Downton Factor returns to town for a sixth series

WHITNEY GAZETTE
March 4, 2015

Downton Abbey at Cogges Manor Farm, including Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham

STARS from the hit television period drama Downton Abbey were spotted filming at Cogges Manor Farm, near Witney, on Monday.

Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, and Laura Carmichael, who plays lady Edith Crawley, were seen on set. It is understood they were filming episodes in the hit show’s sixth series set to air later this year on ITV.

Cogges has often been used for scenes at the fictional Yew Tree Farm, home to the Drewe family, who bring up Lady Edith’s child. It is one of a series of locations used across West Oxfordshire. Others include Bampton, which doubles as the fictional Downton village.

Filming has become known as ‘the Downton factor’, providing a valuable boost to the district’s tourist industry.



In November last year West Oxfordshire Council, in partnership with Visit Britain, met about 90 Chinese tour operators and media representatives in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Council tourism services manager Hayley Beer said she expected two more international tour operators to sign contracts with the council, to add to its deal with International Friends, which began conducting Downton tours to the Cotswolds in April 2014.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/wgheadlines/11830612.Downton_Factor_returns_to_town_for_a_sixth_series/?ref=fbshr

Ripper Street trailer, premiere is April 29 on BBC America (Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Myanna Buring)

Coming Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 10/9 

Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance Star in PBS Masterpiece’s ‘Wolf Hall’

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By ANDREW GOLDMAN
March 5, 2015 3:36 p.m. ET

HAS THERE EVER LIVED a lustier, more murderous cast of characters than the Tudors? The infamy of the English dynasty owes largely to the treacherous 38-year reign of Henry VIII, but an even more compelling character may be his enabler and brain for hire, Thomas Cromwell, the commoner who rose in his court to become a kind of Henry whisperer, an advisor renowned for his ability to read the king’s mind like a book. For 500 years, Cromwell was viewed as a great heavy in the Tudor drama, a character whose lure became irresistible to the British novelist Hilary Mantel. “When I was researching, I started off with a fairly conventional viewpoint: that Cromwell’s a villain but an interesting villain,” Mantel says. “Then I began to discover other things and modified my view very fast.” Cromwell was the consummate fixer—in Mantel’s words, “the man to cut through some legal entanglement that’s ensnared you for three generations, or talk your sniffling little daughter into the marriage she swears she will never make.” Mantel also found him unusually sympathetic: After the deaths of his wife and daughters, he went on to support his large extended family. She devoted eight years and a thousand pages to novelizing the first 51 years of Cromwell’s life with Wolf Hall, released in 2009, and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, published three years later.

The books made Mantel a literary star—the first British author to win the Man Booker Prize twice. Naturally, film producers came calling. “There were many suitors, yes,” she says. But her books are serious works of historical fiction. The Tudors—notably in the Showtime series of the same name and the filmed adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl—had been transformed in the popular imagination as characters scheming and copulating through airbrushed Hollywood bodice rippers (“bonkbusters,” as the genre is known in England). Mantel feared what would become of her Cromwell in the wrong hands, how tempting it might be to drown him in an orgiastic, Game of Thrones–style bloodbath.



One suitor stood out from the rest: Colin Callender, the British-born producer who’d just left HBO after 21 years to start his own production company. As the president of HBO films, Callender had overseen the production of John Adams, a miniseries based on David McCullough’s biography. Mantel loved the seriousness of the project—the fact that it starred Paul Giamatti, not Tom Cruise—and that it made colonial life look as cold and austere as history tells us it was. Callender, she trusted, wouldn’t make the Tudors, in her word, too “cute.”

While devouring Wolf Hall, Callender recognized something novel, but also enticingly familiar, about Cromwell. As he’d seen firsthand at HBO, The Sopranos had irrevocably darkened the public’s taste and tolerance of its television protagonists, opening the doors for the likes of House of Cards’ Frank Underwood, Ray Donovan and, Callender imagined, the centuries-despised Thomas Cromwell. “Audiences are increasingly interested in characters who live on both sides of the moral equation,” Callender says. “I thought, here was the way to reinvigorate the television historical drama for the post–Sopranos, Breaking Bad world.” The rights to Mantel’s book became the first acquisition at Callender’s Playground Entertainment. Now he just needed actors with the gifts to sell Mantel’s portrayal of the insatiable Henry and his deft consigliere, Cromwell.

THERE ARE MANY who swear that Mark Rylance, the man Callender tapped to play Cromwell, is the greatest actor alive, that seeing him embody the small-time drug dealer Johnny “Rooster” Byron in Jerusalem is as close to a religious experience as the theater can offer. At lunch on a Pasadena, California, hotel patio, Rylance blushes, looking at his feet while Damian Lewis, who plays Wolf Hall’s Henry VIII, testifies to his brilliance. “I don’t know who the greatest actor is—it’s kind of a ridiculous notion—but if you haven’t seen Mark onstage, I’m here to tell you he’s extraordinary,” Lewis says. “He’s kind of cornered the market in redefining characters that we think we know.”

As they are both actors who spent their early professional years performing the Bard at the Royal Shakespeare Company, it might be tempting for American audiences to toss Rylance and Lewis into the same classically trained British actor bin. But just eyeballing them sitting next to each other suggests that their social circles rarely intersect. Rylance, who arrived wearing his trademark fedora, comes across as a theater bohemian, with silver Navajo bracelets on each wrist (he’s actively involved in Survival International, a group committed to protecting tribal people around the world) and a short-sleeved patterned bowling shirt; Lewis, the Eton-educated, St. John’s Wood–reared son of London privilege, is chic in a tailored dark blue shirt, designer jeans and a Rolex, and carries himself with a natural masculine confidence. Given that Rylance has spent his life projecting his voice onstage—he’s won three Tonys and two Oliviers—it’s surprising that he speaks so softly one has to lean in to hear him, even sitting a few feet away. (As a child, Rylance suffered from an intense shyness that kept him from speaking a word until he was 6.)

Through Wolf Hall, Rylance has taken on the job that Mantel began—redefining Cromwell, saving him even, almost 500 years after he was beheaded on trumped-up charges of treason. Rylance, best described as sprightly, might not be the first actor who comes to mind to play Cromwell; in Wolf Hall he’s a physically imposing brute who had likely killed a man or two in close combat during his mysterious younger days and was depicted in the enduring Hans Holbein likeness as a bruiser, fleshy and austere under his black bonnet. “I’m aware I’m not so big as Cromwell is physically, but I can take on psychological weight,” Rylance says. Playing bigger isn’t a problem for an actor of Rylance’s gifts; in fact, just the day before, he’d been sitting with Steven Spielberg, discussing how he will play the titular big friendly giant in The BFG, the director’s upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book. He’s thought deeply about the mechanics of the Cromwell-Henry relationship and came upon an unexpected insight when he encountered a man who keeps grizzly bears in Montana. “He said to me, the thing with bears is they are incredibly emotional, they’re made of emotions,” Rylance says. “You have to be very clear and very loving towards this bear, which is emotionally like a 15- or 16-year-old autistic child. I compare Damian’s Henry to that.”



READ MORE HERE: http://www.wsj.com/articles/damian-lewis-and-mark-rylance-star-in-pbs-masterpieces-wolf-hall-1425587807

Joe Absolom: ‘I’m skint, but Death in Paradise was worth it!”

WHAT'S ON TV
10:05am, Monday, 9 February 2015



Joe Absolom reveals he’s broke after working on Death in Paradise, but doesn’t regret taking a guest role in BBC1’s Caribbean murder mystery.

In a laughter-filled chat with What’s on TV the laidback Doc Martin and EastEnders’ star explains why he likes being a jobbing actor and is enjoying fatherhood. He also spills the beans on the return of Doc Martin and tells-all about former co-star Kevin Costner’s close encounter with a bee!

You guest star in Death in Paradise as volleyball coach Aiden Parker. Was it a tough job to say yes to?
“I know, I know… tough sell! I was supposed to be going on a family holiday to France to visit my mum and dad when I got the call from my agent telling me I’d been offered a part in Death in Paradise, and could I go to Guadeloupe instead?”

How did your family react when you told them?
“They’d been really excited about France and looked so sad when they heard I was off to the Caribbean for two weeks. So my girlfriend and I decided we’d make it work and take all three kids too. My parents were gutted and a bit jealous. And it turned out it rained in France when we were supposed to be there! We’re absolutely skint now of course, but we don’t want any sympathy. It was a good way to spend money and we all had a fantastic time.”

How nice is it to be offered a role and not have to audition?
“It doesn’t usually happen. It’s only happened once before with Midsomer Murders. Auditioning underlines my little foibles! I can go into the audition room and even though I’ve rehearsed something and felt good about it at home, suddenly I think things like ‘I don’t like this chair’. But I like being a jobbing actor, it's interesting and good fun. Yet the reality is sometimes you only do one or two jobs a year.”

Is that enough?
“No! Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. The fact we went to Guadeloupe as a family – that’s an amazing experience. Listening to stories and meeting really interesting characters - our family photos with all the Death in Paradise cast and crew are fantastic.”

Were your children impressed by you?
“No, they were impressed by the pool! My little boy learned to swim. For Liz and me it was the best holiday we ever had, even though I had to work nearly every day. It’s a beautiful place with a beautiful atmosphere. Kris Marshall and Danny John-Jules’ kids were there too, and everyone got on fantastically.”

Did you have to do any special preparation for the role of volleyball coach Aiden?
“They told me to get a tan because I was so pasty and the character is supposed to have lived on the Island for 10 years!”

Does this mean Death in Paradise now rivals Doc Martin as the best job in television?
“Doc Martin really is a great job. We film in Cornwall and it’s really good fun with lots of very nice people. But that’s now been usurped by Death in Paradise. They flew me to the Caribbean – and when you’re not working you can sit around a hotel pool!”

What’s next for you?
“The new series of Doc Martin starts filming in Cornwall in March. I might have to get a proper job while I’m waiting for that – these kids keep growing!”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/tv-news/news/joe-absolom-i-m-skint-but-death-in-paradise-was-worth-it

Olivia Colman joins Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie in AMC's The Night Manager

ENTERTAINMENT
BY KEISHA HATCHETT
Posted March 5 2015 — 1:54 PM EST



AMC, BBC One and The Ink Factory announced Thursday that she, Elizabeth Debicki and Tom Hollander are joining the cast of the espionage drama starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie.



This is the first adaption of the novel by John le Carré in more than 20 years. The story follows a former soldier and night manager of a European hotel (Hiddleston) called upon by an intelligence operative (Colman) to infiltrate the network of an international arms dealer (Laurie).

READ MORE HERE: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/03/05/Broadchurch-Olivia-Colman-joins-the-night-manager

Julian Fellowes says he has no say in how show HE created will end... but admits it can't go on forever

DAILY MAIL
By JOANNA CRAWLEY FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 12:03 EST, 4 March 2015 | UPDATED: 16:03 EST, 4 March 2015



He's the creator of the show, so if anyone knows when Downton Abbey will end it's Julian Fellowes.

But the 65-year-old screenwriter has insisted that how and when the period drama will finish isn't ultimately down to him.

Explaining that he doesn't 'own' Downton, Julian has told The New York Times that any decisions regarding the finale of the hit series will be made by the show's owners, NBC Universal.

Amid mounting rumours that the ITV production will end after the sixth series, which will air in the UK later this year, Julian told the newspaper: 'It's not really my decision. I don't own Downton Abbey now.

'NBC Universal [which owns Carnival Films] owns Downton Abbey. So I could walk away. But I wouldn't walk away. It's too much my baby.'

The writer added that he 'can't immediately' say exactly when the show will end, but went on to admit that he wouldn't want to continue the storylines of the Crawley family past World War Two.

'Maybe people would say, "Oh my God, that's baby George, grown up!" But I don't think it would be continuous, with Michelle Dockery with her hair covered with talcum powder.'

Rumours that Downton will come to an end this year first started circulating In January, but ITV were quick to shoot down the reports as 'speculative'.

Julian though is moving to New York to work on a new period drama, meaning the rumours of his British-set period drama's imminent end are looking more and more likely.

The show's star Dame Maggie Smith, who plays Violet Crawley, also appeared to signal the end was nigh as she said she was ready to leave the show last week.

The 80-year-old has since clarified her remarks with a representative telling The Wrap: 'Maggie has always been on the record as saying she'll be with the show for as long as the show runs.'



This comes after Smith, said that she she can't see how programme can continue after the upcoming sixth season.

'They say this is the last one, and I can't see how it could go on,' the legendary actress told the Sunday Times.

Continuing she quipped: 'I mean, I certainly can't keep going. To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We're into the late 1920s.'


READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2979509/Julian-Fellowes-says-no-say-created-end-admits-t-forever.html

Aidan Turner almost breaks Twitter as fans gush over heartthrob as he discusses Poldark re-make on This Morning

THE MIRROR
11:45, 5 March 2015 By Rebecca Pocklington



Actor Aidan Turner caused quite a reaction as he appeared on This Morning today - and that was just from host Amanda Holden .

The presenter had to fan herself as she welcomed the actor on to the show , and Twitter fans were just as excited to see the heartthrob, as he discussed his upcoming role in the re-make of Poldark.

Asked what his family thought to his new role, Aidan revealed: "My mum said something like 'don't screw it up'."



As Amanda giggled along with the rest of us, to pretty much everything the actor said, they showed spoilers from the upcoming hit.

The actor will be reunited with former Being Human co-star Russell Tovey later in the show, and he couldn't resist dropping his friend in it.

When asked about any secrets between them, Aidan admitted Russell was great at karaoke - and his speciality was Fast Car.

Could we be treated to a rendition? Or even better, a duet?

BBC1’s new £12million version of Poldark airs this Sunday night.

See all the hilarious reaction ere

Eddie Redmayne admits he lost touch with 'pal' Prince William after school

HELLO MAGAZINE
March 3, 2015



Eddie Redmayne has previously spoken about his school days with Prince William, but in a new interview Eddie has revealed that pair never stayed in touch. The Theory of Everything star admitted that he lost contact with the future King after leaving Eton College.

"He was a pal at school, but I haven't seen him since school," Eddie told Loaded magazine. "And no – no messages."

The 33-year-old actor went on to describe how William was probably the more "intimidating" one out of the pair.

"I'm pretty sure Will was more intimidating than I was," said Eddie. "I don't think I intimidated anyone in my life. I haven't seen him since school, but he was a lovely man."



The actor and the royal were both elected to The Eton Society, a group of elite prefects that was also known as "Pop". On top of this, the accomplished schoolboys played on the same rugby team.

"We were on the same Colts B team in 1997," said Eddie. "I always felt slightly sorry for Will because everyone wanted to tackle the future King of England. He took all the hits."

Joining the pair at the prestigious boarding school in Berkshire were William's younger brother Prince Harry and The Avengers star Tom Hiddleston.

While Eddie went on to study history of art at Cambridge – opting for the same degree as William's wife the Duchess of Cambridge – William took up geography at St Andrews.

READ MORE HERE: http://us.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/2015030323770/eddie-redmayne-prince-william-school/

Will Richard Armitage become the new star of Hannibal?

FANSIDED
by Josh Hill 2h ago



We are months away from the premiere of Hannibal Season 3, and with the new season comes new characters that will play larger roles than we may have originally thought.

One of the new characters is Francis Dolarhyde — aka The Tooth Fairy. Actor Richard Armitage will be stepping into the big role, which has been most recently played by Raph Fiennes, and we could see the role blow up into something larger than we thought.



Francis is a major player in the novel Red Dragon and is a central character in both film adaptations of the story. So, naturally, it’s assumed that he will be playing a large role on the series. But will that role be larger than that of the lead character — Hannibal?

READ MORE HERE: http://hannibalfannibals.com/2015/03/03/will-richard-armitage-new-star-hannibal/

Benedict Cumberbatch And Wife Sophie Hunter Are Having The Time Of Their Lives In Bora Bora! Get The Deets On Their Lavish Honeymoon HERE

PEREZ HILTON
3/02/2015 2:04 PM ET

Now that everything settled down, the Oscar nominee is relaxing with his lady on the tropical islands and is doing all the things that tourists do — ever since they arrived last Tuesday!

An eyewitness on the island said Benedict was super excited when the two touched down for their vacation.

They shared:

"Benedict looked so excited to be there and was snapping pictures with his camera. They were given pineapple-infused water and beautiful flower leis that they immediately put around their necks and smelled the fresh flowers.

From the time they arrived, they rarely left their bungalow. Benedict had his arm around Sophie and was in awe of the beautiful water and their surroundings."

Pineapple-infused water and flower leis sound like heaven right now!

The insider continued to spill the details of their sunny honeymoon, saying the two have yet to leave their bungalow:

"They lounged around on their deck everyday and went swimming in the clear water. They had breakfast on the deck in the morning and it lasted for hours. Then they napped on side by side on their chaise lounges. Benedict went snorkeling whenever he could and Sophie relaxed and put her feet up. She is well into her pregnancy and looked happy to have down time.

They really seemed in love and like perfect partners. He was doting on her and rubbing her back and her pregnant belly. She was making sure he had sunscreen on and always re-applying it on his back. They had a lot of time alone and really enjoyed the slow pace of life and not having to do much."


READ MORE HERE: http://perezhilton.com/2015-03-02-benedict-cumberbatch-sophie-hunter-honeymoon-baby-moon-details-bora-bora#.VPXCoPnF_3M

Caroline Catz: 'Juggling work and family life is difficult'

EXPRESS
Published: 06:08, Sun, February 15, 2015
By SIMON BUTTON

 “But that’s what’s brilliant about this job,” she beams. “You get to dip into other people’s lives, doing other things, researching, finding things out, and it becomes all-consuming as you try to immerse yourself into the mind-set of another person. That’s really brilliant. You almost get the best of both worlds.”

Like so many chameleon-like actors, it’s easy to be taken aback at how different she is in reality from the characters she plays. From tough-talking Helen Morton in DCI Banks to feisty Louisa Glasson in Doc Martin, it’s understandable to think Caroline will be equally frosty. In reality, she is softly spoken and very different from the characters she plays – and she loves them all the more for that. 

“Obviously there are elements of yourself you bring to roles, but Louisa and Helen are both so different and that’s what I enjoy – playing roles that are diverse,” says Caroline. 

“You immerse yourself in a new character and I’m not sure which bits of myself go in and which don’t.”

That, she suggests, is for others to decide. Caroline, 44, admits Helen probably isn’t the easiest person to live with.

“And when the new series starts, she’s had some big, big problems with her husband, so it’s going to be interesting…” 

“Louisa is a fantastic character because she’s so direct and she doesn’t care what people think about her. There’s a great liberation in playing a character who is very forthright and speaks her mind. She’s clumsy and blunt, while at the same time she’s just trying to get to the bottom of things,” Caroline says. “She’s quite practical and it’s not like she’s being unkind – she’s just trying to sort through what she says and all the irrelevancies and get right down to the nub of the matter. I find that very entertaining.”

The seeds of a career in acting were planted early for Caroline, whose parents took her to see shows at Manchester venues such as the acclaimed Royal Exchange Theatre and the Opera House. 

“I was so lucky to have that exposure to stuff and to be taken by my folks to see these amazing productions,” she says. “Going to the theatre was the thing that did it for me and especially going to the Royal Exchange where, incidentally, I’ve never worked, but I’d like to one day.”

When, or if, she treads the boards in her hometown’s most prestigious venue, it won’t be under her real name. She was born Caroline Caplan and when she started working assumed it was cool to keep the moniker. Then someone urged her to give Equity a call and she was told the name was already taken. “And I was like, ‘What?’” she says.

As Caroline is Jewish, she wanted a Jewish surname, and decided Catz had a nice ring to it. Studying at RADA in the days before mobile phones, she popped into a phone box. “Someone had drawn little cats everywhere, so that was my final decision on the matter,” she laughs. “You’d think you’d spend days, months or years agonising over a new name, but I didn’t even have anything in reserve. It wasn’t thought out – it took about three seconds.”

So the name Catz wasn’t in homage to Katz Delicatessen in New York – where Meg Ryan famously faked an orgasm in the movie When Harry Met Sally? Caroline yelps at the idea! “No, but funnily enough we were in New York recently. We didn’t eat at Katz, but we took some photos. I loved New York. It was my first proper visit and I was absolutely blown away by it.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/557740/DCI-Banks-Caroline-Catz-interview

(SPOILER ALERT) ‘Downton Abbey’ Recap: In the Finale, Mary Meets Mr. Handsome, With a Who Could-Care-Less Attitude (SPOILER ALERT)

NEW YORK TIMES
By LOUIS BAYARD  MARCH 1, 2015 10:37 PM


Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary with  one of the twin Barkers portraying Lady Mary's son, Master George Crawley.Credit Nick Briggs/Carnival Films for Masterpiece

Season 5, Episode 9

Oh, Abbots. It can’t be over, can it? Another season, gone as quickly as a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.

So let us keep sorrow at bay by reminding ourselves: We’ve finally pulled abreast. Oh, sure, those viewers in Britain got their usual three-month head start on us (just as the Brits used to get first crack at the latest Dickens installment). Viewers in the United States who were too impatient to wait for the weekly drip of revelation snapped up their DVDs and sometimes blurted out key plot developments over a few too many Manhattans. They had us in their spoiler-alert grip, Abbots, but no longer. Democracy reigns.

So now that we’re all on the same plane of knowledge, what can we say for sure about this fast-receding season? (For Baron Fellowes’ thoughts, read this.)

Longstanding relationships (the Bateses, Robert and Cora) were tested and left standing. Longstanding plot lines were either resolved (Edith’s daughter) or abruptly discarded (Mary Crowley’s sort-of-not-really love triangle). Characters like Violet, the dowager countess, were enlarged with new layers and backstories; others showed clear signs of outliving their narrative usefulness. From all indications, we have seen the last of:



1) Mary’s dim suitor Tony Gillingham (Tom Cullen), who gets a fine consolation prize in Mabel Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman).

2) Boston-bound Tom Branson (Allen Leech), who has taken longer to quit the scene than Cher.

3) Rose (Lily James) and Atticus (Matt Barber), who are heading off to New York. (Synchronously, Ms. James has veered off toward “Cinderella,” a part she seems genetically modified for.)

One way or another, the Downton family is fragmenting. Just like the Downton estate (headed for subdivision) and the Downton ethos, a victim to those winds of sociopolitical change that Carson (Jim Carter) keeps mumbling on about. As servants like Daisy (Sophie McShera) begin to imagine better lives, as Socialists like Sarah Bunting make scenes in fine dining rooms, as Edwardian ideals give way to harsh postwar realities (excellent historical timeline here), look for the Crawleys and their retinues to feel and fight their own anachronism.

We know they’ll lose, but what’s a historical drama without gallant fools engaged in rear-guard actions? So carry on, you lovely, maddening elitists, along with your lovely, maddening retinues. We’ll be griping and grumbling, and we’ll be watching.

In the meantime, may I suggest just one incremental reform? On the evidence of Episode 9, you need better legal counsel.

I’m sure the Earl of Grantham’s lawyer, George Murray (Jonathan Coy), has a few gray cells poking around in there, but several years after botching the defense of Bates (Brendan Coyle), he seems bound and determined to do the same with Mrs. Bates (Joanne Froggatt), even going so far as to declare the police case against her airtight when — as we all know, Abbots — it has more holes than, well, a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.

Turns out that, when Anna was a teenager, she cut her stepfather-molester with a knife, and while she was never charged, that mysteriously reconstructed incident has created some kind of — oh, I don’t know, “pattern” of violence that will sweep Anna straight to the gallows, and in the name of Perry Mason, can’t some fine lawyerly mind sweep this whole business to sea? Instead, it falls to Bates (Mr. Coyle) to confess to Mr. Green’s murder and then vamoose to Ireland.

Now if Sarah Bunting were still around, I would point out to her that, even without benefit of a welfare state, no one enjoys better job security than the Bateses. It doesn’t matter how much leave they take or how many heinous crimes they’re accused of, their jobs are always kept open, their home fires are kept burning, and free (if incompetent) legal care abounds. Sweden could do no better.

At any rate, Anna is sprung on bail, and Murray declares, “We’re going forward and not backward,” but to me, it feels like we’re on the same leaking story pontoon, which only stays afloat because Baron Fellowes’ legs are kicking as madly as they can. By episode’s end, even he must be a little fatigued because a York publican turns up to give Bates an alibi, and the witness who ID’d Anna sprouts “doubts,” and lo and behold, it’s Christmas, and who should pop out of the mistletoe, as it were, but Bates?

Love emerges when you least expect it, Abbots. Sometimes all it takes (and this will give aid and comfort to Freudians everywhere) is for a lot of men to pull out their big guns. The Sinderbys have rented Brancaster for a weeklong shooting party, and no one is immune. Even Edith (Laura Carmichael) loses a bit of her Mildred Pierce-y daughter fixation and dances a few rounds with agreeable castle agent Bertie Pelham (Harry Hadden-Paton). We wish them both well. (And by the way, Edith needs to let that hair flow. With her locks down to her shoulders, she goes from librarian to licentious.)

But no one is more moved by the sight of men and their gauges than Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery), who finds herself unaccountably aroused by the marksmanship of a handsome stranger named Henry Talbot. Now I don’t mean to crow, but as soon as I heard Matthew Goode was signed up for the final episode, I immediately discerned that his plot function would be roughly the same as it was in “The Good Wife”: to melt the froideur of a stern, ashen, erotically complicated brunette. Sure enough, he shows up on the Northumberland moors without even an establishing close-up but with enough swagger to remind us that Mary needs a chap who looks as good as Tony G but treats her as roughly as Inspector Vyner. “Heavens,” exclaims Mary, watching Talbot climb into his car. “What a snappy chariot.” Now I would’ve thought she’d be a little skittish of automobiles, given how her late husband met his end, but she seems to be all over Henry T and his Bentley.

Amazing to think, Abbots, that after two seasons of arid flirtation and Liverpool lovefests, Our Miss Flint has found someone to spark off. And the secret to his allure? He doesn’t give a damn if she likes him or not. Look for Talbot to stick around.

READ THE ENTIRE RECAP HERE: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/downton-abbey-recap-in-the-finale-mary-meets-mr-handsome-who-could-care-less/?_r=0

Aidan Turner: BBC's Poldark remake: stars speak of 'pressure' of 1970s hit

THE GUARDIAN
Tara Conlan
Tuesday 24 February 2015 07.07 EST




The stars of BBC1’s new eagerly-awaited adaption of Poldark have told of the pressure they feel in bringing the adventures of the brooding 18th-century Cornish hero to a new generation due to the success of the 1970s version.

The White Queen star Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays Demelza, said at a screening of the eight-part drama in London on Monday night that she was “nervous” about the reaction, especially as her part was played in the previous adaptation by the late Angharad Rees.

Tomlinson said the weight of expectation for older audiences was made plain when she told her parents about the role and they said: “Oh my God, wow.”

“It’s a lot of pressure, it was a tremendously successful previous adaptation and I’m really nervous about it coming out!”



Her co-star, The Hobbit actor Aidan Turner, said that when he told his mother he was playing the eponymous figure in Winston Graham’s books, she said: “You’d better not mess this up.”

However, he said he had to Google the name Poldark when the offer came in to play him as he was too young to have seen the 1970s version and made a conscious decision to only use the script and original novels, not to watch it: “I just wanted to see what I came up with myself.”

He said it was not daunting following in its wake, despite people asking him if he was worried about playing such an iconic role: “You just have to focus on the job in hand and trust that what you’re doing is right … and that people will trust your choices as the actor.”

Tomlinson had also never seen the previous adaptation, neither had writer Debbie Horsfield – who has adapted Graham’s novels – and she said she only watched it after she had written about five of the eight episodes because she did not want “to be influenced” by it.

Eleanor Tomlinson plays Demelza in the BBC’s eight-part adaptation of Poldark. Photograph: BBC

BBC controller of drama commissioning, Ben Stephenson, pointed out in a speech before the screening that it was almost 40 years since the last version of Poldark, stressing: “It ain’t a remake, it’s an adaptation of some truly brilliant books. It’s an adaptation, not a remake.”

There are some links though, with Turner’s predecessor Robin Ellis appearing in a cameo in two episodes as a vicar. He was asked to take part after he contacted producers Mammoth to wish the project well.

Graham wrote 12 Poldark novels and only eight of them made it to screen – one in an ITV version in 1996.

The new series is due to air in March and Stephenson said he hoped there would be “many more series.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/24/bbc-poldark-remake-stars-eleanor-tomlinson-aidan-turner