Making Space For Naylor, Wayne, And CosgroveBookmark and Share

Sunday, 31 March 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
Red Dwarf co-creator Doug Naylor, composer Jeff Wayne, and animator Brian Cosgrove will be discussing their work and achievements at special events later this year.

Arranged by the entertainment and arts outfit The Space, the interviews will take place at The Basement in Kensington Street, Brighton, with Wayne, who composed the musical version of The War of the Worlds, and Naylor appearing together on Thursday 13th June.

Cosgrove - who with his business partner Mark Hall found fame by bringing to TV screens animated series such as Danger Mouse, Chorlton And The Wheelies, Jamie And The Magic Torch, and Count Duckula - will be appearing there on Tuesday 6th August, along with Oscar-winning sound designer Glenn Freemantle.

Last November, Cosgrove was presented with a BAFTA Special Award at the academy's Children's Awards for his outstanding creative contribution to the industry.




FILTER: - Red Dwarf - Animation - Miscellaneous - Special Events

Missing Believed Wiped At The BFIBookmark and Share

Thursday, 14 March 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
BFI Southbank is to run a series of Missing Believed Wiped specials this year to celebrate 20 years of its initiative recovering lost TV material.

The aim is to highlight the most recent finds as well as revisit some old favourites, and the first special - entitled An Evening with John Henshall - will take place on Tuesday 28th May, starting at 6.30pm.

It was from the former television cameraman and director of photography's collection that missing footage of David Bowie performing The Jean Genie on Top of the Pops in 1973 was recovered and shown by the BFI at its 2011 MBW event. Henshall had designed special Telefex fish-eye lenses to create optical effects for the performance - recorded on 3rd January and broadcast for the one and only time the next day - and kept the footage for his showreel, not realising until 2011 that the BBC had wiped its copy.

The BFI said:
John has had a long career in the TV industry and was found to have hundreds of tapes of rare and missing bits of television within his collection, and these are being catalogued by our colleagues at Kaleidoscope, the classic television organisation.

He will join us on stage to share some of those gems with us and regale us with the fascinating – often hilarious – stories behind the productions. Expect more magical moments of missing music, segments of lost dramas, rare pop video footage, and other unmissable examples of the flotsam and jetsam of British television.

We hope to be joined on the night by some of the talents involved in the items screened.

Some of the items will be screened in full at a later MBW event.

UPDATE: 11th APRIL:
Tickets to the event are now on sale via this link.




FILTER: - BFI - UK - Special Events

In Conversation With Beryl VertueBookmark and Share

Monday, 7 January 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
Top TV producer, media executive, and former agent Beryl Vertue will be discussing her career at the BFI Southbank next month.

The multi-award-winning Vertue started out as a secretary at the writers' agency Associated London Scripts, where she went on to represent Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes, Johnny Speight, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson, and Terry Nation, who she ensured retained partial rights to his creation the Daleks. She was also the agent for comedians Tony Hancock and Frankie Howerd.

In the 1960s, she formed Associated London Films, which saw her involved with, among many productions, the feature films of 'Till Death Us Do Part, Steptoe And Son, and Up Pompeii, and in 1967 she was invited by the showbusiness impresario and entertainment entrepreneur Robert Stigwood to join his famed Organisation after it absorbed ALS. While there she pioneered the concept of selling British TV formats to America and Europe, with two of the most notable hits being 'Till Death Us Do Part, which became All In The Family, and Steptoe And Son, which was reworked as Sanford And Son.

Among her early producing credits for British TV was The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, for which she was the executive producer. While at the Robert Stigwood Organisation, she also executive-produced the film version of Tommy.

Vertue - the mother-in-law of Steven Moffat - left the Robert Stigwood Organisation in the 1980s to form Hartswood Films - one of the first independent TV production companies in the UK and whose many hits have included Sherlock, Men Behaving Badly, Coupling, and Jekyll.

She was given an award by Women In Film And Television in 1999 for outstanding contributions to the industry, and the same year the Royal Television Society made her a member of its Hall of Fame. Vertue was awarded an OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to independent television production, and four years later was given the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television by BAFTA. In 2010, she and her daughters Debbie and Sue - both board directors of Hartswood - were given the Women In Film And TV Achievement Of The Year Award for Sherlock, and last March she was given both a Lifetime Achievement Award, at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards, and the Harvey Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, at the Broadcasting Press Guild TV and Radio Awards.

Beryl Vertue In Conversation takes place on Tuesday 26th February at 8.40pm, when she will be interviewed by Paul Jackson, ITV's ex-director of entertainment and comedy and the current chief executive of Eyeworks, after which audience members will be able to ask her questions.

Tickets to the event go on sale to the general public on Tuesday 15th January at 11.30am.

UPDATE - 19th January: A season of related screenings has been announced, as follows:




FILTER: - UK - Special Events

Institut Francais To Hold TV FestivalBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 19 December 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The Institut Francais in London is to hold a festival showcasing the best of new productions from both sides of the Channel as well as European TV shows.

The cross-cultural organisation's second Totally Serialized season runs from 16th to 20th January, featuring big-screen showings, premières, and screenwriters, directors, and actors attending, including Hugh Bonneville and Jean Reno.

    FESTIVAL PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
  • Première of the first episode of series 4 of the French murder investigation drama Spiral, introduced by actor Grégory Fitoussi who plays Deputy Prosecutor Pierre Clément in the show, which airs on BBC Four
  • Conversation with Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville
  • A night of Doctor Who fun with scary episodes, a masterclass with writer Toby Whithouse, fancy dress, music, a quiz, and mystery guests
  • Screening of the first episode of the mini-series Labyrinth, based on the multi-million-selling novel by Kate Mosse, followed by a panel Q&A with key creatives
  • World première of the crime series Jo attended by the show's star, Jean Reno
  • UK premières of the Scandinavian TV series Real Humans and French shows Rebound, Spin, and The Church Men
  • World première of the action thriller mini-series Flight of the Storks, directed by Jan Kounen
  • A panel on TV screenwriting with Jack Thorne (The Fades, This Is England), Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars), and French screenwriters
  • Comedy marathon of French and British sitcoms (The Thick of It, Peep Show, Kaboul Kitchen, Workingirls)
  • A screening of the first episode of Skins followed by a Q&A with the show's creator, Bryan Elsley




FILTER: - UK - Special Events

Wallace And Gromit's Musical MarvelsBookmark and Share

Friday, 7 December 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
Tickets were going on sale today for a Wallace & Gromit show taking this year's special BBC Prom concert to a wider audience in Australia and England.

Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels, which takes place next spring, is billed as a family show with the audience invited behind the scenes as Wallace prepares to perform his Proms commission My Concerto in Ee, Lad.

As with the Prom, specially-filmed Wallace & Gromit animated scenes show the duo's backstage exploits as they prepare for the performance, with the audience being entertained meanwhile with classical favourites - this time including music by Mozart, Debussy, and Stravinsky. After the interval there will be a special screening of the multi-award-winning Wallace & Gromit film A Matter of Loaf and Death with the soundtrack performed live.

The music will be performed in Australia by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in England by the Aurora Orchestra.

Merlin Crossingham, the show's creative director, said:
I am delighted that Wallace And Gromit's Musical Marvels is going on the road, after such a fabulous premiere as part of the 2012 BBC Proms. It is brilliant that more audiences will get the chance to experience this great show, featuring live orchestral music and bespoke W&G animation.
The concert dates and venues are as follows:

  • Friday 8th February: The Plenary, Melbourne, 7.30pm
  • Saturday 9th February: The Plenary, Melbourne, 11am
  • Saturday 30th March: Brighton Dome, 2.30pm and 7pm
  • Sunday 31st March: Hammersmith Apollo, 7pm
  • Monday 1st April: Hammersmith Apollo, 2.30pm and 7pm

Tickets were being made available via this link for the Australian concerts, this link for the Brighton Dome performances, and this link for the Hammersmith Apollo ones.

The Wallace & Gromit BBC Prom (number 20 in the 2012 series) was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday 29th July.




FILTER: - Animation - Wallace and Gromit - Special Events

Wizards Vs Aliens Preview To Be HeldBookmark and Share

Friday, 24 August 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A preview screening of two episodes from the forthcoming new CBBC series Wizards Vs Aliens is to be held in London.

The family TV show was created by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford as a successor to The Sarah Jane Adventures, following the untimely death last year of Elisabeth Sladen. The show's premise sees aliens called the Nekross intent on devouring all magic on Earth, with one 16-year-old boy - Tom Clarke, played by Scott Haran - standing in their way. Tom seems ordinary but is, in fact, a wizard, and he is helped by his friend Benny Sherwood, played by Percelle Ascott.

Guest stars in the 12-part series include Annette Badland, Michael Higgs, Jefferson Hall, Gwendoline Christie, and Ruthie Henshall, with Don Gilet and Nina Sosanya making guest appearances as Benny's parents.

Writers for the series include Clayton Hickman, Joseph Lidster, and Gareth Roberts, and last month Ford tweeted:
Just watched a cut of @OldRoberts953 [Gareth Roberts's] Wizards vs Aliens eps. Completely and utterly awesome.
The preview takes place at the BFI Southbank on Friday 5th October at 6.15pm and will also feature a question-and-answer session with special guests including Ford.

There is currently no direct link via which to buy tickets. However, as well as the usual post, phone, and in-person methods, tickets can also be bought by going to the BFI website, then clicking on the "What's on at BFI" button at the top of the home page, hovering your mouse over the "Events" tab, and selecting the "Previews and in-conversations" option.





FILTER: - CBBC - Wizards Vs Aliens - Special Events