KENNETH BRANAGH, PETER SARSGAARD JOINED BY JENNIFER EHLE, PETER MULLAN, HOLLIDAY GRAINGER IN LAIRD SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS SET TV SERIES

    LAIRD CAST SET   

FOR SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS SET DRAMA

Paramount + has rounded up lead cast for their Scottish highlands set series LAIRD which follows a proud Scot and Laird of Castle Drummoch (Kenneth Branagh) who defies a shadowy American billionaire (Peter Sarsgaard) hellbent on buying up the glens. Amidst family feuds, 

Ruaridh Mollica, Kenneth Branagh, Holliday Grainger, Corey Mylchreest

 buried secrets and star-crossed romances, he remains determined to protect his ancestral lands from oligarchical land grabbing. Jennifer Ehle, Peter Mullan, Phia Saban, Ruaridh Mollica, Holliday Grainger, Douglas Hodge and Corey Mylchreest have joined the cast. 

SEE HOLLIDAY GRAINGER AND JIM STURGESS IN FIRST IMAGES FROM DISNEY PLUS THRILLER SERIES THE STOLEN GIRL

   THE STOLEN GIRL  

A CHILD GONE MISSING FROM A PLAYDATE

Disney Plus has released first images from their new British original mini series THE STOLEN GIRL a small screen adaptation of the book The Playdate by Alex Dahl. The series tells the story of fascinating, relatable and complex women in an unimaginable situation. A seemingly ordinary decision turns the world of Elisa (Denise Gough), mum to two young kids, upside down in this tense thriller. When her 9-year-old daughter Lucia excitedly asks to go on an overnight playdate with her new best friend Josie, Elisa agrees. After meeting Josie’s mother, Rebecca (Holliday Grainger), she’s put at ease by her charming nature and their impressive house. But when she says goodnight to her daughter, she has no idea that she is about to be thrust into every parent’s worst nightmare. The next day, when Elisa goes to pick up Lucia, she discovers that the beautiful house is a holiday rental. Lucia is missing. Rebecca and Josie have vanished. What started out as her daughter’s first sleepover has turned into an abduction. As an urgent manhunt unfolds across Europe, Elisa and her husband, Fred (Jim Sturgess), find themselves the object of police and public scrutiny. Elisa’s perfect family begins to unravel under the pressure, and long-buried secrets come to light. Rebecca took Lucia for a reason. And as viewers learn more about the tangled lives of these women, we will wonder if Rebecca was justified in kidnapping the little girl – and whether she might be better off staying hidden. The series will air sometime later this year also starring Bronagh Waugh and Michael Workeye. The series is not to be confused with All Her Fault which has a very similar plot and will star Sarah Snook over at Peacock.

BBC'S RECORD BREAKING SERIES THE CAPTURE WITH CALLUM TURNER & HOLLIDAY GRAINGER TO RETURN FOR 2ND SEASON!

   'THE CAPTURE' SERIES

IS GETTING A SECOND SEASON!

It was BBC's best series hit last year, just like Bodyguard was the year before that, and now  THE CAPTURE will return for the second season with

The Capture was a massive hit for BBC

USA premiere of the first season announced for July 15th with the opening of NBC's Peacock streaming service. The wildly exciting and dynamic hit series, starring Callum Turner and Holliday Grainger, dealt with a secret organization of high level agents who manipulate with surveillance camera recordings in order to wipe out their enemies. The second season story will be picking up from the end of Season 1 when Grainger's detective Carey seemingly joined forces with a shadowy correction team she had previously sought to expose. The first season was streamed more than 22 million time at  BBC iPlayer as the biggest new title of 2019.

Callum Turner probably won't be in the second season

  Did You Know?
Speaking of Callum Turner, he has finished a period set movie with Joe Alwyn, Felicity Jones and Ben Cross LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER about a young journalist in London who becomes obsessed with a series of letters she discovers that recounts an intense star crossed love affair from the 1960s. Holliday Grainger is still leading STRIKE series at  ITV and Cinemax, and will star in HALO OF STARS which is, starring Lily Collins, set against the backdrop of a small travelling circus, where a European clown and his 5-year-old daughter lead each other through the everyday mysteries of love, magic and loss.

YOU CANNOT TRUST WHAT YOU SEE IN NEW BBC THRILLER SERIES THE CAPTURE WITH CALLUM TURNER, HOLLIDAY GRAINGER, LAURA HADDOCK

'THE CAPTURE' TV SERIES

WITH CALLUM TURNER, HOLLIDAY GRAINGER, LAURAD HADDOCK

BBC launched last year's Autumn season with Bodyguard series which ended up being their most successful programme in more than a decade, and now they are doing it with THE CAPTURE, new six part thriller drama that

The six part series started this Tuesday on BBC One

started this Tuesday on BBC One. I usually don't cover that genre, but, admit it, who could resist the hot trio: sizzling Callum Turner, ethereal Holliday Grainger and stunningly gorgeous Laura Haddock? They lead the cast of

What happens to criminal justice if we cannot believe what we see?

the drama that deals with the threats of modern surveillance and the manipulation with visual evidence and video fakery, which will probably be one of the ways wars will be led in the future. Ben Miles, Ron Perlman and Famke Janssen also star.

 Can You Trust What You See?
When soldier Shaun Emery’s (Callum Turner) conviction for a murder in Afghanistan is overturned because of flawed video evidence, he returns to life as a free man with his young daughter. But when damning CCTV footage

Callum Turner plays complex, visceral and dangerous Shaun Emery

from a night out in London comes to light, Shaun’s life takes a shocking turn and he must soon fight for his freedom once again. With newly promoted DI

Holliday Grainger is detective Rachel Carey

Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) drafted in to investigate Shaun’s case, she quickly learns that the truth can sometimes be a matter of perspective. Should

Laura Haddock plays Shaun's barrister Hannah Roberts

she trust Shaun Emery? The Capture is a six-part thriller that looks at a troubling world of fake news and the extraordinary capabilities of the intelligence services. In this ‘post-truth era’, can we really believe what we see?

JAMIE DORNAN & HOLLIDAY GRAINGER TO FIND ROMANCE IN WILD MOUNTAIN THYME MOVIE! JULIAN FELLOWES' 1880'S EPIC DRAMA THE GILDED AGE MOVES TO HBO!

'THE GILDED AGE' MOVES 

FROM NBC TO HBO EPIC STYLE

We expect to hear casting news soon!

While his two other period set dramas Belgravia and The English Game have started production, Julian Fellowes' THE GILDED AGE has just been moved from NBC (where it found home a year ago) over to HBO (which is, admittedly, probably more suited for a rich costume drama) where they just gave a ten episode order to the sweeping epic drama that follows the lives of New York City 1880s millionaires!

GILDED AGE 
 follows Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Southern general, who moves into the home of her rigidly conventional aunts in New York City. Accompanied by the mysterious black woman Peggy Scott, masquerading as her maid, Marian gets caught up in the dazzling lives of her stupendously rich neighbours, led by a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife struggling for acceptance by the Astor and Vanderbilt set. Will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path in this exciting new world that is on the brink of transformation into the modern age?

'WILD MOUNTAIN THYME' 

 PAIRS UP JAMIE DORNAN AND HOLLIDAY GRAINGER

Well, this is quite a hot pair, isn't it? John Patrick Shanley will turn his hit Broadway stage play Outside Mullingar into a romantic movie titled WILD MOUNTAIN THYME and he has already set lead stars: Jamie Dornan and Holliday Grainger will play the lovebirds! They are ready to

Jamie Dornan and Holliday Grainger will take the lead roles

peddle the project over at Cannes with the story set in the enchanting landscapes of rural Ireland. Dornan and Grainger will play obstinate star-crossed lovers, whose families are caught up in a feud over a hotly contested patch of land that separates their two farms.

1ST 'ELECTRIC DREAMS' SF SERIES PHOTOS WITH RICHARD MADDEN, HOLIDAY GRAINGER! 'POLDARK' SEASON FOUR PLOT DETAILS, CAST ADITIONS, FIRST PHOTOS! REBECCA FRONT JOINS!

  'ELECTRIC DREAMS' SF SERIES

FIRST PHOTOS WITH RICHARD MADDEN AND HOLIDAY GRAINGER

News from the British isles today! First photos have been released for the new science fiction series ELECTRIC DREAMS specifically for The Hood Maker episode with our dearest Richard Madden and Holiday Grainger! Each of the ten episodes is done by a different director and

This is fourth or fifth time for Madden and Grainger to star together

cast adapting one of the stories from Philip K. Dick's sf opus. Some of the other episodes of the Channel 4 and Amazon series will star Timothy Spall, Greg Kinnear, Jack Reynor, Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston!

One half of the series will air this Autumn, the other next year

THE HOOD MAKER is set in a world without advanced technology where mutant telepaths have become humanity's only mechanism for long distance communication. Their powers have unintended

The series will also air on Amazon around the world

implications and when the public begins to embrace mysterious telepath blocking hoods, two detectives with an entangled past are brought in to investigate. This will be opening episode of the series and will air September 17th!

  DEZZY'S VERDICT Short, and a bit cheap looking,the episode was still thoroughly intriguing with Madden and Grainger shining as the leading pair. They've always had a strong magnetism when together on the big or small screen.

  'POLDARK' SEASON 4

REBECCA FRONT JOINS THE CAST

Rebecca Front will play Ozzie's mother

News are also arriving from BBC who have started production on the fourth, and probably penultimate, season of hit period set series POLDARK! The new season, which will air next year probably in summer again after scoring great ratings this June and July, has added Rebecca Front and young Louis Davison in the cast!

 HELLO, LONDON!
Set in 1796, it will see Poldark (Aidan Turner) trying to defend Cornwall from an empowered George Warleggan (Jack Farthing), and risking everything as he embarks on a political journey which takes him to the capital. Ross strives to become a better man, but his dark and reckless streak is never far from the surface and will lead to him facing new enemies and suffering great losses. Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) finds her loyalties torn, Elizabeth (Heida Reed) tries to strengthen her marriage, Morwenna (Ellise Chappell) continues to be oppressed by husband Reverend Ossie Whitworth (Christian Brassington), and the Enyses (Luke Norris and Gabriella Wilde) are tested as never

Louis Davison will play older Geoffrey Charles

before. The action of series four should run until the Christmas period of 1799.

NEW CAST!

After playing roles of snobbish, pompous mothers in Doctor Thorne and War and Peace costume dramas, Rebecca Front will do that again in the fourth season of POLDARK, by playing  Lady Whitworth, Ossie's formidable mother. Harry Richardson and Tom York return as Drake and Sam Carne, Beatie Edney as Prudie and Josh Whitehouse as Lieutenant Hugh Armitage, who remains smitten with adulterous Demelza especially after they scandalously shagged each other on the sand dunes of Cornwall. Little Louis Davison will play a more grown

Max Bennett will play one of the new baddies!

up Geoffrey Charles, Elizabeth's son and Poldark's nephew.The series will also have a new villain in evil Monk Adderley who is friends with George. Max Bennett will play him!

RICHARD MADDEN, HOLLIDAY GRAINGER JOIN 'ELECTRIC DREAMS' SF SERIES! MARTIN COMPSTON AND OTHERS JOIN 'VICTORIA' EPIC SERIES 2ND SEASON! IAN MCKELLEN, GABRIEL BYRNE IN 'HAMLET REVENANT' MOVIE ADAPTATION

'ELECTRIC DREAMS' SF SERIES

RICHARD MADDEN AND HOLLIDAY GRAINGER JOIN THE CAST

Rejoice, people! Two of our most favourite youngsters Richard Madden and Holliday Grainger will work together again and I think it will be their fifth time! They will star in The Hood Maker episode of ELECTRIC DREAMS anthology series in which each of the ten episodes will be done by a different director and cast adapting one of the stories from Philip K. Dick's sf opus. As I've informed you before some of the other episodes of the Channel 4 and Amazon series will star Timothy Spall, Greg Kinnear, Jack Reynor, Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston!

THE HOOD MAKER is set in a world without advanced technology where mutant telepaths have become humanity's only mechanism for long distance communication. Their powers have unintended implications and when the public begins to embrace mysterious telepath blocking hoods, two detectives with an entangled past are brought in to investigate.

'VICTORIA' SECOND SEASON

LATEST CASTING ADDITIONS!

In television news, still staying over in Britain, the second season of the hugely popular ITV series VICTORIA set to come back this Autumn with eight episodes plus a two hour Christmas special, has just added Martin Compston, Bruno Wolkowitch,  Emerald Fennell, Jo Stone-Fewings, Leo Suter and Michael Maloney to the cast with previously announced Diana Rigg! They will all join the second season which sees the Queen (Jenna Coleman) facing motherhood. She is now a working mother, trying to balance her responsibilities but with Prince Albert (Tom Hughes) still struggling to find a role for himself, there is an inevitable power struggle between husband and wife.

Martin Compston will be playing Dr Robert Traill, a key campaigner in the petition to gain awareness and support for those suffering from the potato famine in Ireland during the 1840s. French actor Bruno Wolkowitch will star as French King Louis Philippe, who Queen Victoria visits on her first outing to France. Nigel Lindsay returns as Sir Robert Peel, Alex Jennings as King Leopold, Peter Bowles as Duke of Wellington, David Oakes as Prince Ernest, Daniela Holtz as Baroness Lehzen and Catherine Flemming as the Duchess of Kent.

'HAMLET REVENANT'

CASTS SIR IAN MCKELLEN!

Brits in our last piece of news today as well: as 'Deadline' reports acting legend Ian McKellen and Gabriel Byrne will star in HAMLET REVENANT the latest big screen adaptation of Shakespeare's famous plays on the tragic Danish prince. Connie Nielsen and Lambert Wilson will also join them in the Ken McMullen directed film together with Medici star Lex Shrapnel!

HAMLET REVENANT follows a character caught amidst treasonous political upheavals, family crisis, sexual tensions and ambiguous friendships: a vortex of revenge, doubt and madness out of which no main character escapes. It brings to the surface the violence and destructive instincts that haunt the human psyche!

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON VICTORIAN THRILLER 'MY COUSIN RACHEL' WITH SAM CLAFLIN, RACHEL WEISZ, IAIN GLEN, HOLLIDAY GRAINGER! NEW POSTER AND TRAILER

  'MY COUSIN RACHEL' WITH

 SAM CLAFLIN & RACHEL WEISZ

If you follow your spy regularly, as you should because it is a cardinal sin not to, you already know that our most anticipated film of the year 2017 (which we, by the way, consider a very poor one movie wise), is the latest big screen adaptation of famous Victorian thriller MY COUSIN RACHEL which has just got an exciting new trailer and also a rather gorgeous and atmospheric new poster depicting, unlike the first one, both Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin, the lead stars of the spooky mystery romance. The long awaited movie will hit cinemas in Europe and United States this summer, from June 9th!

POISONED BY CHARMS
 In the movie, our favourite British hunkster Sam Claflin plays a young orphan Phillip whose tranquil existence gets interrupted when he receives a note from his older cousin and guardian Ambrose, who writes that he is being poisoned. Ambrose soon turns up dead of an apparent brain tumor, but Phillip is suspicious of Ambrose's strange wife Rachel, played by Rachel Weisz. When Rachel appears in Philip's home, he determines to solve the mystery, but finds himself captivated by the presence of the enigmatic widow falling under the beguiling spell of her charms.

FROM DAPHNE DU MAURIER

The movie is the latest adaptation of the 1951. novel by legendary writer Daphne Du Maurier who also wrote some of Hitchcock's most famous movies Rebecca and Birds.  A few years ago BBC had a mini series based on her book Jamaica Inn. Directed and written by Roger Michell, a man who helmed Notting Hill, MY COUSIN RACHEL also stars Iain Glen and Holliday Grainger who starred with Sam Claflin also in Their Finest, Any Human Heart and The Riot Club. The beautiful locations that you can see in the trailer have been found in Italy.

CLAFLIN'S AND WEISZ' OTHER PERIOD SET PROJECTS
Both Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz have other upcoming period set movies. Sam will star in THE NIGHTINGALE a 1829 Tasmania set thriller and in World War 1 movie JOURNEY'S END with Paul Bettany. Rachel is shooting a queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuarts, movie THE FAVOURITE with Nicholas Hoult and also a JAMES MIRANDA BARRY movie on the women who lived her entire life as a man so she could study and practice medicine.

GORGEOUS NEW TRAILERS FOR 'MY COUSIN RACHEL' VICTORIAN THRILLER WITH SAM CLAFLIN, RACHEL WEISZ, 'THE WARRIORS GATE' EPIC FANTASY ADVENTURE FROM LUC BESSON

'MY COUSIN RACHEL' TRAILER

SAM CLAFLIN & RACHEL WEISZ

Our most anticipated movie this year by far, the big screen adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier dark Victorian novel MY COUSIN RACHEL, has a brand new trailer and it is all kinds of gorgeous!

Starring Sam Claflin, Rachel Weisz, Holliday Grainger, Iain Glen, this dark romance, tells the story of a young Englishman who plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian in order to inherit his estate. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms.

'THE WARRIORS GATE'

EPIC ADVEN- TURE MOVIE

Meanwhile, in our most beloved genre of epic fantasy and action adventure a rather lovely and fun trailer has been released, alongside some really pretty posters, for THE WARRIORS GATE a movie which already played in Chinese cinemas last winter in November, but will hit certain parts of Europe this month. Written by French moviemaker Luc Besson it was directed by Matthias Hoene and has the cast led by young Uriah Shelton in the main role alongside Dave Bautista, Sienna Guillory and gorgeous Asian superstar Ni Ni!

SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL
This $30 million epic fantasy extravaganza movie sees Uriah Shelton portraying a teenager, a game wizard and a computer genius, who gets transported into the very game he loves to play and ends up all the way over in ancient China in a magical way where he gets a mission to accomplish by saving the princess from danger. He transforms himself into a Kung Fu warrior to battle the evil villains by converting his video game skills.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON 'TULIP FEVER' COSTUME DRAMA WITH ALICIA VIKANDER, JUDI DENCH, DANE DEHAAN, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, HOLLIDAY GRAINGER, MATTHEW MORRISON, KEVIN MCKIDD

'TULIP FEVER' PHOTOS

ALICIA VIKANDER & CHRISTOPH WALTZ IN STAR STUDDED MOVIE

Although four long years have passed since it has been shot, period set costume drama TULIP FEVER is only now ready to bloom in cinemas: February 24th will mark the start of its theatre life. It is interesting that its main star Alicia Vikander has in the meantime become one of the most wanted actresses in Hollywood even though she was a relative unknown back when she was cast in the movie instead of Kate Winslet who was the original choice together with Jude Law back in 2004 when the movie was first supposed to be made.

LOVE AND TULIPS
The story of the movie is set in Dutch capital city Amsterdam and follows a beautiful young woman (Alicia Vikander) from the 17th century, married to wealthy merchant (Christoph Waltz), who commissions an artist (Dane DeHaan) to paint her portrait. When the artist arrives, she's smitten, and they plan for a future together by putting their money into the highly speculative tulip market, in which certain flower bulbs were worth huge sums.

JUDI DENCH ALSO IN THE CAST

This $25 million historical drama, directed by Justin Chadwick (who already shot one costume movie The Other Boleyn Girl but it was a major flop both among the critics and the audience), is actually a big screen adaptation of beloved worldwide best selling book by Deborah Moggach also known for her book These Foolish Things which was adapted into classic Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movie. The cast also includes Judi Dench who portrays the Abbess of St. Ursula’s, a rescuer of orphan children. Matthew Morrison appears as drunken bohemian artist Mattheus! Jack O’Connell, Holliday Grainger, Kevin McKidd, Tom Hollander round up the stellar cast and Cressida Bonas plays Mrs. Steen, a merchant’s young wife.

DEZZY'S HISTORY LESSON
Tulip mania or tulipomania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age in the 1600s during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed! At the peak of tulip mania, in March 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. The first tulips came to Europe in 1550s when Ottoman Empire sultan sent first bulbs to Vienna.Tulips were different from any other flower known in Europe at that time.

GORGEOUSLY ATMOSPHERIC 'MY COUSIN RACHEL' GOTHIC THRILLER TRAILER WITH SAM CLAFLIN, RACHEL WEISZ! MANUEL GARCIA RULFO JOINS JUDI DENCH, DEREK JACOBI, KENNETH BRANAGH IN 'MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS'

 'MY COUSIN RACHEL' TRAILER

RACHEL WEISZ PLAYS GOTHIC GAMES WITH SAM CLAFLIN

Here's something we've been waiting for, for a very long time, the first trailer for period set adaptation MY COUSIN RACHEL based on the famous novel by Daphne Du Maurier which opens up in European cinemas this June starring Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz.

Also starring Iain Glen and Holliday Grainger, the movie will see Sam Claflin in the role of  a young Englishman who, after inheriting a rich Cornish estate, secretly plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, played by Rachel Weisz, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her seductive charms. Notting Hill's Roger Michell is directing! Check out the gorgeously atmospheric trailer with amazing Wicked Games cover from Ursine Vulpine and Annaca! I admit it is my most anticipated movie this year!

 'MURDER ON ORIENT EXPRESS'

MANUEL GARCIA RULFO CAST!

Meanwhile, the latest actor to join the stellar cast of Kenneth Branagh's Agatha Christie movie adaptation MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is hunky Manuel Garcia Rulfo who will play Marquez in the cast that already includes Branagh as famous detective Hercule Poirot who is investigating a murder of a wealthy American on the luxurious train the Orient Express stuck in the middle of Yugoslavia during blizzard, alongside Judi Dench as Princess Dragomiroff, Derek Jacobi, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Olivia Colman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Bateman, Daisy Ridley, Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad and Leslie Odom Jr!