I was delighted to discover recently that two great West Country actors went to my old school. Robert Newton, who played the archetypal Long John Silver (and arguably originated the ‘pirate accent’) and George Woodbridge, the classic Hammer horror innkeeper and comedy policeman, were both students of Exeter School in Devon. Newton, born in Dorset … Continue reading
Nicola Sanderson is an incredibly versatile British actor with a record of success on stage, screen and radio – from thrillers to soap operas to comedies. I was lucky enough to see her as Auntie Lou in the stage production of Agatha Christie’s Love From a Stranger last year [2018] and have thoroughly enjoyed her … Continue reading
Johanna Rae must be one of the busiest actresses in LA – and one of the most versatile. I first saw her as Jamie, a gripping performance in the very demanding central part in the horror short Lilitu (2015), and in total contrast she was hilariously goofy Britany in the caper comedy Masterminds (2016). Continue reading
Murder in the countryside is a peculiar type of entertainment, and ITV’s Midsomer Murders is perhaps the most entertaining example. Continue reading
Ryan Ralph Gerrard is a talented young British actor, fast emerging as a star of the independent film scene, and gaining high-profile mainstream roles too. Currently [April 2017] working on Catalyst – a feature length version of the short film Remembering Amy – he has recently filmed scenes for season 3 of the TV hit … Continue reading
Female action heroes are now the norm, it has been suggested (by none other than Felicity Jones of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Maybe or maybe not, but they’re certainly not new. Those of a certain age won’t forget the ass-kicking Emma Peel of The Avengers, and there have been many following in her … Continue reading
One of my favourite TV channels these days is Talking Pictures TV – a place that gives new life to old movies, many of them obscure, but most an absolute joy in one way or other. Recently [I write this in June 2016] I watched back-to-back a couple of low-budget films I’d recorded from the … Continue reading
Dawn Noel may well be the biggest star you’ve never heard of – multi-talented (to say the least) and surely set to become a familiar name before long. On stage and in front of the camera, she’s an actress, dancer, and model, while behind the scenes she is equally accomplished as a writer, producer, and … Continue reading
A low-budget independent film series which pitches werewolves, vampires and zombies against a specialist police team is always likely to be a winner in my book. And so Cops and Monsters has turned out to be. Yet the nature of filming on a shoestring means things can change quickly off-screen as well as on, so … Continue reading
There have been plenty of Frankenstein ‘reimaginings’ (as we call them these days) over the years, but one excellent recent example didn’t even feature a Frankenstein at all. Continue reading
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