AND talking of Life on Mars guest star Marc Warren…
Get the garlic, crosses and stakes ready, Hustle actor Marc is about to get his teeth into a new TV adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.
He takes the lead in the BBC1 production which begins filming this month in and around the West Country.
Lined up as a possible Christmas or New Year treat, the 90-minute film co-stars Line of Beauty’s Dan Stevens as Lord Holmwood and Thunderbirds actress Sophia Myles as his fiance Lucy.
Author: ianwylie
THE bottles of Old Spice and Hai Karate aftershave are still in Gene’s office and a jar of pickled eggs sits behind the bar of The Railway Arms.
Earlier this week I spent a day on set in Manchester during filming for the second series of BBC1’s Life on Mars – the best drama on TV last year by some distance. And that includes Bleak House.
The main interviews with cast and crew have to be held back until nearer transmission. But from what I saw and heard, fans of the show won’t be disappointed when it returns early next year. Even the most avid student of Life on Mars should be satisfied.
It’s been hot in the city for the TV team this summer. The heatwave has caused problems for Philip Glenister, who plays Det Chief Insp Gene Hunt in a big camel coat. “It’s been pretty nightmarish,” he told me.
But there’s another reason why the Gene Genie has been getting hot under the collar while making the second series of the hit drama set in 1973.
IT looks like the end of the road for hit ITV1 drama Life Begins.
Caroline Quentin returns soon as Maggie Thornhill for a third and almost certainly last series of the show.
Created by Bramhall-born Mike Bullen and first screened in 2004, the final six episodes again co-star Alexander Armstrong as Maggie’s husband Phil.
He says: “This is probably the last series as Caroline is pretty insistent that we should stop while we’re ahead, even though ITV wanted us to do a fourth series. I think she talked to everyone on the show about her decision.”
ABI Finley aims to be one of your favourite things after winning through to the final ten in a TV search for a new West End star.
You may have seen the Prestwich student impress producer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Saturday’s edition of BBC1’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?
Now Abi, 23, could be in line to take the starring role in a new production of The Sound of Music, which opens at the London Palladium in November.
Her ambition is “to be the first Jewish nun”. That will be tested when we get to vote for our favourites in a six-part series of live shows, hosted by Graham Norton, starting this coming Saturday. And there’s already been a twist in the tale.
DAWN French spent four weeks talking to some of the funniest women in Britain and America.
The result is Dawn French’s Girls Who Do Comedy, a three-part series which starts on BBC1 at 10.15pm a week tomorrow.
It begins with a dazzling number of talking heads but develops into something rather interesting and, at times, revealing.
The series is dedicated to comedienne and broadcaster Linda Smith, who was interviewed before her death from ovarian cancer in February at the age of 48.
MAX Beesley and Tamzin Outhwaite will check in several guest stars when Hotel Babylon opens its doors again in the New Year.
The five star TV hotel welcomes Kacey Ainsworth in her first role since leaving Albert Square’s Little Mo behind.
She plays a tabloid journalist in a storyline which also involves the unlikely pairing of Chris Moyles and Chantelle.
Other guests in the second series include Kelly Brook as Lady Catherine Stanwood, a former hotel receptionist who got lucky, and Ronni Ancona as a Tory MP.
Cherie Lunghi and Russ Abbott play husband and wife and David Walliams is a cult leader. Wonder if he’ll try out the hotel pool?
YOU meet many remarkable people in this job. Marie Stubbs is right up there near the top of the list.
Now the former head teacher, played by Julie Walters in ITV1 drama Ahead of the Class, is coming out of retirement for a new Channel 4 series.
Marie aims to try and turn around some of the UK’s worst performing schools in the four-part series called The School Fixer.
SURPRISE TV hit of the week is a series about offshore fishermen based in the north east of Scotland.
BBC1’s Trawlermen netted five million viewers on its first trip out to the stormy North Sea on Monday night.
That’s just two million fewer than the number watching top soap Emmerdale at the same time – and a massive three million more than ITV1’s multi-million pound flop Love Island.
It’s a fascinating “eat, sleep, fish” series about a hidden – and dangerous – world, featuring the crews of several boats playing for high stakes.
ROBSON Green was a little puzzled when he turned up to meet the press at a central London hotel yesterday.
We’d just watched the first film in series four of Wire In The Blood, which returns to ITV1 in September. Robson is back as Dr Tony Hill, alongside new screen partner Simone Lahbib as Det Insp Alex Fielding.
Inspired by the novels of Stockport-based author Val McDermid, it’s disturbing stuff about the darker side of human nature.
Which is why Robson was mystified to receive a call from one producer, who said: “I saw you in Wire In The Blood. Can you do six months of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?”
WELL, did you see it?
Sir Jimmy Savile made his feelings quite clear without saying a word after the final credits had rolled on the last ever Top of the Pops.
Turning off the studio lights – 42 years after hosting the first show in Manchester – he shook his head. The message to BBC bosses was clear: “You’ve made a mistake.”
Last night’s one-hour special opened with the Rolling Stones, just as TOTP had on New Year’s Day 1964. And, of course, the choice of track from the black and white video library was: “The Last Time”.
Life of Wylie 