Showing tag: Drama Clear tag

Page 5 of 6

Common

Common

Common, written by Jimmy McGovern and directed by David Blair, has won an RTS North award and a Broadcast Award and is nominated for a BAFTA Best Single Drama. The drama centres on the UK's controversial Joint Enterprise Law which, campaigners say, can lead to innocent people being jailed.

It stars Nico Mirallegro (The Village), Daniel Mays (Mrs Biggs) and Jodhi May (Ice Cream Girls). The film is produced by LA Productions for the BBC and directed by David Blair (The Street, Accused).

Joint Enterprise Law allows several people to be charged with a crime where they are not the primary offenders. It has been increasingly used in the last ten years to tackle crimes, often murder, which are deemed to be gang-related.

Jimmy McGovern said "Joint Enterprise was first used in Britain's courts a few hundred years ago. It was designed to stop the aristocracy duelling. If one duelist killed another then all involved in that duel (the seconds and the surgeons) were charged with murder. It worked. Britain's aristocrats stopped duelling. Now the law is being used against Britain's youth. If someone dies in a fight and you're involved in any way whatsoever, you could find yourself charged with murder. And, if you do, Heaven help you because the burden of proof required in joint enterprise cases is frighteningly low."

Nico Mirallegro plays a 17-year-old called Johnjo who gives his friends a lift to what he thinks is a trip out for pizza. In fact they plan a violent confrontation that ends in death. Under the law of joint enterprise, Johnjo is charged along with the gang.

Daniel Mays and Susan Lynch (Monroe) play the victim's parents, with Jodhi May and Andrew Tiernan (Prisoners' Wives) as Johnjo's parents. The supporting cast includes Michelle Farley (Game Of Thrones), Jack McMullen (Waterloo Road) and, as a court judge, Michael Gambon.

McGovern added: "When it comes to casting you always have a 'wish list' - a list of actors who'd be perfect for the parts you have written. You never get them of course. They're often too busy or away on holiday or they hate the script or whatever. But on this occasion, I got them all, every single one on my wish list. And I am over the moon."

Jimmy McGovern's Common airs Sunday 6th July on BBC1 at 9pm.

Urban and The Shed Crew

Urban and The Shed Crew

Starring Richard Armitage, Anna Friel and an amazing bunch of new, up and coming, gritty northern kids. It's been described as a tale of heroin and cement, set in Britain's underclass in the 90s.

12 year old Urban Grimshaw is Britians most runaway child, he's even been on TV's crimewatch. His mother is a junkie and his father might as well be dead. He can't read or write and he doesn't go to school. When he meets his mother's new friend Chop, a disillusioned, ex social worker also living on society's margins, on one of Leeds roughest estates the two become firm friends. But even Chop with his own penchant for drink, drugs and hard living is shocked by the state of Urban's life. After much soul searching he resolves to clean up his own act and do his utmost to save the kid. But as their friendship deepens Urban introduces him to the Shed Crew - the anarchic gang of kids between the ages of 10 and 14, joy-riding, thieving runaways, no strangers to drugs or sex and it's only then that we see exactly how long the road to civilization really is. Until they meet Chop...

Starring Richard Armitage as Chop and Anna Friel as Greta, Urbans' mother.

Electricity

Electricity

Electricity goes on general cinema release in December 2014. Produced by Stone City Films, Electricity is the story of Lily (Agyness Deyn), a brash young woman who leaves her remote seaside town to go in search of her long lost brother, based on the award winning bestselling novel by Ray Robinson. Electricity is written by BAFTA winner Joe Fisher and directed by BAFTA Nominee Bryn Higgins.

The film stars Agyness Deyn (Pusher) as Lily O'Connor with support from Lenora Crichlow (Being Human), Christian Cooke (Cemetery Junction), Paul Anderson (The Sweeney), Tom Georgeson (Notes on a Scandal) and Alice Lowe (Sightseers).

When Lily O'Connor, a witty, sexy, searingly defiant Northerner with temporal lobe epilepsy and a traumatic past finds out that the brother she's long thought dead could still be alive, she risks her life to go in search of him. Like The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Electricity is a journey through the real world and through the wildly hallucinatory, disturbing inner world of epilepsy. Lily sees everything in terms of angles: you look at every surface, weigh up every corner and think of your head slamming into it. Her epilepsy summons flashbacks, spectral figures, even birds emerging from her throat. And in the wrong place at the wrong time it can kill her. As Lily abandons her safe routine in a seaside town and delves into the treacherous underbelly of London she takes us on a deeply moving, uplifting but increasingly frightening trip that really is like nothing you've seen before.

Agyness Deyn said "I love Lily's journey. She's a survivor. Her strength and ability to live in the present really drew me to her."

The film is produced by Clare Duggan (Unconditional) and executive produced by Alison Morgan and was developed with the support of the British Film Institute's movie fund.

"Boldly styled. Boldly Acted. Joltingly powerful" - Total Film ****
"An off-kilter spin on the classic Alice In Wonderland Story" - Screen Daily *****
"A stellar mind-blowing performance from Agyness Deyn" - Damien Hirst

Read more about Electricity:
Stone City Films website
.

The Messenger

The Messenger

The Messenger, a film directed by David Blair, is the story of Jack's last meltdown. In a story of frustration and guilt, of love and betrayal, family and blame, Robert Sheehan plays Jack, David O'Hara plays DCI Keane, Lily Cole plays Emma and Joely Richardson plays the Psychiatrist.









Moving On 6

Moving On 6

Created by EMMY and multi BAFTA award-winning writer Jimmy McGovern, the Moving On series includes five stand-alone dramas featuring a plethora of famous faces including screen legend Hayley Mills, with Lisa Riley, Kenneth Cranham, Peter Egan, Neil Fitzmaurice, Wil Johnson, Charles Venn, Anna Crilly, Katy Carmichael, Dominic Carter, Chris McCausland and Graeme Hawley.

Produced by LA Productions for the BBC, the series explores contemporary issues, all linked by the common theme of characters who reach a turning point in life and then move on. With 5x45 minute standalone dramas broadcast over a week, Moving On is reminiscent of the Play for Today. In 2013, it was the first series ever to have been premiered on the BBC iPlayer.

Previous episodes have been directed by Robert Glenister, Dominic West and Johnny Vegas and have starred Corin Redgrave, Sheila Hancock, Anna Massey, Ian Hart, and Lesley Sharp.

The show aired in November 2014.

Read more about the show:
LA Productions website
, Moving On on the BBC.