Latest news with #Redcoat
Daily Record
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Outlander bosses share surprising insight into Black Jack Randall 'humiliation' scene with Jamie Fraser
Outlander's cruellest villain saw the tables turned on him Outlander fans may be surprised to learn the reason why Captain 'Black Jack' Randall (played by Tobias Menzies) was hugely humiliated when he met King Louis XV (Lionel Lingelser) in Versailles. The scene in question saw the evil Redcoat on the back foot during an encounter with the French monarch, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitríona Balfe). After making a comment to Claire about how serendipitous it was to have encountered the Frasers in Paris not long after brutally torturing and raping Jamie, he was very much humbled, reports the Express. King Louis XV witnessed the tense moment between Claire and Black Jack as she warned the soldier to let go of her arm, before the royal and his fellow courtiers intervened. Black Jack was mocked for his poor French pronunciation while Claire was complimented on her impeccable language skills. Then Black Jack was forced to his knees and beg a favour of the king on behalf of his brother Alex Randall (Laurence Dobiesz), who was in the employ of the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow). Black Jack wanted Alex's position reconsidered given his ailing health with the Randall sibling not long for this world. On the orders of the monarch, the captain did kneel with Louis laughing in his face and declaring: 'You English are so literal.' Black Jack was silently fuming but unable to retaliate given his position. Previously addressing the scene on the show's official podcast, Outlander's executive producer Ronald D. Moore broke down the screen, which saw the power dynamic between Black Jack and the Frasers shifting. Moore said: 'I came up with this idea of King Louis coming over, and Jack sort of having to talk to Jamie through Louis and Louis sort of forcing Jack to his knees and f***ing with him because he's a British officer at the French court. 'I like that and essentially France and Britain, yes, they are fighting a war somewhere else in Europe at this time in Austria or something. 'But it's not a total war that we think about. There's still this odd, to our mindsets, odd 18th century idea of warfare where these countries would be at war with each other but they would still sort of be polite to each other in other contexts. Moore compared this quiet but fierce animosity to the Cold War, where the USA and the USSR were fighting in hot spots like Vietnam and Korea but continued with general civilities to each other on their home turf. 'So the idea of a British officer showing up in Versailles was not completely out of the question and I like the idea that when a British officer showed up at Versailles Louis would start to screw with them, to f*** with them. 'Once he picked up the idea that Claire and Jamie did not like Jack Randall, that he would try to find some way to humiliate him,' Moore said.
Irish Daily Star
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Star
Outlander bosses lift the lid on Jamie Fraser detail you may have missed
The creative forces behind the beloved historical fantasy series Outlander have divulged some unknown facts about the character Jamie Fraser, portrayed by Sam Heughan, reports the Express . Executive producer Ronald D. Moore and costume designer Terry Dresbach previously delved into discussions about the significance of Jamie's kilt and the occasions on which it's worn throughout the Starz series. Dresbach remarked, "A lot of people are asking me about the kilt and its significance when he wears it." She continued, indicating that there isn't any profound secret to its use: "Really, there's no deep, hidden meaning in where we put it." On the Official Outlander Podcast, she expanded, "We always knew we wanted Sam to go in and out of his kilt, it's just questioning what scene is the most appropriate." Jamie Fraser flew the flag with Scotland in Outlander season 2 (Image: STARZ) She mentioned how, during season two, the Frasers were in France advocating for Scotland, not England, and this was represented in Jamie's outfits, particularly through a coat embellished with a special motif. Discussing the design on the coat, Dresbach explained, "I thought how wonderful it would be to do a stag hunt, something very, very Jamie and very Scottish." She emphasized, "It was important to us at this event, Jamie could really feel like Jamie. "And Sam really loved the idea when I showed him this coat. I showed him this coat and just really lost it. It's a gorgeous piece." Claire and Jamie Fraser were representing Scotland in Outlander season 2 (Image: STARZ) Conversing with Moore about why Jamie donned a kilt during his appearance in Versailles, Dresbach clarified, "Because, again this was a place where we felt it was appropriate for him to be really very Scottish. Again, like the coat. "We wanted to have him really represent his country here, the way an ambassador from another country would. "They're going there not as the English, they're going there as the Scottish." The contentious scene featured Jamie confronting his adversary Captain 'Black Jack' Randall (Tobias Menzies) for a duel amidst Versailles' lush gardens. Amidst warfare between England and France, Louis XV (Lionel Lingelser) blatantly belittled and embarrassed the captain with a backdrop of polite hostility. Jamie Fraser opted for a kilt in Outlander during his visit to Versailles (Image: STARZ) Jamie and Claire earned acceptance at court largely due to their Scottish identity, unlike Black Jack who overtly symbolized his nation donning Redcoat attire. Throughout Outlander, Jamie's kilt has been emblematic, especially after Culloden when wearing tartan was outlawed by the English, with severe penalties for defying this rule. Hence, post-Culloden, the significance of the kilt on Outlander grew since possessing it became risky. As Outlander shifts to the New World, the kilt's prominence dwindles but nevertheless remains a poignant symbol for Jamie, who is eternally bound to his heritage. Outlander season 7 is available to buy now on Digital and is streaming on MGM+ via Prime Video now
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From Blackpool to Play School: Johnny Ball on his days as a ‘bag of nerves' comic
After spending the summer as a Redcoat, I arrived at Butlin's Metropole hotel in Blackpool. As I walked in, the entertainments manager asked, without hesitation, 'Can you do an act?' 'No,' I said. 'Shit,' he said, and the tale unravelled. The summer Reds had gone and we were starting up the winter season. But the hotel had no lull between summer and winter. There were guests who needed entertaining, but with whom? Principal comedian Freddie Davies was on honeymoon and a second comic hadn't yet arrived. 'Are you sure you don't do an act?' asked Vince in desperation. 'Well, I do know an act!' I said. 'Great,' said Vince, 'you're doing it tonight.' For the past two seasons, playing drums for the Redcoat Show, I had watched Ricky McCabe's very funny, never-changing comedy spot around 60 times. Of course, I knew every word. It opened with, 'Hello there. Will the lady with the lucky ticket come up and get me?' So, that very Friday night, having no option, being the only person available, I was top of the bill. I was very nervous, but once the first few gags had got laughs, I relaxed, and it went quite well. 'Fabulous,' said Vince, 'same again tomorrow night!' I pleaded no, but, of course, the guests changed over on Saturday so I would have a totally new audience. This time, with more confidence, it went very well indeed. Right after the show, one of the girls came up and said, 'Great spot, Johnny. Oh, the new Redcoat has just arrived – he says he knows you. His name is Ricky McCabe!' I was rooted to the spot in shock. But, plucking up courage, I rushed into the lounge to find Ricky. 'Hello, mate,' he cried, grinning from ear to ear. With no sign of a smile, I guided him to a table and said, 'Ricky, I've got to tell you something terrible. I've just done your act.' The smile drained from his face! I quickly explained that I hadn't volunteered to do it. They had nobody else, and I had admitted that I knew his act, having watched it so often from my drums. Ricky went through the act, and I confirmed, 'Yes, I did that. Yep, that too.' I had missed nothing. Ricky was in complete shock. After a few 'bloody hells!' or similar, he resigned himself to the situation and started to work out what he would do for an act the next night, with me trying to help. In a couple of days, Ricky had forgiven me. As a team, we all became great friends at the Metropole and Ricky helped me write my very first comedy act. I had been collecting gags by the hundred since I was 11, but jokes in a book do not make an act. It was Ricky and his experience which solved this problem. As a comedian, you have to explain in the first instant just what kind of person you are. I was incredibly nervous and unsure of myself, so that had to be the tack. Ricky suggested I carry a brown paper bag, slightly inflated, and arrive on stage visibly shaking. At the microphone, I would say, 'Hello. I'd like to start by, er, start. I'd like to commence. First of all, I'd like to say, to start, er, first of all!' Then I would stop and point at the quivering bag and say, 'Bag of nerves!' It always got the laugh and often applause and I would throw the bag into the wings and come back smiling. The ice was broken and away I went. I soon became known as 'Bag of Nerves'! Slowly, I learned the tricks of keeping the audience on side and building a rapport with them. This change of fortune arrived when I learned to relax and appeared to be enjoying the audience's company from the first minute. My style became one of almost asking the audience for their approval before I could carry on. I would soon slip in a slightly bluer joke and immediately ask for their approval. So, rather like Max Miller, I was apparently giving the audience what they were asking for and only ever as rude as they wanted me to be. Bob Monkhouse first saw me working a big rough club in Manchester. He arrived looking very out of place in his dress suit with tissues tucked around his neck to stop the makeup reaching his Persil-white collar. He caught me as I came offstage and complimented me on my timing and the fresh new style I was developing. Bob was the greatest comedy technician I would ever see – the consummate master. From Bob, I learned that when you are coming to a major punchline, you make sure you are moving towards the audience on the tag, or lighting up your face, or changing it to a frown – anything with a dynamic impact. This learning process wasn't about stealing – it was about learning the many ways that a performance can be improved and adapted. In late 1964 (still my first year as a professional), the agent Mike Hughes called his four principal comedians to Liverpool for a photocall. He had marketed us as the Liverpool Comedy Wave and it worked, even though only one of us hailed from Merseyside. Besides myself, there was my old Butlin's mate Freddie Davies, Mike Burton and Mike Newman. All three had appeared on Opportunity Knocks, but I refused to even consider it. Everything about it smacked of amateurism. I remember one of them appeared on the show sandwiched between three schoolgirls singing Three Little Maids and a taxi driver from Walthamstow who played 'the mouth organ'. Of course, the show did make stars of Freddie Davies and dear old Les Dawson, who I knew well. Les was a comedian's comedian, and we all loved his material despite the fact that it didn't get many laughs. His flowery vocabulary was very entertaining to us, but club audiences weren't that enamoured with his total lack of energy. What club audiences wanted was vitality. What Les gave them was lugubriousness. He was a droll and his style suggested a lack of care for everything, including his own act. On two occasions, I recall talking Les into carrying on in the business. But I honestly didn't think he would carry on much longer. Then came Opportunity Knocks and his static comic style made him an instant star. Meanwhile, I was in such demand in the clubs I still had every confidence that I would get a major break very soon. The Stage newspaper's respected James Towler, in his Yorkshire Relish column, featured the four Mike Hughes comedians, ending with, 'But the one with most potential is most certainly Johnny Ball!' Only time would tell. This is an edited extract from Johnny Ball – My Previous Life in Comedy, published by the Book Guild (£10.99). Order your copy from
Boston Globe
22-02-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
250 years later, British ‘troops' retreat again from Salem
More than 300 heavily bundled spectators watched the theatrics Saturday, jeering at the Redcoat reenactors, cheering the Salem militia, and tossing 'huzzah' after 'huzzah' into the chilly air. Related : 'It's the Lexington and Concord that almost happened,' said Jonathan Lane, executive director of Revolution 250, a nonprofit group that helps Massachusetts communities tell their stories of rebellion and independence. Colonists line up with guns at the ready before they confront the British troops. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Advertisement Similar to the original retreat of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Leslie and 250 soldiers from the 64th Regiment of Foot, the British reenactors considered their dire options, accepted a face-saving compromise, marched a little farther, and then promptly turned around. This time, the Redcoats headed to warmth, lunch, and a few nearby pubs. In 1775, they marched to Marblehead and sailed the short distance back to Boston, without the cannon that General Thomas Gage had dispatched them to discover, and without a shot being fired by either side. 'The reason more people don't know about this is that it was an event that ended peacefully,' Lane said. 'A lot of people respond to the events that raise our heart rate.' Only 51 days later, British troops and Colonial militia exchanged deadly gunfire at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, where yet another North Bridge played a role in the 'shot heard 'round the world.' But Leslie's Retreat was a tense foreshadowing of those hostilities and showed that Colonials, angered by years of punitive treatment from London, were willing to fight the vaunted British army, and that the spark could occur at any time. 'Something incredible happened right here in Salem,' said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, a former mayor of the city. Advertisement The British troops in 1775 had landed at Marblehead on a quiet Sunday morning when townspeople would be at church services and presumably less likely to notice. But they were discovered, and messengers sped the short distance to Salem to warn its residents that the regiment was afoot. The drawbridge over the North River in Salem was raised to impede the British advance. Armed colonists gathered on the far side, where they admonished Leslie that he had no right to cross the bridge because it had been privately built and was not the king's property. Charles Thorland of Salem, playing Leslie in the reenactment, indicated how close the resulting confrontation had come to bloodshed. 'It may be necessary to fire on the mob!' Thorland announced to militia Captain John Felt, portrayed by Jonathan Streff, a history teacher at St. John's Prep in Danvers. 'Fire, and you'll all be going to hell!' Streff angrily replied, standing his ground in the middle of the overpass. 'Do you apprehend the danger you are in?' Thorland asked. 'Do you apprehend the danger you are in?' Streff shouted. According to a contemporary account in the Boston Gazette, Leslie told the Colonial militia that 'he had orders to cross ... and he would cross it if he lost his life with the lives of all of his men.' Leslie, a Scottish aristocrat, also told the colonists that he would stay a month if necessary. The assembled people of Salem joked that Leslie 'might stay as long as he pleased; nobody cared for that.' Drummer boy Myles Heinzman, 12, from Exeter, NH marches to the North Bridge with fellow British troops. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff As in 1775, the Reverend Thomas Barnard, an Anglican minister portrayed Saturday by the Reverend Maxfield Sklar of Hamilton, helped broker a compromise in which the British would be allowed to cross the bridge, as Gage had ordered, and reverse course after marching a short distance. Advertisement The colonists lowered the drawbridge, and the set piece played out as negotiated. 'It's a Solomonesque moment where Leslie achieves the most basic part of his orders,' Lane said. On Saturday, the British 'lobsterbacks' were booed as they marched away. 'I will see you all in Hades!' said George Weghorst of Litchfield, N.H., dressed in Colonial garb as he taunted the Redcoats. Although Salem has marked Leslie's Retreat with a small annual ceremony since 2017, the 250th anniversary featured a large commemoration, including reenactor groups such as the Lexington Minute Men and the British 10th Regiment of Foot. 'The story of Leslie's Retreat has been pretty well known within Salem, but it really hasn't escaped from the community. It's our little secret that we want to share with the rest of the world,' said Virginia Cherol, coordinator of Salem 400+, which commemorates the settlement's founding in 1626 and the Indigenous people who preceded them. Colonist Captain John Felt confronts the British troops on the North Bridge. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff 'Since we were able to talk everyone off the ledge, we don't have the flash and the pomp of the war starting. It easily gets forgotten and glossed over,' Cherol said. Still, Leslie's Retreat can resonate in these contentious times, she said, showing 'how important it is to to be able to come together during periods of heightened emotions ... and actually listen and come to middle ground and compromise.' 'People were able to come together and see the benefits of diplomacy and tact.' Colonial reenactors stopped for a photo before the start of the confrontation. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Feathers graced the caps of British troops as they retreated down Federal Street after the confrontation with colonists on the North Bridge. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Watson' Episode Release Schedule: When Is It Streaming?
Morris Chestnut stars as Dr. John Watson in the new CBS series 'Watson.' Yes, that Watson, half of the legendary crime-solving duo with Sherlock Holmes. The new procedural begins after the death of Sherlock at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland the hands of his evil archnemesis, Moriarty. Watson receives a head wound in trying to save Sherlock from a watery death. The action begins six months later as Watson sets up a new state of the art clinic with the money Holmes left him. He has hired a team of specialists who will help him solve the most baffling medical cases. But, since he is still recovering from a traumatic head injury, he also has to figure out his own health issues. 'Watson' premieres on Sunday, Jan. 26 after the AFC Championship Game concludes. The show then premieres in its regular time slot on Sunday, Feb. 16. New episodes stream on Paramount+ the day after they air on CBS. The episode release schedule for 'Watson' so far:While we don't yet have titles all of Season 7, check out the episode release schedule so far.• Episode 1: 'Pilot,' Sunday, Jan. 26, approximately 10 p.m. Start time depends on when the AFC Championship Game ends.• Episode 2: 'Redcoat' — Sunday, Feb. 16, 9 p.m. Besides Morris Chestnut, the series also stars Eve Harlow, Peter Mark Kendall, Ritchie Coster, Inga Schlingmann and Rochelle Aytes. The series comes from Craig Sweeny, who previously worked on the CBS series 'Elementary,' which starred Jonny Lee Miller as the famous detective and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson. The post 'Watson' Episode Release Schedule: When Is It Streaming? appeared first on TheWrap.
