Mark Gatiss

Homeland star Damian Lewis heads a rather lengthy list of impressive British talent slated to take part in upcoming period drama Wolf Hall, based on the pair of Booker Prize-winning, bestselling novels – Wolf Hall and sequel Bring Up the Bodies – by Hilary Mantel.

Mantel’s novels put a somewhat new spin on the story of Thomas Cromwell, a key adviser to King Henry VIII and a leading force behind the Protestant Reformation in England who has been presented as a rather unlikeable figure, historically speaking. Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame, first when he served under Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, then later as a key minister to the King himself. He was instrumental in bringing widespread religious reform to England, helping to engineer the annulment of King Henry’s first marriage and his wedding to Anne Boleyn, as well as her subsequent fall from grace. Plus a whole lot more.

Read on for details.

The BBC is set to remake the classic series Mapp and Lucia, which tells the tale of two scheming small-town social rivals, and the people that aid, abet or are simply affected by their competition.

The comedic drama will be based on the novels by author E.F. Benson, originally published during the 1920s. The story begins during the summer of 1930, when Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, known to her friends as Lucia, decides to take a holiday in the charming Queen Anne town of Tilling and runs into – and almost immediately afoul of – Miss Elizabeth Mapp, its designated social ringleader. Chaos (predictably) ensues.

Two-time Academy Award-nominee Miranda Richardson has been cast as Mapp and she’ll face off against The Hour’s Anna Chancellor as Lucia. These rather fantastic leading ladies will be joined by The League of Gentlemen’s Steve Pemberton as Lucia’s devoted acolyte and dapper chief courtier Georgie Pillson, as well as Sherlock star Mark Gatiss – who called Benson’s novels “some of the most sly, funny and waspishly brilliant stories in the language – as Raj Army veteran Major Benjy.

Just because we’re in the middle of The Great Hiatus Part Deux (Part Trois? I’m losing count) doesn’t mean that there won’t be still new Sherlock goodies to help us pass the time as we start off on the long trek to Series 4. Like this, for example.

Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss (who also plays Mycroft and regularly writes for Steven Moffat’s other baby, Doctor Who) went to Brazil recently on a press junket to promote British drama in South America for BBC Worldwide.

Whilst there, Gatiss attended a screening of The Empty Hearse with fans and participated in a Q&A session in which he answered burning questions from those in the audience.

We’re all counting down the minutes until November 23 and the worldwide (simulcast even!) premiere of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. But, there’s plenty of other fun Who-related things going on – both onscreen and off – to celebrate the momentous occasion that is the adventures of an amazing alien and his time-traveling blue police box hitting the half-century mark .

One of the most eagerly anticipated bits of anniversary programming – outside of the actual special itself – is Mark Gatiss’ docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time, which explores the creation and early days in the life of the iconic science fiction series. David Bradley – of Harry Potter and Broadchurch fame – is playing First Doctor William Hartnell and looks incredibly perfect in the role, if these initial photos are anything to go by.

Gatiss, who is a life-long fan and frequent writer for the show, told the BBC in a recent Q&A that An Adventure in Space and Time is his “love letter to Doctor Who”, and that he hopes fans “will be thrilled by it” and see “the struggle of talented people (almost) accidentally creating a legend”.

Get more details and a look at two (awesome) retro-style promotional photos after the jump.

Besides starring in Sherlock, writing for Doctor Who and being the driving force behind upcoming Who docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time, Mark Gatiss is also known for his love of the horror genre. (You may have already been able to guess this based on some of the episodes he’s written.)

Anyway, back in 2010, Gatiss created a three-part documentary series for the BBC called A History of Horror, which was basically his personal exploration of the history behind horror films, and the culture that surrounds them. It’s a rather fascinating series if you can manage to see it – sadly though it doesn’t seem to be available on DVD anywhere, so you’ll probably only to be able to find bits and pieces of it on YouTube. Which is still worth it, but is an annoying amount of work.

Anyway, in celebration of Halloween, one of the most fun of all holidays, here’s a fabulous clip from A History of Horror that might actually help you with your last minute costume plans for trick or treating. Watch as Gatiss teaches you the recipe and technique for how to make super authentic-looking horror movie blood. It’s kind of creepy, but you kind of can’t argue with the fact that the end results look real…

When you spend two years (give or take a month or two) waiting for another season of one of your favorite dramas to come back, you take whatever little tidbits you can get along the way. Such is life for fans of mystery series Sherlock, currently slaving away through their own version of the Great Hiatus as we wait for word about when we can expect to see the drama’s highly anticipated third series on our television screens.

Luckily, the BBC seems to understand – or at least sympathize with – the desperation many feel as we continue to wait for word on a Series 3 transmission date, and appears to be doing its best to keep us supplied with news and behind the scenes tidbits as they’re able. Which is nice, even if they do seem to be working overtime to keep any and all substantive plot developments or spoilers out of the press. (Yes, yes, it honestly is lovely that they’re so committed to keeping the series a surprise for fans. But give us something, would you?)

So, in a continued gesture of goodwill toward the Fans Who Waited, the BBC have kindly released a new batch of behind-the-scenes photos from the recent Sherlock Series 3 filming. Granted, none of these shots reveal pretty much anything that you could constitute as a clue about what the drama’s third series will involve unless you were unaware that stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman or Mark Gatiss were all involved in the show in some capacity. But it kind of doesn’t matter. They’ll get you excited anyway.

Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss is set to spruce up your holidays with a little horror this year – he’ll be bringing an adaptation of M.R. James’ The Tractate Middoth to BBC Two for Christmas. The drama will be accompanied by a new documentary on James – also presented by Gatiss – called Ghost Writer.

Gatiss, who also writes for Doctor Who fairly frequently, and is also the man behind upcoming 50th anniversary biopic An Adventure in Space and Time, will be making his directorial debut this holiday season with this bit of “festive horror”.

Plus, he’ll even be reunited with fellow Sherlock star. Una Stubbs, who plays everyone’s favorite landlady (not housekeeper) Mrs. Hudson on the mystery drama, has snagged a lead role in this gothic ghost story, alongside former Who companion Louise Jameson, The History Boys star Sacha Dhawan and I, Claudius’ John Castle. Other notable names in the cast include David Ryall, Eleanor Bron, Nick Burns and Roy Barraclough. Want more details? Read on.

Several members of the Sherlock cast and production team participated in the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, holding a masterclass session on the drama and dropping some exceptionally cryptic hints about Series 3.

Co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were both present, as was producer Sue Vertue and everyone’s favorite consulting criminal, Andrew Scott. While there a lot of last minute scheduling shifts surrounding this particular panel – at different points both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were slated to take part, but each had to drop out – the final product certainly sounded as though it was well worth the wait.

Luckily for those of us who are nowhere near Scotland, we can now watch this whole event ourselves. Thanks to the fantastic folks at the MGEITF, the full Sherlock Masterclass session is available to watch online. Other than the awesome Series 2 preview event in New York last spring – an easy victory in this category just by virtue of the fact that I was actually there – this is one of the more interesting panel Q&As with this group that I’ve seen.

Click through and take a look for yourself! Maybe you’ll be able to deduce something about those mysterious “three words” from Moffat and Gatiss’s facial expressions!