Apparently heads of state are eligible for acting awards in the U.K. On Thursday night in London, Kenneth Branagh presented the Queen with an honorary BAFTA for her longtime patronage of British film and television. During the tribute, BAFTA chairman John Willis noted the monarch’s work onscreen for last summer’s Olympic Opening Ceremony, calling her “the most memorable Bond girl yet.” Branagh, meanwhile, encouraged the Queen to pursue her burgeoning acting career and jokingly offered to contact her agent, Daniel Craig, about future casting opportunities.
There's a great site - SCOOP IT! BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH that ran this little article about the troops guarding the Olympics.
By T. Poulson
In the UK, 18,000 of our troops are guarding the Olympics. There weren't supposed to be that many, but there was a SNAFU and they are picking up the slack. They are AMAZING. Some of them are just back from Afghanistan and are missing seeing their families. Many are staying in tents and sleeping on campbeds.
Now, they aren't complaining, but, if you happen to see them, please give them a big 'thank you'.
This is a very personal request. See that picture above? Well, that fit bloke at the front is *my big brother*. I am bursting with pride for him and the incredible job that *all* of our armed forces are doing to make the Olympics as fun and safe as they can be.
Apologies for the interruption, but thank you. Now, back to your normal 'Benedict Cumberbatch' service......T. Poulson
(I really hope this series comes back somehow! and I want Ian and Sally to get together!!! - Karen)
What was it like behind the scenes though? For all its glitz, I imagine not dissimilar to Twenty Twelve (BBC2, Tuesday). This fantastic mockumentary came to an end with an episode entitled Loose Ends. We joined Head of Deliverance Ian (Hugh Bonneville) and his team 18 days before the Olympics were kicked off but just 10 days before they were due to hand over to the Live team.
The loose ends they had to tie up included the fears that Danny Boyle’s fireworks might trigger the ground-to-air missiles put in place for security, that the slow-charge eco cars would all have run out of battery by day two and that there were only two volunteers for a specially commissioned peal of bells.
In an impressive cast including Olivia Colman as Ian’s devoted secretary Sally and Morven Christie as the fantastically passive-aggressive Fi, it was Jessica Hynes’s objectionable
Head of Brand Siobhan Sharpe who stole the show. “What I do here is repurpose this whole thing...” she said, turning the bell ringing into a celebrity judged contest called The Big Bong.
There were personal loose ends too but a cut to black and the credits denied us a denouement of Ian and Sally’s will-they-won’t-they saga. I can never make up my mind whether I think this is clever and subtle or a dramatic cop-out but here I hope it might herald another series.
This sort of faux-reality format is hardly original but writer-director John Morton has a deft touch, keeping the blunders just the right side of farce.
In fact, with buses getting lost on their way to the Olympic Park and the wrong Korean flag being hoist, he could have gone a lot further and still remained less ridiculous than real life.
Twenty Twelve has been one of this year’s best sit-coms so there was really no contest when it came to Games-themed drollery. Absolutely Fabulous: Olympics (BBC1, Monday) deserved no medals for comedy.
The BAFTA nominated docu-comedy series TWENTY TWELVE, starring BAFTA nominee Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), joins BBC AMERICA's Ministry of Laughs comedy block just in time for the Summer Games. From executive producer Jon Plowman (The Office, Extras, Absolutely Fabulous) and writer John Morton (People Like Us), the series follows the team responsible for delivering the biggest show on earth: the London Olympics. Twenty Twelve premieres with three back-to-back episodes on Thursday, June 28, 9:00pm ET, then moves to its regular time slot on Saturday, June 30, midnight ET as part of the Ministry of Laughs comedy block. The first season will be immediately followed by season two.
Bringing together actors and creators of some of Britain's most iconic comedies - Twenty Twelve's cast includes BAFTA nominee Olivia Colman (Peep Show), Jessica Hynes (Spaced), Amelia Bullmore (I'm Alan Partridge), Vincent Franklin (The Thick of It) and Karl Theobald (Green Wing), and is narrated by David Tennant (The Spies of Warsaw, Doctor Who).
Twenty Twelve deals with such hot topics as how to phase the traffic lights across London to get people from west to east, which celebrities should be approached to carry the Torch and what to do when protesters leave large quantities of horse dung on the doorstep in protest at the equestrian events. From how to cope with athletes who want to help but are just too dull, to getting a busload of non-English speaking Brazilians from A to B, this crack team of experts is paddling hard beneath the water to make the Olympics happen in London in 2012. With 9 billion pounds to spend and plenty of time before the deadline, what can possibly go wrong?
TWO years ago Hugh Bonneville was just another hard-working British actor whose plummy vowels and cherubic cheeks lent themselves to characters good (Bernie, the stockbroker who never gets the girl in “Notting Hill”) and not so good (Henleigh Grandcourt, the aristocrat who sends the girl fleeing in “Daniel Deronda”).
Then he crisped his consonants and stiffened his upper lip to portray Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, the lord of the manor in “Downton Abbey,” the “Masterpiece” megahit on PBS. And hearts around the world swooned.
In “Twenty Twelve,” to have its United States premiere on BBC America on Thursday at 9 p.m., Mr. Bonneville trades his Savile Row tailcoat and red spencer jacket for spandex gym shorts and slept-in trousers — all while keeping a straight face — to play Ian Fletcher, the beleaguered head of the Olympic Deliverance Commission. The mockumentary series won the 2011 British Comedy Award for best TV sitcom.
In a recent phone interview from London, Mr. Bonneville spoke with Kathryn Shattuck about the convergence of fiction and reality, and becoming an international sensation at 48. These are excerpts from their conversation:
READ THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERVIEW HERE:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/arts/television/hugh-bonneville-star-of-the-olympics-comedy-twenty-twelve.html?_r=1
On an evening out, she usually likes to let her hair down. But the Duchess of Cambridge raised the style stakes last night – opting for an intricate chignon instead.
The elegant knotted bun, put in place by a team from the Richard Ward salon in Chelsea, showed off the elaborate design of her teal Jenny Packham dress to full effect.
The tiny gems in the delicate lace across her back and shoulders shimmered as she arrived at a gala at the Royal Albert Hall to mark the countdown to the London Olympic Games.
