News

Picture Claire Danes at the Golden Globe Awards in 2023 – Getty / Kevin Mazur

Claire Danes will lead one of Netflix’s newest mystery thrillers, The Beast in Me. Filming recently concluded, and the series will be released on Netflix in 2025. We’ll cover everything you need to know about The Beast in Me, including the plot, cast news, production updates, and Netflix release dates.

Two heavyweights are behind this show: Howard Gordon, who will serve as the showrunner, and Gabe Rotter, the creator and primary writer.

The duo worked on The X-Files in both its incarnations. Gordon is reteaming with Danes on this project, having previously worked together on Homeland, where Gordon served as co-creator alongside Alex Gansa. Gordon’s other credits include being the showrunner for 24 and, most recently, working on Accused for Fox and Hulu.

Pictured: Howard Gordan (left) and Gabe Rotter (right) – Courtesy of Netflix / Photo Credit: Lewis Abel...

Fresh off of playing the character Francis Cobb on the hit HBO series The Penguin, Deirdre O’Connell has signed on to join Claire Danes (Homeland), Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason), Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect), Natalie Morales (No Hard Feelings), David Lyons (Truth Be Told), and Tim Guinee (Horizon: An American Saga) in the cast of the the mystery thriller limited series The Beast in Me for Netflix – and Variety reports that O’Connell is just one of nine new additions to the cast! The other eight new additions are Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad), Hettienne Park (The Last of Us), Aleyse Shannon (Leverage: Redemption), Will Brill (The Oa), Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy), Bill Irwin (The Dropout), Amir Arison (The Blacklist), and Julie Ann Emery (Better Call Saul).

Created, written, and executive produced by Gabe Rotter, who previously worked on The X-Files, The Beast in Me has the following synopsis: Since the tragic death of her young son,...

Alex Westthorp Sep 19, 2016

We revisit Tom's Midnight Garden, Moondial, The Chronicles Of Narnia and a few lesser-known UK children's TV series...

Read our look-back at UK kids' fantasy dramas 1980 - 1984 here.

By 1985 British TV's children's drama had really hit its stride, achieving "a balanced diet of programmes" as Edward Barnes, the head of the BBC children's department observed. The late 80s, arguably, saw a new golden age for spooky and magical kids drama. Excellent production values, improved significantly by well-honed special effects work using Quantel, Paintbox and Harry, and moreover some interesting casting - often of very talented newcomers - produced some of the most memorable dramas of the era.

The second half of the decade saw the BBC riding high on the back of the success of their state-of-the-art adaptation of John Masefield's Box Of Delights. Meanwhile, anthology series Dramarama was going from strength to strength on ITV.

Gun to your head - or, rather, powerful laser device pointed close to your groin - you could probably list all six actors who've played James Bond.

But Connery, Brosnan, Moore and so on are the just the tip of the (admittedly quite small) iceberg, as this list of the "other" Bonds proves...

1. Bob Holness

Best known for everyone's favourite pee-themed, letter-obsessed quiz show, Holness enjoyed a wide and varied career before he settled down behind the Blockbusters desk, once working as an airborne traffic reporter and briefly holding down a job in a South African printing press.

How he then ended up as secret agent James Bond 007 seems as great a mystery as "Who are the kind of parents that call their daughter Pussy Galore?" But he did, thanks to a 1956 BBC radio play based on Moonraker.

2. Barry Nelson

Eight years before Sean Connery met Dr No, Barry Nelson...

Science has been under attack of late and I’m not sure why. Some want to tear down the discoveries and words of caution by scientists, as if to discredit them like an urban legend. No one wants to put money into space programs anymore, and there are those who continue to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to the environment, greenhouse effect, global warming and other scientific truths. It’s not always easy to understand science but to outright deny it is a movement that is befuddling as much as it is frustrating. So what better time than to revive Cosmos, the TV show hosted by the late scientist Carl Sagan, who succeeded in breaking down the walls of science, putting the discoveries in a digestible format that would help communicate the wonders of science to non-scientists.

Led by his widow Ann Druyan and Steve Soter,...

Alex's series looking back at the film careers of actors who've played the Doctor finishes with Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi...

Feature

Read the previous part in this series: the film careers of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, here.

By 2009, the new version of Doctor Who had become not only an integral part of Saturday night television and a huge Christmas ratings winner but also an international success all over again. David Tennant, who had played the Time Lord since 2005 and was, arguably, more popular than any Doctor since the mighty Tom Baker hung up his scarf in 1981, had announced his resignation from the part he loved in October 2008. Many wondered how the incoming showrunner, Steven Moffat, would follow Tennant and what kind of show would emerge.

Tennant spent much of 2009 on stage in Hamlet and was only able to devote small amounts of time to Doctor Who. Occasional specials...

It’s always a delight, an honour and a privilege for this writer to interview some of the industry’s veteran actors- masterful performers with a wealth of experience and anecdotes to give. William Morgan Sheppard is one of those great character actors, whom you’d likely recognise from his work on various Star Trek films and series, his appearance on Doctor Who with his son Mark in 2011′s The Impossible Astronaut, and a whole back catalogue of other TV series and films. Sheppard is a man skilled on screen, on stage and in his prolific voiceover work, such as Biker Mice from Mars.

It was a pleasure to conduct the following interview with the classically trained actor and former member of the Merchant Navy. So whether you’re an actor established or aspiring, or just interested in great reminiscences and anecdotes from a humble and modest old pro who...

Kieran Kinsella

Appropriately enough for this time of year, Acorn Media’s latest batch of DVD releases includes The Fall. It’s a Belfast based psychological crime drama in which Dsi Stella Gibson attempts to hunt down a sadistic serial killer who seems to delight in deviousness. Somewhat unusually for a crime drama, the killer is identified fairly early on as Paul Spector. Thereafter, Spector and Gibson become embroiled in a game of cat and mouse that lasts through five suspensful episodes. The relationship between Spector and Gibson is similar to the one involving Hannibal Lector and Clarice except for the fact that Lector was banged up while Spector is on the loose.

X-Files actress Gillian Anderson takes on the role of Gibson and she seems quite at home on British TV these days having enjoyed success in recent hits such as Great Expectations. Her nemesis is the rather less...

As I mentioned in one of my most recent articles (most recent here being a relative term…) Doctor Who as a whole is specifically designed to be as weird as possible.

Or to put it in a slightly more up-with-people kind of way, Doctor Who was specifically created to be a program that showed us things that no other program on television could, which is why the theme music was deliberately realized by the lovely and extraordinarily talented Delia Derbyshire to sound as unlike anything you’d ever heard anywhere else in the world.

Yet it’s really a shame that over the years the style of the theme tune has fallen into sounding exactly like most other sci-fi theme songs (full orchestra, a bit military.) But that’s another discussion for another day.

So given that the initial to do list for the show was – ‘Step One: Show lots...

Endeavour Rocket

N Conrad

PBS Masterpiece’s best detective show returned tonight with another episode that was full of twists, turns and a dash of romance. However, this time I was able to spot the killer within the first few minutes of the show. No, it wasn’t because the script wasn’t clever — it was very good — it was simply because of the casting. Craig Parkinson (Whitechapel) is far to good at playing villains to be sidelined as a factory floor foreman. He had to be the villain and indeed he was although there were lots of red herrings along the way.

It was great to see Martin Jarvis, who seems to have discovered some kind of anti-aging potion because he hasn’t visibly aged in the last 40 years. Anton Lesser is superb as the hob-knobing police chief and at times he really steals the show. However, Shaun Evans...

David Suchet is filming his final Hercule Poirot film 'Dead Man's Folly'.

The film is one of the final five starring Suchet in his 13th series as author Agatha Christie's detective, alongside 'Elephants Can Remember', 'Curtain; Poirot's Last Case', 'The Labours of Hercules' and 'The Big Four'.

Zoë Wanamaker returns as Poirot's unwitting sidekick Ariadne Oliver and the pair are joined by a cast including Sean Pertwee, Sinead Cusack, Tom Ellis, Martin Jarvis, Sam Kelly and Stephanie Leonidas.

'Dead Man's Folly' is written by Nick Dear, directed by Tom Vaughan and produced by David Boutler.

The book was published in 1956 and centres around a house inspired by Christie's former holiday home Greenway, now a National Trust-owned property.

While it has already been shot, the last film to air will be 'Curtain; Poirot's Last Case'.

Suchet was cast as Poirot for ITV in...

The man who's given voice to the Caped Crusader for 20 years now across games, animated features, and television won't be returning for the "Arkham" prequel, according to WB Montreal.

Speaking with South Africa's Nag magazine, a WB Montreal representative explained that since "Arkham Origins" was a prequel, they wanted to go another direction for voice talent. While the studio, who's taken over the franchise from "Arkham City" and "Arkham Asylum" developer Rocksteady, didn't say just yet who would be playing Batman, they did announce that Nolan North would have multiple roles in the game including the Penguin and central villain Black Mask. Tom Kane and Martin Jarvis would be making their return from the previous "Arkham" games as Commissioner Gordon and Alfred.

Conroy, who's voiced Batman since the debut of "Batman: The Animated Series" has reprised the role everywhere from "Justice League" Netherrealms' "Injustice: Gods Among Us." With his gravelly yet human voice,...

Since Doctor Who began, if you forgave its occasional production shortfalls, it paid you off generously with Amazing performers and casting. And in the Classic Series, casting often was everything. The New Series mostly continues the impeccable standard. I stand with a majority of fans and say they’ve Never blown casting the role of the Doctor, and more often than not the companions have been perfectly rendered too. Many, Many iconic villains are what they are not because of ring modulators or Dalek casings – They were effortlessly portrayed through perfect casting, sometimes by names that were justly famous already (Martin Jarvis, Kylie Minogue, Brian Blessed, Julian Glover, and Sir Ian McKellan for example) or who rose to fame shortly thereafter (We can count Andrew Garfield, Martin Clunes, and Carey Mulligan amongst those who broke out on “Who”).

Sometimes, though….they get it So wrong. New and Classic Who sometimes...

Actor known for his roles as clergymen, favourite uncles and tragic-comic characters

There is a great tradition in the rotundity of actors, and Roger Hammond, who has died aged 76 of cancer, stands proudly in a line stretching from Francis L Sullivan and Willoughby Goddard through to Roy Kinnear, Desmond Barrit and Richard Griffiths, though he was probably more malleably benevolent on stage than any of them.

He reeked of kindness, consideration and imperturbability, with a pleasant countenance and a beautiful, soft voice, qualities ideal for unimpeachable clergymen, favourite uncles and tragic-comic characters such as Waffles in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (whom he played in a 1991 BBC TV film, with David Warner and Ian Holm), a man whose wife left him for another man on his wedding day but who has remained faithful to her and forgiving ever since.

Hammond grew up in Stockport, Lancashire. His chartered accountant father was managing director of his own family firm,...

Outnumbered, the multi-award-winning comedy series from Hat Trick Productions, which captures the turbulent chaos of family life, is back on BBC One with a new six-part series starting on Friday 2 September and followed by a Christmas special.

In the new series, the family is confronted by an array of issues ranging from death, drugs, terrorism and getting old, to food science, Top Gear, the joy of ventriloquism and the perils of Subbuteo.

The casting director avoided stage-school talent, instead undertaking a lengthy audition process which involved lots of game playing, determined to find children who would enjoy the filming process. So the three juvenile leads came out at the top of the fairly exhausting casting process. Andy: "They're all really interesting to watch and they've all got very interesting, funny personalities. Confident, but also excellent actors."

Tyger Drew-Honey returns as Jake Brockman

Tyger was born Lindzi James Tyger Drew-Honey, he is now 15 years old,...

PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, Disney, cert 7, out now

The vocal talents of veteran actor Martin Jarvis, whose velvet purr can be heard narrating Just William or Jeeves in Manhattan on BBC Radio 4, pops up here on Disney/Pixar's Cars 2 doing an impersonation of Michael Caine (playing an animated Aston Martin). Is this the moment where licensed video games become a proper art form or was the pay good?

The target audience won't give a flying flugelhorn as they are nine-years-old, probably male and definitely hyperactive. All they care about is revving engines and squealing tyres, which this game delivers in large doses. More akin to Mario Kart than Gran Turismo, stage after stage is packed with cartooney, crash-bang-wallop and the fun is accessible for multiple players whether online or in the same room.

Years of bitter experience have taught us to give licensed games a wide berth, but this...

Vengeance On Varos is one heck of a scary tale. Not terrifying monster scary - we have a revolting green slug thing who's probably more amusing than terrifying - but scary as in how prophetic Philip Martin's story is.

Vengeance revolves around a bleak Orwellian society that is dependent on TV. Not just any old TV, but the most sadistic form of entertainment that you can get. Torture. Blindness. Acid baths. Men in nappies. It's all to be found on the TV channels on Varos, and those are just the ones that we either see or hear about. Presumably, there's other classics such as Strictly Come Dismembering, The Axe Factor and Masterdeath to be lapped up by the Varosian masses. What's worse though is that practically every programme has a punch-in vote, right down to the Governor's broadcasts. It's simple - the Governor of Varos makes a broadcast announcing...

The BBC has announced the cast for its new adaptation of Just William. The channel confirmed reports that Outnumbered star Daniel Roche has landed the lead role in the series, which is based on Richmal Crompton's novels. The Thick Of It's Rebecca Front and Linda Green star Daniel Ryan will appear as William's parents, while Warren Clarke and Caroline Quentin will feature as new neighbours the Botts. Denis Lawson, John Sessions and Bruce Mackinnon have signed up to play William's teachers, while Martin Jarvis, who worked on the classic Just William recordings, will narrate the series. Isabella Blake-Thomas will play William's nemesis Violet. Other cast members include Judy Parfitt, Roy Hudd, Harry Melling and Bertie Carvel. Cbbc (more)...

They have integrity, balls and great shoes. So will

EastEnders' new hack follow the brief?

With the news that Martin Jarvis joins EastEnders this month as Harvey Freeman, a journalist and potential love interest for Peggy Mitchell, many will be watching to see which reporter-in-a-tv-show boxes he will tick. (I'll put a pony on him wearing a trenchcoat.)

Hacks are a great plot device. They act as a link for characters who wouldn't usually interact, they are allowed to narrate into their Dictaphones when ordinary characters can't speak to camera, and they can offer a neat, unashamed drink-in-hand summary at the end of an episode.

Journalists on TV are always badgering neighbours and sticking cameras over fences. They are, though, frequently ethical and they certainly never knock out a couple of sly Daily Mail articles to pay the mortgage and spend the rest of their careers denying them. Here's...

Martin Jarvis finds it ''thrilling'' playing an 'EastEnders' lothario. The 68-year-old actor - who portrays womanising journalist Harvey Freeman in the BBC One soap - thinks it is fantastic and ''dangerous'' when his alter-ego gets caught up in a love triangle with both Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor) and Pat Evans (Pam St Clement). He said: ''Being a potential thorn between the two Albert Square roses is as thrilling - and perhaps even as dangerous - as anything else I've ever done. There'll certainly be some shocks heading Harvey's way of the coming weeks. ''It seems that romance is definitely on the cards, but with ..

Peggy Mitchell and Pat Evans will feud over a new man. The 'EastEnders' love rivals - portrayed by Barbara Windsor and Pam St Clement - will lash out at each other once again as they battle to win the attentions of a suave journalist who visits Albert Square in May. A source said: ''The sparks fly. Peggy and Pat both fancy their chances.'' The object of their desires will be a charming middle-aged journalist named Harvey Freeman - who will be portrayed by veteran actor Martin Jarvis. The 68-year-old star is delighted he's been cast in the BBC One soap and can't wait to work ..

Veteran actor Martin Jarvis has joined the cast of EastEnders as a potential love interest for Pat and Peggy, it has been revealed. The 68-year-old - who was awarded an OBE in 2000 - will play Harvey Freeman, a mysterious 60-something freelance journalist who is tasked with reporting on the local elections for the Walford Gazette. Described as a chancer and a ladies' man, Harvey first appears in Albert Square in May as best friends Pat and Peggy decide to run against each other for councillor. Following her decision to pull out of the running last year, Queen Vic landlady Peggy - played by matriarch Barbara Windsor - enlists herself as this year's candidate. However, Peggy is seething when Pat (Pam St Clement) also decides to stand. With their friendship put to the test, their local election battle is further heightened by Harvey's (more)...

Better watch your back, Mel Gibson -- there's a new star-studded Bible in town: A 79-cd audio version, in fact, with quite the illustrious cast. There are a few obvious choices -- ahem, Jim Caviezel as Jesus? -- but a lot more unexpected ones: Jason Alexander as Joseph (as in technicolor dream coat), Lou Diamond Phillips as Mark, Harry Hamlin as Nehemiah, and my favorite, Luke Perry as Judas. Dylan McKay! Is Judas! The mind boggles. Also, Marisa Tomei lends her voice to Mary Magdalene, which is somewhere on the sublime border of "what the hell?" and "actually...yes." Poor...

As we reported in August, the BBC have made a deal with MSN for the web portal to provide streamed classic TV content - and this includes Doctor Who, it has been confirmed. So far you can catch all 6 epsides of 1965 adventure The Web Planet, which stars William Hartnell as the Doctor, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jacqueline Pearce as Barbara Wright and Maureen O'Brien as Vicki. Co-starring many others including Martin Jarvis, The Web Planet sees the Tardis drawn off-course to the...

Martin Jarvis has been cast in an episode of The Bill. The veteran British actor will play Leslie Downey, a character who finds himself impaled on a scaffolding pole while driving his soft-top sports car, in an episode scheduled to air at the end of July. As an emergency crew fights to save him, Sergeant Nikki Wright (Gillian Taylforth) stays by his side. Jarvis said of the role: "I have always admired The Bill since I worked with its first producer/director Peter Cregeen on another series 25 years ago. (more)...