The first episode of Tree Fu Tom will air on Monday 5 March at 5.25 pm on CBeebies. The other four episodes will be shown on subsequent days during the week. More information at David Tennant on Twitter
David Tennant was recently interviewed about his part inTree Fu Tom
Love Virtually will air on
BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 8 March
from 2.15pm.
On Friday 16 March, BBC Radio Four will broadcast Waiting For The Boatman.
This drama was written by
Stephen Wakelam. It is set in Naples in 1610 and is about the last days of the
painter Caravaggio. The story is told through the eyes of his friend and former
model Mario Minniti as he searches for the artist. The play is directed by
Sasha Yevtushenko and also stars Anton Lesser, Harry Livingstone and Joe
Dempsie.
During
April, BBC Radio Three will be broadcasting a Shakespeare Season as part of
The Cultural Olympiad.Part of
this season is a project where a company of actors perform two different plays
- Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night.
David
Tennant will be playing Prince Escalus in Romeo and Juliet and Malvolio in
Twelfth Night.
Romeo and Juliet was
recorded during the week commencing Monday 13 February and Twelfth Night the
following week.
John Hannahwill join Emily Watson and Harry Treadaway in
Blood Ties, a UK time-twisting thriller. Watson will play the estranged mother of a teenage girl
on the run.
Michael Clifford will direct, and he said: “Emily brings
an edge to Paula, which adds another dimension to the film and its appeal to
audiences”
The film is the first production from Phil Parker’s Not
Your Average Company, which will work with new talent across Europe. The
company’s second feature, Bait, will shoot in the autumn.
Joanne Lee wrote the script. The film shoots this summer.
The project, formerly titled Relative Desire, has had
development funding from UK’s Design and Creative Fund.
Content
Television has secured the international distribution rights for the new BBC
drama Line of Duty, produced by World Productions for BBC Two.
Written
by Jed Mercurio (Bodies), Line of Duty is a cat-and-mouse thriller of five
hour-long episodes. It stars Adrian Dunbar (Ashes to Ashes), Martin Compston
(Sweet Sixteen), Vicky McClure (This Is England), Neil Morrissey (Men Behaving
Badly) and Gina McKee (Notting Hill). It is executive produced by World
Productions’ Simon Heath (United) and Stephen Wright for the BBC. Episodes one
to three are directed by David Caffrey and episodes four and five are by
Douglas Mackinnon.
Greg
Phillips, the president of Content Television, commented, “Line of Duty
provides a compelling insight into the harsh realities of modern-day policing,
featuring performances from some of the acting world’s most exciting new
talents. Jed Mercurio’s script and the first-class team at World Productions
have created a thriller which will keep audiences gripped from beginning to
end. We are expecting strong interest from our international licensees when
this title makes its debut at MIPTV.”
Simon Heath, the creative director of World Productions,
added, "It's great to be working again with the team at Content, who did
such a fantastic job for us on United. The brilliant Jed Mercurio has created
not only a gripping and prescient stand-alone thriller, but a format that can
return each year with a new and unique investigation into police
corruption."
The
Wire star Dominic West has admitted to reading about himself online and joining
discussions about his work on internet forums. West,
who is currently working on the second series of BBC Two drama The Hour,
claimed that no-one ever believes it is him when he confronts them online about
derogatory remarks.
"I like to have chats about myself with people - mainly
putting forward the case for the defence in forums. I use my own name but
nobody ever believes me," he told the Radio Times.
West
also confessed to watching back his own work when it airs on TV.
"I
don't particularly like watching myself on the TV but I do like to check that
none of my lines have been cut," he said.
"One
or two ended up on the cutting-room floor [in The Hour] but that was mostly due
to my occasional bad acting."
The six
new episodes of The Hour will feature the broadcast team "deeply embroiled
in cover-ups, sexual intrigues and the resurgence of Mosley's fascism" and
will have the "looming spectre of the Cold War" as its backdrop. The
Thick of It comic Peter Capaldi, Hannah Tointon and Tom Burke have joined the
cast for the second series.
Filming started in December in London and the new run is
expected to air in summer 2012.
Gerard
Butler has replaced Eric Bana as the lead in diamond heist thriller Brilliant.
The 300
star will play a small-time crook who gets dragged into a major robbery in
Robert Luketic's upcoming thriller. Bana was first linked to the role back in
September 2011, but has since been recruited to an as-yet-untitled terrorism
thriller from Intermission director John Crowley.
The
move sees Butler and Luketic reunite for the first time since their 2009
romantic comedy The Ugly Truth. Cameron
Diaz will portray Butler's female accomplice in Brilliant and a female lead is
still to be recruited, according to Variety.
Butler's
reported signing comes mere days after the 42-year-old completed a three-week
rehab programme to combat a prescription drug dependency.
He was last seen in Marc Foster's Machine Gun Preacher,
where he played a drug-dealing biker-turned-protector of Sudanese child
soldiers.
Ewen
Bremner, best remembered as Spud from Trainspotting, has boarded Joon-ho Bong‘s
Snow Piercer. The South Korean director’s first English-language film is an
adaptation of the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, about a
post-apocalyptic world covered in snow and ice. The only remaining humans are
the passengers of the titular train, and tensions are running high between the
classes.
Bremner
is set to play a father who teams up with Chris Evans‘ character to rescue his
kidnapped son. We’ve previously heard that Octavia Spencer would be playing a
mother who gets involved in the brewing revolution in an attempt to save her
son, so could it be that Bremner and Spencer’s characters are married to each
other? Or is the kidnapping of sons just a common hobby in the future?
At any rate, the top-notch cast also inclues Tilda
Swinton, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, and Kang-ho Song. Snow Piercer will enter
production shortly for a 2013 release.
Sky Arts has boosted its investment in original content
with a range of ambitious new commissions, innovations and initiatives for
2012, both on and off screen.
A host of British national treasures will feature in
Playhouse Presents – a new series of original comedy and drama productions
airing from April.
Building on Sky Arts’ Playhouse Live and Theatre Live
series, which were executive produced by Sandi Toksvig, Playhouse Presents is a
series of diverse productions which recreate famous moments in history. They
span universal themes and genres and showcase acting, directing and writing
talent in the UK.
Playhouse casts will include Emma Thompson as the Queen
and Sir Tom Jones in his first acting role. Will Self is writing for David
Tennant. Other high profile actors to feature include Brenda Blethyn, Trevor
Eve, Stephen Fry, Richard E. Grant, Sheila Hancock, Douglas Henshall, John
Hurt, Geraldine James, Tom Jones, Eddie Marsan, Gina McKee, Paul O’Grady, Will
Self, Martin Shaw, Harry Shearer, Stellan Skarsgård, Alison Steadman, David
Tennant, Emma Thompson, Russell Tovey, Zoe Wanamaker and Olivia Williams.
David Tennant To Perform Silver: Return To Treasure Island David Tennant has been confirmed as the actor to perform Silver: Return to Treasure Island, written by Sir Andrew Motion, the official audiobook sequel to the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. David Tennant is a perfect match for the book having won numerous Best Actor Awards for his role as the tenth incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who, appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and played the title role in the acclaimed RSC production of Hamlet.
Author Sir Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate and Chair of the Man Booker Prize judges, comments: 'I'm completely delighted David Tennant's reading Silver. I honestly can't think of anyone I'd rather hear do it.'
Dominic White, Head of Publishing and Commerce at W F Howes Ltd (leading Leicestershire based audiobook publisher) comments: 'David Tenant really conveys the thrills of an ocean odyssey. This is the making of a modern classic in spoken word form.'
W F Howes Ltd, audiobook publishers, are creating exclusive downloadable and CD editions for retailers (Whole Story Audiobooks imprint) and libraries (Clipper imprint), released on the 15th March.
David Tennant and Catherine Tate are among the Whatsonstage Awards theatre success stories
Catherine Tate wasn’t just celebrating winning best supporting actress in a play for her turn in Season’s Greetings - another National Theatre production – last night. Her collaboration with fellow Doctor Who alumnus David Tennant in Much Ado about Nothing was voted theatre event of the year and best Shakespearean production, beating the Globe’s rival staging of the same play in this category by only four per cent of the vote.
Glasgow Film Festival 2012: Writer Sally Phillips & Director Sheree Folkson discuss The Decoy Bride
Co-writer/actor Sally Phillips (Smack the Pony) and director Sheree Folkson (A Royal Scandal) discuss their feature film The Decoy Bride, which was screened as part of the Great Scots strand at the Glasgow Film Festival 2012.
Tree Fu Tom
The BBC have released more details of their forthcoming children's animated series, Tree Fu Tom, which will feature the vocal talents of Tenth Doctor David Tennant and Seventh Doctor companion Sophie Aldred.
Former Doctor Who stars David Tennant and Sophie Aldred voice the lead characters Tom (Aldred) and Twigs (Tennant) in the new multi-platform fantasy action adventure series, Tree Fu Tom coming to CBeebies in March.
Aimed at four to six year olds, Tree Fu Tom is set in an enchanted world where movement creates magic. Tom appears to be a normal eight-year-old boy but putting on his magic belt and performing a special sequence of magic action-movements (known as Tree Fu) transforms him into a tiny but mighty magical super-hero.
Using a Tree Fu spell, Tom is transported into a wondrous enchanted kingdom in a tree called Treetopolis, inhabited by sprites, bugs and naughty fungi – the ‘Mushas’. Here he meets his faithful sidekick Twigs, a silly and energetic Acorn Sprite.
Tom and Twigs are inseparable as they become embroiled in amazing, action-packed adventures, which always lead to trouble, impending disaster and catastrophe. When events run beyond their control it is only with help from the audience performing Tree Fu moves, that Tom can create spectacular Big World Magic and save the day!
All of the Tree Fu magic moves that children are encouraged to copy are developed from therapeutic techniques that are used to help children with movement disorders like Dyspraxia, but are designed to assist and enhance the development of all participating children at a crucial time in their growth.
Controller of CBeebies, Kay Benbow, says: “We have a fantastic cast on this show, who work brilliantly as a team. Their rapport permeates through to the programme reflecting the characters as a group of friends working together. We are delighted to have David on board as part of the team. The physical energy in his performance works so well for animation and his sense of fun and cheeky humour will delight the older CBeebies audience.”
Sally Payne from the Dyspraxia Foundation adds: “The Dyspraxia Foundation is delighted to have been involved in Tree Fu Tom since the early days of its development and believe that all children, not just those with dyspraxia, will both enjoy and benefit from making Big World Magic come to life!”
Tree Fu Tom is a co-production between CBeebies In-House Production and FremantleMedia Enterprises. Jackie Edwards and Alison Stewart are the executive producers for the BBC, and Sander Schwartz and Bob Higgins for FME.
The animation will be done by the BAFTA Award winning Blue Zoo Animation. Tree Fu Tom was created and is being produced by Daniel Bays. FME will distribute Tree Fu Tom outside of the UK and manage all other ancillary rights globally.
Doctor Who 2009 Specials Easter Egg - Infinite Quest DVD Extra: David Tennant as pirate Dr. Vile
An Easter Egg aficionado has shared the following instructions on how to find this extra treat on the DVD:
On the Main Menu screen hit the arrow button to highlight "Extras" and then click up. It will highlight an area on the TARDIS Control Console. Click Enter, and it will play a DVD Extra of David Tennant recording the scene where he is acting like he's a pirate named Dr. Vile. Not hugely entertaining, but it was cool to find. :)
Susan Boyle flipped pancakes for charity during the weekend.
The Britain’s Got Talent star took part in a special cooking event with school children to raise awareness of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) and its Wee Box, Big Change campaign.
This is the second year Boyle has taken part in the campaign, and her mother collected donations for the charity until she died at the age of 91 in 2007.
The campaign sees people give up their favourite treats for the 40 days of Lent, and putting their money in a “wee box” for Sciaf to assist in charity work across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
“Sciaf and its work with people living in poverty in developing countries is really close to my heart and always has been,” said Boyle. "I’m happy that I’m now in a position to help them more than I used to be able to.
“It’s going to be really tough giving up chocolate for Lent again, so it was great to tuck into a small feast with the young people today. It’s been great fun and I know every penny raised from the Wee Box, Big Change campaign will help people in need.”
Also supporting the campaign this year are Robert Carlyle and The Proclaimers.
“Sciaf helps some of the poorest people in the world to work their way out of poverty,” said Robert Carlyle. "They give a hand up, not a hand out, providing practical help such as seeds, tools and training so that people can feed themselves and their families, not just today but in the future.
“This Lent I’m giving up coffee and putting the money I save into my WEE BOX. Please join me. Give up something for Lent and put what you would have spent into your SCIAF WEE BOX. Together we will change the lives of some of the poorest people in the world.”
For those of you on Twitter, you may be interested to know that the official Twitter for ABC's Once Upon a Timeannounced this week that "Rumplestiltskin himself is now on Twitter. Follow @robertcarlyle_"
