“I think we’ve lived through a chapter of our national life where we’ve all slightly lost faith in the country working for normal people,” says James Graham. “Whether that’s the trains, the health service, or the justice system, our institutions just feel overwhelmed. Times are really tough. And yet I’m an optimist. Because when youContinue reading “James Graham: “You can’t just put people on stage you agree with””
Tag Archives: Theatre
Jack Thorne: “My autism seemed to be an open secret to everyone but me”
Jack Thorne squirms slightly whenever someone describes him as ‘prolific’. “I always feel it talks to a lack of care,” says the man The Guardian once dubbed ‘the hardest-working writer in Britain’. “I don’t want to be the guy who, when someone asks for six bananas, says ‘I can give you 12 bananas.’ So that’s why I’mContinue reading “Jack Thorne: “My autism seemed to be an open secret to everyone but me””
Mark Gatiss: “My career is partly a long revenge against P.E…”
Mark Gatiss is a busy man. No surprises there, of course: over the past two decades, the writer, actor, director and all-round pop-cultural polymath has racked up a CV longer than his beloved Doctor Who’s stripy scarf. When he’s not reinventing literary icons like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula, reuniting with his old pals from TheContinue reading “Mark Gatiss: “My career is partly a long revenge against P.E…””
Sir Ian McKellen: “I think about death every day of my of life.”
Ian McKellen gave his first performance as Hamlet on Christmas Day, 1948. He was nine years old – so still some way off becoming a knight of the realm and a national treasure – and the venue was a toy Victorian theatre he’d received that morning. “You cut out all the parts and glued themContinue reading “Sir Ian McKellen: “I think about death every day of my of life.””
Michael Praed: “Robin of Sherwood holds up, but if you watched Dynasty now, you’d p*** yourself laughing”
TV Heroes: Michael Praed found fame as TV’s best Robin Hood, before quitting for an ill-fated stint on Broadway – and marriage in a hail of bullets in front of 60 million people. It was some “crazy shit”, he tells Paul Kirkley. Michael Praed has just described Liam Neeson as “an absolute bastard to workContinue reading “Michael Praed: “Robin of Sherwood holds up, but if you watched Dynasty now, you’d p*** yourself laughing””
