cast

Amazon Prime Video is home to a number of hit series and movies, as well as some hidden gems, but one show which is set to leave the streaming service is Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams

Sci-fi fans on Amazon Prime Video have less than a month left to devour the star-studded anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.

The show, which first aired on Channel 4 in 2017 before making its way to the streaming giant, draws inspiration from ten of the author’s short stories.

Its debut episode took cues from his tale The Hood Maker, plunging viewers into an alternate 1970s London rife with mind-reading citizens, societal unrest, and escalating distrust that culminates in riots.

Other episodes dive into themes like interstellar travel and the lives of synthetic beings endowed with human-like intelligence and emotions.

The cast list reads like a who’s who of television royalty, featuring Richard Madden of Game of Thrones fame, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, and Holliday Grainger.

Cranston not only graced the screen but also put on the producer’s hat for the series, working alongside writers such as Jack Thorne, Tony Grisoni, and Dee Rees.

Upon its release, the series was met with critical acclaim, drawing parallels to the cult favourite Black Mirror and earning a solid 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.

One person praised: “Just recently discovered this series. Too bad each episode was a standalone. Several of these episodes would have made a good complete series on their own.”

Another said: “This show is absolutely phenomenal! Every episode makes you think and scares you that it could be our future. They’re so well filmed, scripted and acted. I want more!!!!!

“So sad to see it was only one season. Bring us more! Shocked not all 5 star reviews!

“Each episode is a different short story. They feel like mini movies that are so detailed and intense that when they are over you want more. They really put your “what if” mind to use.”

“Every episode I’ve seen of this show is just incredible. It makes you think. Sometimes about humanity and sometimes about sci-fi tropes and conventions and how we should be breaking those more often. Electric Dreams is immersive and beautifully made,” a third said.

Back in 2017, executive producer Ronald D. Moore expressed his enthusiasm for the project, saying: “Philip K. Dick’s stories have inspired a lot of us, especially those of us who have loved science fiction since childhood. From Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Man On The High Castle, there’s so much material.”

Moore added: “So when the opportunity came to work on it, I did jump at it because I knew this is a rare opportunity to do something with one of the master’s works.

“I wasn’t familiar with the short stories at all, but I instantly realised we could definitely do a series like this and the more we talked about the nature of the project – that each show would be individualised as an anthology but have a diversity of viewpoint and give artists an opportunity to bring their own vision – the more exciting the project got.”

Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video

Throughout HBO’s post-apocalyptic series “The Last of Us,” music plays a role in setting the mood for moments big and small, heartfelt and heart-wrenching. It’s not unlike the video game, which was hailed for its original soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla (who is also a composer on the show), and for the pop music covers that helped to elevate the narrative.

In the most recent episode of Season 2 of “The Last of Us,” titled “The Price,” there’s a callback to a scene from the game that fans have been waiting for: Joel (Pedro Pascal) performs a stripped down version of Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” for Ellie (Bella Ramsey). The song captures the themes of loss and losing yourself, but also of moving forward together. And it’s not the only instance of a pop song showcasing characters’ emotions — in “Day One,” the fourth episode of Season 2, Ellie performs an acoustic cover of A-ha’s “Take on Me” as Dina (Isabela Merced) walks in and gently persuades her to continue playing the tender rendition. It’s another adaptation from the video game that signals the kindling of the relationship between Ellie and Dina.

“Bella is playing the guitar in the scene where Ellie plays the guitar and sings ‘Take on Me’ to Dina. That’s Bella. No tricks,” said Craig Mazin, co-creator of “The Last of Us,” in an interview earlier this year.

For Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the series and the video game franchise, he knew that when Ramsey was cast, the actor’s musical abilities would be an asset for future installments. “I remember seeing a video of them playing and singing and talking to Craig and being like, ‘Oh, they’re ready to go for if we get to Season 2,’” he said.

Ramsey, however, isn’t alone in their musical abilities. Over the course of the season in interviews with the cast and creators of the series, it became clear that music was a shared passion that bonded them on and off screen. Here, we collect some of their thoughts on music and performing together.

Keiran Culkin is joining “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” as eccentric host Caesar Flickerman.

An adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name from her hit franchise, “Sunrise on the Reaping” hits theaters Nov. 20, 2026. It is the second prequel to the original “Hunger Games” series, following “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”

“Kieran’s scene-stealing presence and undeniable charm are perfect for Caesar Flickerman, the sickeningly watchable host of Panem’s darkest spectacle,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erin Westerman said in a press release. “Stanley Tucci made Caesar unforgettable — and now Kieran will make the role entirely his own.”

Culkin is on a hot streak, most recently winning the Oscar for supporting actor for the dramedy “A Real Pain” and an Emmy for his role as Roman Roy in HBO’s drama “Succession.” He is currently starring in the revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” on Broadway.

When is ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ set?

“Sunrise” takes place 24 years before the events of the first novel featuring Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence in the film franchise) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), and 40 years after “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” It focuses on Haymitch Abernathy’s plight during the 50th Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell, when he became District 12’s second victor. Abernathy, played by Woody Harrelson, is mentor to Katniss and Peeta in the original series.

Who else is cast in the film?

In the prequel, Joseph Zada will play Abernathy. Other previously announced cast members include Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Molly McCann as Louella, Iona Bell as Louella’s Capitol-assigned look-alike Lou Lou and Ralph Fiennes as the main antagonist, President Snow.

How have fans responded to the casting choices?

Fans of the series have been largely enthusiastic about the casting decisions, noting the strong physical likeness between the new stars and their older counterparts in the original series. On Wednesday’s Instagram post announcing Culkin’s casting, several users commented that the casting decisions were in line with fans’ visions for the new film.

George Wendt, who will be famous as long as television is remembered as Norm from “Cheers,” died Tuesday. He passed in Los Angeles, where he lived, though the cities to which he is spiritually tied are Boston, where the show was set, and Chicago, where he was born and entered show business by way of Second City, and which he unofficially represented throughout his life, and which claimed him as one of its own. One of his last Facebook posts, earlier this month, as a Chicagoan educated by Jesuits, was, “pope leo XIV is a sout’ sider my friendts. his cassock size is 4XIV.”

Entering stage right, as the assembled cast shouted his name, Norm would launch his heavyset frame across the set to a corner stool where a glass of beer — draft, never bottled — would appear as he arrived. He was the quintessence of Regular Guy, a big friendly dog of a person, with some of the sadness that big, friendly dogs can carry.

“Cheers,” which ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993 — Wendt appeared in every one of its 275 episodes — was a show about going where everybody knows your name but also, as in life and fiction, a place for people who had nowhere better to be, or nowhere else to go. Though Norm was nominally an accountant, and then a house painter, his real job was to sit and fence with John Ratzenberger‘s font-of-bad-information postman Cliff Clavin — they were one of the medium’s great double acts — and drink beer, and then another. His unpaid tab filled a binder. (“I never met a beer I didn’t drink,” quoth Norm, though there was never any suggestion of alcoholism, or even of drunkenness.)

But as a person with work troubles and a marriage that could get the better of him — Wendt’s own wife, Bernadette Birkett, supplied the voice for the off-screen Vera — he was also the vehicle for some of the show’s more dramatic, thoughtful passages. (That his service to the series was essential was borne out by six Emmy nominations.) Unlike some other “Cheers” regulars, there was no caricature in his character. His woes, and his pleasures, were everyday, and he played Norm straight, seriously, without affectation, so that one felt that the Wendt one might meet on the street would not be substantially different from the person onscreen.

Like many actors so completely identified with a part, Wendt, who spent six years with Second City, worked more than one might have imagined; there were dozens of appearances on the small and big screen across the years, including his own short-lived “The George Wendt Show,” which took off on public radio’s “Car Talk.”

After “Cheers,” he’s perhaps most associated with the recurring, Chicago-set “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Bill Swerski’s Superfans.” But he also did theater, including turns on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray,” as Yvan in Yasmina Reza’s “Art” and as Santa in the musical adaptation of “Elf.” There was “Twelve Angry Men,” with Richard Thomas in Washington, D.C., and he was Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” in Waterloo, Canada. In Bruce Graham’s “Funnyman,” at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre in 2015, he played a comic cast in a serious play, breaking out of typecasting.

We were connected on Facebook, where he regularly liked posts having to do with music and musicians; he was a fan, and sometimes a friend, of alternative and underground groups, and tributes to him from that quarter are quickly appearing. (When asked, he would often cite L.A.’s X, the Blasters and Los Lobos as among his favorites.) One of his own last posts was in memoriam of David Thomas, leader of the avant-garde Pere Ubu, twinned with “kindred spirit” Chicago Bears defensive tackle Steve McMichael, who died the same day.

Once, after he messaged me to compliment an appreciation — like this — I’d written about Tommy Smothers, I took the opportunity to ask, “Do I correctly remember seeing you at Raji’s a million years ago, probably for the Continental Drifters?” Raji’s, legendary within a small circle, was a dive club in a building long since gone on Hollywood Boulevard east of Vine Street; it wasn’t the Roxy, say, or other celebrity-friendly spots around town — or for that matter, anything like “Cheers,” except in that it served as a clubhouse for the regulars.

“Yep,” he replied. “Tough to get out like I used to, but please say hi if you see me around.” Sadly, I never did, and never will.

After ITV announced a major shakeup to it’s daytime television shows, it’s feared Loose Women’s cast could be cut by up to a third with the show being reduced across the year

Major changes are coming to ITV, and it could spell bad news for a number of popular presenters. It was announced recently that the organisation is having a massive shake-up with how its daytime TV will feature, and it appears the Loose Women crew could feel the full force of the switches.

ITV daytime is set to look very different in a few months following the announcement of the huge change. It sees a rejig of a number of shows, including Good Morning Britain. ITV news and magazine shows usually run from 6am to 1.30pm weekdays and include the breakfast show followed by Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women.

However, from January 2026, Good Morning Britain will be extended by 30 minutes to run from 6am to 9.30am daily. The change also sees Lorraine Kelly’s show cut in half.

It will now run from 9.30am until 10am, and only be on our screens for 30 weeks of the year – the same amount of weeks as Loose Women will now air.

It’s thought up to a third of the 26-strong pool of Loose Women presenters could now face losing their job. A source told The Sun: “Everyone is completely gutted and in shock.

“We can’t believe they would dismantle these brilliant shows. It’s the death of daytime TV.”

Another added: “There’s no way all the Loose Women will be needed now there’ll be far fewer episodes to fill.”

Despite the on-screen show being cut, Loose Women: The Podcast will continue and provide more work for the cast.

The overhaul was announced yesterday by Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV’s media and entertainment division. He said: “Daytime is a really important part of what we do, and these scheduling and production changes will enable us to continue to deliver a schedule providing viewers with the news, debate and discussion they love from the presenters they know and trust as well generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres.

“These changes also allow us to consolidate our news operations and expand our national, international and regional news output and to build upon our proud history of trusted journalism at a time when our viewers need accurate, unbiased news coverage more than ever.”

He added: “I recognise that our plans will have an impact on staff off screen in our Daytime production teams.

“We will work with ITV Studios and ITN as they manage these changes to produce the shows differently from next year, and support them through this transition.

“Daytime has been a core element of ITV’s schedule for over 40 years and these changes will set ITV up to continue to bring viewers award winning news, views and discussion as we enter our eighth decade.”

READ MORE: Beauty buffs find ‘genius’ way to make fake tan last longer – it sells every 20 seconds

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

The election result could reshape the direction of the pro-EU and NATO member nation bordering war-torn Ukraine.

Romanians have begun casting ballots in a tense presidential election run-off that pits a pro-Trump nationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine against a pro-European Union centrist.

Polls opened on Sunday at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) and will close at 9pm (18:00 GMT) in the high-stakes second round of the elections that will impact Romania’s geopolitical direction.

Hard-right nationalist George Simion, 38, who opposes military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and is critical of EU leadership, decisively swept the first round of the presidential election, triggering the collapse of a pro-Western coalition government. That led to significant capital outflows.

Romania’s top court annulled the first round results in December over accusations of Russian interference. The court also disqualified leading nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu, making way for Simion, who is a self-proclaimed fan of United States President Donald Trump.

Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption and is staunchly pro-EU and NATO, is competing against Simion. He has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security against a growing Russian threat.

An opinion poll on Friday suggested Dan is slightly ahead of Simion for the first time since the first round in a tight race that will depend on turnout and the sizeable Romanian diaspora.

‘Battle between nationalist populism and a centralist’

Reporting from the capital, Bucharest, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said this election is being pitched as a battle between nationalist populism and a centralist.

“The reality is that Romania, an EU and NATO member, shares a border with war-torn Ukraine, the longest among EU members. And that also makes it one of the most vulnerable within the bloc,” she said.

Some analysts have also warned that online disinformation has been rife again ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Elena Calistru, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera: “We have to look at what is happening online. And there we have seen a lot of misinformation.”

“We have seen a lot of … coordinated inauthentic behaviour. We have seen a lot of foreign interference in our elections,” she said.

‘Pro-European president’?

The president of the country has considerable powers, not least being in charge of the defence council that decides on military aid. He will also have oversight of foreign policy, with the power to veto EU votes that require unanimity.

Daniela Plesa, 62, a public employee, told the AFP news agency in Bucharest on Friday she wanted a president “to promote the interests of the country”, complaining that “the European Union demands and demands”.

Andreea Nicolescu, 30, working in advertising, said she wished for “things to calm down a bit” and “a pro-European president”.

Rallies of tens of thousands ahead of the elections have demanded that the country maintain its pro-EU stance.

Other protests, also drawing tens of thousands, have condemned the decision to annul last year’s vote and the subsequent barring of far-right candidate Georgescu.

The cancellation was criticised by the Trump administration, and Simion has said his prime minister pick would be Georgescu, who favours nationalisation and an openness towards Russia.

The vote in Romania comes on a day when Poland also votes in the first round of the presidential election, expected to be led by pro-EU Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.

Victory for Simion and/or Trzaskowski would expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders that already includes prime ministers in Hungary and Slovakia amid a political shift in Central Europe that could widen rifts in the EU.

ITV crime drama Grace is filming a sixth season and with the news comes the announcement of a whole new cast

The popular detective crime series Grace has commenced filming its sixth series in Brighton, featuring an impressive array of stars in key roles.

John Simm, who plays the titular DS Roy Grace, will once again bring his beloved character to life, supported by a team of astute detectives assisting the East Sussex Police in solving various crimes.

Other returning cast members include Richie Campbell as DI Glenn Branson, Laura Elphinstone as DS Bella Moy, Zoë Tapper as Cleo Morey and Brad Morrison as DC Nick Nicholl.

This series sees John and the team joined by a plethora of fresh faces, including Grantchester star Rishi Nair, known for his role as Alphy Kotteram in the ITV detective drama.

Additional noteworthy cast members include Sara Powell, known for her roles in Midsomer Murders and The Killing kind, along with Ali Khan, Gurjeet Singh, Hannah McClean and Tamla Kari, reports Cambridgeshire Live.

As viewers have come to expect, the new season will be based on a novel by crime author Peter James.

While much remains unknown about the sequel series, a sneak peek into the new season shows John, Richie and Laura donned in white forensic suits, grinning broadly as they mark the start of filming with a classic clapper-board.

Last week, John gushed: “This is the longest I’ve been involved in any show! But it’s such a joy to do, and to be surrounded by a team like this for large chunks of the year makes it impossible to turn down. I’m really looking forward to seeing where Roy’s journey goes in this series.”

Executive producer Phil Hunter couldn’t hide his excitement: “Grace is such a joy to make so we are thrilled at how well received series five was.”

Phil also shared the future filming plans, noting: “It’s great to be back in Brighton with our brilliant and talented cast and crew to shoot another four episodes this summer.”

Rishi, on the other hand, seems to be the man of the hour, having previously charmed ITV audiences with his first appearance as Alphy Kotteram in Grantchester’s ninth season.

The Grantchester production team have confirmed the series will return for a tenth outing, bringing Rishi back into the fold alongside Robson Green’s DI Geordie Keating.

In a chat with Digital Spy, he expressed his delight: “I couldn’t be happier to recommission Grantchester for a 10th season.”

Susan also effused her own excitement about the series: “This is hands-down one of our most popular series, and I know the fans will be thrilled to see it continue with the outstanding Robson Green and Rishi Nair back for more crime-solving.”

Grace season 6 does not currently have a release window. Previous seasons can be streamed on ITVX in the UK, and BritBox in the US, Canada and Australia.