Doctor Who

• David Tennant to star in Single Father
• Doctor Who to get a 3D trailer

Film

• Amanda Seyfried to star in The Girl in the Red Riding Hood?
• Laurence Fishburne joins Contagion
• Ben Stiller to star in Brett Ratner's Tower Heist
• Ethan Hawke and Kristen Scott Thomas to star in The Woman in the Fifth
• Trailer for Wall Street 2
• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck up for wife swapping
• Julian McMahon to star with Milla Jovovich in Faces in the Crowd

• Yes, Prime Minster: the play

British TV

• Another series of Taggart commissioned
• Rufus Sewell to star as Aurelio Zen for BBC
• BBC Worldwide looking to create drama franchises like 24 and Heroes [subscription required]
• Alibi acquires Castle [subscription required]

US TV

• Maggie Q to star in La Femme Nikita, Roselyn Sanchez in Cutthroat
• Rita Moreno and Allison Janney to guest on In Plain Sight
• The Deep End/Life on Mars's Rachelle Lefevre joins John Wells' new medical drama
• Lost's Harold Perrineau to guest on CSI:NY
• Smallville/The Dukes of Hazzard's John Schneider to star in Back Nine for Spike
• Heroes does well in DVR ratings

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Read other posts about: 24, CSI, Heroes, Life on Mars, Lost, Smallville

Happy New Year everyone!

Doctor Who

• End of Time - Part 2 most loved by women and older men
• Murray Gold to write series five music and theme
• 10.4m people watch End of Time - Part 2

Film

• English language trailer for Christopher Nolan's Inception
• Trailer for Shrek: How To Train Your Dragon
• James McAvoy to play Ian Fleming?
• The Thing prequel to begin shooting in March
• Trailer for Rhys Ifans's Howard Marks biopic, Mr Nice
• Pics from The Eagle of the Ninth

• Life on Mars (US)'s Jason O'Mara to star in Serenading Louie at the Donmar

• Jam and Jerusalem cancelled
• Top Gear most watched programme on the iPlayer
• Day of the Triffids gets 5.6m viewers
• New Year's Eve ratings
• STV to start showing ITV1 dramas again
• BBC claims to generate £7.6bn for Britain
• Beeb in talks to bring back Gavin & Stacey next Christmas…
• …after 8.7m viewers watch the finale
• Hamlet only gets 896,000 viewers

US TV

• Julie Benz to join Desperate Housewives for at least three episodes [spoilers for Dexter]
• Year-end ratings for the cable networks: USA grows audience 15%
• Law & Order gets a 21st season
• Kevin Alejandro joins True Blood
• Casting on Retired at 35
• Catherine McCormack and Stacy Keach to co-star on FX's Lights Out
• Luke Wilson and Diane Ladd to co-star in Laura Dern's Enlightened
• Kim Raver joins Grey's Anatomy full-time

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Read other posts about: Dexter, Gavin and Stacey, Life on Mars, Top Gear

Doctor Who

• Pictures of David Tennant in the BBC's Hamlet

Film

• Trailer for Nicolas Cage in The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Poster and pic from Tron: Legacy
• A new Star Wars movie and TV series?
• Dreamworks buys Wife vs Ninja
• Dougray Scott to star in The Veil of Maya

• Brian Cox to play Michael Martin in BBC4's MPs' expenses drama
• E4 HD to launch on Sky next week
• Ashes to Ashes to explain Life on Mars conclusion
• Day of the Triffids press pack

US TV

• Kristin Bauer to be a series regular on True Blood
• BBC America buys the third series of Gavin & Stacey
• Kate Micucci to star in Greg Garcia's Keep Hope Alive
• Alfre Woodward joins Delta Blues
• The League gets a second season

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Read other posts about: Ashes to Ashes, Gavin and Stacey, Life on Mars

Doctor Who

• Trailer for The Sarah Jane Adventures (including David Tennant)
• David Tennant to co-star in Burke & Hare
• Carey Mulligan talks about Sally Sparrow

Film

• Rachel Nichols joins The Loop
• Fox to dramatise story of Moses
• Michael Bay to kill Megan Fox in Transformers 3?

British TV

• Beeb to revive Upstairs Downstairs
• Simon Amstell to guest in sitcom he's co-written
• John Cresswell to become interim CEO at ITV – then leave
• Life on Mars – United Arab Emirates edition?
• Tim Kring talks season four of Heroes – series to air in the UK in the New Year

US TV

• FlashForward gets a full season
• Dollhouse does well from DVR ratings…
• …and Fox will air all 13 episodes
• Rachael Harris and Alan Ruck to recur on Cougar Town
• Emmy-winning Mad Men writer fired
• Reno 911! creator writing a comedy for NBC
• Radha Mitchell to star in A&E pilot The Quickening
• Matthew Perry to star in and co-write comedy

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Read other posts about: Heroes, Life on Mars, Mad Men, The Sarah Jane Adventures

First there was the shock and outrage. How dare the Yanks remake the beloved British crime show Life on Mars? How could it ever be as good?

Then there was the trailer for the US pilot, which provided the answer: "It couldn't."

Then there was the pilot, which provided another answer: "It really, really couldn't."

Then there was the near complete recasting, shift in location to New York and new plots, which provided yet another pilot and a new answer: "Oh, it's not too bad, actually."

Anywat, after jessying it about in the schedules, doing minimal marketing and forgetting to let newcomers know what had been going on in previous episodes, ABC cancelled it, but gave the new producers the chance to wrap it all up.

Given they didn't want to use the BBC version's ending, so fans wouldn't be able to look it up in advance on the Internet, they decided to give us a brand new one instead. So during the final episode, which aired on Wednesday, we found out just why US Sam Tyler had travelled back in time - and this time, it wasn't because he was in a coma.

I'll give them something - I wasn't expecting what they came up with. Big spoilers ahoy.

Continue reading "Season finale: Life on Mars (US)"

Read other posts about: Life on Mars

Film

• Spoilers for Tron 2
• Kevin Smith to direct Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Couple of Dicks

Theatre

• High School Musical 2 to become a stage show

British TV

• Never trust Oxford – Uni Challenge winners stripped of their title
• Moving Wallpaper gets rubbish ratings
• Oh FFS. 250 people complain about all-black EastEnders

US TV

• Party of Five's Scott Wolf to star in V
• Life on Mars cancelled – but it will get a proper finale
• Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory likely to get very big renewals
• Teri Polo to star in Washington Field
• Greg Grunberg backtracks over Heroes cancellation Twitter

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Read other posts about: Heroes, Life on Mars

Film

• Clips from Nicolas Cage's Knowing
• Top Cow's Aphrodite IX being adapted into 3D feature film
• Seth Green and Joan Cusack to star in Mars Needs Moms!
• Trailer for IRA informant drama 50 Dead Men Walking
• Eddie Murphy to star in Richard Pryor biopic
• Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal to star in musical Damn Yankees
• Keira Knightley's King Lear cancelled

Music

• Billy Bragg to tour Wales to commemorate the miners' strike
• Tim Burton would like to work with The Cure

Canadian TV

• CBC to buy more US series to save money

British TV

• Gavin and Stacey series three starts filming in June and there are going to be some real twists, apparently
• Channel 4 chairman rejects merger with Five and ITV
• Five set to axe a third of its staff
• Pauline Quirke to star in Missing

US TV

• Simpsons gets two more seasons
• David Morse and Lloyd Owen join pilot casts
• Chris O'Donnell joins NCIS spin-off, plus casting on Courteney Cox's Cougar Town
• Brittany Snow to star in Gossip Girl spin-off
• Lost ratings down a bit, Life in Mars ratings down a lot
• Photos from Caprica
• Gina Gershon to guest on Numb3rs
• Star Trek The Experience returning to Las Vegas
• HBO making a Borgias series

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Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Gossip Girl, Life on Mars, Numb3rs, Star Trek

Doctor Who

• Trailer for Torchwood: Children of Earth

Film

• Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds join The Debt
• Timothy Hutton joins Roman Polanski's The Ghost
• All four stars sign up for Sex and the City 2
• Sally Hawkins to star in We Want Sex (Equality)

Theatre

• Michael Bogdanov's theatre company to fold after staging Thorn Birds musical
• Les Dennis to star in Priestley comedy

British TV

• ITV Wales dropping signing on Wales Tonight
• Good ratings for Minder
• Ian Hart to star in Virgin 1 web drama
• Amy Nuttall signs up for Hotel Babylon
• BBC Four doing a Japan season in March
• Kim Thomson joining Emmerdale
• ITV and Shine form a partnership. More series like Demons anyone?

US TV

• Hayden (sort of) denies she wants out from Heroes
• Life on Mars' ratings plummet in new slot
• Caprica to premiere on DVD
• Joss Whedon's future plans
• The CW picks up Vampire Diaries and Body Politic; CBS picks up The Big D
• Eli Stone's Loretta Devine joins Legally Mad
• Burn Notice's Jeffrey Donovan gets a raise
• Networks looking for new crime dramas and procedurals like The Mentalist
• Krysten Ritter joins Gossip Girl spin-off
• How LA is made to look like DC for 24
• Cupid now down to seven episodes
• Cliffhanger planned for Terminator: TSCC

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Read other posts about: 24, Battlestar Galactica, Burn Notice, Gossip Girl, Heroes, Life on Mars, Sex and the City, Torchwood

Doctor Who

• David Tennant to host Comic Relief
• Pics of the busted bus

Film

• Kung Fu Panda director to direct Masters of the Universe
• Brotherhood of the Rose to get adapted again
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan joins Hilary Swank in The Resident
• Emily Blunt out of Iron Man 2, into Gulliver's Travels?
• Get Smart sequel due by Spring 2010
• Puss in Boots spin-off from Shrek gets a writer
• Poster for State of Play

Art

• Turner landscape sold for £9.1m

• Sheila Hancock to star in Sister Act

British TV

• BBC to lead the push for universal broadband
• Five's VoD service now available to Mac and Linux users
• Morph gets a photoshoot for his 30th anniversary
• Martin Freeman and Joanna Page reunited for Q Pootle 5 animated pilot

US TV

• Lauren Graham pilot gets a green light
• CBS greenlights three new drama pilots
• Promo for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles promises fresh start
• Life on Mars' ratings not good

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Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Life on Mars, State of Play

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, TNT

Over the years, there have been surprisingly few shows set in the world of advertising. Given that it's a sexy, sexy industry, filled with volatile creatives, loads of money and gadzillions of product placement and sponsorship opportunities, you'd have thought it would have been a no-brainer, but apparently not. Bewitched and Mad Men and that's about it, really.

So, finally, at last, comes the show we've all been waiting for (?). Produced by former advertising execs and current producers of The Closer, Trust Me stars Eric McCormack (Will in Will and Grace, who recently had a brief sojourn on The Andromeda Strain), Tom Cavanagh (JD's brother on Scrubs and Eli's father on Eli Stone) and Monica Potter (Boston Legal and Martha in Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel & Laurence).

While the lack of class A drugs probably disqualifies it from being called a realistic portrayal of the advertising industry, in many ways it's a reasonably accurate look at the egos of the creatives in the boys' club that is the modern advertising industry, right down to the fact there's only one woman in it.

Pity it's not as funny as it thinks it is.

Continue reading "Review: Trust Me 1x1"

Read other posts about: Life on Mars, Mad Men, Scrubs, Studio 60