New Year Update

Screen View

Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s acclaimed film which has garnered much awards talk opens across the UK on 21 January and features Josie Walker in the role of Auntie Violet.  Also on general release and opening to brilliant reviews is Boiling Point, a one shot film that takes place during service in a busy London restaurant and with Thomas Coombes playing opposite Stephen Graham as Mr Lovejoy.  Hotel Portofino with Oliver Dench as Lucien premieres on Brit Box at the end of January and Harlan Coban’s Stay Close is now streaming on Netflix starring Cush Jumbo and featuring Aidan Kelly as series reg Rudi.  

Roy Williams drama Screw is showing on Channel 4 with Nicholas Lumley playing prison regular Larry and Daniel Crossley plays Bernard McDonald in Rules of the Game – a four part thriller with Maxine Peake, currently on BBC  iPlayer.  Also on iPlayer and a timely reminder to protect our BBC is Olwyn May in A Very British Scandal, Roger Sloman in Mandy, Thomas Coombes in Eastenders, Joseph May in the fantastic revival of Toast of Tinseltown and for the kids, Emma Handy in The Beaker Girls and Jason Callender in Malory Towers.


Back On Stage

It’s exciting to see some of our ladies leading NT productions as we make our way back to theatre. Tamsin Carroll has opened in Hex (Olivier) Laura Rogers in The Ocean at the End of the Lane (The Duke of York’s West End ) and  Sophie Stone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime (NT Touring). Also, Jodie McNee will be playing Nora in Manchester Royal Exchanges new production of The Doll’s House to be directed by Bryony Shanahan. 

James Doherty returns to the West End in Come From Away and other theatre opening soon includes Tom Edden in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Cyrano (West End & BAM), Joe Sims in Bristol Old Vic’s The Red Lion, and Mariah Louca in Cherry Jezebel a new play which will premiere at Liverpool’s Everyman in February. 

Autumn Shoots
Part I

TV

Latest casting news has been announced on HBO’s much anticipated Game of Thrones prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ and we’re thrilled to confirm that Gavin Spokes is playing the role of Lord Lyonel Strong, Master of Laws to King Viserys and Lord of Harrenhal.  Filming will continue for the rest of this year. Amy Cudden joins the cast of The Midwich Cuckoos playing the regular role of Sarah McLean as David Farr teams up with Sky to adapt John Wyndham’s original sci-fi novel based in a sleepy English village with Alice Troughton directing. 

Eugene O’Hare is filming Season 2 of HBO’s Industry and Robert Hands will appear in Noughts & Crosses 2 for Mammoth Screen before going on to film Masterpiece/ ITV’s new remake of the classic Tom JonesBen Dilloway, meanwhile, will play the role of Col Bill Airing in the epic Whirlwind: Masters of the Air for Apple TV with Dee Rees directing his block.

Also filming this autumn is Joseph  May in the return of Toast of Tinseltown with Michael Cumming directing for Objective /BBC, Aleksandar Mikic in Stay Close with Lindy Heyman directing for Red Productions, Guy Rhys in The Witcher: Blood Origins with Sarah O’Gorman directing for Netflix and Alex Blake as Father Augustin in Dangerous Liaisons with Leonora Lonsdale directing for Starz.  Kate Fahy will play the mother of Kim Philby in a new ITV drama centred around the Cold War’s most infamous spy in A Spy Among Friends and Olwen May is currently filming the second season of Miss Scarlett and the Duke for PBS. Charlie Field has been filming a guest lead role in Season 3 of Amazon’s Jack Ryan Series and Hywel Morgan films a new 6 part drama Tell Me Everything for ITV exploring the mental stress on today’s teens . Jimmy Walker  plays Mr A in the Amazon Originals Series The Devil’s Hour from the creators of Sherlock whilst Lochlann O’Mearain joins the cast of Holding, Graham Norton’s successful novel that is being adapted for the screen and directed by Kathy Burke,  filming on location in Ireland. Sara Powell joins the cast of Murder In Provence, Britbox’s first US and global commission and Sally Scott completes filming on The Tower which Jim Loach directs for Mammoth. Jack Sandle joins season 2 of BBC’s The Capture. Kate Maravan guests in The Split 3 for Sister Pictures/BBC and Emma Handy plays new regular Mrs Cook in the popular revival of The Beaker Girls with John McKay directing for BBC. Look out as well for Roger Sloman who returns to the BBC in Mandy written and directed by the brilliant Diane Morgan and for Cosima Shaw who will be returning to the screen in German/CBS co-production Ze Network. More to follow.

Film


On film Lochlann O’Mearin has just wrapped Joyride opposite Olivia Colman and directed by Emer Reynolds. Josie Walker shoots Netflix feature The Wonder adapted from the acclaimed novel by Emma Donoghue and directed by Sebastian Leilo and plays Sister Michael with Florence Pugh in the leading role. Eugene O’Hare shoots Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the first film collaboration between Netflix and Sony Pictures with Emma Corrin and Jack O’ Connell in the title roles and Leah Gayer has just filmed The Prizefighter with Russel Crowe.  Graham Turner films  The Last Voyage of the Demeter with Andre Ovredal at the helm and Thomas Coombes films Living for Number 9 Films in an adaptation of the Ishiguro novel.

Screen News

TV

Andrew Koji will play the lead role of Ah Sahm in new 10 episode HBO drama Warrior Written by Jonathan Tropper, based on the writings of Bruce Lee. Set in San Francisco’s Chinatown after the Civil War the drama focuses on Ah Sahm who arrives in America from China and finds himself caught up in the bloody Chinatown Tong wars. Aidan Kelly also guests in the role of Rooney in the first episode of Warrior with filming starting in Cape Town this month. Meanwhile Kate Maravan films Netflix’s Safe an eight-part drama series from bestselling writer Harlan Coben, Thomas Coombes shoots Stan Lee’s Lucky Man for Sky, Kate Fahy joins the cast of Witless for its third series, Molly Logan, shoots Irish comedy Dave Allen At Peace, Patrick Brennan guests in Shakespeare and Hathaway for the BBC, Aleks Mikic films In The Clouds for Little Island Productions, Jordan Mifsúd shoots HULU’s 40 North in Morocco, Sevan Stephan guests in Abi Morgan drama The Split for Sister Pictures and Joe Sims plays regular Dean in Zodiak Media’s Joe All Alone.

FILM

Paddington 2 hits our screens next month with Nicholas Lumley playing Old Timer Jack opposite our favourite Peruvian bear. Meanwhile, Gary Oliver will film Mary Queen of Scotts directed byJosie Rourke for Working Title.

CURRENTLY AIRING

Catch Pooky Quesnel playing regular Fiona Craig in W1A and Louise in The A Word series 2; Geraldine Alexander in BBC 1’s The Child In Time, Melanie Kilburn as Eastenders’ resident Vicar Irene Mills, David Seadon Young performing Oklahoma as part of this year’s BBC Proms, Emma Handy in ITV’s Doc Martin series 8, Joseph May playing Canadian President Justin Trudeau in The Windsors on Channel 4, Chris Harper’s character Nathan Curtis facing trial in ITV’s Coronation Street and Hywel Morgan appearing in Channel 4’s ‘The End Of The F***ing World’ airing on October 24th.

To view some of these clips click here

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.

TV News

Pooky Quesnel joins the cast of BBC satire W1A as regular Fiona Craig, Thomas Coombes will play regular Michael “Goz” Gozdecki in GONE a new psychological thriller from World Productions written by and starring Lennie James, Michelle Bonnard plays Hazel
Furley in The Strike Series: Career of Evil, the third instalment of the detective series based on the best selling J.K Rowling trilogy and then goes onto film Ray & Liz the first feature by Turner Prize nominated photographer, Richard Billingham. Daniel Coonan takes on the role of murdered detective Alex Butler in the BBC’s new pre-apocalyptic crime drama Hard Sun a 6 part series by ‘Luther’ creator Neil Cross, Lochlann O’Mearáin begins the year in Prague filming Fox21’s new drama Genius: Einstein and Kriss Dosanjh films The Indian Detective on location in Cape Town. Emma Handy films Doctor Who and Trust Me a new 4 parter from Red Productions for the BBC and look out too for Chris Harper who arrived in Coronation Street Christmas Day and is set to embark on a rather dark affair.

More Summer Screen

More Summer ScreenMatteo Garrone’s beautiful fantasy horror film Tale of Tales featuring Hayley Carmichael as Dora gets its UK cinema release June 17th.
Also, on screen catch series two of Sony’s noir-superhero drama Powers starring Max Fowler, Gary Oliver playing the guest lead of John Gulliver in New Blood written by Anthony Horowitz for the BBC and Derek Hutchinson who appears in Versailles on BBC2. Pooky Quesnel, meanwhile, plays Agnes in Living & the Dead, series starts 28 June on BBC 1 and Kent Riley is series regular Barry in ITV’s Brief Encounters coming soon.
In other production news, Rocky Marshall will return as Agent James Hill in Series 3 of The Royals, Emma Handy plays Mrs Hallows in The Worst Witch and Robert Hands shoots crime thriller Wagstaff adapted from the novels by Adam Creed and directed by Colin Teague for ITV Encore. For the BBC Richard Teverson films Call The Midwife and the highly anticipated Taboo produced by Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy, Vincenzo Nicoli, Emma Handy and Kate Maravan guest in BBC’s The Coroner alongside regular Oliver Gomm and Nitin Kundra shoots the 3rd series of Count Arthur Strong written and directed by Graham Linehan. Joe Sims and Sara Powell, meanwhile, take on guest leads in the ever popular Midsomer Murders.

Summer Stage

20150712Tom Edden will play Pompey in Joe Hill-Gibbins’s dark reimagining of Measure for Measure at The Young Vic with rehearsals starting this summer. Scott Karim has opened at The Bush in the world premier of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new play The Invisible written in response to the government cuts to legal-aid. Meanwhile Geoff Leesley joins The Rose Theatre Kingston’s adaptation of The Wars of The Roses directed by Trevor Nunn and opening late summer. On tour Emma Handy and Richard Teverson join the cast of Moira Buffini’s Olivier Nominated ‘Handbagged’ directed by Indhu Rubasingham. New RADA grad Bill Parfitt joins the ensemble of Future Conditional Matthew Warchus’s first play in his role of Artistic Director at The Old Vic. Out of London and following press acclaim for its premier at The Sherman Cardiff, Sophie Melville will perform Gary Owens harrowing one woman show Iphigenia in Splott at The Pleasance during this years Edinburgh Festival. Also at The Festival, watch out for Spencer Jones as The Herbert in his acclaimed comedy show Proper Job, performances throughout August.

TV, Film & Theatre Updates

Film News

Hayley Carmichael will be working with director Matteo Garrone in his English language debut The Tale Of Tales – The Old Woman Who Was Skinned, a film based on the gruesome Neapolitan fairy tale of two sisters and starring Vincent Cassel and Salma Hayek. Rocky Marshall and Benjamin Davies meanwhile are due to begin shooting Remainder based on the book by Tom McCarthy and directed by Omer Fast for Tigerlily Films. Pride, Matthew Warchus’s film debut with Lisa Palfrey will premier at the Cannes Film Festival as the closing night film in the directors’ fortnight section. Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner featuring Tom Edden has officially been selected in competition at Cannes as has Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall featuring Colm Gormley.

TV Latest

Max Fowler joins the regular cast of Wolf Hall, the BBC’s much anticipated adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s prize winning novel directed by Peter Kosminsky and starring Mark Rylance and Damien Lewis. Rocky Marshall will join the third series of ITV’s Mr Selfridge as new regular DI Purkiss whilst Farshid Rokey films The BBC’s army drama Our Girl shooting in South Africa. Hermione Gulliford and Ferdy Roberts continue to film the third Foyles War film whilst Thomas Coombes makes a guest appearance in Atlantis the popular BBC drama directed by Justin Molotnikov. Ken Bones will be joining the cast in series 4 of ITV’s Scott and Bailey directed by Simon Delaney.

Watch out for more from Roger Sloman as funeral director Les Coker in Eastenders whilst Amy Marston can be seen playing Martha Hawkins in Channel 4’s Devil’s Whore sequel New Worlds available on catchup. Sarah Winman’s Undeniable is also available on ITV Player.

Congratulations to Joe Sims (Broadchurch) and Thomas Coombes (Him and Her The Wedding) which have been nominated for best drama series and TV comedy respectively at this year’s BAFTAs.

Theatre Update

180414 TheatreHermione Gulliford will be playing Vivienne in Hotel at The National Theatre’s Shed. The tropical thriller, a new play by Polly Stenham will be directed by Maria Aberg. Emma Handy will play Kristin in Chichester’s Minerva Studio Miss Julie a new version written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, directed by Jamie Glover. Tom Edden will be appearing as Monsieur Thénardier in Les Misérables the world famous musical, playing in the West End from June. Openings include Tafline Steen as Jess in King Charles III at The Almeida which has recieved five star reviews whilst Jay Simpson starts his RSC run in Stratford-Upon-Avon at the end of the month playing Black Will in The Arden of Faversham. Also Richard Teverson will be opening in How Many Miles To Babylon at The Lyric Belfast.

Theatre Happenings

Feb UpdateNatasha Gordon starts rehearsals for The Low Road at The Royal Court, Bruce Norris’s new play which outgoing Artistic Director Dominic Cooke will direct.  Opening in the Court’s main house in March, it is preceded by If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep in which Ferdy Roberts appears. Over at The Old Vic,  Richard Teverson starts rehearsals for Lindsay Posner’s revival of The Winslow Boy also opening March. Derek Hutchinson, meanwhile, will transfer to the West End in Cocktail Sticks, as part of the National’s Alan Bennet double bill performing at The Duchess Theatre. Amy Cudden continues in the roles of Rachel/Roscoe Crabbe In One Man 2 Guvnors now playing opposite Rufus Hound at The Haymarket whilst Roger Sloman and Jess Murphy round off their runs at The National in The Magistrate and People respectively.

Out of town Graham Turner continues in Orphan of Zhao at RSC, Stratford and Mark Stobbart takes the role of Issac in The Hired Man , Colchester/Leicester Curve co-production with Daniel Buckroyd directing.  Also Benjamin Davies begins rehearsal with Blackwatch for The National Theatre of Scotland. Msimis Dlamini continues in the UK tour of Soul Sister and Emma Handy opens in Thursday as part of The Adelaide Festival.