miranda richardson

The new miniseries 'World Without End,' sequel to 'Pillars of the Earth,' is beefing up its cast.

Signing on to the project are 'Sex and the City' star Cynthia Nixon, along with Oscar nominees Miranda Richardson ('Rubicon') and Peter Firth ('MI-5'), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The eight-hour drama will begin shooting soon on location in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

In other TV news ...

Mark your calendars and break out the martini shaker, because season 4 of AMC's critically acclaimed 'Mad Men' will debut Sun., July 25 at 10PM.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, look for last season's cliffhanger plots -- the Draper's splitting up and the disbanding of Sterling Cooper -- to be addressed immediately, making the premiere a game-changing episode.

Meanwhile, AMC also announced that its latest drama, 'Rubicon,' a conspiracy-driven show about a New York City-based government intelligence agency, will premiere Sun., Aug. 8 at 10PM. The series stars James Badge Dale and Miranda Richardson.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing episodes of a couple of strange British shows on my local PBS affiliate in Rochester, NY. I never caught them regularly, not even sure when they aired, but I remember one of them was a peculiar little period piece with some funny gags, and a storyline I never completely grasped.

I learned later this first show was the classic Blackadder series with Rowan Atkinson, and the reason the storylines never made sense from show to show is that there are four seasons of the show, all taking place in a different historical period. I saw them out of order, and mostly caught the first season.

Watching the new Black Adder Remastered - The Ultimate Edition DVD set from BBC America (video and audio both remastered), it's clear the best way to watch Blackadder is to at least watch each series in order. And if you can watch the whole run in order, so much the better. From the first series set in the Dark Ages to the last set in World War I (Blackadder Goes Forth), Atkinson's character, Blackadder, remains a scheming coward. But he changes, too.

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BBC America has teamed up with Ab Fab creator Jennifer Saunders to produce two new series for the network - one of which reunites Saunders with Ab Fab's Joanna Lumley and longtime partner Dawn French. And, get this, both series are being produced by Jon Plowman, who oversaw the UK's Office and Extras. Does comedy news get much better than this?

The first show - Clatterford - is being compared to the Golden Girls with Lumley and Saunders playing women's club members in a small English town. Lumley is an eccentric stirring up trouble, and Saunders is the town busybody. Dawn French and Sue Johnston are also on board.