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.

SPOTLIGHT ON ITV'S NEW ESPIONAGE SERIES SECRET SERVICE STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON, RAFE SPALL, MARK STANLEY, ALEX KINGSTON

  SECRET SERVICE SERIES  

WITH GEMMA ARTERTON STARTS TOMORROW 

Secret  Service starts tomorrow night

ITV's is ready to launch their new high end espionage series SECRET SERVICE over at the small screens tomorrow evening Monday April 27th with Gemma Arterton and Rafe Spall as leads alongside Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston and below you can also check out the trailer for the new drama. 

 

THE STORY OF THIS FIVE PART DRAMA FOLLOWS

 senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson(Gemma Arterton). On the surface, her life appears ordinary, a civil servant married to Stuart (Rafe Spall) with two teenage children. However, to those who don’t know her well, Kate’s true role is heading the Russia Desk at the Secret Intelligence Service. When her undercover operations reveal alarming evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be a Russian asset, Kate finds herself in a desperate race to uncover their identity. As a brutal murder thrusts her team into the spotlight, Kate must navigate the dangerous world of espionage while trying to hold her family together and protect her reputation. 

 

SEE TRAILER FOR ITV'S NEW ESPIONAGE SERIES SECRET SERVICE STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON, RAFE SPALL, MARK STANLEY, ALEX KINGSTON

  SECRET SERVICE SERIES  

FIRST TRAILER WITH GEMMA ARTERTON 

Back in December we had first teaser for ITV's new high end espionage series SECRET SERVICE which is coming soon to the small screens with Gemma Arterton and Rafe Spall as leads alongside Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston and now we have a proper long trailer for the 2026 new drama. This five part drama follows senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton). On the surface, her life appears ordinary, a civil servant married to Stuart (Rafe Spall) with two teenage children. However, to those who don’t know her well, Kate’s true role is heading the Russia Desk at the Secret Intelligence Service. When her undercover operations reveal alarming evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be a Russian asset, Kate finds herself in a desperate race to uncover their identity. As a brutal murder thrusts her team into the spotlight, Kate must navigate the dangerous world of espionage while trying to hold her family together and protect her reputation. 

 

FIRST TEASER CLIP FROM ITV'S NEW ESPIONAGE SERIES SECRET SERVICE STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON, RAFE SPALL, MARK STANLEY, ALEX KINGSTON

  SECRET SERVICE SERIES  

FIRST TEASER WITH GEMMA ARTERTON 

 I informed you back in April that ITV  has gathered quite an interesting cast for their new high end espionage series SECRET SERVICE with Gemma Arterton and Rafe Spall leading the cast alongside Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston and now we have a first teaser clip from the 2026 new drama. This five part drama follows senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton). On the surface, her life appears ordinary, a civil servant married to Stuart (Rafe Spall) with two teenage children. However, to those who don’t know her well, Kate’s true role is heading the Russia Desk at the Secret Intelligence Service. When her undercover operations reveal alarming evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be a Russian asset, Kate finds herself in a desperate race to uncover their identity. As a brutal murder thrusts her team into the spotlight, Kate must navigate the dangerous world of espionage while trying to hold her family together and protect her reputation. The series will air sometime next year.

SEE FIRST IMAGES FROM ITV'S NEW ESPIONAGE SERIES SECRET SERVICE STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON, RAFE SPALL, MARK STANLEY, ALEX KINGSTON

  SECRET SERVICE SERIES  

FIRST IMAGES WITH GEMMA ARTERTON 

 I informed you just a few weeks ago that ITV  has gathered quite an interesting cast for their new high end espionage series SECRET SERVICE with Gemma Arterton and Rafe Spall leading the cast alongside Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston and now we already have first images from the new drama. This five part drama follows senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton). On the surface, her life appears ordinary, a civil servant married to Stuart (Rafe Spall) with two teenage children. However, to those who don’t know her well, Kate’s true role is heading the Russia Desk at the Secret Intelligence Service. When her undercover operations reveal alarming evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be a Russian asset, Kate finds herself in a desperate race to uncover their identity. As a brutal murder thrusts her team into the spotlight, Kate must navigate the dangerous world of espionage while trying to hold her family together and protect her reputation. The series will air sometime next year.

GEMMA ARTERTON, RAFE SPALL, MARK STANLEY, ALEX KINGSTON TO LEAD ITV'S NEW ESPIONAGE SERIES SECRET SERVICE

  SECRET SERVICE SERIES  

GEMMA ARTERTON AND RAFE SPALL TO LEAD

ITV has set quite an interesting cast for their new high end espionage series SECRET SERVICE with Gemma Arterton and Rafe Spall leading the cast alongside Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston. This five part drama  The drama follows senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton). On the surface, her life appears ordinary, a civil servant married to Stuart (Rafe Spall) with two teenage children. However, to those who don’t know her well, Kate’s true role is heading the Russia Desk at the Secret Intelligence Service. When her undercover operations reveal alarming evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be a Russian asset, Kate finds herself in a desperate race to uncover their identity. As a brutal murder thrusts her team into the spotlight, Kate must navigate the dangerous world of espionage while trying to hold her family together and protect her reputation.

SEE IAN MCKELLEN, GEMMA ARTERTON, MARK STRONG, ALFRED ENOCH, BEN BARNES IN THE CRITIC MOVIE TRAILER

    THE CRITIC TRAILER  

WITH IAN MCKELLEN & GEMMA ARTERTON

First trailer has been released for a film that actually premiered last year in Toronto but will hit UK cinemas September 13th starring Ian McKellen and

The Critic will open in UK this September

Gemma Arterton in the lead roles alongside Mark Strong, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, Ben Barnes and Lesley Manville. 

WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT? 

 Based on Anthony Quinn's novel Curtain Call, THE CRITIC set in 1930s London, is a thrilling tale of ambition, blackmail, and desire with a dazzling anti-hero at its heart. When the most feared and vicious theatre critic in town Jimmy Erskine (Mckellen), finds himself suddenly in the cross hairs of the Daily Chronicle’s new owner David Brooke (Strong), he strikes a Faustian pact with struggling actress Nina Land (Arterton) who is desperate to win his favor. See the thrilling and super stylish trailer below and tell us what you think.

 

SEE IAN MCKELLEN, GEMMA ARTERTON, MARK STRONG, ALFRED ENOCH, BEN BARNES IN THE CRITIC MOVIE IMAGES

    FIRST THE CRITIC  

PICS WITH IAN MCKELLEN & GEMMA ARTERTON

First images have been released for a film that actually premiered last year in Toronto but will hit UK cinemas September 13th starring Ian McKellen and Gemma Arterton in the lead roles alongside Mark Strong, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, Ben Barnes and Lesley Manville.

WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?

Based on Anthony Quinn's novel Curtain Call, THE CRITIC set in 1930s London, is a thrilling tale of ambition, blackmail, and desire with a dazzling anti-hero at its heart. When the most feared and vicious theatre critic in town Jimmy Erskine (Mckellen), finds himself suddenly in the cross hairs of the Daily Chronicle’s new owner David Brooke (Strong), he strikes a Faustian pact with struggling actress Nina Land (Arterton) who is desperate to win his favor.

GEMMA ARTERTON, STUART MARTIN, KEVIN MCKIDD, STEVEN CREE TO LEAD 17TH CENTURY SET MOVIE ADVENTURE STORM WITCH

   STORM WITCH  

GEMMA ARTERTON AND STUART MARTIN TO LEAD PERIOD SET ADVENTURE

David Blair's new period set movie adventure has just announced cast. STORM WITCH will be set in the 17th century in a small coastal community whose villagers find themselves drawn to and suspicious of Morag (Gemma Arterton), a remarkable but mysterious woman who is uniquely connected to the nature that surrounds her. Survival is a daily and all-

Steven Cree, Stuart Martin and Gemma Arterton will lead the cast

consuming struggle that is thinly forged from an inclement sea and pushed to the edge of the land by merciless feudal landowners. But it is Morag’s passionate relationship with John Tullock (Stuart Martin), who is unwittingly pledged to marry Sinéad (Chloe Pirrie), that threatens to tear the community apart. Kevin McKidd and Steven Cree will also star.

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL PERIOD SET FILMS: CLICQUOT WITH HALEY BENNETT, LEO SUTER, TOM STURRIDGE, CRITIC WITH IAN MCKELLEN, GEMMA ARTERTON, MARK STRONG, DOUGLAS BOOTH'S SHOSHANA, VIGGO MORTENSEN'S DEAD DON'T HURT

  TIFF PERIOD SET MOVIES  

WIDOW CLICQUOT

Toronto Film Festival has started and today we are spotlighting period set films that will premiere there, starting with WIDOW CLICQUOT which, set in France during the Napoleonic Wars, tells the true story of the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” also known as Madame Clicquot after marrying the scion of a winemaking family. Though their marriage was arranged, a timeless love blossomed between Barbe-Nicole (Haley Bennett) and her poetic, unconventional husband, François (Tom Sturridge). After becoming a widow at age 27, she is determined to protect her family’s legacy. Determined to advance her husband's theories about soil chemistry, the configuring of vines, and revolutionary techniques in bottling, Barbe-Nicole wagers on the next harvest and her own blend of sparkling wine. Ben Miles, Sam Riley and our dearest Leo Suter also star.

IAN MCKELLEN'S THE CRITIC

Gemma Arterton and Ian McKellen star as adversaries forced to take desperate measures to save their careers, in THE CRITIC set in 1936. As the new steward of London’s Chronicle, David Brooke (Mark Strong) seeks to revive the financially troubled daily as the country’s most-read family paper. In the firing line is long time theatre critic Jimmy Erksine (Ian McKellen), whose extravagant prose and personal “proclivities” are distasteful to David. Jimmy has a lot to lose as an elderly gay man in a culture and legal system deeply hostile to homosexuality. Yet he cannot resist writing the flamboyantly merciless critiques that are his trademark. Actor Nina Land (Arterton), for whom the married David secretly carries a torch, is a regular target for Jimmy’s most withering remarks. As pressure to appease his employer mounts, Jimmy concocts a plot to entrap both David and Nina, herself secretly in love with a married painter (Ben Barnes). But with the Blackshirts taking to the streets amid anti-queer police raids, Jimmy may be grossly overestimating his ability to emerge from his elaborate scheme unscathed.

DOUGLAS BOOTH'S SHOSHANA

Set in British Mandatory Palestine, this tense historical thriller from Michael Winterbottom traces the origins of one of the world’s most complex conflicts. The year is 1938, and tensions run high in Tel Aviv, wherethe British struggle to maintain order among a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. Yet English police officer Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) has made his home here and is madly in love with Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum), daughter of Zionist Labour movement co-founder Dov Ber Borochov. As the paramilitary organization Irgun, led by poet Avraham Stern (Aury Alby), undertakes a violent campaign to evict the British authorities, Thomas and his superior officer Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling) adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward the resistance, intensifying their tactics to include torture. Meanwhile, Shoshana receives death threats for daring to fraternize with a member of the occupying forces. She loves Thomas, but she also believes in the pursuit of her people’s independence. She will be forced to choose between the two. Our boy Daniel Donskoy also stars!

  GUY PEARCE'S THE CONVERT

Lee Tamahori’s action-filled historical epic stars Guy Pearce as Thomas Munro, a newly arrived preacher in a colonial town in early 19th-century New Zealand whose violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith put to the test, when he finds himself at the centre of a long-standing battle between two Māori tribes. The film does not have a release date yet in cinemas.

 

THE DEAD DON'T HURT

Set in the 1860s, Viggo Mortensen directed western THE DEAD DON'T HURT follows French-Canadian flower seller Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps)

The movie premiered this week at TIFF

and Danish carpenter Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen) who meet in San Francisco. Vivienne is irreverent, fiercely independent, and refuses to wed, but agrees to travel with Holger to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada. There, they begin a life together, Vivienne grows roses and waits tables at a tavern and Holger builds barns, until the couple are separated by Holger’s decision to fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War. Left on her own, Vivienne must fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred's violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON PERIOD SET COMEDY SERIES FUNNY WOMAN WITH GEMMA ARTERTON, RUPERT EVERETT AND TOM BATEMAN!

  FUNNY WOMAN SERIES  

A NICK HORNBY ADAPTATION

Funny Woman starts February 9th

With Peacock ordering new dramedy series Cleo, a feminist take on Egyptian queen Cleopatra (which we cannot wait not to see), there is another period set comedy coming much sooner: although it seems I mentioned it first a very long time ago and that it has taken years for FUNNY WOMAN to find its way onto the small screens, the six part comedy series will finally arrive to Sky Max February 9th and also to their streamer NOW! This comedy about a fictional British comedy actor, based on Nick Hornby's popular best selling book, has Gemma Arterton as the titular funstress with Rupert Everett, David Threlfall, and hunky Tom Bateman also in the cast. 

 

  FUNNY GIRL STORY

 It's the height of the swinging 60s and Barbara Parker has just been crowned Miss Blackpool - but there's got to be more to life than being a beauty queen in a seaside town, right? She wants to be... someone. The bright lights of London are calling, and our determined hero sets off to find out who that someone is. The London she encounters is not as quite as swinging as the one she'd read about and seen on TV. However, after a series of setbacks Barbara finds herself in unfamiliar territory - an audition for a TV comedy show. Barbara's uncompromising northern wit proves to be the X factor that the show has been missing. She gets the part and becomes part of a ground-breaking new sitcom which will have an impact on British comedy for decades to come. Being a woman in a largely male environment has its own challenges, but as Barbara 'finds her funny' she re-defines the prevailing attitude to funny women and in the process, reinvents herself.

 WHO ELSE IS IN FUNNY GIRL?

Rupert Everett stars as Barbara’s agent Brian Debehnam, David Threlfall as Barbara’s father, George, and Tom Bateman as dangerously charming actor Clive. Together with Django, which launches February 17th, Funny Woman is the part of Sky's new originals which are hitting the small screens next month.

SEE JAMES NORTON & GEMMA ARTERTON IN NETFLIX SPY ACTION THRILLER ROGUE AGENT AKA FREEGARD

 ROGUE AGENT TRAILER 

STARRING JAMES NORTON AND GEMMA ARTERTON

Your Monday delight are first photos and trailer from thriller movie ROGUE AGENT previously known as Freegard, which will stream on Netflix (only in UK July 27th) and will then move over to USA cinemas from

Rogue Agent arrives this July to UK

August 12th! Directed by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, the movie is based on the true story of the British con-artist Robert Hendy Freegard who masqueraded as an MI5 agent while working as a barman and car salesman. 

ROGUE AGENT 

sees our dearest James Norton playing British conman Robert Hendy Freegard, who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people into going underground for fear of assassination by the IRA. Gemma Arterton plays the woman who took him down. Beside the two of them Sarah Goldberg,  Shazad Latif, Freya Mavor, Jimmy Akingbola, and Julian Barrat will also be seen in the cast of this new action thriller movie.

PERIOD SET THRILLER THE CRITIC ADS IAN MCKELLEN, GEMMA ARTERTON, MARK STRONG, LESLEY MANVILLE, BEN BARNES! THE WITCHES ARE BACK IN HOCUS POCUS SEQUEL MOVIE TEASER!

 PERIOD THRILLER THE CRITIC 

SETS A SUPERSTELLAR CAST

And my, my, superstellar it is: Anand Tucker's period set thriller movie THE CRITIC has cast Ian McKellen, Mark Strong, Gemma Arterton, Lesley Manville, Romola Garai and Ben Barnes! Based on Curtain Call novel, it is set in 1934 London, with McKellen as Jimmy Erskine, the most feared drama critic in town, and Arterton as Nina Land, the actress determined to win his favor. When Jimmy finds himself in the crosshairs of his newspaper’s new owner, David Brooke (Strong), Nina becomes entangled in a dangerous web of blackmail, deceit and murder.

 HOCUS POCUS 2 TRAILER 

BRINGS THE WITCHES BACK

Hocus Pocus is back this September

You have already seen this one since yesterday, but Disney has released a teaser for HOCUS POCUS 2 with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy back as the witchy Sanderson sisters! Out September 30th on Disney + the movie sequel takes place 29 years after the events of the beloved 1993 original, and Winifred, Sarah and Mary — witches that were executed in the 17th century — are looking for revenge. Now it is up to three high school students to stop the ravenous witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before dawn on All Hallow’s Eve! Check out the teaser below: