EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Colin Callender’s Wolf Hall and The White Queen outfit Playground Entertainment has won film and TV rights to best-selling debut novel The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock.  Imogen Hermes Gowar’s lauded historical-fantasy, rich in sexual politics and power games, has long-been talked…

Three programs scored double wins at tonight’s BAFTA TV Awards in London. Wolf Hall — Playground Entertainment, Company Pictures and BBC Two's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning novels — which led the nominations coming into the evening, took the Drama Series win. Star Mark Rylance, also a BAFTA Film…

Ahead of the main BAFTA TV Awards on May 8, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out prizes to behind-the-scenes talent this evening in London. Wolf Hall, the Playground Entertainment and Company Pictures/BBC Two adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning novels, was the nominations leader…

UPDATE: Adding to its six BAFTA TV Craft Awards nominations, Wolf Hall — Playground Entertainment, Company Pictures and BBC Two's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning novels — also now leads the main pack of nominees for the House of Fraser British Academy Television Awards with four total. Those include…

Honoring behind-the-scenes talent, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced its nominations for this year’s BAFTA TV Craft Awards. Wolf Hall, Playground Entertainment, Company Pictures and BBC Two's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning novels, leads with six nods including Best…

The Wolf Hall director isn’t holding back in his criticisms of the Conservative UK government’s plans to reduce funding for the BBC. Speaking with Radio Times, Peter Kosminsky slammed the plans, comparing them to similar actions affecting ITV in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher’s government that, he says, turned ITV…

Period and contemporary British drama series had a fine showing in today's Emmy nominations. The usual suspects like Downton Abbey (sans Maggie Smith or Michelle Dockery) are here with eight noms, tying BBC/Masterpiece’s roundly-lauded Wolf Hall. Previous contenders such as Sherlock and Luther were not eligible this…

BBC Director-General Tony Hall has come out with a full-blooded defense of the broadcaster’s values and right to go after big ratings. In a statement published alongside the BBC’s Annual Report, Hall was forthright in stating his belief that the BBC should retain the right to remain a mainstream broadcaster with…

Amazon and PBS have expanded their licensing agreement to bring several series from the Masterpiece franchise to Prime members. Under the multi-year deal, Amazon Prime will be the exclusive subscription streaming home for Masterpiece programs including drama Wolf Hall, adapted from Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall and…

Talk about attention to detail. Wolf Hall costume designer Joanna Eatwell and director Peter Kominsky strived for realism in the depiction of the machinations of the Court of Henry VIII. Costumes were designed and re-created authentically using the appropriate materials and handmade skills — lots of intricate…

EXCLUSIVE– Archery Pictures, the newbie production company set up less than a year ago by well-respected UK-based producers Kris Thykier and Liza Marshall, has come on-board to produce the Cote d’Azur-based TV crime drama Riviera with Neil Jordan (The Borgias) set to write, direct and showrun. The project is the…

Wolf Hall’s April 5 premiere averaged 4.4 million viewers in Live + 7, with nearly half its stats accounted for by delayed viewing. The Masterpiece miniseries, an adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels, stars Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy. "Wolf Hall is yet another high-water mark in M…