Credit: Dan Tsantilis
It was great to speak to David Troughton this week. Lovely man and very easy to interview. I’m glad we agreed on what a remarkable series A Very Peculiar Practice is, and I couldn’t resist asking him about his co-star, the late, great Graham Crowden. Check out the full interview.
It was great to be granted a brief interview with Jim Dale recently about his forthcoming West End one-man show Just Jim Dale. He’s a legend. And I couldn’t resist asking him about playing Spike Milligan on film. He’s astonishingly Spike-like in “Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall”. You should see it if you haven’t…
Read the full interview here: http://www.entertainment-focus.com/featured-slider/jim-dale-interview/
It was great to be able to interview Clive Merrison recently. He’s reprised his role as Bomber in the West End transfer of Land of Our Fathers, an incredible piece of theatre. It runs at the Trafalgar Studios until 4th October and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Clive has a wicked and dry sense of humour, and it was a really fun interview to do. I’ve followed his work for many years with great admiration, so always meaningful to speak to someone who’s made an impact on you.
The photograph of Clive was taken by Alex Harvey-Brown of Savannah Photographic.
I’m really pleased with this feature I wrote for Entertainment Focus about the world of Psycho, and how different interpretations have added to the mythology. Ultimately though, it’s always going to be Anthony Perkins’ gig… but follow the link to what I said:
http://www.entertainment-focus.com/tv-section/tv-news/psycho-mythology-who-are-norman-norma-bates/
Occasionally worlds collide, and I have a love of theatre and cult British TV. When I heard Sally Knyvette was directing a piece of new writing to be shown at Theatre503, I wasn’t going to turn down an interview.
Now an established director, Sally is also an actor, and she had played Jenna in the first two series of Blake’s 7 (one of the seven!).
Again, she was a real pleasure to interview, very insightful and intelligent. You can see the results here.
I was shopping in Morrisons when I realised I had a missed call. There was a voice message from Jack Klaff. It was surreal listening to the refined and cultured voice whilst queuing to buy my groceries, and quite thrilling since he is an actor who has been in one of my favourite episodes of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett, and has been bumped off by Roger Moore (no less) in For Your Eyes Only.
I did get back in touch and he was a real pleasure to speak to, and so eloquent that it was an absolute breeze to transcribe! You can see the results here.
Here are a few more links to my interviews with Robert Gillespie.
You can see the second part of my in-depth discussion with him about his career here, in which Robert talks about his life in situation comedy.
The third and final part is about his time with the RSC in the 1990s up to the founding of his company, Jane Nightwork Productions.
More recently I did a video interview with him about the play for one actor Portia he has written and directed, which starred Clare Cameron.
It was a real privilege to be able to spend a few hours recently with actor/director Robert Gillespie and talk to him about his career.
His honesty and intelligence come through clearly, especially when he recalls his unhappy time at RADA and the problems he found with rep theatre.
I’ll be posting more soon about his The Consumer’s Guide To Religion sketch for That Was The Week That Was, his TV career, and his more recent stage work, including his two years with the RSC.
The first part of the interview can be seen here:
http://www.entertainment-focus.com/featured-slider/robert-gillespie-interview-beginnings/
One of Peter Jackson’s favourite actors (what a lovely position to be in!), Jed Brophy is another big name to be attracted to The Minister Of Chance, which he’ll record whilst in the UK promoting The Hobbit.
