Iconic Film Costumes To Go On Show

Thursday, 3 May 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
TravisBicklecostumeDorothyGalecostumeIconic film costumes spanning a century in cinema are to go on display in London later this year.

The exhibition Hollywood Costume will feature more than 100 clothes worn by such memorable characters as Dorothy Gale, as played by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, and Travis Bickle, portrayed by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, both pictured right.

Other outfits at the V&A exhibition will include those of Darth Vader and Indiana Jones, as well as Captain Jack Sparrow, Scarlett O’Hara, and Holly Golightly, while the 2002 film version of Spider-Man, whose costumes were designed by James Acheson, will also be featured.

The three-gallery display will be divided into sections (or Acts), namely Deconstruction, Dialogue, and Finale, starting in the Charlie Chaplin era and finishing with the cutting-edge design of today.

Deconstruction "puts us in the shoes of the costume designer and illuminates the process of designing a character from script to screen", while Dialogue "examines the key collaborative role of the costume designer within the creative team", and Finale "celebrates the most beloved characters in the history of Hollywood and the 'silver screen'".

The promotional material adds:

Costume designers are story-tellers, historians, social commentators, and anthropologists. Movies are about people, and costume design plays a pivotal role in bringing these people to life. Hollywood Costume illuminates the costume designer's process in the creation of character from script to screen, including the changing social and technological context in which they have worked over the last century.

Billed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see film costumes that have previously never left their private and archival collections in California, the exhibition, which is being curated by Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis (who is married to the film director John Landis), Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, and Keith Lodwick, runs from 20th October 2012 to 27th January 2013.




FILTER: - Exhibitions - UK

Sherlock Is Named Best TV Drama

Tuesday, 1 May 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
Sherlock has added another gong to its collection after being named Best TV Drama at today's South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The BBC One series was co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and in an interview, which can be seen by clicking on the BBC News link below, Moriarty actor Andrew Scott praises the writing - with a subsequent forthright show of gratitude by Gatiss for his comment! During the interview, Gatiss refers to his and Moffat's "love of Conan Doyle's genius".

The BBC's mockumentary series Twenty Twelve, which had been nominated for Best Comedy, lost out to Channel 4's Fresh Meat at the awards ceremony, which was held at The Dorchester in London.

The first series of Sherlock won last year's BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series, and Martin Freeman, who plays Dr Watson, won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. Series 1 also scooped the Arqiva award for Best Terrestrial Show at last year's Edinburgh International Television Festival, Charlie Phillips won the 2011 BAFTA Television Craft Award for Editing: Fiction, and the show has bagged five BAFTA Cymru honours.
(newslink: BBC News)







FILTER: - BBC - Twenty Twelve - Comedy - UK - Drama - Sherlock

Wizards Vs Aliens Filming Starts

Friday, 27 April 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
WizardsFilming on CBBC's new drama series Wizards Vs Aliens has started at the BBC's Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff and around the area.

Created by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford, it stars Scott Haran as Tom Clarke and Percelle Ascott as Benny Sherwood, pictured right, who join forces to fight the alien Nekross race.

The series of 12 half-hour episodes, which combine magic and sci-fi, will air on CBBC in the autumn and will also feature Annette Badland, Michael Higgs, Jefferson Hall, and Gwendoline Christie. Don Gilet and Nina Sosanya make guest appearances as Benny's parents.
Tom Clarke is a seemingly ordinary boy who loves football. He lives with his dad, Michael, and grandmother, Ursula, in an ordinary house in an ordinary street - but there's something different about Tom. He has an astonishing secret - his family are wizards! When the alien Nekross arrive on Earth hungry for magic there's big, big trouble in store for all wizardkind.

With the help of his friend and science super-brain Benny, Tom must stop them - but will these two unlikely heroes succeed or will the Nekross devour all the magic on Earth, with disastrous results for the whole planet?
The show underwent a change of name before filming. During an interview on 20th March by BBC Radio Wales's Roy Noble, Davies said somewhat disparagingly:
It was called Aliens Vs Wizards until a lawyer stepped in, but there we go. By Easter it will probably be called Chickens Vs Rabbits or something.
It fills a gap in children's TV left by the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures and is produced by BBC Cymru Wales in association with FremantleMedia Enterprises. The executive producers are Russell T Davies, Bethan Jones, and Gina Cronk for the BBC, and Bob Higgins and Sander Schwartz for FremantleMedia Enterprises. The producer is Brian Minchin and co-producer Phil Ford.

(newslink: BBC Media Centre)




FILTER: - CBBC - Wizards Vs Aliens

Sherlock And Twenty Twelve In Line For Awards

Monday, 2 April 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
Sherlock is in the running for a gong at this year's South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The BBC One show, co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, has been shortlisted for Best TV Drama, alongside This Is England '88 and Top Boy, both from Channel 4.

Meanwhile, "mockumentary" series Twenty Twelve, starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, and Olivia Colman, with a narration by David Tennant, which has just started its second series on BBC Two, has been nominated for Best Comedy. It faces competition in the form of Fresh Meat (Channel 4) and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (BBC Two).

The awards ceremony will take place at The Dorchester in London on Tuesday 1st May, to be televised on Sky Arts 1 HD at 9pm. Melvyn Bragg - who fronted the 1977 BBC2 documentary Whose Doctor Who - will be the master of ceremonies. He said:
Although this is a celebration of British arts by British artists, we have a world-class list of nominees. The South Bank Sky Arts Awards are the only one of their kind in the world, and we very much look forward to a great day, where we'll recognise and honour the best talent in this country.
The awards take their name from The South Bank Show - an arts magazine series for ITV that Bragg presented and which ran for 32 series between 1978 and 2010. It is being revived by Sky Arts from Sunday 27th May.
(newslink: Sky Arts)




FILTER: - BBC - Twenty Twelve - Comedy - UK - Drama - Sherlock

Yes, Prime Minister To Return To TV After 24 Years

Thursday, 29 March 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The hit political sitcom Yes, Prime Minister is to be revived for a new series - 24 years after its last TV episode.

The classic comedy channel Gold has commissioned six new episodes from the BBC - the satirical show's original home. It will be written by the TV series' original authors, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, who will be basing it on their theatrical production of two years ago.

Yes, Prime Minister, which ran for 16 episodes over two series between 1986 and 1988, was a sequel to the equally popular Yes, Minister and starred Paul Eddington as PM Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, and Derek Fowlds - who was formerly married to Adrienne Corri - as his Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley. Both shows' opening title sequences were drawn by the artist Gerald Scarfe, who is married to Jane Asher.

The new episodes will be set in the present day and will see Hacker at the head of a coalition government, facing, says Gold:
the greatest economic crisis in a generation, with European economies going down the toilet, a tempting energy deal from an unusual source, a leadership crisis with his coalition partners, a Scottish independence referendum and the greatest moral dilemma he has ever faced.
Jane Rogerson, of Gold's parent company UKTV, said: "The political landscape in Britain today is the perfect setting for Yes, Prime Minister to return."

Mark Freeland, the head of BBC In-House Comedy, said: "The much-extended tour of Yes, Prime Minister in theatres up and down the country proved that this iconic comedy has lost none of its satirical bite."

Casting is yet to be announced. Eddington died in 1995 and Hawthorne in 2001.

It is Gold's first commission since it was announced last month that it would inject "double-digit millions" into creating original content over the next two years. As part of the overall investment by UKTV, sister channel Dave recently finished recording a new six-episode series of Red Dwarf, to be shown later this year.
(newslink: BBC News)




FILTER: - BBC - Red Dwarf - Comedy - UK - Yes Prime Minister

Being Human Series 5 To Have Fewer Episodes

Monday, 26 March 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
BBC Three has commissioned a fifth series of Being Human for next year - but it will only comprise six episodes.

Series four, which ended last night, was eight episodes long, as were series two and three. The reduction in the number of episodes for series five will see the show return to its first series length.

Of the characters seen in series four, creator and executive producer Toby Whithouse would only say that werewolf Tom, played by Michael Socha, and vampire Hal (Damien Molony) would be back. He added:
The response to series four has been terrific. We're thrilled that the audience has taken the new cast into their hearts with such enthusiasm and affection and we're delighted to have this opportunity to expand their world further, exploring new characters and telling new stories. A heartfelt thank-you to all the fans for their unstinting support and to the BBC for letting us mess up the sandpit for a fifth year.

Zai Bennett
, the controller of BBC Three, said:
In Being Human, Toby has created an extraordinary, funny, touching, supernatural world and I'm thrilled to be bringing it back for a fifth series.

The show is made by Touchpaper Television for BBC Cymru Wales, and managing director Rob Pursey said:
When we first made the pilot episode for Being Human we knew we had something special. But we didn't dream we'd be making a fifth series. It's a testament to the ambition of the writing and the performances that it's stayed so fresh. We're very grateful to the BBC for continuing to support a drama that doesn't play by the usual rules.
Series four's viewing figures averaged 950,000 per week.

(newslink: BBC Media Centre)




FILTER: - Being Human