Global Showbiz Briefs: BBC’s ‘Big School’; Tom Stoppard’s ‘Dark Side’; Thai Man Jailed Over Documentary
Catherine Tate Set For ‘Big School’
The Office’s Catherine Tate is set to star in a new BBC One sitcom created by David Walliams, who’ll also star. Big School is a six-part comedy set in a secondary school about a dysfunctional staff room, unrequited love and interactive white boards. Walliams will play a chemistry teacher who has taught at Greybridge School for years, Tate plays the school’s enthusiastic new recruit, who despite being a French teacher has never actually been to France. Also starring are Life On Mars’ Philip Glenister, The History Boys’ Frances de la Tour, The Thick Of It’s Joanna Scanlan and Cemetery Junction’s Steve Speirs. Big School is a BBC Production in association with Bert Productions. Jo Sargent is producing and Mark Freeland is exec producer.
Ka-Ching: Tom Stoppard Pens Radio Play Based On Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’
Oscar-winning writer Tom Stoppard has written an original new play for BBC Radio 2 to mark the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s album, “The Dark Side Of The Moon”. The program will air in August and is based on themes from the album. It will star Bill Nighy, Rufus Sewell and Adrian Scarborough along with Olivier Award-winning Iwan Rheon (Misfits) and stage actress Amaka Okafor. The BBC says Stoppard was first approached with the suggestion of writing a play based on the album by a friend in 1973. The band’s David Gilmour said, “I have read the script of Tom’s radio play Dark Side and found it fascinating. I can’t wait to hear it come to life with the great cast performing it and our music woven into it.” “The Dark Side Of The Moon” was on the charts for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988 and with an estimated 50M copies sold, is Pink Floyd’s most commercially successful album. The acted out radio version of “New car, caviar, four star daydream” should be interesting to hear…
Thai Man Gets Jail Over Documentary
Eakachai Hongkangwan of Thailand was sentenced to three years and four months of prison on Thursday for selling copies of a controversial Australian documentary about Thailand’s royal family, his lawyer said, according to AFP. The documentary, believed to be entitled Thailand – Long Live The King – was initially broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in 2010 amid a military crackdown on anti-government “Red Shirt” demonstrations in Bangkok. “The court found him guilty of lèse majeste and sentenced him to five years, but due to his useful testimony, the sentence was reduced to three years and four months,” lawyer Anon Numpa said. An appeal is planned. The accused also was fined $2,200 for selling CDs without a license. According to the AFP, anyone convicted of insulting the Thai king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
Related stories
Tom Stoppard To Receive WGA West’s Laurel Award For Screen
Luke Evans To Topline BBC’s ‘Great Train Robbery’ Serial
BBC One/BBC America Crime Series ‘Ripper Street’ Gets Second Season Order
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
