Bread and butter work

THE central theme of Defying Gravity, says creator James Parriott, is “about man finding himself and his place in the universe”.

Others may simply regard it as about a group of international astronauts blasting off into space on a six-year mission aboard the good ship Antares.

“What’s wonderful about doing a big show like this is that we get to deal thematically with race, religion, all the big issues of our time, and deal with them in a unique way,” says Parriott.

“All of those things factor into our characters and who they are and how the mission progresses.”

Parriott has previously worked on the likes of Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy.

He’s executive producer of Defying Gravity, alongside Desperate Housewives veteran Michael Edelstein.

Ron Livingston, from Sex and the City and Band of Brothers, and Laura Harris, who’s appeared in 24, head the cast. But for British viewers perhaps the most interesting face in the cast belong to Bread actor-turnedfilm- maker Peter Howitt.

He not only has a regular role, but directs several episodes. His past cinema films as a director include the hit comedy Sliding Doors, which he also wrote, with Gwyneth Paltrow.

“I kind of cheekily said, as I’d noticed there was this British reporter in the show, ‘If you want, I’ll play him as well, ‘cause I’m local and I qualify and I’m cheap,’” he says.

“They phoned up and said, ‘Look, we’d love you to direct some episodes, and were you serious about playing Trevor Williams?’ So I ended up doing both, which has been really good.”

The 52-year-old didn’t need to do much research into the role either, because his father, Frank, was a Fleet Street journalist for many years.

“He wrote for the Daily Express and uncovered the infamous Christine Keeler affair, the John Profumo scandal in 1963. He broke that story and I very nearly went into journalism.”

Instead, he turned to showbusiness, and became a household name playing Joey Boswell in Bread.

These days, he lives with his family in Canada where Defying Gravity was filmed.

His character may be Earth-based, but Howitt insists he’s crucial to the drama – if only to help we laymen understand all the technobabble going on. “Trevor is covering it for a major British news organisation, and he is a dyed-inthe- wool, old school journalist,” he explains.

“He can see a bluff, and he’ll get the story. He’ll get the truth. Trevor almost represents the audience’s curiosity on screen, because there’s quite a lot in the story that makes you suspicious, and makes you wonder what’s actually going on. Everything isn’t quite what it seems.”

IF CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has shown us anything, it’s that spin-offs are big business. The daddy of US crime dramas has two sister shows busy scoring monster ratings from the team behind the original forensics drama.

And now it’s the turn of NCIS to launch its own side project – with a big budget, and top drawer cast to boot. The result is NCIS: Los Angeles.

The original series follows the work of the elite Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

As the title might suggest, this companion drama relocates the action to sundrenched LA. Chris O’Donnell plays the main character, Callen, a lead agent whose natural talent for undercover work is legendary.

LL Cool J plays the role of Special Agent Sam Hanna, an ex-Navy Seal, who works in the undercover unit of NCIS in Los Angeles, and is also fluent in Arabic and an expert on Middle Eastern culture.

IN Art Deco Icons, architectural historian David Heathcote explores four of the best examples of the art design movement in Britain, beginning with Claridge’s Hotel, in London.

He explains how the establishment underwent a transformation during the Thirties, making it a fashionable destination for the rich and famous.

He samples the cocktail bar and then settles into a perfect example of an art-deco bath.