K.J.Yossman: Last News

K.J. Yossman Production head Alison Barnett has been unveiled as the recipient of this year’s BAFTA Television Craft Special Award in honor of her pioneering role as one of U.K. television’s first female head of productions. Barnett, who has worked in television for forty years, is currently head of production at Kudos. She has worked on shows including “Doctor Who” and “The Rig.” “I’m overwhelmed to receive this award from BAFTA,” said Barnett. “But mainly I’m delighted to receive it on behalf of all those unsung heroes who work in production offices throughout the television industry. This is a chance for them to be recognised today too.” The BAFTA TV Craft Awards are set to take place on April 23 in London, with former “Great British Baking Show” presenter Mel Giedroyc hosting the ceremony.

K.J. Yossman Prince Harry unexpectedly arrived at the U.K. High Court on Monday morning in support of his privacy claim against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers. The British royal, who himself published a loquacious memoir earlier this year, is among a group of public figures suing Associated over what they claim is “misuse of private information.” As well as Prince Harry, the group includes Elton John, producer David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, former politician Simon Hughes and campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon. Asserting the limitation period has expired, Associated have applied to have the case thrown out via summary judgment which is what this week’s four-day hearing is about. If that fails, they have also asked the court to strike out parts of the group’s claims, which they say contravene orders from the Leveson Inquiry (a long-running public inquiry into the practices of the British press.)

K.J. Yossman Twickenham Studios chair Sunny Vohra has acquired a 6.95% stake in media fund APX Group, becoming one of the main shareholders of its parent company APX Corporation Inc. Vohra has also joined the board of directors and the acquisition committee. The deal, which was worth over $70 million, reflects a market cap of $1.1 billion for APX. Loeb & Loeb LLP’s Mitchell S. Nussbaum advised APX Group on the deal. He is also set to advise the company on other deals ahead of a planned public merger on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.

K.J. Yossman Former CBS News president David Rhodes has been appointed executive chairman of Sky News. In his new pan-European role, Rhodes will be responsible for Sky’s EMEA news services with a focus on commercial strategy in both the U.K. and Italy. Rhodes, who will report to Sky Studios CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz, has spent over 25 years in journalism, eight of which as president of CBS news. As well as leading Bloomberg Television he has also worked with the L.A. Times, Spotify and BCG among other organisations. In 2021 he joined Sky from News U.K. as group director of international business development.

K.J. Yossman Actor Phil Davis has dramatically resigned his BAFTA membership following last Sunday’s awards ceremony, calling the show an “embarrassing travesty.” Davis, who has appeared in film and TV projects including “Doctor Who,” “Vera Drake” and “Alien 3,” cited host Richard E. Grant’s introduction – during which he pretended to arrive in a Batmobile before appearing in a floor-length white cape – as well as cuts made to winners’ speeches during the broadcast on BBC One and the omission of fellow “Doctor Who” actor Bernard Cribbins in the In Memorium segment. “The BAFTA awards were an embarrassing travesty,” Davis tweeted on Wednesday. “Cutting deserving winners speeches for toe curling non interviews. Poor Richard E Grant pretending to arrive in a Batmobile and no Bernard Cribbens in memorium. I resigned my membership. [sic]”

K.J. Yossman Jodie Turner-Smith has revealed she has joined the cast of hit Netflix series “Sex Education” after one of its longtime stars, Ncuti Gatwa, personally invited her onto the show. The “Anne Boleyn” actor made the revelation on the red carpet at the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday afternoon in London. “You may or may not see me in a little Netflix show called ‘Sex Education,'” she told reporters. “First of all all my scenes were with Ncuti Gatwa who – I DIE for him – and he’s my favourite character on the show,” she continued. “So when he called me and asked me to do it I was like, I don’t care how much they’re paying I’m doing.”

K.J. Yossman The producers behind hit Netflix series “The Crown” are preparing to shoot the scenes leading up to Princess Diana’s death, Variety understands, which is causing some anxiety among the cast and crew. The scenes are due to be shot in the next two weeks with Elizabeth Debicki playing Diana (pictured above). A source says there is a strong desire within the production team “to get it right and handle [it] sensitively.” Not only are Diana’s sons, Princes Wiliam and Harry, still alive and continuing to grieve but the British royal, dubbed “the People’s Princess” by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, continues to hold a special place in the public’s hearts some 25 years after she died in a Paris car crash at the age of 36.

K.J. Yossman BBC director general Tim Davie robustly defended the corporation’s license fee model at the Royal Television Society (RTS) convention on Tuesday afternoon, saying “I think the license fee is there to beat.” The license fee is a mandatory fee every household that watches live television on any service or network must pay annually. It is currently £159 ($171) per year. “There are loads of funding solutions you could get,” Davie said after being grilled by BBC journalist Amol Rajan. “My view is if I can’t, as editor-in-chief, act independently and impartially, then the BBC is over. Final thing is, I think you cannot separate funding model from editorial, intent and delivery.”

K.J. Yossman Actor, writer and director Celyn Jones (pictured above, left, and below) is the triple threat no one saw coming. Originally from Wales, where he still films a lot of his projects, Jones built his career first as an actor of both theater and screen before pivoting to writing features such as “Set Fire to the Stars,” which starred Elijah Wood, “The Vanishing” featuring Gerard Butler and “Six Minutes to Midnight,” which he co-wrote with Eddie Izzard co-wrote and stars both Izzard and Judi Dench. Jones’ latest project, “The Almond and the Seahorse,” also represents his directorial feature debut. Jones co-wrote the film, which is about two couples dealing with traumatic brain injuries, with Kaite O’Reilly (on whose play it is based) and co-directs with Tom Stern (“Changeling”). He also stars in it alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg (“Melancholia”), Trine Dyrholm (“Queen of Hearts”), Meera Syal (“Yesterday”) and Rebel Wilson (“Pitch Perfect”). The film, which premieres at the Zurich Film Festival on Monday evening (Sept. 26) also represents a significant first for Wilson as it is the first time she appears in a dramatic role.

K.J. Yossman Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean is set to host a new reality competition series, “The Fashion Hero: A New King of Beautiful.” The series will see twenty-two diverse contestants compete in a bid to “break traditional standards and define a new kind of beauty.” The contestants will be split into four teams, each guided by a coach and celebrity mentors including “Fit2Fat2Fit” host Drew Manning, former Janet Jackson choreographer and director René Elizondo, rockers Simple Plan, Canadian artist Jordyn Sugar, activist Elle van der Burg and Vogue photographer Adi Barkan.

K.J. Yossman Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral drew a peak of 27 million viewers in the U.K., equating to a 95% audience share. The vast majority of those watching in the U.K. on Monday – some 18 million – were tuned into the BBC, who began their coverage from 8am before finishing at approximately 5.30pm, reported Broadcast, citing Overnights TV. In second place was ITV with an audience of 4.5 million followed by BBC2, BBC News and Sky News, which came in fifth with 700,000 viewers. Crucially, the numbers do not include those watching via digital. Sky reported 12.4 million tuned in to Sky News’ coverage of the funeral across all Sky TV channels, the Sky News app and the Sky News website.

K.J. Yossman Prince Harry has paid tribute to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday aged 96. In a statement on the Archewell website he shares with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Harry wrote: “In celebrating the life of my grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen—and in mourning her loss—we are all reminded of the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty. She was globally admired and respected. Her unwavering grace and dignity remained true throughout her life and now her everlasting legacy. Let us echo the words she spoke after the passing of her husband, Prince Philip, words which can bring comfort to all of us now: ‘Life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings.'”

K.J. Yossman King Charles III will make his first address to the nation in his new role as the U.K.’s reigning monarch at 6PM local time on Friday. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, made the announcement as Parliament sat for an extended session to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday afternoon at Balmoral, her castle in the Scottish Highlands. On Friday late morning the King left Scotland to travel to London, where he is scheduled an audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss this afternoon. Buckingham Palace confirmed that Charles will officially be anointed king on Saturday at 10AM at St James’s Palace in London. The Accession Council, a ceremonial body comprised of senior politicians past and present as well as Commonwealth high commissioners, senior government employees and the Lord Mayor of London, will preside over the ceremony.

K.J. Yossman Neither the rain nor the darkness descending across the U.K. did anything to dissuade the hundreds, possibly thousands, of mourners from making a beeline for Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening. Within hours of Queen Elizabeth II’s death being publicly announced, the streets around the palace were cordoned off to cars (except London’s iconic black cabs, many of whom parked up nearby to pay tribute) and flooded with people of all ages and backgrounds. Although the Queen died at Balmoral, her home in the Scottish Highlands, Buckingham Palace, as the world-renowned symbol of the British monarchy, immediately and understandably became a focal point for both her subjects and the press.

K.J. Yossman Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has died, ending a historic 70-year reign. She was 96. The Queen died at Balmoral, her beloved palace in the Scottish Highlands, which was purchased by her great-great-grandfather Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in 1852. She was surrounded by her children and grand-children. Prince Charles, her eldest son, succeeds her. The Queen’s death comes just under 18 months and after that of her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9, 2021. 

K.J. Yossman BBC journalist Clive Myrie has called on whoever is appointed the new secretary of state for culture under Liz Truss to “make a renewed commitment to quality public service broadcasting, at the BBC and Channel 4.” Truss was appointed Prime Minister earlier today, replacing Boris Johnson. She is expected to appoint a new cabinet, including a new secretary of state for the department of culture, sport and media, who will take over from incumbent minister Nadine Dorries. Delivering the Royal Television Society’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture at the University of Westminster on Monday evening, Myrie also championed the BBC’s commitment to impartiality, in comments that could potentially be interpreted as a rebuttal to his former colleague Emily Maitlis’s Edinburgh TV Festival lecture two weeks ago.

K.J. Yossman Amazon boss Jeff Bezos (pictured above, left) thanked “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” showrunners Patrick McKay and John D. Payne at the U.K. premiere of the Amazon Prime Video series on Tuesday night – for ignoring his notes on the show. “Every showrunner’s dream – and I mean every showrunner – their dream is to get notes on scripts and early cuts from the founder and executive chairman,” Bezos quipped while introducing the first two episodes of the series at the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square. “They loved that. I need to thank you both for listening whenever it helped but mostly I need to thank you for ignoring me at exactly the right times.”

K.J. Yossman Actor, writer and director Diane Morgan was in her teens when she first tried her hand at improv, an experience which first gave the “very shy, very quiet” 15-year-old a chance to step out of her shell and play a different character. “I think my whole world opened up, basically,” says Morgan of that moment, ahead of receiving Variety and the Edinburgh TV Festival’s 2022 Outstanding Achievement Award. “I’d always been completely invisible and then, suddenly, I was the funny one.” So it was unsurprising when Morgan decided she would try to pursue it professionally, even if it wasn’t the most obvious choice for a girl from Bolton. “I always thought I’d make a career out of it, even though everyone was telling me I wouldn’t make a career out of it and that it was insane,” she recalls. “Because I was from Bolton, and, you know, [most] people wanted to be hairdressers.”

K.J. Yossman The BBC’s chief content officer Charlotte Moore responded to former “Newsnight” host Emily Maitlis’s criticism of the broadcaster. Moore strongly refuted Maitlis’s suggestion that the broadcaster had apologized with “speed” after press officers for the U.K. government complained about a “Newsnight” introduction. “Why had the BBC immediately and publicly sought to confirm the Government spokesman’s opinion?” Maitlis asked during her MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday evening. “Without any kind of due process? It makes no sense for an organisation that is admirably, famously rigorous about procedure – unless it was perhaps sending a message of reassurance directly to the Government itself?”

K.J. Yossman BBC News media editor Amol Rajan has been appointed the new host of U.K. gameshow “University Challenge.”The current host, Jeremy Paxman, revealed he would be stepping down after 28 years.

K.J. Yossman BBC journalists are considering whether to strike over the merger of two of the network’s news channel teams, which will see up to 70 jobs axed.Earlier this year BBC director general Tim Davie revealed that the U.K.-focused BBC News and global BBC World News channels would be replaced by one new channel called BBC News as part of a move to deliver hundreds of million dollars’ worth of cutbacks at the corporation. The decision, which Davie described as one of a number of “difficult choices” management were having to make, came after the U.K.