Derek Jacobi returns to crime

Derek Jacobi has been one of my favourite actors since I saw him play Hamlet many years ago. 2007 looks to be yet another good year for fans as he returns to an old favourite as well as starring as a classic English author.

The Independent reports that:

he is to reprise his role in I, Claudius for a whole new audience. The series, to be aired by BBC Radio in January, will see him return to the pivotal role in what was widely considered to be one of the greatest pieces of TV drama after a gap of 30 years.

The revamped eight-part serialisation has been staged for BBC Radio 2 and will be broadcast from 12 January. Though the 1976 TV version - which also starred Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed and John Hurt - combined Graves's 1934 novel and its sequel, Claudius the God, the radio revival will stick solely to the first book.

Not content with one iconic figure, Jacobi will star as Charles Dickens (and a tramp) in the murder-mystery film, 'The Riddle', set to be released in the Spring.

Plot outline from IMDB: "A journalist investigates a series of murders that follows the discovery of an unpublished novel by Charles Dickens in the cellar of an old Thames-side-pub. Gradually he becomes obsessed with unraveling a century-old murder in the pages of the manuscript. Only when he has done so, with the help of a mysterious beach-combing tramp who stalks the Thames foreshore, is he able to solve the modern murders."

The downside of 'The Riddle' is that Vinnie Jones is the journalist! Mel Smith also features as well as Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Flemyng. You can watch a trailer here.