Author: Cara Winter

Born & raised in Kalamazoo, MI (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo). Living, writing & raising a son in Chicago, IL. BFA in Acting from New York University / Tisch School of the Arts. Professional stage actress for 20 years; member, Actor's Equity Association Writing for the stage since 2000.

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files 6

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Stephen Mangan, Matt LeBlanc and Tamsin Greig

EPISODES
(or, how REV. may have dodged a bullet)
by Cara Winter

In doing a wee bit o’ research for my article about the British show REV., I read (here, and here) that creators Tom Hollander and James Wood had been in talks with ABC about turning their BAFTA-award winning show into an American sitcom. The American version would feature a doe-eyed pastor from the woods of Wisconsin, thrust into an inner-city parish in Chicago, yuddah, yudda… but since 2012, I can’t find anything about it in the trades. Googled it;  nada, nuthin’. Not a G-D thing.

So, what’s up with that?!  I suppose it could still be in development hell; lord knows there’s always that possibility. Maybe ABC is having issues with scripts, or casting, or finding it a spot in their lineup. Or maybe the person championing it at ABC now works for The Food Network.

Or maybe, just maybe, showrunner Bob Daily and/or Wood and/or Hollander happened to catch Showtime’s EPISODES… and thought better of the whole endeavor. read article

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files 5

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Martin Freeman as Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.

On Sherlock Holmes
by Cara Winter

As we all know, since 2010 two shows (CBS’ Elementary, and the BBC’s Sherlock, which has also been picked up by PBS Masterpiece) have reimagined Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Sherlock Holmes within a modern setting.   As a writer trying to modernize a Victorian piece myself, I have been wondering  why, exactly, one of these modernizations has set the world on fire… while the other is just on?

It all starts with the fact that the BBC’s version came first.  In 2012, when CBS (as has been reported here and here) approached creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss about remaking Sherlock in America, Moffat & Gatiss politely declined.  Smartly, CBS chose not to embroil themselves in a legal battle by ripping off Sherlock whole-hog… and instead did everything they could to make their take on a “modern Sherlock Holmes” really, really different from Sherlock.

I get it, I do. CBS wanted to move forward; Sherlock Holmes was sexy, all of a sudden.  Who wouldn’t want to capitalize on that?  But, as all Moffat and Gatiss really did was move the characters and stories they loved into our century, creator Robert Doherty would have to change more than just the ol’ anno domini.  (By the way, his show Medium?  Genius.  So, I know he’s likely not the problem…) read article

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files 4

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Tom Hollander as the Reverend Adam Smallbone

REV.
by Cara Winter

In the BBC’s Rev., Tom Hollander and James Wood have created something wholly unique.  And by wholly unique… I mean, I have no idea what I’m watching.  Not only have I never seen anything like it, I was for a long time at a loss for words for even how to describe it.  Except…I’m in love.

Rev. is a comedy, of that I am sure.  Or, at least I think I am.  I find it funny – but not CBS- sitcom-laughter-at-precise-intervals-funny.   It’s more like a cold dish of awkwardness, smothered in general hesitancy, with a side of human suffering – which, as it turns out, is really, really funny.

Rev. is the story of a small town vicar (the Reverend Adam Smallbone) who’s all of a sudden at the helm of an inner city parish.   In addition to co-creating and writing for Rev., Tom Hollander also plays the title character, and in this role he’s absolutely perfect.  His characterization of the Rev. is completely original – wistful, earnest, prone to doubt (both of himself and his creator), fond of beer, and occasionally completely nuts.  In short, he’s human.  And unlike the caricatures we’re so used to when it comes to members of the clergy, the Rev. Adam Smallbone is painfully real; sweet, searching, and maybe a little F’d up.  (Sorry, Reverend.) read article

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files 2

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MIRANDA
by Cara Winter

As we established in my last post, I am an unabashed Anglophile.

My friends, rather than shunning me, or trying to get me to watch LAW & ORDER: SVU, or finding me an A(ng)A meeting to attend… are full-onenablers.  Case in point:  on a recent trip to LA, my best friend (who long ago introduced me to BLACK ADDER) sat me down, and told me I was about to watch a show from the UK called MIRANDA.  It was February, 70’s and sunny in LA, I’d just left behind sub-zero temperatures behind in Chicago…  so naturally, instead of frolicking on a beach somewhere, I remained seated while she queued it up.

MIRANDA is a fantastically funny and gloriously absurd sitcom written, created by, and starring comedienne Miranda Hart.  Pretty much everything takes place in the title character’s tiny flat, and the joke shop she runs in the floor below. Miranda’s best friend Stevie (played by Sarah Hadland) helps her run the shop.  Occasionally they venture down the block to a restaurant where the chef is her other best friend, Gary (played by the dishy Tom Ellis) – who Miranda is secretly in love with (of course).  Within the first minute of S1 /Ep1, I felt something of a kinship with Hart – as would anyone who’s ever tripped over their own feet, passed gas at an inopportune time, or forgotten their underpants. read article

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files

Sit back and enjoy the first of what we at TVWriter™ hope will be a long series of reviews/reports/discussions of  UK TV from the remarkable writer – and Britvision fan – Cara Winter (whom we first met and immediately recruited for the site when she won the Action/Drama/Dramedy category in the 2013 Spec Scriptacular):

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The Anglo Files
#1: OUTLANDER

OK, so, confession time:  I’ve been known to watch TOP GEAR just to hear the accents.  I’ve seen every episode of SHERLOCK sixteen times.  I mayhave been accepted to drama school because I’d memorized the entirety of Shakespeare’s HENRY V.  My Google search history reveals more than a few “2BR rental, London” searches, and my dream car is a Mini with a Union Jack hard top.  I am (shamefully? or shamelessly?) …an Anglophile. read article