Artists Against TTIP and Act for Change

I decided to put Artists Against TTIP and Act for Change in a blog post because I noticed that there are some people who are associated with both campaigns: David Morrissey, Juliet Stevenson, Samuel West and Ruth Wilson.



Screencaps of Tobias Menzies, Juliet Stevenson, Andrew Scott and Ruth Wilson from the Artists Against TTIP launch video.
Artists Against TTIP launched in July. TTIP is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a treaty aimed at aligning trade laws between the EU and US. In The Stage, Samuel West commented on cosmetic regulations and Carrie Cracknell suggested possible issues with subsidy and copyright.

Click the pictures above to view a selection of videos on the Act for Change Youtube channel.
(Row 1 - Chipo Chung, Indira Varma, Gemma Chan
Row 2 - Ruth Wilson & Danny Lee Wynter, Juliet Stevenson, David Harewood & David Morrissey)

Danny Lee Wynter established Act for Change in 2014, after seeing an ITV trailer which did not feature a single BAME or disabled artist. The organisation aims to improve diversity in UK performing arts, both in performance and behind the scenes.
In June, Shami Chakrabarti (head of civil rights group Liberty), chaired an Act for Change event at the National Theatre. The event had a variety of panellists: actor Adrian Lester, actor/writer Cush Jumbo, director Phyllida Lloyd, critic Mark Lawson, shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant and artistic director Jenny Sealey (BBC News and Samuel West's Twitter, @exitthelemming). Actors Sophia Sinclair, Ayesha Casely-Hayford and Mitesh Soni shared their thoughts on the debate; all have stressed the importance of improving opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds.

Samuel West - Christmas Compendium, Apollo Music Projects and the Arts Index

Sam will be a guest at tomorrow's performance of Brian and Robin's Christmas Compendium of Reason (via @robinince).
He is listed as the presenter (subject to availability) for an Apollo Music Projects fundraising concert on 10 June 2014. Booking details are at the Cadogan Hall website.

To coincide with the recent release of Britten to America, NMC Recordings have shared a video of Mark Elder discussing Britten's work for radio and Sam's approach to narration (via @nmcrecordings).
Below is a selection of comments about Nocturne (2 November, Temple Church) from Twitter.

Nocturne - Life of Frederic Chopin with @LucyParham @exitthelemming & Juliet Stevenson at @templemusicfdn My review: http://t.co/1uLKPLXUIV— Robert Hugill (@RobertHugill) December 3, 2013	@LucyParham @exitthelemming & Juliet Stevenson, thank you for Chopin/Sand marvellous evening of solace for the soul — Sophie Goldspink (@sophiejg) December 2, 2013
SUPERB end to our season last night. Exquisite playing by @LucyParham and wonderful story telling from @exitthelemming and Juliet Stevenson. — Temple Music (@templemusicfdn) December 3, 2013	@templemusicfdn a wonderfull concert. Juliet Stevenson @exitthelemming & @LucyParham brought it to life. Thanks — David Hughes (@DavidHu93551448) December 2, 2013

The 2013 Arts Index was released last week by the National Campaign for the Arts (via Sam's Twitter, @exitthelemming). Sam, the chair of the NCA, wrote the foreword to the report - a modified version is on the Guardian website. The Guardian has also published an interview with Sam about fluctuations in the Index's performance indicators (via @PaulChahidi).

Helen Lederer, Anton Du Beke and Sam (pictured here) were among the readers at the Asthma UK Carol Service on 3 December.
The National Youth Arts Trust was launched on 12 November. Its patrons include Sam, Hugh Bonneville, Derek Jacobi, Stephen Mangan and David Morrissey.
Sam recorded an endorsement for Brass Factor. The competition was held in Harrogate and Holmfirth in November.

Television - Murder on the Orient Express screencaps

IMDB|PBS

Welcome to the Punch, Anna Christie, BBC Radio

The film Welcome to the Punch has begun filming. It stars Andrea Riseborough, James McAvoy, Mark Strong and David Morrissey (Empire Online).

Pictures from rehearsals for Anna Christie can be viewed on the Donmar Warehouse and Daily Mail websites. Also, the Evening Standard has an interview with Ruth Wilson (via Ruth Wilson - The Placeholder Blog).

BBC Radio

• Toby Stephens and Olivia Colman are the readers for Words and Music "Obsession"
• Lesley Sharp and Lizzy Watts star in the Afternoon Play Welcome to the Wasteland {repeat}

Television - In Love with Shakespeare, BBC Radio

Stephen Campbell Moore, John Simm and Sam West will perform speeches from Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Richard II in In Love With Shakespeare, a 30 minute program which will be broadcast on Sky Arts 28 May (via The Stage).

BBC Radio

• John Simm will be interviewed on Loose Ends
• David Morrissey will be interviewed on Front Row
• Toby Jones and Dina Lorzun star in the series 10 premiere of From Fact to Fiction
• Tamsin Greig and Alex Jennings star in the Afternoon Play That's Mine, This is Yours
• Hattie Morahan reads "The Happy Valley" by Daphne du Maurier
• Fenella Woolgar reads the Book of the Week Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in War and Peace 1939-1949
• Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Macfadyen are the readers for Words and Music "Self-Improvement"

Ruth Wilson, Rosamund Pike, actors on Twitter, BBC Radio

Ruth Wilson attended the De Beers pre-BAFTA film and jewellery lunch on 3 February. Earlier this week, she was a guest at the Evening Standard Film Awards, where winners included Andrew Garfield (Best Actor, The Social Network and Never Let Me Go) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Best Actress, Leaving). Pictures: WireImage, Rex Features, Getty.

Rosamund Pike will play Andromeda in the Clash of the Titans sequel (via Indiewire). Rosamund attended the London Film Critics Circle Awards, where she was nominated for British Actress of the Year. Other guests included Colin Firth (winner, Actor of the Year) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film). Pictures: WireImage and Getty (winners, arrivals, pre drinks reception).

A nice mention of Sam West and Hugh Bonneville in an article from the Guardian about theatres' use of Twitter:

There are some great actors tweeting brilliant material, but the skill of acting well is irrelevant to the skill of writing well for Twitter.

Hugh Bonneville will introduce a screening of Iris at the Minghella Film Festival on 12 March (via his Twitter, @hughbon).

BBC Radio

• James Fleet will be interviewed on Loose Ends
• Toby Stephens stars as Philip Marlowe in the Saturday Play The Lady in the Lake, which is part of BBC Radio 4's Classic Chandler
• David Morrissey will be interviewed on Midweek, and he stars in Adam Baron's Shut Eye {repeat}

Television - Murder on the Orient Express

Source: my screencaps

Murder on the Orient Express premieres in Australia on ABC1, Sunday 13 February at 8.30pm. The cast includes Hugh Bonneville (Edward Masterman), Toby Jones (Samuel Ratchett), David Morrissey (John Arbuthnot) and Samuel West (Dr Constantine).

Theatre - Enron. Television - Any Human Heart. Television - Murder on the Orient Express. Television - Doctor Who.

• Enron (Broadway)
• Lucy Prebble is briefly featured in a video from THV about the production [link]
• Articles from Time Out and the New York Post time out|ny post
• Lucy Prebble interview from Elle [link]
  
  
• Tom Hollander, Samuel West, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Kim Cattrall, Gillian Anderson, Sam Claflin, Emerald Fennell and Natasha Little have joined the cast of the Channel 4 miniseries adaptation of Any Human Heart by William Boyd. Previously announced cast members include Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen, Jim Broadbent and Ed Stoppard. 1|2
  
  
• A trailer for Murder on the Orient Express is here, and it will be broadcast on PBS 11 July (via bbccostumedrama). The cast includes Hugh Bonneville, Toby Jones, David Morrissey and Samuel West.
  
  
• Screencaps of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Bill Nighy, Helen McCrory and Toby Jones from the Doctor Who "The Eleventh Hour" coming soon trailer (click thumbnails for full size):
  
  
  

London Film Critics' Circle awards. Television - Downton Abbey. BBC Radio.

[updated 27 February]

• Winners at the London Film Critics' Circle awards include Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche (Screenwriter of the year - In the Loop); Colin Firth (British actor of the year - A Single Man) and Carey Mulligan (British actress of the year - An Education) (via the Telegraph) [link]
• The cast of Downton Abbey includes Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery (via Baz Bamigboye's Daily Mail column) [link]
• BBC Radio
• Toby Jones and Sheila Reid star in The Wire Life on the Edges [link]
• Elli Wantage, James Frain and Simon Russell Beale star in Friday's Child [link]
• Robin Ellis, Hugh Grant and Sian Phillips star in Cover Her Face [link]
• Tessa Nicholson, Joseph Cohen-Cole, Melissa Advani, Rhys Jennings, Kate Layden and Emerald O'Hanrahan star in Ruby Baby [link]

Entertainment news

• Blog posts by David Morrissey about his BAFTA tour (via David Morrissey Online) [link]
• Bill Nighy stars in Richard Curtis' short film about the Robin Hood Tax [link]
• Carey Mulligan, Emily Mortimer and Nicholas Hoult & Matthew Goode interviews carey|emily|nicholas & matthew
• Measure for Measure
• Anna Maxwell Martin interview [link]
• Photo gallery from Broadway World [link]
• Scans from Total Film about Prince of Persia, starring Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal [link]
• Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen and Jim Sturgess will star in The Promised Land directed by Michael Winterbottom [link] 
• Pictures of Ruth Wilson from the whatsonstage.com awards 1|2|3|4|5|6
• Vanessa Redgrave will receive a BAFTA fellowship [link] 
• Rosamund Pike has been photographed for Temperley London's New York installation [link]
• Felicity Jones, Ed Westwick and Bill Nighy wil star in the romantic comedy The Chalet Girl [link]
• In the Loop
• Won Best Screenplay at the Evening Standard Film Awards [link]
• Download of the screenplay (via AIannucci) [link]

Entertainment news

• Production for Happy Feet 2 will take place in Sydney [link]
• Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth are in Vanity Fair's Hollywood Portfolio which is in the March 2010 issue (via ONTD). Carey is also on the cover with people such as Rebecca Hall and Mia Wasikowska (via Just Jared).
  
• Shutter Island and Red Hill will screen at the Berlin International Film Festival [link]
• Damian Lewis, Michael Adams, Rebecca Hall and Toby Schmitz interviews damian|michael|rebecca|toby
• Cemetery Junction poster (via gervsmerchpilk) and trailer poster|trailer
• John Malkovich will star in The Infernal Comedy at the Barbican next year [link]
• Bill Nighy will guest star in the next series of Doctor Who, in an episode written by Richard Curtis (via The Medium is Not Enough) [link]
• Information for BAFTA's David Morrissey on tour from David's official website [link]
• Marion Potts will be the next artistic director of the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne 1|2
• Casting for the miniseries adaptation of Cloudstreet [link]

Radio - Goldfinger. Instyle - The Brit Pack, Best of British party. South Bank Show Awards.

• As well as the previously announced Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike and Ian McKellen, the cast of Goldfinger includes Tom Hollander, Lisa Dillon and Tim Pigott-Smith. It will be broadcast 3 April. (via Commander Bond) [link]
• Andrea Riseborough and Ruth Wilson are in the portfolio "The Brit Pack" from the March 2010 issue of Instyle (UK). A behind the scenes video from the shoot is here. Instyle hosted a Best of British party celebrating the BAFTAs. Guests included Bonnie Wright, Claire Foy, Jamie Campbell Bower, Olivia Grant and Rosamund Pike.
• Ruth Wilson was at the Waiting for Godot press night after party 1|2|3|4
• Guests at the South Bank Show Awards include Damian Lewis, Rebecca Hall, Ruth Wilson, David Morrissey and Peter Hall 1|2

Entertainment news

• Billie Piper, Simon Russell Beale and Colin Firth & Tom Ford interviews billie|simon|colin & tom
  
• Golden Globes
• Winners [link]
• Martin Scorsese's acceptance speech [link]
  
• Carey Mulligan received the best actress award at the National Board of Review gala (via Just Jared); she has been included in Life magazine's Oscar hopefuls portraits; and she has been nominated for the Orange Rising Star Bafta Award.
• The Pride, starring Hugh Dancy, Ben Whishaw, Andrea Riseborough and Adam James is featured in Broadway Beat [link]
• Article about Mahler by Armando Iannucci (via AIannucci) [link]
  
• Red Riding will have a limited release in New York [link]
• Article about The King's Speech [link]

Ruth Wilson, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson. British Independent Film Awards. Radio - The Custom of the Country.

[updated 11 December]

• Excerpt from a Ruth interview about her film project with Hayley and Emma:

  "...Wilson has got together a stellar team of women writers, directors and actresses and the idea, cooked up with fellow actress Hayley Atwell, is to produce a feature film made up of shorts by and for women. 'Seven writers and seven directors, all women,' she says, reeling off names. 'Some of the women who are keen to direct are Rachel Weisz, Gillian Anderson, Tara Fitzgerald. Emma Thompson is going to mentor the writers and Susanna White, who directed Jane Eyre, will work with the directors...'"

• The British Independent Film Awards
  
• Links about Rosamund Pike's outfit and makeup 1|2|3
• elizabethtoni's arrival's videos (featuring Hayley Atwell, Gemma Arterton; Jason Isaacs, Carey Mulligan, Armando Iannucci; Peter Capaldi, David Morrissey; and Rosamund Pike) 1|2|3|4
• Some videos from t5m jason isaacs|rosamund pike
• Article from the Independent [link]
  
• Dan Stevens and Tom Hollander star in The Custom of the Country, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 3 January [link]

British Independent Film Awards winners. Film - An Education. Film - In the Loop. Theatre - Darker Shores. BBC Radio.

[updated 9 December]

• The British Independent Film Awards
• Winners include Armando Iannucci et al for Best Screenplay (In the Loop) and Carey Mulligan for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film (An Education). The full list of winners is here.
• Pictures - guests included Peter Capaldi, Carey Mulligan, Gemma Arterton, Andrew Buchan, David Morrissey, Armando Iannucci, Rosamund Pike, Hayley Atwell and Jason Isaacs 1|2|3|4|5
  
• Tom Goodman-Hill has replaced Mark Gatiss in Darker Shores at the Hampstead Theatre. The play also stars Julian Rhind-Tutt, Vinette Robinson and Pamela Miles [link]
• BBC Radio
• Jason Isaacs narrates "Exchange Rates" by Lionel Shriver [link]
  
• Bill Nighy stars in The Entertainer [link]
• Romola Garai and Tim McMullan are the readers for Words and Music "Hope and Despair" [link]
• Katherine Parkinson, Ciaran McMenamin and Jemma Redgrave narrate the Afternoon Reading Defining Moments [link]
• Nicholas Le Prevost, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Peter Serafinowicz star in In the Red [link]

Television - Murder on the Orient Express

David Suchet returns as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, which has begun filming. The cast includes Hugh Bonneville (Edward Masterman), Toby Jones (Samuel Ratchett), David Morrissey (John Arbuthnot) and Samuel West (Dr Constantine). [link]

Ruth Wilson - Television - Luther. Romola Garai. Audio drama.

• Ruth plays Alice Morgan in Luther, a six-part series starring Idris Elba [link]
• Romola will be interviewed on Woman's Hour this Thursday [link]
• Audio drama:
• Urban Scrawl "Hounslow East" by Laura Wade stars Katherine Parkinson [link]
• Alex Jennings, Lizzy Watts and Patrick Kennedy star in the Woman's Hour Drama Our Mutual Friend [link]
• Patti Love, John Hannah and David Morrissey star in Mary Barnes [link]
  
• Sam Dale and Lydia Leonard star in the Afternoon Play The Railway Siding [link]
• Toby Stephens stars in Birdsong [link]
  
• Bill Paterson, Stephen Mangan and Damian Lewis star in the Afternoon Play Number 10 [link]

Film - An Education. Rosamund Pike - Theatre - Hedda Gabler. Ruth Wilson. Samuel West - Narration - Jubilee Poetry. BBC Radio.

• An article about An Education from Newsday [link]
• Hedda Gabler is featured in Baz Bamigboye's Daily Mail column [link]
• A nice mention of Ruth Wilson from the Guardian:

  We have had a major eyebrow crush since seeing her as Stella in the Donmar's Streetcar and will therefore be glued to the BBC's Small Island

• BBC Radio
  
• Samuel West, Juliet Stevenson and Samantha Bond narrate Jubilee Poetry, an anthology of poetry written by the Poets Laureate presented by a former Laureate, Andrew Motion [link]
• Toby Stephens and David Morrissey star in the Drama on 3 Becket or The Honour of God [link]
• Chris New and Rob Hastie star in the Classic Serial Beau Geste [link]
• Jemima Rooper, Andrew Scott and Lizzy Watts star in the Afternoon Play Audio Recordings of Human Traffic [link]

The Observer

Fortunately, the Observer will not be closing. People such as Colin Firth, Armando Iannucci, Nigella Lawson, David Morrissey and Samuel West have opposed its proposed closure. (via @AIannucci) [link]

Film - London Film Festival

• Clive Owen, Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson, Dominic Cooper, Juno Temple and Hugh Bonneville will be attending [link]
• Premieres and screenings include The Boys Are Back, Bright Star, An Education, Nowhere Boy, Balibo, Astro Boy, Glorious 39, A Single Man, The Limits of Control, The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Don't Worry About Me [link]