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Extra.ie
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Irish actress leads the line-up for Celebrity Traitors UK
An Irish actress has joined the lineup for Celebrity Traitors UK. The BBC this week confirmed that the first season of Celebrity Traitors will be released in the autumn, followed by season 4 of The Traitors in early 2026, as part of their annual plan for 2025/26. Now, the line-up has been revealed, with one familiar face from the Emerald Isle making the cut. An Irish actress has joined the lineup for Celebrity Traitors UK. Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the nine-part celebrity version will give contestants the chance to win a cash prize of up to £100,000 (€119,000) for a charity of their choice. Claudia said of the new series: 'We're incredibly lucky these brilliant people have said yes.' 'I'd love to say we'll take it easy on them and they'll just wander round the castle and eat toast for a couple of weeks, but that would be a lie.' Ruth Codd as Juno Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher. Pic: Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix/REX/Shutterstock Irish actress and The Midnight Club's Ruth Codd joins the star-studded line-up of 19 celebrities, vying for the top prize. The Wexford native put herself on the map just two years ago when she landed a role in the hit Netflix series, having since starred in The Fall of the House of Usher, horror series Creepshow and The Dry. She is also set to star in her debut movie role as Phlegma in the action fantasy film How to Train Your Dragon. Ruth Codd as Bibi in The Dry. Pic: Mark Sheen/REX/Shutterstock The Traitors originally debuted in 2022 and has since picked up a BAFTA TV Award for Best Reality & Constructed Factual programme. The third and most recent series of the show saw project manager Jake Brown and former soldier Leanne Quigley share the prize pot of £94,600. Check out the full line-up below: Alan Carr – Comedian Cat Burns – Singer/Songwriter Celia Imrie – Actor Charlotte Church – Singer/Activist Clare Balding – Broadcaster and Author David Olusoga – Historian and Filmmaker Joe Marler – Former England Rugby Player and Podcaster Joe Wilkinson – Comedian Jonathan Ross – Presenter Kate Garraway – Broadcaster Lucy Beaumont – Comedian Mark Bonnar – Actor Nick Mohammed – Actor and Comedian Niko Omilana – Content Creator Paloma Faith – Singer/Songwriter and Actor Ruth Codd – Actor Stephen Fry – Actor, Writer, Presenter Tameka Empson – Actor and Comedian Tom Daley – Olympian, Author, Broadcaster and Entrepreneur
RTÉ News
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
RTÉ announces 'unprecedented' year ahead for Irish drama
RTÉ has announced an "unprecedented" line-up of original Irish drama in production, which will deliver 142 hours of high-quality, homegrown storytelling across screens in Ireland and around the world". Sharing the drama slate, RTÉ said: "Working with a number of national and international co-production partners, this significant level of original RTÉ drama production represents a sizable investment in Irish talent, culture, and the broader creative economy. "Nine major RTÉ dramas will be shot in 2025, all featuring emerging and established Irish acting talent with filming taking place across Ireland's city streets and coastal towns, showcasing the range and reach of Irish storytelling and featuring the beauty of our native landscapes. Productions are also under way in international locations in Spain, Belgium, and Tenerife." Fair City and new seasons of hit series such as Hidden Assets (season 3), The Dry (season 3), Obituary (season 2), and SisterS (season 2) are currently in production. Also on the slate are The Walsh Sisters and These Sacred Vows, along with four new standalone dramas commissioned under the Storyland banner. These projects are being developed in collaboration with a range of production companies and funding partners, including Screen Ireland, Coimisiún an Meán, and international broadcasters such as BBC, ITV, Hulu and AMC. Another new drama and comedy will be announced in the coming weeks. "The increase in volume means that RTÉ is able to deliver a real range and variety of productions featuring a compelling mix of returning favourites, new voices, and diverse storytelling, while all reflecting the truth and reality of life in Ireland," RTÉ continued. "Collectively, these dramas will employ over 1,800 people, including scriptwriters, directors, producers, actors, hair and make-up teams, wardrobe, and various other creative talents, underpinning RTÉ's commitment to ongoing investment in the Irish creative economy and the independent production sector. "In addition to bringing powerful Irish stories to local audiences, RTÉ has already secured international sales for these productions in 27 territories and regions worldwide. This ensures reaching out to the Irish living abroad and capturing an international audience, once again reinforcing the promotion of great local drama on an international stage." Director of Video at RTÉ, Steve Carson, said: "Irish drama is making an impact on the world stage, and RTÉ is delighted to play our part in this surge of Irish creative talent. "The range and quality of Irish drama in production this year is driven by our new direction strategy, working with partners across the creative sector to develop and showcase the Irish stories for audiences at home and abroad."
BBC News
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
25 of the best theatre shows to see in spring and summer 2025
Many theatres around the UK are staging fewer original productions than a decade ago, BBC research has revealed. But there are still plenty of plays and musicals on offer. Here are highlights from some of the theatres covered by the research. Playwright James Graham's latest powerful drama Punch, about the fallout from one fatal moment on a Saturday night out, is based on a true story. It has had rave reviews at Nottingham Playhouse and now at the Young Vic in London, where it runs until 26 April. It will transfer to the West End's Apollo Theatre in September. Raoul Moat, who went on a murderous rampage and spent a week on the run in 2010 is examined by award-winning playwright Robert Icke in Manhunt, which attempts to imagine what was going through Moat's mind. Royal Court, London, until 3 May. Psychological thriller Our New Girl by Nancy Harris, who wrote acclaimed TV comedy-drama The Dry, follows a woman struggling to deal with work and a troubled son when the arrival of an au pair does anything but help. Belfast Lyric, until 4 May. Alexis Deacon's children's book Beegu, about a lonely yellow alien who finds herself lost on Earth, is adapted for ages three to seven and is at the Unicorn Theatre, London, until 4 May. The UK stage premiere of a stage show based on feelgood 1994 Australian film Muriel's Wedding turns the story of the woman who longs to have the wedding of her dreams into a musical. Original songs are mixed with tunes by Muriel's beloved Abba. Leicester Curve, until 10 romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing takes place in the world of footballers, wags and the celebrity high life, led by Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and Nick Blood (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 24 Man, Two Guvnors playwright Richard Bean's touching and comedic portrait of a Humberside family dealing with ageing and generational frissons, To Have and To Hold, stars Paula Wilcox, Ian Bartholomew and Stephen Tompkinson when it comes home to Hull Truck, 1-24 left an image of a girl standing in falling snow – which is actually ash from a fire – on the corner of a garage near the steelworks in Port Talbot, south Wales, in 2018. Now, Port Talbot Gotta Banksy uses the real words of local people to examine how the community reacted. Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, 2-10 May, then New Plaza, Port Talbot, 15-17 May, and author Roddy Doyle's book Two Pints, about two middle-aged men reflecting on life over a drink in a Dublin pub, gets its UK stage premiere at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre, 2-24 Addy plays a man who decides to walk the length of England to visit a former colleague who has cancer, in the world premiere of a stage adaptation of 2012 best-selling book The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Rachel Joyce has adapted her own novel, with songs by chart-topping singer-songwriter Passenger. Chichester Festival Theatre, 5 May-4 Luther King meets his match in the form of a Memphis hotel maid in an imagined meeting on the eve of his assassination in Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, in a new production by Edinburgh Lyceum, 31 May-21 final play by unsung Stoke-on-Trent writer Arthur Berry finally gets its world premiere to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. The title character in Whatever Happened to Phoebe Salt? dreams of swapping the grind of her butcher's job for a life in showbusiness. New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 31 May-21 Tick, Tick… Boom!, about an aspiring composer confronted by his 30th birthday, became an Oscar-nominated film in 2021. It now reopens Theatr Clwyd in Mold, north Wales, after a three-year, £49m refurbishment. 2-28 June. James Cooper and Jamie Morton - two-thirds of the team behind hit podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno - have made Lovestuck: A New Comedy Musical, which is billed as a "riotous romantic comedy" about dating and the quest to find love. Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, 6 June-12 children must fend for themselves after their addict mother abandons them in their caravan for the summer holidays in "dark comedy" Flumps (not to be confused with the 1970s children's TV show!). Colchester Mercury, 6-14 pairs of dancers have made it to Blackpool's National Amateur Championships, but rivalries and mis-steps threaten the fixed smiles and fake tans in Amanda Whittington's Kiss Me Quickstep, Derby Theatre, 6-21 people in different corners of the world – the fjords of Norway, the mountains of Colorado and the Tesco in Halewood, Merseyside – have encounters with wild animals in The Walrus has a Right to Adventure, inspired by real events. Liverpool Everyman, 12-21 June.A fictional lesbian choir – said to be the only one in the country – face tensions from inside and out as they try to win a place on the Pride main stage in The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, a musical comedy at the Kiln, London, 13 June-12 July. Welsh 19th Century aristocrat Henry Cyril Paget, the fifth Marquess of Anglesey, scandalised high society with eccentricities that included using a car that converted exhaust fumes into perfume, and blowing his family's fortune on diamond frocks. His story is told in How To Win Against History, Bristol Old Vic, 19 June-21 July.A man who lost his wife to Covid occupies himself by walking his neighbour's dogs. When they escape one day, he takes chase and finds a dead body, forcing him to confront his own grief, in Man's Best Friend at Tron, Glasgow, 19 June-12 Lenny Henry's children's book The Boy With Wings, about a boy who discovers he has inherited superpowers and is tasked with saving the world, gets its stage premiere at Polka Theatre, London, 21 June-16 August, then Birmingham Rep, 21-30 August. A couple dealing with the everyday challenges of dementia take inspiration from Leeds United's 2020 promotion-chasing team and their manager Marcelo Bielsa in Through It All Together, which looks set to be perfectly timed to coincide with the team's latest return to the Premier League. Leeds Playhouse, 23 June-19 July. Liberation will mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress, which was held in Manchester in 1945 and was a key moment for independence movements. Royal Exchange, Manchester, 27 June-26 July. The writer and director of smash hit Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer, reunite for a new legal drama. Saltburn's Rosamund Pike plays a judge in Inter Alia, billed as a "searing examination of modern masculinity and motherhood". National Theatre, London, 10 July-13 Brian Cox returns to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade, playing pioneering 18th Century economist Adam Smith in Make It Happen, James Graham's new satire about the history of the Royal Bank of Scotland and its role in the 2008 financial crash. Dundee Rep, 18-26 July, then Edinburgh Festival Theatre 30 July-9 August.
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Our New Girl review – Irish nanny triggers mayhem in gruellingly tense domestic noir
Since the premiere of this tightly wound drama of domestic noir in 2012, Nancy Harris has gone on to win acclaim for the television series, The Dry. Her sharp observations and crackling dialogue were evident in her earlier playwriting, too and, in director Rhiann Jeffery's taut new production, feel fresh and current. Striking a note of distress in the opening moments as a small boy raises a knife, tension escalates from there. The unannounced arrival of an Irish nanny to their elegant London home is the catalyst for exposing trouble in the marriage of pregnant ex-lawyer Hazel (Lisa Dwyer Hogg) and her globe-trotting husband Richard (Mark Huberman), a cosmetic surgeon. What ensues is so tense that the audience was audibly inhaling, as the child, Daniel (Milo Payne; alternating with Canice Doran) is drawn into the couple's power games. The initially unflappable nanny, Annie (Jeanne Nicole Ní Áinle), finds herself adjudicating between them all. With a single setting of a sleek kitchen designed with sharp geometry by Maree Kearns, a sense of dread is maintained by Garth McConaghie's rumbling sound design and Sarah Jane Shiels' lighting, as the dark stage is framed in flashes of neon. Amid lies and blazing accusations, each of these characters is allowed to be credibly contradictory: both selfish and unselfish. For all her painful childhood experiences, Annie is not a victim. Even Richard, the egotistical doctor who constantly undermines Hazel, has kind, even endearing, aspects in Huberman's nuanced performance. Above all, Dwyer Hogg's characterisation of Hazel as a highly ambitious, clever woman who fears she is not capable of taking care of her son, is sympathetic and complex. With a second child about to be born, she seems to be conducting a risky life experiment. The conflict between parental responsibility and being professionally fulfilled is not resolved here, an inclusiveness that gives the play its heft. At Lyric, Belfast, until 4 May
