Anne Kirkbride Dead at 60

Anne Kirkbride

Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre Barlow for more than 40 years on the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street, has died. She was 60.

"There are no words to describe the sense of grief we feel at Anne's passing," executive producer Kieran Roberts said in the post. "We know only too acutely how much Anne meant to the millions of people who watched her create the legendary character of Deirdre Barlow."

Kirkbride first showed up on Coronation Street, the world's longest-running active television soap opera, in 1972 as a teenager with a handful of lines. Within a few years, she had entered into a short-lived marriage with one character and then a romance and marriage with another, Ken Barlow (William Roache, who'd been on the show since its inception in 1960).

'Coronation Street' Announces Four Winners For Its Original Voices Writer Diversity Program

Stephenson Ardern-Sodje, Ella Carmen Greenhill, Louisa Hayford and Shazia Rashid

British broadcaster ITV launched an Original Voices initiative in 2012 on its long-running soap opera Emmerdale in an effort to tap into and connect with diverse local writing talent. The aim of the initiative was to "find interesting writers from Black, Asian or other Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds living in Yorkshire or the North East" to join the show. This fall ITV announced it was rolling out Original Voices to its flagship drama Coronation Street, with submissions open to North West based writers from BAME backgrounds. Four winners have now been selected, and each of the writers will be joining Corrie in the New Year for a 10 week paid internship, which could lead to a place on the writing team.

Applications were accepted from any North West based, BAME writers interested in writing on the show, regardless of previous experience in television. Entrants were asked to send in a sample script of their work (stage, TV, film, radio or any medium that displayed their skills in dramatic writing). Industry professionals were engaged as readers, to assess and respond to each script. Every writer who entered was given a personal script report in order to provide clear feedback.

'Downton Abbey' Renewed for Sixth Season

ITV and Carnival Films announced this morning that Downton Abbey will return for a sixth season. The show's fifth season premiered in the UK on September 21, and will debut January 4 in the US on PBS.

Downton Abbey tells intimately interlaced stories centered on an English country estate—a deliciously entertaining formula that has made it the highest-rated drama in PBS history.

Season 5 features returning stars Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Jim Carter, Laura Carmichael, Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, Robert James-Collier, Penelope Wilton, Phyllis Logan, Lily James, Brendan Coyle, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera, Samantha Bond, Ed Speleers, Kevin Doyle, Raquel Cassidy, David Robb, Tom Cullen, Julian Ovenden, Daisy Lewis, Douglas Reith, Jeremy Swift, and Andrew Scarborough.

The ensemble is joined by guest stars Harriet Walter (Atonement), reprising her role as Lady Shackleton, and Peter Egan (Death at a Funeral), who returns as Lord Flintshire, together with completely new characters played by Richard E. Grant (Girls), Anna Chancellor (The Hour), and Rade Sherbedgia (24).

Note: Downton Abbey
RELATED:
* 'Downton Abbey' Season 5 Trailer Released! Premieres September 21 on ITV, January 4 on PBS
* George Clooney to Appear In an ITV 'Downton Abbey' Christmas Sketch

George Clooney to Appear In an ITV 'Downton Abbey' Christmas Sketch

George Clooney will appear in a Downton Abbey sketch during ITV's Text Santa telethon.

Oscar-winner George Clooney will guest-star in a Downton Abbey sketch airing as part of an annual charity telethon broadcast by the UK's ITV network.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Clooney has already filmed his scenes for the special, Text Santa, which is scheduled to be broadcast in the UK around the holidays.

Clooney told another British paper in February he was "too lowly for a part" on the acclaimed show, airing in the United States on PBS, joking, "I can't do the accent either."

The fifth season of Downton Abbey premieres on September 21 on the UK's ITV. The series returns to the U.S. on January 4.

ITV Selects Telestream for Multi-platform Workflow Solutions

Telestream, the leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, has announced the completion of a strategic project with UK-based free to air commercial broadcaster, ITV. Designated content delivery modernisation (CDM), the project positions Telestream's Vantage transcoding platform at the heart of ITV’s file-based workflow. Adopting Vantage in this way enables ITV to achieve time and cost efficiencies across the business and exploit its content across multiple delivery platforms.

As one of the leading partners in the Digital Production Partnership (DPP), ITV supports the decision by all the UK broadcasters to move to exclusively file-based program exchange by 1 October 2014.

ITV first created significant production improvements with its two major serial dramas – Coronation Street and Emmerdale. In 2012, production for the two soaps moved to HD, and as part of that process transitioned from tape to file-based production and post. ITV needed a means of taking the production file format (AVC-Intra) and converting it to the playout format (MPEG-2). The programs also need to be available to viewers on a range of online and mobile platforms for catch-up viewing. Using two Vantage processor farms has helped ITV achieve its goal of processing all its catch-up content in house.

'Downton Abbey' 20-Second Teaser Released for Season 5

Judging from the newly-released ITV trailer for Downton Abbey's fifth season, the latest episodes will feature (spoiler alert!) polished silverware, heavy curtains and the return of a dinging service bell. And a plot line about things "changing."

Watch below: