You would have to state it was 25kgs ago… either that, or her Grey Overcoat had a load of padding…!
I don’t really know her from anything other than Happy Valley, but that was magnificent.
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Watched the first episode of La Brea, enjoyed it.
Yeah, i havent seen that yet, and to be fair it has recieved a lot of praise as she has for her performance.
My comments are more her career before this starting with her stint on Coronation Street as @Limiescouse mentioned above.
I thought this was new, it’s already in its third season.
SPOTY or a repeat showing of Bargain Hunt?
No brainer
Liverpool FC announce TV drama based on Bill Shankly’s reign from Academy Award winning producers
The writer of the upcoming series issued a vow as he hopes to do Shankly’s legacy justice
A new drama series based on Bill Shankly’s time at Liverpool FC is currently in development
Liverpool FC has announced a new TV drama series is in development focusing on Bill Shankly’s legendary reign. The iconic manager transformed the fortunes of the club when he took over the Reds in 1959.
Liverpool FC were languishing in the second division before Shankly proceeded to turn the club into one of the biggest forces in football during his 15 years in charge. A new multi-part series will focus on this pivotal period in the club’s history and the special relationship the man from Glenbuck forged with the city.
The new series will be penned by Jack Thorne, who has previously worked in Liverpool to great success with Channel 4 drama, Help, starring Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer. The 46-year-old, who hails from Bristol, is also the writer of the smash hit West End play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
In a statement shared on Liverpool FC’s official club channels today, Jack said he is honoured to be taking on such an important story and vowed to ensure it does Shankly’s amazing legacy justice.
He said: "I’m excited to be telling this incredible story and it’s an honour to be working alongside A24 and Liverpool Football Club. Our goal is to focus not just on the club, but on the city itself - because, and this is one thing Shankly made sure, the club belongs to the city and the city belongs to the club.
“We have a chance with this show to celebrate both a magnificent football club and a magnificent city, whilst being honest about the struggles of the 1960s and 1970s in one of our industrial heartlands. We hope to honour the fans, the city, and the legacy of Liverpool FC in bringing its story to life.”
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I have watched several historical dramas recently where black or asian actors played the part of white characters. The latest Cromwell drama being a case in point. Jane Seymour has a black sister and Cardinal Wolsey has an asian daughter among others. There was also a black Anne Boleyn in a drama a few years back. An asian actress portrays the white heroine, Gladys Moss, in Wicked Little Letters now on Netflix.
Would it be acceptable to have a black actor portraying Shankly and/or Ian St John and if so, would it detract from your enjoyment?
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It depends on whether they are making a historically accurate drama or a drama in a historical setting.
I’ve no problem with creative licence as long as that’s what is intended. TBH I have more of an issue with historically inaccurate portrayals being passed off as documentary fact. (E.g. pretty much any US film about WWII).
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I watched Midway (the 2019 one) yesterday. Holy crap was that appalling. You’ve already got one of the most dramatic events of WWII, the Battle of Midway, to base a film around yet they decided that every single part of every single scene needed to be as dramatic as possible, even just basic conversations between characters are Braveheart-style rallying speeches - and of course the whole thing was CGI’d to death.
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And everyone on the other side was played by an Asian!
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My only real issue is that the inclusion of black and asian actors in place of real-life white people might actually serve to lessen the reality of racism historically. Pretending that we were all fine with black people throughout our history seems like a stepping stone to denying racism ever happens.
To use your example if we have a black actor portray Ian St John or Bill Shankly then how does that lead to a realistic portrayal of Howard Gayle’s experience at the club as the first black professional at Liverpool - someone who suffered horrific racial abuse from his teammates especially Tommy Smith.
I think some of these casting decisions are made because of quotas but I think even more are made because ideologically the creators of these believe that it shouldn’t matter. There are certain stories though where it does matter.
A discussion on racism in 15th century England is probably not really that important but making the same casting choices for a portrayal of a football club in the 1970s is probably unintentionally glossing over the real battles and fights that real-life minority people had. Ultimately you can’t coherently tell the story of Liverpool FC in the 1970s if Bill Shankly is black because racism is a real part of the story.
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So it shouldn’t matter if a white actor plays a black historical character?
I have to suspend belief if a black actor plays a known white character and vice versa although I can’t think of a single recent example.
For fear of going back over very well trodden ground
- part of the issue is the perceived value of greater presence of under represented demographics in roles. We dont exactly have a dearth of white actors on our screens so that specific argument is not one that could be made against this sort of change in that direction.
- It would be rare to have a black historical character where issues of race were not relevant. Only where that is true, and the plots around the character are race neutral, would it not violate Sweetings first rule of race swapping.
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I studied Tudor history as part of my degree and have had a lifelong interest in the period hence why I was somewhat bemused by the casting…
This happens frequently
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Does it? Fair enough. I stand corrected. I thought that was classed as whitewashing and very much discouraged nowadays.
I think the same as I do about black actors playing white people - as long as it isn’t impacting the storytelling then I don’t think it matters.
Ben Affleck in Argo was portraying a Mexican-American CIA agent. The fact that CIA agent was of Mexican heritage had no real impact on his portrayal or the story of the film so I don’t think that matters.
John Wayne played Genghis Khan.
Angelina Jolie played an Afro-Chinese-Cuban woman in A Mighty Heart.
Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra.
In the movie 21, the true story is about Asian men at MIT but the film portrayed them as white men.
Jennifer Connelly played Alicia Nash, an El Salvadoran immigrant, in A Beautiful Mind.
Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro and Sigourney Weaver were all lead actors in Exodus: Gods and Kings - a movie set in Ancient Egypt.
Colin Farrell was Alexander the Great.
If you also look at white portrayals of fictional non-white characters there are lots of examples…
Kirsten Dunst took the role of a character described as bi-racial in The Beguiled. Jake Gyllenhaal played the lead in Prince of Persia. Scarlett Johansson was the Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell. Angelina Jolie (again) was in Wanted portraying a character who is black in the comic. Liam Neeson was Ra’s al Ghul. Emma Stone was Allison Ng. Laurence Olivier was Othello. Johnny Depp was Tonto. Tilda Swinton played a character who is an Asian man in the Marvel comics. The recent Avatar: The Last Airbender were almost all white people playing Asian characters. Benderdict Cumberbatch played Khan Nonnien Singh in Star Trek, a role specifically described as being a Sikh man. Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games was supposed to be mixed-race in appearance in the books but Jennifer Lawrence got the part and the casting even specified that they only wanted white actors to audition!
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How many are historical characters though? That is my point.