The Honourable Woman is hardly a light-hearted comedy romp at the best of times, but the sixth episode – which opens with a rape and ends with a young boy shooting himself – is bleaker than a Dartmoor funeral. Like a spindle of black cotton unravelling, ‘The Mother Line’ is dark from the first and … >
Kay Mellor (Playing the Field, Fat Friends) returned to our screens this week with In the Club, BBC One’s new comedy drama about a group of pregnant women from various walks of life whose lives intersect at a Parent Craft class the women attend. Whilst juggling their pregnancies, the women’s outside lives provide even more … >
‘Secrets are weird,’ Ephra Stein (Andrew Buchan) tells sister Nessa (Maggie Gyllenhaal). ‘People think you share them – but you don’t.’ Not if you’re a selfish, narcissistic, emotionally-stunted handpump hopelessly in thrall to the Israeli government, MI5 and your own penis, perhaps. But if you’re the best British drama series of 2014 (note to Hugo … >
The Honourable Woman writer Hugo Blick has revealed that BBC Two’s political thriller will not continue for a second series. Currently airing at 9pm on Thursday nights on BBC Two, the eight-part series is set against the present day backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight), Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch), … >
Giving drama a backdrop of contemporary world events is a double-edged sword. While it lends realism and gravitas to a story that might otherwise be as fantastic as it is fantastic (as it were), it can also be like trying to use a live tiger as a sofa: there’s a real danger of it biting … >
BBC One has released the first trailer for In the Club, written by Fat Friends creator Kay Mellor. A new drama about pregnancy, imminent birth, love and the changing nature of relationships that a new baby brings to a modern family, the six-part series begins on BBC One next month. In the Club stars Hermione … >
It’s probably a bit early to be reaching for True Detective-sized superlatives when discussing The Honourable Woman. Yet with each instalment surpassing the last, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to resist. Comparisons with Nic Polazzo’s acclaimed thriller are both fitting and inappropriate. The suspense that hangs over Hugo Blick’s serial like Victorian smog, making it almost … >
Life is rarely kind to Nessa Stein. The little girl who saw her daddy stabbed in the neck by a waiter (for being boss of an arms company rather than failing to leave a decent tip) has grown up rich and successful as a result of running the family business – but it has come … >
Three years after the sometimes preposterous, frequently gory, entirely entertaining The Shadow Line, writer and director Hugo Blick is back with another satisfyingly noir-ish thriller: lighter on the operatic excess than its predecessor, but no less compelling – or less blood-spattered. Yet whereas The Shadow Line was a London immorality tale about criminals and corrupt … >
The Honourable Woman, BBC Two’s new political thriller starring Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight), will begin next month. Written, directed and produced by Hugo Blick (The Shadow Line), the eight-part series starts at 9pm on Thursday 3 July on BBC Two. The Honourable Woman is set against the present day backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … >