£500m boost for TV and film
MIDSOMER Murders and Married At First Sight are among the productions which have been supported by a Government scheme aimed at helping to kickstart the television and film industry.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has published a list of 230 projects which have been supported by the Film and TV Production Scheme.
The £500 million scheme, which was extended for six months in the Budget, provides assistance to productions struggling to secure coronavirus-related insurance.
In addition to dating show Married At First Sight and crime drama Midsomer Murders, talent show Britain’s Got Talent Christmas Special and quiz show Pointless have also received support.
Independent film Mothering Sunday has also been backed by the scheme.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak described film and TV as a “significant driver of economic activity.”
THREATS from China and North Korea will loom large over President Joe Biden administration’s first cabinetlevel trip abroad, part of a larger effort to bolster United States influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.
A senior administration official said the US had tried to reach out to North Korea through multiple channels since last month, but had yet to receive a response, making consultations with the reclusive country’s neighbours – Japan, South Korea and China – all the more critical.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks, starting today, as the administration seeks to shore up partnerships with the two key regional treaty allies.
Mr Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will then meet with senior Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska.
These first official overseas visits are intended to restore what Mr Biden hopes will be a calming and even-keeled approach to ties with Tokyo and Seoul, after four years of transactional and often temperamental relations under the previous president, Donald Trump, who had upended diplomatic norms by meeting not once, but three times, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.