After they're evicted without warning, hard-working widower Samuel Murphy (Hawke) and his young daughter, Penny (Avy Berry), are accosted by cops while trying to find a new place. Penny is taken away, and Murphy winds up at a prisoner work camp led by the baseball-loving, vaguely sadistic warden Clancy (Russell Crowe). Murphy, a gifted mechanic and a veteran of the Great War, immediately stands out to Clancy as a tough-minded, industrious guy.
For the interiors of the Featheringtons' London home, the production used Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, a heritage property with another enviable screen CV. Most recently, we've seen this 17th-century home of the 1st Earl of Salisbury in two Netflix films, (as Manderley, no less) and Enola Holmes, and it also starred in The Favourite, two Lara Croft movies and as Wayne Manor in the Tim Burton Batman films.
One year later, the fight for survival continues. Hulu just dropped the first teaser for Season 2 of "A Thousand Blows." The gritty period drama from Steven Knight, the creator of "Peaky Blinders," stars Emmy winners Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty alongside Malachi Kirby, as the intense world of 1880s East London's underground boxing scene reignites for another round. Season 2 picks up a year later as Hezekiah struggles to find his footing,
News that Andrew Davies the man behind the nation's most beloved Pride and Prejudice adaptation is planning to have Jane Austen's Emma die in childbirth drew gasps from audiences at Cliveden literary festival last weekend. Davies is planning to explore the dark undercurrents of Austen's work in adaptations of Emma, Mansfield Park and unfinished novel The Watsons, and while his ideas may shock those fans wedded to Austen as a romcom author, I couldn't be happier.
Howard assembles an impressive cast, though it isn't always enough to make up for the overambitious plot of a film that drags in the middle. Yet the historical resonance, which could have provided pointed commentary on the parallels between today and the 1920s, falls flat amid the film's overlong runtime, unlikable characters and shaky accents that most actors stumble in and out of. In the midst of the film's crafted chaos, the story inevitably loses focus.
Netflix is no stranger to grand dramas, but its latest addition, House of Guinness, promises to blend historical authenticity with the sharp edge of modern storytelling. From the mind of Steven Knight, the acclaimed creator of Peaky Blinders, the series takes viewers into the turbulent world of one of Europe's most recognizable families. Set for release on September 25, the drama positions itself as both an origin story and a meditation on legacy, power, and the cost of inheritance.