Latest news with #JasonKing
Telegraph
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Peter Wyngarde's wayward life exposes the true cost of being a ‘cult actor'
When one hears the words 'cult actor', one reacts with caution. Such performers tend to be either enigmatic or infuriating. The odd one, however, lives up to the ideal: being a true original, capable of creating something remarkable. Peter Wyngarde, who died in 2018, unequivocally falls into that category. His biography suggests he was far more bizarre than anyone he played on screen. Since Wyngarde was a serious fantasist, it is hard to pin down exactly who he was or from where he came. One of the few reliable claims he ever made was that he was '50 per cent vegetarian and 100 per cent bisexual'. In the late 1960s, Wyngarde became hugely famous, in Britain at least. He starred in one of the most enjoyable television series of the era, Department S, and in its less-successful spin-off, Jason King, named after the character he played. In an era of peacockery, he became a leader of fashion, at least for many provincials who seldom set foot in London to discern what was really going on. It is thought that Wyngarde was born Cyril Goldbert in Marseille, in 1927, though he may have been born in Singapore. His claim that his father was a British diplomat is unsupported by any record, and his mother was not, as he insisted, related to a grand family in France. His father was, in fact, a merchant seaman of Ukrainian heritage, his mother Eurasian. Wyngarde was in the international settlement in Shanghai when the Japanese invaded in 1941, and he endured four brutal years in an internment camp. This is verified by the testimony of J G Ballard, who was interned alongside him. Wyngarde claimed never to have known Ballard; Ballard recalled him doing amateur dramatics in the camp. What happened next is unclear. Most probably, Wyngarde, now 18, sailed to England on his liberation and arrived in Liverpool around Christmas 1945. Other accounts have him landing at Southampton, where he was met personally by King George VI; or checking into a Swiss sanatorium to recover his health. In any case, by the late 1940s, he was in England, calling himself Wyngarde, after his real father – Goldbert, he said, had been his stepfather. In fact, Wyngarde senior, a luxury watch dealer who lived in Belgravia, was a figment of the imagination. Wyngarde managed to get some theatrical roles and from the mid-1950s was a regular on TV. His breakthrough was playing Peter the Painter in the 1960 film The Siege of Sidney Street, and he capitalised on this the following year, playing Peter Quint in The Innocents, an adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. Throughout the 1960s, Wyngarde was a favourite of Lew Grade's production company ITC and appeared in several of its series – The Saint, The Champions, The Baron and The Prisoner. In 1968, he was given a starring vehicle of his own. Department S was about a unit of Interpol that solved cases no other police force could, thanks to the genius of Jason King – a novelist seconded to the department who used the cases as plots for his fiction. Wyngarde stood out from his two co-stars, Joel Fabiani and Rosemary Nicols, not merely because of his flamboyant dress and the elaborate hair that made him unrecognisable from previous roles, but also because of his unflappable English-gentleman demeanour. Department S had superb scripts by writers such as Terry Nation and Philip Broadley; Wyngarde got all the best lines. It ran for 28 episodes. Despite its excellence – or perhaps because of its peculiarly British humour – it did not sell in America, which spelt the end for any ITC production. Yet, luckily for Wyngarde, Lady Grade loved his character, and persuaded her husband to make the spin-off series. Far more lightweight than Department S, and more cheaply made, Jason King saw Wyngarde become an ever-more comic turn. He also, in the words of Cyril Frankel, one of his directors, started to believe his own publicity, and became impossible to work with. His prosecution for an indecent act at a bus station in 1975 helped derail a once brilliant career, though Wyngarde still found work from time to time until the 1990s. His series are often shown on repeat channels, and if you want a taste of cult, they are unmissable.
Agriland
18-05-2025
- General
- Agriland
National Famine Way roadshow goes on tour
The new National Famine Way roadshow, which is on tour this month and into June, will call to seven locations along the route of the long distance trail. The dates of the roadshow, which is presented by the Irish Heritage Trust in collaboration with the seven local authorities along the trail, are as follows: Monday, May 19: 3:00-5:00p.m, Strokestown Park House, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon; Tuesday, May 20: 3:00-5;00pm, Ballymahon Library, Ballymahon, Co. Longford; Wednesday, May 21: 3:00-5:00pm, Leixlip Library, Leixlip, Co. Kildare; Thursday, May 22: 2:00-4:00pm, Trim Library, Trim, Co. Meath; Thursday, May 22: 6:00-8;00pm, Mullingar Library, Co. Westmeath; Tuesday, June 3: 5.30-7.30pm, Blanchardstown Library, Fingal, Dublin 15; Thursday, June 5: 3:00-5:00pm, Charleville Mall Library, Dublin 1. Featuring talks and presentations by leading local and international famine historians, the event will bring a poignant part of history to life. Appropriately, the month of May marks both the anniversary of the mass departure of 1,490 emigrants from Strokestown, Co Roscommon and the annual national famine commemoration. National Famine Way The Ballymahon roadshow speakers will include: Caroilín Calleary, founder of the National Famine Way; Dr Jason King, academic co-ordinator of the National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park, and of the Irish Heritage Trust; and Martin Morris, Longford county archivist. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the experts, and everyone is welcome to attend. National Famine Way's Caroilín Calleary said: 'Touring with this roadshow gives us a chance to visit each of the communities along the route again, making the history of the Irish famine more visible. 'We hope to deepen the connections in each while honouring the memory of Strokestown's missing 1,490.' Strokestown Park House. Source: Colin Shanahan, DigiCol Photography. The National Famine Way is a 165km marked walking and cycling trail commemorating a heart-breaking walk of forced emigration that took place in 1847 at the height of the Irish famine. It begins at the memorial glass wall at the National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park, Co. Roscommon and continues through six counties to EPIC, the Irish emigration museum in Dublin's Docklands. The route is marked by more than 30 pairs of bronze children's shoes, and the way and its associated stories can be followed through a free app. Chief executive of Longford County Council, Paddy Mahon, said that the partnership highlights the collective commitment of local authorities to honour and remember the 1,490 individuals who were forced to emigrate from Strokestown during the famine. Mahon said: 'The roadshow serves as a poignant reminder of this tragic chapter in Irish history.' Longford County Council cathaoirleach, Cllr Mark Casey, said that the national famine way roadshow offers a powerful opportunity to honour the memory of those who walked from Strokestown in search of survival. Cllr Casey said: 'It's a vital reminder of our shared past and the resilience of those forced to emigrate and it ensures their stories continue to shape our national understanding of history.' Registration for the events is required in advance by emailing nationalfaminewayroadshow@ National Famine Museum Meanwhile, the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park is set to host the 2025 Famine Summer School from May 29 to June 1. The theme of the 2025 summer school is 'Humanitarianism and Hunger', which focuses on international aid responses to the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. The programme will investigate how global communities, including those in North America, India, the Ottoman Empire, and beyond, reacted to the catastrophe in Ireland, often in contrast to the more limited or delayed actions of official authorities. The conference will also draw parallels with modern day challenges in humanitarian assistance, food insecurity, and climate-related displacement.
