Source: BBC America

Claire Foy is revisiting the Sixties in BBC2 drama White Heat. Next stop? 1990, for a new play about the legacy of the baby boomers.

‘I used to think of period drama as Jane Austen, but it’s recent history as well,’ said Claire, when we discussed the London premiere of Mike Bartlett’s play Love, Love, Love, which will run at the Royal Court from April 27 as a co-production with Paines Plough.

The play is about a couple, played by Victoria Hamilton and Ben Miles, who had a fun time in the Sixties. But when they reach their 60s, their children accuse them of screwing up their lives.

Claire will play their daughter Rosie, who ends up having a mid-life crisis. George Rainsford will play their son Jamie, who lives rent-free at home. Sam Troughton will play their uncle.

Director James Grieve, who is also co-director of Paines Plough, told me that the play explores the view that the baby boomers had it easy compared to today’s generation.

Visit the official site to book your tickets.

Scripted by award-winning writer Paula Milne (Small Island, The Fragile Heart), White Heat concerns seven characters who share a student flat in London in 1965. The serial explores their interwoven lives, loves and betrayals, set against the social and political backcloth of Wilson through Thatcher, via feminism, hedonism, union strife, the Falklands and HIV to the present day. It explores how our lives are shaped by the choices we make, which are governed by the opportunities society affords us.

GALLERY LINK:
- White Heat (TV, 2012): Promotion

As announced, ‘Upstairs Downstairs‘ is returning with a 2nd series containing of 6 episodes next Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 9.30 pm on BBC One. Claire Foy reprises her role as Lady Agnes’s younger sister, Lady Persie Towyn.

No drama about an upper-crust family would be complete without a wayward beauty whose behaviour threatens to bring shame on the ancestral name. And in Upstairs Downstairs, Lady Persephone Towyn is no exception.

She is a fascist and has an affair with the family chauffeur, Harry Spargo (shades of Downton Abbey’s Lady Sybil, who also ran off with the Granthams’ driver). In the new series Persie has several dalliances, which raise eyebrows.

Claire says, ‘Persie is precocious and selfish and does some terrible things this time round, so I think a lot of viewers are going to be shocked. I’ll get tomatoes thrown at me in the street.

‘Personally, I think she’s brilliant, and I love playing her, but she has no inhibitions and is big trouble.’

Is Persie jealous of her elder sister? ‘Yes, but not in a destructive way. She secretly envies Agnes, who’s perfect, accomplished and has a family, though she knows she can never be like her.

‘But Agnes doesn’t try to understand Persie and is constantly disappointed by her. She wants them to get on but Persie keeps ruining it. Sometimes Persie feels completely hemmed in by her sister and tries to retaliate.

‘If anything, their relationship gets more and more complex as the series goes on. Persie desperately wants someone to look after her and love her, but doesn’t how to go about it.’

Source: DailyMail.co.uk

GALLERY LINK:
- Upstairs Downstairs, Season 2: Promotion

Finally ‘Wreckers‘ will have its world premiere! It’s part of the lineup of the 55th BFI London Film Festival in the section “New British Cinema”. It will be screened on the following dates:

Visit the film’s page on the official Festival website to see more details.

GALLERY:
- Wreckers (2011): Production Stills

The veteran actress conceived the idea for the original show – which ran from 1971-1975 – along with its star Jean Marsh, but did not appear until the series’ 2010 revival in which she played Lady Holland.

However according to the BBC News website Dame Eileen has opted out of the next series amid reports she is “unhappy” with the direction the scripts are taking.

“It’s with much sadness that we say goodbye to her wonderful character, the straight speaking mother-in-law Lady Holland,” a BBC statement said.

“However we respect her decision and will be announcing new star casting soon.”

The next six episodes of the show – which follows life above and below stairs in the home of a wealthy diplomat’s family – are due to begin filming in October, and will be broadcast in 2012, following the show’s successful revival last Christmas.

Co-creator Jean Marsh is the only cast member to have appeared in both the original and the 2010 version, which also featured Ed Stoppard, Claire Foy and Keeley Hawes.

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Artificial Eye will release the pic in Blighty alongside a day-on-date release with its online platform Curzon On Demand.

The pic, toplining Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy and Shaun Evans, will screen at the London U.K. Film Focus event in the capital next week.

Hood directed and penned the pic, a drama that sees a married couple move back to the husband’s childhood village to start a family. A surprise visit from the husband’s brother ignites a sibling rivalry and exposes the lies embedded in the couple’s relationship.

Simon Onwurah produces.

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Also starring Sam Claflin, Reece Ritchie, Lee Ingleby, MyAnna Buring, David Gyasi and Jessica Gunning the original series is written by Paula Milne and will begin filming next week on location in London. What is the semi-autobiographical series about?

This ambitious series charts the lives of seven friends from 1965 through to the present day. Their relationships; complex, volatile, life affirming and life changing start when they come together as a diverse group of young students to live as flat mates in London’s Tufnell Park: rebel with a cause Jack (Claflin), intelligent feminist Charlotte (Foy), fragile beauty Lilly (Buring), medical student Jay (Ritchie), electronics enthusiast Alan (Ingleby), law student Victor (Gyasi) and big-hearted Orla (Gunning).

The series follows them over four decades as their lives, loves and destinies are shaped by the political events of each era – from the death of Churchill, the union strife of the Seventies, the ascendancy of Thatcher, the Falklands, Aids, the end of the Cold War to the present day. Their interwoven personal lives played against the backcloth of these crucial events converge to make them the people they are today.

Read more quotes about the project over at the BBC Press Office.

On a sidenote, Claire Foy will be a “stylish redhead” in the series according to this tweet by Linny Newman.

UK actors Max Irons and Claire Foy are set to be cast in Boris Damast’s long-gestating historical drama Vivaldi which will begin principal photography this September at locations in Venice, Bruges, Hungary and Germany.

The producers are also now in the final stages of negotiations with Elle Fanning, Neve Campbell, Jacqueline Bisset, Tom Wilkinson, Alfred Molina and Sebastian Koch to join the cast.

The screenplay has been co-written by director Damast with Jeffrey Freedman and is based on the true story of how the headstrong genius and priest Antonio Vivaldi turned a talented, but traumatised group of girls – the illegimate daughters of courtesans – into a world-class orchestra which played the great concert halls of Venice and, ultimately, for the Pope. Vivaldi is exiled and separated from his beloved girls when his maverick ways arouse the suspicion of the powerful and scheming Venetian society. But, on learning of the nature of the dark plot against them, the composer does all in his power to rescue his pupils, his career and the very integrity of the city of Venice.

The film is being produced in conjunction with Andrea Kikot of Vivaldi UK Ltd., with Jean Luc van Damme of Belgium’s Banana Film, Harald Reichebner of Luxembourg/Germany-based European Enterprises, Mirko Ikonomoff of Italy’s Victory International, Hannes Schalle of Germany’s Moonlake Entertainment, and Jozsef Cirko of HCC Media Group in Hungary.

International sales are being handled by London-based Celsius Entertainment.

Meanwhile, another film project on the Italian composer’s life – although known as Vivaldi – is being prepared with Mexican-born filmmaker Patricia Riggen attached to direct a screenplay by Kevin Lund and T.J. Scott about Vivaldi’s alleged forbidden love for the soprano Anna Tessiero Giro.

The names of Luke Evans, Jessica Biel, Sir Ben Kingsley and German-American violin virtuoso David Garrett have been cited in the past in connection with this international production by Germany’s Zeitsprung Entertainment and Raffaella de Laurentis’ Raffaella Productions with the ARD network’s Degeto Film.

Moreover, regional funding totalling over €2m has been granted so far for Riggen’s take on Vivaldi’s life by Filmstiftung NRW, FFF Bayern and MFG Baden-Württemberg.

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A city banker is found dead in an opulent apartment. At the funeral, his former girlfriend Helen (Claire Foy) is unexpectedly questioned about when she last saw him. Did he mention computer files, or give her anything as a keepsake? Helen’s suspicions mount as she retraces his last movements. Her discoveries put her in the firing line. A fast-paced, psychological thriller.

A taut, character-driven conspiracy thriller by one of radio’s leading writers of thrillers. Like the television hit State of Play, Simon Passmore has created an intelligent plot for grown-ups: writhing with twists and heavy on menace. This will be compelling Saturday afternoon entertainment.

David (Blake Ritson) and Helen (Claire Foy), a professional couple in their mid-twenties, are shocked when Jamie (Nyasha Hatendi), an old friend from university, dies unexpectedly. At the funeral, they meet Mark (Charlie Cox), another mutual friend. Mark implies that he works for Special Services, and tells them that Jamie, a high-flying investment banker, may have killed himself – and that his bank has been under investigation. Did Jamie contact the couple before he died? As Mark teases out information, Helen begins to suspect he is not entirely innocent. Mark’s questions turn into threats, and people start getting hurt. David and Helen find they must expose a murder before it’s too late.

Source: BBC 4 Radio Programme – thanks Lorna for the link.

Danny Cohen says: “The return of Upstairs Downstairs was fantastically well-received but what drove us to recommission was the wonderfully imaginative and distinctive plans the team have to take the drama forward.”

The hugely anticipated revival of the legendary Upstairs Downstairs starring Dame Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh was a smash hit with audiences old and new on BBC One this Christmas, attracting an average of 8.4 million viewers across the three episodes.

Writer Heidi Thomas says: “For me, going back to Eaton Place feels like opening a jewel box – the house is packed with gems. The Holland family and their servants are set for an extraordinary year, and I am thrilled to be their guardian during this momentous chapter.”

The six episodes will return next year and chart a period of social change in Britain in which class structures and relationships between master and servant are tested to their limits. The new series will portray a society in its endgame.

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, says : “Upstairs Downstairs is the BBC’s biggest drama series launch, alongside Sherlock, since Doctor Who in 2005.

“When it returns in the first half of next year viewers will find everything they loved at Christmas, but with bold new stories that shed a fascinating light on a changing society. A huge shock will ensure events at 165 Eaton Place are never the same again.”

Upstairs Downstairs was recommissioned by Danny Cohen, Controller, BBC One and Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning.

Made by BBC Cymru Wales Drama, the executive producers are Piers Wenger, Heidi Thomas and Kate Harwood. Upstairs Downstairs is a co-production with Masterpiece on PBS. Originally co-created by Jean Marsh, Dame Eileen Atkins and Sagitta Productions.

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Claire Foy (Little Dorrit) and Christian Cooke (Cemetery Junction) lead an international cast, including Itay Tiran (Lebanon), Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor), Ali Sulaiman (Paradise Now) and Perdita Weeks (Lost in Austen), in Peter Kosminsky’s new four-part drama serial, released on DVD and Blu-ray on 28th February.

Just as 18-year-old Londoner Erin (Foy) sets off to spend summer in Israel with her best friend, Eliza (Weeks), she unearths an old diary belonging to her seriously ill grandfather, Len (Cooke).

Intrigued by the life of this old man she barely knows, Erin takes the diary with her, and is stunned to learn of his part in the post-WWII British peace-keeping force in what was then Palestine.

Left to her own devices when Eliza begins National Service in the Israeli army, Erin witnesses the complexities of life – for both Jews and Arabs – in this troubled land.

As Len’s story comes to life from the pages of the diary, Erin discovers the disturbing truths about his time in Palestine and the atrocities he witnessed in the 1940s.

A tale of political conflict and the devastation of a nation, The Promise sees Erin retrace Len’s steps in a heart breaking journey to understand and fulfil a promise made by her grandfather over 60 years ago.

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Source (Thanks to Lorna for the heads-up)

Set against the turbulent backdrop of Forties London, The Night Watch tells the stories of four young Londoners inextricably linked by their wartime experiences. In a time when the barriers of sexual morality and social convention have been broken down, Kay (Anna Maxwell Martin), Helen (Claire Foy), Viv (Jodie Whittaker) and Duncan (Harry Treadaway) enjoy a freedom never experienced before as they engage in secret liaisons and passionate trysts.

The drama opens in 1947 as the country is trying to rebuild itself after the war; we find Kay mysteriously roaming the streets, haunted by some traumatic personal loss. Meanwhile, Helen and Viv run a marriage bureau, helping people rebuild their shattered lives by finding love. But their own complicated love lives are less easy to solve. Helen obsessively clings to her tumultuous and volatile relationship with Julia (Anna Wilson-Jones) while Viv is continuing an affair with a married man whom she seems unable to break free from. Viv’s vulnerable young brother Duncan harbours a terrible secret, when a face from his past re-appears which threatens his fragile existence.

Moving back in time through the Forties into the maelstrom of the Blitz, the lives, loves and losses of these four central characters are unravelled. For them, the post-war victory is bitter sweet, for it returns them to the margins of society from which they hoped they had been liberated. In order to build their future they must each make peace with their past.

Other novels by Sarah Waters have already been adapted for television: Fingersmith and Tipping The Velvet. ‘The Night Watch‘ was adapted by award-winning British writer, Paula Milne (Small Island, Endgame, The Virgin Queen and The Politician’s Wife) and is being made by BBC Drama Production.

Filming for ‘The Night Watch‘ has already started in Bath. This is Bath reports how Sydney Gardens were transformed into the 1940 set last Saturday. Filming will also take place in Bath’s Royal Victoria Park and the city centre. Other than that they’re using the studios which were already used to make Lark Rise To Candleford, those are about half an hour from Bath. The Bath & North East Somerset Council website also has a report about the filming which will take place until the middle of December.

‘The Night Watch‘ is expected to air as a 90 minute drama on BBC2 in April 2011.