#Nicola Shindler

[richardarmitagefanpage]

Richard as Ellis Stagger in Missing You.

[riepu10]

richardcarmitage And it’s always so much fun when family are there… (x)

[hbcsource]

@quaystreetproductions: ✨ the Nolly team showing us how it’s done @ the #itvx launch! ✨💅🏼 #photobooth ALL SMILES AS WE RAMP UP TO TX. Let the count down begin! Nolly will launch on ITVX on February 2nd.

[marlagraysonn]

New project for Sophie and another Policewoman Role I love to see it ♥️ can't wait to see this on ITV

https://deadline.com/2023/02/its-a-sin-ep-nicola-shindler-quay-street-itv-after-the-flood-1235261631/?fbclid=IwAR1wmQtwL9-tNs53HBcG1EaLWXdQCHKy40sZ5vH10DJOBjl_-rssyawjmz8

[news4580]

Disney+ Orders Thiller From ‘The Power of the Dog’ & ‘It’s A Sin’ EPs – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Disney+ is moving into the contemporary UK thriller space with the greenlight of a series based on Alex Dahl’s parents-worst-nightmare novel Playdate. The Power of the Dog and It’s a Sin producers Tanya Seghatchian, John Woodward and Nicola Shindler are combining to produce the five-parter, which comes from the decorated trio’s Brightstar and Quay Street Productions and will commence…

[nayaknews-uk]

Former soap star lands lead role in Netflix thriller – You won't believe who

Michelle Keegan is set to star in a new thriller for Netflix called "Fool Me Once." The series is based on Harlan Coben's best-selling novel of the same name and follows the story of former special forces soldier Maya who, after her husband's murder, begins to suspect that everything she thought she knew about him was a lie. Keegan will play the lead role of Maya and said she was "absolutely thrilled" to be a part of the project. "The character of Maya is complex, intriguing and grounded in realism, all of which drew me to the script," she added. The six-part series will be produced by RED Production Company, the team behind popular shows such as "Happy Valley" and "Years and Years." The production company's CEO, Nicola Shindler, said she was "delighted" to be working with Netflix on the project and praised Keegan's talent. Coben, who is also an executive producer on the series, said he was "beyond excited" to see his novel brought to life on screen. "And to have the talented Michelle Keegan bringing the character of Maya to life is a dream come true," he added. "Fool Me Once" is set to begin filming in Manchester later this year and will be directed by Julia Ford, who has previously worked on shows such as "Safe" and "Riviera." No release date has been announced yet. Overall, this news update highlights Michelle Keegan's new role in the upcoming Netflix series "Fool Me Once," which is based on Harlan Coben's best-selling novel. The six-part series will be produced by RED Production Company and directed by Julia Ford. The announcement has been met with excitement from Coben, who is an executive producer on the project, as well as Keegan herself, who said she was "absolutely thrilled" to be playing the lead role of Maya. While no release date has been announced yet, the news is sure to generate buzz among fans of Coben's work and those who enjoy thrilling television dramas. Read the full article

[chasenews]

ITV commissions six part mystery thriller, After the Flood

ITV commissions six part mystery thriller, After the Flood. Starring Sophie Rundle, Philip Glenister, Lorraine Ashbourne, Nicholas Gleaves, Jonas Armstrong, Matt Stokoe and Jacqueline Boatswain. Produced by Nicola Shindler’s Quay Street Productions and written by acclaimed screenwriter Mick Ford **With BritBox International as co-production partners** ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill has…

[meandrichard]

Nicola Shindler wins a BAFTA

Nicola Shindler wins a BAFTA

@NicolaShindler @REDProductionCo @BAFTA Congratulations Nicola. 17 years since ‘Sparkhouse’ and you are still the same brilliant person you were back then. https://t.co/2sTKoWUqCt

— Richard Armitage (@RCArmitage) May 13, 2019

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[sarahlancashire2]

Can’t wait for so much great TV, this year! 😊👏🏻

[geekcavepodcast]

“Queer as Folk” Reboot in the Works

Bravo is developing a new Queer as Folk series. Stephen Dunn will write, direct, and serve as an executive producer of the new series. This new version will feature new characters in a new setting.

Russell T. Davies, who created the UK version, is also on-board as an executive producer along with Red Production's Nicola Shindler, who was executive producer of the original series, and Quantity Entertainment’s Lee Eisenberg. 

Variety broke the news.

(Image from 1999′s Queer as Folk)

[richardarmitagefanpage]

My screenshots of Richard as Ellis Stagger in Missing You.

[hbcsource]

@augustusprew: Had the best time talking all things Nolly with my TV fam today 🥰😍😘 Come on Nolly!!! Coming 2nd Feb on @itvxofficial

[astrovian]

Richard Armitage interview for Radio Times (31/12/21)

Full transcript under cut

It’s hard to believe that Netflix nail-biter The Stranger only came out last year. The first collaboration between Harlan Coben and Richard Armitage dropped on the streaming service at the tail-end of January 2020, making a big splash upon its initial launch and no doubt picking up some extra viewers as the nation gradually retreated indoors. Fans were quick to demand a direct follow-up, which sadly never materialised, but a spiritual successor arrives on New Year’s Eve in the form of Stay Close.

“I would love to have gone back to do season two, but it was a closed story,” Armitage tells RadioTimes.com. “So when the opportunity came to do another one with the same team, same writer – different cast, obviously – it was a no brainer. I said ‘yes’ immediately and then started reading the book, and just thought, ‘here we go again’. It’s a complete page-turner.”

Both stories involve an individual’s seemingly perfect life being thrown into chaos by buried secrets, but Cush Jumbo (The Beast Must Die) portrays the polished middle-class suburbanite this time around. That side of Armitage has been firmly locked away as he inhabits the role of dishevelled photographer Ray Levine, whose once-promising life was reduced to shambles following a devastating trauma 17 years ago, from which he has never recovered.

“It’s where me and the character are so poles apart, because actually I move on from things really quickly,” the North & South star reveals. “I can pick myself up, compartmentalise it and move on. I mean, you do that all the time as an actor. When you’re faced with massive disappointments when you don’t get work, you just forget about it and you find yourself in a forward trajectory. But Ray hasn’t been able to do that.”

Armitage attributes this stagnation to the memory problems Ray has experienced since that fateful night and the fact that he has nobody “to guide him” through the recovery process. His understanding of the character is clear and confident, having carried out exhaustive research in preparation for Stay Close, creating a “rich” biography for Ray that extends far beyond what is laid out in the source material. Not only did this inform his performance, but it also proved an invaluable resource when it came to crafting the look of certain scenes.

“The production designer would email me and say, ‘what do you think Ray’s flat looks like? What kind of things does he have?’ And of course, I had the answers, because I’d done a lot of the background work,” he explains. “So when I got to set, it’s almost like nothing needed to be touched, it was so perfect down to the half-finished Pot Noodles on the couch and the cheap white bread that he was eating… In-between takes, I would just flop down on the couch as if it was my apartment because it felt so right, which I just love.”

The disparity between Ray and The Stranger‘s Adam Price is quite deliberate, as the team at Red Production Company were keen to win Armitage back, but “concerned” he would feel the material was “too close” in style and tone. The actor speaks highly of his collaborators there, including founder Nicola Shindler, describing them as “good friends” that he hopes to work with again, but adds the caveat that their next project is unlikely to be yet another Harlan Coben adaptation.

“I’m always looking to do something radically different to what I’ve done before,” he begins. “I’d be really surprised, [as] much as I like Harlan and how much he likes me, I think it would be pushing our luck to do a third. But never say never.”

Netflix has certainly invested heavily in the mystery author, brokering a deal in 2018 that will see up to 14 of his novels turned into streaming shows or films over the next few years. So far, these adaptations have been spread across Europe, with productions setting up shop in the UK, Poland, Spain and France, despite most of the books being set around the United States. Armitage credits Coben’s understanding of human behaviour for why these stories have resonated so strongly all over the globe, while he also hails Netflix for bringing the consumption of international content into the mainstream.

“These shows are not curated specifically for Spain or for Eastern Europe [or] whatever it is… they’re not embargoed,” he continues. “Sometimes in the past you’d think, ‘well, that’s never going to work in America, so we won’t sell it to America’. With Netflix, anything goes anywhere. So we’re watching stuff from all over the world and whether it’s got subtitles or not, I think people are just fascinated with how it works.

“It makes it more interesting if it’s not in your language. [When] I watched Money Heist, Netflix dubbed it for me by default, and I spent a day looking for how to watch it in the original language… because the voice is so connected to the person. I’ve got great people that dub me all over the world, but I want to hear the actor’s real voice. I don’t want to hear another actor voicing their words in English; it’s like you’re removing such a huge chunk of the character, particularly in high drama.”

Armitage himself has been part of this global push. Not only has he just finished work on a Spanish film, but earlier this year he appeared in South Korean blockbuster Space Sweepers, which landed on Netflix seven months before Squid Game brought increased attention to the country’s cultural output. It’s the latest in a long line of genre work, having previously played Marvel’s Wolverine in two audio dramas, as well as bagging key roles in animated fantasy series Castlevania, psychological horror Hannibal, and Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy.

“As a teenager, I was really into fantasy, magic, and then science fiction, so the Tolkien world, the CS Lewis world, [and] then sort of moved into Isaac Asimov and the early science fiction writers,” he recalls. “So when my agent came to me and said, ‘Look, they’re scouting the world for the cast of The Hobbit’, I was immediately engaged because I knew those books, I knew the world and I was almost salivating.

“So when somebody comes to me with a brilliant science fiction script, like Space Sweepers, I’m immediately transported and my brain goes into that place. It doesn’t necessarily put you in line for any awards or anything like that, because they’re often sidelined in terms of critical acclaim. But in terms of an audience and a practitioner, I love it, so I dive straight in… The whole green screen thing doesn’t bother me, because my brain is so full of the imagery anyway, I can project myself into that world.”

Armitage agrees that sci-fi and fantasy is deserving of more recognition on the awards circuit, naming The Hobbit co-star Andy Serkis as someone who “should have won an Oscar by now” for his work in the field of motion capture. Nevertheless, he’s far from done with either genre, revealing he’s keeping an eye out for an as-yet-unrealised dream project.

“Science fiction is still an untapped fantasy of my own. I’d love to do a really, really well executed comprehensive science fiction series, which is not so far away from us [in terms of realism],” he says, explaining his ideal project would be closer in tone to Black Mirror than Star Trek. “So if the door opens for me to take part in those things, I’ll jump.”

[pers-books]

There’s an interview by Amy Raphael with Nicola Walker, ahead of The Split returning on Monday, in this week’s issue of the Radio Times. (Be warned, only part of this piece is the interview with Nicola Walker, the rest is about women behind the camera.)

Nicola Walker is at home, in a large white room with timbered ceilings that appears to be completely empty. “It’s half term and my teenage son is around, so I’ve been banned from every other room. I’ve curated it so that it looks tidy, but either side of me looks like a tip.” She tilts the screen of her laptop to show a mountain of stuff. Walker is often shy in interviews – she is not, it seems, a natural show-off – but put her in front of a camera and she quietly and brilliantly shines, whether it’s in Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax, Unforgotten or The Split. 

She’s also queen of self-deprecation, saying that she will be officially unemployed on 11 June when the run of The Corn is Green, the play at the National Theatre in which she stars, comes to an end. It’s rubbish, of course – there’s Marriage to come later in the year, a TV series co-starring Sean Bean, written and directed by Stefan Golaszewski, of Mum fame, which Walker describes as “a couple who have been together for ever and whose lives are totally intertwined”. And then there’s this third and final season of The Split, about a family of divorce lawyers and their chaotic love lives, which is utterly addictive. 

But first things first. Shortly before our interview, it was announced that filming was about to start on the fifth season of Unforgotten – Walker’s character, DCI Cassie Stuart, was dramatically killed in the final episode of the fourth series. Her departure was a “joint decision” with writer/creator Chris Lang and had exactly the impact they both hoped. “We took Cassie on a fantastic journey,” Walker says. “It was very, very sad that she died, but the story was brilliant. I loved every second of it.” 

So will she be watching Sinéad Keenan take her spot alongside Sanjeev Bhaskar in the new episodes? “I know a tiny bit about where they’re going with the story and it’s incredible. I’ll be sitting on my sofa watching with everyone else.” 

Walker was born in London and started acting with the Cambridge Footlights. She turned down a place at RADA because she was already being offered acting roles and decades later, she still makes considered career choices. She was drawn to Unforgotten partly because Lang avoided the TV crime trope of violently murdered women – “Chris has never been interested in a body count” – but also because it was executive-produced by Sally Haynes and Laura Mackie of Mainstreet Pictures. 

When Walker started out in the mid 90s, the only female crew were in the make-up and wardrobe departments. But because executive producers like Haynes and Mackie, Nicola Shindler (Last Tango in Halifax and It’s a Sin) and Jane Featherstone (Chernobyl, This is Going to Hurt and The Split) have pushed for change, it now feels very different on set. “I want to look past the camera when I’m working and see a mix of men and women. You can’t magic it out of nowhere; doors have to open, people have to be trained. Girls have to be told at school that being in front of the camera is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to employment opportunities in our industry.” 

In the third season of The Split there was even a female grip – a job traditionally viewed as very male since it includes operating camera cranes. “The Split has always tried hard to make the crew at least 50 per cent female and on this season we had this incredible six-foot-two Norwegian grip who was brilliant at her job. I’ve never met a female grip in all the years I’ve been working and it felt ground-breaking, actually.” 

Part of the issue is that women often feel that need permission to take on roles perceived as traditionally male. When I talk separately to Abi Morgan, creator and writer of The Split, River (another Nicola Walker triumph) and The Hour she says that she felt “grateful” to be able to be a writer when she started out. And despite the fact that her father was a director and that she’s worked with female directors such as Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia! And The Iron Lady) and Sarah Gavron (Suffragette), she still hesitated about getting behind the camera herself. “There was no way I was going to own that space. Then I looked at my 18-year-old daughter and thought, ‘I’ve got to front this out.’” 

So, finally, Morgan directed one of the new episodes of The Split. “I am massively risk-averse and going outside my comfort zone was terrifying. The first thing I had to shoot – I hope I’m not giving too much away – was a late-night scene with Hannah [Nicola Walker] and Nathan [Stephen Mangan] coming back from a camping trip. Someone shouted, ‘Action!’ and I was off. Writing is isolating and brutal but, for me, directing was relaxing. It’s been a very empowering experience. If there’s one thing I regret, it’s waiting till my 50s to give it a go rather than doing it in my 20s.” 

Morgan agrees that you have to see it to be it. “I looked at Emerald Fennell [director of Promising Young Woman] and thought, ‘God, not only is she comfortable owning her space on screen in The Crown [in which she played Camilla], but she wants to own it behind the camera, too.’ As women, we spend most of our time trying to minimise ourselves. I’ve tried to make as much space for other women on screen as I can and now I think it’s time for women to, quite literally, take hold of the camera.” 

These are not idle words; the other episodes of The Split were directed by Dee Koppang O’Leary, who cut her teeth on music and fashion documentaries and as an assistant director on The Crown and Bridgerton. “I came up through the ranks and make runners were always given the chance to have a go at directing ahead of female runners,” says O’Leary. “There was an assumption that boys did the tech stuff and girls looked after the contestants or celebrities. When I was in my early 20s, I said I’d quite like to do the third camera and an executive producer said, ‘James can do that. You look really pretty so you can talk to all the contestants.’ It was awful!” 

O’Leary went to drama school wanting to act, then realised her heart was behind the camera. “I’ve got a detail-obsessed brain and I love the analytical side of filming and putting together all the components you need to make a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. I’m fairly new to the world of drama, but I get the vibe that people want to be seen to employ female directors. If there are six episodes in a season, they definitely want to make sure they’ve got a female director on board for at least two. Having a female director cane make such a difference. It was important, for example, that the intimate scenes in Bridgerton were seen through the lens of a woman.” 

She concedes that simply box ticking won’t work and agrees with Walker about getting young women on board and showing them the opportunities that exist. “You have to get the female trainees in at 18, 19 and show them that they can be a director, a gaffer, or a director of photography [DP] or, in fact, anything at all behind the scenes. There are some really exciting women coming up through the ranks – I worked with an amazing DP on The Crown called Kate Reid and she’s just one of many talented women behind the camera.” 

“I’m hoping that one day soon female directors like the brilliant Emerald Fennell and Olivia Wilde will become the norm rather than the exception.”