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      Big Mood review – Nicola Coughlan is a force of nature

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March, 2024 - 22:35 · 1 minute

    The Derry Girls actor is funny to her bones in this sitcom about mental health and long-term friendship. It’s full of lovely touches, if not enough nuance

    In the opening episode of Big Mood, struggling playwright Maggie (Derry Girls’ and Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan) is on a mission. And on a scooter. But that was an expensive mistake, so she gives it away to a passerby. She needs her best friend Eddie (It’s a Sin’s Lydia West) to take the day off work, running the bar her late dad left her, and come with her to her old secondary school, where she has been invited to make a speech about her career in the theatre. Maggie is hoping to meet her old history teacher, Mr Wilson, on whom she developed a passionate teenage crush after he saved her from lecherous maths teacher Mr Phillips. “Because he wouldn’t shag a child!” she beams, full of blissful memory. “Wow,” says Eddie. “We should nominate him for a Pride of Britain award.”

    Off they go, and a parade of increasingly manic hijinks ensue. Which is very much expected sitcommery until Eddie asks, as they escape the now chaos-filled school, if Maggie is, well, manic. And she is. She has bipolar disorder, and has stopped taking her meds because she can’t write while she’s on them. Thus, we find ourselves in this bleaker territory for the rest of the six-episode series, which explores the limits of a decade-long friendship between the two women as the pressures of post-20s life start to mount. “I fix problems – you have them,” says Eddie cheerily at the start. But no relationship can survive such a state for ever.

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      ‘Resist this’: outrage as BBC replace Mamma Mia! star with AI voiceover

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March, 2024 - 16:02

    Sara Poyzer, who appears in the stage production of the Abba-soundtracked musical, sees tweet about losing voice work go viral

    Sara Poyzer, who stars in the stage production of the Mamma Mia! musical, claims that she has been told that her voiceover work in an upcoming BBC production will be replaced by AI.

    The actor’s posts on social media appear to show a screengrab from an email sent by a production company working for the BBC, which are in response to some voiceover work she had been pencilled in to perform.

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      Gogglebox star George Gilbey dies at 40 in workplace accident

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March, 2024 - 10:00

    TV personality also starred in Celebrity Big Brother, and made it to the reality show’s final

    Gogglebox’s George Gilbey has died aged 40, a spokesperson for the show said. The reality star was best known for appearing on the Channel 4 series alongside his mother Linda McGarry and stepfather Pete McGarry, who died aged 71 in 2021. He also appeared on the 14th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, reaching the final.

    Gilbey reportedly died following an accident at work on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Channel 4 show said: “George was part of the Gogglebox family for eight series alongside his mum Linda and stepdad Pete.

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      TV tonight: Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West’s ode to female friendship

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March, 2024 - 06:20


    Big Mood is Channel 4’s promising new comedy-drama. Plus: Taskmaster is back. Here’s what to watch this evening

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      Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts review – so hope-inducing it could restore your faith in Britain

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 21:00 · 1 minute

    This joyous show sees the TV chef overflowing with warmth and knowledge as she tours the UK to throw genuinely cool parties for deserving Brits. It’s utterly heartwarming

    If you had to choose a TV chef to throw you a huge party, who would it be? Let’s face it, there’s only one answer. (OK, two because it is a truth universally acknowledged that no one sets a table like Nigella.) I’m talking about a chef and restaurateur for whom everything is soul food. Someone whose background includes singing in a punk band and throwing legendary warehouse parties in the 1980s, neither of which can be said of Gregg Wallace or Marcus Wareing. A presenter who put the great into Great British Menu, a series that wasn’t otherwise known for its big heart and high glamour. It is, of course … Andi Oliver!

    As a premise, Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts is about as heartwarming as a Guyanese pepper pot cooked in a Cornish community cafe by a graduate of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen. All of which feature in episode one of this joyous six-part series in which Oliver travels the length and breadth of Britain, throwing genuinely cool parties for folk who deserve it. Not only is she as warm as a summer’s day in St Ives, she really knows her onions. “You make your own cassareep ?” she asks chef Ben Arthur, renowned in Cornwall for his Caribbean hot sauces. That’s the thing about Oliver: she exudes warmth and expert knowledge, a rare combination in her field. I now know that cassareep is a molasses made from cassava root. Plus, I’ve got Oliver’s recipe for green seasoning, for which Fabulous Feasts is worth watching alone.

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      Russell T Davies says end of BBC is ‘undoubtedly on its way’

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 11:17


    Doctor Who showrunner is trying to ensure that the fantasy drama outlasts the broadcaster

    According to the head of one of the BBC’s most successful franchises, the broadcaster’s end is inevitable.

    Speaking on television podcast They Like to Watch, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies explains that there is a good reason for the fantasy drama being co-produced with Disney: it means that its survival doesn’t require the continued existence of the BBC.

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      Renegade Nell review – Derry Girls’ Louisa Harland is beyond brilliant in Sally Wainwright’s new drama

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 07:00 · 1 minute

    This fun, action-packed romp about super-powered highway robbery is like Gentleman Jack with added swagger. And its star could not be more magnificent

    God knows, after the final triumphant, harrowing series of Happy Valley last year Sally Wainwright has earned the right to kick back and relax a bit. Renegade Nell is the result. Seemingly designed for a younger audience than her usual fare, this is a fun, slightly odd, definitely slighter piece of work that channels the spirit of perhaps her second most famous work, Gentleman Jack (or does that tie with Last Tango in Halifax ? Or Scott & Bailey ? Heavens, she has earned more of a rest than I realised) and adds a supernatural twist to it.

    This time we are in the 18th century and, unusually, down south. Our heroine is Nell Jackson – Louisa Harland , who made her name as the glaikit Orla in Derry Girls and could not be more brilliant here in a wholly different part. She returns to her native village of Tottenham five years after she was thought to have been killed with her soldier husband on the battlefield to find her family and friends at first perturbed, then happy to see her back.

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      TV tonight: Diane Morgan’s comedy grotesque returns

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March, 2024 - 06:20


    Mandy kicks off her new career as a flight attendant with the long-suffering Lola. Plus: Tom Allen makes the wedding magic happen. Here’s what to watch this evening

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      Review: Exquisite Drops of God brings the world of elite wine down to earth

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 10 July, 2023 - 16:12 · 1 minute

    Asian man, red-haired woman in ties facing each other

    Enlarge / Issei Tomine (Tomohisa Yamashita) and Camille Leger (Fleur Geffrier) must compete to be the sole heir of a globally renowned wine critic in the limited series Drops of God on Apple TV+. It's based on the hugely popular manga series of the same name.

    The heady world of fine wine is often justly skewered as being hopelessly elitist and pretentious, where rare bottles sell for tens of thousands of dollars, their flavors and aromas described in florid, over-the-top language that readily lends itself to satire. (The sommelier in last year's delightful The Menu described a pinot noir as having "notes of longing and regret.")

    That's the pop culture caricature, at least. If you yearn for something that brings this rarefied world firmly down to earth and celebrates wine's role in forging human bonds and shaping culture at large, I highly recommend Drops of God , a limited miniseries that debuted on Apple TV+ in April. It is based on the popular and influential manga of the same name . This is a series that sticks with you, its most memorable moments lingering in one's mind the way a good wine lingers on the palate.

    (Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)

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