Why Detective David Tennant is a prime-time suspect British murder dramas Mayday and Broadchurch have helped bring event television back from the grave, by Libby Brooks The Guardian,

Life's a beach for police officers David Tennant and Olivia Colman in Broadchurch. Photograph: Patrick Redmond

Who wants to think about murdered children on a weekday evening? A fair few of us, if the ratings are anything to go by. This week BBC1 and ITV have gone head to head with new crime dramas Mayday and Broadchurch: both with decorated casts and nuanced scripts that lift them above the standard police procedural; both previewed as the kind of event television that can seem antediluvian in an age of download and bargain box sets.

Mayday, which tracks the disappearance of 14-year-old Hattie as she is about to take the part of May Queen in her village's annual parade, stars Sophie Okonedo, Aidan Gillen and a fabulously overwrought Lesley Manville. It launched on Sunday – the first of five consecutive nights – with 6.2 million viewers and a 25% audience share; but lost out the following evening to the first of eight weekly installments of Broadchurch, which began with 6.8 million and a concurrent gush-in on social media. Coincidentally, both series are made by Kudos, the production company behind Spooks and, most recently, the bizarrely brilliant Utopia.

It has already been suggested that Broadchurch detectives David Tennant and Olivia Colman, investigating the death of a local boy in the eponymous seaside town, owe a debt to the Nordic noir plotlines that have dominated quality crime drama of late – although the scenery of Dorset's Jurassic coast, where the series was filmed, could give any fjord a run for its money, and, as Tennant proved on Monday night, it is difficult to be entirely sombre when you're eating a 99 ice cream.

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/05/tennant-prime-time-suspect-mayday-broadchurch

Sean Bean, Sheridan Smith, Jo Brand, Jack Whitehall and Ant & Dec all up for Royal Television Society gongs (DAILY MIRROR)

Sean Bean is up for a prestigious award for his portrayal of a transsexual teacher in a courtroom drama.

The actor, who made his name in the Napoleonic war drama Sharpe, is shortlisted for best male actor at the Royal Television Society's Programme Awards 2012.

Bean donned a mini-skirt and a blonde wig for the role in BBC1's Accused where he played an English teacher called Simon and his alter ego, Tracie, whose quest for love leads to the courtroom.

READ MORE AND SEE THE LIST OF NOMINEES: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/royal-television-society-award-nominations-1738219

Downton Abbey star HUGH BONNEVILLE is evidence that prioritising acting over academia at Cambridge can pay off. He talks to NATALIE GIL. By Natalie Gil Features | 27th February 2013 (CAMBRIDGE TAB)

Hugh Bonneville has become something of a legend to the loyal Sunday night TV viewers of Britain. His current role, for which he is arguably best known, is as Lord Grantham in the mind-bogglingly popular Downton Abbey. But those less enthusiastic about costume dramas and the elevated segregation of the upper classes might also have spotted him as the eponymous and irritable tramp in Mr Stink, or as Ian Fletcher, Head of Deliverance for the Olympics in the BBC mockumentary, Twenty Twelve. Oh, and don’t forget his role as the lovably ignorant Bernie in Notting Hill.

What Do You Do?: One of the most amusingly awkward moments in Notting Hill. Hell, maybe even in the history of British rom coms.

After a stint at a London drama school, Bonneville studied Theology at Corpus Christi in the eighties, where he admits he was a ‘pretty pants’ student, having done ‘far too many plays than was healthy’ for his academic career. Possibly explaining why he came away with a Desmond 2:2 in Theology. But his stellar career and (well-merited) celebrity status, re-ignited by Downton, suggest there’s hope for us all regardless of our results in Finals.

Like a butler with a tray of foie gras canapés, costume dramas come and go in Britain, so why does Bonneville think people have warmed to Downton more than the rest? “If I knew that I’d be a millionaire, having bottled the recipe”, he jokes. Then he re-thinks: “one reason why it’s appealed to a broader audience than one might expect from a traditional costume drama is that it’s about tension not violence, romance rather than sex. It’s not so in your face. And it just breathes out in way that a lot of contemporary shows, which are brilliant, don’t.”

- See more at: http://cambridge.tab.co.uk/2013/02/27/interview-hugh-bonneville/#sthash.gH2N6HaM.dpuf