Happy Sunday at the Festival

A heavy agenda for Day 3 of the Monte-Carlo TV Festival. Let's look back over some of the highlights...

At 10am, fans were invited to an exceptional Selfies Session to celebrate the 15th anniversary of "Plus Belle la Vie", with Rebecca Hampton (Celine Fremont), Serge Dupire (Vincent Chaumette), Pierre Martot (Leo Castelli), Fabienne Carat (Samia Nassri), Pauline Bression (Emma Rimez), Marwan Berreni (Abdel Fedala), Lea François (Barbara Evenot) and Grant Lawrens (Cesar Cordonnier). The cast of this beloved French series really enjoyed taking pictures with their loyal fans, many of whom had come especially to see their favorite actors. There was lots of laughter and a great atmosphere, especially when the stars were presented with a beautiful birthday cake.

A little later, #OMG card-holders got to have a much more intimate meeting with Lindsey Morgan and Richard Harmon from "The 100" and were able to pose lots of questions. Lindsey told her fans that she would like Raven, her character in the series, to become a little less strict in the future, whilst Richard hopes his character will get better at fighting one day ... The actors explained that although "The 100" series is set in the future, it serves as a warning about the way current society is headed. Lindsey and Richard were super friendly and the audience had a great laugh with them.

Other #OMG card-holding fans enjoyed an exclusive meeting with Kelly McCreary and Greg Germann from the famous show "Grey's Anatomy". Kelly, who plays Meredith Grey's half-sister, confided that she'd been a fan of the series long before she became an actress, although Greg admitted that when he'd been asked to join the show he hadn't known anything about it and had to look it up on Wikipedia, which made the audience laugh out loud. Both stars also revealed that although they hadn't undergone any kind of medical training before the shoot, there are doctors and experts on set to help if needed. Kelly, whose character has just found out that she's actually part of the Grey family, is dying to know what this will mean for her moving forwards, especially in terms of potential success or failure.

Christina Chang and Nicholas Gonzalez from "The Good Doctor" also shared a moment with fans. The series is about a young, gifted doctor with Asperger's Syndrome. The actors began by thanking the public for their presence and for watching the show, saying that without them, they wouldn't be here. They also explained that they hadn't had any medical training but that experts were always on hand. Nicholas, whose father is a doctor and brother a surgeon, said that he often speaks to them when a problem comes up. Both stars were happy to answer questions, and spoke at length about autism. One person asked if they'd feel odd being treated by doctor with Asperger's, to which Christina replied that she knew many people with the syndrome and that it wouldn't bother her at all. Nicholas also said that he wouldn't feel odd, but rather impressed with a doctor like that if it were ever to happen. After the chat, actors and fans posed for an improvised photo shoot.

At the same time, a different Selfies Session was taking place in the Grimaldi Forum Fan Zone with the cast of the TF1 series "Demain nous appartient". Ingrid Chauvin, Axel Kiener, Samira Lachhab, Luce Mouchel and Clement Remiens were all there, smiling, chatting and posing for photos with the public. Some lucky fans even managed to get an autograph or two!

Some time later, Amazon Prime Video show "The Expanse" hosted a Behind The Scenes session in the Grimaldi Forum's Auric room. Leading actors Frankie Adams, Shoreh Aghdashloo, Cas Anvar, Steven Strait and Dominique Tipper, were all there. Things kicked off with a screening of the show trailer, after which the fans were able to ask questions. The cast talked about the foreign language that's spoken a lot in the show, explaining that it draws on elements of English, Spanish, Portuguese and African; apparently it's a language that everyone can learn! They also confided that although the series has changed broadcaster three times now (Netflix, SyFy and Amazon Prime Video) this hasn't affected them at all because the producers remain the same. They did say, though, that the space tale was almost canceled by SyFy a few months ago, and Shoreh warmly thanked the fans who had launched a campaign to save it. She felt sure that this had contributed to Amazon picking it up since.

Towards the end of the afternoon the Festival, in partnership with the Princess Grace USA Foundation, were honored to play host to the world's most famous sponge and his best friend: SpongeBob and Patrick Star! The two buddies had come to celebrate their 20th anniversary on the Festival's YELLOW carpet, specially laid out for the occasion! A special screening of the first episode of the animated series, created in 1999, together with the most recent one, took place at the Grimaldi Forum in the presence of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. This was followed by a delicious teatime snack in the Indigo room, where lots of fun things had been set up for the children. (inflatable castle, painting workshop, makeup workshop ...), and fans could get their photos taken with Bob and Patrick!

Around about the same time, fans of "Magnum P.I. were invited to meet stars of the show, Perdita Weeks, Jay Hernandez and Stephen Hill. During the Q & A session the actors revealed that there are plans afoot for other crossovers between their show and "Hawaii 5-0"! They talked about performing a lot of the stunts themselves, although they've been banned from certain more dangerous things like jumping between buildings or flying a helicopter. For these scenes they do as much as they can before a professional stunt performer takes over.

Another Behind The Scenes took place with the two "The 100" actors, this time open to the public. Festival-goers watched a trailer and were then invited to ask questions. Lindsey and Richard regaled the audience with lots of fun anecdotes and a great time was had by both the stars and their fans.

Day 3 of the Festival concluded with the French premiere of the first episode of "Summer Of Rockets". Helen Flint, executive producer, and Stephen Poliakoff, creator, scriptwriter and director, came to present their new show and spent time before the screening chatting onstage with Genie Godula, journalist at France 24. Helen and Stephen told the audience that the most difficult part of shooting this Cold War series was trying to find 1958 England in 2019. Also, the first episode, which takes place mostly in front of Buckingham Palace, had to be shot very early in the morning - long before dawn - to avoid tourists. They are certain that the series will appeal to an international audience, as the themes it addresses are universal. Plus in view of England's current situation (Brexit), foreigners will surely want to know more about this enigmatic country...

And so this exciting Sunday comes to an end! We can't wait to see what's planned for the second to last day!