News

The executive producers of critically acclaimed BBC prison drama Time have launched their own scripted production operation.

River Pictures has been launched as the latest producer in the BBC Studios stable and will be led by Andrew Morrissey and Michael Parke. They were previously exec producers at the BBC’s commercial division and worked on both seasons of Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning Time, the latest season of which stars The Last of Us‘ Bella Ramsey, and all three seasons of RTÉ’s Irish drama Smother.

Scripted label River will have bases in London and Liverpool, taking inspiration from the Thames and Mersey rivers that run through those cities, respectively, in its naming. The company will look to showcase “strong regional voices” in its output when it opens its doors before the end of the year.

In 2024, Morrissey and Parke will be have two BBC Studios series coming to screen: RTÉ...

Based on a series of murders that took place in the 1940s and 50s in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood, Rillington Place has been set as a three-part drama. BBC Drama Production is producing in association with Bandit Television, part of the Endemol Shine Group, for BBC One. Ed Whitmore (He Kills Coppers) and Tracey Malone (Born To Kill), are scripting. Shooting starts at the end of March. Rillington Place focuses on the true stories of murderer John Christie, his wife…...

Review Andrew Blair 3 Apr 2014 - 13:44

Could A Handful of Stardust be the best of the Time Trips ebooks to date? Here's Andrew's review...

This review contains spoilers.

Jake Arnott – of The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers fame – brings together the Sixth Doctor, Peri, and John Dee in the most fun adventure the Time Trips range has seen.

This is a romp, a colourful and deliberately Ye Olde Speaky one at that. You can practically hear The Devil's Gallop playing between chapters. It feels like the Sixth Doctor and Peri have found themselves in a Tenth Doctor pseudo-historical, smuggling in educational tidbits amongst the tales of doomed races, heretical astronomy and evil men with goatees.

As is traditional, the Master's plan could've worked perfectly if he hadn't got the Doctor involved. He could've just helped himself to the necessary equipment and sodded off without attracting any attention. Unusually, he...

The Shadow Line actor plays a luckless loser in the adaptation of One Day but admits he's enjoying a 'golden period'

"Someone asked me recently," says Rafe Spall, squinting into the August afternoon sunshine, brow furrowed in earnest, "if I had to 'ugly up' to play the part of Ian in One Day." He pauses, looks at me incredulously, and then guffaws with laughter. "That's just my face! Just me, a wig and a bit of corduroy." It is easy to be believe he had a little help though. As the hapless Ian, the one before The One for Emma Morley in director Lone Scherfig's adaptation of the David Nicholls novel, he is scene-stealingly brilliant. While Jim Sturgess makes a convincing Dexter, and Anne Hathaway – give or take the odd slaughtering of a northern vowel – is a pleasingly palatable Emma, it is Spall, coming up quietly on the outside,...

London -- U.K. commercial web ITV said Friday that it has shelved plans for a lavish new adaptation of Em Forster's novel "A Passage to India."

The broadcaster said the plan to scrap the drama was for financial reasons, with the global economic downturn playing no small part in the decision.

The high-end adaptation was due to start shooting in January and had a who's-who of British talent lined up to star, including Matthew Macfadyen, Laurence Fox, Gemma Jones. Talks were ongoing with "Happy-Go-Lucky" star Sally Hawkins.

It is reported that ITV beat out competition from the BBC to secure the rights to the novel and had been in preproduction on it for weeks now. Originally planned as an in-house ITV Studios production for the commercial web, the show was planned for flagship channel ITV1.

ITV, listed here on the stock market, has endured 12 months of stock turmoil with...

Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante is working on a new two-part crime drama for ITV. Above Suspicion will centre on detective DC Anna Travis, played by Kelly Reilly (He Kills Coppers, Joe's Palace), as she takes on her first murder case. Travis is described as "a young and ambitious officer who is fast-tracking her way through the ranks, (more)...

LONDON -- More than 6 million viewers tuned in to Anthony Minghella's final television project, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, when it aired Easter Sunday on BBC1.

Agency, which attracted 6.3 million viewers and a 27% share of the audience in its 9 p.m. slot, next airs as a backdoor pilot on HBO.

Before Minghella's death last week, the U.S. cable network ordered 13 episodes of the potential series from the Weinstein Co. Whether the project will move forward as a series without the director's participation remains up in the air.

The decision to maintain the Easter airdate for the 105-minute film, co-written with Richard Curtis and based on the book series by Alexander McCall Smith, was supported by Minghella's family.

Starring R&B singer Jill Scott, the drama centers on Precious Ramotswe, who sets up Botswana's first all-ladies detective agency after the death of her father.

The broadcast attracted almost twice the viewing of the nearest competitor, the ITV1 crime thriller He Kills Coppers, which attracted 3.8 million viewers and a 15% audience share.