News

Antony Sher, one of the most acclaimed Shakespearean actors of his generation, has died aged 72, the Royal Shakespeare Company said Friday.

Sher had been diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year. His husband, Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Gregory Doran, took leave from his job to care for him.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1949, Sher moved to Britain in the late 1960s to study drama. He joined the RSC in 1982 and had a breakthrough role in 1984 as the usurping king in Richard III.

He went on to play most of Shakespeare’s meaty male roles,...

Antony Sher, one of the most acclaimed Shakespearean actors of his generation, has died, the Royal Shakespeare Company said Friday. He was 72.

Sher had been diagnosed with terminal cancer this year. His husband, Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Gregory Doran, took leave from his job to care for him.

Born in 1949 in Cape Town, South Africa, Sher moved to Britain in the late 1960s to study drama. He joined the RSC in 1982 and had a breakthrough role in 1984 as the usurping king in Richard III.

He went on to play most of Shakespeare’s meaty male roles,...

Sir Antony Sher, the acclaimed UK theater actor who also starred in Shakespeare In Love and Mrs Brown, has died. He was 72.

The Royal Shakespeare Company tweeted earlier Friday that Sher had died of cancer. Sher’s husband Gregory Doran, the RSC’s artistic director, has been taking compassionate leave since September to care for him.

RSC executive director Catherine Mallyon and acting artistic director Erica Whyman hailed Sher’s “hugely celebrated career on stage and screen,” as tributes flooded in for the actor.

“Anthony was deeply loved and hugely admired by so many colleagues,” said Mallyon and Whyman. “He was a groundbreaking role model for many young actors, and it is impossible to comprehend that he is no longer with us. We will ensure friends far and wide have the chance to share tributes and memories in the days to come.”

Sher had a long association with the RSC...

With live performance venues subject to heavy admissions restrictions, U.K. fans of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera, and Royal Ballet will soon be able to get their performance art fix thanks to a deal struck with BBC and ITV’s streaming platform Britbox, which will allow subscribers to tune in to their favorite productions starting July 23.

Falling under the service’s Centre Stage Collection — a showcase of concerts, documentaries and comedies celebrating British entertainment and performers — the new programming includes 25 Royal Shakespeare Company productions featuring film and TV stars such as Antony Sher in “King Lear,” David Tennant in “Richard II” and Christopher Eccleston in “Macbeth.”

Royal Ballet productions include Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty” and “The Nutcracker” as well as Talbot’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” while the Royal Opera will contribute Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” Gounod’s “Faust” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” among others.

Several...

We know life is hectic. We know you’re busy. But even the busiest, most hectic of creatives need a break. So take some time to enjoy yourself with our weekly roundup of London’s best theatrical events! Share Sher’s knowledge.Book ahead for Sir Antony Sher, one of England’s greatest actors, talking about returning to the role of King Lear after 30 years on March 23. He’ll chat about his rehearsal diary and process. (Tickets: £7) Brush up on your Shakespeare at the Globe.If you buy a seat for the Globe’s production of ‘All’ s Well That Ends Well’ on Feb. 20, you’ll also get a ticket for an introductory talk by the cast and a leading Shakespeare scholar. (Tickets from £10) Have a heated debate on censorship.Over at the Barbican, they’re organising a big debate on the subject of theatre censorship. Fifty years on from...

An expert cast and dynamic direction lend momentum to this pointed Whitehall drama about the fallout of a missile strike

The latest collaboration between writer Jack Thorne and director Tom Harper (The Scouting Book for Boys) very smartly updates Fail Safe from 1964. A group of Whitehall mandarins gather under no-nonsense Sophie Okonedo to role play the national security consequences of a Pakistani nuclear strike on India; inevitably, what begins as a jolly lunchtime skive soon turns deadly serious.

Theatricality looms, but the variation of voices and viewpoints among the expert cast generates a rat-a-tat momentum: Thorne crafts rhetorical flourishes for veteran Antony Sher, agonised lefty Shaun Evans and a shellshocked Kerry Fox. Harper’s framing is always dynamic, and often pointed: each glimpse of life passing blithely by this room’s only window provides a sobering reminder of the extent to which we’re at the mercy of those who would govern us.

Riveting, terrifying, and unafraid to confront its own quiet horror. One of the most important movies ever about nuclear weapons and modern governance. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Over the weekend of the 70th anniversary of the first — and so far only — use of atomic bombs in anger, cinemagoers in and around London will have an opportunity to see one of the most extraordinary movies about nuclear warfare ever made. (And then it will air on the BBC next week.) There are no mushroom clouds in War Book. There are no screams of fear or pain. There are no ticking countdowns that may or may not be defused in the nick of time. There is no disaster porn. No stock footage of test blasts from the 1950s is deployed. There are just civil servants...

Christopher Eccleston has been cast with Marsha Thomason (White Collar) and Paterson Joseph (The Leftovers) in ITV’s new four-part drama series Safe House. Produced by Eleventh Hour Films, Safe House is a thriller set in the wilderness of England’s Lake District. Eccleston plays Robert, a former detective who is asked by a close friend and police officer to turn his family’s remote guest house into a safe house. Their first ‘guests’ are a family in fear of their lives after they are violently attacked. For Robert, protecting them resurrects fears and anxieties bound up in a terrifying night gone wrong with a star witness. As a consequence of running the safe house, Robert begins to questions the incident and uncovers a web of lies. Inspired by a real couple, Safe House is written by Michael Crompton (Kidnap & Ransom, Carrie’s War), and directed by Marc Evans (Hinterland,...

Exclusive: Tom Harper’s thriller to debut at London Film Festival; acquisitions exec re-locating to UK.

K5 International has snapped up international rights to Tom Harper’s thriller War Book, set to receive its world premiere at the London Film Festival on Oct 13.

The film, written by Jack Thorne (How I Live Now, A Long Way Down), centres on a war game amongst a group of government officials that reaches boiling point when their hypothetical global crisis escalates and the fragility of everyday life and those who govern it is brutally exposed.

The ensemble cast includes Sophie Okonedo, Phoebe Fox, Ben Chaplin, Anthony Sher, Kerry Fox and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.

Producers are Lauren Dark at Sixteen Films, and Mike Brett and Steve Jamison’s Archer’s Mark, in association with Ivana MacKinnon’s Stray Bear Films.

The acquisition comes as K5 looks to boost its presence in the UK. Kathrin Schöftenhuber is to relocate from the company’s Munich...

The Field of Blood Acorn Media/Rlj Entertainment

New Doctor Who Peter Capaldi and “the other Doctor” David Morrissey lead an all-star cast in Acorn Media’s 30 September release of The Field of Blood, Set 1. Written and directed by David Kane, The Field of Blood is based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Denise Mina. The central character — Paddy Meehan (Jayd Johnson) — is a copy writer at a Glaswegian newspaper. She dreams of forging a career as an investigative journalist but opportunities are at a premium for young women in 1980s Glasgow. Paddy gets an unexpected break when a toddler is murdered — seemingly by her young cousin. Allegations concerning the suspect soon appear in the local papers. Her relatives, wrongly blame Paddy for the negative headlines surrounding the family and the supposed killer. Paddy sees an opportunity to raise her own profile while uncovering the truth about the murder.

Angelina Jolie takes on Sleeping Beauty while Terry Gilliam tackles Berlioz as the stars come out to confound our expectations in the coming year

Film

Angelina Jolie in Maleficent

Hollywood's most formidable leading lady is back after a relatively quiet spell, in a role playing on her scariness and seniority. This reinvented fairytale is a twist on The Sleeping Beauty, and Jolie is not playing the insipid dormant heroine with her crybaby attitude to finger-pricking but the evilly magnificent Maleficent, the sorceress who casts a spell on the demure young Princess Aurora. How did she get that way? Everything will depend on the script – but Jolie is always a great turn. Peter Bradshaw 30 May.

Natalie Portman in Jane Got a Gun

Natalie Portman is a Hollywood A-lister who first came to prominence in George Lucas's Star Wars prequel trilogy. She was compellingly vulnerable in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan,...

Exclusive: Notes on Blindness, a short docudrama screening at Sundance in January, is being developed into a feature film.

Into Darkness will examine the true-life journey into blindness by academic John Hull, recorded in his autobiographical account Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. The directors were given exclusive access to the audio tapes Hull recorded in the early 1980s as he struggled to deal with his condition, and these will form the narration and structure for the film along with archive footage, verbatim reconstructions and dramatic interpretation.

The film will be produced by Alex Usborne for 104 Films, which has credits including We Are The Freaks, and Jojo Ellison for Archer’s Mark, which recently completed production on its debut feature War Book starring Sophie Okonedo and Anthony Sher.

Pete Middleton and James Spinney will direct the feature from their own script, and Gerry Floyd will serve as director of photography.

With the full...

Exclusive: Adeel Akhtar, Kerry Fox, Sophie Okenedo, Antony Sher, Ben Chaplin among cast.

Sixteen Films and Archer’s Mark thriller War Book is underway in London.

For production details visit

War Book

Director Tom Harper and writer Jack Thorne team on the feature, announced by ScreenDaily during Cannes.

The ensemble cast comprises Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions), Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley), Ben Chaplin (The Thin Red Line) Shaun Evans (Boy A), Kerry Fox (Bright Star), Phoebe Fox (One Day), Sophie Okenedo (Hotel Rwanda), Antony Sher (Shakespeare in Love) and Nathan Stewart Jarrett (Misfits).

How I Live Now and A Long Way Down writer Thorne has scripted the thriller about the aftermath of an international nuclear attack, played out in the political backrooms of London.

Lauren Dark of Sixteen Films produces with Harper, alongside Mike Brett and Steve Jamison of Archer’s Mark executive producing alongside Ivana MacKinnon of Stray Bear Productions.

Harper told ScreenDaily:...

Playwright whose anarchic works were filled with vividly imagined characters

Snoo Wilson, who has died suddenly aged 64, was in the vanguard of the young playwrights revolutionising British theatre in the two decades after 1968, but Snoo was a very different kettle of fish from the others. While David Edgar, Howard Brenton and David Hare were often overtly political, Snoo was a Marxist "tendance Groucho"; more subtly subversive and humorous. Sometimes the surface frivolity of his work made people think he wasn't serious, but he was always trying to mine under the surface of things, to allow the subconscious to drive his imagination. Snoo used fiercely imagined characters in comic and often savage works that nevertheless, in the best plays, demonstrated an insouciant knowledge of dramatic structure. He was not a believer in naturalism.

Throughout his career Snoo refused to accept that mere reality was all there was – if so, it was...

Sold-out performance in King Richard II to be relayed live around the world and streamed into 1,000 British schools

It's too late to book tickets to see David Tennant tackle Shakespeare's flawed and doomed King Richard II: every bookable seat for both Stratford-upon-Avon and London has already been sold, even though it doesn't open until next autumn.

But the Royal Shakespeare Company is to announce on Tuesday that the production will be relayed live to cinemas around the world – and also streamed, free, into 1,000 British schools.

Tennant, who will be returning to the RSC for a fourth season, the first since his sold-out performance as Hamlet, said he found the prospect of tackling the play "daunting … but very exciting".

The RSC is coming late to live broadcasts, which have already proved major successes for opera, ballet and theatre companies internationally, and the British Museum is joining in next month, with...

Imposing stage and screen actor whose work ranged from Shakespeare to The Bill

The character actor Bernard Horsfall, who has died aged 82, appeared in television, films and on the stage for more than half a century. Tall, imposing and authoritative, he appeared in many of the major television series from Z Cars and Dr Finlay's Casebook to Casualty and The Bill, and in Doctor Who took no fewer than four roles.

In 1968 he played Lemuel Gulliver in The Mind Robber, where he was encountered by Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor, in the Land of Fiction. The following year he returned as a Time Lord in The War Games. In 1973, with Jon Pertwee now donning the time-traveller's cape, he played the Thai chieftain, Taron, in the six-part Planet of the Daleks. And finally, he was another Time Lord, Chancellor Goth, in the 1976 story The Deadly Assassin, famously battling with Tom Baker...

Los Angeles -- Jeremy Irons has a suggestion for "Downton Abbey" fans: Give William Shakespeare a try, too.

Irons is among the prominent hosts of "Shakespeare Uncovered," an inventive series tracing the origins of eight of the writer's plays through a combination of history, new analysis, selected scenes – and, for Irons, a gallop on horseback across a fabled battlefield.

The series begins 9 p.m.-11 p.m. Est Friday (check local listings) on PBS, which happens to be the home of the hit period soap opera, "Downton Abbey."

"Shakespeare Uncovered," along with PBS' planned fall airing of new films of four of Shakespeare's plays, "open up to this huge American audience this gold dust," Irons told reporters recently, and demonstrates that TV "doesn't end with `Downton Abbey.'"

After then mischievously comparing Shakespeare to an Aston Martin and "Downton" to a Ford Fiesta, Irons admitted he hadn't seen the serial...

With her seventh Bond film about to hit the big screen, Judi Dench shows no sign, even at 77, of curbing her enormous drive. She talks about painting landscapes, playing M and why she hates to be alone on stage

At one point sitting opposite Dame Judi Dench over a pot of tea at a hotel in Covent Garden, I find myself asking her if she has that recurrent dream, the one in which you are on a stage and the curtain is about to go up but can't remember any of your lines or the part you are supposed to play. It seems, as I'm saying it, a bit ridiculous to ask that question of Dench, who not long ago was by a margin voted "the greatest actor of all time" in an exhaustive poll of the readers of The Stage magazine. She is a woman who has hardly put a foot wrong,...

Line Of Duty | Gordon Behind Bars | Coming Here Soon: Greece, Bust And Broken | Ethan Hawke On Macbeth | Hit & Miss | Imagine

Line Of Duty

9pm, BBC2

Vicky McClure, Lennie James and Gina McKee head a cast list so impressive that even the "and Neil Morrissey" at the end doesn't spoil the overall "serious drama" effect. This five-part drama tackles police corruption and it's quickly apparent who the dodgy coppers are, as they're much more interesting than the honest ones. It's off to a fine start: in only a few minutes we're knee-deep in botched police raids, faked reports, unreported crimes and cover-ups. This opening episode lays out the numerous characters efficiently, with a few big twists kept for the end. Phelim O'Neill

Gordon Behind Bars

9pm, Channel 4

Jamie's cornered the school dinner market, so Gordon Ramsay heads to Brixton prison for his do-good mission. His aim is to spend six...

Actors' union Equity enlists famous names, including Antony Sher, to support gay actors who choose to be open

When Antony Sher started acting with the pioneering Gay Sweatshop theatre company in the 70s, he managed to stay in the closet. "I look back and blush," he said. "We all agreed to do it on the basis that it was stated that not all the performers were gay so you didn't know who was and who wasn't.

"Then, in the mid-80s, when I did the British premiere of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, I still wasn't out. I was doing press interviews about this great gay play that I felt so strongly about for a specific reason and I wasn't saying it – it was an astonishing waste of energy. But that's the kind of tangle you get into if you're not out."

Sher finally came out in 1990, inspired by...

Naomi Watts risks public backlash by playing Diana, Princess of Wales, while Danny Boyle's biggest headache concerns the pronunciation of his latest movie

Stage or screen?

Trash made one of its infrequent visits to the theatre last week as a panellist for Nt Live, the National Theatre's whizz idea of transmitting live stage performances into cinemas around the world. The play in question was Travelling Light, written by Nicholas Wright and directed by the Nt's artistic director, Nicholas Hytner, both of whom joined me on the panel, hosted by Emma Freud. So while we and the audience at the Lyttelton watched a play starring Antony Sher, about the invention of silent film in a Jewish shtetl as recounted in flashback by a Hollywood mogul, audiences around the world watched too via a live broadcast.

"Was the character based on any real-life Hollywood mogul?" I asked Wright. I couldn't tell...

Winner of 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress - Gwyneth Paltrow and Best Supporting Actress - Judi Dench, Shakespeare In Love is noted playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppards imaginative restaging and reworking of the story of William Shakespeare which proceeds to present a thesis for how he came to write many of the finest dramas and comedies written in the English language. Boasting gorgeous costumes, breathtaking sets and an unmistakably Shakespearean atmosphere, Shakespeare In Love has aged considerably well and looks even more rapturous and resplendent on Blu-ray than it ever has before. The new Blu-ray also comes with a fascinating slew of special features, the most appreciable of all being the two commentary tracks, one from director John Madden and another from assorted cast and crew members. Boasting an all-star cast to best even the Bards vaunted coterie of performers themselves, Shakespeare In Love is lousy with pedigree...

National Theatre Live continues its third season with Nicholas Wrights new play Travelling Light, directed by Nicholas Hytner. Following Vincent in Brixton and The Reporter, Wrights new play is a funny and fascinating tribute to the Eastern European immigrants who became major players in Hollywoods golden age. The award-winning Antony Sher returns to the National to play Jacob. National Theatre Live is an initiative by the UKs National Theatre to broadcast live performances onto cinema screens around the world.

Director John Madden discusses his experiences on the set of this Best Picture Oscar winner, making its Blu-ray debut January 31

Director John Madden had primarily been known as a TV director before making the 1998 Best Picture Oscar winner Shakespeare in Love, which makes its Blu-ray debut January 31. I recently had the chance to speak with this talented director about his experiences on the set of this drama, which features an all-star cast including Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Judi Dench, Colin Firth, and Ben Affleck. Take a look at what he had to say below.

I read there was quite a lengthy development process for this before you came on. Can you talk about the point where you did come on board?

John Madden: Yeah, well, as you know, there was one manifestation of the film, earlier, which was going to be directed by Edward Zwick.

Royal Court; Lyttelton; Theatre503, London

Every now and then the Royal Court does this. It throws up a small-cast, depth-charge production that makes bigger dramas look over-stuffed and under-nourished. It did so metaphysically with Caryl Churchill's A Number and emotionally with Mike Bartlett's Cock. It has done so again with Nick Payne's wiry new play.

Constellations is a love story that investigates ideas about time. Or it's a look at theories about time that takes the form of a love story. It tells us that we may have no such thing as free will, but leaves its audience to make up its own mind. Following the lead given 14 years ago by Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, in which a scientific theory is demonstrated in the structure of the play that discusses it, Constellations embodies its doubts and questions. It quizzes the notion of destiny by giving alternative versions...

This restrained portrayal of Queen Victoria's relationship with her gallant gillie puts the Victorian gossips to shame

Mrs Brown (1997)

Director: John Madden

Entertainment grade: B

History grade: B+

Queen Victoria was widowed in 1861. Four years after Prince Albert's death, she became attached to her gillie, John Brown.

Taste

John Brown (Billy Connolly) joins Victoria's staff at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, then moves with her to Balmoral in Scotland. The film invents some Upstairs Downstairs drama, but sticks approximately to the facts. The only conspicuous error is that the Balmoral sets are far too tasteful. Balmoral, like Osborne, was bought and decorated by Victoria and Albert as a couple, and its interiors were famously hideous. All the wood was painted dark ginger, fake thistles abounded, and anything that stayed still long enough was covered in violently clashing tartans – including curtains, carpets, furniture, linoleum and small children.

For Mark Rylance, it's Rooster in Jerusalem. For Alison Steadman, it's Bev in Abigail's Party … leading actors on the parts they will never escape

Mark Rylance

Plays Johnny "Rooster" Byron in Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, which opened at the Royal Court in 2009 and travelled to Broadway. It has just returned to London, where it is showing at the Apollo theatre in the West End.

Jerusalem first came to me in 2003, when I was too busy running the Globe. Back then it was called St George's Day. The pages were written with an old typewriter and it was very raw, so different to anything else. Sometimes, instead of characters' names, there was just pages of dialogue. It reminded me of how much as a kid I had resonated with adults outside of society, how much I liked their language and stories.

I got busy with other projects and they saw other actors.

Roland Emmerich's Anonymous, screening at the Toronto film festival, is set to re-ignite Shakespearean conspiracy theories

Shakespearians often groan when the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy theory raises its head. But it often does, especially for those of us connected with Shakespeare's birthplace. Or perhaps you've chatted about the issue in taxis, on trains, or during long flights? Sometimes I hear "it doesn't matter, we still have the plays." The fact is it matters utterly, otherwise there would be no conspiracy theories in first place. And there would be no new film called Anonymous (from Roland Emmerich, the director of Godzilla and Independence Day) trying to insinuate itself into the popular imagination. Suddenly, those questions are going to be cropping up more often.

Anonymous will put over the view that the plays and poems should be attributed to the Earl of Oxford, a nominee first suggested by Thomas Looney (pronounced "Loney") in 1920. Let's get this straight.

Last week, a British commenter, Neil, left what I thought was a jerky comment on my review of season two of "Luther," suggesting that "The Shadow Line" is a better British cop show and that "Luther" is "quite silly, although compared to most american crime dramas nowadays I can see why it could be seen as excellent in comparison." Twatty though it may have been and despite my lifelong distrust of people named "Neil," I was intrigued by the possibility of a cop show that could be considered better than "Luther," so I sought out the 7-part British mini-series (it's available on DVD in the UK and not too difficult to track down in the States).

I burned through seven hours in three days. It is a damn good crime serial, complicated and bleak, engrossing as it is dark. It stars, as Caspar wrote in his initial review, "everyone who's...

Well hello my little horrorshows, and praise be to Snooki! Indeed, the gods of reality TV are smiling upon us once more as we delve into this week's televisual delights, and ah, after all the flim-flam we finally found a fine flurry of fare to fawn over. So, as my fiancé would say, let's get right to it!

The Apprentice

So, the programme we all love to watch/hate/love is back on the box not very long after the last series concluded, due to a delay last year -- and aren't we all glad it's back! That's a rhetorical question; I will not tolerate it being answered in the negative, for it is a positive godsend for lovers of those moronic business-worshipping candidates and the wonderfully degrading missions they get sent on, supposedly to prove their business acumen (but really to shame themselves most gloriously in front of the...

Versatile producer and director who made Prime Suspect an enduring success

Paul Marcus, who has died of cancer aged 56, was best known for his award-winning work as producer of the television series Prime Suspect. However, most of his career was devoted to directing, for theatre and cinema, as well as for TV.

The first series of the police drama Prime Suspect, written by Lynda La Plante and following Dci Jane Tennison (played by Helen Mirren) as she led her first major murder investigation, was aired by Granada TV in 1991, to wide acclaim. Marcus was asked by Granada to take over as producer on the second series. He bravely invited an unknown director, John Strickland, to oversee the drama, but his choice proved justified, with Prime Suspect 2 matching the success of the first series and receiving an International Emmy award as well as Bafta recognition.

Fired by the belief that...

Obituaries of the character actor Peter Postlethwaite reveal the role played by the Everyman Theatre in his success

Talent can look like a fluke. An actor with eyes that draw you in, a voice that rings in the memory – these things seem to be good luck, a gift. But this is only part of the story, as obituaries of Pete Postlethwaite prove.

The Warrington-born actor became one of our most successful character stars after appearing, fairly late in his career, in The Usual Suspects and Brassed Off, before being adopted as a favourite Hollywood turn, gracing films such as the Jurassic Park sequel and last year's Inception. It was back in the 1970s, though, that Postlethwaite's acting had really got going, as one of a gang of performers and writers working at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre.

The venue in Hope Street on the site of a former chapel was the seedbed...

Oscar-nominated British actor with a vast range who could move between comedy and tragedy with ease

The actor Pete Postlethwaite had a face that elicited many similes, among them "a stone archway" and "a bag of spanners". These unflattering descriptions, plus his tongue-twisting surname, would suggest an actor with a career limited to minor supporting roles. But Postlethwaite, who has died of cancer aged 64, played a vast range of characters, often leading roles, on stage, television and film.

He was at ease in switching the masks of tragedy and comedy. The working-class martinet father he played in Terence Davies's film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), which Postlethwaite credited as his big break, can be seen as paradigmatic of his career. Postlethwaite powerfully conveyed the father's double-sided nature: at one moment he is tenderly kissing his children goodnight, the next he is ripping the tablecloth off in a rage.

Postlethwaite was...

Colleagues of the late actor recall their memories of working with him

Sue Johnston, actor

His family and mine have been friends for a long time through a church club in Warrington. I loved him very much, as everyone who has worked with him and knows him does, because he was a great friend for everybody, a sort of leader of the company. He'd wrap his arms around everyone. He was an incredibly talented guy. He was also a Liverpool supporter, which endeared him to me even more.

I worked with him on Brassed Off and that was the start of a great friendship. We all had such a great time on that movie. We partied a lot, we laughed a lot, we worked hard. My lasting memory of him will be on top of the open-topped bus when he was conducting the band as they go around town because...

Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite has died aged 64, it was confirmed today.

Journalist and friend Andrew Richardson said Postlethwaite passed away peacefully in hospital in Shropshire on Sunday following a lengthy illness.

The actor had continued to work until recent months despite receiving treatment for cancer. He was seen in the 2010 films The Town, Inception and Clash of the Titans.

In Clash of the Titans, he played Greek fisherman Spyros, who raised Sam Worthington's title character Perseus after finding him adrift at sea as a baby. In Inception he played Maurice Fischer, the dying father of dream manipulation target Robert Fischer, an heir to a business empire portrayed by Cillian Murphy.

Postlethwaite, who was made an OBE in the 2004 New Year Honours List, was previously described by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg as "the best actor in the world". They worked together on The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Amistad.

In response to the praise,...

It looks like the dragon Smaug has struck early. A studio for The Hobbit has been gutted by fire, just as production on the two-part film adaptation is expected to get the green light.

Firefighters spent three hours putting out the blaze at a warehouse in Wellington, New Zealand, which housed Jackson's Portsmouth Miniatures Studio.

The $3.2million studio would have been used for shooting special effects sequences on The Hobbit, it's been confirmed. At this stage, it's not clear what impact - if any - the fire will have on production.

The scene is now being inspected by fire experts and insurers to assess the extent of the damage. There was a man in the building at the time but he escaped unharmed, reports Tvnz.

Meanwhile, the much-troubled project is close to being greenlit by Warner Bros and MGM, who are sharing the costs. The Los Angeles Times reports that...

The staff of New York City's Drama Book Shop assembled this list of inspiring biographies and memoirs of theater and film people. From the legendary Eleonora Duse to the wild-living Jack Nicholson, the subjects of these books offer diverse views of a life in the performing arts."Tennessee Williams in Provincetown" by David Kaplan (Hansen Publishing Group)No matter how much drinking and carousing he indulged in the night before, Tennessee Williams would get up the next morning at the crack of dawn, sit down at his trusty typewriter, and go right to work again. That's how gifted young playwrights become icons, of course, and how titles like "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" become part of the American cultural vernacular. And that's just one of the many inspiring things I learned about Williams from this concise, fast-moving, and eminently readable book.

The Isle of Man-based equity investor has announced its first TV drama, a six-part thriller for the BBC. Until now CinemaNX has invested in features, covering up to 100% of the budget. Company Pictures (Skins) is making The Shadow Line, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men) and Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who). Stephen Rea and Anthony Sher also feature. The writer/director is Hugo Blick (Marion and Geoff), who also produces. Company is making the conspiracy thriller with Blick’s regular producer Baby Cow. The Shadow Line will screen in 2011. CinemaNX is always the lead investor in projects, which must shoot a minimum [...]...

BBC Two has announced the cast for its new noir thriller The Shadow Line. The six-part series, which has been written by Hugo Blick, focuses on a group of individuals who become connected when drug baron Harvey Wratten is murdered. The characters, including a police officer with amnesia and a drug lord, will all be affected by Wratten's death and will be forced to choose between right and wrong. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who starred in American Gangster, and Doctor Who's Christopher Eccleston have both signed up to appear in the drama alongside Sir Anthony Sher and Stephen Rea. The cast also includes Lesley Sharp, Desperate Romantics's Rafe Spall, Five Daughters star Kierston Wareing and Shameless's Sean (more)...

Here is the full list of winners at this year's Bafta Television Awards, held tonight at the London Palladium:

Actor

Andrew Garfield - Boy A - Winner!

Tom Hardy - Stuart: A Life Backwards

Matthew Macfadyen - Secret Life

Anthony Sher - Primo

Actress

Eileen Atkins - Cranford - Winner!

Judi Dench - Cranford

Gina McKee - The Street

Kierston Wareing - It’s A Free World

Entertainment Performance

Simon Amstell - Never Mind The Buzzc***s

Alan Carr & Justin Lee Collins - The Friday Night Project

Stephen Fry - Qi

Harry Hill - Harry Hill’s TV Burp - Winner!

Comedy Performance

Peter Capaldi - The Thick of It

James Corden - Gavin and Stacey - Winner!

Stephen Merchant - Extras Christmas . . .

Director John Madden's third feature is a satisfying period drama with top-drawer performances by Judi Dench as the recently widowed Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as the burly Scotsman who restores her spirit.

Picked up for a July domestic release by Miramax, "Mrs. Brown" unspools in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes International Film Festival.

Set primarily in the always invigorating and cinematically potent Scottish Highlands, the English-Irish production is impeccably mounted and boasts many compelling characters, although it falls in the Merchant Ivory category of a hard-sell-to-the-masses historical romancer and has less sexual passion than Madden's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's "Ethan Fromme".

In the same league as "The Lion in Winter", "Mrs. Brown" is dominated by the two leads, with Dench ("GoldenEye") delivering a superb rendering of a complex woman in a highly vulnerable situation. Dubbed the "Widow of Windsor", Queen Victoria, possibly the world's most powerful individual, hid from the public in 1861 after the death of her husband, Albert.

She left the running of the empire to other members of the monarchy and Parliament. After three years of mourning and with the government in turmoil, her private secretary (Geoffrey Palmer) summons Brown, a loyal hunting guide and servant who served Albert and is fiercely loyal to the royal family.

The idea is to cheer up the gloomy, bitter and often cranky queen with an extended stay in Balmoral, where she goes riding and hears plain, often harsh words of truth from blustery, commanding Brown. He eventually becomes her good friend, makes an enemy of the Prince of Wales (David Westhead) and pushes aside Palmer's character.

They fall in love after a fashion, but the duties of the crown beckon. Connolly ("Muppet Treasure Island") is thoroughly convincing as a caring male equal and patriotic subject who has his faults and knows it. The pair together are a delight to watch -- even if the heat generated is indirect, the chemistry is something rare in current cinema.

Antony Sher ("The Young Poisoner's Handbook") is memorable as patient, bemused Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the Parliament scenes, in which a faction arises bent on dissolving the monarchy unless the queen returns.

He too makes the trip to the cloudy hills and valleys for a crucial encounter with the indomitable Brown, whose pride is mighty and instincts unfailing given the queen's long subsequent reign and historic achievements.

Madden, who also directed 1993's "Golden Gate", and debut screenwriter Jeremy Brock, who wrote Madden's TV feature "The Widowmaker", don't aim too high and keep the pace brisk. One learns a few things and inwardly cheers at the great lines, but most importantly one comes to sympathize with the characters and understand the class and cultural conflicts through the richly rewarding characterizations.

Martin Childs' production design and Richard Greatrex's cinematography are exemplary given the project's low budget, while Deirdre Clancy's costumes and Lisa Westcott's hair and makeup design are major contributions. Stephen Warbeck's score is lush and stirring.

MRS. BROWN

Miramax Films

WGBH, Irish Screen

Director John Madden

Writer Jeremy Brock

Producer Sarah Curtis

Executive producers Douglas Rae,

Andrea Calderwood

Director of photography Richard Greatrex

Production designer Martin Childs

Editor Robin Sales

Costume designer Deirdre Clancy

Music Stephen Warbeck

Casting Michelle Guish

Cast:

Queen Victoria Judi Dench

John Brown Billy Connolly

Henry Ponsonby Geoffrey Palmer

Disraeli Antony Sher

Archie Brown Gerard Butler

Running time -- 105 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...