2015 is fast approaching, but what’s in store to keep our screens flickering and our minds off the drudgery of everyday life?
Inside No. 9
BBC Two’s dark anthology comedy series from Psychoville‘s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton will be back for more mischief with a second season.
Shearsmith teased: “You want to set yourself a bar quite high where you can look back at the first series and think, “Oh god these are really good, we’d better carry on and top them again’.”
The Interceptor
Created by Strike Back writer Tony Saint, BBC One’s new eight-part drama is about a top secret, state-of-the-art law enforcement team whose mission is to hunt down some of Britain’s most dangerous criminals.
The Interceptor‘s cast includes O-T Fagbenle (Looking), Jo Joyner (EastEnders), Trevor Eve (Waking the Dead) and Anna Skellern (Lip Service).
Jekyll & Hyde
Charlie Higson’s writing this supernatural drama set in London in the 1930s. ITV’s ten-part action-adventure series sees Dr. Jekyll’s grandson encounter supernatural creatures including ghouls, zombies, werewolves and vampires.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
A 7-part drama based on Susanna Clarke’s bestseller, BBC One’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel sees Bertie Carvel and Eddie Marsan as rival magicians in an alternate 19th century England.
Adapted by Doctor Who’s Peter Harness (‘Kill the Moon’), it’s a period piece of prestidigitation that you can expect BBC Drama’s costume department to throw the whole dressing up box at.
Jurassic World
‘Ooh, ahh…that’s how it always starts. Then later there’s running and screaming.’ And this time that running and screaming is in a ‘spared no expense’ up-and-running dino park, featuring a massive Mosasaurus, a rampaging ‘D-Rex’, children in peril, and Chris Pratt riding a motorcycle with his badass velociraptor gang.
Also starring Merlin‘s Katie McGrath, Jurassic World arrives in UK cinemas in June. Somewhere Dr. Ian Malcolm is saying ‘I, ah, hm, ah, told you so.’
Kingsman: The Secret Service
One from Mark Millar’s ‘Millarworld’ stable of comics-adapted-for-film (Kick-Ass 2 was the most recent and there’s a fistful to come, including Nemesis and Superior), Kingsman is based on Millar’s graphic novel about a young chav who’s trained to become a James Bond-style spy.
The cast is strong – Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Caine, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong – and Jane Goldman has written the screenplay, so this might well be a sleeper hit when it arrives in UK cinemas in February.
Continued on Page 5…