An adaptation of Rowling’s 2012 bestselling book, and her first adult novel after the Harry Potter franchise, the miniseries is a joint production of BBC One and HBO.  The series will comprise of three one-hour parts, with production scheduled to begin in July in South West England.

The Casual Vacancy centers on the seemingly idyllic English village of Pagford, however, behind the quaint facade is a town at war: the rich with the poor, the teenagers with their parents, wives with their husbands, and teachers with their students.

Gambon (Dumbledore in seven Harry Potter installments) is set to play Howard Mollison, owner of the village’s delicatessen.  McKenzie (Shirley Valentine) plays his wife, Shirley. Mollison’s son Miles will be played by Rufus Jones (Bill), and his wife Samantha is being played by Keeley Hawes.

Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful) plays Barry Fairbrother, and Keeley Forsyth (Dawn) is playing Terri Weedon, with Abagail Lawrie cast as her daughter Krystal.  Other cast announced include Monica Dolan (Sightseers) as Tess Wall with Simon McBurney (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) playing her husband, Colin: Richard Glover (Sightseers) as Simon Price and Marie Critchley (Emmerdale) as his wife Ruth, and Michelle Austin (Secrets & Lies) as Kay Bawden.

The miniseries is being written by Sarah Phelps (BBC’s Great Expectations) and will be direted by Jonny Campbell (In the Flesh).

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Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director of Starz, said, “The Missing is a powerful and poignant story about a father’s determination to find his missing child, and that is something any viewer can understand.  The Williams’ scripts gripped us on every page, and we are glad to be working in partnership again with the BBC, Charlie Pattinson and Colin Callender on this very special project.”

The Missing tells the story of Tony (James Nesbitt), a man still recovering from the abduction of his son while on vacation. He soon becomes obsessed with the idea that the boy isn’t dead and spends years combing the world for him, fracturing his marriage and threatening his already weakening mental state. The series takes the place of Fortitude, a planned co-production between the BBC and Starz that fell through, and will become the fourth new drama of the year for Starz, following Black Sails, Outlander, and Power.

In addition to Nesbitt, The Missing stars Frances O’Connor (Mr. Selfridge), Tcheky Karyo (The Patriot), Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Ken Stott (The Hobbit), and Arsher Ali (Four Lions).

Will you be watching The Missing? Do you think the show will fit in on Starz? What type of shows would you like to see come from a BBC/Starz partnership?

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Moffat, who is also the executive producer of Sherlock, said that his show would make a comeback at the third episode’s (The Last Vow) preview, while the third season is being aired. The season 3 finale will get aired on January 12, which revolves around blackmail. Moffat also said that, according to him, making a Sherlock movie makes no sense, whereas he would prefer making three new, full feature-length episodes, which can also be showcased on the big screen, on release.

The showrunner and executive producer shared that the scripts for the next season are in the planning process. For those who aren’t aware, Sherlock has set new benchmarks in U.K. drama, with its comeback on the British screens on January 1. The comeback storyline of Sherlock is based on how the renowned detective might have survived after he fell from a roof and got killed towards the end of the second season. Following this, Sherlock has made quite the headlines with people’s assumptions and theories on their opinions on what actually happened there. Critics have claimed that the show hasn’t really clarified the controversy, while viewers still admire the intellectual capacity of the show.

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After almost two years, Sherlock will be returning to PBS on January 19th at 10/9c, following Downton Abbey, Entertainment Weekly is reporting.

The announcement ends the nearly two yewars of fan speculation and concern about when the third season of the drama will premiere, and marks the first time that that the U.S. airdate has been announced before the UK date.  The BBC has “first window” rights to the sho, so UK fans can count on getting season 3 sometime before January 19th.

The season three premiere will solve the mystery behind Sherlock’s “death,” while episode two will delve into happier things – Watson’s wedding to Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington).  The season finale, “The Last Vow,” will air on February 2nd.

There has been no announcement about a season four for the show, but fans should get used to the idea of a long hiatus if if should happen.  Sherlock‘s two leads Beneict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have busy and successful careers that show no sign of slowing down.

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London – The eleventh Season kick-off of BBC’s celebrity dance series, Strictly Come Dancing received higher ratings than the last year and not only that, it also left behind ITV’s Simon Cowell singing talent show, The X Factor, in terms of average viewership. On Saturday night, while an average of 8.4 million viewers watched Strictly, an increase from the 8 million last year, X Factor attracted an audience of 8 million or 8.3 million, after including the viewers of the repeat of the show. X Factor saw a decline from the last week premier show’s viewership, which was an audience of 9.2 million people.

And if we look at the viewership in terms of peak ratings, we have a mixed picture here.

While, for the first five minutes, Strictly saw a peak viewership of 9.4 million, The X Factor was at 9.1 million viewers. It’s after the instantaneous repeat episode, the show on ITV made it to the top. ITV said in a statement “The X Factor drew a peak audience of 9.5 million viewers last night, the highest peak audience of the night”. One week before, the peak viewership was 10.3 billion, and then what went wrong? It’s quite evident that X Factor is losing out on its audience due to Simon not being on the judging panel. Another reason of these slightly lower ratings is Strictly airing before The X Factor.

In 2012, The X Factor season finale saw an average viewership of 10.9 million and 11.1 million after the immediate repeat, which was still a decline from the 13.1 million in 2011 and 17.2 million viewers in the 2010 season finale episode. It was X Factor’s lowest-rated season finale in the UK since the year 2006, besides the known fact is that this ITV’s show created by Simon Cowell is the highest rated and watched television series in British Television.

Strictly, on the other hand, saw an average viewership of 12.4 Million, higher than the previous number of 12.2 million viewers. Moreover, the celebrity dancing series saw stronger average ratings than the singing talent show in several other weeks.

Let’s see which of these shows will build up the maximum viewership in the coming weeks. Which one’s your favorite? Share your views with us. 

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If you haven’t been paying attention, and I don’t know why you haven’t, during the first half of Series 7, The Doctor’s companion’s Amy and Rory retired and he was introduced to a tantalizing new friend named Clara. Both times he met her he lost her again, each time ending in her death.

The dynamic between The Doctor and Clara was unlike any he had with a new companion before, as it seemed during the episode “The Snowmen” that they fell in love. That made the loss even more difficult for The Doctor to bear and at the end of the episode he was heading into the newly redesigned Tardis to search the cosmos to find Clara.

That’s where we pick up in “The Bells of Saint John – A Prequel.” Innocently swinging and chatting with a little girl about the loss of his friend and how much he wants to find her, she give him some much needed insight into his situation before running off to be with her mother.

Enjoy the prequel, and be sure to tune into BBC America on March 30th to catch the new episode of Doctor Who, “The Bells of Saint John” and the remainder of Series 7.

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When the third series picks up, Luther will be dealing with two conflicting crimes, in addition to being the target of a former policeman who wants nothing more than to destroy him. While meeting Mary may give him a chance to have a little happiness, not everything is as it seems, not in the world of Luther. There’s always a possibility that Mary is a part of the mad ex-copper’s plot to bring down Luther and that their first meeting/entire relationship has been orchestrated to lull Luther into a false sense of security. When Luther is on his game, he’s difficult to outsmart, but the time with Mary might take his eye off the ball and give all those that want to see him fall hope that he’ll be silenced once and for all.

Guillory, most known for roles in movies like Love Actually, Eragon, and Resident Evil: Retribution, has appeared on the likes of CSI, Criminal Minds, and Covert Affairs. Returning members of the Luther cast include Warren Brown, Dermot Crowley, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Michael Smiley, with Lucian Masamati and Ned Dennehy set to guest  star.

The third series of Luther premieres in 2013. An exact premiere date has yet to be announced, though production on the four-episode series only recently began.

What do you think about John having a love interest, in addition to everything going on in his professional life? Will he be able to keep Mary safe in all the chaos? Is there a chance that the “random” initial meeting between the two wasn’t so random after all?

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