HARRY POTTER IT AIN'T! 'AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN' CASTS ITS SPELL

Just hanging about. Fiona (Jessica Lange) casts her spell in AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN. Images: FX.

Having previously enjoyed playing the twisted, scary, dangerous and marvellously OTT Nun, Sister Jude, film icon Jessica Lange gets to expand her dominion over sophisticated horror genre television with the soon arrival of the third season of the ground-breaking AMERICAN HORROR STORY, now out of the twisted, mutant, serial killing alien infested Asylum of the 1960's and into the wicked world of witchcraft and other forms of black-hearted magic, playing Fiona Goode, a woman skilled in the dark arts with past-exiled vengeance on her mind, in COVEN, coming next month to the UK's FOX HD channel.

The cauldron assembles: Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates make their mark on the series.

And if you've got such a talented actress as your series lead, then you want her past and future nemeses to have equal stature and charismatic power in order to get the fireworks in motion, and the series casting wing have worked overtime in securing two of the best: award winning actresses Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett, respectively playing Madames Delphine LaLurie (described by Miss Bates as being even worse than the deranged character she played in the superb film adaptation of Stephen King's Misery) and Marie Laveau, an esteemed mistress of voodoo and other sympathetic magics, soon exchanging more than harsh words and bitchy cat-calls with their ex-friend, the returned Fiona, amidst the background of an academy for exceptional and gifted young ladies- in actuality, a front for the preservation and cultivation of a unique bloodline of witchery, where a newcomer's destiny (Zoe, played by series one lead Taissa Farmiga), alongside the emergence of her latent powers that will likely be the catalyst for even more terrifying and genre-busting events. Cue in the expectant and disturbing atmospheric menace, warped supporting characters, and a splattering of blood and gore with classy black comedy, all in the most outrageous confectionery of macabre supremacy, and we're sure to have another winning season, one hopefully a bit better sustained in its story and character arc duration compared to the previous year, from writers/creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.

▶ American Horror Story Coven Full Trailer - MEET THE WITCHES! - YouTube
▶ American Horror Story Season 3: Coven Teaser #1 Detention (HD) - YouTube
▶ American Horror Story Season 3: Coven Teaser #2 Pins & Needles (HD) - YouTube

Other big-league names new to the series, filming in the big heat and atmospheric of New Orleans will include Danny Huston, Patti Lupone and Emma Roberts, while popular past AHS series veterans, playing distinctive fresh parts, include old favourites from across the previous two series, including Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Francis Conroy, and, away from her man-tempting, stockings and suspenders wearing maid incarnation from season one, and likely to raise the blood pressure all over again, the welcome return of Alexandra Breckenridge.

Let the spiritual invocations begin!

SAINT AND SINNER! JEAN RENO IS 'JO'

Parisian prime-crime for the investigative skills of JO (Jean Reno, far left) and his team. Image: RTBF.

In my book, the brilliant, often iconic French character actor with the world weary look, Jean Reno, has (with the very rare exception) never been as well served in English language/ Hollywood movies as he deserved. Hopefully, that disappointing situation will be rectified for the good with his starring status in the eagerly anticipated, atmospheric new TV police series drama JO, making its debut on the UK's FOX HD channel later this month.

Lots of fictional cops out there have problems, but Jo seems to have them all encapsulated into one big swaying tonic, in a way that famous crime writers would go weak at the knees in writing for. Investigating the evil behind the numerous unsettling and horrific murders that fall into his caseload tray, Joachim 'Jo' Saint-Claire is certainly no angel, either: frequently moody and bad tempered, with an in-your-face attitude to his colleagues and friends, presented in that unique way that only a Frenchman could get away with! He's also had some major dalliances with drink and drugs and, yes, he's got a wayward daughter he doesn't get on too well with either, and whom just so happens to have been conceived via a liaison with a French prostitute. In fact, all Jo needs now is a one-eyed, alcoholic dog looked after by a nosey neighbour and the entire genre watching audience is well and truly catered for!

Partnered with a younger, less embittered Detective, Bayard (Tom Austen), and taking orders (most of the time) from his bossy, sexy Irish babe Deputy Director, Dormont (Orla Brady - who seems to be in everything these days!), the series mixes its polished, distinctly continental French vibe (the location filming alone is apparently worthy of all the best travel commercials) with the detective/procedural gloss of American series, along with a dark swath of Danish dread and brutality (the show features two talented directors from the often marvellous The Killing). Hopes are high that JO will have a lengthy run transatlantic appeal, and I can't see why it shouldn't...