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This spring FX’s “American Crime Story” returned for its second season, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” which explores the murder of the famous fashion designer (played by Edgar Ramirez) by serial killer Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss). It’s the early front-runner to win Best Limited Series based on the combined predictions of hundreds of Gold Derby users who have entered their picks in our predictions center thus far. The first season of “Acs,” “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” also won top honors in 2016, so a victory for “Versace” would make this the first series since “Prime Suspect” to repeat as Best Limited Series.

Anthologies have had a TV revival in recent years. Ryan Murphy helped re-popularize the form with “American Horror Story,” which debuted in 2011. Since then we’ve seen other anthologies like “Fargo,” “American Crime” and “Black Mirror” earn acclaim and awards. But since that...

To celebrate ITV Studios Home Entertainment’s fantastic Christmas DVD box set collection, including classics such as Prime Suspect, Jeeves & Wooster, Darling Buds of May and The Catherine Cookson Collection, we’ve taken a look at stars past and present – unearthing some modern-day stars with very humble beginnings on the little square box that sits in the corner of the living room…

1) Catherine Zeta-Jones

Although Catherine Zeta Jones began acting in her local theatre, she found her breakthrough role in playing Mariette Larkin in The Darling Buds of May at the tender age of 22. Jones has seen gone on to become a Hollywood A-lister, married to A List resident Michael Douglas and acting with someone of the biggest film stars including Sean Connery, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Liam Neeson, Tom Hanks, and Billy Crystal, in such films as The Mask of Zorro, America’s Sweethearts, The Haunting, Intolerable Cruelty and Chicago,...

Versatile producer and director who made Prime Suspect an enduring success

Paul Marcus, who has died of cancer aged 56, was best known for his award-winning work as producer of the television series Prime Suspect. However, most of his career was devoted to directing, for theatre and cinema, as well as for TV.

The first series of the police drama Prime Suspect, written by Lynda La Plante and following Dci Jane Tennison (played by Helen Mirren) as she led her first major murder investigation, was aired by Granada TV in 1991, to wide acclaim. Marcus was asked by Granada to take over as producer on the second series. He bravely invited an unknown director, John Strickland, to oversee the drama, but his choice proved justified, with Prime Suspect 2 matching the success of the first series and receiving an International Emmy award as well as Bafta recognition.

Fired by the belief that...

In general, we think of David Thewlis as a thoroughly solid actor who is undoubtedly a good person, even when playing revolting (the pimp who serves neighborhood pedophiles in Prime Suspect 3). He has also played romantically obsessed (French poet Paul Verlaine in Total Eclipse), a bemused hero (Edward in1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau), and of course a patently good guy (Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter franchise). The British actor started his artistic life in a band but decided to study acting at London's Guildhall School of Music & Drama when his friends did so. His breakout performance came nearly 10 years into his career, as "rambling street philosopher" Johnny in Mike Leigh's 1993 film Naked, earning Thewlis awards and accolades for playing the fugitive rapist. But in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Thewlis may have given a milestone performance, delving so profoundly into the mind of a...