Category: Cast news

Denis Lill – Shadowlands tour – cast photos

Denis Lill - Shadowlands - 2016 - national tour

The 2016 national tour of William Nicholson’s Shadowlands, directed by Alastair Whatley, enjoyed its opening night on 18 February at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, ahead of a national press night on Friday 26 February.

Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) is a late addition to the cast, taking on the role of Major W.H. Lewis ‘Warnie’, joining Stephen Boxer (C S Lewis), Amanda Ryan (Joy Davidman), Simon Shackleton (Professor Christopher Riley), Jeffrey Harmer (Rev ‘Harry’ Harrington), Ian Marr (Alan Gregg), Richard Holliday (Dr Maurice Oakley), Shannon Rewcroft (Douglas), with Holly Smith and Alistair Higgins playing multiple supporting roles.

Broadway World has published a gallery of promotional shots from the production.

Tickets for performances at venues across the country are now on sale.

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Update, 2 March 2016: The touring production has secured an early glowing five-start review from the Guilford Dragon newspaper (23 February), whose theatre critic concludes:

The whole play is acted well and I don’t know who I would give the most credit to. Would it be: Stephen Boxer as Jack (CS Lewis), Amanda Ryan as Joy, Denis Lill as Warnie, Simon Shackleton as Christopher, Alastair Whatley – director or even William Nicholson as the writer. The stage set is minimalist but highly effective.

The whole combination worked for me. The story was brilliantly told, intellectually stimulating, humerous and naturally it was sad. Inevitably, highly emotional too. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening.

The Salisbury Journal review (1 March 2016) says of the Salisbury Playhouse run:

Finely acted, Stephen Boxer brought gravitas and humour to the role of CS Lewis who wrote the Narnia books and Christian apologetic novels like The Screwtape Letters, as well as non-fiction work.

Amanda Ryan, playing Joy Gresham, was wonderful as the archetypal American who blew the cobwebs away surrounding the comfortable existence of the scholar.

Her physical descent into frailty when she gets cancer is masterfully portrayed as is her patient manner with the reserved Lewis, who not only has to do battle with his emotions, and his faith, in realising he loves Joy but also, when he loses her.

Denis Lill, endearing as Warnie, is full of strength, concern and a hint of mischief.

The Southern Daily Echo review (2 March 2016) observes, of the Salisbury Playhouse run:

In difficult and emotionally demanding roles, Stephen Boxer as “Jack” Lewis and Amanda Ryan as Joy are both outstanding as the gentle lovers.

CS Lewis is a committed Christian, discovering love late in life, Stephen Boxer conveying brilliantly his agonies over traditional values clashing with his new-found affections.

Joy has been married before, to a violent alcoholic, moving to England for a new life. With a convincing Jewish New York accent, Amanda Ryan nails a beautiful mix between American can-do attitude and her cancer-ridden vulnerability.

As Lewis’s stalwart brother Warnie, Denis Lill is superb, his stiff-upper-lip softening as he helps Joy’s emotionally splintering son.

Denis Lill joins the cast of a national tour of Shadowlands

Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) is joining the cast of a new theatrical production of Shadowlands. He is stepping in to the role of Major W.H. Lewis (Warnie) with less than ten days before the tour begins, following the enforced withdrawal of Tony Slattery from the production due to ill-health. Lill’s first day in rehearsal was yesterday (8 February). Producers, Jon and Anne-Marie Woodley of Birdsong Productions, said:

“We are very sorry that Tony has had to leave and along with all the company of Shadowlands, we send our love and best wishes. We are delighted that Denis has so kindly agreed to step in at such short notice to take on the role of Warnie. Having both previously worked with Denis, we know he will be a lovely addition to the talented cast and crew of Shadowlands.”

Describing the production, they add:

The cast of Shadowlands will be led by Stephen Boxer (Humans, The Iron Lady, Garrow’s Law, Doctors) as C.S. Lewis and Amanda Ryan (The Forsyte Saga, Shameless) as Joy Davidman, along with Denis Lill (The Royal, Only Fools and Horses, Rumpole of the Bailey) as Major W.H. Lewis ‘Warnie’. They will be joined by Simon Shackleton as Professor Christopher Riley, Jeffrey Harmer as Rev ‘Harry’ Harrington, Ian Marr as Alan Gregg, Richard Holliday as Dr Maurice Oakley and Shannon Rewcroft as Douglas, with Holly Smith and Alistair Higgins playing multiple supporting roles.

Shadowlands, by William Nicholson, tells the love story of C.S. Lewis, Oxford don and author of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters, and American poet Joy Davidman. What begins as a formal meeting of two very different minds slowly develops into a feeling of connection and love. Lewis finds his quiet life with his brother Warnie disrupted by the outspoken, feisty Davidman, whose uninhibited behaviour offers a sharp contrast to the rigid sensibilities of the male-dominated university. Each provides the other with new ways of viewing the world, but Lewis’s Christian faith is tested when Joy is diagnosed with cancer.

Tickets are available for all dates on the tour, which begins in Guilford on 18 February 2016, and plays at venues across the country, before concluding in London at the end of July.

Shadowlands - on tour - 2016

Denis Lill appears in Midsomer Murders episode “A Dying Art”

Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) appears in the current episode of Midsomer Murders (Series 18, Episode 4) “A Dying Art”, in the role of frustrated and under-achieving artist Simeon Rowling: one of number of suspects in a typical Midsomer Murders‘ killing spree.

Art comes to the picturesque Midsomer village of Angel’s Rise with the opening of a new Sculpture Park. But when its launch is marred by murder, DCI Barnaby and DS Nelson have to get creative to crack a case where art imitates death, and everything has a deeper meaning.

The episode, which was first broadcast on ITV on 3 February 2016, is available for streaming on the ITV hub until early March.

Since John Nettles stood down at the end of the thirteenth series, the lead role in Midsomer Murders (in the guise of DCI Barnaby) has been taken by Neil Dudgeon – who in 2008 appeared in a memorable guest starring role in the third episode of the remake of Survivors (as the paranoid former farmer Sean, who has locked himself and his young children in isolation in a vain attempt to protect them from contact with the infected).

Denis Lill - Midsomer Murders - A Dying Art - Series 18 - Episode 4
Denis Lill – Midsomer Murders – ‘A Dying Art’ – Series 18 – Episode 4

Lucy Fleming recalls her mother’s work on Brief Encounter

An article in yesterday’s Daily Mail (11 December 2015), which revisits the making of the 1945 classic British film Brief Encounter, includes reflections on the work of Celia Johnson by her daughter, Survivors‘ actress Lucy Fleming. She recalls:

Celia Johnson was in many ways just like Laura Jesson, agrees her daughter, the actress Lucy Fleming, today. ‘She was very moral and wouldn’t have liked that kind of situation to arise in her own life,’ says Lucy, 68, who is married to the actor Simon Williams and was best known for her role in Seventies series Survivors. ‘People loved working with her. She was fun. She had a great sense of humour.’

Brief Encounter - Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard

New DVD and BluRay release for Ian McCulloch’s Contamination

Released on 6 July 2015, Arrow Film‘s new combined DVD and BluRay release of 1980s Italian splatter favourite Contamination (one of three Italian horror movies Ian McCulloch starred in after appearing in Survivors) offers a new print and a range of exclusive special features.

Amongst those new features are a Q&A session with McCulloch and director Luigi Cozzi filmed at the 2014 Abertoir horror film festival.

Starring Italian horror veteran Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters), Contamination from director Luigi Cozzi (Starcrash, Hercules) is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of early 1980s Italian splatter.

A cargo ship drifts up the Hudson River. Its crew: all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, turned inside out by an unknown force. Its freight: boxes upon boxes of glowing, pulsating green eggs. It soon becomes clear that these eggs are not of this planet, and someone intends to cultivate them here on Earth. But who? And to what end?

Contamination takes the premise of Ridley Scott’s classic Alien and peppers it with exploding guts galore and dangerously infectious soundtrack from celebrated Italian prog-rockers Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria).

Lucy Fleming praises new James Bond author

Lucy Fleming (Jenny in Survivors, and niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming) has praised Anthony Horowitz’s new James Bond novel Trigger Mortis, which is based on original, uncompleted ideas from Fleming himself.

In The Guardian (28 May 2015), Fleming is quoted as saying:

It was almost as if Ian had written [Trigger Mortis] himself.

It does feel like a Fleming book,” she said. “It takes place a couple of weeks after Goldfinger – Pussy’s back, which is fantastic, and we’ve got a particularly good villain in Sin – he’s absolutely horrible, a megalomaniac type, but fascinating as well… Pussy Galore is one of the iconic characters from the films and the books… It will be interesting to see what the public make of that.

Each writer has their own style, but I think Anthony is closest to Ian’s style,” said Lucy Fleming. “And he has the page-turning effect of making you think ‘what the hell is going to happen next?’… He’s worked Murder on Wheels in brilliantly – it’s woven into the whole thing. It was just a treatment, really, with the idea for the plot.”

Trigger Mortis - Anthony Horowitz

Lucy Fleming in new play ‘As Good A Time As Any’

Lucy Fleming (Jenny, Survivors) appears in a new play As Good A Time As Any, written and directed by Peter Gill. The play is described as:

a witty and ironic portrait of eight women on a spring morning in London. The play is divided into five choruses. The eight women are the ordinary, unheroic inhabitants of the city, who speak for the continuity of everyday life, and its inexhaustibility. The world of As Good A Time As Any is on the face of it a small one, yet it has an intensity and depth of emotion which make it feel transcendent and universal.

Fleming plays the role of Slyvia, a character described in The Guardian review (5 May 2015) of the production as ‘an upper-middle-class scatterbrain ruefully dwelling on the amorous path not taken.’ She is joined in the production by Roberta Taylor, Tessa Bell Briggs, Indira Joshi, Olivia Llewellyn, Eileen Pollock, Hayley Squires, and Sharlene Whyte.

The play runs at The Print Room at the Coronet, 103 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3LB until 23 May 2015. Tickets for all performances can be purchased online.

Lucy Fleming as Sylvia in the play 'As Good A Time As Any'

Denis Lill – Twelve Angry Men stage tour – first night reviews

Press reviews of the first night performance of the touring stage version of the classic juror drama Twelve Angry Men have included praise for Denis Lill’s striking portrayal of Juror Number 10.

Twelve Angry Men - theatrical tour - 2015

Denis Lill – more familiar as the pipe-smoking, kindly surgeon in TV’s The Royal – is quite magnificent as the bigoted, outspoken and argumentative Juror 10

Barry Dix, Get West London, 29 January 2015

Denis Lill attacks the role of the bigoted fool from hell with everything he has got – although absolutely no chance for light and shade has been provided here by the author.

Francis Batt, Slough and South Bucks Observer, 28 January 2015

Twelve Angry Men - theatrical tour - 2015

Twelve Angry Men, arguably the finest example of its genre, brings together a punchy, fast-moving script, acting of the highest quality and a remarkably realistic set and visual effects to create a quite stunning production.

Tom Conti brings with him to the Theatre Royal, Windsor, many of the cast and crew from the record-breaking production of the play which won so many plaudits during its West End run. He is becoming a familiar face at the venue, returning to Windsor for the third time in little more than a year.

Twelve Angry Men, inspired by the real-life jury experiences of writer Reginald Rose in Manhattan in the early 1950s, was originally a TV play, adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Henry Fonda. The stage version was first seen in London in 1964.

After completing its run The Theatre Royal, Windsor (27 January-7 February 2015), Twelve Angry Men begins a national tour, starting in Coventry on 9 February 2015 and concluding in Glasgow on 27 June 2015 (although further dates may follow). Tickets are on sales for venues across the country.

UPDATE, 24 Feb 2015: A review of the play’s run at The King’s Theatre, Edinburgh in the Edinburgh Evening News (24 February) includes further praise for the show and for Lill’s performance.

Tom Conti delivers a smooth performance in the lead role of the lone challenger who cajoles the others into returning a unanimous not guilty verdict, building in intensity from perhaps over-played brooding isolation at the start to powerfully-projected frustrated fury at the climax.

Pick of the other jurors, and of some dodgy American accents, was Denis Lill as the prejudiced garage-owner, who is uncomfortably believable as the closest thing 1950s New York would have had to a UKIP voter.

So too is Andrew Lancel a stand-out as the troubled last-angry-man-standing, whose portrayal of a father estranged from his son is the emotional high-point of the show.

UPDATE, 25 Feb 2015: Another review of the Edinburgh run, is published today in The Herald:

Conti’s world-weary understatement as the play opens is a deceptive foil to his fellow jurors as he quietly but determinedly changes everybody’s mind. While unexpected gales of gallows humour ripple throughout, it is the ferocious bluster of Denis Lill’s Juror 10 and especially Andrew Lancel’s fierce turn as Juror 3, lashing out at his own estranged son by proxy, that defines the production.

Lucy Fleming and Simon Williams at ‘Taken at Midnight’ after-party

 

LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 26: Lucy Fleming (L) and Simon Williams attend an after party following the press night performance of ‘Taken At Midnight‘ at The Institute of Directors on January 26, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Getty Images)

Bernard Kay (Sanders in Mad Dog) dies aged 86

Bernard Kay - Mad Dog

Bernard Kay (who memorably played the role of Sanders in the third series Survivors episode Mad Dog) has died at the age of 86.

Kay was found deceased at his home on 29 December 2014, though details of his passing have only been published today.

In 1977, Kay arrived on location in Derbyshire to record his role in Mad Dog only days after the death of his wife Patricia Haines, who passed away aged 45. Mad Dog director Tristan de Vere Cole later recalled: “She had literally just died the week before shooting. And he arrived.. and I had said to him ‘look Bernard, we can leave your scenes.’ He said ‘no, no — I want to work.’ So we stayed up, when he’d arrived that first night at the hotel, until three o’clock playing backgammon.” Come the next morning: “he did his job, he was so professional.”

Kay enjoyed a long and varied career on the small screen, in film and on stage. On TV, he appeared in Z Cars, Doctor Who, The Professionals, Coronation Street and Foyle’s War amongst many other productions.

Toby Hadoke recalls of Kay’s work: “He was one of those superb understated but versatile actors that we don’t seem to have any more. He never gave a bad performance. He was greatly admired by his peers. His sense of humour was combative but there wasn’t any meanness in him.”

News of Kay’s passing appears in today’s (1 January 2015) The Mirror, Manchester Evening News, The Courier and The Daily Mail.

EDIT – 2 January 2015: Listen to Tony Hadoke’s original podcast interview with Bernard Kay and its sequel on the Big Finish site.