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NUMBERBLOCKS Series 7
WRITER: DARREN JONES
13 September 2024
Darren's two episodes in the new series of CBeebies flagship show, NUMBERBLOCKS, are now available on BBC iPlayer. In "Grid Unlocked", the Numberblocks turn themselves around to save the Times Tables’ 5 by 5 booster grid! In "Seventy-Two's Super Surprise", Octoblock gets captured by Octonaughty and it’s up to superhero Seventy-two to help rescue Octoblock and save the day.
THE DEAD CITY by MICHAEL RUSSELL
Excellent recent book reviews
13 September 2024
We're thrilled with these two recent reviews of Michael Russell's ninth book in his Stefan Gillespie series, THE DEAD CITY (Constable). The Irish Times Michael Russell’s Garda Insp Stefan Gillespie returns in The Dead City (Constable, £15.99), continuing one of the most engrossing Irish series. Focusing on the autumn of 1944, when the fall of Nazi Germany seems inevitable, this ninth Gillespie novel is as memorable as the first. Gillespie’s on leave, enjoying some semblance of a normal existence in West Wicklow, when he’s appointed to help the Irish minister in Berlin extract himself from a collapsing Germany without undermining Ireland’s neutrality. Central among his orders is locating Frank Ryan in Berlin: the Irish government’s worried that, as the war’s end looms, Ryan could be “a loose end” if not “a loose cannon”. So, while finding “Frank Ryan alive would be good”, Gillespie’s given to understand “Dead would also do.” Amidst the chaotic winter of 1944-1945, preoccupied with getting other Irish citizens out, the minister considers Ryan an “embarrassment” and offers Gillespie little help in weaving his way through the collapsing Nazi state without getting caught in its snares. Attuned to the intricate moral conflicts of compromise and allegiance, particularly around Ryan’s place in wartime Germany, and to all the ways one might avoid seeing the cattle cars heading east, The Dead City continues Russell’s searching exploration of neutral Ireland during the second World War. Though no less skilled at tense plotting than Benn, Russell’s work here is, as ever, keenly reflective, closer to John le Carré than to Alan Furst. The Irish Independent The Dead City by Michael Russell Constable, 320 pages, trade paperback €18.39, e-book £8.99 It’s 1944 and the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. Garda Inspector Stefan Gillespie, who has fluent German thanks to his German mother, is sent to war-ravaged Berlin on a secret mission instigated by Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs, Joe Walshe. Stefan is carrying instructions for Irish ambassador Con Cremin, still somehow clinging on in the devastated, body-strewn city despite the destruction of his embassy. With the Russians advancing from the east and the Allies from the south, neutral Ireland is anxious to extract from Germany, by any means possible, an embarrassing Irish turncoat named Frank Ryan. A former IRA man who fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists, in an astonishing volte face he now helps the Nazis train bombers and terrorists. Ireland has no diplomatic relations with Russia and he could be used, if captured, to question Ireland’s neutrality. In a country that is barely functioning, where starvation is rife, Gillespie wonders if it is worth risking his own life to save Ryan. Once again, in this ninth Stefan Gillespie thriller, Michael Russell blends real history with fiction to brilliant effect in a raw and unfiltered view of the results of total war on civilian life.
123 NUMBER SQUAD! Series 2 Premieres on Sky Kids
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: SALLY MARCHANT , WRITERS: DARREN JONES, JAMES MASON & HELENA SMEE
03 September 2024
Series 2 of award-winning animation series, 123 NUMBER SQUAD! premieres on Sky Kids on Monday 9th September at 7.55am and then daily throughout the week. We're delighted to represent Executive Producer, Sally Marchant and core team writers, Darren Jones, James Mason and Helena Smee.
NUMBERBLOCKS
HEAD WRITER: DARREN JONES
21 August 2024
Top children's writer Darren Jones is currently Head Writer on Series 8 of CBeebies flagship show, NUMBERBLOCKS. As well as writing a number of scripts, he oversees scripting of all episodes in the series.
EMMERDALE
WRITTEN BY JANE PEARSON
13 August 2024
End the week with Jane Pearson's latest episode of EMMERDALE which broadcasts at 7.30pm on Friday 23rd August on ITV1 and available on demand via ITVX. Wendy decides to make a choice. Meanwhile when Dawn tells Will that she needs to contact Rose, he is wracked with guilt.
A SPRINKLE OF DECEIT: A HANNAH SWENSEN MYSTERY:
WRITTEN BY NICK HOPKINS AND TIM JAMES
07 August 2024
We're delighted to announce that the fifth feature length episode in Hallmark's A HANNAH SWENSEN MYSTERY franchise series is "A Sprinkle of Deceit" written by Nick Hopkins and Tim James. It premieres on the Hallmark Channel on 4th October. Hannah (Alison Sweeney) caters Lonnie’s (Daylin Willis) high school reunion, which is disrupted by a fight between his old friend Darcy (Brittany Mitchell) and her boyfriend. Lonnie helps Darcy get home safely, but becomes implicated in her murder after she’s found dead the next morning. Hannah ultimately puts her own safety at risk while working with Chad (Webster) to clear Lonnie’s name. Starring Alison Sweeney, Victor Webster, Barbara Niven, Tess Atkins, Lisa Durupt, Daylin Willis, and Brittany Mitchell.
THE DEAD CITY by MICHAEL RUSSELL
Publication in UK & Ireland on 1st August 2024
30 July 2024
We're thrilled that Michael Russell's ninth book in his Stefan Gillespie crime series, THE DEAD CITY, is published on 1st August. And the first on-line review has appears here: https://www.swirlandthread.com/the-dead-city-michael-russell/ "The Dead City is an absolutely enthralling novel, with a very convincing portrayal of those closing months of the war……... Extraordinary stuff wonderfully executed, The Dead City, is another top-class novel, a brilliant addition to this series, an outstanding read."
123 NUMBER SQUAD! - Series 2 announced
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: SALLY MARCHANT , WRITERS: DARREN JONES, JAMES MASON & HELENA SMEE
10 July 2024
The Children's Media Conference has kicked off with Sky announcing Series 2 of multi award winning animation series, 123 NUMBER SQUAD! We can't wait to see it on screen in September. Here's to Executive Producer, Sally Marchant and core team writers on the show, Darren Jones, James Mason and Helena Smee.
THE DEAD CITY by MICHAEL RUSSELL
Published in UK & Ireland on 1st August 2024
10 July 2024
Michael Russell's THE DEAD CITY, the ninth book in his Stefan Gillespie series of wartime thrillers, is published in the UK and Ireland by Constable/Little Brown on 1st August. In this dead city, the vultures are circling… Berlin 1944. The beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. And the beginning of a dark journey for Garda detective Stefan Gillespie as he makes his way through war-ravaged Europe to the German capital. He carries secret instructions for the Irish ambassador, who is clinging on in the growing chaos – even though it’s time to get out. Bombs fall and bodies fill the streets. People starve. The true horrors of Nazi terror are everywhere now… and the Russians are coming. As Stefan searches for an Irishman trapped in Berlin who has betrayed his country and his friends, who cares if people are murdered along the way? And Stefan has to ask himself if saving one life matters in this devastation. And if it does, is it worth him risking his own?
EMMERDALE
WRITTEN BY JANE PEARSON
03 July 2024
Start the week with Jane Pearson's latest episode of EMMERDALE which goes out on Monday 8th July at 7.30pm on ITV1 and available on catch-up via ITVX. Amy unwittingly puts Matty in danger. Meanwhile, Moira is on a mission regarding Samson's lies.
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