Merlin Series 5 Trailer To Air On 3rd AugustBookmark and Share

Sunday, 29 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A feature-length trailer for the fifth series of Merlin is to be shown on BBC One on Friday 3rd August.

It will air about 8pm as part of the channel's Original British Drama campaign during the Olympics, highlighting what is coming up over the next few months, and will be shown again the next week.

BBC One Controller Danny Cohen said:
The London 2012 London Olympics provides a rare and unique opportunity to showcase some of BBC One's very best forthcoming programmes to our audiences.

We will give viewers the first exclusive look at a range of brand-new original British drama coming up on BBC One in the form of specially-made feature-length trailers. These new series highlight the exciting and broad range of tones, stories and worlds we want drama on BBC One to encapsulate.

It's a fantastically diverse and ambitious combination of fiction coming up on BBC One over the next few months.
The full schedule of the individual and exclusive trailers - with each one airing around 8pm - is as follows:
  • Today - Hunted
  • Tomorrow - Good Cop
  • Tuesday 31st July - Accused
  • Wednesday 1st August - The Secret of Crickley Hall
  • Thursday 2nd August - Doctor Who
  • Friday 3rd August - Merlin
  • Saturday 4th August - The Paradise
  • Sunday 5th August - EastEnders
  • Monday 6th August to Saturday 11th August - Repeats of the above
  • Sunday 12th August - Ripper Street

BBC Drama Commissioning Controller Ben Stephenson said:
BBC One drama offers audiences the most vibrant and most original home-grown drama in Britain today. This upcoming range of new drama titles are the very best of British, made with ambition and scale that I hope will capture the imagination of our audiences with the same spirit as the London 2012 Olympics.
It is not yet known when the new series of Merlin will start.




FILTER: - BBC - Merlin

Blake's 7 Reboot On CardsBookmark and Share

Monday, 23 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A reboot of Blake's 7 could be teleporting its way back on to TV screens.

According to a report by Deadline, the American independent studio Georgeville Television has joined forces with director Martin Campbell to bring back the series that was created by Terry Nation.

The franchise rights have been secured from the rights holder Andrew Sewell and his firm B7 Media, financial backing is coming from MPC, and writer Joe Pokaski is penning the reboot. The project is currently being touted around the American networks.

Blake's 7 originally ran for 52 episodes over four series on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. In 2008, Sky1 announced that it had commissioned two one-hour scripts for a possible TV series, but two years later it said it had decided not to commission the show.
(With thanks to Steve Layton)






FILTER: - Blake's 7

Red Dwarf X Trailer ReleasedBookmark and Share

Saturday, 21 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A trailer for the forthcoming new series of Red Dwarf has been released online.

Lasting 55 seconds, it teases the tenth series of the cult sci-fi comedy that will start airing on Dave this autumn.

The six new episodes comprising the series were recorded at Shepperton Studios between 16th December 2011 and 27th January 2012.






FILTER: - Red Dwarf - Online - Comedy - Dave

Filming Starts On Second Series Of Death In ParadiseBookmark and Share

Thursday, 19 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A second series of crime drama/comedy Death In Paradise has started filming in the Caribbean - with singer-songwriter Jamelia signed up for a cameo in her first TV role.

Ben Miller (Primeval) again stars as Detective Inspector Richard Poole - the uptight English police officer uncomfortable in such exotic surroundings - and he is joined once more by Danny John-Jules (Red Dwarf) as police officer Dwayne Myers, Don Warrington as Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, Sara Martins as Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey (pictured below with Miller), and Gary Carr as police officer Fidel Best.

Jamelia said:
I'm so excited. Not only am I in a great drama filming my first TV role but I'm doing it in the Caribbean too! I'm really looking forward to working with such a talented cast.
Other guest stars are Michael Brandon, Bryan Dick, Dexter Fletcher, Kelly Adams, Kenneth Cranham, Stephanie Beacham, Amanda Mealing, Tom Ward, Patrick Baladi, and Gemma Jones.

Guadeloupe once again doubles for the fictitious island of Saint Marie, and as with the first series there will be eight 60-minute episodes when the show returns to BBC One early next year.

Co-executive producer Belinda Campbell said:
We have a wonderful cast for Death In Paradise and our list of guest stars is equally exciting. Jamelia in particular was such a surprise find; she is not only a talented singer but actress too.

The stories for this series are full of humour and intrigue and hopefully the whole family will have fun trying to work out whodunit each week. We can't wait to bring a bit of Caribbean sunshine back to the cold and wet UK!
Fellow co-executive producer Polly Hill said:
Death In Paradise was a real hit with the BBC One audience, who enjoyed the weekly instalments of light-hearted murder-mystery in a beautiful Caribbean setting. The show is part of a wide range of drama programming across the BBC, which includes Ripper Street and Hunted.
The first series aired between 25th October and 13th December 2011, averaging 6 million viewers per episode.

The programme is a Red Planet Pictures production in association with Kudos Film and TV and BBC Worldwide, produced with the support of the region of Guadeloupe. Created by Robert Thorogood, it is produced by Tim Key and directed by Keith Boak, Alrick Riley, and David O'Neil.




FILTER: - BBC - Drama - Death In Paradise

Films Could Follow Merlin Series 5Bookmark and Share

Monday, 16 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A trilogy of films could be made after the forthcoming fifth series of Merlin, it has been revealed.

According to a report on Digital Spy, show co-creator Johnny Capps told this year's San Diego Comic-Con:
We're hopefully going to do a trilogy - three movies. We will focus on them when we finish season five.

One idea we've been playing around with is to reboot the whole series [for the films]. We would go back in time and start the story again and show different parts that you didn't see in the series. The other idea is to do a continuation, but we haven't decided yet.
A promotional picture for Series 5 was also released at Comic-Con. Pictured right, it features Colin Morgan (Merlin), Angel Coulby (Guinevere/Gwen), Katie McGrath (Morgana), Bradley James (King Arthur), and Richard Wilson (Gaius), with the subhead "The Die Is Cast". Click on the image to enlarge it.

The new series, comprising 13 episodes, started filming in March and returns to BBC One later in the year. According to a tweet on the official Merlin Twitter account, Capps also revealed that Anthony Head will guest-star in a reprise of his role as Uther Pendragon in the fifth series. Liam Cunningham and John Bradley have also been cast. In addition, Lindsay Duncan and Janet Montgomery will be returning as Queen Annis and Princess Mithian respectively.

An official YouTube channel for the programme has also been launched, featuring trailers, promos, interviews, and various looks behind the scenes.




FILTER: - Merlin

Primeval Series 5 Episode 6 DetailsBookmark and Share

Monday, 9 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The stakes are high and lives are lost as the dangerous world of anomalies comes to its climax and future predator hybrids are unleashed in the sixth and final episode of the fifth series of Primeval.

The team is at a loss. Connor has disappeared through Philip's anomaly and Matt thinks that his mission is over – Philip has won. Matt has a decision to make about what to do next – and jumps through the anomaly to save Connor.

He finds himself in a barren desert world, with Connor struggling in the immense heat and deadly sun's rays: a world we recognise from Matt's dreams. Worse still, coming towards them are a group of disgustingly mutated future predators, intent on causing some damage. They're facing a deadly attack with no defence, until an EMD shot rings out; Abby has followed them through the anomaly. Luckily, Matt seems to know his way around and the group head for a bunker, protection from the threat of the heat and the predators. Beginning to recover, Connor's guilt about his role in Philip's project is overwhelming. It takes a whispered promise from Abby to give him the impetus to carry on and get back to the ARC in one last attempt to save the world…

Back at New Dawn, Emily has been captured and questions Philip about what he's done, but they're distracted by the anomaly, which is rapidly increasing in size. The scientists are starting to abandon ship as the building begins to shake, but things are even worse at the ARC, where, although all the anomalies have closed, some kind of strange atmospheric changes are playing havoc with their comms.

Connor, Matt, and Abby make their way back to the anomaly, shocked by its now-enormous size. They arrive back through it to find an abandoned New Dawn. But Philip, shocked by the atmospheric changes taking place, watches from inside New Dawn as dark clouds gather and the Earth seems to be taking its revenge.

Connor gives Philip an impassioned speech about what they're seeing and about the effects his machine will have in the future. Philip knows there's only one thing he can do: attempt to shut down the machine alone. He knows this is suicide, but he has to do something to try to right his wrongs. New Dawn explodes under the pressure but, to the shock of the team, the anomaly still remains.

At the ARC, future predators have managed to infiltrate it via Connor's small man-made anomaly, which has reopened with Philip's machine. Jess and Lester are facing a losing battle as they run out of weapons and ammunition. As the team arrive back, they're faced with Jess cradling a mortally-injured Lester and they're thrown into a fight to save the ARC and bring down the future predators. Suddenly, Connor realises how they might be able to stop Philip's anomaly expanding, but they need to utilise his stable, man-made version to do so.

They face a race against time to get Connor's anomaly to New Dawn in time to stop it. However, for it to work Connor's anomaly needs to go into the big one. Matt knows this is his time and he tells the team he'll drive the anomaly into New Dawn's anomaly. Emily and Matt have a tearful goodbye as Matt drives into the anomaly. Will he make it back or is he gone forever?
This creature is obviously not based on any real animal but it is assumed that as long as the Earth's climate remains as seasonal as it is then mammals will continue to be the dominant group of animals. If that is so then rats and bats are by far the most common groups of mammals (accounting for three-quarters of all mammal species) and any large predator could well evolve from them.

The future predator was first encountered in the final episode of series one when the team first discovers that anomalies can open to the future as well as the past. Genetic tests reveal the predator is a type of wingless bat with lightning-fast reactions and the ability to stalk its prey using high-frequency sonar.

In this episode, the future predator, having evolved through thousands of years of catastrophic change in the Earth's environment, is one of the last species left. However. the atmosphere has taken its toll and the future predator is now a deformed, sickly, malnourished creature struggling to survive - but still as vicious as ever . . .

The episode is currently scheduled to go out on ITV1 on Saturday 21st July at 5.30pm but please note that the transmission time may change between now and then.

(newslink: ITV Press Centre)




FILTER: - ITV