News

BritBox has acquired a raft of hit U.K. shows, such as thriller “Line of Duty” and gameshow “Pointless,” to bolster its lineup of British programs on its North American streaming service.

BritBox, a joint venture between BBC Studios and ITV, closed new deals at Mipcom on Wednesday with Kew Media Distribution and Endemol Shine International to bring more than 250 hours of content to its U.S. and Canada platform.

Jed Mercurio-scripted police thriller “Line of Duty,” starring Martin Compston, Adrian Dunbar, Vicky Mclure, Keeley Hawes, and Thandie Newton, has been a huge hit for the BBC over its five series.

Other shows included in the deal include Sky crime dramas “Thorne: Sleepyhead” and “Thorne: Scaredy Cat,” starring David Morrissey and Aidan Gillen, and “Pointless,” a popular BBC One game show.

Also included is long-running panel show “8 Out of 10 Cats” hosted by Jimmy Carr and the mystery-spy series “MI5,” starring Peter Firth,...

U.K.’s Fearless Minds is joining forces with Spain’s “Hierro” producer Portocabo and Vaca TV to co-produce high-end historical mini-series project “Garbo, el espía que engañó a Hitler”.

Inspired by the life of the one-off Juan Pujol, alias Garbo, a Spanish double agent who helped change the course of World War II, the six-episode TV drama project is being penned by James Wood, creator of BBC series “Quacks” and “Rev.”

The move marks an early U.K.-Spain TV co-production alliance for TV drama, with international TV giant the Banijay Group also entering as a partner.

“Garbo” was first unveiled as a project in June 2017 at TV drama co-production meeting Conecta Fiction, in Galicia’s Santiago de Compostela, by series executive producers, Portocabo’s Alfonso Blanco and Vaca TV’s Borja Pena.

British producer Jolyon Symonds, who launched Fearless Minds in 2017 as the fruit of a joint venture with Banijay,...

“I don’t like pain, it hurts.”

In Thorne: Sleepyhead (2010), Di Tom Thorne (David Morrissey) is a detective that works on instinct. It was said of his first big collar, a serial killer named Frank Calvert. Di Tughan (Eddie Marsan) is more of your traditional, witness-grilling copper. There’s medical examiner, and Thorne’s best gay buddy, Hendricks (Aidan Gillen) and the rookie Holland (O.T. Fagbenle) who mumbles. It comes to police attention that there may be a serial killer out there who manually induces stroke. One victim, Alison (Sara Lloyd-Gregory), survives but is left in a locked-in coma and struggles to communicate with Thorne. Eventually, though, Thorne’s past comes back to haunt him when this killer somehow knows his secret. Also on offer is a snarky doctor (Stephen Campbell Moore) and a beautiful doctor (Natascha McElhone).

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Versatile Liverpool-born actor David Morrissey has taken roles ranging from prime minister-to-be Gordon Brown in Stephen Frears' "The Deal" to the Duke of Norfolk in "The Other Boleyn Girl" to the object/victim of Sharon Stone's affections in "Basic Instinct 2." But it's policemen for which he seems to have a particular affinity, playing cops good, bad and guilt-ridden in multiple British television series and the "Red Riding" film trilogy. The character of Tom Thorne, whom he plays in a pair of three-part miniseries, "Thorne: Sleepyhead" June 12 and "Thorne: Scaredy Cat" June 13 (both Encore, starting at 9 pm), is something unique, a detective who often seems in danger of getting pulled into his cases. Investigating first a sadistic criminal whose aim is to leave his victims with locked-in syndrome (like Jean-Dominique Bauby, protagonist of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly")...

For those who prefer their British entertainment imports to be more Prime Suspect and less Downton Abbey, two new specials on Encore should be to their liking. Based on the popular mystery series by Mark Billingham, Thorne: Sleepyhead and Thorne: Scaredy Cat offer a pair of chilling whodunits where the blood from the crime scenes runs as thick as the Londoner accents. David Morrissey plays Tom Thorne, a mercurial detective whose unconventional methods get results but also often put him at odds with his colleagues. In Sleepyhead — which premieres tonight at 9 — Thorne tracks a killer of young women [...]...

It's good to be David Morrissey -- not only did the British thesp recently land the iconic role of The Governor in Season 3 of "The Walking Dead," he also stars as the titular detective in Encore's tense crime thriller miniseries, "Thorne," which debuts Tuesday, June 12, at 9 p.m. Et. Part Two airs the following night, Wed., June 13 at 9 p.m. Et.

The two-part miniseries is adapted from Mark Billingham’s bestselling novel, "Sleepyhead," and boasts an array of familiar TV faces, including "Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh (with a plummy British accent, no less), Natascha McElhone of "Californication" and "The Wire" alum Aidan Gillen (most recently seen as the conniving Littlefinger on "Game of Thrones".)

According to Encore, Part One (titled "Sleepyhead") follows Thorne as he finds himself dragged back into the nightmares of his past while looking for a mysterious serial killer after a series of unusual attacks on young women.

It's good to be David Morrissey -- not only did the British thesp recently land the iconic role of The Governor in Season 3 of "The Walking Dead," he also stars as the titular detective in Encore's tense crime thriller miniseries, "Thorne," which debuts Tuesday, June 12, at 9 p.m. Et. Part Two airs the following night, Wed., June 13 at 9 p.m. Et.

The two-part miniseries is adapted from Mark Billingham's bestselling novel, "Sleepyhead," and boasts an array of familiar TV faces, including "Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh (with a plummy British accent, no less), Natascha McElhone of "Californication" and "The Wire" alum Aidan Gillen (most recently seen as the conniving Littlefinger on "Game of Thrones".)

According to Encore, Part One (titled "Sleepyhead") follows Thorne as he finds himself dragged back into the nightmares of his past while looking for a mysterious serial killer after a series of unusual attacks on young women.

Fans of the villainous Governor from AMC’s The Walking Dead might wanna get their cable companies to hook them up with Encore if they don’t already have it. David Morrissey, who plays this “ultimate villain” on America’s most beloved zombie program, will soon star in a “two-part crime drama event” on that cable network, which is press-release speak for “a couple of TV movies.”

Of course, this is premium cable, which means we’re far from the silly made-for-tv days of Quinn Martin and his ilk. And though the Starz/Encore family is still a relative newcomer to original programming, we here at the Complex have little reason to believe they won’t deliver on quality. The first season of Starz’ Boss alone put any doubts on that score to rest. And though these films were originally produced for the BBC, it is good to know that...

Make It or Break It is coming to an end.

ABC Family not-so-subtly announced this week that the current third season of the gymnastics drama will be its last when new promos touting the upcoming season ender featured the words “series finale.”

Showrunner Holly Sorensen also took to Twitter to confirm the news, writing, “We all love you so much. And we are, very sadly, three weeks away from the series finale of Miobi.”

Make It or Break It‘s closer airs Monday, May 14 at 9/8c.

Ready for more of today’s TV dish? Well…

• The CW’s repeat airing of L.