Doctor Who

• Sylvester McCoy to appear on Doctors
• Rusty helped with Merlin
• Rusty willing to come back for Doctor Who movie

Awards

• The results of the Emmys: good news for 30 Rock, Mad Men and John Adams

Film

• Universal turns down Tin Tin…
• …but Pegg and Frost will play the Thompson Twins
• Stephen Chow to direct and star in The Green Hornet
• Nicholas Cage to star in Season of the Witch

US TV

• CBS renews Flashpoint
• William Fichtner to lead TNT's Night and Day
• Uma Thurman joins A Muppets Christmas
• Brendan Fehr to play David Boreanaz's brother on Bones?

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Doctor Who

• Photos from Torchwood filming

Film

• Ben Affleck to star in Mike Judge's Extract?
• Alex Proyas to adapt Heinlein's The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag

French TV

• Babies banned from watching TV

British TV

• NBC acquires Carnival, may buy more indies
• Sky launching seven new HD channels
• BBC to adapt The 39 Steps
• QI moving to BBC1
• Secret Millionaire gets best ever ratings
• Irvine Welsh to direct one-off comedy drama for ITV4
• BBC1 to combine natural history and entertainment

US TV

• New brother sought for Brothers and Sisters
• Stargate: Atlantis cancelled, will go into movies
• More DC villains sought for Smallville
• Mad Men ratings down 1m from premiere
• More webisodes planned for BSG

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The Daily News will be back (if there is any news, of course, and I'm not too knackered) on Monday 18th August 2008

Doctor Who

• More Moff talk, including Doctor as the “ultimate liberal”

Film

• John Lasseter the force behind Tr2n
• Colin Firth to star with Ben Barnes in Dorian Gray
• Nicolas Cage teaming up with John Carpenter for Scared Straight
• Trailer for De Niro comedy What Just Happened?
• Angelina Jolie to be Catwoman in third Batman movie?
• Columbia to turn Anabasis into an action film

British TV

• Lex Shrapnel to be Minder's minder
• Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby to captain ITV2's “Have I Got New For You meets Heat” game show
• QFS: Living is the channel that's invited Jade Goody back on TV
• Channel 4 and Five to carry extra ad break in movies
• BSkyB to put £10m into entertainment programmes

US TV

• Thomas Jane to star in Hung
• NBC greenlights Dick Wolf's Lost and Found pilot
• Rory Cochrane joins 24
• Mad Men's Christina Hendricks to appear in two episodes of Life

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In the US: Sundays, AMC, 10pm/9c
In the UK: Acquired by BBC4 to air in 2009

Mad Men was something of a surprise for everyone when its first season arrived. Not only was it made by AMC, a network not really known for much – certainly not original dramas – it was very good indeed.

A period piece about Madison Avenue advertising men of the early 60s, it was stylish, clever and eye-opening, and spent considerable time demonstrating how much attitudes to just about everything have changed.

Unsurprisingly, it won a whole raft of awards. Now, here comes the second season, with much to prove. Yet set two years on, it's appropriately relaxed and cool – it has nothing to prove.

Continue reading "Review: Mad Men 2x1"

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Doctor Who

• Which old enemies (and friend) are turning up for The Sarah Jane Adventures [spoilers]
• Steven Moffat on Who and Jekyll [video]

Film

• Darren Aronofsky to remake Robocop?
• Robert Downey Jr to play Sherlock Holmes in Ritchie adaptation

Commercials

• Mr T's back for more Snickers

Theatre

• The Two and Only to close early

British TV

• Father Ted writer says TV comedy lacks imagination

US TV

• Some more details of The Prisoner remake
• AMC would like to remake more classic TV shows and movies
• HBO greenlights Fat Sells
• Courtney Cox to play Kelso's successor on Scrubs
• Mad Men to span 10 years over five seasons

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Read other posts about: Mad Men, Scrubs, The Prisoner, The Sarah Jane Adventures

Today's Joanna Page is Richard Curtis's Love Actually.

Curtis has dominated British comedy, whether it's been on television or in the cinemas, for nearly three decades now. Following an early stint writing for Not the Nine O'Clock News in the 70s, he started to bestride us like a laughing, Islington-loving colossus the following decade with The Black Adder, its three sequel series and a couple of one-off spin-offs. Within a few years, he became the moving force behind Comic Relief and managed to notch up a couple of movies, including The Tall Guy, starring Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson.

In the 90s, he stormed through again, first unleashing Mr Bean on us all, before choosing to take over the world and introduce Hugh Grant to us all with Four Weddings and a Funeral. He went on to write Notting Hill and the screenplay for Bridget Jones's Diary. He also spent 13 years laughing at country folk for the mysteriously successful The Vicar of Dibley.

Love Actually, released in 2003, was his first attempt at directing a movie. It's kind of a composite rom com version of Crash (or a sicklier version of This Year's Love, which also featured Jo Page) in which just about every possible facet of love is explored through the inter-connected lives of various people around the world. With an incredible cast of stars, it is occasionally touching, sometimes funny, and usually irritating. But it has Joanna Page in it - provided you don't buy the censored DVD - so we'll forgive it.

Continue reading "Today's Joanna Page: Love Actually"

Read other posts about: 24, Gavin and Stacey, Mad Men

Film

• Guy Ritchie to direct Sherlock Holmes
• I Spit On Your Grave to be remade
• Matt Damon to join Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood rugby movie

Awards

• Winners of the Glamour awards, including Joanna Page as comedy actress of the year
• Mad Men and The Wire top nominations at the Television Critics Association Awards

Commercials

• Privilege ads 'unfair' to the upper classes

British TV

• Production starts on BBC3's PAs
• More4 head leaves to set up his own indie [free registration required]
• Al Murray to create new characters for ITV1
• Simon Nye working on ITV comedy about a teenager's video diary

US TV

• Discovery launches first 'green' channel
• More casting, including Andre Braugher on Ray Romano's Men of a Certain Age
• Green Arrow back for Smallville's eighth season
• Showrunners for Lost, Mad Men, House and Pushing Daisies discuss ratings [video]

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Doctor Who

• Freema Agyeman among stars of Survivors remake
• Catherine Tate wants to make another series of her sketch show

Film

• Judd Apatow to direct movie about stand-up comedy
• Trailer for new Coen Brothers/George Clooney movie
• Emily the Strange to become a movie
• Bryce Dallas Howard to replace Charlotte Gainsbourg on Terminator 4?
• Daniel Craig to become honorary green beret?
• Danny Glover, Oliver Platt and Thandie Newton to star in 2012?

Books

• Brian Cant reads downloadable fairy tales for free
• Gavin & Stacey: the book

Radio

• GCap sells Xfm South Wales [free registration required]

Musicals

• Gone with the Wind to close after just 79 performances
• An Inconvenient Truth to become an opera

British TV

• Sex discrimination on BBC news?
• Jonathan Ross to host Dad's Army special
• FIve to re-enact SAS missions [free registration required]
• No new US shows acquired yet
• Davina will “never quit” Big Brother
• Britain's Got Talent finale gets 14.4m viewers
• Jonathan Creek back for Christmas special

US TV

• Law and Order producer to head second season of In Treatment?
• Tim Minear signs two-year deal with 20th Century Fox TV
• Kim Cattrall to star in remake of Joanna Lumley's Sensitive Skin for HBO
• Time travelling Mad Men [minor spoilers]
• More pilot casting
• Harold Perrineau joins The Unusuals… and he's not happy about Lost
• A Lost deleted scene
• Scrubs: The Next Generation
• TBS launching female commuter micro-series

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Read other posts about: Big Brother, Gavin and Stacey, Lost, Mad Men, Scrubs

News from today and since Friday. That's holidays for you – always with the catching up.

Doctor Who

• Neil Gaiman to write an episode? Can it be true Stu_N?

Film

• Ewan McGregor to co-star in Amelia Earhart biopic
• Charlotte Gainsbourg to play Kate Connor in Terminator 4
• Trailer for all-star rom-com He's Just Not That Into You
• Patrick Fugit to replace Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 4?
• Chris Noth to star opposite Renee Zellweger in My One and Only
• Christopher Tolkien to stop The Hobbit?

Art

• Missing Goyas to be auctioned

British TV

• Gavin & Stacey was nearly set in Porthcawl and almost featured Ray Gravell
• iPlayer rolled out on Virgin Media platform next week
• Gorillaz design BBC Olympic titles [free registration required]
• The Street gets a third series
• ITV to show 'lost' Pushing Daisies episode online
• BBC Four will show the second season of Mad Men

US TV

• Garbage's Shirley Manson to be a regular on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Mad Men back in July
• Ray Winstone and Jonah Lotan join Last of the Ninth
• And lots more casting
• Tori Spelling joins 90210 spin-off
• David E Kelley moves to Warner Brothers TV
• James D'Arcy to star in Ronald D Moore's Virtuality
• Kelsey Grammer to star in Roman's Empire remake
• Alan Ball developing remake of UK's Bad Girls for HBO…
• …just as Robert Rodriguez tries to sell Women in Chains with Rose McGowan
• NBC picks up workplace comedy from 30 Rock writer
• Andromeda Strain does well in the ratings
• Trailer for the second Futurama movie
• Russell Brand making his own chat show, just as his ITV sitcom is dropped

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Doctor Who

• Eddie Izzard wants to be the next Doctor

Film

• Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman to “re-imagine” Brain De Palma's The Fury
• Russell Brand to re-team with Judd Apatow for buddy comedy

British TV

• Series one of Gavin & Stacey being repeated on BBC3 from 5th May. Just thought I'd mention it
• Toby Whithouse's Being Human gets a full series order from BBC3
• Channel 4 records first loss since 1992
• House of Saddam cast announced
• Replacement for Rory Kinnear needed on Kudos's Plus One

US TV

• Man with big todger to be centre of HBO “dark comedy”
• Cybill Shepherd to play Shawn's mum on Psych
• Lucy Liu up for Dirty Sexy Money
• Patrick Adams and Mae Whitman to star in Rob Thomas's Good Behavior
• Allison Miller to play female lead on Kings
• Nia Vardalos signs up for My Boys, Gabriel Mann for Mad Men
• The Unit's fate still hangs in the balance

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Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Mad Men, The Unit