Charles Edwards - Theatre - The 39 Steps (Criterion) - opening night

[updated 28 November 2014]

Screencaps from whatsonstage's opening night footage

Tags: Charles Edwards, Richard Hannay, The 39 Steps, Criterion, theatre, screencaps, pictures

Charles Edwards - Pictures

A 2002 photoshoot from Rex Features [link]

Tags: Charles Edwards, pictures, photos, photoshoot, rex features

Charles Edwards - Theatre - The 39 Steps (Criterion) - reviews

MEDIA

London Town
'Charles Edwards puts in a gloriously snobbish performance as the stiff-upper-lipped hero, a calm spot in the centre of the frantic action.'

Musicomh
'Charles Edwards has exactly the right amount of stiff-upper-lipped Englishness as Hannay'

Official London Theatre
'...the charmingly snobbish bachelor Richard Hannay (a brilliantly deadpan Charles Edwards)...the actors make it [this adaptation] their own at the Criterion.'

Bloomberg
'throughout the comic whirligig, there remains only one Richard Hannay, Robert Donat's screen assignment here deliciously filled by Charles Edwards, whose imperturbable Englishness is one of the evening's delights...The actor, a mainstay in the recent stage work of Peter Hall, has the right bearing (not to mention pencil mustache) to glide smoothly through a scenario that treats Hannay as a blank slate to whom life delivers numerous adventures.'

Times
'This clever, witty adaptation of John Buchan’s adventure classic, directed by Maria Aitken, features a cast of four playing 150 roles, some ingenious stagecraft and stylised comedy that is affectionate without being camp.'

Guardian
'In pencil moustache and tweeds, Charles Edwards affectionately sends up the gentlemanly Hannay'

Curtain Up
'Edwards plays the square-jawed Hannay with just the right amount of phlegmatic self-assurance, employing a bemused expression or arched eyebrow to great effect, but not going over the top.'

Observer
'Maria Aitken's spirited production of The 39 Steps...is its own strange small thing. Which could be exactly the thing the West End has been waiting for.'

The London Theatre Review
'Maria Aitken’s actors bring a unique gloss to the typecast figures of the foppish, daring Englishman and the dour Scot'

Theatre Guide London
'Charles Edwards plays Hannay with an engaging blend of heroic insouciance and wide-eyed befuddlement'

British Theatre Guide
'Charles Edwards is hapless hero Richard Hannay, stiff upper lip topped by a pencil moustache and suavity oozing from every pore.'

Telegraph
'Charles Edwards has exactly the right stiff-upper-lipped panache as the pencil-moustached Hannay'

The London Paper
'[Charles Edwards] gives a swaggering performance as Hannay'

Hornsey and Crouch End Journal
'...Charles Edwards playing an overwhelmingly dashing Hannay...'

National Review
"Charles Edwards charmingly plays the hero [Richard Hannay]"

This is local London
"Edwards hams it up, but nevertheless shows the same swagger and stiff upper lipped Englishness that Robert Donat, Kenneth More and, to a lesser extent, Robert Powell portrayed in the three film versions...this enjoyable romp moved at a fast pace while providing plenty of laughs along the way."

Ciao UK
"Dashingly handsome (a fact that is nicely utilised for laughs), Charles Edward plays a suitably heroic Hannay with a good measure of impertinence and upper class foppery thrown in with excellent comic results."

Daily Express
"the whole thing comes together thanks to the versatility of the four players (Rupert Degas, Simon Gregor, Catherine McCormack and Charles Edwards) and to their determination to show us not just how well they know the original movie, but how much they love it."

BLOGS

born-in-a-fleamarket
'There are only 4 actors playing the multitude of roles and it was fabulous. From deliberately miss-timed cues to quick costume changes it was a brilliant few hours and made me think that I don't go to the theatre often enough.'

kittyfantastico_original
'I haven't really ever considered myself a theatre type of person, but I really enjoyed it, it was funny, made me laugh (made us all jump with the rather loud sound of a gunshot) and left me with a good feeling after. Maybe I should go more often.'

gsnell
'Go see. 'Tis most chucklesome.'

darrenshan
'It's very easy for a play to flop when it tries to be too clever, but this one pulled it off.'

joelondres
http://joelondres.blogspot.com/2006/09/39-steps-samedi-16-septembre-2006.html

Jeremy Sairsingh
'the actors executed the most creative drama experience that I have ever witnessed.'

wechsler
'fantastic, utterly hilarious, goonesque masterpiece'

thedawnthreader
'The 39 Steps was consistently hilarious, clever, and novel. It was the most unique play I have ever seen, and one of the best, too. Both thumbs way up.'

0verseas
'The main character's exaggerated eyebrow raise was the perfect touch to many scenes. It was a show designed for entertainment, and I felt it succeeded.'

Mark Fitchett
'Recreating a movie which required 24 people with a cast 4 needs a lot of invention but on the whole it worked well. Of course it wasn't just the people on stage, some very funny special effects helped as well (watch out for the plane crash and the train journey).'

innocentbystander
'The actors have so much fun on stage, the audience can't help but join them. I was literally crying at points, it was so funny. All four leads are wonderful'

justjosh
'the show was a triumph. Combining the very best of British farce with a real understanding of comedy and how to use the many theatrical elements and enormous talents available in the cast, 39 Steps was a riot.'

John Morrison
'lots of brilliant stage/screen visual gags from director Maria Aitken and very good acting from the cast of four, led by Charles Edwards (last seen around the West End in Hay Fever) and Catherine McCormack. They captured the visual cliches of 1930s move acting perfectly, and the timing was great. '

bollox
'Just FOUR people played the roles of dozens and dozens of characters, you had to see it to believe it, plane crashes, train chases, kissing dames, blazing guns - this play had IT ALL.'

puppypower76
'It was a laughfest from start to finish. Highly recommended.'

toblog
'Charles Edwards played Hannay with his tongue placed firmly in his cheek.'

Tags: Charles Edwards, The 39 Steps, theatre, Richard Hannay, reviews, quotes

Charles Edwards - Television - Murder Rooms (2001)

[updated 19 February 2014]


The Murder Rooms series began with a pilot, The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, in which Charles does not feature. The pilot was followed by the episodes "The Patient's Eyes", "The Photographer's Chair", "The Kingdom of Bones" and "The White Knight Stratagem".

Articles

Excerpt from "Sleuth, Doyle cracks it again" (Daily Record, 8 September 2001)

Charles Edwards, who plays the tenacious Doyle, admits that he was initially apprehensive when asked to play the TV role.

He says: "I have never played a role of this size on TV and I felt very green when I started."

Charles grew up the youngest of four brothers near Haslemere in Surrey and an acting career was the furthest thing from his father's mind who wanted his sons to follow him into the financial world.

He says: "I couldn't imagine doing that. Catching the train at ten past seven every morning, the repetitive routine - a nightmare."

His rise up the acting ranks has been steady since he left drama school nine years ago.

Period pieces on TV have included Longitude with Michael Gambon and the movie Mansfield Park with Frances O'Connor.

But it was his performance in the award-winning production of All My Sons at the Royal National Theatre that was responsible for his casting as Conan Doyle in Murder Rooms.

To perfect his TV role, Charles poured himself into researching Conan Doyle's life.

He says: "You have to research something like this but, at the same time, the premise of these films is often speculative so you do have some license to impose your own ideas.

"There's also a balance to be struck between being authenticity and distracting from the drama.

"For instance, Doyle had an enormous moustache from the age of 17 and I don't sport one."

Moustache or not, Charles is magnificent as Conan Doyle.

Excerpt from "Elementary dear Watson, or is it?" (Herald Sun, 27 January 2002)

[on Ian Richardson, who played Dr Bell] "I had always been aware of him, of who he was. Of his work. And I guess I was a little apprehensive at first -- working with him.
But I found him wonderfully funny -- grave, but funny.
It was chilling really, watching how he did what he did. And he was good at spotting times when I needed him."

...For the Dr Bell and Conan Doyle thing to work, as an investigative team, Edwards and Richardson had to bond if they were to work together for the six months it would take to make the four telemovies.

"But when you are both in the make-up truck at 5am every day, it's not hard to bond. The material you're working with also helps."

Reviews

televisionheaven.co.uk

Sydney Morning Herald (review of "The Patient’s Eyes" by Robin Oliver, 28 January 2002)
An interesting casting change brings in Charles Edwards (Mansfield Park) as the impetuous Doyle now a doctor in his own right. Edwards plays the lovelorn Doyle with aplomb, a nice partner upon whom Richardson can work his spells.

United Press International ("The Game's Afoot, Doyle!" Martin Sieff, 6 August 2002)
Robin Laing played the part of Conan Doyle well in the pilot film. Charles Edwards took over in the current series and is even better... earnest and a striking and intriguing mix of genius, masterful intellect and ingénue... Richardson and Edwards are also served exceptionally well by the scripts, direction and general production values... Murder Rooms is no ordinary or predictable detective drama. It cannot be recommended too highly.

The Leader Post
Charles Edwards as Doyle and Ian Richardson as Bell make a superb team as they tackle a series of seemingly baffling crimes… Atmospheric locations, splendid acting, and great stories.

Charles Edwards - Television - 1990's

[updated 1 March 2014]

Rumpole of the Bailey
Series 7 , episode 5 "Rumpole and the Family Pride"
Charles plays a police officer in this episode, which originally aired 26 November 1992.

Loved Up
A TV film directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) about the rave scene in Britain in the 1990's, in which Charles is Nigel Bennet. The cast includes Ian Hart, Lena Headey and Jason Isaacs.

In Your Dreams
TV film directed by Simon Cellan Jones (Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking); stars Oliver Milburn and Thandie Newton. Charles is credited as a waiter.

Coming Home
This is an ITV 2-part adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher's novel, and Charles plays Rupert (he is only in episode 1). The cast features Peter O'Toole, Joanna Lumley, Emily Mortimer, Paul Bettany and Keira Knightley.

TV randomness - August

Entourage series 3 episodes 9-12 (of 20)

Bleak House episodes 8-15 (of 15)

The Deputy

Absolute Power series 1 episodes 5 and 6 (of 6)

The IT Crowd series 1 episodes 5 and 6 (of 6)

Spaced series 2 episodes 1 and 2 (of 7)

Multiple viewing:
Doctor Who The Christmas Invasion (3)
Doctor Who series 2/28 episodes 4 and 5 (of 13) (2)

Charles Edwards - Theatre - 2006 - Hay Fever

[updated 18 March 2011]

Reviews

Evening Standard
'What piquant, social embarrassment awaits these stiff, shy house guests. Judith's admirer, Charles Edwards's superannuated public schoolboy turned effete gentlemanboxer Sandy radiates smitten excitement while caught in gauche contortions of unease. "I thought your husband was dead," he confesses, aghast. "No. He's upstairs," Judith replies in nonchalant vagueness.'

Officiallondontheatre.co.uk
'Coward’s script is full of witticisms and biting remarks that the ensemble cast revel in...Charles Edwards’s Tyrell is an over-excited lapdog of a fan.'

Telegraph
'Hall's production, handsomely designed by Simon Higlett, beautifully choreographs all the great comic set pieces (the final breakfast scene is a particular triumph) and adds some new ones of his own, and there is outstanding support throughout the ranks...This is a night of English high comedy at its absolute best - and a smash hit if I ever saw one.'

Independent
'I particularly liked Charles Edwards as Sandy Tyrell, the sporty, chinless chump who here is an amusingly bashful tangle of hero-worship for Judith before becoming a jumpy, nerve-racked desperado for escape.'

British theatre guide
'She [Judith] had invited along a handsome young admirer, played by Charles Edwards....Most of the pleasure in this play lies in Coward's witty repartee rather than his plotting. How can one resist a family that openly admits that "people stare in astonishment when we say perfectly normal things". '

Morning star online
'Charles Edwards is also very amusing as her [Judith's] toy boy'

Theatre guide London
'Belinda Lang, Charles Edwards, William Chubb and Olivia Darnley as their [the Blisses'] victims are all first-rate.'

Time Out
'There are many highly amusing turns, not least Charles Edwards’s Sandy – a twitchy, backbone-free charmer.'

The Times
'Each of the four Blisses has invited a more conventional person for the weekend, giving the play what Coward rightly called its "quite extraordinarily well constructed" plot... Charles Edwards as a starstruck youth...hilarity is everywhere'.

[another review]'This is no star vehicle: Charles Edwards, with the hair of a young Michael Heseltine, Belinda Lang, with the dangerous charm of Mrs Simpson, William Chubb, with the pomposity of John Cleese, and Olivia Darnley, as a rabbit in the headlights of the collective family stare, are equal players.'

Picture

Charles at the press night after party (Getty)

Charles Edwards – Theatre – 2005 - Private Lives/Much Ado About Nothing

[updated 18 March 2011]

Private Lives by Noel Coward
Theatre Royal, Wednesday 22 June - Saturday 6 August 2005
In repertory with Much Ado About Nothing (Wednesday 29 June - Saturday 6 August 2005)

Independent
'Best of all is Charles Edwards, who is deliciously funny as stuffy Victor, sipping cocktails as though they were poison and launching into flurries of facial tics and spasms as the full liabilities of misguided matrimony dawn upon him.'

[another review] 'Amanda's new hubbie Victor is expertly played by Charles Edwards who does a lovely line in discreet facial twitches.'

Telegraph
'For Amanda and Elyot, their shared wit and delight in outrage is an erotically stimulating private joke, a kind of humorous foreplay that also serves as a celebration of their independence from stuffy conventionality, so painfully represented by their new partners, Victor and Sybil (excellently played by Charles Edwards and Olivia Darnley).'

BBC
' Victor (Charles Edwards) and Sibyl (Olivia Darnley), traditionally cardboard cutout characters designed to help carry the leads, were full of passion and bravado. Character development clearly focused on enhancing the presence of the two unfortunate spouses of Elyot and Amanda... Olivia Darnley and Charles Edwards are left with little more than cardboard cutout characters to play with, yet they manage splendidly, she with super-clipped vowels, and he with bluster.'

Guardian
'Charles Edwards, pompously querulous, and Olivia Darnley are very good as the rejected spouses'

Morning Star Online
'her [Amanda] new spouse, played by Charles Edwards as an amusingly prim and proper period caricature.'

Swindon Advertiser
'Olivia Darnley is wonderful as Sybil, Elyot's jilted wife, and Charles Edwards postures and blusters with aplomb as Amanda's abandoned husband Victor.'

Financial Times
'As for the young supporting roles of Sibyl and Victor, Darnley and Edwards give the staging's best performances: their every reaction and new impulse shifts the essence of the play.'


Much Ado About Nothing

Times
'Charles Edwards finds what’s lonely and troubled in the play’s one true bachelor, Pedro himself. What an interesting actor Hall’s season is proving this Edwards to be. Let’s see more of him.'

[from another review] 'There are strong performances from Edwards as the ineffectual Don Pedro and Philip Voss as Hero’s raging father, Leonato.'

B A magazine
'Both my companion and myself agreed that Gillett's performance really steals the show, but is closely followed by Charles Edwards' interpretation of the Prince, Don Pedro, as a witty and compassionate aristocrat. Combined, these strong performances create an amusing and plausible set of characters.'

Independent
'Edwards is excellent, too, as Don Pedro, the Prince who arrives in Messina at the head of his demobbed regiment, in Hall's graceful Regency-period production of Much Ado.'

Financial Times
'the revelatory variety of colours brought by Charles Edwards to the role of Don Pedro'

Variety
'Charles Edwards sharpens one's sense of the nobleman Don Pedro as a Malvolio-like malcontent who resolutely refuses to join in the couplings with which the play concludes.'