Downton Abbey Movie - Release date 13 September, 2019

Radio Times

Production has wrapped on the film, which is set to star Downton favourites Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery and Hugh Bonneville – and features a visit from the King and Queen.

Starring: Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Imelda Staunton

MORE HERE

DOWNTON DOUBTS Hugh Bonneville says there’s ‘no sign’ of a Downton Abbey movie ‘just yet’

The Sun
By Elaine McCahill

Hugh said: "Downton movie, we would love it to happen, where there's a will there's a way but there's no sign of it.

"It would be lovely, if we could all pull together and find ourselves in the same part of the globe at the same time then maybe."

It comes after Downton fans were sent into a tizzy last month by a cryptic Facebook post which led them to believe the film's release date could be revealed soon.

Fans have been begging to see their beloved characters on the big screen ever since the show came to an end in 2015

And their wish came true in May when The Sun confirmed that a full length feature film edition was being made.

A new post on the official Facebook page told fans to keep their eyes peeled as they wrote: "Big news is on its way! Check back soon for a special announcement."

The picture, posted on October 3, also read: "Something big is happened at  Downton!"

While many others pondered if it could be an announcement about a new mini series to lead on from the film - however, there has still been no word over what it was teasing.

Read more here: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/4815311/hugh-bonneville-no-moves-downton-abbey-good-morning-britain/

Can Dan Stevens Really Sing? There’s Nothing Beastly About The Actor’s Voice

BUSTLE
SHARE
ByJOHNNY BRAYSON

Anyone who was concerned that the live action Beauty and the Beast movie would be a flop can stop worrying. The film notched the sixth-highest opening weekend of all-time by taking in over $174 in its first frame, and it's on pace to easily be Disney's most successful live action reboot yet. The film's success owes a lot to its impressive cast, especially Dan Stevens and Emma Watson, who sing and dance their way through the spectacle. But how much of it was real and how much was movie magic? Can Dan Stevens really sing?

Despite his face as the Beast being computer generated and performed through motion capture, that really is Stevens' voice you hear belting out the movie's famous tunes. The actor apparently had done a bit of singing in his youth, but it had been a long time since he had actually sung when the time came to train his voice for the film. "Singing was a relatively new thing to me," the 34-year-old told People. "I’d sung at school and when I was younger, but in my 20s I [hadn’t] sung as extensively so reengaging my voice, retraining the voice, was a big challenge." Check out Stevens in action below, singing alongside Watson (who also sang for real) in a scene from the film.



https://www.bustle.com/p/can-dan-stevens-really-sing-theres-nothing-beastly-about-the-actors-voice-45990

Matthew Goode Added to the Cast of The Crown for Season Two

PASTE
By Pete Mercer  |  February 9, 2017  |  2:33pm
Photos via Mark Davis/Getty, Tim P. Whitby/Getty

The Crown has been one of more popular original Netflix series, fueling our fascination with British culture even further. Considering it’s such a binge-worthy series, fans are eagerly awaiting season two. It’s sliding into the ‘60s, so there’ll be loads of cultural and societal changes that The Crown will take on. Today, Netflix has announced new cast members for the forthcoming season, and it’s pretty exciting news for the future of the series.

Michael C. Hall and Matthew Goode have been added as regular cast members to season two. Hall will be playing John F. Kennedy, most likely during his presidential term, and will potentially deal with the global ramifications of his assassination in 1963. According to Peter Morgan, creator of The Crown, the second season will end in 1964. Goode will play Lord Snowdon, a British politician and photographer married to Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister. Goode is no stranger to British royalty drama, as he was recently featured in Downton Abbey, so we’ve got some good British drama coming.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/02/michael-c-hall-and-matthew-goode-added-to-the-cast.html

ROBERT PATTINSON, AIDAN TURNER AND THEO JAMES: KNOW THE CURRENT HEARTTHROBS AND FUTURE STARS

MOVIE NEWS GUIDE
ANSHUL HARDIKAR
April 20, 2016

The line up has changed and so has the trend. Gone are the days when Hollywood bigwigs were the only movie stars because a new generation has already taken over. Stars like Robert Pattinson, Aidan Turner and Theo James are currently some of the leading ones in the roster. They have incredible following and are worth every penny. Here is what puts them on the top of their game.

1. Talent. Solely the most important thing any future movie star might need. Talent is one thing that sets you apart from others. All the three heartthrobs have proved their mettle with “Twilight,” “Poldark” and “Divergent” series and hopefully will continue to do so.

2. Dedication. For any individual to become an actor, it needs dedication and for any actor to become a star, it needs even more dedication. There are no doubts about their dedication because each one of them has worked really hard to get their portrayal right. Normally, when they set out to prepare for their roles, they research, read up and then apply it to their roles.

3. Ability to get under the skin. As mentioned earlier because of the immense dedication that they have, their portrayal becomes so convincing that at times it gets hard to believe if fans are looking at the actor or the character. For instance, Robert’s Edward or Aidan’s Ross Poldark.

4. Good looks. This has got to do a thing or two with being a heartthrob, however, it is not the most important thing. Their looks are something worthy dying for and there is no one better than their female fan base to express it. It is also believed that it was Aidan’s mass appeal amongst female fans and performance in “And Then There Were None” that got him a meeting with the Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.movienewsguide.com/robert-pattinson-aidan-turner-theo-james-know-current-heartthrobs-future-stars/196897

Five ways Downton Abbey changed TV

NEWS.COM.AU
Clare Rigden
News Corp Australia Network

AS Downton Abbey closes its doors for the final time, we take a look at how this British costume drama achieved global acclaim.

1. It’s made stuffy costume drama cool again

Downton Abbey brought a format often only seen on networks like the BBC in Britain, and ABC in Australia, and made it accessible to everyone.

“I think one of the things that Downton has done, is explode the myth that period drama has to be highbrow or in the literary genre,” says Executive Producer, Liz Trubridge.

Even though the storylines are set in a bygone age, viewers can relate to what characters are going through. And having gorgeous sets and costumes makes it all the more fun.

“I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that Downton has taken a much-loved British genre — the period countryhouse drama — and given it a complete overhaul for the 21st century, borrowing from the compelling storylines of soap opera to the quality writing and production values of contemporary U.S. television shows,” says Executive Producer, Gareth Neame.

Shows like Mr Selfridge and Ripper Street — both successful series that have premiered in the past few years — owe much to their predecessor.


2. It’s showed the Yanks how it’s done

Downton is a British format that found an audience in the States — not the other way round. In the process it was a game-changer for US networks and producers, who realised there was an audience for this type of drama.

Fellowes admits the show’s success took him by surprise.

“That was a rather extraordinary moment: to realise you’d written a show that was reaching parts [of popular culture] that other shows don’t reach,” he says.

The series finale was watched by 9.9 million viewers in the US, and was nominated for an Emmy award every year it aired.

3. It’s epic in scale

Everything about Downton is on a grand scale, from the setting — beautiful Highclere Castle, where it’s filmed — to the costumes, set dressing, and even the storylines.

Downton’s six series span one of the most tumultuous decades in modern history. Everything from the introduction of electricity and the automobile, to the First World War and the Spanish flu is covered — and that’s just for starters.

Producers never shied away from tackling political and social issues too, talking about everything from the rise of fascism in the 1920s, to the establishment of the women’s suffragette movement.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/5-ways-downtown-abbey-changed-tv/news-story/84b4abc40d07df4ec3b87a2a840a1acc

Matthew Goode, Matthew Rhys: The Wine Show: it's Top Gear for booze … I hate myself for loving it

THE GUARDIAN
Stuart Heritage
11 April, 2016

When ITV ran its first trailer for The Wine Show about a month ago, you could be forgiven for thinking the whole thing was a joke. An obscene joke about two highly acclaimed actors – a wildly-bearded Matthew Rhys and an unstoppably plummy Matthew Goode – who’d exploited their star power to get smashed on plonk inside a beautiful Umbrian villa, while getting paid for it.

The trailer was startlingly awful in every conceivable way. The narration was awkward and stilted in a manner that suggested it had been translated into English and back again several times. The photography looked as if it had been shot for a CNN Europe commercial about the economic benefits of utilising Montenegro as a regional trade hub. And in the middle of it were the two Matthews, obsequiously yucking it up like a grotesque Fluck and Law parody of the coddled one-percent. It was like watching a piece of deranged Alan Partridge fan fiction come to life. It must have been a joke. Surely it was a joke. I watched the trailer over and over again, looking for the slightest wink to prove that this was all somehow an elaborate joke. The title? Was that it? Was The Wine Show supposed to be a deliberately awful pun on The One Show? Was that the joke

The Wine Show began on ITV4 last night. I watched it specifically to hate it. The fact that I couldn’t has made me almost irreversibly furious.

Because, god help the lot of us, The Wine Show is actually quite good. It is, in essence, somewhere between a Countryfile and a Top Gear for booze. Given time to breathe, the photography that came off as cheesy in the trailer is actually rather beautiful. The production values are astonishing. It’s dappled, woozy, HD travel porn that lingers on beads of early-morning vineyard dew and charmingly tumbledown magic-hour Italian villages in a way that immediately makes you want to chuck some shirts in a bag and head for the airport.

And the actual content is surprisingly grown up, too. Despite the trailer strongly suggesting that the series would consist of nothing but Rhys and Goode slowly contracting gout, the bulk of the presenting is left to wine expert Joe Fattorini. He’s a revelation, arguably the Attenborough of Oddbins. Simultaneously knowledgable and awestruck, Fattorini managed to turn the climax to a throwaway 10-minute segment about Napoleon’s favourite booze into a genuinely compelling piece of television. “This wine probably cheered someone up when Mozart died”, he quavered at one point, and it didn’t even sound a tenth as stupid as it looks written down.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/apr/11/the-wine-show-its-top-gear-for-booze-i-hate-myself-for-loving-it

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes hints cast are holding up film being made

MIRROR
BY NICOLA AGIUS
14 April, 2016



Downton Abbey creator Jullian Fellowes has seriously hinted that the cast are the reason a film is not yet in production.

Speaking on Loose Women today, the award-winning writer admitted he would love to turn his small screen masterpiece into a blockbuster, but the decision is not in his hands.

Are the likes of Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery and Elizabeth McGovern to blame?

"Let's just say it's not me slowing things up," he teased. "The difficulty is rounding up the actors. One is in America making a new series, another is in a play.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/downton-abbey-creator-julian-fellowes-7755060

Downton Abbey season 6: Tom Branson returns in new pictures from set

SUNDAY EXPRESS
By NEELA DEBNATH
PUBLISHED: 12:55, Thu, Jun 18, 2015 | UPDATED: 14:34, Thu, Jun 18, 2015



Tom, who is the husband of the late Lady Sybil, was headed to America with their daughter when we last saw him in the Downton Christmas special but it seems that he is back for one last hurrah.

Irish actor Allen, 34, was spotted on filming on set in scenes featuring what appears to be a motor race, suggesting Tom could have a hand in helping out with the cars thanks to his mechanical skills.

Filming took place at the Brooklands Museum Near Weybridge, Surrey which was the former site of the Brooklands racing circuit and aerodrome.

There were plenty of extras dressed in 1920s costumes, suggesting that the series will still be set in the same era rather than doing any jumps forward in time as it has previously between series.

Actors Matthew Goode, who plays Henry Talbot, and Tom Cullen, who stars as Lord Gillingham, were also spotted filming scenes, hinting that the pair could be racing in a bid to win Lady Mary's (Michelle Dockery) affections.

Only last week the "downstairs" cast reunited to film scenes in Oxfordshire that saw the characters playing cricket together on their say off from looking after the Abbey.

It was announced that the series will be receiving a special Bafta honour later this year for its outstanding global success and flying the flag for British drama around the globe.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/tv-radio/585340/Downton-Abbey-season-6-Tom-Branson-Allen-Leech-Lady-Mary

Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery to star opposite Dominic West in Les Liaisons Dangereuses

EXPRESS
By BECCA LONGMIRE
PUBLISHED: 14:01, Wed, Jun 3, 2015 | UPDATED: 14:20, Wed, Jun 3, 2015



DOWNTON ABBEY actress Michelle Dockery is set to return to the stage, starring alongside Dominic West in a stage version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

The 34-year-old, best known for playing Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV period drama, will play Madame de Tourvel while West will portray her would-be seducer Vicomte de Valmont at London's Donmar Warehouse.

The story, based on an 18th century French novel, is a tale of sex and power in pre-revolutionary Paris.

It's going to be the 30th anniversary revival of Christopher Hampton's award-winning stage adaptation which provided the basis for the 1988 film version, called Dangerous Liaisons, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close and John Malkovich.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/581946/Downton-Abbey-Michelle-Dockery-Dominic-West-Les-Liaisons-Dangereuses

What Can Matthew Goode Bring to Downton Abbey Season 6?

MOVIE PILOT
by Peter Flynn ⋅ Posted on May 6th, 2015 at 6:46am



Matthew Goode is now in Downton Abbey! I can't stress enough what great casting that is! Of all the choices of well-mannered slightly adorable classy men, he fits the show perfectly. Tom Hiddlesdon? Too widely loved. Ben Wishaw? Too tasteful (dude was Paddington, y'know!) But Matthew Goode? He's the perfect culmination of tacky class. He's like a well-refined savant Ken Doll, and I would love him to return for Downton Abbey Season 6.

If his other main project, The Good Wife permits, we may well see more of Matthew Goode in Season 6. What might Downton Abbey gain from this precious porcelain man returning to our screens?

He Has Chemistry With Lady Mary!

Lady Mary's exploits, and the men those exploits rope in are where the sexy elements of Downton Abbey emerge (as sexy as you can expect Downton to be). Matthew Goode's Henry Talbot made his first appearance in the 2014 christmas special. While I'd misunderstood a joke sketch and was thoroughly fed up with the lack of George Clooney on my screen, Matthew Goode suddenly pops up and starts shooting grouse, and I'm in a stupor of wonderment for the rest of the episode.

I can speak for the fans when I say that everyone wanted Henry and Mary's snappy back and forth to be taken further. Their wry chemistry was palpable, and can be taken places, which the show seems to know! Why else would they explicitly address Henry Talbot's perchance for racing cars? It's kinda weird that Mary is totally into this, since it was a car crash that literally killed her ex-husband, Dan Stevens! I'm just not sure why she would be getting all hot and bothered for fast, dangerous machines.

He Can be Sinister

Matthew Goode is a funny actor. Just put him in stuff, and I will laugh at it, like a gnome being photographed going round the world. That said, he has more depth than just being a funny action-figure man, and has shades of lurid ominousness that make him a joy to watch. He could certainly adapt to some of the dark DARK places Downton Abbey is willing to go. Goode's range could tonally do some interesting things to Season 6.

If you want proof of Goode's ability to play the unsettling villain, look no further than Park Chan-Wook's masterful Stoker. His performance as Uncle Charlie is a truly terrifying delight, and if Henry Talbot were to descend into some sort of villainous figure in Season 6, Goode could manage it spectacularly.

READ MORE HERE: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/05/06/what-can-matthew-goode-bring-to-downton-abbey-season-6-2909516?lt_source=external,manual

Dowager Countess to outlive Downton Abbey... even though character played by Dame Maggie Smith must be 110 by now

DAILY MAIL
By CHRIS HASTINGS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 18:59 EST, 2 May 2015 | UPDATED: 09:05 EST, 3 May 2015

She is as much a part of Downton Abbey as its Bath Stone walls – and just as imposing. So it is only right that the redoubtable Dowager Countess of Grantham will remain a constant of the ITV show right until the very end.

By some reckoning the formidable Crawley family matriarch, played by Dame Maggie Smith, would be 110 at the time the final series is set. But it seems that even the Grim Reaper is so intimidated by the prospect of her withering putdowns that the character will not be killed off.

Lord Fellowes, the Oscar winning creator of the show confirmed the news, saying: ‘Maggie will never die!’

The disclosure that Violet will survive to the end of the final episode – to air on Christmas Day – will be welcomed by the show’s 120 million fans worldwide.

The Dowager Countess is by far the most popular character and has remained stubbornly alive even though pundits have been predicting her demise ever since the show launched in 2010.

And it has been suggested that the Dowager Countess’s death would be the obvious way of bringing the curtain down on the global franchise.

It would certainly be her time. Downton Abbey’s first series was set in 1912, when the character was already in her dotage. The forthcoming sixth series is set more than a decade later.

And he revealed: ‘All the cast we said goodbye to in series five are all popping up in the final series.
‘It will end on Christmas Day. It will be a two-hour special on Christmas night. I am pleased with the way the whole series is coming on actually.’

He declined to be drawn on specifics about the plots, although fans are hoping that butler Carson and housekeeper Mrs Hughes will finally tie the knot following his proposal in last year’s Christmas Day episode.

Fellowes said he wouldn’t write his new American television series The Gilded Age, set among the high- society families of New York in the late 19th Century, until he had finally completed work on the last scripts for Downton.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3065753/Dowager-Countess-outlive-Downton-Abbey-character-played-Dame-Maggie-Smith-110-now.html#ixzz3Z6RTuJa2 
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SPOILER ALERT! Laura Carmichael films scenes for the wedding of ********** in the final season of Downton Abbey

DAILY MAIL
By FRANCESCA MENATO FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 06:00 EST, 25 April 2015 | UPDATED: 08:41 EST, 25 April 2015



She's been unlucky in love herself but that doesn't seem to be stopping Edith Crawley, played by Laura Carmichael, from supporting the nuptials of Downton Abbey stalwarts Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes.

Members of the cast were spotted filming scenes for the next Julian Fellowes wedding in Burghclere, Hampshire.

Joining Laura was Mr Carson himself, played by Jim Carter, while Phyllis Logan was unseen - likely in the church keeping her wedding dress concealed.

The wedding is a celebration by upstairs and downstairs of the North England estate with Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) in a wide brimmed hat in attendance.

Also on the guest list is fellow servant Daisy, played by Sophie McShera, who is seen outside of her kitchen smock, in a pretty pleated orange dress for the occasion.

There were a whole host of cast members playing characters from both sets of classes and there also appeared to be a few new faces.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3055104/SPOILER-ALERT-Laura-Carmichael-spotted-film-scenes-wedding-Carson-Mrs-Hughes-new-season-Downton-Abbey.html#ixzz3YcLi4MfT 
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Mark Strong and Penelope Wilton scoop top prizes at Olivier Awards 2015

RADIO TIMES
By Huw Fullerton and Kasia Delgado
Sunday 12 April 2015 at 10:28PM



Downton Abbey's Penelope Wilton and veteran film actor Mark Strong have topped the list of winners at this year's Olivier Theatre Awards, winning Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively.

Wilton was honoured for her critically-acclaimed portrayal of the mother of German lawyer Hans Litten – the man who put Hitler on the witness stand in 1931 – in Mark Hayhurst's Taken At Midnight, while Strong won his accolade for playing troubled dock worker Eddie Carbone in the revival of Arthur Miller's 1950s-set A View from the Bridge.

Other screen stars making waves at Britain's biggest theatre awards were Murder She Wrote actress Angela Lansbury, whose return after nearly 40 years to the UK stage in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit earned her a Best Supporting Actress gong. The Inspector Lynley Mysteries' Nathaniel Parker won Best Supporting Actor for playing Henry VIII in the theatre production of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Still, not all the big-name nominees were so lucky – Strong beat James McAvoy, Richard Armitage and Tim Pigott-Smith in the Best Actor category, while Wilton was up against hotly-tipped Gillian Anderson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Imelda Staunton. Elsewhere, Gemma Arterton and Nicole Scherzinger were beaten to the Best Actress and Supporting Actress in a Musical by Katie Brayben and Lorna Want from Carole King-based musical Beautiful.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-04-12/mark-strong-and-penelope-wilton-scoop-top-prizes-at-olivier-awards-2015

Downton Abbey to end after six series

BBC NEWS
March 26, 2015



The next season of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey will be its last, its makers have announced.
"Inevitably there comes a time when all shows should end and Downton is no exception," said the programme's executive producer Gareth Neame.

Created by Julian Fellowes, the show follows an aristocratic family's fortunes from 1912 to the mid-1920s.

Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern have played the Earl and Countess of Grantham since the show began in 2010.

The drama has won a string of awards since its inception, including two Baftas, three Golden Globes and 11 Primetime Emmys.

Its success both at home and abroad was recently demonstrated when the Duchess of Cambridge went to see it being filmed at Ealing Studios in west London

"The Downton journey has been amazing for everyone aboard," said Lord Fellowes, whose next project will be The Gilded Age, a period drama set in New York.

"People ask if we knew what was going to happen when we started to make the first series and the answer is that, of course we had no idea.

"Exactly why the series had such an impact and reached so many people around the world, all nationalities, all ages, all types, I cannot begin to explain."

"But I do know how grateful we are to have been allowed this unique experience."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32074921

Poldark tipped to become ‘BBC’s answer to Downton Abbey’ as second series ‘almost certain’ to go ahead

METRO
Caroline Westbrook for Metro.co.ukSunday
22 Mar 2015 1:16 pm



Speculation over Poldark’s future has mounted further following reports that a second series of the show is looking increasingly likely – and that its star Aidan Turner can ‘name his price’.

According to the Mirror insiders at the BBC have said it is ‘almost certain’ new episodes will begin filming in Cornwall later this year, with execs potentially planning to keep the show on air for several years.

And as the inevitable Downton Abbey comparisons begin to surface, one source told the paper that the corporation was prepared to dig deep to keep the show’s star on board.

‘Aidan has become a huge hit with viewers,’ the source said. ‘The role of Ross Poldark has put him in the shop window and movie makers from Hollywood will be beating down his door.

‘Without Aidan there is no Poldark. There is a real feeling it could turn in to a long-running series.’

Nothing has been confirmed, of course, although the actor previously hinted that a second series is in the works after saying he would be returning to Cornwall, where the show was filmed, later this year.




READ MORE HERE: http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/22/poldark-tipped-to-become-bbcs-answer-to-downton-abbey-as-second-series-almost-certain-to-go-ahead-5115514/

POLDARK COMES TO MASTERPIECE CLASSIC IN 2015

Downton Abbey tourist invasion leaves Lady Mary unamused

THE TELEGRAPH
By Anita Singh, Arts and Entertainment Editor
3:23PM GMT 20 Mar 2015


Michelle Dockery looked unamused at the delay to filming Photo: FameFlynet.uk.com

If Lady Mary’s expression is anything to go by, the tourists who wandered on to the set of Downton Abbey were not very welcome visitors.

Filming in the picturesque village of Lacock was disrupted when a tour guide led up to 50 overseas students on to the High Street in the picturesque village of Lacock, Wiltshire, which was being used to recreate a market scene.


Rob James-Collier joked with the crew during the hiatus in filming (Photo: FameFlynet.uk.com)

Thrilled to find themselves in the midst of a TV show, the group waved camera phones and selfie sticks. Witnesses said the shoot was interrupted for 45 minutes until they moved on, although a Downton spokesman claimed their presence had no impact on the day and filming continued.

Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, looked unamused. Others, including Rob James Collier (Thomas Barrow) appeared more relaxed about the visitors.

Downton stars and extras pause while tourists take pictures of the set (Photo: FameFlynet.uk.com)

READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11485675/Downton-Abbey-tourist-invasion-leaves-Lady-Mary-unamused.html

"Fantastic" Keira Knightley: "Like Having a Sister on Set"

E!
by MARC MALKIN Today 6:15 AM PDT



Not that we ever doubted how amazingly awesome Keira Knightley is to work with, but it's still nice to hear her co-stars gushing over the Oscar nominee.

"She's so down to earth and level headed and works astonishingly hard and keeps it light and easy breezy on the set," Matthew Goode says in an interview included on the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray editions of the The Imitation Game. "[She] has a really good sense of humor. It's like having a sister on set, which is fantastic."

And Knightley had no problem being the lone female star of the movie. "She knew exactly how to control the group of lads…and get over that lads mentality," Allen Leech said.

Fellow Imitation Game Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch believes the film is the "best work she's ever done.

"She's just brilliant, really brilliant," he said.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.eonline.com/news/635193/fantastic-keira-knightley-like-having-a-sister-on-set

You'll Never Guess Princess Kate's Favorite Room on the Downton Abbey Set

PEOPLE MAGAZINE
BY SIMON PERRY @SPerryPeoplemag UPDATED 03/12/2015 AT 12:10 PM EDT •ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 03/12/2015 AT 10:50 AM EDT


Princess Kate (far right) with Penelope Wilton, Hugh Bonneville and Laura Carmichael of Downton Abbey
CHRIS JACKSON/WPA POOL/GETTY

Princess Kate meeting the cast of Downton Abbey is the most English thing to happen since tea met crumpets.

After touring the set of the smash Masterpiece drama on Thursday, the expectant royal, 33, sat down for a photo with the ensemble.

Anglophiles, you're going to want to pour yourself a cuppa and spend a long moment with this glorious picture.


Princess Kate (front row, center) with the cast of Downton Abbey
CHRIS JACKSON / WPA POOL / GETTY

Most of the cast is assembled, with an amusing mix of contemporary and period clothes – a distinction highlighted in the front row, with Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary) in her '20s garb and Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith) in a current look.

"It was a surreal and exciting experience to be at work and be visited by a member of the royal family," Carmichael told PEOPLE. "She has watched the show and loves it and that's really lovely."

Princess Kate with Brendan Coyle (right) of Downton Abbey
CHRIS JACKSON / WPA POOL / GETTY

"She spent the longest time in the kitchen, so me and Lesley [Nicol, who plays head cook Mrs. Patmore] are taking that as a compliment," says Sophie McShera, who plays assistant cook Daisy.

"We told her that two of the hobs work – because we like having steaming pans," Nicol shared.

And though Kate appeared to observers to be a little starstruck, McShera says, "Everyone around her was more starstruck."

Of course, the visit wouldn't be complete without some playful upstairs-downstairs rivalry – in this case, between Brendan Coyle (valet John Bates) and Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham).

Princess Kate (right) with Rob James-Collier of Downton Abbey CHRIS JACKSON / WPA POOL / GETTY

Kate ended up spending an hour longer than she had planned. Now, the cast hopes the eight-months pregnant royal is resting.

"I think she should go and have a sit down and take her shoes off," says Nicol. "It's quite hard work on those heels."

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:  http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20907433,00.html

Olivier Awards 2015: Nominations in full from Wolf Hall to Beautiful - The Carole King Musical

THE INDEPENDENT
 JESS DENHAM  Author Biography   Monday 09 March 2015



 Lesley Manville and James McAvoy have announced the nominations for this year's Olivier Awards, celebrating the best in theatre.

Memphis The Musical has picked up the most nods with nine, while Beautiful - The Carole King Musical has earned eight.

Here is the list in full:

Best Actress

Gillian Anderson, A Streetcar Named Desire

Kristin Scott Thomas, Electra

Imelda Staunton, Good People

Penelope Wilton, Taken At Midnight

Best Actor

Richard Armitage, The Crucible

James McAvoy, The Ruling Class

Tim Pigott-Smith, King Charles III

Mark Strong, A View From The Bridge

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Phoebe Fox, A View From the Bridge

The Girls playing Iris, The Nether

Angela Lansbury, Blithe Spirit

Lydia Wilson, King Charles III

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

David Caldar, The Nether

Richard Goulding, King Charles III

John Light, Taken At Midnight

Nathaniel Parker, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies





READ MORE HERE: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/olivier-awards-2015-nominations-in-full-from-wolf-hall-to-beautiful--the-carole-king-musical-10095566.html