News

British sitcom star Pauline Quirke will step back from professional duties after being diagnosed with dementia.

Her husband, Steve Sheen, released a statement saying the Birds of a Feather actress had been diagnosed with the condition in 2021. The 65-year-old Quirke will now end all professional and commercial activities, Sheen’s statement read.

In recent years, she has been focused on The Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts, which provides extracurricular opportunities for young people who want to experience the performing arts.

Quirke is best known for her role as Sharon Theodopolopodous in British sitcom Birds of a Feather, which at its peak in the 1990s drew average audiences of over 12 million per episode. The show starred Quirke and Linda Robson as working-class Essex women who begin living together when their husbands are sent to prison for armed robbery.

Its first run, which began on BBC1 in 1989, ended in 1998, and it...

ITV has commissioned a new four-part drama from Foyle's War producers Eleventh Hour Films.

Safe House will be an atmospheric thriller set in the Lake District, and is the first to come from Jill Green's indie since it expanded its senior creative team.

The drama follows a married couple who turn their remote guest house into a safe house.

It is inspired by a true story, and it is planned to form part of an ongoing event drama.

The series was created and written by Michael Crompton (Kidnap & Ransom, Carrie's War).

Jill Green said of the drama: "Safe House is a quality drama with intelligently crafted characters delivering a complex and engaging story that will keep the viewer gripped.

"We have a slate of exciting projects, all equally ambitious and which set the bar for the kind of content we will continue to create."

Eleventh Hour Films is currently...

Review Cameron K McEwan 4 Oct 2013 - 12:30

Starring Saoirse Ronan, How I Live Now arrives in UK cinemas today. And it really deserves your support...

Director Kevin MacDonald returns to the world of fiction, after his well-received documentary Marley, with an adaptation of a hugely successful young adult novel. How I Live Now, based on the book by Meg Rosoff. It sees the filmmaker combine his documentary style (witnessed in Touching The Void) with his creative cinematic gaze (The Last King of Scotland), whilst it sees some extraordinary performances from an exceptional group of young actors and actresses.

The story finds young American girl Daisy, played by Saoirse Ronan (Byzantium, Hanna), who has been sent to her cousins' home in the beautiful English countryside (though actually filmed in equally beautiful Wales, fact fans). Her real name is actually Elizabeth but chooses to name herself against her given title, in an...

Nina Bawden has died at the age of 87. The author's publisher Virago confirmed that Bawden passed away at her London home today (August 22), BBC News reports. She was surrounded by her family. Bawden was best known for her 1973 novel Carrie's War. Carrie's War was adapted by the BBC in 1974 and again in 2004. A stage adaptation ran at Sadler's Wells and enjoyed a second run on the West End starring Prunella Scales. Other works among her 55 books include On the Run and Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winner The Peppermint Pig. Bawden was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash in 2002, her ankle being smashed. Austen Kark, her husband since (more)...