I have updated the gallery with some recent events Olivia has attended so to go there just click the pictures below:
Tag: olivia colman online
Olivia Colman to appear in comedy pilot Flowers
Olivia Colman and the Mighty Boosh star Julian Barratt are to feature in a new comedy pilot, Flowers, for Channel 4.
Bafta-winning former Peep Show star Colman, who will return in the second series of ITV murder mystery Broadchurch in the new year, will play the mother of twentysomething twins in the sitcom about the ultimate dysfunctional family.
Barratt will play Colman’s husband in the comedy, written and directed by Will Sharpe, who will also appear as the family’s “home help”.
Sharpe was one of the co-directors of low budget indie film Black Pond, starring Chris Langham and Simon Amstell, which was nominated for the Bafta outstanding debut award in 2012. Currently a non-broadcast pilot, filming has just finished on the opening episode with Channel 4 hopeful that it will progress to a full series.
Channel 4 head of comedy Phil Clarke said: “It is really dark, funny and challenging – everything a Channel 4 family sitcom should be.
“It’s possibly the most dysfunctional family you will ever come across and yet somehow they still manage to function as a family. The humour is very dark but at times it’s really broad as well. It’s a very original piece – I don’t think there’s anything like it anywhere else.”
Clarke said the pilot, which is being made by Kudos, the production company behind Broadchurch, was in many respects a traditional sitcom.
“They have twins, a son and a daughter, the nanny lives at the house as well; they have neighbours and there are builders in. If it goes to a full series the builders will probably always be there,” he said.
“It’s got all the classic sitcom things and yet it is absolutely not like anything else I have read for a very, very long time.”
Clarke said he “really loved” Black Pond, a black comedy about a family who are accused of murder when a stranger comes to dinner. “Black Pond is a much darker film, this is more out and out funny,” he added.
Source: theguardian.co.uk – Olivia Colman to star in new comedy pilot Flowers
UK must not abandon Afghan women to the Taliban, warns Olivia Colman
The Broadchurch star has added her voice to a radio documentary which tells of the extraordinary risks women in the previously war-torn country STILL face.
She said: “Being a teacher, a doctor, a politician – these are important jobs but they shouldn’t be dangerous ones.
“The brave women whose words I’ve voiced risk so much to educate, to care and to shape the future of their country.
“Women like these are the hope for Afghanistan’s future and the UK must not abandon them to the Taliban now.”
The programme, due to be aired on Radio Four this evening, explores life for women at a time when security is deteriorating following the departure of foreign troops from the country.
It is based on testimony by a handful of women, who BBC journalist Lyse Doucet met during a recent visit to the capital Kabul.
Produced with Amnesty International, it features the stories of three women – a gynaecologist, the head teacher of a girls’ school and a women’s rights political advocate.
It was originally conceived as a performance of a play based on their testimony, entitled Even If We Lose our Loves.
However the programme now features extracts from the play but not interviews with the three women as two of them have recently been forced into hiding due to renewed security threats.
Last week, to coincide with the London Conference on Afghanistan, a coalition of charities and aid organisations, the British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan (BAAG), released survey results showing that aid workers and rights campaigners in Afghanistan feel dramatically less safe than a year ago.
Sixty percent of the Afghans who responded reported that they felt less safe in their work during the past year, with half of survey respondents stating that either they, or their colleagues, have suffered intimidation or death threats during that time.
The lives of women have been steadily improving since the fall of the Taliban 13 years ago.
They had all been forced to wear the burkha, were not educated past the age of eight and were not allowed to be in the presence of men, other than ‘close relatives’.
Cosmetics were banned, they were forbidden from appearing at public gatherings and around 80 per cent of marriages were forced.
Punishments for so-called breaches of Taliban law were harsh and teachers faced being killed for daring to educate older girls while public floggings were commonplace.
Well-educated women have risen to positions of power within hospitals and mortality rates are down however the threat of violence and rape looms large.
Last week, at the London Conference on Afghanistan, their newly elected President Ashaf Ghani made it clear that empowering women is one of his top priorities.
He said: “We have gone back in time. I just want to give opportunities to Afghan women that my grandmother had. What’s wrong with that?
“Speaking Out, Losing Lives” is on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 8 December at 8pm.
Source: express.co.uk – UK must not abandon Afghan women to the Taliban, warns Olivia Colman
Broadchurch season 3 commissioned before season 2 airs
A third series of ITV whodunnit Broadchurch has been commissioned, according to a newspaper report.
The BAFTA-winning series starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman is due to return for a second run next month – and The Sun claims writer Chris Chibnall is putting the finishing touches to another season of episodes.
It is believed shooting for the third series will begin in July, in Dorset.
Chibnall is keeping plot details for the upcoming series close to his chest but has promised fans a “big story”.
The star-studded cast will once again be led by Tennant and Colman, whose detective characters spearheaded the investigation into the murder of schoolboy Danny Latimer in series one.
It is believed shooting for the third series will begin in July, in Dorset
BAFTA-winning series starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman is due to return for a second run next month
A third series of ITV whodunnit Broadchurch has been commissioned, according to a newspaper report.
The BAFTA-winning series starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman is due to return for a second run next month – and The Sun claims writer Chris Chibnall is putting the finishing touches to another season of episodes.
It is believed shooting for the third series will begin in July, in Dorset.
Chibnall is keeping plot details for the upcoming series close to his chest but has promised fans a “big story”.
The star-studded cast will once again be led by Tennant and Colman, whose detective characters spearheaded the investigation into the murder of schoolboy Danny Latimer in series one.
Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan will also reprise their roles as Danny’s grieving parents and Arthur Darvill is back on board as local vicar Paul Coates.
Goodness Gracious Me star Meera Syal will also appear in the new series in a “pivotal” role.
The comedian joins fellow newcomers Charlotte Rampling, James D’Arcy and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Oliver Colman admits Tyrannosaur helped her face the brutality of domestic violence
All actors love scripts like the one I received for Paddy Considine’s 2011 film Tyrannosaur. It was complete – it contained everything I needed to know about my character and the story. It did my work for me. I just needed to turn up and say the lines. But I couldn’t. The suffering my character, Hannah, went through had a real world analogue that couldn’t be ignored.
Tyrannosaur is not an ”issues” film. It is not about domestic violence, or poverty, or alcoholism. It is the blistering, heart-rending story of two people finding each other and trying to heal themselves through love. I don’t think I will ever be prouder of any job. But it is not always possible, or responsible, to separate fact from fiction, and Hannah’s story is rooted horribly in a real-world nightmare: that of domestic violence.
I had not previously had much cause to dwell on the issue. I have never suffered domestic violence, unlike the 25% of women in the UK who at some point in their lives have. Nor have any of my close family or friends, as far as I am aware. (That caveat is necessary – a 25% incidence of domestic violence means it’s quite possible that I am wrong about what people I love have faced. It’s quite possible that some people I love, and some people you love, have not told the truth about what is happening to them behind closed doors.)
Now I had to dwell on it. The most satisfying experience of my professional career would involve me confecting the kind of suffering that millions of women, and many men, suffer in reality every day. I knew the chances were high that someone who had been through it, or was still going through it, would see the film. What duty did I owe those people, between whose lives and mine was such an extraordinary gulf? I decided that I needed, at the very least, to know something about them. They deserved that respect. So I asked Paddy to put me in touch with someone at domestic violence charity Refuge.
What I wanted to know, more than anything – what I wanted to be sure about, notwithstanding the internal truths of Paddy’s script – was that Hannah’s story was credible. The brutality, the depravity, the seeming hopelessness … was it credible? The answer I got astonished me. My contact at Refuge told me that Hannah’s experience wasn’t only credible, it was nothing compared to the suffering some women and men endured. She gave me a couple of examples – just two of the many hundreds of which she had recent experience – and I could scarcely bear to hear them. Then she offered to set up a meeting with one or two of them for me.
I am afraid I declined. I knew I would just cry, and that wouldn’t help anyone. And for what? To achieve some questionable incremental improvement in my performance? To do justice to the cause of people who weren’t having enormous fun making films? Actors have a reputation for vaingloriousness, but no…
Anyway, I’d had my moment of insight. I had knowledge, where previously I’d had just my imagination and Paddy’s brilliant script. Knowledge enabled me to turn up and say my lines. It also brought me to become a patron of a domestic violence charity.
As soon as I heard about Tender, I knew it would be a good fit for me. Tender is a little different from charities like Refuge (which, in a time of reduced funding, also need all the support we can give them, because of the brilliant, life-saving support they give to people who are currently suffering the horrors of domestic abuse). Tender operates at the other end of the time line – before abuse has occurred. Tender is involved in prevention. My cowardice, my tearfulness, means I am not the best person to have around in an environment where there is real, existing suffering. Tender operates in a world where there is not – yet – any suffering; where the stakes are just as high, but they are deferred.
I have two young boys. I hope, of course, that I and my husband, and everyone else who loves them, will give them the sort of knowledge and experience that will make them, and those around them, happy. But I am aware that I will never be able to – nor should – control everything they are exposed to, or the conclusions they draw from those experiences. Nor can I always know what they are thinking, or feeling; any parent will know how hard it can sometimes be just to get a child to tell them something about their school day.
So it is vital that children and young adults have spaces – mental and physical spaces – in which it is safe for them to explore and practice strategies for dealing with real world difficulties, and build confidence to communicate and be heard. This is what Tender offers them. It works primarily with young people and runs prevention projects, which raise awareness of the issue of violence in teenage romantic relationships. It uses drama and the arts – a world that I understand as being a safe space indeed for the exploration of ideas – to give young people the skills to identify the early warning signs of abusive relationships, so that they can avoid or leave them.
These projects are a powerful tool, and worth supporting in themselves. But Tender wants more, and I want to help them achieve it. Tender wants sex and relationship education to be made mandatory in all schools, so that all young people can learn how to negotiate healthy relationships.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, 25% of women will suffer domestic violence at some time in their life. Please think about that in relation to your young daughters. Think about it in relation to your young sons. Hopefully, they have not yet become part of that 25% – or become abusers themselves. But think ahead to the next 10, 15 … 40 years. You will dearly want their lives to be wonderful over these years, but it is more likely that they will be some combination of wonderful and difficult. There will certainly be a degree of suffering. Ask yourself this: what shape will that suffering take? Will it involve domestic violence? Current statistics say there’s a good chance it will. Let’s do our best to ensure it won’t.
This article is written by British actor Olivia Colman and Ed Sinclair.
Olivia will be presenting the annual awards at Tender’s upcoming event on the 10th December. For information on how to book tickets to the event, visit their website.
Source: theguardian.co.uk – Olivia Colman: Tyrannosaur made me face the true brutality of domestic violence
Olivia Colman portrait to be hung in National Portrait Gallery
Olivia Colman shows she is well suited to glamour as she pops on a tuxedo and bow tie for a new image to be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery.
The Broadchurch and Rev star appears in a newly commissioned photograph to coincide with the opening of the annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at the gallery.
Taken by photographer Hana Knizova, her highly styled look was chosen as a contrast to some of the more dowdy roles she has taken in recent years.
Hana was asked to create the new image after triumphing in the John Kobal New Work Award last year which is awarded to photographer under thirty whose work is featured in the Wessing exhibition, while Olivia was chosen as the subject for her outstanding contribution to British TV and film.
She has been pictured leaning back on a vintage chaise longue in an unoccupied Victorian house in London.
Simon Crocker, who judged the John Kobal award said: “We were thrilled to have the opportunity to commission a portrait of Olivia Colman. She is an outstanding actress and was a wonderful subject for Hana who delivered a compelling portrait.”
The portrait will go on display on November 10 while the prize exhibition opens a week today (November 13).
Source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk – Colman takes a step up in class
Gallery update new Broadchurch pictures
I have uploaded pictures from Broadchurch season 2 to the gallery, a promotional picture and behind the scenes to see them click the pictures below:
