News

Andrew Neil is reuniting with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to host UK and U.S. election coverage.

The former BBC presenter and chairman of The Spectator magazine has signed with Times Radio, the established digital radio station launched as a spin-off of The Times newspaper.

Neil will host a daily news show from September 9. It will air in the 1Pm slot from Monday to Thursday and feature interviews with high-profile politicians and influential figures.

Neil has a long history of working for Murdoch interests in the UK. He was the founding chairman of Sky (now owned by Comcast) and was editor of The Sunday Times for more than a decade.

Deadline hears that Neil has taken up his role at Times Radio after he held talks with Channel 4 over a potential election night role.

Sources close to the presenter said he discussed a co-presenter role, with a loose...

Jeff Zucker did not hold back today in taking on some of Britain’s biggest media stalwarts as RedBird Imi pushes on with its bid to buy The Telegraph and Spectator publications.

Speaking to The News Agents podcast, the former CNN boss hit out at Andrew Neil, chair of The Spectator, and Paul Marshall, co-owner of right-leaning news network Gb News, who has made a rival bid for The Tele.

Zucker blasted Gb News founder Neil as “quite the hypocrite” after alleging that Neil had been interested in becoming chair of a combined Editorial Trust Board for The Telegraph and Spectator, which RedBird Imi turned down.

“And ever since that day, he’s been one of our most vocal critics,” Zucker said. “And I think that says all you need to know about Andrew Neil. And since I am sure that he’s going to deny this and pretend that didn’t happen,...

New BBC Chair Samir Shah laid down a marker across multiple topics this morning, announcing his intentions to review the corporation’s reporting guidelines on the Israel-Hamas war, addressing concerns around financing and saying he was told he is “mad” to be taking on the role.

While questioning whether Gary Lineker had broken social media guidelines with his latest Twitter (now X) scandal, he also acknowledged “criticism” over the way the broadcaster has covered the Israel-Hamas war, a highly charged topic since October 7.

Were he to be appointed chair, the former head of the BBC’s political news programs said he would “review” the matter, especially whether the BBC should be referring to Hamas as “terrorists,” a source of controversy that the BBC has faced up to over past weeks.

“It seems to me there is enough in terms of criticism of the way the BBC has covered this war,...

Exclusive: It’s a year to the day since Rupert Murdoch’s big British television bet TalkTV took flight, hitched firmly to the wings of Piers Morgan.

In the pre-launch marketing blitz, Morgan was pictured as half angel, half devil, but there was little doubt that News Corp’s UK arm thought he would be manna from heaven for television audiences.

“Love him or hate him, you won’t want to miss him,” ran the poster line, dwarfing branding for TalkTV, the new network he was spearheading. The message seemed clear: TalkTV was Piers TV. Morgan vision made real.

It was a mistake. Or at least that’s the view of Richard Wallace, the man who was parachuted in to run TalkTV three months after its launch. “He said very clearly, in front of all staff, that building a TV station around the cult of an individual is not the way to go,...

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The Ministry of Silly Wokes?

John Cleese, the former Monty Python heavyweight and more recently a vocal campaigner against so-called wokeism and cancel culture, is set to become a regular presenter on Gb News, the right-leaning news channel that launched in 2021.

Speaking about the show on the BBC’s flagship radio news program Today on Monday, The Fawlty Towers creator described himself as an “old-fashioned liberal” and argued that “Gb is not a right-wing channel. It’s a free speech channel.” He also argued that the reason he was joining the channel — which spends much of its time dedicated to criticizing supposed woke culture — was that the BBC hadn’t approached him and, if it did, he would turn the public broadcaster down, “because I wouldn’t get five minutes into the first show without being canceled or censored.”

Earlier this year, Cleese,...

Update, 11:24 Am: The latest TV clash between UK Pm hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss came to an abrupt halt today after presenter Kate McCann fainted on-air.

The recently launched conservative channel Talk TV from Rupert Murdoch announced the end of the debate mere minutes after viewers heard a loud crash off camera.

Kate McCann fainted on air tonight and although she is fine, the medical advice was that we shouldn't continue with the debate. We apologise to our viewers and listeners.

— TalkTV (@TalkTV) July 26, 2022

The incident occurred as current Foreign Secretary Truss was answering a question in the debate — as you can see in video below.

While producers tried to figure out what to do about the second face-off between the ex-cabinet colleagues, former Chancellor Sunak and frontrunner Truss wasted no time in taking their respective pitches in the high stakes showdown to the nearest voters they could find.

Netflix was one of the key sponsors of UK magazine The Spectator‘s summer party last week.

The well-timed and buzzy London event — which came amid the stormy unseating of Boris Johnson as Pm — was attended by a number of leading figures in the UK political and media landscape.

Netflix co-ceo Ted Sarandos was at the event, which formed part of a UK charm offensive. That offensive included an event at BAFTA to celebrate the charity’s Bafta Breakthrough program, also sponsored by the streamer. The studio is celebrating 10 years in the UK.

Among politicians to have attended The Spectator‘s bash were former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the frontrunner to replace Johnson as UK leader, current Chancellor and another Pm hopeful Nadhim Zahawi, former Cabinet minister Michael Gove, Tory MP Tom Tugendhat (yet another contender to be the next Pm) and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Also among attendees were...

Cattleya acquires rights to ‘El Italiano’

ITV Studios-owned Spanish drama house Cattleya Producciones has acquired rights to Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s bestselling novel El Italiano and will adapt it as a miniseries. Inspired by real events, El Italiano is a story of love, spies, and the sea set at the height of World War II in the Bay of Algeciras, where Italian combat divers are causing chaos among the Allied forces. Arturo Díaz, Managing Director and Executive Producer of Cattleya Producciones, and Ricardo Tozzi, founder and President of Cattleya, are leafing the project. Cattleya Producciones is searching for an international cast to bring El Italiano‘s Spanish, Italian and English characters to life. Screenwriter Beto Marini, co-creator of Movistar+ series La Unidad and feature films such as Retribution and Extinction is adapting the story. Pérez-Reverte was trained in underwater activities at Spain’s Centro de Buceo de la Armada (Navy...

Director: Justin Molotnikov Writer: Justin Molotnikov Starring: Stephen McCole, Malcolm Shields, Andrew Neil, Jo Hartley, Laura Keenan, Micaiah Dring Joey Frisk (Stephen McCole) is a Scottish comedian. Fueled mostly by cocaine and booze, Joey’s comedy is brutally violent and emotionally raw – you might even say it’s frisky. We meet Joey as he appears on stage; he is bloodied up with a massive shiner that looks like it stings like a mother-fucking bee. Joey is in a damn sorry state, you might say. Rather than flat-out jokes, Joey begins to recollect the chain of events that made him this way. The audience seems uncomfortable. Where is Joey taking us with all of this? Where is the punch-line? (Pun intended.) Well, patience my dears. This film is told in flashback from this point onward, so you will just have to sit back and enjoy the ride… While swimming at the local pool,...

Less than a week worth of recovering from the Sundance Film Festival, and we are already looking forward to our next, big film fest coverage. That would be the South by Southwest Film Festival held annually in Austin, Texas. Last year, Scott and I brought you all kinds of coverage from the Lone Star State, and this year doesn’t look to be much different.

With that, the announcement came last night of the feature films that will be playing at the SXSW Film Festival. Previous announcement were already made about films like Cold Weather, Electra Luxx, Hubble 3D, Lemmy, Saturday Night, and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights making their debut. Kick-ass was recently announced as the opening night film, as well.

Among the other films being presented this year are some Sundance darlings, a few, highly anticipated premieres, and MacGruber.

Check out the full list...

Late yesterday the SXSW Fim Festival, which runs from March 12-20 in Austin, TX, announced the full lineup of films that will be screening at this year’s event. And baby, it’s quite a list. Mixing big name films with intimate indie gems, the sheer number of films and the vast array of talented filmmakers is sure to be a hit with attendees and critics alike.

This lineup includes premieres of studio films such as Universal’s MacGruber, Lionsgate’s teen superhero actioneer Kick-Ass and smaller films like Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart and Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine. With so many films to watch, it will be very difficult to find time to seem them all during the events nine days. But hell, we’re going to try.

For more on...

The 2010 SXSW Film Festival and Conference has announced its initial slate of titles. The list is rife with hot world premieres (Kick-Ass), films fresh from Sundance (The Runaways, Cyrus), hot titles from the 2009 editions of Tiff and Cannes that haven't had much U.S. play (Enter the Void, Dogtooth, Trash Humpers), interesting documentaries (Lemmy, The People v. George Lucas) and much, much more. Simon Rumley's Red, White & Blue, which has received much praise on Twitch based on its Iffr screenings, will have its North American premiere.

Midnight programming courtesy of Fantastic Fest is also back with titles like Higanjima, Monsters, Serbian Film, Outcast, and a yet to be announced special film. Keep eye out for SXSW coverage at Twitch, but for now, pursue the massive list below (descriptions courtesy of SXSW).

Headliners

Big names, big talent:  Headliners bring star power to SXSW, featuring red carpet premieres and gala film...