Thanks for picking up.

 

We are packed to the rafters with not-so-fun news this week. Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault, an unnamed celebrity has lost his injunction bid against the ITN and Guardian, and bosses have axed MAFS UK following rape claims made by two former contestants. We have, against all odds, unearthed a couple of lighter items: Two very different movies are neck and neck at the U.K. box office and the most British-sounding restaurant ever has made it into our Tour Guide recommendations. Pour yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable: This is London Calling. — Lily Ford

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

Brand Guilty of Rape

🔻 The verdicts are in, and a London jury has found Russell Brand guilty of rape and sexual assault. After a four-week, highly publicized trial at Southwark Crown Court, the jury has found the disgraced comedian, presenter and actor guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was found not guilty on two other rape charges and not guilty of attempted indecent assault. Brand was denied bail and will be remanded in custody, with his sentencing set for Monday. His wife, Laura, could be seen fighting back tears after the verdicts were read. The Met Police has also confirmed Brand is under investigation over further rape allegations. Our full report.

BIFA Nominations

🔻 The Andrew Scott-led Elsinore, a love letter to the life-affirming power of London theater backdropped by the HIV/AIDS crisis, leads the British Independent Film Awards nominations this year. Simon Stone's movie received 12 nods in total, with all of the nominees unveiled at One Hundred Shoreditch by Jay Lycurgo and Posy Sterling on Tuesday. In second place is Clio Barnard's kitchen-sink drama I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning with eight, and then Animol, the directorial feature debut of Ashley Walters, with seven. Scott, Juliette Binoche and Erin Doherty are among the best lead performance nominees; Claire Foy, Tom Courtenay, Sekou Diaby, Anna Calder-Marshall, Billie Piper and Bill Pullman are nominated as best supporting performers. The full list.

Injunction Denied

🔻 This one's dominated a lot of the internet discourse this week.  A judge has ruled that an unnamed British celebrity facing allegations of “inappropriate sexual activities with a large number of girls and young women” can be named in the press, but will remain anonymous while an appeal is lodged. The man had sought an injunction to prevent two news organisations, ITN and Guardian News and Media, from publishing his identity, over fears that he would be “highly likely” to kill himself. He maintained that the suicide risk is not attributed to any wrongdoing but to what his lawyers described as “trial by media.” The story.

 

▪️ EXCLUSIVE: Cynthia Erivo has joined Universal's Snoop Dogg biopic as Tupac Shakur's mother.

 

▪️ BAFTA's 2026 Breakthrough U.K. cohort is here and includes The Other Bennet Sister's Ella Bruccoleri.

 

▪️ EXCLUSIVE: British star Keeley Hawes will lead season two of Sky‘s six-part thriller Prisoner.

 

▪️ The La Bola Negra hype has swept another film festival — Los Javis' queer epic has won the BFI London Film Festival Audience Award for best feature film.

Keira Knightley

The queen of the period drama (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and so on) is this week's Most Valuable Brit as she pulls double duty with the opening of her West End return, The Lives of Others, and season two of Netflix hit Black Doves. Even more good news: We've got reviews for both of them here. THR's Demetrios Matheou sings her praises, saying Knightley's stage performance "demonstrates just what an accomplished, ever more confident actress she’s become" in the 11 years since she was last in theater. And TV critic Angie Han says of her TV outing in the London-set spy thriller: "Knightley remains a stone-cold badass, so convincing as both a loving family woman and a ruthless operative that it’s not clear even Helen knows where one ends and the other begins."

Erotic fairytale and predator thriller battle it out. A look at the top five films in U.K. and Ireland cinemas this week. Big thanks to the FDA for the data.

 

1️⃣ Wicker — Total £1.8m ($2.4m)

2️⃣ Primetime — £1.8m ($2.4m) 

3️⃣ Ghosts: The Possession of Button House — £6.3m ($8.5m)

4️⃣ Clayface — £4.7m ($6.3m)

5️⃣ Wildwood — £2.8m ($3.8m)

Telly recs for our friends across the pond

 

▪️ Seasons three, four, five and six of Friday Night Dinner hit BritBox on Monday. For those of you who aren't well-acquainted with The Inbetweeners, Simon Bird leads the cast next to Tom Rosenthal. The show follows the mayhem at the gloriously idiosyncratic Goodman family's traditional Friday night dinner, with Tamsin Greig, Mark Heap and the late Paul Ritter making this ensemble piece a beloved British comedy.

 

▪️ Season nine of Escaped to the Country lands Friday. You know the drill: It celebrates the house-buying success stories of people who went on to purchase a rural property they were introduced to on their original Escape to the Country journey.

▪️ From Nov. 2-8: Peter Mullan (67), Nell Fisher (15), Samantha Womack (54), Lol Crawley (52), Anna Wintour (77), Antonia Thomas (40), Tanya Reynolds (35), Tilda Swinton (66),  Jonny Greenwood (55), Hero Fiennes Tiffin (29), Robert Aramayo (34), Thandiwe Newton (54), Lindsay Duncan (76), Judy Parfitt (91), Calam Lynch (32), Matthew Rhys (52), Richard Curtis (70), and Gordon Ramsay (60).

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

 

The Downton Abbey and House of the Dragon alum is officially in a BIFA-nominated film this year — Rhys Marc Jones' queer mystery-thriller Black Church Bay — and has recently moved home to his native Wales. But his years in the British capital haven't left him just yet.

 

"Little Duck The Picklery in Dalston," he says. "It was my local restaurant, and I just love it."