Covid almost forced Downton Abbey movie to film in Bognor Regis – with seaside resort meant to imitate French Riviera
DOWNTON Abbey — home to china tea sets, vintage bubbly and, er, fish and chips?
The producer of its new movie has revealed Covid almost forced filming to be moved from the posh French Riviera to traditional British seaside town Bognor Regis.
Gareth Neame said: “What should have been a fairly simple operation in normal times — to film for a few weeks in France — became fraught with difficulties.
“There was a real risk we might start a film that couldn’t be completed. We had some very forthright conversations.
“We even had a back-up plan – so unpalatable that its code name was Plan Z — that involved shooting the whole French story here in Britain. Yes, really, in Bognor.”
To avoid the West Sussex coast, Gareth instead used private jets to fly the cast to France to avoid restrictions and “remain in the bubble”.
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Saved in the Mick of time
THE truth catches up with EastEnder Janine Butcher — and it ends in an almighty scuffle in the Queen Vic.
Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright, returns to Albert Square for a funeral and realises that Janine (Charlie Brooks) was the mysterious woman who advised her to divorce her husband, pub landlord Mick.
Then Mick, played by Danny Dyer, is forced to pull the two women apart.
Watch the fallout tonight on BBC1 at 7.30pm.
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PRODUCTION of The Witcher has started again.
Work on the third series of the Netflix fantasy series began last week with leading actors Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan returning to the cast.
It has become one of the global streaming service’s biggest hits.
Alex: My days in a boyband
WEATHERMAN Alex Beresford has revealed his secret past as a singer.
The Good Morning Britain forecaster, crowned winner of ITV’s All Star Musicals on Sunday, was in a boyband in his twenties.
He said: “I did a little bit of music back in the day. I had a little stint in an R&B boyband called Forte.
“We didn’t get signed unfortunately, that’s not to say we weren’t good enough.
“There was choreography but in those days it was harder to make it. Boybands weren’t getting signed. They had an era and it just wasn’t that time.”
Alex, now 41, added that his success on the show has “given him an appetite” to perform. He said: “Would I like to dabble in it a little bit? Yes, maybe something.”
Straight talk on Suranne
SURANNE JONES is back as 19th Century lesbian diarist Anne Lister in Gentleman Jack this weekend.
It might anger campaigners who think a gay actress should have been cast in the lead role.
But the BBC1 drama’s creator Sally Wainwright told Radio Times: “I defy anyone to understand Anne Lister better than Suranne Jones does.
“To play a character you need someone who’s got the intelligence and intensity to absorb themselves in it, and that doesn’t mean somebody who is straight can’t do that.
“That argument is very narrow.”
She added: “I find these conversations . . . whatever I say I’ll be criticised for saying it.”
This second series, starting on Sunday at 9pm, will follow Anne as she settles with new wife Ann Walker, who is played by another straight actress, Sophie Rundle.
ZOE BALL had to reassure fans she was OK after failing to complete her Radio 2 Breakfast Show yesterday.
She had a blown tyre on the way into work, which had unsettled her.
Zoe tweeted: “I was so keen not miss the show, dashed in and hadn’t quite realised the effect it’d had.”
Stormzy brewing for Louis
LOUIS THEROUX will meet rapper Stormzy to kick off his new series of chats with some of the world’s most famous entertainers.
Other names featuring in the BBC2 six-parter — called The Louis Theroux Interviews — will be announced shortly.
He said: “I’m so excited to be embarking on this new series — something very different to the kind of TV I normally make.
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“This will be a chance to meet and spend time with people I admire, getting to know them, having long-form and revealing conversations with honesty, emotion, and humour.
“To be kicking off with the genius that is Stormzy is proper pinch-me stuff.”