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.
Channel 4
Over the last decade, there's been a disingenuous argument over whether entertainment has gotten "Too Political," as if telling stories that reflect one's personal experience isn't revolutionary for anyone who is not an upper-class white male from Western civilization. In reality,
UKTV/Alibi
The 2015 reboot of Poldark turned out to be the leading edge of a wave of British remakes of TV series from the 1970s and 80s, many of which were broadcast on local PBS stations during the era when the PBS mothership didn't try to control what aired
BBC
When BBC Alba, the Gaelic-language offshoot of BBC Scotland, announced the commissioning of The Island (An t-Eilean) in March 2024, it boasted that the series would be the biggest and most high-profile Gaelic drama in the network's (and the country's) history. In the
Sundance Now
The dark comedy series The Dry is one of those shows that's survived a lot of upheaval as the U.K. streaming wars have forced British production studios and platforms to figure out where they stand. Unlike America, where our broadcast networks are all commercial, and their ratings
Netflix
Netflix initially announced in April 2024 that it was commissioning a feature film adaptation of the 2014 bestseller The Ballad of a Small Player. The project is directed by Edward Berger, whose All Quiet on the Western Front swept the BAFTAs (though not the Oscars) in 2023; from the outset,
Disney/Hulu
When it was initially announced that Steven Knight's newest series, A Thousand Blows (at Disney+ and Hulu, though not via FX), was about Victorian-era boxing, it seemed an odd turn for the hitmaker. Sports dramas are their own particular niche fandom that rarely overlaps with historical fiction;
Paramount+
Paramount stopped being a going concern in the streaming wars sometime in mid-2023 when the attempt to go big or go bust wound up busting the century-old studio. One of the original Hollywood heavyweights, Paramount Studios survived the transition to television in the 1940s and 1950s (hey, listen,
Amazon Studios/Prime Video
The Wheel of Time may turn on both the page and the screen, but while the small screen adaptation technically tells the same story as the novels, it takes a different route than Robert Jordan's fourteen doorstopper-sized tomes did. From the start, the series streamlined the introduction
Movies
When reporting on projects that have not started filming, it's always best to wait for the official press release if you need confirmation on casting. While some trust IMDb, it's too easy for bad actors to edit the cast lists randomly; there are also last-minute
Netflix
Netflix initially announced Toxic Town in August 2023, during the height of the dual writers-actors strike in America. A U.K.-based series focusing on the real-life Corby Toxic Waste Case, it could technically go into production right away since it would be under the U.K.'
Movies
Every few years, separate projects accidentally align in Hollywood in what is known in the industry as "twinning." Recent examples include 2022's pair of Pinocchio films, one from Disney and one from Netflix, and 2023's two TV series about Alexander Litvinenko, one with Benedict
BritBox
With the financial backing of the BBC and Robert Schildhouse as its new CEO, BritBox has a new lease on life for 2025. The U.K.-centric streamer, initially a joint project between the BBC and ITV to prevent international piracy of iPlayer and ITV's streaming service, was