Tag: Jay Simpson

Autumn Screen

Posted on | by Eamonn

We stand in support of the strike action. Those actors whose regular filming has been uninterrupted by the disputes include: Thomas Coombes who’s been shooting the new six-part drama Moonflower Murders directed by Rebecca Gatwood for Eleventh Hour Films/BBC and Masterpiece; Michelle Bonnard who’s filming Insomnia, an adaptation of Sarah Pinborough’s sleep deprivation novel for Left Bank Pictures with Börkur Sigthorsson directing; Jodie McNee joins The Gathering in Liverpool, a story of rivalry within the elite world of gymnastics from the creators of Line of Duty with Gareth Bryn directing; Olwen May films The Bay Season 5 as new regular DC McClaren;  Sophie Stone plays series regular Wendy in Generation Z for Forge and Channel 4, directed by Ben Wheatley and Alex Blake who has recently completed filming on Joan, a new six part series for ITV/ITVX based on the true story of notorious jewell thief Joan Hannington.

Sam Alexander in “Murder Retrial”

Guest roles include Amy Cudden in Mr Bates vs the Post Office a drama detailing the great miscarriage of justice around the postal workers; Jay Simpson in The Day of the Jackall, a TV remake of the classic film;  Daniel Crossley who is filming a six part TV series about Ayrton Senna for Netflix in Brazil; Gavin Spokes and Patrick Brennan who both appear in Out There, a new rural Welsh thriller for ITV led by Martin Clunes; Aidan Kelly who is completing shooting on forthcoming drama Say Nothing for FX focusing on the Troubles in NI. Sam Alexander also plays the lead role in a new drama commissioned by Channel 4, titled Murder Retrial, examining the British judicial system.

Premiering at the London Film Festival this October; Melanie Kilburn plays Mrs Forde in Starve Acre with Matt Smith starring and Daniel Kokotajilo directing and Josie Walker stars in writer-director Naqqash Khalid’s debut feature film In Camera.  Congratulations also to Lily Beau who played leading roles in  Y Swn and Y Goleudy which have both recently been nominated for a host of Welsh BAFTA Awards.

Other things to watch out for this Autumn include Jakob Diehl in Netflix blockbuster All the Light We Cannot See,  Gavin Spokes in the hugely popular Slow Horses, Sara Powell in Paramount Plus thriller The Killing Kind (streaming now), James Doherty in the highly anticipated TV remake of Sexy Beast and Jodie McNee in crime thriller Culprits for Disney Plus.

Autumn Stage

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Jodie McNee joins the Michael Grandage Company who are bringing Orlando to the West End stage for a strictly limited run. Virginia Woolf’s gender defining historical fiction has been adapted by Neil Bartlett with Emma Corrin in the title role and will play at The Garrick Theatre until February 2023. Mariah Louca, John Mackay and Dan Rabin are all appearing in The Doctor, Robert Icke’s brilliant reimagining of Schnitzler’s 1912 play originally for The Almeida and now playing at the Duke Of Yorks. Also currently appearing in the West End are Tamsin Carroll in 2:22 at the Criterion, Jason Callender in Upstart Crow at the Apollo and Robert Hands and James Doherty in Come From Away at the Phoenix Theatre.

Hayley Carmichael in rehearsals for “Super High Resolution”

Gavin Spokes is in rehearsal at The National Theatre for Kerry Jackson, a biting new comedy by April de Angelis whilst Jay Simpson and Colm Gormley also return to The National in Clint Dyer’s Othello playing in The Lyttleton from November. Richard Dempsey has opened in The Almeida’s hit new musical Tammy Faye which runs until December and Hayley Carmichael opens in Soho Theatre’s Super High Resolution, Nathan Ellis’s debut play about being a doctor in the NHS with Blanch McIntyre directing.

Tom Edden has joined Josie Rourke’s production of As You Like It which will open Soho Place , London’s newest theatre. Greg Hick‘s brings Dinner With Groucho Frank McGuinness’ new play to London after its successful premiers at the Dublin and Belfast International Festivals and Justin Avoth joins Witness For the Prosecution at County Hall. Further afield, Jenna Augen has opened on Broadway in Leopoldstadt, Tom Stoppard’s latest play whilst across the Channel Oliver Dench takes on the role of Cliff in Cabaret at the Lido Theatre, Paris and Daniel Crossley joins the cast of 42nd Street at Theatre du Chatelet.

Summer Film

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Filming starts next month on Knockers, a coming of age drama for BBC films in which Josie Walker plays the leading role of Yvonne. Lucy Cohen is writer and director. The novel Starve Acre has been adapted for cinema with Melanie Kilburn joining Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark in the cast and Sandy Foster continues filming Disney’s reimagining of Snow White with Marc Webb directing. Jay Simpson, meanwhile, joins Patrick Marber again in his feature adaptation of Anthony Quinn’s novel The Critic with Anand Tucker directing. Watch out too for Bullet Train with Andrew Koji which hits UK cinema screens August 5th.

Summer Stage

Posted on | by Eamonn

Gavin Spokes returns to the National Theatre in Kerry Jackson, a new play by April de Angelis with Indhu Rubsingham directing.  Jay Simpson is also going back to The National joining Clint Dyer’s cast of Othello.   John Mackay joins the Almeida Theatre’s production of The Doctor with Robert Icke directing the West End transfer and joins Mariah Louca and Daniel Rabin who reprise their original roles. Kate Fahy is back in the London revival of Moira Buffini’s award winning play Handbagged and Jenna Augen returns to Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt for the Broadway transfer.

Olivia Onyehara is in RSC rehearsals for Blanche McIntyre’s All’s Well That Ends Well in which she plays Diana and Guy Rhys will play Benedict in Sheffield Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing with Rob Hastie directing.  Openings include Sara Powell in Jamie Lloyd’s The Seagull, Tom Edden in Chichester Festival Theatre’s Crazy For You and Stephen Kennedy and Derek Hutchinson in Deborah Warner’s The Tempest playing at Bath Ustinov.   Robert Hands and James Doherty continue in Come From Away at The Phoenix Theatre and Richard Teverson is at London County Hall in the ever popular Witness For the Prosecution.

Autumn Watch
Part II

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On Screen:

Jodie McNee can be seen in Series 3 of Britannia on Sky and will next be seen in new 4 part ITV drama Hollington Drive which airs from late September. Oliver Dench and Greg Hicks both guest star in Sky Atlantic’s Dominia and watch out for Oliver in the new year in brand new drama Hotel Portofino as well. Josie Walker plays Auntie Violet in Kenneth Branagh’s feature film Belfast which premieres in the UK in November. 

Andrew Koji’s recent feature Snake Eyes is now on general release and will be available on home media in October and Chris Harper appears in The War Below streaming now on Amazon.   Also upcoming on Amazon is thriller All The Old Knives directed by Janus Metz and featuring Karina Wiedman and arrives this autumn. Watch out too for the release of Danny Boyle’s new Sex Pistols drama Lonely Boy based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir and in which Jay Simpson plays his abusive stepfather Ron. 

On Stage:

Tamsin Carroll leads the National Theatre production of Hex this Autumn – a twist on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale,  Rufus Norris directs. Laura Rogers has opened in the Hampstead Theatre revival of The Memory of Water and is currently in rehearsals for the West End transfer of National Theatre production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the Duke of York’s. 
Jenna Augen and Dorothea Myer Bennett return in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt at The Wyndham’s Theatre and James Doherty is back in Come From Away at The Phoenix Theatre. 

John Mackay and Hayley Carmichael join the cast of HOME in this revival for Chichester Festival of the modern David Storey classic directed by Josh Roche and Patrick Brennan takes the lead role of Phil in Broken Lad, a new play by Robin Hooper directed by Richard Spier at The Arcola. Also this autumn Jordan Mifsúd revives his role as Colbert in While the Sun Shines at the Orange Tree and Christopher Harper returns in the dual roles of Lesgate and Hubbard in the UK tour of Dial M For Murder directed by Anthony Banks.

Screen Update 2021

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Filming on Bullet Train with Andrew Koji continues in LA. Other cast announced alongside Brad Pitt and Andrew include Lady Gaga and Aaron Taylor Johnson. Tomi Ogbaro, meanwhile, begins filming on a new Disney picture with Sam Rockwell and Sorcha Ronan.

Jay Simpson will appear in Danny Boyle’s next project, a six part series for the BBC about punk icons The Sex Pistols. Aidan Kelly has been cast as a regular in Netflix drama Stay Close – an 8 Episode thriller by Harlan Coben. Sophie Stone plays regular Julie in the 2nd series of This Way Up Channel 4, written and starring Aisling Bea whilst Gavin Spokes joins The Ipcress File, a TV remake of the 1960s cold war film. James Doherty and Olwen May film the 2nd series of Trying for Apple TV/BBC, Jim O’Hanlan directs and Carol Macready will appear in the next series of Gentleman Jack in the role of Mrs Norcliffe.

Sara Powell shoots a guest appearance in Ghosts, the hugely popular BBC comedy. Patricia Allison, meanwhile, completes filming on Sex Education and goes onto record the BBC’s annual Christmas Day animation Superworm. Oliver Dench, Jordan Mifsud and Anton Saunders all play guest roles in new crime drama Whitstable coming soon. And on screen too, Jack James Ryan joins Coronation Street as Jacob Hay from February.

Autumn 2020

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Andrew Koji joins Bullet Train, the Brad Pitt-led action thriller directed by David Leitch for Sony Pictures. Based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle by best-selling author Kotaro Isaka, the story centres on a group of assassins who find themselves aboard the same high speed train with Andrew playing one of the assassins.

Patricia Allison returns to filming as Ola on Sex Education 3 and production also resumes for Jodie McNee as Willa on Britannia 3, Ken Bones on A Discovery of Witches 3 and for Oliver Dench as Xander on Pandora 2.  We’re thrilled that all of these shows have found their way back into production during these unprecedented times.  

New commissions include Josie Walker who is filming Belfast, written and directed by Ken Branagh and described as a tribute to the city and its people; Robert Cavanah in Red Election, a UK/Danish thriller shooting in Ireland who goes on to film Professor T, a new ITV crime drama based on the hit Belgian show of the same name; and Natalie Radmill Quirke who continues shooting medieval drama Glow & Darkness in Spain about the life of St Francis of Assisi.

On the box, Jodie McNee stars in Agatha and the Midnight Murders, a feature length Ch 5 film about the life of the legendary writer; Jay Simpson features in Des, the critically acclaimed ITV drama about serial killer Dennis Neilson on the ITV hub and Tom Coombes will next be seen in Small Axe , Steve McQueen’s return to the small screen with a series of five films about London’s West Indian community. 

We also have a new favourite listening habit which comes in the form of a new podcast about bees.  Hosted by friends Jane Horrocks and our gorgeous Esther Coles download now wherever you get your pods  ? ? ?

play.acast.com/s/queen-bees/trailer

Screen Update

Posted on | by Eamonn

Sex Education Season 2 launches exclusively on Netflix with Patricia Allison returning as Ola, Otis’ current love. All episodes will be available to stream from Jan 18th when Ashna Rabheru will also appear in the guest role of Gwen.

Andrew Koji is currently filming the GI Joe spinoff Snake Eyes in Japan. Robert Schwentke directs with Paramount producing with Andrew playing the role of Storm Shadow the blood brother and archenemy to Snake Eyes. Jodie McNee is back as Willa in the second season of Britannia, currently streaming on Amazon Prime and available to view on Sky Atlantic.

Filming has begun, meanwhile, in Italy on Domina, Sky Atlantic’s epic new drama set in Ancient Rome with Oliver Dench cast as Ilullus and Greg Hicks as Asprenus. Jay Simpson joins the regular cast of true crime series Des with David Tennant in the title role and Ken Bones also guesting. Aleks Mikic has completed filming on the second season of The Bay for ITV and Thomas Coombes wraps filming on the second series of Save Me where he reprises his role of Goz in Lenny James’ RTS Award winning drama which will air later this year

TV News

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RADA Grad Leah Gayer joins Bloodmoon, the HBO pilot and prequel to Game of Thrones with SJ Clarkson directing early summer. Oliver Dench plays series lead Xander in Pandora, CW’s new sic-fi series scheduled for release later this year. Patricia Allison returns as Ola in Netflix’s hugely popular Sex Education for Season 2 whilst Max Fowler reprises his role as Colin for the final season of The Affair for Showtime. Andrew Koji is currently shooting Season 2 of Warrior for Cinemax and also returning for a second season is Save Me, Sky Atlantic/World Production’sthriller written by and starring Lennie James, which sees Thomas Coombes back as Goz. 

Guest roles currently shooting include Aleksandar Mikic as Sachin in Cobra, director Hans Herbots; Kate Maravan in Giri/Haji for Netflix/BBC with Julian Farino directing; Tom Edden as Mr Smith in Singapore Grip, Tom Vaughan directing for ITV, and Melanie Kilburn as Sophie in Cold Call with Gareth Tunley directing. Eugene O’Hare plays the recurring role of Eddie in the latest Marcella instalment.
   In comedy, Gavin Spokes joins the cast of Hitmen, a new comedy series for Sky produced by Tiger Aspect and starring Mel & Sue; Joe Sims films the ever popular returning Plebs , set in Ancient Rome for ITV 2;  Jay Simpson plays John the Butcher in new sitcom King Gary , produced by Shiny Button for the BBC and James Doherty features in the  next series of Motherland , Juliet Mays directing.  

Film News

Rebecca Johnson returns as Sally in Trip to Greece with Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden and Michael Winterbottom directing, Carol Macready plays Mother Geri in A Boy Called Christmas , a film adaptation of Matt Haig’s bestseller with Gil Kenan directing, John Mackay films Ammonite, a new film written and directed by Francis Lee and Clemmie Sveaas competes shooting on Tom Hooper’s live adaptation of Cats.