News

The new iteration of “The Office” at Peacock has found four more cast members.

Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Tim Key, and Eric Rahill have all joined the untitled series. They join previously announced cast members Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Melvin Gregg, Chelsea Frei, and Ramona Young.

Ikumelo, Edelman, and Rahill will also be writers on the series in addition to appearing onscreen. Exact character details are being kept under wraps. Ikumelo recently won the BAFTA Award for female performance in a comedy program for “Black Ops,” while Edelman just won an Emmy and Special Tony award for his comedy show “Just for Us.”

As has been previously reported, the show is not a reboot or spinoff of “The Office,” but rather a new mockumentary show with a new cast set in the same universe. It is rumored to be currently titled “The Paper” but no official title has been announced.

BBC Studios has announced the titles coming to BritBox in May 2024, which include everything from new BritBox Originals to classic British fare. BritBox is a digital video subscription service offering the largest collection of British TV in the U.S. and Canada.

The May lineup includes the Sophie Rundle-led original After the Flood and the 2024 BAFTA Television Awards with P&o Cruises, streaming exclusively on BritBox in North America. Several notable BritBox series have been nominated for BAFTA TV Awards this year, including The Sixth Commandment, Time, Three Little Birds, Would I Lie to You, and Make It at Market, which will be returning for a second season on May 14.

BritBox is a digital subscription video-on-demand service offering the largest and most comprehensive, unmissable collection of British entertainment available all in one place.

BritBox delivers the UK’s favorite programs, ranging from brand new commissions to gems, across a variety of genres,...

Aimee Lou Wood Comedy ‘Daddy Issues’ Rounds Out Cast

Aimee Lou Wood BBC comedy Daddy Issues has rounded out cast and unveiled first-look image. Joining the Sex Education star and David Morrissey are David Fynn (Am I Being Unreasonable?), Sharon Rooney (Barbie), Sarah Hadland (Miranda), Taj Atwal (Hullraisers), Arian Nik (Count Abdulla), Tom Stourton (Stath Lets Flats), Susan Lynch (Sex Education), Susannah Fielding (This Time with Alan Partridge), Lauren O’Rourke (Henpocalypse), Cyril Nri (Death in Paradise), Cora Kirk (Grantchester), Perry Fitzgerald (Line of Duty), Claire Keelan (The Trip), Damien Molony (Brassic), Sherrie Hewson (Benidorm), Humphrey Ker (Welcome to Wrexham) and David Reed (Ghosts). Daddy Issues follows a hedonistic woman in her mid-20s, played by Wood, who discovers she’s pregnant after a random hook-up and has no choice but to turn to her hapless father Malcolm for support. The show will air on BBC Three, producer is Fudge Park and distributor is Fremantle.

Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson are set to star in the romantic drama “Alice & Jack” for U.K. broadcaster Channel 4.

The series is lead directed by Juho Kuosmanen, helmer of the Golden Globe-nominated Cannes title “Compartment Number 6,” with a second block directed by BAFTA-nominated “Lilting” helmer Hong Khaou. The show is written by “Mad Men” scribe Victor Levin. It is a Fremantle production in partnership with BAFTA- and Emmy-winning Me + You Productions (“I Am Ruth”), Academy Award-nominated Groundswell Productions (“The Visitor”) and De Maio Entertainment. Fremantle is handling global sales on the project.

Rounding out the cast are Aisling Bea (“Greatest Days”), Aimee Lou Wood (“Sex Education”) and Sunil Patel (“This Time with Alan Partridge”).

Created and written by Levin, “Alice & Jack” is billed as “a love story for the ages.” An official synopsis for the show reads: When Alice (Riseborough) and Jack (Gleeson) first meet, they...

Nick Mohammed, the two-time Emmy nominee for his co-starring role on Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, will make his U.S. live performance debut for one night only at New York’s Town Hall on Friday, June 2. The show will bring his “Mr. Swallow” alter-ego character to American audiences for the first time.

Though best known to U.S. viewers for Lasso, Mohammed’s Mr. Swallow shows have played to sold out venues across the UK, including multiple dates in London’s West End. According to the Town Hall announcement, “audiences can expect noise, maths, magic and the whole of Les Mis!”

“I honestly can’t wait to unleash Mr. Swallow on US audiences,” Mohammed said in a statement. “Frankly, the character is a bit of a nightmare, so this one-off show could go one of three ways – two of which don’t even bear thinking about! But in all seriousness,...

Baby Cow are the production company behind some of the U.K.’s best-loved comedy shows, including “Gavin and Stacey” with James Corden and Ruth Jones, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s “The Mighty Boosh” and “This Time With Alan Partridge” starring Steve Coogan as the cringe-worthy fictional television host.

It was a prescient Coogan who founded Baby Cow alongside producer Henry Normal in 1998, long before talent-led production companies were a thing. In 2016 BBC Studios took a majority stake in the company, with Coogan staying on as a shareholder and creative director. He also stars in many (although not all) of the company’s projects – which span TV, film, comedy and drama – including the recent Channel 4 series “Chivalry,” in which he plays an old-school film producer getting to grips with a changing world opposite Sarah Solemani, and upcoming feature film “The Lost King,” about an amateur historian who finds...

Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow has snapped up a new series from “Stath Lets Flats” star Katy Wix and Adam Drake (“The Chosen”) called “Fat Camp,” Variety can exclusively reveal.

Wix, who has also appeared in shows including “Torchwood” and “The Windsors,” has co-written the series with Drake. She will also star.

“Fat Camp” will be centered around a kids’ diet camp and set in the U.K. It was inspired by an article Wix read about real-life camps where parents send their children in a bid to help them lose weight.

Wix and Drake will also exec produce alongside Baby Cow CEO Sarah Monteith and Rupert Majendie, Baby Cow’s head of development.

Variety understands a bidding war erupted over the series before it landed at Baby Cow, which has also produced shows including “Chivalry,” starring Coogan and Sarah Solemani, Coogan’s “This Time With Alan Partridge,...

Hannah Waddingham, Emmy winner for Apple TV Plus series “Ted Lasso,” is joining leads Solly McLeod and Sophie Wilde in the cast of Masterpiece and U.K. broadcaster ITV’s literary classic adaptation, “Tom Jones.”

Waddingham has been cast as the seductive and vengeful Lady Bellaston in the miniseries, which is currently filming in Northern Ireland.

Based on Henry Fielding’s classic 1749 novel “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,” the series follows the romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted Tom Jones in 18th-century England.

McLeod (“The Rising”) plays the hero Tom, alongside Wilde (“You Don’t Know Me”) as the heroine Sophia Western. The cast also includes Pearl Mackie (“Doctor Who”) James Fleet (“Bridgerton”), Alun Armstrong (“Breeders”), Olivier winner Shirley Henderson (“Happy Valley”), Tamzin Merchant (“Carnival Row”), Julian Rhind-Tutt (“Britannia”), Susannah Fielding (“This Time With Alan Partridge”), BAFTA-winner Daniel Rigby (“Black Mirror”), James Wilbraham (“In My Skin”), Felicity Montagu (“The Durrells...

During last night’s Oscar broadcast, Hulu debuted an intriguing TV spot for the upcoming Nicole Kidman led series ‘Nine Perfect Strangers.’

Based on The New York Times bestselling book by author Liane Moriarty, the series takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this ten-day retreat is the resort’s director Masha (Nicole Kidman), a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. However, these nine “perfect” strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.

Co-written by David E. Kelley, John Henry Butterworth and Samantha Strauss and co-show run by David E. Kelley and John Henry Butterworth, the series stars Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Bobby Cannavale, Regina Hall, Samara Weaving, Melvin Gregg, Asher Keddie, Grace Van Patten,...

The BBC has blessed us all with a bit of Alan Partridge in a new trailer for the return of the series ‘This Time with Alan Partridge’.

Alan Partridge returns as co-host of BBC One magazine show ‘This Time’, relishing his career Indian summer and the chance to showcase his broadcasting chops to the nation every weekday evening. But conscious of being left in the shadow of co-presenter Jennie and alert to potential changes behind the scenes, Alan grows ever more anxious about his place in the big time.

Written by Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, the series stars Coogan (Alan Partridge), Susannah Fielding (Jennie Gresham), Felicity Montagu (Lynn Benfield), Tim Key (Simon Denton), Lolly Adefope (Ruth Duggan), Simon Farnby (Sam Chatwin), Natasia Demetriou (Tiff).

Also in trailers – Jason Sudeikis is back as ‘Ted Lasso’ in feel good teaser trailer for season 2

The show begins on Friday 30th April at 9.30pm on BBC One.

Exclusive: Audible is launching scripted mockumentary The Special Relationship from UK comedy duo Alex Owen and Ben Ashenden (aka The Pin).

The series will follow two misguided British sketch comedians attempting to ‘make it’ in America with satirical nods to a post-Brexit Britain trying to ‘go it alone’. It will use a mix of live sketches and ‘documentary footage’.

Among performers from both sides of the pond will be Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live), Fred Armisen (Portandia), Jamie Demetriou (Stath Lets Flats), John Reynolds (Stranger Things), Kate Berlant (Netflix: The Characters), Lolly Adefope (This Time with Alan Partridge), Sally Phillips (Veep), Janine Harouni (Modern Horror Stories) and Charly Clive (Pure).

Owen and Ashenden’s are best known for their work on BBC Radio 4 and acclaimed live shows.

The Audible pod series is set to launch at the beginning of August.

Steve Coogan’s iconic comic creation Alan Partridge has landed his own Audible podcast, titled From The Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast.

The 18-part series comes out of Coogan’s Baby Cow Productions and will feature the fictional TV and radio presenter offering “audio vignettes” on his life.

The series will drop on Amazon’s audio app Audible on September 3, but the company has made the first episode available for free on its Alexa voice assistant until June 12.

“All national treasures have a podcast. With this series, I want to give my fans an intimate view of who I really am,” Partridge said of his new venture.

Coogan first created the character in 1991 and is currently working on a second season of BBC show This Time With Alan Partridge.

Altitude Films has debuted a new trailer for Simon Bird’s directorial debut ‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’ featuring Rob Brydon and Alice Lowe.

The film is an adaptation of Joff Winterhart’s graphic novel of the same name and follows a heavy-metal-loving teenager as his holiday plans fall through at the last minute, meaning he must spend the whole summer with the person who annoys him most in the world: his mum.

Related: Days of the Bagnold Summer – Lff 2019 Review

‘The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird makes his directorial debut. BAFTA-winning actress Monica Dolan (Eye in the Sky, W1A), Earl Cave (True History of the Kelly Gang, The End of the F***ing World), Rob Brydon (The Trip, A Cock and Bull Story), Alice Lowe (Prevenge, Sightseers), Tamsin Greig (The Second Best Marigold Hotel, Green Wing), Tim Key (Greed, This Time with Alan Partridge) and Elliot Speller-Gillot (Uncle) all star in the film.

The BBC is leading nominations for the 2020 Rockie Awards, a juried competition organized by Canada’s Banff World Media Festival to celebrate achievement in television and digital media from around the world.

The BBC was nominated for 27 Rockie Awards, followed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with 13 noms, Sky with eight noms, National Geographic with six noms, HBO with five noms, as well as Arte France and Finland’s Yle with four nominations each. U.K. and U.S. shows are leading the pack with 44 and 43 nominations, respectively.

The comedy series lineup includes BBC’s “Fleabag,” “Motherland,” “This Time With Alan Partridge,” as well as A24’s Ramy and Channel Four’s “This Way Up.” The non-English language comedy shows in the running include Finland’s “Almost True,” Tva’s “Boomerang” and Radio-Canada’s “Freefall,” Arte France’s “Mytho,” and Deutschland’s “Other Parents.”

Drama series nominated include Corus Entertainment’s “Departure,...

The canceled Banff World Media Festival on Tuesday revealed the nominations for its Rockie Awards, with American and British TV producers dominating the competition.

U.K. TV shows earned 44 nominations, followed closely by American series with 43 nominations. The Banff Rockies prize-giving will be streamed live June 15.

The best drama category will see BBC and HBO's Gentleman Jack challenging BBC and NBC Universal's The Capture and Wgn America's Pure from Canada's Cineflix Studios. British series dominate the comedy competition as BBC's Fleabag, Motherland and This Time With Alan Partridge series will challenge A24's Ramy ...

Daisy May Cooper, the star of hit BBC comedy “This Country,” is to play a suspected witch being escorted to trial in 17th-century England in new BBC Two comedy series “The Witchfinder.”

Cooper will star alongside actor and comedian Tim Key, who plays a failing witch hunter transporting her to a trial that could change his fortunes forever. But his captive is the worst possible travel companion: an inquisitive, uncouth woman whose ability to prick his pomposity and ask uncomfortable questions turns a straightforward journey into a life-changing ordeal.

Set in 1647, in the middle of the English Civil War, “The Witchfinder” is created by Neil and Rob Gibbons, the writers and directors of Steve Coogan-starring “This Time With Alan Partridge.”

The six-part series is produced by Coogan’s production company, Baby Cow, whose credits include “The Trip,” starring Coogan and Rob Brydon, as well as features “Alpha Papa” and “Philomena.

Entertainer currently shooting The Trip To Greece with Rob Brydon.

Steve Coogan, who stars as a fashion mogul in Michael Winterbottom’s Toronto-bound satire Greed, will receive the Bafta La Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy at the 2019 British Academy Britannia Awards in Los Angeles on Oct. 25

Coogan, one of the most distinguished and versatile comedians, actors, mimics and writers to emerge from the UK in the last three decades, rose to fame with his spoof talk show host Alan Partridge.

He cut his teeth as an impersonator and comic on the 1980s satirical TV series Spitting Image.

Sam Claflin, Freida Pinto and Poldark star Eleanor Tomlinson are set to join Olivia Munn in writer-director Dean Craig’s romantic-comedy Love, Wedding, Repeat, we can reveal.

Joel Fry (Game Of Thrones), Allan Mustafa (People Just Do Nothing), Jack Farthing (Official Secrets), Aisling Bea (Living With Yourself) and Tim Key (This Time With Alan Partridge) are also set to appear in the film. Shoot is due to get underway in Rome in early May.

Guglielmo Marchetti (Black Butterfly) of Notorious Pictures and Piers Tempest (The Wife) of Tempo Productions are producing the UK and Italian co-production. Jo Bamford (The Wife) and Andrea Borella (The Truth About Love Is…) are serving as executive producers. Endeavor Content is handling world sales.

The feature centers on Jack who finds himself juggling brotherly duties to ensure his sister Hayley has the wedding of her dreams while unexpectedly being reunited with Dina (Munn), the woman...

If you didn’t know Alan Partridge was returning to our television screens, where have you been? The BBC has launched a new trailer for Partridge’s return in ‘This Time with Alan Partridge.

The latest chapter in Partridge’s life will see Alan (Steve Coogan) handed a career lifeline – the chance to stand in (temporarily) as co-host on This Time, an evening weekday magazine show.

His first return to live television since his 90s chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You was cancelled after a guest was fatally shot on air, This Time is the perfect shop window for a man of Alan’s gravitas and will, or should, see him finally recognised as one of the heavyweight broadcasters of his era.

The show consisting of 6 half-hour episodes is a heady mix of consumer affairs, current affairs, viewer interaction, highbrow interview and lightweight froth; very much the sweet spots for...

Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan helped bring the 2018 Edinburgh TV Festival to a close on its third and final day on Thursday.

Coogan, speaking alongside Christine Langan, the former BBC Films head who joined his Baby Cow Productions banner as CEO in 2016, unveiled the first footage from his new BBC series featuring his beloved comic creation Alan Partridge, This Time With Alan Partridge.

The show – due for broadcast in early 2019 – sees the largely incompetent and tactless TV and radio presenter return to the BBC to co-host a fictional breakfast news show, having been eyed by ...