Spring shoots

Film & TV

Andrew Koji shoots back to back feature films – SENECA with John Malkovich directed by Robert Schwentke and BOY KILLS WORLD with Bill Skarsgård, director Moritz Mohr. Jakob Diehl joins the cast of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, Steven Knight’s adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize Winning novel directed by Shawn Levy for Netflix .

Thomas Coombes has been shooting STREET DOGS with director Jamie Payne also for Netflix and goes onto film RAIN DOGS , an original drama for HBO/BBC. Jodie McNee films CULPRITS for Disney and Hulu , an 8 part heist drama written and directed by J.Blakeson and Sara Powell films brand new psychological thriller THE WINTER CHILD with Dominic Le Clerc directing.

Gavin Spokes joins the regular cast of new drama series BETTER for Sister Pictures/BBC and Michelle Bonnard returns as Sal in UNFORGOTTEN 5. Carol Macready films the new season of STRIKE: TROUBLED BLOOD and Eugene O’Hare returns for Season 6 of OUTLANDER as Gov Josiah Martin. Melanie Kilburn joins Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark in STARVE ACRE for BBC Films whilst Aidan Kelly films US thriller JERICHO RIDGE with Will Gilbey directing.

Theatre

Greg Hicks will be seen in Daniel Fish’s Tony Award winning revival of OKLAHOMA which transfers to The Young Vic. Carol Macready joins Anne Marie Duff in the Almeida production of THE HOUSE OF SHADES directed by Blanche McIntyre. Olwen May leads the cast in The Manchester Royal Exchange’s production of ELECTRIC ROSARY by Bruntwood Prize winner Tim Foley and Anita Reynolds has been cast in the Old Vic production of A MONSTER CALLS .

Tom Edden, currently in New York with Jamie Lloyd’s award winning CYRANO returns to play in Chichester Festival’s revival of CRAZY FOR YOU directed by Broadway legend Susan Stroman. Sam Alexander will play Teddy in Bath Theatre Royals’ tour of Pinter’s THE HOMECOMING and Laura Rogers has been cast as Countess Andrenyi in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS opposite Henry Goodman as Hercule Poirot.

Christopher Harper will play the leading role of Professor Robert Langdon in THE DA VINCI CODE touring from May and Richard Teverson joins the cast of WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION playing at London County Hall. Look out too for Mariah Louca in Soho Theatre’s new musical THE MINISTRY OF LESBIAN AFFAIRS.

Screen Update 2021

Filming on Bullet Train with Andrew Koji continues in LA. Other cast announced alongside Brad Pitt and Andrew include Lady Gaga and Aaron Taylor Johnson. Tomi Ogbaro, meanwhile, begins filming on a new Disney picture with Sam Rockwell and Sorcha Ronan.

Jay Simpson will appear in Danny Boyle’s next project, a six part series for the BBC about punk icons The Sex Pistols. Aidan Kelly has been cast as a regular in Netflix drama Stay Close – an 8 Episode thriller by Harlan Coben. Sophie Stone plays regular Julie in the 2nd series of This Way Up Channel 4, written and starring Aisling Bea whilst Gavin Spokes joins The Ipcress File, a TV remake of the 1960s cold war film. James Doherty and Olwen May film the 2nd series of Trying for Apple TV/BBC, Jim O’Hanlan directs and Carol Macready will appear in the next series of Gentleman Jack in the role of Mrs Norcliffe.

Sara Powell shoots a guest appearance in Ghosts, the hugely popular BBC comedy. Patricia Allison, meanwhile, completes filming on Sex Education and goes onto record the BBC’s annual Christmas Day animation Superworm. Oliver Dench, Jordan Mifsud and Anton Saunders all play guest roles in new crime drama Whitstable coming soon. And on screen too, Jack James Ryan joins Coronation Street as Jacob Hay from February.

TV News

RADA Grad Leah Gayer joins Bloodmoon, the HBO pilot and prequel to Game of Thrones with SJ Clarkson directing early summer. Oliver Dench plays series lead Xander in Pandora, CW’s new sic-fi series scheduled for release later this year. Patricia Allison returns as Ola in Netflix’s hugely popular Sex Education for Season 2 whilst Max Fowler reprises his role as Colin for the final season of The Affair for Showtime. Andrew Koji is currently shooting Season 2 of Warrior for Cinemax and also returning for a second season is Save Me, Sky Atlantic/World Production’sthriller written by and starring Lennie James, which sees Thomas Coombes back as Goz. 

Guest roles currently shooting include Aleksandar Mikic as Sachin in Cobra, director Hans Herbots; Kate Maravan in Giri/Haji for Netflix/BBC with Julian Farino directing; Tom Edden as Mr Smith in Singapore Grip, Tom Vaughan directing for ITV, and Melanie Kilburn as Sophie in Cold Call with Gareth Tunley directing. Eugene O’Hare plays the recurring role of Eddie in the latest Marcella instalment.
   In comedy, Gavin Spokes joins the cast of Hitmen, a new comedy series for Sky produced by Tiger Aspect and starring Mel & Sue; Joe Sims films the ever popular returning Plebs , set in Ancient Rome for ITV 2;  Jay Simpson plays John the Butcher in new sitcom King Gary , produced by Shiny Button for the BBC and James Doherty features in the  next series of Motherland , Juliet Mays directing.  

Film News

Rebecca Johnson returns as Sally in Trip to Greece with Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden and Michael Winterbottom directing, Carol Macready plays Mother Geri in A Boy Called Christmas , a film adaptation of Matt Haig’s bestseller with Gil Kenan directing, John Mackay films Ammonite, a new film written and directed by Francis Lee and Clemmie Sveaas competes shooting on Tom Hooper’s live adaptation of Cats.

Autumn Shoots

Peaky Blinders returns and we are delighted to confirm that Andrew Koji will play a guest lead over 2 episodes filming this autumn. Eugene O’Hare is currently shooting Dublin Murders for the BBC; adapted by Sarah Phelps this 8 part crime drama will come to our screens next year with Eugene playing series regular Detective Quigley. Oliver Dench joins the cast of Noughts and Crosses, Mammoth/BBC’s adaptation of the Malorie Blackman books now filming in Cape Town with Kibwe Taveres directing; Jordan Mifsúd plays the recurring role of Krzystof in new Tall Story Pictures/ ITV drama The Bay set in Morecambe with Lee Haven Jones directing whilst Max Fowler will join the regular cast of The Affair for the 5th and final season of the acclaimed drama from Showtime. Jospeh May will play Brett across the new series of Dark Money, a timely and evocative new drama around child abuse written by BAFTA winner Levi David Addai for BBC/The Forge. Gary Oliver, David Nellist and Rocky Marshall have all been cast in The Confession penned by Jeff Pope (Little Boy Blue, The Moorside) which details the investigation behind the disappearance of Sian O’Callaghan in 2011, Paul Andrew Williams directs. Richard Teverson will portray Colin Tenant in the much anticipated Season 3 recast of The Crown for Left Bank Pictures/Sony/Netflix whilst Joe Sims joins the Netflix Original and Emmy Winning Free Rein for Season 3. Graduate Lion Russell Baumann makes his screen debut as Prince Sigmund in Mammoth /ITV’s Victoria. Aleksandar Mikic and Robert Hands film guest roles in Paramout’s Berlin Station; Chris Harper returns to ITV screens in the ever popular Endeavour, Rebecca Johnson joins the cast of Good Karma Hospital this season playing the returning role of Lesley McConnell and Robert Cavanah will play the role of Gilbert Benson across Season 5 of BBC’s Shetland.

Comedy shoots this autumn include Melanie Kilburn in new Sky comedy Brassic; Carol Macready and Kate Fahy currently filming new BBC comedy drama Don’t Forget The Driver, written and directed by Toby Jones and set in the post Brexit world of Bognor Regis; Cosima Shaw in Home a new comedy series for Ch 4 written and starring Rufus Jones and Sophie Stone will be playing a guest lead in the next series of BBC comedy Two Door Down.

In film news Ben Dilloway shoots Rare Beasts, Billie Piper’s directorial debut, Thomas Coombes and Sally Scott film Summerland, Jessica Swale’s first feature and Robert Cavanah portrays Joe Boyle in historical drama Queen Marie of Romania.

Autumn Theatre Preview

Josie Walker returns to the West End with Sheffield Crucible’s production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in which she plays the lead role of Margaret; Jonathan Butterell directs opening at The Apollo Theatre in November. Olwen May plays the Butcher in St George and the Dragon with Lyndsey Turner directing for The National Theatre whilst Clemmie Sveaas will begin rehearsals for Pinocchio with John Tiffany directing. Also opening at The National this Autumn for a limited run is Oslo with Geraldine Alexander and Howard Ward, transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre from October. Tom Edden returns to the West End as he takes on the role of Mr Wormwood in Matilda for the RSC at The Cambridge Theatre. Lisa Palfrey, meanwhile continues as Big Mama in the Young Vic’s production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at The Apollo. Scott Karim joins Nicholas Hytner’s exciting new venture at the Bridge Theatre for his inaugural show Young Marx, Geoff Leesley transfers with Trouble in Mind, Laurence Boswell’s acclaimed production from Theatre Royal Bath coming to the Print Room Coronet and Jenna Augen plays Val in The Knowledge at the Charing Cross Theatre with Maureen Lipman directing.

Laura Rogers joins the cast of Rules For Living with Simon Godwin directing for ETT with Natalie Radmall Quirke also joining the company playing the lead role of Valerie in their celebrated revival of The Weir. Meanwhile at The Royal Exchange, Sophie Stone starts rehearsals for their much anticipated stage adaptation of the cult film Jubilee, Carol Macready, Kriss Dosangh head to Home Manchester for Walter Meierjohann’s production of Uncle Vanya and Patricia Allison plays Susan in The Harper Elliot/West Yorkshire Playhouse co production of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe directed by Sally Cookson.

Screen update

TV

Thomas Coombes joins the cast of Hatton Garden – Jeff Pope and Paul Whittington’s next collaboration for ITV after Little Boy Blue and The Moorside, this time telling the inside story of the infamous jewell heist. Filming begins in Budapest on the second season of National Geographic’s MARS the global sic-fi series from Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment with Cosima Shaw reprising her role as Leslie. Matt Rawle films a guest role in Trust, Danny Boyle’s new show for FX about the Getty family whilst Sally Scott shoots Trauma, Mike Bartlett’s new drama for ITV with Marc Evans directing. Rocky Marshall returns as bodyguard James Hill in The Royals whilst Esther Coles joins the popular comedy series Josh which returns again to the BBC for series 3. Roger Sloman and Gavin Spokes make guest appearances in Greg Davies’ Man Down whilst Emma Handy and Sam Alexander both return to Doc Martin for the much loved new series. New grad Patricia Allison completes filming on Thanks For the Memories a 2 x 90’ film for ZDF based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel whilst Colm Gormly films a guest role in Victoria, Mammoth Screen/ITV, Paul Frift directing.

Film

Carol Macready completes filming on Walk Like A Panther, Fox International’s new comedy drama about the British wrestling world with Dan Cadan directing. Hayley Carmichael shoots Overlord, Julius Avery and JJ Abraham’s World War II
drama set in France. Ken Bones films Baghdad In My Shadow, a thriller set amidst London’s Iraqi community directed by Samir and Kriss Dosanjh films Benjamin, Simon Amstell’s writing and directorial debut feature. Meanwhile, Special Sundance Jury Award winner Gods Own Country featuring Melanie Kilburn as Gloria will be released in UK in early September and Sophie Stevens‘ first feature The Black Prince (from the producers of 12 Years a Slave) has opened in cinemas this week and has already made it into the top 10 in the UK box office chart.

Screen Latest

Television

channel-columnJodie McNee and Sara Powell will be playing regular roles in ITV’s recently announced factual drama Little Boy Blue. Written by Jeff Pope and directed by Paul Whittington (Cilla, Mrs Biggs), this four part drama focuses on the murder of 11 year-old Rhys Jones in Croxteth, Liverpool in 2007 and the efforts of his parents to gain justice. Filming is now underway and will also feature Kent Riley and Howard Ward in guest roles across the series. Gary Oliver and Scott Karim join the cast of Britannia, Sky’s new 10 parter written by Jez Butterworth whilst Pooky Quesnel joins Hayley Carmichael in the E4/Netflix production Kiss Me First based on Lottie Moggarch’s thriller novel about stolen identity in the digital world. Melanie Kilburn and Tony Guilfoyle, meanwhile, feature in new Jimmy McGovern drama Broken, a 6 parter for the BBC and Thomas Coombes films the recurring role of Brother Anthony in Knightfall shooting in Prague for the History Channel.

Film

In film news Carol Macready and Josie Walker film Amma Asante’s forthcoming drama Where Hands Touch set in Berlin during WW2, Nicholas Lumley films the sequel to Paddington playing Old Timer Jack and Alex Felton and Alex Blake shoot the Richard Eyre directed Children Act. Looking ahead, Roger Sloman and Nicholas Lumley begin rehearsals on the new Mike Leigh feature about the Peterloo massacre due to shoot 2017.

Currently showing

You can catch series regulars Cosima Shaw in the brilliant Mars (National Geographic), Pooky Quesnel in Class (BBC and iPlayer) and Ken Bones in Medici (Netflix from December).