Latest news with #ZoëWanamaker
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Actor and writer Gawn Grainger dies aged 87
The actor and writer Gawn Grainger, highly esteemed by stage and screen audiences alike over his long career, has died at the age of 87. His death on Saturday, surrounded by his family, was confirmed by his agent Judy Daish. He is survived by his wife, the actor Zoë Wanamaker, and by his children, Charlie and Eliza, from his previous marriage to the actor Janet Key. A prolific performer with the National Theatre for several decades, he was Macduff opposite Anthony Hopkins' Macbeth and appeared alongside Laurence Olivier in Saturday, Sunday, Monday and The Party when the company was based at the Old Vic in the early 1970s. His National productions included The Front Page, The Plough and the Stars, The Misanthrope and The Marriage of Figaro (in the title role) and he remained a familiar presence there through to recent plays such as Saint George and the Dragon. He was also a regular on TV, appearing in staples including Doctor Who, in which he played the engineer and 'father of the railways' George Stephenson in the two-part episode The Mark of the Rani in 1985. Born in Glasgow, Grainger was brought up in London. He was cast at the age of 12 as the Boy Prince (a non-speaking role) in Ivor Novello's musical King's Rhapsody, after blagging his way into Novello's dressing room and impressing him. Active in drama and broadcasting while at school, he then went to Italia Conti drama school and appeared at Frinton Summer Theatre, Dundee Rep and Ipswich's Arts theatre (where he appeared alongside Ian McKellen). At Bristol Old Vic he played major roles including Romeo (opposite Jane Asher as Juliet), Laertes in Hamlet and Claudio in Measure for Measure, with all three productions touring to the US. Before arriving at the National Theatre he had a hit on Broadway with There's a Girl in My Soup in the late 1960s, when he also appeared on the US panel show in What's My Line? He was back in New York as Oronte in a transfer of the National Theatre production of Molière's The Misanthrope in 1975. Grainger appeared in Harold Pinter's Party Time and Mountain Language (a double bill) as well as Pinter's No Man's Land for the Almeida in the early 1990s. His other plays included Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads by Roy Williams, Amy's View by David Hare, Really Old, Like Forty Five by Tamsin Oglesby and Don Juan in Soho written and directed by Patrick Marber. In 2016, he replaced John Hurt in the role of Billy Rice in The Entertainer, starring Kenneth Branagh. He captured, wrote Michael Billington, that character's 'mix of Edwardian nostalgia and grumbling disillusion'. His acting career ran alongside another as a writer for theatre and television. You Don't Have to Walk to Fly, made for LWT in 1984, starred Bob Hoskins and Key. He adapted his own play, Four to One, for the BBC in 1986 and wrote for the series Big Deal, Trainer and Lovejoy. He resumed his collaboration with Olivier by editing the book Olivier on Acting. Key died in 1992. Grainger married Wanamaker in 1994. Reflecting on the rich variety of roles he had played during his life as an actor, he told the Stage: 'It's been like a series of parties.'
BBC News
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
New Bergerac series pays homage to original, star says
The star of a re-imagined version of Jersey-based TV show Bergerac said the new series would "pay homage to the original".Set to premiere on Thursday 27 February, the new series stars Damian Moloney as title character Jim Bergerac alongside Zoë Wanamaker and Philip rights to the first season have been sold to nine countries ahead of its UK said when his friends and family found out about his starring role, they wanted "to know about the car" - the red Triumph Roadster. He said: "One big difference about this new version of Bergerac is that we have one big case that Jim investigates across all six episodes, instead of it being a case a week like the original."It's great that we get to follow this huge journey, not only Jim's emotional rollercoaster, but also this gripping, edge of your seat, criminal investigation."John Nettles - the original Jim Bergerac - said he was offered a cameo role but turned it original BBC series, created by Robert Banks Stewart, ran for nine series between 1981 and 1991. Scenes for the season were shot in Jersey, showcasing some of its coastal said the locations created "natural tension by being surrounded by the sea".He said: "There are huge, vast, windswept beaches that, on a rainy day, look dark, brooding, foreboding and dangerous. "Within a 20-minute drive, you can be in the city or an immense countryside full of natural beauty. It's incredible." Moloney said he particularly enjoyed filming at the beaches in the west of the said: "I loved filming in the gorgeous St Brelade's Bay, where we lucked out with some lovely August weather and we could swim at lunchtime and have ice cream."We had another great day on Gorey pier, and in the Driftwood Café on Archirondel Beach, I loved that place."The government, which committed £1.2m to the reboot, said it hoped the series would boost tourism in the added: "I think fans of the original series will love seeing Jersey back on their screens." Zoë Wanamaker, who plays Charlie Hungerford, said she could "see why people love it in Jersey".She said: "The buildings are gorgeous, and I found out that a lot of them were constructed in the same way as Devon was built on hills in the 1800s. "I also got to visit St Brelade's Bay Hotel, which is right next to another stunning beach - it was a busy summer's day when we were there, and I loved seeing so many families spending time in the sun."Wanamaker said she had "many friends" who had featured in the original and that the new series was "an emotional, challenging ride". Writer Tom Whithouse said Jersey and Bergerac were "utterly indivisible"."If you were setting it anywhere else it would have to be a different show. What is interesting about it is that it's a fascinating, strange, incredibly beautiful and very welcoming island," he said he hoped fans would enjoy the said: "We've taken the fundamental elements from the original show - the rich John Nettles version of the character had a complexity and a darkness to him."He was always in the tradition of the maverick cop who found himself at odds with the system around him and found that frustrating, because underneath there was a pure drive to do his job and do it well." 'Distinctive feel' Executive producer Clare Alan said in August that Jersey was "a character within the series".Director Colm McCarthy said keeping the show based in Jersey made sense: "Jersey, both as a location and a character in the story are a big part of what gives Bergerac its distinctive feel."It's very near to France, so it has this different feel to anywhere else in the UK, it's got a luxurious quality to it."But also, people come with their own baggage about the ideas of Jersey... all of those different facets give it a place, a feeling that is familiar because it's still British to a British television audience."
