Russell T Davies drama Nolly starring Helena Bonham Carter to be released in “early 2023”
Much of the focus around Russell T Davies in recent months has been on his sensational return to the long-running BBC science fiction flagship show Doctor Who – but that’s not the only thing coming up in the next year for fans of the screenwriter’s work.
Earlier this year it was announced that Davies was working on a project called Nolly, starring Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning actor Helena Bonham Carter as Noele Gordon – the star of British soap opera Crossroads where she played flame-haired widow Meg Richardson.
One of the biggest stars in British TV at the time, in 1981, Gordon found herself axed from the show she’d starred in for 18 years without an explanation .
ITV describe how: “Nolly brings the true Noele Gordon once more into the spotlight. The Queen of the Midlands, a star who could be tough, haughty and imperious, grandly sweeping into rehearsals from her Rolls Royce, but also a hard-working actress who was fiercely loyal and loved by cast and crew alike. And at last, the biggest question of all can be answered – why was she sacked? Nolly reveals the truth, the consequences, and the legacy of that terrible day.”
Adding that Nolly is “a bold exploration of how the establishment turns on women who refuse to play by the rules, the women it cannot understand and the women it fears. And it is a love letter to a legend of television, and to the madcap soap she starred in, Nolly is an outrageously fun and wildly entertaining ride through Noele Gordon’s most tumultuous years, and a sharp, affectionate and heartbreaking portrait of a forgotten icon.”
The 3-part series, which also stars Augustus Prew, Mark Gatiss and Con O’Neill will be released on ITV and ITVX, the commercial broadcaster’s new streaming service, in “early 2023” according to the latest communications.
Nolly is the 11th collaboration between Russell T Davies and producer Nicola Shindler. The partnership has produced a number of very popular and critically acclaimed TV hits including It’s A Sin, Years and Years, Queer As Folk, Casanova, Cucumber, Banana, Bob & Rose and The Second Coming.
In 2023 Russell T Davies will also be overseeing three 60th-anniversary specials of Doctor Who starring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, and Ncuti Gatwa’s first full episode as the Fifteenth Doctor around the festive season 2023.
ITVX, ITV’s new streaming service, will fully launch in the UK on 8th December 2023 and will feature a number of exclusive shows in its first month including Litvinenko starring David Tennant, Riches starring Deborah Ayorinde and Hugh Quarshie and a landmark natural history documentary A Year on Planet Earth, presented by Stephen Fry.
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