Following the news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday at age 96. Peter Morgan, writer of the 2006 film The Queen starring Helen Mirren and Netflix’s Emmy-winning drama The Crown, said that the series
“is a love letter to her.”
Review by Cavan Gilbey
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a corner stone of the gothic
horror genre. A compelling novella telling the tale of one man’s struggles to fight human nature’s
violent impulses as well as being a great study on the psychology behind public and private
personas. Of course there have been dozens of interpretations across all the major mediums; tv,
film, stage and even a small handful of video game adaptations. I’ve always been partial to John
Barrymore’s silent film adaption from 1920 and I was introduced to the story by seeing a local drama
society perform a stage adaptation, but I only read the novel relatively recently. Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde is one of those stories we are just born knowing due to its wide-spread integration into
cultures across the globe.
Following the news that Netflix royal drama ‘The Crown’ has been renewed for a sixth and final and is returning to our screens in November this year (having been away from our screens since November 2020 due to covid-related production delays) we have some more casting news for the sixth season. The show has cast two actors to play the young Prince William and the actress who will portray William’s future wife Kate Middleton in season 6 of the Netflix drama about the British royal family. Rufus Kampa and Ed McVey are set to portray the prince at different ages, while Meg Bellamy has been cast as the future Duchess of Cambridge.
Rufus Kampa will play William from the age of 15, while Ed McVey will portray him during his late teenage years into his 20.
Kampa’s episodes will detail how the royal family dealt with the 1997 death of Williams’ mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. McVey will portray William as he courts Bellamy’s Kate after the pair meet in 2001 while studying at Scotland’s University of St Andrews. Kampa made his professional West End stage debut in June 2019, playing the lead role of Adrian in Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 13 3/4 – The Musical. McVey has appeared on stage at the Old Vic and at Hammersmith Riverside Studios.
The show will mark all three actors’ professional screen debuts. Kampa and Bellamy were both discovered from self-submitted audition tapes following a casting call on social media.
The Crown is a historical drama web television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The first season covers the period from Queen Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’s marriage in 1947 to the disintegration of her sister Princess Margaret’s engagement to Group Captain Peter Townsend in 1955. The second season covers the period from the Suez Crisis in 1956 to the retirement of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963 and the birth of Prince Edward in 1964. The third season spans the period between 1964 and 1977, including Harold Wilson’s two periods as prime minister, and introduces Camilla Shand. The fourth will include Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and introduce Lady Diana Spencer. The fifth and sixth seasons (which will be the series’ final season) will cover the Queen’s reign into the 21st century.
Season 5 of The Crown will premiere on Netflix in November, with Imelda Staunton taking over the role of Queen Elizabeth II from Olivia Colman. The cast also includes Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Dominic West as the Prince of Wales, Jonathan Pryce as the Duke of Edinburgh, and Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret.
The Crown to get sixth and final season at Netflix
Order The Crown series 1 & 2 and pre-order series 3 now.
Review by Jacob Licklider
With the release of Gallifrey: Time War: Volume Four the general consensus was that the series was over. Romana was punished to chronicle the Time War, Gallifrey was in the throws of a fascist dictatorship under Rassilon’s thumb, Leela was captured, and Narvin was essentially sent off to his suspected death. And then the Gallifrey One convention for 2022 happened and Big Finish Productions announced not one, but four new Gallifrey box sets under the series name War Room with the first set releasing this August, over a week ago at the time of writing. Yes, I am a bit late because this released while I was sick, so here we are finally taking a look at Gallifrey: War Room: Allegiance.
BBC Three has announced the release date for Season 4 of hit reality series RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Season 4 will premiere in the UK on BBC Three at 9pm on Thursday, 22 September. New episodes will arrive weekly after that, and will also be available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Check out the announcement teaser below.
DC animated series ‘Harley Quinn‘ animated series came back to HBO Max for Season 3 earlier this summer, and today we’ve learned via Deadline that it has been renewed for a fourth season at the streamer.
Review by Cavan Gilbey
Tosh is often placed at the centre of some of Torchwood’s more experimental audio stories. The perfect piracy commentary Cascade, the anger management focused story Instant Karma and Dinner and a Show explored her little seen friendship with Ianto. Of all of the main team, Tosh has the most consistent catalogue of good stories; a catalogue Suckers happily fits in. New writer Alexander Stewart gives a fresh take on the often overused amnesia narrative and mental ward setting by giving us a story with far more human stakes that are more terrifying than any alien could ever be.
Netflix has cancelled the upcoming second season of Resident Evil, its action horror series loosely based on the popular video game franchise.
Resident Evil premiered on July 14, 2022 following production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) has signed onto the fourth season of Amazon Prime Video superhero drama The Boys.
This Halloween 101 Films are releasing Ghostwatch (1992) on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK and USA – A BBC production that terrified Britain on 31st October 1992.
