Latest news with #AManForAllSeasons
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Martin Shaw reveals feud with 'arrogant co-star' who 'behaved so badly on set'
Martin Shaw has opened up on a secret feud he had with his 'arrogant co-star' when they found fame as the nation's most famous criminal duo in the late 1970s on The Professionals Martin Shaw has opened up on a secret feud he had with his 'arrogant co-star' who 'behaved so badly on set'. The actor, 80, found national fame when he and Lewis Collins, who died in 2013 at the age of 67 following a battle with cancer, took on the roles of Doyle and Bodie respectively in the hit series The Professionals during the late 1970s. But even though their alter-egos were made out to be friends and crime-fighting agents, Martin has revealed that things couldn't have been more different when the cameras stopped rolling. Speaking of their tumultuous relationship, he told The Telegraph: "It was truly, truly horrible and there was a sense of blessed relief when it was over." The feud did not last forever, though as Martin revealed everything was 'healed' between them a decade after the programme wrapped in 1983. However he admitted that the friction between them came before they found mainstream success together, and he struggled with just how 'arrogant' his fellow actor had been. It comes after one huge TV star looks completely unrecognisable as she reveals latest facelift. He added: "But the trouble all started when I was a villain in The New Avengers in 1977 and he was my sidekick. Lewis behaved so badly on that set. He had a small part but he was so arrogant. It was beyond that. It was bizarre!" Martin was even hesitant to take on the role in The Professionals thanks to his experience of working with Lewis in the past, and was not shy about telling him how he felt when they both arrived on set together. The former Inspector George Gently star added: "I'd already said to the casting director, 'I can't work with Lewis because we don't get on', but they cast him anyway. I went up to him on the first day of shooting and said: 'You know I didn't want you to do this but let's get on with it and have fun.' And he told me to f*** off and he never forgave me for the next four years." The Professionals ran from 1977 until 1983 over the course of five series, and Martin later went on to star in the title role of Judge John Deed in the early 2000s but in more recent years has appeared in dramas such as Strike and The Long Call. He has also had an illustrious career in theatre, and is currently starring as Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons in London. Meanwhile, his former co-star Lewis joined the military for a period of time and then unsuccessfully auditioned to replace Roger Moore in the James Bond franchise. In the 1990s, he appeared in a TV adaptation of the Barbara Cartland novel A Ghost in Monte Carlo, and the Tarzan series before making his final appearance in an episode of The Bill in 2002. Despite the tricky relationship they had, Martin was one of the first to pay tribute to Lewis when he passed away more than a decade ago. At the time, he said: "I was very sad to hear today that Lewis has died. We spent a very tough four years together in making The Professionals, and shared in the production of what has become an icon of British television.. "He will be remembered as part of the childhood of so many people, and mourned by his fans. I send my love and condolences to his family, and the great many who will miss him."
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Martin Shaw: ‘Lewis Collins behaved so badly'
Passing through the corridors backstage at the Harold Pinter Theatre on the way to meet Martin Shaw, line after line of A Man For All Seasons runs through my head like holy writ. The Robert Bolt play, turned into an Oscar-winning film in 1966, includes some of the most powerful but perfectly weighted dialogue of the 20th century. Shaw is making his second appearance in the play as Sir Thomas More – Henry VIII's martyred chief minister – for a summer West End run. 'I never got this play or Sir Thomas More out of my system,' he says. Shaw's career has oscillated between high theatre and high-profile TV roles such as Judge John Deed, Inspector George Gently and – most famously for those of a certain vintage – as Doyle in the much maligned cop show The Professionals. When we speak, he is an incredibly spritely 80 in his Hush Puppies, with long white hair falling either side of the face of a man 10 years his junior. That's just as well given the demands of playing More, a man with such integrity he would rather die than endanger his immortal soul by taking an oath confirming Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church. More's saintly virtues have been called into question recently, with Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy and the resulting BBC drama adaptation portraying him as a sadistic schemer of the Tudor court who enjoyed torturing heretics in opposition to his great rival Thomas Cromwell. In A Man For All Seasons, these roles are more or less reversed. 'I think Wolf Hall is one of the greatest dramas with the greatest performances ever produced by British television,' says Shaw. 'I've heard Hilary Mantel partly wrote Wolf Hall as a response to A Man For All Seasons. But from what I know, I think her portrayal of More is probably not accurate.' 'I told the casting director I couldn't work with Lewis' Whatever philosophical puzzles Shaw grapples with on stage, it's the legacy of a much less distinguished TV show he still finds tricky to escape. The Professionals, produced from 1977 to 1981, made Shaw a household name – all high cheekbones, footballer's perms and karate chops. It's remembered for the unbridled machismo of lead characters Bodie and Doyle – part police, part secret agents working for the fictional CI5 – who spent most of their time skidding a Ford Capri around the streets of London, shooting terrorists and making off-colour remarks about beautiful women. The trouble is, Shaw hated every single minute of it, in particular his toxic relationship with Lewis Collins, the actor who played Bodie to his Doyle. 'It was truly, truly horrible and there was a sense of blessed relief when it was over. Ten years after the show finished I met Lewis and everything was healed between us. But the trouble all started when I was a villain in The New Avengers in 1977 and he was my sidekick. Lewis behaved so badly on that set. He had a small part but he was so arrogant. It was beyond that. It was bizarre.' Shaw describes how Collins would boast about his physical prowess at the expense of the other actors and confuse the director by talking about how the scenes would play out if he had to fight for real. 'I looked at the script for The Professionals and was offered the part. I'd done a film with Anthony Andrews and we were good mates so we rehearsed together and I thought he was a shoe-in for the other lead. But the production company wanted an abrasive relationship. 'I'd already said to the casting director, 'I can't work with Lewis because we don't get on', but they cast him anyway. I went up to him on the first day of shooting and said: 'You know I didn't want you to do this but let's get on with it and have fun.' And he told me to f--- off and he never forgave me for the next four years.' There is a notorious episode of The Professionals called 'The Klansman' about a far-Right group Shaw's character has to infiltrate. It was never broadcast in the UK because it featured such a prevalence of racist language. Did Shaw think this seemed insane during filming? 'I thought pretty much every episode was insane,' he replies. The thing Shaw found most uncomfortable then as now is that his work up to that point – the Royal Court and the National Theatre, TV and movie roles – 'vanished' once he was in The Professionals. Shaw, born in Birmingham in 1945, attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda) from 1963, served his time in rep and London theatre, and came to prominence playing Banquo in Roman Polanski's film of Macbeth in 1971. Polanski – who owned a flat in Chelsea – asked him to test for the role of Macbeth, though the lead eventually went to Jon Finch. 'When I saw the people testing for Macbeth, including Antony Hopkins who was my hero and with whom I shared a house, I thought I had no chance. But Polanski called me and offered me the role of Banquo.' Shaw recounts the conversation in a Dracula-esque Polanski accent and says the seven months of Macbeth's production were some of the greatest of his life. He's understandably circumspect about Polanski's ongoing exile in France as a result of his flight from the US in 1971 following his conviction for sex with a minor. 'Polanski was great with actors. My admiration and respect for him carried on through the whole production. There is so much gossip about the case he was involved in but it's a terrible loss to the industry.' 'Rhodes did some very bad things but I didn't mind playing that character' In the four decades since The Professionals, Shaw invariably appeared on British TV as a detective or a judge, which he says is attributable more to television's obsession with the law than anything to do with his persona or slow, sonorous voice. One notable blip on this long list of hits was the eight-part BBC epic drama Rhodes in 1996, which told the story of Britain's most 19th-century empire builder Cecil Rhodes in southern Africa. It seems almost inconceivable that this would be made today, given the bitter controversy over Rhodes's reputation. The show was rounded on by critics and the ratings almost halved between the first and second episode. 'Rhodes was hard enough to make even then,' says Shaw. 'The BBC didn't want to support it. I suspect they wanted to kill it. Eventually it was made for £8m instead of £12m. The South African government withdrew their funding, not because of any sensitivities over the theme of colonialism, but because they didn't like Rhodes being portrayed as a homosexual. 'It was clear even in 1996 that Rhodes did some very bad things. I didn't mind playing that kind of character. Those bad things are there in all of us and having a licence to access them as an actor is great.' 'It's almost impossible to be a person of integrity in public life' 'Bad things' are harder to find in Thomas More, but they must be in there somewhere. A Man For All Seasons is Shaw's happy place, having already taken the role in 2005 at London's Haymarket Theatre. Shaw says he went to see the play and the film over and over again in the 1960s, starring the peerless Paul Scofield. Shaw wants to keep evolving his approach to More, as much to make the most of the character's limitless depth as to step out of the great man's shadow. 'This time I'm playing him as a more life-enhancing, life-loving character who could laugh and get incredibly angry as well as his better known qualities.' This is a play that poses one dilemma after another. At its heart is the question of how far a person is prepared to go to preserve their own conscience, their own sense of truth as they believe it to be. Every other character compromises for gain or self-preservation (other than Henry VIII, who doesn't need to). More goes to the block for his beliefs. 'From my point of view, More's stand was borderline ridiculous,' says Shaw. 'For him, his oath was 'words you say to God' so he could not, as his daughter suggested, take the oath and think differently in his heart.' Among many memorable lines – the quickfire battles with Cromwell, More's stirring defence of the law – the exchange between More and former hanger-on Richard Rich stands out. Rich perjured himself to gain promotion to the Attorney General of Wales and his lies provide the only evidence against More. Knowing his trial is all but over, More asks to see the red dragon on Rich's new badge of office. 'Richard, it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world if he should lose his soul … but for Wales?' The script is all but perfect. Shaw recalls the line, 'When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties they lead their country by a short route to chaos.' 'That is true now more than ever,' he adds. 'Think about how important conscience and integrity are. It's almost impossible to be a person of integrity in public life – but I truly believe they are out there.' Shaw is full of contradictions. He has been a vegetarian since 1971 and follows Sant Mat, a mystical philosophy movement influenced by Sikhism and Hinduism. There's no reason why that shouldn't co-exist with sliding over the bonnet of an Escort RS2000 in pursuit of a gun runner, but it feels like it might. Still, despite all Shaw's misgivings, he has made something approaching peace with the worst experience of his career. 'There is another side to The Professionals. Years later an actor walked up to me on set and said 'It's so wonderful to meet you. You're my childhood hero.' So that helped me see the show differently. So many people loved it and got some sort of happiness from it.' It's wisdom of which Sir Thomas More would surely approve.
New Straits Times
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: Friends, co-stars fondly remember Mano as a 'man for all seasons'
KUALA LUMPUR: The late veteran actor Mano Maniam has been hailed as a "man for all seasons" by his friends and co-stars, and a truly Bangsa Malaysia entertainer. Mano, who passed away yesterday at the age of 79, coincidentally starred in a play titled A Man For All Seasons back in 1991. Throughout his illustrious, five-decade acting career, he made his mark across various mediums – television, film, and theatre. Douglas Lim, actor and comedian, who co-starred with Mano in Kopitiam, described the Ipoh-born screen legend as a great "sifu" (master) and friend. "I first met him while we were starring in Kopitiam back in the 1990s, and he was always kind, friendly, helpful, and fun," said Lim. "I'm honoured to have known and worked with him, for he always encouraged me to aim high and helped introduce me to the entertainment industry." Lim also noted Mano's superb sense of humour. While they didn't work together often in the last decade, Lim will always cherish Mano's friendship and guidance, describing his death as a significant loss to Malaysian showbiz. Kopitiam's main actress, acting coach Joanna Bessey, remembered Mano as a great mentor and father figure. "Mano was always a teacher and a friend to me. We actually met in a play called Witness For The Prosecution before Kopitiam began, and I was instantly struck by his jovial, chatty, and playful demeanour," said Joanna, who also highlighted Mano's extensive knowledge. "Over the years, we met many times, and I learnt a lot from him. He taught performing arts in colleges and universities, as did I, and when he couldn't conduct his classes or workshops, he got me to stand in for him!" In 2019, Joanna, Lim, and Mano reunited for Kopitiam Double Shot, reprising their roles as Marie, Steven, and Uncle Chan respectively. Joanna described Mano as one of Malaysia's "brightest stars" in showbiz, who bridged the gap between television, film, and theatre, as well as English, Malay, and Tamil entertainment. "He was truly a Bangsa Malaysia icon in entertainment, and we will all miss him," she added. A PILLAR OF MALAYSIAN ARTS Datuk Faridah Merican, founder of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC), shared that Mano had been a close friend for five decades. "We first met in the 1970s, and he played my father, a circus owner, in a play titled He Who Gets Slapped," she recalled. "I was impressed not only by his brilliant acting but also his passion for the arts and all-round friendliness." She added that they worked together in many plays over the decades, and he was a regular visitor to KLPAC. Faridah further noted that Mano was a great teacher of the arts, conducting acting classes for senior citizens who greatly enjoyed his workshops. "He didn't confine himself to English language theatre and starred in Malay language television dramas and comedies, as well as movies," Faridah said. "One of the main highlights of his career was playing Moonshee in Anna And The King alongside Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat, which was partly filmed in Malaysia in 1999." Faridah believes Mano helped put Malaysian entertainers on the world map. She lamented that Mano was due to receive a special award for his lifetime contributions but passed away before he could attend the ceremony. "Malaysia has lost a giant in entertainment, but he will always be in our hearts – a passionate actor, a great teacher, and a wonderful friend." INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION Actor and comedian Datuk Afdlin Shauki said that Mano was an inspiration in his acting career. They both attended the same school, Sekolah Menengah Anglo Chinese in Ipoh. "Both of us were active in our alma mater's music and drama society, which staged many musicals in the 1980s," Afdlin said. "I played Datuk Lat in a musical adaptation of the legendary cartoonist's famous, semi-autobiographical cartoon book Town Boy in 1987, and he commended me for doing a great job." Afdlin added that he learned a lot about acting from Mano and also starred with him in Anna And The King. Afdlin described Mano as one of the country's best-known actors who represented Malaysia in several international movies. "He was one of the few actors who put Malaysian talent on the world map, and I'll always remember him for his love of the arts and great humour."
Telegraph
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Hilary Mantel ‘falsified' history in Wolf Hall, historian claims
Hilary Mantel 'falsified' history in her Wolf Hall novels, a historian has claimed. Eamon Duffy, a professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Cambridge, accused the late Booker Prize-winning author of turning sources 'upside down' and making them say the 'opposite' of what they originally had. In her celebrated Wolf Hall trilogy, Mantel tracks the rapid rise to power and subsequent demise of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister. The novel and its sequels were adapted into a BBC series starring Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as the Tudor king. As part of the narrative, Mantel describes the fall of Sir Thomas More, a devout Catholic who refused to swear an oath recognising Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. In earlier portrayals, More is often 'mythologised' for his refusal to swear the Oath of Supremacy – but according to Prof Duffy, the novelist went to the 'other extreme' writing him as a 'torturer and a misogynist'. The academic called her depiction of him the 'least successful bit' of her trilogy and claimed that Mantel was driven by her dislike of Robert Bolt's play A Man For All Seasons, in which More was the main character. In an interview with Idler magazine, the 78-year-old historian said: 'Hilary Mantel's trilogy was self-consciously an attempt to rehabilitate Cromwell, and to de-mythologise Thomas More away from his portrayal in... A Man For All Seasons, and which she hated and which she thought showed More as a patron of liberal conscience – which he certainly wasn't. 'But she went to the other extreme and portrayed More as a monster, a torturer and a misogynist whose wife and women folk were afraid of. And I think that portrayal was the least successful bit of Wolf Hall. '[Mantel] and I were on good terms. The friendship cooled somewhat when I wrote an essay on fictional treatments of the English Reformation, which focused on the end of Wolf Hall. 'I looked at the sources she used – what they say about More and what they say about Cromwell – and I showed that on key issues, she actually turned the sources upside down and made them say the opposite of what they were originally intended to suggest. 'Now that's legitimate in fiction, but in her Reith lectures Hilary suggested that the literary novelist could bring genuine insight that the historian lacked. Maybe but I didn't think that was legitimate if you're actually falsifying the accounts.' Duffy added that his 'final straw' was a subsequent newspaper article that used Wolf Hall as 'evidence' to say More, who was played by Anton Lesser in the BBC series, had tortured and burned people. He continued: 'More actually took a solemn oath to deny this accusation. He said as God is my judge, I have never tortured anyone. 'Now, you have to ask yourself, here's a deeply religious man who had his head chopped off rather than take a false oath, who makes an oath, 'so help me God I didn't do this'. 'Do you believe him or do you believe the stories and the gossip.' Mantel is an author best known for her Booker Prize winning Tudor trilogy. She passed away in 2022 at the age of 70. Duffy is an expert on the English Reformation, which is the focus of his book The Stripping of the Altars, and is the former president of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
