Kevin Costner’s ‘The Gray House‘ To Open Monte-Carlo TV Festival The 63rd Monte-Carlo Television Festival, which takes place 14-18 June, has added a touch of star power. The Kevin Costner-produced civil war spy drama The Gray House will be this year’s World Premiere Screening. The limited series, which Costner’s Territory Pictures and Morgan Freeman’s Revelations
BBC
EXCLUSIVE: The BBC wants to overhaul how it awards salary rises to its highest-paid employees and presenters, Deadline understands. Sources said the British broadcaster wants to stop top earners from receiving automatic annual pay increases and instead hand them raises based on their performance. The BBC wants to make the change as it grapples with
“I wasn’t happy at the way my activities were characterized and think they were misrepresented wilfully by other forms of the media.” That is the verdict of ex-BBC Chair Richard Sharp, who was forced to resign almost a year ago after failing to declare his role in the facilitation of an £800,000 ($1.07B) loan facility
EXCLUSIVE: The BBC was victorious in a bidding war with Netflix for Dear England amid fears for the future of British storytelling on television. Deadline hears that Left Bank Pictures and Dear England writer James Graham wanted the stage play to be adapted on the BBC, despite a more lucrative offer from Netflix. The four-part
“British storytelling is at growing risk of being squeezed out in an extraordinarily competitive global media landscape,” the BBC Director General will warn in a landmark speech tomorrow that will set out how to “radically transform and renew” the 100-year-old corporation. Tim Davie plans to say “we are in danger of the UK’s world-class creative
A Conservative Party peer in the UK has been forced to apologize and pay damages to a University Challenge contestant who she accused of making a coded antisemitic attack via an octopus mascot and jacket supposedly emblazoned with the colors of the Palestinian flag. Baroness Jacqueline Foster took to X today to apologize “for my
Andrew Scott appeared to walk away from a BBC News red carpet interview at the BAFTA Film Awards after being asked about Barry Keoghan‘s Saltburn nude dance. Scott was asked about his reaction to the scene by BBC entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson. “I won’t spoil it for anyone. It’s great, it’s great,” Scott replied. Paterson
BAFTA-winning Once Upon a Time In Northern Ireland creator James Bluemel has found his next project, an exploration of space. Bluemel, who has made some of the most critically-acclaimed British docs of the past few years, has also joined Once Upon a Time … producer Keo Films as Creative Director. Once Upon a Time in
Lenny Henry is to present his final Comic Relief this year. The comedian co-founded the charity with fabled director Richard Curtis in 1985 and has since hosted multiple BBC telethons and been involved closely with the organization. He said it was time to see “new faces” at the helm but remains life president of Comic
Controversy over the promotion of ear seeds and acupuncture as a recovery aid for ME on Dragons’ Den has led the BBC to edit the program and add a clarification. The episode of the 20-year-old business format was removed from BBC iPlayer earlier this week following a backlash to Giselle Boxer’s Acu Seeds business pitch,
Here’s a shocker: the BBC and Bad Wolf have reportedly recast Millie Gibson as Doctor Who‘s assistant after she filmed just one season as Ncuti Gatwa‘s sidekick. The Daily Mirror’s Nicola Methven, who is well-sourced on Doctor Who, said Gibson would be replaced by Andor star Varada Sethu in Gatwa’s second season as the Time
The BBC‘s latest Agatha Christie adaptation concluded last night neck-and-neck in the ratings with ITV‘s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? from over the Easter Weekend. Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy, starring Industry’s David Jonsson as an amateur sleuth working with Rings of Power star Morfydd Clark, was watched by 2.7M viewers last night, losing 800,000
The Tourist has headed to Ireland and viewers have been given a first glimpse in the Season 2 trailer of the Jamie Dornan-starrer, which launches New Year’s Day. The BBC series, which has moved from Max to Netflix in the U.S., is set against the striking backdrop of Ireland in the upcoming season. Dornan’s Elliot
The BBC‘s incoming chairman has yet to step foot on the corporation’s premises, but he has already waded into his first scandal. Samir Shah, a long-time UK media executive, gave an unequivocal verdict on the latest social media posts of Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter. Shah said Lineker’s posts on Twitter (now X) this
Nigel Farage failed in his quest to win I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! last night as he finished third in the final of the ITV juggernaut, which saw viewing decline dramatically from last year’s closer. Farage equalled former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s finish last year, as ITV’s penchant for throwing controversial politicians
The BBC received more than 100 complaints from Doctor Who viewers who argued that the inclusion of Yasmin Finney‘s transgender character Rose was “inappropriate.” The corporation has revealed it had 144 messages from disgruntled viewers in its fortnightly report on audience complaints. Some said Heartstopper star Finney’s character was “anti-male,” while others said it was
EXCLUSIVE: The biggest players in UK children’s TV are being asked to attend a summit early next year to try and resolve grave funding issues amidst existential questions over the genre’s future. The Children’s Media Foundation (CMF) has been preparing the summit for months including via a series of consultative meetings with all the major
The BBC is staring down the barrel of another real terms funding cut after the UK government signaled its intention to renege on the 2022 license fee deal. Culture secretary Lucy Frazer told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that the government would announce the new level of the license fee “very soon.” Under a deal
Newsnight, the BBC‘s flagship daily current affairs show, is to be shortened to 30 minutes and relaunched as a forum for interviews and debate. BBC News has today briefed staff about a £7.5M ($9.5M) savings plan, with BBC2’s Newsnight bearing the brunt of the cuts as the British broadcaster grapples with a funding freeze. Reporter
Gary Lineker, the BBC‘s highest-paid presenter, has been criticized after appearing to endorse a claim that Israel is committing “textbook genocide” in Gaza. Lineker, who was briefly suspended in March for breaking BBC social media rules, shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) in which academic Raz Segal outlined what constituted genocide. Lineker said the
Top Gear will not be seen for the “foreseeable future” on TV, the BBC has said. The show has been off air since host Andrew Flintoff picked up “life-alteringly significant” injuries following a crash, which led to a £9M ($11.2M) payout for the cricketing legend and a health and safety review. In the past few
EXCLUSIVE: Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones) and BAFTA winner Francesca Annis (Fresh & Blood) are among a host of stars boarding season 2 of Ben Richards’ BBC legal drama Showtrial. The pair are joining the previously announced Adeel Akhtar, Nathalie Armin and Michael Socha in the five-part season from Line of Duty maker World Productions.
The BBC has picked up Irish crime drama Kin from Fifth Season. The RTÉ series, which aired in the U.S. on AMC+, is the latest high-profile show snapped up by the BBC buying team, following the likes of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. It is produced by Joker financier Bron Studios and Man in the
The BBC has been told by the British government to review its opposition to calling Hamas a terrorist organization amid the Israel-Gaza crisis. The BBC refers to Hamas as a “militant” group or variations of this phrase, pointing to its editorial guidelines which state that the word “terrorist” should not be used without attribution. It
It’s Friday, aka Insider Day. Jesse Whittock back again to run you through the international film and TV stories dominating the headlines this week. BBC’s Social Media Guide Steadying the flagship: Easily one of the BBC‘s biggest ongoing headaches is around how the broadcaster’s most popular stars and presenters engage on social media platforms. The issue
The BBC has acquired all three seasons of Hulu’s Love, Victor. Set in the same universe as hit movie Love, Simon, the show focuses on a new student at Creekwood High School, played by Michael Cimino. The series follows his journey of self-discovery: facing challenges at home and struggling with his sexual orientation. He reaches
The BBC is bringing AMC Networks’ Interview with the Vampire TV series to the UK. The public network has acquired the seven-part show from AMCN and will launch it on BBC Two and the BBC iPlayer. The show stars Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Broadchurch), Sam Reid (The Newsreader, Prime Suspect 1973, Lambs of God), Bailey Bass (Avatar: Way
The BBC is partnering with TikTok to create a boot camp for social media creators looking to break into the television industry. The British broadcaster will launch a “content lab” giving 100 TikTok users a crash course in TV stardom, as well as helping them grow their own social media channels. The tie-up is evidence
The England Lionesses defeat to Spain in the Women’s World Cup Final was watched by a peak of 14.4M people yesterday across the BBC and ITV. Coverage was shown on both channels for the first time in the women’s game but couldn’t match the record from last year’s Euros final of a 17.4M peak, or
The streamers’ UK revenues skyrocketed by more than 20% last year despite sub numbers remaining at a virtual standstill, according to Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report. The combined turnover of the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ hit nearly £3.3B in the nation, rising by 21.5% on the prior year and having now