Ben Elton writes new sitcom pilot for BBC One

Ben Elton has written a new sitcom pilot for BBC One.

Slings & Arrows is set in a health and safety department at a local council, and contains "a team of misfits who are hell bent on causing as much chaos as humanly possible", reports Chortle.

The Thin Blue Line's David Haig will star as the department's boss Gerald, described as an "exasperated everyman".

If the series is picked up, it will be Elton's first British sitcom for seven years after the short-lived Blessed in 2005.

The pilot will be recorded at Teddington Studios on Saturday (August 4), and will be directed by The Vicar of Dibley's Dewi Humphreys.

Ben Elton launched a new stand-up/sketch show in Australia, but it was axed after just two weeks due to poor viewing figures.

Sheridan Smith: 'Ronnie Biggs wife TV role made me broody'

Sheridan Smith has said that her new TV role made her broody.

The Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps star has taken on the role of Charmian Brent, the wife to notorious train robber Ronnie Biggs (Danny Mays).

The ITV1 show Mrs Biggs will air as a five-part drama, which will start from the couple's first meeting on a train in 1957 through to the date of the train robbery in 1963.

It will also feature details of the couple's lives on the run in Australia, as well as Biggs flying to Rio with the police closely on their tales.

When Biggs fled for Brazil, he left Brent and his three sons in Australia. While he was away, he fathered a child with another woman.

Smith said that she formed very close bonds with all of the children who were in the series and that she still keeps in contact with them now.

She said: "They all write me cards now. On my birthday I got lots of Mum cards."

Sheridan also spoke about the advice she got from the real Charmian Brent about her role, adding: "I've never been broody but after this I am!

"Charmian was an incredible mother and I only have dogs."

Mrs Biggs will air on ITV1 in the autumn.

'Dark Knight' star Cillian Murphy to lead BBC drama 'Peaky Blinders'

Cillian Murphy is to star in new BBC Two drama Peaky Blinders.

The six-part gangster drama has been written by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises).

The series follows ruthless mobster Tommy (Murphy), whose family control the "lawless post-war slum neighbourhoods" of Birmingham in 1919.

Tommy's family are known as the 'Peaky Blinders' due to their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, Deadline reports.

When a Belfast police chief challenges the crime family's reign, Tommy finds his leadership under threat.

Murphy is best known for his film credits, including Christopher Nolan's Batman films and 2002's 28 Days Later. His last television role was in 2001 BBC mini-series The Way We Live Now.

Peaky Blinders - directed by Otto Bathurst (Black Mirror) - will begin shooting in September and will air on BBC Two in 2013.

'Merlin' star Colin Morgan on series five: 'It's about the legends'

Merlin star Colin Morgan has spoken about the more "adult" fifth series.

The Irish actor told Entertainment Weekly that the new episodes will focus more on the show's core characters.

"It was always going to be a growing-up tale for all of us," he said. "We do have some brilliant guest stars - we've got Liam Cunningham coming in - but the stories are more focused now on the legends that we're going to become."

Morgan's co-star Katie McGrath (Morgana) agreed that the new series, expected to air on BBC One in late 2012, has a more adult feel.

"It's a three-year time-jump, so... we're all older," she explained. "We were playing... very early 20s at the start, now I feel like we've all started to play adults, which for us is a great change."

Game of Thrones star John Bradley will also appear in series five of Merlin, while Anthony Head will reprise his role as Uther for a guest appearance.

Michael Phelps's record-breaking Olympics gold scores 10.2m

Michael Phelps's clinching of his 19th Olympic medal was seen by a peak audience of over 10 million (40%) last night (July 31).

The USA swimmer, who now has 15 golds to his name after winning the freestyle, pulled in 9.7m on BBC One and 470k on temporary digital channel BBC Olympics 1.

For the duration of the coverage between 7pm and 10pm, viewing never dipped below 5m, while BBC Three's screening of the Team GB women's football match against Brazil logged 1.45m (6.2%).

The final of the women's gymnastics attracted a hefty 4.79m (35.3%) to BBC One from 4pm, prior to which Zara Phillips's silver in the equestrian event interested 2.34m (24.9%) from 2pm.

Ben Ainslie's sailing blew 1.13m (8.7%) over to BBC Three between 2pm and 8pm, helping the channel to a new record all-day share of 6.6%.

Olympic Breakfast (1.57m/40.7%) and Olympics Tonight (2.19m/18.6%) continued to flourish in the early morning and late-night hours.

EastEnders and Holby City both held up well on BBC Two, boosting 9pm's Midwives: Delivering Under Pressure which mustered 2.49m (10.2%).

Apart from Emmerdale, Love Your Garden was ITV1's best-rated programme with just 2.07m (8.5%), while Secrets of the Shoplifter grabbed 1.87m (7.6%) for Channel 4 at 9pm (+1: 392k/2.1%).

Despite the heavy competition, CSI continued strongly with 1.51m (6.1%) and 142k (0.7%) on +1, and Big Brother had 1.32m (7%) at 10pm.

Predictably, BBC One topped primetime with 28.4%, while BBC Two soared to second place with 11.9%, while ITV1 struggled with 9.8% (+1: 0.5%) in third. BBC Three followed with 6.5%, comfortably ahead of Channel 4 and Channel 5's 4.1% (C4 +1: 0.8%).

Geordie Shore: Chaos in Cancun was the 12th most-watched multichannel broadcast of the day with 369k (2%) on MTV in its usual 10pm slot.

Big Brother Becky Hannon threatens to walk over weight remarks

Big Brother housemate Becky Hannon has threatened to walk off the reality show, following comments from Luke Anderson about her weight.

During this week's family and friends nominations, Becky's sister revealed that Luke A had made a joke about Becky's size.

Luke A had previously commented: "Becky has as much respect for me as she does her BMI."

Becky blasted Luke A for the comments, describing him as "disgusting". She told friend Scott Mason: "I just wanna go, I don't want it to upset my family.

"I hope they haven't read internet stuff saying I'm fat and all that s**t."

Speaking in the Diary Room, she said: "Could you imagine being in the final with Luke A, Deana and Adam? I would rather have gone in week one!

"I think [Luke A] is selfish, devious. I actually think he's a nasty bugger, he's devious.

"I'm going on Friday and I don't want to see him again in my entire life, I literally don't want to know him."

Luke A, Becky, Ashleigh Hughes and Deana Uppal are the four housemates facing possible eviction this week.

Big Brother continues daily on Channel 5.

Amy Childs: 'Big Brother Ashleigh undoing TOWIE's good work for Essex'

Amy Childs has suggested that Big Brother star Ashleigh Hughes is undoing the work of the TOWIE cast to make Essex "look good".

The glamour model, who has appeared in both The Only Way Is Essex and Celebrity Big Brother, reiterated her previous claim that Hughes is giving their home county "a bad name".

"Obviously we've done TOWIE and we're looking good on TOWIE," she told Digital Spy.

"We wanna look good on telly and Ashleigh come about and she was swearing all the time. We had a bad name for Essex anyway and I don't think we need someone like Ashleigh to really make people think more bad of it."

Childs did praise this year's Big Brother for having "a really great house" overall, before going on to name her own Celebrity Big Brother co-stars Jedward as part of her dream cast for its next series, which is expected to begin on Channel 5 on August 15 - two days after the civilian edition ends.

"Jedward was absolutely hilarious," she recalled. "They had loads of character, they was absolutely nuts, but I absolutely loved them.

"I never thought that I would actually get on with Jedward, but they was like my little brothers."

Childs also said during our interview at the Nature Valley Games that she would be up for a return to TOWIE in the future.

CBS Pulls Reality Show '3'

CBS has pulled the reality dating show "3," which had the network's lowest rating ever for a new series debut, after two episodes.

The show debuted Thursday to a 0.8 rating/2 share in the key 18-49 demographic and 2.4 million total viewers. By Sunday, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler was already referring to it in the past tense at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

"It was a show we tried, we were excited about, [that] didn't quite get traction," she said.

Hours after Tassler made those comments, "3" moved to what was to be its normal timeslot, 9 p.m.

But it again fared poorly.

Drama reruns will run in place of "3" on Sunday nights until "The Good Wife" returns in the fall.

The show, based on a similar reality series, followed three women who supported one another as they looked for love.

NBC Sports Apologizes for Missy Franklin Olympics Spoiler

NBC Sports has admitted it screwed up by inadvertently revealing Missy Franklin's gold-medal victory in the 100-meter backstroke before the race even aired on the network, and promises that it will never happen again.

Getty ImagesNBC delivered a spoiler that deserved its own medal for Biggest Blooper on Monday, when it ran a promo for its "Today" show that featured Franklin clutching her gold medal for the race and meeting with her parents after her victory.

In case viewers were slow to pick up on the meaning of the ad, a voiceover narration declared, "When you’re 17 years old and win your first gold medal, there’s nobody you’d rather share it with ... We’re there when Missy Franklin and her parents reunite. A 'Today' exclusive - live from London. Tomorrow."

Unfortunately for sports fans, the race had yet to air on the network -- while it had taken place earlier in the day, NBC had tape-delayed it so it would run in primetime.

In response to the viewer dismay, a spokesperson for NBC Sports Group says that there are now safeguards in place to prevent a repeat of the gaffe.

“Clearly that promo should not have aired at that time. We have a process in place and this will not happen again," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We apologize to viewers who were watching and didn’t know the result of the race."

This isn't the first time that NBC has courted controversy with its tape-delay policy for the London games. The internet was abuzz with displeased grumbling on Friday over the network's decision to tape-delay the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Despite the gaffes, the Olympics have been a ratings winner for NBC. So far, the London games have outpaced the 2008 Beijing Olympics by nine percent in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, and by 14 percent in total viewers, averaging an 11.0 rating/32 share in the demo and 34.9 million total viewers.

Dan Harmon Lands Script Deal With CBS

Dan Harmon may be persona non grata with his former sitcom "Community," but he's found a home at CBS.

"Community" creator Harmon -- who was abruptly fired from the NBC series in May, following a high-profile spat with series star Chevy Chase -- has entered a blind script deal with CBS, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.

The to-be-determined project will be written and executive-produced by Harmon, and produced by CBS Television Studios.

While details on the project are scant, it is notable that it will be a multi-camera project, a stark departure for Harmon, who is known for one-camera projects such as "Community."

Harmon, who served as showrunner on "Community," got the ax from the show after it ended its third season. He will be replaced by new showrunners David Gurascio and Nick Port for the series' fourth season. The show will air Friday nights at 8:30 when it returns for its 13-episode fourth season in the fall.

Olympics Critic Guy Adams Gets Twitter Reinstated, Still Complains

Guy Adams, the U.K. reporter for the Independent whose Twitter account was suspended after criticizing NBC's coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London, has had his account reactivated -- but he's still not happy about his account going dark in the first place.

And he's complaining about his treatment via -- yup -- Twitter.

Adams tweeted earlier Tuesday, expressing his surprise that he could once again vent his frustration in 140 characters or less.

"Oh. My Twitter account appears to have been un-suspended," Adams wrote Tuesday. "Did I miss much while I was away?"

Adams went on to say that Twitter told him his account was re-activated because "we have just received an update from the complainant retracting their original request" and said that Twitter offered "[n]o further explanation given, or apology."

Also read: "Call Me Maybe" Gets the USA Olympic Swim Team Treatment (Video)

Adams, whose account went dark  over the weekend following a series of tweets about NBC's coverage, elaborated on the mystery of his Twitter exile and subsequent reinstatement in a column for the Independent on Tuesday.

"I had been trying, for 24 hours now, to speak with an employee about their decision to suspend my account. But at that time while the storm of publicity was at its height, they simply wouldn’t return emails or calls," Adams wrote on the paper's web site. "I’d still like to ask how exactly I was supposed to have broken their 'privacy policy.'"

Adams presumes that Twitter took exception to his posting NBC executive Gary Zenkel's corporate email address, though he notes that posting the address fell within Twitter's guidelines.

According to Adams, Twitter's privacy policy dictates, "If information was previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the internet prior to being put on Twitter, it is not a violation.” Adams says he found the address "via a website Twitter ought to have heard of. It's called Google."

Prior to having his Twitter privileges temporarily yanked, Adams issued a flurry of tweets savaging NBC's coverage of the games, and Zenkel in particular.

"Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldn't he?" Adams opined in one tweet.

"Is car advertising an Olympic sport? There's been little else on NBC today," another tweet chided.

"Am I alone in wondering why NBColympics think its acceptable to pretend this road race is being broadcast live?" Adams groused in another tweet.

Twitter apologized in part for the situation on its blog Tuesday, admitting that it had violated its own policy by proactively alerting NBC to Adams' complaints.

"The team working closely with NBC around our Olympics partnership did proactively identify a tweet that was in violation of the Twitter Rules and encouraged them to file a support ticket with our Trust and Safety team to report the violation, as has now been reported publicly. Our Trust and Safety team did not know that part of the story and acted on the report as they would any other," Alex Macgillivra, the company's general counsel, wrote.

"[W]e do not proactively report or remove content on behalf of other users no matter who they are. This behavior is not acceptable and undermines the trust our users have in us,"  Macgillivra added. "We should not and cannot be in the business of proactively monitoring and flagging content, no matter who the user is — whether a business partner, celebrity or friend. As of earlier today, the account has been un-suspended, and we will actively work to ensure this does not happen again."

'Brady Bunch' Reboot From Vince Vaughn in the Works at CBS

Here's the story, of a man named Vinnie... and an idea for a TV series that may or may not jibe with your childhood memories.

CBS has placed a script order for a reboot of the classic TV series "The Brady Bunch," which is being executive-produced by "The Watch" star Vince Vaughn, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

The reboot will revolve around divorced dad Bobby Brady -- the youngest son on the original series -- who's remarried to a woman with children of her own, and with whom he also has a child. On top of it, the  ex-spouses of Brady and his wife are still involved with their lives.

In addition to Vaughn, the project is being executive-produced by Lloyd Schwartz, son of "Brady Bunch" creator Sherwood Schwartz, as well as his Wild West Picture Show Productions partners Victoria Vaughn (his sister) and Peter Billingsley, and "My Name Is Earl" and "Raising Hope" writer/producer Mike Mariano, who's writing the project.

CBS Television Studios is producing.

The original Brady Bunch, which followed Mike and Carol Brady and their collective brood, ran from 1969 to 1974. The series also spawned a series of movies, starring Gary Cole and Shelley Long, that brought a contemporized, ironic flair to the Brady story.

CNN, HLN Ratings Down; Did Coming Out Help Anderson Cooper?

Whatever else you hold Casey Anthony for, she's partly guilty of this: Ratings at CNN and HLN are down dramatically from last July, as the Olympics, Colorado shooting and the presidential election failed to capture their viewers' attention like Anthony's acquittal did a year ago.

Two bright spots for CNN: Its ratings for July are better than they were in the second quarter, when it recorded its worst monthly primetime numbers in two decades. And Anderson Cooper happened to score a ratings bump in the key demo in the same month he announced he is gay. All of his 8 p.m. competitors, meanwhile, were down.

Fox News, as usual, trounced its rivals, though ratings were down almost across the board for cable news. No network, however, slid as much as HLN.

Last July, HLN had its highest-rated month ever, even beating MSNBC in primetime and total day, thanks to its wall-to-wall coverage of Anthony, the woman Nancy Grace dubbed the "tot mom." Last July was stocked with other big stories as well, including a mass killing in Norway, Amy Winehouse's death, the fight over the debt ceiling, and Maria Shriver filing for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Less news this month was a factor in Fox, MSNBC, CNN and HLN all being down in primetime ratings, in total viewers and the key 25-54 demographic, compared to last July. (In actual numbers, Fox News averaged 1.7 million total viewers and 330,000 in-demo viewers in primetime; MSNBC averaged 724,000 total and 225,000 in-demo; CNN averaged 489,000 and 149,000; and HLN averaged 320,000 and 116,000.)

In total day, MSNBC, CNN and HLN were down in both total viewers and the demo. Fox was up 3 percent in total viewers, but down 8 percent in the demo. (Fox News averaged 1.07 million total viewers and 252,000 in the demo; MSNBC averaged 433,000 total and 142,000 in the demo; CNN averaged 355,000 and 109,000; and HLN averaged 246,000 and 101,000.)

In primetime, HLN was down 69 percent in total viewers and 62 percent in the demo. In total day, it was down 65 and 57 percent, respectively.

CNN suffered too, though not as much: In primetime, it was down 23 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo. In total day, it was down 20 and 23 percent, respectively.

CNN and HLN are more reliant on breaking news than rivals Fox News and MSNBC, which place more emphasis on personality-driven political coverage.

Cooper's "AC 360" was flat in total viewers but up 6 percent among viewers 25-54 at 8 p.m. He still trailed Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," the perennial first place finisher at 8. "O'Reilly" averaged 2.6 million total viewers, more than three times as many as the second-place finisher, MSNBC's "Ed Show," and 522,000 viewers in the demo, more than twice the in-demo viewers for "Ed."

Cooper came in third in total viewers and the demo.

But Cooper beat Nancy Grace, who came in second to O'Reilly last July, when she rode high on the tot mom's sad story.

'Smash' Duo Craig Zadan and Neil Meron Signs First-Look Deal With Uni TV, NBCU International

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the producers of "Chicago" and "Hairspray" as well as NBC's musical series "Smash," have signed a development deal with Universal Television and NBC Universal International that will give the companies a first look at series and specials created by the pair for U.S. and international markets.

Universal Television produces "Smash," which will go into its second season after a shakeup that included the departure of series creator Theresa Rebeck.

“Universal Television is thrilled to be continuing and expanding our partnership with Craig and Neil,” executive vice president Bela Bajaria said. “The incredible creativity, vision and intelligence that they bring to all their projects – on television, in film and on Broadway -- is exactly what the future of Universal Television is all about. ‘Smash’ is only the beginning; we look forward to collaborating with them on many exciting projects going forward.”

"We are so excited to be reunited with our longtime collaborator, Bela Bajaria, and to be creating event television for Universal Television, our home for 'Smash' and the upcoming live broadcast of "The Sound of Music,'" Zadan and Meron added.

"The Sound of Music" is slated as a holiday special for NBC.

Celebrity Big Brother 'start date revealed'

Celebrity Big Brother is expected to start back on Wednesday, August 15 on Channel 5.

The show will kick-off only two days after the latest civilian run of the reality show ends on Monday, August 13.

Channel 5 ordered a second run of Celeb Big Brother for 2012, following the ratings success of the Denise Welch, Michael Madsen and Frankie Cocozza series in January.

Duane Chapman aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, former EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison, Sex, Lies And Rinsing Guys documentary star Danica Thrall and So Solid Crew's MC Harvey are among the housemates rumoured to be taking part.

Simon Cowell's ex Jasmine Lennard, comic Julian Clary and Corrie icon Julie Goodyear are other surprising names tipped to be taking part.

The Celebrity run will last 23 days and will be hosted by Brian Dowling.

Emma Willis will continue to host spinoff series Bit on the Side.

'Room 101' renewed by BBC for 13th series

Room 101 has been renewed for a 13th series.

Frank Skinner will return for a second run of the revamped version of the long-running BBC One series, according to Comedy.co.uk.

The show was originally hosted by Nick Hancock and then Paul Merton from 1994 to 2007, before it returned in January 2012 with Skinner as host.

However, the series saw a new format, where three guests per episode nominated items in different categories, rather than just one guest each show.

The eight-part 13th series will shoot in October, with a broadcast expected in early 2013 on BBC One.

Room 101's series finale in March dropped around 800,000 viewers from its launch show.

Ratings: 'Bachelor Pad,' 'Glass House' Hit Lows as Olympics Dominate

Faced with overwhelming competition from the Olympics, ABC's "Bachelor Pad" and "The Glass House" nosedived to ratings lows Monday night, according to preliminary numbers.

NBC took an easy and predictable win in ratings and total viewers with a 10.5 rating/28 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and 31.4 million total viewers. The network's Olympics coverage, which filled its primetime slate, was down slightly from Sunday's numbers, but on par with the equivalent night of 2008's games in Beijing, and up 48 percent in the demo from the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. Overall so far, this year's Summer Olympics are up 9 percent in the demo and 14 percent in total viewers over the Beijing Games.

Univision took second place in the demo and third in total viewers with a 1.3/4 and 3.6 million.

ABC, the only other network to run original programming Monday night, took fifth place in ratings and fourth in total viewers with a 0.9/3 and 2.9 million. "Bachelor Pad" at 8 plunged 27 percent from last week's premiere to a 1.1/3, its lowest rating ever, and received 3.8 million total viewers. "Glass House" at 10 also took a tumble to a new low, dropping 25 percent from last week for a 0.6/2. It had 1.7 million total viewers.

Fox, which ran repeats throughout the night, grabbed third in ratings and fifth in total viewers with a 1.1/3 and 2.9 million. CBS, which also opted for reruns, came in fourth in ratings and second in total viewers, scoring a 1.0/3 and 3.8 million.

Discovery Communications Beats the Street, Posts Q2 Revenue Growth

Discovery Communications Inc's quarterly profit beat market estimates on revenue growth at its international and domestic networks.

The company -- whose cable networks include Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet — forecast full-year revenue of between $4.55 billion and $4.65 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting $4.6 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income available to stockholders rose to $293 million, or 76 cents per share, in the second quarter, from $264 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue increased 7 percent to $1.14 billion.

Analysts had expected earnings of 70 cents per share on revenue of $1.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.