The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, both written by Olivia Manning were made into which 1987 BBC TV series starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh?
"the Footlights troupe. After appearing in several comedy programmes, she first came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, ""Tutti Frutti"" and ""Fortunes of War"", winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work in both series. Her first film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy ""The Tall Guy"", and in the early 1990s, she frequently collaborated with her then husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh. The pair became popular in the British media and co-starred in several films, including ""Dead Again"" (1991) and ""Much Ado About Nothing"" (1993). In 1992, Thompson won an Academy"
"underrated novels of the twentieth century"" and the author as ""among the greatest practitioners of 20th-century ""roman-fleuve"""". Written during the Cold War more than sixteen years after the period described, ""The Balkan Trilogy"", set in Romania and Greece, is considered one of the most important literary treatments of the region in wartime, while criticised for the Cold War era images of Balkanism, and for Manning's inability to ""conceal her antipathy towards all things Romanian"". ""The Levant Trilogy"", set in the Middle East, is praised for its detailed description of Simon Boulderstone's desert war experience and the juxtaposition of the Pringles"
"for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – ""Antrobus Complete"". In the six Olivia Manning novels that make up The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, Guy Pringle is an employee of the British Council, and Council politics make up several of the plot points. The books are a fascinating look at Eastern Europe and the Middle East in the opening years of World War Two. The role of British Council in Burma in 1947 came under scrutiny with release of classified documents to a BBC investigation by journalist Feargal Keane into the role of dissident British colonial officials in the"
"The book is one of Manning's lesser-known books, and she was disappointed that it was not shortlisted for the Booker prize. Early in 1975 Manning began ""The Danger Tree"", which for a time she described as ""The Fourth Part of the Balkan Trilogy""; in the event, it became the first novel in ""The Levant Trilogy"", continuing the story of the Pringles in the Middle East. The first book proved ""a long struggle"" to write, in part because of Manning's lack of confidence in her powers of invention: the book juxtaposes the Desert War experiences of a young officer, Simon Boulderstone,"
"Orphan Black Orphan Black is a Canadian science fiction thriller television series created by screenwriter Graeme Manson and director John Fawcett, starring Tatiana Maslany as several identical people who are clones. The series focuses on Sarah Manning, a woman who assumes the identity of one of her fellow clones, Elizabeth Childs, after witnessing Childs' suicide. The series raises issues about the moral and ethical implications of human cloning, and its effect on issues of personal identity. The series is produced by Temple Street Productions, in association with BBC America and Bell Media's Space. It premiered on March 30, 2013, on"
"a woman who looks just like her. The remake was produced by Telepack for Tokai TV under licence from BBC Worldwide. Orphan Black Orphan Black is a Canadian science fiction thriller television series created by screenwriter Graeme Manson and director John Fawcett, starring Tatiana Maslany as several identical people who are clones. The series focuses on Sarah Manning, a woman who assumes the identity of one of her fellow clones, Elizabeth Childs, after witnessing Childs' suicide. The series raises issues about the moral and ethical implications of human cloning, and its effect on issues of personal identity. The series is"
"their fellow-men can be maddening ... While lecturing abroad he suddenly conceived a resentment of 'sights' especially 'useless' sights, such as ruins or tombs. You might suppose that were it not for such distractions as Tiberias, the Valley of the Kings or Hadrian's Villa, tourists abroad would occupy themselves solely in alleviating poverty."" Between 1956 and 1964 Manning's main project was ""The Balkan Trilogy"", a sequence of three novels based on her experiences during the Second World War; as usual she was supported and encouraged by Smith. The books describe the marriage of Harriet and Guy Pringle as they live"
"The Bombmaker The Bombmaker is a two-part British television drama serial, written and created by Stephen Leather, and directed by Graham Theakston. It first broadcast on Sky One on 8 April 2001, with the second and final episode following a week later on 15 April. The series, based upon Leather's novel of the same name, stars Dervla Kirwan as Andrea Hayes, a former IRA bombmaker who is forced to come out of retirement when her daughter is kidnapped and held to ransom. Mark Womack stars as Andrea's husband Martin, while Ciara Lyons plays the role of her daughter, Katie. David"
"profession, while her creation was not. The first book in the trilogy, ""The Great Fortune"", received mixed reviews, but subsequent volumes, ""The Spoilt City"" and ""Friends and Heroes"" were generally well-received; Anthony Burgess announced that Manning was ""among the most accomplished of our women novelists"" and comparisons were made to Lawrence Durrell, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell. There were a few carping voices, and as usual, they ignited Manning's ire. Following the publication of the final volume of ""The Balkan Trilogy"" in 1965, Manning worked on her cat memoir and a collection of short stories, ""A Romantic Hero"
"2015; it aired in the UK, with its original English soundtrack, in May and June 2016. Branagh has played the title role in BBC radio broadcasts of ""Hamlet"" and ""Cyrano de Bergerac"", and the role of Edmund in King Lear. Branagh has narrated several audiobooks, such as ""The Magician's Nephew"" by C. S. Lewis. Branagh participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony portraying Isambard Kingdom Brunel during the Industrial Revolution segment, ""pandemonium"" giving the speech from ""The Tempest"" originally read by the character Caliban. From 1989 to 1995, Branagh was married to actress Emma Thompson. They appeared together in"
"Globe and BAFTA-winning six-part miniseries adaptation for BBC and Masterpiece of Hilary Mantel’s Booker prize winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and ""The Dresser"", a television adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s classic play starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins for BBC and Starz. In 2017 Playground produced Kenneth Lonergan’s adaptation of ""Howards End"" for the BBC and Starz, Heidi Thomas’s adaptation of ""Little Women"" for the BBC and Masterpiece, and Richard Eyre’s adaptation of ""King Lear"" starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson for the BBC and Amazon Prime Video. Playground will next produce Lucy Kirkwood’s adaptation of her"
"it constantly keeps you guessing."" The Bombmaker The Bombmaker is a two-part British television drama serial, written and created by Stephen Leather, and directed by Graham Theakston. It first broadcast on Sky One on 8 April 2001, with the second and final episode following a week later on 15 April. The series, based upon Leather's novel of the same name, stars Dervla Kirwan as Andrea Hayes, a former IRA bombmaker who is forced to come out of retirement when her daughter is kidnapped and held to ransom. Mark Womack stars as Andrea's husband Martin, while Ciara Lyons plays the role"
"Orient Express"" (1974), ""The Pink Panther Strikes Again"" (1976), ""Equus"" (1977), ""The Dogs of War"" (1980), ""Nijinsky"" (1980) and ""Evil Under the Sun"" (1982). A noted Shakespearean actor, Blakely appeared on television as Antony in ""Antony and Cleopatra"" (1981), directed by Jonathan Miller as part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series; and as Kent in the 1983 Granada Television version of ""King Lear"" which starred Laurence Olivier. Other television appearances included ""Loophole"" (1981), ""The Beiderbecke Affair"" (1985), ""Operation Julie"" (1985) and ""Paradise Postponed"" (1986). Blakely was married to British actress Margaret Whiting for 26 years and had three sons, including"
"moved in with the diplomat Adam Watson, who was working with the British Legation. Those who knew Manning at the time described her as a shy, provincial girl who had little experience with other cultures. She was both dazzled and appalled by Romania. The café society, with its wit and gossip, appealed to her, but she was repelled by the peasantry and the aggressive, often mutilated, beggars. Her Romanian experiences were captured in the first two volumes of ""The Balkan Trilogy"" (""The Great Fortune"" and ""The Spoilt City""), considered one of the most important literary treatments of Romania during the"
"Enlightenment (Doctor Who) Enlightenment is the fifth serial of the 20th season of the British science fiction television series ""Doctor Who"", which was originally broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 9 March 1983. It was the 127th serial of the series, and was written by Barbara Clegg and directed by Fiona Cumming, making it the first serial to be both written and directed by women. In the serial, the alien time traveller the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) and Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson) encounter a group of god-like immortals who"
"little with the expatriate community, focussing instead on her writing. Nevertheless, this was a happy time for Manning; ""Romania is abroad,"" said Manning, ""but Greece is home"". Manning had her admirers, including Terence Spencer, a British Council lecturer who acted as her companion while Smith was busy with other activities – he later appeared as the character Charles Warden in ""Friends and Heroes"", the third book of ""The Balkan Trilogy"". Soon after their arrival, Greece entered the war against the Axis. In spite of early successes against invading Italian forces, by April 1941 the country was at risk of invasion"
"Queen"" for BBC and Starz and its sequel ""The White Princess"" for Starz, the Golden Globe nominated anthology series ""The Missing"" for BBC and Starz, ""Dracula"" for NBC, ""Wolf Hall"", a Golden Globe and BAFTA-winning six-part miniseries starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy for BBC and Masterpiece, which was an adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker prize winning novels ""Wolf Hall"" and ""Bring Up the Bodies"", and ""The Dresser"", a television adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s classic play starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins for BBC and Starz. In 2017 Callender produced Academy Award winner Kenneth Lonergan’s adaptation of ""Howards"
"starring David Tennant. Pamela Branch Pamela Jean Branch (née Byatt, 1920–1967) was a British author of four comic murder mystery novels. She was born on her parents' tea plantation in Ceylon. She was educated in England, studied art in Paris, and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She married the solicitor Newton Branch, and they moved together to Cyprus. She divorced Branch in the late 1950s. In 1962, she married James Edward Stuart-Lyon. In 1967, she died from cancer, aged 47. In 2009, ""The Wooden Overcoat"" was made into a one-hour BBC Radio 4 drama, adapted by"
"and seventh series including the 1988, 1991 and 1993 Christmas and New Year specials (""Twitching"", ""Slipping"" and ""Reverting""), especially a nine-disc set of the complete series, were released in April, May, July, October and November 2009. All releases are distributed by Network. Watching Watching is a British television sitcom, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast for seven series and four Christmas specials between 1987 and 1993. The series was written by Jim Hitchmough and starred Paul Bown and Emma Wray as mismatched couple Malcolm Stoneway and Brenda Wilson. ""Watching"" was set in Merseyside, with Brenda from"
"Watching Watching is a British television sitcom, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast for seven series and four Christmas specials between 1987 and 1993. The series was written by Jim Hitchmough and starred Paul Bown and Emma Wray as mismatched couple Malcolm Stoneway and Brenda Wilson. ""Watching"" was set in Merseyside, with Brenda from Liverpool and Malcolm from Meols on the Wirral, the ""posh"" part of Merseyside on the other side of the River Mersey. The title refers to Brenda and her sister Pamela's hobby of ""people watching"", and to Malcolm's hobby of birdwatching, which initially"
"Beatrice), Geraldine McEwan with ""As You Like It"", and Derek Jacobi directing Branagh in the title role in ""Hamlet"", with Sophie Thompson as Ophelia. Critic Milton Shulman of the London ""Evening Standard"" wrote: ""On the positive side Branagh has the vitality of Olivier, the passion of Gielgud, the assurance of Guinness, to mention but three famous actors who have essayed the role. On the negative side, he has not got the magnetism of Olivier, nor the mellifluous voice quality of Gielgud nor the intelligence of Guinness."" A year later in 1989 Branagh co-starred with Emma Thompson in the Renaissance revival"
"Blu-ray on 23 July 2012. The fourth series was released on DVD in the US on 21 June 2016. Videos Interviews Press releases Wallander (UK TV series) Wallander is a British television series adapted from the Swedish novelist Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous police inspector. It is the first time the ""Wallander"" novels have been adapted into an English-language production. Yellow Bird, a production company formed by Mankell, began negotiations with British companies to produce the adaptations in 2006. In 2007, Branagh met with Mankell to discuss playing the role. Contracts were signed"
"""The Stretch"" and ""The Bombmaker"", were screened for made for TV movies and filmed for Sky Television. ""The Stretch"" starred Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson, two popular soap opera stars from the U.K. Leather became successful in the Amazon Kindle market in 2010. Amazon UK opened an eBook store that year. As reported in ""The Guardian"", Leather anticipated that people buying eBooks would be seeking bargains, and he priced his books at the minimum price for independent writers in order to get his books into the top ten. He then marketed the books on various forums online. Early in 2011,"
"Wallander (UK TV series) Wallander is a British television series adapted from the Swedish novelist Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous police inspector. It is the first time the ""Wallander"" novels have been adapted into an English-language production. Yellow Bird, a production company formed by Mankell, began negotiations with British companies to produce the adaptations in 2006. In 2007, Branagh met with Mankell to discuss playing the role. Contracts were signed and work began on the films, adapted from ""Sidetracked"", ""Firewall"" and ""One Step Behind"", in January 2008. Emmy-award-winning director Philip Martin was hired"
"Casanova (1971 TV serial) Casanova is a British television drama serial, written by television playwright Dennis Potter. Directed by Mark Cullingham and John Glenister, the serial was made by the BBC and screened on the BBC2 network in November and December 1971. It is loosely based on Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova's ""Histoire de ma vie"" (""Story of My Life""; 1780–92). It was Dennis Potter's first television serial, having previously written single plays for the BBC's ""The Wednesday Play"" and ""Play for Today"" series. Frank Finlay starred in the title role and was nominated for the best actor award at the"
"as British author Enid Blyton in the TV film ""Enid"" (2009). Bonham Carter began her film career, playing the title character in ""Lady Jane"" (1986), and playing Lucy Honeychurch in ""A Room with a View"" (1985). Her other film roles include Ophelia in ""Hamlet"" (1990), ""Where Angels Fear to Tread"" (1991), ""Howards End"" (1992), Elizabeth Lavenza in ""Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"" (1994), Woody Allen's ""Mighty Aphrodite"" (1995), Marla Singer in ""Fight Club"" (1999), Bellatrix Lestrange in the ""Harry Potter"" series (2007–11), Skynet in ""Terminator Salvation"" (2009), Miss Havisham in ""Great Expectations"" (2012), Madame Thénardier in ""Les Misérables"" (2012), the Fairy Godmother"
"Swedish production company Tre Vänner Produktion produced a four-part television miniseries adaptation of ""Firewall"", starring Rolf Lassgård as Wallander. In 2008, British broadcaster BBC One broadcast a 90-minute adaptation as part of its ""Wallander"" television series starring Kenneth Branagh. Firewall (Mankell novel) Firewall is a crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell. A series of bizarre incidents sweep across Sweden: a man dies in front of an ATM, two young women slaughter an elderly taxi driver, a murder is committed aboard a Baltic Sea ferry, and a sub-station engineer makes a gruesome discovery while investigating the cause of a nationwide"
"for the BBC series ""The House of Eliott"" (1991–93). Her film and television work includes ""Sons and Lovers"" (1981), ""Smiley's People"" (1982), ""Oliver Twist"" (1982), ""Titus Andronicus"" (1985), ""A Better Class of Person"" (1985), ""Roman Holiday"" (1987), ""The Lost Language of Cranes"" (1991), ""Cold Comfort Farm"" (1995), ""Talking Heads"" (1998), ""Madame Bovary"" (2000), ""David Copperfield"" (2000), ""Wit"" (2001) and ""Bertie and Elizabeth"" (2002), ""Cold Mountain"" (2003), ""What a Girl Wants"" (2003), ""Vanity Fair"" (2004), ""Ballet Shoes"" (2005) and ""Ask the Dust"" (2006). In the autumn of 2007, she co-starred with Dame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Gambon in the BBC"
"Travelling Man (TV series) Travelling Man is a Granada TV series broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1984 and 1985. Created and written by Roger Marshall, one of the original writers of ""The Avengers"", the series starred Leigh Lawson as Lomax and Lindsay Duncan as his girlfriend. Broadcast in the 9pm slot on ITV, the series drew audiences of up to 13.2 million. Each episode had its own story, within an overarching plot of Lomax searching for his missing son and hunting down those who framed him. On his release from prison Lomax finds his wife has emigrated and is"
"in a Granada Television production of ""King Lear"" (1983), which starred Laurence Olivier in the title role. As Lady Dedlock she costarred with Denholm Elliott in a television version of Dickens' ""Bleak House"" (BBC, 1985), and played the Evil Queen, Snow White's evil stepmother, in the Cannon Movie Tales's film adaptation of ""Snow White"" (1987). In 1989 she played Helena Vesey in ""Mother Love"" for the BBC; her portrayal of an obsessive mother who was prepared to do anything, even murder, to keep control of her son won Rigg the 1989 BAFTA for Best Television Actress. In 1995, she appeared"
"The Campbells The Campbells is a Scottish-Canadian television drama series, produced by Scottish Television and CTV from 1986 to 1990. The series starred Malcolm Stoddard as James Campbell, a Scottish doctor living in 1830s Upper Canada with his three children, Neil (John Wildman), Emma (Amber-Lea Weston) and John (Eric Richards). Dr. James Campbell tries to serve his patients in the face of local opposition from the Laird, and after several discouraging political events, as well as some unfortunate events regarding his practice, he desires a chance to start over. His sons, Neil and John, dissatisfied with their current, mundane lives,"
"turmoil. The plot departs substantially from that of William Trevor's somber novella. My House in Umbria My House in Umbria is a 2003 HBO made-for-television movie, based on the novella of the same name by William Trevor and published along with another novella in the volume ""Two Lives"". The film stars Maggie Smith, Chris Cooper and was directed by Richard Loncraine. Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) is an eccentric British romance novelist who lives in Umbria in central Italy, where she runs a pensione for tourists. Mrs Delahunty settled in Italy to flee from a somewhat traumatic past which still haunts"
"to the King's Theatre, Glasgow, the King's Theatre, Edinburgh and the Grand Theatre, Blackpool. The series won six BAFTAs in 1988. Tutti Frutti (1987 TV series) Tutti Frutti is a BBC Scotland six-part drama series, transmitted in 1987 and written by John Byrne. It starred Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, Maurice Roëves, Richard Wilson and Katy Murphy. It won six BAFTAs and brought many of the cast to national prominence. The Majestics, a legendary Scots rock 'n' roll band, are on the eve of their 1986 ""Silver Jubilee"" tour, and find themselves in trouble when their lead singer, Big Jazza McGlone"