Gavin and Stacey

Today's Joanna Page

Rob Brydon’s Identity Crisis

12 June 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s going to be a bit of a Joanna Page overload day, today – we might have to switch from "Today’s Joanna Page" to "Joanna Page day" in fact. In fact, it might even be "Joanna Page week", judging by some of the entries since the weekend. I’m not sure how it’s happened, but I suspect a bizarre cabal of Jonathan Miller, the controllers of BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3, Richard Curtis and my wife, all working together to sabotage my editorial calendar and promote blonde Welsh actresses (or one of them at least).

First, then, a little note to mention that Rob Brydon’s Identity Crisis is being repeated on BBC2 on Wednesday at 11.20pm. Originally shown on BBC4, it’s quite a nice little piece – and funny, as you’d expect from Rob Brydon.

In it, Brydon sets himself the challenge of getting to grips with his Welsh roots by touring Wales, talking with people about what it means to be Welsh, what the Welsh are like, the Welsh language, etc, before performing a stand-up act at the end based on what he discovers.

Along the way, he talks to the English (in particular AA Gill and James Corden) and various Welsh luminaries including Alfred Marks, Ruth Jones, Joanna Page (of course), Griff Rhys Jones, Max Boyce, Victor Spinetti, Nicky Wire from Manic Street Preachers, and Goldie Lookin’ Chain.

It’s quite interesting, not just because of the various opinions he encounters, but because of his personal journey. At the beginning of the documentary, he starts off quite pessimistic, not very involved with his Welsh roots and unsure if he’ll ever be able to get an hour’s material out of the trip. But by the end, he’s loving it all and feeling very patriotic and positive.

Probably the highlight of the documentary, apart from archive footage of Brydon trying to pronounce Welsh placenames while on a stint as a gameshow host, is the behind-the-scenes filming of Gavin & Stacey and James Corden, who delivers this interesting thought on the Welsh language.

If you’re just in it for Joanna Page, here’s her contribution, more or less. I won’t lie to you: there’s not much.

Wednesday’s Heroes simulcast news

11 June 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

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Art

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Today's Joanna Page

TV star casting in the West End: good or bad?

10 June 2008 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Today’s biggish news is that famed director and writer Jonathan Miller has decided to have a go at West End casting practices – and in particular the casting of David Tennant (and Jude Law) in Hamlet.

Apparently, he’s been trying to get his no-star version of Hamlet into the West End but can’t, even though he reckons the performances are bound to be better than either Tennant’s or Law’s.

So the question for you, my friends, is does he have a point? Or do West End producers have a point?

For my own part, I’m very easily swayed by some big film or TV names into turning up at a theatre when I otherwise wouldn’t: my most recent theatre attendances (off the top of my head) have included Fat Pig (Joanna Page, Robert Webb, Kris Marshall, Ella Smith), Art (bloke off Dalziel and Pascoe, Sean Hughes and Alistair McGowen if I recall correctly), A Few Good Men (with Rob Lowe and John Barrowman), The Master Builder (Patrick Stewart and Kelly Reilly), Patrick Stewart’s one-man version of A Christmas Carol, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Matthew Perry, Minnie Driver, Hank Azaria, Kelly Reilly).

That’s money in the pockets of theatres that they otherwise wouldn’t have had with less well-known casts. And the West End isn’t exactly cheap.

More to the point, are celebs possibly the best choices? Maybe they’re famous because they have talent. David Tennant isn’t exactly unknown in theatre.

In fact, is Miller just grumpy because he couldn’t get his own production off the ground? Why have a go at a version of Hamlet that hasn’t even started performing? 

Fat Pig is the most obvious piece of TV celeb casting at the moment, so why not pick on it? Is it because, way back in 2002, he cast the RADA-trained Joanna Page in his production of Camera Obscura at the Almeida (to generally excellent reviews), and so wouldn’t have had much of a leg to stand on?

What do you think? Are good actors being overlooked? Are they being overlooked in favour of better, more famous actors? Or is celeb casting a necessary evil in a competitive market?

Tuesday’s “celebs aren’t quality?” news

10 June 2008 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Doctor Who/Theatre

Film

British TV

  • Gavin & Stacey likely to move to BBC1 for Christmas
  • Details of The Prisoner remake, including Sir Ian McKellen as Number 2
  • Hat Trick to develop crime drama with “strong female victims” [free registration required]
  • Martin Shaw to return as George Gently
  • Plea for more programmes featuring ordinary Welsh life. Plea from Rob for no more Tipyn o Stad…
  • Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends to go CGI [free registration required]
  • Hamish Mykura to take over as head of More4

US TV

News

Gavin and Stacey news titbits

9 June 2008 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

Gavin and Stacey cast

Just a few idle Gavin & Stacey news fragments I’ve picked up that don’t have links and don’t fit in the Daily News format.

First up, James Corden called in to the Chris Moyles breakfast show last week. They’ve become pals of late, you see. Moyles asked for a part in series three and rather than saying, “We’re not doing series three”, “We’ll only do series three if we have the right story” or the other usual responses, he said he’d talk to Ruth Jones about it and then had a big discussion about why Moyles would merit a cameo, given he’s only seen half an episode. The response was “Seven million listeners”. Not conclusive, but encouraging, no? Thanks to my lovely wife for that little nugget.

Secondly, Jo Page was on The Paul O’Grady Show last week and mentioned that she and Corden have a scene to themselves for the first time in the Christmas Special, although it’s still being written so she doesn’t know what happens in it. Interesting, if not exactly inordinately big news, I know.

Speaking of JP, she’s running a 5k to raise money for Cancer Research UK as part of the Race For Life on June 22nd. Why not go off and sponsor her? She, and various other celebs, explain all about it over on the ITV web site – she doesn’t manage to persuade Fern Britten to join in though.