News

The Alien franchise is set to continue on the small screen with an “FX on Hulu” TV series called Alien: Earth, from Fargo creator Noah Hawley, which is aiming for a Summer 2025 premiere. While we wait to hear a specific premiere date for the show, FX has sent out five quick clips that are set on board the Uscss Maginot. These clips have been shared by journalist Germain Lussier, and you can check them out at the bottom of this article.

One of the first things we heard about the Alien TV series – and one of the most surprising things about it – is that it will be set on Earth (thus the title), a couple of decades before the events of the first movie. FX chairman John Landgraf has said the show will take place “right near the end of this century.” According to Deadline, the setting puts it “a few years before Prometheus,...

20th Television have dropped yet another teaser for Alien: Earth, their upcoming sci-fi horror series that will serve as a prequel to the first film in the franchise, revealing what happened back home on Earth two years before the events of the 1979 movie.

While we don't have an official premiere date, the series is slated to debut this Summer on FX on Hulu domestically and Disney+ via Star internationally. Also, with the Super Bowl right around the corner, there's a very real possibility that a full-length trailer could debut during the annual event, especially considering the Big Game is airing on Fox.

Plot details remain relatively under wraps, but the basic premise is as follows, "When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat."

Based on the quick teaser,...

20th Television have dropped yet another teaser for Alien: Earth, their upcoming sci-fi horror series that will serve as a prequel to the first film in the franchise, revealing what happened back home on Earth two years before the events of the 1979 movie.

While we don't have an official premiere date, the series is slated to debut this Summer on FX on Hulu domestically and Disney+ via Star internationally. Also, with the Super Bowl right around the corner, there's a very real possibility that a full-length trailer could debut during the annual event, especially considering the Big Game is airing on Fox.

Plot details remain relatively under wraps, but the basic premise is as follows, "When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat."

Based on the quick teaser,...

Naysayers be damned. The mainstream film industry may be on its last legs but the cinematic art form is alive and well. I enjoyed so many films this year I actually have two top-ten lists that are largely interchangeable. If you want to hear my other ten, feel free to check out the end of year review on my podcast The Cinematologists. Following on from last year’s approach, here are my ten for Dn. All ten were released in UK cinemas (or debuted on streaming) in 2024 and are listed here alphabetically.

Honourable mentions: The Delinquents, Sky Peals, The Holdovers, The Settlers, Sometimes I Think About Dying

10. Adam Sandler: Love You | Josh Safdie

The last two Sandler specials for Netflix have been wonderful. I admire his commitment to being silly, and sentimental. In a world as messy as this, there needs to be places for silliness, and there are...

The Alien franchise is set to continue on the small screen with an “FX on Hulu” TV series called Alien: Earth, from Fargo creator Noah Hawley. The show began filming in Thailand last year, then had to halt production after a month due to the actors strike. Filming resumed earlier this year and wrapped a few months ago – and now a teaser trailer has made its way online to let us know that the show has a Summer 2025 premiere window! You can check it out in the embed above.

One of the first things we heard about the Alien TV series – and one of the most surprising things about it – is that it will be set on Earth (thus the title), a couple of decades before the events of the first movie. FX chairman John Landgraf has said the show will take place “right near the end of this century.

Peeves the Poltergeist was a prominent character in the Harry Potter book series, so where was he in the movies? The mischievous poltergeist of Hogwarts appears in all seven novels as a disruptive force, but he was notably left out of the film franchise. Throughout the books, Peeves causes constant trouble for Hogwarts students and staff alike, blocking corridors with his hijinks and coming up with nasty songs. However, his exclusion from the Harry Potter films wasn't always the plan, with actor Rik Mayall filming never-seen scenes as the poltergeist for the first Harry Potter movie.

The Peeves Harry Potter movie's absence was glaring among fans. The character of Peeves was a constant trouble-making presence in the halls of Hogwarts throughout the books, teasing the students and often targeting Filch. He craved chaos and wasn't opposed to vandalism or throwing tangible objects. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Peeves fought to...

Dawn French is returning to the BBC to star in sitcom Can You Keep A Secret?, and here are the details.

Dawn French came to prominence alongside comedy partner Jennifer Saunders in the alternative comedy boom of the 1980s, where they honed their craft at The Comedy Store and, later, The Comic Strip. That was alongside the likes of Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Peter Richardson and Nigel Planer.

After appearing in The Young Ones, several Comic Strip films and Ruby Wax’s sitcom Girls On Top, French and Saunders starred in their eponymous sketch show, which ran on and off for over 30 years.

While Saunders became a solo star with Absolutely Fabulous, French played Gereldine Granger in Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer’s The Vicar of Dibley, which grew into one of Britain’s most beloved sitcoms.

According to Deadline, French is returning to the BBC to star...

Any bozo can watch TV. It takes nothing to plonk your butt down, jab at a remote, and spill Dorito crumbs on your neck while the pretty people on your box fight alien invaders.

To be a true TV fan requires homework. You have to learn the extra stuff that makes you somebody that’s hard to watch TV with – somebody who knows the behind-the-scenes reason why that character’s hair looks weird in that Christmas special cameo (they’re wearing a wig after shaving their head for a Marvel role), why there are only 12 episodes in that season (writers’ strike), or why two main characters barely feature in the same scene for eight seasons despite both mostly living in the same Westerosi castle (acrimonious break-up).

True TV fans know about Easter Eggs and running gags and fourth-wall-breaking references. They know to look in the back of shot for aliens in South Park,...

The Alien franchise is set to continue on the small screen with an “FX on Hulu” TV series from Fargo creator Noah Hawley, a show that began filming last year, then had to halt production after a month due to the actors strike. Filming resumed earlier this year, and continues to this day. A few months ago, we heard that Sandra Yi Sencindiver of Foundation had joined the cast to play “a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation” in multiple episodes… and in a new interview with Variety, Sencindiver said she believes that fans of Alien and Aliens will be pleased with what Hawley is doing with this show.

One of the first things we heard about the Alien TV series – and one of the most surprising things about it – is that it will actually be set on Earth, a couple decades before the events of the first movie. FX...

Jennifer Saunders reunites with the cast of Absolutely Fabulous for a new documentary called Inside Out. Here are the details…

Following the huge success of Bottom: Exposed earlier this year, Gold have commissioned a similar feature length documentary about Absolutely Fabulous called Inside Out. While Bottom: Exposed featured many interviews and talking heads, Inside Out reunites most of the cast – Whitfield passed away in 2018.

Series co-star Jennifer Saunders said to the British Comedy Guide, “I loved making Ab Fab but I can’t remember a great deal, so much of this retrospective is a revelation to me. Thank you Gold for this kind and helpful programme”.

Its other co-star, Joanna Lumley, added: “It was a fabulous wander down memory lane by actresses who only have the faintest grip on reality. Really thrilling, and I hope vastly entertaining. I loved every second”.

Saunders, along with double act partner Dawn French, began...

The Alien franchise is set to continue on the small screen with an “FX on Hulu” TV series from Fargo creator Noah Hawley, a show that began filming last year, then had to halt production after a month due to the actors strike. Filming resumed earlier this year, and continues to this day, although Hawley has already finished the episodes he directed himself. He’s doing his best to keep the details under wraps – but during a new interview on the Deadline podcast Crew Call, he revealed that Hulu is hoping to release the first two seasons of the show close together.

Hawley said, “They’re saying maybe don’t do two things at once on this show… their hope is to put a season two as close to season one as possible.” As for how involved executive producer Ridley Scott is with the series – it turns out, he’s not very involved at all.

From Bond to Barbie, behind every Hollywood film or television drama is an unsung hero doing the scary stuff. Meet the doughty men and women willing to take big risks to be part of the magic

I’ve been in the game since 1960. My first film was The Young Ones, starring Cliff Richard. I can’t have been more than 17, and was only paid a few bob. Already a black belt in judo, I went down and taught him some basics: mostly showing how to do some throws on the mats.

American TV bosses obviously didn’t learn many lessons from “Episodes,” the Showtime/BBC co-production which brilliantly skewered the habit of adapting British sitcoms, and removing all nuances, subtleties, and idiosyncrasies in the process. In the 13 years since its premiere, there’s been numerous failed pilots (“Spy”), ratings disasters (“Free Agents”), and entire series considered unfit for public consumption (“Us and Them”) which originated across the pond. Now the most singular UK comedy of the 2010s is going transatlantic.

The BAFTA-nominated “Friday Night Dinner” — which served up 37 episodes from 2011-2020 —stemmed from creator Robert Popper’s real-life secular Jewish family and their weekly Shabbat meals, explaining why everything from its suburban London home to its lovable oddballs feels so wonderfully specific. Disappointingly, Amazon Freevee’s “Dinner with the Parents” is as generic as its title.

The 10-part series on Freevee does attempt to retain some of the original’s quirks.

Alongside feature length documentary Bottom: Exposed, two extended episodes of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s sitcom will debut on Gold this month.

As far as double acts go, to a certain generation Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall are at the apex of anarchic comedy.

Beginning their career at the start of the alternative comedy movement, performing alongside the likes of Hale and Pace, Ben Elton and Andy De La Tour, their violent Twentieth Century Coyote stage act went quickly from The Comedy Store to The Comic Strip, which itself made the leap to television with their now iconic first film Five Go Mad In Dorset. It was quite the transformative time for television comedy, as it was broadcast on Channel 4 exactly a week before the first episode of The Young Ones debuted on rival channel BBC Two.

In 1991, meanwhile, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson debuted their masterpiece, Bottom.

Friday Night Dinner knows the truth about families. Not that they bicker, mock and childishly compete – sitcom’s known about that since Steptoe & Son. No, Friday Night Dinner knows that families aren’t made up of people; they’re made up of odd habits.

Did you ever invite a friend home from school and pray that none of your family’s Weird Stuff would leak out into the playground the next day? That your mum’s special word for a fart wouldn’t follow you down the corridor into Maths, and the dinner hall wouldn’t echo with the high-pitched voice in which you all talk to the dog? Perhaps you hoped against hope that your brother wouldn’t be wearing his comedy Viz Buster Gonad t-shirt, that no-one would see the wooden clothes peg holding open the choke on your dad’s car, and that nobody would call...

The actor, musician and troublemaker known for everything from Trainspotting to Fat Les opens himself up to your interrogations

Keith Allen: where to begin? You might know him as the guy who moves into the flat in Shallow Grave and then dies of a drug overdose, leaving a suitcase full of money and three flatmates on the prowl. Or as the dealer in Trainspotting who buys £16,000 worth of heroin from Renton and the gang. More recently he appeared as the dad in Eddie the Eagle and as the baddy in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London opposite Frankie Muniz, as well as in Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins.

Maybe you caught Allen as a beardy Scrooge in Mark Gatiss’ stage 2023 adaptation of A Christmas Carol. He’s been in The Young Ones, Spaced and Doctor Who. He co-wrote and appeared in the video for...

Under the old political regime in Taiwan it was difficult to make features, given the thematic and narrative constraints producers and directors had to obey. However, as these began to shift somewhat in the 1970s, the career of filmmakers such as Lee Hsing truly flourished as he began to tackle current issues, for example, in his Vertigo-esque “The Young Ones” or the drama “The Story of a Small Town”. Arguably one of his most well-known projects from that era is “Execution in Autumn”, a period drama set on the brink of the 1900s. Hsing has gone on record, stating this is his favorite film of his career, perhaps not only due to the nods at the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi, but also due to its universal and political themes.

Execution in Autumn is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

Throughout his life Pei Gang (Ou Wei), the...

The BBC have launched this year’s Comic Relief appeal, while Lenny Henry has also confirmed that he will step down as host.

Comic Relief launched in 1985 with a telethon that has since become embedded in British culture. Known as Red Nose Day, on account of the red noses sold as part of the appeal, over the years this has led to many classic comic moments, from The Young Ones singing Livin’ Doll with Cliff Richard, to Johnny Depp and Sting appearing in The Vicar Of Dibley, to Billy Connolly running naked through Trafalgar Square and Mr Bean infiltrating both Blind Date and a Torvill and Dean dance routine.

The BBC have launched this year’s appeal with a sketch featuring Alex Jones, Alison Hammond, Davina McCall, Gemma Collins, Dame Joan Collins, Jonathan Bailey, Nick Grimshaw, Rosie Jones and Simon Cowell, which you can see below:

Lenny Henry, who co-founded Comic Relief with Richard Curtis,...

Fargo creator Noah Hawley is making an Alien TV series for “FX on Hulu”, and the show started filming in Bangkok, Thailand last year – but then, after a month, production had to be paused to wait out the Screen Actors Guild strike. That strike is now over, and Alien is expected to resume filming any day now. As production revs back up, Deadline has learned that Moe Bar-El, whose previous credits include The Peripheral, Better, Femme, and Count Abdulla, has been cast in a recurring role. They just weren’t able to dig up any details on the role he’ll be playing.

Bar-El joins previously announced cast members Sydney Chandler (Pistol) as the meta-human Wendy, who has the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child; Essie Davis (The Babadook) as Dame Silvia, Alex Lawther (The End of the F*cking World) as a soldier named Cj,...

Fargo creator Noah Hawley is making an Alien TV series for “FX on Hulu”, and it actually started filming in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this year – but then production had to be paused to wait out the Screen Actors Guild strike. That strike is now over, and as Alien gears up to go back into production in the new year, we’ve been hearing new bits of casting news. Earlier this week, we heard that Timothy Olyphant (Justified) and David Rysdahl, who worked with Hawley on Fargo season 5, are in the cast. Now Variety reports that the main cast is rounded out by six more names: Babou Ceesay (Guerrilla), Jonathan Ajayi (Wonder Woman 1984), Erana James (The Wilds), Lily Newmark (Sex Education), Diêm Camille (Washington Black), and Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones).

These new additions join previously announced cast members Sydney Chandler (Pistol) as the meta-human Wendy, who has the body of an adult,...

Red Dwarf: The Promised Land is a highly anticipated feature-length special that reunites the familiar crew in an all-new adventure against the evil cat Rodon. The special garnered positive reviews, capturing the humor and charm that made Red Dwarf one of the best sci-fi shows of the '90s and a cult classic. The talented cast, including Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, and Robert Llewellyn, returns to their iconic roles, bringing the beloved characters back to life.

The Red Dwarf feature-length special Red Dwarf: The Promised Land saw the familiar crew return in an all-new adventure alongside several new cast members. Beginning in 1988, the cult classic science fiction comedy series follows the low-level ship technician Dave Lister (Craig Charles) as he is accidentally frozen and wakes up three million years into the future. The British sitcom has spanned the decades with seasons in the '80s, '90s, '00s,...

Sony Music Entertainment’s smash-hit interview podcast Out To Lunch is returning with a brand-new host, Ade Edmondson. He takes over from the previous host Jay Rayner. After breaking into the comedy circuit in the 1980s, Edmondson has starred in countless films and TV shows, including The Young Ones, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rain Dogs and several projects alongside his wife, Jennifer Saunders.

This list applies to UK streaming services

If you’ve had a tough day and need a laugh, this list’ll see you right. These are the British big guns. Big comedy guns, firing… laughter-bullets! Ak-47s of mirth, spraying chuckles through… look, yes, okay, that’s terrible. A stop to that. Agreed. We’re all just trying to do our best here.

Helping us to keep a grip when the world seems a scary place are these excellent British comedies, all available to stream on the UK’s various platforms. Find a bunch of comforting and familiar favourites and some newer arrivals below.

We’ll keep this list updated as shows enter and exit the streaming catalogues. Parents may also like a look at our best kids’ TV streaming recommendations, while here are our picks of the best British TV dramas to stream in the UK.

After Life

Ricky Gervais...

The contract says no crossover: he has it from 8am to 8pm and I have it 8pm to 8am.” In the first episode of The Flatshare on Paramount Plus, Tiffany (Jessica Brown Findlay) explains the intricacies of her unorthodox new living arrangement to her friend Maia (Shaniqua Okwok) over brunch. This kind of exchange is typical of a series – adapted from Beth O’Leary’s 2019 novel – that zeroes in on the day-to-day travails of renting in London.

The arrangement, though, is more of a bedshare than a flatshare: Tiffany’s nocturnal flatmate Leon (Anthony Welsh) will catch up on sleep in the one-bed apartment while she is out at work during the day. At weekends, though, Tiffany will have the place to herself, “so it’s actually a pretty good deal”. Maia’s face says otherwise – but anyone who has experienced the rental market in recent years has probably engaged in...

Click here to read the full article.

As he drove toward the Sonoma Raceway in a 275,000 Ferrari Roma, Nicholas Hoult was becoming increasingly nervous. “I’ve loved car racing since I was a kid, so the opportunity to actually do it, I would be absolutely insane to pass up,” the 32-year-old actor said, his sharp blue eyes widening behind oversized Fendi tortoiseshell sunglasses. “But it’s also terrifying. I think it’s always good to get yourself outside of your comfort zone.”

Hoult has had to drive on-screen many times before, in The Young Ones, in Collide, and most notably in Mad Max: Fury Road. But he has recently been prepping for a more difficult real-life role behind the wheel. He’s been training with Ferrari to potentially join their Challenge Series, a program of races the Italian supercar brand sponsors for owners of its cars.

Hoult drives an electric...

The Word was a magazine-style entertainment show that ran from 1990 to 1995 on the UK’s Channel 4. It was helmed by Mancunian motormouth Terry Christian and a medley of once and future stars, including Amanda de Cadenet, Dani Behr, Katie Puckrik, and Mark Lamarr. The show was the brainchild of Charlie Parsons and Terry Christian, who were tasked with filling the hip, cultural hole left behind by the departure of music-oriented, youth-skewed shows like The Tube.

The Word began life in August 1990 as a tame, tea-time shadow of the fearlessly innovative show it would later become. What saved it from becoming a real-life version of Nozin’ Aroun’ – the spoof youth show so insufferably condescending it prompted Rik to destroy his TV set in the anarchic 1980’s BBC sitcom The Young Ones – was the decision by Channel 4’s Chief Executive Michael Grade to shift transmission from 6pm to late-night. Unmoored from pre-watershed restrictions,...

Robbie Coltrane, the Scottish actor best known for portraying the lovable half-giant Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” film series, died October 14 in Lambert, Scotland, IndieWire has confirmed. He was 72.

Beginning his career as a theater and comic performer, Coltrane was a three-time BAFTA winner for his ’90s ITV drama series “Cracker.” After playing a memorable supporting role in the Pierce Brosnan Bond films “Goldeneye” and “The World is Not Enough,” he began his most well-remembered role in 2001, when he portrayed Hagrid in the first “Harry Potter” film. Coltrane appeared in all eight films in the series, and his portrayal of Hagrid won acclaim from fans. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II honored him with an Order of the British Empire for his service to the arts.

As portrayed in J.K. Rowling’s original book, Hagrid is the half-giant groundskeeper of the magic school Hogwarts and a frequent and constant ally of Harry...

Bamber Gascoigne, the first University Challenge host who became one of the UK’s most beloved TV quiz presenters, has died aged 87, his representatives confirmed to the BBC. Gascoigne died at his home in Richmond, London after a short illness and is survived by his wife Christina, who he was married to for more than 50 years.

Born in London, Gascoigne won scholarships to both Eton and Cambridge where he read English literature and wrote a musical, Share My Lettuce, that went on to star Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams.

His big break came in 1962 when he was selected as the first host for ITV quiz University Challenge, which was based on U.S. series College Bowl and is still airing today.

Gascoigne became a household name, presenting the show for 25 years and making phrases such as “Your starter for ten” and “I’ll have to hurry you” part of the everyday British lexicon.

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Velvet Goldmine (1998)Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine (1998) opens with a confession that swiftly becomes a command: “Although what you are about to see is a work of fiction, it should nevertheless be played at maximum volume.” Those words, mischievously repurposed from Martin Scorsese’s concert film The Last Waltz (1978), herald one of the great pop music fantasias: a cinema à clef that reimagines ’70s glam rock in an alternate dimension, where fictional versions of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and others perform a parallel version of history as we know it. Embracing the period’s mutable personae and camp energies, the film evokes the spirit of its patron saint, Oscar Wilde—depicted as the original pop star, descended to Earth from outer space—treating “art as the supreme reality and life as a mere mode of fiction,...

The Hollywood star recalls his childhood in San Jose, Sydney and Walton-on-Thames, falling for Grease and Macbeth – and his enduring love for The Young Ones

I saw Rocky at the Century 21 theatre in San Jose, California, when I was 11 and your mom still had to take you to the movies. Everybody wanted to be a boxer; everybody ran up the stairs; everyone did the impression: “Adrian!” It’s still one of the greatest movies of all time. I recently spoke to Stallone on the phone and had to tell him: “Man, you changed every kid’s life.”...

About two-thirds into Sky Atlantic’s broadcast of King Rocker, Robert Lloyd – the subject of the film – is talking about how things were going from “bad to worse”. Unfortunately, an ad break comes in fractionally too soon and cuts him off; meaning what he actually says is “from bad to wor …” When the documentary resumes we have moved on, that final sibilant left unsaid. Probably forever. I’ve gone back and forth on this for ages, and I’m still not sure if it was intentional. It’s that sort of film.

This is, ostensibly, a documentary about a musician – Lloyd, the singer with 70s punk band The Prefects, which eventually morphed into cult Birmingham post-punk arty types The Nightingales. It tracks Lloyd’s hodge-podge career as he goes from art-rock frontman to record company boss, to band manager, to music video producer, to sit-com scriptwriter to pop solo artist,...

Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi will take part in a live Q&a hosted by Kenneth Branagh over Zoom on November 29 to benefit the UK’s theater community.

The event is being put on to aid UK workers who have struggled during the pandemic. Tickets cost £45 and are limited. Proceeds are going to Acting for Others, of which Dench is president, which provides financial and emotional support for professionals in the theater biz.

The elements of the show are being kept secret from both the audience and the cast. It is being produced by Red Dwarf co-creator Rob Grant, The Young Ones director Paul Jackson and the actor and producer Richard Clifford.

The Guadalajara Film Festival’s industry centerpiece, its Encuentro de Co-produccion, a springboard for Latin American feature film projects, unspools this week online, as directors and producers look to catch the eye of the international marketplace and secure key sales, distribution and production partners.

Guadalajara has long rejected the idea that gender-based quotas are needed when programming a festival while demonstrating an organic level of inclusion in its industry sections that should make some European festivals blush. The 2020 Meeting is no exception. More than half of the projects set to pitch this week are directed by women, with just as many featuring female producers or co-producers.

As important as any statistics though, the kinds of films that women are pitching at Guadalajara break moulds as well. Gone are the days when the industry expected women directors to tell women’s stories. Now, the women pitching at Guadalajara can present horror,...

The eighties were a crucial decade for Britain, and politically-aware, class conscious content was appreciated greatly. In fact, almost every British show which premiered during the eighties was incredibly grounded in its tone and acknowledged the financial and political realities of the era.

Related: 16 Best British Comedy TV Shows Of All Time

While shows like The Young Ones and Blackadder found widespread critical acclaim, there were quite a few duds that seemed out-of-touch and made for bad television. But which are some of the best and worst sitcoms from the very notable decade for the country? ...

One of the most unexpected developments that has emerged from Lockdown 2020 is the widespread proliferation of the Zoom Quiz. Did anyone else think it was possible to take part in this many general knowledge quizzes? I don’t know about you I somehow managed to get involved in three different quizzes one Friday night – and didn’t manage to win any of them! That didn’t even include the devilish weekly HeyUGuys movie quiz that Scott J Davis has been skillfully compèring of late.

On the surface of it, these Zoom quizzes are a welcome means of keeping in contact with our friends and loved ones, but in the absence of live sport, they have also helped to slake the nation’s thirst for heated competition.

Our obsession with general knowledge has reached something of a fever pitch this year. The recent final of University Challenge created a kind of...

Refresh for updates Tributes have flooded in today for Monty Python co-founder Terry Jones, who has died at the age of 77.

The celebrated UK comedic actor, director, writer, historian and advocate was fondly remembered by his Monty Python co-stars Michael Palin, John Cleese and Eric Idle.

“I loved him the moment I saw him on stage at the Edinburgh Festival in 1963,” tweeted Idle. “So many laughs, moments of total hilarity onstage and off we have all shared with him. It’s too sad if you knew him, but if you didn’t you will always smile at the many wonderfully funny moments he gave us.”

Palin described Jones as “kind, generous, supportive and passionate about living life to the full.”

“He was far more than one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian – writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children’s author, and the warmest,...

Jones died after a long struggle with a rare form of dementia, according to his family.

UK actor, director and writer Terry Jones has died at the age of 77, according to his agent.

Jones co-created iconic UK comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus alongside Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam.

He went on to direct or co-direct their film projects Monty Python And The Holy Grail (alongside Gilliam), The Life Of Brian and The Meaning Of Life. His other films as a director included Erik The Viking (1989) and The Wind In The Willows (1996).

Welsh-born Jones was awarded...

Rik Mayall wasn’t just a comedy genius, he was at the fundamental core of British comedy from the 80s’ until his untimely death. ‘Al Pacino: The Movies Behind The Man’ author and broadcaster, Mark Searby sheds light into the creative work of the man in his new book ‘Rik Mayall: Comedy Genius’.

With a career born from frustrations, opinions and political strains of the working class in the 1980s, Mayall and a motley crew of young fresh talent led the uprising of alternative comedy. Taking a lead from Punk music, they took no prisoners. It was politically incorrect, anarchic and stuck two fingers up to the establishment and furthermore, it stood for something. In its new form, Mayall and his compadres had made comedy into a vessel to speak freely and represent the feelings of a fresh, passionate and raw new generation, something that has since been remixed...

Patty Jenkins is now known as the director behind celebrated films “Monster” and “Wonder Woman,” as well as the recent gritty TNT limited drama series “I Am the Night.” But her first passion is comedy — and in particular, surreal, absurdist comedy.

“A lot of my friends who I’d known in the comedy world, in the ’90s, in New York, were shocked [after ‘Monster’ was released],” she told Variety‘s “My Favorite Episode” podcast. “They were sort of like, ‘we all thought you were, like, a comedy person — what happened?'”

Jenkins said she’s been obsessed with comedy since listening repeatedly to Steve Martin’s “Wild and Crazy Guy” album. “There was something about edgy, interesting comedy that always has really delighted me and caught my imagination,” she said. “I always was, all through my youth, going out of my way to find kind of underground, comedic things.”

As she...

How do we honor an icon when so little truth is known about his life? If Kenneth Branagh’s earnest Shakespearean biopic is any guide, we would do best to stick with the Bard’s own works. Indeed, it’s hard to watch “All Is True” without noticing what’s missing most: the nimble wit and profound insight we’ve already seen in Branagh’s own Shakespearean adaptations.

One can certainly empathize with the director’s desire to dig more deeply, after 35 years of committing the Bard of Avon’s work to stage and screen so successfully. But in the end, this fictionalized biography primarily reminds us how rare its subject’s talents really were.

As depicted by screenwriter Ben Elton, Shakespeare (Branagh) comes home to Stratford in 1613, hoping for a quiet retirement. He has been devastated by a recent fire, which burned his beloved Globe Theatre to the ground.

BBC box sets including Absolutely Fabulous, The Young Ones and Top Gear are heading to Sky after the pay-tv platform closed a licensing agreement with BBC Studios.

The move will see hundreds of hours of BBC shows launch on Sky’s on-demand service as well as its Now TV platform via BBC Studios’ UKTV channel brands Gold and Alibi. A raft of shows will launch next month with more coming later in the year.

The first slew of shows includes Absolutely Fabulous, Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, The Royle Family, Little Britain, Open All Hours, The Young Ones, Keeping Up Appearances, Red Dwarf and Extras as well as recent titles such as McMafia.

Later in the year, it will add The Last Post, Father Brown, Qi, Top Gear, The League of Gentleman, Ashes to Ashes and Brian Cox’s Wonder series.

Rob Webster, Group Director of Partner Channels, Sky, said,...

Kenneth Branagh is someone who doesn’t need to brush up his Shakespeare, given that he has directed and starred in six of the Bard’s greatest hits: 1989’s “Henry V” (Oscar-nominated for Best Actor and Best Director); 1993’s “Much Ado About Nothing”; 1995’s “Othello”; 1996’s “Hamlet” (Best Adapted Screenplay); 2000’s “ Love’s Labour’s Lost”; and 2006’s “As You Like It.”

But with “All Is True,” a late awards-season arrival from Sony Pictures Classics that will have a one-week qualifying run in Los Angeles starting Dec. 21 before opening nationally in late February, Branagh actually plays the reknown dramatist himself in 1613, the year of his retirement in Stratford as he mourns both the loss of his son and the fire that consumed the Globe Theatre. All is not well nor is it ending well as he tries to make up for lost time with his estranged family members and struggles...

Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer for Kenneth Branagh’s latest directorial effort, “All Is True,” a star-studded biopic set during William Shakespeare’s twilight years. Branagh undergoes a wild transformation to play the immortal scribe, donning a prosthetic nose and his signature goatee. The director has enlisted Dame Judi Dench to play Shakespeare’s wife, Anne, and Sir Ian McKellen will dramatize one of the playwright’s most notable patrons, the Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley.

Per the official synopsis: “The year is 1613, Shakespeare is acknowledged as the greatest writer of the age. But disaster strikes when his renowned Globe Theatre burns to the ground, and devastated, Shakespeare returns to Stratford, where he must face a troubled past and a neglected family. Haunted by the death of his only son Hamnet, he struggles to mend the broken relationships with his wife and daughters. In so doing, he...

“San Junipero” is widely regarded as one of the best “Black Mirror” installments in the show’s history (IndieWire ranked it #4 on its ranked list of every episode), but it might not have been made had it not been for a 2010 BBC documentary series entitled “The Young Ones.” Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker revealed “The Young Ones” was his main inspiration for the episode, which Brooker has sole screenwriting credit on.

“The Young Ones” is a three-part documentary series that focused on a psychological experiment in which a group of six celebrities in their 70s and 80s moved into a house redecorated to look like it was from the 1960s. Not only was the house designed to evoke styles from the era, but everything from the music to the cookware and other household items were from the 1960s as well. The experiment was created to see...

Who needs CGI when you have that transformation in An American Werewolf in London? And who better to inject some dark comedy into the horror genre than director John Landis, who was fresh off of Animal House and The Blues Brothers? Here we'll take a look at 10 killer facts about An American Werewolf in London.

Teen Wolf

John Landis was barely old enough to vote when he first came up with the idea for An American Werewolf in London. 18 year-old Landis was working as a production assistant in 1969 when he conceived the idea, but nobody wanted to make his script throughout the following decade. It wasn't until his other successes that he was able to move forward, just in time for the early '80s renaissance of werewolf movies.

The Blues Brothers

Producers originally pushed Landis to cast Dan Aykroyd as David and John Belushi as Jack. David Naughton was most recognizable from Dr.

Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.French director Bertrand Mandico shared with us the films he thought about before, during, and after making his feature debut, The Wild Boys:ISLANDSThe Saga of AnatahanMatango: Attack of the Mushroom People: The island and its fauna and flora, the mushroom-men, the sinking. A sublime film.Lord Jim: The tempest sequence in the opening and the cowardice of Lord Jim—an amazing film.A High Wind in Jamaica: For the confusion of the captain played by Antony Quinn, the phlegm of James Coburn and the beauty of his young crew.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Lewis John Carlino, 1976): For the erotic figure of the Captain (Kris Kristofferson) and its clique of violent boys.Remorques: A romantic and captivating film with sequences...

Stars: Kurtis Lowe, Andrew Dunn, Andy Abrahams, Dominic Brunt, Charlie Chuck, Kate Coogan, Simon Corble, Samantha Daniels, Sally Dexter, Howard Ellis, Nicky Evans, Thalia Zucchi, Joanne Mitchell, Mica Proctor, Laurence R. Harvey | Written by Joanne Mitchell, Paul Shrimpton | Directed by Dominic Brunt

Attack of the Adult Babies. What a title! It’s enough on its own to make me want to watch it but the movie has plenty more to offer than the crazy-sounding title. Director Dominic Brunt is best known to many as Paddy in U.K. soap Emmerdale but genre fans should know him better for his directorial work. His first movie was the excellent, gritty, slow burn zombie film Before Dawn and he followed it up with the sometimes-hard-to-watch but great revenge thriller Bait. With his third feature he has chose something very very different…

After watching Attack of the Adult Babies you’ll realise that the...

The Rizen Invades VOD This January! Featuring Sally Phillips, Bruce Payne and Adrian Edmondson A door to unspeakable horror opens this January. Laura Swift (The Snowman), Sally Phillips (the Bridget Jones series), Bruce Payne (Warlock III, Passenger 57), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Lucy), Tom Goodman Hill (Everest) and The Young Ones’ Adrian Edmondson star in writer-director Matt …

The post Horror The Rizen gets Us release – Trailer and Photos first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2018 - Official Horror News Site...

A roll call of Australian talent fills out this slight and sunny love story but while the jokes arrive at a steady pace, more than a few fall short of their mark

If a Western Australian folk music festival seems like a left-field setting for a film by Ben Elton – once a premier humorist of Britain’s grimy absurdities in shows including The Young Ones and Blackadder – bear in mind that the comedian has held dual citizenship in Australia since 2004, taking up residence in Fremantle with his Australian wife.

A slight and sunny love story, Three Summers is set over three consecutive iterations of the fictional Westifal music festival (slogan: “Let’s get folked up”). Misfits’ Robert Sheehan and Home and Away’s Rebecca Breeds star as the prospective partners. She’s a boot-stamping, fiddle-playing folk chick; he’s a know-it-all muso with a passion for the theremin. He’s...

1. The Return of the Dead: Everybody is understandably enjoying the new Twin Peaks’ end credit sequences. In an utterly unexpected twist, David Lynch has decided to take us once a week to either The Road House or the Bang Bang Club to play us out with a musical guest. This is a strange enough maneuver all on its own. How many non-variety shows feature a different musical act each week, enfolding them however lightly into the story-world? (Honestly, The Young Ones is the last comparison I can think of. Any others?) And Lynch and partner Mark Frost have proven […]...