Top posts

• Outlander will be "around for a while"

  02 August 2016 ( #Diana Gabaldon, #Emmy Awards, #Outlander, #Starz )

  Outlander, the sci-fi, time-travelling romance starring Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, will be gracing our TV screens for a while yet. Starz CEO Chris Albrecht has promised that the future of the drama, which is based on Diana Gabaldon's bestselling...

• Northanger Abbey (2008): from novel to film, Catherine's imagination

  23 November 2014 ( #Andrew Davies, #Jane Austen, #Northanger Abbey, #PBS Masterpiece )

  NOVEL Excerpted from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Volume I, Chapter 3. "I see what you think of me," said [Tilney] gravely — "I shall make but a poor figure in your journal tomorrow." "My journal!"[replied Catherine] "Yes, I know exactly what you...

• New adaptation of mystery adventure classic The Moonstone on the BBC

  18 July 2016 ( #BBC, #LoveToRead, #The Moonstone, #Wilkie Collins )

  It will air as part of the BBC #LoveToRead season, supported by BBC Learning. Thomson will play the legendary Sergeant Cuff, with Hadland as the pious and unwittingly hilarious Miss Clack. John Thomson says: "The Moonstone is a classic novel, and this...

• Thompson and Hopkins reunite in King Lear

  06 October 2017 ( #Howard's End, #King Lear, #Shakespeare, #The Remans of the Day )

  Sir Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson are reuniting on screen to star in Shakespeare's King Lear for the BBC. It will be adapted and directed by Richard Eyre and will also feature Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent, Christopher Eccleston and Jim Carter. Filming...

• New adaptation of Cider with Rosie

  25 August 2014 ( #BBC, #BBC One, #Cider with Rosie, #Laurie Lee )

  Ben Vanstone adapts coming-of-age story Cider With Rosie gets BBC One adaption for season of classic 20th-century literature. Adapted by Ben Vanstone (The Borrowers, Merlin) from Laurie Lee‘s classic novel, the 90-minute film from Origin Pictures is a...

• The Hour series 2 on arte in November

  14 November 2013 ( #BBC, #Ben Whishaw, #Peter Capaldi, #The Hour )

  TROIS ÉPISODES À 20H50 LES JEUDIS 21 ET 28 NOVEMBRE 2013 À l'antenne de la BBC 1957, l’équipe de l’émission "The Hour" revient pour une deuxième saison plus brillante, plus retorse et plus d’époque que jamais. On retrouve pour ces six nouveaux épisodes...

• British programmes at the 2016 Emmy award ceremony

  19 September 2016 ( #Downton Abbey, #Got, #Maggie Smith, #Sherlock )

  America's love of quintessential Britishness was very much in evidence at the Emmy awards on Sunday night, with multiple wins for two of our most popular exports, Sherlock Holmes and Downton Abbey. Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat and producer Sue Vertue...

• The Hollow Crown 2 on the BBC in 2016

  25 March 2014 ( #BBC, #Sam Mendes, #Shakespeare, #The Hollow Crown )

  BBC director general Tony Hall today unveiled plans for what he described as the Corporation’s “strongest commitment to the arts we’ve made in a generation" with an extra £2.75m given to arts programming. Just weeks after announcing plans to move youth-orientated...

• How different was BBC1's The Night Manager to its original book?

  18 September 2016 ( #BBC, #John Le Carré, #The Night Manager, #Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy )

  Who would have thought that the BBC’s dramatisation of The Night Manager, the very model of a modern spy story, should have had its genesis almost 70 years ago? In 1947, a 16-year-old schoolboy is sent to Paris by his father to collect a debt from the...

• Period Dramas are often accused of anachronisms. Period Literature can be guilty too.

  08 November 2013 ( #anachronism, #costume drama, #literature, #period drama )

  Whether we're reading the Booker prize books or watching Downton Abbey, we all love to catch out an author in an anachronism. Philip Hensher, in a piece on this year's Booker longlist, found problems in several books, and took particular issue with the...

• There should be more episodes per series

  14 June 2014 ( #Game of Thrones, #Georges RR Martin, #Spoilers, #The Song of Ice and FIre )

  Echoing the thoughts of fans, George RR Martin has spoken of his regret that HBO's Game of Thrones is only ten episodes long, instead of the 13 he thinks the adaptation of his fantasy novels requires. Martin, author of The Song of Ice and Fire series...

• BBC One to adapt The Go-Between

  25 August 2014 ( #BBC, #BBC One, #LP Hartley, #The go-Between )

  Joanna Vanderham has been cast in BBC One's The Go-Between , which will form part of its season of classic 20th century literature. Vanderham, who has appeared in The Paradise, Dancing On The Edge and Banished, will play Marian Maudsley in the film. She...

• BBC1 should be more distinctive and broadcast more Sherlock

  09 July 2014 ( #BBC, #BBC Trust, #BBC1, #Sherlock )

  BBC1 should take more creative risks and not rely on a handful of familiar and long-running titles and personalities, the BBC Trust said today. It also reported that fans of shows like Sherlock were disappointed by limited runs of their favourite programmes....

• Agatha Christie on the big screen

  13 September 2016 ( #agatha christie, #crooked house, #gillian anderson, #julian fellowes )

  EXCLUSIVE: Agatha Christie is finally headed back to the big screen. Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson, Stefanie Martini, Terence Stamp and Honor Kneafsey are joining Max Irons and Glenn Close to star in an upcoming adaptation of Christie’s whodunit...

• Armchair Nation: An intimate history of Britain in front of the TV by Joe Moran

  26 September 2013 ( #BBC, #early years of television, #history of television, #Margaret Thatcher )

  Armchair Nation: An intimate history of Britain in front of the TV by Joe Moran A book review ; clickable link: here Interesting tidbits: "Moran leads us into a lost world of primitive technological wonderment, with the first BBC broadcasts of the 1930s...

• New Agatha Christie adaptations on the BBC

  29 June 2014 ( #Agatha Christie, #BBC, #Hercule Poirot, #Miss Marple )

  The BBC says it is now the home of Agatha Christie adaptations after striking a deal with the writer’s estate that will see David Walliams play the Queen of Crime’s lesser known sleuth, Tommy Beresford. The part of Tommy's wife and fellow detective Tuppence...

• There should be more episodes per series

  14 June 2014 ( #Game of Thrones, #Georges RR Martin, #Spoilers, #The Song of Ice and FIre )

  Echoing the thoughts of fans, George RR Martin has spoken of his regret that HBO's Game of Thrones is only ten episodes long, instead of the 13 he thinks the adaptation of his fantasy novels requires. Martin, author of The Song of Ice and Fire series...

• The French novel that has inspired Game of Thrones

  04 April 2014 ( #Game of Thrones, #George RR Martin, #Les Rois Maudits, #Maurice Druon )

  Game of Thrones is "fantasy". The TV series, and the books on which it's based, A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, is set in mythical Westeros. In the north, a massive wall of ice keeps out barbarian "wildlings" and zombie-like "white walkers"....

• New adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover

  21 August 2014 ( #BBC, #BBC One, #DH Lawrence, #Lady Chatterley's Lover )

  The Borgias star Holliday Grainger is to play the lead in a new BBC1 adaptation of DH Lawrence’s raunchy classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Grainger, who played Lucrezia Borgia in Showtime’s Jeremy Irons-fronted TV saga, will play the part of Constance...

• Location, Location, Location

  18 March 2014 ( #Game of Thrones, #George RR Martin, #HBO, #locations )

  With season four of Game of Thrones almost upon us, locations manager Robbie Boake takes us on a video tour of the Belfast locations and sets from the fantasy drama series. “We do things akin to feature films – if not at a higher production level at some...

• Should the BBC have axed period drama The Paradise?

  13 February 2014 ( #Au Bonheur des Dames, #BBC, #Emile Zola, #The Paradise )

  BBC1 drama The Paradise will not be returning for a third series. That's right, the shiny doors of Moray's department store are being closed for the final time. Denise will be devastated. The show, which starred Emun Elliott, Joanna Vanderham and Sarah...

• Sherlock will be back sooner than expected

  02 July 2014 ( #BBC, #BBC1, #Conan Doyle, #Sherlock )

  The last series saw Sherlock’s life change a lot - he returned from the dead, his best friend John Watson married Mary Morstan and he met his match in Charles Augustus Magnussen. After the briefest of exiles, Sherlock came back only to face one of his...

• Man Booker winner adapted for TV

  26 August 2016 ( #BBC, #Eleanor Catton, #Man Booker Prize, #The Luminaries )

  Eleanor Catton's Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries is to be made into a BBC drama series. The six-part adaptation, also written by Catton, is a Victorian mystery tale set during the New Zealand gold rush. The New Zealand author became the...

• A review of Netflix's Persuasion

  24 August 2022 ( #Jane Austen, #Netflix, #Persuasion, #review )

  Netflix’s 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s final completed novel is out – and it’s not a traditional take on the Regency romance. Dr Lizzie Rogers, a historian specialising in the 18th century, explores an adaptation that subverts expectations“The essence...

• Why GoT is even more popular than you think

  24 May 2014 ( #A Song of Ice and Fire, #Game of Thrones, #George RR Martin, #GoT )

  The fact that HBO’s Game of Thrones is a significant part of our pop-cultural landscape is undeniable. Most of you can rattle off at least a few House words and some of the more dedicated among you have even memorized the spelling of Targaryen. But Game...