HBO has won two Peabody Awards, including one for a documentary on James Brown, while PBS' "Frontline," ''American Experience" and "POV" series as well as Netflix and Cartoon Network were also among the documentary, education and public service winners of the 74th annual Peabody Awards for electronic media announced Thursday by the Peabody program at the University of Georgia.
HBO's "Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown" was joined by another HBO documentary "The Newburgh Sting," about four New Jersey men enticed into a terrorist plot by an FBI informant.
Another winner, "COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey," was aired by the National Geographic Channel and Fox, while an "Independent Lens" entry, "Brakeless," explored a train crash and the public's obsession with ever-faster travel. Netflix's "Virgunga" investigated Congolese gamekeepers' efforts to save gorillas.
Public service honorees included the BBC World Service's multiplatform conveyance of news and information about the Ebola outbreak and "Entre el Abandono y el Rechazo (Between Abandonment and Rejection)," Univision's reporting about the thousands of unaccompanied Latin American children seeking asylum in the United States.
Children's programming honored included Disney Junior's preschooler series "Doc McStuffins" and Cartoon Network's "Adventure Time."
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More