TVDRAMA
Amazon Sets U.K. Launch for Leonardo
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Amazon Prime Video is planning to exclusively launch a brand-new drama based on the life of Leonardo da Vinci in the U.K. and Ireland on April 16.
Leonardo explores the secrets and drama behind the genius: his life, his work and his personal struggles all set against the backdrop of Renaissance Italy. Aidan Turner (
Poldark,
The Hobbit) takes on the lead role.
Turner said, “As we know, Leonardo da Vinci was a man who created an incredible body of work across so many disciplines. As an actor, to explore the inner workings of this great artist was a very exciting and humbling experience and I feel so fortunate to have worked with such a great team in Rome to make this series happen”
British historian Alun Withey has been researching the history of facial hair
The craze for huge whiskers was even taken up by women who drew them on
Like modern hipsters, these trendsetters were prepared to suffer public abuse
Dr Withey also found that dandies of the 18th Century were rarely clean shaven
In fact, despite the popular image, they typically only shaved 1–2 times a week
He also reveals that facial hair was once thought to be a form a bodily excrement
Production of High-End European Drama Shows Ramped Up to Meet Rising Demand Variety 1/20/2021
For a brief moment in mid-June, the producers of “Leonardo,” the upcoming big-budget series with Aidan Turner (“Poldark”) as the famed inventor, considered shooting the U.K. as renaissance Milan.
Luca Bernabei, CEO of the show’s producer Lux Vide, says the radical option was weighed partly because of spiraling COVID-19 rates and restrictions in Italy, and partly due to Turner’s co-star Freddie Highmore being only available for two weeks before jetting off to Canada to shoot “The Good Doctor.” But COVID was causing a similarly drastic shutdown in the U.K., meaning that in the end, Bernabei and Lux Vide head of production Daniele Passani made the decision to fly Highmore over to Italy and to build the dusty streets of Milan on the company’s backlot outside Rome.
It’s hard not to think about
Downton Abbey when watching
Both are splendid melodramas in quite magnificent costumery and sumptuous locations.
Bridgerton is based on novels by US author Julia Quinn, set in the high society of Regency England, 1813. That’s also the year in which
Pride & Prejudice was published, and the influences are easy to see in a world where keeping up appearances must be maintained at all costs.
Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) is the central character, the pretty but unmarried eldest daughter of wealthy widow Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmell).
Yet as our occasional narrator -more on her shortly- warns us, “The brighter a lady shines the faster she may burn.”