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“THE Halcyon gripped me straight away.

“Setting the story within this high-class hotel and also against the backdrop of the Second World War gives you such a huge scope for drama and for what’s to come.”

Steven Mackintosh talking to me about new eight-part drama The Halcyon.

Starting on ITV at 9pm next Monday (January 2).

He plays hotel manager Richard Garland as the series opens in 1940.

Before a return to 1939.

With World War Two and the Blitz soon to impact on London and this five star West End hotel.

As you might imagine, I’ve been on quite a few film and TV sets over the last 35 years.

But the one for The Halcyon – created by production designer Matt Gant – took my breath away.

Let’s just say no-one held back on the budget.

From Here To There

“WE nearly died in there. Doesn’t it make you think?”

Daniel Cotton (Philip Glenister) asks the question of his father Samuel (Bernard Hill) in From There To Here.

The three part BBC1 drama, written by Peter Bowker, opens with the June 1996 Manchester bomb which destroyed a large part of the city centre.

But this is not a story about the IRA attack. It charts the ripples of that initial trigger on two families across Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

Last night I attended a screening of episode one at BAFTA in London followed by a Q&A, including Phil and Pete.

You can read my full transcript below, edited very slightly to remove any major spoilers.