The Paradise - Series 1, Episode 6 PREVIEW

A bright-eyed country girl, Denise Lovett, finds more than just shop-girl work when she brings her clever ideas and ambition to Britain's glamorous first department store, The Paradise. Denise is plunged into power struggles, intrigues and romance as she catches the attention of the store's dashing and enigmatic owner, John Moray. Entangled with his powerful financial backer's entitled daughter, Moray harbors a dark secret as well as debts that threaten to ruin his hard-won empire. The Paradise, embodying the progress and the pain of a new age of commerce, is the way of the future. But will that future belong to those who usher it in…and can they have a future together?

Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon to Lead ALL THAT FALL at 59E59 Theaters

BROADWAY WORLD
5 August, 2013

Following two highly successful sold-out runs in London in 2012 at the Jermyn Street and Arts Theatres, Trevor Nunn's critically acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's radio play ALL THAT FALL starring Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon will have a limited run at 59E59 Theaters in New York from Tuesday November 5 to Sunday December 8, 2013.

Specially commissioned by the BBC as a radio play, ALL THAT FALL was first broadcast in 1957. Set in rural Ireland, the play follows Mrs Rooney (Eileen Atkins), struggling under her aged, rheumatic, large frame, on her way to meet her blind and ill-tempered husband (Michael Gambon) off the train. Along the way, she encounters Christy with his dung cart, old Tyler on his bicycle, Mr Slocum, a racecourse clerk, and Miss Fitt, a pious spinster. At once chilling and compassionate, intimate and expansive, ALL THAT FALL offers an inimitably idiosyncratic and at times hilarious perspective on loss, grief and old age.


Read more about Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon to Lead ALL THAT FALL at 59E59 Theaters by www.broadwayworld.com

Jean Marsh wants to revive The House of Eliott July 14th, 2013 8:41pm EDT | By: WENN (STAR PULSE)

Veteran British actress Jean Marsh is putting the cancellation of her Upstairs, Downstairs reboot behind her by making plans to revive another of her period dramas, The House Of Eliott.

Marsh co-created Upstairs, Downstairs with her friend Dame Eileen Atkins, and she played housemaid Rose Buck in the original 1970s show and a revived 2010 version of the TV drama, which was axed after two seasons due to poor ratings.

However, she is now looking to reteam with Atkins to make a new version of the other TV show they created together - popular period drama The House of Eliott.

Marsh insists she wants the show to be able to avoid comparisons with hugely successful Downton Abbey, telling Britain's Daily Telegraph, "I want to bring House of Eliott back. You see, we have thought about it for a while, but now seems like the right time. We would like to set it in the Forties and Fifties rather than the Twenties. That way we would be a couple of decades ahead of Downton and wouldn't have to worry about comparisons.


READ MORE: http://www.starpulse.com/news/Dave_Simpson/2013/07/14/jean_marsh_wants_to_revive_the_house_o

Eileen Atkins wins an award for off-West End work Upstairs Downstairs actress Eileen Atkins has won the OffWestEnd award for best actress for her role in All That Fall at Jermyn Street Theatre. (TELEGRAPH)

By Daisy Bowie-Sell
6:00PM GMT 24 Feb 2013

She is a Dame, has been awarded a CBE and won many awards including Baftas, Tonys, Oliviers and Emmys for her film, theatre and television work.

Now, the 78-year-old actress Eileen Atkins has been recognised for her work on London's fringe theatre scene.

At a ceremony at Battersea Arts Centre today, Atkins picked up the best actress award at the Offies – the Off West End theatre awards.

She was recognised for her role in a Beckett radio play All That Fall, which was staged for the first time at the Jermyn Street Theatre last year. Atkins starred alongside Michael Gambon in the show, which earned a four star review from The Telegraph's Charles Spencer.

Atkins attended the ceremony along with other theatre greats including Simon Callow, Toby Jones and Richard Bean who appeared alongside a long list of up and coming theatre names.


READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/9888032/Veteran-actress-Eileen-Atkins-wins-an-award-for-off-West-End-work.html

Downton Abbey's reaction at Emmy nominations (DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD)

Downton Abbey
“It is a great honour and tremendously exciting to find our show on the list for this year’s Emmy ceremony. The very steep competition can only be considered a compliment, since they are all fantastic programs, and I hope they are as happy as I am, celebrating their nominations”. — creator/writer/executive producer Julian Fellowes

“The Emmys aren’t well known in Great Britain as the BAFTAs, but within the industry, they’re considered the preeminent TV awards. What (our nominations) mean for us is that Downton Abbey isn’t just a huge hit in its own country, but offshore as well. Downtown has the record number for most noms for a British series [Editor's note: Downton has a total of 27 noms over 2 years. Upstairs Downstairs had a total of 23 since 1977)...(Downton resonates in America) because we start off with a familiar recognizable British drama with Edwardian and class system elements; things that are recognizable in literature. We created a modern show with fast storytelling, myriad characters; but going into a much loved traditional genre". -- executive producer Gareth Neame

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/emmy-award-2012-nominees-reactions-actors-showrunners-downton-abbey-hatfields-mccoys/

Upstairs Downstairs axed as BBC admits defeat in battle of the Sunday night dramas MAIL ON-LINE

(Buh - Bye)

Upstairs Downstairs was revived in 2010 after 40 years off screen The second six-part series drew 6.5 million viewers when it began in January But within a week 700,000 had switched off and by the time the series ended last month, just 4.45 million were watching. By LAURA GOULD and CHRIS HASTINGS

It was billed as the BBC’s big-budget fightback in television’s Sunday night ratings battle. The Corporation hoped its lavish new version of Upstairs Downstairs would serve up the same sort of success enjoyed by ITV’s country house saga Downton Abbey. But after two series it seems the BBC has admitted defeat – axeing the revived period drama because of falling ratings.

Turn-off: Keeley Hawes and Ed Stoppard as aristocratic Hollands 

 Yesterday it was confirmed that there would not be a third series after more than two million viewers turned off between the first episode and the last. The decision comes despite attempts to ‘sex up’ the plot with the introduction of lesbian archaeologist Dr Blanche Mottershead, played by ER and Moll Flanders star Alex Kingston. She was seen in bed with her bisexual lover, played by Emilia Fox.


READ MORE:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2133318/Upstairs-Downstairs-axed-BBC-admits-defeat-battle-Sunday-night-dramas.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Martin Clunes: 'Doc Martin' star Martin Clunes on the making of the British series April 12, 2012 | 11:19 am (LA TIMES)

"Doc Martin," the globally popular British series about an antisocial big-city surgeon working as a general practitioner among boundary-disrespecting neighbors in a Cornwall fishing village, has just begun its fifth season.

Over the last couple of years it has become a staple feature of American public broadcasting -- the second episode of the new season premieres locally tonight on KCET -- and has been widely available online, offered free to subscribers of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus. Acorn Media, which has released the previous four seasons on DVD, will add the fifth in June. (I earlier wrote about the series here.)

Martin Clunes (whose "William and Mary," an earlier series in which he plays a cuddly undertaker, has also become a PBS favorite) stars as Martin Ellingham, the eponymous doctor. Caroline Catz is Louisa, the teacher he inarticulately loves, nearly marries and, at the close of Season 4, has a child with. This year also sees the arrival of the great Eileen Atkins ("Cold Comfort Farm," "Cranford" and a co-creator of "Upstairs Downstairs") as Martin's Aunt Ruth, a psychiatrist who shares his dry, logical, suffer-no-fool-gladly temperament.

I spoke with Clunes recently, by phone to his home in England. He is clearly a different man from the one he currently plays on television. You should imagine hearty laughter coloring his responses below.

Your character is unusual, in that it's a variation on a different Cornwall-based doctor named Martin you played in the film "Saving Grace" and two subsequent TV movies. Can you talk about how you got from there to here?

Martin Clunes: It was quite simple and sort of market-led. Sky, which is Fox I guess over here, had some money in "Saving Grace," and Elizabeth Murdoch, Rupert's daughter, set up a thing called Sky Pictures, which was terrific because it meant the industry was very buoyant and lots of people were making films [for television]. And we got picked up -- they did some research and thought that the character of the doctor in "Saving Grace" had legs, and so they asked us if we'd make some films based on him. And then they folded while we were making them.

We sort of knew somebody at ITV, which is an independent broadcast channel over here, and said, "Are you interested in picking up this franchise, 'cause we're kind of set up." We'd made these two films ["Doc Martin" (2001) and "Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie" (2003)]. The tone of it, the kind of dope-smoking aspect, didn't appeal to them, and they didn't think it would suit their audience. But they said they didn't mind me being a doctor in that place. So we had the license to take it apart and create something from the ground up. We didn't want to do the "Doc Hollywood" thing of "smart town city doctor being amazed and bemused by his quirky neighbors"; we kind of wanted to turn that on its head, and that was a small community united in horror by this vile GP.



Read More of the Interview:  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/04/martin-clunes-talks-doc-martin.html

Upstairs/Downstairs sinking fast (MAIL ON LINE)

Turn-off: The new Upstairs Downstairs stars Annie Reid as Mrs Thackeray, Jean Marsh as Rose Buck, Ed Stoppard as Sir Hallam Holland, and Keeley Hawes as Lady Agnes Holland


Sunday night's show attracted only 5.8million people – 700,000 fewer than the 6.5million who watched its opening episode. The remake, which was revived by BBC1 just over a year ago, was even beaten by other shows on the channel, including Countryfile, Antiques Roadshow, the Carling Cup final and national and regional news bulletins.

Downton Abbey, which stars Dame Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville, had an average audience of 10.5million when its second series finished in November.

The failure of Upstairs Downstairs follows complaints from viewers that much of the dialogue is 'too stilted and stiff' and that the storyline has been hard to follow.

Much-loved: The cast from the original Upstairs Downstairs in 1973. From left, Gordon Jackson, David Langton, Angela Baddely, Simon Williams and Jean Marsh

Read More:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2107425/Upstairs-Downstairs-takes-new-downturn-thousands-switch-lavish-dramas-second-episode.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Downton Abbey follows US Tradition of Loving British Dramas

September 2011 Last updated at 12:57 ET

Emmys revisited: Downton Abbey follows US tradition

BBC NEWS

Related Stories

• Winslet and Downton scoop Emmys

It seems Americans love nothing better than an English accent and a period setting, as Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes is all too aware.

Accepting his Emmy award for writing the show, Fellowes thanked the US film industry for "kick-starting" his career by awarding him a screenwriting Oscar in 2002 for Gosford Park, set in the 1930s.

But Fellowes - whose Downton Abbey was broadcast on the PBS network in the US - is not the first British programme-maker to benefit from the American love affair with costume pieces.

Here is a snapshot from the past four decades.

Upstairs Downstairs (1971-1975)

Co-creator Jean Marsh (r) appeared in the ITV original and the BBC's update, pictured here

ITV's drama about a London family and their servants, created by actresses Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, was a huge global hit and was reportedly seen by an audience of more than a billion.

It garnered a slew of Emmy nominations and won seven, including outstanding drama series in 1974, 1975, and 1977, as well as best actress for Marsh in 1975 for her performance as parlour maid Rose.

Marsh was nominated in this year's Emmys for reprising the role in a three-part 2010 BBC update.

There was also a supporting actor Emmy in 1976 for Gordon Jackson - as Scottish butler Angus Hudson - while, in 1975, the show won the Golden Globe for best TV drama.

The five series of the drama covered the period from 1903 to 1936.

Brideshead Revisited (1981)

Anthony Andrews, right, won a Bafta and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Sebastian Flyte

This 11-part serial, based on Evelyn Waugh's novel of the same name, was a huge hit in the UK when it was broadcast on ITV between October and December 1981.

It tells the story of the friendship between middle-class Oxford undergraduate Charles Ryder, played by a young Jeremy Irons, and hedonistic aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, played by Anthony Andrews, and a cast that also featured Sir John Gielgud.

It won seven Baftas the following year, including best drama series and best actor for Andrews.

The show - repeated in the US on PBS - received 10 Emmy nominations in 1982 and a best supporting actor prize for Sir Laurence Olivier, who only appeared in two episodes as Lord Marchmain.

In 1983, it won a best mini-series prize and best actor, for Andrews at the Golden Globes.

A 2008 film adaptation starred Matthew Goode as Ryder and Ben Whishaw as Flyte.

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Colin Firth missed out on the Bafta for Pride and Prejudice in 1996

Andrew Davies' 1995 BBC One adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel starred one Colin Firth as the dashing Mr Darcy, playing opposite Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennet.

It earned Firth - whose Oscar-winning performance in last year's The King's Speech prove he is at home in tales of yesteryear - a Bafta nomination in 1996.

But on that occasion, Firth was eclipsed by Ehle, who won best actress.

In the same year, it also earned three Emmy nominations and won the award for costume design, but was ignored at the Golden Globes.

Austen's tale was made into a 2005 film by Joe Wright, starring Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy and Keira Knightley as Bennet.

Cranford (2007 - 2009)

The BBC's five-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels had up to eight millions viewers in the UK regularly tuning in each week to witness the genteel lives of the town's female inhabitants. It later returned for a two-part Christmas special in 2009.

Dame Judi Dench, Lisa Dillon and Dame Eileen Atkins starred in the adaptation of Cranford

Featuring a stellar cast including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins and Imelda Staunton, it earned a total of 15 Bafta nominations.

It came away with three Baftas in 2008 with a best actress win for Dame Eileen, and also best production design and sound, but failed to pick up anything for the Christmas special.

Across the pond, the series was nominated for eight Emmys in 2008 including acting nods for Dame Judi and Dame Eileen. But only the latter Dame won an award - along with Alison Elliot for outstanding hairstyling.

The Christmas special received another seven Emmy nominations in 2010 with a further nod for Dame Judi. It came away with another two awards, winning best cinematography and costumes in a mini-series, but missed the major acting prizes.

Although the drama was recognised at the Golden Globes with a total of four nominations, it was overlooked on the night.

More on This Story