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What are the hallmarks of a best-selling Agatha Christie novel? Crisp, accessible prose and memorable characters culminate into classic murder mysteries that have stood the test of time. There's also a sprinkling of clever sleight of hand, where subtle, essential clues are peppered right up to the big reveal hiding in plain sight. Although her stories make little space for what might be termed as morally grey, this very insistence on treating morality as an easily definable standard grants us comfort in a messy, volatile world. This is also why Christie's brand of escapist fiction makes for good adaptations, with figures like Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple steering these quasi-fantastical detective stories.

Christie's oeuvre has been adapted across mediums, including film, from 1928's mystery drama "The Passing of Mr. Quinn" to the more recent Kenneth Branagh-helmed "A Haunting in Venice." In terms of television adaptations, a chunk...

A promising update from 20th Century Studios boss Steve Asbell details the next Agatha Christie adaptations and the books theyll be adapting. The studio has seen some success adapting Christies work for the big screen in recent years, assigning Kenneth Branagh directing duties on top of starring as the iconic Hercule Poirot. All three Poirot movies from the studio have received relatively fresh reviews on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and have made $612 million at the global box office, leaving the door open to more adaptations of Christies revered novels.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Asbell spoke about the prospect of more adaptations of Christies work. He revealed that the next three adaptations will be based on And Then There Were None, Witness for the Prosecution, and Miss Marple. Asbell also said that there are a bunch of other titles in the works. No further details have been revealed, so...

Miss Marple has been portrayed by a variety of actresses from all over the world, ranging from the most obscure to the most acclaimed, each bringing their own unique style to the character. Julia McKenzie, a British actress, played Miss Marple in the series Marple, bringing a softer and self-deprecating side to the character. She is known for her fantastic performances in chapters like They Do it With Mirrors and Murder is Easy. Margaret Rutherford, who first played Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd Side to Side, set the standard for future actresses with her comedic and quirky portrayal of the character. Her performance was imitated for years and she became the most definitive and iconic Miss Marple actress.

Author Agatha Christie's Miss Marple is one of the most iconic and celebrated literary sleuths of all time, and there have been several Miss Marple actresses who have brought the character to life.

Olm's anime adaptation of Agatha Christie's novels is surprisingly family-friendly and accurately portrays Poirot and Marple's famous mysteries without being too grisly. The anime jumps between Poirot and Marple's best cases, occasionally taking creative liberties, but still remains the only anime adaptation of Christie's novels. While the addition of the new character Mabel West may feel unnecessary, the anime's long runtime allows Christie's stories to fully unfold without any trimming.

While murder mysteries might not be regarded as family-friendly, Oriental Light and Magic's Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple is a surprisingly able adaptation. While aimed at children, the anime still accurately depicts Christie's most famous novels without becoming too grisly. For mystery fans who want a soft touch when introducing the titular great detectives to a younger audience, Olm surprisingly has it handled.

In 39 episodes, Olm's 2004 anime jumps between Poirot and Marple's best cases, such as...

Peter S. Fischer, the late-blooming TV writer and producer who co-created Murder, She Wrote after serving on such other crime-solving series as Columbo, Baretta and Ellery Queen, has died. He was 88.

Fischer died Monday at a care facility in Pacific Grove, California, his grandson Jake McElrath announced.

He became a prolific novelist after he exited Hollywood, writing murder mysteries, of course.

Fischer, who had worked with Columbo co-creators Richard Levinson and William Link on the iconic Peter Falk series as well as on the Jim Hutton-starring Ellery Queen, accompanied the pair to a meeting with CBS executives in 1984, he recalled in a 2011 interview.

“CBS wanted to do a murder mystery and they called Dick, who was our ringleader. He said, ‘Ok, I’ll bring the boys,'” Fischer said. “We went over there and pitched a premise called Blacke’s Magic, about a retired magician who solves mysteries. It became...

Love Actually features an ensemble cast with multiple storylines, but Hugh Grant stands out as the Prime Minister and romantic lead. Many of the actors, even those in smaller roles, went on to have successful careers in Hollywood. The film includes cameo appearances from big-name performers, such as Claudia Schiffer and Billy Bob Thornton, adding to its star-studded cast.

The stars of Love Actually have gone on to some impressive careers after the hit romantic film's 2003 premiere. Love Actually follows numerous characters as they pursue love and happiness during the Christmas season in London. Filmmaker Richard Curtis wrote and directed the box office hit that earned almost $245 million (via Box Office Mojo) after previously writing rom-com classics such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary. Love Actually is bookended by sequences at London's Heathrow Airport, and steadily reinforces the concept that, "Love actually is all around.

From left: Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Keystone/Getty Images), Angela Lansbury in The Mirror Crack’d (YouTube screenshot), Albert Finney in Murder On The Orient Express (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images), Denzel Washington in Devil In A Blue Dress (D Stevens/Tri Star/Kobal/Shutterstock), Daniel Craig...

Marlene Dietrich in Witness For The Prosecution, Albert Finney in Murder On The Orient Express, Maggie Smith in Evil Under The Sun, Kenneth Branagh in Murder On The Orient ExpressGraphic: United Arists/Emi Films/20th Century Fox

It makes sense that filmmakers have been turning to Agatha Christie for source...

Kingsley Ben-Adir is really jamming now.

This month, the first trailer was released for the new biopic “Bob Marley: One Love”, with Ben-Adir starring as the iconic reggae artist.

Playing Marley onscreen is just the latest big role for the 37-year-old actor, who is swiftly rising to prominence as one of the best, most interesting actors of his generation.

Read More: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Trailer: Biopic Of Reggae’s King Showcases His Inspiring Story Of Peace Amid Violence

But who is Kingsley Ben-Adir?

Ben-Adir, born February 26, 1986, is a British actor. The son of a Trinidadian mother and British Jewish father, the actor was raised in the Gospel Oak neighbourhood of Northwest London.

In 2011, he graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

How did his career get going?

Fresh out of school, Ben-Adir starred in a production of Gillian Slovo’s critically acclaimed play The Riots in 2011. He...

Bonnie Langford is returning to Doctor Who, reprising her role of legendary companion Melanie Bush.

We first met Mel in 1986, going on time-travelling adventures first with the sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, and then his successor Sylvester McCoy in 1987. During six stories spanning 20 episodes, she encountered villains and monsters aplenty, including the plant-based slave race the Vervoids, genocidal humanoids called the Bannermen, and the infamous renegade Time Lady The Rani.

Now Bonnie Langford is bringing Mel back for an epic adventure with the fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa:

Mel-come back!

Agatha Christie is the latest bestselling novelist to get the rewriting treatment for 2023 readers, according to a British newspaper.

The bestselling novelist in the world, Christie created enduring popular sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and the Daily Telegraph reports that new editions of both these series have had original passages amended or removed by publisher Harper Collins.

The Telegraph states that digital versions of new editions of the books written between 1920 and 1976 (the year of Christie’s death) include text stripped of “descriptions, insults or references to ethnicity, particularly for characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.”

For example, in the book Death on the Nile – published in 1937 and recently remade for the big screen by Kenneth Branagh – references to “Nubian people” have been removed, as have several references to non-British characters’ physiques. The word “local” replaces “native”

A line in Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair...

Benoît Magimel’s French high commissioner confronts the end of his personal Eden in Tahiti, in Albert Serra’s distinctive film

Albert Serra’s bizarre epic is a cheese-dream of French imperial tristesse, political paranoia and an apocalyptic despair. It is a nightmare that moves as slowly and confidently as a somnambulist, and its pace, length, and Serra’s beautiful widescreen panoramic framings – in which conventional drama is almost camouflaged or lost – may divide opinion. I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil.

Admirers of Serra’s previous movies The Death of Louis Xiv and Liberté will know what an uncompromisingly original and startling film-maker he is. That distinctiveness is certainly on display with this new spectacle, but with intriguing new hints of David Lynch and Nicolas Winding Refn. (Refn famously directed Agatha Christie’s Marple on British TV; perhaps Albert...

Perhaps I'm jaded on the idea of cinematic universes. I'm not sure why. I do love the MCU and the Dceu to varying degrees. The whole Universal monster thing would probably have delighted me if the films worked better. I've certainly loved every comic book crossover I've ever read. I'm wondering what soured me on this concept enough that, when I heard Kenneth Branagh (whose work I generally love) talking about a Christie-verse, I cringed hard.

AMC Theaters tweeted a video with Branagh talking about how he'd love to do a film with another Agatha Christie sleuth, Miss Marple, and mentions the...

The post Kenneth Branagh Wants to Adapt Miss Marple and Start the Agatha Christie Cinematic Universe appeared first on /Film.

Agatha Christie was born in 1890, and the heyday of movie adaptations of her novels goes quite a ways back. The whole structure and flavor of this sort of delectably engineered whodunit, with its cast of suspects drawn in deliberate broad strokes and its know-it-all detective whose powers of deduction descend directly from Sherlock Holmes, is rooted in the cozy symmetry of the studio-system era. The last big-screen Christie adaptation that could be considered an all-out success, critically and commercially, was probably Sidney Lumet’s 1974 “Murder on the Orient Express,” a lavishly corny and irresistible amusement in which Albert Finney played the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot as a fussbudget egomaniac with pursed lips and hair that resembled an oil slick (he was like Inspector Clouseau with a brain transplant).

“Murder on the Orient Express” was actually an event movie. But the Christie adaptations that followed — “Death on the Nile” (1978), “The Mirror Crack’d...

Sales

Channel 4’s classic series “Fresh Meat,” a still-popular dramatic comedy about student life, will celebrate its ten-year anniversary this weekend with a cast and creators’ reunion in London, and global distributor All3Media has announced several recent sales deal for the program ahead of the event.

Agreements for the series have been closed in the U.S. and Canada on the Roku Channel (AVOD) as well as on Tubi (also U.S. and Canada AVOD) and on Crackle for AVOD in the U.S. The show is also available on Amazon Prime Video in the US.

Created by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain for Channel 4 from Objective Media Group, U.K., the series’ six key cast members – Jack Whitehall, Charlotte Ritchie, Zawe Ashton, Joe Thomas, Kimberly Nixon and Greg McHugh – will all return for the reunion. The group will be joined by the creators for an in-person discussion and...

It's only fitting that the most revered and celebrated murder mystery writer of an entire generation would have also lived a life as dramatic and hard-to-believe as her own novels. Among other stories like those involving Miss Marple and "And Then There Were None," Agatha Christie is singlehandedly responsible for the famous, beloved character of detective Hercule Poirot and the dozens upon dozens of extravagant crimes he's been called upon to solve. 

Sidney Lumet's 1974 "Murder on the Orient Express" still stands tall as one of the best adaptations of her work and a genre classic in its own...

The post The Christie Affair, Limited Series Based on Agatha Christie's Disappearance, is in the Works at Miramax TV appeared first on /Film.

HBO’s “House of the Dragon” has added seven new actors to its cast, including Ryan Corr as Ser Harwin “Breakbones” Strong and Jefferson Hall as Lannister twins Lord Jason and Tyland.

Also joining the cast of the 10-episode “Game of Thrones” prequel series, which is set to debut in 2022, are David Horovitch, Graham McTavish, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson and Gavin Spokes.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood,” “House of the Dragon” is set 200 years before the events of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” It tells the story of House Targaryen and stars Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, “The Sea Snake,” Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon, Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria and Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole.

Daveed Diggs is considered many things: an actor, rapper, singer, producer—and now “margarita-aficionado.”

Known for the TV spin-off series of his movie Blindspotting, and a breakout performance in the award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton, Diggs will now take on the role of mixologist and go head-to-head with Courteney Cox and Andy Cohen in an “The Ultimate Margarita Showdown” run by Cointreau.

Cointreau

Buy:

Cointreau

at

$39.89

In addition to finding out if a spicy habanero marg (Diggs’ creation, since he says that no one loves a boring cocktail) can become the new drink of the summer,...

With a screen time total of 18 minutes and 36 seconds, Laura Dern’s 2020 Best Supporting Actress-winning performance in “Marriage Story” was noted for its brevity. However, it ranks as the 24th shortest to ever win in the Oscar category, proving the academy’s particular and everlasting fondness for smaller supporting female roles. Here is a look at the 10 winners with the least amount of screen time. (And here’s the equivalent list for Best Supporting Actor.)

10. Jo Van Fleet (“East of Eden”)

15 minutes, 4 seconds (12.82% of the film)

After a decade of stage acting, Tony winner Jo Van Fleet earned an Oscar for her film debut as child abandoner and brothel operator Kate Ames. Many of the votes she received were likely in honor of her body of work in 1955, since she also had roles in two other Oscar-nominated films that year (“I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “The Rose Tattoo”). Her few scenes in “East of Eden,...

Actress Emily Beecham ("Into The Badlands") poses for a digital edition of "The Fall", wearing fine jewellery from Adler Joailliers, photographed by Fenton Bailey:

Beecham is noted for her role in the Coen Brothers film "Hail, Caesar!", playing 'The Widow' in the AMC TV series "Into the Badlands" and for the title role in the 2017 film "Daphne". In 2019, she starred in Austrian director Jessica Hausner's film "Little Joe", earning a 'Best Actress' award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Beecham has also appeared in numerous UK TV series, including Agatha Christie's "Marple", "Tess of The D'Urbervilles" and "The Street".

"In order to press further with who you want to become", said Beecham, "you have to take risks, put yourself out there... That's the only way to discover you're actually capable...."

"The girlfriend roles that we are usually offered are nearly always just kind and supportive. So it is...

Looking to scratch your itch for the Brits? IndieWire has called BritBox the Hulu alternative for all things that come from the UK, and now their already impressive slate has announced something even grander.

The BBC and ITV streaming service has acquired the rights to several new Agatha Christie films, TV shows, and audio plays. The collection will include Seasons 9 through 12 of David Suchet’s “Poirot,” including the special “Poirot: A Mysterious Affair at Styles” which celebrates its 100th anniversary.

As the summer progresses, BritBox will also put out the 1980 John Gielgud-starring adaptation of “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” and 1981’s “The Seven Dials Mystery.” They’re also committed to bringing Margaret Rutherford, Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan, and Julia McKenzie’s takes on Miss Marple to the streaming service.

BritBox is also working with the Christie estate to create a full HD restoration of the 1983 Christie miniseries “Partners in Crime...

BritBox, ITV and the BBC’s joint streaming service, has acquired the rights to the largest overall collection of Agatha Christie adaptations, spanning films, TV series, and audio plays of the iconic mystery novelist.

Under the deal, BritBox will become the ultimate Svod home for Christie. The service will also be adding more seasons of “Poirot,” and newly restored HD versions of ITV’s “Marple” and “Partners in Crime.” The film adaptations of the novels will also be available in the coming months.

“I am delighted to see all these shows available in the North America on BritBox. They give a real flavor of the depth and quality of my great grandmother’s work, and I am sure audiences will enjoy them,” said James Prichard, CEO and Chairman of Agatha Christie Limited.

Seasons 9-12 of “Poirot,” starring David Suchet, and the special “Poirot: Mysterious Affair at Styles,” adapted from Christie’s first novel,...

BritBox says it is going to house the most “comprehensive” collection of Agatha Christie adaptations in North America after inking a deal with the estate of the British author.

The streaming service, which is operated by ITV and the BBC, has added to its existing catalog of Christie titles by acquiring further rights to films, TV series, and audio plays.

Included in the new deal is Seasons 9-12 of David Suchet’s depiction of legendary detective Poirot, meaning BritBox will eventually be the home to all-but-one series of the ITV show. Seasons 9-12 drop today.

BritBox will also add newly restored versions of ITV’s Marple and Partners In Crime, as well as TV movies such as The Seven Dials Mystery and The Secret Adversary.

BritBox president and CEO Soumya Sriraman said: “As the home of great British mysteries, we couldn’t be more proud to be the true home...

BritBox, the subscription video streaming service from BBC Studios and ITV, has picked up the rights to an extensive collection of Agatha Christie films, TV series and audio plays for its North American service.

The acquisition — which includes additional series of Poirot starring David Suchet and newly restored high-definition versions of ITV's Marple and Partners in Crime — gives the platform the largest combined collection of Christie adaptations available in North America.

"I am delighted to see all these shows available in the North America on BritBox," said James Prichard, CEO and chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd....

Agatha Christie penned dozens of novels during her lifetime, which granted her the title of best-selling author of all time and still delight readers to this day. While the most famous character Christie ever created was Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who's been portrayed by several actors over the year, she also came up with another, arguably as interesting.

Related: Agatha Christie: Every Licensed TV Series Based On Her Work, Ranked According To IMDb

Mrs. Marple got her own series of crime-solving stories, completely twisting the notion that only a certain type of character could indulge in the hobby of hunting down killers. This old spinster was witty, kind, and always one step ahead of everyone, all attributes that were wonderfully bought to the series Agatha Christie's Marple. We take a look back at the ten best episodes of the show, which saw two actresses take on the character, ranked according to IMDb.

British comedian and actor Tim Brooke-Taylor has died at the age of 79 after contracting coronavirus.

In a statement, his agent confirmed the news: “It is with great sadness that we announce Tim’s death early today from Covid-19. Joining [Cambridge University] Footlights in 1960 took him to providing a huge variety of splendid entertainment — television, radio, theatre, film, books, DVDs, CDs, quizzes, etc — all of which he undertook with energy and a great sense of fun.”

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Brooke-Taylor is perhaps best known as a member of UK comedy trio The Goodies with Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. They had a BBC television show which ran for more than a decade...

When Rian Johnson released his latest original movie in 2019, it was a massive critical and commercial success. Knives Out brought back the classic locked-room mystery movie with an update for a new era. Daniel Craig was the detective on the case in a film with an all-star cast as he tried to figure out who killed the family patriarch in a locked room with everyone a suspect.

Related: Most Underrated Movies Of The Decade

Locked room mysteries go back years, with several acclaimed works of Agatha Christie fiction featuring detectives like Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes leading the way. Those detectives and more made their way to the big screen, along with some original sleuths, and here are 10 locked room mysteries for fans who loved Knives Out.

Among the many twists and turns in his thoroughly modern whoddunnit, “Knives Out” writer-director-producer Rian Johnson can count one more — an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

“Im blown away, man. We just set out to make a fun movie that audiences could enjoy,” Johnson told Variety in the very early hours of Monday morning. “We never imagined we’d be in a conversation like this.”

A sharp and darkly funny take on the detective thrillers, the Lionsgate release has generated more than $250 million in worldwide box office grosses to date. His heavyweight ensemble cast was led by Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis and Chris Evans — the quality of which he credits to the small production window and luck.

“Part of what helped [pull together this ensemble] was the speed — Daniel Craig had a very tight window to shoot before Bond. It was literally, ‘Can you come to Boston in two weeks and shoot this?...

Rob Leane Jan 17, 2017

Jason Statham is out and Rupert Grint is in. Here's the trailer for the TV remake of Snatch...

Guy Ritchie's 2000 movie Snatch is the latest film to get a TV remake. The original film, of course, starred the legendary Jason Statham alongside a bloke named Brad Pitt.

See related Power Rangers, boob armour, and impractical costumes

The TV take on Snatch will star Harry Potter's Ron Weasley actor Rupert Grint. He'll play Charlie Cavendish, who's been described as “dynamic, frustratingly chaotic, and utterly posh.”

Here's the first trailer...

The show's cast also includes Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible II, Taken 3, Fear The Walking Dead) as Vic Hill, and Ed Westwick of Gossip Girl as Sonny Castillo. Fans of the film will notice that these are brand new character names, not recastings of the old crew.

Here's the synopsis, which, again, isn't identical to the film...

Rob Leane Jul 6, 2016

Drive and The Neon Demon director Nicolas Winding Refn reportedly expressed an interest in directing Doctor Who, but got turned down...

Here's a surprising fact. Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive director and cinematic specialist in the surreal, is a fan of Doctor Who.

Talking to Metro to promote his latest film The Neon Demon, the Danish filmmaker said this: "I love Doctor Who. I like the imagination."

"I guess I’m a fan of the old Doctor Who. I haven’t really seen a lot of the new one", he admitted, before explaining that his favourite Doctor is Tom Baker.

Apparently, Winding Refn once applied to direct an episode of Who. "They wouldn't hire me", he told the Metro.

The newspaper also reports that Winding Refn expressed an interest in making a film version of Doctor Who, but there isn't a specific quote in the article to confirm that.

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn will transition from his new film "The Neon Demon," to serve as showrunner on the high-profile Italian TV series "Les Italians" with Netflix also reportedly in talks to pick up the series.

The 8-10 episode noir drama is based on bestselling books by author Enrico Pandiani. The action deals with a squad of French/Italian policemen working in Paris' famous Quai des Orfevres headquarters.

The group is led by the tough and violent inspector Pierre Mordenti and investigate cases that include Paris murders with political connections, international secret service operations in Eastern Europe, and gruesome deeds in the French countryside.

Refn is expected to shoot the first episode of 'Italiens' himself to set the tone and then take on a showrunner role. Filming will get underway in Paris before year's end once Refn wraps promotional work for 'Demon' which Amazon Studios will release later this year.

CBS is developing a "Marple," a crime drama TV series inspired by Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books.

There's a twist. In this version the elderly spinster who resides in the quaint pre-WW2 village of St. Mary Mead is gone, replaced by a modern day 38-year-old American woman who inherits her grandmother's bookstore. She soon realises that things in her small California town aren't what they seem, and begins working as a private investigator to get to the bottom of the town's mysteries.

David Wolstencroft, Hilary Strong and Christie's grandson Matthew Prichard will executive produce. Disney attempted a similar style project four years ago with Jennifer Garner slated to star in and produce, but that project was dropped and met with a vocal backlash.

Christie penned twelve Miss Marple books with each of the works having been adapted numerous times for the big and small screen - stories that include titles such as "4:50 from Paddington,...

The world of Doctor Who has changed greatly in the space of just 10 years. The cast and crew have almost completely been replaced since 2005, including a number of new actors to play the errant Time Lord and his companions.

But what has happened to the class of '05? Where are Rose and Mickey now? What is the writer of 'Dalek' up to? And where can you see more work from the director of 'Rose'?

Here it is then, your guide to the main players of Doctor Who series one.

The Cast

After his three-month on-screen stint as the Doctor, Christopher Eccleston's career continued in much the same vein, taking in theatre, interesting television roles and the odd blockbuster.

Post-2005, the Northern actor went Stateside to take on the role of invisible man Claude in the Us series Heroes. From there, he popped up in a very amusing Doctor Who-esque cameo as Dr.

Bear Grylls: Mission Survive's Friday evening (February 27) viewing figures were up on last week's launch numbers.

The second episode in the celebrity survival show was seen by an average audience of 3.03 million (14.1%), which was slightly up on last week's average of 2.91 million (13.6%).

Earlier on in the evening, ITV's Barging Round Britain with John Sergeant was seen by an average audience of 2.83 million (12.9%).

The One Show was once again the evening's highest-rated programme outside of soaps, attracting an average audience of 4.01 million (20.8%) from 7pm on BBC One.

It outperformed the likes of A Question of Sport with 3.2 million (15.5%), Room 101 with 3.13 million (14.5%) and The Musketeers with 2.84 million (13.2%).

BBC One's evening ended with 3.72 million (28.3%) for The Graham Norton Show at 10.35pm. This week's guests included David Beckham, Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Hugh Jackman.

Over on BBC Two, Wanted in Paradise kicked things off with 970k (4.9%) at 7pm, followed by 2.02 million...

Benidorm was Friday's (February 13) highest-rated show outside of soaps.

The ITV comedy show was seen by an average audience of 4.37 million (20.8%) at 9pm.

Elsewhere, ITV secured average ratings of 3.32 million (15.4%) for Barging Round Britain with John Sergeant at 8pm.

The One Show kicked off BBC One's evening with 3.9 million (20.2%) at 7pm. It was followed by 3.01 million (14.7%) for A Question of Sport at 7.30pm and 3.47 million (16.2%) for Room 101 at 8.30pm.

BBC One's evening continued with 2.92 million (13.9%) for The Musketeers at 9pm and ended with 3.42 million (25.6%) for The Graham Norton Show at 10.35pm.

Over on BBC Two, Antiques Road Trip was seen by an audience of 1.45 million (7.3%) at 7pm, followed by 2.07 million (9.6%) for Mastermind at 8pm and 1.51 million (7%) for Food and Drink at 8.30pm.

Italy Unpacked averaged 1.62 million (7.7%) at 9pm, while Qi ended the evening with 1.21 million (6.6%).

On Channel 4, Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast entertained 1.23 million (5.7%) at 8pm,...

Celebrity Big Brother's live final was seen by 2.5 million people (11.4%) on Channel 5.

Friday's (February 6) show, which saw Katie Price crowned winner ahead of Katie Hopkins, peaked with 2.75 million (13.1%) at 10pm and was seen by nearly 200k on Channel 5+1.

It was followed by Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side, which was seen by an average audience of 1.19 million (11.4%) at 10.50pm.

BBC One's Six Nations Rugby was the evening's highest-rated show. The game between Wales and England was seen by an average audience of 7.31 million (31.4%) from 7.30pm.

An average audience of 4.3 million (2.2%) watched The One Show at 7pm, while 3.39 million (24.1%) tuned into The Graham Norton Show at 10.35pm.

Over on ITV, Benidorm entertained 3.53 million (14.5%) at 9pm, while The Martin Lewis Money Show was seen by 3.5 million (15.4%) at 8pm.

The Big Allotment Challenge was BBC Two's highest-rated show of the evening, playing to 1.32 million (5.4%) at 9pm.

It was preceded...

Geraldine McEwan in The Magdalene Sisters

Geraldine McEwan, best known for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a long-running television series, has died at the age of 82. In her 57 year career the much-admired character actress also appeared in films as diverse as Henry V, The Magdalene Sisters and Vanity Fair. She provided the voice of Miss Thipp in Wallace and Grommit film The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and also appeared alongside Kevin Costner and Sean Conner in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

An awkward child who found refuge in the theatre and quickly made an impression with her acting talents, the versatile McEwan had no formal training but soon progressed through Stratford and Broadway before finding her way into film. She was an avowed left-winger and was rumoured to have turned down the offer of being made a dame. She died peacefully following a stroke and is survived by her two.

2.59 million watched the Celebrity Big Brother Live Eviction last night (January 30) as Nadia Sawalha left the house.

The show was 300k up on last Friday's eviction and secured an 11.4% share of the audience from 9pm, as well as 262.4k viewers on +1 (1.5%).

CBB was sandwiched between Ice Road Truckers at 8pm, which took 1.07m (4.8%) (95.4k, 0.4%) and Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side at 10pm with 1.10m (7.1%) (106.7k, 1.2%).

The One Show was the most watched show outside of soaps yesterday, giving BBC One 4.62m viewers (23.2%) at 7pm.

3.28m stayed with the channel at 7.30pm for A Question of Sport (15.4%) and went slightly up to 3.48m at 8.30pm for Room 101 (15.4%).

The latest episode of Benidorm, featuring Dame Joan Collins, was ITV's most-watched programme outside of soaps, attracting 4.49m and a 19.9% share of the audience (+1: 405.9k, 2.4%).

It was preceded by The Martin Lewis Money Show at 8pm with 2.95m (13.4%) (+1: 135.0k,...

Celebrity Big Brother: Shock Arrival was watched by nearly 3 million people on Friday (January 16) evening.

Last night's live episode, which saw Chloe Goodman leave the house and Katie Price enter, was viewed by an average audience of 2.9 million (13.2%) from 9pm on Channel 5.

An average of 1.3 million (8.9%) tuned in to Celebrity Big Brother's: Bit on the Side at 10.30pm, followed by 776k (9.5%) for 45 minutes of live CBB footage at 11.30pm.

Channel 5 also secured 304k (1.5%) for Race to the Pole at 7pm, followed by 788k (3.5%) for Ice Road Truckers at 8pm.

With an average audience of 4.47 million (22.3%), BBC One's The One Show was the evening's highest-rated show outside of soaps. It was followed by 3.79 million (17.4%) for A Question of Sport at 7.30pm.

BBC One's evening continued with 3.69 million for Room 101 and 3.39 million for The Musketeers at 9pm. The Graham Norton Show rounded things off with 3.6 million (25.5%) at 10.35pm.

Celebrity Big Brother was seen by an average audience of 2.16 million (9.4%) at 9pm on Friday (January 9) evening.

The Channel 5 reality show peaked with 2.25 million (9.8%) at 9.45pm. Celebrity Big Brother: Nomination Face-Off followed with 1.78 million (8.8%) at 10pm, while Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side dropped to 838k (5.7%) at 10.30pm.

Earlier in the evening, Channel 5's Race to the Pole was seen by 317k (1.5%), while Ice Road Truckers played to 791k (3.4%).

ITV's 9pm showing of Benidorm was once again the evening's highest-rated show outside of soaps with 4.44 million (19.3%) viewers. It was preceded by The Martin Lewis Money Show with 2.88 million (12.7%) at 8pm.

The One Show kicked things off on BBC One with 4.09 million (19.7%) viewers at 7pm, followed by 3.59 million (16.4%) for A Question of Sport and 3.38 million (14.5%) for Room 101 at 8.30pm.

The Musketeers would go on to entertain 3.64 million (15.8%) at 9pm, while The Graham Norton Show wrapped things up with 3.51 million (25.4%) at 10.35pm.

Tinchy Strider, Gemma Collins, Melanie Sykes and Michael Buerk (What?) were all confirmed to be taking part in I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! this afternoon.

But in a few years, will we even remember them? Unless they pull some Paul Burrell or Gillian McKeith-style stunts, frankly it's unlikely.

Why? Because we completely forgot these 9 big names have been there, done that and swallowed the testicles…

9. Neil Ruddock

Long after Razor stopped playing for Liverpool, but before he was taking part in Celebrity Big Brother, we forgot that he came seventh on the ITV show. He also 'starred' in a recent episode of C5's Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away, in which he had his stuff respossessed by bailiffs. So, unlike most celebs, the jungle didn't prove to be the lowest point in Neil's career.

8. Nigel Havers

Havers was the Buerk of his day. Not just literally,...

Tinchy Strider, Gemma Collins, Melanie Sykes and Michael Buerk (What?) were all confirmed to be taking part in I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! this afternoon.

But in a few years, will we even remember them? Unless they pull some Paul Burrell or Gillian McKeith-style stunts, frankly it's unlikely.

Why? Because we completely forgot these 9 big names have been there, done that and swallowed the testicles…

9. Neil Ruddock

Long after Razor stopped playing for Liverpool, but before he was taking part in Celebrity Big Brother, we forgot that he came seventh on the ITV show. He also 'starred' in a recent episode of C5's Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away, in which he had his stuff respossessed by bailiffs. So, unlike most celebs, the jungle didn't prove to be the lowest point in Neil's career.

8. Nigel Havers

Havers was the Buerk of his day. Not just literally,...

Michael Gambon ("The Singing Detective"), Keeley Hawes ("Ashes to Ashes"), Rory Kinnear ("Skyfall"), Monica Dolan ("Sightseers"), Julia McKenzie ("Agatha Christie's Marple") and newcomer Abigail Lawrie have all signed up for BBC One & HBO's three hour miniseries adaptation of "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy".

The story centers on a seemingly idyllic English village with a cobbled market square and ancient abbey. Behind the pretty facade is a town at war: Rich vs. poor, teens vs. parents, wives vs. husbands and teachers vs. pupils.

Gambon plays delicatessen owner Howard Mollison with McKenzie playing his wife. Rufus Jones plays his son Miles, while Hawes plays Miles' wife. Simon McBurney ("Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy"), Richard Glover ("A Field in England") and Michelle Austin ("Secrets & Lies") also star.

Sarah Phelps penned the script which is scheduled to begin shooting on July 7th in South West England. Six million copies of the...

"They're all pretty screwed up," Amanda Abbington tells Zap2it about her character and those of her "Sherlock" co-stars. "She's an assassin; he's a sociopath; and John's killed a psychopathic cabbie."

In Sunday's (Feb.2) Season 3 finale, Abbington's character, pregnant Mrs. Mary Watson, wife of Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman), best pal to Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), reveal herself to be a trained assassin just before popping a bullet from a serious-looking gun into Sherlock's torso.

As it turned out she was being blackmailed by the real villain, Magnussen (Lars MIkkelsen) and didn't shoot to kill, but it's safe to say the revelation was a shock in an episode full of shocks.

The gun Abbington used in the scene now links "Sherlock" to another great British franchise.

"I was taught admirably by a firearms expert," Abbington says. "I did really well, loved it. I was so frightened of it. He gave me this fun,...

After 40 years, the British-born actress who conquered Hollywood and starred in TV's Murder, She Wrote is back on the West End stage. As she approaches her 90s, she's in her theatrical prime

In the play Blithe Spirit, the wildly eccentric and chaotic clairvoyant Madame Arcati, Noël Coward's most colourful creation, announces that "time is the reef upon which all our frail mystic ships are wrecked".

No aphorism has ever applied less than this does to the actress now about to don the headscarves and bangles to play Arcati in the West End at the age of 88. Dame Angela Lansbury, ennobled earlier this month, has defied the laws of nature by becoming more theatrically prolific as her years have advanced. In 2007, she was Tony award-nominated for her role in a new Terrence McNally play, Deuce, on Broadway; in 2010, she was nominated again for a revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music; and then,...

Miscasting in films has always been a problem. A producer hires an actor thinking that he or she is perfect for a movie role only to find the opposite is true. Other times a star is hired for his box office draw but ruins an otherwise good movie because he looks completely out of place.

There have been many humdinger miscastings. You only have to laugh at John Wayne’s Genghis Khan (with Mongol moustache and gun-belt) in The Conqueror (1956), giggle at Marlon Brando’s woeful upper class twang as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and cringe at Dick Van Dyke’s misbegotten cockney accent in Mary Poppins (1964). But as hilarious as these miscastings are, producers at the time didn’t think the same way, until after the event. At least they add a bit of camp value to a mediocre or downright awful movie.

In rare cases,...

The last major role yet to be cast in Alan Taylor's upcoming "Terminator" reboot is that of a young Kyle Reese. Variety reports that the list of contenders has been whittled down to five actors who are set to test for the role early next week.

The two most well-known names are rising Aussie thesp Jai Courtney and Boyd Holbrook. A memorable role in Starz' "Spartacus" for Courtney led to a major role in "Jack Reacher," the co-lead role of John McClane's son in "A Good Day to Die Hard," and the key role of 'Eric' in the upcoming "Divergent". He also appears in this month's "I, Frankenstein" and is currently filming Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken".

Kentucky-born Holbrook began his work with a small role in "Milk" which led to roles on "The Big C" and "Hatfields and McCoys". Last year was a breakout year with key parts in "Out of the Furnace,...

Tags: Afternoon DelightScarlett JohanssonJackie WarnerJulianne MooreTina FeyEmma WatsonZoe SaldanaRihannaFiona ShawEdie FalcoAnna FarisIMDbLena DunhamZero Dark Thirty

Good afternoon and happy March! Where does the time go?

Happy birthday to Ke$ha!

Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) and Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) star in the modern version of the 1897 book-turned-movie What Maise Knew. The story is about a child “shuffled back and forth between her two divorced parents every six months.” (Ugh, it sounds so depressing.) Moore plays Susanna, an aging rock star, and Skarsgård plays her second husband.

Check out the film’s poster below.

Rumor has it Emma Watson might be starring in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Cinderella. If Watson signs on to be the title character she’ll have to go head to head with her Wicked Stepmother played by Cate Blanchett.

Zoe Saldana wants to play a "sexy something, like a princess from another planet...

Garrow’s Law co. BBC

Kieran Kinsella

Acorn Media’s February 26 line-up begins with a value box set of the BBC’s most popular courtroom drama – Garrow’s Law. Acorn have previously released some of the 18th century barrister’s stories in the U.S. but this 6 disc set is Garrow’s Law: The Complete Collection. Aside from the twelve episodes that aired during the show’s three year run, you also get an hour of extras that includes a feature on the real life William Garrow and some behind-the-scenes footage.

The real William Garrow was something of a social reformer who did his best to defend the poor and the uneducated at a time when “justice” was often swift and harsh. Andrew Buchan (The Sinking of the Laconia) takes on the title role. He looks a little like Ross Poldark and the whole show is based in the same...

Poirot

Kieran Kinsella

Acorn Media have released numerous Agatha Christie tales on DVD but this month they are upping the ante by releasing a box set that is like manna from Heaven for fans of Britain’s favorite mystery writer. Their six disc, 16 hour long, January 29 release contains some of the best loved stories involving both Marple and Poirot. Two super sleuths squeezed into one novel sized box.

The six Poirot tales include my personal favorite – The ABC Murders, and Christie’s best loved tale – Murder on the Orient Express. I had never seen Four and Twenty Blackbirds or The Mysterious Affair at Styles before but both were very good. The former revolved around the double murder of two elderly brothers while the latter involved the murder of an early 20th century “cougar” who may or may not have been “done in” by her toy boy. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas...