#royal television society

[richardarmitagefanpage]

Get your tickets here.

[riepu10]

richardcarmitage I was so busy in the moment catching up with old friends last night I forgot to take a picture. Thank you RTS for this incredible honour. 🙏 (x)

[tabbyofwisdom]

Honestly, when do we invade France?

[hollywforever]

Holly Willoughby attends the annual RTS Programme Awards 2005, presented by The Royal Television Society, at Grosvenor House on March 15, 2005 in London.

[oswincoleman]

A new interview with the cast and creators of Wilderness for the Royal Television Society! With Jenna Coleman, Marnie Dickens, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Eric Balfour, and Ashley Benson!

[reluctantjoe]

Mathew Baynton on life after Ghosts

Shilpa Ganatra interviews Mathew Baynton, who explains why it’s time to end the BBC One sitcom and how new voices are improving TV comedy

“What have we done?” bemoans the decapitated head of Sir Humphrey Bone, after the nation’s favourite spectres make a defining decision in the final episode of Ghosts, which goes out as a Christmas special on BBC One. “We did the right thing,” Julian Fawcett, the trouserless MP ghost, says confidently.

The exchange nicely reflects the sentiment of the show’s creators, the Them There collective, in deciding to exorcise the BBC supernatural sitcom after five series – despite notching up several RTS nominations and maintaining an audience of around 4 million throughout its run.

The Christmas special was co-written by Them There’s Mathew Baynton, who also plays the romantic poet Thomas Thorne in the series.

“From an artistic point of view, I’ve never been in any doubt that ending Ghosts now was the right thing to do and the right time to do it,” he tells Television. “From a personal point of view, we feel a sense of loss that we’re not going to be getting together in that place at the same time of year, every year. But nothing can go on for ever.”

“That sadness tells you it was the right thing. If we carried on for another five seasons and we were all bored of it, bored of each other, and it wasn’t as good as it used to be, we wouldn’t miss it afterwards.”

The series follows in the tradition of British domestic sitcoms, centring on a young couple, Alison and Mike (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe). They inherit Button House, a country manor haunted by a disparate crew of spirits from across the ages, played by the Them There collective: Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, plus Lolly Adefope.

The show is a logical leap from the troupe’s first multi-award-winning TV creation, Horrible Histories, which re-enacted the curiosities of yesteryear in comedic skits. Horrible Histories’ success made it “shockingly easy” to get Ghosts commissioned – the only bump in the road was discussions between the group and the BBC about the pilot.

Recalls Baynton: “They wanted to do a pilot that would go out with other pilots. We wanted to do one to figure out the idea and road test the special effects, but we didn’t want it to be aired, because then there would be a pressure to not change it.”

The compromise was to make a 10-minute taster pilot that wasn’t for broadcast. This taster tried out their initial idea of having a house full of different ghosts and playing multiple characters (as with Horrible Histories and Them There’s Sky One series, Yonderland). But the result proved this set-up didn’t create the character friction necessary to sustain a sitcom, so the band stuck to the small group of ghosts we know today, from a prim and proper Edwardian matriarch to a caveman.

As Ghosts meets its end – on British TV at least, as the US adaptation is still going strong and about to enter its third season – Baynton, who turns in a high-octane performance as Fickelgruber in the film Wonka, is turning his attention to the other strings in his bow.

At the end of January he’ll step into the role of Bottom in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He’s also writing a comedy film (details are being kept under wraps) and will show off his more serious acting side in the upcoming BBC Three series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, a crime thriller based on the bestselling novel.

As a student, Baynton initially studied directing, earning a first-class degree at the Rose Bruford drama school in south-east London. After being drawn towards comedy, he attended Philippe Gaulier’s famously idiosyncratic clown school in Paris. “We used to say half of the fee is like a ticket just to watch him, because he’s hilarious. He plays the persona of a curmudgeonly, philo­sophical, French sort of half-wizard,” he recalls, adding: “Philippe’s got an incredible ability to help you learn what the audience sees in you.”

“If people tried to act up an idiot character, he’d say, ‘Don’t pretend to be more of an idiot than God already made you. He did a good enough job’. You don’t need to exaggerate it or pretend to look stupid. What you need to be is honest about the thing about yourself that people find funny, and then access that and allow people to laugh at it.”

This advice helped Baynton climb his first rungs in TV comedy to play Deano in Gavin & Stacey, a work colleague of Smithy (James Corden). He would go on to co-create and write the RTS award-­winning The Wrong Mans with Corden, the co-author of Gavin & Stacey. By the time Ghosts began, he had worked in TV comedy – featuring in Peep Show, Spy and The Armstrong and Miller Show, among others – for more than a decade.

“You’ll hear people saying, ‘Comedy was best when I was young’. I always think, ‘Well, you’re just not paying attention, then’. There will always be great stuff and if it doesn’t speak to you, it’s probably because it’s for people younger than you.”

While being a dad of two has limited the amount of competitor benchmarking he’s doing, he’s impressed with the greater breadth of voices in contemporary TV comedies.

“Bridget Christie’s The Change springs to mind, with menopausal women as the central characters, and the specificity of the location of the Forest of Dean. You couldn’t say that’s like any sitcom that’s come before,” he says. “We Are Lady Parts is another one, so is Stath Lets Flats.”

“I don’t know why I’m only naming Channel 4 shows, seeing as the BBC has been so good to me…”

Making comedy inclusive is no constraint to a writer, Baynton believes: “I’ve read the odd interview where people have said that creators are self-censoring to the point where they can’t be as instinctively funny. And some people see comedy’s function as being able to say the unsayable.”

“I can only speak for myself, but I know that my best work comes from writing and rewriting. What emerges is always something cleverer than I am, because in life you only get a first draft when you’re having a conversation. It’s not a bad thing to realise that a joke could maybe hurt someone, and it sounds like a better idea that I should rewrite if my intention could be misconstrued.”

As the curtain falls on Ghosts, commissioners are clamouring to find out what’s next for the Them There collective. Happily, they still have the same personnel and are mulling over their next project.

“We’re mindful that we can’t just do a modern sitcom where we’re wearing jeans and T-shirts. It just isn’t our tone,” says Baynton. “When we look for ideas, we’re thinking, what’s the playground that we can put ourselves in? Where we can do something with a heightened silliness, where potentially we play more than one character, and where there is a costume element to it.”

With this tried and tested formula as the base, their continued success seems assured. The legacy of Ghosts is preserved, too, persisting in the corridors of Button House and, indeed, TV history.

[fuckyeahmarkgatiss]

Look who’s up for another award. 😁

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[recentlyheardcom]

'Peaky Blinders' Creator Steven Knight On 'Mindblowing' Film Cast

Steven Knight has described the cast for his TV film of smash Netflix hit Peaky Blinders, starring Cillian Murphy as Birmingham gangster boss Tommy Shelby, as “mindblowing.” The film follows a six-season series met with critical acclaim after dropping on the streaming platform, with Oscar winner Murphy, Paul Anderson, Helen McCrory, Tom Hardy, and Joe Cole leading the cast. So far confirmed for…

[helmstone]

Ted Sarandos talks UK and Netflix to the Royal Television Society

Ted Sarandos talks UK and Netflix to the Royal Television Society

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos spoke recently in London to the Royal Television Society. It’s inevitable he would give a UK-centric view of Netflix, but even with that proviso, it’s clear the UK has helped form the Netflix brand. You can read his speech here. He starts with The Crown, but soon covers a range of other shows, including Thursday Murder Club, My Oxford Year and Wake Up Dead Man. There’s a…

[newsandmediarepublic]

Arts University Plymouth Film graduate Sam Evans wins at RTS Awards 2024

Sam Evans, a Cinematographer who graduated from BA (Hons) Film & Screen Arts at Arts University Plymouth in 2023, has won the Student of the Year Award and a film that he wrote and directed won the Entertainment & Comedy Drama Award at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Devon & Cornwall Student Television Awards 2024. Continue reading Arts University Plymouth Film graduate Sam Evans wins at RTS…

[richardarmitagefanpage]

Richard at the RTS Midlands Awards 2023 at The ICC in Birmingham, UK. (November 24, 2023)

📷: Royal Television Society Midlands

[indigoknoxfilm]

So pleased to have attended the Royal Television Society West of England Student Awards 2023 this week in Bristol, where both of my third year films won Best film in their respective categories!

Beached - Best Drama

Robbie Wrecked the Band - Best Entertainment & Comedy Drama

I also won the craft award in editing in both categories too!

It was so lovely to see my former classmates and celebrate their achievements in film with several other craft awards across the UWE Filmmaking 2022 graduate films!

[riepu10]

richardcarmitage Thank you to the Royal Television Society. What an honour. Kully Khaila Dorothy Hobson and all the amazing hosts. What a fun night brilliantly MC’d by Summaya Mughal and Ed James (x)

[stroudtimes]

Lights, camera, action… Stroud filmmaker receives two Royal Television Society nominations

Lights, camera, action… Stroud filmmaker receives two Royal Television Society nominations

Stroud filmmaker Billy Arthur, who runs Enderley Pictures, has been nominated for two awards by the Royal Television Society Midlands, Breakthrough Talent, and Best Documentary. Billy grew up in Stroud and went to Marling School: “When I was 16, I co-directed a CBBC documentary called My Life: Blood Sugar Brothers, which went on to be nominated for a BAFTA and gave me my start in the industry. I…

[hollywforever]

Holly Willoughby arrives at The Royal Television Society Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London on 13th March 2007.

[oswincoleman]

A new interview with Jenna Coleman for the Royal Television Society!

Some highlights:

About Wilderness:

Coleman is particularly proud of the fact that “I don’t think we shied away from the ugliness of Liv”.

“I was dancing like I had an electric shock,” Coleman recalls. Liv exorcises her anxiety by literally “shaking it outside of her body”.

About The Serpent:

The trick was not to condemn Leclerc or let her off the hook: instead, Coleman tried simply to understand her.

Actors are often asked if they like their characters, says Coleman, but she counters that “liking or not liking them is up to the audience. As long as you understand them, then, in a way, you’re within them.”

This is exactly why she’s such a brilliant actress!

About Doctor Who:

The expectation of perfection is a dangerous thing, she continues.

“That’s something that [Doctor Who co-star] Peter Capaldi really instilled in me, about there not being about right and wrong: it’s about options.”

“As soon as it’s about options, it frees you up creatively, because you’re not trying to hit a perfect version of how you’ve read it.”

Jenna also confirms that she is currently filming The Sandman season 2:

“I’m shooting on Sandman at the moment, so I’m getting a dose of my Gothic, dark fantasy genre.”

She also talked about The Jetty:

To her, cops tend to be “the cog that turns the story”, whereas she was holding out for something “that feels nuanced and complex and human”. Now, it seems her prayers have been answered.

“The scripts have been b-eau-tiful,” she says.

“There’s a lot based on women and water and echoes, memories, retrospect, past”, as well being choc-a-bloc with “really beautiful character studies.”

As for her plans for the future, Jenna says:

The question of ‘what next?’ seems a little obvious for Coleman, who seems positively allergic to resting on her laurels.

Looking further ahead, Coleman tells me “I’d love to look for another play, I’d love to do some comedy, I’d love to look for indie film projects.”

She has been toying with the idea of turning her hand to writing or directing “a little bit”. Her first project, if one were ever to materialise, would likely be an adaptation of some kind. For now, though, “I think I’m happy to be a jobbing actor.”