Time to brew the tea and pop the popcorn — Britain’s beloved Downton Abbey is back! Last night’s supersized Season 2 premiere picked up two years after the last series left off, smack in the middle of World War I. The men (well, except for the rich ones) are fighting, the women are pining (and becoming independent), and much of the show’s relentless intra-Downtown intrigue has given way to the human drama of life during wartime. But that doesn’t mean that everyone’s pulling together for the common good. So, in the spirit of class-conscious competition and self-interested jockeying for position, we’re kick off a new weekly feature, in which we declare winners and losers for each episode of Downton Abbey. See where your favorite characters stand after the jump.
1. Scarlett Johansson plans to make her full-length directorial debut with Summer Crossing, an adaptation of Truman Capote’s lost novella. The story, which is set in post-World War II New York City, follows “an 18-year-old girl breaking free of her rich, smothering, family to discover her own identity and sexuality.” [via Variety]
2. Emmy Award-winning actor Jim Parsons could be returning to Broadway this spring to star in a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy Harvey; whether or not he plays Elwood P. Dowd, a man who claims to be friends with a six-foot-tall rabbit, hinges on if he can juggle the gig with his schedule for The Big Bang Theory. [via ArtsBeat]
3. Deadline is exclusively reporting that Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker will be reteaming with director David Fincher on his upcoming remake of 20,000 League Under the Sea.
4. Some exciting news for lit nerds and/or fans of period dramas: Vulture reports that HBO is partnering with the BBC to develop a new mini-series based on Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall.
5. Did you realize that standup comedian and former Grace Under Fire star Brett Butler wound up broke and homeless after a long battle with drug addiction? She’s now hoping to have a comeback of sorts with a reality show about her psychic abilities. [via THR]
No, Da Vinci’s Demons is not the new Dan Brown novel (thankfully), but it does also feed our ongoing fascination with the dark side of history’s most brilliant minds. Starz — best known for their smutty programming that in-part explores the lives of historical figures such as Spartacus and King Arthur — is getting classy with BBC Worldwide for a new series they want to release in 2013. Writer and executive producer David Goyer, co-writer on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, will oversee Da Vinci’s Demons.
The new show will focus on a 25-year-old Leonardo da Vinci (before his beard was sexy). “This will be a show about secret histories, genius, madness, and all things profane. And I’m particularly excited that I get to do it on premium cable, where the story can be as dark and challenging and irreverent as it deserves to be,” Goyer revealed.
Are you looking forward to seeing the legendary artist and inventor in a new light, or would you rather not know how the genius Renaissance man sowed his wild oats during the (apparently) raunchy days of the 15th century?
It seems there have been countless documentaries about punk, from the earliest days in New York and England to contemporary scenes around the world. What distinguishes 1-2 FU, an hour-long 2004 BBC production we discovered thanks to Dangerous Minds, is its intentionally personal bent. Although the film definitely provides a history of punk, it views the movement through the eyes of a true punk fanatic — British radio and TV host Jonathan Ross. The doc, which includes interviews with everyone from Vivienne Westwood to OG punk zinesters, makes perfect lunch-hour viewing. You can watch it after the jump.
We’ve been mourning the untimely death of X-Ray Spex leader Poly Styrene for nearly a week now, re-listening to her albums on repeat and reading everything that’s been written on her. But we’re especially grateful to Marc Campbell at Dangerous Minds, one of our very favorite blogs, for digging up the rarely seen BBC documentary Who Is Poly Styrene? Fittingly, the film is more a collage of performance footage, audio from interviews, Styrene reading her lyrics, and other rare clips. Even though the video quality isn’t top-notch, Who Is Poly Styrene? is — at 40 minutes long — perfect lunchtime viewing.
1. Brace yourselves, muggles: The first trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has landed online. Watch it here, and if you like what you see, mark your calenders for July 15th, when the final installment of the Potter franchise lands in theaters.
2. Last night at a benefit for the Academy of American Poets in honor of National Poetry Month, Alec Baldwin did a recital of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “Annabel Lee,” that brought Patti Smith to tears. [OMG via Jezebel]
3. Cirque du Soleil is planning to recreate Michael Jackson‘s Neverland Ranch at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. They’ll also be launching the most expensive show in the company’s history, “Michael Jackson, The Immortal World Tour,” in October. [via AP]
4. Fans of The Office can watch three short preview clips of tonight’s farewell to Michael Scott (Steve Carell) here. Our favorite is his final meeting with the Party Planning Committee.
5. The Mighty Boosh’s Noel Fielding — who previously did a hilarious parody of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” on the BBC’s Let’s Dance for Comic Relief — stars in her new self-directed music video for “Deeper Understanding” alongside of Robbie Coltrane. [via NME]
In the first big David Foster Wallace documentary since his suicide, the BBC’s Professor Geoff Ward discusses the author’s childhood, legacy, preoccupations and battles with the gentleness of a true fan but the exactitude of a scholar. On the radio missive, which first aired on the BBC on February 6th, Ward interviews Wallace’s contemporaries (Rick Moody and Mark Costello, who was also Wallace’s college roommate), Don DeLillo, Michael Pietsch, editor of Infinite Jest, Wallace’s agent, Bonnie Nadell and his sister, Amy Wallace. He also mines archives of interviews with DFW — some of the most wonderful are with Wallace discussing irony — and accents his ruminations and conversations with passages from Infinite Jest as well as the forthcoming The Pale King.
If you’re a reader, a writer or even just a member of the television saturation generation, it’s worth a listen, and if you’re a fan of Wallace, the program may tug at your heartstrings, suggesting what might have been, but celebrating the man as he was. As Don DeLillo tells Ward, “I can’t think of anyone quite like him, at all… Wallace stands alone.” Click through to hear the documentary in its entirety.
The BBC has recently launched an experimental web project called Dimensions, which allows users to overlay ancient cities, famous festivals, and environmental disasters over modern maps to get a sense of scale. The site can be used to try to better understand the impact of both catastrophes, like the flooding in Pakistan, and everyday occurrences, like the growth of urban spaces. It’s also a great way to kill a good half hour of time. Click through for some of our favorite maps.
Maybe you’ve left your gift-buying to the last minute (again). Maybe you’re just looking for something to cozy up with as you keep yourself warm during the holiday lull. Either way, when it comes to quality screen time, there’s no beating the BBC. For decades, the British Broadcasting Corporation has created and aired some of the edgiest, funniest, and most envelope-pushing programming in the world — the best of which is available on US shores through BBC America.
Over the years, there have been a number of BBC series of such high quality that they begged to be collected in full, bringing their complete experiences into welcoming homes. After the jump, we round up the ten best of the best, along with info and the requisite video clips. But that’s not all: we also have copies of almost every one* of these BBC box sets available to win! To be in with a chance at one, leave us a comment telling us your personal favorite moment from British TV history. Be sure to use a valid email address when submitting, so we can contact you if you win. Bonus points if you catch the crossover cameos in our selected video clips — these UK stars have a habit of popping up in each other’s shows.
