Will Ted Lasso sweep the comedy awards? Will it finally be I May Destroy You’s time? How will The Crown, with 24 nominations, fare?
Nominees: The Boys (Amazon), Bridgerton (Netflix), The Crown (Netflix), The Mandalorian (Disney+), Lovecraft Country (HBO), Pose (FX), The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), This Is Us (NBC)
Continue reading...She shot to fame in Trainspotting, and has starred in Gosford Park, Boardwalk Empire and even as a Disney princess. So why did the Scottish actor panic about her new role in Line Of Duty?
Kelly Macdonald’s roles are typically quiet, fraught with internal conflict and entailing journeys that are more reflective than active. As a grieving mother in The Child In Time, a gangster’s wife in Boardwalk Empire and the titular role in The Girl In The Cafe, the 45-year-old has, over the last 25 years, become known for the kind of thoughtful performances signified by the image of a woman staring out of a window. All of which makes our encounter today doubly surprising; that Macdonald, appearing via Zoom from her home in Glasgow, is here to talk about Line Of Duty, possibly the least reflective TV show ever made. And that she is a complete hoot.
Her role in Line Of Duty has, over the course of the show’s six seasons, become a coveted one in British telly – that of the guest star brought on as a no-good cop to be investigated by AC-12, the show’s now iconic anti-corruption unit. (Previous incumbents in the just-how-bent-is-she role include Keeley Hawes and Thandie Newton.) Line Of Duty’s twists are legendary, and the embargos fierce, and, following the rollercoaster of season five – in which we grappled, briefly, with the possibility that Supt Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) himself was bent – we meet Macdonald in season six as DCI Jo Davidson, getting stuck into a case. And that is pretty much all, ahead of transmission, the BBC will permit either of us to reveal, which makes Macdonald crack up every time she thinks of it. “It’s hilarious that they sent me a list of things I’m not to talk about, when I can’t remember any of it.”
Continue reading...The absence of I May Destroy You was the most memorable part of the small-screen awards, where voters had seemingly binged the biggest streaming hits – and little else
It has always been hard to care about the Golden Globes, and God knows that it’s difficult to rouse the enthusiasm to care about anything one year into a pandemic. So, in truth, last night’s special pandemic edition of the Golden Globes – an entertainment awards show made in a year when most entertainment has either been cancelled or postponed – barely even deserves acknowledgment.
In fact, if last night’s show will be remembered for anything at all – which in all honesty seems like a stretch – then it will be the swirl of controversy that engulfed its nominations. In summary: when its shortlists were announced, the best TV show of the year (I May Destroy You) was nowhere to be seen. But the worst TV show of the year (Emily in Paris) was. It’s also worth noting that many lavish treats were gifted to voters by the production a year ago. All that, plus it was just revealed that not a single black person participated in the voting process.
Continue reading...The breakout star of the Guardian’s show of the year on her small-screen picks of 2020, and how her role as Terry divided viewers
What shows did you get into this year, over our various lockdowns?
I watched a lot of stuff. That’s all we could do really, apart from eat – I worked out a lot, too. I fell in love with 90 Day Fiancé, which I think is the most brilliant reality show on TV right now. I loved the latest series of Insecure, and Gangs of London with Paapa [Essiedu, Opia’s I May Destroy You co-star]. I loved I Hate Suzie, and Adult Material – Hayley Squires did a fantastic job. That was a brilliant little find, and it was so interesting to learn about the porn industry and the human side of it.
And were there any series you got into that you might not have ordinarily watched?
I couldn’t stop watching Ted Lasso on Apple TV+. I was like, what is this actually about? An American who coaches American football comes to the UK to a weird team and is … teaching them football? But it was just nice, simple and uplifting – it was a little treat to forget about the world and just watch something wholesome.
Updated guidance suggests directors take inspiration from classic films made when sex on screen was prohibited
British film and TV directors are being encouraged to seek inspiration from classic romances such as Casablanca and ditch depictions of sex altogether when planning intimate scenes under new guidelines for directing during the Covid-19 crisis.
Directors UK, the professional association for screen directors in Britain, suggested some creative alternatives to avoid sex scenes with physical interaction while social distancing is required, in an update to its Directing Nudity and Simulated Sex guidelines, which are focused on safe working during the pandemic.
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