Jonathan Creek is a long-running British mystery crime drama series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. It stars Alan Davies as the title character, who works as a creative consultant to a stage magician while also solving seemingly supernatural mysteries through his talent for logical deduction and his understanding of illusions.
Dame Sheila Cameron Hancock is an English actress, singer, and author. She has performed in both plays and musicals in London’s theatre scene, and her Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1966) earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play.
Elaine Constance Smith is a Scottish actress, comedian, and political activist. She rose to prominence from appearing in the BBC Scotland sitcoms City Lights (1984–1991) and Rab C. Nesbitt (1988–2014). Smith has played the role of Christine O'Neil in the BBC Scotland sitcom Two Doors Down (2013–2023).
Ruth Alexandra Elisabeth Jones is a Welsh actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She co-wrote and co-starred in the award-winning BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey. She later co-wrote and starred in the Sky One comedy-drama Stella (2012–2017), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Screenwriter.
Shobu Kapoor is an Indian British actress. She is most notable for playing the role of Gita Kapoor, the long-suffering wife of market trader Sanjay, in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1993 to 1998.
Gregory Daniel Davies is a Welsh comedian, actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners (2008–2010), Ken Thompson in Cuckoo (2012–2019), Dan Davies in Man Down (2013–2017) and Paul "Wicky" Wickstead in The Cleaner. Since 2015 he has hosted the comedy panel game show Taskmaster and he has also appeared on Mock the Week, Fast and Loose, Live at the Apollo and Would I Lie to You?
Gavin & Stacey is a British sitcom written by James Corden and Ruth Jones about two families: one in Billericay, Essex; one in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan. Mathew Horne and Joanna Page play the eponymous characters Gavin and Stacey, while Corden and Jones star as Smithy and Nessa. Alison Steadman and Larry Lamb star as Gavin's parents Pam and Mick, Melanie Walters plays Stacey's mother Gwen, and Rob Brydon plays Stacey's uncle Bryn.
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2007, it is the third Doctor Who Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. The episode was written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Strong.
"Partners in Crime" is the first episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 April 2008. The episode reintroduced actor and comedian Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, who had previously appeared in the 2006 Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride". In the episode, Donna and the alien time traveller the Tenth Doctor meet while separately investigating Adipose Industries, a company that has created a revolutionary diet pill. Together, they attempt to stop the death of thousands of people in London after the head of the company, the alien Miss Foster, creates short white aliens made from human body fat. The episode's alien creatures, the Adipose, were created using the software MASSIVE, commonly used for crowd sequences in fantasy and science fiction films.
Mother Love is a 1989 BBC British television drama. It was adapted by Andrew Davies from Domini Taylor's 1983 novel concerning a mother's obsessive love for her son, vengeful hatred of his father, her ex-husband, and the effect on her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It starred Diana Rigg, David McCallum, James Wilby, and Fiona Gillies, and was directed by Simon Langton.
Donna Noble is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Portrayed by British actress and comedian Catherine Tate, she is a companion of the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors.
Cuckoo is a British sitcom that began airing on BBC Three on 25 September 2012, repeating on BBC One, and in 2016 began airing worldwide on Netflix.
Man Down is a British sitcom that was broadcast from 18 October 2013 to 29 November 2017 on Channel 4. The series stars Greg Davies as Dan Davies, a man undergoing a midlife crisis.
Lucy Ann Beaumont is a British comedian from Hull. Her early performances were based largely on anecdotes about Hull and the wider Northern England region. She was a finalist on So You Think You're Funny in 2011 and won the BBC Radio New Comedy Awards in 2012. Her 2014 debut show at the Edinburgh Fringe, We Can Twerk It Out, was nominated for that year's Best Newcomer Award.
"The Husbands of River Song" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2015, it is the eleventh Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Douglas Mackinnon. The episode marks the return of Alex Kingston as River Song, making her first appearance alongside Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, and her last on screen appearance to date. This also features the first appearance of Nardole, who would become a companion starting from the next episode.
Years and Years is a dystopian science fiction drama television miniseries written by Russell T Davies. Taking place between 2019 and 2034, the six-part series follows the lives of the Lyons family, who witness increasingly tumultuous global affairs and the rise to power of Vivienne Rook, an outspoken British celebrity businesswoman turned populist politician whose controversial opinions divide the nation. The series was a co-production between the BBC and HBO, and premiered on BBC One on 14 May 2019 and on HBO on 24 June 2019. Years and Years stars Emma Thompson as Rook, alongside Russell Tovey, Rory Kinnear, T'Nia Miller, Ruth Madeley, Anne Reid, and Jessica Hynes as the Lyons family.
Crime Scene Cleaner is a German comedy TV series broadcast by the NDR/ARD, starring Bjarne Mädel as the title protagonist. It was directed by Arne Feldhusen and written by Mizzi Meyer. The show was broadcast from 2011 until 2018, spanning 31 episodes over seven series.
James Lee Williams, better known by the stage name The Vivienne, is a drag queen, known for being appointed the first UK RuPaul's Drag Race ambassador in 2015, winning the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019, and later returning to compete in the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2022. As part of her victory, she was awarded her own online television series, later titled The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood. The series premiered on 9 April 2020 on BBC Three and follows her trip to Hollywood to produce her own music video.
Ruth Madeley is a British actress known for her roles in Years and Years, The Rook and Doctor Who. She was born with spina bifida and has worked with the charity Whizz-Kidz for much of her life. She was nominated for a television BAFTA in 2016 for her work in Don't Take My Baby.
On 15 October 2021, Sir David Amess, a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Southend West, was fatally stabbed at a constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church Hall in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. His killer was Ali Harbi Ali, a British Islamic State sympathiser, who was arrested at the scene. In April 2022, Ali was convicted of murder and the preparation of terrorist acts, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
