Filed in Television

Panorama

Sophia has provided the narration for another episode of BBC Panorama, entitled North Korea’s Secret Slave Gangs

As President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, prepare for an unprecedented summit, Panorama investigates North Korean modern-day slavery. It is thought that more than one hundred thousand North Korean workers are posted abroad to earn money for the cash-strapped regime – money that is being ploughed into Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons programme. An international consortium of journalists has filmed undercover to reveal secret work gangs operating in Russia, China and Poland.

The episode is available to watch via BBC iPlayer

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Filed in News & Rumours Television

New Project: A Discovery of Witches

Sophia is set to star as Rebecca Bishop in the TV adaptation of historical fantasy novel A Discovery of Witches, the first book in the All Souls trilogy.

In a world where witches, vampires and daemons live discreetly among humans, Diana Bishop is the last in one long line of distinguished witches. Unwilling to embrace her heritage she has immersed herself in her career as an historian. Her particular interest is alchemy and she visits Oxford to research some of Elias Ashmole’s papers. She requests Ashmole 782 and as soon as she receives it she knows there is something uncanny about it; when she opens it she is shocked. She learns that 782 has been presumed lost for a very long time and that each species of Creature desires it. She is besieged and threatened and knows that, to protect herself, she must uncover all the mysteries of 782. She encounters the enigmatic vampire, Matthew Clairmont, who offers to help her; their mutual attraction is immediate, undeniable and inexplicable because they both know that witches and vampires are not supposed to trust each other. Diana makes her choice and accepts Matthew’s help. This precipitates them into conflict with the Creature world. From IMDB

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Filed in Press Updates Television

BBC’s Our Zoo proving huge hit in New Zealand

Our Zoo, the BBC1 TV show about the origins of Chester Zoo, has gained an army of new fans on the other side of the world as the show currently airs in New Zealand.

The six-part series based on the story of how George Mottershead built the first ever zoo without bars in 1931 was a huge success with UK viewers when it ran towards the end of last year, drawing in audiences of around five million per episode.

Fans couldn’t hide their disappointment when the BBC decided not to renew the show , which starred Lee Ingleby and Ralf Little, for a second series – after many had described it as ‘the best thing on TV in ages’.

Such was the strength of feeling, The Chronicle decided to set up a petition asking the broadcaster to reconsider which quickly gathered more than 1,000 signatures in less than a week, but despite sending the petition off to the BBC as promised, we did not receive a reply.

However, the petition has recently received a flurry of new activity since the show has started being broadcast in New Zealand, with Kiwi fans also taking to the internet to demand the BBC make a second series.

Some comments include ‘Even New Zealand signed this!’, ‘Love this program, bring us more great family watching’ and ‘One of the few good TV shows that has aired in a while and a great show my whole family watches together – the BBC made a horrid mistake of cancelling this.”

Another fan suggested another series be made in memory of June Williams, George’s daughter, who died last month aged 88.

June, who had been heavily involved with the production of Our Zoo and even made a cameo in one episode, had herself signed the petition and told The Chronicle that she would love to see the show return.

“I think it should come back, because the zoo hadn’t even opened by the time the first series ended – it left a lot of the story untold, such as how the zoo coped through the war years,” she said at the time.

“Lots of local people are upset and I know Honor, who played me, was upset too. I’m getting a bit long in the tooth for it all now but I had a wonderful time on the show, I got to meet so many new people and I got to relive the past. I had to dig deep into my memories but it was worth it.”

A BBC spokesperson told The Chronicle last year that it had been a ‘hard choice’ not to renew Our Zoo for another series.

“We’re very proud of Our Zoo and wish to thank all those involved. However, in order to create room for new shows and to keep increasing the range of BBC One drama we sometimes have to make hard choices and it will not be returning for a second series.”

You can view The Chronical’s petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bring-back-a-second-series-of-our-zoo

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