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Anna Maxwell Martin takes on an intimidating new role that’s miles away from Motherland in this gripping Apple TV drama

The new Cold War thriller features some very recognisable names.

Apple TV’s highly anticipated For All Mankind spin-off Star City is finally here and has received rave reviews across the board.

Taking viewers back to the 1970s in this alternate version of history in which the Soviet Union won the space-race, the series picks up with the Russian politicians, engineers, cosmonauts, and KGB agents overseeing more missions to the Moon.

While the USSR is still basking in the victory of becoming the first nation to put a man on the Moon in 1969, tensions are running high as the threat of the US still looms large during the Cold War.

The series begins today (Friday, 29th May) with six more episodes coming each Friday until a riveting finale on 10th July.

But who is in the cast of Star City? From a major sitcom star to actors from some of the most acclaimed dramas of the past few years, let’s take a closer look at where you’ve seen them before.

Star City’s main cast

Rhys Ifans – Chief Designer

Welsh film and TV icon Rhys Ifans portrays the secretive figure at the head of the Star City program, known only as the chief designer.

You’ll have seen him recently as Otto Hightower in House of the Dragon, HBO’s popular Game of Thrones spin-off, as well as portraying Xenophilius Lovegood in the Harry Potter franchise and as Curt Connors/The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man, a role he reprised in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

His performance as comedy legend Peter Cook in Channel 4’s Not Only But Always won him a BAFTA TV award, and he is also well-known for his role as Spike in Notting Hill opposite Hugh Grant.

Anna Maxwell Martin – Lyudmilla Raskova

Anna Maxwell Martin plays the head of Star City’s KGB surveillance department, Lyudmilla Raskova, in a performance the Guardian has described as “terrifying”.

Martin has appeared in a huge range of popular British dramas, including Line of Duty, Ludwig, and ITV’s Until I Kill You, which won her an International Emmy Award.

She has also won BAFTA TV Awards for her roles in Bleak House and Poppy Shakespeare and is well-known among comedy fans for playing Julia Johnstone in the hit BBC sitcom Motherland.

Agnes O’Casey – Irina Morozova

Irina Morozova, a recent KGB recruit at Star City, is portrayed by English and Irish actress Agnes O’Casey.

O’Casey has landed supporting roles in major dramas in the 2020s, including Dangerous Liaisons, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, and Netflix’s Black Doves.

On the big screen she has appeared in Small Things Like These with Cillian Murphy and in The Miracle Club, Dame Maggie Smith’s final film.

Alice Englert – Anastasia Belikova

Anastasia Belikova is an untested female cosmonaut in the Soviet space program and portrayed by Australian actress Alice Englert.

Previously best known for her film roles, she has appeared in Ginger & Rosa with Elle Fanning, Beautiful Creatures with Alden Ehrenreich, and Netflix’s The Power of the Dog with Benedict Cumberbatch, which was directed by her mother Jane Campion.

Englert also appeared with O’Casey in Dangerous Liaisons, as well as BBC’s The Serpent and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and made her directorial debut with the 2023 film Bad Behaviour starring Jennifer Connelly.

Solly McLeod – Sasha Polivanov

Sasha Polivanov is described as “a reckless cosmonaut who has yet to live up to his potential” and is portrayed by Solly McLeod.

McLeod is a British actor known for playing the title role in ITV’s adaptation of Tom Jones, and has also played Ser Joffrey Lonmouth in two episode of House of the Dragon with Star City co-star Ifans.

He is also set to appear in the major upcoming films Practical Magic 2 and Anxious People, adapted from the bestselling novel by Fredrik Backman.

Adam Nagaitis – Valya Mironov

In contrast to Sasha, Valya is a respected cosmonaut in the Star City program brought to life by British actor Adam Nagaitis. Nagaitis previously portrayed a Russian firefighter in HBO’s acclaimed miniseries Chernobyl.

He has also appeared in the film The Last Duel with Matt Damon and Adam Driver, as well as TV series The Responder, The Agency and A Thousand Blows.

Ruby Ashbourne Serkis – Tanya Mironova

Ruby Ashbourne Serkis is the actress daughter of The Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis and will be portraying Tanya, the wife of one of Star City’s cosmonauts.

She has previously appeared in TV series Shardlake and I, Jack Wright, as well as two recent Cillian Murphy films; Netflix’s Steve and the Peaky Blinders movie, The Immortal Man.

Josef Davies – Sergei Nikulov

Josef Davies portrays Sergei Nikulov, a young engineering prodigy working at Soviet Ground Control. Davies is best known as Sören in Young Wallander and he has also appeared in Andor, Grace, and Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, as well as the hit WWI film 1917.

Supporting cast and guest stars

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Star City also features an extensive cast of supporting stars. They include:

• David Dencik (The Assassin) as Maxim Tarasov
• Eliot Salt (Rivals) as Vika Yegorova
• Ellie Piercy as Galina
• Robin Berry as Rem Balabanov
• Chris Leaney as Viktor
• Eadie Johnson as Zoya Morozova
• Aurelijus Pocius as Zhenya

There are also some major names and rising stars making guest appearances throughout the first season. They include:

• Niamh Algar (The Iris Affair) as Yana Akhmatova
• Jenny Walser (Heartstopper) as Leonova
• Sam Strike (Outer Range) as Pavel Fetisov
• Ian Drysdale as Doctor Borovsky
• Sam Wilkinson as Alexei Leonov
• Neringa Bulotaité as Natalia Ivanovna
• Sean Gilder as Vladimir Belikov
• Jamie de Courcey as Stanislav Kalinsky
• Fadily Camara as Celine
• Michael James as Galytzin
• Šarūnas Datenis as Arkady
• Priya Kansara (Bridgerton) as Lakshmi, a gifted scientist

Star City continues Fridays on Apple TV.

Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw has been named WSL Football’s Player of the Season after an impressive campaign in the Women’s Super League.

The 29-year-old also won the Golden Boot for a third successive season after scoring 21 goals in 22 appearances as City claimed a first WSL title in a decade.

She won the Football Writers’ Association Women’s Footballer of the Year award earlier in May and was named City’s Player of the Season on Sunday.

Known affectionately as ‘Bunny’, she has dominated headlines after contract renewal discussions broke down with her current deal set to run out in June.

WSL rivals Chelsea are favourites to sign Shaw on a free deal in the summer amid heavy interest from clubs around the world.

During City’s homecoming celebrations at Manchester’s Albert Hall on Sunday, fans chanted “we want Bunny to stay”.

Shaw, who arrived at City in 2021, has finished as the club’s top scorer in four of her five seasons there and holds the record for the most hat-tricks in the WSL (six).

Some of Shaw’s best performances this season included a hat-trick against Tottenham and a four-goal haul at home to Aston Villa, as well as scoring an important opener in the 3-2 win over Arsenal in October.

The Jamaica international could help City snatch a domestic double if they beat Brighton in the Women’s FA Cup final on Sunday, 31 May (15:00 BST).

Shaw beat team-mate Kerstin Casparij, Arsenal forward Alessia Russo and Aston Villa winger Kirsty Hanson to the award.

England international Russo netted 13 goals in 22 matches, playing as both a striker and a midfielder, while Hanson finished third in the goalscoring charts behind Shaw and Russo with 12 goals.

Also shortlisted for the main award were Manchester United’s Jess Park, Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson, Tottenham’s Olivia Holdt and Everton’s Ruby Mace.

Manchester City face Chelsea in the FA Cup final looking to add to their League Cup success and with eye on EPL title.

Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City have had a successful season, whether or not they win the Premier League title or the FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday.

Guardiola’s side will put their attempt to catch Premier League leaders Arsenal on hold as they head to Wembley for a fourth successive FA Cup final appearance.

City start every season with the Premier League and Champions League as their main targets, but they are on the verge of falling short in both.

Knocked out of the Champions League last 16 by Real Madrid in March, City will be five points behind Arsenal if the Gunners beat relegated Burnley at home on Monday.

Guardiola’s men can close the gap back to two points with victory at Bournemouth in their penultimate match of the season on Tuesday.

But Arsenal would then still be able to guarantee their first English title since 2004 by winning at Crystal Palace on May 24.

Having already won the League Cup by beating Arsenal, City have a chance for a domestic double this weekend.

However, Guardiola is adamant the campaign has been positive, no matter what happens at Wembley or in the title race.

“It depends on the trophies you lift. Sometimes you lift trophies and the season has been successful,” said Guardiola, who would only offer “we’ll see” when asked if Rodri would be fit to start in midfield.

“Sometimes, you lift and the truth is the season has been really, really bad.

“I said a few weeks ago this season has been good. Really, really good.”

After starting with Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku on the bench for Wednesday’s win against Crystal Palace, Guardiola is likely to field a full-strength team against Chelsea instead of prioritising the title fight.

“It is the final of the FA Cup. The message is there are two prestigious clubs at Wembley in the FA Cup final. Our fans make an incredible effort to come down to London. It is not cheap,” he said.

“We try to perform as much as possible to win. It is always the game plan.”

City have lost the last two FA Cup finals against Crystal Palace and Manchester United, who they had beaten in the 2023 showpiece.

“There’s excitement, of course. I hope we can do better than the last two times,” Guardiola said.

“Wembley is still a special place. Everything is so nice. The pitch is extraordinary. We are desperate to perform well.”

Ahead of his 24th trip to Wembley with City, Guardiola joked that he is “so disappointed” he has not had a stand named after him at the home of English football.

“So many times I have been there, at least a lounge or a box or something like that. Maybe I have to go 24 more times,” he said.

Guardiola has one year left on his City contract and is yet to sign a new deal amid speculation that he could end his decade at the Etihad Stadium once the current campaign is over.

Asked about reports that City’s fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura and goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor are set to leave the club, Guardiola said with a smirk: “I extended the contract with them three more years,” before adding: “Nope”.

The Wende Museum of the Cold War announced on Saturday that it plans to build a $16-million expansion in Hawthorne.

The Culver City museum has purchased a historically significant midcentury modern building in Hawthorne, which it plans to transform into a research institute and interactive storage facility for its collections — a “living archive,” as it’s calling the facility.

The Wende plans to debut the space in spring 2028.

“In the museum world, there’s typically public space and storage space — meaning dead storage,” Wende founder and Executive Director Justin Jampol said in an interview. “And this living archive is a hybrid that combines both. It houses the collections and makes them accessible for discovery.”

The 24,000-square-foot building was erected in 1965 by shopping mall pioneer and developer Ernest Hahn to serve as his corporate headquarters. It was designed by movie theater architect George Nowak, who also designed the Writers Guild Theater.

The Wende plans to renovate the building, adding a 7,000-square-foot extension, with flexibility to further expand in the future. The facility will include state-of-the-art, climate-controlled storage for the museum’s more than 250,000-object collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs, tapestries and Cold War-era ephemera from the Soviet Union, East Bloc, China and other countries.

Interactivity, however, is the goal: so there will be spaces for “respite and inspiration,” Jampol said, such as a “scholar’s garden,” reading rooms and a library with a community learning lab and free coffee for visitors.

“The idea is to make it as engaging and comfortable as possible,” Jampol said. “Most archives are places that are very uncomfortable and uninspiring — think fluorescent lights blinking in a basement. The idea here is to open this up in a way that makes people want to be here. And focus on the content and not the space itself. We’re trying to create an experience that makes visitors want to go on an adventure.”

The Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum debuted this past fall.

(Stella Kalinina / For The Times)

The Wende’s Collections Department will be headquartered in the new building. The facility will also house a conservation center for endangered objects and paper archives, and will feature a digitization and imaging lab that will make the collections available online, free of charge.

It will also include reading rooms and research offices for up to 100 visiting scholars or artist fellows annually.

“The collections, instead of being hidden in a box, will be on full view,” Jampol said. “When you walk through, you won’t see boxes. You’ll see vases, tapestries, ceramics and more.”

Construction on the building, at 2311 W. El Segundo Blvd., starts May 15. Funds for the project came from the Arcadia Fund, the Kaufman Foundation and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, among other capital supporters.

The Wende Museum in Culver City opened its doors in 2017 inside a former 1949 atomic bomb shelter. It now draws about 25,000 visitors annually, who come to take in four exhibitions and more than 60 public programs. Admission is free.

Rapid expansion has been a hallmark of the Wende of late.

In September, it debuted a $17-million culture and wellness center offering free yoga, meditation, sound baths and therapy. The 7,500-square-foot facility was made possible with funding from the late philanthropist Glorya Kaufman who died a month before the building opened to the public. It’s called the Glorya Kaufman Community Center.

The Wende’s Glorya Kaufman Community Center includes a century old A-frame theater, an old MGM prop house, for free culture and wellness events.

(Stella Kalinina / For The Times)

In February, the Wende bought a three-bedroom house built in the 1940s adjacent to the museum’s campus that will be used as a live-work space for photographers in residence. It will include a community space for photography workshops and a post-production studio. The Nikita Foundation and the Victor Family Foundation provided funding.

It debuted a tiny home on its campus last fall, nicknamed “The Stevie” after donor Steve Markoff. It’s used for cross-disciplinary artist residencies.

A facility for interactive museum storage and research is not a new concept in Los Angeles.

The Autry Museum of the American West — after merging with the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in 2003 and since stewarding its collection of Indigenous art and artifacts — debuted a $32-million, 100,000-square-foot facility in Burbank in October 2022.

The so-called “Resources Center” was built to house, conserve and care for both museums’ collections in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled and fire-safe environment. It also serves as a research destination for scholars, artists, tribal representatives and others to study the collections.

Jampol said that the project will enable the Wende to serve a wider swath of visitors, from specialists to the general public, and to venture outside of Culver City to engage other communities.

“It’s about making the collections both safe and accessible,” he said. “We looked to the Autry for inspiration alongside the V&A East in London — they both invite people in from the community, alongside scholars, to explore the collections. It’s the democratization of art — I love the ethos and spirit of that.”

Wrexham inflicted Coventry’s first league defeat of the season when they won an exciting encounter 3-2 at Stok Cae Ras in October.

“It was a massive game and a massive performance here,” Hyam said.

“It was a great game under the lights at the stadium – I think it was one of my first opportunities to play under the lights here.

“We beat them 3-2, which was a great game and a great occasion for this club.

“They’ve got some great, talented players at the top of the pitch but so have we.”

While reaching the play-offs is the main focus for Hyam there is also the prospect of inclusion in Scotland’s World Cup squad.

Hyam won his second senior cap – three years after making his debut – in Scotland’s 1-0 friendly defeat to the Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium in March.

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said that continued good performances from the former Reading player would give him every chance of securing a place in Steve Clarke’s squad.

“One step at a time, one game at a time,” said Hyam.

“All I can focus on is my performances and hopefully staying fit and having a good end to the season.”

One of the most striking elements of Cardiff’s success this season has been the development of their young players.

Barry-Murphy signalled his intent in the first game of the season against Peterborough, naming the youngest Cardiff starting line-up for a league fixture this century.

His faith in the academy graduates has been repaid handsomely, with Dylan Lawlor, Cian Ashford, Joel Colwill, Isaak Davies and Ronan Kpakio all catching the eye at different points this season.

Playing in League One has benefited them enormously – as if they have dropped down a division to spend a season on loan together at a lower level.

What remains to be seen is how they deal with the Championship.

It is also easy to forget that vice-captain Rubin Colwill is still only 23. Having burst on to the scene as a teenager, the Wales attacking midfielder has come of age this season.

“It’s been an unbelievable season for everyone involved,” Colwill said.

“A lot of the young lads have had really good seasons, and obviously getting promoted for everyone is amazing. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of it.”

Centre-back Lawlor has arguably had the biggest impact of those fledgling talents this season, making his Wales debut and looking remarkably assured over the course of his five caps to date.

The 20-year-old has been linked with a move away – with German giants Bayern Munich among the clubs reportedly interested – and Cardiff will do well to keep him this summer.

But Barry-Murphy has shown how well he can work with young players, not only in the Welsh capital but during his time in charge of Manchester City’s Under-21s, where he nurtured the likes of Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers.

Crucially, Cardiff will be protected financially should big clubs come calling for Lawlor, who signed a three-year contract extension last August to keep him at the club until 2028.

Match of the Day pundits Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy discuss how “two top players” in Erling Haaland and Gabriel went head-to-head in Manchester City’s 2-1 victory against Arsenal, with the Norwegian striker reaching “unplayable” levels.

MATCH REPORT: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal

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