BAZ BAMIGBOYE: A hot potato for Lady Mary as she takes on new lead role

Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery is in negotiations to play the lead in the movie adaptation of best-selling novel The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, set during and after World War II.
Michelle has been offered the role, but there’s no deal in place yet.
But various parties involved hope the actress will be available to start preparing for filming after shooting ends on the fourth series of ITV’s Downton in August.

New role? Michelle Dockery is in negotiations to play the lead in the movie adaption of the book

The movie, based on Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’s tale of a magazine writer who uncovers the story of a book society, established on Nazi-occupied Guernsey in order to fool curfew patrols, is being directed by Simon Curtis.
Mr Curtis happens to be married to Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle’s Downton screen mother.
Curtis took over as director from Kenneth Branagh, who had planned to make the picture with Kate Winslet.
But for reasons too complex to go into here, that potato got mashed.
Downton creator Julian Fellowes has made Michelle’s Lady Mary the character the entire series revolves around, now that she’s a widow with an heir, and there are two ardent suitors — played by Julian Ovenden and Tom Cullen — wooing her.
Curtis, meanwhile, directed Michelle Williams to within spitting distance of a best actress Oscar with her brilliant portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the film My Week With Marilyn.
Michelle (Dockery, that is) will be seen on big screens in the autumn in Non-Stop, a thriller also starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.

En garde! The Musketeers head to Prague

En garde! The dashing blades of the swashbuckling new Musketeers television series have been thrusting and parrying on location in Prague.
The classic Alexandre Dumas tale has been given a Game Of Thrones vibe in its latest incarnation — a ten-part BBC drama, which started filming last month, and which is set for grown-up prime-time next year.
Writer Adrian Hodges has penned a lot of action sequences and adult humour into his screenplay.

Looking sharp! Santiago Cabrera, Tom Burke, Luke Pasqualino and Howard Charles all cut a dashing figure

His cast certainly have a lot of swash to their buckles. Luke Pasqualino, as the young D’Artagnan, is destined to emerge as the heart-throb of the series. Like his colleagues, he went through extensive combat and sword training before the cameras started rolling.
Till now, he’s been best known for his work on Skins and The Borgias.
Keeping him out of trouble will be Tom Burke as Athos. Burke was in The Hour and he also appears with Ryan Gosling in forthcoming film Only God Forgives.
Royal Shakespeare Company-trained actor Howard Charles plays Porthos.
He was already handy with a sword, having used a prop one in many of his roles for the RSC.
And Santiago Cabrera, who played Lancelot in Merlin, brings Latin flair to the proceedings as the elegant Aramis.

Macbeth, the machete macho man

James McAvoy believes Macbeth should be a 'full on' production

James McAvoy’s left hand was artfully swathed in flesh-coloured bandage and plaster. His right eye sported a shiner, though make-up concealed the worst of it.
‘It’s a messy business doing Macbeth, and if it’s to be done properly, there will be blood,’ McAvoy told me.
‘It should be full on, I think. This production’s absolutely tethered to what Shakespeare wrote. He doesn’t write beautiful poetry only.’
Right on cue, fellow actor Kevin Guthrie, playing Lennox opposite McAvoy’s Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios, quoted a line: ‘I’ll fight till from my bones, my flesh be hacked!’
McAvoy nodded and added: ‘Shakespeare writes that we be visceral, and that we show the pain. These are men at war.’
The production, directed by Jamie Lloyd, ends its run at the Trafalgar tomorrow night, and has played to packed houses. Before each performance, some audience members who are placed on stage, right in the thick of the action, are warned they may be spattered with fake blood — and real spit.
Recently, McAvoy and Guthrie both reached for a machete. James gripped too hard; the metal weapon was blunted, but still dangerous. And what about that axe that gets wielded? ‘The axe head is made of rubber, but if I hit you with it you’d bleed,’ he said, seriously.
I told him he was convincing enough — there was no need for him to  actually demonstrate.
Both McAvoy’s blistering performance and Lloyd’s production have been nominated for Olivier Awards (the event, sponsored by MasterCard, is held at Covent Garden on Sunday).
It’s a big to-do, with major stars such as Helen Mirren, and Heather Headley, star of The Bodyguard (it would be a travesty if that does not take home the best musical trophy) attending. ITV will broadcast the event, making it the first time the Olivier Awards have been shown on mainstream TV.
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Jim Broadbent, who is in negotiations to portray Tommy Butler, the flying squad chief superintendent who led the search for the robbers involved in the Great Train Robbery 50 years ago.
Oscar-winning Broadbent, if his deal works, will play Butler in A Copper’s Tale, one of two 90-minute BBC TV films which explore the seminal crime. The companion piece — A Robber’s Tale, with Luke Evans as heist mastermind Bruce Reynolds — is already shooting.

Matthew Crowley, Max Warrick and Luke Trebilcock, who play three college friends in Eighties New York who are having trouble growing up and coming to terms with the sexual politics of the age in Howard Korder’s Boys’ Life, which is having a limited run at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden Town, London.

A few years back I caught a version of the play in New York that went for cheap laughs, and failed.

But in this new production, directed with flair by Sebastien Blanc, the raw quality and truth of Korder’s play is captured superbly.

Kellie Jane Walters, Abi Unwin- Smith, Anna Brooks-Beckman, Charlotte Gascoyne and Amanda Cooper are the women who try to nudge the guys in the right direction.

Rufus Hound, Amy Cudden and Kelly Price, who are part of the current One Man, Two Guvnors ensemble at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The comedy, written by Richard Bean and directed by Nicholas Hytner, has been seen by a staggering one million global ticket buyers.

Chris Harper, who executive produces for the NT, told me the show is now booking at the Theatre Royal until next March. ‘The one millionth customer hit this week, and we factored in all the productions of One Man that are playing globally,’ Harper told me.
Advance ticket sales for the National’s shows that have transferred to the West End — War Horse,

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories and One Man — are running at more than £10 million.

Both of our major companies — the NT and the RSC — have worked hard to achieve success in the commercial marketplace. It ensures they have the funds to experiment with ground-breaking work. The RSC’s musical Matilda, which opened on Broadway last month, has a New York box office advance of £13 million.