Today I'd like to talk about a great British actor Richard Briers, who died yesterday - please see the wonderful BBC report below - at the age of 79. He is an actor I am particular fond of because he played Tom Good in The Good Life, one of my favourite television shows, and which he is probably most famous for.
The Good Life is a sitcom from the 1970's, about a couple, Tom and Barbara Good, who live in the suburbs, Tom with his nine to five typical job. On his fortieth birthday however, Tom decides he wants to do something and more and comes up with idea that they should go self-sufficient. I believe the show was popular at the time of broadcast, and is certainly still relevant today - but most importantly, the jokes are just as good and Richard Brier's cheeky performance in it, is wonderfully believable and funny.
Before this writing this post I only knew about a few of the television shows Richard Briers had been in - though I guessed he would turn up in alot of television shows, being a such a well respected actor. Looking at CV though and the range of work he has done, the treasured shows and classics he has been in, he really had a fantastic career. I knew he had another sitcom after the Good Life, in which he starred, called Ever Decreasing Circles - where he played a less charming, and more annoying character than Tom Good. However I had forgotten he had been the narrator of the old cartoon Roobarb, which returned in in 2005, and was the voice of Fiver in the animated classic in Watership Down.
I am amused to find he has been in three of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare films, but perhaps that is not surprising as he was a theatre actor too, and played Hamlet himself in his younger days. More recently he was of course, in The Monarch of the Glen, and appeared in cameos in all sorts of television shows from Torchwood, to detective dramas like New Tricks and Marple. Finally, his last film, is a comedy called Cockneys vs. Zombies, where he plays a pensioner caught up in a zombie apocalypse - which showed that not only was he not afraid to do something really different, but if you watch the trailer, you can see he was still great comedy actor, even in his seventies. In summary, in my opinion, Richard Briers was a national treasure of British television, and I think the best way to pay tribute to his brilliant and varied work over the years is to go and watch it. Richard Briers, thank you, and rest in peace.
So, congratulations to Kenneth Branagh, who has been knighted for his services to drama and the community of Northern Ireland, in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Kenneth Branagh is most famous for adapting, directing and acting in several films of Shakespeare plays, and starring in Wallander. He also directed the big Marvel movie Thor (2011).
It must be noted that Kate Winslet, who received a CBE in Queen's Birthday Honours, actually starred in Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet (1996).
To find out what Kenneth Branagh thought of receiving the honour, check out the BBC interview.
I suppose this will mean I'll have to do a review of Kenneth Branagh's films now...!
I'm afraid I didn't manage to post yesterday, despite my effort to post every day from now on, but unfortunately my computer froze on me and it was so late, I gave up and went to bed.
Anyway, I've watched a lot of TV and films over the last two days, but I think I want to talk about the film Sleuth - at this point, a good film buff would ask, which one? Because there are two Sleuths, both starring Michael Caine, and both based on the play of the same name by Anthony Shaffer.
I saw the newer Sleuth (2007) last night which stars Jude Law and was direct Kenneth Branagh - who has directed a few Shakespere screen adaptions, so another play to screen adaption should not come as a surprise. Whilst the play was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter - who also appears in a little cameo in the TV show Michael Caine's character watches.
Meanwhile the old Sleuth (1972), which I have also seen years ago, starred Laurence Olivier, was directed by Joesph L. Mankiewicz and the play was adapted for screen by the playwright himself, Anthony Shaffer.
Because both films are based on the same play, they both have the same plot - two men, an old crime author called Andrew Wyke agrees to meet the young man who has run off with his wife, Milo Tindle, at his mansion. Milo wants Andrew to divorce his wife so he can marry her, however it is not that simple - and instead the two men descend into a deadly game of wits.
However, despite this, as is pointed out in the Wikipedia entry for new Sleuth film, the two films are very different, and I agree with said Wikipedia entry that the new Sleuth is not a remake of the old one.
The new Sleuth changes tack and plot about halfway through, and the mind games take quite a different turn. In the old Sleuth the games were all about murder, but in the new Sleuth the last game revolves around Milo flirting with Andrew - and I found Jude Law flirting with Michael Caine quite creepy indeed.
The old Sleuth was very much about murder and theatre, whilst the new one is more brutal, in language and even set design. Though the use of light, effects and angles in the new one is rather good - I particularly like a mirror effect that is used at one point.
Another thing I must mention is how good, and how scary, Jude Law can be when he plays crazy. I once assumed that, for that some reason, he went in for pretty boy roles. But that was before I'd seen him in a proper film. In recent years I have changed my opinion, after seeing him in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009), I Heart Huckabees (2004), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and now in Sleuth I have to say, he's a pretty damn good character actor, who doesn't seem to be afraid to go for the more unusual roles.
Anyway, to summarise - I thought the new Sleuth was alright, but I found it harsher than the old one. It had much more swearing, darker tones, cold, clinical sets and I found some of the scenes hard to watch. Personally I find the sinister but quaint 70's Sleuth film more to my tastes.
Nonetheless, those are just my opinions and I'd urge you to see both films and decide for yourselves, with only one piece of advice. That you view the films as two different takes on the same play as, I think, believing the new Sleuth to be a remake of the old one made me have certain expectations.
