BBC ORDERS THE OTHER ELLIOT SISTER PERIOD SET TV SERIES BUILDING UPON JANE AUSTEN'S PERSUASION

  THE OTHER ELLIOT SISTER  

BBC ANNOUNCES NEW COSTUME SERIES

It will be a ten part costume series

After The Other Bennet Sister, which is getting a three part Christmas special this December, BBC has announced work on a 10 part series THE OTHER ELLIOT SISTER that will tell the story of Elizabeth Elliot, the overlooked eldest daughter from Jane Austen's Persuasion! Sarah Quintrell is adapting from author Janice Hadlow’s forthcoming novel of the same name. Persuasion focuses on Anne Elliot, whose family moves to Bath to reduce their debt by renting their estate to an admiral and his wife. The new series will build on the approach established by The Other Bennet Sister, placing Elizabeth Elliot, a character confined to the margins, at the heart of her own story. The series will stream on BritBox for viewers in North America.

BRAND NEW IMAGES FROM BBC COSTUME DRAMA THE OTHER BENNET SISTER CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

 THE OTHER BENNET SISTER 

NEW LOOK AT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

BBC One has sent us some brand new images from the three part Christmas Special of their costume drama THE OTHER BENNET SISTER which will air these holidays. Ella Bruccoleri returns as Mary, and Dónal Finn as her husband Tom Hayward. The tenth episode of the first season saw Mary agreeing to wed Tom – but with marriage comes a new identity and the question remains: who will Mary become as Mrs Hayward? But just as Mary begins this new chapter, an unexpected visitor from her past arrives at her door in need of her help… Based on Janice Hadlow’s novel, the series followed Mary Bennet, the oft-overlooked middle sister in Pride & Prejudice as she navigated the societal pressures of Regency England, where marriage is both aspiration and necessity. It streams on BritBox in USA. The newly-released images offer a glimpse of the returning cast, including Ruth Jones as Mrs Bennet, Tanya Reynolds as Caroline Bingley, Laurie Davidson as Mr Ryder, Poppy Gilbert as Lizzie Darcy, Maddie Close as Jane Bingley, Grace Hogg-Robinson as Lydia Wickham, and Molly Wright as Kitty Buncock.

TRAILER AND AIR DATE FOR COLD WAR TV SERIES HONEY FROM BBC AND ZDF WITH JANNIS NIEWOHNER AND RORY KINNEAR

   FIRST HONEY TRAILER  

FROM NEW BBC COLD WAR DRAMA

BBC and German ZDF have teamed up on a new dark comedy six part  drama HONEY which will star our dearest Jannis Niewohner alongside Ann Skelly, Nate Mann and Rory Kinnear. The tender and flirty, slick and dangerous series goes deep undercover in 1980s East Berlin to explore a shadowy world of counter espionage and risky but irresistible relations. East Berlin, 1982. Martha, 24, is a deep cover agent for MI6. Surrounded by enemies and constantly under threat of her cover being blown, she tries her hardest to avoid detection by Friedrich, the new Stasi Head of Counterespionage against British Targets, Berlin Office. Finding herself caught between Friedrich and the reckless, arrogant (and incredibly attractive…) CIA operative Aaron Neeland (posing as Kurt Fischer), she is blind-sided by desire in this Cold War menage-a-trois. The risk of being garrotted or incarcerated is nothing compared to the horrifying ordeal of falling in love. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable and bearing your heart and soul? She'd rather have her fingernails pulled out. Check out the trailer below for the drama which starts November 14th!

 

ROBSON GREEN WILL START SOLVING CRIMES THIS WEEK IN THE NORTHUMBRIA MYSTERIES BBC ONE NEW TV SERIES

  NORTHUMBRIA MYSTERIES 

NEW DETECTIVE SERIES STARTS THIS WEEK

The series starts this Friday

Ready to start this week, Friday October 23rd on BBC One is eight episode series THE NORTHUMBRIA MYSTERIES  which, set against the sweeping Northumberland coastline and its surrounding market towns, follows an unlikely crime-solving duo. 

 

  IN THE NEW SERIES 

Robson Green stars as Joe Ruby: an ex con whose life has been shaped by mistakes, regrets and missed opportunities, alongside Oxford-educated DI Rose O’Connell (Liz White), a rarefied intellectual, a deep thinker with a brilliant mind and an ice-cool disposition. In a classic odd-couple pairing, Joe and Rose combine their talents as they frustrate, confound and ultimately surprise one another while unravelling a series of compelling crime mysteries. Simon Callow stars as Father David, the local priory leader, with Gurjeet Singh as DS Raj Singh.

FIRST LOOK AT BBC NEW LEGAL DRAMA COUNSELS FOLLOWING YOUNG LAWYERS IN GLASGOW

    COUNSELS   

BBC ANNOUNCES NEW LEGAL SERIES

BBC has announced new eight part legal TV series COUNSELS that will arrive sometime at the beginning of next year. Brandon Grace, Ro Kumar, Eilidh Park and George Prentice will lead the cast alonsgide our dear Laura Haddock and Derek Riddell. The series will follow the lives of a group of twenty-something lawyers in Glasgow in the crucial moment when a few years out of university their careers finally become serious. Workingacross the legal landscape, whether as public prosecutors, slick representatives of glossier commercial interests or the shabby and good-hearted last resort of those with nothing left to lose, each one of them is out to win. They are colleagues jostling for promotion, lovers trying to hold onto one another as ambitions accelerate and pure adversaries professionally and personally. And now’s the time things are going to catch fire.

SEE JAMES NESBITT IN FIRST IMAGE FROM NEW BBC OLD CASTLE SET COMEDY SERIES HOPLEY HALL

 FIRST HOPLEY HALL IMAGE 

WITH NEW BBC JAMES NESBITT COMEDY

BBC has issued first image from their new six part half hour comedy series HOPLEY HALL which is now shooting with James Nesbitt and Jamie Lee O'Donnell. At Hopley Hall, the heating rarely works, the

The comedy will have six episodes

 history is questionable and the gift shop sells mostly tea towels. The Grade A listed masterpiece, located in a fictional town on the Coast of County Antrim, is held together by damp, optimism, and a deep-seated resentment for the tourist attraction down the road. We follow the team of eccentric, dysfunctional volunteers and staff including a freshly-appointed community engagement officer who struggles dealing with actual human beings, an over-enthusiastic guide with no sense of irony and a disgruntled gardener. HOPLEY HALL is a workplace comedy about people who have absolutely nothing in common, except the desperate, daily struggle to keep the roof on and the public out of the private toilets.

MARTIN FREEMAN, JIM BROADBENT, JOE ARMSTRONG TO LEAD THIS YEAR'S GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS - THE BRIDE'S CHAMBER FROM DICKENS

  THE BRIDE'S CHAMBER 

NEW GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS

BBC has announced this year's Ghost Story for Christmas, a series of short dramas in which every year Mark Gatiss adapts one of classic ghost stories for festive days of December. This year it will be THE BRIDE'S CHAMBER a Charles Dickens chilling tale set in 1858. An inn with no name, an eccentric landlord and a lone traveller with a strangely familiar appearance. As he settles into his room for the night, the traveller is visited by an uncanny man in black, with a story to tell. Jim Broadbent, Martin Freeman, Adrian Scarborough and Joe Armstrong will star in the tale of a spurned and vengeful suitor who manipulates a young woman and marries her to claim her fortune. But his murderous plans create his own purgatory.

FIRST LOOK AT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL FROM BBC COSTUME DRAMA THE OTHER BENNET SISTER

 THE OTHER BENNET SISTER 

FIRST LOOK AT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

BBC One has sent us the first look at the three part Christmas Special of their costume drama THE OTHER BENNET SISTER which will air these holidays. Ella Bruccoleri returns as Mary, and Dónal Finn as her husband Tom Hayward. The tenth episode of the series saw Mary agreeing to wed Tom – but with marriage comes a new identity and the question remains: who will Mary become as Mrs Hayward? Based on Janice Hadlow’s novel, the series followed Mary Bennet, the oft-overlooked middle sister in Pride & Prejudice as she navigated the societal pressures of Regency England, where marriage is both aspiration and necessity. It streams on BritBox in USA.

COLIN MORGAN, CHRISTIAN COOKE, RUPERT PENRY JONES CAST IN NIGHTSLEEPER BBC REAL-TIME SERIES SEASON TWO THIS TIME SET ON A FERRY

   NIGHTSLEEPER SEASON 2  

ADS COLIN MORGAN, CHRISTIAN COOKE AND RUPERT PENRY JONES TO THE CAST

Oh, what a treat when a series ads not just one, not two, but three of our favourite boys: BBC has added Colin Morgan, Christian Cooke and Rupert Penry Jones to the cast of the second season of NIGHTSLEEPER thriller series which was set on a train, but this time on a ship with new ensemble. Ian McElhinney, Cuan Hosty Blaney, Madeleine Mantock and Sally Lindsay will also star in the real-time series sees the action move from the rails to the open water, as a Belfast-to-Liverpool passenger ferry becomes the target of a potentially deadly hack-attack. With the crew desperately trying to hide the extent of the threat from the passengers, the ferry’s second engineer Johnny (Cooke) must work with the National Cyber Security Centre’s new technical director, Bo (Morgan), to try and fight back. But as the tide turns, secrets surface and fear floods the decks; it isn’t long before those on land are all at sea too…

TRAILER WITH RHYS IFANS AND LAURA LINNEY IN BBC ONE FEATURE LENGTH MOVING DRAMA ONWARDS AND SIDEWAYS

    ONWARDS AND SIDEWAYS  

TRAILER FOR NEW BBC TV MOVIE

The film will air later this year 

BBC One has released first trailer for their new feature length drama ONWARD AND SIDEWAYS which stars Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans in a touching story about two people with lots in common - a great sense of humour, a love of dance, and Parkinson’s. Rhys plays Tony Evans, the deputy head of a local primary school. Laura stars as Emma Dretzin, a pianist, composer and single mother of two daughters. Neither knows the other until a startling encounter changes the course of their lives: on the same morning, they are both confronted with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. This film is their story - a friendship which unfolds unexpectedly. A story of humour and emotion, of challenge and courage, of music and dance - transcending the assumptions of a little understood condition, and triumphing over the odds to find joy, release and love. Joining Laura and Rhys are Monica Dolan, Rory Kinnear and Paul Mayhew-Archer. See the trailer below and tell us what you think.

 

SEE LEGENDARY CRIME WRITERS UNITE IN SOLVING MURDER CASES IN FIRST THE DETECTION CLUB BBC AND BRITBOX TV SERIES IMAGE

   THE DETECTION CLUB  

CAST REVEALED FOR NEW BBC SERIES

BBC One has sent us first image revealing the lead cast of their and BritBox new ten part series THE DETECTION CLUB with Miles Jupp, Bryony Hannah and Cara Theobold in the leads. Set against a backdrop of literary glamour, social change and deadly intrigue, it follows the mysterious society formed by three of Britain's most celebrated crime writers Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and G.K. Chesterton, as they are drawn into a series of real-life murder investigations. In 1930s London, these legendary crime writers hone their craft within the hallowed walls of a secret London location. After receiving an invitation that leads them to their first real murder case, our famous trio work together to solve a series of exciting mysteries. Their amateur sleuthing brings them into the path of D.I. Greenway (Viraj Juneja), an out-of-his-depth young police detective whose determination to prove himself is both helped and hindered by our writers’ extraordinary instincts.

SEE FIRST IMAGES WITH MICHAEL SOCHA AND EDWARD HOLCROFT IN BBC'S THE WITCH FARM NEW GHOST STORY TV SERIES

    THE WITCH FARM   

1ST IMAGES FROM MICHAEL SOCHA SERIES

Straight from Wales come first images from BBC's new spooky series THE WITCH FARM a ghost story and mystery set in the Welsh countryside based on real events and starring Gabrielle Creevy, Michael Socha and our dearest Edward Holcroft. The series will arrive soon to BBC One. 

THE STORY IS SET IN

 South Wales, 1989. Bill (Socha), Liz (Creevy) and their teenage son Jonathan (Lewin Lloyd) leave London for Heol Fanog, a remote modern farmhouse in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, determined to make a fresh start. At first, the isolation feels like freedom. But when frightening, inexplicable things begin to happen around the house and a strange figure begins to appear, the family starts to feel increasingly scared. What follows is a steady escalation ofthe chillingly uncanny - unexplained disturbances and an unsettling sense that they are not alone. As Bill and Liz begin to investigate, the house draws them deeper into a history that refuses to stay buried. And as the land yields its secrets, so too does their marriage - testing the limits of trust, belief, and what they’re willing to deny in order to survive.

 

LEAD CAST SET FOR BBC'S TV SERIES ADAPTATION OF POPULAR SF NOVEL MINISTRY OF TIME

     MINISTRY OF TIME   

SERIES SETS CAST OVER AT BBC

More than two years ago I told you that BBC is turning Kaliane Bradley's popular sf novel MINISTRY OF TIME into a six part TV series and now we have the cast: Aoife Hinds (the nepochild of Ciaran Hinds) will star as Sophy and Billy Howle as Commander Graham Gore. The Ministry of time is a newly established government department gathering

The series will have six episodes

‘expats’ from across history in an experiment to test the viability of time-travel. Our heroine Sophy achieves a hard fought promotion in the civil service, only to learn that her role is to help a time traveller acclimatise to the modern world as part of a top secret Ministry programme. Commander Graham Gore is a Victorian polar explorer and one of several ‘expats’ from history who are now part of the Ministry’s extraordinary experiment. The professional friendship between Sophy and Graham develops into an intense forbidden romance that reveals the transporting power of love across centuries, just as the sinister nature of the Ministry’s true intentions increasingly puts them in danger.

TRAILER AND AIR DATE FOR KIT HARINGTON AND FRANCOIS CIVIL A TALE OF TWO CITIES DICKENSIAN TV SERIES ADAPTATION FROM BBC AND MGM+

  A TALE OF TWO CITIES 

KIT HARINGTON AND FRANCOIS CIVIL TRAILER

New series starts September 6th

BBC One and MGM + have issued first trailer for their TV series adaptation of Charles Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES. The four parter will be set in London, 1782. Tensions run high in the war between France andBritain. A young woman, Lucie Manette (Mirren Mack) has her life upended when she receives a message from Paris - her father, assumed dead for almost 20 years, may be alive. The messenger, idealistic French emigré, Charles Darnay (François Civil), is arrested and charged with treason. Lucie enlists the help of a brilliant but erratic young lawyer, Sydney Carton (Kit Harington), to free Darnay in the hope he will lead her to Paris to track down her father. Lucie’s collision with Darnay and Carton unleashes a powerful and complex love triangle. Both men fight to be worthy of her love, and Lucie is torn over which one to choose. Yet neither man - physically so alike, spiritually poles apart - can escape the other. Instead, they find themselves bound together in life and death, through triumphs, tragedies, marriage, and murder. The series will arrive September 6th on MGM+.

 

BILL NIGHY, GEMMA ARTERTON, HUGH SKINNER, JIM STURGESS, MIRANDA RICHARDSON TO LEAD NEW BBC AND PBS THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY TV SERIES ADAPTATION

  THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 

GETS NEW TV SERIES ADAPTATION

PBS Masterpiece and BBC have announced new TV series adaptation of Henry James' classic novel THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY with Nell Tiger Free leading the cast as Isabel Archer, a vivacious New World ingénue who leaves America for Old World Europe, keen to experience all that life has to offer. A young woman with charm and an innate intellectual curiosity,

Gemma Arterton, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Skinner will star

 Isabel rejects a series of marriage proposals, but when she inherits an unexpected fortune that promises to grant her freedom, she falls prey to two American ex-pat schemers: the elegant Madame Merle (Gemma Arterton), and the charming but calculating Gilbert Osmond (Jim Sturgess). Bill Nighy plays Mr. Touchett, who is enamored with Isabel’s youth and spirit and

Bill Nighy, Nell Tiger Free and Hamish Frew will also star

 hopes to help her in her quest for freedom, while Miranda Richardson is Mrs. Touchett, Isabel’s fantastically eccentric aunt, who takes her to Europe in search of a husband. Jack Wolfe is Ralph Touchett, Hugh Skinner is Lord Warburton, Hamish Frew is Casper Goodwood, Thomas Coombes is Mr Bantling, Lydia Leonard is Countess Gemini and Edward Rosier will be played by Dean-Charles Chapman.

SEE NEW IMAGES OF RHYS IFANS AND LAURA LINNEY IN BBC ONE FEATURE LENGTH MOVING DRAMA ONWARD AND SIDEWAYS

    ONWARD AND SIDEWAYS  

FIRST LOOK AT NEW BBC TV MOVIE

BBC One has released some new images from their new feature length drama ONWARD AND SIDEWAYS which stars Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans in a touching story about two people with lots in common - a great sense of humour, a love of dance, and Parkinson’s. Rhys plays Tony Evans, the deputy head of a local primary school. Laura stars as Emma Dretzin, a pianist, composer and single mother of two daughters. Neither knows the other until a startling encounter changes the course of their lives: on the same morning, they are both confronted with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. This film is their story - a friendship which unfolds unexpectedly. A story of humour and emotion, of challenge and courage, of music and dance - transcending the assumptions of a little understood condition, and triumphing over the odds to find joy, release and love. Joining Laura and Rhys are Monica Dolan, Rory Kinnear and Paul Mayhew-Archer. 

THE RAPTURE BBC PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER TV SERIES TRAILER WITH SAM HAZELDINE, STEPHEN CAMPBELL MOORE, IWAN RHEON

   THE RAPTURE TRAILER  

FIRST LOOK AT NEW BBC ONE TV SERIES

British Broadcaster BBC One has released first images and a trailer for their new psychological thriller TV series THE RAPTURE adapted from Liz Jensen’s bestselling novel. The five parter is a high-stakes thriller which crackles with danger. Set in a heatwave, with protestors on the streets, forensic psychologist Gabs Fox (Ruth Madeley) starts a new job at a high-security psychiatric hospital where she meets 17-year-old Bethany Krall (India Amarteifio). Bethany was convicted of murdering her mother but claims she is innocent. She is estranged from her father Leonard (Sam Hazeldine), who is the charismatic leader of an influential religiousmovement. Bethany tells Gabs that she has psychic powers and can predict the future - but what will it take for Gabs to believe her? And if Bethany didn’t kill her mother, then who did? The cast also includes Iwan Rheon, Stephen Campbell Moore, Lisa Palfrey, Siena Kelly, Naby Dakhli, Richard Elis, Dean Rehman, Robert Rhodes and Ruth Jones.