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  For 25 years Roger Michell seemed to be a constant in Britain's film and television industry, directing some of the country's biggest stars. Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds, Rhys Ifans, Olivia Colman, Peter O'Toole, Jodie Whittaker, Jim Broadbent and Rachel Weisz are just some of the homegrown talent who worked with the South African born director. But he also dabbled in Hollywood and got to direct Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Samuel L Jackson, Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Murray. Why did actors of this calibre work with him? For over 25 years, Michell was an actor's director - benefitting from his rich background in theatre. However he also had a good eye for a solid script. Another one of Michell's strengths was that he never let vanity get the better of him - he always saw his work on stage and onscreen as collaborative and have credit to his writers, his actors, his crew. Born in Pretoria in 1956, Rog...

When you come off the back of a critically acclaimed, deeply loved sitcom, there are three routes for an actor to go. You can take a well deserved break and recharge your batteries, taking time to decide your next move. There's also the option of finding a new sitcom vehicle. Or you can take a radical change of direction and use your star power to take on a much, much darker role. Each route is fraught with danger. Wait too long to decide your next move and you can slide off the radar of casting directors. Choose the wrong sitcom vehicle and the audience and critics may never quite forgive you. Fail in a darker drama and you may be dismissed as a one trick pony. Coming off the back of the huge success of 'Schitt's Creek,' Annie Murphy has chosen the more challenging, dark drama route. In 'Kevin Can F**k Himself,' she plays a disillusioned, put upon, blue collar Irish American wife in the Massachusetts city of Worcester. But the title of the show is also a clear ...

  Some actors become synonymous with certain roles. Despite an accomplished film career, Peter Falk will always be Columbo. Kelsey Grammar will always be Frasier. The role people most associate with William Shatner is Captain Kirk. Across the Atlantic, it was impossible to associate John Challis with any role other than Boycie from the BBC1 sitcom 'Only Fools and Horses'. A used car salesman who made a bit of money and looked down on his associates in the working class London district of Peckham, Boycie was a popular supporting character throughout the 22 years the hugely successful sitcom ran. He also got his own BBC1 spin-off 'The Green Green Grass' with his beloved Marlene, played by Sue Holderness, in which the couple fled the organised crime duo, the Driscoll Brothers in Peckham and landed in rural Shropshire. Challis was originally from Bristol and was born during wartime in 1942. However the family moved to South East London when he was a year old. Educated in Ot...

It began as a BBC3 documentary about a 16 year old drag queen, Jamie Campbell in a Co Durham mining village. Then it became a musical in Sheffield's Crucible Theatre that ended up going to the West End and on a tour of the UK in a production which featured Shane Richie. Now Tom MacRae's 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' has made it onto the screen. It's just the size of the screen, that matters. Originally intended for a theatrical release from the Disney owned 20th Century Studios, Jonathan Butterell's movie has wound up getting a very limited cinematic run in the US. The rest of the world has to content itself with streaming the film on Amazon Prime. That's a shame because Butterell's feel good musical really ought to be seen in multiplexes. In fact, you can't help feeling Disney really bottled it, pulling plans for a cinema release during the Covid-19 pandemic and selling the rights instead to Amazon Prime. Newcomer Max Harwood steps into the ...