Endgame on Masterpiece Contemporary Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 9Pm on PBS
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biographical notes Endgame on MASteRPIECE CONTEmPORARY Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 9pm on PBS David Tennant Host of MASTERPIECE CONTEMPORARY Just completing his award-winning run as the tenth incarnation of the extraterrestrial crime fighter known as Doctor Who, David Tennant is handing over the protection of the universe to a new Doctor. Meanwhile, he is tackling fresh acting challenges on Earth, such as battling the usurper in Elsinore Castle as Hamlet in the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of the Shakespeare play, which was recently filmed for BBC Two. MASTERPIECE viewers will see him premiere as host of MASTERPIECE CONTEMPORARY in fall 2009, remembering him fondly as the notorious 18th-century lothario Giacomo Casanova in the MASTERPIECE miniseries Casanova, in which he played the youthful counterpart to Peter O’ Toole’s courtly wolf. He was also the flirtatious vicar Reverend Gibson in MASTERPIECE’s He Knew He Was Right and, on BBC America, the down-at-the-heel Inspector Peter Carlisle in the cult hit Viva Blackpool. Millions of moviegoers know Tennant as Barty Crouch Junior in the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Ginger Littlejohn in Stephen Fry’s Bright Young Things. He recently worked with Bill Nighy, Romola Garai, and Julie Christie in the Stephen Poliakoff film Glorious 39, which will be released later this year. Currently, he is shooting the latest film in the comedy series St. Trinian's, in which he plays the villian Pomfrey. Chiwetel Ejiofor Thabo Mbeki in Endgame Hailed by the London Observer as “one of the best British actors of his generation,” Chiwetel Ejiofor broke into film in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 epic Amistad. He returned to the big screen in Stephen Frears’ 2002 thriller Dirty Pretty Things, winning a raft of acting awards for his starring role as Okwe, a Nigerian doctor who stumbles into a sinister criminal enterprise in London. In 2006, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Tsunami: The Aftermath, and in 2008, he won the prestigious Olivier Award for his starring role in Othello at London’s Donmar Warehouse theater. His other films include Ridley Scott’s American Gangster; Talk to Me, in which he played opposite Don Cheadle; Love Actually; and Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda. He has also portrayed a drag queen in Kinky Boots, a police detective in Spike Lee’s Inside Man and starred opposite Clive Owen in the Oscar-nominated Children of Men. His latest work includes the upcoming spy thriller Salt, directed by Philip Noyce, with Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber and the science fiction disaster spectacle 2012, opening in November, in which he stars opposite Danny Glover. MASTERPIECE, biographical notes, page 2 Jonny Lee Miller Michael Young in Endgame PBS viewers caught a glimpse of the up-and-coming Jonny Lee Miller in early ’90s episodes of Inspector Morse, Prime Suspect and Cadfael. That was before he made his indelible mark as a teenage computer genius opposite Angelina Jolie in the thriller Hackers. Soon after, he created a sensation as the drug-addicted punk, Sick Boy, in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, starring opposite Ewan MacGregor and Robert Carlyle. Miller’s auspicious beginning led to a span of dramas and comedies ranging from 18th-century period pieces to contemporary tales, including the films The Flying Scotsman, which garnered him a Scottish BAFTA nomination for Best Actor, Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda, Alan Rudolph’s Afterglow and the feature film of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Miller’s television work includes the role of Texas Ranger Woodrow Call in Larry McMurtry’s Dead Man’s Walk and the title character in the critically acclaimed ABC series Eli Stone. This year, he’s making his Broadway debut opposite Sienna Miller in Patrick Marber’s After Miss Julie. And in early 2010 the legions of Jane Austen fans will see him find true love as Mr. Knightley in a new production of Emma on MASTERPIECE CLASSIC. Michael Young Mediator in the talks that ended apartheid in South Africa (portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller) “In February 1986 of a despairing year, a man in his early forties steered a hired car on to the freeway that leads out of Cape Town into the vast South African interior.” That man, introduced at the outset of Robert Harvey’s extraordinary history, The Fall of Apartheid, was Michael Young, then head of public affairs and communication for Consolidated Goldfields. Young’s lonely drive marked the start of an odyssey that would find him mediating top-secret negotiations between the African National Congress and the Afrikaner establishment, bringing the adversaries face to face in a series of covert discussions in the UK. The talks exposed Young to surveillance, risk of assassination and the disavowal of his activities and loss of his job if his mission became known. Against all odds, he paved the way for a more formal and public negotiating process that led to democracy in South Africa. Early in his career, Young was an advisor to British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Prime Minister Edward Heath, until he broke with the Conservative Party after the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister in 1979. He is currently chairman of Michael Young Associates, which specializes in strategic planning, change management and conflict resolution. MASTERPIECE, biographical notes, page 3 Rebecca Eaton, executive producer MASTERPIECE Since taking over the helm of the PBS series MASTERPIECE THEATRE and MYSTERY! in 1985, Eaton has been responsible for such high-profile titles as Prime Suspect, Bleak House, The Lost Prince, Inspector Morse, Miss Marple, The Complete Jane Austen, Cranford, Tony Hillerman’s Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits, A Thief of Time, Wallander and this year’s Emmy-nominated Little Dorrit. She has accrued a bookcase of accolades, including twenty-one Primetime Emmy Awards, sixteen Peabody Awards, a Golden Globe and two Academy Award nominations for the MASTERPIECE co-production Mrs. Brown. In 2008, she oversaw the highly successful launch of the new MASTERPIECE, with new scheduling (Classic, Mystery! and Contemporary), new hosts and a new look. The revamped series has drawn a new generation of drama fans, and at the same time increased the size of the series’ core audience. Rebecca Eaton’s distinguished career has earned her the official recognition of Queen Elizabeth II—with an honorary OBE (Officer, Order of the British Empire), presented by the British ambassador in Washington, DC, in 2003. An alumna of Vassar College, Eaton was a producer for the BBC World Service before coming to WGBH. Endgame is a Daybreak Pictures production presented by Channel 4, Target Entertainment Group and MASTERPIECE. The screenplay is by Paula Milne based on the book The Fall of Apartheid by Robert Harvey. The director is Pete Travis. The producers are Hal Vogel and David Aukin. The executive producers are Liza Marshall for Channel 4, Arwel Rees for Tinopolis, Ian Jones and Alison Rayson for Target, and Rebecca Eaton for MASTERPIECE. MASTERPIECE is presented on PBS by WGBH. Rebecca Eaton is executive producer. Public television viewers provide funding for MASTERPIECE. July 2009 pbs.org/masterpiece Online press materials available at pressroom.wgbh.org and pbs.org/pressroom WGBH press contacts Ellen Dockser, 617-300-5338, [email protected] Olivia Wong, 617-300-5349, [email protected].