming just wrapped in Suffolk, UK.

The story follows a woman who believes herself to be suffering from a sympathetic pregnancy due to the Royal baby. Olivier award-winning playwright and screenwriter Kirkwood also penned the script. [Source: Screen]

The Darling Buds of May

Matthew Rhys ("The Americans") has signed on to star in Christian Carion...

• Dwayne Johnson (Fast & Furious 6) is in early talks to star in the Robert Ludlum adaptation The Janson Directive for Universal. The book, published after Ludlum’s death, follows an ex-Navy Seal who is forced on the run when a rescue mission goes bad. There is no writer or director attached at this early stage, but according to the report, it could be a potential franchise. [THR]

• Pitch Perfect 2 has added a cappella group The Filharmonic to its ever-growing ensemble cast. The six-member group recently appeared on The Sing-Off. [THR]

• Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards) will star opposite Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult in Equals,...

Exclusive: Having battled the United States as a Soviet sleeper spy on FX’s The Americans, Matthew Rhys has signed up for World War II in the independent feature Darling Buds of May. Directed by Christian Carion, whose 2005 World War I film Joyeux Noel was Oscar nominated for best foreign film, Buds follows Rhys as a stranded British army officer who teams up with a German fugitive to find his son in Nazi-occupied France. Rhys is repped by Management 360 and Wme stateside and United Agents in the United Kingdom. He’ll be returning for the third season of The Americans which begins filming this fall.

Yeah, bitch! Having charmed millions as tragic and naïve drug dealer Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul takes the wheel for his first leading role in Need for Speed this week.

As the video game adaptation speeds onto screens nationwide, we’ve taken a look at 10 stars who made the jump for small screen stardom to cinematic success (in alphabetical order).

Jennifer Aniston

As much as you might guiltily enjoy Matthew Perry romcom Fools Rush In, it’s hard to deny that Aniston’s the only Friends alumnus to find real big-screen fame. Sure, her filmography largely comprises mediocre romcoms, supporting roles in male comics’ vehicles or, latterly, sexbomb performances, but almost all of her movies are profitable, with five earning over $200m. Audiences just love Jen.

George Clooney

On-set prankster, former pig owner and now one of Hollywood’s most respected actors and filmmakers – the only person to...

The couple, who married 13 years ago, are 'taking some time apart', according to a spokesperson for Zeta-Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are "taking some time apart" to "work on their marriage", according to a statement released by her publicist.

Zeta-Jones, 43, who married Douglas, 68, 13 years ago and has two children with him, shot to fame in Britain in the early 1990s in the television adaptation of The Darling Buds of May before going on to Hollywood success in such films as Chicago, Traffic and Intolerable Cruelty. She was praised in 2011 for revealing that she was receiving treatment for bipolar disorder.

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Classic ITV drama series are to be made available online via Clubcard TV.

Clubcard TV is a free ad-supported movie and TV service launched by Tesco in March 2013.

Cracker, A Touch of Frost, Above Suspicion, Inspector Morse, Lewis, Miss Marple and Prime Suspect will all be available to watch on the new ad-supported service.

Selected episodes of Cold Feet, The Darling Buds of May and a number of cooking shows including Hell's Kitchen USA will also be accessible.

"It's great news for fans of quality drama that some of ITV's best loved shows are coming to Clubcard TV," said Scott Deutrom, MD of Clubcard TV.

"This is a significant new deal for us as many of the shows added will appeal to our heartland audience."

Clubcard TV is available to all Tesco clubcard holders and has deals with producers including Aardman, Endemol and Warner Bros....

To celebrate ITV Studios Home Entertainment’s fantastic Christmas DVD box set collection, including classics such as Prime Suspect, Jeeves & Wooster, Darling Buds of May and The Catherine Cookson Collection, we’ve taken a look at stars past and present – unearthing some modern-day stars with very humble beginnings on the little square box that sits in the corner of the living room…

1) Catherine Zeta-Jones

Although Catherine Zeta Jones began acting in her local theatre, she found her breakthrough role in playing Mariette Larkin in The Darling Buds of May at the tender age of 22. Jones has seen gone on to become a Hollywood A-lister, married to A List resident Michael Douglas and acting with someone of the biggest film stars including Sean Connery, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Liam Neeson, Tom Hanks, and Billy Crystal, in such films as The Mask of Zorro, America’s Sweethearts, The Haunting, Intolerable Cruelty and Chicago,...

A striking stage presence for more than 60 years and a familiar face on TV

Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.

In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.

The role remained one of her favourites,...

Mental health charities say disclosure will have huge impact after Catherine Zeta-Jones checks into clinic for five days

No amount of PR spend could have brought Catherine Zeta-Jones the fund of sympathy and goodwill she has received after announcing she was being treated for bipolar disorder. Mental health charities congratulated her on her courage in speaking up, and even the red-top tabloids treated her with dignity.

It's only eight years since the Sun's front page screamed, "Bonkers Bruno locked up", after the former boxer Frank Bruno suffered a breakdown and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. On Thursday the tone reserved for reporting Zeta-Jones's illness was very different: "Bipolar Zeta in clinic five days – star's depression after Michael's cancer fight," said a much more muted Sun.

Zeta-Jones, 41, came to prominence 20 years ago in the bucolic TV comedy about the Larkin family, The Darling Buds of May. Born in Swansea...

Publicist confirms Catherine Zeta-Jones is undertaking treatment in Us following reports of stay in Connecticut hospital

Catherine Zeta-Jones has checked into a clinic in the Us for treatment for bipolar disorder, her spokeswoman has confirmed. The Welsh-born actor, 41, is believed to have spent five days at the Silver Hill hospital in Connecticut last week.

Zeta-Jones's husband, actor Michael Douglas, 66, was diagnosed with cancer last year.

"After dealing with the stress of the past year, Catherine made the decision to check into a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her bipolar II disorder," said the spokeswoman. "She's feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on her two upcoming films."

Her husband announced in January that he was cancer-free after six months of treatment for throat cancer.

Zeta-Jones was born in Swansea, and came to fame in the 1990s TV drama series The Darling Buds of May.

Catherine Zeta-Jones has received a Cbe (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) from Prince Charles. The Welsh actress, who was awarded the accolade for services to the film industry and to charity, was included in the Queen's Birthday Honors list last year and traveled to Buckingham Palace to pick up the prestigious honor on Thursday, February 24.

Accompanied by her 61-year-old husband Michael Douglas, who was recently treated for throat cancer, and the couple's two children Dylan, 10, and Carys, 7, Catherine beamed as she was awarded the honor by the monarch's son. When the announcement of the accolade was made last year, the 41-year-old actress admitted she was "humbled and thrilled" to have been given the award.

She said, "I am absolutely thrilled with this honor. As a British subject, I feel incredibly proud, at the same time it is overwhelming and humbling. And my mum and dad are delighted beyond belief.

Sir David Jason has revealed that he is not ready for retirement following the end of A Touch Of Frost. The actor, 70, chose to stand down from the much-loved role that he played for 17 years when his age made it impossible for him to credibly play a working policeman. Sir David, whose TV credits include Open All Hours, Only Fools And Horses, The Darling Buds Of May and Porterhouse Blue, said that leaving the ITV detective show was incredibly tough. "Sadly, myself and the other producers agreed it was time for (more)...

The revival of a Sondheim musical with a very British flavour lures recession-hit New York audiences back to the theatre

She made her stage debut as the lead in Annie at the Swansea Grand Theatre at 12. Now, 28 years later, the Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones is again treading the boards, although in slightly more grandiose surroundings.

Zeta-Jones, 40, will make her first appearance on Broadway next month when the curtain goes up on Sir Trevor Nunn's eagerly awaited revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music. Preview performances at the Walter Kerr theatre began last week in advance of the opening night on 13 December and tickets, which are being sold on eBay for as much as $300, are like gold dust.

In the production Zeta-Jones, who plays the part of a flamboyant actress called Desiree Armfeldt, sings one of Sondheim's most famous songs, "Send in the Clowns". Although there have...