Rodney Marshall @RodneyMarshall1 Twitter profile

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

10 months

Joss Ackland, RIP. Dad was so pleased whenever this wonderful actor was cast in one of his episodes: The Sweeney, The Gentle Touch...From the Old Vic to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, from Evita to the Pet Shop Boys... what a career.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

19 days

Granada Television produced some cracking drama with ambitious budgets during the 1980s, including two of my dad's series, but the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes (1984-94) was surely their jewel in the crown (pun intended).

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

The six-part series Edge of Darkness was initially screened on BBC2. It had such an impact it was immediately repeated on BBC1. It was artistically and politically daring, such philosophical and psychological depth, and a quite brilliant central performance from Bob Peck. #BBC100

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Honor Blackman, a motorcycle dispatch rider for the Home Office, during WW2, aged 15. She delivered information and messages between HQ and remote units out in the 'field'. “I was only just old enough to ride a bike and my mother was terrified, but I thought it was heaven. 1/2

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Alec Guinness with the previously little known Katie Johnson, who received a BAFTA award at the mature age of 76 for her role as Mrs Wilberforce in the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

WW2 and a 15-year-old Honor Blackman volunteers as a motorcycle dispatch rider for Britain’s Home Office. She helped play a crucial role in the war effort delivering vital information and messages between headquarters and remote field units. 1/2

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

On what would have been his 81st birthday, I offer a toast to John Thaw. Arguably the most talented television actor of his generation, he could play any role: thief, harassed sitcom dad, uncorruptible copper, French priest, barrister, elderly WW2 recluse...rarely a false note.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

24 days

What made Rockford a popular TV detective? He'd prefer to talk his way out of trouble rather than fight. His Colt revolver spends most of its time in a cookie jar. Most importantly, Jim is a decent guy, down on his luck, hoping (forlornly) to pick up his $200 a day plus expenses.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

8 months

Robin of Sherwood (1984-86), arguably the best ever interpretation of the English folklore legend. A delightful blend of myth & magic, fantasy & gritty authenticity. Whisk in a sublime Clannad score, spot-on casting, some great guest villains, lush locations... TV heaven.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

My dad used to take about a month writing a Sweeney script. Once it was completed and delivered, it took about eight weeks to complete each episode. Two weeks pre-production, including location hunting; two weeks filming; four weeks post-production. The crew worked 14 hour days.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

Ken Loach: It was basically a story about one boy and his bird but with plenty to say about working-class culture and aspirations of that time. We'd all seen the social realism films of the late 50s and early 60s and we felt that there must be another way forward from there. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

3 years

After his first wife died in a house fire, Bernard Lee turned to drink and was badly in debt. By luck, he came across Richard Burton in a pub, who gave him a cheque for £6,000 to clear his debts, together with a note saying, "Everyone has a spot of trouble once in a while." 😍

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

Back in 1987 the question was, would audiences be willing to follow a drama lasting two hours? The popularity of Morse is proof positive that if you provide viewers with a quality product, even incorporating complex plots, there will be a sizeable audience for it. #TheMorseFormat

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang, broadcast on Channel 4's second night. A wonderful coming-of-age film set in post-war London suburbia. Young Alan dreams of cricket, Abigail Cruttenden, a world without wars, where everyone speaks Esperanto and has a teasmade!

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

8 months

When writers like my dad joined The Sweeney they were given a huge 'bible' covering everything from lead characters' background details, to advice about script structure, and the warning that the real police do not want to see crimes 'staged' in public throughfares. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

Ian McShane: "Comedy-drama is a great genre which appeals to all ages of a family. Back in 1985, Lovejoy was, I believe, the first independent show done with the BBC. We set the template for independent productions of the 90s. The BBC left us alone, let us do what we wanted." 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Herbert ze Schluderpacheru, better known as Herbert Lom. On the eve of the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, he arrived at Dover with his girlfriend, Didi, but she was sent back because of incorrect papers. Her subsequent death in a concentration camp haunted him all his life.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

6 months

"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home." Will always have a soft spot for Life on Mars.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

10 months

"The world is your lobster" "Er indoors" "Nice little earner" "A friend in need...is a pest" "Put it on the slate, Dave" "After all I've done for you, Terry" Arthur Daley, a TV creation whose sayings entered British folk law & popular culture.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Not many actors manage to achieve a seventy year career. David McCallum last year described retirement as "a work in progress, shall we say!" Possibly part of the secret to a long and successful life and career. 🙏

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

I'm all in favour of films and TV series being painstakingly restored and given the HD treatment. However, the call for classic black-and-white films to be 'colorized' leaves me ice cold. For me, it is an act of sabotage.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 month

"The very best caviar" was how the Guardian at the time described BBC's 1979 adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Nevertheless, the complex drama split opinion among both critics and viewers. I've never tasted real caviar but this thread covers the TV version. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

7 months

Filming of Children of the Stones taking place in Avebury, Wiltshire, during the summer drought of 1976. The cast included: Iain Cuthbertson; Gareth Thomas; Freddie Jones; Veronica Strong. Arguably, one of the most atmospheric, disturbing children's dramas seen on UK television.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

There's only one Emma Peel. And it isn't Uma Thurman. There's only one John Steed. And it isn't Ralph Fiennes. You cannot clone class.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home." Life on Mars (2006-2007).

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

The name's Reed. Oliver Reed. Would have made a wonderfully dark, brooding, anarchic 007. IMO.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Yes, they had great fun, as well as entertaining up to 19 million viewers every week.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

It is always a bonus when heroes turn out to be decent human beings.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

9 months

Edge of Darkness (1985). The six-part series was first screened on BBC2, then immediately repeated in double-bill portions on BBC1, and repeated again not long after. Nominated for 11 Baftas in 1986, it won six of them. A jewel in the BBC drama crown, surely...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Lovejoy (1986-94). Of all the series Dad worked on this undoubtedly was the one which required the most research. Roger might visit a stately home where everything was being sold off, from the mahogany doors to marble chimneypieces, noting the 'types' who attended these auctions.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

CJ: "I didn't get where I am today by thinking." Leonard Rossiter (Reginald Perrin) and John Barron (Charles Jefferson) on location. Those CJ "I didn't get where I am today" aphorisms, Reggie's delayed train excuses & Jimmy's 'cock-ups', all part of the fun formula of the sitcom.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

21 days

Oh, just one more thing. Peter Falk was a seriously talented artist too...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

1966. Roger Moore signs an autograph at Elstree Studios, his "fun factory" for most of the decade. Every member of The Saint crew insisted that his sense of humour, professionalism and kindness made it a very happy place to work, throughout the 118-episode run.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Sad to hear that Stanley Tucci's Emmy award-winning Searching For Italy has been cancelled by crisis-hit CNN. Beautifully shot, I loved the way it explored the country's history through food and offered a plea for tolerance by demonstrating how migration makes a culture richer.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

Avengers publicity shoot at Lord Montagu's Beaulieu estate in the New Forest. Pat Macnee wanted Lord Montagu (left) to be included as a silent gesture of solidarity after the baron served a year in prison for "consensual homosexual acts". Macnee was appalled by the 'witch hunts'.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Still my favourite 007 film. I must be 'old school'.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

3 months

Pat Macnee passed away 9 years ago. The perfect man to portray John Steed. And an immensely kind man. When Dad brought his own time on The Avengers to a close, Pat rang him up and spent half an hour thanking him for his scripts. He didn't need to, Pat was the star, but he cared.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

5 months

Autumn 1966. The BBC faces a backlash from viewers when it moves The Magic Roundabout to an earlier timeslot. As the Observer later reported: “There was such an outcry from adults who couldn’t get home in time to see it that they had to restore it to its old [5.45 pm] slot.” [1]

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Dad considered John Thaw to be the best television actor of his generation. They worked together on 4 different series. Dad would have loved to have written for Morse, too, but was never asked. For me, he was never better than in Goodnight Mr Tom. A truly outstanding performance.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

Roger Ebert: "The Third Man was made by men who knew the devastation of Europe at first hand. Carol Reed worked for the British Army's wartime documentary unit, and the screenplay was by Graham Greene, who not only wrote about spies but occasionally acted as one." 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

Honor Blackman, a motorcycle dispatch rider for the Home Office during WW2 aged 15, delivering information & messages between HQ & remote units out in the 'field'. “I was only just old enough to ride a bike and my mother was terrified, but I thought it was heaven." A legend. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 month

If you want to revisit the 70s - or any other TV decade - surely much better to do it inventively, as Life on Mars did, rather than try to remake a classic series like The Sweeney. Offer a new recipe with a twist, rather than try to reheat a cold dish. Just my opinion...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

8 months

Michael Angelis, a favourite actor of mine from the 80s and 90s. Always added something as a guest in the likes of Minder, Bergerac, Lovejoy, Between the Lines...and haunted me with his performance as Chrissie opposite Julie Walters in Boys from the Blackstuff.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

7 months

John Thaw: “I’ve no idea why Morse was so popular. There’s thousands of producers trying to work out what it was and do it again. If you get the chemistry right, the actors, the script and the cameraman, then it works.” And the locations, I would add.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Lovejoy was a rare venture over to the BBC for my dad, as only 15 of his 200 scripts were commissioned by 'Auntie'. For Roger, one of the plusses was location hunting in his beloved Suffolk. The other was researching all the scams which roguish antique dealers get up to!

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Not unlike 007 or Dr Who, I guess that many people have their favourite Sherlock Holmes. For me, Sunday afternoons as a child were BBC repeat showings of late-30s or early-40s b/w Basil Rathbone films.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

70s London. Full of derelict warehouses, old gas works, barren wasteland, ugly industrial estates... perfect locations for The Sweeney, The New Avengers, Blake's 7, Doctor Who...Location managers were often sent to seek out bits of Broken Britain. They didn't have to look far.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

1950s Brit film noir. Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan, Sean Connery and Sid James in Hell Drivers (1957). An arguably undervalued or neglected classic.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

I will always have a soft spot for Jim Hacker, played with such comedic skill by Paul Eddington. What a beautifully written sitcom, cynical, satirical but never coldly so, with the perfect cast to bring it to life.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

The Town of No Return, the episode which introduced television viewers to Emma Peel. Originally filmed in October/November 1964 with Elizabeth Shepherd; reshot with Diana Rigg in July 1965. Broadcast as the season opener in October 1965 with Emma finally unmasked... 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

9 months

Dad wrote the Lovejoy episode 'One Born Every Minute' specifically for Tom Wilkinson, an actor who he loved and instinctively knew was destined to become a star. Which TW did, without ever losing his down-to-earth nature. A quite brilliant actor and a lovely man. RIP. 🙏

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

In a decade of glamorous action heroes, Callan stands out as different. A deeply flawed anti-hero, a professional killer full of self-loathing, with a hate-love attitude to his work, living in a seedy bedsit. Far more than John Drake, Callan is the ultimate anti-Bond secret agent

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

I'm sure everyone has their favourite era of Blackadder: Middle Ages, Elizabethan, Regency or WW1. For me, the latter is the definitive series. Brilliantly funny, yet also capturing both the absurdity and horror of life in the trenches. And then that final episode...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

RIP Dennis Waterman. Iconic series like The Sweeney and Minder revolved around a magnetic rapport between two actors/characters and the less experienced DW provided that in spades alongside both John Thaw and George Cole.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

Man about town...Dudley Sutton in London, 1962. Dad had always been a fan of Sutton, and Tinker was his favourite main character when he was writing for Lovejoy thirty years later. He always made sure that Sutton had witty dialogue and the actor always delivered it with style.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

Extreme measures after Alf Roberts short-changed Jack Carter in the Weatherfield Corner Shop...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

William Dozier: "Batman is the only situation comedy on the air without a laugh track." Dozier was executive producer & narrator on the 60s television series. ABC were expecting a 'hip and fun' U.N.C.L.E.-style adventure series but Dozier decided it had to be Pop Art camp comedy.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

5 months

Gene Hunt: "We're a team: Bodie and Doyle. I'm the one in the SAS; you can be the one with the girl's hair."

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

3 months

Roger Marshall: "One of the best rapports between co-leads that I came across during my long writing career. No egos. No one-upmanship. Simply a genuine and warm partnership. TV chemistry." #SweeneySaturday

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

7 months

I loved Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl - made on a shoestring budget but which became an unlikely international hit - but he followed it up with an even more charming, quirky film in Local Hero. Something truly magical, even if some Scottish critics considered it to be clichéd.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Man from U.N.C.L.E. For me at its best in its b/w run, just like The Avengers. Both series maintained a delicate humour/drama balance, arguably lost in colour with a tendency towards self-parody and slapstick.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Sylvia Syms. Described by the legendary Roy Ward Baker as one of Britain's most underrated actresses. Boy did she have range and depth. She could do tragedy, comedy and everything in between. Always, always superb. 💔

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

Lew Grade's ITC is perhaps best remembered for its action-adventure TV series. Yet arguably its biggest success in terms of viewing figures and sales was The Muppet Show, which had been rejected by the US networks after two pilots. Grade picked it up and ran with it. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

When Pat Macnee returned to England in April 1960 he had just $400 to his name and little in the way of prospects. He thought his acting career was over. Less than a decade later he was a global star as John Steed. A reminder that anything in life is possible. #slidingdoors

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Donald Sutherland sparkling as 'Oddball' in Kelly's Heroes, 1970, a US-Yugoslav co-production with a screenplay from British writer Troy Kennedy Martin, based on a bizarre true story. Fascinating cast mix: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Sutherland and Harry Dean Stanton...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

"You are an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner. We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum term allowed for such offences. You will go to prison for five years." 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

Remembering Brian Clemens, BOTD 1931. Arguably the most prolific British television script writer, seen here on location in France, filming And Soon the Darkness, for me his best feature film. A short thread follows, covering some of his many television highlights. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

Peter Bowles at home in 1974, posing for the TV Times. Must have been a shock for readers used to seeing him as smartly dressed urbane villains in 60s action-adventures, The Avengers, The Saint, The Baron, Department S, Danger Man and The Prisoner...

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

The first episode of Edge of Darkness was BOTD 1985 on BBC 2. Radio Times: "A detective's search for his daughter’s murderer takes him to the heart of the nuclear state." Its critical & ratings success soon earned it a BBC 1 repeat showing. One of Auntie's best ever dramas IMO.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

3 months

December 14th 1964. Diana Rigg's first official day as the replacement Emma Peel sees her arrive at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub in Fleet Street, to meet co-lead Pat Macnee, before an ITN interview at Elstree, an indication of the level of media interest in the series.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

10 months

Every time I see Anthony Valentine as a guest on a TV series I'm immediately aware of how much he brought to every role. Such an incredibly versatile actor and what a fabulous, alluring voice. Plant him in a Bergerac, Minder, or Hammer House of Horror & he magically elevates it.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 month

Remembering Anthony Valentine, BOTD 1939. My fondest memories of him are recurring television roles as Toby Meres in Callan, Major Horst Mohn in Colditz & gentleman thief Raffles. If he appeared as a guest actor in a TV series such as Bergerac or Lovejoy he instantly lifted it.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

1979. Robert Banks Stewart, a fan of The Rockford Files, is given the opportunity by the BBC to create his own Private Eye show, with the head of series giving the project the green light before a word was written. A vanished age when commissioning was far simpler. #Shoestring

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

10 months

The abandoned Becton Gas Works, a location used by so many in the 70s and 80s: John Wayne, 007, Kubrick, 1984, The New Avengers, The Professionals, Blake's 7, numerous pop videos. Post-industrial cityscape or dystopia, it clearly had a magnetic pull for filmmakers.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Cyril Frankel: "My job was to control Peter Wyngarde from going too far. He might say to me, 'Oh, wouldn't it be good if I had a falcon on my arm?' And I would say, 'Noo'. 'Oh', he'd say, 'you're so mediocre.'"

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

Remembering actor and singer Edward Woodward who was born on this day in 1930. So many great performances on stage, screen and television. For me, he will always be the self-loathing secret service agent David Callan. An electrifying performance in a unique role. 1/2

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Sylvia Syms as Sister Diana Murdoch in Ice Cold in Alex, my favourite role of hers. Watch her acting opposite the likes of John Mills, Anthony Quayle, Patrick McGoohan (The Quare Fellow) or Dirk Bogarde (Victim) and you immediately appreciated what a talented performer she was.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

3 months

Barely a month has passed since I joined Twitter when I haven't posted about Donald Sutherland, particularly focusing on his early career in the UK in the 1960s. You can teach most acting 'techniques', but I genuinely believe that a magnetic screen presence is a natural gift. RIP

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

These are two guys who did not need a first name in the titles.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

The Man with the Golden Gun. Is it just me, or is the ceiling light fitting offering a wink to Roger Moore's saintly past? And was this deliberate?

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Having produced The Adventures of Robin Hood back in 1955, producer Sidney Cole helped to broker a deal for Robin of Sherwood (84-86). A combination of UK/US funding brought a £500,000 budget for each episode. Beautifully shot, atmospheric and a haunting soundtrack from Clannad.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

11 months

Nice to see some people on here remembering The New Avengers' 47th anniversary. Yes, there are some clunkers amongst the 26 episodes, but at its best it was a thoroughly entertaining 70s update. The three co-leads got on tremendously well, and that comes across on screen.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

"It was dangerous because we were in the midst of war and had to mask the headlights during the blackout. Bombs were falling, but the roar of the motorbike engine used to drown out the sound of the doodlebugs so we never heard them coming. It seemed terribly exciting to me.”

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 years

Nice to see that there are still so many people with fond memories of Lovejoy. Dad enjoyed writing 8 episodes for it. Picture-postcard villages, deserted country lanes, Miriam the unreliable Morris Minor convertible, and a cast of loveable rogues. Simpler times, simpler plots.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

6 months

8 years from concept to transmission, with rejections from the BBC and Channel 4 before BBC Wales stepped in. Ford Granada became Life on Mars. The setting went from London to Leeds and finally to Manchester. Sam Williams became Sam Tyler. And Neil Morrissey became John Simm.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Nice to see so much affection for The Ladykillers, some 68 years after its cinematic release. Great cast. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

4 months

Patrick McGoohan: "We needed a car for our hero. Something out of the ordinary. A vehicle fit for his personality. This was it. A symbol of all The Prisoner represented: standing out from the crowd, quickness and agility, independence and a touch of the rebel."

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

17 days

Kenneth Cope (1931-2024), actor, comedian, scriptwriter, journalist and even a Radio Luxembourg DJ. And forever Marty Hopkirk, deceased in the very first episode but remaining a private investigator throughout 26 episodes which were always amusing & sometimes strangely emotive.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

9 months

Lewis: Was death instant? Morse: Instantaneous, Lewis. Coffee may be instant, death may not.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

NYT: "It's conventional wisdom that Guinness's performance is a landmark in TV history, and you won't get an argument here...Audiences used to the pace of the modern TV crime or espionage drama will need to reorientate themselves." I loved the slow, character-driven pace of this.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

9 months

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive break.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

2 months

A short thread today featuring one of my favourite 'character' actors, Donald Pleasence, a genuine star on stage, screen and television. Theatre was his first love so I will start with a few stage highlights here. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 month

Remembering Bob Peck, BOTD 1945. A giant at the RSC, remembered for Jurassic Park, for me he is Craven in Edge of Darkness. Not sure TV serial drama gets any better than that. Very much a Method actor, one who challenged everything in rehearsals because he wanted it to be real.

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 month

Michael Jayston, one of those British actors with great range, in terms of both genre and character, from Shakespeare at the RSC to Doctor Who, from musicals to comedy, from heroic roles to villains drip-feeding evil. A short thread. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

7 months

TV earworm theme tunes. It rarely gets a mention, but surely Clannad's Robin (The Hooded Man) has to be up there with any of the classics from previous decades. 🎶 #Legend

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

7 months

Channel Islander John Savident escaped to mainland Britain in a fishing boat in WW2, later became a policeman before turning to acting. Appeared in many of my favourite shows: Danger Man, Callan, MIAS, The Avengers, The Saint, 1990, B7, Lovejoy. A unique character actor. RIP. 🙏

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

9 months

Summer of 65 and Diana Rigg and Pat Macnee take a break while shooting the punting scene for Dad's Silent Dust story. (Often post this lovely and rare colour photo because it speaks volumes for the rapport between the co-stars).

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

Peeping behind the magic curtain. Behind the scenes photos from The Ladykillers, 1955, the Ealing Oscar-nominated black comedy crime film, literally dreamed up by scriptwriter William Rose. An early role for Peter Sellers alongside his hero, Alec Guinness, and Herbert Lom. 1/

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Rodney Marshall

@RodneyMarshall1

1 year

My dad was incredibly fortunate to get to know Herbert Lom in the late 50s when his then wife Dina was Roger's agent. Lom was equally brilliant across a wide range: musicals, comic films, horror, kitchen-sink, costume dramas. Not sure that he was ever fully appreciated. Magnetic.

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