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The BBC on Thursday unveiled an original new drama from screenwriter Jimmy McGovern (Time, Cracker, The Street) which will explore “the impact of grooming and sexual abuse on one family.”

Emmy winner Anna Friel (Marcella, Pushing Daisies), who was BAFTA-nominated for her previous work with McGovern in Broken, leads the cast alongside Bobby Schofield (Time, Anne, Sas Rogue Heroes), BAFTA winner Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, A Spy Among Friends, Poppy Shakespeare), BAFTA winner David Threlfall (Nightsleeper, Shameless, Housewife 49) and Mark Womack (The Responder, Playing the Field, Moving On).

Further casting will be unveiled “in due course,” the BBC said.

Directed by Julia Ford (Showtrial, The Bay, Safe), the as-yet-untitled 90-minute single drama will be made by LA Productions (Broken, Anthony, Care) for BBC iPlayer and BBC One.

“Set and filmed in Liverpool, the fictional drama centers around the Mitchell family who are dealing with the devastating aftermath of an act of abuse,...

Tom Hardy may be replaced as the lead for Mad Max: The Wasteland, opening the door for new potential stars. Glen Powell has the charisma and on-screen presence needed to carry the role of Max Rockatansky. Paul Mescal is one of the most talented rising actors at the moment, while John Boyega has far-reaching talents as an action star.

The next expected movie in George Miller's epic dystopian saga is Mad Max: The Wasteland, and there is talk that Tom Hardy will be replaced as Max Rockatansky. The Mad Max franchise saw consistent success in the 1970s and 1980s, but no one was prepared for the phenomenon that the legacy sequel Mad Max: Fury Road would be. It is widely considered one of the best action movies of all time, with unrivaled chase sequences and subtly symbolic world-building. Hardy replaced original "Mad Max" actor Mel Gibson as the title...

Quick Links The Irresistible Appeal of Alamo Drafthouse (Beer and Leg Room) Alamo Drafthouse Was Ultimately No Exception to the Rule What Does This Mean for the Average Movie Fan? Alamo Drafthouse enters a new era after the Sony purchase, marking the end of an impressive independent stint where the Texas-based exhibitor made ripples in the industry for its unique, customer-first model. The sale of Alamo to Sony makes more sense from a broad investment perspective despite mass Alamo franchise closures a week earlier. The purchase marks an unclear future for the Alamo chain under Sony, with theaters meeting increasingly dire market forces, competing against streaming services, and a lack of consumer enthusiasm.

At the forefront of the new face of movie-going experiences, Alamo Drafthouse perfectly embodied the independent spirit that defined Austin, Texas, complete with fine dining and recliners. Expect it to be slightly less weird from now on.

The Tony Awards are about to broadcast the last award of the night (Best Musical, given to The Outsiders), but champagne is already flowing at the P.J. Clarke’s across from the Lincoln Center, where the ceremony is being held. The restaurant is hosting a party for Stereophonic, this season’s buzzy new play that follows a Seventies band (that is definitely not Fleetwood Mac) as they work on a new album while on the cusp of great fame as break-ups, hard partying, and power struggles threaten to end it all.

The executive producers of critically acclaimed BBC prison drama Time have launched their own scripted production operation.

River Pictures has been launched as the latest producer in the BBC Studios stable and will be led by Andrew Morrissey and Michael Parke. They were previously exec producers at the BBC’s commercial division and worked on both seasons of Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning Time, the latest season of which stars The Last of Us‘ Bella Ramsey, and all three seasons of RTÉ’s Irish drama Smother.

Scripted label River will have bases in London and Liverpool, taking inspiration from the Thames and Mersey rivers that run through those cities, respectively, in its naming. The company will look to showcase “strong regional voices” in its output when it opens its doors before the end of the year.

In 2024, Morrissey and Parke will be have two BBC Studios series coming to screen: RTÉ...

Actor Reg Gorman, best known for his roles on Neighbours and The Sullivans, has died aged 89 following a battle with cancer.

His wife Judith Roberts confirmed his passing on Thursday in a social media post, describing a “great farewell” at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, where Gorman was surrounded by family and was also able to skype overseas and interstate to say goodbye.

Born in Sydney, Gorman began his television career with appearances on a slew of Australian series in the 1960s, before landing his first recurring star role as Darby Finnegan in 13 episodes of the Atn series Mrs. Finnegan in 1970 and 71.

After further appearances across both film and television, including Homicide and Matlock Police, he was cast as Jack Fletcher in The Sullivans, a role he would remain in for all 1114 half-hour episodes of the series from 1976–83.

Stints on Prisoner and The Henderson Kids would follow, with Gorman also appearing in Neighbours,...

Louisa Mellor Sep 8, 2017

Tim Roth leads an excellent cast in unpredictable new Sky Atlantic revenge drama Tin Star, out now…

“It’s the disposal,” says Tim Roth. “The killing isn’t the problem, it’s the disposal that’s the problem. You run out of space.” The storage issues faced by serial killers aren’t something to which many of us will have devoted much thought. Roth has. Reassuringly, he’s had reason to thanks to his recent sinister role as real-life murderer Reg Christie in BBC drama Rillington Place. “Charming fella” he jokes.

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Roth is back on UK television on the other side of the law in new Sky Atlantic drama Tin Star, which has already been renewed for a second series.

Louisa Mellor Dec 14, 2016

It may have been atmospheric and well-acted, but what did Rillington Place add to this grim, real-life tale?

This review contains spoilers.

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1.3 Reg

You need only look at the cheerily bright cover of Chat Magazine, with its unnerving collision of a model’s toothy smile and primary colour headlines about strangulation, rape and abuse, to see our popular fascination with grim real-life tales. Those mags fulfil the same function as horror movies - they thrill, disgust, and ultimately reassure. Thank God it didn’t happen to me, we can say. Oh look! A word scramble.

Rillington Place was atmospherically filmed and convincingly acted (to the point where it’ll be hard to look at Tim Roth in future without...

Louisa Mellor Dec 6, 2016

There’s nothing so strange as real life, something born out by the second episode of BBC serial killer drama Rillington Place…

This review contains spoilers.

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Talk about delaying gratification. When viewers see the words ‘serial killer’ on their TV guide, they expect to see killings. A series of them. By holding John Christie’s version of events back until next week’s final episode, Rillington Place sets itself apart from its more gratuitously violent peers and announces that it’s telling a different kind of story. By so doing, it risks testing its audience’s patience.

Episode one’s careful portrait of Ethel Christie, a woman who gave in ineluctably to her quietly lethal husband, worked thanks to Tim Roth and Samantha Morton’s performances,...

Louisa Mellor Nov 29, 2016

The BBC’s grisly new true-life serial killer drama feat. Tim Roth and Samantha Morton sets a foreboding tone in episode one…

This review contains spoilers

‘Reg’ Christie shows his wife Ethel around their drab new London lodgings, through a suffocatingly dark hallway into an overgrown garden that needs “a bit of love and attention, a bit of elbow grease”. They’ll do their own planting, he tells her, if there’s enough light.

There’s hardly any light in Rillington Place, real or figurative. The first episode of this three-part drama based on true-life serial killer John Christie is an exercise in dread. As the hour passes, the walls of that dingy terrace seem to close in on Ethel, played movingly here with dismal vulnerability by Samantha Morton.

Tim Roth is just as strong as the sinisterly restrained Christie, a contained character whose capacity for violence...

Okay, folks, here's the real comeback. After a successful throat operation, Elton John is back with urgent shouting and playful crooning. The forty-one-year-old songster has also discarded his flamboyant image, including the dandy outfits.

A throwback to his inspired pop rock of the Seventies, Reg Strikes Back is cathartic for Elton John. On the melodic "Town of Plenty," which sports lightly thrashy guitar chords by Pete Townshend, Elton lashes out at the taunting, cynical media as if he were the giant and they were the flies. The housecleaning continues on "Goodbye Marlon Brando,...