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Raunchy French TV epic Versailles enlists British actors to usurp Wolf Hall’s crown
2 hours ago
Young stars of Merlin and Vikings head the cast bringing Louis Xiv’s lavish court to life, as France’s £20m ratings smash comes to BBC2
Welcome to the French Wolf Hall. Versailles, a historic court drama to rival the Hilary Mantel epic for sexual and political scheming, with lavish locations to dwarf Downton Abbey, is coming to BBC2 later this month. But amid the intrigue and affairs of the heart, the biggest surprise to viewers may be that this French production was made in English and stars two young actors from this side of the Channel.
“At first we thought we were going to get our heads ripped off,” said Alexander Vlahos, from Llantrisant, near Cardiff. “A pair of British actors daring to play these historic French characters. But it has gone down very well.”
I didn't quite know how big it was, [then] at the costume fitting I realised »
- Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
The Handmaid's Tale is coming to Hulu – with a white man at the helm
11 hours ago
It’s great news that the feminist dystopian novel will be adapted into a TV series. But why tell progressive stories onscreen if we can’t learn from them?
Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopian classic The Handmaid’s Tale is on its way to a series adaptation – Hulu in charge, Atwood consulting, and Elisabeth Moss starring as the titular handmaid Offred.
Related: Margaret Atwood: 'In Tolkien, there are hardly any women at all'
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- Devon Maloney
The new Foster’s advert
17 hours ago
It’s goodbye to Brad and Dan as Foster’s move away from laddish ads
Aw, mate. Foster’s have finally called time on the two beach-bum agony aunts so marinaded in blokey Aussie banter they could legitimately be called ripperologists. Say g’day to the new guy: Tom, an amiable drongo seeking his true calling.
While drudging away in a dry cleaners, Tommo has a brainwave: by half-inching various outfits, he can test-drive possible vocations while also charming the ladies. Suave long-haul pilot? No worries! Dashing medic in scrubs? The sheilas will love it! Smouldering matador? Ok, probably not an outfit you’d find in a suburban dry cleaners but it’ll look hilarious in the montage. Crucially, this is all framed as a knockabout Catch Me If You Can-style caper rather than the behaviour of a calculating, master-of-disguise pickup artist. The Mr Benn approach also opens up »
- Graeme Virtue
The Secret review – Infidelity? It's what God would have wanted
19 hours ago
James Nesbitt leads a gripping true-crime drama where churchgoers are driven to wickedness by misplaced affections
Music lessons. Like personal trainers, they lead to trouble – sordid infidelity, sometimes worse. If your partner expresses an interest in taking up an instrument, discourage them quickly: it almost certainly means they’re intending to stray.
Here in The Secret, (ITV) Bible-bashing Baptist dentist Colin is helping married teacher and fellow happy-clapper Hazel with a few basic guitar chords. This finger here, this one here … ooh, and this one here. Next thing you know, they’re strumming each other, fornicating wickedly.
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- Sam Wollaston
Why I love… Brandy
20 hours ago
‘A braided angel, a mortal with an immortal voice and the sweetest smile you ever saw, Brandy was everything I wanted to be’
Long before we pledged Twilight allegiance to Team Jacob or Team Edward, there was a pop culture moment that required teens to take sides. It was 1998, and the contenders were singers: Monica, who had sung gospel since the age of 10 and whose short haircut left me awestruck; and a braided angel, a mortal with an immortal voice and the sweetest smile you ever saw. Brandy was everything I wanted to be.
Brandy’s debut single, I Wanna Be Down, was perfect for a 12-year-old who read Just Seventeen and wanted more than anything to be a grownup. She sounded like she could be your friend, and looked like it, too: her playful braids were a symbol of something wholesome – no sleek weave or mature pixie cut for her. »
- Bim Adewunmi
Blue Eyes recap: episode six – the Nazi Bonnie and Clyde are on the run
29 April 2016 2:10 PM, PDT
Mad Mattias the pin-up Nazi and his girlfriend Sofia are on the run, and they’re utterly upstaging everyone else – even the crazy corrupt politicos
Spoiler alert: this recap assumes you’ve seen the sixth episode of Blue Eyes on More4 or Walter Presents. Don’t read on if you haven’t.
Now, I’m not saying this is a huge problem, but I suddenly find myself responding very differently to the various interconnected worlds in Blue Eyes. The labyrinthine political mystery, with the added twist of some uranium mining deal that seems to necessitate a change to the constitution, is leaving me cold. Just sort it out, you crazy, corrupt politicos. But the visceral story of Mattias and Sofia, who are on the run from the police and last seen making love at dusk by a lake (how very Swedish!), is gripping.
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- Stephen Moss
Armed and dangerous: how Belfast became the capital of crime TV
29 April 2016 10:03 AM, PDT
The Secret, a new drama based on the startling story of a devoutly murderous dentist, is just the latest big-hitting series to be filmed in Northern Ireland. What made Ulster the crime TV hotspot?
While the obvious disadvantage of living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles was the risk of being killed by terrorists, a bonus was that incidents of other murder were very low. The police and army presence on the streets made homicide harder.
This statistical paradox makes even more extraordinary the true story dramatised in ITV’s new four-parter The Secret. Back in 1991, when Northern Ireland was effectively a militarised state, Colin Howell, a dentist in Castlerock, managed to murder his wife and his lover’s husband, who was an officer in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, then convince the cops that the pair had died in a suicide pact. Only deep into the peace process, in 2009, did it emerge what really happened. »
- Mark Lawson
The Durrells proves a rollicking delight for ITV
29 April 2016 9:50 AM, PDT
Series based on Gerald Durrell’s Corfu trilogy meets need for hit Sunday night drama to fill void left by Downton Abbey
The old adage of never working with children and animals is being tested by ITV with its main Sunday night drama. But The Durrells, a fun mix of gorgeous locations, four badly behaved kidults and an odd menagerie of animals, is proving a success for the broadcaster which has been searching for a Sunday night hit since Downton Abbey came to an end in December.
Based on Gerald Durrell’s Corfu trilogy, the drama starring Keeley Hawes as the whimsical widow fleeing a prewar Britain for the sunny Mediterranean is attracting an average audience of 5.9 million viewers on a Sunday night, nearly 2 million more than the channel’s average.
Related: If you haven’t read My Family and Other Animals, do so – preferably with a child
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- Jane Martinson and John Plunkett
The Punisher: Netflix to give Daredevil star his own spinoff series
29 April 2016 9:22 AM, PDT
Jon Bernthal will reprise his part as the vigilante character, who featured prominently in the second season of Daredevil on the streaming platform
Rumors have been swirling since last summer that Netflix was looking to give Marvel’s popular antihero the Punisher his own series. Now comes word that it’s indeed happening.
Following the character’s prominent role in the second season of the streaming platform’s popular comic-book series Daredevil, the vigilante is getting his own spinoff, titled Marvel’s The Punisher.
Related: Charlie Cox on playing Daredevil: 'My Mum sends me all my bad reviews'
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- Nigel M Smith
Barry Howard obituary
29 April 2016 8:45 AM, PDT
Actor best known for his deadpan role in the holiday camp comedy Hi-de-Hi!
The actor Barry Howard, who has died of cancer aged 78, was best known to TV viewers for his role in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi! as Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, who, with his wife, Yvonne, teaches ballroom dancing at Maplins holiday camp. Set at the turn of the 1950s, Hi-de-Hi! was created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, based on their experience of staging summer shows at Butlin’s. Howard had started his own career at Butlin’s after learning ballroom dancing at school.
Whereas once Barry and Yvonne (played by Diane Holland) had swept across the country’s top dance floors, they were now reduced to imparting their skills to holidaymakers in the fictional Essex seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea – and even taking part in what they saw as demeaning shows alongside the yellowcoats hired by the entertainments manager, Jeffrey »
- Anthony Hayward
Silicon Valley: the whip-smart satire that's Mark Zuckerberg's favourite show
29 April 2016 8:31 AM, PDT
By skewering San Francisco’s bitchiness and jargon, the tech comedy is winning fans across the Bay and beyond. We catch up with the creators about hackathons, Hitler ‘taches – and why they’ll never patronise nerds
The last time we saw Richard Hendricks, the painfully awkward computer programmer at the heart of tech sitcom Silicon Valley, he had just won a lawsuit to keep ownership of his startup company, only to be immediately ousted as CEO. Showrunner Mike Judge, the man behind animation hits King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head, admits the moment was inspired by the endless changes at the top of Twitter: “One guy said to me: ‘We have a saying here: it’s never to early to fire the founder.’”
It’s that kind of whip-smart, self-aware joke that has made Silicon Valley the biggest show in San Francisco Bay. It’s the story of »
- Sarah Hughes
Ad break: Evian, Natural Resources Defense Council, Com Hem, Ikea – video
29 April 2016 3:59 AM, PDT
Evian’s long association with babies continues with a beach-set offering in the first of our new commercials this week. It’s followed by a compelling advert reminding us to use all the food we buy; a Swedish broadband commercial celebrating childish imaginations; and a film for Ikea reminding us that we are the heroes of our own lives
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- Jason Stone
BBC’s global audience hits 348 million
29 April 2016 2:58 AM, PDT
Number of people tuning in to services such as World News and the World Service rose by 13% in the year to the end of March
The BBC’s global audience has grown to 348 million as the corporation continues its drive to reach 500 million people worldwide by 2022.
The number of people tuning in to services such as BBC World News and the BBC World Service grew by 13% year on year, or 38 million people, in the year to the end of March.
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- Mark Sweney
Line of Duty nicks top spot as 4 million watch finale
29 April 2016 2:36 AM, PDT
BBC2 police series beats ITV and BBC1 as 20.6% share of audience catches last episode of channel’s biggest ratings drama
BBC2’s explosive Line of Duty finale was watched by more than 4 million viewers – beating BBC1 and ITV on Thursday night.
The 90-minute climax to Jed Mercurio’s acclaimed police corruption thriller had 4.1 million viewers, a 20.6% share of the audience from 9pm last night.
Related: Line of Duty review – an intense, butt-clenchingly brilliant finale
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- John Plunkett
Government could ask BBC to trial pay service as it closes 'iPlayer loophole'
29 April 2016 2:16 AM, PDT
John Whittingdale will tell corporation to introduce passwords as part of TV licence crackdown, according to a report
The government could ask the BBC to trial a new paid-for service on the iPlayer as it cracks down on viewers without TV licences watching online for free.
Culture secretary John Whittingdale signalled last month that the government would rush through legislation to close the £150m “iPlayer loophole”.
Related: BBC and ITV in talks to launch a Netflix-style streaming service
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- John Plunkett
Viral video: James Corden's Beyoncé parody, Kanye West, Batman
28 April 2016 11:27 PM, PDT
Watch the comedian spoof the singer’s entire Lemonade album, the rapper interrupt a wedding speech and the Caped Crusader get animated
Calling all Beyoncé fans! Lemonade, the singer’s sixth album, may have been critically acclaimed by many, but we love James Corden’s parody, Lemonjames.
Batman fans are eagerly awaiting a new direct-to-video animated film, Batman: The Killing Joke, which features the voice talents of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Tara Strong. Meanwhile, Doctor Who is making space for a new companion.
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- Janette Owen
Line of Duty review – an intense, butt-clenchingly brilliant finale
28 April 2016 11:20 PM, PDT
The last time I was this involved in a case was when I was doing actual jury service
Twenty-three minutes! That’s how long DS Steve Arnott’s interview scene is in this feature-length Line of Duty (BBC2) series finale. Twenty-three minutes in a gloomy conference room with no external windows, three coppers asking questions on one side of the table, another, plus his lawyer, answering them on the other side.
Sounds procedural, a little dry maybe? Hell no. DS Arnott starts off with the confidence of an innocent man but is gradually ground down by the lies and calculated treachery of DS “Dot” Cottan facing him. It’s brutal, mental cage-fighting, and one of them – it looks like Arnott – is going down.
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- Sam Wollaston
Watership Down without the claws? You shouldn’t have bothered | Julia Raeside
28 April 2016 11:00 PM, PDT
The original was traumatic, but recycled, sanitised remakes of screen classics smack of too much fear
The new Watership Down adaptation, a four-part version of the classic animation about a warren of anthropomorphised rabbits, won’t be as harrowingly violent as the original. So says the executive producer of the collaboration between the BBC and Netflix which stars Olivia Colman and James McAvoy.
Related: The rabbit language of Watership Down made me feel I could conquer English | Philip Oltermann
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- Julia Raeside
Peep Show's David Mitchell and Robert Webb reunite for new comedy
28 April 2016 11:00 PM, PDT
Channel 4 sitcom Back, about a dysfunctional family running a pub, is written by Veep and In The Loop’s Simon Blackwell
Peep Show stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb will reunite for a new Channel 4 sitcom, Back, about a dysfunctional family running a pub.
The new comedy is written by Simon Blackwell, a regular collaborator with Armando Iannucci on In The Loop and Veep who also wrote episodes of Peep Show, which ended after nine series and 12 years last year.
Related: Peep Show review – the final ride of the El Dude brothers
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- John Plunkett
Friday’s best TV: Rick Stein’s Long Weekends; The Secret; Boomers
28 April 2016 10:20 PM, PDT
An Icelandic culinary special, a gripping start to a four-parter based on real-life crime starring James Nesbitt, plus the last episode of an amiable sixtysomething sitcom
Like many nations, Kenya has a problem with doping in sport. But the home of distance running is also in its own kind of trouble, as Ade Adepitan reports in this instalment of the superb foreign-correspondent documentary strand. Despite several ultimatums from the World Anti-Doping Agency, and the government promising to legislate conclusively on the issue next month, allegations of malpractice and corruption continue. Jack Seale
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- Jack Seale, Ben Arnold, Julia Raeside, Ali Catterall, David Stubbs, John Robinson, Mark Gibbings-Jones and Paul Howlett
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