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(L to R) Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù stars as “Mr. Malcolm” and Freida Pinto stars as “Selina Dalton” in director Emma Holly Jones’ Mr. Malcolm’S List, a Bleecker Street release. Credit : Ross Ferguson / Bleecker Street

The streaming hit “Bridgerton” has opened a whole new style of period romance, a fantasy historical romance in which bits of anachronism are plainly on view and color-blind casting enlivens interest. In that show, tales of romance feature essentially-modern people, dressed in the colorful costumes of Jane Austen’s time, pursuing love under the rules of that time period – well, some of the rules. Mr. Malcolm’S List is a Regency romance following “Bridgerton’s” lead with the color-blind casting but without the anachronisms, a romantic romp with an attractive cast in a story that blends elements of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma.”

Emma Holly Jones makes her feature film debut with Mr.

Mr. Malcolm’s List portrays a slice of regency life with a dollop of an Austen-esque romantic sensibility, a tinge of an Oscar Wilde comedy, a bit of farce thrown in, and, of course, the longing to find true love. Steeped in the era, it is a perfect Regency film. But first, we must set the scene.

The plot: It all begins at the opera, during “the season”, and a lady of good social standing is out with the elusive Mr. Malcolm. Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton) fails to measure up to a “list” of requirements for a bride and is jilted by London’s most eligible bachelor (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù). Humiliated and determined to exact revenge, Julia convinces her friend Selina Dalton (Freida Pinto) to play the role of his ideal match. Soon, Mr. Malcolm wonders whether he’s found the perfect woman…

Directed by Emma Holly Jones, this fantastic film...

“The Long Song” knows what an audience might expect from a period drama airing on the BBC, as it did in the UK in 2018, or under the PBS Masterpiece banner, as it will in the US starting on January 31. The camera, helmed with a steady hand by director Mahalia Belo, pans across still life scenes of porcelain curios and rumpled silks in a manse surrounded by gently swaying palm trees. “The life of a white missus on a Jamaican plantation,” a narrator (Doña Croll) intones, “be surely full of tribulation — from the scarcity of beef to the want of a fashionable hat.” Within seconds, the piercing screech of that “white missus” shatters the idyllic scene, and the acidic streak of sarcasm laden in the narrator’s words comes more clearly into focus. “If that be the story you want to hear, then be on your way. Go,” she says, voice snapping with brittle anger.

This article contains spoilers for The Long Song.

The Long Song is the first miniseries featured in PBS Masterpiece’s 50th Anniversary season, and it’s U.S. arrival nearly three years after airing on BBC One is highlighting themes that some viewers may not be ready to process but that remain incredibly important.

The show is an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s 2010 novel recounting the story of how Jamaican slaves gained their freedom in the 1830’s. Levy worked with white screenwriter Sarah Williams on the script for The Long Song before her death in 2019. Although some may want to criticize Williams’ involvement for removing the Own Voices status from the series, it is important to note she successfully worked with Levy to adapt Small Island into a TV miniseries which aired on Masterpiece in 2009. Critics and the Black British community alike praised the miniseries for featuring the Windrush Generation.

Agent Carter star Hayley Atwell and King Charles III’s Tamara Lawrance are to lead the cast of David Heyman’s BBC drama The Long Song.

The pair are to front the three-part series, which tells the story of dying days of slavery in Jamaica, alongside a supporting cast, which includes British comedy legend Lenny Henry.

The Long Song starts in 1838 on the British-ruled Caribbean island as three hundred years of slavery came to a chaotic end. The series follows July, a strong-willed young female slave on a Jamaican plantation, played by Lawrance, who goes from being a slave to the mother of a gentleman. The story is told from July’s perspective as she looks back over her life. Atwell plays her odious mistress Caroline Mortimer, while War and Peace’s Jack Lowden plays a charming new island arrival.

Henry stars as Godfrey, Doña Croll (EastEnders) as Old July,...

In the upcoming ITV adaptation of acclaimed author Dorothy Koomson's internationally best selling novel, The Ice Cream Girls, Lorraine Burroughs (Dci Banks, Lip Service, Fast Girls) and Jodhi May (The Scapegoat, The Jury, Strike Back) play the respective lead roles of Serena Gorringe and Poppy Carlisle. Dona Croll (Doctors, Tula: The Revolt) and Georgina Campbell (One Night) also have supporting roles in the Left Bank Pictures production; Croll as Serena's mother, Rachel, and Campbell as young Serena. From ITV . . . "The story follows two vulnerable teenage girls who, in the summer of 1995, are accused of murdering their schoolteacher. For seventeen years, the two girls go their...