FIRST LOOK: Jason Sudeikis is lining up for a fourth season of Ted Lasso, with filming now underway on the next instalment of the Apple TV+ comedy.
All posts by Michael Pickard
Samuel L Jackson crowned NOLA King
FIRST LOOK: Samuel L Jackson is to lead his first TV series, Paramount+ drama Nola King, a spin-off from the Sylvester Stallone-led Tulsa King.
BBC sets launch for Unforgivable
TRAILER: Anna Friel and Bobby Schofield star in Unforgivable, the new BBC drama from Jimmy McGovern (Time) that is set to debut this Thursday, July 24.
Stenbeck to the future
A five-part biopic of Jan Stenbeck explores the life of the Swedish media mogul and reveals the personal cost of his professional success. Writer Alex Haridi, director Goran Kapetanović and executive producer Erik Hultkvist tell DQ about making Stenbeck (Vanguard).
High performance
After decades in Hollywood, Famke Janssen returns to her native language for Netflix’s Amsterdam Empire. She tells DQ how the role reconnected her with her past, and looks ahead to what the future may hold.
Young guns
NCIS: Origins stars Austin Stowell and Mariel Molino discuss stepping into this prequel series based on the US crime juggernaut, how Stowell sought to follow in original star Mark Harmon’s footsteps and their perfect partnership on set. For almost 20 years and more than 400 episodes, Mark Harmon portrayed Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in long-running CBS drama NCIS, a procedural drama exploring criminal cases relating to the US Navy and Marine Corps. So when Austin Stowell was cast to play the young Gibbs in prequel series NCIS: Origins, the actor knew he had enormous shoes to fill. “I was scared, for so many reasons,” he admits. “There were just so many ‘first times’ for me. It was the first time doing a network TV show, first time playing a character that had already been portrayed before me, to be number one on a call sheet. “I say so many times that there is no number one. The team is there, we’re all there, we are the one, but there was the pressure before getting there – and then you start to shoot and I feel like I didn’t even find my footing until we were 10 or 11 episodes in. Then it was all wrapping up and we felt it ramp up towards the finale yet again.” Luckily for Stowell, “I like pressure. I like to be put in that situation,” he continues. “I want the ball in my hands at the bottom of the ninth. When the game … Continue reading Young guns
Institutional horrors
Writer Benjamin Cavell and director Jack Bender take DQ inside the making of MGM+ supernatural thriller The Institute and discuss their partnership to bring this Stephen King adaptation to the screen.
Read all about it
Stars Mark Gatiss and Polly Walker take DQ inside the world of Bookish, a murder-mystery series that introduces Gabriel Book, a bookshop owner with the knowledge needed to help the police tackle some baffling cases in post-war London. He’s a member of comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen and co-creator of the BBC’s acclaimed detective series Sherlock. And now, the multi-talented Mark Gatiss is playing a detective himself in period murder-mystery drama Bookish. The actor, writer, director and comedian stars as the erudite and unconventional Gabriel Book who, from his antiquarian bookshop, helps the police to solve a variety of mysterious crimes. The show opens in 1946. Book is a maverick consultant for the local police, and the thousands of books that line the shelves in his bookshop in Archangel Lane – called Book’s – provide all the knowledge he needs to solve the most puzzling of crimes. His wife Trottie (Polly Walker) runs the wallpaper shop next door, but though they share a deep love, their union is a ‘lavender’ marriage to help conceal Book’s sexual orientation at a time when it was illegal to be gay. Connor Finch also stars as Book’s mysterious new employee Jack, Elliot Levey plays Inspector Bliss and Blake Harrison is Sergeant Morris, with Buket Kömür as the spirited Nora. Gatiss first pitched his idea for a period murder-mystery series to Walter Iuzzolino and Jo McGrath of producer Eagle Eye Drama after they asked him about the kind of project he wanted to make … Continue reading Read all about it
Unlocking The Institute
As MGM+ launches Stephen King adaptation The Institute, Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman tell DQ about starring in this supernatural thriller and exploring its themes of power, morality and resistance in a world where children with special abilities are imprisoned in the name of the greater good.
Fit for the Mitfords
Production designer Matthew Button and costume designer Claire Collins take DQ into the world of Outrageous, UKTV and BritBox’s period biopic of the real-life Mitford sisters, and reveal how they recreated British high society of the 1930s.
Robin Wright’s Girlfriend experience
With her new series The Girlfriend launching on Prime Video later this year, Robin Wright discusses her journey from acting to directing, reveals who predicted House of Cards would be a game-changer for TV and explains why AI will never replace actors. Through her role in House of Cards, Robin Wright was at the forefront of TV’s streaming revolution. It was also the project that gave her the chance to direct a series for the first time. Wright went on to shoot 10 episodes of the political thriller, which marked Netflix’s first original series back in 2013. And after subsequently directing 2021 feature Land and episodes of Ozark and Tell Me Lies, she’s now doubling up in front of and behind the camera once again for The Girlfriend. Based on the novel by Michelle Frances, the series stars Wright as Laura, a woman with a seemingly perfect life. When her son Daniel (Laurie Davidson) brings home Cherry (Olivia Cooke), her world is blown apart, convinced that Cherry isn’t who she says she is. But is Cherry really a manipulative social climber, or is Laura just paranoid and possessive of her only son? Wright was approached by series producer Imaginarium Productions with the offer to play Laura almost four years ago. The actor agreed – but asked if she could direct too. She then took charge of the first three episodes of the six-part series, which will launch on Prime Video worldwide later this year. As an actor shifting into directing, … Continue reading Robin Wright’s Girlfriend experience
BBC welcomes The Guest
FIRST LOOK: Gabrielle Creevy, Eve Myles, Sion Daniel Young and Emun Elliott star in The Guest, a four-part thriller debuting on the BBC this autumn.
Prime Video hunts down The Assassin
TRAILER: Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore star in The Assassin, a six-part action thriller that will debut on Prime Video in the UK & Ireland on Friday, July 25.
Cryptic crime
A world away from Downton Abbey, actor Phyllis Logan stars as a puzzle expert in murder-mystery series The Puzzle Lady (Murder Most Puzzling). She tells DQ about portraying this “ridiculous, eccentric” character, playing the lead and why the show “ticks every box.”
Channel 4 meets The Couple Next Door again
TRAILER: The Couple Next Door returns to Channel 4 for a second season on July 14, with a new story and a new cast featuring Sam Palladio, Annabel Scholey, Aggy K Adams and Sendhil Ramamurthy.
Marshall’s law
Following the debut season of CBS procedural Matlock, star Skye P Marshall reflects on updating the classic legal drama and working with Kathy Bates, and explains why she’d like to see a series based on US immigration agency ICE.
Anna Friel heads BBC drama Unforgivable
FIRST LOOK: Anna Friel, Bobby Schofield, Anna Maxwell Martin, David Threlfall and Austin Haynes star in Unforgivable, a new drama from Jimmy McGovern (Time) airing later this year on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
Beth foot forward
Writer and director Uzo Oleh takes DQ into the making of Beth, Channel 4’s first digital original drama commissioned for YouTube and its own linear and streaming channels, and outlines how he hopes the show can change audience perceptions of the meaning of ‘digital content.’
Masterpiece sets October launch for Maigret
TRAILER: Benjamin Wainwright takes the title role in Maigret, a new adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Parisian inspector coming to Masterpiece in the US this October.
Burning brighter
For the second season of Bay of Fires, Marta Dusseldorp revisits a series where she’s more than just the star. She tells DQ about expanding the show’s story, juggling multiple roles behind the scenes and catering for some unexpected visitors. It’s a piece of advice Marta Dusseldorp isn’t likely to forget in a hurry. The Australian star was on the Tasmanian set of Bay of Fires, filming a season two scene that finds her character Stella and Toby Leonard Moore’s Jeremiah moving a body bag – weighing heavy with a corpse inside – onto a truck before picking up another. Then during one take, they noticed a mysterious figure standing nearby, smoking a cigarette. “We keep acting, because we’re professionals, and this guy we’ve never seen before just looks at us and goes, ‘That’s a shit way to move a body,’ and walks out,” she tells DQ. Sadly, that particular take didn’t make the final cut. “But it was just one of those moments where I went, ‘This place is solid gold. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.’” Co-created, written, produced by and starring Dusseldorp, Bay of Fires was Australian streamer ABC iview’s most watched local drama of 2023, enthralling viewers with the trials and tribulations of Stella and her two children when their lives are suddenly upended and they are forced to relocate to the town of Mystery Bay. There, the locals – who dub the town ‘Misery Bay’ – are decidedly unwelcoming, and Stella soon discovers that they, … Continue reading Burning brighter