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Metro
37 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Crime drama with 'one of the best twists of all time' finally available on Netfl
A crime drama that viewers have declared 'one of the best they've watched in a long time' has now been made available on Netflix. First airing in Australia in 2023, North Shore was created by Mike Bullen, who was also behind the comedy-drama Cold Feet. The six-part series follows a British and Australian detective who must team up and investigate the murder of the British trade minister's daughter after her body is found in Sydney Harbour. The politician, Abigail Crawford, is played by Downton Abbey and Breathtaking's Joanne Froggatt. In the middle of negotiating a major deal between Britain and Australia she is told the devastating news about her 19-year-old daughter Sophie's (Bailey Spalding) death. Invited to help investigate the case is London based detective Max Drummond (Game of Thrones' John Bradley) who flies across the world with Abigail and her husband Simon (Dan Spielman). However, once he arrives, it's made clear by DS Meg Driscoll (Kirsty Sturgess) that she will be taking the lead, with their personalities and cultures quickly crashing. Despite their icy introduction, the pair must overcome their differences to work together, which then sees them uncovering a 'complex conspiracy with international political consequences'. Several suspects then emerge, including Sophie's boyfriend and his best friend, while questions are also raised about Abigail's relationship with her old friend Greg Hardy, the leader of the Australian opposition party who looks likely to be the nation's next leader. Since tuning in, many viewers have shared what they thought of the drama. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'One of the best twists of all time. The final episode has the most surprising twist of any crime/ murder mystery series since the first season of Broadchurch! Not as emotionally dramatic but still shocking!' lbowdls posted on IMDB. 'Ok so this isn't Line of Duty or The Wire, but it was much better than I was expecting. Don't go into this expecting a breathtaking drama. Take it for what it is. A simple whodunit with a great twist at the end!' thenorthcotes shared. 'It doesn't sound cliché or cheesy like a lot of modern murder mysteries do lately, and it's just the right amount of thriller and mystery to keep you wondering, with little hints of comedy to spark your mood,' thewatcher17 added. The series was initially acquired by ITV in the UK, streaming on ITVX following its initial release on Australian television in 2023, but its dropped on Netflix in the UK today. 'Just binge watched North Shore One of the best series we've watched in a long time! Here's hoping they'll be another series!' Ian posted on X. More Trending 'Brilliant crime drama from down under with 2 UK lead actors. I'd recorded the first 2 episodes but after watching them yesterday I just couldn't wait and watched the rest,' John wrote. North Shore also stars Rob Carlton, Matt Passmore, Rhys Muldoon and Toby Truslove. North Shore is streaming on Netflix. View More » A version of this article was first published on January 16, 2025. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Daisy May Cooper makes shock exit from ITV series before second series MORE: Vanessa Feltz guest apologises after 'disgraceful' remarks spark almost 2,000 complaints MORE: Wincey Willis, ITV's first female weather presenter, dies aged 76
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What is Murder Most Puzzling? Channel 5 launches Ludwig-style murder mystery show
There are few entirely new concepts in TV, so it's unsurprising that every so often a debut series feels like a déjà vu moment for viewers. Murder Most Puzzling might well spark that sense of familiarity in anyone settling down to watch Channel 5 on Thursday, 19 June as the murder mystery starring Downton Abbey's Phyllis Logan follows a similar premise to Ludwig, a hit for the BBC in 2024. Both comedy-dramas feature an oddball cryptic puzzle writer who joins forces with the police to solve some head-scratching cases. Whether Logan's show can replicate the huge success of the David Mitchell starrer remains to be seen, but if you like quirky sleuths and mind-boggling clues, this could be the series for you. Here's all you need to know about Murder Most Puzzling as it begins on Channel 5. A cryptic crossword enthusiast at odds with social norms joins forces with the police to help solve a series of puzzling murders - no, it's not the second season of BBC's Ludwig, this is Channel 5 offering Murder Most Puzzling. This time, the cruciverbalist in question is Cora Felton, played by Phyllis Logan. She's a Bloody Mary-swilling, chain-smoking brain box who turns out to be a match for local detectives when she tries her hand at sleuthing. Ludwig fans might spot plenty of similarities in this three-part series, but it's actually based on the crime-thriller Puzzle Lady Mysteries novels by Parnell Hall which were published between 1999 and 2019. Hall is a US author, but the TV adaptation couldn't be more British, set in the village of Bakerbury where like Midsomer Murders, there is an unusually high ratio of suspicious deaths in the small community. Downton Abbey's Phyllis Logan is the series star as Cora and she told This Morning on Thursday, 19 June what a fun time she'd had making the series. "It's so punchy and different," she said. "I know it's about murder, but if you can have a comedy side to murder then this is it. She likes a Bloody Mary before just great fun to play a character like that." Logan added: "Everybody can't get enough of (crime drama), and people can't get enough of making it either. But this has got a really lovely twist to it because it's not your straightforward, grisly old crime." Her co-stars include Charlotte Hope as Sherry Carter, Adam Best as DCI Hooper, and Nick Danan and Jack Weise as his police colleagues DS Sam Brody and PC Danny Finley. Logan also welcomed her husband Kevin McNally onto set for the second time in a year as they co-starred again after playing husband and wife in BBC's Miss Austen. She told This Morning: "We started the year last year working together playing Mr and Mrs Austen, and then we finished the year playing a kind of romantically-linked couple in Murder Most Puzzling. It's like bring your husband to work day!" Murder Most Puzzling begins on Channel 5 at 8pm on Thursday, 19 June.
Time Magazine
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The Gilded Age Is Just Too British to Love the American Dream
In the third season of HBO's The Gilded Age, a frothy costume drama set amid the robber barons and socialites of 1880s New York, a servant suddenly comes into money. So much of it, in fact, that he'll never have to work again. But instead of seizing his new-found freedom, the man keeps his windfall a secret and continues toiling below stairs. He simply can't imagine leaving a household staff that has become his surrogate family. Even for a show that's famous for its silliness, this is a ridiculous storyline. No one in their right mind would choose a 19th century servant's labors as a hobby. It isn't surprising, though, to see The Gilded Age telegraph such complacency among the lower classes or alarm at the prospect of sudden social mobility. Created by Downton Abbey mastermind Julian Fellowes, a bona fide aristocrat and Conservative politician in his home country of Britain, the series aspires to be more than what it is: a historical soap par excellence decked out in prestige drag. Successful or not, it's a reflection on the American Dream of equal opportunity as pursued by the self-made strivers of its era. Season 3, in particular, suggests that Fellowes does not wholly approve. This is the season where things start to get real for the show's quintessential dreamers: George (Morgan Spector) and Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon). Born into undistinguished families, this cartoonishly ambitious couple hustled to make George a titan of industry. Season 1 saw them and their nearly grown children, Larry (Harry Richardson) and Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), move into an ostentatious mansion on old-money 61st St. Bertha set about scheming to rule high society the way her husband dominated business. By the second season finale, her triumph in championing the new Metropolitan Opera had cemented the family's arrival. But in the new episodes, Bertha's obsession with marrying off Gladys, against her will, to a British duke (Ben Lamb), divides the Russells. In a parallel overreach—one that could bankrupt him—George insists on trying to build a cross-country railroad during an economic downturn. Unstable as they are, Fellowes implies, the Russells could fall as quickly as they rose. Holding steady in more modest, dated luxury across the street are the show's true heroes: quippy society widow Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and her tenderhearted sister Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), who'd resigned herself to spinsterhood before meeting a kind reverend (Robert Sean Leonard) in Season 2. Alas, the marriage was short; he died of cancer almost immediately, and the meek— that is, Ada—inherited everything. It was a convenient twist, seeing as Agnes' troubled son, Oscar (Blake Ritson), had just been swindled out of their family's riches. The big drama among the sisters, this season, is Ada's struggle to wrest control of the household from Agnes, now that she's paying the bills. Nothing really changes, though—and in Fellowes' world, tradition and consistency are virtues. The Gilded Age isn't entirely opposed to progress. Haughty as she can be about the 'new people,' Agnes, like Downton 's imperious Violet Crawley before her, has a good heart. She's open-minded enough to employ a young Black writer, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), as her secretary. This season, Peggy falls ill at the sisters' home, and they are horrified to see their family doctor refuse to treat her. When Peggy's parents (Audra McDonald and John Douglas Thompson) arrive with their own physician, Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica), Agnes and Ada graciously receive them at the front door. (A romance soon blossoms between doctor and patient, in one of the season's best storylines, bringing McDonald's character into delicious conflict with his snooty mom, played by Phylicia Rashad.) Populated by strong female personalities, the show also gets behind the feminist causes of its time, like women's suffrage. It's sympathetic to the plight of divorced women, then considered too scandalous to be received in polite society. What Fellowes can't countenance are privileged people who lack the magnanimity befitting their rank and, most of all, servants who are insufficiently grateful to their benevolent employers. If the Russells are presented as morally ambiguous antiheroes, then one of the season's only true villains is a member of their staff who leaks intel on the family to the press. 'Money is money,' this ostensible monster sniffs when caught. Never does anyone ask if Bertha is adequately compensating her employees, nor do we get to know the culprit well enough to understand the context for the crime. Three seasons in, The Gilded Age has barely explored its huge cast of servant characters. Like Downton, it has more sympathy for—and curiosity about—aristocrats desperate to keep fortunes they didn't earn than it does for workers whose pursuit of happiness is enshrined in America's founding documents. Through his characters, Fellowes communicates his approval for a more compassionate and inclusive upper crust. Yet the question of whether class-based gatekeeping and the economic stratification that enables it might be, in themselves, social ills isn't up for debate. (Would Agnes and Ada treat the Scotts with the same respect if they weren't refined members of the Black bourgeoisie?) Rather, the social scene is presumed to be inherently good and worthy of preservation. As Ada observes: 'Society's changed, Agnes. The trick is to accommodate the new without upsetting the boat.'
Boston Globe
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
How Newport ‘worked its magic' on ‘The Gilded Age' creator Julian Fellowes
'Newport's been the discovery of this job for me,' said Fellowes. 'I think in Newport you get a much clearer sense of who these people thought they were.' Actors Amy Forsyth (as Caroline Astor), left, Ashlie Atkinson (Mamie Fish), and Harry Richardson (Larry Russell) stroll across the lawn of the Ledges in Newport in the HBO drama "The Gilded Age." Allison Cohen Rosa/HBO Advertisement Wealthy American families after the Civil War sought to forge a new identity separate from Europe and its traditions, said Fellowes, who also created 'Downton Abbey.' 'It wasn't enough anymore to go on copying Europe and to be this newer version of Europe,' he said. 'This was a different society. This was made up of newer people or people who had made it simply through their own talent and ability, and they wanted a society that reflected that, that you didn't have to have 15 generations of ancestors who've all been at the court of Maria Theresa.' While 'The Gilded Age' focuses on the clash between the nouveau riche Russells and old-money van Rhijns in New York City, Newport comes into play as the summertime playground where the wealthy 'built their palaces,' making a statement about their status, Fellowes said. Advertisement 'When you go to Rosecliff and you look out at the sea, and that stupendous ballroom behind you, you really think: These people were not apologizing for who they were,' said Fellowes. From left: Morgan Spector, Carrie Coon, and Harry Richardson. Karolina Wojtasik/HBO After introducing the characters in season 1 and diving more deeply into their ambitions in season 2, Fellowes said the upcoming third installment is centered on their 'emotional motives.' 'I wanted to explore who they really were to themselves, when the servants had left and they were looking in the glass in the bathroom,' he said. For the van Rhijns, this season sees a power shift between sisters Ada (Cynthia Nixon) and Agnes (Christine Baranski). At the end of season 2, the family nearly lost its home due to Agnes's son Oscar (Blake Ritson) and his mishandling of their investments. But, all was saved thanks to auntie Ada, who shocked everyone with the reveal that her late husband Luke, a reverend with Boston roots, was secretly rich and left her his wealth. The turnabout, which puts the purse strings under Ada's control, comes as a culture shock to Agnes, the razor-tongued matriarch of the family who's used to getting her way. Fellowes has long been 'interested by strong and ambitious women who had to live in a society that didn't accommodate strong and ambitious women,' he said. Through Ada and Agnes, he looks at how people react to longstanding dynamics changing and situations not going as planned. 'The truth is, we all … have to accept something we did not choose and have to accept the limitations of our ambition,' Fellowes said. 'There is a moment where our ambition exceeds our ability, and we have to take note of that and act accordingly. ' Advertisement From left: Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski. Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Ada, usually not the center of attention, has transformed in unexpected ways entering this season, according to Fellowes. Despite the heartbreak of losing her husband to cancer so soon after their marriage in season 2, she's found a new confidence, Fellowes said. Experiencing a deep romance for the first time helped her feel seen and discover her inner strength. 'This wasn't just some dumb guy who was lonely and finally found someone that was prepared to have supper with him,' said Fellowes. 'We're talking about a man with real choices, with real money. He could have done anything he liked with his life. … And he's chosen Ada.' 'I think that changes Ada's perception of herself, and in the end, it changes everyone's perception of her,' he added. From left: C.J. Wilson, Morgan Spector, and Patrick Page. Karolina Wojtasik/HBO On the Russells' side of things, Bertha (Carrie Coon) is still on a mission to see her family ascend to even higher ranks of society, while George (Morgan Spector) looks to advance his business empire with some questionable railroad activities out West. The era's often nefarious industrialists fascinate Fellowes, who was particularly interested in how these robber barons 'clearly started to worry about how they would be remembered' at the end of their careers, he noted. Those fears, he said, led notable names at the time like Carnegie and Frick to donate money for public works such as libraries and concert halls, 'so that they will be remembered as nice men.' According to Fellowes, it's these types of contributions that, when coupled with their long histories of worker abuse and other unethical practices, make their legacies complicated. Advertisement 'I think they did make a tremendous contribution to public life in America, and also, lest we forget, they built an economy in this new country that was, fairly soon, the greatest economy in the world and gave them an enormous advantage in the coming world wars,' Fellowes said. 'I don't think it's appropriate to simply disparage them as robber barons and forget about it.' 'The Gilded Age' season 3 premieres Sunday on HBO and Max. Matt Juul can be reached at
Wales Online
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Hugh Bonneville to reprise role as Ian Fletcher in BBC football comedy
Hugh Bonneville to reprise role as Ian Fletcher in BBC football comedy The six-part show, Twenty Twenty Six, is a follow-up to comedy series W1A, which followed Ian as the head of values at the BBC. Hugh Bonneville (Image: BBC ) Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville will reprise his role as Ian Fletcher in a new BBC mockumentary series. The six-part show, Twenty Twenty Six, is a follow-up to comedy series W1A, which followed Ian as the head of values at the BBC. Bonneville, 61, will reprise the character as he takes on a new title, the BBC's director of integrity for the 2026 World Cup. Bonneville's character will join the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team in Miami, with a cast including The Day Of The Jackal's Nick Blood, Fresh Off The Boat star Chelsey Crisp and Designated Survivor's Paulo Costanzo. Stephen Kunken, best known for playing Ari Spyros in Billions, also joins the cast alongside The Inbetweeners' Belinda Stewart-Wilson. Director John Morton said: "I wasn't sure what Ian Fletcher had been up to recently. The last I heard he was still recovering from a serious mindfulness course in Somerset. So, it's great to hear that he's made it back and has re-emerged in his natural habitat at the centre of a well-known institution, but now on the world stage and facing his biggest opportunity yet to get things right. Article continues below "I'm thrilled and hugely grateful to the BBC for giving me the chance to follow him again, this time all the way to Miami, and I literally can't wait to see what happens." The character was first introduced in 2011 series Twenty Twelve, which followed an organising committee for the London Olympic Games. Bonneville was nominated for four TV Bafta awards and the original series took the Best Situation Comedy award in 2013. The series also starred The Crown's Olivia Colman, who won the 2013 Bafta for Best Female Performance in a Comedy. Bonneville is known for playing Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, in period drama Downton Abbey, and has also starred in the Paddington films as Henry Brown. Executive producer Paul Schlesinger said: "It's 15 years since Ian Fletcher's journey started with the run-up to the London Olympics and we are delighted the BBC has given John another chance to capture the universal comedy of people trying to organise something really big in a room, but this time with an outstanding international cast." Article continues below Twenty Twenty Six will consist of six 30-minute episodes and will be available to watch on BBC One and iPlayer.
