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The late Julian Sands was a prolific actor who appeared in notable and unique movies throughout his nearly three-decade career in Hollywood, and he left a lasting memory through his varied and complex performances. Sands was born in Yorkshire, England on January 4, 1958, and began his professional acting career with a one-episode role on the British anthology series, Play for Today. Soon after that unnamed part, he earned his first leading role in the Swiss horror film After Darkness as Laurence Hunningford.

So began a long career for Julian Sands, appearing in leading roles, supporting parts, and even tiny performances in everything from schlocky horror movies to charming, romantic comedies. He could play characters who were sweet and kind, and those who seemed like there was nothing behind their eyes. In 2023, at age 65, Sands went out hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains and never returned (via BBC). His remains were discovered...

In this intimate short documentary, Dame Maureen Lipman reflects on her experience portraying her mother-in-law in the 1975 “Play for Today” film, The Evacuees, written by her late husband, Jack Rosenthal. The film offers an autobiographical account of Rosenthal’s childhood experiences as a young evacuee during wartime. Lipman talks about the poignant, humorous, and political […]

Dame Maureen Lipman Remembers… The Evacuees...

The screenwriter of Alan Clarke’s classic drama, who died in December, describes how the untried young actor secured his approval

My first sighting of Tim Roth was from an office window that looked down on to Soho Square, close to Oxford Circus in London’s West End. Director Alan Clarke had chosen Tim to play the leading role in Made in Britain, the last of a quartet of films I had been commissioned to write about young people and their experiences within the education and social services. As I looked out of Alan’s office window, Tim was clearly at odds with another youth sporting a flamboyant purple and red Mohican haircut. Quite a scrap was going on and it took time for a passing policeman to break it up.

In 1978, as producer of the Play for Today series, Margaret Matheson was responsible for Roy Minton’s Scum, about life in a borstal.

The Cure’s double live album, Paris, celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2024. To mark the occasion, Rhino Records has announced a new reissue set for release on March 22nd.

The live recording was remastered by The Cure’s Robert Smith and Miles Showell at Abby Road Studios in London. As part of the process, Smith included two previously unreleased tracks, “Shake Dog Shake” and “Hot Hot Hot!!!”, and reconfigured the tracklist.

The 30th anniversary of Paris will be available as a 1xCD or 2xLP set. Pre-orders are now ongoing.

Paris is the second of two live albums documenting The Cure’s 1992 tour in support of Wish. The first live album, Show, was reissued last year.

The Cure have long been teasing a new album called Songs of a Lost World, but there’s still no word on a release date. The band recently wrapped up their triumphant “Shows of a Lost World Tour,...

The 1980s enjoys a privileged, some might even argue inflated position in the sci-fi pantheon. In the US, it was the decade that gave us two thirds of the original Star Wars trilogy, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Terminator and Tron. In TV land, Star Trek got a brand new Generation, Quantums Leapt, Knights Rode, and of course, Alf.

But on the other side of the pond, British science fiction television was doing things the way we British always have – for less money, and a bit more bleak. But it wasn’t all creepy John Wyndham adaptations and hostile alien invasions, the 1980s also delivered a couple of British space comedy classics, along with the most underrated series in sci-fi history.

The Day of the Triffids (1981)

Stream on: purchase-only on Sky Store, Google Play, Amazon (UK); disc import only (US)

For our money, still the only decent adaptation of John...

As Reece Shearsmith just announced, it’s the beginning of the end for Inside No. 9. Filming on the horror-comedy anthology’s ninth and final series began in late 2023, which means a wrap on one of the BBC’s most consistently entertaining and inventive shows is imminent.

Oh it's the beginning of the end. #insideno9

— Reece Shearsmith ❄️ (@ReeceShearsmith) January 8, 2024

Series nine is expected to air in spring 2024, and will add a final six episodes to the existing 49 stories in Shearsmith and co-creator Steve Pemberton’s back catalogue. Barring the first look image above, which shows Pemberton in drag at an underground train station (platform no. nine?), we don’t know anything about the stories, settings or characters yet, but we do know who’ll be joining the pair as guest stars… and it’s a deep bench.

One of Britain’s greatest working actors, Eddie Marsan will appear. As will the brilliant Siobhan Finneran,...

This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies, with some selections reflecting a specific day or event in September, and others chosen at random.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings feature killer baboons, deadly office drama, and more.

A Photograph (1977)

Image: Play for Today, Episode “A Photograph”

Directed by John Glenister.

BBC1’s historic anthology series Play for Today aired for fourteen years, and in that time, it produced a small number of tales that sit somewhere in the vicinity of horror. Episodes also run close to feature length, thus making them more like TV-movies. While there was low chance of finding anything straightforwardly horror in this series, which mainly focused on dramas, there is no denying the sinister quality of certain stories.

Wes Anderson beamed with joy as his 40-minute short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” received a nearly 4-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere.

Prior to the screening, Anderson was given Cartier’s Glory to the Filmmaker Award, which was presented to him by his frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat. Anderson humbly accepted the honor, remarking that he had researched the award in advance and observed that it had been given to filmmakers “at their premieres of some of their worst movies.”

“I hope I’m not going to repeat that,” he wisecracked.

After the quirky comedy — starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dev Patel — played its end credits, it became clear that Anderson had not joined that list of worst movies, but he continued to convey humility, bashfully waving goodbye to the crowd before the applause had fully ceased.

Based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection,...

Netflix subscribers can look forward to Wes Anderson's latest creation, "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar," featuring a star-studded cast including Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes. The film, set to premiere on September 27, explores the murkier periods of Roald Dahl's illustrious career and will be showcased at the Venice International Film Festival. Anderson chose Netflix as the perfect platform for this 37-minute movie, which presents a narrative unlike anything he has offered before.

When the autumn leaves start to fall this year, Netflix subscribers are in for a treat as the streaming platform prepares to unveil Wes Anderson's latest creation: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The film, slated for a September 27th release, is causing quite the stir, not just because of its high-profile director, but due to its ensemble cast featuring the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes.

Anderson, renowned for his unique vision and distinctive storytelling,...

Netflix has shared the release date for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a new short film by Wes Anderson adapted from Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name. After its September 1st premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the title will land on streaming Wednesday, September 27th.

The 39-minute-long The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar stars leading man Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, a compulsive gambler who discovers a new method of cheating. Ralph Fiennes will also star in the film as Dahl, while Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade round out the ensemble cast.

This marks the second time Anderson has brought a Dahl story to the screen, following 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. In an interview with IndieWire earlier this year, he explained that he’d long been wanting to adapt Henry Sugar — the Dahl family had even set it aside for him...

This fall, quirky auteur Wes Anderson follows up this year’s Asteroid City with another project slated to stream on Netflix in the fall. The movie is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and surprisingly, it’s only a short film. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar clocks in at 39 minutes and is scheduled to premiere on the streaming service on September 27. Prior to its premiere on the content platform, Netflix is also proud to announce that the Wes Anderson short will also be making its debut at the Venice Film Festival.

The official logline for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar from Netflix reads,

“A beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.” In typical Wes Anderson fashion, the filmmaker has assembled an all-star cast for his project.

Wes Anderson’s latest take on Roald Dahl comes to Venice and Netflix this fall.

Anderson writes and directs the short film adaptation of Dahl’s 1977 story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Anderson previously helmed the Dahl adaptation “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which earned Oscar nominations for Animated Feature and Original Score in 2010.

Per the official synopsis, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is a beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.

Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade star in the 39-minute short film, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival out of competition.

“For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar,'” Anderson told IndieWire earlier this year. “They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them.

Carl Davis, the composer known for his BAFTA-winning score for “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (1981), died of a brain hemorrhage on Thursday. He was 86.

Davis’ family issued a statement on social media, writing: “We are so proud that Carl’s legacy will be his astonishing impact on music. A consummate all-round musician, he was the driving force behind the reinvention of the silent movie for this generation and he wrote scores for some of the most loved and remembered British television dramas.”

Born in New York, Davis co-authored revue “Diversions” (1959), which won an off-Broadway Emmy and featured at the 1961 Edinburgh Festival. Davis moved to the U.K. in 1961 and was commissioned by the BBC to compose music for “That Was the Week That Was.” Subsequent work included BBC’s anthology play series “The Wednesday Play” (1964-70) and “Play for Today” (1970-84).

Davis then composed for several iconic British television shows, including...

Julian Sands had been officially found dead at 65 months after he went missing while on a hike more than five months ago.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that remains found on a hiking trail belong to Sands.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department released a statement saying, “The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood.”

The department added that they, “would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.”

Sands was known to enjoy hiking and mountaineering and went missing during one of his trips. His family reported him missing on January 13 which led to a search and rescue to mission, including 80 personnel and volunteers. Ground teams were utilized, but were forced to retreat due to a risk of an avalanche from severe weather conditions.

As reported by Variety, director Wes Anderson recently discussed his upcoming film on Netflix, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. During an interview with IndieWire, the filmmaker revealed that the movie, which is based on Roald Dahl's 1977 short story collection, is only going to be "37 minutes" long. Henry Sugar is Anderson's second adaptation of Dahl's work, with the first being Fantastic Mr. Fox. The upcoming Netflix movie will star Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley.

Henry Sugar will be Anderson's first Netflix original, but according to the filmmaker, collaborating with the streaming service was done more out of necessity than desire.

While chatting about his partnership with Netflix, Anderson told IndieWire, "In my case it's a little bit of a weird thing. I knew Roald Dahl since before we made 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.' I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were...

Wes Anderson is making 2023 special by adding two projects to his release calendar. The imaginative director’s Asteroid City touches down in theaters next week, and the filmmaker is busy bringing an adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar to Netflix. Many wonder how Anderson is pulling off two movies in a single year. However, there’s a simple explanation. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a relatively short feature. It’s 37 minutes long!

Speaking with IndieWire, Anderson revealed the adaptation’s brief runtime, saying he’s delighted to present something akin to the BBC series Play for Today. This series brings short-form filmmaking to a broad audience, with installments being an hour or less in length. “It’s not a feature film,” Anderson told the outlet. “It’s like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl...

Ah, okay: so there’s really just one Wes Anderson film this year. He can be forgiven for not putting out two ornate, exhaustively manicured works in a twelve-month span, just as we can be absolved for assuming The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar might be notably longer than an episode of Eastbound & Down. But during an interview with Indiewire the director, who is hours out from the release of Asteroid City, revealed his second Roald Dahl adaptation will in fact be closer to BBC’s Play for Today series––which gave a medium-length platform for the likes of Mike Leigh and Alan Clarke––than Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Whatever jokes can be made about the change in expectations, it’s only refreshing to have a capital-a Auteur use Netflix’s fake-capital empire for these experiments in adaptation and duration. And par for this director’s course: Anderson compared the...

Wes Anderson announced in an interview with IndieWire that his upcoming Netflix movie “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection, will only be 37 minutes long. The film is Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation after “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. Notably, “Henry Sugar” marks Anderson’s first Netflix original. He told IndieWire that collaborating with the streamer was more out of necessity than personal preference.

“In my case it’s a little bit of a weird thing,” Anderson said about partnering with Netflix. “I knew Roald Dahl since before we made ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar.’ They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke,...

I used to think that directing was all about commanding – about knowing the answers to all the questions,” says Richard Eyre. “Now I feel the opposite.” Eyre, one of the titans of British theatre since the 1970s, has of course done his share of commanding in the past. Of Ian McKellen in one of the definitive stagings of Richard III. Of Daniel Day-Lewis in Hamlet, which saw the actor walk off stage mid-performance and never return. Of the National Theatre, throughout his 10-year stint as creative director between 1987 and 1997, when he championed the work of firebrand artists such as David Hare and Howard Brenton.

On screen, he cut his teeth on Play for Today before moving on to films such as 2006’s Notes from a Scandal and the BBC’s 2018 King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and a cusp-of-stardom Florence Pugh. Now 79 years old, Eyre speaks to me over video chat...

Chicago – Kenneth Branagh may be the ultimate hybrid. Hie reputation as an actor is beyond the pale … he is a performer that makes a film or stage play better. But beyond that, he has just directed his 23rd and most personal film. “Belfast” is an elegy to his hometown, but it is also a remembrance of when his life changed profoundly at the tender age of nine. Kenneth Branagh presented “Belfast” to an audience at the 57th Chicago International Film Festival on October 21st, 2021. He was photographed on the Red Carpet by Joe Arce.

The film is a memoir and a memory, fictionalized and stylized. In 1969, young Buddy (Jude Hill) witnesses the a quick and violent riot in the war between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This changes the dynamic in his family, as his Pa (Jamie Dornan) and Ma (Caitriona Balfe) are at a crossroads regarding staying in the city.

This Inside No. 9 review contains spoilers.

Beheading, drowning, strangulation, throat-slitting, cannibalism, exsanguination, human sacrifice, dead babies… Practically nothing makes Inside No. 9 flinch. Let’s not forget, its first ever episode was a tale of historical child sexual abuse that ended in mass murder – which might explain why it took Bafta six series to finally award it ‘Best Comedy’.

It’s only the arrival of Inside No. 9’s first overtly political episode that marks out how apolitical the show has been until now. Of all the uncomfortable places it’s ventured, the state of the nation has stayed largely unexplored territory. Now it’s making up for lost time with a tale of Brexit Britain that belatedly takes up the full mantle of its 1970s Play For Today predecessor. In that strand, Barry Hines, Jim Allen, Ken Loach and others regularly put the country on screen alongside more fanciful,...

Stuck at home while Covid-19 infections spike? The good news is that the best new movies to watch this week are heading straight to streaming services.

Amazon Prime subscribers can close out Steve McQueen’s masterful “Small Axe” anthology, while August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” — featuring the final role of Chadwick Boseman, starring opposite never-better Viola Davis in the title role — makes its way to Netflix.

But if it’s big-screen spectacle you’re after, you’ll have to judge for yourself how safe it is to watch films such as “Monster Hunter” — in which “Resident Evil” star Milla Jovovich steps into another video game adaptation to do battle with massive CG beasts from a parallel dimension — and “Fatale,” an infidelity thriller starring Hilary Swank as the Las Vegas fling who re-enters a philandering husband’s life after he calls the cops.

On demand, Gerard Butler was supposed...

“Education.” That’s as good a title as any for the final episode of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” project — a series of five features, some little more than an hour, designed to educate and inform audiences about the experience of London’s West Indian immigrant population, about the expectations of assimilation raised by a white-majority country and the obstacles such a society puts in the way of that goal.

To get the picture, audiences needn’t see every entry of this prismatic project, which views the community from different angles at different times over several decades, and this may well prove to be the least watched of the lot, being the last and least starry of them. But do yourself a favor: Don’t miss “Education.” Watch it with your kids — it’s the most accessible to young audiences — and share it with others.

Set in the 1970s, this...

‘When somebody decides to call a character Brock Blennerhassett,’ says Michael Smiley, ‘you think, well, that hasn’t just come off the top of your head, there must be something going on there!’ What’s going on with Blennerhassett, his lead role in new darkly comic Victorian drama Dead Still, is strange, timely and layered, says Smiley.

Dead Still, available in the UK now to stream on Acorn TV, is ‘a dark, funny, proper period drama set in Dublin in Victorian times’ Smiley explains. His character Blennerhassett is part of the Anglo-Irish landed gentry who’s broken away to work in the experimental field of memorial photography, taking pictures of posed corpses for bereaved families. ‘That was a big thing in Victorian times because of the British Empire being in mourning after Prince Albert died.’

The series blends a murder mystery with gallows humour and colonial Irish politics. ‘All of...

Wearing produced Boys from the Blackstuff, Pride and Prejudice, Edge of Darkness and many more.

Michael Wearing, producer of iconic television dramas including Boys from the Blackstuff and Edge of Darkness, has died aged 78 (reports Broadcast).

Wearing (right), who held a number of senior positions across drama at the BBC, died on Friday 5 May following a stroke. Wearing is survived by his three children, Sadie, Ella and Ben.

After studying anthropology at Newcastle University and a short career in the theatre, Wearing joined the BBC’s English regions drama department as a script editor in 1976.

Reporting to David Rose, who went on to become founder of Film 4, at the BBC’s Pebble Mill base in Birmingham, Wearing worked with writers including Alan Bleasdale and Ron Hutchinson on a number of Play for Today scripts.

He also worked on series including Stephen Davis’ Trouble With Gregory, which aired as part of BBC2’s Playhouse strand, Hutchinson’s six-part...

Louisa Mellor Feb 14, 2017

Ace anthology series Inside No. 9 returns next week for its third run. Here’s what its creators had to say at the press launch…

Having made audiences wince at characters put through all manner of horrors—murder, suicide, demonic possession—sadism would seem a fair accusation to level at Inside No. 9’s creators. It doesn’t stand of course, because the show’s so good that it’s all pleasure and no pain. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith don’t seek to make people suffer in writing the series. “I wouldn’t say that’s what we enjoy, we’re not sadists!” Pemberton laughs at the series three press launch. “For us, it’s all about the narrative and taking that half-hour we have for each episode and weaving the story that takes you on the biggest journey.”

See related Tom Hiddleston interview: The Avengers,...

Louisa Mellor Feb 21, 2017

Anthology series Inside No. 9 returns for its third series tonight at 10pm on BBC Two. We chatted to creators Pemberton and Shearsmith...

Anthology strand Inside No. 9 is an ingenious antidote to bloated TV storytelling and convuluted multi-series arcs. Created by The League Of Gentlemen and Psychoville's Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who write and appear in each episode, it tells original half-hour tales that surprise, delight and unsettle.

See related Alien: Covenant - its new title's meaning & other questions

Thankfully, BBC Two appears to know what a gem it has in the show and is treating it with the care it deserves. Five new episodes following the 2016 Christmas special start airing tonight, and filming is about to get underway on a fourth series.

We spoke to creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith about the necessity of keeping Inside No. 9's secrets, the joys of the half-hour format,...

Author: Jon Lyus

“I feel least qualified to go and do a period drama for the BBC,” says Tom Hardy during our interview sessions early last December for his new eight part drama Taboo.

The show airs its first episode tomorrow night on BBC One and charts the return of James Delaney, described by the actor as a “perverse renaissance man”, to London from his adventures in Africa upon the death of his Father.

He is a man with guilty secrets, and one who gives no quarter to the hostility he encounters from his family and the institutions which seek to hold him to order. As viewers will see tonight the dawn of the Industrial Revolution has been recreated in all its gory, dirty glory. This is a bleak beginning to a story that has an even darker path to tread in future weeks.

We sat down with Hardy and...

Liz Smith as Grandma Georgina with the cast of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Photo: Warner Bros Fellow stars paid tribute to actress Liz Smith yesterday, after her family announced the 95-year-old had died on Christmas Eve.

Smith, who became a household name for her small-screen role as Nana in BBC's The Royle Family, was a veteran of both television and film - even though she didn't land her first role until she was almost 50.

Recalling her role in Mike Leigh's Play For Today later, she said: “The moment that my life transformed was when I was standing in Hamley’s one Christmas, flogging toys and I got a message from this young director named Mike Leigh.

“I was nearly 50 at the time, but he wanted a middle-aged woman to do improvisations. I went to an audition and I got the job of the mother in this improvised film – Bleak Moments,...

Alex Westthorp Jan 23, 2017

We revisit Dark Season and Century Falls, two children's dramas that established Russell T. Davies' early screenwriting career...

Russell T. Davies, a man synonymous with the successful revival of Doctor Who, was initially a graphic artist for Why Don't You? but he did several jobs on the show, eventually writing, directing and producing the programme. He showed his versatility when he presented an edition of Play School in its final year. Saturday morning summer filler On The Waterfront made its reputation in part due to Davies' own unique take on the classic serial The Flashing Blade. Next came Breakfast Serials, which Davies both wrote and produced. When Tony Robinson decided to take a break from making Maid Marian And Her Merry Men, an afternoon drama slot opened up and Rtd's first major breakthrough in Children's television drama began with the 1991 science fiction thriller Dark Season.

See...

Alex Westthorp Sep 14, 2016

Did fantasy dramas Chocky, The Box Of Delights and Dramarama leave an impression on you as a kid? Revisit those nightmares here...

Spooky, always magical and occasionally downright scary dramas are the bedrock of kids' television. For me, the pinnacle of this sort of programme was reached in the 1980s. The decade saw a new approach to both traditional and contemporary drama by both UK broadcasters: ITV committed itself to regular seasons of children's plays with Dramarama (1983-89), a kind of youth version of the venerable BBC Play For Today (1970-84), which saw the 1988 television debut of one David Tennant. The BBC, building upon an impressive body of work from the early 70s onwards, produced some of its very best family drama in this era, embracing cutting edge technology to bring treats like The Box Of Delights (1984) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (1988) to the screen.

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We chatted to the writer and cast of new BBC supernatural period drama starring Colin Morgan, by the co-creator of Life On Mars...

On the wall of Ashley Pharoah’s office hangs the bullet-riddled driver-side door of a red 1983 Audi Quattro. It’s a set-souvenir from Ashes To Ashes, the time-travel police drama he co-created to follow Life On Mars. Somewhere nearby is a sepia photograph of a young man looking justifiably disturbed by the sack-headed, creepily masked figures who surround him. That’s Pharoah’s souvenir from the set of The Living And The Dead, an eerie period supernatural drama launching in 'box-set' form on BBC iPlayer tomorrow.

Set in 1894 Somerset, The Living And The Dead is in the tradition of the dark English pastoral. It pits the rural customs and rites of an ancient way of life against the modern ingress of industry and technology.

Roy Battersby writes: Auditioning in a grim Salford secondary modern school for boys to play parts in Roll on Four O’Clock in 1970, Colin Welland, Ken Trodd and I also talked about the big strike of mostly women clothing workers in Leeds that same year. The result was the epic BBC Play for Today film Leeds United!, written by Colin, produced by Ken, directed by me, transmitted in 1974, repeated once in 1975, praised, admired and traduced, and since seen only at festivals, academic film gatherings and the National Film Theatre – but always to great appreciation. By heck, it’s a wonderful script and film, and should be included in Colin’s bio as one of his finest works. He always had such a wonderful way of giving a voice to those without one, but who have so much to tell us.

W Stephen Gilbert writes: Outstanding among Colin Welland’s achievements...

Johnny Vegas has called for more "brilliant, self-contained pieces" on television - and less of a focus on "returning audiences".

Vegas stars in one-off comedy Brilliantman! - airing tonight at 9pm on Sky Arts.

"I mourn the bygone days of Play for Today and these self-contained pieces, and the fact that within TV now it's all about returning audiences," the comic told DS.

"It's a real dumbing down or a presumption of the audience. It's almost a broadcast-induced attention deficit syndrome - where they don't trust that people can watch something that is self-contained for 30 minutes.

"And it's a shame that everything is about competing with something in the same time-slot on another channel, rather than putting something on for its creative and artistic validity."

Vegas previously worked with Sky Arts on the Playhouse Presents episode 'Ragged' - based on the early life of actor Ricky Tomlinson.

"I think when we did 'Ragged',...

Here's a spoiler-free look at what to expect from the second series of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's glorious Inside No. 9...

Inside No. 9 returns to BBC Two on Thursday the 26th of March for six more ingenious genre slices of horror, suspense and psychology. Those who were rattled and gripped by the first round of half-hour plays from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith know to expect to be skilfully sucker-punched with sharp, tricksy writing and well-drawn characters.

Viewers engrossed by the psychological character focus of series one’s Tom & Gerri, the jump scares of series finale The Harrowing, and the unexpected emotional sting of opener Sardines have lots to look forward to from the second series’ first brace of episodes. La Couchette and The 12 Days Of Christine tell the respective stories of a fraught overnight train journey and a woman plagued by a mysterious visitor, featuring guest roles from Mark Benton,...

Russell T Davies explains how new shows Cucumber, Banana and Tofu fit together and bring new voices to television…

Last week, Russell T Davies’ new Channel 4 trio of dramas, Cucumber, Banana and Tofu was launched at London’s posh Barbican centre (followed by an after-party held aptly at – where else – The Gherkin).

The post-screening Q&A, hosted by Boyd Hilton, took in all manner of topics, from Cucumber’s non-sexy look at all things sex, to age, race and sexuality diversity on screen, and the legal challenges of deliberately seeking out gay writers to bring new voices to television.

As the venue couldn’t hold you all, we picked out a few choice bits of what creator and head writer Mr Davies, Producer Nicola Schindler and actor Vincent Franklin had to say about the terrific new set of shows…

On how Cucumber, Banana, Tofu relate to each other:

Russell T Davies...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Timothy Spall and director Mike Leigh have worked together on five different films, including Secrets & Lies (1996), which resulted in Leigh’s first Oscar nomination, and Topsy-Turvy (1999). Leigh has received seven Oscar nominations since 1997, but Spall has never received recognition from the Academy. That could change this year with Leigh’s Mr. Turner, which features Spall as the British landscape painter J.M.W. Turner. The film has been praised and Spall’s portrayal of the obsessive painter garnered him the best actor award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, which makes him the latest character actor to get a boost from a Leigh film.

Spall’s Mr. Turner co-star, Lesley Manville, has worked with Leigh for multiple films and received a BAFTA nomination for Another Year (2010). Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Brenda Blethyn, Spall’s co-stars in Secrets & Lies, both received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film.

From fizzy drink sizes to video nasties to employment law, we look at the films that had an impact on legislation as well as culture...

Some films appear in the cinema, entertain their audience, make their money, and then dutifully shuffle off into the mists of history, only to be wheeled out now and again on TV. But occasionally, one comes along that has a lasting impact, and every so often, a movie has at least some influence on an eventual change in the law.

Here, we're going to look at a few examples of that, as we examine a selection of films that have had an impact more lasting than how much they made at the box office...

Scum

Originally conceived as a BBC Play For Today, Alan Clarke's Scum was pulled by the corporation from its broadcast schedules. Undeterred, Clarke and writer Roy Minton reworked it as a film,...

Stepping out of the haunted village hall for a break from a dance with the supernatural, Simon Merrells took the time to rendezvous with HeyUGuys to discuss his foray into horror with Judas Ghost. Probably most recognised for his role on TV’s Spartacus: War of the Damned in which he played the villainous Crassus with brutal pomp, Merrells is a regular face on both the big and the small screen.

During the course of our brief conversation he shared with us how he discovered his love of performance, and storytelling, as well as his early memories of horror’s most famous monsters and authors. Whilst reflecting on filmmaking as a musical journey, along with the fortunes of the modern short film he invited us inside the village hall to discuss his one location supernatural horror.

Why a career in acting? Was there that one inspirational moment?

Aside from the...

Actor who played Bert Lynch in BBC police drama Z-Cars and appeared in shows ranging from Doctor Who to Nightingales

The actor James Ellis (also known as Jimmy), who has died aged 82, was the longest-serving original cast member of the hugely popular BBC television series Z-Cars. When Z-Cars began in 1962, it represented a major change in the way the police were characterised in fiction. The BBC police series Dixon of Dock Green had been running for seven years, with Jack Warner playing the understanding, avuncular police constable Dixon. Z-Cars, by contrast, had the actors Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor making cynical remarks about the death of a murdered police colleague whose funeral they were attending, and Ellis, as Constable Bert Lynch, hearing from a colleague how he beats up his wife, without doing anything about it. Z-Cars attempted to show how moral anarchy in the rundown industrial area of the...

Television director in the glory days of the BBC, who went on to make feature films

Alan Bridges, who has died aged 86, was a leading director during the glory days of the BBC, from the mid-60s to the early 70s. Today, whenever media pundits analyse the history of television drama, they wax lyrical about The Wednesday Play and its successor Play for Today, bemoaning the virtual disappearance of the single play.

By the time Bridges started working in the Wednesday Play slot, he was already one of the BBC's most experienced TV directors – he had directed excellent 10-part adaptations of two 19th-century classics, Great Expectations and Les Misérables (both in 1967) – but he relished the "right to fail" ethos at the BBC, enjoying working with exciting contemporary writers.

While continuing to have a distinguished television career into the 80s, adeptly moving from the popular to the experimental, from the modern to the classical,...

We have a small golden circle of writers who do everything, in effect closing the door on Britain's rich diversity of talent

A meeting I attended this week, chaired by the culture minister Ed Vaizey in the House of Commons, was in many ways a ground-breaking event. For the first time, representatives from film, television and the performing arts came together to acknowledge that representation among black, Asian and ethnic minorities across the television and film industry – most significantly behind the camera – has fallen from 7.4% in 2009 to 5.4% in 2012, and is continuing to decrease, and that it is not an acceptable state of affairs in a vibrant democracy which boasts a rich diversity of cultures. Most important, we recognise it is our job collectively to reverse this trend by ensuring that the inequalities faced by ethnic minority talent become a thing of the past.

Many options and possibilities for changing the...

Richard Norton-Taylor and Simon Hattenstone write: Barry Jackson's best-known role may have been the pathologist George Bullard in Midsomer Murders, but his favourite was the title role of Horace, the hero with learning difficulties of a BBC Play for Today (1972) and a series for ITV (1982), written for him by Roy Minton.

He was quietly determined and ludicrously brave. One night when he was making the film The Bofors Gun (1968) he was out with its fiery star Nicol Williamson – not a man to mess with. Williamson challenged him to a game of darts with a difference: while one placed his hand on the dart board, the other would throw round it. Barry went first, and duly threw round Williamson. Then Williamson went and threw the dart straight through Barry's hand. Barry smiled and didn't utter a world. You didn't dare show weakness in front of Nicol, he later told us.

★★★★☆The BFI has gone into overdrive this Halloween with several classic TV chillers being dusted down for the haunting season. Amongst them is Robin Redbreast (1970), an episode of the popular BBC drama series Play for Today. This story, involving pagan beliefs set in an undisclosed Home Counties village, may not be your usual blood and gore horror fair. However if your tendencies lie towards inference and suggestion in the style of Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973), this unsettling tale directed by James MacTaggart and starring Anna Cropper and Andrew Bradford will more than satisfy your curiosity.

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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...

As producer of Alan Bleasdale's The Black Stuff, I was immensely impressed by Jim Goddard's direction. Although it was transmitted as a BBC Play for Today, it was in fact a feature-length film. I recall Jim working in west London with the team of actors led by Bernard Hill playing Yosser Hughes, walking back and forth in a rehearsal room, to measure out a long tracking shot which was to be filmed on the roads of the north-east. With the actors in mind, Jim took full advantage by combining old-style television rehearsal with the economic need to keep the film camera turning.

This valuable preparation gave the team of actors the freedom of spirit which subsequently Michael Wearing and Philip Saville inherited when producing and directing, with newly introduced lightweight cameras, Bleasdale's compelling series The Boys from the Blackstuff.

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Prolific television and film director whose output included the internationally successful 1983 drama Kennedy

Jim Goddard, who has died aged 77, was among the most prolific and distinguished television drama directors of his generation. Bleak and violent atmosphere and vivid characterisation were the hallmarks of his more than 200 distinctive works over the course of four decades. His Kennedy (1983) was shown simultaneously on Us network television, in the UK and Germany, and achieved the highest recorded viewing figures to that date for a televised drama.

Goddard's work included the 13-part drama Fox (1980), Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982), the early Channel 4 version of the RSC production. The power and visual immediacy of his directorial style owed as much to arthouse film as it did to his abilities as a painter. Indeed, he never forsook painting, which he studied at the Slade in London, or his love of set design,...

As the BFI celebrates his 50 years' work, the man behind Cathy Come Home reveals the tragedy that changed his world

Television has treated Tony Garnett well over the past 50 years. He lives in an apartment close to the Ritz Hotel, where Margaret Thatcher died, a far cry from his working class childhood roots in Erdington, Birmingham. His local cafe is Fortnum & Mason, where he wields a silver teapot with aplomb, but he still declares: "I am a revolutionary socialist. I think our society would benefit from fundamental change."

Charming, kindly, but still angry after all these years, Garnett, 77, was a leader of the generation of radical TV creatives who addressed big social and political issues in their influential BBC dramas of the 1960s and 70s. His work is about to be celebrated in a two-month season, Seeing Red, at London's BFI.

The season opens with his explosive dramas for the BBC's Wednesday Play,...

Writers often worry about the dangers of outside influence, but what about the non-literary inspirations they are far more comfortable admitting to? Andrew O'Hagan talks to six novelists about their passion for a second artform

The divine counsels decided, once upon a time, that influence is bad and that too much agency is the enemy of invention. Harold Bloom can't be blamed for that: he certainly pointed to the danse macabre of influence and anxiety, but to him the association was perfectly creative. Elsewhere, writers have always been blamed for being too much like other writers, or too much like themselves, and even now, in the crisis of late postmodernism, we find it hard to believe that writers might live happily in a state of influence and cross-reference. Yet anybody who knows anything about writers knows that they love their sweet influences.

What I've noticed, though, is that the influences...

Triple Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis has cited the vanity-free actor Phil Davis as a key inspiration, alongside Brando and Streep. Is it time the star of Quadrophenia and Whitechapel was recognised as a British acting great?

Phil Davis calls himself "the nose-and-teeth man". He says he sometimes looks in the mirror and thinks: "Look at that tired old boat race." And it's true that, with his pink skin, squinting eyes and shock of vanilla hair, there is something of the naked mole rat about him.

But this week the largely unsung hero of British screen acting was cited by Daniel Day-Lewis as one of the biggest influences on his career. In an article for Port magazine, Day-Lewis ranked Davis alongside Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Marlon Brando: the actor's 1977 turn in Gotcha, he wrote, had made a "deep impression". Day-Lewis has won three Oscars (Lincoln, There Will Be Blood,...