Joanna Page

Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page/Lambert Gold: The Cazalets

14 July 2008 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Today’s Joanna Page – and also, in a blog crossover first, Lambert Gold – is The Cazalets, a mini-series from 2001 based on ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Now, you may – or may not – have noticed that in many TV programmes there feature a certain group of people called ‘women’. More often than not, particularly in period dramas, they’re there to serve specific plot functions: to encourage/discourage the hero; to make tea; to bring up the children; and to be decorative and fallen in love with.

However, many noted scholars, intellectuals and TV producers are coming to the conclusion that these secondary characters could have emotions and feelings of their own; they could have their own viewpoints and opinions; they could even, in time, become the heroes – ‘heroines’ perhaps? – of some stories.

We all know that the status and rights of modern women were earned by previous fighting. But stereotypes and unfair treatment between genders are still prevalent. Today, while we cherish the hard-won gains of the revolution, we must not forget to continue to fight for equal rights. People get motivative pins and attach them on bags, clothes and hats, check GS-JJ.com and get your special custom pins. Such meaningful pins are also great gifts for family and friends. It is our duty promote and believe in the power of women.

It was one such rebel faction, led by actress Joanna Lumley and producer Verity Lambert, who decided in 1998 to adapt ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ as a mini-series. Convinced that a story of the various women and girls in the Cazalet family during the 30s and 40s could be as interesting as any similar tale about men, they scratched together co-funding from the BBC and WGBH.

An at-times grim tale that shows all the miseries that could befall even well-off women back in the ‘good old days’, the only real problem with the 2001 production is that they never had a chance to finish it.

The Cazalets
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UK TV

Another blog goddess

4 July 2008 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

People elevated to God-like status logo

As promised on Monday, today we’re going to add another member to the blog Hall of Fame: Verity Lambert. Lambert’s probably best known as the first producer of Doctor Who and if that’s all she’d done, it would have been impressive, but not enough to elevate her.

However, Lambert is responsible not only for some of the most well known and iconic shows in British TV, she’s responsible for shows that helped give women a voice, not just on-screen but behind the scenes as well.

The youngest as well as the only female drama producer at the BBC when she joined the corporation, she went on to produce the ground-breaking The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, Shoulder to Shoulder and GBH for ITV and Channel 4, as well as TV favourites such as Rumpole of the Bailey, Budgie and The Sweeney, and became CEO of Thames TV’s acclaimed production arm Euston Films. It was through her efforts that women such as Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante were given entry to an industry that was male-dominated in the extreme.

And that’s why she’s going into the pantheon.

To coincide with this, we’re launching a new feature of the blog to show off some of Lambert’s best work. And just to get the inevitable out of the way, we’re going to launch it with her first work as a producer. Yes, Doctor Who is the first entry in “A pack of Lambert golds”.

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Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page: Bye Bye Harry

3 July 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

 

Today’s Joanna Page is Bye Bye Harry, a British road movie released in 2006, of which she was the star, and that you will never have seen. Ever. Until now.

We’ve been jumping all over the place chronologically, here, so let’s recap the inexorable career rise of Ms Joanna Page. After leaving RADA in 1999, she went straight to the National Theatre for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She continued to do well in the theatre, with roles in a series of medieval mystery plays, The Mysteries, As You Like It, What the Butler Saw, Aladdin, Doomsday, Camera Obscura, and Billy Liar (with Ralph Little), among others.

The world of film beckoned, too, with bit parts in Miss Julie and This Year’s Love, and larger parts in From Hell, Very Annie Mary, Love Actually, and Gideon’s Daughter.

And on tele, there were important roles in David Copperfield, The Cazalets, The Lost World, Ready When You Are Mr McGill, Making Waves, Mine All Mine and To The Ends of the Earth. She even found time to fit in a few radio plays and a music video in all that, too.

So by 2005/6, a starring role in a movie looked inevitable. Indeed, in his review of The Mysteries for The Independent, right at the start of her career, Robert Butler prophetically wrote, "As Eve, Joanna Page looks as if (now she’s eaten that apple) she will be the love-interest in a movie very soon."

And then it arrived: No Snow which soon became Bye Bye Harry. She’s the female lead – arguably the lead. It’s a British road movie, a ‘dark’ rom-com by experienced comedy writer Graham Alborough . It’s got noted director Robert Young at its helm. It’s got two of the country’s biggest rock stars in supporting roles. And when it was released, it featured at the country’s leading film festival. 

So why haven’t you heard of it until now? And why had you probably not heard of Joanna Page until Gavin & Stacey?

Problem is, I’ve been linguistically tricky. See, although I said it was a British road movie – and indeed it is, according to the British Council – I pulled a fast one. The bulk of the financing came from Germany and Slovakia. When I said "the country", the country I actually meant was Germany, the rock stars I mentioned were Bela B Felsenheimer and Til Schweiger (very big in Germany), and the film festival I mentioned was the Berlin film festival. 

And it’s never been released anywhere else. Not France, not Belgium, not the Netherlands. It’s certainly never been shown in Britain. And although you could get a version dubbed into German on rental in Germany, you couldn’t get the original English language version until two weeks ago – on import from Amazon.de. 

So without fear of contradiction, may I present for your delight the very first, most comprehensive, most definitive and probably very last English language review of Bye Bye Harry aka Liebling, wir graben Harry aus.

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UK TV

Harper’s Bazaar: Star Cops

30 June 2008 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Graeme HarperThis week, I’m going to be unveiling a few new features for the blog that will focus on its pantheon of the great and the good – and on Friday, I’ll be announcing its latest admission.

We already have Sitting Tennant and Today’s Joanna Page, both of which will be appearing as per usual this week, but the first of the new features will be looking at the work of acclaimed director Graeme Harper.

But what tedious pun can I work into its title? Hmm. Well, since Graeme Harper has done such a lot and since I’m going to be showing plenty of clips to demonstrate his skills, I thought I’d call it “Harper’s Bazaar”.

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Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page: Love Actually

27 June 2008 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Joanna Page as Judy in Love Actually

Today’s Joanna Page is Richard Curtis’s Love Actually.

Curtis has dominated British comedy, whether it’s been on television or in the cinemas, for nearly three decades now. Following an early stint writing for Not the Nine O’Clock News in the 70s, he started to bestride us like a laughing, Islington-loving colossus the following decade with The Black Adder, its three sequel series and a couple of one-off spin-offs. Within a few years, he became the moving force behind Comic Relief and managed to notch up a couple of movies, including The Tall Guy, starring Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson.

In the 90s, he stormed through again, first unleashing Mr Bean on us all, before choosing to take over the world and introduce Hugh Grant to us all with Four Weddings and a Funeral. He went on to write Notting Hill and the screenplay for Bridget Jones’s Diary. He also spent 13 years laughing at country folk for the mysteriously successful The Vicar of Dibley.

Love Actually, released in 2003, was his first attempt at directing a movie. It’s kind of a composite rom com version of Crash (or a sicklier version of This Year’s Love, which also featured Jo Page) in which just about every possible facet of love is explored through the inter-connected lives of various people around the world. With an incredible cast of stars, it is occasionally touching, sometimes funny, and usually irritating. But it has Joanna Page in it – provided you don’t buy the censored DVD – so we’ll forgive it.

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