Firth on the buses, but off the rails 

Actor Colin Firth will star as a madman in a comtemporary version of Don Quixote for a new British film. 

The Pride and Prejudice star - who also appears in Shakespeare in Love - will take the title role in Donovan Quick, which will be made for television later this year. 

Director David Blair said the film is superficially about "a Don  Quixote character," but is set  against the unlikely background of transport privatisation. 

Firth's character is in charge of axing bus services - but he gives the profits away to the needy, mirroring the hero of Cervantes' book. 

"He's been sectioned in a mental hospital and what unfolds is that he is tortured by what he appears to have been doing in the past. 

"He's arrested at the end and put back in a mental hospital," said  Blair, who has also directed The Lakes and Takin' Over the Asylum for the BBC. 

WATCH OUT FOR...

Colin Firth who stars in the Miramax movie MLSF, which HH has  directed from a script by Scottish playwright Simon Danald.  Thefilm will be screened in Cannes on Thursday for a gala Aids benefit.  I can also tell you that Mr Firth, along with E McG and DM, will return to the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London inRichard Greenberg's remarkable play, 3DOR.  The drama ran for a few performances earlier this year and was such a hit that everyone decided to ressemble at the Donmar for a longer run, beginning on November 16.  The production will break for Christmas and New Year, then return from January 5 to 22.  Theplay, set on America's East Coast, explores the dynamite events that affect the life of a brother and sister, their parents andbest friends over several decades.

COLIN FIRTH STARS IN DONOVAN QUICK

Colin Firth (Shakespeare in Love, Pride and Prejudice), Katy Murphy (Tutti Frutti, A Mug's Game),David O'Hara (Braveheart, The Match), Liz Smith (The Royale Family, A Private Function), and David Westhead (The Lakes, Mrs Brown) are to star in Donovan Quick - a few film for BBC ONE from the BAFTA award-winning team of writer, Donna Franceschild, and director, David Blair. Filming will begin on locations around Glasgow from April 25.

Colin Firth said today" "This is a unique script and I am looking forward to working with David Blair on the film." BBC Scotland's Head of Drama, Barbara McKissack, added: "I am delighted that we are attracting major talents both on and off the screen to work with us in Scotland." 

When the mysterious and well-spoken Donovan Quick takes up residence with the Pannick family things will never be the same again. The Pannicks are like any other dysfunctional family: Lucy Pannick drinks, her son Jim steals cars, her grandmother forgets to put on her clothes and her learning disabled brother, Sandy, runs model trains in his room all night. 

When multi-national bus company, Windmill Transport takes over the local trains and leaves Sandy no way to get to his day centre, Donovan starts up a one-bus company with Sandy to replace the lost service. Against all the odds, the fledgling Quick and Pannick buses becomes so successful that the voracious Windmill Transport decides to poach the route for itself. However, like his inspiration Don Quixote, Donovan Quick manages to thwart Windmill at their own game, galvanising the community and transforming forever the lives of Lucy, Sandy, Gran and Jim in the process. 

Donovan Quick is an independent production from Making Waves Film and Television Limited, a company set up by writer Donna Franceschild and director David Blair who previously collaborated on two BBC Scotland series, Takin' Over the Asylum and A Mug's Game. The producer is Sue Austen and the executive producers are Barbara McKissack and Jane Tranter.