Samuel West - Good Morning Britain and Baz Productions

Sam will be a guest on Good Morning Britain tomorrow (Thursday), presumably to discuss the latest series of Mr Selfridge (@GMBDaily).

He is listed as a supporter of Baz Productions. The organisation produces plays and runs various education and training programs. Harriet Walter is a patron; other supporters include the Harold Pinter Estate and Tom Stoppard.

Charles Edwards - Radio - Dracula and Betrayal

A new adaptation of Dracula will form part of Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra's Gothic Season. Starring Nicky Henson, John Dougal, Charles Edwards, Aimee Ffion Edwards and Ellie Kendrick, it is due to be broadcast on 7th and 14th October (BBC Radio Drama newsletter, 14-20 July).

Reminder: the Saturday Drama Betrayal will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 today.

Charles Edwards - Betrayal; Diana

The program page for Betrayal is now available. It is next week's Saturday Drama.

Charles is currently filming Diana, in which he plays Patrick Jephson. Some of the filming has taken place in Croatia (his Twitter @cedwardsactor 1|2 and Baz Bamigboye). The first still from the film, featuring Naomi Watts as Princess Diana, was released a few days ago (Collider).

Radio - Betrayal

The Saturday Drama Betrayal will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 14 July. It stars Charles Edwards (Robert), Andrew Scott (Jerry), Olivia Colman (Emma) and Gerard McDermott (the waiter).

Radio - Betrayal

Charles Edwards, Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman have been recording a radio adaptation of Betrayal by Harold Pinter (Charles' Twitter, @cedwardsactor).

Samuel West. Television - Pinter celebration. Judgement Day. portrait.

• A clip from Harold Pinter: A Celebration (via FilmographySam) [link]
  
  
• Sam will attend Tony Blair's Judgement Day tomorrow. He will be reading the names of Iraqis killed in the war. A tweet:
  

  "Tomorrow, there's a protest outside the Iraq War inquiry to mark the day of Tony Blair's testimony. Please join us http://www.stopwar.org.uk"

• Portrait by photographer Giles Park [link]

Television - Pinter celebration

Harold Pinter: A Celebration has been recorded, and will be broadcast on BBC4 this Sunday. The cast includes Colin Firth, Michael Sheen, Samuel West, Janie Dee, David Bradley, Douglas Hodge, Stephen Rea and Gina McKee. [link]

Harold Pinter celebration at Lord's

[updated 3 October]


Artist: Joe Hill. Source: lordstaverners.org

A Harold Pinter celebration took place at Lord's Cricket Ground yesterday - a celebrity cricket match at Lord's Nursery Ground was followed by a tribute in the Long Room. A portrait of Pinter by Joe Hill was auctioned as well. Proceeds from the celebration will go towards purchasing a minibus for the cricket-loving kids in Hackney.
People who attended include Lady Antonia Fraser, Janie Dee, Peter Hall, Bill Nighy, Jeremy Irons, Jason Isaacs, Roger Lloyd Pack, Samuel West, Timothy West, Penelope Wilton, Harry Burton, Fintan McKeown, Dickie Wyse, Roger Davidson, Ian MaKinnon, Ben Nealon, Robert Powell, Paul Smith, Michael Billington, Somit Dutta, Mike Brearley, Mike Atherton, Mike Gatting, Jeremy Coney, Ian Smith and Chris Tarrant.

Bill Nighy was interviewed on Today last Saturday and he mentioned there would be "songs from Janie Dee" at the tribute. His interview is on this page (scroll down to 0851).
An excerpt from the Guardian:

"...Theatrical readings in the evening will see [Jeremy] Irons take to the stage with Tim West to perform an excerpt from No Man's Land, and [Mike] Brearley reading from The Caretaker..."

A tweet from Sam West about the game:

At Lords playing for Taverners vs Gaieties for Pinter celebration. Our opening pair Atherton and Gatting. I'm in at number eight. Oo-er.

I tweeted Sam about the celebration (and thanks to him for replying!):


A recap of the celebration is here at Cricket Family.


Links

The Lord's Taverners 1|2
The Independent [link]
Guardian [link]
Telegraph [link]
The Arts Desk [link]
whatsonstage.com [link]

Samuel West - Theatre - A Family Affair

[updated 19 March: picture removed]

Some recaps of A Family Affair, an Oxford Playhouse fundraiser starring Sam and his parents, Timothy West and Prunella Scales:
Stuck in a Book [link]
Oxford reader [link]
m4sure [link]
Oxford Times [link]

Entertainment news

• Hilarious Cemetery Junction teaser featuring Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais [link]
  
• Old films need a new marketing makeover [link]
  
• BBC4 will have tribute nights for Harold Pinter and Simon Gray this weekend [link]
  
• Rich Sommer, Audrey Tautou, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Bill Nighy interviews rich|audrey|ang|quentin|bill
  
• Matt Smith has started filming his episodes of Doctor Who [link]
  
• Season 6 of Entourage
• A couple of videos 1|2
• Matt Damon will have a cameo [link]
• Bright Star trailer [link]
• Article about the upcoming Star Trek DVD release [link]
• Emmy nominations [link]

Theatre. Pinter celebration. Hayley Atwell, Simon Russell Beale, Andrea Riseborough, Hattie Morahan.

[updated 26 June]

• Harold Pinter: A Celebration
• Articles:
  Independent [link]
  Guardian [link]
  The Times [link]
  whatsonstage [link]
  The First Post [link]
  britishlibrary [link]
  Tribune magazine [link]
  
• Program excerpts 1|2
  
• Hayley Atwell and Simon Russell Beale present the actors tour on the National Theatre website [link]
  
• Andrea Riseborough took part in a reading of O.P.C. (Obsessive Political Correctness) by Eve Ensler at the Santa Monica Bay Women’s Club
  
• Article from the Santa Monica Mirror [link]
• Global Green USA [link]
• Pictures 1|2
  
• Hattie Morahan is in The Chamber of Demonstrations, a DVD from the University of Bristol about Jacobean theatre featuring scenes from The Duchess of Malfi, Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Changeling, Love's Sacrifice and The Guardian. [link]

Film - Frost/Nixon. Rebecca Hall - Theatre - The Bridge Project. Theatre - Pinter celebration. Kelly Macdonald - Film - The Merry Gentleman.

• Interview with Michael Sheen about Frost/Nixon that includes this nice quote about the rest of the cast:
  

  "...The brilliance of Frank Langella, and all the other actors who were completely fresh to the film - actors like Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen and Rebecca Hall are all wonderful actors - and their fresh take on everything meant that all I had to do was listen to them and react to them..."

• Article about the Bridge Project from the Telegraph [link]
• Michael Sheen, Samuel West and Penelope Wilton will take part in a celebration of Harold Pinter's work, which will be held on Sunday 7 June in the National's Olivier Theatre at 7.00pm.
  According to Michael's Twitter, he will be playing Robert in the Venice scene from Betrayal. [link]
• Kelly Macdonald interview about The Merry Gentleman from sfgate [link]
  

Rebecca Hall - Theatre - Bridge Project. Samuel West - Marxism 2009

• The Bridge Project
• Interview from nzheraldtv [link]
• Articles from the Kiwi press 1|2|3
• Marxism 2009
• Sam will be a speaker at the festival [link]
• He and Michael Billington (theatre critic for the Guardian) will take part in a tribute to Harold Pinter and a reading of some of his work [link]
  

Samuel West

Sam wrote a lovely article about Harold Pinter for the February issue of Socialist Review [link]

Samuel West - Theatre, Radio - Family Voices

[updated 19 March 2011]

The reading
Crucible Theatre (Sheffield), 6 November 2006

Articles

BBC 1|2
whatsonstage.com [link]
Yorkshire Post [link]

Accounts of the evening by John Baker and Sal Brown John|Sal

The radio broadcast
BBC Radio Sheffield, 9 November 2006
BBC Radio 3, 30 December 2006

Entertainment news

• Watchmen mess 1|2|3
• Baz Luhrmann blahdiblah 1|2
• Pinter sadness 1|2
• PlayStation Shoot was very likely influenced by BMW/Clive Owen hotness [link]
• Michelle Yeoh interview from the Guardian [link]
• Article about short films [link]
• Jason Isaacs interview from from AICN [link]
  

Tags: Watchmen, film, Baz Luhrmann, Gatsby, Australia, Pinter, Playstation, Shoot, BMW, Clive Owen, Michelle Yeoh, Jason Isaacs, AICN

Samuel West - Theatre - The Family Reunion; Pinter

From the Independent:

West's pause for Pinter

There was a notable absence from the audience at last night's performance of The Family Reunion at the Donmar Warehouse in London's Covent Garden.

Harold Pinter, the esteemed playwright who died on Christmas Eve, had tickets booked for the show – a sure sign he was determined to carry on as normal in spite of illness.

Pinter's plan to go and see the TS Eliot classic was revealed in a moving tribute paid to the playwright by the actor Samuel West, the son of theatre greats Timothy West and Prunella Scales, and one of the stars of the production. He joined fellow cast members at the end of Saturday's matinee performance to remember Pinter.

"Harold always loved this theatre," said West, before inviting the audience to give Pinter one final round of applause as the cast left the stage.

A quote from the Guardian:

"He had an anger and he used it on behalf of others, without worrying what people thought."
(Samuel West, actor and director)

Tags: Samuel West, Sam West, Harold Pinter, Pinter, The Family Reunion, Donmar Warehouse, Donmar, TS Eliot, Timothy West, Prunella Scales

Entertainment news

• Obituaries and articles about Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve :( 1|2|3
• Interview with Dervla Kirwan [link]
  
• A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox owns the distribution rights to Watchmen, representing a setback for Warner Bros.' plans to release the pic in March [link]
• Interview with Michael Sheen [link]
• The Guardian's A to Z of 2009 pop culture [link]
  
• Interview with Rebecca Hall [link]
• Clive Owen is attached to Cartagena, a story about an undercover agent amid Colombian drug cartels [link]
• Slideshow about posters for The Spirit [link]

Tags: Harold Pinter, Dervla Kirwan, Watchmen, Michael Sheen, Rebecca Hall, Clive Owen

Samuel West

Sam attended the opening night of Pinter double bill The Lover/The Collection, at the Comedy Theatre. It stars his father Timothy West, Richard Coyle, Charlie Cox and Gina McKee.

Links
whatsonstage.com article [link]
Pictures of Sam at the after party 1|2

Tags: Samuel+West, Sam+West, theatre, theater, Pinter, Harold+Pinter, lover, collection, Timothy+West, Richard+Coyle, Charlie+Cox, Gina+McKee

Samuel West

A snippet from the Telegraph:

"When Samuel West asked Harold Pinter to write a poem for the Crucible theatre in Sheffield, the Nobel Prize-winner was only too happy to oblige.

His eight-line work, Laughter, was duly despatched and Pinter was informed that West, at the time the theatre's artistic director, was so delighted with it that he planned to project his words onto one of the playhouse's outside walls to publicise a literacy festival it was hosting.

The 77-year-old author has, however, been aghast to learn that the theatre has now had second thoughts. There were concerns that Pinter's poem, which talked of death and 'severed heads', could upset mourners attending funerals at churches near the building.

Pinter doesn't take kindly to any kind of censorship and is, I am told, incandescent about the turn of events. Mandrake is, however, happy to give his words an airing:

Laughter dies out but is never dead
Laughter lies out the back of its head
Laughter laughs at what is never said
It trills and squeals and swills in your head
It trills and squeals in the heads of the dead
And so all the lies remain laughingly spread
Sucked in by the laughter of the severed head
Sucked in by the mouths of the laughing dead..."

Tags: Samuel+West Sam+West Telegraph Harold+Pinter Crucible Sheffield theatre theater laughter poem