News

BritBox will exclusively premiere the second season of the Original crime drama Sherwood on November 14 in the U.S. and Canada, the streaming service announced today.

The first season of the BAFTA-nominated series was one of the most-watched shows in the UK, and the second season is a suspense-filled follow-up driven by an all-star cast of celebrated British actors.

Directed by the acclaimed British film director Clio Barnard and Tom George, this new and Original drama from Nottingham-born James Graham stars David Morrissey, Lesley Manville, Monica Dolan, David Harewood, and Lorraine Ashbourne.

The cast list continues with Robert Lindsay, Stephen Dillane, Sharlene Whyte, Perry Fitzpatrick, Christine Bottomley, Philip Jackson, Aisling Loftus, Bill Jones, Adam Hugill, Ria Zmitrowicz, Robert Emms, Michael Balogun, Oliver Huntingdon, Jorden Myrie, Conor Deane, and Bethany Asher.

The second season further explores the powerful themes that made the first so resonant to audiences. Set in the present day,...

Exclusive: Here’s a first look at Sherwood Season 2, the highly-anticipated next instalment of James Graham’s BBC drama.

Filming on the House Productions show recently took place in and around the UK city Nottingham, and the images show the likes of Lorraine Ashbourne, Monica Dolan, Perry Fitzpatrick, David Morrissey, David Harewood, Michael Balogun, Christine Bottomley, Oliver Huntingdon and Robert Lindsay in character. Scroll to the bottom for all seven images.

Season 1 was a ratings success and was one of the most-watched British dramas of 2022, following a murder that shocks a former mining town where divisions still remain years after the miners’ strikes of 1984 and 1985.

The second season will introduce two new families, who become entangled with the Sparrows from the first run, entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries, revenge, and betrayal. At the same time, a new Sheriff of Nottingham fights passionately against a proposed new mine,...

Tamara Lawrance & Sharon D. Clarke Board BBC’s ‘Mr Loverman’

The BBC has revealed first look images of Lennie James in its Mr Loverman adaptation, with the likes of Tamara Lawrance and Sharon D. Clarke boarding. Deadline revealed the series several months back and it is a TV adaptation of Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo’s seventh novel. Alongside the previously announced James (Save Me, Line of Duty) as the exuberant protagonist Barrington Jedidiah Walker will be three-time Olivier Award winner Clarke, Time star Lawrance, Ariyon Bakare, Morris De La Roux and Sharlene Whyte (Small Axe, Stephen). The series follows Barrington, Barry to his mates, a 74 year old, Antiguan born, exuberant Hackney personality, renowned for his dapper taste and fondness for retro suits. Carmel, his wife of 50 years, senses that Barry has been cheating on her with other women. Little does she know what’s really going on: a secret, passionate...

We sat own with the cast of Paramount+’s The Doll Factory tio talk about their new show. Leading the cast as Iris is Esmé Creed-Miles (Hanna), Éanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment) is taxidermist Silas, Mirren Mack is Rose, Iris’s twin sister and George Webster is painter Louis.

The series also stars Pippa Haywood (Magpie Murders), Sharlene Whyte (Stephen), newcomer Reece Kenwyne-Mpudzi, Freddy Carter (Shadow and Bone), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Laurie Kynaston (The Sandman), Jim Caesar (The Witcher), Akshay Khanna (Chloe), Aysha Kala (The Undeclared War) and Nell Hudson (Outlander).

The Doll Factory is out on Paramount+ right now. Linda Marric asks the questions.

The Doll Factory Cast Interviews

Plot:

London, 1851. Iris paints dolls for a living, alongside her twin sister, Rose, but dreams of becoming an artist. By night, she secretly paints herself naked, honing her craft. Silas is a taxidermist who owns a shop filled with his creations.

Casting

A stellar cast has been revealed by the BBC and House Productions for Season 2 of James Graham’s BAFTA-winning hit crime drama “Sherwood.”

Directed by Clio Barnard (“Ali & Ava”) the news cast included David Harewood (“The Night Manager”), Robert Lindsay (“My Family”), Monica Dolan (“Black Mirror”), Sharlene Whyte (“Small Axe”), Stephen Dillane (“Vigil”), Ria Zmitrowicz (“The Power”), Aisling Loftus (“The Midwich Cuckoos”), Robert Emms (“Andor”), Michael Balogun (“Top Boy”), Christine Bottomley (“Domina”), Oliver Huntingdon (“Happy Valley”) Jorden Myrie (“Mood”), Conor Deane (“All Creatures Great & Small”) and Bethany Asher (“Wild Bill”).

The returning cast includes David Morrissey (“Red Riding”), Lesley Manville (“Mrs Harris Goes to Paris”), Lorraine Ashbourne (“Alma’s Not Normal”), Philip Jackson (“Raised by Wolves”), Perry Fitzpatrick (“Line of Duty”), Bill Jones (“The Village”) and Adam Hugill (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”).

Season 2 introduces two new families entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries,...

James Graham’s BBC drama Sherwood has added more than a dozen Season 2 cast members including David Harewood and Monica Dolan.

One of the BBC’s most-watched drama series last year moves to the present day for its second season. Homeland star Harewood and BAFTA-winner Dolan are joined by Robert Lindsay, Sharlene Whyte (Stephen, Small Axe), Stephen Dillane (Game of Thrones, Vigil), Ria Zmitrowicz (The Power, Three Girls), Aisling Loftus (The Midwich Cuckoos, War and Peace), Robert Emms (Andor, Chernobyl), Michael Balogun (Top Boy, The Lehman Trilogy), Christine Bottomley(Domina, Back To Life), Oliver Huntingdon (The Rising, Happy Valley) Jorden Myrie (Mood, The Strays) and Conor Deane (All Creatures Great & Small, Newark) and Bethany Asher (Wild Bill, Mobility).

Leads David Morrissey and Lesley Manville are reprising their roles and the second season is being directed by three-time BAFTA nominee Clio Barnard, with Quiz scribe Graham penning the six episodes.

As many reviews of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe have noted, the miniseries derives its somewhat unusual title from a West Indian proverb made popular in a Bob Marley song: “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.” This pithy adage evokes, with a tone of striking confidence, the central theme of McQueen’s ambitious five-part anthology of stories—namely, the struggle of London’s West Indian community against the forces of institutional racism, state repression, and police violence.

Keep chipping away at these unjust structures of dominance for long enough, McQueen’s miniseries more than suggests, and eventually they’ll fall to the ground. But it would be easy to miss a key word embedded in that proverb, one which is central not only to the thematic basis of Small Axe, but to its very construction: “we.”

Composed of five self-contained films, each telling a distinct story about the joys and,...

I have been consumed by this film.

The critically sharp, instantly poetic statement — “Ear for Eye” — conjures bursts of fiery rebuke, torrents of unassailable truths, waves of acute emotion that leap into your heart to root you back into a cathartic lineage. What happens to a dream deferred, not once, but several times? It doesn’t wither on the vine. It becomes sour, and rightfully distasteful.

For Black folks, it often feels like the dream has been so delayed that it now only exists in pained whispers and fractured promises. It happened during postbellum reconstruction, during the post-World War II boom, and again during the Civil Rights and Black Power movement. And now, over two years out from the summer of Black Lives Matter that was meant to alter everything — it has happened again.

The journey of playwright and director debbie tucker green’s “Ear for Eye” — now finally available...

The cast for the upcoming U.K. original series The Doll Factory has been announced, with Hanna star Esmé Creed-Miles set to lead the Paramount+ drama series. Paramount Global made the announcement on Wednesday, November 8, for the series, which is based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth Macneal. In addition to Creed-Miles, who will play Iris, who paints dolls and dreams of becoming an artist, the six-episode drama will star Éanna Hardwicke (Normal People) as taxidermist Silas, Mirren Mack (The Witcher: Blood Origin) as Iris’ twin sister Rose, and George Webster (Wedding Season) as painter Louis. Also joining the cast are Pippa Haywood (Bodyguard), Sharlene Whyte (Stephen), Freddy Carter (Shadow and Bone), Saoirse Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Laurie Kynaston (The Sandman), Jim Caesar (The Witcher), Akshay Khanna (Chloe), Aysha Kala (The Undeclared War), Nell Hudson (Outlander), and newcomer Reece Kenwyne-Mpudzi. Adapted for television by playwright Charley Miles,...

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Paramount Global’s Paramount+ on Wednesday unveiled the cast for upcoming U.K. original series The Doll Factory based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth Macneal.

The six-episode hour-long drama, produced by Buccaneer, will star Esmé Creed-Miles (Hanna) as Iris, who paints dolls and dreams of becoming an artist, Éanna Hardwicke (Normal People) as Silas, a taxidermist who owns a shop filled with his creations, Mirren Mack (The Witcher: Blood Origin) as Rose, Iris’ twin sister who works alongside her in the doll shop, and George Webster (Wedding Season) as Louis, a painter and member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Also joining the ensemble cast are Pippa Haywood (Bodyguard), Sharlene Whyte (Stephen), newcomer Reece Kenwyne-Mpudzi, Freddy Carter (Shadow and Bone), Saoirse Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Laurie Kynaston (The Sandman), Jim Caesar (The Witcher), Akshay Khanna (Chloe), Aysha Kala (The Undeclared War...

Paramount+ has unveiled the cast of its new original series “The Doll Factory” from “Marcella” producers Buccaneer Media.

An adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name by Elizabeth Macneal, “The Doll Factory” is set in London in 1850 and tells the story of Iris, who paints dolls for a living alongside her twin sister, Rose, and those in their orbit, such as taxidermist Silas, who dreams of finding an item so unique he will be catapulted to fame, and painter Louis, who is searching for his next muse.

When Iris meets Silas, and then Louis, she is offered an opportunity to escape and start a new life. To do so, she must abandon her sister, sacrifice her reputation and launch herself into the unknown. But as Iris’ world expands, a story of dark obsession begins to unfold.

Leading the cast is Esmé Creed-Miles (“Hanna”) as Iris, Éanna Hardwicke (“Normal People”) as Silas,...

Popular shows “Squid Game,” “Succession,” “Sex Education” and “Landscapers” are among the nominees at the Edinburgh TV Festival’s annual TV awards, which will take place as an in-person event on Aug. 25.

“Sherlock” producer Sue Vertue serves as this year’s jury President and stand-up comedian and writer Sophie Duker as awards host.

Nominees in the acting categories include Jodie Comer in “Help,” Lesley Manville in “I Am Maria,” Letitia Wright in “I Am Danielle,” Maxine Peake in “Anne,” Sharlene Whyte in “Stephen” and Stephen Graham in “Time.”

BBC, Channel 4, Sky and Netflix have the most nominations. Channel of the Year nominees are BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV.

Special awards will be presented at the ceremony in Edinburgh including Global Success, TV Moment of the Year and the Outstanding Achievement Award. The festival is supported by Screen Scotland.

The full list of nominees:...

The Royal Television Society Program Awards 2022 started with a slap on Wednesday evening, when nominee Aj Odudu ran up to the stage and pretended to strike host Tom Allen.

“Oh my God, Aj, oh my God – I’m the one who’s lost their hair, don’t hit me,” Allen, who is bald, quipped in the evidently pre-rehearsed skit. “I never put my wife anywhere near your mouth.”

Continuing the reference to the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, which took place at the Oscars on Sunday night, Allen continued: “I’ve got to look my best for tomorrow, I’ve got an audition for ‘G.I. Jane 2.'”

Watching from the audience at the Jw Marriott Grosvenor House in Mayfair, where the awards were taking place, were a bevy of well-known faces including “The Batman” star Andy Serkis, “Supergirl’s” David Harewood and “Succession” actor Matthew Macfadyen. Macfayden was accompanying his wife Keeley Hawes,...

The Royal Television Society (Rts) has unveiled the nominees for this year’s Rts Programme Awards.

“It’s a Sin” has scored six nominations, including nods for Keeley Hawes and Olly Alexander (pictured above), while Tahar Rahim has been nominated for his performance in “The Serpent.”

Of the U.K.’s broadcasters, the BBC scored the most noms, boasting 30 across 24 categories, followed by Channel 4, who scored 28, Sky with 10 and ITV who scored 8.

BBC One, ITV and Sky Arts have all been nominated for the Channel of the Year award.

The awards, which will be in-person for the first time in two years, will take place on March 29 in London. Comedian Nish Kumar will host.

“Despite the unprecedented challenges the last two years have presented every single one of us, the sheer talent and amazing professionalism from U.K. creatives both in front of and behind the camera, has truly shone through,...

After the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of popular dating reality show “Love Island” last summer, the show is confirmed to return to U.K. broadcaster ITV for this summer season. The last season of “Love Island” that aired was a winter version filmed in South Africa.

ITV also revealed several scripted series that are in production. “The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe,” a four-part crime drama from “Unforgotten” writer Chris Lang, about how John Darwin faked his own death to claim his life insurance, is being produced by All3Media’s Story Films.

“The Ipcress File,” a six-part adaptation of Len Deighton’s renowned book starring Joe Cole as iconic spy Harry Palmer, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander is adapted for ITV by Oscar-nominated writer John Hodge and directed by Emmy award-winner James Watkins.

In “Stephen,” the three-part sequel to the single film “The Murder of Stephen Lawrence,” the cast includes Sharlene Whyte,...

French In Motion Sets Up In LA

Exclusive: French In Motion, the non-profit that brings together French and American professionals from the film and TV industry is launching a chapter in Los Angeles, with Martine Melloul set to run the new office. Headquartered in New York with an existing chapter in Washington DC, the org supports international co-productions and collaborations between France and the United States through its partnership with the Gotham Film & Media Institute and has been doing so since 2016. The org is also creating an honorary board, composed of talent from the independent film and television industry whose work and influence span both sides of the Atlantic. U.S.-based French filmmakers Mathieu Demy and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire have both joined the board alongside French In Motion’s Founder Nathalie Perus.

Msr Hire

Production outfit Msr Media has appointed Nick Royak to the newly-created role of Vice President of Development.

In Education, the fifth and final of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films, we’re given a young hero named Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy), whose mother Agnes (Sharlene Whyte) is a nurse, whose father Edmond (Daniel Francis) is a carpenter, and whose sister Stephanie (Tamara Lawrence) is 18 and can read. This last point is not as arbitrary as it may seem. One the feats of McQueen’s movie is that, by the end, the ability to read — proof of having been educated — is all the more powerful for seeming exceptional.

In Education, the fifth and final film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, Kenyah Sandy’s young, bespectacled face commands the frame. His character, Kingsley Smith, experiences plenty of adolescent strife at the hands of a negligent education system that shunts him off to a “special” school for the “educationally sub-normal” (Esn) based on poor results from a culturally biased Iq test. He wears a vulnerable, frightened expression whenever he’s powerless to combat cruel, indifferent authority figures or mistaken for lazy when he just needs guidance. McQueen and photographer Shabier Kirchner focus on Sandy’s face partly because he represents an entire generation of Black British children who were in danger of being left behind by colonialist institutions. If it weren’t for a group of crusading West Indian women who actively sought out these children and their parents, they would have been doomed to a fate of...

In any year, Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” would be a historic achievement. But in 2020, amid a worldwide reckoning on racial injustice while a pandemic has wreaked havoc on the entertainment industry — blurring the lines between film and TV — this five-part series is an auspicious game-changer.

Shining a light on little-known tales of Black pride and heroism from the U.K.’s Windrush generation, each instalment is set between the late ’60s and early ’80s and features people from the Black diaspora speaking in their own dialects and revelling in their culture. For that alone, “Small Axe” is special, but the themes in each of the interlinked stories still resonate powerfully today.

With the final chapter debuting on the BBC on Sunday, the time has come to rank the series as a whole — a considerable challenge when you consider that while satisfaction may have varied over the films, there isn...

“Education.” That’s as good a title as any for the final episode of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” project — a series of five features, some little more than an hour, designed to educate and inform audiences about the experience of London’s West Indian immigrant population, about the expectations of assimilation raised by a white-majority country and the obstacles such a society puts in the way of that goal.

To get the picture, audiences needn’t see every entry of this prismatic project, which views the community from different angles at different times over several decades, and this may well prove to be the least watched of the lot, being the last and least starry of them. But do yourself a favor: Don’t miss “Education.” Watch it with your kids — it’s the most accessible to young audiences — and share it with others.

Set in the 1970s, this...

“These are the stars of Andromeda!” Education, the fifth episode of Steve McQueen’s 2020 Small Axe anthology, co-written with Alastair Siddons, sets the tone in outer space. This is a film about strong, formidable performances by women, whose characters take on the systemic wrongs and grinding injustices imposed upon the children in their community.

Twelve-year-old Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy) visits the planetarium with his class and knows then and there that he wants to become an astronaut. In school, they read John Steinbeck’s Great Depression novella Of Mice And Men. When it is Kingsley’s turn, he remains silent. He is called a “big blockhead” by his teacher (Sam Fourness) and his mainly white classmates laugh.

Later, during a music lesson, his harmless acting up is judged “unacceptable” by his prowling and growling teacher Mr. Hamley (Nigel Boyle). While...

Children are the future, as Whitney Houston famously reminded us, and both have to be fought for, as Steve McQueen so powerfully expresses in “Education,” the fifth and final chapter of “Small Axe,” his anthology for Amazon Studios and the BBC.

In many ways, this is different than anything else in the director’s filmography — it’s the first time he’s had a pre-teen protagonist, for one — but its urgent sense of a community banding together to create opportunity and to dismantle institutionalized racism makes it very much of a piece with the four other films under the “Small Axe” umbrella.

It’s the story of a family, although we begin following young Kingsley Smith, who has dreams of becoming an astronaut and possibly also playing for Tottenham F.C. When it’s clear that he’s having issues reading — his white teacher calls him a “blockhead” in front...

In several installments of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, the racism leveled against London’s West Indian population is an overt threat. In “Education,” it simmers in the shadows until someone dares to call it out. An inspiring slice of kitchen sink drama, McQueen’s illuminating look at a clandestine segregation policy in the London school district of the early ‘70s takes the perspective of an innocent child, and wouldn’t look out of place with the sort of social realist exposés Ken Loach has been making for over 50 years. In this case, however, this is an extension of the “Small Axe” mission to fill a historical gap deserving of greater scrutiny, and achieves that goal by serving as a kind of education itself.

When we first meet 12-year-old Kingsley (promising newcomer Kenyah Sandy), he’s entranced by a planetarium filled with stars, his eyes consumed with the possibilities of an unknown world.

Amazon Prime Video has premiered the trailer for Small Axe: Alex Wheatle, the fourth and penultimate film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series for the streaming platform. Alex Wheatle will drop on December 11th, following Mangrove (November 20th), Lovers Rock (November 27th), and Red, White and Blue (December 4th).

Like the other entries in the Small Axe series, Alex Wheatle tells a story within London’s West Indian community from the late Sixties to the mid-Eighties. (The title is derived from the African proverb, “If you are the big tree,...

If there’s a sense of planetary alignment in the timing of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe – five films about London’s West Indian community airing weekly from this Sunday on BBC One – it’s not by design. Over a decade in the making, the creators couldn’t have known that these stories would land in a year marked by both the global Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, and the disproportionately devastating impact of Covid-19 on black communities in the UK.

The collision of 2020’s events with five stories celebrating black British history feels fortuitous to the cast. “The timing of it is so trippy,” says actor Shaun Parkes, who plays Frank Crichlow in the first film in the series Mangrove, about London’s real-life Mangrove Nine protest and Old Bailey trial.

Speaking at the BBC Small Axe press launch chaired by Akua Gyamfi,...

For the third year, the UK’s three leading financiers, the BFI, BBC Films and Film4, in collaboration with the British Council and the UK government’s ‘Great’ campaign, will be showcasing up-and-coming UK talent in Cannes via the ‘Great 8’ program. Scroll down for the lineup.

Highlighted on Tuesday May 14 during a private reception at the Hotel Gray d’Albion, the event will reveal unseen footage from eight UK projects in post-production. These are relatively low-budget UK movies in the Cannes marché with breakout festival, commercial or critical potential. Guests will comprise international buyers and festival programmers.

Movies selected in recent years include Michaela Coel musical Been So Long, which was nabbed by Netflix in a multi-million dollar deal soon after the festival, Michael Pearce drama Beast, which went on to play at festivals including Toronto, London and Sundance, and Brian Welsh’s Beats.

Great 8, 2019 Lineup

Calm With Horses

UK...

The lineups for the Mavericks, Discovery, and Tiff Kids parts of the Toronto Film Festival were announced, wrapping up a series of lineup announcements for the Toronto International Film Festival.

With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.

The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...

Bill Murray is coming to Toronto folks. Actually, the film he stars in (Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent) is having its official World Premiere launch at the jaw-dropping 285 feature film 2014 Tiff line-up. In the final batch of items we finally get the confirmation that 2014′s Palme d’Or Winner Winter Sleep (which gets added along with a trio of others to the Masters Programme) will show, and Tomm Moore’s highly anticipated Song of the Sea (among the four item line-up for Tiff Kids) also lands. Worth mentioning are the sprinkling of add-ons to the various other sections (Marjane Satrapi’s Sundance preemed The Voices, Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank and the world preem of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers) with a Studio Ghibli docu item being fitted into the Tiff Docs, but it is the Discovery Programme that finally takes shape.

The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...

I have no idea how significant their roles will be, but it's still good to know that Wunmi Mosaku and Sharlene Whyte will get some screen-time in the upcoming BBC One dramedy series, Truckers. It's been a few months since Tambay first told us that Top Boy actor Ashley Walters would be joining John Dagleish, Harry Treadaway, Sian Breckin and Jenn Murray in the series created by William Ivory, described as a bitter-sweet character-driven show about getting by in difficult times.  The series will follow an eclectic group of irascible characters, men and women, all of whom work for the same trucking company, driving 40 ton lorries across the Midlands. In each...