Samuel West - The Iliad, Suffragette, An Oak Tree

On Friday, Sam and several other actors such as Bertie Carvel, Rory Kinnear, Tobias Menzies, Hattie Morahan, Simon Russell Beale, John Simm and Ben Whishaw, performed in a reading of The Iliad at the British Museum and at the Almeida. The performance was live streamed. A series of podcasts and a making-of film are forthcoming.

Suffragette will open this year's London Film Festival (Prolific North). Sam has described his role in the film as "small and cross" (his Twitter, @exitthelemming). Click below for screencaps of him in the trailer.

He will feature in series 3 of Great Canal Journeys (his Twitter, @exitthelemming). Meanwhile, series 1 is being repeated on Channel 4 from 15 August (Radio Times).

Sam narrates a series of videos on The Road to Agincourt website. He plays the chronicler who wrote Gesta Henrici Quinti, a work about the deeds of Henry V (via the Daily Echo).

In July, he played the Father in An Oak Tree at the National Theatre. The play is a two-hander by Tim Crouch, who plays the Hypnotist. The Father is played by a different guest actor at each performance; at the National, guest actors included John Heffernan, Samuel Barnett and Trystan Gravelle.
Sam tweeted that the play was "Beautiful, useful and never to be forgotten" and Tim tweeted that the performance was "a very special evening." Here is a selection of tweets about the performance:

@exitthelemming Saw you perform in An Oak Tree tonight, absolutely amazing! Undoubtedly one of the best shows I've seen in London congrats!

— Lydia-Rachel (@Lydia_Actor) July 15, 2015

Great work tonight @exitthelemming & @timcrouch1964 with #AnOakTree Imagine it & you are it. Even we as the audience. Nod if you understand.

— Jack Tarlton (@jacktarlton) July 15, 2015

Congrats to @timcrouch1964 & @exitthelemming for a glorious #AnOakTree.....Friar Lawrence was v v proud of his Romeo #howtimeflies xx

— Hugh Sachs (@HughSachs) July 15, 2015

In May, Sam narrated Morning Heroes by Bliss with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Here is a review round up of the performance.

Music OMH
"Samuel West brought just the right level of philosophical pathos to the words..."

The Guardian

"The speaker (here, the excellent Samuel West) delivers the long opening passage from Homer over quietly unfolding orchestral themes, and Owen’s Spring Offensive, accompanied only by timpani and drums, to begin the finale."

Seen and Heard
"Samuel West struck just the right balance of eloquence and dignity of delivery..."

The Arts Desk
"Most personal and affecting were the work’s prologue and epilogue, calling upon Sam West with subtly scored orations of Hector’s Farewell to Andromache and Owen’s Spring Offensive."

**********

A few days ago, We Love Hackney tweeted a picture of Sam at a campaign launch - the local council is planning to restrict opening hours of clubs and music venues.

In July, Sam received an honorary degree from the University of East Anglia (BBC). The audio from his speech is here. He also tweeted a picture of himself from the ceremony.
Voices for the Library shared a piece by Sam about why he values his local library (via their Twitter @VftL_UK).
The Southbank Centre tweeted a picture of Sam reading at a Make Apartheid History event. Excerpts from the readings have been posted on Youtube (via Artists for Palestine).


Sam participated in a march against austerity in London 20 June (@fugueur). Participants opposed public sector cuts in areas such as welfare, health and education (ABC).

Samuel West - The British on Australian TV, Britten, Advice from the Players

Sam plays Samuel Pepys in episode 4 of The British, which will be broadcast 7.30pm tomorrow on SBS1.

He narrates "Prisoner's Monologue" from Britten to America. It featured in Sunday's episode of The Blue of the Night with Eamonn Lenihan. The episode is available to stream; skip to 2:42:30 to hear the track. 

In mid August, he narrated Executed, a documentary about the death sentence in Britain (via @UnitedVoices_).

On 21 November, Sam, director Giles Ramsay and writer Nigel West will discuss deception in a talk at the V&A. Tickets for the event can be booked online.

The Guardian has published an extract from the book Advice from the Players, by Laura Barnett. Harriet Walter and Simon Russell Beale have contributed to the book. Sam has provided suggestions on learning lines and choosing the right drama school. The book will be published 18 September.

Samuel West - The Crimson Field, Ode to Napoleon, Hamlet

Screencaps of Sam as Elliot Vincent in episode 4 of The Crimson Field. Click them for full size.


The episode is available on iPlayer for the next 14 days.

Booking for the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival opens 12 May. On 27 September, Sam will narrate "Ode to Napoleon" by Schoenberg.
In September 2005, he mentioned that he'd narrated it "three times now -it's the hardest thing I've ever done" ("The finest recording of the year? Trust me, I'm a celebrity", The Times, 2 September 2005). Presumably one of those times was in early 1994, when he collaborated with the Hebrides Ensemble to perform an "eloquent and animated" interpretation of the work (Herald Scotland).

The Guardian's "45 Hamlets for Shakespeare's 450th birthday" features a selection of actors who have played Hamlet, including Sam, Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, David Tennant, Ben Whishaw, Michael Sheen, Rory Kinnear, Toby Stephens, John Simm and Alex Jennings.
Sam starred in a production directed by Steven Pimlott - click here to find out more.

Yesterday, Sam tweeted some personal (and squeeworthy) news tweet 1|tweet 2

Samuel West - Poetry App, Votes for Women, For Your Eyes Only and Look, Stranger

The Poetry App was recently updated with videos of Sam reading poems by Philip Larkin (via @thepoetryapp).

He plays Geoffrey Stonor in the Drama on 3 Votes for Women, which will be broadcast 15 September.

The audiobook For Your Eyes Only will be released 26 September (Audiogo).

Sam has replaced Simon Russell Beale for the 10 October performance of "Look, Stranger" at the Oxford Playhouse (via @GemG1985).

Last Sunday, Scene and Heard shared a picture of Sam hosting a quiz fundraiser.

The Choir of London toured Palestine in late August (Sam's Twitter, @exitthelemming). Unfortunately, some of the musicians were unable to perform at one of the concerts because of checkpoint problems (@exitthelemming). Charles Cole's website has some pictures from the tour, including this one of Sam (via @schola_cantorum).

BBC Radio 3 posted a picture of Sam, Ian McMillan, Alexandra Harris and Malcolm Sinclair at Proms Plus Literary (20 August). They discussed the relationship between Britten's words and music.

Samuel West - Television - Great British Story. PBI 30th anniversary gala. Radio - Bomber. Film - Hyde Park on Hudson.

Sam plays Samuel Pepys in the Great British Story, which has been filmed in Cape Town. The seven episode series is being produced by Nutopia for Sky Atlantic. The production will feature drama reconstructions and documentary interviews (Sam Starbuck, The Production Managers Association, Cape Town Film Studios; via United Agents).

Tickets are on sale for the Peace Brigades International 30th anniversary gala on 21 November. Simon Russell Beale, Juliet Stevenson and Sam will perform at the event (PBI).

Bomber will be repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Remembrance Day, 11 November (BBC Press Office).

Olivia Williams mentioned Sam in her "Diary" for the Evening Standard:

The end-of-shoot party for the film Hyde Park on Hudson that I've just finished was at the Ecology Pavilion in Mile End Park, a haven of inner-city wetland bio-diversity most days, but last Sunday afternoon transformed into a fabulous disco-quiz-night-kids'-crèche-buffet-piss-up for the cast and crew. My children went twitching with Sam West while I made some elementary mistakes on the dancefloor.

Ruth Wilson, Anna Maxwell Martin, Simon Russell Beale, BBC Radio

From Baz Bamigboye's Daily Mail column: Jack O'Connell, Ruth Wilson and Anna Maxwell Martin will star in You Want Me to Kill Him? directed by Andrew Douglas and produced by Bryan Singer; and Simon Russell Beale's upcoming projects include Bluebird (Atlantic Theater Company), a new play by John Hodge about an imaginary encounter between Joseph Stalin and the playwright Mikhail Bulgakov (Cottesloe, National Theatre) and presenting the BBC series Symphony.

BBC Radio

• Andrew Buchan and Josette Simon are the readers for Words and Music "Law and Order"
• David Tennant stars in the Drama on 3 Kafka the Musical
• Blake Ritson reads the Book at Bedtime The Absolutist

British Independent Film Awards, Merlin UK, La Soiree, BBC Radio.

MAC Cosmetics has issued a press release regarding sponsorship of the British Independent Film Awards, which will take place on 5 December. Andrea Riseborough (nominee for Best Actress) and Ruth Wilson will have their make up for the event applied by MAC artists.

Hugh Bonneville, a patron of the medical aid agency Merlin, recently went to Liberia as part of the Times Christmas Appeal. He has written an article in the Times about his trip. 

Guests at the Christmas soiree at La Soiree included Hayley Atwell, Benedict Cumberbatch and Steven Berkoff.

Rosamund Pike interview from the LA Times in which she discusses Barney's Version and Made in Dagenham.

Andrea Riseborough and Hayley Atwell have been profiled in an article from Indie Wire, "On the Rise: 15 Actresses We Expect Great Things From".

BBC Radio

• Alex Jennings and Julian Rhind-Tutt star in the Afternoon Play The People's Princess {repeat}
• Roger Allam, Elliot Cowan and Elizabeth McGovern star in the Drama on 3 Gilead
• Simon Russell Beale reads De Profundis by Oscar Wilde {repeat}

Samuel West. Narration - Peer Gynt. Time to Talk. London's 1000 most influential people. Theatre - Zone of Silence. Narration - Warsaw Ghetto. Narration - Lines of Flight. Television - Garrow's Law. Arts funding in Somerset.

(sources: Southampton Philharmonic, Young Vic, channel4.com, Sal Brown - used with permission, artscampaign.org.uk)

Two reminders: narration of Peer Gynt with the Southampton Philharmonic at the Southampton Guildhall on this Saturday, 27 November (previously blogged here); and Time to Talk at the Rose Kingston Theatre on 7 December (previously blogged here).

Sam has been included (among others such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Rebecca Hall, Lucy Prebble, Tom Stoppard, Simon Russell Beale and Ruth Wilson) in the theatre section of the Evening Standard's London's 1000 most influential people.

Ian McKellen, Jude Law and Sam will make guest appearances in Belarus: Zone of Silence presented by Index on Censorship and the Young Vic, at the Young Vic on 5 December (via whatsonstage).

He narrated the More4 documentary Warsaw Ghetto: The Unfinished Film, which was broadcast on 30 October (via his Twitter, @exitthelemming). In other narration news, Lines of Flight won the Jury Prize at the Torello Mountain Film Festival (via the film's Twitter, @LinesOfFlight). Lines of Flight will next be screened at the Fernie Mountain Film Festival in February 2011 (previously blogged here).

Sam plays Thomas Erskine in series 2 episode 4 of Garrow's Law, which will be broadcast on BBC1, 5 December.

On 10 November, Sam attended a council meeting in Taunton, as a representative of the National Campaign for the Arts to protest cuts to arts funding in Somerset. Press coverage: the Guardian and This is Somerset.

Film - Resistance. Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Hayley Atwell, Simon Russell Beale. Film - My Week with Marilyn. BBC Radio.

• Andrea Riseborough and Michael Sheen have been cast in Resistance [link]
  
  
• Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, and Hayley Atwell interviews carey|rosamund|hayley
  
  
• Simon Russell Beale's "Perfect Weekend" from the Telegraph [link]
  
  
• The cast of My Week with Marilyn includes Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, and Simon Russell Beale [link]
  
  
• BBC Radio
• Hugh Bonneville was interviewed on Loose Ends [link]
• Simon Pegg will be interviewed on Front Row [link]

Ruth Wilson. Television - Luther. Moet event. Film - Made in Dagenham. Television - Shakespeare history plays. Television - Any Human Heart. BBC Radio.

• Luther
• Ruth Wilson interview from Variety [link]
• Idris Elba and Ruth interview from Collider [link]
• Ruth attended the Moët et Chandon champagne harvest and "Tribute To Heritage" gala in Epernay, France 1|2
  
  
• Made in Dagenham interviews
• Rosamund Pike 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8
• Sally Hawkins 1|2|3|4|5
• Andrea Riseborough interview from the Observer [link]
  
  
• The Shakespeare history plays Richard II, Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2, and Henry V will be adapted for BBC2. Simon Russell Beale is the associate producer, and directors include Rupert Goold and Richard Eyre. (via the Guardian) [link]
  
  
• Any Human Heart, starring Tom Hollander, Samuel West, Julian Rhind-Tutt, and Hayley Atwell, will begin in November [link]
  
  
• BBC Radio
• Jeff Harding and Toby Jones star in the Saturday Play The Kane Conspiracy [link]
• Toby Jones and Joseph Kloska star in The Wire First Domino [link]

Television - Downton Abbey. Rosamund Pike. Film - Barney's Version. Theatre - Deathtrap. Film - Never Let Me Go. BBC Radio.

• Downton Abbey
• Dan Stevens posted a twitpic of the poster (via his Twitter, @thatdanstevens) [link]
• The production will be featured in upcoming issues of Tatler and Vogue [link]
  
  
• Rosamund will be featured in the October 2010 issue of Harper's Bazaar (UK) [link]
• Article about Barney's Version from the Wall Street Journal [link]
  
  
• Pictures from Deathtrap 1|2
  
  
• Clip from Never Let Me Go featuring Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley [link]
  
  
• BBC Radio
• Damian Lewis, Greta Scacchi, and Derek Jacobi star in the Drama on 3 Giovanni's Room [link]
• Julian Rhind-Tutt reads the Book of the Week Story teller: The Life of Roald Dahl [link]
• Celia Imrie and Toby Jones star in the Classic Serial My Family and Other Animals [link]
• Stephen Merchant will be interviewed by Harry Shearer on Chain Reaction [link]

Television - Downton Abbey. Television - Boardwalk Empire. Ruth Wilson. Film - Never Let Me Go. Theatre - Deathtrap. BBC Radio.

• Julian Fellowes, Hugh Bonneville, Joanne Froggatt and Gareth Neame will be on the Q&A panel for the Downton Abbey BFI preview screening on 21 September (via C19 - registration required) [link]
  
  
• Kelly Macdonald is featured in a Vanity Fair slideshow about Boardwalk Empire [link]
  
  
• Two weeks ago, Ruth Wilson attended the TCA tour (via Anglophenia). Pictures:
  Getty [link]
  WireImage [link]
  
  
• Stills from Never Let Me Go [link]
  
  
• Deathtrap
• Simon Russell Beale interview from the Guardian [link]
• Promo picture from Playbill [link]
• Screencaps from the play's extended trailer (click thumbnails for full size):
  
  
  
  
  
• BBC Radio
• Blake Ritson, Harry Lloyd and Burn Gorman star in the Afternoon Play Unauthorised History: The Killing [link] 
• William Beck, Alison Pettitt and Fenella Woolgar star in the Classic Serial No Highway [link]
• Benjamin Whitrow, Bryan Dick and Christina Cole star in series 2 of the Woman's Hour Drama Dear Mr Spectator [link]

Hayley Atwell. Ruth Wilson. Television - The Prisoner. Dan Stevens. Audio - Wolf Hall. Audio - War Horse. BBC Radio.

• Hayley Atwell attended the Serpentine Gallery Summer party earlier this month. Pictures:
  Rex Features [link]
  WireImage [link]
  Getty/Zimbio [link]
  PR Photos/Starpulse [link]
  
  
• Ruth Wilson interview from Angel [link]
  
  
• The Prisoner begins on ABC1 tonight at 9.20pm [link]
  
  
• Titles featured in the Reading Agency Best Audiobooks of the Year 2010 List include The Honourable Schoolboy (starring Simon Russell Beale, Hugh Bonneville, Anthony Calf and Anna Chancellor), Doctor Who: Dead Air (narrator David Tennant), Wolf Hall (narrator Dan Stevens), and War Horse (narrator Dan Stevens) [link]
  
  
• BBC Radio
• Benedict Cumberbatch interviews about Sherlock on Loose Ends and the Daily Bacon (26 July) 1|2
• Simon Russell Beale participated in a Front Row discussion about Stephen Sondheim [link]

Television - Doctor Who. Dan Stevens - Radio - The Secret Pilgrim.

• Screencaps from the Doctor Who "Vincent and the Doctor" (series 5 episode 10) trailer (click the thumbnails for full size):
  
  
  
  
• Dan Stevens will play Ben Cavendish in The Complete Smiley: The Secret Pilgrim, starring Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. It will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starting on Sunday 13 June.  [link]

Samuel West - Equity elections. Film - Decoy Bride. Ruth Wilson - Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire. Hayley Atwell. Theatre - The Pride. BBC Radio.

• Sam West is a candidate in the Equity 2010 elections (via The Stage) [link]
  
  
• David Tennant and Kelly Macdonald will star in the romantic comedy Decoy Bride [link]
  
  
• Pictures: Ruth Wilson behind-the-scenes of A Streetcar Named Desire and Hayley Atwell's headshot has been updated on her United Agents page ruth|hayley
  
  
• Andrea Riseborough will receive a Theatre World Award for The Pride [link]
  
  
• BBC Radio
• The late Corin Redgrave stars in the Drama on 3 Krapp's Last Tape {repeat} [link]
• John Gordon Sinclair and Sharon Horgan star in the Afternoon Play The Recordist [link]
• David Calder and Alex Jennings star in Scarlet on Black {repeat} [link]
• Rupert Graves and Michael Gambon star in the Drama on 3 Embers, directed by Stephen Rea {repeat} [link]
• Claudie Blakley and Lizzy Watts star in the Afternoon Play Cinders [link]
• Simon Russell Beale will be a guest on Feedback [link]

Lucy Prebble - Theatre - Enron - Broadway. Samuel West - Theatre - Enron. Television - Women in Love. Andrea Riseborough - The Pride. Radio - EM Forster short stories. Radio - Goldfinger. BBC Radio.

• Lucy is in the April 2010 issue of Vogue (US) [link]
  
  
• A picture from Sam's appearance on the Andrew Marr Show - he was promoting Enron [link]
  
  
• Rory Kinnear, Rachael Stirling and Joseph Mawle have joined Rosamund Pike in the BBC4 adaptation of Women in Love [link]
  
  
• Andrea Riseborough has received a Lucille Lortel nomination (featured actress) for The Pride [link]
  
  
• BBC Radio
• Kenneth Branagh, Jodhi May and Tom Hiddleston star in the Drama on 3 Cyrano de Bergerac [link]
• Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson and Andrew Sachs are the readers for the Afternoon Reading EM Forster Short Stories [link]
• The Complete Smiley continues with the Classic Serial Smiley's People, starring Simon Russell Beale (as George Smiley) and Alex Jennings [link]
• Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Ian McKellen, Tom Hollander, Lisa Dillon and Tim Pigott-Smith star in the Saturday Play Goldfinger [link]

Theatre - Olivier awards. Television - Spooks. Television - Money. Samuel West - Radio - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. BBC Radio.

• People who will be attending the Oliviers include Hayley Atwell, Rory Kinnear, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tom Stoppard, Sam West, Ruth Wilson, Rosamund Pike and Rupert Friend [link] 
• Simon Russell Beale will be in the next series of Spooks (via C19) [link]
• Hattie Morahan will play Martina Twain in the BBC2 adaptation of Money by Martin Amis, starring Nick Frost and Vincent Kartheiser [link]
• BBC Radio
• Sam West is in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" [link]
• Timothy Spall, Zoe Tapper and Geoffrey Streatfeild star in the Saturday Play Playing With Trains [link]
• Alex Jennings and Toby Stephens star in the Afternoon Play No Place Like Home [link]
• Martin Jarvis performs Jeeves Live [link]
• Christopher Eccleston and Olivia Hallinan are the readers for Words and Music "Intimate Letters" [link]
• Rory Kinnear and Lydia Leonard star in the Drama on 3 Arms and the Man [link]

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]

Theatre - National Theatre 2010. Theatre - Enron. Dan Stevens - Film - Hilde.

• The National Theatre 2010 season includes (via The Telegraph):
• Toby Stephens stars in Danton's Death
• Rory Kinnear and Clare Higgins star in Hamlet, opening in September. A UK and international tour will follow in early 2011.
• Simon Russell Beale and Mark Addy star in London Assurance
• Rebecca Hall stars in Twelfth Night directed by Peter Hall
• Enron
• An interview with Lucy Prebble from the Evening Standard is here; and she will be in an upcoming issue of Vogue.
• Lyn Gardner's theatre tips from the Guardian [link]
• Hilde will be screened at the Glasgow Film Festival (via Eye for Film) [link]

BBC Radio

• Toby Stephens and Patrick Malahide star in the Friday Play Let's Murder Vivaldi [link]
  
• The Complete Smiley continues with the Classic Serial The Honourable Schoolboy starring Simon Russell Beale (as George Smiley), Hugh Bonneville, Anthony Calf and Anna Chancellor [link]
• Bill Nighy stars in A Charles Paris Mystery: Cast in Order of Disappearance [link]
• Benedict Cumberbatch narrates Metamorphosis [link]
  
• Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Rebecca Front star in In the Chair [link]
  
• The Chekhov season includes:
• Ben Whishaw reading Twenty Minutes To Chekhov's Memory [link]
• Drama on 3 The Cherry Orchard, starring Sarah Miles, Nicholas le Prevost and Anne-Marie Duff [link]
• Bruce Alexander, Tessa Nicholson and Anna Maxwell Martin take part in the Sunday Feature Seven and a Half Years [link]
• Mackenzie Crook and Jason Isaacs are the readers for Words and Music "Sons of Russia" [link]
• Andrew Scott stars in A Life of Chekhov [link]
• Simon Russell Beale presents an episode of The Essay [link]