The Podcast Show, the biggest international festival for the business of podcasting, is back for a third year. The one-of-a-kind event will bring together industry leaders, brands, platforms and the sharpest new creators from across the globe to celebrate and help shape the future of podcasting. The festival will take place across two days at The Business Design Centre in Islington, London on 22 & 23 May 2024, in the heart of the city’s media district.
In May 2023, the show brought together over 10,000+ visitors (day and night) from the audio industry globally, to learn, do business and network. It was an extraordinary international celebration of the industry, with 40% of visitors coming from outside the UK. Over 40 countries were represented including: the US, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Canada, Spain, Denmark, South Korea, Brazil and more. The show featured some of the most recognisable names in podcasting including: Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel & Lewis Goodall,...
In May 2023, the show brought together over 10,000+ visitors (day and night) from the audio industry globally, to learn, do business and network. It was an extraordinary international celebration of the industry, with 40% of visitors coming from outside the UK. Over 40 countries were represented including: the US, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Canada, Spain, Denmark, South Korea, Brazil and more. The show featured some of the most recognisable names in podcasting including: Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel & Lewis Goodall,...
- 2/28/2024
- Podnews.net
A new podcast from The Times brings together three of the most experienced political strategists in the UK ahead of the general election expected next year. Peter Mandelson, Daniel Finkelstein, and Polly Mackenzie will join Times Radio presenter Matt Chorley each week for the How To Win An Election podcast. It will be a part of the election coverage from Times Radio and The Times, across print, digital, video and audio.
- 10/20/2023
- by PodcastingToday
- Podcastingtoday
The actor and writer on prepping to play famous people, the thrill of seeing Tom Cruise every day on Mission: Impossible, and his love of Naked Attraction
You have taken on the roles of Bamber Gascoigne, Malcolm McLaren, Peter Mandelson and Larry Grayson. How do you deliver believable portrayals of such well-known figures? VerulamiumParkRanger
I’ll start with the voice. Some are easier than others. I’ve just finished at the National Theatre, playing Sir John Gielgud, who sits very well in my voice. Larry Grayson was quite difficult. He’s deeper and rustier than you’d expect. The key to Malcolm McLaren was realising that he sounds like Larry the Lamb, strange and croaky. Mandelson has this underbite, which changes the shape of your face. The way he speaks is deliberate and laborious. Bamber Gascoigne is all about the glasses. I try to get glasses into any part. They’re very useful props.
You have taken on the roles of Bamber Gascoigne, Malcolm McLaren, Peter Mandelson and Larry Grayson. How do you deliver believable portrayals of such well-known figures? VerulamiumParkRanger
I’ll start with the voice. Some are easier than others. I’ve just finished at the National Theatre, playing Sir John Gielgud, who sits very well in my voice. Larry Grayson was quite difficult. He’s deeper and rustier than you’d expect. The key to Malcolm McLaren was realising that he sounds like Larry the Lamb, strange and croaky. Mandelson has this underbite, which changes the shape of your face. The way he speaks is deliberate and laborious. Bamber Gascoigne is all about the glasses. I try to get glasses into any part. They’re very useful props.
- 7/20/2023
- by As told to Rich Pelley
- The Guardian - Film News
Franchise
Img will be the exclusive publishing agent for the hit mobile game franchise Angry Birds, expanding its existing global licensing representation agreement with the brand’s parent company Rovio Entertainment.
This is the first time the Angry Birds brand’s consumer products and location-based entertainment licensing and publishing rights will be consolidated under one global agency. Img will seek to expand the franchise’s current publishing program, which includes regional deals with Penguin Children’s Puffin and Nordic publishing house Storytel, with new global and regional deals for books, comic books, audiobooks and activity books featuring the brand’s characters.
Img and Rovio Entertainment’s existing partnership has seen the franchise grow to a children’s sports and lifestyle collection with Venum, plush toys with Mighty Mojo, apparel with Four Seasons and a children’s headphone line with Powerlocus. Ahead of Angry Birds’ 15th anniversary in 2024, the two companies...
Img will be the exclusive publishing agent for the hit mobile game franchise Angry Birds, expanding its existing global licensing representation agreement with the brand’s parent company Rovio Entertainment.
This is the first time the Angry Birds brand’s consumer products and location-based entertainment licensing and publishing rights will be consolidated under one global agency. Img will seek to expand the franchise’s current publishing program, which includes regional deals with Penguin Children’s Puffin and Nordic publishing house Storytel, with new global and regional deals for books, comic books, audiobooks and activity books featuring the brand’s characters.
Img and Rovio Entertainment’s existing partnership has seen the franchise grow to a children’s sports and lifestyle collection with Venum, plush toys with Mighty Mojo, apparel with Four Seasons and a children’s headphone line with Powerlocus. Ahead of Angry Birds’ 15th anniversary in 2024, the two companies...
- 3/2/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The BBC is exploring the rise of Tony Blair’s New Labour movement and the triple murder of a family in a Telford blaze as part of its latest documentary orders.
BBC Two has given a greenlight to a five-part series about former British Prime Minister Blair’s political party, which dominated the late 90s and early 2000s. New Labour (w/t), which is produced by BBC Studios, will look at how Blair and his colleagues including Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell, John Prescott took control of the Labour Party before becoming elected.
It will chart their leadership of the country through a tumultuous period of war and peace, terror and national trauma and exploring their controversial political legacy and the powerful personalities and emotional fault lines that ran through their years in charge in Britain.
It comes on the back of the success of Thatcher: A Very British Revolution.
BBC Two has given a greenlight to a five-part series about former British Prime Minister Blair’s political party, which dominated the late 90s and early 2000s. New Labour (w/t), which is produced by BBC Studios, will look at how Blair and his colleagues including Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell, John Prescott took control of the Labour Party before becoming elected.
It will chart their leadership of the country through a tumultuous period of war and peace, terror and national trauma and exploring their controversial political legacy and the powerful personalities and emotional fault lines that ran through their years in charge in Britain.
It comes on the back of the success of Thatcher: A Very British Revolution.
- 10/29/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Channel 4 has moved Coalition back in its schedules - making way for the real-life leaders' pre-election interviews with Jeremy Paxman.
The drama about the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010 will now air on Saturday, March 28 at 9pm.
Channel 4 schedules for March 26 now show The Leaders' Interviews airing between 9pm and 10.35pm, with further details to follow.
Both prime minister David Cameron (Conservatives) and leader of the opposition Ed Miliband (Labour) are believed to have agreed to one-on-one interviews with Paxman, which will be broadcast simultaneously on Sky.
The broadcasters' revised plans were first reported earlier this week, following months of wrangling between the political parties over format and timing.
Coalition is based on the real-life events surrounding the 2010 general election, and charts Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's rise in popularity ahead of the poll and the subsequent forming of the coalition government.
Utopia's Bertie Carvel plays Clegg,...
The drama about the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010 will now air on Saturday, March 28 at 9pm.
Channel 4 schedules for March 26 now show The Leaders' Interviews airing between 9pm and 10.35pm, with further details to follow.
Both prime minister David Cameron (Conservatives) and leader of the opposition Ed Miliband (Labour) are believed to have agreed to one-on-one interviews with Paxman, which will be broadcast simultaneously on Sky.
The broadcasters' revised plans were first reported earlier this week, following months of wrangling between the political parties over format and timing.
Coalition is based on the real-life events surrounding the 2010 general election, and charts Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's rise in popularity ahead of the poll and the subsequent forming of the coalition government.
Utopia's Bertie Carvel plays Clegg,...
- 3/20/2015
- Digital Spy
Sherlock co-creator and actor Mark Gatiss has revealed that his version of Mycroft is inspired by Labour politician Peter Mandelson.
Incidentally, the 48-year-old is now about to play Mandelson himself in Channel 4's new drama Coalition.
"I based Mycroft on Peter Mandelson," he told Radio Times. "It was explicit even before I was going to play him.
"Steven Moffat and I talked about how Mandelsonian Mycroft was... Conan Doyle says Mycroft is the British government. He's the power behind the throne.
"Both Mandelson and Mycroft are the sort of people who, I think, would sit out a world war. There's a longer game to be played."
Coalition charts Nick Clegg's rise in popularity ahead of the 2010 general election and the subsequent forming of a coalition government by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Gatiss recently described the story of the drama as having a "classical dimension".
"It's the...
Incidentally, the 48-year-old is now about to play Mandelson himself in Channel 4's new drama Coalition.
"I based Mycroft on Peter Mandelson," he told Radio Times. "It was explicit even before I was going to play him.
"Steven Moffat and I talked about how Mandelsonian Mycroft was... Conan Doyle says Mycroft is the British government. He's the power behind the throne.
"Both Mandelson and Mycroft are the sort of people who, I think, would sit out a world war. There's a longer game to be played."
Coalition charts Nick Clegg's rise in popularity ahead of the 2010 general election and the subsequent forming of a coalition government by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Gatiss recently described the story of the drama as having a "classical dimension".
"It's the...
- 3/18/2015
- Digital Spy
Playing Nick Clegg in Channel 4's Coalition was "daunting", actor Bertie Carvel has admitted.
The 90-minute drama, written by James Graham, charts Clegg's rise in popularity ahead of the 2010 general election and the subsequent forming of a coalition government by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
"It's daunting - because we're playing people who are so high-profile," Carvel told members of the press.
"One could feel as though you could only fail - because they're so present for our audience - but the minute you divest yourself of that daunting responsibility and just try to serve the play that James has written... we just made it our own."
Carvel called the drama "meticulously researched", with writer Graham insisting that all of the events seen in Coalition are based on fact.
"It's a drama, so the dialogue is imagined by me - what those scenes behind closed doors would be like,...
The 90-minute drama, written by James Graham, charts Clegg's rise in popularity ahead of the 2010 general election and the subsequent forming of a coalition government by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
"It's daunting - because we're playing people who are so high-profile," Carvel told members of the press.
"One could feel as though you could only fail - because they're so present for our audience - but the minute you divest yourself of that daunting responsibility and just try to serve the play that James has written... we just made it our own."
Carvel called the drama "meticulously researched", with writer Graham insisting that all of the events seen in Coalition are based on fact.
"It's a drama, so the dialogue is imagined by me - what those scenes behind closed doors would be like,...
- 3/18/2015
- Digital Spy
The first look picture of Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Gordon Brown in new Channel 4 political drama Coalition has been revealed.
Bertie Carvel plays Clegg, Mark Dexter is Cameron and Ian Grieve stars as Brown in the 90-minute one-off.
Mark Gatiss also recently signed up to play Labour politician Peter Mandelson.
Coalition follows the moments which led to Clegg rising from outsider in the 2010 general election to the man who would decide the political fate of the country.
As a politician who was living in the shadow of Cameron and Brown, Clegg found himself in the powerful position of having to choose whether to ally his party with Labour or the Conservatives following the public's election votes.
Coalition is written by James Graham and directed by the BAFTA-winning Alex Holmes.
An air date is yet to be set by Channel 4.
Bertie Carvel plays Clegg, Mark Dexter is Cameron and Ian Grieve stars as Brown in the 90-minute one-off.
Mark Gatiss also recently signed up to play Labour politician Peter Mandelson.
Coalition follows the moments which led to Clegg rising from outsider in the 2010 general election to the man who would decide the political fate of the country.
As a politician who was living in the shadow of Cameron and Brown, Clegg found himself in the powerful position of having to choose whether to ally his party with Labour or the Conservatives following the public's election votes.
Coalition is written by James Graham and directed by the BAFTA-winning Alex Holmes.
An air date is yet to be set by Channel 4.
- 1/31/2015
- Digital Spy
Bertie Carvel has revealed that his portrayal of Nick Clegg will be a "portrait" rather than an impression.
The Babylon actor will play the Deputy Prime Minister in the upcoming Channel 4 drama Coalition, which charts the dramatic rise of the Liberal Democrat leader.
Speaking to Digital Spy about taking on the role, he said: "The idea of perfecting Nick Clegg is interesting. The perfect Nick Clegg is living and breathing and walking this earth. I can't do it better than him.
"That's not my objective really, I think I can only fail if I were trying to perfect it. What I'm trying to perfect is the Nick Clegg we see in our drama, which doesn't involve an awful lot of looking at the real him.
"It's a portrait, not a lithograph. It's a perspective, and I really hope that it has integrity."
Carvel also said that he "admires" politicians...
The Babylon actor will play the Deputy Prime Minister in the upcoming Channel 4 drama Coalition, which charts the dramatic rise of the Liberal Democrat leader.
Speaking to Digital Spy about taking on the role, he said: "The idea of perfecting Nick Clegg is interesting. The perfect Nick Clegg is living and breathing and walking this earth. I can't do it better than him.
"That's not my objective really, I think I can only fail if I were trying to perfect it. What I'm trying to perfect is the Nick Clegg we see in our drama, which doesn't involve an awful lot of looking at the real him.
"It's a portrait, not a lithograph. It's a perspective, and I really hope that it has integrity."
Carvel also said that he "admires" politicians...
- 11/13/2014
- Digital Spy
Mark Gatiss has signed up to play Labour politician Peter Mandelson in new Channel 4 political drama Coalition.
The Sherlock and League of Gentlemen actor will be joined by Babylon's Bertie Carvel as Nick Clegg, The Bletchley Circle's Mark Dexter as David Cameron and Ian Grieve (The Confessions of Gordon Brown) as Gordon Brown.
Coalition follows the moments which led to Clegg rising from outsider in the 2010 general election to the man who would decide the political fate of the country.
As a politician who was living in the shadow of Cameron and Brown, Clegg found himself in the powerful position of having to choose whether to ally his party with Labour or the Conservatives following the public's election votes.
Coalition is written by James Graham, who previously worked on Privacy, This House and Tory Boyz.
BAFTA-winning director Alex Holmes, who helmed Dunkirk and House of Saddam, will direct the 90-minute single drama.
The Sherlock and League of Gentlemen actor will be joined by Babylon's Bertie Carvel as Nick Clegg, The Bletchley Circle's Mark Dexter as David Cameron and Ian Grieve (The Confessions of Gordon Brown) as Gordon Brown.
Coalition follows the moments which led to Clegg rising from outsider in the 2010 general election to the man who would decide the political fate of the country.
As a politician who was living in the shadow of Cameron and Brown, Clegg found himself in the powerful position of having to choose whether to ally his party with Labour or the Conservatives following the public's election votes.
Coalition is written by James Graham, who previously worked on Privacy, This House and Tory Boyz.
BAFTA-winning director Alex Holmes, who helmed Dunkirk and House of Saddam, will direct the 90-minute single drama.
- 10/26/2014
- Digital Spy
Jeremy Paxman hosted his last ever Newsnight on Wednesday night (June 18).
The 63-year-old presenter, who had led the current affairs series for 25 years, bowed out in a show that featured interviews with London mayor Boris Johnson on a tandem bicycle, former Labour spin doctor Peter Mandelson and ex-Home Secretary Michael Howard.
Paxo's Stuffing! Jeremy Paxman's 12 best Newsnight moments
Paxman closed the broadcast with the message: "Thank you for watching Newsnight. I hope you continue to enjoy it. Goodnight and goodbye."
After the credits, he stood in front of a weather map to present one final forecast: "And tomorrow's weather - more of the same. I don't know why they make such a fuss about it."
During the programme, Paxman jokingly asked Johnson why London's Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme - otherwise known as "Boris Bikes" - were "such a failure".
Johnson insisted that the scheme was a "howling success" and...
The 63-year-old presenter, who had led the current affairs series for 25 years, bowed out in a show that featured interviews with London mayor Boris Johnson on a tandem bicycle, former Labour spin doctor Peter Mandelson and ex-Home Secretary Michael Howard.
Paxo's Stuffing! Jeremy Paxman's 12 best Newsnight moments
Paxman closed the broadcast with the message: "Thank you for watching Newsnight. I hope you continue to enjoy it. Goodnight and goodbye."
After the credits, he stood in front of a weather map to present one final forecast: "And tomorrow's weather - more of the same. I don't know why they make such a fuss about it."
During the programme, Paxman jokingly asked Johnson why London's Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme - otherwise known as "Boris Bikes" - were "such a failure".
Johnson insisted that the scheme was a "howling success" and...
- 6/18/2014
- Digital Spy
'Flat near Euston' – also known as a Georgian house on Regent's Park
• What do The X Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary, Boris Johnson's father Stanley and the Right Hon the Lord Mandelson of Foy have in common? Not a shared affection for the music of Little Mix (though who, truly, would be surprised) – no, we refer to the opposition of all three to the HS2 high-speed rail project. Johnson and O'Leary both live close to the proposed route of the new line in north London and attended a public meeting opposing it, the Evening Standard reported, while Mandelson, who "owns a flat near Euston", had made his views plain in a letter. Why so coy, Peter? We'd hardly describe the very grand late Georgian house on the edge of Regent's Park, bought by the noble lord for a modest £7.6m in 2011, in such prosaic terms. As Mandelson confessed to the...
• What do The X Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary, Boris Johnson's father Stanley and the Right Hon the Lord Mandelson of Foy have in common? Not a shared affection for the music of Little Mix (though who, truly, would be surprised) – no, we refer to the opposition of all three to the HS2 high-speed rail project. Johnson and O'Leary both live close to the proposed route of the new line in north London and attended a public meeting opposing it, the Evening Standard reported, while Mandelson, who "owns a flat near Euston", had made his views plain in a letter. Why so coy, Peter? We'd hardly describe the very grand late Georgian house on the edge of Regent's Park, bought by the noble lord for a modest £7.6m in 2011, in such prosaic terms. As Mandelson confessed to the...
- 1/30/2014
- by Esther Addley
- The Guardian - Film News
We have a negative balance of trade with the least competitive trading bloc in the world. Why would we want to stay part of it?
In deciding whether we want to be part of the EU we should ask ourselves whether or not it is advantageous to the UK to be part of that trading bloc. A trading bloc is advantageous if it enables us to access a larger free market for our goods and services. Economic theory from Adam Smith to David Ricardo shows that our prosperity is enhanced when we are able to focus on those goods and services that we are best at, and trade them with others who have different skills.
How is that going with our EU partners? Not very well judging by last year's Office for National Statistics figures. We have a negative balance of trade of £55.7bn with our EU partners: they sold...
In deciding whether we want to be part of the EU we should ask ourselves whether or not it is advantageous to the UK to be part of that trading bloc. A trading bloc is advantageous if it enables us to access a larger free market for our goods and services. Economic theory from Adam Smith to David Ricardo shows that our prosperity is enhanced when we are able to focus on those goods and services that we are best at, and trade them with others who have different skills.
How is that going with our EU partners? Not very well judging by last year's Office for National Statistics figures. We have a negative balance of trade of £55.7bn with our EU partners: they sold...
- 3/1/2013
- by Terry Smith
- The Guardian - Film News
A rumour that Bruce Willis was planning to sue Apple because he couldn't bequeath his £40k iTunes collection strikes a nerve
It seems Bruce Willis was never going to do an "earnest action man with a heart of gold" trick off the silver screen. Reports that he was planning to sue Apple for the right to pass on his (reportedly) £40,000 worth of iTunes music to his daughters now appear to be just sound and fury. But the uncredited rumour, which was reported by various sites, definitely seems to have struck a nerve. Many people seem surprised to learn that $0.99/track purchases aren't theirs in perpetuity and to pass on, but are rather a licence to listen to the music for this lifetime only.
Putting to one side the issue of whether Willis's daughters would want his music collection in the first place, an important question has been raised: just what...
It seems Bruce Willis was never going to do an "earnest action man with a heart of gold" trick off the silver screen. Reports that he was planning to sue Apple for the right to pass on his (reportedly) £40,000 worth of iTunes music to his daughters now appear to be just sound and fury. But the uncredited rumour, which was reported by various sites, definitely seems to have struck a nerve. Many people seem surprised to learn that $0.99/track purchases aren't theirs in perpetuity and to pass on, but are rather a licence to listen to the music for this lifetime only.
Putting to one side the issue of whether Willis's daughters would want his music collection in the first place, an important question has been raised: just what...
- 9/4/2012
- by Felix Cohen
- The Guardian - Film News
Peter Cook: Genius at Work opens tomorrow at BFI Southbank in London and runs through March 21. "Although Cook has had his tributes before on the South Bank — there was a special Pete and Dud night in 2004, celebrating his legendary double-act with Dudley Moore — none has been as extensive as this, timed to coincide with what would have been Cook's 75th birthday year," writes Dominic Cavendish in the Telegraph. "Curator Dick Fiddy has lined up a rare old bag of treats. There's a BBC recording of the final performance of Beyond the Fringe, the groundbreaking sketch show that made his name and that of Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller — filmed in the West End in 1964 and never screened in the UK in its extended form…. And there will be screenings of his two major films: Bedazzled (1967), in which Cook plays the debonair Devil to Moore's bumbling Faust as relocated to Swinging Sixties London,...
- 3/3/2012
- MUBI
Top Gear USA | Terry Gilliam's Faust | Wild Britain With Ray Mears | Spy | Have I Got News For You | Comic Strip Presents – The Hunt For Tony Blair
Top Gear USA
7pm, BBC3
It's not as necessary as it used to be to adopt the brace position upon approaching an American adaptation of a British programme. However, it's hard to imagine Top Gear travelling quite as well. This first series of its American cousin is presented by comedian Adam Ferrara, racing driver Tanner Foust and racing reporter Rutledge Wood. Guests will include Kid Rock, Tony Hawk and, intriguingly, Buzz Aldrin. Andrew Mueller
Terry Gilliam's Faust
7.30pm, BBC4
The Python-turned-film-director's first foray into opera is this staging of Berlioz's The Damnation Of Faust, performed by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum. It's prefaced by a few words from a chuckling Gilliam himself, who views himself as a "tuning fork...
Top Gear USA
7pm, BBC3
It's not as necessary as it used to be to adopt the brace position upon approaching an American adaptation of a British programme. However, it's hard to imagine Top Gear travelling quite as well. This first series of its American cousin is presented by comedian Adam Ferrara, racing driver Tanner Foust and racing reporter Rutledge Wood. Guests will include Kid Rock, Tony Hawk and, intriguingly, Buzz Aldrin. Andrew Mueller
Terry Gilliam's Faust
7.30pm, BBC4
The Python-turned-film-director's first foray into opera is this staging of Berlioz's The Damnation Of Faust, performed by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum. It's prefaced by a few words from a chuckling Gilliam himself, who views himself as a "tuning fork...
- 10/13/2011
- by Andrew Mueller, David Stubbs, John Robinson, Ben Arnold, Julia Raeside
- The Guardian - Film News
Big Screen TV, Edinburgh
In conjunction with the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, a quick burst of advance screenings to make your friends jealous – such as the first episode of the second half of this series of Doctor Who, the second season of The Killing (Danish original), the Lost producers' new project, and Fresh Meat, the latest sitcom from the creators of Peep Show, about a houseful of students. If that recalls The Young Ones, look out for the return of The Comic Strip with The Hunt For Tony Blair, with Robbie Coltrane, Jennifer Saunders, and Nigel Planer as Peter Mandelson.
Filmhouse, Fri to 28 Aug
Frightfest, London
Reading the headlines is frightening enough for most people these days, but for those in search of stronger, gorier, sillier permutations of fear, Frightfest is the country's favourite worst nightmare. And it also demonstrates good news for Britain's beleaguered trade balance: domestic output...
In conjunction with the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, a quick burst of advance screenings to make your friends jealous – such as the first episode of the second half of this series of Doctor Who, the second season of The Killing (Danish original), the Lost producers' new project, and Fresh Meat, the latest sitcom from the creators of Peep Show, about a houseful of students. If that recalls The Young Ones, look out for the return of The Comic Strip with The Hunt For Tony Blair, with Robbie Coltrane, Jennifer Saunders, and Nigel Planer as Peter Mandelson.
Filmhouse, Fri to 28 Aug
Frightfest, London
Reading the headlines is frightening enough for most people these days, but for those in search of stronger, gorier, sillier permutations of fear, Frightfest is the country's favourite worst nightmare. And it also demonstrates good news for Britain's beleaguered trade balance: domestic output...
- 8/19/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Mail on Sunday reckons that Nancy Dell’Olio – former partner of Sven Goran Eriksson – is set to sign on the dotted line for this year’s Strictly.
There’s no official confirmation yet though, with a BBC insider saying only, ‘She is under consideration but we are talking to a number of people about their availability.’
However, a friend of Nancy’s added, “Nancy’s a huge fan of the show – and enjoys being in the limelight.
“She has long been on the Strictly bosses’ radar – and now she feels the time is right to take the plunge.”
Other personalities rumoured to be being lined up for Strictly include former Cabinet ministers Lord Mandelson, 57, and Edwina Currie, 64.
View the original post Nancy Dell’Olio to star on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing? on Unreality TV...
There’s no official confirmation yet though, with a BBC insider saying only, ‘She is under consideration but we are talking to a number of people about their availability.’
However, a friend of Nancy’s added, “Nancy’s a huge fan of the show – and enjoys being in the limelight.
“She has long been on the Strictly bosses’ radar – and now she feels the time is right to take the plunge.”
Other personalities rumoured to be being lined up for Strictly include former Cabinet ministers Lord Mandelson, 57, and Edwina Currie, 64.
View the original post Nancy Dell’Olio to star on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing? on Unreality TV...
- 7/10/2011
- by Sarah
- Unreality
Comedy; Donmar Warehouse; Theatre Royal Drury Lane, all London
Enclosed but transmitting, composed but aquiver, Kristin Scott Thomas is an ideal Pinter actress. She manages, in the way that some actresses mysteriously do, to pull the audience's attention towards her face (not, after all, a very big thing on the stage), where the play's action is reflected in small stiffenings and relaxations and a wave of inflections. She is still, often keeping herself to herself by wrapping her arms around her body, so that when she reaches her arm towards her future lover, it seems an extraordinary act of abandonment. She is an object of desire but she is also a force. She makes response look active.
Betrayal, first staged in 1978, is celebrated for its structure – it works its way backwards through the seven years of a clandestine love affair, beginning with the lovers meeting after their liaison is over,...
Enclosed but transmitting, composed but aquiver, Kristin Scott Thomas is an ideal Pinter actress. She manages, in the way that some actresses mysteriously do, to pull the audience's attention towards her face (not, after all, a very big thing on the stage), where the play's action is reflected in small stiffenings and relaxations and a wave of inflections. She is still, often keeping herself to herself by wrapping her arms around her body, so that when she reaches her arm towards her future lover, it seems an extraordinary act of abandonment. She is an object of desire but she is also a force. She makes response look active.
Betrayal, first staged in 1978, is celebrated for its structure – it works its way backwards through the seven years of a clandestine love affair, beginning with the lovers meeting after their liaison is over,...
- 6/19/2011
- by Susannah Clapp
- The Guardian - Film News
From great escapes to volcanic eruptions, a new prime minister to a raw-meat dress, we review the most dramatic moments of the year through the eyes of those with first-hand experience…
12 January: Haiti's capital is devastated by an earthquake.
By Simon Cording, rescue worker
Day to day I'm a fireman, but I'm also part of the International Search and Rescue Team. We are deployed whenever disasters take place around the world. I was at work in Manchester when I got a text message telling me to get myself ready because we were going to Haiti later that day. We always have our bags ready, so it was just a matter of grabbing my passport. It was snowing in the UK and Heathrow was closed, but we got special dispensation to fly out around midnight and the airport was opened just for us.
We were met by scenes of mass devastation at Port au Prince airport.
12 January: Haiti's capital is devastated by an earthquake.
By Simon Cording, rescue worker
Day to day I'm a fireman, but I'm also part of the International Search and Rescue Team. We are deployed whenever disasters take place around the world. I was at work in Manchester when I got a text message telling me to get myself ready because we were going to Haiti later that day. We always have our bags ready, so it was just a matter of grabbing my passport. It was snowing in the UK and Heathrow was closed, but we got special dispensation to fly out around midnight and the airport was opened just for us.
We were met by scenes of mass devastation at Port au Prince airport.
- 12/26/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
He's a transvestite, heterosexual standup comic and actor who ran 43 marathons in 51 days – as a new DVD documentary makes clear, Eddie Izzard's life has been far from predictable
I noticed something which only a person reading a whole load of Eddie Izzard interviews in one go would ever notice: journalists always talk about his body. Is he fat or thin? Sorry, "heavy" or "sculpted"? Is he wearing men's clothes or women's, are they nice or scruffy?
He comes in for the kind of pretend-neutral, old-fashioned, nostrils-flared appraisal that women get and men almost never do. It's almost as if being a transvestite has unleashed the forces of sexism against him. I met him at the offices of his production company, in London, where he's promoting the DVD release of Believe, a film about the story of his life. He looks great, by the way, but let's leave it at that.
I noticed something which only a person reading a whole load of Eddie Izzard interviews in one go would ever notice: journalists always talk about his body. Is he fat or thin? Sorry, "heavy" or "sculpted"? Is he wearing men's clothes or women's, are they nice or scruffy?
He comes in for the kind of pretend-neutral, old-fashioned, nostrils-flared appraisal that women get and men almost never do. It's almost as if being a transvestite has unleashed the forces of sexism against him. I met him at the offices of his production company, in London, where he's promoting the DVD release of Believe, a film about the story of his life. He looks great, by the way, but let's leave it at that.
- 11/20/2010
- by Zoe Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
Hannah Rothchild's documentary The Real Pm? follows the infamous spin doctor around in the run-up to the election. But what might have been going through his mind as the cameras rolled?
On Have I Got News For You recently, Andy Hamilton recounted an anecdote about Peter Mandelson complaining to DJ Stuart Maconie about his "prince of darkness" image, claiming it was all much exaggerated, before slipping away to take a phone call in which he could be heard to hiss the words, "This. Must. Be. Suppressed!" It's a tale that chimes perfectly with what we believe of the man. With his saturnine demeanour, sharp features and fixed, menacing glower, he looks every inch the henchman, as if he is the real-life creation of some fine character actor.
In Hannah Rothschild's clever, punningly titled film Mandelson: The Real Pm?, Mandelson, the grandson of Labour grandee Herbert Morrison, visibly retains the...
On Have I Got News For You recently, Andy Hamilton recounted an anecdote about Peter Mandelson complaining to DJ Stuart Maconie about his "prince of darkness" image, claiming it was all much exaggerated, before slipping away to take a phone call in which he could be heard to hiss the words, "This. Must. Be. Suppressed!" It's a tale that chimes perfectly with what we believe of the man. With his saturnine demeanour, sharp features and fixed, menacing glower, he looks every inch the henchman, as if he is the real-life creation of some fine character actor.
In Hannah Rothschild's clever, punningly titled film Mandelson: The Real Pm?, Mandelson, the grandson of Labour grandee Herbert Morrison, visibly retains the...
- 11/15/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
Hannah Rothschild's portrait of Peter Mandelson leaves our perceptions of the master manipulator intact. Has she failed?
For their surprise screening, the Sheffield documentary festival programmers made an astute choice. Doc-makers like to believe their craft can lay bare truths beyond the reach of other disciplines. What, though, when the camera's turned upon a past master of media manipulation? Will its gaze penetrate the firewall that its subject is bound to throw up? Or will he succeed in demonstrating that this genre too can be spun?
Such was the challenge that Hannah Rothschild took on when she asked Lord Mandelson to let her be a fly on his wall during the slow expiration of the last government. For this joust, she was no mean contender: she has 20 years' experience of construing people both on screen and in print. The terms of engagement weren't bad. She'd have to lay off...
For their surprise screening, the Sheffield documentary festival programmers made an astute choice. Doc-makers like to believe their craft can lay bare truths beyond the reach of other disciplines. What, though, when the camera's turned upon a past master of media manipulation? Will its gaze penetrate the firewall that its subject is bound to throw up? Or will he succeed in demonstrating that this genre too can be spun?
Such was the challenge that Hannah Rothschild took on when she asked Lord Mandelson to let her be a fly on his wall during the slow expiration of the last government. For this joust, she was no mean contender: she has 20 years' experience of construing people both on screen and in print. The terms of engagement weren't bad. She'd have to lay off...
- 11/8/2010
- by David Cox
- The Guardian - Film News
This is the daily news vodcast from the London Film Festival which hosts Black Swan, 127 Hours, Another Year, Never Let Me Go, Let Me In and West is West amongst its premieres this week. Day 12 saw the surprise screening of Brighton Rock, directed by Rowan Joffe and starring Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, John Hurt, Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Steven Robertson and Sean Harris. On Day 12 we spoke to the Best Film Jury about the nominated shortlist and their deliberations. Acclaimed French writer and director Olivier Assayas gave an onstage masterclass about his significant work. Peter Mandelson also attended the world premiere of Hannah Rothschild's documentary Mandelson: The Real Pm?, and artist and filmmaker Carol Morley presented her feature directorial debut Edge. Finally, the much anticipated Surprise Film was revealed to be Brighton Rock, after which the creative team took part in a Q and A after the film.
- 10/31/2010
- by Dan Higgins
- Pure Movies
When Simon Pegg started out he had no plans to become a movie star. In fact he had no plans at all. So just how did the geek from Gloucester catch the eye of the world's best filmmakers? It's all down to "quantum attraction"
Piers Morgan used to say of the actor Nicholas Lyndhurst that he may have been incredibly famous – this was back when Lyndhurst was an on-screen ubiquity as Rodney Trotter, as a time-traveller in Goodnight Sweetheart and an occasional cross-dresser in adverts for Smiths – but how much did anybody know about his private life?
There were no nightclub ejections or illicit affairs, to anyone's knowledge, really no Lyndhurst-based muck at all, and Morgan's point was that privacy could be pretty well maintained by the famous if the famous really wanted it. It is tempting to wonder if we have a present-day equivalent – whether such a thing is...
Piers Morgan used to say of the actor Nicholas Lyndhurst that he may have been incredibly famous – this was back when Lyndhurst was an on-screen ubiquity as Rodney Trotter, as a time-traveller in Goodnight Sweetheart and an occasional cross-dresser in adverts for Smiths – but how much did anybody know about his private life?
There were no nightclub ejections or illicit affairs, to anyone's knowledge, really no Lyndhurst-based muck at all, and Morgan's point was that privacy could be pretty well maintained by the famous if the famous really wanted it. It is tempting to wonder if we have a present-day equivalent – whether such a thing is...
- 10/16/2010
- by Tom Lamont
- The Guardian - Film News
• The then-business secretary allowed filmmaker Hannah Rothschild to shadow him for eight months leading up to May
• Guardian has exclusive footage
A fly-on-the-wall documentary about Peter Mandelson, filmed in the dying days of the Labour government, is expected to cause a political sensation when it is screened later this month.
The Guardian has been given an exclusive preview of the film, which includes remarkably candid footage of sensitive meetings with Labour's high command as the election campaign unravelled, as well as private telephone calls with Gordon Brown and the editor of the Times, James Harding.
Mandelson allowed the filmmaker Hannah Rothschild – sister of financier Nathaniel Rothschild – to film his inner circle in the eight months leading up to the general election in May.
Mandelson ran into controversy in 2008 when he stayed in Corfu on the yacht of Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska as a guest of Nathaniel Rothschild.
On the...
• Guardian has exclusive footage
A fly-on-the-wall documentary about Peter Mandelson, filmed in the dying days of the Labour government, is expected to cause a political sensation when it is screened later this month.
The Guardian has been given an exclusive preview of the film, which includes remarkably candid footage of sensitive meetings with Labour's high command as the election campaign unravelled, as well as private telephone calls with Gordon Brown and the editor of the Times, James Harding.
Mandelson allowed the filmmaker Hannah Rothschild – sister of financier Nathaniel Rothschild – to film his inner circle in the eight months leading up to the general election in May.
Mandelson ran into controversy in 2008 when he stayed in Corfu on the yacht of Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska as a guest of Nathaniel Rothschild.
On the...
- 10/15/2010
- by Paul Lewis
- The Guardian - Film News
Hannah Rothschild has claimed that her upcoming Peter Mandelson documentary is a fair record of the New Labour architect. Speaking to the Evening Standard, the director of Mandelson: The Real Pm? brushed off the suggestion that her brother and father's friendship with the politician had affected her work. Asked if her familial connection to the ex-first secretary of state had won her the job, Rothschild replied: "You'd have to ask Peter that question but he said he wanted a record of what politics is really like. And that's what I've done - warts and all.” She (more)...
- 10/14/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Hannah Rothschild has admitted that she has not read Peter Mandelson's autobiography, despite making a documentary about the politician. The director of Mandelson: The Real Pm? told Digital Spy at the launch of the London Film Festival that she did not want the written words of the New Labour architect to affect her "fly-on-the-wall observational" picture. Asked if she had read Mandelson's memoir The Third Man, Rothschild said: "I haven't read it, no. I decided not to. I decided just to stay within the material that I'd shot. The moment that you start getting something (more)...
- 9/16/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
This year's lineup has been revealed, and there are even fewer surprises than usual. Does it matter to you? And how should that affect our coverage?
If bookies took bets on the lineup at film festivals, whoops and cheers would be shaking the Guardian HQ this lunchtime. As they don't, the noise is more muted: a smile, a shrug – even a meh.
The programme for this year's London film festival is precisely as predicted: a comprehensive mop-up of the best of the premieres in the five big festivals that will have already happened this year (Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Venice, Toronto). We've listed our highlights below, and there's loads of titles to tempt the cineaste who lives within spitting distance of London. The way that this year's festivals have panned out – a fairly low-key Cannes, followed by stellar lineups at Venice and, especially, Toronto (which kicks off next week) – helps, too.
If bookies took bets on the lineup at film festivals, whoops and cheers would be shaking the Guardian HQ this lunchtime. As they don't, the noise is more muted: a smile, a shrug – even a meh.
The programme for this year's London film festival is precisely as predicted: a comprehensive mop-up of the best of the premieres in the five big festivals that will have already happened this year (Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Venice, Toronto). We've listed our highlights below, and there's loads of titles to tempt the cineaste who lives within spitting distance of London. The way that this year's festivals have panned out – a fairly low-key Cannes, followed by stellar lineups at Venice and, especially, Toronto (which kicks off next week) – helps, too.
- 9/8/2010
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Former prime minister wrote memoirs himself, disproving central theme of Robert Harris novel
Tony Blair no doubt hopes that his memoirs will silence one foe.
The former prime minister let it be known that Robert Harris was a "cheeky fuck" for portraying him as a lightweight in his novel, The Ghost.
Now Blair has disproved the main element in the Harris novel: that he is so superficial he needs a ghostwriter to draft his memoirs.
It is apparent from reading A Journey that Blair is telling the truth when he says he penned the book in longhand by himself. There are clunky phrases which bear the hallmarks of a law, rather than an English, graduate.
Take this sentence on Gordon Brown:
Just as during the time when Gordon sheltered beneath my umbrella as prime minister the benign view of him was misguided in his favour, so now it is...
Tony Blair no doubt hopes that his memoirs will silence one foe.
The former prime minister let it be known that Robert Harris was a "cheeky fuck" for portraying him as a lightweight in his novel, The Ghost.
Now Blair has disproved the main element in the Harris novel: that he is so superficial he needs a ghostwriter to draft his memoirs.
It is apparent from reading A Journey that Blair is telling the truth when he says he penned the book in longhand by himself. There are clunky phrases which bear the hallmarks of a law, rather than an English, graduate.
Take this sentence on Gordon Brown:
Just as during the time when Gordon sheltered beneath my umbrella as prime minister the benign view of him was misguided in his favour, so now it is...
- 9/1/2010
- by Nicholas Watt
- The Guardian - Film News
Angelina Jolie is reportedly upset about a new unauthorised book about her, and Jonathan Margolis, author of several celeb biographies, is beginning to see why
There can't be many people who feel a pang of empathy for Angelina Jolie, who, along with her PR team, is reportedly upset about an unauthorised biography of her by Andrew Morton.
The assiduous Morton's book, apparently pieced together from interviews with unnamed sources – oh, and Jolie's childhood nanny – is a veritable juice-a-thon. In it, so it's being said in the States, we learn that Jolie once had a fling with Leonardo DiCaprio, that she was raised for two years by nannies in a Los Angeles serviced apartment, and that she has a tattoo on her bottom in honour of her former husband, Billy Bob Thornton, written in the helvetica font.
Well, as a red-blooded hack of over 30 years' standing (some of this standing outside...
There can't be many people who feel a pang of empathy for Angelina Jolie, who, along with her PR team, is reportedly upset about an unauthorised biography of her by Andrew Morton.
The assiduous Morton's book, apparently pieced together from interviews with unnamed sources – oh, and Jolie's childhood nanny – is a veritable juice-a-thon. In it, so it's being said in the States, we learn that Jolie once had a fling with Leonardo DiCaprio, that she was raised for two years by nannies in a Los Angeles serviced apartment, and that she has a tattoo on her bottom in honour of her former husband, Billy Bob Thornton, written in the helvetica font.
Well, as a red-blooded hack of over 30 years' standing (some of this standing outside...
- 8/3/2010
- by Jonathan Margolis
- The Guardian - Film News
How would you cast the prime minister's biopic?
Now that Gordon Brown's political career is traversing the final segment of its narrative arc, it can't be long before someone proposes a film (or TV drama, more likely) charting its highs and lows. It may be too soon to write the ending of the prime minister's story, but it's not too early to start thinking about the cast. Who would play whom?
Gordon Brown Brown has been assayed by a surprising number of actors already, including David Morrissey, Peter Mullan and Tony Slattery. But based on the idea that, from an acting point of view, the latter-day Brown is basically Nixon with a Scottish accent, either Frank Langella or Anthony Hopkins would serve. Failing that, Philip Seymour Hoffman – he could probably play anyone.
Sarah Brown As a quiet, dignified, stabilising presence, Sarah Brown really isn't much of a part. Emma Thompson...
Now that Gordon Brown's political career is traversing the final segment of its narrative arc, it can't be long before someone proposes a film (or TV drama, more likely) charting its highs and lows. It may be too soon to write the ending of the prime minister's story, but it's not too early to start thinking about the cast. Who would play whom?
Gordon Brown Brown has been assayed by a surprising number of actors already, including David Morrissey, Peter Mullan and Tony Slattery. But based on the idea that, from an acting point of view, the latter-day Brown is basically Nixon with a Scottish accent, either Frank Langella or Anthony Hopkins would serve. Failing that, Philip Seymour Hoffman – he could probably play anyone.
Sarah Brown As a quiet, dignified, stabilising presence, Sarah Brown really isn't much of a part. Emma Thompson...
- 5/11/2010
- by Tim Dowling
- The Guardian - Film News
Like his characters, Robert Harris has often found himself close to news in the making. As his 'Tony Blair' novel hits the cinema, he reveals why his friendship with Roman Polanski has lasted, but his affair with New Labour has not
Tony Blair is not on record as having read Robert Harris's 2007 novel The Ghost, a rip-snorting thriller about an ostentatiously groovy ex-prime minister accused of war crimes after secretly approving the transfer of British al-Qaida suspects to Guantánamo Bay, and the ghostwriter hired to write his memoirs. Perhaps Blair got the book out on John Prescott's library card, or happened upon a copy in Silvio Berlusconi's downstairs loo. All that really matters is that he knows of the novel's existence. It was in regard to The Ghost, after all, that he described its author as "a cheeky fuck". The 53-year-old Harris chuckles so warmly...
Tony Blair is not on record as having read Robert Harris's 2007 novel The Ghost, a rip-snorting thriller about an ostentatiously groovy ex-prime minister accused of war crimes after secretly approving the transfer of British al-Qaida suspects to Guantánamo Bay, and the ghostwriter hired to write his memoirs. Perhaps Blair got the book out on John Prescott's library card, or happened upon a copy in Silvio Berlusconi's downstairs loo. All that really matters is that he knows of the novel's existence. It was in regard to The Ghost, after all, that he described its author as "a cheeky fuck". The 53-year-old Harris chuckles so warmly...
- 4/4/2010
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Having spent the morning with the former Pm in Sedgefield, I came back to London to watch a screening of Roman Polanski's The Ghost
By way of exhilarating coincidence I experienced a surreal double take yesterday. Having spent the morning following Tony Blair on the campaign trail in County Durham, I came back to London to see Pierce Brosnan playing a thinly-disguised version of the former prime minister on the big screen.
Compare and contrast, eh? The real Blair is sleek and polished, much more so than the Milky Bar Kid – his own description – who first fought Sedgefield in 1983. How much more so was the former James Bond who plays Adam Lang in Roman Polanski's gripping new film of Robert Harris's thriller The Ghost?
At one level the comparison is silly, of course. As Harris routinely tells interviewers – and did again at last night's pre-premiere screening in...
By way of exhilarating coincidence I experienced a surreal double take yesterday. Having spent the morning following Tony Blair on the campaign trail in County Durham, I came back to London to see Pierce Brosnan playing a thinly-disguised version of the former prime minister on the big screen.
Compare and contrast, eh? The real Blair is sleek and polished, much more so than the Milky Bar Kid – his own description – who first fought Sedgefield in 1983. How much more so was the former James Bond who plays Adam Lang in Roman Polanski's gripping new film of Robert Harris's thriller The Ghost?
At one level the comparison is silly, of course. As Harris routinely tells interviewers – and did again at last night's pre-premiere screening in...
- 3/31/2010
- by Michael White
- The Guardian - Film News
There are many good examples of poetry in movies (On film, Film & Music, 29 January). One that springs to mind is Argentinian director Eliseo Subiela's 1992 film El Lado Oscuro del Corazón (The Dark Side of the Heart), where the main character, Oliverio, is a young poet living in Buenos Aires and making ends meet by selling his ideas to advertising companies. In the movie Oliverio is constantly reciting poems by Juan Gelman, Mario Benedetti and his namesake Oliverio Girondo. Needless to say, the film was a success in Iberoamerica, where it introduced these important Latin American poets to a younger generation.
Mario Lopez-Goicoechea
London
• A native, I've just returned to London after 26 years in New York City. While still in wonderment at how much richer London is now, I am also very aware of the economic turmoil in which it finds itself, along with much of the world. The...
Mario Lopez-Goicoechea
London
• A native, I've just returned to London after 26 years in New York City. While still in wonderment at how much richer London is now, I am also very aware of the economic turmoil in which it finds itself, along with much of the world. The...
- 1/30/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
From singing in Mamma Mia! to shaving her head to play Mo Mowlam in a new TV drama, Julie Walters is anything but vain
Julie Walters said yes! when asked to play Mo Mowlam in a Channel 4 biopic, and then, after watching archive footage of the late secretary of state, rang her agent and said get me out of it. They were too physically different, she thought, Mowlam with her "big, broad shoulders" and general swagger, Walters, as she describes herself, so unfailingly "weedy". And then there was the voice. "It was kind of prissy. The last thing you would describe her as is prissy, but her mouth was sort of..." Walters puckers up and squeaks. "I thought, oh shit, I don't think I can play her."
Walters, 5ft 3in, seems at times too fiercely good an actor for the roles she is cast in. As well as all those...
Julie Walters said yes! when asked to play Mo Mowlam in a Channel 4 biopic, and then, after watching archive footage of the late secretary of state, rang her agent and said get me out of it. They were too physically different, she thought, Mowlam with her "big, broad shoulders" and general swagger, Walters, as she describes herself, so unfailingly "weedy". And then there was the voice. "It was kind of prissy. The last thing you would describe her as is prissy, but her mouth was sort of..." Walters puckers up and squeaks. "I thought, oh shit, I don't think I can play her."
Walters, 5ft 3in, seems at times too fiercely good an actor for the roles she is cast in. As well as all those...
- 1/16/2010
- by Emma Brockes
- The Guardian - Film News
Britain's Queen Elizabeth has bestowed Royal Borough status on the London district of Greenwich. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced the honour in the House of Lords, revealing the south London borough will take on the name in the year of the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 in recognition of its close links to the monarchy since the middle ages. Lord Mandelson said: "This rare honour is to be bestowed in recognition of the historically close links forged between Greenwich and the Royal Family from the Middle Ages to the present day. "It is also in recognition of the borough's global significance as the home of the Prime Meridian, Greenwich Mean Time, and the Unesco World Heritage Site". Local residents said they...
- 1/6/2010
- Monsters and Critics
Britain's Queen Elizabeth has granted the country an extra bank holiday. The 83-year-old monarch - who will be celebrating sixty years on the throne in 2012 - has put the late May bank holiday back to Monday June 4 and created an additional holiday on Tuesday June 5 which will give workers a special four-day break. The extra holiday will coincide with Britain's hosting of the Olympic Games, Lord Mandelson told the House of Lords last night (05.01.10). Community Day, the bank holiday campaign group, said they welcomed the move. A spokesman told the Daily Mail newspaper: "There's no reason why it should not become a permanent fixture." It is expected the extra bank holiday will also be extended to...
- 1/6/2010
- Monsters and Critics
✒Eyebrows were raised at News International's Wapping HQ when a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce, with personalised numberplate, pulled up to the main gates. Staff were even more surprised when the Express Newspapers owner, Richard Desmond, stepped out for a lunchtime meeting with News Corp's Europe and Asia chief executive, James Murdoch. His visit comes shortly after News International's chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, was spotted at Desmond's Thameside offices. Paywalls all round?
✒When some long-standing friends turn their back on you, it's important that you make the most of the ones you've still got. In a week when Lord Mandelson ratcheted up his war of words with Rupert Murdoch, he was spotted in Soho House having dinner with Trinity Mirror's chief executive, Sly Bailey; the Daily Mirror's editor, Richard Wallace; the Sunday Mirror's editor, Tina Weaver, and Lloyd Embley, the editor of the People. Two days later, the Mirror splashed with "Choccy Horror...
✒When some long-standing friends turn their back on you, it's important that you make the most of the ones you've still got. In a week when Lord Mandelson ratcheted up his war of words with Rupert Murdoch, he was spotted in Soho House having dinner with Trinity Mirror's chief executive, Sly Bailey; the Daily Mirror's editor, Richard Wallace; the Sunday Mirror's editor, Tina Weaver, and Lloyd Embley, the editor of the People. Two days later, the Mirror splashed with "Choccy Horror...
- 12/7/2009
- by Monkey
- The Guardian - Film News
2 December 2009
Afghanistan
Gordon Brown welcomed Barack Obama's pledge to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The prime minister told the Commons that a "very substantial" number of the extra Us troops would be going to Helmand to assist British forces in dealing with Taliban insurgents.
Brown said there was "no question" of British troops being withdrawn until the Afghans could take over security control themselves. He also disclosed that the Nato conference in London in January would discuss troop commitments made by coalition partners and Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, would give details of political reforms.
David Cameron warned the prime minister against giving "false expectations" or "mixed messages" over the date for the eventual withdrawal of British troops.
Recession
Brown was mocked for his claim that he was leading the world out of recession. Cameron said figures showed the UK was the only economy in the entire G20 yet to move out of recession.
Afghanistan
Gordon Brown welcomed Barack Obama's pledge to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The prime minister told the Commons that a "very substantial" number of the extra Us troops would be going to Helmand to assist British forces in dealing with Taliban insurgents.
Brown said there was "no question" of British troops being withdrawn until the Afghans could take over security control themselves. He also disclosed that the Nato conference in London in January would discuss troop commitments made by coalition partners and Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, would give details of political reforms.
David Cameron warned the prime minister against giving "false expectations" or "mixed messages" over the date for the eventual withdrawal of British troops.
Recession
Brown was mocked for his claim that he was leading the world out of recession. Cameron said figures showed the UK was the only economy in the entire G20 yet to move out of recession.
- 12/3/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
✒Monkey hears that last Monday the News of the World held a training camp for top executives to teach them to be nice to their staff. Apparently James Murdoch is keen on such David Brent-like exercises, and the execs, in dress-down mode, were asked to perform simple tasks and then make encouraging comments about each other's efforts. They found the whole caper ludicrous, and a ghastly foretaste of a pallid future. It seems editor Colin Myler didn't stay for the whole course, and if so Monkey can see why – if you can't wear a suit or abuse anyone, what's the point of being a tabloid editor?
✒Reactions were swift and scornful following the bashing of other channels by Channel 4's Julian Bellamy in an Rts after-dinner speech on Wednesday. They rely too much on remakes of old shows such as Doctor Who and Minder (the terrestrials) or imports (Sky), said the normally amiable programming chief,...
✒Reactions were swift and scornful following the bashing of other channels by Channel 4's Julian Bellamy in an Rts after-dinner speech on Wednesday. They rely too much on remakes of old shows such as Doctor Who and Minder (the terrestrials) or imports (Sky), said the normally amiable programming chief,...
- 11/9/2009
- by Monkey
- The Guardian - Film News
Conservative party leader David Cameron has admitted that he loves watching John and Edward Grimes on The X Factor.
Cameron told The Sun: “You only need to watch a few minutes and suddenly 40 minutes later, you’re still nailed to your chair, waiting for the terrible twins to appear.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown also admitted that he loves the show. He joked:
“I’m an X Factor fan, and Peter Mandelson looks after Strictly Come Dancing.”...
Cameron told The Sun: “You only need to watch a few minutes and suddenly 40 minutes later, you’re still nailed to your chair, waiting for the terrible twins to appear.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown also admitted that he loves the show. He joked:
“I’m an X Factor fan, and Peter Mandelson looks after Strictly Come Dancing.”...
- 11/4/2009
- by Lisa McGarry
- Unreality
People who persist in illegally downloading copyrighted material could see their Internet connection cut, a senior British government official announced Wednesday.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson told a gathering of people in the creative industry that violators would be sent two warning notices before their network connection would be closed.
He said disconnection would be a last resort and would last for up to a year. The decision could be appealed.
The provision will be included in legislation to be considered by Parliament early next year. The government would monitor whether file-sharing decreased before beginning enforcement in April 2011.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson told a gathering of people in the creative industry that violators would be sent two warning notices before their network connection would be closed.
He said disconnection would be a last resort and would last for up to a year. The decision could be appealed.
The provision will be included in legislation to be considered by Parliament early next year. The government would monitor whether file-sharing decreased before beginning enforcement in April 2011.
- 10/28/2009
- icelebz.com
Three music organisations have joined forces to oppose government plans to disconnect illegal filesharers. The Featured Artists Coalition, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and the Music Producers Guild have published a joint statement attacking the "extraordinarily negative" proposals suggested by first secretary of state Peter Mandelson. It read: "We vehemently oppose the proposals being made and suggest that the stick is now in danger of being way out of proportion to the carrot. "The failure of 30,000 Us lawsuits (more)...
- 9/4/2009
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Peter Mandelson has denied suggestions that last month's holiday meeting with record executive David Geffen improperly influenced his stance on music piracy. The first secretary of state told The Times that his proposals to enable ISPs to cut off the accounts of illegal filesharers were based on sound moral and economic reasons. He also noted that under his plans, disconnections would be based on reports from rights holders rather than internet monitoring from service providers. Mandelson said: "The thinking behind this is clear and has nothing to do with dinners in Corfu. The government decided to reopen the issue of suspending internet connections as a sanction of last resort against the most egregious offenders for two simple reasons. "First, taking something for nothing, without permission, (more)...
- 9/2/2009
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
London -- Music-download service Spotify, Disney and Microsoft will join dozens of international creative businesses to debate how to foster success and secure creative rights at the first government-backed Creativity and Business International Network held in London from Oct. 26-28, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said Friday.
Dubbed "C&binet," the conference is the government's attempt to boost growth for the creative industries and devise conditions to nurture the next generation of creative entrepreneurs. It will reflect the international nature of the entertainment and creative industries and involve representatives from overseas governments and regulators in a bid to establish international dialogue and cross-border consensus on such issues as copyright production, intellectual property and boosting the creative economy.
"Britain is known across the world for the strength of its creative industries and the wealth of talent we possess. We want to make sure this success continues but to ensure sustained growth we need international cooperation,...
Dubbed "C&binet," the conference is the government's attempt to boost growth for the creative industries and devise conditions to nurture the next generation of creative entrepreneurs. It will reflect the international nature of the entertainment and creative industries and involve representatives from overseas governments and regulators in a bid to establish international dialogue and cross-border consensus on such issues as copyright production, intellectual property and boosting the creative economy.
"Britain is known across the world for the strength of its creative industries and the wealth of talent we possess. We want to make sure this success continues but to ensure sustained growth we need international cooperation,...
- 8/14/2009
- by By Mimi Turner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
British newspaper The Independent has published their 10th Annual Pink List of the 101 most influential lesbian and gay people in Britain.
In a thoughtful introduction to the list, the writer questioned if the list was even necessary anymore now that Lgbt people have made such great personal, professional and social strides.
The Independent wrote: ...is the list anachronistic? Is it patronizing to gay people? We feared it might be — and went in search of a leading gay or lesbian figure to say so. None of those we contacted wanted to. Their verdict? The Pink List remains indispensable, a celebration of a community that is integral to the British way of life.
Topping the list this year is Peter Mandelson (First Secretary of State; Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills; Lord President of the Council), and we don't see the first woman on the list until number 5, U.S.
In a thoughtful introduction to the list, the writer questioned if the list was even necessary anymore now that Lgbt people have made such great personal, professional and social strides.
The Independent wrote: ...is the list anachronistic? Is it patronizing to gay people? We feared it might be — and went in search of a leading gay or lesbian figure to say so. None of those we contacted wanted to. Their verdict? The Pink List remains indispensable, a celebration of a community that is integral to the British way of life.
Topping the list this year is Peter Mandelson (First Secretary of State; Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills; Lord President of the Council), and we don't see the first woman on the list until number 5, U.S.
- 6/30/2009
- by karman
- AfterEllen.com
It's hard to say if this all the stories about the Bilderberg group are meat for conspiracy theorists or actual conspiracy, but they sure are entertaining. Which is why it's good news that Halcyon Pictures have bought the rights to Daniel Estulin's book The True Story of the Bilderberg Group. The Bilderberg Group is a yearly gathering of the world's most influential politicians and industrialists, with past attendees including Tony Blair, David Rockefeller, Bill Clinton, Condoleeza Rice and Peter Mandelson. Read all about this year's conference at the Guardian's blog about the event - or rather don't, since no journalists are allowed within about a mile of the meeting, and any who try apparently find themselves stalked by police.The deal gives Halcyon, the guys behind the Terminator reboot, the rights not only to the book but also its two sequels and all of Estulin's research material. The plan is...
- 6/2/2009
- EmpireOnline
Labour politician Peter Mandelson has said that he is interested in appearing on Strictly Come Dancing. Speaking to the BBC, the business secretary said that he watched political reporter John Sergeant on the show with "a degree of envy". When asked whether he would consider partaking in the dance contest, he answered: "It would be nice to be asked." (more)...
- 11/17/2008
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
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