Grantchester - behind the scenes with creator James Runcie

Go Behind the Scenes of Grantchester!

Don’t miss an opportunity to see London Book & Screen Week Ambassador James Runcie (The Grantchester Mysteries) for this special event on Wednesday 13th March!

Led by TV personality Reverend Richard Coles (BBC One The Big Painting Challenge, QI, Have I Got News For You?), the author behind ITV’s hit series will be in conversation with lead scriptwriter Daisy Coulam, to dive behind the scenes of the popular TV show.

James and Daisy will discuss the inspiration behind the stories, the challenges of adapting to screen and key moments from the last four series: From the bromance between Sidney Chambers (James Norton) and Geordie Keating (Robson Green), to tackling homosexuality and the church, and introducing the new vicar William Davenport (Tom Brittney).

Attendees will also be treated to a preview of James’ new novel - The Road to Grantchester - a captivating prequel published by Bloomsbury on 21st March.

Ticket information can be found here.

Innocent - A Gripping New ITV Drama Series from M.J. Arlidge and Chris Lang

Bestselling thriller writer and creator of the Helen Grace series M.J. Arlidge returns to his screenwriting roots to pen a four-part ITV drama series with Chris Lang.

Innocent will be broadcast across four nights from 14-17 May on ITV 1 and stars Hermione Norris and Lee Ingleby.

The four-part drama series tells the compelling story of David Collins (Lee Ingleby) who is living a nightmare. Convicted of murdering his wife Tara, David has served seven years in prison. He’s lost everything he held dear: his wife, his two children and even the house he owned. He’s always protested his innocence and faces the rest of his life behind bars. His situation couldn’t be more desperate. 

Despised by his wife’s family and friends, his only support has been his faithful brother Phil (Daniel Ryan) who has stood by him, sacrificing his own career and livelihood to mount a tireless campaign to prove his brother’s innocence. 

Convinced of his guilt, Tara’s childless sister Alice (Hemione Norris) and her husband Rob (Adrian Rowlins) are now parents to David’s children. For Alice there’s no doubt of his guilt and she’s utterly devastated by the prospect of David’s Appeal and Re-trial.

M.J. Arlidge

Innocent was written by M.J. Arlidge and Chris Lang of TXTV. M.J. Arlidge has worked in television for the last fifteen years, specializing in high-end drama production, including the prime-time crime serials Torn, The Little House and Silent Witness. Arlidge is also piloting original crime series for both UK and US networks. In 2015 his audio exclusive SIX DEGREES OF ASSASSINATION was a No. 1 bestseller.

Arlidge’s debut thriller, EENY MEENY, was the UK's bestselling crime debut of 2014 – and every book since has hit the bestsellers’ lists. His bestselling Helen Grace series includes POP GOES THE WEASEL, THE DOLL'S HOUSE, LIAR LIAR, LITTLE BOY BLUE, HIDE AND SEEK and LOVE ME NOT. Helen Grace was recently voted the ‘Kathy Reichs Award for Best Female Character’ in the 2017 Dead Good Readers awards.

Innocent stars Hermione Norris (Cold Feet, A Mother’s Son) and Lee Ingleby (The A Word, Inspector George Gently) and they will be joined by Daniel Ryan (Home Fires, Mount Pleasant), Angel Coulby (Merlin, The Tunnel), Nigel Lindsay (Victoria, Foyle’s War), Elliot Cowan (Da Vinci’s Demons, Frankenstein Chronicles) and Adrian Rowlins (Harry Potter, Dickensian).

Innocent starts Monday 14 May at 9pm on ITV. Continues Tuesday, Wednesday and concludes Thursday same week.

Robin Jarossi's Criminal Acts November 2011

Robin is a journalist with a long rap sheet of jobs in TV magazines, from Radio Times to the Daily Mirror's We Love Telly.

The Killing II BBC4 from Saturday, 19 November, 9pm Pics: BBC Why did we all find Sarah Lund so compelling when series one of Forbrydelsen was shown earlier this year? She never smiles, she’s not glamorous, hardly a good mother, she’s emotionally cold and obsessively driven. Well, she’s back this month and we can watch and wonder again about this very Scandinavian, very enigmatic female cop. The current Nordic crime-fiction invasion specialises in tortured detectives, from Henning Mankell’s Wallander to Arnuldur Indridason’s Erlendur, but at least in the dour Erlendur’s case we have some insight into his lonely, obsessive mindset (the brother lost in childhood during a snowstorm). But Lund – we can only wonder about. As season two of The Killing begins, we see her at a low ebb. She’s no longer an investigator following her work on the messy Birk Larsen case two years previously, having been dispatched to the country to do some kind of border duty. She’s in a dingy flat, frying eggs for breakfast, and seems alienated from her son and mother. However, she is suddenly visited by detective Ulrik Strange, who has been sent by Lund’s former boss in Copenhagen, the stony-faced Lennart Brix. The Copenhagen cops are troubled by the macabre and puzzling murder of a female lawyer, found tied up in her garden and stabbed 21 times. Brix’s boys suspect the husband, who was having an affair with his secretary but has an alibi. Lund at first turns down Brix’s request to take a look at the case, but later agrees to evaluate the crime scene. And as ever, her take on the evidence runs counter to her colleagues’. She does not believe the murder was a crime of passion… The new series is different from the original, but it is good to see Lund in new surroundings with fresh challenges. Once again there is a political backdrop to the investigation, with a new justice minister grappling with demands for strong terrorism laws. There is also a military strand to events, with a soldier desperately hoping for release from a psychiatric ward following a breakdown. Happily, some things remain the same. The days in Copenhagen are still dark and rain-sodden, and Lund, despite having a new jumper, is still walking into the path of trouble. Sofie Gråbøl’s award-winning portrayal of the emotionally buttoned-up Lund was the highlight of the crime-drama year when BBC4 showed The Killing I back in January. As Brix says to her stiffly on her return, ‘Good to see you.’ And it is – whoever you really are.

Garrow’s Law series 3 BBC1 from Sunday, 13 November, 9pm Pics: BBC Despite this being the third series of the 18th-century Old Bailey drama based on transcripts from real cases, I am always surprised at how few people seem to have watched this fascinating show. Perhaps that is why the Beeb has placed it in Sunday night’s prime 9pm slot, where it should gain new fans now that the all-conquering Downton Abbey has shut down for the year. Andrew Buchan returns as William Garrow, barrister at the Bailey and something of a lost hero from history. It was creator Tony Marchant’s inspired idea to write a drama about the man who repeatedly tweaked the beaks and the establishment with some audacious legal victories. Like Sarah Lund, Garrow is also struggling as we get reacquainted. At the end of the last series he was (wrongly and vindictively) found guilty of ‘criminal conversation’ – or sex with another man’s wife. Garrow and Lady Sarah Hill had been making eyes at each other, but there had been no ‘criminal conversation’. However, Sir Arthur –played by Rent-a-Cad Rupert Graves – jealously prosecuted the pair. Following that scandal, they are social outcasts and on hard times. And Garrow taking on the case of James Hadfield, who fired a gun at George III, is not likely to win him any popularity polls with the establishment or the patriotic mobs. It’s a typically intriguing case to open this four-part series. Garrow is perplexed about how to defend Hadfield, whom he realises is mentally disturbed, having claimed to have heard God telling him to die in order to save the world. However, to be legally adjudged mad in 18th-century England you had to be raving permanently and foaming at the mouth. Garrow has to challenge the law by pointing out that a man can be lucid most of the time, but have a shaky relationship with reality – a bit like King George III. Which will be a very tricky defence to pull off. You’d be mad to miss it.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Clocks Finally, fans of David Suchet’s little grey cell exponent should note that the Poirot mystery The Clocks will be part of ITV1’s Christmas line-up next month.

Sophie Hannah's Point of Rescue comes to the small screen

Hodder and Stoughton arranged for a preview screening of the ITV commissioned two part drama based on a novel by the award-winning author Sophie Hannah.

The two-part drama, Case Sensitive, is based on the highly acclaimed and chilling psychological suspense novel Point of Rescue from Sophie Hannah.

Case Sensitive stars OLIVIA WILLIAMS (The Ghost, Dollhouse, An Education, The Sixth Sense, Rushmore) in the lead role of DS Charlie Zailer and DARREN BOYD (Whites, Personal Affairs, Little Dorrit, Green Wing) as DC Simon Waterhouse. They are joined by RUPERT GRAVES (Garrow’s Law, Single Father, Sherlock), RALPH INESON (Waterloo Road, The Bill, The Office), and AMY BETH HAYES (Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Whatever it Takes, Misfits).

Case Sensitive is a story, which explores themes of identity, guilt and family strife. The 2 x 60 min drama has been adapted for ITV by Hat Trick Productions.

When Geraldine Bretherick and her 5-year-old daughter Lucy are found dead in the bathroom of their luxury home, the case divides new DS Charlie Zailer and her DC Simon Waterhouse. Is it murder, suicide or something even more sinister, and how watertight is the alibi of the husband Mark?

Meanwhile, when Sally Thorne, a working mother with a husband and two young children, hears of the deaths, she is shocked and appalled. Months before she'd met a man called Mark Bretherick at a hotel and had a brief but passionate affair with him. Now she feels the need to get in touch with him again to offer her sympathy. Her friend Esther does not think this is very wise.

ITV ‘s two-part dramatisation of Point of Rescue will be broadcast on May 2nd & 3^rd under the series title Case Sensitive.

The adaptation is excellent and well worth seeing. There are some stunning performances from all the cast but especially from Olivia Williams who plays DS Charlie Zailer and Amy Beth Hayes. Case Sensitive was directed by Charles Martin who has directed such programmes such as Skins and Being Human.

Case Sensitive is certainly worth not only sitting down to watch but also taping. BBC Worldwide are responsible for international distribution.

For further information please contact:

Karen Geary - 0207 873 6141

Tim West - 020 7157 3040

Ann Cleeves Book Launch 28 March 2011

The launch of Ann Cleeves new book Silent Voices took place on Monday 28 February at the October Gallery in Central London. Amongst those to join Ann were Brenda Blethyn OBE (who is soon to be seen as Vera, in the ITV adaptation of Ann’s Vera Stanhope police procedurals), the editorial team from SHOTS, Michael Carlson, Chris Simmons from Crimesquad, Barry Forshaw, NJ Cooper and TV director Peter Hoar. Goldsboro Books provided the hardback editions for signing.

Ann’s publisher Pan Macmillan provided various cheeses, biscuits and gin from the Wylam Brewery Ltd. Which went down rather well and if you want to know more email: admin@wylambrewery.co.uk. We were also treated to music from Ribbon Road a Northumberland folk band.

After a short introduction from Macmillan editor Julie Crisp, Ann read a brief passage from Silent Voices. Having whetted out appetite we were led back into the main gallery for a sneak (but short) preview to the opening sequence of Vera which is slated for transmission on ITV in May 2011.

Ann said of the adaptation: “I’m absolutely delighted. It’s a really good script and the director has kept the spirit of my central character.
“We were determined it was filmed in the North East because it’s important for the filming and cultural scene in the region.
“A couple of scenes are filmed in Whitley Bay and I hope it will provide work for the local people.
“It’s fantastic to have Brenda Blethyn involved too. We also have a very good director.
“I’ve been writing for 20 years and it’s great that after all that time there is now this success.”

To view more of the photos taken that night, click here:

Details taken from the ITV Press Release:

Julie Armstrong (Gina McKee) arrives home from a rare night out in Newcastle with boyfriend Gary Wright (Neil Armstrong) to find her son murdered. Luke (Sam Fender) has been strangled, laid out in a bath of water and covered with wild flowers while his sister, Laura (Gabrielle Ross), sleeps silently in the house. This stylised murder scene has Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) and Sergeant Joe Ashworth (David Leon) intrigued. A second body of beautiful young teacher Lily Marsh (Samantha Neale) is discovered laid out in a rock pool, the water strewn with flowers.

Vera must work quickly to find the killer who is making art out of death. Clues are slow to emerge from those who had known Luke and Lily, but Vera soon finds herself drawn towards a curious group of friends who discovered Lily's body.
As local residents are forced to share their private lives and those of their loved ones, sinister secrets are slowly unearthed. And all the while the killer remains in their midst, waiting for an opportunity to prepare another beautiful, watery grave.

VERA also stars Wunmi Mosaku as DC Holly, Paul Ritter as a Forensic Pathologist Billy Cartwright, Juliet Aubrey and Murray Head as Peter and Felicity Calvert, Patrick Toomey as Samuel Parr, Paul Higgins as Clive Stringer and Colin Conway as Davy Sharp.
Filming for the 120 minute drama was shot on location in Newcastle and Northumberland. VERA is a compelling, character driven crime drama. The script, which is based on the book Hidden Depths, has been adapted by Paul Rutman who has written for Marple and Lewis.






















Photo © ITV Drama