Olivia to launch a memory walk for Alzheimer’s

olivia_colman-6542256 The walk, around Holkham, will be launched by Bafta-winning actress Olivia Colman on Saturday, September 14.

Tracy Wood, 40, a nurse from Kings Lynn, put on her walking boots outside Holkham Hall with her two sons, Marley Carter, 10, and Sonny Carter, aged seven.

The family will be taking part in the Alzheimer’s Society’s Memory Walk, in memory of Miss her three grandparents who all lived with dementia.

They will also be walking as a tribute to the many people with the condition who Tracy meets through her work as an auxiliary nurse in A&E at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

“I meet people with dementia every day through my work as a nurse and I see the devastating affect it can have on both them and their families,” said Miss Wood.

“I can relate to their situation as my grandma, granddad and my nana all lived with dementia.

“It really was a heartbreaking thing to witness, especially as it touched so many of the people I cared about. When I heard about the Memory Walk at Holkham Hall, I knew I had to take part, and have been encouraging friends, family and colleagues to come and walk with me.”

Memory Walk is Alzheimer’s Society’s flagship fundraising event which sees walks taking place around the UK throughout September. For the third year running Memory Walk will be held in partnership with Bupa Care Homes.

Together, Alzheimer’s Society and Bupa aim to support more people living with dementia through the vital funds that are raised.

Miss Wood was joined at the launch by Dawn Thirkell, 35 and her children Sophie, 10, Charlie, aged seven, and Hollie, aged three.

Mrs Thirkell said: “My daughter, Sophie and I have decided to take part in the Holkham Hall Memory Walk alongside Tracy and her family and do what we can to support Alzheimer’s Society.

“My auntie had dementia and I remember the way my father and the rest of the family were affected by it. I don’t think there is enough done to raise money for people with dementia – it’s an issue which seems to get forgotten.”

More than 10,000 people with Alzheimer’s are believed tolive in Norfolk alone.

Participants at the Holkham Hall Memory Walk can choose between a gentle 3km walk or a more challenging 10km walk. The routes will wind around the estate’s grounds, as specially landscaped by the famous Lancelot “Capability” Brown, spotting various wildlife, beautiful woodland and the famous deer residing in the park.

Source: edp24.co.uk – Bafta winning actress Olivia Colman will launch memory walk at Holkham hall to raise funds for people with alzheimer’s

Olivia Colman stars in Run, another marvellously miserable drama

134859904g What would any of us do faced with the impossible choice of protecting our own children or doing the right thing?

In Run, a grim Channel 4 drama, Broadchurch star Olivia Colman plays tough single mum Carol from Brixton just trying to keep her family together, in a place where low-level crime and even dealing drugs is just a way to survive.

But when teenage sons, Dean and Terry, commit a random murder, she has to make a life-changing decision.

Will she turn in her boys or will she tell them to Run?

This 4-part drama is so grim it makes Broadchurch look like a particularly funny episode of Miranda.

That’s said, Olivia – as usual – is simply marvellous wallowing in her misery.

Run will be be aired on Channel 4 early next month, then released on DVD on 22 July, price £15.99

Source:bestdaily.co.uk – Olivia Colman stars in Run another marvellously miserable drama

Olivia Colman Joins BBC Two’s ‘The Thirteenth Tale’ In Leading Role

Olivia+Colman+Broadcasting+Press+Guild+TV+abaMHF86xeqx EXCLUSIVE: It’s hard not to be impressed with the cast that BBC Two and Heyday Films have assembled for their upcoming 90 minute one-off drama The Thirteenth Tale. I’ve just learned that Broadchurch alum Olivia Colman has been cast in the drama in a leading role. According to my sources, Colman has been cast as Margaret Lea, the biographer to whom ageing novelist Vida Winter recounts her life story. The news of Colman’s casting comes after TVWise previously broke the news that Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave, Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones), Gordon Winter (Friday Night Dinner), Antonia Clarke (Lightfields) and Robert Pugh (Game of Thrones) have all been cast in the drama.

Based on the novel of the same name by Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale tells the story of the residents of Angelfield House and follows ageing novelist Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave), who enlists young writer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman) to finally tell the story of her life – including her mysterious childhood spent in Angelfield House, which burned to the ground when she was a teenager. The project has been described to me as a “chilling ghost story which examines family tragedy.” The adaptation was written by Christopher Hampton, who previously adapted Doris Lessing’s novel Two Mothers and Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. Heyday Films is producing with David Heyman, Norma Heyman and Rosie Alison serving as producers. Inside Men helmer James Kent is attached to direct.

TVWise initially reported back in March that BBC Two Controller Janice Hadlow and the BBC’s Controller of Drama Ben Stephenson had commissioned a one-off adaptation of the novel and that there were rumours circulating that The Thirteenth Tale would be a key part of BBC Two’s Christmas line-up. The BBC has yet to formally announce or confirm any of this, but I’ve now confirmed with my sources that this drama will be part of the BBC’s Christmas schedule. Production on The Thirteenth Tale is slated to commence later this month.

Source:tvwise.co.uk – Olivia Colman joins BBC two’s The Thirteenth Tale in leading role

TwentyTwelve spin-off in the pipeline reuniting hapless Olympics planning team

SNN16TV4HU---1280_1292940aBBC comedy chiefs are plotting a spin-off of Bafta-nominated Olympic mockumentary TwentyTwelve.

They hope to reunite the core team of hapless PRs including Jessica Hynes as Siobhan Sharpe, Hugh Bonneville as Ian Fletcher, Olivia Colman as his PA Sally and Amelia Bulmore as Kay Hope.

A BBC insider said: “There is a real desire for this to happen.

“The show was such a fantastic success and writer John Morton is a genius, such a massive talent.

“It would be so great to get the team together again.”

Plans are in their early stages, with the spin-off likely to see dithering Fletcher taking on another major national project and hiring back his Olympic colleagues to help him out.

In the show, made in the style of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Ian headed up the fictional Olympic Deliverance Commission while Siobhan, who has her own PR company Perfect Curve, was head of brand.

One of the highlights was the development of a travel strategy – called Way to Go – in which pedestrians were banned from pavements.

Morton has indicated that a follow-up comedy could be possible, given the right circumstances. He said: “There’s been some talk about whether there can be a life post-Olympics and it’s tempting because I’d love to work with those actors again.”

The BBC2 series received widespread critical acclaim when it was shown in the run-up to the Olympics last year.

Viewers loved that many of the comedy’s ideas – such as problems with the countdown clock, complaints from animal rights organisations and a bell-ringing competition to mark the start of the Games – were echoed in real life.

Tomorrow Bonneville, Hynes and Colman will find out if they have won a Bafta for their individual performances, while the show is also nominated in the sitcom category.

TwentyTwelve has already been named best comedy by the Royal Television Society and won best sitcom at the Comedy Awards.

Olivia Colman and Sheridan Smith are love rivals in new drama

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Sheridan Smith and Olivia Colman are to play rivals for the affections of David Morrissey in a new BBC One drama.

Broadchurch star Colman will play the wife of Morrissey’s character in The 7.39, a two-part romantic drama written by One Day author David Nicholls.

Olivier awards co-host Smith will play a commuter with whom Morrissey, of The Walking Dead fame, begins an affair.

BBC One has also confirmed a second series of its Sunday night rural drama The Village will air next year.

Writer Peter Moffat said he was “thrilled” to have the opportunity to continue telling the story of one English village across the whole of the 20th Century.

His sentiments were echoed by Starter For Ten author Nicholls, who said he was “delighted to be writing for the BBC again”.

Nicholls previously adapted Much Ado About Nothing for the BBC’s 2005 ShakespeaRe-Told season and, in 2008, adapted Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

The 7.39, he went on, was “a love story for grown-ups” and “the sort of drama that has not been seen on television for a while”.

Colman was recently named best actress for her work on the BBC courtroom drama Accused at the Royal Television Society awards, and is Bafta-nominated for the same role for best supporting actress.

Smith is also in the running at the Baftas for leading actress for Mrs Biggs.

The 7.39 – described as “brilliantly British” by BBC drama controller Ben Stephenson – is one of a raft of new commissions announced by the corporation’s flagship channel.

Last week, BBC One revealed it was working on an adaptation of David Walliams’ children’s book Gangsta Granny, to air later this year.

The comedy drama, which the Little Britain star will co-write, tells of a schoolboy who discovers his grandmother was once an international jewel thief.

Walliams, whose novel Mr Stink was dramatised by the BBC last year, said the 60-minute film “should make for exciting family viewing at Christmas”.

Source:bbc.co.uk – Olivia Colman and Sheridan Smith are love rivals in new drama

Olivia announced for Mr Sloane

113848087-1 Last month Sky announced a number of new commissions, including romantic comedy Mr Sloane. This week they’ve revealed who’ll star in the 1960s-set production.

The line-up includes Olivia Colman, Ophelia Lovibond, Peter Serafinowicz, Lawry Lewin and Brendan Patrick.

As announced in March Nick Frost takes the lead role of Jeremy Sloane – a buttoned-down 1960’s man in crisis. Olivia Colman will play Sloane’s estranged wife Janet. Regularly appearing to him in flashbacks and fantasies, Janet remains a significant ‘other’ in Mr Sloane’s life.

Ophelia Lovibond joins the cast as Robin, a free-spirited young American and prospective new love interest for Mr Sloane, following a chance encounter in his local ironmongers while Peter Serafinowicz will play Ross, one of Mr Sloane’s three childhood friends whom he meets every night in his local.

Lawry Lewin plays Beans, Mr Sloane’s close friend who still lives at home with his mother and Brendan Patricks will play Reggie, the ladies’ man of the group.

Between his failed attempts at marriage, career success and even suicide, it’s fair to say that 1969 isn’t shaping up to be Sloane’s year. But with a potential job opportunity on the horizon and the phone number of a prospective new love interest following a chance encounter in his local hardware store, could Mr Sloane’s luck be about to change?

Filming began earlier this month and will be shot in studio and on location in London for transmission on Sky Atlantic HD in 2014.

Source: atvtoday.co.uk – Cast announced for Mr Sloane

Olivia joins the cast of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

capt.029db440212d45cfb37f19a6b9cb5c2d-cd39c7e78721475f863db38316589abd-0sm Olivia Colman joins the cast of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II starring Paddy Considine as Jack Whicher

BAFTA Award nominated actress Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur, Twenty Twelve, Rev) will co-star in The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II : The Murder In Angel Lane alongside Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum, Submarine, Red Riding), who returns to the role of Jack Whicher following the success of film drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which aired on ITV in April 2011.

Produced by Hat Trick Productions, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II is based on the life and times of Inspector Jonathan ‘Jack’ Whicher, the real-life pioneering detective who worked in the newly established Detective Branch of the Metropolitan Police during the 19th Century.

In the new film Olivia plays Susan Spencer, who employs Mr Whicher as a private inquiry agent to investigate the savage murder of her niece, 16 year old Mary.

Also starring in The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II is William Beck (Casualty, The Agent, Hustle), who reprises his role as Chief Inspector Dolly Williamson, and Tim Pigott-Smith (Downton Abbey, Strike Back, The Hour) returning as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Richard Mayne. Shaun Dingwall (Above Suspicion, Summer in February, Rock & Chips) stars as Inspector George Lock and William Postlethwaite as Mary’s lover Stephen Gann.

They are joined by Mark Bazeley (The Body Farm, Accused, Mistresses), Sean Baker (Call the Midwife, Sparks and Embers, Silent Witness) and Alistair Petrie (Whitechapel, Ashes, Cranford).

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II films over the next four weeks in Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and central London. The two-hour film is written by BAFTA award-winning Neil McKay (Appropriate Adult, Mo, See No Evil: The Moors Murders).

The fictional story draws upon historical research into the detective career of Jack Whicher, medical, legal and policing practices of the day and both the criminal world and the apparently respectable Victorian society into which his work led him.

The original film was based on the best-selling book by Kate Summerscale, which brought to light Inspector Whicher’s ground-breaking career as one of the world’s first detectives. Kate has given her blessing to the new film.

Hat Trick’s Head of Drama Mark Redhead (The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, Bloody Sunday, Bodies) will executive produce the film, Rob Bullock (Case Sensitive, Mutual Friends, Wild at Heart) will produce and Christopher Menaul (Prime Suspect, See No Evil: The Moors Murders, Zen) will direct.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II was commissioned by ITV’s Drama Commissioning team, Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes.

Laura comments: “We’re delighted Paddy Considine has agreed to reprise his role as Jack Whicher, the most celebrated detective of his day. Neil McKay has taken the character and produced a gripping and compelling story”.

Mark Redhead adds: “After Jack Whicher left the Met, he continued with his vocation as a detective as one of the first so-called “private inquiry agents”. This story launches him into that career, and he becomes involved in a disturbing and puzzling murder case which brings him into conflict with powerful figures including his former colleagues in the Metropolitan Police.”

“When it’s murder, you want, more than anything else, to bring some kind of peace to those left bereaved by it. There can be no peace without the truth…” Inspector Jonathan ‘Jack’ Whicher

Source: itv.com – Olivia Colman joins the cast of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

Broadchurch will air in the US

158033275gallIf you live in the UK you already knew you’d get the chance to see Broadchurch, a miniseries about “the events and investigation that unfold in a small coastal town after the murder of a young boy,” a bit later this year. And now we’ve found out that it’s been picked up by BBC America to air in the States as well. Why is that news relevant to our American readers? Only because Doctor Who‘s David Tennant and Arthur Darvill are both in it. We thought you’d like to know.

Tennant will play one of the detectives investigating the case of the murdered boy, while Darvill will play the town priest. The second detective is to be played by Olivia Colman, whom I best know as PC Doris Thatcher from Hot Fuzz, though she’s appeared in a ton of stuff before and since. Interestingly, IMDB notes that Colman played someone’s mother in the first Matt Smith (and, by extension, Arthur Darvill) episode of Doctor Who, though I don’t remember her character.

The eight-part miniseries, written by Doctor Who scribe Chris Chibnall, will air on ITV sometime this year and, to take a wild guess, on BBC America a month or so later at the most? I’ve been unable to find any confirmed information on the British release date, and the American one’s not been set yet, but BBC America tends to not lag behind quite so much as, say, PBS does (looking at you, Downton Abbey). Regardless, you can be sure we’ll be keeping track of this Doctor Who sort of-reunion.

Source: themarysue.com – Broadchurch picked up by BBC America

Rev returns for s3 but not till 2014

OCO Award-winning comedy Rev will return to BBC2 for a third series but it will not be broadcast until 2014.

Producers say the “brilliance” of cast members such as Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman have made getting everyone back together “challenging”.

The actors play inner-city vicar Rev Adam Smallbone and his wife Alex in the hit comedy, which won best sitcom at last year’s TV Baftas.

Filming is due to begin in Autumn 2013, with development starting this year.

Producer Kenton Allen said: “I’m delighted that we’ve managed to get Adam and his congregation back into church for what I hope will be an extraordinary third season of a show that is extremely special for all those involved.”

Made by Big Talk Productions, the first two series of Rev and a Christmas special proved a hit with critics.

The show also won best comedy at the South Bank Awards and picked up four prizes at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in March, including best comedy and entertainment show and best writing.

Peep Show star Colman picked up two BPG awards of her own, including best actress and best breakthrough for both Rev and BBC One drama Exile.

Colman’s career has soared in recent years, with roles in Olympics comedy Twenty Twelve and a transition to the big screen in films such as Tyrannosaur and The Iron Lady.
Hugh Bonneville and Olivia Colman in Twenty Twelve Colman played a lovestruck PA in Olympics comedy Twenty Twelve alongside

The actress was also recently voted number nine in Broadcast magazine’s annual survey of the top 100 most creative and successful figures in TV.

Hollander is set to start filming alongside Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy in About Time, the new time-travel comedy from Love Actually director Richard Curtis.

He also recently worked on director Neil Jordan’s next film, Byzantium, which co-stars Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan.

BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have Rev back on the channel. It’s one of the real comedy jewels in BBC2’s crown.”

Source: bbc.co.uk – Rev returns for third series but not till 2014