Dan Stevens

Downton Abbey

• The show premieres tonight in Australia on Channel 7 at 8.30pm
• Dan and other cast members attended the British Academy Television Awards
• Dan co-hosted Richard Bacon earlier this week - the show was broadcast from the set, where series 2 is currently filming

The Cradle of the Snake had its BBC Radio 4 Extra premiere this week.

Dan, Harriet Walter and Ruth Wilson will take part in Poetry Week at the Donmar Warehouse next week.

Charles Edwards - Theatre - Much Ado About Nothing

[updated 6 July]



Photo: Manuel Harlan. Source: Shakespeare's Globe Press Office - used with permission.

Interview

Official London Theatre Guide

Pictures

Geraint Lewis
Pete Jones

Reviews

Playbill
"Eve Best and Charles Edwards have a goofy sweetness laced with a gravity that will win hearts and minds all summer long."

Nouse
"Edwards and Best are both effortlessly skilled in their comic timing and impeccably in character."

Observer
"[Eve Best's Beatrice is] well matched by Charles Edwards's Benedick."

John Morrison
"Beatrice and Benedick are played in exhilarating comic style by Eve Best and Charles Edwards."

Curtain Up
"Eve Best as Beatrice and Charles Edwards as Benedick create a romantic comedy duo that cannot be faulted."

Independent
"This glorious Globe staging stars the sublime Eve Best and that great, underrated comic/ romantic actor Charles Edwards as those bickering, ostensibly reluctant lovers, Beatrice and Benedick."

Telegraph
"Eve Best’s Beatrice puts one in mind of a bluestocking spinster, fiercely intelligent, ironic and good-hearted but using her prodigious wit as a shield against hurt... Charles Edwards gives a superb performance as a feeling, thinking man who keeps pain at bay by pretending to be a cheerful silly ass."

Huffington Post
"A great pair in Eve Best and Charles Edwards... Best shows such real pleasure in the coming nuptials of Hero and Claudio that you know she's not really that averse to romance. And Edwards has great fun in undermining his own seriousness with the comical scene where he overhears gossip that makes it seem Beatrice truly loves him."

Spectator
"[Eve] Best is partnered by a superb Charles Edwards, and their relationship is fierce and bitter."

London Theatre
"The partnership of Eve Best as Beatrice and Charles Edwards as Benedick is certainly a winning combination... Charles Edwards is hugely convincing, as well as witty and intelligent, as Benedick."

Daily Express
"Best is spirited from the start and an absolute natural on the Globe’s stage... he [Charles] always maintains an affability and charm which is crucial in keeping the audience on his side – and sometimes in fits."

Evening Standard
"Eve Best and Charles Edwards are a felicitous pairing, revelling in this 'merry war' of words."

Daily Mail
"Eve Best and Charles Edwards are a beautifully balanced Beatrice and Benedick, the reluctant lovers."

The Arts Desk
"He [Charles] spars naturally with Best, bringing both the roguish man of the world and ill-adapted lover to his wooing."

The Times (Libby Purves, 28 May)
"Thoroughly foxy, seasoned stage actors absolutely triumph in one of the trickiest romances in the canon. Charles Edwards is an impertinently quiffed City-boy of a Benedick, matched by Eve Best as a striding, larky, bluestocking Beatrice."

Television - Eternal Law

An excerpt from an SFX interview with Matthew Graham:

How's your new show, Eternal Law, coming along?
Ah, Eternal Law is going great! I can't believe we're three weeks into filming already. It's looking great. It's being so beautifully made, and the cast are really bedded into their roles and having fun with it.
It's too early to say what kind of show it's going to be. It's clearly going to be a very emotional show, and quite dramatic and powerful. It's not overtly fantasy, but it does have a fantasy vein in it. It's too early to know quite the full tone is, like we were with Life On Mars. You can't tell until you see it cut together! So far, we're having a great time on it!

A timeline of sorts summarising selected tweets from Sam West (Zak), Monastic Productions (writers Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh), Ukweli Roach (Tom), Claire Jo Benjamin (assistant director), Sophia Di Martino (guest star) and Rosalie Carew (script editor) for the past few weeks.

20 May
First block i.e. episodes 1 and 2 has completed filming (@exitthelemming, @MonasticProds, @UkweliRoach)
The readthrough for episodes 3 and 4 made the execs cry (click here to find out more!)

18 May
A limping scene featuring Zak Gist (Sam's character) references Twelve Angry Men and visually hints at The Third Man (@exitthelemming)
Guest star Sophia Di Martino finished filming (@soafdimartino)
TV Choice visited the set (@TVChoice)

16 May
Sam has described Zak Gist as "grumpy." (@exitthelemming)
The production had a night shoot at Harewood House, which has a "spooky forest" (@exitthelemming, @TheDramaCat)

14 May
Sam noted the "beautiful" acoustic and interior of Dewsbury Town Hall, one of the locations used (@exitthelemming)

12 May
A location: Headingley Stadium (@ClaireJoBenji)

11 May
Episode 6 has a lot of cats (@MonasticProds)
Filmed Zak and Tom's first day on earth (@MonasticProds)

5 May
The show will have some romantic moments (@MonasticProds)

4 May
Hints at guest character casting for episodes 3 and 4 (@MonasticProds)
Positivity about rushes viewed by the writers so far (@MonasticProds)

3 May
Some very kind comments about one of the cast members (@exitthelemming)

2 May
Jamie Payne will direct episodes 3 and 4. He previously collaborated with Monastic Productions on series 3 of Ashes to Ashes. (@MonasticProds)

1 May
Tobias Menzies (Richard Pembroke) began filming (@MonasticProds)

30 April
Rosalie Carew has been described as an equivalent to Mrs Sheringham... (@MonasticProds)

Ruth Wilson, Rosamund Pike, Hayley Atwell. Guardian BAFTA television portfolio.

Ruth Wilson interviews from the Guardian (via the Ruth Wilson Placeholder Blog) and BA High Life to publicise Luther (series 2 premieres in June on BBC1) and Anna Christie (Donmar, August-October).
A glimpse of her from the Luther series 2 episode 1 teaser (click the thumbnail for full size):

She will star in a BBC Radio 3 production of Flare Path by Terence Rattigan with Rory Kinnear and Rupert Penry-Jones. It will be broadcast 5 June.
On 12 May, Ruth attended the Butterfly Ball.

The voice cast for Warp Film's The Organ Grinder’s Monkey includes Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans and Rosamund Pike.
Earlier this month, Rosamund was a guest at the closure of El Bulli in Spain, and she attended the Women for Women Gala.

A tweet from make up artist Lisa Eldridge about Hayley Atwell doing publicity for Captain America:

"With gorgeous Hayley Atwell again shooting publicity & gearing up for the release of Captain America http://youtu.be/jX-dpQAginE"

(tangent: Lisa also does informative and interesting make up tutorials - her website is here)

John Simm, Hugh Bonneville, Claire Foy and Maxine Peake feature in the Guardian's BAFTA television portfolio.

Samuel West. Radio - Five Days in May. Great West End Theatres. IMS Prussia Cove and Streetwise Opera fundraiser.

[updated 11 February 2012]



(my screencap; video source - Great West End Theatres trailer)

Sam will narrate The Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky and The Seven Deadly Sins (world premiere) by Sally Beamish at the Lake District Summer Music Festival on 5 August.

The Saturday Play Five Days in May will be repeated today. Sam stars as David Cameron.

Sam features in the upcoming documentary series Great West End Theatres (via The Stage).

Jonathan Gaisman QC and Sam will be the quizmasters for the IMS Prussia Cove and Streetwise Opera fundraiser, St Columba’s Hall, 22 June from 6.30pm.

Reminders of upcoming performances in June:

• Henry V by Walton will be performed by the Halle at Sheffield City Hall on 3 June. Sam will be the reciter.
• Sam will read Lorca poems and Tchaikovsky letters at the concluding concert (5 June) of the Purbeck Art Weeks
• He will narrate The Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky at the Kew Music Festival on 26 June

Hayley Atwell. Christian Aid. Film - Captain America.

(my screencap; video source - thisischristianaid)

Earlier this month, Hayley travelled to Nicaragua with the charity Christian Aid to visit coffee farming communities. She has written an article for the BBC, and her interviews about the trip include the Belfast Telegraph, Christian Today, Vogue, and the Daily Bacon. Hayley has narrated and appeared in some videos by Christian Aid - playlist here.

The Belfast Telegraph has an interview with Hayley about Captain America (it's different to the one linked above).

Dan Stevens

Downton Abbey

• Philips British Academy Television Awards nominees party (Downton Abbey has been nominated for the Youtube Audience Award - voting has now closed): a picture shared by BAFTA on Twitter, a video from This Morning (UK only) and an interview from Digital Spy
• Hugh Bonneville and Dan have both tweeted that series 2 will be broadcast in September.

A review of My Dear I Wanted to Tell You from the Independent has described Dan's narration as "phenomenal."

Dan reads the audio for "Citizens: A Manifesto" by Benjamin Ramm.

Charles Edwards - Theatre - Much Ado About Nothing

The Financial Times has an article about recent productions of Much Ado About Nothing  in the UK; it includes a rehearsal picture of Charles and Eve Best. Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe opens tomorrow.

Hayley Atwell. Met Ball, Tommy Hilfiger Prep World launch party. Film - Captain America. Audio - The Whispering Forest.

Hayley attended the Met Ball (Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Benefit) on 2 May. She wore head-to-toe Bally styled by Elizabeth Stewart. Pictures: WireImage, Rex Features, Getty, Vogue/PA, Billy Farrell Agency.
On 4 May, she was a guest at the Tommy Hilfiger Prep World launch party. Pictures: Getty, Rex Features, WireImage (1|2), Papermag/Zac Sebastian, patrickmcmullan.com/Will Ragozzino.

SFX issue #209 has a three page interview with Hayley about Captain America (SFX, @flip18).

The Whispering Forest will have its BBC Radio 4 Extra premiere next Friday.

Samuel West - Film - Hyde Park on Hudson

Baz Bamigboye has reported that Sam is currently in talks to play King George VI in the film Hyde Park on Hudson. Bill Murray has been cast as Franklin Roosevelt. Roger Michell will direct; he previously directed Sam in Betrayal, Notting Hill and Persuasion. Sam may have already hinted at his involvement - last month he tweeted that he's doing a movie after finishing Eternal Law.