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The Diplomat is a political thriller comedy-drama series created by Debora Cahn. The Netflix series follows the story of Kate Wyler, a career diplomat who is married to a political star as she is recruited as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom amid an international crisis. The Diplomat stars Keri Russell in the lead role with Rufus Sewell, David Gyasi, Rory Kinnear, Georgie Henley, Ato Essandoh, Ali Ahn, Jess Chanliau, and Nana Mensah starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the hilarious comedy, political thrills, and compelling characters in The Diplomat here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Madam Secretary (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – CBS

Madam Secretary is a political thriller drama series created by Barbara Hall. The CBS series follows the story of Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA analyst...

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Paris Has Fallen is a spy action thriller drama series created by Howard Overman. Serving as the next entry into the Has Fallen franchise, the StudioCanal series follows the story of Vincent Taleb, a French protection officer as he teams up with an MI6 agent after a terrorist attack to figure out who was behind the attacks. They soon find themselves embroiled in a larger conspiracy threatening Paris. Paris Has Fallen stars Tewfik Jallab and Ritu Arya in the lead roles with Sean Harris, Emmanuelle Bercot, and Jérémie Covillault starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the explosive action, thrilling stories, and compelling characters in Paris Has Fallen here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Jack Ryan (Prime Video) Credit – Prime Video

Jack Ryan is a spy action thriller drama series created by Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland.

On Wednesday 4 September 2024, BBC Four broadcasts Jed Mercurio and Martin Compston Remember… Line of Duty!

Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Jed Mercurio and Martin Compston Remember… Line of Duty,” airing on BBC Four, promises a fascinating look back at one of the most popular crime dramas in recent years. Viewers will join Jed Mercurio, the creator and writer of “Line of Duty,” alongside Martin Compston, who played the memorable role of Di Steve Arnott. In this special episode, the two will enter an interrogation room, where they will delve into their personal memories and experiences while working on the series.

As they press the record button and hear the iconic beep that signals the start of their conversation, the duo will engage in an intriguing dialogue. They will explore key questions, such as how Martin landed his role in the show and what inspired Jed’s unique writing style for each season.

Intense thriller Nightsleeper comes to the BBC in September, and here’s the trailer for the train-based series.

One of the most thrilling scenes to come out of a BBC drama in recent years was the opening of Jed Mercurio’s Bodyguard, in which the titular character foils a terrorist on a train.

New BBC thriller Nightsleeper takes this to the extreme by setting all six episodes on a high speed train. Think of it as Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, but on a modern BBC budget. And with no Steven Seagal.

The synopsis reads as follows:

Nightsleeper is a six-part series in which a train is ‘hackjacked’ while travelling from Glasgow to London, and suddenly finds itself on an uncertain journey with an even less certain destination. Part fast-moving heart-in-the-mouth action-adventure and part twisty-turny whodunnit detective story, it’s a roller coaster ride set across a single night where...

Jed Mercurio is behind some of the UK’s most successful dramas, and now it’s being reported that he is developing a new series based on the story of the country’s most notorious child serial killer.

Nurse Lucy Letby was jailed for life last year after being convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder six others, all of whom where in her care as a neonatal hospital nurse.

Now The Sun newspaper reports that Mercurio – who was a hospital doctor before he turned to screenwriting and previously created medical show Bodies before his hit shows Bodyguard and Line of Duty – is planning a new drama telling the shocking story. The newspaper speculates that Sophie Turner (formerly of Game of Thrones) and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) are both in the frame for the lead role.

The Sun quotes an industry insider saying: “Jed sees this as an...

Today, BritBox, the premiere streaming destination for British television offering the biggest and best collection of unmissable British television, announced a dynamic slate of upcoming Original series.

Sharing a suspenseful teaser, BritBox announced that the thrilling new mystery Passenger, led by Wunmi Mosaku (Loki), will premiere in October. In the captivating screenwriting debut of actor Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch), inexplicable crimes haunt the fictional village of Chadder Vale, where perhaps more is afoot than meets the eye.

Barry Sloane (Revenge), David Threlfall (Shameless), and Rowan Robinson (A Haunting in Venice) also star in the atmospheric crime drama.

Summer will see the powerful return of gritty, impactful crime dramas, starting with the June 13 return of Blue Lights. A breakout hit in the UK, the Belfast-based series delves into complex local politics through the lens of a police drama.

Multi-bafta-nominated The Responder returns July 11 for a new season, once again led by Martin Freeman...

Scottish actor Brian McCardie, who played Tommy Hunter in the BBC series “Line of Duty,” died on Sunday. He was 59.

His sister, Sarah McCardie, shared the news in a post on her X account. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Brian James McCardie (59), beloved son, brother, uncle and dear friend to so many. Brian passed away suddenly at home on Sunday 28th April. A wonderful and passionate actor on stage and screen, Brian loved his work and touched many lives, and is gone much too soon,” the statement reads. “We love him and will miss him greatly; please remember Brian in your thoughts. Funeral arrangements will be announced in the days ahead. As a family, we would ask for privacy at this time.”

McCardie’s representation, United Agents, also confirmed his death in a post on X: “We are shocked and so deeply saddened by...

Lille — All3Media International has closed multiple major territories on ITV’s ratings champ “Trigger Point,” adding to stellar viewer numbers after Season 2 of the edge-of-the-seat thriller bowed last month averaging 6.9 million viewers across Itvx and ITV1.

That ranks as the third biggest audience for an ITV show since Jan. 2022.

Created by Daniel Brierly and produced by Htm Television, co-owned by Jed Mercurio, behind “Line of Duty” and “Bodyguard,” “Trigger Point” turns on members of a bomb disposal squad led by explosives officer Lana Washington (Vicky McClure).

Washington is back from Estonia, training Ukrainian bomb disposal operatives, having suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after the high body count of Season One. Almost immediately, there’s an explosion at the local power plant and Washington is the nearest expert. But can she hold her nerve?

Edge-of-seat nail-biting entertainment, critics concur, Season 2 buyers take in CBC in Canada, which recently debuted the new series on its streaming platform,...

“If I were Boris Johnson, I wouldn’t want to read it” said the Sunday Times review of Rachel Clarke’s Covid-19 NHS frontline memoir Breathtaking. If I were Boris Johnson, and capable of experiencing shame, I wouldn’t want to watch this humane, truth-telling TV adaptation either.

Breathtaking is not about Boris Johnson or the corridors of power; it’s an unvarnished record of what happened in the corridors and wards of NHS hospitals during the Coronavirus pandemic. Over three one-hour episodes based on Clarke’s experiences and research interviews, it follows fictional consultant Dr Abbey Henderson (Joanne Froggatt) and colleagues through the early days and the worst of the virus.

Why should we have to go through all of that again on screen – wasn’t once enough? Perhaps. But if your pandemic, like mine, was more about sourdough and Joe Wicks than pain and loss, then it feels...

Doctor Rachel Clarke and ex-junior doctors Jed Mercurio and Prasanna Puwanarajah have teamed up to make Covid drama Breathtaking, here’s the trailer.

It is perhaps no surprise that following the most tumultuous, traumatic time in our recent history, writers quickly opened Final Draft and began to try to make some sense of it all.

Jack Thorne’s astonishingly powerful film Help, which starred Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham, shone a light on the brutal reality or running a care home during the pandemic.

Michael Winterbottom and Keiron Quirke aimed their anger at the political side of things, with Kenneth Branagh playing Boris Johnson in mini series This England, while writer Stephen Knight and director Doug Liman took a more lighthearted approach with comedy drama Lockdown, which saw Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor stage a diamond heist in Harrods.

Jed Mercurio is no stranger to medical dramas, drawing on his...

McCance died aged 53 on December 19 last year, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.

Colleagues and friends have paid tribute to “free spirit” and “brilliant role model”, Northern Ireland-born, Sweden-based film and TV writer and executive producer Ruth McCance, who has died aged 53 from cancer.

McCance was diagnosed in November of last year with stomach cancer, and died just five weeks later.

During her career she worked on films including Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All About Love, Soren-Kragh Jakobson’s Skagerrak and Garth Jennings’s Son Of Rambow.

McCance grew up in Belfast. Her mother was a...

Are you living up to those New Year’s resolutions so far? Need a little help gaining momentum? BBC Maestro is here to help with a phenomenal deal. Sign up by January 31 and you can take 40% off any purchase. The most popular plan is their annual subscription, now $72 instead of $120. That’s just $6/month to learn a world of new skills. Use the code JANUARY2024 to get the deal.

Get the Deal $6/month bbcmaestro.com Save $48 on the Annual Plan with code JANUARY2024 What is BBC Maestro?

BBC Maestro is very similar to the well-known MasterClass series. Celebrity instructors will walk you through everything you need to know to get started on a new skill set. Gain new skills in the kitchen, learn how to create stories, and discover how to start a business!

Each course runs between 2-4 hours, and the lessons are broken into short videos.

While you...

2024 really is the year of the Difficult Second Series: after wowing us in 2023 and even earlier, shows like The Tourist, Extraordinary, The Rig, Suspect and Bad Sisters are on the way back for another helping this year, but the question is: will they live up to series one?

In among this, a trio of behemoth shows coming back: Doctor Who will return for series 14, or season one as it’s being styled, the first with Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, Wolf Hall is returning after nine years to cover the late Hilary Mantel’s final book in the trilogy, The Mirror and The Light, and dystopian anthology series Black Mirror will return to Netflix for its seventh series. There’s even talk of a prequel series to Red Dwarf, if that comes off.

This is our round-up of the British TV shows we’re most excited to see returning for new...

Is Bodyguard Season 2 still happening with Richard Madden, and when could the series be released on Netflix?

When Will Bodyguard Season 2 Release?

Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio joked about a Season 2 renewal on April Fool’s Day 2022, as he shared a hilarious fake poster that pictured Richard Madden’s David Budd alongside former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Read full article on The Direct.

As the streaming landscape continues to readjust after a turbulent few years, some platforms are riding the wave more comfortably than others. A case in point is SVOD service BritBox International, which was founded in 2017 as a joint venture by U.K. broadcasters ITV and BBC.

Available in eight markets outside the U.K. including the U.S., Canada and Australia, BritBox offers a uniquely specific output: namely, British content for international audiences. (A sister service with the same name operated solely by ITV is available in the U.K.).

In terms of genre, there’s everything from drama to soaps plus crime, comedy and what BritBox CEO Reemah Sakaan calls “British pastimes,” meaning shows about things like antiques and gardening. The streamer also boasts its own original content, such as upcoming Cary Grant biopic “Archie,” which stars Jason Isaacs (“Harry Potter”) as the Hollywood legend.

“You look for real British specificity in the storytelling,...

Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV, has led the U.K. TV giant since 2018, driving its transformation for the digital age.

Freemium streaming service Itvx launched in late 2022 with such originals as Cold War drama A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce. It has brought the company “over 2 billion streams and a significant increase in users,” emphasizes McCall.

The firm’s production arm ITV Studios is “the largest producer in the U.K, one of the largest unscripted producers in the U.S. and one of the top three in the majority of the remaining international markets in which it operates,” ITV touts on its website. ITV Studios has launched such hit shows as Tomorrow Studios’ live-action manga adaptation One Piece, World Production’s Line of Duty from Jed Mercurio and Love Island, which is now commissioned in 27 territories. It also owns stakes in such companies as Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Television.

A character describes the complicated process of a financial transfer to another character in ITV’s latest crime drama miniseries, Payback. The person to whom it is being explained wonders if the process is too confusing. The word he specifically uses is “convoluted”. I would describe the plot of Payback with the same words, but I would preface it by adding a “needlessly” before it. I admit that I don’t exactly understand the nitty-gritty of finance, but I am sure that’s the case for most of the viewers other than people working in that field. The thing is, Payback has a lot of money-related matters going on in its narrative, and it throws around quite a lot of jargon, which kind of goes over your head. It would have been alright if all these were actually important to understand the main plot, but as you keep watching the series,...

Toronto – Korean Fund Established

The Toronto International Film Festival, Cj Cultural Foundation and the Korean Film Council (Kofic), have unveiled the Cj & TIFF K-Story Fund. It is an initiative to foster, support and champion Korean Canadian and American filmmakers looking to develop their first or second feature film.

It will have an annual budget of $30,000 for a three-year period and support three creative teams. Applications begin in November, with the recipients set to be announced in 2024. In addition to receiving the development prize, the selected participants will each receive direct one-on-one mentorship on story development with Cj Cultural Foundation.

TIFF chief programming officer, Anita Lee, called the fund, “a groundbreaking initiative providing support for filmmakers from diasporic communities.”

“It is our hope that this fund helps filmmakers in North America who are of Korean backgrounds, unleash their creative potential,” said Heekyung Jo Min, head of corporate social responsibility at Cj,...

“Succession” star Brian Cox is the latest luminary to impart his knowledge as part of the BBC’s Maestro online education initiative.

Cox’s course, titled simply “Acting,” will shine a spotlight on how to deliver award-winning performances, capture — and hold — an audience’s collective attention, and embody a multitude of iconic characters. As is customary with the Maestro template, across his lessons, Cox will direct aspiring actors through practical exercises designed to help them master both stage and screen. Lessons will delve into character development, script analysis and the essential techniques to take into their next audition. The course will include a discussion of the key components of acting, insights from a casting director and a practical workshop led by Cox.

The classically trained actor is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Besides Logan Roy in “Succession,” his performances as Hermann Göring in “Nuremberg,...

Don’t despair about the end of another non-existent British summer – UK TV always gets good when the weather turns, as the nights draw in and we all retreat indoors, finally getting sick of rainy barbecues and being chased by wasps in pub gardens.

This year is no different, so you can expect your 2023 autumn TV watchlist to include some compelling original dramas, from true crime shows covering some of the UK’s most shocking cases to enthralling depictions of real-life events, from the arrival of the Windrush generation to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Throw in some time-travelling crime-solving, mediaeval sword fights and a criminal gang on the run from a ruthless assassin, and we’ll be enjoying our self-enforced hibernation in front of the telly all the way until Christmas. Here’s what’s coming up, in order of release date.

The Killing Kind

Jane Casey’s novel The Killing Kind...

Vicky McClure, one of the leads in hit UK crime thriller Line of Duty, married her longtime fiancé on Friday, when the couple were serenaded by Our Dementia Choir, a group of singers with dementia brought together by McClure in 2019.

The choir were featured on a BBC documentary that year, fronted by McClure and which explored what music therapy could do for those living with dementia. Two years later, the organisation she founded became an official charity.

The popular actress revealed some pictures at the weekend, including shots with her Line of Duty co-stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar, as well as the show’s creator Jed Mercurio.

Compston shared some pictures on social media, and wrote: “First dance with the dementia choir was just beautiful and says everything about the two of them sharing their moment with the dementia team… a few shandies were had afterwards.”

Late on Friday night,...

Exclusive: Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has penned an ITV drama about a doctor in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic starring Joanne Froggatt.

Mercurio co-wrote Breathtaking with Rachel Clarke, the author of the 2021 novel that the show is based on, and Prasanna Puwanarajah, who played Martin Bashir in The Crown Season 5. All three are qualified doctors.

Filming wrapped quietly earlier this year in Belfast.

Breathtaking is based on Clarke’s unflinching memoir having looked after the most gravely unwell patients in the early days of the pandemic. Amid the tensions, fatigue and rising death toll, she witnessed the courage of patients and NHS staff alike in conditions of unprecedented adversity.

Golden Globe-winner Froggatt, who most recently starred in James Graham’s BBC drama Sherwood, played lead Dr Abbey Henderson and Craig Viveiros (The War of the Worlds) was director.

“Everyone has felt privileged to dramatise Rachel Clarke...

You’ve got your Casualty and Doctors – medical soaps that have been around forever and will hopefully stay around forever to reliably entertain, educate and break in the stars of tomorrow. Next, there are your factual medical shows of questionable taste – Embarrassing Bodies, 101 Things Removed From the Human Body and other fleshlump-zoo tours that’d put anybody off their dinner.

And then there are the following – quality 21st century hospital dramas, documentaries and comedies, all of which present their unique take on the world of medicine. Leave your own recommendations below.

Call the Midwife

Watch on: BBC One and BBC iPlayer (UK); PBS Masterpiece (US)

If you know, you know. And if you don’t know, then you haven’t been paying attention. There’s a popular misconception that BBC One’s long-running Sunday night drama Call the Midwife is a sickly sweet, rose-tinted, tweer-than-twee nostalgia-fest. Nuns on bicycles! Cockneys with hearts of gold!

Top global talent paid homage to director Martin Campbell and special effects supervisor Chris Corbould at the second London Action Festival, which concluded Sunday.

The duo, who were honored with the festival’s Moving Target Award for their outstanding contribution to action cinema, were surprised with a range of video messages from people who had worked with them.

Daniel Craig described Campbell and Corbould as “two people who have had a major influence on my career.” On Campbell, Craig said: “It gave me incredible security knowing you were steering the ship [Casino Royale]. I have so much to thank you for. I’m incredibly proud of the film we made together.” On Corbould, Craig added: “I don’t know what to say. You’ve blown me up, you’ve set me on fire – but what has been so incredible in working with you is to have had the privilege of getting inside your imagination.

The London Action Festival has revealed a raft of new events joining the already impressive programme set to burst into London later this month. The one-of-a-kind Festival is year on year proving itself in its ambitions to be Britain’s biggest convention and will bring together influential figures responsible for creating some of the most iconic Action moments in Film and TV history, running from Wednesday 21st – Sunday 25th June.

The extensive program offers professionals and fans alike the opportunity to immerse themselves in all things Action. Every day is ‘action-packed’, with more events to be announced soon, and the program currently boasts:

Three Nights of Special Events – including the return of last year’s sell outs: The Friday Night Showdown – The Festival’s Moving Target Awards’ Show. Award Winner’s announced so far to be honoured for their Outstanding Contributions to Action Film & TV include:

For Direction: Martin Campbell,...

Den of Geek is the Senior Media Sponsor of The London Action Festival

If a lack of quality action movie content is a disease, consider the return of The London Action Festival the cure.

If you’re in the London area or are planning to be between June 21-25, you won’t want to dodge this bullet. The London Action Festival is returning for Year 2 locked and loaded with an impressive lineup celebrating the skills, creativity, talent and bravery required to create the world’s most exciting content across Film and TV.

“The London Action Festival is back and bolder this year, once again championing the incredible talent both in front of and behind the camera,” said Festival Co-Directors Julian Alcantara and Ron Fogelman in a release. “With exciting events already confirmed and more to be announced, festival- goers will be able to immerse themselves in all things Action. 2023 is...

The London Action Festival has revealed a packed program for its second edition.

Highlights of the first round of programming that has been unveiled include:

Anatomy Of A Set Piece where The Raid franchise creator Gareth Evans and others to be announced will break down chosen set pieces from their works; a screening of “The Raid 2” + Q&a with Evans; The Showrunner’s Story, where, in association with World Productions, “Bodyguard” and ‘Line of Duty” Jed Mercurio creator will explore the work of a showrunner in the creation and production of shows; and The Villains of John Wick, in association with Lionsgate, where Mark Dacascos (Zero in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum”) and Scott Adkins (Killa in “John Wick: Chapter 4”) – two of the most memorable villains from across the John Wick franchise will discuss their work.

Cry Havoc – The Making of a Battle, courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery,...

In 1973, the killer of Welsh teenagers Sandra Newton, Pauline Flynn and Gwendoline Hughes was not caught, despite a high-profile and widespread investigation by South Wales Police. The girls’ families spent the next three decades not knowing who was responsible for brutally taking the lives of their loved ones, or whether he still lived alongside them in the local Neath and Port Talbot communities.

In 2002, a development in forensics changed everything. The cold case was reopened with much pared-down resources, and crime scene DNA was successfully used to identify Wales’ first recorded serial killer. Steeltown Murders is the story of the loss, guilt and suspicion that followed the 1970s murders, and of the perseverance of the officers who were eventually able to provide the victims’ families with the answers they’d been denied years before.

Here are the actors making up the cast behind Steeltown Murders‘ dramatisation of real-life figures and events.

Reaching into Inspector Morse’s past for a prequel series was a gamble that paid off handsomely. Endeavour, which followed the young detective over a seven-year period from constable to detective sergeant in the 1960s and early 1970s, just concluded after nine series. It was an exemplary prequel, beloved by newcomers and by fans of the original Inspector Morse, which it referenced playfully and with imagination.

Endeavour’s success was not a given, nor should it be laid at the feet of simple IP recognition. Prime Suspect 1973, which attempted the same trick by following a younger version of Helen Mirren’s celebrated Dci Jane Tennison, lasted only one series. Young Wallander on Netflix made it to two, but the response has been lukewarm. The 1930s-set Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys in the lead role is faring better on HBO, but it’s clear that it’s not enough simply to...

The 2023 London Screenings, which unfold Feb. 27 to March 3, take place in an increasingly crowded international TV calendar. The event kicks off just days after the Berlinale Series Market, overlaps with the BBC Studios Showcase and precedes Series Mania and MipTV.

The week-long showcase has established itself as a key place to acquire the best of British and international programming. All major global TV distributors, spanning 26 companies, have a plethora of content to offer across genres and formats, and a series of screenings, meetings and events have been lined up.

To help you cut through the slates, Variety has surveyed the goods from key international distributors. Here are our picks of 15 shows that will whet buyers’ appetites.

A Body That Works

(Keshet International)

“A Body That Works”

An intense triangle involving love, jealousy, desire and selflessness sees a childless couple enlist the help of a surrogate to conceive. At the heart...

This list applies to UK streaming services

When I find myself in times of trouble/Streaming channels come to me/Speaking words of wisdom/ Watch TV/Watch TV-eeee/Watch TV-eeee/There will be an answer: watch TV (repeat to fade).

Go on, do it, it’s good advice – we all need a bit of escapism now and then. All of the below are British dramas currently available on UK streaming services, some free-to-air, some subscriber-only, some short, some long, some old favourites and some new arrivals, all in pleasing alphabetical order.

We’ll keep this list updated as new series are added and taken away. If you’ve children to entertain, then here’s our list of the top kids’ shows currently available on UK streaming services, and if you’re in need of a laugh, here’s our collection of the best British comedy TV shows. Sorted.

A Discovery of Witches...

BritBox International has reached three million subscribers across its eight international markets, Variety can reveal.

The “best of British” streamer, which is backed internationally by BBC and ITV, has reached its latest milestone across the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

“Through what’s been a really challenging time for lots of SVODs, we’ve grown by 15% this year, which certainly exceeds that category growth for the U.S., and lots of our competitors in that set,” Reemah Sakaan, the London-based CEO of BritBox International, tells Variety.

BritBox last revealed subs of 2.6 million in March 2022, and prior to that, 2 million in July 2021 and 1 million in March 2020. In the last year, the service has launched in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, and struck new distribution partnerships with Amazon Prime Video and Apple channels across Australia.

The service’s most comparable rival in the U.S. is Acorn TV,...

Immediate Media Co, the special interest content and platform company, has announced a partnership with Spotify’s Megaphone to host its award-winning podcast portfolio. From March 2023, Immediate Media’s podcast shows will be hosted and monetised through Spotify’s enterprise podcasting platform, Megaphone.

Megaphone is the industry-leading podcasting platform for enterprise publishers and professional podcasters globally as it offers a comprehensive set of tools that enable publishers to publish, monetise, and grow their podcast businesses. With 489 million MAUs, Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service. In the UK, Spotify reaches more than half of the online population.

As the UK’s leading publisher podcast producer, Immediate’s output includes the HistoryExtra Podcast - which recently celebrated 200 million downloads - Radio Times’ View From My Sofa, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast and the BBC Good Food Podcast with Tom Kerridge.

Immediate produced 750 podcast episodes across its portfolio last year,...

Distributor Hat Trick International (Hti) has closed multiple international sales on ITV series “Di Ray,” from “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio’s Htm Television.

Both seasons of the crime drama, created and written by former “Line of Duty” actor Maya Sondhi, have been acquired by PBS Distribution in a multi-rights deal that will see it broadcast across PBS’s 330+ member stations in the U.S. and streaming on PBS Passport, the PBS Video app and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. The deal was brokered by Germaine Sweet, PBS Distribution’s managing director of content acquisitions and Jonathan South, Hti’s North American senior sales executive.

“Di Ray,” executive produced by Mercurio, debuted to strong ratings in 2022 as a 4 x 60′ series on U.K. broadcaster ITV, leading to a second season order of six episodes. Set in Birmingham, the series revolves around Rachita Ray, a Leicester-born police officer who...

Line of Duty fans are divided over rumours the show will make a grand return in 2023.

Reports have claimed that the BBC has “unfinished business” with the crime series, which came to an apparent conclusion in 2021.

While creator Jed Mercurio has never conclusively revealed that the show was finished, many assumed this to be the case.

The final episode ended with revelation of the identity of the enigmatic “H”, who was the leader of undercover corruption syndicate within the police force.

An insider told The Sun: “Viewers weren’t satisfied with the ending of series six and were crying out for a more sensational conclusion – now Jed can deliver that.

“The question is whether the person we were led to believe was H really is the villain that AC-12 has been hunting or if it was another nemesis.”

According to the source, “there’s also a theory another, darker puppet...

Exclusive: Hat Trick Productions, the storied British production company behind Derry Girls and Have I Got News For You, is courting sale talks.

Co-founded by Jimmy Mulville in 1986, Hat Trick has been a bastion of truly independent UK producers but is now entertaining interest from groups including All3Media and Fremantle.

The company has not formally declared it is up for sale and has not engaged the services of an M&a broker, but Deadline hears that it has recently held promising conversations with potential suitors.

Mulville has toyed with the idea of selling in the past, most recently in 2018, when he compared the process to a real estate agent valuing a house. Four years on, sources said there had been a flurry of interest in Hat Trick amid the success of shows including bomb squad drama Trigger Point.

Three sources said that All3Media, the super producer owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Liberty Global,...

Abacus Media Rights has sold multi award-winning CBC/HBO Max original comedy series “Sort Of” season 1 (8 x 30’) to Netflix in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, it was revealed at the Asia TV Forum and Market on Thursday.

“Sort Of,” produced by Sienna Films, a Sphere Media company, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, is created by Bilal Baig (“Acha Bacha”) and Fab Filippo (“Save Me”), who also serve as showrunners and executive producers. The dramatic comedy sees Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a fluid millennial who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family.

The series won prizes at the Actra Awards, Banff World Media Festival/Rockie Awards, Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Directors Guild of Canada, Mipcom Diversify TV Excellence Awards, Peabody Awards and Writers...

Left Bank Pictures, Joi Productions projects feature on the 19-strong list.

Issy Knowles’ TV series Model Behaviour has topped the 2022 Brit List of unproduced scripts from emerging UK screenwriting talent, with new projects by Left Bank Pictures and Joi Productions also among the 19-strong list.

Model Behaviour is a comedy-drama about an ambitious young model who puts everything on the line to achieve her dream, only to discover that success isn’t everything she thought it would be.

Scroll down for the full Brit List 2022 selection

The title received 17 recommendations, which are compiled from UK production companies, talent agencies, sales companies,...

British actor Prasanna Puwanarajah is on a career high with a starring turn in the new season of “The Crown” and his feature directorial debut “Ballywalter” beginning its festival journey by opening the Belfast Film Festival.

Puwanarajah is of Tamil Sri Lankan heritage and has used aspects of his background to inform both his role in “The Crown” and his directing turn on “Ballywalter,” he tells Variety.

In “The Crown,” Puwanarajah plays British journalist Martin Bashir, who conducted the infamous and now disreputed 1995 BBC “Panorama” interview with Princess Diana. Bashir is of Pakistani heritage.

“It’s very rare that as an actor you are using the full range of your physical and spiritual and heritage offer — particularly in the way that casting can happen, where it can feel quite last minute and diversity can feel like, as Riz Ahmed puts it, an optional extra, where people aren’t really looking...

England-based Sri Lankan medic-turned-actor Prasanna Puwanarajah, who plays Martin Bashir in Season 5 of ‘The Crown’, is working in tandem with ‘Line of Duty’ creator Jed Mercurio over an adaptation of Rachel Clarke’s pandemic-themed bestseller ‘Breathtaking’.

The book is being developed as a three-part as-yet-untitled drama for UK broadcaster ITV, Puwanarajah, who was formerly a doctor with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), as was Mercurio, told ‘Variety’. Clarke is writing the drama with Puwanarajah and Mercurio.

Set during the time when the UK was being ravaged by Covid-19, Clarke’s book provides an insider’s look at the pandemic from a hospital doctor’s point of view.

“Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor who I used to work with in the NHS, when I was a first year junior doctor and she was a medical student — I taught her how to do IV drip lines. And she...

Prasanna Puwanarajah, who stars as Martin Bashir on season 5 of “The Crown,” is working again with “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio, this time on an adaptation of Rachel Clarke’s pandemic-themed bestseller “Breathtaking.”

The book is being developed as a three-part as-yet-untitled drama for U.K. broadcaster ITV, Puwanarajah, who was formerly a doctor with the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), as was Mercurio, told Variety. Clarke is writing the drama with Puwanarajah and Mercurio.

Set during the time when the U.K. was being ravaged by Covid-19, Clarke’s book provides an insider’s look at the pandemic from a hospital doctor’s point of view.

“Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor who I used to work with in the NHS, when I was a first year junior doctor and she was a medical student – I taught her how to do IV drip lines. And...

This feature contains spoilers for all series of Line of Duty

If, like much of the UK, you are still nowhere near over that Line of Duty series six finale from May 2021, you might be wondering if that really was it for the nation’s favourite crime drama. Will there be a series seven of Line of Duty? This question is becoming as oft repeated as ‘just how many waistcoats does Steve Arnott own?’ and ‘Seriously – Buckells?!’

When asked about it, the show’s cast have been teasingly vague: back in August, Martin Compston said ‘there’s always a chance’ whereas in early October Adrian Dunbar went one step further, saying ‘Within the next few weeks or couple of months we might hear something.’ So far, so promising.

As of this week, however, series mastermind Jed Mercurio gave the latest official update as: ‘There’s no news.’ We won’t...

A 100th anniversary is a milestone in the history of any institution. In the case of the BBC, the centenary of its founding on 18 October 1922 triggers a rush of memories, a landslide of couch-bound nostalgia. But whether it’s Doctor Who’s Dalek battles, David Attenborough striking up a bromance with a family of gorillas, or Line of Duty’s Ted Hastings invoking “Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey”, the sweep of the corporation’s output across the past century is impossible to condense into a few paragraphs. Still, we’ve tried to pull together some of the most iconic shows of those 10 decades, from drama and documentary to comedy via arts, music and science fiction. All are iconic in their own right. Together they are a portrait of a time, a country, and a belief in broadcasting as a force for good in the world.

20. Line of Duty (2012 – 2021)

Mother of God,...

Acting head of drama Ben Irving, senior commissioner Manda Levin to leave, while development head Tom Lazenby has deparated.

The BBC drama department has been hit with a triple departure: acting director of drama Ben Irving and senior commissioning editor Manda Levin are leaving the corporation, and head of development Tom Lazenby has already departed.

The trio of departures represents a significant change to the team, and will give incoming director of drama Lindsay Salt scope to reshape it after she joins from Netflix UK on Tuesday.

Irving is leaving to join Severance producer Fifth Season (formerly Endeavor Content) in...

Acting head of drama Ben Irving, senior commissioner Manda Levin to leave, while development head Tom Lazenby has deparated.

The BBC drama department has been hit with a triple departure: acting director of drama Ben Irving and senior commissioning editor Manda Levin are leaving the corporation, and head of development Tom Lazenby has already departed.

The trio of departures represents a significant change to the team, and will give incoming director of drama Lindsay Salt scope to reshape it after she joins from Netflix UK on Tuesday.

Irving is leaving to join Severance producer Fifth Season (formerly Endeavor Content) in...

Jed Mercurio’s Htm Television’s is working on Payback, a six-part crime drama for the UK’s ITV and Britbox International. Morven Christie, Peter Mullan and Prasanna Puwanarajah are leading the cast, and screenwriter Debbie O’Malley is writing.

Billed as a “compelling character-led series,” Payback will follows Lexie Noble,, as she becomes entangled in a perilous police operation to topple a notorious crime lord, Cal Morris. Puwanarajah and Derek Riddell play financial investigators looking into Lexie’s husband Jared, who has been laundering Cal’s illegal earnings behind her back.

Htm Television Creative Director Jed Mercurio is working alongside Hill, his Htm partner Madonna Baptiste and Diederick Santer on behalf of BritBox International on the series.

U.K. broadcaster ITV has commissioned “Line of Duty” and “Bodyguard” creator Jed Mercurio’s Htm Television to produce crime thriller series “Payback” with BritBox International as co-production partner.

The six-part series stars Morven Christie (“The Bay”), Peter Mullan (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”), Prasanna Puwanarajah (“Ten Percent”) and Derek Riddell (“Industry”).

Written by Debbie O’Malley (“Call the Midwife”), “Payback” follows Lexie Noble (Christie) as she becomes entangled in a police operation to topple a notorious crime lord, Cal Morris (Mullan). The drama will be filmed in Glasgow, Edinburgh and surrounding areas.

Christie said: “I fell in love with Lexie from the first page, and I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Peter and this wonderful team in my hometown.”

“Payback” was commissioned by ITV head of drama Polly Hill.

Hill said: ” ‘Payback is a brilliant thriller which questions how well you know your partner...

Jed Mercurio, creator of hit BBC series “Line of Duty” and “Bodyguard,” has revealed a few aspects of his craft for screenwriters.

Mercurio’s course for the BBC Maestro educational series, titled “Writing Drama for Television,” has launched into North America. It is a comprehensive breakdown of the art and craft of writing, split into 28 chapters, beginning with the genesis of the process and concluding with career development options. Each chapter is accompanied by a video lecture from Mercurio and course notes, which include assignments and homework.

The initiative began at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was perfect timing really, because a lot of writers weren’t having contact with the industry in the way that they normally do, and so it felt like a really helpful way to reach out to people and get them thinking about their writing,” Mercurio told Variety.

Like all seasoned writers, Mercurio...

Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar has suggested that the next series could have as few as two episodes.

While there has so far been no official confirmation that the hit BBC police drama is returning for a seventh series, a renewel is widely expected.

Dunbar, who plays Ted Hastings in the hit BBC police drama, suggested that he, alongside co-stars Martin Compston and Vicky McClure, will find out later this month whether Line of Duty will indeed return.

Speaking to The Times, however, he claimed that he thought the prospective next season would contain fewer episodes than previously.

“There’s a big appetite for more Line of Duty,” he said. “It could be three or four episodes, I don’t think there’s going to be six for some reason.

“It might be two 90 minutes. But it’s all entirely down to [creator Jed Mercurio] what the storyline is going to be.

Actor Adrian Dunbar, who played Superintendent Hastings in six seasons of Jed Mercurio’s smash hit BBC series “Line of Duty,” has speculated about a seventh season.

Dunbar told The Times of London: “There’s a big appetite for more ‘Line of Duty.’ It could be three or four episodes, I don’t think there’s going to be six for some reason. It might be two 90 minutes. But it’s all entirely down to Jed what the storyline is going to be. It’s a big ask for him.”

Season six of the drama, which revolves around an anti-corruption unit in the U.K. police, concluded with a big reveal that evoked mixed reactions from the audience.

“It may not have been dramatically satisfying and I can understand why people went, ‘Oh my God!’ But it was a proper way to conclude, to show that actually some of the biggest...