Big Issue David Tennant will be featured in The Big Issue's first bumper Christmas magazine, on sale from tomorrow (26 Nov). Sneak preview here
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Nativity 2
All the latest reviews and interviews can be read here
The Mumsnet advent calendar had an exlusive clip on Tuesday from Nativity 2 Danger In The Manger! from right at the start of the movie.
Odeon Cinemas have a competition to win a £1,000 shopping spree if you book tickets for Nativity 2 Danger In The Manger! through their website.
DimensionsUK have a competition to win tickets to the autism-friendly screening of Nativity 2 Danger In The Manger! on 16th December.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Some autism-friendly screenings of Nativity 2 Danger In The Manger! have been added for 2nd December (as well as 16th) in over cinemas around the country.
More information here
FemaleFirst have posted an exclusive clip from Nativity 2 Danger In The Manger! where David Tennant is shown playing both twins. View it here
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Children in Need
The auction for the David Tennant signed Pudsey Bear raised £720 for Children In Need after 69 bids.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Doctor Who
A special Doctor Who DVD box-set of 41 DVDs, which covers Series 1 to 6, has been released in America and Canada. More information here.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Headway Essex David Tennant has issued his annual patron's message for Headway Essex, a screengrab of which is below.
The article, and Headway's full annual review, can be read here
All the latest news about David Tennant can be found on David Tennant on Twitter with regular news alerts several times a day on Twitter
Video: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Short Film Starring Dougray Scott – Desire
Mercedes-Benz presents a new Antony Hofman directed short film, starring Scottish actor Dougray Scott and their own SLS AMG super sports car. Scott and the SLS AMG meet on the streets of Los Angeles in the “Desire” short film.
Source: Highsnob
Also reported by It's Nice That and Motorward
The Joy of Six
A mixed selection of short films, featuring Judi Dench, Peter Mullan and direction from Romola Garai
Read a review by The List here
Swedish Sunset Song production
A new film based on one of Scotland’s classic novels will soon be in production – in Sweden. An adaptation of Sunset Song, the book by Mearns novelist Lewis Grassic Gibbon, will be filmed next year. Stars will include Peter Mullan, Agyness Deyn and Stuart Martin. Location scenes will be shot in the Mearns but most of the technical work on the movie will be done in Sweden.
Read more at Kincardineshire Observer
Another trailer for 'The Fear'
Channel 4's new 4-part drama series The Fear, starring Peter Mullan as a Brighton crime boss turned entrepreneur. A promising chronicle of the the disintegration of a criminal mind... Don't miss The FearPremière on Monday, December 3rd | 10pm | on Channel 4
Source:YouTube
PETER MULLAN: PLAYING RICHIE BECKETT
Glaswegian actor and director Peter Mullan is
known for his hard man roles in shows such as Red Riding and The Fixer.
However there was a much more personal reason for taking on his latest
gangster persona for Channel 4’s The Fear.
He says: “What grabbed me about it was that someone
with a very dark past and a very shady present should have to come to
terms with a disease that has claimed the lives of millions and caused
so many families to suffer.
“I
have lost a lot of my family to Alzheimer’s. Ritchie is a guy who quite
rightly you should not, nor ever should, sympathise with but who will
nevertheless demand a certain degree of empathy from the audience. To
understand that even bad people get diseases.
“As
far as I’m concerned he’s been a pretty bad boy to say the least. Based
on his previous actions, you would be more than justified in saying
he’s not a pleasant human being. So now he’s been diagnosed, his false
persona unravels and you get to see who he is and what is at the heart
of him.”
A word of warning.
This drama is not for everyone, with violence, gore and bad language.
If you don’t flinch from any of those, The Fear is a thought-provoking
idea that none of us is immune to Alzheimer’s, not even hard-men
gangsters. The challenge for actor Peter Mullan has been to make his
character sympathetic. Or has it?
One of our best character actors, Mullan is far from bothered about whether we like Richie Beckett or not.
He
says: “I don’t like the way some actors, when playing a nasty
character, will try to grab hold of something good about them. With
Richie there is nothing. Nothing at all redeeming.
“I
don’t think you would pity him. He’s just too unpleasant to pity. But
yeah, there are certain moments when I guess you may not dislike him as
much.
“I mean, you’re
looking at a guy who has been running a drug empire for years, he has
killed people to get to where he is and he wouldn’t think twice, in the
past, about the number of lives he has destroyed through the so-called
illegal product that he sells. No, I hope the audience wouldn’t pity him
because that would lead to sympathy and let him off the hook.”
In the four-part drama stripped across the week,
Mullan plays crime boss turned “entrepreneur” Richie, trying to fight
off both an attack on his commercial interests and a mind that seems to
be disintegrating.
Unbeknown
to him, he has a very aggressive form of Alzheimer’s. As Beckett’s dark
past becomes apparent, unresolved traumas echo the medical chaos that
engulfs him. Says Mullan: “Well, Richie sees himself as a businessman,
so called, but he is a gangster in reality, which I suppose some
businessmen are, at least in my book anyway!
“He’s
recently realised that his behaviour is quite aberrant and through the
course of the series he discovers he has Alzheimer’s, which takes hold
in a concentrated period of time. It’s extreme.”
“Aberrant”
is not the word. In the first five minutes, he vents his anger on a
passing cyclist. Mullan shares some of his character’s feelings towards
the pedaling fraternity: “I have to say I really don’t like Brighton
[where it’s set] cyclists. They cycle too worthily.”
His
character though has more of a problem with foreign upstarts. “There is
a group of gangsters,” he says, “who have come over from Albania to try
to take over his patch.
“His
family have, on the one hand, to cope with his increasingly erratic
behaviour, but also disguise it at the same time because they don’t want
it known to the wider gangster community that he’s no longer in charge
of his faculties.”
All of
this troubling behaviour puts pressure on his relationship with his wife
and two sons. Says Mullan: “He becomes more aggressive, more emotional
and in a weird way, paradoxically, more open, more vulnerable than he’s
ever been before.
“So in
some respects it brings the family closer together but obviously in
other respects it rips them apart because his nature is to fight things.
“Instead of coping and
finding the support he needs to get through these things, his behaviour
becomes more and more violent and unpredictable. That obviously pushes
the family away.
Ewan McGregor in the new trailer for 'Jack The Giant Slayer'
The new trailer for 2013 fantasy film Jack The Giant Slayer has hit the web and, by the looks of things, this star-studded movie is going to be an absolute must-see!
Jack The Giant Slayer follows the story of a young farmhand who accidentally opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants, reigniting an ancient battle long since forgotten in the process.
Read more at Entertainmentwise
Douglas Henshall will be on the panel of judges for the Frank Deasy Writers award 2012 – 2013. BBC
Scotland has announced its plans to offer residencies for writers to
develop ideas for BBC1, in hopes that one of their dramas will be
commissioned through BBC Scotland. Dougie said: “Writers are so
crucial to drama – without them, people like me are out of work, so to
be involved in this award is an honour. After all, writers are the past,
present and future for drama.” More here.
Dougie’s
new TV drama Shetland, based on the work of popular crime-writer Ann
Cleeves had a preview in Mareel on Wednesday 21st November 2012. Read
about the event here and here
The Secret of Crickley Hall episode 2 will
be shown on Sunday November 25th at 9pm and episode 3 on Sunday
December 2nd at 9pm. A DVD of the drama is due to be released on
December 3rd 2012.
Doors Open is being adverstised as part of ITV's Christmas drama season.
55 Days finished its run at the Hampstead Theatre on Saturday November 24th. Source (including photo): DouglasHenshall.com
Thereare detailed reviews of the first episode of The Secret of Crickley Hall at Primetime and at SFX
MY SIX BEST BOOKS- DOUGLAS HENSHALL
Douglas Henshall, 47, is the actor best known as the star of Primeval, South Riding, Lipstick on Your Collar and Collision.
He stars next month alongside Stephen Fry in the ITV1 art heist drama Doors Open.
Douglas Henshall discusses his favourite reads The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Penguin, £10.99
A book about love and roulette – a giddy mixture.
I find my spirits soaring at
the way he writes about love and plummeting to the very depths of hell
at the way he writes about addiction. Gloriously romantic in that reckless Russian way.
If This Is A Man by Primo Levi Abacus, £9.99
A most extraordinary book and the one which has had
the biggest influence on me. An unimaginable story about his time in Auschwitz and the way he manages to keep his humanity alive and survive.
Heartbreaking, uplifting and humbling in ways I can’t begin to describe.
Summer Lightning by P G Wodehouse Arrow, £7.99
The antithesis of Primo Levi. I adore all the Blandings books.
It’s a safe world where
nothing bad is going to happen with the most glorious wit and the most
absurd characters.
I’ve re-read and re-read them. They’re like Christmas; they never fail to put a smile on your face.
Women by Charles Bukowski Virgin Books, £8.99
Bukowski can be incredibly nihilistic. You can only
read him in small doses before you want to kill yourself.
He was a man who wrote when
drunk and edited when sober and there’s a brutal honesty with which he
talks about himself and his success or failure in relationships with women. I found it quite poetic.
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh Vintage, £7.99
I don’t think you can overestimate how important a book this was.
To use the Leith vernacular in
the way he did, the rhythms and the poetry, it was a revolution in
Scotland.
He talks about male friendship better than anyone and is the
most important Scottish writer around.
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Harper Perennial, £18.95
Sometimes I admire the people as much as what they
write and this is an extraordinary piece by an extraordinary man.
It’s about incarceration by an
unjust, criminal and inhumane people but the way in which he writes,
well, I want to say this out loud walking around my house, not just read
it.
31 YEARS ON, IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL FOR GREGORY AND GIRL
John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan take a nostalgic trip back to Abronhill High
At last, Gregory gets one of his girls back to the old school that made them both famous.
Film stars John Gordon Sinclair and Clare
Grogan are taking the nostalgic trip back to Abronhill High in
Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, which formed the backdrop for their 1981 hit
film Gregory’s Girl.
The pair are reunited at the school in documentary
When Clare Grogan Met John Gordon Sinclair, to be broadcast by BBC2 on
Tuesday, December 11.
These days, Abronhill High is set to be bulldozed, despite a campaign to save it.
Having both turned 50 this
year, Grogan and Sinclair enjoy a meander down memory lane as they
recall working together for the first time on the film that catapulted
them to stardom at the age of 19.
Directed by Bill Forsyth, the cast list was a Who’s Who of Scottish
talent with veterans such as Chic Murray, Alex Norton, John Bett and
Dave Anderson also on board.
After sharing memories of making and
promoting the film as teenagers, they reflect on their subsequent
parallel careers as actors and singers – Grogan in the band Altered
Images and Sinclair in stage musicals – though more recently he has
taken to writing novels.
Glasgow-born Sinclair took the role of infatuated
Gregory, with Clare and Dee Hepburn playing the girls who stole his
heart. Hepburn, 51, capitalised on her break with a three-year stint on
popular ITV soap Crossroads before quitting showbiz disillusioned to
become a full-time mother to two children.
Clare said: “I always thought of it as John Gordon Sinclair’s film. He’s amazing in it.
“The highlight was finding out
what catering had for us, as the food was great. It was a blast.”
Abronhill High is facing
closure under plans by North Lanarkshire Council to merge it with nearby
Cumbernauld High.
A consultation into the proposed package of savings, which includes the closure of Abronhill, closed last week.
The council proposes to close
the school from August 2013, with pupils going to Cumbernauld High,
which itself may be replaced at a later date by a a new-build school.
The Abronhill closure will save the council £1million a year.
Web show “Captures” actor Alan Cumming and fashion photog Sebastian Kim
A new web series takes you “behind the images” with interviews with famous shooters: Capture is a fresh and informative look at the art of photography, its producers say.
The latest episode of the show on the YouTube Reserve Channel features fashion photographer Sebastian Kimm, and actor, director, and photographer Alan Cumming.
In each episode, Reserve Channel says, “celebrity lensman Mark Seliger invites a fellow photographer and celebrity photography-buff into his NYC studio to share the story behind their images and discuss their common passion.”
The full episode is below, courtesy of Reserve Channel
Published on Nov 15, 2012 by reservechannel
Capture's Mark Seliger sits down with actor, director, and photographer, Alan Cumming and renowned fashion photographer, Sebastian Kim. No stone is left unturned as they discuss everything from nudity and Woody Allen to Instagram and George Clooney.
Directed by Barney Miller and produced by Cap Gun Collective.
Capture
A fresh and informative look at the art of photography and the stories behind the images. In each episode, renowned celebrity lensman Mark Seliger invites a fellow photographer and celebrity photography-buff into his NYC studio to share the story behind their images and discuss their common passion.
Napa Film Fest - The Actors: Alan Cumming, Garret Dillahunt, Jeff Grace, Madeline Zima, Vanessa Ray
Alan Cumming, Jeff Grace, Madeline Zima, Vanessa Ray and Garret
Dillahunt, moderated by Pamela McClintock Senior Film Writer at
Hollywood Reporter
Advanced screening of Any Day Now on 5 December
The screening is open to everyone ($30 non-members, $20 members) and includes an open bar and plenty of time to socialize. Click here to purchase tickets and learn more about Out Professionals.
Source: Passport Magazine
Billy Connolly is still going strong at 70Fellow comedians and friends pay tribute to Billy Connolly as he turns 70
He is the Scots legend who made his name with a banjo, a pair of banana boots and a place to park a bike.
But as Billy Connolly celebrates his 70th birthday today (24 Nov), he shows no signs of slowing up.
Named
earlier this year by modern stand-ups as the most influential comic of
all time, he is as loved by young stars as by veterans.
Billy went
from shipyards to folk music to comedy and his career took off after an
appearance on the Michael Parkinson show in 1975 – when he told a gag
about a man who buries his wife and uses a part of her anatomy as a bike
stand.
Pals and fans tell Brian McIver of their admiration for the Big Yin.
Read more at Daily Record
Billy Connolly wins Outstanding Contribution award at Scottish BAFTAs
Scots comedian Billy Connolly was honoured at the Scottish
BAFTAs for his Outstanding Contribution to Television and
Film.
'The Big Yin' couldn't attend the ceremony at Glasgow's Radisson Blu
hotel, but actor Brian Cox was still delighted to be making the
announcement – if a little surprised.
"I'm shocked actually," Cox said on the red carpet. "I thought Billy
had probably already got something here. So I was a wee bit taken aback
that they hadn't honoured him before.
"Once you've seen Billy on stage and you've seen him perform he's
unbeatable. And he started it all. Every comedian today owes something
to Billy. I'm sorry he's not here, but I'm glad he's working."
Connolly couldn't accept the award in person because he was working
in San Francisco, but said before the event: “I’m really pleased and
proud to receive this trophy from BAFTA in Scotland, because I know you
probably think we luvvies get shiny prizes all the time. But actually,
sometimes we don’t."
Among Connolly's many film and TV credits are The Man Who Sued God, Mrs Brown and Brave.
He also regularly presents travel programmes and is due to appear in The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Brian Cox added: "It's a great honour for me, and it's a great honour
for Billy Connolly to have something presented by me… I'm only joking."
On December 10, an event will be held in Glasgow exploring Connolly's life in pictures*, with tickets available from the BAFTA website nearer the time *
Source (with video): STV
Billy Connolly's acceptance speech can be seen here
Known
to some as Captain Jack Harkness, John Barrowman is an actor, a singer,
a writer and an all-round showman who describes himself as an
entertainer with a capital E.
Fern Britton meets the man with a
dual personality, born in Scotland but brought up in the United States.
Barrowman talks frankly about what drives him on - and the beliefs that
underpin his life.Sun 2 Dec 201210:00BBC One Source: BBC
John Barrowman on Black Friday, Pirating Music, Call Of Duty John Barrowman tackles today's top issues, like how we have to deal with
another Black Friday, the latest study about people who illegally
download music, and the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 flu epidemic.
Just a reminder that several Scottish actors have signed up in support of a Xmas Card auction to raise funds for Maggie's Centres (Glasgow), Great Ormond Street Hospital (London), and Children with Cancer UK.
The actors listed so far include Tony Roper, Robert Carlyle, Alan Cumming, Bill Paterson,
and Richard Wilson, with more to be announced soon.
The auction is scheduled for the week of 1st December 2012, starting on the Saturday
Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been
passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. From Disney/Pixar, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida confronts tradition and challenges destiny to change her fate.
Brave features an all-star UK voice cast including Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd and Julie Walters.
To celebrate the November 26 release of Brave, Digital Spy
is giving one reader the chance to win limited edition official artwork
signed by Steve Pilcher, the Production Designer for the film.
Four runners up will also receive a signed copy of the film on Blu-ray. To enter, follow the two simple steps at the link below.
Read more (including Terms & Conditions) at Digital Spy
From Life According to Damaris:
Brave voice actor, Kevin McKidd, who you probably know from TV's Grey's Anatomy, shares his family's recipe for traditional Scottish skirly! If you want to do something fun this weekend (or even for Thanksgiving), you could bring some Scottish flavor to your table and add the swagger that comes with knowing the native lingo with the below recipes and Scottish dictionary! Print it out & give the dictionary printout to your kids while you cook, I'm sure they'll have fun with it! Who doesn't love talking with an accent? You can also find three bonus clips about the hair, dress and castles in Brave.
A dram fine Baftas night for Angels’ Share as Scots film scoops awards
Paul Brannigan with his Best Actor award. Picture: PA
Whisky caper The Angels’
Share, its young star, Paul Brannigan, and rising film-maker Zam Salim
grabbed a share of the glory from Billy Connolly at tonight’s Scottish
Bafta ceremony in Glasgow.
The screenplay for director Ken Loach’s Cannes
prize-winning heist movie won the best writer gong for his regular
collaborator, Paul Laverty.
The best actor award went to
Brannigan, who was plucked from obscurity, while working on a
violence-reduction programme, by the veteran English director for the
lead role of a troubled young Glaswegian persuaded to stage a dramatic
raid on a distillery.
Brannigan had been competing with one of his co-stars, Siobhan Reilly, for the coveted prize.
BBC
Scotland won a huge boost after capturing the current affairs award for
its controversial documentary, Rangers, The Men Who Sold The Jerseys.
Among
the stars to attend the event – hosted by Edith Bowman – were Brian
Cox, Ewen Bremner, Siobhan Redmond, Rory Bremner and Neil Oliver.
Connolly,
who was awarded an outstanding contribution to film and television
Bafta, was unable to attend the event due to a previous commitment in
the United States.
But he recorded a video message, in which he
spoke of his pride at getting the award, telling the 500-strong
audience: “I left school with nothing, you know.”
Connolly, who is
due to make an in-person appearance at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow
next month, added: “Thank you very, very much, television viewers and
people of Bafta Scotland, for this wonderful, wonderful award. I really
appreciate it.
“I know you people think that we luvvies get prizes
every day, shiny things handed to us, but the last time I was up for a
Bafta prize in Scotland, I lost both of them, one to Ewan McGregor and
the other to Kaye Adams.
“I’m really sorry I can’t be there,
because I am in San Francisco doing some engagements, but I will be in
Glasgow in December and my heart is there all the time.”
Hollywood
star Cox, who made a tribute speech about Connolly in the
star’s absence, said: “An honour like this for Billy has been a long
time coming, he really should have been honoured well before now. As an
actor, he’s simply been getting better and better.”
Zam Salim
collected both the best director Bafta and best feature film prize with
his black comedy Up There, his first film, which was premièred at the
Glasgow Film Festival this year.
Stuart Cosgrove, the
broadcaster, writer, media pundit and TV executive, was honoured for a
career which saw him become head of programmes for the nations and
regions on Channel Four.
Rab C Nesbitt star Gregor Fisher beat off
competition from co-star Elaine C Smith to win the best TV actor award,
while Antiques Road Trip, which STV made for the BBC, scooped the best
factual entertainment programme award.
Brannigan said: “It’s a real honour to be here. It’s the proudest moment of my life, after the birth of my son.!
“I could never have imagined I’d be here in Glasgow on the red carpet.
“It’s bigger than Cannes, to be honest.”
Jude
MacLaverty, director of Bafta in Scotland, said: “The awards reflect
the sheer breadth of talent being generated in Scotland, and it’s great
to see so much of it celebrated tonight.”
Mo 11/26: Lily Tomlin, Matthew Gray Gubler
Tu 11/27: James Marsden, Daniela Ruah, Cory Kahaney
We 11/28: Lewis Black, Karen Gillan, LP
Th 11/29: Kristin Davis, Nat Faxon
Fr 11/30: Tim Meadows, Mayim Bialik
Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger!
The London première was on Tuesday 13th November with celebrity arrivals starting at around 5.45pm at the Empire in Leicester Square. David Tennant attended, together with his co-stars. Loads of information, photos and links can be found here
Source: David Tennant on Twitter (blog)
On Saturday 11 November, MumsNet's advent calendar based on Nativity 2: Danger In The Manager had an exclusive clip of Mr Peterson (David Tennant) arriving at the school on his first day:
Broadchurch
Broadchurch producer Richard Stokes tweeted
last night that they had completed the studio shoots and would be back
to shooting on location from Monday. This explains why there have been
so few sightings of filming in the past couple of weeks.
Meanwhile sunshine posted on the GallifreyBase forum that filming on Broadchurch took place in Weston-Super-Mare hospital on Thursday and that they were also in Bowlish House in Shepton Mallet last week.
These details have been added to the Broadchurch known filming dates and locations section of the website.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
The Spies of Warsaw
BBC America sets premiere dates for Spies Of Warsaw The Spies of Warsaw will follow Doctor Who alum David Tennant and Made in Jersey’s Janet Montgomery as lovers in Warsaw whose relationship is complicated as WWII approaches. The two-part series will air over two nights, on February 6 and February 13.
Read more at Cinema Blend
Doctor Who - 10th Doctor Time Leech Comic - sgned by David Tennant
The last copy of the Kasterorous.com's Limited Edition Doctor Who comic Time Leech, signed by David Tennant, raised £185 for BBC Children in Need
Source: Kasterborous
Top 10 Children In Need moments:
Doctor Who fans everywhere died and went to heaven when
then-Doctor David Tennant and former Timelord Peter Davidson ‘met’ for
the first time in this 2007 skit. Tennant’s Doctor had the upper hand
here, realising early on that he was meeting himself, while Davidson’s
Doctor remained oblivious. Highlights included Davidson’s character
describing the Timelord as we’d all been wanting to: ‘Some skinny idiot
ranting in front of my face about every single thing that happens to
him.’
Shakespeare Uncovered David Tennant's episode of Shakespeare Uncovered will have its first US broadcast on BBC America on Friday 8th February at 9pm. More info here.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Star Wars Doctor Who star David Tennant wants role in Star Wars
Former Doctor Who star David Tennant has revealed that he would love to feature in future Star Wars films.
The actor recently provided the voice of a droid in the animated cartoon series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Disney has bought Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars and plans to release a new Star Wars film, episode seven, in 2015.
The actor was speaking to Newsbeat's entertainment reporter Natalie Jamieson.
Source: Newsbeat
Diary Dates
Tues 20 Nov - In America, DVD box-set of Doctor Who Series One to Six is released.
Wed 21 Nov - Nativity Two Danger In The Manger! will be reviewed on Film 2012 on BBC One at 11.25pm.
Fri 23 Nov - Nativity Two: Danger In The Manger is released in the UK.
Sat 24 Nov - David Tennant voices Huyang in Star Wars: The Clone Wars in a new episode which premières on the Cartoon Network at 9.30am in the US.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter
Uncle Vanya: review
There’s a Chekhov to suit every taste at the moment – the rambunctious Russian Uncle Vanya at the Noel Coward, the just-ended Three Sisters at the Young Vic, Anya Reiss’s new translation of The Seagull opening at the Southwark Playhouse next week, and this pared-back Uncle Vanya from Lindsay Posner at the Vaudeville. It will not be to everyone’s taste, certainly, but I found it affecting and enjoyable.
Posner’s version is very funny but neither loses nor glosses over the
deep-rooted melancholy and ennui at the heart of the play. Christopher
Hampton’s script is a rather lovely thing, nuanced and witty without
losing the odd directness with which all of Chekhov’s creations speak.
Posner’s staging is rather more naturalistic than the script sometimes
allows, and the cast imbue Hampton’s words with the crushing weight of
depression alongside the chit-chat and teasing that goes on amongst
close companions.
Christopher Oram’s rather boxy, austere set will also divide the
critics, I suspect, but I adored it. Beautifully, delicately lit by Paul
Pyant, the placement of furniture and actors amongst heavy, dark wooden
beams and walls had the stilted, confined beauty of a still life.
Somehow, between them, Oram and Pyant have pinned down the subtlety and
stillness of a Vermeer on a West End stage, and it is truly remarkable
to watch. Their design is also oppressive, reinforcing how listless and
trapped all of the characters are.
As a piece of theatre, however, it doesn’t always hang together. With
not a lot of actual plot to depend on to move the action along, this
production occasionally languishes with its characters in the slow,
lazy, dull days. This is a dangerous move for a director, and there are
times when the audience, too, are likely to become listless and fidgety.
The middle of Act Two drags, as does the beginning of Act Three.
Chekhov places almost all of the meat of the play – the one action scene
– at the end of Act Three which means an awful lot of exposition in the
build-up. What felt slightly misjudged, to me, was the way Posner
builds tension in the second act, which instead of climaxing rather
fizzles out into the interval.
Samuel West’s brooding Doctor Astrov is splendid, torn between the
future he imagines and wishes for for future generations, and the
desires and duties that weigh upon him in the present. His relationship
with the besotted Sonya (Laura Carmicheal) and the beautiful Yelena
(Anna Friel) is well done – the tensions are palpable and mostly not
overblown. I found Carmichael a little shrill at times, however, she
plays the repressed and buttoned-up Sonya with a heartbreaking intensity
when tentatively reaching for new happiness. Ken Stott, as the
eponymous Vanya, conveys a deeply unhappy man with a depth that prevents
the character’s more self-indulgent moments from moving from melancholy
to mawkish. Friel’s Yelena is a bit limp; she moons around the stage
without much purpose, although this is more a fault of the character
than of the actor.
The scene changes take an inordinately long time, but the reveal is
worth it every time – Oram’s sets really are a joy to behold. Posner has
a solid performance on his hands, and one that mostly handles both
script and plot with a deft touch. It’s not a superlative production,
but the visual beauty is hard to overstate.
Uncle Vanya is at the Vaudeville Theatre until 16 February 2013.
Source: A Younger Theatre
Breast cancer awareness campaign breaks government’s online records
A shock new health advert featuring women's breasts has
outperformed a major campaign to promote the Scottish Homecoming, new
figures have shown.
The Homecoming
advert - part of a multi-million campaign - had previously been the
most successful ever to be commissioned by the Scottish Government with
almost 112,000 views.
But the Detect Cancer Early drive starring actress and comedian Elaine C Smith has smashed previous records to become a chart topper on YouTube.
A total of 125,048 people have viewed the video to date which carries the message that lumps are not the only sign of cancer.
The campaign is predominantly aimed at women over the age of 55, as this is the group most at risk of developing breast cancer.
Video statistics from YouTube show that men aged 45–54 years have
been the most likely group to watch the advert online so far, followed
by men aged 35–44 and then women aged 45–54 years.
Brian Coane, accounts partner from The Leith Agency, who made the
advert, said: "The campaign was developed to get the attention of a
female audience. And the first thing that we want the campaign to do is
to help women spot the signs and symptoms of breast cancer.
“But cancer is something that affects many people, male and female.
So we hope that the message of 'Don't get scared, get checked' is one
that people want to pass on, especially through word of mouth."
Official government figures show that there were 1,024 cases of breast cancer in women in Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2010 and five cases in men.
Launched earlier this year, the Detect Cancer Early campaign aims to
increase the early detection of cancer by a quarter by 2015 and save 300
lives across Scotland.
Speaking about the creative process behind the advert Phil Evans,
copywriter from The Leith Agency, said: “We always felt that showing
real breasts, with real symptoms, would make for a powerful advert.
“And that's when we hit on the idea of cards being held up over the
chest. We thought that if we could get a high-profile woman to go
topless and hold them up so that it looked like they were her breasts,
this would instantly grab the viewer's attention.
“Full-frontal naked breasts had never been seen in an advert before,
but we thought if ever there was a time when this could be appropriate,
it was now - for this campaign.
“There was something about Elaine that we thought women in Scotland
would relate to. And when we found out she'd lost her own mum to breast
cancer, it was never going to be anyone else.
“When I thought about what she should say while holding the cards, I
felt it was important to reflect her personality and warm people to the
information by making a joke at the start of the advert.
“That's where the ‘Three kids later ones’ line came in. It shows this
is about real women with real breasts. This honesty set the tone for
the whole advert. It is a straightforward, honest appeal to the women of
Scotland.
“I'm absolutely over-the-moon with the reaction. As Elaine put it
when she had a wee teary moment during filming, ‘If it prevents one
death from breast cancer it was all worth it’.”
The average survival rate for cancer has doubled in the past 30
years, and half of all people diagnosed with the disease now survive for
at least five years.
Between 1986 and 2010, the survival rate of those being diagnosed
with cancer across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has increased by 17%.
Responding to the success of the campaign, Health Secretary Alex Neil
says that the “upfront and honest” advert has made a bold step in
tackling breast cancer survival rates head-on.
He said: “One in nine women in Scotland will be diagnosed with breast
cancer in their lifetime, highlighting the gravity of this disease and
the importance of staging a public health campaign that directly
addresses the awareness of symptoms.
“We needed to give women across Scotland the confidence to deal with
breast cancer and to recognise the potential visual signs and symptoms
of the disease.
“The creative route is a UK first by showing real pictures of women’s
bare breasts with visible signs of breast cancer in a television
advert.
“It has drawn widespread, positive responses across the nation that
have helped to galvanise conversation around the topic of breast
awareness.
“The Scottish Government is proud to have introduced this
groundbreaking campaign which we believe will help pave the way to
improve the health of generations of Scottish women to come.”
Following in the footsteps of Elaine C Smith, a group of celebrities
have since joined together to make an online spin-off video and help
reinforce the Detect Cancer Early campaign messages.
Featuring Kaye Adams, Tom Kitchin, Clare Grogan, Michelle McManus,
Amanda Hamilton, Grant Stott, Phil Kay and Greg McHugh, the celebs are
hopeful that the light-hearted approach, which has had over 10,000 views
so far, will strike a chord with the public.
Kaye Adams said: “I think the tone of the advert is just right. The
important thing in any media campaign is to make a connection and a
lasting impression. A stern 'in one ear and out the other' message is no
good to anyone.
“Scots respond to humour, they enjoy humour and remember it and if it
can help them take on board an important message, then it is doing its
job.
“I thought the original advert was inspiring from the off. It caught
my attention immediately and drove me online to look at it again. Elaine
is the perfect choice, she is known for her humour but also her
intelligence and integrity.”
Actress Siobhan Reilly who is up for a Scottish Bafta for The Angel's Share
From the Daily Record, 11 November: Angels' Share star is up for Scottish Bafta but still works as teacher Down to earth Siobhan Reilly will next week combine teaching her
primary class and attending the British Academy Scotland Awards where
she has been nominated for her role in the Ken Loach film.
ANGELS' SHARE star and Bafta nominee Siobhan Reilly yesterday looked forward to a busy week – teaching her primary class.
But,
as well as planning lessons for her school pupils, she has also got to
attend the British Academy Scotland Awards – the Scottish Baftas – where
she has been nominated for her role in Ken Loach’s award-winning film.
Siobhan,
29, has been nominated for the best film actor/actress alongside her
co-star Paul Brannigan and James Cosmo for Citadel.
Win or lose,
it’s going to make for an interesting day at Petersburn Primary School
in Airdrie, where pupils and colleagues are wishing her well.
She
said: “The kids know. I think a lot of parents have watched it first and
showed them little sections which I have been in where there is not
much swearing or they have seen the trailer. So everyone has seen some
bit of it.
“It was funny. One of the boys said to his mum, ‘I recognise her face, I don’t know where I know her from.’
“I had been teaching him for three months. Then somebody at school told him and he said to me, ‘Miss Riley, are you in a film?’
“The
kids love it. They are really excited by it and I keep them up-to-date
with all the gossip and awards and things. The staff as well – they are
so supportive.
“The kids and teachers have brought in their copies
of the DVD so I can sign them. Maybe we can do an auction at the
Christmas fair and make some money for the school.” The Angels’
Share – which won the Great Scot Entertainment Award – was directed by
Loach and written by Scots writer Paul Laverty.
The cast of Paul Laverty, Siobhan Reilly, William Ruane and Jasmin Riggins
It follows the story of Robbie – played by Brannigan – who
vows to turn over a new leaf following the birth of his son to
girlfriend Leonie, played by Siobhan.
A visit to a whisky distillery inspire an audacious plan to get the cash for a new start.
The
film has won critical acclaim and has propelled Siobhan, who had
previously appeared in The Bill and films such as The Clan, back into
acting after taking two years out to train as a teacher.
She said:
“I’ve trained as an actor and a teacher. My first degree was in acting
at what was then the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in
Glasgow.
“I acted for a few years, then went back and did a post-grad degree in teaching at Glasgow University.
“I’d just finished my probation year as a teacher when I heard about The Angels’ Share.
“It was like a nice jigsaw, all fitting together.”
Siobhan
is looking forward to teaming up with her co-stars again, including
fellow nominee Brannigan, whose tough upbringing in the east end of
Glasgow with drug addict parents has made headlines since the film was
released.
She said: “All the cast were lovely and that’s where Ken is really clever – he matches personalities.
“Working with Paul, we just had a really good bond, a good connection, and I think it came across on camera.
Siobhan connected with co-star Paul Brannigan
“It is great getting to go to things like the Baftas because
we all get together again and have a good laugh. There were more
shenanigans offset than there was on camera.”The Angels’ Share
also took Siobhan to the Cannes Film Festival, where it was given a
rousing reception by critics and film fans alike.
She said: “Cannes was amazing and at the première the audience gave us a 10-minute standing ovation.
“I said to Ken, ‘These people are really nice’. And he said, ‘If they hadn’t liked it, they would have booed us out the door’.”
Siobhan
has been working as a supply teacher since shooting finished and
fitting in auditions and filming elsewhere, which has included a role in
an upcoming episode of River City.
She said: “I have been
teaching for the last year-and-a-half. At the moment, I am doing supply
but I am also working on River City. So I was teaching Monday, at River
City Tuesday, teaching Wednesday, Thursday, then back at River City on
Friday – that’s been my week.
“I try to shuffle the two careers.
At the minute, it is going well because supply work can be really
flexible but it is like two different worlds.”
Siobhan is delighted with her Bafta nomination and wants to continue both careers for as long as possible.
She said: “It feels like an honour to be nominated and I am chuffed.
“Acting
is a great job and I would love to do as much as possible but I do
enjoy teaching. It keeps you in touch with real life. Whatever is meant
to happen will happen.”
The British Academy Scotland Awards are on Sunday (18 Nov). See www.bafta.org/scotland
Story:Richie Beckett, former gang boss turned respected
Brighton businessman, pledges money to help rebuild a pier. But Richie's
mind is in turmoil and the empire he runs with his sons is endangered
by a vicious Albanian gang.
Tony Soprano famously suffered panic attacks and had to see a shrink. In C4’s new hard-knuckle crime drama The Fear we have another gang boss whose mind is under assault.
But Richie Beckett’s turmoil is more serious and urgent, because just
when his Brighton-based empire is under siege from a gang of Albanian
psychos, Richie is starting to lose his identity.
He is suffering from some form of dementia or Alzheimer’s. This would be
alarming enough in the new role he has taken on as respectable local
businessman, but when his family and interests are suddenly under threat
from the vicious newcomers in town, this is calamitous.
Richie with sons Cal and Matty
Grisly killing Peter Mullan
is excellent as the fearsome family head, veering alarmingly between
menace and bewilderment. Harry Lloyd and Paul Nicholls are his sons,
Matty and Cal, who, along with their mother (Anastasia Hille) think
their father is on the booze again.
Cal, the eldest and a creep who revels in his dad’s notoriety, wants to
broker some deal with the family of Vajkal, the Albanian guvnor. But the
Albanians implicate him in the grisly murder of a prostitute he has
used, keeping her beheaded corpse as evidence to incriminate Cal if the
Becketts don’t fall into line.
Richie is therefore dragged into a meeting at the Albanians’ farmhouse
retreat. Irritable, sleepless, forgetful – Richie can’t even remember
battering a young man on the front in broad daylight – his presence at
the farmhouse is as sensible as juggling gelignite.
Cal (Paul Nicholls)
Peter Mullan is terrific as a gangster in decline The Fear is being shown over four consecutive nights and is a
bruising but riveting portrait of a criminal in decline, haunted by his
past and out of touch with the present. And it's a story with emotion,
as in the scene where Richie enters his wife's bedroom and asks if he
can lie with her. Amid his confusion and increasing aggression, he seeks
some feeling of closeness with his estranged wife.
Brighton is evocatively photographed as a lurid but at the same time
genteel backdrop, regency buildings juxtaposed with drag entertainers
and night-time revellers.
Writer Richard Cottan has created a rich thriller, though having
Richie’s wife buying a couple of paintings called Confusion 1 & 2
was not the most ingenious bit of symbolism.
Still, the opener sets up a drama full of tension and dread, setting in
motion what can only be a fearsome, tragic train of events.
Cast: Peter MullanRichie Bennett
Anastasia Hille Jo Beckett
Harry Lloyd Matty Beckett
Paul Nicholls Cal Beckett
Demosthenes Chrysan Vajkal
Dragos Bucur Marin
Shaban Arifi Davit
Julia Ragnarsson Zana
Danny Sapani Wes
Source (including photos): Crime Time Preview
Peter Mullan discussed 'The Fear'
In Channel 4's new
four-part drama series The Fear, Peter Mullan stars as crime boss turned
entrepreneur Richie Beckett, trying to fight off both an attack on his
commercial interests and a mind that seems to be disintegrating.
Unbeknown to him, he has a very aggressive form of Alzheimer's. As
Richie's dark past bleeds into the present, unresolved traumas that echo
the chaos threaten to engulf him.
Here, Mullan reveals a little more about the drama. Tell us about Richie...
Well, Richie sees himself as a business man, so
called, but he is a gangster in reality, which I suppose some business
men are, at least in my book anyway.
He's recently realised that his behaviour is quite
aberrant and through the course of the series he discovers he has
Alzheimer's - a very aggressive form of it which takes hold in a
concentrated period of time. It's extreme.
In the meantime, there is another group of gangsters
who have come over from Albania to try and take over his patch. And his
family have to, on the one hand cope with his increasingly erratic
behaviour, but also disguise it at the same time because they don't want
it known to the wider gangster community that he's no longer in charge
of his faculties.
Describe the effects on his relationship with his wife and sons?
He becomes more aggressive, more emotional and in a
weird way, paradoxically, more open, more vulnerable than he's ever been
before. And so in some respects it brings the family closer together -
but obviously in other respects it rips them apart because his nature
is to fight things. So he's fighting - in this case - the unfightable.
So instead of coping and finding the support he needs to get through
these things, his behaviour becomes more and more violent and
unpredictable. That obviously pushes the family away.
How does The Fear differ from other gangster dramas?
The thing that attracted me to it was the combination
of the two aspects - a gangster with Alzheimer's is interesting, to me.
A gangster TV series, I'm not interested in.
What grabbed me about it was that someone with a very
dark past and a very shady present should have to come to terms with a
disease that has claimed the lives of millions and caused so many
families to suffer. I have lost a lot of my family to Alzheimer's. So
the idea that he is a guy that quite rightly you should not - nor ever
should - sympathise with, but the nature of the illness demands a
certain degree of empathy - not sympathy - empathy, to understand that
even bad people get diseases. And as far as I'm concerned he's been a
pretty bad boy to say the least. His previous actions, well you would be
more than justified in saying he's not a pleasant human being. So now
he's been diagnosed, his false persona becomes unravelled and you get to
see who he is and what is at the heart of him.
Will audiences pity Richie?
I would hope empathise - I don't think you would pity
him. He's just too unpleasant to pity, but yeah there are certain
moments when I guess you may not dislike him as much. But I certainly
wouldn't sympathise with him. I mean, you're looking at a guy who has
been running a drug empire for years, he has killed people to get to
where he is and he wouldn't think twice - in the past - about the number
of lives he has destroyed through the so-called illegal product that he
sells. But no I hope they wouldn't pity him because that would lead to
sympathy and let him off the hook.
Channel4 trailer for The Fear starring Peter Mullan
Published on Nov 15, 2012 by James Brown
Channel4 cinema trailer for The Fear starring Peter Mullan.
Music is Colliders by Raffertie
Voice Over is Hermione Norris
Source: YouTube
The romantic thriller Comes a Bright Day premièred at The Bryant
Park Hotel on November 13, 2012 in New York City. Comes a Bright Day
- a romantic thriller set during the armed robbery of one of London's most exclusive jewellers.- was directed by Simon Aboud and stars Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots and Kevin McKidd.
The film debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival last
February and does not have a published date for release into U.S. theatres as of yet.
Comes a Bright Day is not rated and has a run-time of 1 hour and 31 minutes.
‘The Impossible’ Exclusive Featurette: Video
One of the sleeper entries in this year’s Oscar race is the emotionally wrenching true story, The Impossible which
chronicles a family split apart in the terrifying Tsunami in Thailand
in 2004 and their efforts to survive and find each other, despite
horrific injury and unspeakable devastation at the resort area where
they were vacationing.
Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and Tom Holland star in the film directed by Spain’s Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage).
Distributor Summit
will release the film domestically (already a smash hit in Spain since
opening there in mid-October) on December 21, but already has sent out
38,000 DVD screeners to all guilds and the Academy in order to gain a
foothold in the race against higher profile, better known competitors.
Here is a look at the making of the film in a featurette that also
includes an interview with the real-life wife and mother who fights
against major odds just to see her kids and husband one more time.
Source: Deadline
The Impossible interview - Ewan McGregor (2012) - Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor Movie HD
Published on Nov 16, 2012 by MovieclipsCOMINGSOON
An
account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the
mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.
Source: YouTube
Paul Brannigan with his Best Actor award. Picture: PA
