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The prequel series “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” at Starz is rounding out its cast with six new additions.

As previously announced, the series will explore the lives of Claire’s parents, Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), and Jamie’s parents, Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy).

The new additions are: Sally Messham as Mrs. Fitz, Ellen’s maid at Castle Leoch and Murtagh’s aunt; Terence Rae as Arch Bug, who’s working as a bodyguard to Clan Grant in the prequel; Sadhbh Malin Jocasta Cameron, the youngest child of the MacKenzie clan; Ailsa Davidson as Janet MacKenzie, the fifth MacKenzie sibling; Annabelle Dowler as Lizbeth, Julia’s boss at the War Department; and Harry Eaton as Private Charlton, Henry Beauchamp’s fellow soldier and friend.

Production on the series is currently underway in Scotland. Starz has commissioned 10 episodes for the first season.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood has added 6 new actors to its cast including Sally Messham as “Mrs. Fitz,” Ellen’s maid at Castle Leoch and Murtagh’s aunt. Terence Rae will be playing “Arch Bug,” who’s working as a bodyguard to Clan Grant; Sadhbh Malin will be playing “Jocasta Cameron,” the feisty youngest child of the MacKenzie clan; and Ailsa Davidson will be playing her sister “Janet MacKenzie,” the fifth and final MacKenzie sibling.

Additionally, casting for characters set in the 20th century are Annabelle Dowler will play “Lizbeth,” Julia’s boss at the War Department; and Harry Eaton as “Private Charlton,” Henry Beauchamp’s fellow soldier and friend.

Production has been underway since February on the 10-episode prequel to the Starz hit period drama Outlander in Scotland.

Don’t despair about the end of another non-existent British summer – UK TV always gets good when the weather turns, as the nights draw in and we all retreat indoors, finally getting sick of rainy barbecues and being chased by wasps in pub gardens.

This year is no different, so you can expect your 2023 autumn TV watchlist to include some compelling original dramas, from true crime shows covering some of the UK’s most shocking cases to enthralling depictions of real-life events, from the arrival of the Windrush generation to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Throw in some time-travelling crime-solving, mediaeval sword fights and a criminal gang on the run from a ruthless assassin, and we’ll be enjoying our self-enforced hibernation in front of the telly all the way until Christmas. Here’s what’s coming up, in order of release date.

The Killing Kind

Jane Casey’s novel The Killing Kind...

Emmerdale star Dale Meeks has died aged 47, his family has said.

The actor played Simon Meredith in the ITV soap Emmerdale from 2003-2006. Mr Meeks also starred in Cbbc show Byker Grove and ITV true crime drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat, which aired just last week.

The 47-year-old’s death was announced by a family member in a post on Facebook. His cause of death has not been revealed.

The post read: “So unbelievably sad. Brother in Law, mucca, side kick and just the Best friend a lad could have wished for. Rip Dale Meeks. So much less to laugh about now you’re not there to share it with.

“Thanks everyone for all the beautiful messages and memories you have been sharing. The support of Dale’s friends has been so incredibly strong over these chaotic, heartbreaking final hours, I can only stand in awe.”

Tributes have flooded in for the actor,...

In ITV’s Malpractice, (the title is a bit of a giveaway), a dedicated but stressed-out emergency doctor, Lucy Edwards (Niamh Algar), finds herself accused of negligence following the death of a young drug overdose victim, Edith Owusu. Edith’s treatment is temporarily sidelined when a blood-spattered kid and an armed man bust into A&e, and Lucy has to make split-second decisions about priorities. There’s not enough beds, and, as the duty nurse asks her, who’s she going to give the space to – the child bleeding to death, or the “junkie”, now stabilised? In this fast-cut busy opening sequence, Lucy delegates the routine task of looking after the overdosed girl to a fairly incompetent but devious junior (Priyanka Patel as Dr Ramya Morgan). We see that it is she, not Lucy, who gets mixed up about Edith’s dosages, with lethal results; but Dr Morgan is a more...

To coincide with ITV’s drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat this week, Podcast Radio is exclusively playing the first episode of The Rathband Tapes podcast.

For more than a decade, conversations between the late PC David Rathband and his ghost writer Tony Horne, recorded during the writing of the best-selling book Tango 190, have remained in a vault.

Now for the first time, David’s voice tells his own story. Podcast Radio listeners will hear his own account of being shot, the untold story of dealing with becoming blind, his depression, his Pride of Britain Award – and going from hero to zero overnight. Tony, the high-profile former Metro Radio breakfast show presenter, says: “David became my friend. This is an emotional and painful story told with the help of David’s twin Darren and of course David himself”.

Podcast Radio director Paul Chantler says: “We are thrilled to be able...

Just last week, there was an American documentary series on the manhunt for the bombers that were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing. True stories such as this one give people some kind of reality check on how safe and lucky we really are. Watching such true stories being recreated for television series makes us think the truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and that there is a lot that happens around us that we are unaware of. “The Hunt for Raoul Moat” is one such story. The story of the man who was responsible for one death and two severe injuries and who hurt all of them intending to kill them is all about how he managed to stay off the police radar. Will he manage to escape this time as well? Directed by Gareth Bryn, this episodic miniseries speaks a lot about the trauma of domestic violence.

Spoilers...

Most true crime dramas retell stories from long enough ago that many viewers weren’t alive to hear about them the first time around, from David Tennant’s portrayal of 1980s serial killer Dennis Nilsen in Des to The Serpent, the BBC drama about 1970s murderer Charles Sobhraj. But ITV’s latest example, The Hunt for Raoul Moat, depicts a violent crime so recent that we don’t just remember hearing about it, we remember tweeting about it.

In 2010, Raoul Moat shot three people in Northumberland: his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, was seriously injured, her partner Chris Brown died, and police officer David Rathband was blinded and later took his own life. A six-day manhunt gripped the nation, culminating in a police stand-off at a riverbank, where Moat shot himself. Dramatising such a recent tragedy has attracted criticism – including from the families of Stobbart and Rathband – and led many to wonder:...

Ray Mears has opened up about his role in the manhunt for killer Raoul Moat in 2010.

One week in July 2010 saw Britain’s biggest manhunt by Northumbria Police, after former bouncer and bodybuilder Moat shot three people – his ex-girlfriend, her new partner, and a police officer – two days after he was released from Durham Prison.

The following search featured 160 armed officers (10 per cent of those available in England and Wales at any one time), sniper teams and helicopters and concluded with Moat dying by suicide.

Also involved in the search was TV survival expert Mears, who got involved due to his expertise in tracking animals in the wild.

Public interest in the case has been reignited this week following the release of ITV’s three-part drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat, which concluded on Tuesday (18 April) night.

You can read The Independent’s review here.

Appearing on Good Morning Britainon...

May will be a brutal month for fans of great television. Succession hangs up its necktie on 28 May at the end of its fourth season, bringing an end to the best drama of the last decade or so. The same night, on the same channel (HBO in the US; Sky and Now in the UK), Barry will also finish up its own stellar four-season run. Bill Hader’s showbiz satire/crime drama fusion has never quite hit the zeitgeist like its HBO compatriot, but those who did tune in have been transfixed by its inventive, blackly comic sensibility and first-rate performances. Season four, thankfully, sees it go out on a high.

The series picks back up with assassin-turned-actor Barry Berkman (Hader) at a low point, locked up in prison for the murder of police officer Janice Moss. Having been turned in by his former acting coach, the conceited Gene Cousineau...

Raoul Thomas Moat wasn’t the first and won’t be the last self-pitying, self-righteous, narcissistic example of violent toxic masculinity, but he was certainly one of the most destructive. ITV’s three-part The Hunt for Raoul Moat is a superbly directed (by Gareth Bryn) dramatisation of Moat’s last murderous days on earth in the summer of 2010, during which he managed to evade the police for a week and kill, maim and destroy the lives of those around him. He took his own life in a final pathetic act of nihilism, caught by the television cameras in grainy nighttime vision, his sawn-off shotgun pointed at his head. It was the ultimate insult heaped on his victims that he escaped justice. The manhunt around Northumbria as Moat escalated his threats to kill random members of the public gripped the nation. The drama is a tense and faithful re-enactment of what happened,...

ITV’s new true crime drama, The Hunt for Raoul Moat, tells the astonishing story of Britain’s biggest manhunt, which took place in 2010 after Moat – a former bouncer and bodybuilder – shot three people just days after being released from prison.

The three-parter focuses on the innocent victims of Moat’s crimes – Christopher Brown, Samantha Stobbart and PC David Rathband – as well as the police officers who put themselves in the firing line in their quest to apprehend Moat, and the local journalist who sought to tell Moat’s real story.

Lee Ingleby stars as senior Northumbria Police Officer Neil Adamson, with Sonya Cassidy playing local journalist Diane Barnwell and Matt Stokoe portraying Moat.

Certain details – such as footballer Paul Gascoigne’s unlikely involvement in the case – have been left out of the dramatisation.

Below is a summary of the true story that inspired The Hunt for Raoul Moat.

How...

The Hunt for Raoul Moat has reignited public interest in Britain’s biggest manhunt – and Paul Gascoigne’s bizarre involvement in the case.

ITV’s newest true crime drama focuses on the July 2010 hunt by Northumbria Police for Moat, a former bouncer and bodybuilder who shot three people – his ex-girlfriend, her new partner, and a police officer – two days after he was released from Durham Prison.

What followed was a week-long manhunt, involving 160 armed officers (10 per cent of those available in England and Wales at any one time). Sniper teams, helicopters and TV survival expert Ray Mears were also involved in the search. Read the full true story here.

On 9 July, Moat was tracked to a National Trust estate near Rothbury, Northumberland, with police surrounding him while he held a gun to his neck. In an attempt to make him surrender, food and water were reportedly offered to Moat, while...

ITV’s new true crime drama, The Hunt for Raoul Moat, tells the astonishing story of Britain’s biggest manhunt, which took place in 2010 after Moat – a former bouncer and bodybuilder – shot three people just days after being released from prison.

The three-parter focuses on the innocent victims of Moat’s crimes – Christopher Brown, Samantha Stobbart and PC David Rathband – as well as the police officers who put themselves in the firing line in their quest to apprehend Moat, and the local journalist who sought to tell Moat’s real story.

Lee Ingleby stars as senior Northumbria Police Officer Neil Adamson, with Sonya Cassidy playing local journalist Diane Barnwell and Matt Stokoe portraying Moat.

Certain details – such as footballer Paul Gascoigne’s unlikely involvement in the case – have been left out of the dramatisation.

Below is a summary of the true story that inspired The Hunt for Raoul Moat.

How...

The Hunt for Raoul Moat has reignited public interest in Britain’s biggest manhunt – and Paul Gascoigne’s bizarre involvement in the case.

ITV’s newest true crime drama focuses on the July 2010 hunt by Northumbria Police for Moat, a former bouncer and bodybuilder who shot three people – his ex-girlfriend, her new partner, and a police officer – two days after he was released from Durham Prison.

What followed was a week-long manhunt, involving 160 armed officers (10 per cent of those available in England and Wales at any one time). Sniper teams, helicopters and TV survival expert Ray Mears were also involved in the search. Read the full true story here.

On 9 July, Moat was tracked to a National Trust estate near Rothbury, Northumberland, with police surrounding him while he held a gun to his neck. In an attempt to make him surrender, food and water were reportedly offered to Moat, while...

Jennifer Garner joins us on this week's show to talk about Apple's new mystery thriller, The Last Thing He Told Me, plus Charlie Murphy drops by to fill us in on Netflix's new Bdsm-happy erotic thriller, Obsession.

Elsewhere, we join The Hunt For Raoul Moat on ITV, get some surprising statistics about podcast listeners in Fiji, and James comes to a final decision on the issue of the cake.

Listen to the episode on your podcast app of choice or the player above. And if you want to subscribe to Pilot TV+, find all the details here.

Nordic Networks Team For ITV Studios Drama Deal

Five Nordic public broadcasters have pooled resources to strike a multi-title drama deal with distributor ITV Studios. Svt in Sweden, Nrk in Norway, Yle in Finland, Dr in Denmark and Ruv in Iceland unified their buying power to snap up buzzy tennis drama Fifteen-Love, relationship drama You & Me, medical thriller Malpractice and the Russell T. Davies-penned Nolly. True crime-dramas The Hunt For Raoul Moat, The Walk-In and Four Lives and miniseries Tom Jones were also packaged. Fredrik Luihn, Head of Acquisitions at Nrk, speaking on behalf of the group said: “We are extremely pleased to be able to bring such a great line-up of top-quality British drama series to the Nordic audience.” The deal was struck last week at the ITV Studios Drama Festival during the London TV Screenings.

CGI Format ‘Bingo Blitz’ Emerges From Israel To Save On Costs...