An archive of blog entries about UK TV programmes and production.
US TV
UK TV
Wednesday’s “Mads Mikkelsen is Hannibal Lecter, Spartacus and King cancelled and David Tennant’s cop show” news
Film
- House of Lies‘ Ben Schwartz joins Runner, Runner
- Garret Dillahunt joins 12 Years A Slave
- Big Bang Theory‘s Johnny Galecki joins CBGB movie
Comics
- Trailer for Before Watchmen + five preview pages
Theater
- Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon to star in Grace
Canadian TV
- King cancelled
UK TV
- SNL‘s Andy Samberg joins BBC3’s Cuckoo
- David Tennant gets a cop show
- Alan Partridge preview trailers
- Sunday ratings: The Apprentice finishes with 7m viewers
US TV
- L&O:SVU‘s Diane Neal to guest on Suits
- Rumer Willis to guest on Workaholics
- Catherine Tate to become a regular on The Office
- Longmire most-watched A&E scripted series debut ever
- Spartacus cancelled
New US TV shows
- Trailer for BBC America’s Copper
- Scream TV series in development at MTV
- Vanessa Redgrave to guest star on Political Animals
- Jerry O’Connell to play Herman Munster
- Mads Mikkelsen to play Hannibal Lecter
- Lara Pulver joins Da Vinci’s Demons, Clifton Collins Jr joins Red Widow
Events
What TV’s on at the BFI in July 2012
Time for our regular look at the TV that the BFI is showing, this time in the month of July 2012. There’s a surprising amount on offer, mainly as the result of an Aristocracy season that includes one of Richard Burton’s few TV plays, but also because there’s something of a BSkyB theme to the month, with a preview of Sinbad , which features that nice Naveen Andrews from Lost, a lot of comedy from Sky, including Moone Boy with The IT Crowd‘s Chris O’Dowd and Parents with Smack the Pony‘s Sally Phillips, as well as a panel discussion about comedy featuring Sky’s head of comedy Lucy Lumsden.
And is that weren’t enough, there are previews of BBC2’s Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, featuring lots of nice people including Jeremy Irons and that nice Tom Hiddleston from The Avengers, as well as an old version of Hamlet made for schools back in the 60s.
Friday’s “Sky Atlantic to double UK content, Reelz order Barabbas and ScarJo returns to Broadway” news
The Daily News will return on Wednesday
Film
- Benedict Cumberbatch joins Twelve Years A Slave
Trailers
- Trailer for Premium Rush with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Theater
- Scarlett Johansson to star in Broadway revival of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Canadian TV
UK TV
- Sky orders character comedy showcase
- Universal acquires Prime Suspect (US)
- Sky Atlantic to double UK commissions to 50% of output
US TV
- Wednesday ratings: Hatfields & McCoys beats its own record
- Trailer for season four of White Collar
- Only 13 new episodes for Private Practice this year
- Katia Winter to recur on Dexter
- Trailer for season 2 of Boss
- Wil Calhoun joins Whitney as new showrunner
- Nurse Jackie gets a fifth season with former Dexter showrunner
New US TV shows
- Reelz orders Barabbas and acquires Bomb Girls
- Thomas Jane to play Bugsy Siegel in LA Noir
Classic TV
Nostalgia corner: The Zoo Gang (1974)
The gods alone know how I missed this one when I was doing my recap of ITC’s 1970s shows, but I did, so let’s rectify that mistake ASAP.
A close inspection of ITC’s early 1970s shows, including The Persuaders!, The Protectors and The Adventurer will reveal a very subtle trend: a move away from casting bright young unknowns who might become stars to casting stars who were – trying not to be harsh – perhaps very slightly over the hill. Roger Moore obviously still had a career as James Bond ahead of him, but he’d already been The Saint and Ivanhoe, so who knew if there was a future for him in 1971. Ditto Tony Curtis, Robert Vaughn and Gene Barry who had been big… once.
The Zoo Gang married that trend with ITC’s new dedication to overseas filming, casting Brian Keith (The Westerner, The Parent Trap, Nevada Smith, Family Affair and eventually Hardcastle & McCormick), Barry Morse (The Fugitive, The Adventurer and afterwards Space: 1999), Lilli Palmer (an award-winning German actress) and Sir John Mills as a group of World War 2 resistance members who reunite 30 years later to wreak vengeance on the compatriot who betrayed them to the Gestapo during the War. Their job done, the elderly group decide to stay together to use their skills to scam con artists and criminals out of their money so as to build a hospital in memory of Palmer’s deceased husband.
Based on a book by Paul Gallico and set on the French Riviera in Nice, the show ran for six episodes and took its name from the fact that ‘the Zoo Gang’ all had animal codenames: the Elephant, the Tiger, The Leopard and The Fox. And while the scripts were nothing special, it did have a great title sequence – that’s rather a lot like The Persuaders!‘s in style – and, in a first for ITC, a theme tune by Paul and Linda McCartney.
Here’s the title sequence and if that’s not enough for you, the entire first episode is after the jump. Yes, you can get it on DVD, you lucky people. No, you can’t get Barry Morse’s hat – why would you want to?