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Comencini’s feature credits include Venice competition titles ’Don’t Tell’ (2005) and ’When The Night’ (2011).

Netflix has added two original features and two scripted series to its Italian slate.

The slate includes the latest film from Italian director and screenwriter Cristina Comencini, whose feature credits include Venice competition titles Don’t Tell (2005) and When The Night (2011). Produced by Palomar, Il Treno Dei Bambini, is based on the book by Viola Ardone and is billed as a journey through the misery but also the generosity witnessed in postwar Italy, as seen through the eyes of a child torn between two mothers.

The feature is written by Furio Andreotti,...

Ronald Pickup, who appeared in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel among more than 150 film, TV and stage credits spanning a half-century, died Wednesday after a long illness. He was 80. His agent confirmed the news to the BBC today.

Pickup played Norman Cousins in John Madden’s 2011 romantic dramedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, sharing a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture with Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and others. He returned for 2015’s The Second Best Exotic Hotel.

The actor also recurred as the Archbishop of Canterbury in the first season of Netflix’s hit drama The Crown. He also played Neville Chamberlain in 2017’s Darkest Hour, a Best Picture Oscar nominee that also earned Gary Oldman a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Winston Churchill.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

Born on June 7, 1940, in Chester,...

The BBC has announced a number of new comedy shows, including six-part series The Tracey Ullman Show.

Tracey Ullman's last BBC series - A Kick up the Eighties and Three of a Kind - aired in the 1980s, after which she concentrated on a Us TV career.

The actress and comedian - who will portray various characters living in, or visiting, the UK - said: "It's a privilege to be doing this. I still feel as inspired to inhabit people as I did when I was 6, standing on the window sill in my mother's bedroom, putting on a show.

"The BBC has changed a bit since the last time I worked here, when it was all men in bow ties who had completed National Service. Now there are a lot more women. Great ones.

"The important things haven't changed, though. The BBC still provides an environment that allows you...

If you grew up in the 1980s, then no doubt you'll remember ITV's very own take on the Robin Hood legend. Robin Of Sherwood would face the formidable presence of the Sheriff of Nottingham on a weekly basis, and would do so while flicking his girly locks from side to side to the ethereal dulcet tones of Clannad.

Robin Of Sherwood went out between 1984 and 1986, which was to be one of Doctor Who's best forgotten periods of history. As the old saying goes, civilisations rise and civilisations fall, and in the mid 1980s, Doctor Who's cosy little world was in danger of crumbling. Some of the fans were turning up their noses at John Nathan Turner's stewardship, while the evil big shots at the BBC were rubbing their hands in glee at the 18-month hiatus. About 30 years later, the presence of Robin Hood again caused dissension in the ranks.

TV comedy is one of the things Britain does best along with queuing, complaining, and drinking like we don’t want to live. Britain is home to countless classic comedies like Blackadder, The Two Ronnies, and Only Fools And Horses but there are some excellent comedies that either never hit the big time or have fallen out of the nation’s collective consciousness since their time in the spotlight. And today, we’ve brought five of them together in one place.

These are some of the British TV comedies you shouldn’t have ignored…

5. The Worst Week Of My Life (BBC1, 2004 – 2006)

The presence of The Worst Week Of My Life on this list may be questionable since it aired on BBC1 with an al- star cast, but its age and low episode count have contributed to it being something of a forgotten gem.

I personally consider it to be a...

BBC One comedy The Worst Week of My Life could be revived on stage. The original series - which aired between 2004 and 2006 - starred Ben Miller as the unfortunate Howard Steel, a groom-to-be caught up in a string of humiliating situations. Co-creators Mark Bussell told Radio 4's Front Row that he and fellow writer Justin Sbresni are developing a stage prequel to the sitcom, which also starred Sarah Alexander and Geoffrey Whitehead. "There's some talk at the moment about doing a stage play, which would be the prequel of the television series, so we would see that moment when Howard meets his prospective father-in-law for the first time," the writer revealed. "We would love to do it on television again, but it might well be that the stage version happens first." (more)...

Broadcast networks' summer pilot season continues with one more pickup at CBS.

The network has greenlighted Worst Week, a comedy pilot based on a British format.

The project, from Universal Media Studios, is a single-camera half-hour based on the BBC series The Worst Week of My Life. It centers on a young couple who must navigate the politics of their soon to be in-laws during a family holiday. Matt Tarses is the writer/executive producer. Marc Buckland is on board to direct.

Fox took a stab at launching an American version of Week with a Regency TV-produced pilot last year that was directed by Adam Shankman and written by Ed Decter and John J. Strauss.

BBC America on Tuesday unveiled three new comedies and an original dramedy as part of the network's latest U.K. program acquisitions. The comedy Saxondale, starring Steve Coogan (I'm Alan Partridge), from Baby Cow Prods. and distributed by BBC Worldwide Americas, premieres at 11 p.m. ET Oct. 13; the all-new dramedy Fat Friends, from Rollem Prods. in association with Tiger Aspect & Yorkshire TV and distributed by Target, premieres at 10 p.m. ET Nov. 2; the comedy The Worst Week of My Life, made and distributed by Hat Trick Entertainment, premieres at 9:40 p.m. ET Dec. 1; and the sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive, from BBC Production and distributed by BBC Worldwide Americas, premieres early next year.