War & Peace; great, but has anyone read it? Not the cast of the new BBC production

By books, Costume Dramas, , , , ,

 

War & Peace, which took more than two years to make and included filming in three countries, brings together a crop of the finest young acting talent to play characters whose lives are turned upside down by impact of Napoleonic expansionism on Tsarist Russia Photo: BBC

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/12078324/War-and-Peace-great-but-has-anyone-read-it-Not-the-cast-of-the-new-BBC-production.html  | via @Telegraph

The Crimson Field

By Costume Dramas, , , ,

The Crimson Field
Date: 14.03.2014Last updated: 14.03.2014 at 18.02
Category: Drama

Sarah Phelps’s gripping new drama presents one of the Great War’s untold stories. In a tented field hospital on the coast of France, a team of doctors, nurses and women volunteers work together to heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches.

The Crimson Field stars: Joan Livesey played by Suranne Jones, Kitty Trevelyan played by Oona Chaplin, Matron Grace Carter played by Hermione Norris, Flora Marshall played by Alice St. Clair, Rosalie Berwick played by Marianne Oldham, Sister Margaret Quayle played by Kerry Fox, Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Brett played by Kevin Doyle, Orderly Corporal Peter Foley played by Jack Gordon, Captain Miles Hesketh-Thorne played by Alex Wyndham, Captain Thomas Gillan played by Richard Rankin, and Quartermaster Sergeant Reggie Soper played by Jeremy Swift.

The 6×60 series is a BBC Drama Production for BBC One, distributed by Endemol Worldwide Distribution.

Anne Pivcevic (The Lady Vanishes, Great Expectations) is the BBC executive producer, Sarah Phelps (Great Expectations, EastEnders) is an executive producer, creator and writer, and Annie Tricklebank (The Lady Vanishes, Lark Rise To Candleford) is producer. David Evans (Downton Abbey, One Night), Richard Clark (Doctor Who, Life On Mars) and Thaddeus O’Sullivan (Silent Witness, Single-Handed) are the directors.

The series was shot on location in Wiltshire and was commissioned for BBC One by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama and Danny Cohen, former Controller, BBC One, now Director of Television.

BBC One announces Aidan Turner to star as Poldark in new series

By books, Costume Dramas, , ,

Date: 28.02.2014Last updated: 28.02.2014 at 09.30Category: BBC One; Drama; Commissions and casting

BBC One today reveals Aidan Turner (The Hobbit Trilogy, Being Human) will star as Ross Poldark in Debbie Horsfield’s adaptation of Winston Graham’s acclaimed saga set in 18th century Cornwall, made by Mammoth Screen and directed by Ed Bazalgette (The Guilty, Endeavour).

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession… falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest – only the bankers are smiling. It’s 1783 and Ross Poldark returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin.  But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

Aidan Turner says: “I’m very excited to play Ross Poldark for the BBC and it’s obviously a huge challenge to honour the extraordinary character Winston Graham created and who Debbie Horsfield has brought new life to. But there’s a terrific team coming together and the scripts are superb, so I can’t wait to get started.”

A man of contradictions, Ross has a strong sense of social justice but a contempt for authority. He’s a man of principle yet frequently a rebel. Reckless yet full of integrity. Charismatic but down-to-earth. Volatile yet fiercely loyal. Torn between two women and two social classes. A hero to most, a scourge to many.

 

Read more.

Death Comes to Pemberley, Boxing Day, BBC1, 8.15pm

By Costume Dramas, , , ,

I131125_181954_1079832oTextCS_52102191JPG-2851023

Imagine a Jane Austen book crossed with a gripping murder mystery case – that’s the premise for this ravishing three-part period drama.

Adapted from PD James’ best-selling novel and marking the 200th anniversary of Pride And Prejudice, it is set six years after the events of Austen’s iconic book and features many of her most popular characters.

In a fantastic ensemble cast, Anna Maxwell Martin plays Elizabeth, while Matthew Rhys portrays dashing Mr Darcy and Jenna Coleman pops up as frivolous Lydia Wickham.

“People know these characters so well, but Death Comes To Pemberley is a slightly new twist on them,” says Jenna, 27, who also stars in Doctor Who this Christmas.

Peaky Blinders

By Uncategorized, , ,

 

Cillian Murphy in tweed, on a horse, beneath a foreboding sky. And don’t get me started on those caps and dusters. I just love a costume drama set in a world of working class manliness. According to the reviews, they’ve given it a sort of revisionist edginess that will, I think, resonate even more with today’s audience.

Edited to Add: I’ve just watched the first episode, and I’m not quite sure what they were trying to achieve with the music.

 

Peaky Blinders

BBC Two; Drama

Peaky Blinders is an epic, six-art gangster drama set in the lawless streets of post-war Birmingham on the cusp of the 1920s.

Britain in 1919 is a tumultuous mix of despair and hedonism, a nation cleaned out by the extravagances of the Great War. Returning soldiers, newly minted revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival in an industrial landscape gripped by economic upheaval.

Thomas Shelby and his family run the most feared and powerful local gang, the Peaky Blinders. Named for their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, they make money from illegal betting, protection and the black market.

But Tommy’s ambitions go beyond running the streets, and when a crate of guns goes missing from an arms factory, he recognises an opportunity to move up in the world. Crime pays, but business pays better.

As rival gangs, Communist revolutionaries and IRA Fenians descend on Small Heath in pursuit of the weapons, Winston Churchill dispatches a ruthless police chief from Belfast to impose order on an increasingly lawless city and recover the guns.

Peaky Blinders is a dazzling picture of England taken directly from the pages of our secret history. They will now burst into life in a vibrant evocation of a hedonistic age. The Shelbys will be a family to be reckoned with.

Peaky Blinders is a six-part drama series for BBC Two by Caryn Mandabach Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions. It is created by Steven Knight, and written by Steven Knight, Stephen Russell and Toby Finlay. It is directed by Otto Bathurst and Tom Harper, and produced by Katie Swinden.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01fj945