Agent45
Detective Inspector
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Beiträge: 723
What are you two, some kind of music hall act?
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« Antworten #1009 am: November 03, 2009, 08:26:00 » |
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Diese Ausschnitte habe ich, weil ich mal spaßeshalber bei ebay mitgeboten habe. Ich wurde dann nicht mehr überboten und schwupps, waren die Sachen bei mir.
Dieser Zeitungsausschnitt ist aber so groß, dass mir aufgefallen ist, dass ein Teil vom Text abgeschnitten ist. Für alle, die auch den Artikel lesen wollen, here we go:
Whether it's playing the free-spirited Judge John Deed or treading the boards in A Man for All Seasons, actor Martin Shaw insists he has no idea, why, at the age of 64, he still finds himself named in polls of Britain's sexiest men.
"I've been in the business for 45 years and I'm a grandfather three times over", he laughs. "Of course I don't get it."
Martin, who returns to prime-time TV this month in four new feature-length episodes of the BBC1 cop drama Inspector George Gently, prides himself on being a serious actor. And with an extensive CV that includes successful small-screen shows such as Rhodes and Apparitions, as well as highly praised stage performances, who shouldn't he? However, he insists that behind the scenes he doesn't take himself at all seriously, and indeed when we meet for a chat, he is warm witty and self-deprecating.
"Sometimes I hear myself going on about stuff: 'What has happened to political dissent in this country?' he smiles. "'Why is there no repertory theatre for young actors to learn their craft? Why does TV churn out dramas that are the equivalent of MFI furniture when every actor would rather work on a Chippendale?' And I think, 'God, these are ramblings of an old fart! Shut up, man!'"
In fact, Martin is in his prime. Despite the recent cancellation of his hit legal drama Judge John Deed, which was due to return for a seventh series but has been indefinitely postponed by the BBC, the actor remains as busy as ever. Having first come to our attention in the 1970s as curly haired copper Ray Doyle in The Professionals, the evergreen actor is happy to be playing a lawman again – albeit of a very different kind.
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
In Inspector George Gently, there's no Doyle-esque gun, toting or rolling over car bonnets. But the thoughtful drama, written by Peter Flannery (Our Friends in the North) and Mick Ford (William and Mary) and set in Northumberland in the Swinging Sixties, is no sugar coated, Heartbeat-style piece of nostalgia either.
Gently – a passionate, growling ex-army boxer – and his sidekick Detective Sergeant John Bacchus (played by Lee Ingleby) investigate cases involving prostitiution, abortion and racism.
"It's quite hard-hitting," admits Martin. "But at the read-through we were told that every swear word had been taken out; presumably the BBC's response to the whole Jonathan Ross and Russel Brand thing.
"Yes, what they did was in poor taste but it was basically just a schoolboy prank," he adds, referring to Ross and Brand leaving distasteful messeges on the answerphone of former Faulty Towers star Andrew Sachs last year, raising a storm in the media and complaints from licence-fee payers. "Does it really mean that you have to investigate the entire purpose of public service broadcasting? I think we've become numbed by nannying."
Being told how to think goes against Martin's very nature. Even as a child growing up in the Midlands, he says, he was taught to think for himself by his engineer father and his mother, a competition ballroom dancer.
"My parents were amazing people who thought deeply about things and were completely open-minded. I owe them a great deal," he says, fondly.
Sadly, though his mother is still alive, she has severe Alzheimer's disease and is now cared for in a home. "Poor mum," he says. "When I see her now I think she realises I'm familiar, but I'm not sure she knows who I am. She's fine in a way because she has no idea where she is or what's happening to her. It was worse when the dementia was approaching because her memories were like sand falling through her fingers.
"Then she became an awful lot worse, very suddenly. It was pretty radical. It's a small mercy, perhaps, that at least now she isn't so agonisingly aware of her own decline."
Martin's father cared for her at home for 12 years. "He was amazing. But, in the end, he was in his eighties and it was too much for him. He had to be persuaded that she would be better off in a home, although the truth is that when she went away it broke his heart."
Martin's father died last August, leaving what the actor describes as "an enormous hole" in his live. "The world just feels unbelievably different without him. It's particularly hard because I had such a close relationship with my dad. It takes such a long time to get used to the fact that this great wise counsellor is not with me anymore. There's not a day where I don't think, 'Oh, I must call Dad.'"
SOULMATE
Martin has found comfort with his partner of the last few years, Karen Da Silva. He has been married three times before, first to actress Jill Allen (the mother of his three children, Luke, Joe and Sophie), then to alternative therapist Maggie Mansfield and lastly to TV presenter Vicky Kimm.
Karen was a family friend – and she also happens to be a yoga teacher, which fits in with Martin's lifestyle.
For the past 32 years he's been a follower of Sant Mat, an ancient Eastern philosophy that requires devotees to be strict vegetarians, to meditate and to shun mind-altering drugs and alcohol.
He was more than ready, he says, to give up the latter and has admitted that, at one time, he was a borderline alcoholic. "But then, when I was starting out in the business, being able to drink was almost a badge of honour. You had to be dangerous and interesting like Richard Harris or Oliver Reed. That meant drinking a lot."
Nearly four decades on he doesn't miss meat or booze, although he still has the odd craving for a cigarette. "I finally gave up six years ago," he says, "although sometimes the part requires you to start puffing again."
It was a problem, he admits, in Inspector George Gently. "Everybody smoked in the 1960, including George," he says. "Lee and I get round it by smoking honey rose tobacco instead.
"Still, you do find yourself inhaling just a little bit more than the part actually requires," he laughs. But you have to allow the man at least one vice…
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