Single Ladies, Don’t Despair on Valentine’s Day 2019! From Rochester to Darcy, Here Are Hot Literary Heroes to Lust Over

It’s Valentine’s Day 2019. Honestly, do you really need this intimation from us? Nope. Look around you, everyone is gripped by Valentine’s Day fever. Markets are flooded with greeting cards, flower bouquets and soft toys. People are buying roses and heart-shaped balloons for their loved ones. 

And if you’re single and feeling depressed by this ‘love is in the air’ atmosphere, it’s totally okay. It’s not your fault. But all said and done, I cannot let you beautiful single ladies aka my virtual gal pals feel miserable the entire day. It’s time to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the most desirable men alive. I am taking you on a joyride where you are going to meet the hottest characters ever in books (yes, books) who will set your heart on fire. Happy Galentine's as well as Valentine’s Day!!

Edward Rochester

Does not boast of a handsome face. Has a crazy wife locked up in his mansion’s attic. He is also moody, arrogant, cynical and jaded. That’s Charlotte Brontë’s hero (read: anti-hero) from Jane Eyre – Edward Rochester. Despite a long list of shortcomings, Mr Rochester sweeps the novel’s young heroine, Jane (as well as readers) off her feet. The brooding, difficult and secretive master of Thornfield Hall is not your ideal man. In fact, this Byronic hero is far from perfect. But despite all odds, you cannot stop from falling in love with him. Watch this "There Is No Debt" clip from 2011 movie Jane Eyre based on Bronte’s novel. It starred the very talented Michael Fassbender as Mr Rochester and wonderful Mia Wasikowska as Jane.

Fitzwilliam Darcy or Mr Darcy
Is it just me or has everyone been in search of their Mr Darcy (full name: Fitzwilliam Darcy)? The hero of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is your quintessential archetype of the aloof romantic hero. His pride makes the novel’s protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet outrightly reject his marriage proposal, and she declares him to be ‘the last man in the world’ she could ever be prevailed upon to marry! Ouch. Despite his pride and her prejudice, they continue to be drawn to each other. Jane Austen’s most favourite work has been adapted on many occasions, and you can relive Elizabeth and Mr Darcy’s chemistry with this short clip from 2005-film Pride and Prejudice. It starred Keira Knightley Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Here's a clip from Pride and Prejudice:

LY FESTIVALS EVENTS Rashmi Mishra Feb 14, 2019 01:50 PM IST

Howards End star Matthew Macfadyen: ‘It’s about sex, money and power!’

Whats On TV
Caren Clark
12:15am - Tue, November 7

Here, Hayley and Matthew tell TV Times about starring in the lavish new version of Howards End…

TV Times: How would you describe your characters?

Hayley Atwell: “Margaret has a wonderful warmth and is an eccentric character. She’s an independent thinker but she’s disillusioned. She feels she can talk about social affairs but not do anything about them, so she is searching for her place in the world.”
Matthew Macfadyen: “Henry’s one of those manly men of that time who isn’t prone to bouts of introspection or navel-gazing or talking about feelings. He’s very confident and pig-headed.”

What’s their relationship like?

MF: “Henry doesn’t have the tools that Margaret has to deal with the complex situations that arise; he gets frightened. They’re probably not a natural match, but she’s attracted by his self-possession and it’s a slow burn.”
HA: “Yes, they have a different set of values and it begins as something that isn’t rational and she doesn’t understand it herself. She has self-awareness and he is emotionally constipated but she ultimately finds that endearing because his intentions are good.”

How important is class to the drama?

MM: “Hugely and it’s just wonderful. It’s about sex, money, power, and how people operate in society and that doesn’t go out of fashion does it? It’s fantastic because you see everyone’s point of view.”
HA: “It brings up really interesting questions because you have capitalists with a drive for power and people at the lower end who are teetering on the abyss but know their place better than the Schlegels who are the wandering middle class. The novel talks about how we should “only connect” and that becomes Margaret’s message. She wants to connect everyone together so that things become classless.”



Read more at http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/news/howards-ends-matthew-macfadyen-sex-money-power-502577/#6izxYkGeE1Ke8qDt.99

Matthew Macfadyen: When love and class collide: Sumptuous Sunday night TV returns with a new four-part adaptation of Howards End, EM Forster’s tale of romance across the social divide

Daily Mail
Nicole Lampert For Weekend Magazine
PUBLISHED: 18:31 EDT, 3 November 2017 | UPDATED: 18:31 EDT, 3 November 2017

The setting is as splendid as you’d expect for the BBC’s latest costume drama.

Just outside the stunning stately home in the grounds of the picturesque, 5,000-acre West Wycombe Estate in the Chiltern Hills, there’s a marquee overlooking the lake.

Inside, it’s beautifully decorated with intricate winding flowers flowing from ornate Edwardian vases, and the table is laden with vintage crystal champagne glasses, along with decorative platters of fruit and cakes baked to the recipes of Victorian cook Mrs Beeton.

The table, and indeed the stage, is set for one of the most pivotal and dramatic scenes in the new adaptation of EM Forster’s novel Howards End – the wedding of rich businessman’s daughter Evie Wilcox to Percy Cahill at her family’s country estate, Oniton.

By the end of the reception, however, the three very different families the story centres on will have collided to disastrous effect.

And as the millions who’ve read Forster’s book or wallowed in the glorious 1992 Merchant Ivory film will know, what follows is destitution, tragedy, manslaughter and incarceration.

Despite Forster’s book being 107 years old, the themes still feel uncannily modern. The story revolves around three families in England at the beginning of the 20th century – the Wilcoxes, rich capitalists with a fortune made in the colonies, the half-German Schlegel siblings Margaret, Helen and younger brother Tibby, bohemian intellectuals who have much in common with the real-life Bloomsbury Group, and the Basts, an impoverished young couple from a lower-class background. Howards End, Mrs Wilcox’s beloved ancestral home – albeit a pile far less grand than Oniton – is almost a character in its own right too, becoming integral to the complex relationships between these three very different strata of society.

And this new four-part adaptation shows just how timeless, and at times brutal, the tale is.

‘Our series has been written to be deliberately not too earnest. In some ways it doesn’t feel like a period drama at all,’ says Hayley Atwell, who plays the central character of Margaret Schlegel in the drama, which has been adapted by American Kenneth Lonergan who won a BAFTA earlier this year for his film Manchester By The Sea.

‘We were all told not to watch the Merchant Ivory film because this was going to be very different. Despite the constrictions of the costumes and the period, we did feel we wanted to make it accessible to modern audiences by not making it feel mannered.’

Even Emma Thompson, who played Margaret in the 1992 film, told Hayley (who played Emma’s character’s daughter in the 2008 film version of Brideshead Revisited) not to refer to the Merchant Ivory version. ‘She said, “Don’t watch the film. She is you and you are she and she is you.”’

That’s not to say this lavish drama skimps on the things period fans love. There are plenty of corsets and bonnets, beautiful houses, high teas and even a former Mr Darcy in Matthew Macfadyen playing the businessman Henry Wilcox.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5046257/A-new-four-adaptation-Howards-End-comes-BBC.html#ixzz4xVThMRGX 
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Colin Firth Kursk disaster movie delayed by Russian defence ministry

The Guardian
Benjamin Lee

 Photograph: Axel Schmidt/AP

The filming of Colin Firth’s forthcoming disaster movie Kursk has been delayed after the Russian defence ministry failed to provide a permit on time.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Thomas Vinterberg-directed submarine drama was planned to begin shooting start next month but the review process has taken longer than expected.

“We haven’t yet received a permit from the defence ministry,” producer Andrei Sigle told local radio station Radio Baltika. “They probably have other things to take care of.”

Rather than move production to another country, such as Norway, Sigle aims to wait for a green light from the Russian government, who had initially promised cooperation. There have been suggestions that the defence ministry grew concerned over giving the crew access to classified locations and information.


Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/17/colin-firth-disaster-movie-kursk-russian-defence-ministry

15 Surprising Facts About Tom Hardy

Mental Floss
Jennifer M Wood

You don't have to be a Hollywood insider to know that Tom Hardy is widely considered to be one of the most talented actors of his generation … and that he has a reputation for not always being willing to play by Hollywood’s rules.

Since making his onscreen debut in 2001, the London native has gone on to collaborate with some of the world’s most talented filmmakers, including Ridley Scott, George Miller, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sofia Coppola, and Christopher Nolan (on three occasions, and counting). He also created, produced, and starred in the FX hit Taboo and earned an Oscar nomination for his role in The Revenant—and all of this before hitting the big 4-0.

1. HE WON A TELEVISION MODELING CONTEST.

Technically, Tom Hardy’s onscreen debut came in 1998, when he took part in a modeling contest on the British morning show The Big Breakfast. Among the facts we learned about the then-21-year-old: He was a drama student who idolized Gary Oldman, liked Eddie Izzard, wanted to write and direct his own short films, and didn’t like football. And yes, he won.

2. HE MADE HIS ONSCREEN DEBUT IN BAND OF BROTHERS.
In September of 1998, shortly after he began attending the Drama Centre London, Hardy dropped out when he was offered a role in the Steven Spielberg-produced WWII miniseries Band of Brothers (2001). When asked about the experience by IGN in 2002, Hardy said that, “Band of Brothers was my first job so I was virtually out of the frying pan and into the fire, really. I'd not had previous experience with working in front of the camera, so there was dealing with that. Also, I had the research material—not that I'd need it. I mean, I was in two episodes and had 12 lines. That was the sum total of work [I] had to do.”

Hardy made his big-screen debut in 2001 as well, playing Twombly in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. “I was the Ranger who got left behind,” he told IGN. “He was sort of, if you could call it, comic relief to [a] very precarious situation.”

3. HE WENT TO SCHOOL WITH MICHAEL FASSBENDER.
While attending the Drama Centre London, Hardy looked up to a fellow student who was two years older than him: Michael Fassbender. “He was a really serious method actor and we used to watch him and think, ‘F**k, man! He’s the sh*t!,’” Hardy told The Daily Beast. “He was in an Irish play about this guy who came back from the First World War who was a great athlete but ended up in a wheelchair, but at lunchtime he wouldn’t come out of character and was always in his wheelchair and we’d be like, ‘Dude! Just order your lunch and come along! We’ve got an hour before we have to go back to class! But he was the best actor in the school.” (Fassbender, too, landed a role in Band of Brothers.)

4. HARDY REPLACED FASSBENDER IN TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.
Though their careers have taken different paths, Hardy and Fassbender overlapped a bit in 2010, when Hardy replaced Fassbender as British operative “Tricky” Ricky Tarr in Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a Cold War thriller based on the John le Carré novel.

5. HE IDOLIZES GARY OLDMAN.
That aforementioned modeling contest wouldn’t be the only time Hardy expressed his admiration of Gary Oldman. In 2011, he told ShortList that, “Gary Oldman is my absolute complete and utter hero. He’s the f**king man. I look at him and I want to be like that for my generation—I want to have that same quality. He’s incredible.”

That same year, Hardy got the chance to star alongside Oldman in the Oscar-nominated Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. “There is a definite ‘hang on a minute’ [moment], but I’ve got past the star-struck part now,” Hardy said of getting the chance to act opposite Oldman. They have since worked together on three more films: Lawless (2012), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Child 44 (2015).


READ MORE; http://mentalfloss.com/article/504331/15-surprising-facts-about-tom-hardy

Colin Firth expresses shame at failing to act on Weinstein allegation

The Guardian
October 13, 2017

Colin Firth said he read the allegations against Harvey Weinstein ‘with a feeling of nausea’. Photograph: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters

Colin Firth has expressed his shame for not doing more when a British actor he worked with told him of “a distressing encounter” with Harvey Weinstein in a hotel room more than 25 years ago.

He spoke out after Sophie Dix, who starred with him in one of the first cinema movies he made, went public with details of an alleged sexual assault involving Weinstein.

“She told me she had had a distressing encounter with Harvey Weinstein,” Firth told the Guardian. “I don’t think she went into all the horrific detail I’ve read in her interview. But I remember her being profoundly upset by it. To my shame, I merely expressed sympathy.

“I didn’t act on what she told me,” he went on. “It was a long time ago and I don’t know if she remembers telling me, but the fact that I had that conversation has come back to haunt me in the light of these revelations. It’s the only direct account of this kind of behaviour by Harvey Weinstein that’s ever been told to me.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/colin-firth-expresses-shame-at-failing-to-act-on-weinstein-allegation

PICTURED: Hayley Atwell is Edwardian chic in a brown full-length coat with patterned red scarf as she joins dapper Matthew MacFadyen on the London set of Howards End

DAILY MAIL
By Ryan Smith and Emily Chan For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 09:14 EDT, 17 March 2017 | UPDATED: 09:17 EDT, 17 March 2017

With a black velvet hat resting atop her chestnut brown tresses, the actress got into character as she filmed with Matthew, who cut a dapper figure in a top hat and black waistcoat under a midnight blue coat. 

Over the past week, they've been busy getting into character for their latest - and highly anticipated - project, which transports them back to Edwardian London.

And on Thursday, things appeared to be going swimmingly for Hayley Atwell and Matthew MacFadyen as they shot scenes along London's River Thames for the glamorous BBC adaptation of E.M. Forster's 1910 novel Howards End.

Hayley, 34, was appropriately dressed the era, stepping before cameras in a full-length brown coat, teamed with a red patterned scarf and flowing blue skirt.

The dark TV drama - already dubbed by some as the next Downton Abbey - explores the changing landscape of social and class divisions in turn of the century England through the tales of three families.

These are the intellectual and idealistic Schlegels, the wealthy Wilcoxes from the world of business, and the working class Basts.

British actresses Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson previously starred in the 1992 film adaptation of the novel.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4323804/Hayley-Atwell-Matthew-MacFadyen-shoot-Howards-End.html#ixzz4bcH8KLj7 
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Colin Firth grins as he continues filming Love Actually Comic Relief reboot in London... 13 years after he starred in the iconic romantic comedy

DAILY MAIL
Isolde Walters For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 18:27 EST, 4 March 2017 | UPDATED: 03:32 EST, 6 March 2017

The iconic film was shot more than 13 years ago and almost all the stars are reuniting for a one-off Comic Relief sketch.

Colin Firth, who plays Jamie, was spotted on the set of the eagerly awaited Love Actually sequel at the BBC Langham Place Piazza in central London on Saturday.

The Oscar winner beamed as he reprised his character Jamie, the English would-be novelist who fell in love with Aurelia, his Portuguese housekeeper.

The Bridget Jones's Diary actor wore a comfortable grey knitted jumper and donned a pair of thick-framed spectacles as he rehearsed his lines and waved to the waiting photographers.

In the original film, Jamie is heartbroken after catching his girlfriend in bed with another man.
He moves to France to recover from the betrayal and write his novel. It is here that he meets Aurelia, played by Lucia Moniz, his Portuguese housekeeper.

Despite the fact that Aurelia cannot speak English and Jamie cannot speak Portuguese, he falls in love with her and the film follows their tentative romance.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4282382/Colin-Firth-films-Love-Actually-reboot-London.html#ixzz4aZQZXWyN 
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MATTHEW MACFADYEN IN "LOST IN KARASTAN" FULL MOVIE

Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg,myanna buring RIPPER STREET SEASON 5

FINAL SEASON OF RIPPER STREET, MARCH 8 ON BBC AMERICA (finally)

Ten Interesting Facts about Bridget Jones’s Diary You Might Not Know (Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Pride and Prejudice)

ANGLOTOPIA
April 27, 2016
By John Rabon

Helen Fielding exposed the world to her thirty-something protagonist in the 1996 novel Bridget Jones’s Diary.  The popularity of the book across the population would lead to 1999’s sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, two films in 2001 and 2004 based on these works, another novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy in 2013, and a third film not based on that novel, Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016.  With the film adaptations, actress Renee Zellweger has become as synonymous with the character as Bridget’s creator has.  If you want to know more about the books and films, read on.



Getting into Character

Before filming started, Renee Zellweger gained twenty-five pounds, put on a posh English accent, and started working in a real British publishing company.  Surprisingly enough, very few of her new coworkers actually recognised her.  Zellweger even kept a picture of then-boyfriend Jim Carrey on her desk, which employees who didn’t know her thought strange, but were too polite to say anything about it.

Friends in High Places

Salman Rushdie’s cameo in the first film was done as a favor to Helen Fielding.  The two have been long-time friends and she called Rushdie to ask him if he’d be willing to embarrass himself on camera. He recently jokingly tweeted that he considers it his finest work.



Actor Paradox

As the first two books were written well before the films came out, both of them actually make references to Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.  Of course, when they were cast in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, no reference to them is made in the film.  In the books, Bridget is actually a huge fan of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series and gets to interview Firth for her television job.


READ MORE HERE:http://www.anglotopia.net/british-entertainment/british-movies/ten-interesting-facts-bridget-joness-diary-might-not-know/

Colin Firth to Take On Henry Higgins in Broadway Revival of MY FAIR LADY?

BROADWAY WORLD
by Caryn Robbins
May 27, 2015



Reports of an upcoming Broadway revival of MY FAIR LADY from James Nederlander Sr continue to surface and according to Page Six of the New York Post, the lead role has already been cast.

The Post quotes Nederlander Sr.: "New generations never saw it. Colin Firth is already set. The female isn't cast yet."

Asked if Firth, who showed off his singing abilities in the big screen adaptation of Broadway's Mamma Mia!, has the vocal chops to pull off the role of Henry Higgins, the 93-year-old theater owner and producer quipped, "Rex Harrison didn't either. And everyone wants to see Colin Firth."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Colin-Firth-to-Take-On-Henry-Higgins-in-Broadway-Revival-of-MY-FAIR-LADY-#.VWYXNSkPtbU.facebook

Pride and Prejudice is 20: Here’s 10 reasons why mortal men will never match up to Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy

Ross McG for Metro.co.uk
Friday 22 May 2015 12:42 pm



Pride and Prejudice is 20 years old.

Yes, everyone’s favourite author from the 1990s, Jane Austen, penned her modern classic novel two decades ago, inspiring Helen Fielding to write her 1996 bestseller, Bridget Jones’s Diary, a year later.
Hang on, that’s not right.

Pride and Prejudice was, of course, published in 1813, but if you say the two ‘P’ words to anyone these days, the first thing that comes into their head is an image of Colin Firth dripping wet in a white shirt.

The six-part BBC adaptation of Austen’s novel, broadcast in 1995, was a phenomenon, like the furore over that buff guy from Poldark’s abs multiplied by a thousand.

While the show itself was splendid and Jennifer Ehle was the definitive on-screen Elizabeth Bennet, P&P soared because of Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr Darcy.

There is no way puny mortal men can ever match up to him. Here are the reasons why.

1. His wet white shirt

It looks like the kind of thing your grandad wore in bed. A normal bloke would look like a giant baby in it, but not Colin Firth, whose one-man wet T-shirt contest echoes through the ages.

2. His name

Mr Darcy isn’t just called Mr Darcy, you know. Like us, he has a first name too. But unlike us, it isn’t Colin or Phil or Dave or something equally unlikely to wow members of the opposite sex, or any sex: it’s only flipping Fitzwilliam. There’s no way us norms can match a guy with a name like that.

3. His hair

If George Best’s and Michael Hutchence’s hair follicles went out for a drink, stumbled back to a hotel room together and fumbled around for a few hours, they might just produce Firth’s Darcy thatch. That barnet is a thing of beauty.



4. His sideburns

Today’s hipsters are morons, obviously.

But chief among their many foibles is their preference for full beard. Full beard does not make grown women and men swoon.

Mr Darcy knows this, opting to display his facial hair in a more subtle manner. Crucially, his burns are bushy but not too bushy. Get sideboards wrong and you end up looking like an angry farmer.

Get them right, and you could have some Darcy magic. Except you can’t. Cos you’re not 1995 Colin Firth.



6. His steed

The dude has a horse! How can an average guy compete with that?


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/05/22/pride-and-prejudice-is-20-heres-10-reasons-why-mortal-men-will-never-match-up-to-colin-firths-mr-darcy-5209867/#ixzz3auy4syCU

Matthew Macfadyen says he has an open mind about poltergeists

ENFIELD INDEPENDENT
First published Wednesday 22 April 2015 in News
Last updated 04:58 Thursday 23 April 2015



Matthew Macfadyen plays Guy Lyon Playfair, who was sent to the Hodgsons house to investigate what was going on.

What attracted you to the project?

Timothy Spall and Rosie Cavaliero, both of whom I’ve worked with before. I worked with Tim on a Stephen Poliakoff drama called Perfect Strangers, and I did Little Dorrit with Rosie for the BBC. It always comes down to the script, though, which was well-written, fascinating and properly scary.

Were they the sort of scripts you could just rattle through?

 That’s my litmus test, how quickly I can get through them. You know it’s a chore when you think, oh, I could be doing something else right now.

The Enfield Haunting isn’t just a jolty story about a mean poltergeist, either, is it?

No, it’s nuanced and beautifully written. It’s not a documentary, but a dramatic retelling, so there are bits which are teased and pushed in certain directions for the purposes of telling a story. I love everything to do with Maurice and his daughter. If it hadn’t been so delicately handled, it could have been quite naff.

How much did you know about the Hodgson case before you signed on?

I didn’t know anything about it and, stupidly, I didn’t read The House is Haunted, the book by Guy Lyon Playfair that the series is based on. I came straight from Ripper Street on to this and was a bit frazzled. They kindly organised for me to meet the real Guy, though, which was interesting.

What did you make of him?

He’s in his 80s now and absolutely fascinating. It’s always daunting when you play someone who is real, although I’m not doing an impersonation, that’s not the gig. I’m just taking what I fancy. Saying that, I hope Guy isn’t too horrified at what he sees. I’ll have to write a letter of apology. The Hodgsons’ story is very divisive. Some people believe them, others think they made the whole thing up.

What’s your take?

I have an open mind. I think the sensible stance to take in this situation is to be agnostic and go, I just don’t know. I’ve never experienced anything like it, but I know plenty of people who have and they’re not gullible. There was definitely something going on, it’s just unexplained. I’m certainly not in the ‘that’s all cobblers’ camp. That would be very short-sighted.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/12893746.Star_of_The_Enfield_Haunting_Matthew_Macfadyen_says_he_has_an_open_mind_about_poltergeists/

Ripper Street: Season Three Starts April 29th on BBC America

TV SERIES FINALE
March 26, 2015

As you may recall, BBC cancelled Ripper Street after two seasons. The series was later revived thanks to a deal between BBC and Amazon. Late last year, the new season of eight episodes was offered exclusively in the UK on Prime Instant Video. Now, BBC America has announced the premiere of season three in the States for Wednesday, April 29th.

Here are the details:

BBC AMERICA’S “RIPPER STREET” RETURNS FOR SEASON THREE ON APRIL 29, 10:00PM ET

The robbery of a goods train leads to a cataclysmic locomotive disaster on Leman Street, reuniting the men and their resentments to seek its cause

New York – March 26, 2015 – BBC AMERICA’s critically-acclaimed and BAFTA nominated original British drama Ripper Street returns in April. Picking up in 1894, four years after the culmination of season two, the new season reveals a vivid and sensual descent into the lives of the men and women who must live on the violent streets of Whitechapel in late Victorian London. Ripper Street premieres Wednesday, April 29, 10:00pm ET on BBC AMERICA.



Matthew Macfadyen returns as Detective Inspector Reid, Jerome Flynn as the newly promoted Detective Inspector Bennet Drake, and Adam Rothenberg as Captain Homer Jackson. MyAnna Buring also returns as Long Susan in the eight-part season.

Four years have passed since Reid bayed for Drake to end the life of Jedediah Shine. Four years that have seen the crime-fighting axis of Reid, Drake and Jackson split and isolated from one another. Drake has left London for Manchester to become the policeman – and man – he felt he could no longer be in Whitechapel. He is an Inspector himself now. Jackson has reverted to the man Reid plucked out of the Tenter Street brothel, a two-penny, sawbones, clap-doctor. And Reid has succumbed to his own shame and isolation, policing Whitechapel with a level of forensic detail and dedication that leads Chief Inspector Fred Abberline to fear for his old friend’s mental well-being.

Meanwhile, Long Susan has made good on her threats to both Captain Jackson and the dying Silas Dugan – she has separated from her husband, taken command of Duggan’s criminal empire and turned it into a legitimate property empire of huge philanthropic ambition. But such aspirations are costly, as her loyal but scheming solicitor Ronald Capshaw knows only too well.

All these resentments, fears and ambitions are soon forgotten, however, when two trains collide on the newly constructed bridge above Leman Street. It is a catastrophe which falls into Reid’s world and demands explanation. His pursuit reunites him with Drake and Jackson and sets him on his own collision course with his past and with the secret crimes of Long Susan and Ronald Capshaw.


READ MORE HERE: http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/ripper-street-season-three-starts-april-29th-on-bbc-america-36010/

Colin Firth: How ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ Blew Away Bond, Bourne in South Korea

THE WRAP
MOVIES | By Todd Cunningham on March 23, 2015 @ 5:41 pm



In South Korea the movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a cultural phenomenon and record-breaking $40 million box office smash, out-grossing the super spies — like James Bond and Jason Bourne — that it spoofs.

Just as mind-boggling are the unlikely factors powering its breakout, seized upon by clever and opportunistic Fox marketers who have pulled off a media coup.

To become Fox’s biggest hit in Korea since “Avatar,” the movie capitalized on a spate of recent high-profile beat-downs of poor Koreans, the bizarre mid-air meltdown of a Korean Air executive’s daughter and the country’s fascination with British dandies — perfectly personified in “Kingsman” by Colin Firth as the suave and stylish agent Harry Hart.

“We decided to take advantage of this and made three viral videos similar to real-life incidents to promote the film,” said Tom Oh, one of Fox’s top men in Korea. “Everything came together to create a massive hit.”

“Kingsman,” an action adventure adapted from the Mark Millar-Dave Gibbons comic book “The Secret Service,” has been a hit just about everywhere for Fox.

It has grossed $114 million domestically since it opened with a surprising $41.7 million against “Fifty Shades of Grey” over the Presidents Day weekend. It also has brought in $180 million at the foreign box office, and it will add to that figure when it opens in China this weekend. But for “Kingsman,” there’s been nothing like South Korea, which ranks as its No. 1 market abroad.

“The national mood at the time of release was one of strong dissatisfaction for politicians and the super-rich, like the second- and third-generation children of chebol (business families),” said Oh. “The most hated was the vice-chairwoman of Korean Air, whose abusive tantrum towards the flight attendants and forcing the plane to return to the gate put her behind bars.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.thewrap.com/how-kingsman-the-secret-service-blew-away-bond-bourne-in-south-korea/

(VIDEO) COLIN FIRTH AND TRIUMPH THE INSULT COMIC DOG

 Colin Firth, Mack McBrayer, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Jimmy Fallon on Tonight!

Colin Firth started rumours that he was the next James Bond

ONE NEWS NEW ZEALAND
Published: 12:01PM Saturday January 31, 2015 Source: BANG Showbiz



Colin Firth used to start rumours that he was going to be the next James Bond.

The 54-year-old actor has joked that while he's now too old to take on the iconic role, he doesn't think he was ever in the running, apart from when he tried to spark some speculation himself.

When asked how he feels about never having played the suave spy, he said: "I suppose this has got to be it for me in a way, I suppose. I think it would never have happened. I remember lists being around of speculation ... never from the Bond people, just lists ... in my handwriting."

The star plays secret agent Harry Hart in 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' and he was delighted his role drew comparisons between himself and British sitcom 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' funnyman Frank Spencer because he did his own stunts in the movie.

Speaking on London Live, he added: "That's a huge honour. I remember thinking actually that there was nothing cooler in the world than a courageous, athletic, dynamic man pretending to be a complete klutz and loser. I thought that was absolutely wonderful.

"The fact he was Superman pretending to be Clark Kent effectively."

READ MORE HERE: http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/colin-firth-started-rumours-he-next-james-bond-6226460

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