HE is, without a shadow of a doubt, the scariest man on TV.
The Shadow Line’s James Gatehouse, played by Stephen Rea.
Closely followed in the chilling stakes by Rafe Spall’s portrayal of Jay Wratten.
And next Thursday we meet a third contender – Peter Glickman (Antony Sher).
Full of ticking menace in a Dublin clock shop.
“ONCE upon a time…”
A week ago tonight I attended a preview screening of Stolen at the British Film Institute in London.
Followed by a stage Q&A with writer Stephen Butchard, director Justin Chadwick and actor Damian Lewis.
My round table interview with Damian back in February is still under embargo until nearer the time of the BBC1 film’s broadcast this summer.
But my report from last Monday’s event appeared in the Manchester Evening News a few days later – and is reproduced below, followed by some BFI extras.
“I”M just a flower man, sergeant.”
Hot on the heels of Exile comes another top class TV thriller.
The Shadow Line begins a seven-part series on BBC2 tonight, with Christopher Eccleston as that flower man Joseph Bede.
ROBSON Green went to school just up the road from me. He was at Seaton Burn High just after I left my Sixth Form to embark on a career in journalism.
I met up again with Robson recently and asked him if he had ever gone back to his old school.
“No. I think there’s always something wrong about that. It’s just weird,” he replied.
“When I was there, you’d get guys and girls who had left and they’d hang around the gates, for some unknown reason.
“I couldn’t think of a worse thing to do, other than being invited and talk to the kids. But not to hang around. Definitely not.”
SIMON Cowell was his usual polite self at this afternoon’s launch for one of ITV’s biggest events of 2011.
Thanking us for taking the time to turn up, and revealing that he still worries no-one will.
There was no chance of that, even though the invites to the London event only went out some 24 hours before.
Originally published in the Manchester Evening News: Flawless, unforgettable and emotionally charged: William and Kate sparkled on an […]
IT is now just over 24 hours until the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Which means I can finally say that I will be one of the reporters inside Westminster Abbey tomorrow for the ceremony.
“I couldn’t have a better time than I’m having now.”
Jim Broadbent was nominated for another BAFTA TV Award this week, for his role in Any Human Heart.
I met up with him again back in January to talk about his latest TV project – BBC1’s Exile.
Our round table chat included a look back at his career and his next part, alongside Meryl Streep.
“WHO invented this?”
Tom Ronstadt, played by John Simm, is in a pub, unimpressed with the world of karaoke.
“Have you any Smiths, Leonard Cohen?” he asks his screen sister Nancy (Olivia Colman), perusing the songbook in three-part BBC1 thriller Exile.
Who then proceeds to treat the locals to her version of Britney Spears’ Toxic.
There is much to love about Danny Brocklehurst’s drama, with a script as fresh as the day Morrissey first waved gladioli on Top Of The Pops while singing This Charming Man.
“THE following story is based on real events.”
It was a freezing cold day in January when I visited the cast and production team on their final day of filming for BBC2 drama United.
The location was Seven Kings Park in Ilford, east London, which contains a number of relatively isolated football pitches.
Plus a small sports pavilion, including changing rooms, straight out of the 1950s.
It was here, in the space of one day, that many of the training scenes (both before and after the crash) featured in United were filmed.
With the production wrapping just before the fading afternoon winter light turned to darkness.
Life of Wylie 