Today's biggish news is that famed director and writer Jonathan Miller has decided to have a go at West End casting practices - and in particular the casting of David Tennant (and Jude Law) in Hamlet.

Apparently, he's been trying to get his no-star version of Hamlet into the West End but can't, even though he reckons the performances are bound to be better than either Tennant's or Law's.

So the question for you, my friends, is does he have a point? Or do West End producers have a point?

For my own part, I'm very easily swayed by some big film or TV names into turning up at a theatre when I otherwise wouldn't: my most recent theatre attendances (off the top of my head) have included Fat Pig (Joanna Page, Robert Webb, Kris Marshall, Ella Smith), Art (bloke off Dalziel and Pascoe, Sean Hughes and Alistair McGowen if I recall correctly), A Few Good Men (with Rob Lowe and John Barrowman), The Master Builder (Patrick Stewart and Kelly Reilly), Patrick Stewart's one-man version of A Christmas Carol, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Matthew Perry, Minnie Driver, Hank Azaria, Kelly Reilly).

That's money in the pockets of theatres that they otherwise wouldn't have had with less well-known casts. And the West End isn't exactly cheap.

More to the point, are celebs possibly the best choices? Maybe they're famous because they have talent. David Tennant isn't exactly unknown in theatre.

In fact, is Miller just grumpy because he couldn't get his own production off the ground? Why have a go at a version of Hamlet that hasn't even started performing? 

Fat Pig is the most obvious piece of TV celeb casting at the moment, so why not pick on it? Is it because, way back in 2002, he cast the RADA-trained Joanna Page in his production of Camera Obscura at the Almeida (to generally excellent reviews), and so wouldn't have had much of a leg to stand on?

What do you think? Are good actors being overlooked? Are they being overlooked in favour of better, more famous actors? Or is celeb casting a necessary evil in a competitive market?

Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Studio 60, The West Wing, Torchwood

Doctor Who

• Billie Piper to be in Doctor Who movie, not series?

Film

• Val Kilmer to be a felon
• Serenity 2?
• Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell to star in global warming mini-series
• Stephen Fry and Lily Allen to star in Jane Austen spoof?

Web TV

• Two new wildlife channels for Joost

British TV

• Sooty's up for sale
• Reunion planned for Grange Hill's 30th anniversary
• Ofcom launches public consultation on Sky's plans for not-FreeView
• Jericho's Lennie James joins C4 knife drama
• ITV to save The Prisoner remake
• Jonas Armstrong's been down the gym, apparently
• Peter Serafinowicz talks about his new show
• Dragon's Den is back on the 15th
• Tribute acts to vie for Las Vegas contract

US TV

• Studio 60's Steven Weber joins Brothers and Sisters
• FX commissions pilot for Tim Robbins' Possible Side Effects
• Ally Sheedy joins Kyle XY. Nice casting!
• More star cameos for 30 Rock
• Jericho's second season is completed
• The Daily Show's Lewis Black gets his own show
• Pushing Daisies gets good ratings

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: 30 Rock, Jericho, Kyle XY, Studio 60, The Prisoner, The West Wing

In the US: Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox
In the UK: Channel 4 and E4 from January, probably on Fridays

Y'all remember Zeno's paradox right. Okay, not the actual one, but the one on Knight Rider. You know, the one about what happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object?

Here we would appear to have not one, not two, not three but four unstoppable forces/immovable objects. On the one hand, we have Kelsey Grammer, whose Frasier was a delight to all who watched it. Surely any sitcom he appears in must be comedy genius, almost guaranteed, particularly when one of the exec producers is Christopher Lloyd, who also exec produced Frasier?

But then we have Patricia Heaton from Everybody Loves Raymond. Ah. Not a terrible actress. Some might even say quite a good comedy actress. But exposure to that level of awfulness for so long might have made her radioactively bad – so much so that any sitcom she comes into contact with withers on the vine.

Then there's Fox. Name a good sitcom on Fox. You can't, can you? Because the only returning sitcom they have from last year's crop is Til Death, and I'm not touching that without a full biowar suit and 30 minutes' warning.

So what happens when Kelsey Grammer and Christopher Lloyd meet Patricia Heaton and Fox in a sitcom like Back To You? Comedy gold or comedy doom?

Continue reading "Review: Back To You 1.1"

Read other posts about: Studio 60

Naughty Heath. Don't be so mean to Maggie

Doctor Who

• Magical alien, behaviour-altering device will ensure no swearing or sex on Torchwood whenever Martha's about “because kids will be watching”. Or maybe it's just her
• Julie Gardner says RTD will be back for more seasons. Just about.

Film

• Clips from the new Blade Runner DVDs
• What's changed in Southland Tales
• Fanboy Ed Norton's written the script to The Incredible Hulk!
• Iron Man footage

Books

• Marie Phillips 'is something of a goddess'
• Beeb adapting Lark Rise To Candleford

Theatre/Comedy

• Amnesty launches Behind The Fringe vodcasts

British TV

• Buffy prequel Ripper almost agreed with Beeb for 2008
• 318,000 watch Studio 60 opener

US TV

• Kevin Smith to write and direct the first Heroes: Origins
• Don't you love it when a celeb's quoted word for word? It always looks great. Michelle Ryan sort of explains sort of about the sort of changes you sort of might see during the first sort of episodes of Bionic Woman. Sort of
• Spoilers galore for Smallville
• And spoilers for Bionic Woman, BSG and Heroes
• Lost spoilers and explanations. Plus a new Dharma orientation vid (sort of)
• Sam Jones will be cameoing in Flash Gordon as 'Krebb' [no link]
• The dead will walk in season seven of 24? [spoilers]
• The trickiness of making a series as good as a pilot

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: 24, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Lost, Smallville, Studio 60, Torchwood

Doctor Who

• John Barrowman gets a recording contract

Film

• Jason Lee is on The Other Side

British TV

• George Michael to be in The Catherine Tate Show

US TV

• Bionic Woman will be post-feminist. Allegedly
• Meanwhile, Katee Sackhoff signs a last-minute deal to stay in the show
• Danny Glover joins the cast of Brothers and Sisters
• CBS buys fantasy drama Kingdom
• Aaron Sorkin sort of takes the blame for Studio 60
• Kal Penn and Olivia Wilde join the cast of House. Maybe
• Linux Roache joins the cast of Law and Order
• Spoilers for My Name is Earl, Scrubs, The Office and 30 Rock
• Standoff creator gets a three-year deal with Fox
• American Gladiators coming back?
• Friday Night Lights spoilers

Read other posts about: 30 Rock, House, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, Studio 60, Torchwood

Doctor Who

• John Barrowman is doing panto in Birmingham this year, with guest appearances by the Daleks
• Blink got 6.1 million viewers
• Thank God it's only an audio play: Doctor Who returns to the web planet

Film

• Peter Cullen credits fans for getting him the Optimus Prime gig again
• A trailer for Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman's Invasion
• Pixar's forthcoming projects

Commercial

• Darth Vader makes beans on toast for Woolworths [free registration required]

British TV

• Prince for Big Brother?
• 1,000 people say Emily shouldn't have been chucked out of BB
• Two new cast members for Primeval

US TV

• Jericho's coming back, maybe as early as the end of the year if anything gets cancelled, with a lower budget and another cliffhanger. But don't watch it on PVR, watch it as it airs if you want that tiny hamster to live
• David Anders (Sark) from Alias might join Heroes next season
• Bradley Whitford on the demise of Studio 60
• Reactions to Fox's forthcoming Anchorwoman from the town where it's shot
• Isaiah Washington's a bit annoyed that he's not in Grey's Anatomy any more
• David Eick would like a BSG movie

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: Battlestar Galactica, Big Brother, Big Finish, Heroes, Jericho, Primeval, Studio 60, Top Gear, Torchwood

Doctor Who

• The Lazarus Experiment got 6.7 million viewers
• An interview (or two) with Mark Gatiss
• John Barrowman talks about everything Who
• David Tennant is to sing at his best friend's wedding
• Sweet FA nearly gave up acting

Film

• New Spinal Tap movie available for free online
• Three more Spiderman sequels planned?
• Mike Myers is planning an Evil movie
• Puss in Boots: the movie?
• Michael Douglas is back for a sequel to Wall Street
• Buffy/Angel alumna Julie Benz joins the cast of Rambo 4

British TV

• Film24 is taking over the Bonanza channel [free registration required]
• 'Unprecedented' coverage of the Hay Festival due
• The Beeb has indeed dropped out the Neighbours bidding war

US TV

• Medium gets renewed for a fourth season
• HBO's chairman ends up in jail in Las Vegas
• Donald Bellisario is leaving NCIS
• Janel Moloney from The West Wing joins Brotherhood
• The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard is sold for $10 million
• Lost will end in 2010 after three short seasons
• US farmers need wives via remakes of UK reality TV shows, apparently
• Eric Roberts now has fans under the age of 15, thanks to Heroes
• Some things to look forward to (allegedly) in season four of BSG
• Studio 60's sets are being dismantled
• Scrubs will end on a cliffhanger

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: Battlestar Galactica, Brotherhood, Heroes, Lost, Scrubs, Studio 60, The West Wing

You'd never guess I wasn't supposed to be working today, would you? Must. Work. Harder...

Doctor Who

• Doctor Who and Torchwood win big at the Welsh BAFTAs
• Evolution of the Daleks got 6.5 million viewers. Sunshine, hey? Really ruins those ratings
• Taking a leaf out the BSG playbook, the Beeb lets you create your own Doctor Who comic online
• John Barrowman wants to be a pop star?
• Torchwood, series two, starts shooting today
• Kylie? Russell doesn't think so

Films

• Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse will be two separate movies in the UK. The first part will be out on September 21st
• Iron Man will have both the original grey and the more famous red and gold suits
• Frost-Nixon is being made into a movie with Frank Langella as Nixon. Will Michael Sheen get to be Frost again?
• Ridley Scott to direct revisionist Robin Hood film Nottingham, with Russell Crowe as the brave and good Sheriff
• Daniel Craig doesn't like having his bottom snapped, allegedly
• Darren Aronofsky wants to make a film about Noah
• Gordon Ramsay: the movie?
• Old Clive Owen mini-series Second Sight to be adapted

Technology

• The European iTunes Store is going to start stocking full-length movies this year

British TV

• Freesat's been given the all-clear by the BBC Trust. Good news: it'll be futureproof
• Richard Herring talks about his new sitcom

US TV

• New characters for Adult Swim
• Conan O'Brien blames NBC for the demise of Andy Barker, PI
• Studio 60's coming back on May 24 in the current ER slot
• Whatever happened to Masters of Science Fiction?
• The UK's Man Stroke Woman to be remade by and with Sean Hayes

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: Gordon Ramsay, James Bond, Studio 60, Torchwood

Doctor Who

• GM food an influence on the Daleks?

Film

• Kate Beckinsale as Barbarella?
• Galactus is going to be a storm cloud?
• Indy 4's real name is Indiana Jones and the City of Gods

British TV/Theatre

• The BBC's iPlayer will be Mac-friendly [free registration required]
• E4's commissioned its first original sitcom. It's about teenagers. Surprised?
• Dad's Army hits the stage again. [free registration required]

US TV

• House is becoming more and more like Hugh Laurie [spoilers]
• The 'doomed list' is published. About to die are Raines, Standoff, Studio 60, Close to Home, The Black Donnellys and… Veronica Mars

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: House, Studio 60

Doctor Who

• Avoid WH Smith's if you want to escape spoilers. Thanks Radio Times

Film

• Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty cause international riots
• Sam Raimi is interested in directing The Hobbit
• Chow Yun Fat quits the latest John Woo film
• Clive Owen finally gets a spy movie of sorts
• John Rhys-Davies won't be in Indy 4

British TV

• Magic Roundabout's being remade
• BBC2 has bought the rights to The Tudors
• Big Brother partners with The Sims
• Five hangs onto its US dramas

US TV

• The FBI's never had a 24 moment
• Liev Schreiber mocks Studio 60 for Conan
• NBC's Thursday ratings drop to historic low
• Lost spoilers and why those two had to die
• Jericho likely to get renewed
• In Case of Emergency dropped
• Drive needs more than 13 episodes to finish

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email

Read other posts about: 24, Big Brother, Jericho, Lost, Studio 60