Latest news with #KennethBranagh
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Walking With Dinosaurs viewers blast BBC for 'ruining' reboot with big change after 26 years of waiting - boycotting series and fuming 'what have they done?!'
66 million years after their departure from Earth, the world of Dinosaurs was revived on our screens in 1999, with the BBC 's iconic docuseries Walking With Dinosaurs. The Primetime Emmy and BAFTA-winning series hit the small screen with an asteroid-like impact. It showcased the natural prehistoric world as we had never seen it before - one of the most credible and accurate depictions of dinosaur life ever produced. So, when the BBC announced that it would be rebooting the beloved series, an understandable ripple of excitement spread throughout fans across the UK. The first instalment of the eagerly awaited six-parter aired on BBC One last night, and followed the story of a young triceratops, Clover, who must learn to outwit a deadly T-Rex in order to survive. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The inquisitive little reptile navigates a verdant prehistoric Montana, coming face to face with both friend and foe along the way. Mimicking its source material, the 2025 Walking with Dinosaurs follows an anthological story format, exploring a different story of a different dinosaur each episode. Taking over from Kenneth Branagh, the celebrated narrator of the original series, Bertie Carvel (best known for playing Tony Blair on The Crown) is the voice of 2025's Walking with Dinosaurs, recounting the events of Clover's story as we see them on screen. However, an unwelcome series of interruptions to the story have caused unease amongst fans. The narratives explored in the show are not only those of dinosaurs, but also the human palaeontologists who discover their bones, millions of years in the future. This contrast to the original show has been upsetting for viewers, who feel that the inclusion of humans in the franchise subtracts from its fantastical appeal. As well as this, they complained that the shots of archaeological exhumations are disjointed with the dinosaur visuals, and the show isn't woven together effectively. 'The paleontological scenes aren't implemented well', wrote a viewer on X, 'They're largely used to explain simple things…and interrupt the story every time a scene happens. I don't enjoy this format at all.' 'Disappointed with the new Walking with Dinosaurs. It's not WWD for me. The BBC are just using the name to get views.' 'The constant switching between the past and future ruins this for me. The original Walking with Dinosaurs never did this and was part of the reason why it was so successful…We want dinosaurs, not people.' However, others take a more positive outlook on the excavation site scenes, suggesting that the mistake made by producers was the use of the Walking With Dinosaurs name that sets an inimitable expectation of the series. 'The scenes on the modern digsites add quite a bit! Although I do feel like its doing its own thing? Maybe naming it Walking With Dinosaurs wasn't the best move' The 1999 series boasted 15 million viewers on its first episode and holds the record of the most expensive documentary series ever made, costing a staggering £37,654 per minute to produce. 'A whole new generation of viewers is about to fall in love with Walking With Dinosaurs,' announced the BBC's head of commission. 'The original series was one of the most exciting factual shows of all time, and this reinvention builds on that amazing legacy.' Episodes to come are set to include tales of the deadly Spinosaurus, in the rivers of Morocco and the gargantuan Lusotitan living on a Portugese island, but will fans be able to see past the series' shocking new structure? Walking With Dinosaurs airs on Sundays at 6:25pm on BBC One, and all episodes are now available to stream on iPlayer.
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Walking with Dinosaurs review – a cheap, tired revival whose cliches are as old as fossils
Walking with Dinosaurs began a new era of natural history broadcasting when it landed on BBC One in 1999. Rejecting the received wisdom that factual telly couldn't afford to create CGI dinosaurs as convincing as the ones from the Jurassic Park movies, it opened with Kenneth Branagh's narration confidently claiming that we were about to be transported to the Earth as it was 65m years ago. Then it pulled off this incredible illusion. In the quarter of a century that has elapsed since then, much has changed. Palaeontologists have advanced their knowledge, discovering new species and coming to the realisation that not all of their conjecture about what dinosaurs looked like was correct. Now, we know some of them had feathers, or fur, or were brightly coloured, when previously we'd envisioned them all as a uniform reptilian greeny-brown. And, in TV, the dream of making a dino show that is indistinguishable from nature programmes shot on live cameras in the present day (because the computer-generated monsters are so realistic) has got closer and closer. Reviving the Walking with Dinosaurs brand suggests that we are about to take another ground-shaking leap forward. But, it would be surprising if the increasingly extinct-smelling BBC of 2025 were able to perform the same feat it did in 1999 – and it hasn't. The new Walking is a decent dino documentary and nothing more: it's fine but compared with the competition, it feels cheap and tired. We start at an archaeological dig in eastern Montana, which Bertie Carvel's voiceover describes as 'a vast, untamed wilderness'. To confirm that his script will be happy to use cliches that are almost as old as the fossils in the dry Montana dust, Carvel then informs us that the team from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is excavating an 'iconic species' – a Triceratops. Specifically, the scientists are exhuming an animal they have nicknamed Clover, a dog-sized baby Triceratops who died when she was around three years old. Cue the digitally created pictures of Laramidia, a continent that was the lush, green ancestor of what we call North America. Clover is surviving alone, bewildered by run-ins with the intimidating pterosaur, Infernodrakon – which hadn't been discovered back when the original WWD went out – and surviving attacks from her most feared predator, the Tyrannosaurus rex. The ill-fated Clover tries to tag along with a passing adult Triceratops, but the show imagines a Disney-ish dynamic, where the old-timer can't be doing with an annoying pup, so Clover has to join a herd of the cow-like Edmontosaurus instead. The visuals are certainly better than they were 25 years ago, but they have a slight jerkiness that doesn't look totally cutting-edge. Viewers who have immersed themselves in Prehistoric Planet, the stunning 2022 Apple TV+ series narrated by David Attenborough, are being asked to take a step backwards here: that show was so crisp and smooth it actually achieved the impossible and felt real. As if it knows it can't compete, the new Walking with Dinosaurs changes direction. All dino documentaries are based on the work of palaeontologists, and they usually mention what recent breakthroughs have been made. Here, however, we regularly leave the Clover story, return to the present and watch those experts carry out everyday tasks in a way that is painstaking to the point of tedium. As soil is brushed away, bones are measured and facts are delivered verbally by experts, instead of being illustrated by Clover the anthropomorphised digital dinosaur, it's not clear who Walking with Dinosaurs is aimed at. Dinosaurs are massively popular with primary-schoolchildren, but it tends to be an interest that doesn't survive the asteroid impact of puberty; of course there is a section of a Sunday teatime audience that might grow up and retain a desire to become the next generation of palaeontologists, but perhaps showing them real palaeontologists at work isn't the best way to encourage them. The science and the drama do interact effectively on occasion. In one thrilling sequence, vascular channels on the surface of a Triceratops bone lead the museum guys to surmise that the creature could change the colour pattern on its frill; then we see an adult Triceratops doing just that, making it look as if it has a pair of giant, blood-red eyes to scare off a T rex. Kids who haven't become too fidgety during the science bits will also enjoy a neat twist at the end of the fictional Clover story, guessing at how she might have survived for at least a little longer. But when the bone-diggers of the future look back, this won't be the dinosaur documentary they remember most fondly. Walking with Dinosaurs aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer now.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NEWS OF THE WEEK: Tom Cruise bestowed 'honorary' British status
The 62-year-old American actor has focused much of his time working in the UK - where he has filmed movies since the 1980s including the Mission Impossible franchise and Edge of Tomorrow. The star is set to be honoured by the British Film Institute after it was noted he has spent four decades making films in the UK. Speaking about the BFI Award, Cruise said, per the Daily Mail, "I'm truly honoured, I've been making films in the UK for over 40 years and have no plans to stop.". The action star's Valkyrie co-star Kenneth Branagh, 64, has praised the actor for immersing himself in British life.
News.com.au
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Tom Cruise bestowed ‘honorary' British status
The 62-year-old American actor has focused much of his time working in the UK - where he has filmed movies since the 1980s including the Mission Impossible franchise and Edge of Tomorrow. The star is set to be honoured by the British Film Institute after it was noted he has spent four decades making films in the UK. Speaking about the BFI Award, Cruise said, per the Daily Mail, "I'm truly honoured, I've been making films in the UK for over 40 years and have no plans to stop.". The action star's Valkyrie co-star Kenneth Branagh, 64, has praised the actor for immersing himself in British life.
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Tom Cruise declared an 'honorary Brit' after four decades working in the UK as his cockney rhyming slang skills, love of country pubs and friendship with Prince William is revealed
has been declared an 'honorary Brit' as the BFI prepares to honour him after a whopping four decades of making movies in the UK. The American actors, 62, who is believed to own in a property in the swanky Biggin Hill area of London, first made the move across the pond in 2020 for back-to-back Mission: Impossible films. He's now a regular in the UK, with former co-star sir Kenneth Branagh, 64, revealing the Hollywood A-lister boasts impressive cockney rhyming skills and loves a trip to a country pub. Speaking about the BFI Award, Cruise gushed: 'I'm truly honoured, I've been making films in the UK for over 40 years and have no plans to stop'. Branagh, who starred alongside Cruise in 2008's Valkyrie and have remained friends, told The Times: 'He's an honorary Brit now, with a handy line in Cockney rhyming slang, I've been to the pub with him a few times. 'He finds a quiet corner, enjoys the atmosphere and is always gracious when he gets spotted. He's a natural giggler and just enjoys what he does so much and that's infectious'. He has been spotted at Wimbledon, Victoria Beckham 's 50th, was apart of the King's Coronation, Late Queen's Platinum Jubilee with British friends including The Beckham's, Gordon Ramsay and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Over the year Cruise has filmed some of his biggest films in in Pinewood, Leavesden and Shepperton studios, from 1985's Legend to 1994's Interview With A Vampire and Edge of Tomorrow in 2014. Speaking about his love of Blightly, he told The Mirror in 2022:'I guess I am an Anglophile. I spend a lot of time in Britain and that's not just for work reasons. I just love being here. 'It's a fantastic blend of old and new. I love seeing the sights, the Tower of London, Nelson's Column, Buckingham Palace and all those fantastic places which are just full of history. 'Britain is trendy, too, and has a lot that other countries then copy. I also love the British countryside. The actor's connection to the UK is made even stronger than to make-up artist daughter Isabella, 32, who lives in Croydon with her her British husband Max Parker. A source who worked with the actor, previously told MailOnline: '[Tom has] fallen in love with everything about the UK, his daughter lives here, he enjoys a good cuppa and he loves the fact he can be himself '. Before adding: The biggest thing is he's developed a proper circle of friends. He's the happiest I've ever seen him.' Last year Cruise twinned with William in tuxedos at the London Air Ambulance Charity gaga and beamed in a snap posted on the Prince and Princess of Wales 's X/ Twitter account, with the caption: 'Fancy seeing you here!' He has known to rub shoulders with the Prince and Princess of Wales, Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and Princess Diana - and has even said King Charles can be his 'wingman'. The royal even made a nod to Cruise, who has donated millions to the charity, in his speech. 'Here in London, the current aircraft have served magnificently. But our capital city needs a new fleet. 'And we are Up Against Time. The clue really is in the Appeal's name. By September, we need the two new red birds - decked with the latest kit such as night vision - in our skies. 'I should also take this opportunity to give a mention to my - our - fellow pilot, Tom Cruise. Tom, huge thanks for supporting us tonight. 'And if you wouldn't mind not borrowing either of the new helicopters for the next Mission : Impossible, it would be appreciated. 'We have all seen on our screens that - how can I put it - you seem to have a different take on 'normal wear and tear' to the rest of us. 'It's not the kind that buffs out, that's for sure.' Cruise has continued to bond with members of the royal family with a love of flying over the years - not least, Her late Majesty the Queen. The movie star famously took the Princess of Wales's hand as he led her up the stairs at the Top Gun: Maverick premiere back in 2022 In the late monarch's final weeks at Windsor Castle before travelling to Balmoral where she died, she invited Cruise for tea at the royal residence. She was said to have been disappointed that she had not met the star during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which had taken place earlier that summer. Despite not seeing the Queen during the week of celebrations, Cruise appeared in a segment of the at the Jubilee, and said of her: 'She's a woman I greatly admire. She has tremendous dignity and I admire her devotion. What she has accomplished has been historic.' Insiders said the pair 'really hit it off' during their meeting and the late Queen 'loved seeing him' - and she even allowed him to land his helicopter on the lawn of the Castle. Cruise was even invited back for lunch - but the Queen sadly passed away before he could return. The Hollywood star: 'She's just a woman that I greatly admire. I think she is someone who has tremendous dignity and I admire her devotion. 'What she has accomplished has been historic. I just remember always as a kid seeing photos of her.'
