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Hello, world! After back-to-back summer film festivals, it's time for London to put us on the home stretch toward awards season (which is already looking very exciting). Aside from all the best and buzziest bits from LFF, we're unpacking that rogue Skydance appointment from David Ellison, a Prince Harry masterclass on grief, and why Gillian Anderson's stage door moment has prompted online debate. Pour yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable: This is London Calling. — Lily Ford

(Psst. Email lmford@thr.com with tips.)

An Emotional Andrew Scott Opens LFF

🔻 We are totally back with a bang. On Wednesday night, Scott and his Elsinore cast opened this year's BFI London Film Festival. THR will be bringing you all the best bits over the next 10 star-spangled days of talks, galas and screenings, but today, all eyes are on the Irishman's "shattering" performance as the late Ian Charleson, who took on Hamlet at the National Theatre just weeks before his death from AIDS in 1990. Co-stars Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn and Luke Thompson joined Scott for a poignant presentation at Royal Festival Hall, in which he also brought out the real-life people who inspired the characters in Simon Stone's tearjerker. Read the latest on our LFF coverage or take a look at Scott's Thursday Screen Talk — in which he discusses Heated Rivalry, queer storytelling, and the government's blatant neglect of the AIDS crisis — here.

David Ellison Taps... Tony Blair?

🔻 With the $111bn mega-merger a done deal, Ellison announced some surprise additions to the board for his newly formed Skydance on Tuesday. Among them? Only former U.K. PM Tony Blair, who is set to become a board adviser. "Tony has led at the highest levels of government, respected for his intellect, strategic vision and ability to bring people together around bold, forward-looking ideas," said Ellison in a statement earlier this week. "His global perspective and insight will be invaluable as we turn ambition into results." Blair led Britain's Labour Party for 13 years from 1994 to 2007, and was in the top job for 10 of those years. A random one. More here.

Elizabeth Holmes Doc Is Hitting U.K. Cinemas

🔻 Good news for the Nathan Fielder fans among us: His and Lance Oppenheim's Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything will hit theaters in the U.K. and Ireland on Nov. 20, A24 has confirmed today. The film captures the disgraced Theranos founder in the weeks leading up to her incarceration and then again two years into her current prison sentence. You Can See Everything was created in secret over four years by the directors, and looks to allow Holmes, a billionaire turned convicted fraudster, to get her story out as she invited cameras into her home. The feature is being dubbed one of the best filmgoing experiences of the year, so we're very happy to hear the wait won't be long. The details.

 

▪️ Ahead of the release of HBO's Harry Potter series in December, some very magical Christmas lights are coming to Oxford Street.

 

▪️ The U.K.'s Anthony Boyle is unrecognizable as crypto-fraud Sam Bankman-Fried in a new trailer for Netflix's The Altruists.

 

▪️ EXCLUSIVE: The Louis Theroux Podcast is doubling its output at Spotify.

Andrew Garfield

Andrew Scott might rule the LFF roost for now, but Garfield is about to sweep in with the premiere of Artificial this weekend and the film has been seriously well received so far on the festival circuit. It earned its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, where Garfield — our Most Valuable Brit — caught up with THR about combining crowdsourcing and a classic acting technique to take on the role of OpenAI's Sam Altman. "I felt like I needed to absorb as much as possible, put it in the cauldron, put it in the pot, put it on simmer and then [use] my own instincts and interpretation and point of view, because any other actor would have played it differently," he explained. Read our glowing review or take a peek inside Garfield's mind here.

Digger disaster. A look at the top five films in U.K. and Ireland cinemas this week. Big thanks to the FDA for the data.

 

1️⃣ Verity — Total £3.4m ($4.5m)

2️⃣ Resident Evil — £11.2m ($14.8m) 

3️⃣ Heart of the Beast — £4.1m ($5.4m)

4️⃣ Digger — £1.1m ($1.4m)

5️⃣ Sense and Sensibility — £5.9m ($7.8m)

Telly recs for our friends across the pond

 

▪️ BritBox has dropped season two of Celebrity Escape to the Country, the quintessential cosy show where celebs are helped to find their dream home in the picturesque English countryside.

 

▪️ A solid period piece that released Monday: season one of War and Peace. In 1805, when we first meet Pierre (Paul Dano), Natasha (Lily James), and Andrei (James Norton), they are all part of St. Petersburg's glittering elite. Kind-hearted but awkward Pierre, the illegitimate son of Russia's richest man, wants to change the world for the better. Handsome and gallant Andrei, frustrated with the superficiality of his life, seeks a purpose, while the beautiful and spirited Natasha is searching for true love. At the same time, Napoleon's army edges ever closer to Russia's borders. As everything they thought they knew is questioned, Pierre, Andrei and Natasha find themselves in a time when Russian society is about to change forever. 

▪️  David Brindley has been appointed director of programs at Channel 4.

 

▪️  The BBC has named a new director of news at last: Rachel Jupp.

▪️ From Oct.5-11: Kate Winslet (51), Diane Morgan (51), Tom Hooper (54), Emily Mortimer (55), Honor Swinton Byrne (29), Ioan Gruffudd (53), Raff Law (30), Frances Tomelty (78), Joe Armstrong (48), Simon Cowell (67), Lewis Capaldi (30), Thom Yorke (58), Tom Rhys Harries (34), Anne-Marie Duff (56), David Yates (63), Sharon Osbourne (74), Rupert Friend (45), Sam Spruell (49), Steve McQueen (57), Dan Stevens (44), Marina (41), Charles Dance (80), Sarah Lancashire (62), Martin Kemp (65), and Dawn French (69).

Where to go and what to do in London — from the stars who know it best

 

Another star of Elsinore, Locke plays a young AIDS patient who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Scott's Charleson in the film, and spoke to THR on the carpet about his extraordinary reaction to the script (spoiler: the Heartstopper alum urged us to stock up on tissues).

 

"Rogue one: I went to the London Zoo last week for my birthday, and it's actually great. Considering it's really small and it's in Regent's Park, the work they do to help animals... It's a really lovely space and we got a gorgeous tour. I think it's a really nice Sunday afternoon activity."