Help a London Child smashed its £1million target during an on-air fundraising appeal this weekend.

A cast of celebrity supporters joined the special weekend of programming including Ricky Gervais, Elizabeth Hurley Sugagbabes, Rooster, Jade Goody, Claire Sweeney, Aldo Zilli, Martin Freeman and Jake Maskall (aka Danny Moon – Eastenders) plus Capital Radio presenters, Craig Doyle, Margherita Taylor, Johnny Vaughan and Jeremy Kyle.

Some of the auction prizes donated included:

• A shopping trip with Elizabeth Hurley (sold for £5,500)
• Chelsea Football club once in a lifetime experience (sold for £38,500)
• Meet and Greet with Westlife (sold for £4,500) , Sugababes (sold for £610)
• Behind the scenes trip to the Extras set with Ricky Gervais and Chris Martin (sold for £1,000)
• A lunch date with Tara Palmer Tomkinson and Duncan James (sold for £3,000)
• A round of golf with Jeremy Kyle and Johnny Vaughan (sold for £4,500)

One package which generated the most interest was the Breakfast Show itself. Johnny kicked off the bidding on Friday morning and by the end of the show Pimlico Plumbers were the proud owners of the breakfast show after bidding an astounding £36,500 out bidding a local bailiff company after a fierce bidding war.

A spokesperson for Pimlico Plumber commented: "Events like Help a London Child make you realise that there is still a strong community feel to living in the capital and we are delighted to be able to put something back into the capital to support local causes."

This year the Appeal focused on the shocking fact that 1 in 3 children in London live below the poverty line. This means that many children living in London cannot afford a hot daily meal, clothing or haven’t even got a roof over their heads. Capital Radio’s Help a London Child (HALC) improves the lives of these vulnerable children and this year we need your help more than ever before.

Johnny Vaughan said: " I am so proud of our city for raising such a staggering amount of money which will go a long way to improving the lives of children and their families."

July 24, 2006 - Neil Sean - Metro.co.uk - The Office is set to kick off again with the UK cast over in the US ' but will all cast members agree to act in it? Martin Freeman who played Tim in the show was a huge hit but I am told is 'way too busy with movies to return'

Greenaway explores Rembrandt's life, work
By Ab Zagt
The Hollywood Reporter
July 11, 2006

AMSTERDAM -- If you look closely at "The Nightwatch," the most famous painting of Rembrandt van Rijn, a shot is being fired in the background. "A murder is committed and all the killers are on the canvas," suggests British director Peter Greenaway, who will present this very personal view in his new film "Nightwatching," an unorthodox look at the life and work of arguably the Netherlands' most famous painter. The film could be described as his take on the Rembrandt Code.

"Nightwatching" starts shooting in August in Poland, where Rembrandt's house has been fully recreated. From there, the $8 million production will move to Wales and the Netherlands. After a long search, producer Kees Kasander found his leading man in English actor Martin Freeman, known from the BBC comedy hit "The Office." Rotterdam-based Kasander had high hopes to seduce Philip Seymour Hoffman for the role but the Oscar-winning actor declined, saying he didn't want to make another biopic right after "Capote."

Kasander also faced another problem with his choice of lead. "Peter will present Rembrandt as a man of flesh and blood, so there will be some male nudity in it. My experience is that many male actors have a problem with performing naked in front of a camera," he says.

Kasander says he's very happy with Freeman. "I realize he is unknown for a large part of the audience, but that is an advantage," he says. Sarah Polley plays the painter's wife, Saskia. Minnie Driver, Matthew Modine and Sam Neill are also among the cast.

With an anticipated premiere at next year's Festival de Cannes, Greenaway's film will arrive too late to benefit from the massive celebrations marking 400 years since Rembrandt's birth on July 15, 1606. The Netherlands is in the midst of an invasion of tourists, with at least 1.5 million tourists expected to visit Leiden and Amsterdam, the two cities where Rembrandt spent most of his life. Tourists have a choice of at least 20 Rembrandt-related exhibitions, dozens of tours and excursions, plus two musicals about the artist and his colorful private life, one even with a Japanese translation.

These include an installation by Greenaway himself, also called "Nightwatching," in which he sets out what he believes is happening in the painting. With clever lighting and sound effects used over the original canvas in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, the director suggests who is killed, why, how and by whom.

"Rembrandt is some kind of Sherlock Holmes here. 'The Nightwatch' could be regarded as an episode of 'CSI' or a story like 'Murder on the Orient Express,'" Greenaway argues.

The Sun Online - Bizarre online: Brits head for US Office
By Derek Robins
July 10, 2006

Ricky Gervais and other members of the original cast of The Office are set to guest star in the US version of the hit BBC comedy.

US executive producer Ben Silverman says it will be case of Slough meets Scranton, Pennsylvania when the British actors guest in a special episode being planned.

He told the New York Post: “Expect some cameos from the UK paper company.

“There’s a lot of love between the casts and crews of the two versions of the show.”

He added that Ricky, who created monstrous office manager David Brent with Stephen Marchant, probably won’t appear in the special.

Ricky is an executive producer on the US series and is writing an upcoming episode that he may appear in.

Silverman added: “We’re going to save the big man for now.”

Among those who could make cameos are Pirates Of The Caribbean star Mackenzie Crook who played Gareth; Martin Freeman (Tim); Lucy Davis (Dawn).

After a slow start, the US show is beginning to repeat some of the huge success of the original. Last week it received five Emmy nominations including best comedy actor for its star Steve Carell.

Freeman Rocks With The Blockheads
Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)
June 12, 2006

Actor MARTIN FREEMAN was terrified of performing with British rockers THE BLOCKHEADS on Friday (09JUN06), because he had to fill in for late frontman IAN DURY.

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY star sang ONE LOVE with Dury's former bandmates at London venue The 100 Club, and his new movie CONFETTI features the group's calypso-style track.

Although humble Freeman feared he could not step into Dury's shoes, the HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK hitmakers were thrilled with their guest star.

Freeman said, "I was very nervous. They said they wanted something 'different', but I thought I'd be too different. I'm not in the band, I felt like I was taking up valuable air backstage! "I was really worried about forgetting the words, but as an actor, I learn words by rote, so I guess it's the same." Blockheads drummer DYLAN HOWE, son of YES guitarist STEVE, says, "He did really well. It's no mean feat performing for Blockheads fans, but they loved him.

"We're proud our music is featured in such a great British film, so we wanted to return the favour and get Martin on stage."

Martin Freeman's swearing dilemma
Showbiz News - Life Style Extra
May 19, 2006

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - 'Confetti' star Martin Freeman can't stop swearing.

However, the actor - who is best known for playing Tim in the UK sitcom, 'The Office' - says the director of his new movie did give him free reign to curse in scene.

He confessed: "It felt great when I got to let rip because I'd spent most of the filming being told that I was swearing too much and that I was becoming less sympathetic the more I swore.

"So all the time I was trying not to swear so much, so when I did get to swear in that scene it does actually mean something, it has an impact.

Freeman admitted that the film maker had a point - but it wasn't easy.

He said: "If I'd have been f'ing all over the place it wouldn't have meant anything. Now, you know he's a man who's p***ed off about something because he's telling his mother-in-law to shut the f**k up. It felt very good though."

(c) BANG Media International.

Martin Freeman to play Rembrandt
By Ab Zagt - Entertainment News Article | Reuters.co.uk
May 2, 2006

AMSTERDAM (Hollywood Reporter) - Actor Martin Freeman will play Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn in "Nightwatching," which director Peter Greenaway will begin shooting next month, said producer Kees Kasander.

"Nightwatching" will focus on the creation of "The Nightwatch," one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings, and the effect it had on his private life. The women in his life will be played by Sarah Polley (Saskia) and Minnie Driver (Geertje). The project is closely linked with an exhibition on Rembrandt, also titled "Nightwatching," developed by Greenaway for the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.

The film is part of the massive celebration of the 400th birthday of Rembrandt this year in the Netherlands. At least 1.5 million tourists are expected to visit Leiden and Amsterdam, the cities where Rembrandt spent most of his life.

Shooting of "Nightwatching" will take place in the Netherlands, Poland and Wales. The budget of the film is about EUR6 million (4 million pounds). The life of Rembrandt has been portrayed in several other films, including Alexander Korda's 1936 biopic "Rembrandt."

Freeman's credits include "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Shaun of the Dead."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

The Sun Online - Bizarre online: Martin is fan of US Office
By Beci Wood
May 4, 2006

MARTIN FREEMAN has confessed he is huge fan of the US Office.

Despite having formed a successful Hollywood career, Martin is still best-known for his role as loveable Tim in the UK version of the hit series.

Speaking at the premiere of his new movie Confetti last night, he said: “I love the US Office. I don’t think it’s as good as the British one but it’s still really good.

“If I didn’t know anything about the British version it is still a show I would definitely tune in for.”

Meanwhile, Martin has ruled out hopes for an UK Office comeback.

“I don’t think The Office will ever come back. It was good that it ended when it did.

“If I did get asked back I’d think that Ricky Gervais was pi**ed and not aware of what he is doing.

“Ricky would need to be quite mullered to agree to do the Office again. He doesn’t need to.”

Not A Free Man - Martin to play death row prisoner
Chortle.com
March 27, 2006

The Office’s Martin Freeman is to star as a Death Row prisoner in the stage drama The Exonerated.

Guest stars regularly join the powerful show, including Catherine Tate and the League Of Gentlemen’s Steve Pemberton last week.

Freeman has now been confirmed for the week of April 25.

The Exonerated is playing at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, West London, following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe last year.

The play, by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, presents the true stories of six innocent people who survived Death Row, using the actual words of prisoners taken from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and the public record.

Other names confirmed for the coming weeks include Danny Glover, Mike McShane and Suzi Quartro.

IGN: Martin Freeman Gets Hot Fuzz
March 1, 2006

Working Title Films today announced the cast for Hot Fuzz, the second feature from star Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright, creators of the highly successful Shaun of the Dead. Joining Shaun of the Dead alums Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are Martin Freeman (BBC's The Office, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Timothy Dalton (Licence to Kill), Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge) and Steve Coogan (Tristram Shandy).

The movie, which Working Title confirms will begin principal photography this month, follows the foibles of London's best police officer, Nicholas Angel (Pegg), as he's reassigned by his envying superiors to furthest suburbia. There, in the village of Sandford, the action-oriented officer partners with the laidback Constable Butterman (Frost), and sees little action. That is, until citizens of the quaint village begin turning up dead.

Produced by Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead), Tim Bevan (Fargo) and Eric Fellner (Love Actually), with associate producer Natascha Wharton (My Little Eye), Hot Fuzz will be released - next year in the US, we hope - by Working Title in association with Big Talk Productions.

"We're delighted to once again be joining creative forces with Working Title on this very exciting and very British film," says producer Nira Park. "Together, we're looking forward to giving the police action genre the same treatment we gave the living dead in 2004."

Motown Made To Measure - Various : album review
musicOMH.com

UK release date: 6 February 2006

The marketing bods at Motown appear to have been working overtime. This new series of CDs feature actors, musicians and artists choosing their favourite tracks from the legendary back catalogue. This inaugural compilation has been handpicked by self confessed soul aficionado Martin Freeman- aka Tim from The Office.

I'm not quite sure why that's a hook for the discerning consumer but there seems to be a knowledgeable passion for the tracks on offer. However, the whole concept leaves you scratching your head as to who this is supposed to appeal to.

Initially, the track listing sets of a few potential alarm bells as about a third of these tracks will be familiar from just about any other soul compilation you might already have. The album kicks off party style with The Jackson 5's I Want You Back. Never Can Say Goodbye also crops up later with other Motown staples such as It's a Shame and Tears Of A Clown.

Thankfully Freeman's soul savvy kicks in to great effect in places as the album contains some tracks you wouldn't normally expect. Instead of plundering the more obvious Marvin Gaye tracks he opts for the relative obscurity of the Trouble Man soundtrack and Please Stay instead of the predictable Let's Get It On. There are also more leftfield tracks on offer from Diana Ross with The Supremes and Edwin Starr.

Attention seems to have been given to the track order and the compilation starts and ends on a high, flowing well in between. It's clear that these songs have stood the test of time and that's why they're still worth listening to today- from the excellent, almost OTT vocals on The Originals' The Bells to the exciting candy-pop of Stevie Wonder's Sugar it's clear that these songs really do have soul. My personal favourites include Frankie Valli's The Night (a fast faced past lounge-esqe hit) and the out and out funk of The Commodores' I Feel Sanctified.

Top marks for the music, but this CD scores badly in its value for money and marketing. If there's a Detroit sized hole in your record collection you could do a lot worse. However, if this is the sort of thing you like then it's likely you'll have most of this already. Recent compilations such as Gilles Peterson's excellently sublime Digs America appear to have raised the compilation bar and I can't help thinking that this sort of thing is best left to the DJs rather than TV stars.

- Darren Lee

His fellow judges include The Office star Martin Freeman, film director Anthony Minghella, comic Jenny Eclair and actor Martin Clunes.

Inventory: 10 TV Romances For The Ages | The A.V. Club
By Noel Murray
February 8th, 2006

3. Tim Canterbury and Dawn Tinsley (as played by Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis), The Office

The original British version of The Office hilariously skewers cubicle drudgery and the delusions of reality-TV stars, but the show's heart is in the poignantly awkward dance of seduction between underachieving paper salesman Tim and engaged receptionist Dawn. It's a sweet story, in part because anyone who's ever flirted with a co-worker knows that Tim and Dawn's dalliance is born more of boredom than true love. The American version has handled the relationship surprisingly well—thanks to sympathetic performances by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer—but the new series' open-ended nature means we're unlikely to see a moment as heart-stopping as the one where Tim detaches his microphone to go tell Dawn how he feels, then returns, puts the mike back on, glances into the camera, and says, "She said no."

Cruz and DeVito Have a Good Night
Source: Variety
November 4, 2005

Penelope Cruz and Danny DeVito have joined The Good Night, the romantic comedy that marks the directorial debut of Jake Paltrow, reports Variety.

The film begins shooting November 14 in London, with a few days of shooting in New York in January to establish the setting. Gwyneth Paltrow, Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg also star.

Jake Paltrow wrote the script for the New York-set comedy that will star Freeman as a washed-up pop star who writes ad jingles and suffers a midlife crisis. Cruz will play the object of his romantic interests, and DeVito plays a dream doctor who tries to get the troubled man back on track

Not enough verbal fisticuffs
Reviewed by Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard
October 17, 2005

Blue Eyes And Heels
Soho Theatre And Writers' Centre

Dir: Jonathan Lloyd With Martin Freeman

If someone had made slashing cuts on Toby Whithouse's laborious 90-minute satire on the exploitative vacuousness of today's television, perhaps a tolerable half-hour playlet might have emerged.

Blue Eyes and Heels is trapped in repetitive mockery and reminiscence syndrome, not to mention chronic verbosity, with Martin Freeman's odiously real TV producer, Duncan, making a sad and furious fool of Victor, John Stahl's relic of a wrestler.

Jonathan Fensom's boxing-ring stage design offers false hopes of conflict. The only dramatic incident, when Whithouse's inert prose stumbles into vivacious life, bursts out of the blue. For a few minutes the stage is dominated by verbal fisticuffs in Jonathan Lloyd's tame production.

Freeman's riveting Duncan, a cynical young hustler with a frozen heart and morals in tatters, argues populism is television's only gold-standard: you must dumb down to the lowerdepths and pander to a "stupid, frightening, violent public".

Serena Evans's Emma makes a far less trenchant and vaguer case for producer's "integrity" and "taste". The dispute is contained in the rickety framework of fifty-plus Victor's endless recollections of his wrestling heydays, which Whithouse retails in excessive, monologuing nostalgia.

In crudish satire, the author aims a few smacks at opportunist Duncan and the precariousness of the TV producer's life. Victor dressed to wrestle and kill as the masked Count of Monte Cristo is transformed into an Elephant Man Paedophile in a bid to make Wrestling freshly sensational TV.

When this wrestler becomes a casualty of double-dealing and accuses Duncan of giving him false hopes, the producer retorts with a suitably witty requiem for human decency and for a media that aims above the lowest common denominator: "If I've ever given hope it was entirely unintentional."

Until 5 November. Information: 0870 429 6883

Trio Looks Good to Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow, Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg will star for Paltrow's brother Jake in The Good Night.
By Mark Umbach - Film Stew.com
October 11, 2005

The Paltrows are keeping it in the family. Daily Variety reports the Gwyneth Paltrow, along with Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg, have joined the cast of The Good Night, a romantic comedy to be directed by Paltrow's brother, Jake Paltrow. The film will shoot at London's Ealing Studios beginning on November 7. The project will then move to New York for a few days in January before wrapping.

Jake Paltrow also penned the script that centers on a former pop star (Freeman) searching for the idealized life in a world that is all too full of disappointment. Suffering from an early mid-life crisis, the former star now must write advertising jingles in order to make a living. He soon meets a girl who he takes a romantic interest in, and her life becomes much different in his idealized fantasies. Gwyneth Paltrow and Pegg will take on supporting roles, while the leading lady has not yet been cast.

Donna Gigliotti is the producer on the film. Financing for the $15 million-budgeted project is coming from Inferno Distribution, an L.A.-based sales company run by Bill Johnson and Jim Feibel.

Paltrow, an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love, can currently be seen with Jake Gyllenhaal in Proof, while Freeman, best known for his work in the original British version of The Office, recently starred on the big screen in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pegg has been seen on the big screen in Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead.

A real job for the Office boy
By Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard
October 4, 2005

Martin Freeman isn't naming names, but he's fed up with comedians who think they are actors."It's hard enough for actors anyway. There's a rollercoaster of dreadful casting that no one has the guts to stop. There's nothing more painful than seeing comics who can't act - it makes me want to set fire to people's f****** houses."

If Freeman isn't naming names, we know the kind of casting he might be referring to: probably the stage full of a dozen stand-up comedians in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, possibly Alan Davies and Bill Bailey in The Odd Couple.

Harsh words, nevertheless, from the comic actor best known as frustrated romantic Tim who finally waddled off into the Slough sunset with receptionist Dawn at the end of the final episode of The Office in 2003. Especially since he is about to return to the London stage.

But then, when Freeman starts his three-and-a-half-week run of Blue Eyes and Heels at Soho Theatre next week, he will be returning to what he considers his real job.

Hardly idle since the demise of The Office, he has since notched up another two TV sitcoms, Hardware and The Robinsons, and two films, Love, Actually and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

With that CV, he could have had his pick of roles, but he opted for a low-key off-West End production of a new play. It is a sharp, succinct comedy about media politics in which he plays a producer grappling with the revival of ITV wrestling.

"Career-wise," Freeman admits, "this is not what I should be doing, but I really like the play and there aren't many things that I really like. I wanted to avoid anything that was too commercial. It's not that I want to be poor, it's just that I don't want money to be the main thing."

The project reunites Freeman with writer Toby Whithouse, whose last play, Jump, Mr Malinoff, Jump, he also starred in, at the same theatre in 2000. That was pre-Office days; Freeman is nothing if not loyal.

His latest role, as a wise-cracking, high-flying TV executive, might be something of a departure, but you could say that Freeman has developed a niche in everyman characters: long-suffering Tim; the unlikely suburban hero, Arthur Dent, in Hitchhiker's Guide; the genial shop assistant in Hardware. But you say it to him at your peril.

"When people call me an everyman they think it's a compliment," he rants. "I want to rip their f****** eyeballs out. I don't want to be the cosiest man in Britain; it's not the way I feel about the world or the job I do."

Frequent expletives aside, initial appearances certainly suggest a cosiness to this affable 34-year-old. When we meet, at his agent's Soho office, he brings his pet miniature wirehaired dachshund, Archie, for company and when the pooch leaves a puddle by the door, Freeman solicitously mops it up in a caring, cosy way.

Yet he has told me before that his reputation among friends for intolerance earned him the nickname Uncle Joe, after Stalin. I wonder what they think of his part in Marks & Spencer's new celebrity ad campaign, which features him prominently?

"I've always worn M&S. Doesn't everyone?" he demands. "And it wasn't a charity gig - it was being shot by David Bailey and that doesn't come along every day."

You have to admire Freeman for branching out. The Office, though, continues to cast a long shadow over his career. He still sees Ricky Gervais regularly and one can't help wondering if they've ever discussed the possibility of bringing Tim back to life, if not in The Office, maybe in a domestic spin-off with Dawn?

"I'd happily work with Ricky again but it's not on the cards. He'd have to write something for me and I'd have to worry about it being the old team - 'remember us, folks?'. It's like all the old bands getting back together, why not acknowledge that something good happened and then have the guts to move on?"

As his latest play points up, Freeman is big on exercising this kind of restraint. He could easily have chosen, for example, to use the cult success of Hitchhiker's Guide as a springboard into Hollywood.

"I could have made more of it by going over there but I don't even have an American agent," he says. He talks fondly of films such as Serpico and Chinatown, but contemporary Tinseltown fills him with barely concealed disgust.

"I'm not interested in living that life. I've never wanted to go to lovely LA; I want to go to where there are in the business of playing French with a hump, that's not acting either.

"I was a well-respected actor before The Office and there's lots of other work I've been proud of that is less well known. I consider myself primarily a stage actor and if people were only giving me work now because of Tim I'd feel a bit of a fraud. It's funny because until I became the nicest man in Britain I tended to be cast as villains, drug dealers, rent boys and bare-knuckle fighters."

Even in The Office, he reveals, he nearly avoided the romantic storyline that melted viewers' hearts. "I originally read for the part of Gareth [that went to MacKenzie Crook]. It was only as I was leaving that Ricky asked me to read for Tim."

He spotted the genius of Gervais in the original script and is clearly a passionate comedy fan. He has just filmed an interview for a BBC2 tribute to The Goodies, the post-Python comedy he loved as a child.

"I was seven at the time. I trust everything I liked when I was seven - Jerry Lewis, Laurel and Hardy, Tom and Jerry - there's a lot to be said for that kind of honest judgment before you start worrying about what you should and shouldn't like. Does it make you laugh? That's the only criterion worth bothering about."

If one wanted to play amateur psychologist, one could say that Freeman's abiding love for Seventies culture - whether it is The Goodies, the early films of Al Pacino, or the music of The Jam - ties in with the fact that his earliest years may have been his most idyllic, before his parents divorced. Unusually Freeman went to live with his father.

It didn't seem strange at the time but I suppose it is," he accepts. "It was just the way things were. It was quite a civilised separation and when my mum was back on her feet financially, I moved back with her."

As a teenager, he joined Teddington Youth Theatre where he found his vocation and quickly landed a place at the Central School Of Speech And Drama. After stints in The Bill and Casualty - "the modern equivalent of rep" - he worked steadily until the breakthrough with Tim.

These days he has his own family to think about. His long-term partner, actor Amanda Abbington, is expecting their first baby in December. And then there's Archie, who needs his regular walks around Crouch End. Being spotted in the street is "the absolute downside" of fame, but it's worth the hassle for Archie's sake. Maybe Martin Freeman isn't quite the Mr Angry he'd like to think he is.

Blue Eyes and Heels is at Soho Theatre (0870 429 6883)12 Oct-5 Nov.

The Robinsons
By N.F. Mendoza
The Hollywood Reporter
September 30, 2005

Bottom line: Hilarious and engaging.

Even though they're from "across the pond," BBC America's newest family, "The Robinsons," happily has enough dysfunction to be familiar, hilarious and engaging. Starring "The Office's" very likable Martin Freeman, the comedy focuses on Freeman's Ed, whom Americans might call a "lovable loser." The same goes for his neurotic family.

His siblings conventionally are over-achieving success stories, but Ed, recently fired by his ex-lover no less, can't seem to get anything right. His marriage ended after less than six months, his wife declaring him "useless in bed."

Freeman provides an effectively caustic voice-over narration to scenes that explain the state of the family. For example, one "heroic" ancestor is seen dressed as a woman in order to board a lifeboat -- on the Titanic. The cast features accomplished actors recognizable to fans of British period dramas. Anna Massey ("The Importance of Being Earnest") plays Ed's snappish mother, Richard Johnson is Ed's beleaguered father, Hugh Bonneville ("Daniel Deronda") is his uptight older brother, Amanda Root ("Persuasion") is Ed's put-upon sister-in-law and Abigail Cruttenden ("Anna Karenina") his impossible-to-please sister.

Written, produced and directed by Justin Sbresni and Mark Bussell, the six-episode, quietly quirky series will leave audiences wanting more.

Martin Freeman hits the West End - Don't tell anyone
BBC - Radio 1 News
May 25, 2005

The star of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'The Office' says he started out in the theatre and has been looking to get back on the stage for a while but he's a bit embarrassed about it all.

He doesn't want to use his fame to get bums on seats:

"I'd rather do it anonymously."

"The opportunity to do something big in the West End or to be the vehicle of a thing - I don't really like that as a punter.

"I think the play is everything, the play has to be the star of it."

"I'm doing it in a small place in Soho and I hope no-one knows I'm in it."

Fresh from schmoozing with Slartibartfast over on Magrathea, Martin Freeman is to make a stylish return to Earth. Freeman, who rocketed to fame in The Office and is currently wearing a dressing gown in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy film, will star in Toby Whithouse’s latest play, Blue Eyes And Heels, when it opens at the Soho Theatre, London later this year.

Blue Eyes And Heels will be directed by the Soho’s Associate Director Jonathan Lloyd, who also directed Freeman in Toby Whithouse’s Jump Mr Malinoff Jump at The Soho, in Spring 2000. Freeman’s most recent appearance on this terrestrial stage came when he starred in Kosher Harry at the Royal Court in 2002.

Blue Eyes And Heels provides a bleakly funny insight into the world of modern media, where Martin Freeman plays an ambitious TV producer looking to bring live wrestling back to the small screen. Aficionados of reality television will be aware that such a concept is hardly far-fetched, as Celebrity Wrestling totters into action tomorrow.

The show will offer science fiction fans plenty to get excited about, combining Freeman’s Hitchhiker routes with Whithouse’s Dr Who experience (he penned an episode of the latest series).

Blue Eyes And Heels will open in October 2005, we will bring you more details just as soon as they exist.

Celebrity Birthdays

Sept. 8: Comedian Sid Caesar is 83. Actor David Arquette is 34. Actor Henry Thomas ("E.T.") is 34. Actor Martin Freeman ("The Office") is 34. Actor Larenz Tate ("Crash") is 30. Singer Pink is 26. Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas ("Home Improvement") is 24.

Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman and Bob Mortimer for M&S

M&S turns to comedians to promote designer suit collection
By Sam Matthews
Brand Republic
August 17, 2005

LONDON – Marks & Spencer has signed comedians Bob Mortimer, Jimmy Carr and 'The Office' star Martin Freeman for its latest print campaign to promote a new range of suits.

The ads, shot by acclaimed fashion photographer David Bailey, feature the comedians in dark suits and coloured shirts designed by leading menswear designers Timothy Everest and Nigel Hall. The campaign has been created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.

The suits form part of the retailer's Autograph collection, which, like womenswear label Per Una, offers designer clothes at high street prices. M&S also announced the collection is to be rolled out across 180 of its stores, instead of the usual flagship 30.

It remains to be seen whether the comedians will be able to reverse M&S's fortunes. Latest figures from the ailing retailer show clothing sales have plummeted 9.2% in the second quarter to July.

Carr, host of Channel 4 celebrity gameshow '8 Out of 10 Cats', joked: "Who doesn't wear M&S underwear? They've been 'supporting' me for years and now I'm glad I've got a suit to wear as well. Marks & Spencer is a great British institution and I am very happy to be associated with it."

Steve Sharp, M&S marketing director, said: "Who better to put some wit into our new Autograph campaign than the snappy-dressing British comedians Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman and Bob Mortimer? They're all individuals with a great sense of style."

Freeman is best known for appearing in 'The Office' and the recent movie version of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', while Mortimer is best known for 'Shooting Stars'.

The trio join a long list of celebrities who have promoted the fashion retailer including England captain David Beckham, pop star Rachel Stevens, presenter Cat Deeley, actor Ruper Everett and actress Dame Helen Mirren.

GEEK CHIC
But can this ad campaign save troubled M&S?
By Jessica Callan
Mirror.co.uk
August 17, 2005

TROUBLED Marks & Spencer is hoping this comedy trio will help revive their men's flagging fashion sales.

Comedian Jimmy Carr, Office star Martin Freeman and TV comic and presenter Bob Mortimer are the new faces of the High Street giant's upmarket Autograph line.

The new advertisements show the three modelling M&S's line of dark suits and shirts by top British designers Timothy Everest and Nigel Hall.

The pictures were shot by famous fashion photographer David Bailey. Comic Carr, 32, wears a pink shirt and blue grey tie and office temp Freeman, 33, models a casual purple stripy shirt.

Mortimer, 46, looks every inch a casually dressed solicitor - the job he walked away from to form his comic pairing with Vic Reeves.

Carr said: "Who doesn't wear M&S underwear? They've been supporting me for years and now I'm glad I've got a suit to wear as well.

"Marks & Spencer is a great British institution and I'm very happy to be associated with it." The suits will be on sale across the UK from next month. It is a radical switch for M&S, who previously used high profile stars to promote their clothing range.

A source said: "Marks & Spencer had used high-profile names such as David Beckham who fronted the DB07 children's range.

"Joan Collins, Cat Deeley, Sean Bean and Denise Van Outen have also been involved in M&S's Christmas adverts.

"But the firm thought they'd try something completely different this time around.

"Jimmy, Martin and Bob may not be supermodels or A-listers but they all look like any ordinary British man and that's where their appeal lies." M&S marketing director Steve Sharp said: "Who better to put some wit into our new Autograph campaign than the snappy dressing comedians Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman and Bob Mortimer.

"They are all individuals with a great sense of style as these shots by legendary fashion photographer David Bailey show. Great quality, great style, amazing value - you'll be laughing!"

Latest M&S sales figures show a fall of 5.4 per cent in the three months to July 9, with clothing plunging 9.2 per cent.

If you are interested in visiting the Marks & Spencer web site:

RA: Resident Advisor - Underworld caught Breakin' and Enterin' Hollywood - General News
Words: Michael Ta
August 8, 2005

Underworld (Rick Smith and Karl Hyde) will be composing the filmscore along with Gabriel Yared (“Cold Mountain”) for the new movie by writer and director Anthony Minghella.

Best known for directing the acclaimed 1996 movie, "The English Patient," Minghella's newest film, Breaking and Entering stars Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn, Vera Farmiga, Martin Freeman, Ray Winstone and Mark Benton. The contemporary drama is a co-production between Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company, the interim name of Bob and Harvey Weinstein's new company.

A story about theft, both criminal and emotional, "Breaking and Entering" follows a disparate group of long-term Londoners and new arrivals whose lives cross paths in the inner-city area of King's Cross. When a landscape architect's state of the art offices in a seedy part of town are repeatedly burgled, his investigations launch him out of the safety of his familiar world.

No set date for the movie's theatrical release has been announced but keep your eyes peeled.

Trio Goes Breaking and Entering
Coming Soon.net
Source: Mary
May 25, 2005

Screen Daily reports that Martin Freeman, Ray Winstone and Mark Benton have joined writer/director Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering, which has started shooting in London.

The previously announced cast members include Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn and Vera Farmiga. The film is a co-production between Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company.

The project is a contemporary story about theft, both emotional and criminal. The story follows an encounter between a yuppie architect and a young Muslim thief who breaks into his office. A series of related incidents leads the architect to re-evaluate his life.

Martin Freeman in Cannes © PA

Straight Role for Comedy Star
By Anita Singh, PA Showbusiness Editor in Cannes
May 16, 2005

Freeman will appear in Anthony Minghella's new film Breaking and Entering.

He and Law play partners in a London architecture firm.

The film is a morality tale which explores attitudes towards immigration.

The cast includes Ray Winstone, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn.

Minghella previously directed The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley and Cold Mountain.

"The film is set in contemporary London and I play Jude Law's business partner," Freeman said.

"It's a straight role for me. I have played them before but I'm very much associated with comedy and that's something I'm trying to rectify. It's nice to have a balance between comedy and serious stuff."

The 33-year-old found fame as Tim in TV series The Office.

But he is now heading for Hollywood stardom after his lead role in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which has topped the box office on both sides of the Atlantic.

Breaking and Entering begins shooting shortly and is set for release next year.

Freeman revealed details of the Minghella project while in Cannes to promote his latest film, The All Together.

In the low-budget British comedy he plays Chris, a frustrated daytime TV producer whose life goes from bad to worse when he returns home to find an American gangster has taken over his flat.

Movie News: Martin Feeman and Gavin Claxton team up for The All Together
By James Wray
Monsters and Critics
May 15, 2005

Gavin Claxton, director of a new British comedy, The All Together, and the film's star, Martin Freeman (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, BBC's The Office) are set to announce a new comedy feature film called The All Together.

The All Together is written and directed by Gavin Claxton and stars Martin Freeman, Corey Johnson (The Mummy, Hellboy), Velibor Topic (Kingdom of Heaven, Snatch), Danny Dyer (The Football Factory, Human Traffic), Richard Harrington (Spooks) and Amanda Abbington (Coupling, Teachers).

The film is produced by Annabel Raftery (Establishment Films) with executive producers Marion Pilowsky (Being Julia, Trauma) and Colin Leventhal (Where the Truth Lies, Libertine)

The pair are expected to make a formal announcement in Cannes on Monday.