“We’re delighted to confirm the brilliant Richard E Grant is appearing in the new series of #DoctorWho. More news later@ bbc.in/G19iB”

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) August 5, 2012

REG is to star in the Christmas edition of Doctor Who, the BBC has announced.

Richard said he was “honoured” to be in the Christmas special, which starts filming today. No details have been released of his role in the show, although it is rumoured he will play the villain. He will be joined by Tom Ward who, until recently, has played Harry Cunningham in BBC One’s Silent Witness. The episode will also introduce The Doctor’s new companion, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. it’s believed that the new companion is called Clara.

An insider said: “The Doctor Who Christmas specials are famous for being stand-out episodes and this year’s will be no different.

“It will have a really festive feel and Richard will be great as a baddie.”

Grant added: “I played Doctor Who in the digital animated Scream Of The Shalka episode and I’m honoured to be in the Christmas special.”

Richard has previously played the time-travelling Doctor himself in 2003, in the online animated series Scream of the Shalka, as well as the unofficial “Tenth Doctor”, aka “The Quite Handsome Doctor”, in a 1996 Comic Relief sketch. For the spoof, which was written by Steven Moffat, he was cast alongside Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley and Jim Broadbent. His incarnation of the Doctor described himself as “cute, sexy and lick-the-mirror handsome”. The spoof had viewers in hysterics as a lady-loving new Doctor.

Last week the BBC issued new artwork for the series ahead of its return to TV screens later this month. The image shows the Doctor, surrounded by Daleks from various eras of the sci-fi show, carrying a seemingly injured Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan.

Saul Metzstein is directing this special, as well as several other episodes of the new series, including two thirds of what you would have seen in the recent trailer.

Vanity Fair website – 1st August, 2012

Richard makes a welcome return to Vanity Fair magazine’s September Style issue, which includes the magazine’s annual International Best Dressed List. The “How to Get Ahead in Advertising” actor and “Wah-Wah” director featured in the Best-Dressed Men category for the first time since 2007.

The first 40 from the list are as follows:

1. Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince William, British style icon
2. Jessica Chastain, U.S. actress, star of The Help and Coriolanus
3. Bill Cunningham, 83, New York Times street style photographer
4. Léa Seydoux, French actress and model, appeared in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris
5. Jay-Z, aka Shawn Corey Carter, rapper, songwriter, record producer and husband of Beyoncé
6. Colin and Livia Firth, British actor and his Italian producer wife
7. Tom Brady, New England Patriots quarterback, husband of Gisele Bundchen
8. Alicia Keys, U.S. singer-songwriter and actress
9. Fan Bingbing, Chinese actress,singer and producer
10. Morley Safer, Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News
11. Michelle Harper, Colombian-born, New York-based brand consultant
12. Richard E Grant, actor, screenwriter, and director
13. HRH Princess Alexandra of Greece, child-life specialist
14. Carlos Souza, worldwide brand ambassador for Valentino
15. Farida Khelfa, French actress and director, new muse of house of Schiaparelli
16. Eddie Redmayne, British actor, star of My Week With Marilyn
17. Stacey Bendet, founder and designer of fashion label Alice & Olivia
18. Iké Udé, Nigerian-born artist
19. Diane Kruger, German actress and former model
20. Matteo Marzotto, president of fashion label Vionnet
21. Lauren and Andres Santo Domingo, Vogue contributing editor and her beer heir husband
22. Robert Rabensteiner, fashion editor at L’Uomo Vogue
23. Erika Bearman, senior vice president of global communications at Oscar de la Renta
24. Victor Cruz, wide receiver for the New York Giants
25. Ulyana Sergeenko, fashion designer
26. Matt Lauer, Today show co-anchor
27. Stella McCartney, fashion designer, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney
28. Prince Harry, British royal, Apache helicopter pilot
29. Lizzie Tisch, consultant, wife of Jonathan Tisch
30. Ozwald Boateng, British menswear designer
31. Poppy Delevigne, British model and socialite
32. Jean Pigozzi, entrepreneur, photographer, and art collector
33. Princess Mary of Denmark, wife of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, mother of four
34. Elettra Wiedemann, model, daughter of Isabella Rossellini
35. Vito Schnabel, son of Julian Schnabel, art dealer
36. Charlotte Casiraghi, Monaco royal, face of Gucci
37. Arki Busson, financier, partner of actress Uma Thurman
38. HH Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser of Qatar, wife of the Emir of Qatar
39. Ginevra Elkann and Giovanni Gaetani dell’Aquila d’Aragona, Italian power couple; she is a producer, he is an entrepreneur
40. HSH Prince Heinrich von und zu Furstenberg, entrepreneur

Monday, 30th July, 2012

By Pam McClounie

The film Withnail and I will be shown in the Cumbrian courtyard where part of it was made later this year. Picnic Cinema, organised by Eden Arts, is showing the film as part of its outdoor screenings.

The film, which was made in 1986 and partly shot in the Eden Valley, will be shown at Uncle Monty’s House or Sleddale Hall, near Shap, on Saturday, September 15.

The event will include camping, live music and a barbecue.

Richard E Grant and Paul McGann play impoverished actors who travel to the Lake District for a holiday. Locations included Shap, Bampton and Haweswater.

Two locations supposedly in Penrith – The King Henry pub and the Penrith Tea Rooms – were actually filmed in StonyStratford, Hertfordshire.

Adrian Lochhead, director of Eden Arts, said: “Given the film’s cult status you will need to be quick to get tickets. People already come from far and wide to see the house, which is a shrine to the film, so I am sure this event will sell out very quickly, and should be a night to remember.”

Due to the limited space and remote location there will also be a very limited amount of tickets available.

Heather Walker, project manager, said: “I am so excited about this one. It’s going to be very special and very unusual to see the cult classic right where it was filmed. I have to say a special thanks to Tim Ellis, the owner of Sleddale Hall, Farmer, Mike Harrison and United Utilities for enabling us to put this on.”

To be first to find out when tickets go on sale you will need to subscribe to the Picnic Cinema e-news at www.picniccinema.co.uk.

Tickets are £35 each and all proceeds go towards REMOTE. This is a scheme to enable villages in Eden – England’s biggest and most sparsely populated district – to stage cinema events in their village halls.

The scheme is designed to help communities to create more activity and, importantly, to allow young people to contribute to those events.

A condition of the scheme is that each village ‘cinema committee’ must have at least 50 per cent of its members under 19.

Other films being shown as part of the Picnic Cinema series are: Friday, August 24 at Greystoke Castle: Some Like It Hot (PG)with music from Hotter than That; Saturday, August 25 at Brockhole: Grease (PG) with music from The Sunbeams; Sunday, August 26 at Acron Bank: Moulin Rouge (12) with music from Baksheesh; Friday, August 31 at Brantwood: Swallows and Amazons (U) with music from Room Full of Mirrors; Friday, September 7 at Hutton-in-the-Forest: Tosca (PG) by Royal Opera House and music from a string quartet in association with Lake District Summer Music; Saturday, September 8 at Grizedale Forest: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (PG) with music from Jude Connelly; Friday, September 14 at Brockhole: Mamma Mia! (PG) with music from DJ Roc Vica; Friday, September 22 at Grizedale Forest: The Blair Witch Project (15) with music from Katus Young.

There’s now a new trailer for Kath And Kimderella and this one has REG in it. Check it out below. It’s noice.

REG Backs White Cliffs Of Dover

Also, Richard is among a host of stars who have backed a £1.2 million appeal to safeguard one of England’s most famous natural landmarks, the White Cliffs of Dover. The National Trust said it has already raised almost half the money needed since launching its largest-ever coastal fundraiser last month to buy a stretch of the chalk cliffs just less than a mile long.

Other stars supporting the cause are Dame Vera Lynn, singer Joss Stone, Dame Judi Dench and chef Rick Stein.

The purchase would fill in the missing link in a stretch of coast almost five miles long owned by the National Trust on behalf of the nation, from its visitor centre above Dover port to South Foreland lighthouse.

For more info, check out Google News here.

Various Sources – 25th July, 2012

REG is to star in a new Channel 4 drama about the criminal underworld set in Brighton.

The cast of The Fear will be headed by Peter Mullan – who won acclaim in the movie Tyrannosaur – playing a crime boss-turned-entrepreneur.

The four-part series also sees former EastEnders actor Paul Nicholls and Harry Lloyd – who appeared in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Great Expectations – playing his sons.

Mullan portrays Richie Beckett whose past in the crime world is masked by a new-found respectability as he tries to revamp the city’s West Pier . But his world is thrown into turmoil due to the impact of the Albanian mafia and aggressive early-onset dementia.

Grant plays a plastic surgeon Seb, who himself has a dark past which is intertwined with his new ex-crime lord boss Richie Beckett’s affairs and his wife Jo (Anastasia Hille).

The hour-long episodes were written by Richard Cottan, who worked on BBC crime drama Wallander, and will be filmed around Brighton.