“FRANNIE is not one of those characters that just fades away. “We went on so many emotional rollercoasters […]
Steven Mackintosh
“THE Halcyon gripped me straight away.
“Setting the story within this high-class hotel and also against the backdrop of the Second World War gives you such a huge scope for drama and for what’s to come.”
Steven Mackintosh talking to me about new eight-part drama The Halcyon.
Starting on ITV at 9pm next Monday (January 2).
He plays hotel manager Richard Garland as the series opens in 1940.
Before a return to 1939.
With World War Two and the Blitz soon to impact on London and this five star West End hotel.
As you might imagine, I’ve been on quite a few film and TV sets over the last 35 years.
But the one for The Halcyon – created by production designer Matt Gant – took my breath away.
Let’s just say no-one held back on the budget.
A terrified six-year-old girl called Milly stands shaking in her pyjamas in the middle of a frozen canal.
As a fireman makes a desperate attempt to save her from the cracking ice.
It’s a heart-stopping, shocking and haunting scene in Lost Christmas, to be screened on BBC1 this Sunday (Dec 18).
WHAT will your verdict be?
Back in January 2002 I attended the launch of a new ITV1 drama series called The Jury.
Written by Peter Morgan, whose subsequent credits include The Last King Of Scotland, The Queen, Longford, The Other Boleyn Girl, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United and The Special Relationship.
Last week I attended the launch of a new ITV1 drama series also called The Jury.
Or what in the big screen world would be called The Jury 2.
Peter’s follow up to his original series.
He was there along with leading lady Julie Walters, who plays defence barrister Emma Watts.
Life of Wylie 