Ani Bundel has been blogging professionally since 2010. This is her second major independent site launch. A DC native and Keyboard Khaleesi, she spends all her non-writing time photographing her cats. Regular bylines also found on MSNOW.
Rogue Heroes
Perhaps it should have been a no-brainer that when Steven Knight finished Peaky Blinders as a TV series, his next period drama would also be a massive hit. Maybe, had it not been about World War II or been named for the British Special Air Service, streaming services in the
Sherwood
Sherwood Season 1 was one of the BBC’s biggest surprise hits of 2022. James Graham’s story, based on the real-life 2004 double manhunt in Sherwood forest, was a star-studded affair with a who’s who of British A-listers in the cast. Despite being billed as a true crime
Eurovision
Eurovision is upon us this May 2023, and the contestant lineup has finally been set. Artists from around Europe (plus Israel and Australia) are chosen by various processes depending on the country, some by hand-selected juries of musicians from the competing nations, others by a national contest that most American
PBS
Grantchester Season 7 ended with a surprise wedding after the Reverend William Davenport begged Bonnie Evans to stay in Grantchester and try to make a relationship work. Fans were startled at the sudden rush to the altar — though in the early 1960s, it was not as sudden as it felt
Apple TV
Idris Elba may have put to bed any James Bond rumors with his Luther: The Fallen Sun refusal to drink a martini, but just because he has no interest in being handed a license to kill or a double-0 number doesn't mean he's about to retire
Paramount+
Despite the WGA strike, Paramount+ is continuing with announcing projects heading into production. The latest, which the American production studio will make exclusively under its U.K. arm (and therefore with the WGGB, which is not on strike), is The Castaways, based on British author Lucy Clarke's best-selling
Netflix
When Bridgerton originally premiered during the holiday season of 2020, it was a bit of a radical piece of television. TV mega-producer Shonda Rhimes took the classic Regency romance novel, and instead of bowdlerizing it the way "Women's Television" romances on Lifetime and Hallmark Channel might,
Movies
As the 2023 Cannes Film Festival heads to France with new hot packages, it's time to check in on some of those offerings from 2022 that are finally going into production. Cold Storage, for instance, was initially announced back in May 2022 as one of the many "
FX
The Full Monty was never planned to be a massive hit in America. The story of six unemployed steel workers in 1990s era Sheffield who turn to getting their kits off to support their families was far too risque, far too class conscious, and far too British for Americans to
Acorn TV
After several false starts, Acorn TV’s Cannes Confidential finally has a premiere date stateside. The series was commissioned just before the pandemic shut down the world in 2020, heralded as the first English-language procedural drama produced and set in the Cote d’Azur since the 1970s. Unfortunately for Acron
Culture
On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at midnight ET, the Writers Guild of America East and West walked off the job after failing to get production studios to agree to crucial points in a new contract. Most of those issues revolve around streaming, bringing the current system into line with today’
Culture
When Elizabeth II’s unprecedented 70-year reign on the English throne finally ended when she passed away at the age of 96 in September 2022, King Charles III quietly stepped up, proving Keeping Calm and Carrying On runs in the family. Though the Monarchy might not be as popular as