Karen Gillan is to star as Sixties cover girl Jean Shrimpton – the supermodel of her day – in a new BBC film.

We’ll Take Manhattan will examine the charged four-year love affair between “The Shrimp” and photographer David Bailey.

The film will be screened later this year on BBC Four, which has had huge successes with its biopics, including dramas about Enid Blyton and Gracie Fields.

The photographer and Jean – who graced the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar – were superstars of their day and helped to shape Swinging London in the early 1960s.

Karen – soon to be seen in a new series of BBC One’s Doctor Who – has already become known for her short skirts, while Jean was one of the pioneers of more daring fashions.

But Jean’s hemlines were rather more demure when she began her affair with the then-married photographer in 1960. The famed snapper left his first wife Rosemary Bramble, and later divorced her, to be with the model.

The film will focus on a Vogue photo shoot which took place during a chilly week in 1962 in New York but also examines how the couple met.

Karen said: “Jean Shrimpton is an icon of the Sixties and I am so excited to be playing somebody who had such a lasting impact on the fashion world. I can’t wait to take on the challenge of bringing Jean and Bailey’s fascinating love story to life. Sixties here I come.”

Executive producer Claire Parker of production company Kudos said: “In Jean, Bailey found someone that he and his camera fell in love with. We’ll Take Manhattan captures the essence of their dynamic affair and how they unwittingly changed the face of a decade.”

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Recent BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award winner Noel Clarke will produce, and star in romantic comedy “The Knot”. Fellow British up and comer Talulah Riley and American actress Mena Suvari headline the film with Clarke, centering around a young couple’s road to their wedding day, which is fraught with mishaps, including missing bridesmaids and crashed cars.

The film, co-written by Clarke with Davie Fairbanks and Geoff Carino, begins filming in London this week under the direction of Jesse Lawrence. Other young British stars including Matthew McNulty, Jason Maza and Juliet Oldfield also help round out the ensemble cast.

Since winning the Orange Rising Star Award from BAFTA in 2009, Clarke has been hard at work both in front of and behind the camera, most notably penning, producing and starring in 2010′s “4. 3. 2. 1.” the teen girl centric action caper starring Emma Roberts. Riley, who made her feature debut in 2005′s “Pride and Prejudice” as one of the Bennett sisters (the same way Carey Mulligan got her start), was most recently seen in “Inception” and “The Dilemma”.

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John Barrowman and Bill Pullman will be heading to Cannes to promote the new series of hit sci-fi drama Torchwood at MIPTV 2011. The fourth instalment, titled Torchwood: Miracle Day, is distributed by BBC Worldwide, and will be launched to buyers on Monday 4th April with the two stars attending the event alongside executive producer Julie Gardner.

Barrowman returns to lead the cast in his iconic role as Captain Jack Harkness, and is joined in the new series by film star Pullman, whose credits include Independence Day, While You Were Sleeping and Lost Highway. Julie Gardner, Senior Vice President, Scripted, BBC Worldwide Productions, has worked on all four series of Torchwood, and her other credits include Life on Mars, Doctor Who and Casanova. Her producing partner is Torchwood creator Russell T. Davies, who has scripted Miracle Day with an A-list team of writers including John Shiban (Breaking Bad, The X-Files), Doris Egan (House) and Jane Espenson (Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer).

Torchwood: Miracle Day is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions for Starz Entertainment, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Worldwide. Featuring locations in the US and around the world, the plot sees a C.I.A operative (played by ER’s Mekhi Phifer) join forces with the team to investigate a global conspiracy that has put an end to human death, causing a population boom and resource crisis. Pullman plays Oswald Danes, a convicted child killer who survives his own execution, and Eve Myles reprises her role as Gwen Cooper.

Steve Macallister, Managing Director of BBC Worldwide Sales & Distribution, commented, “We’re thrilled to have John Barrowman and Bill Pullman with us at MIPTV. The fact that Torchwood: Miracle Day is able to attract such a high-calibre, international cast reflects the quality of the production – so it’s sure to prove popular with buyers again, along with the rest of our exciting drama slate.”

In addition to Torchwood: Miracle Day, BBC Worldwide will also be presenting popular returning series Doctor Who (S6), the critically-acclaimed Luther (S2), series three of Being Erica, Primeval (S4 &5), and the second series of the BAFTA winning Misfits. New dramas on this year’s MIPTV slate include ratings hit Upstairs Downstairs, which has already been re-commissioned for an extended second series; South Riding, starring David Morrissey and Anna Maxwell Martin; an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ best-selling novel, The Night Watch; star-studded sci-fi series Outcasts; and the Will Young-starring supernatural thriller Bedlam.

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Kidulthood star Noel Clarke is set to star in a new prison thriller, Screwed: The Life Of A Prison Officer. The former Doctor Who actor will play opposite James D’Arcy in the British film, adapted from the real-life experiences of author Ronnie Thompson.

The story follows D’Arcy‘s character Sam Norwood as he returns from a traumatic tour of Iraq, taking a job as a prison officer in a brutal London jail.

His life spirals out of control as he turns to drink and drugs to handle the strains of the job, learning that the ‘screws’ he works with can be as corrupt as the criminals they’re in charge of.

Clarke plays a prisoner named Truman.

Screwed: The Life Of A Prison Officer is released in the UK on June 3 and is directed by Reg Traviss. It co-stars British actors Frank Harper, Jamie Forman, Andrew Shim and Kate Magowan.

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Catherine Tate is the latest TV star revealed as becoming an April Fool to raise money for charity.

The Dr Who star and comedian has joined the line-up of charity comedy gig April Fools in aid of Mencap at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London on April 1, hosted by Jo Brand.

Jo said: “I am really pleased to be involved in the show at The Apollo. I have worked both with adults and children with a learning disability and found the work delightful, so it’s great to get a chance to contribute in a different way.”

The comedy will also feature performances from The Thick of It’s Chris Addison, Al Murray, Harry Hill, Lee Mack, Sean Lock, Miranda Hart, Stewart Francis and Lucy Porter, with more names to be added.

Tickets cost £40 and all proceeds go to charity Mencap to support people with a learning disability, their family and carers.

Tickets are available now from www.ticketmaster.co.uk

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Starz has confirmed that the fourth series of Torchwood will premiere in the US on July 8.

The new ten-part run, subtitled Miracle Day, will focus on a global conspiracy in which no-one on the planet is able to die.

Series creator Russell T. Davies previously revealed that the mysterious occurance will lead to “a crisis [that is] affecting everyone on the planet”.

“Not a single person on Earth dies,” he explained. “The old stay old. It’s great news for some people, but globally it’s an instant population boom. Earth relies on people dying. Suddenly you’re affecting everyone on the planet. That’s where the Torchwood team comes in.”

John Barrowman (Captain Jack) and Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) will return for the new season, appearing alongside new cast additions Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman, Lauren Ambrose and Alexa Havins.

A UK transmission date for Torchwood: Miracle Day has yet to be confirmed by the BBC.

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Christopher Eccleston and Tamsin Greig are to star in a play to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, to be staged in Westminster Abbey.

Ralf Little and Sharon Small are also in the cast for In the Beginning, which takes place on Thursday.

Actors will lead audience members around the building where scholars met in 1611 to finalise its translation.

The work, written by Nick Payne and produced by London’s Bush theatre, contains extracts from the Bible.

Billed as a celebration of the Abbey and the King James Bible, the event will see small groups taken into areas of the London landmark that are rarely seen by visitors.

The play touches on some of the lesser-known facts about the building, such as poet Ben Johnson being buried there upright because he could only afford a tiny plot.

Payne, whose play If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet was staged at the Bush in 2009, had his comedy Wanderlust staged at the Royal Court last year.

Other cultural events to mark the King James Bible’s 400th anniversary include actors from the Shakespeare’s Globe theatre reading out the work from cover to cover.

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BBC1’s Sherlock was named best drama series at last night’s Royal Television Society Programme Awards, beating Misfits and Downton Abbey.

Other winners at the ceremony, held to celebrate all genres of television, included Jim Broadbent, who picked up the prize for best actor for his performance in Any Human Heart. He beat David Tennant, who was nominated for Single Father, and Johnny Harris, who received a nod for This is England ‘86.

Harris’ co-star in This is England ‘86, Vicky McClure, was named best actress, beating Natalie Press for Five Daughters and Julie Walters for Mo, while Miranda Hart won the award for best comedy performance for Miranda on BBC2.

She beat James Buckley from The Inbetweeners and Tom Hollander, who was nominated for Rev.

Hart’s comedy also won the gong for best scripted comedy, beating The Inbetweeners and Rev.

Meanwhile, EastEnders was named best soap, and The Sarah Jane Adventures was named best children’s drama.

The award for best single drama went to BBC4’s The Road to Coronation Street, beating The Song of Lunch and Mo, while best drama serial was won by Five Daughters.

Jack Thorne and Shane Meadows won the award for best drama writer, for their work on This is England ‘86, and Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan won the award for best comedy writer for the BBC4 sitcom Getting On.

Other winners included The X Factor, which won the best entertainment prize, and Alan Bennett and the Habit of Art, which won the award for best arts programme.

The judges’ award went to Steven Moffat, writer of television shows such as Sherlock and Doctor Who, and the lifetime achievement award went to Peter Bennett-Jones, who founded television company Tiger Television, which later became Tiger Aspect.

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John Barrowman has announced details of a greatest hits collection and a new UK tour for later this year.

The Torchwood star confirmed that he will release a best of collection in September. Featuring tracks from his three albums including last year’s self-titled LP, it will be available shortly before Barrowman begins his latest string of dates.

“Touring round the country doing live performances for all my fans has to be one of my favorite times of the year. I love the thrill of a live performance, the excitement of singing some new and fantastic music,” he said. “I can’t wait to see you.”

The tour, which kicks off in Northampton on October 19, will also include a night at the London Palladium in November.

Barrowman is set to return as Captain Jack Harkness in the fourth series of Torchwood in the summer.

The full list of tour dates are:

* October 19 – Northampton Derngate
* October 20 – Brentwood Leisure Center
* October 21 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
* October 23 – Leicester De Montfort Hall
* October 24 – Watford Colosseum
* October 25 – Bridlington Spa Theatre
* October 27 – Edinburgh Playhouse
* October 28 – Sheffield City Hall
* October 30 – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
* October 31 – Swindon Oasis Center
* November 2 – Ipswich Regent Theatre
* November 3 – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
* November 4 – York Barbican
* November 6 – Blackpool Opera House
* November 7 – London Palladium
* November 11 – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
* November 13 – Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
* November 14 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
* November 15 – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
* November 17 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
* November 18 – Bournemouth Int Center
* November 20 – Brighton Center
* November 21 – Plymouth Pavilions
* November 23 – Newcastle City Hall
* November 24 – Glasgow Clyde Auditorium

Tickets for the tour go on sale on Friday, March 18 at 9.30am.

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Matt Smith has claimed that the experiences of Christopher Isherwood echo those of The Doctor in Doctor Who.

In his first appearance elsewhere since taking on the role of the time-traveler, Smith portrays the novelist in upcoming BBC Two drama Christopher And His Kind.

“He left 1930s England and arrived in Berlin, a place that in comparison was an alien planet,” the actor told the Radio Times. “There’s this burgeoning doom of Nazism emerging.

“It feels like there are vampires walking through the city. There are these brown shirts who are becoming more and more prominent and more and more vocal. They’ve started ransacking shops.”

Speaking about Isherwood’s experiences in Berlin, Smith continued: “He went there because he wanted to get away from his mother and hang out with his friend [the poet] WH Auden. But he also wanted to be liberated sexually – and he was. Being gay in Berlin was very different from being gay in England.”

However, the 28-year-old admitted that, while challenging, he had taken love scenes for the drama in his stride.

“In the first professional job I ever did at the Royal Court [Theatre in London], I played a 16-year-old gigolo. I had to kiss Phil Daniels,” he told the magazine. “So it’s not my first. I guess I’ve never taken it as far as Christopher does. It goes beyond kissing, shall we say.

“It’s embarrassing having to get nude in front of 30 other people on a film set. But it’s not the first time I’ve done that. You just try to be as truthful as you can be and jump in feet first.”

Christopher And His Kind airs on Saturday at 9.30pm on BBC Two.

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