New 4 part drama on weekly. This thread is tv Based thread !!
Thur 9pm itv
Steven Moffat’s new series about a TV news anchor who’s cancelled for making a sexist joke at a wedding is bound to start some conversations.
Not least because the story bears a striking resemblance to several recent scandals. But also because it so thoroughly, and sensitively, interrogates all sides in the ‘culture wars’.
Douglas Bellowes is the greying anchor of the fictional news programme Live at Six.
He’s built an enviably successful life with his wife and newspaper editor Sheila, but it all comes tumbling down when he allegedly makes a sexist joke at his cousin’s wedding.
When a fellow guest Tweets about it and goes viral, the Bellowes and the Live at Six team must do their utmost to get ahead of the scandal.
That includes Douglas’ younger, sharper co-anchor and self-described “best friend” Madeline. Or does it?
Hugh Bonneville, who’s best known for starring in a couple of British institutions (Downton Abbey and Paddington), is perfectly cast as the titular news anchor and national treasure.
Lending Douglas his bumbling charm, he immediately gains your trust and sympathy. But does he really deserve it?
At one point, Douglas’ producer Toby reminds him that, in order to avoid scandal when out in public, he must be “balanced, boring and bland.” “And fortunately, in life,” said Bonneville, “I’ve always been balanced, boring and bland.”
Madeline has formed a ratings-winning partnership with Douglas, but there are signs the headstrong co-anchor is growing tired of the ‘co’ prefix.
She’s charming and seems to bend Douglas to her will, while remaining an enigma to the rest of her colleagues.
Madeline is “my favourite character I’ve ever played,” explained Gillan, but also “the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Because she’s quite removed from me as a person so it required a fair amount of acting! I don’t think I could ever wrap someone around my finger like her.”
In a karmic twist of fate, Sheila finds herself having to protect her husband from the kind of scandalous allegations she’d usually be amplifying, as the ruthless editor-in-chief of a tabloid newspaper.
Much to the amusement of the Q&A audience, Alex Kingston said she based the character of Sheila on Sue Vertue, the producer of the series who also happens to be Moffat’s wife. Only because she’s “incredibly loving and protective,” she hastened to clarify.
Douglas’ deeply self-interested producer who’s more interested in burying the scandal – and thus protecting his channel’s ratings – than doing what the news should be setting out to do: revealing the truth.
Praising Moffat’s ability to write great “arias” for his characters, Miles expounded on Toby’s in the opening scene. It set the tone for “his cynicism, his desire for self-preservation at any cost, the way he manipulates people, the way he regards the truth, what journalism is to him.”