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On Thursday 27 February 2025, Channel 5 broadcasts Tales From the Riverbank!

River Thames Season 1 Episode 3 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Tales From the Riverbank,” titled “River Thames,” promises to be an exciting journey along one of England’s most famous rivers. Clare Balding will take viewers on a scenic exploration of the Thames, showcasing its beauty and the rich history surrounding it.

In this episode, Clare will visit the stunning spires of Oxford, a city known for its prestigious university and picturesque architecture. The landscapes along the river are said to have inspired the beloved children’s book, “The Wind in the Willows.” This connection to literature adds a charming touch to the adventure.

The episode will also feature the grandeur of Cliveden estate, known for its beautiful gardens and historic significance. Additionally, Windsor Castle, one of the oldest and largest inhabited castles in the world, will be highlighted, offering...

It’s Halloween, and you know what that means: It’s the perfect time to watch horror movies. Vampires, serial killers, haunted houses, the month that precedes Halloween is the prime time to watch scary movies, but not every scary movie is a Halloween movie… and not every Halloween movie is scary.

So it is with great relish that we present the 31 best Halloween movies ever, exclusively featuring films that actually take place on Halloween, or at least during the Halloween season. The point is, if Halloween doesn’t play a major part in the movie it’s not fair to call it a “Halloween movie,” and as long as Halloween shows up in some important way, it doesn’t matter where the film is frightening, funny, or even just for little kids.

We’re narrowing the field down to theatrically released features and shorts and feature-length TV movies. Halloween specials deserve their own list,...

Washington Irving‘s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” heralded an enduring Halloween icon with the Headless Horseman, an unforgettable, imposing character that practically begged to be translated into a visual medium. While Disney’s classic feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad wasn’t the first to adapt Irving’s short, the more family-friendly approach and distinct Halloween setting to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment ensures that it’s a holiday staple that still holds up well 75 years later.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released in theaters on October 5, 1949, but the road getting there was tough and winding thanks to World War II. The film pairs two unlikely tales together: The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Both were intended as separate feature-length animated films, but the company was dealing with financial strife at the time and was forced to pivot.

Lewis Carroll's 1871 fable "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There" features a notable scene wherein the young titular protagonist runs across a pair of whimsically dunderheaded identical twins while lost in an alternate dimension. The characters are named Tweedledee and Tweedledum and are based on numerous 18th-century folk poems variously attributed to John Byron, John Pope, and Jonathan Swift. In an early epigram by Byron, the two characters agree to have a battle but are startled by a crow, and forget to fight each other. It wouldn't be until the publication of "Through the Looking Glass," and John Tenniel's illustrations therein, that Tweedledee and Tweedledum would be depicted as identical twins. 

In Carroll's book, the twins reenact the Byron epigram and flee when a crow appears. Some might say that Tweedledee and Tweedledum represent easily distracted governments, or merely the capriciousness of children. Either way,...

Emma Stone is one of the best actresses in Hollywood, and any doubts regarding this stood clear when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 96th Academy Awards. Her stunning performance as Bella Baxter in the 2023 movie Poor Things won her the second Academy Award of her career; she won her first Academy Award for the 2016 movie La La Land.

Stone has assimilated a huge net worth over the last two decades of her acting career. While the bulk of her net worth is all thanks to her career as an actress, she also owes some of it to the properties she has flipped.

Emma Stone won Best Actress for Poor Things

Emma Stone Has Made Millions by Flipping Homes

The actress owns several great homes. She bought two of these homes in 2019, one in Malibu and another in Century City, Los Angeles. According to the Wall Street Journal,...

To celebrate the release of Jamie and the Magic Torch, on DVD from 18th March, we are giving away DVDs to 2 lucky winners!

Every night when his mum calls out ‘Sleep Well Jamie’, the naughty rascal gets out of bed, picks up his magic torch and with his dog, Wordsworth, travels down a helter skelter into the magical world of Cuckoo Land. With 39 fantastic stories to watch, join Jamie and Wordsworth in all three series of their exciting adventures. Presented for the first time as a complete collection on DVD.

Jamie and the Magic Torch ran from 1976-1979 and was made by the Cosgrove Hall animation studios in Manchester, the studio that brought to us other classic shows such as Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, The Wind in the Willows, Chorlton and the Wheelies and The Bfg movie. Brian Truman who narrates the series also wrote it.

Jamie and Wordsworth have...

Disney theme parks take tourists around the world and beyond, but sometimes, all it takes is a screen to experience their many attractions. Disney has adapted a myriad of different media for the movies, but among the most interesting are their theme parks. When tasked with reimagining these iconic experiences, Disney had a legacy to uphold and close to seven decades of magic to draw from.

While Disney was initially known for its movies, television shows, and animated shorts, in 1955, the company ventured into the world of theme parks. Developing attractions based on their most beloved characters and original concepts, names such as "It's a Small World," "The Enchanted Tiki Room," and "Space Mountain" have become synonymous with the Disney brand. Inspiring merchandise, spinoffs, and happy memories, Disney's Imagineers have made their mark and set the pace for some of the most beloved vacation destinations in the world.

Tower of Terror...

Eddie Redmayne To Be Honored With Zurich’s Golden Eye

British actor Eddie Redmayne will be feted with the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye Award for his career achievements at its upcoming edition running from September 22 to October 2. The actor will receive the honor ahead of the European premiere of Tobias Lindholm’s serial killer thriller The Good Nurse on September 25.

Citing Oscar-winning Redmayne’s diverse credits including Fantastic Beasts, Trial Of The Chicago 7 and Theory Of Everything, Zff artistic director Christian Jungen described the actor as one of “contemporary cinema’s most versatile actors” adding, “he furnishes his characters with a rare human depth and captivates us with his extraordinary powers of expression.”

Redmayne was previously at Zurich in 2007 in the that’s opening film Savage Grace, in which he co-starred opposite Julianne Moore. He will also participate in a Zurich Masters session during this trip to the Swiss festival.

Don Lusk, the last link to Disney Animation’s golden age of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, has died at the age of 105. His passing was confirmed in an Instagram post by the Disney Animation Research Library.

Lusk joined The Walt Disney Company in 1933 and went on to work as a character animator for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia,” and “Bambi.” His best-known achievement is single-handedly animating the “danse arabe,” or “dance of the seven veils,” featuring a sultry goldfish during the Nutcracker sequence of “Fantasia.”

The legend goes that the stacked sketches of the fish doing her entire dance would stretch from floor to ceiling, it was that monumental and exhaustive a feat. But a feat of real delicacy and subtlety too. Lusk had previously worked with Eric Larson to animate the goldfish Cleo in “Pinocchio” along with the cat Figaro, whose movements are incredibly lifelike...

Producer Camilla Deakin remembers ”considerate, collaborative and respectful” animator.

Roger Mainwood, the UK filmmaker and animator, has died after an illness at the age of 65.

His credits included the feature animation Ethel & Ernest, which chronicles the lives of the parents of The Snowman illustrator Raymond Briggs. It was nominated for mutiple awards including best animated feaure at the European Film Awards in 2017.

The film was a passion project for Mainwood, who spent eight years developing it, adapting the screenplay from Briggs’ own graphic novel and drawing the majority of the storyboard himself. He then spent a further two years...

UK animation outfit strikes two-picture deal.

London-based production and sales outfit Gfm Animation has unveiled two new projects on the eve of Toronto.

A Greyhound Of A Girl is based on the novel by Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle. It will be directed by Italian director Enzo D’Alo (Pinocchio) and is produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions, in association with the Luxembourg Film Fund, Aliante and The Illuminated Film Company. The ghost story follows four generations of women travelling on a midnight car journey.

Production on this animated feature film will commence in Q2 2019 after eight months of storyboarding and character designs.

Jenna Coleman and Maisie Williams are about to be crushed – quite literally – in a fresh clip from this weekend's Doctor Who episode.

Saturday's 'The Girl Who Died' takes place in a Viking village, which The Doctor and Clara discover has been overrun by hostile race the Mire.

It's Vikings vs. aliens, with Maisie Williams, on this week's Doctor Who

In the clip above, time is running out for Clara, Ashildr (Williams) and their Viking friends as the Mire trap them in a massive trash compactor-like device.

In spite of some truly vague hints about Ashildr's cosmic connection to The Doctor, we're still guessing about who exactly this plucky young woman really is.

Maisie Williams recently told Digital Spy that Ashildr is in fact "a new character" who meets The Doctor – and yet he recognises her somehow.

The cast for 'The Girl Who Died' also includes David Schofield (Our Friends in the North...

British comedy legend Rik Mayall has died at just 56. A spokesman for his management company confirmed that Mayall passed away this morning. Mayall is survived by his wife and three children.

The actor and comedian is best remembered for his small screen roles such as the obnoxious poetry-writing anarchist Rick in cult sitcom "The Young Ones," the sex-crazed arrogant Lord Flashheart in several versions of "Blackadder," the sociopathic right-wing back bencher Alan Beresford B'Stard in "The New Statesman," and the perverted Richie in "Bottom". Other TV credits include "Jonathan Creek" and "Filthy Rich & Catflap"

Mayall also appeared in several films, most famously as the title character in "Drop Dead Fred". He also appeared in "Carry On Columbus," "Guest House Paradiso," "The Wind in the Willows," "Shock Treatment," "Errors of the Human Body" and even a tiny role in "An American Werewolf in London".

Mayall was left seriously ill after a...

Distributor picks up worldwide rights to animation backed on the book by War Horse author Michael Morpurgo.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution has secured worldwide rights (excluding UK TV) to On Angel Wings, an animation based on the book by War Horse author Michael Morpurgo.

Kaleidoscope will introduce the 30-minute special to buyers at MipTV in Cannes next month.

The writer and director of the animation is Dave Unwin who directed award winning TV special Father Christmas and The Wind in the Willows among others.

It is produced by Iain Harvey who executive produced the 1982 children’s classic The Snowman and produced The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories with his production company, The Illuminated Film Company.

The music is composed by Julian Nott who has worked with animator Nick Park on Wallace and Gromit.

The adaptation of Morpurgo’s picture book, published in 2006, is a re-working of the nativity. It centres on a young shepherd boy called Amos who...

The Observer's critics pick the season's highlights, from the Misanthrope to Johnny Marr, Lulu to Lichtenstein, H7steria to Hitchcock. What are you most looking forward to? Add your comments below and download a pdf of the calendar here

December | January | FebruaryDecember

1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)

Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.

3 Pop Scott Walker

The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.

3 Classical H7steria

World premiere of...

Disney is planning on bringing one of its longest running theme park attractions, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to the big screen.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is based on Disney's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, one of the two segments of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

Commercial/music video director Pete Candeland will be directing the project. The studio is still searching for a writer to draft the script for the film.

The ride was once an attraction at the Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World, but despite a long protest against its closure, Mr. Toad's journey to nowhere was put to an end in 1998 and the ride was replaced the following year with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

This project is still in early development.

After Disney surprisingly turned their Pirates of the Caribbean attraction into a billion dollar film franchise, we expected all their rides to get the feature film treatment. Slowly but surely development on films for Tomorrowland, Jungle Cruise and a reboot of The Haunted Mansion (since the first one sucked) have manifested themselves, and now another old ride is headed to theaters. Deadline reports Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, one of the longest running attractions, based on Disney's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, is now getting a hybrid live-action/CGI film from Pete Candeland, a commercial and music video director. No writer is attached yet, but Tron Legacy producer Justin Springer is behind the film. As for Candeland's involvement, the director has been involved with animation for sometime, including directing music videos for the animated band The Gorillaz, easily some of the best music videos that still take creative advantage...

Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn ... Disney remains determined to mine each of its theme-park properties for the big screen, even if the ride in question was already derived from a movie. And so it goes with Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: Deadline reports that the studio has lined up director Pete Candeland to adapt the classic Disneyland attraction (itself adapted from The Wind in the Willows) into a live-action/CG feature. In the plus column: Animation vet Candeland also helmed several Gorillaz videos and that awesome Beatles Rock Band intro sequence. But who will they cast as Mr. Toad? Do they still have an option on Woola?...

Exclusive: Disney has feature film plans for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, one of its longest-running theme park rides. The studio has set iconic commercials and video director Pete Candeland to develop a live-action/CGI mix feature that will bring to life a theme park ride that originated in Disneyland on its opening in 1955. The twisting, turning ride was also popular at Walt Disney World in Florida, but the geniuses at the park closed the ride in 1998 and replaced it with The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, which by comparison is a 10-minute nap for parents. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is based on Disney’s adaptation of The Wind In The Willows. Tron: Legacy producer Justin Springer will produce Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and the studio is looking for a writer to draft the plot into a film. Disney, which turned its Pirates Of The Caribbean attraction into a billion-dollar feature franchise,...