Soap has given opportunities to actors, writers and production staff, says Philip Ralph on last day of filming
A screenwriter has described the decision to axe the daytime drama Doctors as “disastrous” and said soaps are collapsing as he marked the last day of filming the show.
The BBC announced in October the show would end in December this year due to “super inflation in drama production”.
Continue reading...High-budget series with largely Japanese cast avoids well-worn western orientalist fantasies and wins plaudits in Japan
Japanese audiences could have been forgiven for bracing themselves when Disney announced Shōgun, a 10-part adaptation of James Clavell’s classic 1975 novel.
With few exceptions, Hollywood depictions of Japan and the Japanese have relied on one-dimensional characters whose purpose is to confirm cultural stereotypes, set against the backdrop of an inscrutable archipelago whose people have much to learn from the western hero.
Continue reading...Improved oversight and a law to strip organisations of their power to take people to court are among measures gaining cross-party support
Plans to overhaul the growing “cottage industry” of private prosecutions are already being urgently examined by ministers in the wake of the Post Office scandal, including measures that could see untrustworthy bodies barred from pursuing them.
Labour is also understood to be drawing up its own reform package this weekend after the outcry prompted by the Post Office’s use of private prosecutions against more than 700 post office subpostmasters. It means that there is growing scope for a cross-party commitment to complete any reforms after the election.
Continue reading...Victim of software scandal says TV drama has reignited issue as 50 new operators contact lawyers
A former post office operator who led a campaign to fight against wrongful convictions brought by the Post Office has called for compensation for the victims to be sped up after the broadcast of an ITV drama about the scandal.
The Metropolitan police confirmed on Friday the Post Office was under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal.
Continue reading...Latest project from screenwriter of Netflix’s most watched non-English-language series revisits its most enigmatic character
After a busy few years chronicling fatal Balearic excess in White Lines and crafting the pulpy trafficking drama Sky Rojo, the Spanish screenwriter and producer Álex Pina is returning to one of his most famous criminal creations.
La Casa de Papel, known in English as Money Heist, grew into a global TV phenomenon after Netflix picked it up from the Spanish network Antena 3 in late 2017. By 2020, Pina’s pacey, violent and stylish series about a gang of red-overalled, Salvador Dalí-masked robbers who target the royal mint and then the Bank of Spain had become the platform’s most watched non-English-language series.
Continue reading...British writer Lindsay Shapero working with former friend of Latifa on four-part series called The Escape
If a screenwriter were to write a fictional drama about a 21st-century princess’s escape, recapture, imprisonment and release, it might be dismissed as too unbelievable. But the real-life story of Dubai’s Princess Latifa and her escape, recapture, imprisonment and release has inspired a new drama.
A four-part series titled The Escape will go into production next year. Its award-winning British writer, Lindsay Shapero, has been working closely with Tiina Jauhiainen, who as Latifa’s close friend helped her flee Dubai in 2018, only for both women to be forcibly returned and interrogated.
Continue reading...Kathy Burke and Daniel Kaluuya among alumni of her London school, credited with making stars of often working-class students
Tributes have been paid to Anna Scher, an influential drama teacher who taught actors including Kathy Burke, Daniel Kaluuya and Adam Deacon, after the announcement of her death on Sunday, aged 78.
Scher, who had taught children in north London to act for more than 50 years, has been credited with creating numerous stars, and was known for championing people from a working-class background. The Anna Scher Theatre (AST), which started as a drama club in January 1968, has a long list of well-known alumni, including Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson, Martin Kemp, Natalie Cassidy, Patsy Palmer, Sid Owen, Jake Wood, Reggie Yates and Brooke Kinsella.
Continue reading...Actor’s manager says the Daytime Emmy-winning star ‘was struggling with manic depression’ when he died in Austin, Texas
Billy Miller, a Daytime Emmy-winning actor best known for his roles on US soaps The Young and the Restless and General Hospital, has died aged 43.
In a statement to Variety, his manager, Marnie Sparer, said Miller “was struggling with manic depression when he died”.
Continue reading...TV regular died last weekend with her husband Hugh and carers at her side, her agents have announced
Jane Whittenshaw, the actor best known for appearing in EastEnders and Call the Midwife, has died.
A statement from her agent said she died last weekend, with her husband, Hugh, best friend and carers at her side. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Continue reading...Soap star who also acted in Coronation Street, Brookside and the musical Chicago, had dementia, her family said
The soap opera stalwart Meg Johnson has died at the age of 86 after having had dementia “for the last few years”, it has been confirmed.
The death of Johnson, who had played Pearl Ladderbanks in Emmerdale since 2003, was announced in a joint statement from her family, the talent agency Jorg Betts Associates and the ITV show.
Continue reading...DCI Banks lead actor was accused of punching drunk man making noise outside his house
The actor Stephen Tompkinson has been found not guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm by punching a drunk man who was making noise outside his house.
The DCI Banks lead actor had been accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Karl Poole on 30 May 2021.
Continue reading...The Story of Flanders, spanning 38,000 years of the region’s history, is funded by the nationalist government and is accused of stretching the truth
It is blockbuster TV, with Romans and Vikings, knights and Neanderthals, trains and the trenches of the first world war – and a hefty dose of political controversy.
The Story of Flanders, a 10-part history series airing in Belgium’s northern region until March, has been a cultural landmark. But the apparently lavish funding from the region’s government, run by the separatist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party, which seeks to make Flanders independent from Belgium, has led to accusations of propaganda.
Continue reading...Actor appeared in two series of the thriller as well as Star Trek: Picard, and was reportedly diagnosed with cancer in 2020
The actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the TV series 24, has died at the age of 45.
Wersching died on Sunday morning in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer, her publicist told the Associated Press. The type of cancer was not specified.
Continue reading...Doctors, Coronation Street and EastEnders among credits of actor whose career included working with RSC and the National Theatre
Stephen Greif, who appeared in Blake’s 7 and The Crown, has died aged 78, his representatives said.
The actor had an extensive career on stage and screen and appeared in other series including Doctors, Coronation Street, Tales of the Unexpected and EastEnders.
Continue reading...The Oscar-winner will play the opera singer in a film that explores the ‘tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic’ story of her life
Angelina Jolie is set to play opera singer Maria Callas in a new drama from Chilean film-maker Pablo Larraín.
Maria will tell “the tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris” with a script from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who last collaborated with Larraín for Princess Diana drama Spencer.
Continue reading...Former PM angered by fictitious storyline in which Charles seeks his help in getting the Queen to abdicate
As Netflix prepares to release its fifth season of big budget royal drama The Crown it has rejected criticism of the latest season after former prime minster Sir John Major described it as a “barrel load of nonsense”.
Major’s comments were made after concerns arose that a storyline in the hit programme could damage King Charles’s reputation.
Continue reading...Winner took 25% of the vote, with Doctor Who in second place and Line of Duty and Sherlock tying in third
Call the Midwife has been voted the best show of the last 25 years in a poll.
The BBC period drama, which is loosely based on real events, follows a group of midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s as they cope with the pressures of their everyday lives as well as the changing times they are living through.
Continue reading...The popularity of ‘boy-love’ series sends fans from home and abroad flocking to filming locations across the country
There is a table in Soontaree Thiprat’s Phuket cafe that is always fully booked. Most of her customers at the Dibuk restaurant want to sit in the corner, at the spot with the red tablecloth and purple flower.
It is the table where the male student characters Teh and Oh-aew, played by the actors Putthipong “Billkin” Assaratanakul and Krit “PP” Amnuaydechkorn, would sit together and flirt in I Told Sunset About You and its sequel, I Promised You the Moon, a romantic Thai series that has proved hugely popular in its home country and abroad.
Continue reading...Australian soap ends after nearly four decades with double-episode special on Channel 5
Three million viewers tuned in to say goodbye to Ramsay Street as Neighbours came to a close after almost four decades of constant drama.
The final episode of the Australian soap aired on Friday night in the UK on Channel 5, with stars including Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie making one last appearance on the show that brought them fame.
Continue reading...Hollywood actor will play Donna Freedman one more time as Australian soap comes to an end
The Oscar-nominated actor Margot Robbie will join a handful of international stars returning to Ramsay Street for the final episode of the long-running Australian soap Neighbours.
The 32-year-old, who starred in The Suicide Squad and is playing Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming film, will return to her role as Donna Freedman in the Australian soap.
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