October 9, 2012 - Deadline - Gemma Jones & Julian Rhind-Tutt in Paradise (S1E6 EDWIN FROM MERLIN)

BBC Worldwide America & PBS’ ‘Masterpiece’ Team Up For ‘The Paradise’ & ‘The Lady Vanishes’

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday October 9, 2012 @ 12:00am PDTTags: Masterpiece, The Lady Vanishes

A new co-production deal between BBC Worldwide America and Masterpiece will see two more U.K. titles coming to PBS. The Paradise is a rags-to-riches Victorian Era drama series set in Britain’s first department store. The Lady Vanishes is a 90-minute adaptation of the 1938’s Alfred Hitchcock thriller about a woman who gets caught up in a mysterious and menacing case of a missing person. The arrangement to bring the two shows to American audiences was put together by Jemma Adkins, Senior VP Sales and Co-Productions for BBC Worldwide America. Rebecca Eaton is the executive producer of Masterpiece, presented by WGBH Boston.

The Paradise stars What Maisie Knew’s Joanna Vanderham, Prometheus’Emun Elliott, Upstairs Downstairs’ Sarah Lancashire and Game of Thrones’ Patrick Malahide. The Paradise is written and created by Bill Gallagher. Simon Lewis is producing with Susan Hogg as executive producer. Gallagher and Hogg worked together on the costume drama series Lark Rise to Candleford. The Lady Vanishes producer Annie Tricklebank also worked on Lark Rise to Candleford. The TV film is directed by Diarmuid Lawrence and written by Fiona Seres. The Lady Vanishes’ executive producer is Anne Pivcevic. The cast includes Upstairs Downstairs’ Keeley Hawes, Spooks’ Gemma Jones and The Hour’s Julian Rhind-Tutt.

August 20, 2012 - Gemma Jones & Julian Rhind-Tutt in Lady Vanishes (MERLIN, SEASON 1, SEASON 4)

Global Showbiz Briefs: BBC ‘Lady Vanishes’; One In South Korea

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday August 20, 2012 @ 10:00pm PDTTags: BBC, eOne, The Lady Vanishes, Youku

BBC Hitches Wagon To Hitchcock Craze, Again

With Alfred Hitchcock hot right now, the BBC is doubling up on the action. It’s already co-producing The Girl with HBO, a look at the director’s obsessive relationship with The Birds star Tippi Hedren. Now, it’s producing a new take on The Lady Vanishes with a British cast that includesUpstairs Downstairs star Keeley Hawes,Spooks’ Gemma Jones and The Hour’s Julian Rhind-Tutt. The 90-minute psychological thriller is penned by Fiona Seres and is set to air at Christmas. Seres adapted the source novel The Wheel Spins, which Hitchcock filmed as The Lady Vanishes in 1938. Set in 1931, the story centers on Iris, a young socialite on vacation who leaves her friends to travel alone. But after fainting at the train station, she awakens in a dreamlike state where a woman who comforts her then vanishes. Tuppence Middleton (Spies Of Warsaw, Love Punch) and Tom Hughes (Cemetery Junction, Page Eight) lead the cast. The film is produced by BBC Drama Productions and Ann Tricklebank. Diarmuid Lawrence (Little Dorrit) is directing. Hitchcock’sVertigo recently dislodged Citizen Kane as BFI Sight & Sound’s greatest movie of all time. In addition to The Girl with Sienna Miller and Toby Jones, another project based on the director’s life is Fox Searchlight’s Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson.