To Be

The BBC have put a short clip of Alex performing the Hamlet soliloquy up on the Open University site: BBC OU

Riot at the Rite

Riot at the Rite, with Alex playing the part of Diaghilev, can be seen again on BBC 4 this Friday at 21.00. It is part of the Ballet Russes Season. More information on the BBC website at BBC Four

Thanks to Penny!

Miss Marple

"They Do It with Mirrors", the Miss Marple mystery starring Alex as Inspector Curry will be broadcast on ITV 1, on 1 January 2009.

Bringing Down the House

The BBC has provided more details of the film on the MPs expenses scandal that is currently being filmed. It is to be called "Bringing Down the House" and will be broadcast on BBC 4 early next year. Brian Cox will play Michael Martin, former speaker of the House of Commons. The play will be a single 60-minute drama.

More details on BBC News

MP's Expenses

In an interview with the Telegraph Tim Piggott-Smith mentions that he has just started working on a forthcoming BBC Four drama about the MPs’ expenses investigation. The piece reads:

"The cast includes Brian Cox, the Emmy award-winning Scottish actor, as the former Speaker Michael Martin, and Alex Jennings – best known for his role as Prince Charles in The Queen – as Andrew Walker, the man in charge of the House of Commons’ fees office, the unit that was supposed to scrutinise MPs’ expense claims."

No mention yet of broadcast dates.

Full interview

Cranford Dates

The Cranford Christmas special will be broadcast in two parts. The first one will be shown on Sunday 20 December on BBC 1 at 21.00-22.30, the second one a week later at the same time.

Being Alan Bennett

This Saturday evening, 5 December, BBC2 shows a documentary on Alan Bennett. From the description on the BBC website: "Given exclusive access to the key moments in his year, including final rehearsals of his new play, The Habit of Art, the programme gains unique insight into someone who can truly be described as a national treasure - a title Bennett would, no doubt, hate."

The programme will be shown at 21.30, and will be repeated on Thursday 10 December.

Full details and description:

BBC Website - Being Alan Bennett

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

This Sunday at 15.00 BBC Radio 4 will broadcast the first episode of John le Carré's George Smiley novel. Simon Russell Beale plays the title role, Alex plays Oliver Lacon. This is the first of three episodes.

The series is part of the "Series Catch-up Trial", which means all episodes will be available on BBC IPlayer after broadcast until 20 December.

Return to Cranford

The BBC has just announced a two-part Cranford Christmas special. The special was recorded earlier this year and will have old favourites taking part as well as new characters. Alex will be back in the role of the Reverend Hutton.

BBC Press Office

Observer Review

Susannah Clapp reviewed the Habit of Art in yesterday's Observer. About Alex she writes: "Alex Jennings is trim and buttoned-up as Britten; as the actor who plays the composer, he is lissome, arch and knowing. Both Griffiths and Jennings are terrific, though neither of them are particularly like the famous men they play: they are actors not impersonators."

Full review:
Observer

NT Live - "Habit of Art"

The date for the live broadcast to cinemas around the world has changed to 22 April 2010. More details about tickets on the NT Live Homepage.

More Reviews

Susan Elkin in The Stage has the following description of Alex: "It means several actors play two or three roles. Alex Jennings, for instance, gives us a conscientious, competent, nicely camp actor playing Britten with tortured vowel sounds and awkward, anxious body language, who relaxes only at the piano keyboard. The Jennings character also ‘reads’ for the all-knowing servant in Auden’s rooms, supported by de la Tour as Stage Manager, reading for a cleaner to good comic effect. There are some lovely moments, too, when the fictional playwright gets carried away with artistic pretensions and the cast try - and fail, of course - to make sensible drama of it."

Full review: The Stage


Henry Hitchings in London Evening Standard says: "Bennett frames the incident theatrically: we are backstage during rehearsals for a drama that deals with the two
men’s reunion. So, Richard Griffiths is crabby Fitz, an actor playing Auden. Alex Jennings with beautiful precision incarnates Britten through the actor who plays him, as well as playing an Oxford college servant unsettled by Auden’s personal habits, which include a taste for rent boys and an enthusiasm for pissing in the sink."

Full review: ThisisLondon

Reviews

The reviews are coming in for "The Habit of Art". There are mixed feelings about the play, though most reviewers have written favourable reviews. I give just the bits written specifically about Alex's performance, if you want the whole review, there is a link to the various papers.

Benedict Nightingale writes in The Times: "Does Jennings overplay Britten’s preciosity? Maybe, but he successfully comes across as defensive, insecure and envious of the rival composers he names with a staccato sneer. He’s primly unappetising while Griffiths’s Auden, despite such displays of coarseness as peeing in kitchen bowls, is warmer, more appealing — and, at the end, a bit lost and pathetic."

Full review: Times

Michael Billington in The Guardian: "A play that could easily seem tricksy is also given a superbly fluid production by Nicholas Hytner and is beautifully acted. Richard Griffiths bears no physical resemblance to Auden but he becomes a vivid metaphor for the poet. At the same time, Griffiths reminds us of the tetchy actor who is simply playing a role. Alex Jennings offers an equally potent echo of the angst-ridden Britten, spitting out the name of "Tippett" with calculated asperity.
Adrian Scarborough as Carpenter and Frances de la Tour as the stage manager are no less magnetic."

Full review: Guardian

Quentin Letts in the Mail Online calls Alex "nicely queeny".

Full review: Mail Online

Michael Coveney in Whats on Stage refers to Alex's Britten as "uptight, prissy and over-sensitive"

Full review: What's On Stage

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph: "Alex Jennings is superb, too, as the pained, prissily fastidious Britten and as a college scout grumbling about the squalor of Auden’s room, while Frances de la Tour, as the stage manager, and Adrian Scarborough, as the biographer Humphrey Carpenter, give performances of comic perfection."

Full review: Telegraph

The First Review

The first review of "The Habit of Art" has appeared, even while the play opens. The honour goes to the Independent. Paul Taylor has a very favourable review of the production and the actors. About Alex he says: "the inset drama is set in 1972 and stages an imaginary meeting, after a gap of twenty-five years, between Auden and his erstwhile collaborator, friend and psychological protégé, the composer Benjamin Britten. The latter is excellently portrayed in both his comic bassoon-up-the-bum inhibitedness and his tragically recessed self-repression by Alex Jennings who also plays his portrayer Henry, the kind of gay man that “trade” might call “a bit of neat”."

Full review: The Independent

More Praise for "Our Mutual Friend"

The Telegraph has a review of "Our Mutual Friend", written by Gillian Reynolds:

"Walker uses Dickens (played by Alex Jennings) as his narrator, stalking foggy streets, ears alert, eyes open for telling details of dress or manner. We follow him, let him show us the boat on the Thames, rowed by a girl, steered by her father. There’s a body in this boat. Whose is it? Why does it matter? Before the first 15-minute episode was out you knew. You could also tell it wasn’t going to be as simple as that."

Full review at: Telegraph

"Habit of Art" Pictures - More

Photographic press agency Rex has published a set of production pictures on: Rex

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Alex will appear in the radio adaptation of John Le Carré's George Smiley novel, with Simon Russell Beale playing Smiley. The adaptation is in three episodes, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from Sunday 29 November, 3.00 to 4.00 pm.

For more details: BBC Press Office

Thanks to Penny!

"Habit of Art" Tickets

All performances this year and January 2010 are sold out, but "The Habit of Art" will continue in to February and March 2010. Booking for February and March dates will open as follows:

SUPPORTING CAST: Online booking opens on Fri 13 Nov
PRIORITY MEMBERS: Online booking opens on Sat 14 Nov
ADVANCE MEMBERS: Online booking opens on Fri 20 Nov
GENERAL PUBLIC: Online booking opens on Wed 2 Dec

From the National Theatre Website

"Habit of Art" Pictures

The Playbill website has published a gallery of 13 pictures from the new play. They are at:Playbill

Series Catch-up Trial BBC Radio 4

The BBC are running a Series Catch-up Trial. This means that all episodes of "Our Mutual Friend" will be available on the iPlayer until one week after the end of the full serial, that is 11 December 2009. So for the patient, they can listen to all episodes in one go from 4 December on!

"Our Mutual Friend" Review

The Independent has a review of the new Dickens serial, written by Jane Thynne:

"If there's one realm in which television is supposedly pre-eminent, it's costume drama, and of all costume dramas, it's Dickens. So how could Dickens on radio, without bonnets and lamplight and all the glories of the BBC prop department possibly compete? The answer is magnificently. Woman's Hour's adaptation of Our Mutual Friend is like Christmas come early. Its timely theme is money and its power to corrupt. Old Harmon, a misanthropic miser who made his money from London's rubbish tips, has left a fortune to his estranged son, on condition that he marries a woman he has never met, Bella Wilfer. Yet at the start of the story a body pulled from the Thames is identified as that of the Harmon heir.

No one was more alert than Dickens to the importance of vivid dramatisation. In Our Mutual Friend, Sloppy is commended when reading out the paper because "he do the Police in different voices" whereas Silas Wegg reads "in a dry, unflinching way". Assisted by fabulously atmospheric music from Roger Goula, Jeremy Mortimer's production luxuriates in Dickens's language and the actors, including Pauline Quirke as Mrs Boffin, Alex Jennings as Dickens and Daisy Haggard as Bella, plainly relish their scripts. Our Mutual Friend was Dickens's last finished work and when it came out contemporary critics complained about the complexity of the plot, but judging by the first three of 20 episodes, Mike Walker's adaptation has overcome this problem. Even if you can't make a date with Woman's Hour, it's well worth catching the 7.45pm repeat."

The original review

That Elusive Alfonso Bonzo

The final episode of this children's series, with Alex playing exchange student Alfonso, has turned up on YouTube in three parts. The first one is at the following link, from there you can find the next two!

Alfonso Bonzo on YouTube

Brilliantly Cool

The Guardian's Elizabeth Mahoney has a few lines on "Our Mutual Friend":

"It's good that the weather has turned properly chilly in time for Our Mutual Friend in the Woman's Hour Drama slot (Radio 4). A month-long treat just right for winter, this adaptation is stylish and gripping from the start and Alex Jennings is brilliantly cool as Dickens. "Let's throw a stone into this pool," he says, observing his characters and relishing the ripples to follow. Almost every character and event is greeted with strong drink, with hot gin the favoured tipple when there's a nip in the air."

The Guardian Radio Review

Thanks to Jen!

Our Mutual Friend Blog

The new instalment of the Radio 4 Blog for "Our Mutual Friend" has an entry on Alex:

"15 May. Alex Jennings. So completely at ease with Dickens, Mike's writing, the microphone. He's a joy. He's disappointed to have been such an outsider to the process, having called in to studio the day before and 'felt the love', but we can tell how crucial his voice and his interest will be to the pieces as a whole."

The whole blog is at: BBC Radio 4 Blog

Thanks to Lori

Our Mutual Friend broadcast dates

Broadcasting of the new Dickens adaptation "Our Mutual Friend" will start on BBC Radio 4 on 9 November. The broadcasts will be part of Woman's Hour and will be at 11.45 a.m. They will be available for a week after broadcast on the BBC IPlayer.


See: BBC Press Office

Our Mutual Friend

Alex has been playing the part of Dickens in a radio adaptation of Our Mutual Friend for BBC Radio 4. The BBC has created a blog for the series, which contains a short film (available only in the UK), and some nice pictures of the members of the cast. More instalments of the weblog should be added in the near future.

See: BBC Radio 4 blog

The Habit of Art

Michael Gambon has withdrawn from "The Habit of Art" due to health reasons. The play will open on the date already announced, the part of Auden will now be played by Richard Griffiths.

For the official announcement see: National Theatre

Roald Dahl Day

To celebrate the fourth annual Roald Dahl Day, his principal illustrator Quentin Blake once again draws live on stage, and is joined by actors Frances de la Tour, Alex Jennings and Adrian Scarborough, who read from Dahl’s wonderful work. The event will take place on Saturday 3 October at 10.30 a.m. at the National Theatre, and will last about an hour. The Platform is followed by a booksigning. Tickets cost £3.50 / £2.50 (concessions)

For more information and tickets: National Theatre

Silas Marner

Alex appeared in the BBC Radio 7 adaptation of George Eliot's novel, which was broadcast yesterday and today. Can be heard for seven days after original broadcast on the BBC IPlayer!

Thanks again to Penny!

Lehman Brothers

Some images from "The Last Days of Lehman Brothers", broadcast on BBC2 last Wednesday 9 September.

Erskine May

Alex stars in "Erskine May" on BBC Radio 7 this week. The play will be broadcast Thursday 17 May at 11.15am, 9.15pm and 2.15am. It can be heard for a week after initial broadcast on BBC Iplayer.

"Unhappy with its design, a man blows up the Palace of Westminster. An assistant librarian is called upon to help rebuild it in time for Queen Victoria to open. Written by Dan Rebatello and starring Alex Jennings, Roger Sloman, Ewan Hooper, Amanda Root and Lucy Robinson. Directed by Polly Thomas it was first heard in 2000.

Lehman Brothers

"The Last Days of the Lehman Brothers" can be seen on BBC2 this Wednesday evening, 9September, at 9 p.m. UK time. Alex plays Timothy Geithner, then New York Fed president, now U.S. Treasury secretary. Other cast members are James Bolam, James Cromwell and Ben Daniels.

BBC2 Feature Lehman Brothers

Lehmann Brothers

The BBC have announced a new drama for the autumn called "The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers" about the collapse of Lehmann Brothers. Alex is mentioned as a member of the cast, and the one hour drama will be transmitted some time in the autumn on BBC Two.

Thanks again to Penny!

NT Platform in December

The National Theatre announced the NT Platform "In conversation with Alex Jennings" today: "Alex Jennings, company member in The Habit of Art, chats informally about his career and answers your questions."

The platform will be chaired by Al Senter, will take place on 8 December 2009 at 3 p.m and will last about an hour.

For tickets see: NT Platforms

Dates for "The Habit of Art"

The National Theatre has announced dates for "The Habit of Art". Previews start november 5, dates for November, December and January are up on the website.

The NT live broadcast to cinemas around the world is now set for 22 April 2010.

See National Theatre

The Guardian has the best announcement so far:

"Two of Britain's greatest living stage actors, Michael Gambon and Alex Jennings, will take the lead roles this autumn in Alan Bennett's new play The Habit of Art, the National Theatre announced today.

Gambon returns to the National for the first time in four years and will play the poet WH Auden in an imagined meeting with his former artistic collaborator Benjamin Britten, to be played by Jennings.

The words "much-anticipated" are artistic cliches, but in Bennett's case they ring true. There is genuine excitement about his new play – his first since The History Boys became such a global success, on stage and screen, in 2004.

The National today said The Habit of Art would be "as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music", and that it will look at "the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography". Directed by Nicholas Hytner will be a cast including Frances de la Tour, Adrian Scarborough, John Heffernan, Stephen Wight and Elliot Levey."

For full article see: Guardian

Poetry!

Alex was one of the readers on Words and Music on BBC Radio 3 last Sunday. Tamsin Greig is the other reader. They read a selection of poems recommended by BBC Radio 3 presenters. The programme includes work by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Keats, WH Auden, Emily Dickinson, Edna St Vincent Millay and Maya Angelou, and music by Bach, Shostakovich, Nina Simone, Schubert, Martinu and Yasmin Levy.

The episode is available on the iPlayer until next Sunday on: Words and Music

Thanks to Penny!

Mirrors

The PBS Masterpiece website has the new Miss Marple "They Do It With Mirrors" available for viewers in the US until 2 August. Alex plays the part of Inspector Curry.

The website: PBS

The Top of the World

Next Friday Alex appears again on BBC Radio 7 in the radio play "From The House At The Top of the World". It is about a major Buddhist artefact discovered along the legendary Silk Road. A German archaeologist becomes involved in an attempt to steal it. Written by Ray Jenkins, it also stars Siobhan Redmond, Sean Baker and David Tse, and is directed by Janet Whitaker. The play was first heard in 1999.
Friday at 11.15am, 9.15pm and 2.15am

Odysseus on an Iceberg

A very early radio outing for Alex in 'Odysseus on an Iceberg'. It was repeated on radio 7 earlier this week and can be hear on the iplayer until Sunday afternoon: BBC Iplayer

Thanks to Penny!

Casino Royale

Alex reads "Casino Royale" on BBC Radio 7 all this week. You can listen live at 20.30 every night, or listen again at: BBC Radio 7

Thanks to Jennifer!

Through a Glass Darkly

Penny found an image of the reading in Stockholm:

A Tale Told by Moonlight

Alex read this story by Leonard Woolf for Radio 3 last Friday. It is available through the BBC Iplayer for a week through BBC Radio 3.

Thanks to Penny!

Electric Ink

Alex will be appearing in a new BBC Radio 4 comedy called "Electric Ink". This will be a six-part series starting on Friday 5 June.

The BBC Press Office provides the following information:

"Robert Lindsay stars as old-school hack Maddox Bradley, in this satire set in the world of journalism.

Finding himself lost in the ever-changing world of newspapers, Maddox struggles to keep up with new technology and marketing techniques. He feels the art of getting out there and finding stories is being forgotten and he is not about to let that happen. So he intends to remind his colleagues that journalists are meant to ask difficult questions and report proper news – and turns his nose up at soft-sell celebrity interviews, rehashed PR stories and the lifestyle questionnaire.

Written by well-known satirist Alistair Beaton and comic writer and journalist Tom Mitchelson, the cast also features Alex Jennings as the Editor, Elizabeth Berrington as the News Editor, Ben Willbond as Head of Online, Zita Sattar as Marketing Director and Debbie Chazen as Head of Moderation."

Thanks, once again, to Penny!

Scarlet on Black

Alex's weekly appearance on BBC radio this time is in "Scarlet on Black" on BBC Radio 7. From the announcement:

"In Roger Danes' fast-moving thriller, set in Paris, there is a link between the kidnap of Yvette Lalande and events in Algeria thirty years ago. 'Someone in authority' has good reason to hamper Commissaire Grosset's investigations. With David Calder, Peter Jeffrey and Alex Jennings."

It will be broadcast on Saturday 23 May at 1pm and 1am

At a Cinema Near You?

The National Theatre has created the NT Live scheme, broadcasting selected live performances to cinemas around the world. The first production to be broadcast will be "Phèdre" starring Helen Mirren this June. Next year the NT intend to broadcast Alan Bennett’s latest play The Habit of Art, which stars Alex, Michael Gambon, and Frances de la Tour

For more details and a list of cinemas in the UK and abroad taking part in the scheme see: NT Live

For more details on the story also see: Whatsonstage

Bergman Festival

For any Alex fans in Sweden: Alex will appear at the Bergman Festival in Stockholm later this month.

The announcement by the festival reads:

"A reading from The Almeida Theatre of a stage adaptation of Bergman’s film Through A Glass Darkly. Performed, script in hand, by four British actors, this new adaptation by Andrew Upton is currently being developed by director Michael Attenborough and Dramaturg Jenny Worton, with a view to a full production at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2010.

The film Through A Glass Darkly from 1962 was both written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The film is often referred to as a “chamber film” because it features only four characters, takes place in a mere 24-hour period and entirely on an island."

The readings will take place on May 28 at 6.00 pm & May 29 at 8.00 pm on the Small Stage, Dramaten, Stockholm.


For more information check the festival's official website at Bergmanfestival

Happy Birthday!

to Alex on his 52nd birthday!

Royal Again

Alex is back on Radio 4 tomorrow, appearing as King George VI in the afternoon play, "A King's Speech". The BBC website gives the following description:

"It is 1937, the day of the Coronation, and the newly-crowned George VI must broadcast to the nation and the empire - a terrifying prospect for perhaps the most notable Briton to have suffered from a stammer. This play focuses on the close working relationship between the King and his speech therapist."

The play was written by Mark Burgess and stars Joan Walker as Queen Elizabeth.

The play will be broadcast at 14.15 on April 30.

For a full cast list see:
BBC Radio 4

Thanks again to Penny!

The Siege Of Krishnapur

From the BBC Press Office:

It is 1857, and British rule in India is under siege. Inspired by the sieges of Cawnpore and Lucknow, this dramatisation, by Olivier, Sony and Writer's Guild award winning Shelagh Stephenson, details the siege of a fictional town during the Indian Rebellion, from the perspective of the British residents.

The main characters find themselves subject to the increasing strictures and deprivation of the siege, which reverses the "normal" structure of life where Europeans governed Asian subjects. The absurdity of the class system in a town that no-one can leave becomes a source of comic invention, though the text is serious in intent and tone.

Heat, starvation, disease and death take their toll on the besieged colonists. But though vaguely absurd and impossibly insular in their outlook, they are given the opportunity to show the stuff of which they are made. Some, remarkably, rise to the occasion, surprising even themselves, while others betray the more preposterous traits of 19th-century colonialism and the reason why the Raj was ultimately destined to collapse.

Alex Jennings stars as The Collector, charged with care of a small and often fractious British community. Malcolm Tierney plays Dr Dunstable and Jasmine Hyde plays Louise.

The Siege Of Krishnapur Ep 1/2, Sunday 10 May, 3.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 4

The Habit of Art

Playbill.com announces that Alex will star with Michael Gambon in Alan Bennett´s new play "The Habit of Art" at the National's Lyttelton this November. Alex will play WH Auden, Gambon will play Benjamin Britten. The play will be directed by the National's artistic director, Nicholas Hytner.

Playbill.com says: "The play is based on an entirely fictional meeting that takes place when poet Auden and composer Britten are respectively aged 70 and late 50s, when Auden was living in Oxford in the early 1960s before he died. In fact, though the two had collaborated on several works earlier in their careers – which included Auden writing the libretto for Britten's operetta Paul Bunyan and the song cycle "Our Hunting Fathers" – their relationship came to an uneasy end and they had not spoken since the mid-1940s."

Dates and further production details are still to be announced.

Full article at: Playbill

Dormouse

As part of the John Mortimer Tribute Season BBC Radio 7 broadcasts "The Summer of a Dormouse" this week, with Paul Scofield, Imelda Staunton and Alex.
An elderly man stands in the darkening garden of a vicarage by the sea and looks back on a life which seems to have passed as swiftly as Lord Byron's dormouse summer. John Mortimer's funny and poignant recollection of missed opportunities stars can be heard Tuesday at 10am, 3pm and 3am. It was first broadcast in 1999, the producer was Marilyn Imrie.

Lambeth Palace

The Saturday Play today also features Alex. Lambeth Palace (Radio 4, 2.30pm), is a comedy of church politics by Christopher William Hill. Alex stars as a prime candidate for succeeding a lately deceased Archbishop of Canterbury. But he’s having doubts about his faith plus his liberal views stand accused, by his rival, the Archbishop of York (Geoffrey Whitehead), of being possibly schismatic. It was written by Christopher William Hill.

Cast:
Michael Lombard ...... Alex Jennings
David Channing ...... Geoffrey Whitehead
Grace Lombard ...... Phoebe Nicholls
Patrick Latimer ...... Murray Melvin
Alicia Latham ...... Susan Jameson
Simon Brooker ...... Philip Fox
Anthony Taylor ...... Sam Dale
Russell Graves ...... Stephen Hogan
Claudia ...... Caroline Guthrie
Robin ...... Jonathan Tafler
Cardinal Daeneker ...... Malcolm Tierney
Seb ...... Benjamin Askew
Jade ...... Lizzy Watts

With Kirsty Wark and Jonathan Dimbleby as themselves, other parts are played by Janice Acquah, Matt Addis and Paul Rider. It is directed by Mary Peate.

Ayckbourn at 70

Alex takes part in the celebrations for Alan Ayckbourn's 70th birthday on BBC Radio.

On 11 April he will appear in Radio 4's Saturday Play, Man Of The Moment. This is Ayckbourn's play which examines the cult of celebrity and reality television. Vic Parks (Tim Piggott Smith), a failed criminal turned television celebrity, agrees to appear on a reality show with Douglas Beechey (Alex Jennings), the unassuming bank clerk who foiled the robbery. But the documentary starts to free-fall and events take an extraordinary turn.

Saturday Play: Man Of The Moment, Radio 4, Saturday 11 April at 2.30pm

BBC Radio 7 This Week

A lot of Alex on BBC Radio 7 again this week:

Without The Option 1/2
P G Wodehouse's delighfully scatty Bertie Wooster causes chaos when he persuades his friend Sippy to 'nab a policeman's helmet'. As usual, Jeeves is on hand to resolve the situation. This Radio 7 commission is unabridged and read in two parts by Alex Jennings, It was produced by Katherine Beacon.
Friday at 5pm


Speaking For Themselves - 1-5 of 10
An insight into the lives and personalities of Winston Churchill and his beloved wife, Clementine - as revealed in their letters. Starring Alex Jennings and Sylvestra Le Touzel, narrated by Helen Bourne, directed by Di Speirs and first broadcast in 1999.

Monday to Friday at 10am, 9pm and 2am

Stream, River, Sea

Alex will appear in the afternoon Play "Stream, River, Sea" on Friday 27 March,
2.15-3.00pm, on BBC RADIO 4. It is a play about the aftermath of bereavement. Juliet Stevenson also stars.

See: BBC website

Thanks, again, to Penny!

An Actor for All Seasons

Alex will be compere at a celebration of the life and work of the actor Paul Scofield, which will be held on the first anniversary of his death.

Other contributors are Eileen Atkins, Claire Bloom, Anna Calder- Marshall, Ralph Fiennes, Robert Hardy, John Harrison, John Hurt, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Pennington, Diana Rigg, Donald Sinden and John Tydeman. The tribute is directed by Gregory Doran.

Tickets are free but must be obtained in advance, in person or by telephone, from the National Theatre box office: 0207 452 3000 .

See: National Theatre

Thanks to Penny!

Big Thank You...

to Penny for blogsitting the diaries over the past three months while I was skiving off again way down south.....

Victoria and Albert

Alex will appear on BBC Radio 4 Front Row this Tuesday 17 March, 7.15-7.45pm
With producer Nica Burns he will visit the new theatre and performance gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Thanks to Jen!

Cry Babies - Radio 4

Alex plays Dr Rossiter in Kim Newman's Cry Babies, on Monday 9th of March at 2.15pm on Radio 4.

Cry Babies

By Kim Newman

It's the near future and busy, successful couple Angela and Barty Flitcroft want a child, but do not have the time to look after it. The solution is a genetically-enhanced daughter, Joy, birthed by a surrogate mother and reared to adulthood in a cryogenic chamber.

Joy experiences brief moments 'out of the machine', and as time passes each opening brings shocks and surprises as her parents and their society undergo incredible changes. And for Joy, stuffed with education by the machine but denied everyday experiences, life is not just a strange new country, but a frightening, confusing and often funny one, too.

Dr Rossiter ...... Alex Jennings
Angela Flitcroft ...... Natasha Little
Barty Flitcroft ...... Rupert Degas
Joy ...... Sia Berkeley
Roger ...... Colin Morgan
SleepLearn Machine ...... Sarah Douglas
Aruna ...... Emma Darwall-Smith
Jeff ...... Sam Alexander
Daisy ...... Kirsty Stuart
Ari ...... Rob Kendrick
Nurse Marketa/Girl ...... Emma Handy

Director Neil Gardner.

Edit: The play is available to listen again here until March 16th.

BBC Radio Sci Fi Season

There are more details of the BBC Radio Sci Fi season in this weeks RadioTimes and an eyecatching article promoting it.


The full article in two parts is here and here. I also missed this recent NT Platform, sorry.

Whitechapel - Episode 3

Even less of Alex in this final episode than the last one and then only looking very serious. Screengrabs below.



The final episode is available to watch on the ITV website here.

Erskine May

This play was broadcast on Wednesday on BBC Radio 7 and you can still catch it on iPlayer for the next four days here. Alex plays Thomas Erskine May.

With the Palace of Westminster blown up, can an assistant librarian rebuild it for Queen Victoria to open? Written by Dan Rebellato.

Whitechapel - Episode 2

Only fleeting glimpses of Alex in episode two. Screengrabs below.



The second episode is available to view here for 33 days. A preview of episode three is online here.

Whitechapel - Episode Two Preview

ITV have a preview synopsis and clip of episode two on their website and it is worth a look.

Whitechapel - Episode 1

The first episode of Whitechapel was entertaining enough, if somewhat gory. Not a lot of Alex: the clip that I posted yesterday had pretty much all of his appearance in it, with a tiny part a little later on. A few screengrabs below.



Episode one is available on the ITV player for the next 29 days.

Whitechapel - Clip

As I'm snowed in today and have had time to peruse the wonders of the internet, I found a short clip of Whitechapel nestling at the top of an interview with Rupert Penry-Jones from the The Telegraph. No mention of Alex in the interview, but the video clip is more fruitful and can be found here.

Critics' Circle Awards

Alex attended the Critics' Circle Awards yesterday, and here he is with winner of the Best Actress Award, Margaret Tyzack.


More pictures are available at Whatsonstage.

Whitechapel

Whitechapel will be broadcast on ITV at 9pm from the 2nd of February for three weeks. Alex plays Commander Anderson.

"A series of bloody, tragic and impossible crimes suggest someone is carrying out copycat Jack the Ripper murders 120 years after the killer first struck..." So not one for the faint hearted then.

There are more details on the ITV minisite for the programme. The press release with details of the first two episodes can be found here.

Cry Babies

In the first post of the New Year, The Stage newspaper announces BBC radio's SciFi season and that Alex will be playing the part of Dr. Rossiter (a cryogenics expert) in a play by Kim Newman, called Cry Babies. There's no news on the date of transmission or which radio station will be airing it.

Full article can be found here.

The Thirty-Nine Steps - Pictures

The adaptation of "The Thirty-Nine Steps" was broadcast last night on BBC One. It wasn't a patch on the 1935 Hitchcock film, but nevertheless a perfectly entertaining 90 minutes on a Sunday evening.

Captain Kell is the head of the Secret Service Bureau, an organisation that is contactable via the operator apparently! A few screen grabs:


Alex doesn't feature in this too much; my best advice would be not to blink!

The film is available here on the iPlayer until the 4th of January.

Amusing Chatter in the Cocktail Party

The rehearsed reading of T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party" was reviewed by Nicholas De Jongh in the Evening Standard:

"Adultery, favourite pastime in plays of the period, rears an indiscreet head when Alex Jennings’s Edward, absolutely superb in his shuttered anguish, after romancing Rosamund Pike’s Celia, and Chancellor’s Lavinia own up to sexual dallying. The play shifts with mesmerising stealth into terrain of suffering and death."

Full story: Evening Standard.

The Old Curiosity Shop

BBC Radio 7 are repeating the 25 part, 15 minute full-cast adapation, with Alex narrating, of "The Old Curiosity Shop" from the 29th of December at 10am every weekday morning, with an omnibus on Sunday mornings at 8am.

The Cocktail Party

There is to be a rehearsed reading of T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party" at the Donmar on December 17th, as part of it's T.S. Eliot festival.

Alex will participate along with: Rosamund Pike, Anna Chancellor, Charlie Cox, Rosalie Craig, Nicky Henson, Paul Phys and Una Stubbs. Jamie Lloyd is directing. Tickets cost £10.

How To Be An Internee With No Previous Experience

Another week, another Afternoon Play; this time in the second of a two play PG Wodehouse special, Alex will play Malcolm Muggeridge. It will be broadcast on Tuesday, 16th December on Radio 4.

How To Be An Internee With No Previous Experience

By Colin Shindler

In 1944, Wodehouse was questioned by MI5 after broadcasting to America from a German internment camp. One of the interrogators was an up-and-coming journalist called Malcolm Muggeridge. The other was Major EJP Cussen, who later became a high court judge. The stakes were high: one of Britain’s best loved authors was facing the possibility of the death penalty.

Wodehouse .....Tim McInnerny
Muggeridge ...... Alex Jennings
Cussen ..... Anton Lesser
Connor ..... Stephen Critchlow
Flannery ..... Gunnar Cauthery

Producer/director Peter Leslie Wild.

It will be available on the BBC iPlayer until Tuesday, 23rd December.

The People's Princess

The afternoon play on Thursday 11th December on Radio 4, stars Alex as an earlier Prince of Wales, George the IV.

The People's Princess

By Shelagh Stephenson

Facing financial ruin George, Prince of Wales is obliged to marry his first cousin - Princess Caroline of Brunswick. But if he had been expecting a docile partner with whom he could maintain appearances, George has seriously underestimated his wife-to-be.

George IV ...... Alex Jennings,
Caroline of Brunswick ...... Rebecca Saire
Henry Brougham ...... Julian Rhind Tutt
Lord Sidmouth ...... Chris McHallem
Lord Liverpool ...... Richard Howard
Sir Robert Gifford ...... Mark Lambert
Lady Jersey ...... Jill Cardo
Mr Majoucci ...... Nial Cusack

Director Eoin O’Callaghan.

Available on the BBC iPlayer until Thursday 18th December.

Captain Kell

Alex will play a character called Captain Kell in the BBC's adaptation of "The 39 Steps". The episode is set to air on Sunday the 28th of December at 8pm.

For more information please see the BBC Presspack article.

Exmouth Community College

Alex will be at Exmouth Community College talking to the students of Filmclub. on Wednesday, December 3 between 2pm and 4pm to talk to its members about his role as Prince Charles in feature film The Queen.

See Devon24

Evening Standard Awards

Alex attended the Evening Standard Awards at the Royal Opera House today. Here he is with Kenneth Cranham. More pictures of the event at Whatsonstage

Cambridge Charity

Alex will be appearing in Cambridge on 10 December in a charity event to raise money for the Vet School's Hope Appeal. Tickets are £20 each and the evening starts at 6.30 pm.

The evening is described as follows:

“Hosted by Julia McKenzie (the new Miss Marple) and featuring Brian Kay, Alex Jennings, The Classic Buskers and the A-Cappella Company, this evening will be jolly, friendly and a nice event for a local good cause. Join us for a wonderful evening - singing and enjoying the music, readings and refreshments - to raise funds for The HOPE Appeal for Cambridge Veterinary School’s Cancer Therapy Unit,” says Meredith Lloyd-Evans, a Hope Appeal Trustee and local businessman.

Suitable for company outings, families and anyone who would like to have a good time and raise money at the same time!"

For more information check: Cambridge Network

Silent Planet

Alex will be reading C.S. Lewis sci-fi thriller "Out of the Silent Planet" on BBC Radio 7 starting Monday 24 November. There are 12 episodes. BBC Radio 7

My Year Off

The afternoon play last Thursday has Alex playing one of the characters:

My Year Off

By Robert McCrum

At the age of 42, Robert McCrum, the chief editor of Faber and Faber suffered a devastating stroke. This is a searingly honest account of his experience which includes extracts from his diary and that of his wife Sarah.

Robert McCrum ...... Alex Jennings
Sarah Lyall ...... Madeleine Potter
Doctor/Dentist/
Occupational Therapist ...... Richard Laing
Paramedic/Speech Therapist/Physiotherapist……Rachel Atkins

Sound design by David Thomas; producer Karen Rose.

You can listen on the BBC iPlayer until Wednesday!

iPlayer

Thanks to Penny!

Bond, James Bond

Next Monday Alex will start reading "Casino Royal" on BBC Radio 7 in five daily episodes.

Check: BBC Radio 7 for details.

Drama Queens Pictures

The Joseph Fiennes web has some pictures of the actors on stage with their characters at the Old Vic:

Joseph Fiennes Web

Swearing and Grumbling?

Just a couple of details of Alex's performance at:
Artinfo

Solid Granite

Louise Jury at the Evening Standard has reviewed Alex's performance as solid granite block:

"Bravo to the Old Vic for presenting one of the most weird and wonderful British premieres I've seen in quite some time.

Drama Queens, the brainchild of German artists Elmgreen and Dragset, presented five remote-controlled sculptures on stage with the actors providing a live voiceover from the sidelines.

Joseph Fiennes played an abstract, angular sculpture by Sol Lewitt flirting monstrously with a Barbara Hepworth sculpture played by Lesley Manville.

Spacey himself gave voice to an infuriatingly chatty silver rabbit based on the famous work by the American Jeff Koons. Jeremy Irons played Giacometti's tall thin walking man while Alex Jennings voiced a solid granite oh-so-Germanic untitled block inspired by the German artist Ulrick Ruckriem. [u umlaut]"

Full story at: Evening Standard

Sherlock Holmes

And there is more Alex on BBC Radio 7 this week. On Wednesday at 10.15 a.m. they will broadcast an episode from the Sherlock Holmes recordings, recorded in July 1993, called "The Dying Detective". Alex plays Savage. As usual, the show. can be listened to for a week after initial broadcast.

BBC Radio 7

Drama Queens

Alex is due to "appear" in a production of "Drama Queens" at the Old Vic on 12 October. This is a Gala event to raise money for The Old Vic Theatre Trust Creative Development Programme.

For more information see: Old Vic Theatre

Sentimental Education

Well, there's more Alex on BBC Radio over the next couple of weeks. He is reading the book at bedtime, Sentimental Education, by Gustave Flaubert. Readings are availabe for seven days after the original broadcast. The first episode was broadcast on 6 October.

Book at Bedtime

Thanks to Penny!

Miss Marple, Murder and Mirrors

Alex plays Inspector Curry in an episode of the Miss Marple mysteries. The episode is called "They Do It With Mirrors", Julia McKenzie plays Miss Marple, Joan Collins, Tom Payne and Penelope Wilton also appear. The episode is due to be broadcast in 2009 on ITV1.

39 Steps

Filming has started in Scotland on a new adaptation of John Buchan's "The 39 Steps". The IMDb has Alex in the cast list, but doesn't say which part he plays. The film is due to be broadcast by the BBC on Boxing Day this year.

Thanks to Lori!

Irish RM

On Sunday 5 October from 3.00 to 4.00 pm Alex can be heard in the classic serial "The Experiences of an Irish RM". The BBC gives the following description:

"When the affable, if somewhat foolish, Major Sinclair Yeates leaves the British Army and opts to become a Resident Magistrate in turn-of-the-century Ireland, he has no idea what adventures await him. As he tries to get on with his job, he finds the locals are out-thinking and out-manoeuvring him every step of the way. He plods on, trying his very best to do his job, but finds himself frustrated by a people whose every waking moment seems dedicated to thwarting the poor man.

The Experiences Of An Irish RM stars Alex Jennings as The Irish RM and Mark Lambert as Flurry Knox. Other cast members include Marion O'Dwyer, Cathy Belton, John Hewitt, Ingrid Craigie and Miche Doherty. The Experiences Of An Irish RM was dramatised by Christopher Fitz-Simon."

Radio 4

Thanks Penny!

Candide

This Saturday BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a recording of ENO's "Candide" with Alex playing the roles of Voltaire, dr. Pangloss and Martin. The BBC press release gives the following information:

"From the opening bars of the overture, the scintillating score and succession of brilliant and witty numbers, Leonard Bernstein's Candide is an enthralling, breathtaking, roller-coaster of a piece. With its affectionate parodies of operatic conventions and forms, it was a personal favourite of Bernstein's and, from its 1956 première, he tinkered with it, on and off, for three decades.

Candide is based on Voltaire's savage satire on 18th-century institutions and manners, whose ridiculously optimistic dictum "All's for the best in the best of all possible worlds" is relentlessly disproved by an unending sequence of misfortunes and disasters, death and destruction.

In this controversial production, recorded at the English National Opera in July, director Robert Carsen triumphantly updates the often surreal action from 18th-century Europe to Fifties America, and beyond, revealing the dystopian reality of the American Dream. Westphalia becomes West-Failure; the Spanish Inquisition is transformed into Senator Joe McCarthy and the Ku Klux Klan; Venice is Vegas; Eldorado, Texas. And, in a move that nearly caused the cancellation of the show in Milan, Voltaire's five deposed kings become Blair, Chirac, Bush, Putin and Berlusconi.

The acclaimed cast comes from the worlds of musical theatre and opera: the multi-talented Alex Jennings plays Voltaire, Pangloss and Martin; Beverly Klein is the Old Lady; Soprano Marnie Breckenridge is a sparkling Cunegonde; and the title role is taken by leading British tenor Toby Spence. Rumon Gamba conducts them and the Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera."


Opera On 3 – Candide
Saturday 4 October
6.00-9.30pm BBC RADIO 3

Radio 3 - Candide

Thanks again to Penny!

Wodehouse, Second Part

This Friday Alex will be reading the second part of "Without the Option" by P.G. Wodehouse. The programme can be heard on BBC7 from 17.00 to 17.30, and for seven days after the original broadcast through the Listen Again service. Part one is still available there, until Friday.

BBC7

Jeeves - Without the Option

This Friday Alex will be reading part one of one of P.G. Wodehouses stories, "Without the Option" on BBC Radio 7. The reading will be broadcast at 5 pm and 6.30 am. The story can be heard for a week after the original broadcast through the Listen Again option.

Listen at: BBC7

Frightfest

Alex's latest film, "The Disappeared", will be shown at the Frightfest Film Festival in London on 25 August at 3.40 p.m. The festival takes place at the Odeon West End.

For more information see the Frightfest website.

There is a picture gallery at the film's website now, which has some pictures of Alex. See: Disappeared Picture Gallery.

Return of Ashenden

Alex is back reading Ashenden, Gentleman Spy on BBC7: Alex Jennings reads Somerset Maugham's series of short stories, based on his own experiences during the First World War and featuring Ashenden, recruited by the British Secret Service as a spy. Abridged by Neville Teller the producer was Eoin O'Callaghan and it was an original BBC 7 commission.

Monday to Friday at 9.30am 8.30pm and 1.30am

Saturday Review

BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review has an item on Candide. It was mentioned that BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a recording of the production in the autumn!

The review can be heard until 4 July on Radio 4.

More Candide

MusicalCriticism.com has a good review of Candide and seems happy with Alex: "Thank goodness for the sensational, suave Alex Jennings: he's perhaps the only person completely at home and relaxed with the material, which is miraculous given the challenge of the triple role he plays. As Voltaire, he draws the audience in with his ironic declamations; as Pangloss, he plays the bogus teacher to a tee; and his portrayal of Martin's deep cynicism is one of the most touching moments of the evening. His singing and diction are just right for the piece, and, in a way, it's worth going just to see him."

They also have the first picture!


Full review: Musical Criticism

More mixed feelings about the production from Edward Seckerson in The Independent, but again only praise for Alex: "It was Bernstein and Hellman’s idea that Candide’s tutor, the philosopher Dr. Pangloss, should, as a re-embodiment of Voltaire, become our master of ceremonies. Subsequent rewrites have made this more explicit and here we have the brilliant Alex Jennings slipping nonchalantly between the two – not to mention Pangloss’s alter ego, the cynic Martin, whose belief in “the worst of all possible worlds” achieves greater resonance in this production with his bitter laughing song “Words, Words, Words”. Jennings nails that."

Full review: The Independent

First Candide Reviews

The first reviews are in. Richard Morrison in the Times on line isn't happy about the production but puts brilliant and Alex Jennings in the same phrase: "a smartypants Rumsfeld-like Doctor Pangloss (the brilliant Alex Jennings, who is also Voltaire, a cynical dustman, and the night’s chief redeeming feature)".

Full review: Timesonline

Fiona Maddocks on Thisislondon.co.uk has mixed feelings about the production, but "We're tuned to Volt-Air TV with the French Enlightenment philosopher himself as the channel-flicking narrator - played superbly by Alex Jennings who, doubling as the perfectly flossed optimist Pangloss and the old tramp-pessimist Martin, stole the show."

Full review:This is London

Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph calls Alex's performance "deliciously wry".

Full review: Telegraph

More From Toby Spence

Toby Spence has more to say about Alex in a preview in the Independent:

"In this production the actor Alex Jennings will play Pangloss. Can he sing? "Yes – he did My Fair Lady – but when you ask me a question like that, I have to ask you, what is singing?" OK, what is singing? "It's projecting words through music. Which is why actors often make fantastic singers." But has he a voice? "It's quite annoying – he can't read music, but he sings on pitch, and he's got a good ear. He's a really good Pangloss.""

The Independent

Toby Spence on Candide and Alex

The Times Online has an interview with Toby Spence on his part as Candide. He mentions Alex and the difference between actors and opera singers:

"Spence obviously can't wait. He thrives on Carsen's brand of aggressive theatricality, and is keen to work with stage actors (Alex Jennings plays Pangloss). “Every day I see him adding something, or taking something out. Whereas we opera singers arrive having made a lot of decisions, he's putty, and that's fascinating for me.”"

For the full interview see: Times Online

Candide Goodies

English National Opera has published more information on Candide on their website.

There is a short trailer on their weblog, which does not feature Alex but has information on the production. This is the first instalment. You can find it at English National Opera's Weblog.

Then there is a podcast with director Robert Carsen, conductor Rumon Gamba, Jamie Bernstein, Alex and Toby Spence discussing Candide. You can download it from: ENO podcasts.

Scarlet on Black

Alex is back on BBC Radio 7 this week, in Roger Danes' fast-moving thriller, "Scarlet on Black", set in Paris. David Calder stars as Commissaire Grosset, and the cast also features Peter Jeffrey and Jonathan Tafler. This production was fist heard in 1992. Saturday 31 May at midday and 1am on BBC7.

51

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Midwich Cuckoos

Alex's weekly appearance on BBC7 Radio will this week be on John Wyndham's sci-fi classic "Midwich Cuckoos". It was first broadcast on The World Service in 1982. It is about a mysterious force-field which descends upon a sleepy English rural village, but then vanishes. Later it emerges that all the female villagers have become pregnant and the resulting children appear to have strange powers.

This also stars Charles Kay, Pauline Yates, William Gaunt, Rosalind Adams, Ronald Baddiley and Peter Tuddenham. Wednesday – Friday at 6pm and Midnight, with a chance to "listen again" for 7 days after the original broadcast.

The Week on BBC Radio 7

A few chances to catch Alex again on BBC 7 this week.

First, on Saturday he can be heard in "Small Gods", which is part of the mini-season celebrating Terry Pratchett’s 60th birthday. Small Gods is dramatised in 4 parts by Robin Brooks and the cast features Anton Lesser, Patrick Barlow, Carl Prekopp, Alex and Michael Kilgarriff. It will be broadcast on Saturday at 6.30pm and 00.30am

Then, he can be heard in "Stolen" by Ray Jenkins. The short play is about a German archaeologist who gets involved in a race to steal Buddhist treasures from ancient lost towns along the Silk Road. With Siobhan Redmond, Sean Baker and David Tse, it was directed by Janet Whitaker and first heard in 1999. The programme will be broadcast on Monday at 10.15am, 9.15pm and 2.15am

As usual the programmes can be heard for seven days after the original broadcast on the "Listen Again" page at
BBC7.

Torture Team

On May 18 Alex will appear at the Tricycle Theatre in London in TORTURE TEAM: the people who brought cruelty and criminality to Guantanamo. Vanessa Redgrave, Philippe Sands, Joanna Lumley, Bill Hoyland, Clive Stafford-Smith and Paul Bhattarchargee will also appear. Proceeds from the event, which has been devised by Redgrave,Sands, and Nicholas Kent, will benefit the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture and Reprieve.

For more information see the Tricycle Theatre.

The Disappeared Website

Alex appears in a film called "The Disappeared". The website for the film is at: The Disappeared.

Apart from some background information you can see the trailer for the film there. The film is due to be released later this year.

Book at Bedtime

Alex is one of the readers of the Book At Bedtime from Monday 28 April to Friday 9 May from 10.45-11.00 pm on BBC RADIO 4. The book is The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. The BBC press release gives the following information:

"As she nears her 100th birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, where she has spent the best part of her adult life, is soon to close. In the weeks leading up to this upheaval, Roseanne talks with her psychiatrist, Dr Grene, and their relationship intensifies and becomes increasingly complicated.

The story is told through Roseanne and Dr Grene's fictional journals, and it is at once both shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through a haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love, passion and hope.

Roseanne's journal is read by Doreen Keogh and Dr Grene's by Alex Jennings."

A Dance to the Music of Time

Alex is appearing in the BBC Radio 4's classic serial "A Dance to the Music of Time", the first episode was broadcast on 6 April. You can listen to each episode for seven days after the original broadcast. To listen to the latest episode go to the Classic Serial webpage.

Thanks to Penny for all the radio news!

Archers

Alex appeared on the Archers all of last week, playing a barrister in the trial. The trial isn't over yet, so he might appear again this week. Last week's episodes can be downloaded as podcasts from the BBC Archers webpage.

Hancock and Joan - The Reviews

Robert Hanks in the Independent was not impressed by the play but he was impressed by Alex's performance: "Ken Stott and Alex Jennings played Hancock and Le Mesurier, neither of them looking remotely the part, but both managing at times to evoke them quite beautifully. I especially liked Jennings's impression of that self-depreciating wave of the hand Le Mesurier did: such a distinctive gesture, but so hard to pin down, a matter of angle and speed that you could never measure."

David Belcher in The Herald was less impressed by Alex: "John Le Mesurier was the good old boy whom Joan married but didn't truly fall for, unluckily for him. Unluckily for us, Alex Jennings didn't get very far beyond providing a pallid impersonation of the languid Dad's Army star, an innate gentleman who chose not to kick up a bally fuss about having his heart broken by his best pal's theft of his wife because he simply loved them both, don't you know."

Goldfish Girl

This Wednesday, 2 April, Alex appears with Juliet Stevenson in the play "Goldfish Girl" on BBC Radio 4. The Publicity Department gives the following synpsis:

"What if you couldn't remember a single minute of the 10 years you'd spent with the love of your life? Goldfish Girl, by Peter Souter, is a romantic and tender play. A husband slowly leads his amnesiac wife, who is lying in a hospital bed recovering from a brain injury, through the story of their passionate love affair and on to the terrible and tragic reason that they are no longer together.

The journey he takes her on, day after day, is to help her recover – but he knows that recovery will inevitably lead to his ultimate rejection."

Whitechapel

According to the IMDb Alex is working on a three-part thriller for ITV called "Whitechapel". He plays the part of Commander Anderson, other parts are played by Rupert Penry-Jones, Philip Davis, Johnny Harris, Steve Pemberton. The release date says 2008, other websites say it is part of ITV's autumn schedule. The series is about a modern day Jack the Ripper.

Candide Trailer

The ENO have posted a Candide trailer on their weblog. You can find it at the: ENO weblog. The trailer gives a sense of the production.

The ENO have also set up a website for the production. There is an image gallery with images from earlier productions and there is a competition to win tickets to the opening night.

Candide website.

Failure Is Not an Option

Tonight Alex plays the role of Vincent, the Commons Whip, in the BBC serial "10 Days to War".

Hancock and Joan

Alex plays the role of John Le Mesurier in a BBC4 drama on the relationship between Joan Le Mesurier and Tony Hancock. It's an episode in the series "The Curse of Comedy" called "Hancock and Joan". Broadcast date is Wednesday March 26, Ken Stott plays Hancock, Maxine Peake plays Joan. More information on:

BBC 4

Memory

Last Sunday 2 March Alex was one of the readers in the BBC Radio 3 broadcast "Memory", one in the "Words & Music" series. He reads works by D.H. Lawrence, Seamus Heaney, Billy Collins, Kenneth Grahame. Ted Hughes, Patrick Kavanagh and Philip Larkin.

The programme is available on the website for 7 days after the broadcast at Listen Again.

Rapunzel

BBC Northern Ireland has created a mini-site for the fairy tale 'Rapunzel', which was broadcast last January. It has this nice picture of Alex in his role as "smoothie" Roger Bateman.

The website: BBC Northern Ireland

10 Days to War

Alex will appear in an episode of a new series of short dramas to be broadcast on BBC2 over the next couple of weeks. The series starts on Monday 10 March, Alex appears in episode 7, "Failure Is Not an Option", on Tuesday March 18. The series deals with the run-up to the war in Iraq.

More information on:BBC website

Blinded By the Sun

From Saturday 8 March Alex stars with Harriet Walter in a new radio version in 4 parts of an award-winning play about scientific fraud by Stephen Poliakoff on BBC 4 at 14.30.

For more information check the BBC Press Release

Still Life

Owen from London went to see the reading of "Still Life" at the National Theatre in which Alex played/read Alec last January. His personal review is at:

Plastic Bag

Cranford - Behind the Scenes

A picture of Alex waiting to start his scene is at:

Judi Dench fansite

Cranford - Last episode

Penny has provided some more pictures, thanks again!

Alex Plays Voltaire

Alex will make his operatic debut this summer in English National Opera’s new version of Candide which runs at the London Coliseum for 13 performances only from 23June 2008.

For more information and tickets, check the ENO website.

Back

Well, I´m back from a long working holiday in the far south, and over the next few days I will try and add some old and new news to the blog. If you have more, let me know!

Cranford - part 4

Penny has added part 4 of Cranford to "Penny For Your Dreams".

She has also supplied some more pictures:

Rapunzel

The BBC have announced that "Rapunzel", one of a series of Fairy Tales to be shown on BBC1 will be broadcast on January 10 at 9 pm. The story has been transferred to the world of tennis and Alex plays an ex-tennis player turned pundit.

Cranford - part 3

Penny has put up episode three, so have a look at Penny For Your Dreams

And she's provided some more screen caps:

The Nine Tailors

After reading the Ashenden stories for BBC7 last week, Alex will be back reading the Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 from December 24. It's Dorothy L. Sayers this time, "The Nine Tailors". As far as I can gather there will be ten episodes. The programme is on at 22.45 on weeknights, and can be heard for a week after the original broadcast through the website.

Cranford - part 2

Penny has put the story of Cranford part 2 up on her weblog, and she has some pictures of Alex in there.

A few more from Penny here:




See Penny For Your Dreams

Cranford in the USA

"Cranford" is to be broadcast as a three-part miniseries early next year on PBS in the USA. It will be part of the Masterpiece Theatre Classic season to be broadcast in the winter and spring. More details will be given on a new PBS website in January.

Reverend Hutton

The Radio Times Website has a special section on Cranford, with a picture of the Reverend Hutton in there somewhere, as well as episode guides, video clips and pictures.

Radio Times Cranford section


Penny has the story of the first episode and a nice series of screen caps up on her weblog, including a couple of the reverend.

Penny for Your Dreams

Return to Ashenden

Alex will be reading five Ashenden stories on BBC7 radio next week. This is a new commission for BBC7, so different from the 1991 television adaptation. The stories can be heard Monday to Friday at 9.30am, 8.30pm and 1.30am, and will be available on "Listen Again" for a week after the initial broadcast.

BBC7

Coward Readings

The National Theatre will present readings of two short Coward plays in January: The Astonished Heart and Still Life. The plays were originally written by Noël Coward for himself and Gertrude Lawrence and performed in 1936 as part of Tonight at 8.30.

Alex will play Christian Faber in "The Astonished Heart" on Wednesday 16 January and Alec Harvey in "Still Life" on Wednesday 23 January. The readings start at 6 p.m. and will take place in the Lyttelton Theatre.

For more information and tickets check the National Theatre Website at: National Theatre

Thanks to Amber!

Dombey and Son

Alex is described as a "paternalistic Dickens" in the new adaptation of "Dombey and Son", being broadcast from today on BBC4's "Woman's Hour". It is a 20-part adaptation, and the episodes are available for a week after the original broadcast:

Woman's Hour

Cranford, Episode 1

The first episode of Cranford was shown on BBC1 last night. An interesting, and sometimes funny view of nineteenth century English village life. I quite enjoyed it, but I only caught a glimpse of Alex in a couple of scenes. I hope that he will play a larger part in the next episodes. The reviews of the series I've read so far were good, and a lot of people watched it as well. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Cranford Schedule

The first episode of Cranford will be broadcast this Sunday, 18 Nov, from 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm on BBC 1.

Penny's Review

Penny saw "Present Laughter" on Saturday, and her review is on her weblog "Penny For Your Dreams". She's also put up a few new pictures. I think she liked the production, and the lead actor....

"The energy level increased quite dramatically once Alex Jennings made his entrance as Garry. His huge stage filling presence really lifts the production and from that moment, you miss Garry when he's not on stage, because he is making the play tick and providing the intensity and dynamism that's required to make the play work."

...

"Sarah Woodward was great and of course Alex Jennings was utterly marvellous as Garry. He brought out the inherent comedy in lines that are barely comic in the text and is so charismatic that you forgive Garry his womanising, vanity and self importance. He shows you the human under the handsome veneer, the lonely man in his ivory tower (though it leaks a bit in the rain)."

To read Penny's full review: Penny For Your Dreams

Another PL Review

Ray Bennett for Reuters doesn't much like the production, but: "It's left to Jennings to carry the evening as Essendine, and he does it with great flair. Flouncing, sighing or raining down invective, he pays Coward the highest compliment of acting as if his slick and empty words really mean something."

BBC7, Yet Again

BBC7 is broadcasting a repeat of Midwich Cuckoos, John Wyndham's sci-fi classic about alien impregnation overturning the world of a sleepy English village, which was originally dramatised for radio in 3 parts by William Ingram in 1982. The production stars Charles Kay, Pauline Yates, William Gaunt, Rosalind Adams, Ronald Baddiley, Peter Tuddenham and Alex and was directed by Gordon House for the World Service.

The repeat will be broadcast this Wednesday - Friday at 6pm and midnight in the 7th dimension slot.

Cranford and Fairy Tales

The two series Alex has been filming this year, "Cranford" and "Fairy Tales" are due to start being broadcast in the week of 17-23 November. Alex appears in the episode "Rapunzel" of Fairy Tales. An exact date and time has not yet been given for either, but they will be broadcast on BBC1.

Fame and Fortune

Alex appears in "Fame and Fortune" on BBC Radio 4 today:

"Frederic Raphael's sequel to the television classic, The Glittering Prizes, returns to the group of friends who met at Cambridge University in the early 1950s. The series chronicles English social life and public and private values in the last quarter of the 20th century.

1/6. Adam Morris is now a successful writer, but still as ambivalent as ever about his Jewishness. In their middle years, have the friends fulfilled their promise or sold out?

Adam Morris ...... Tom Conti
Francesca ...... Poppy Miller
M Mike Clode ...... Mark Wing Davey
Alan Parks ...... Alistair McGowan
Ronnie Braithwaite ...... Roger Hammond
Gavin Pope ...... Alex Jennings
Fran Pope ...... Jilly Bond
Tim Dent ...... Stephen Critchlow
Tory Girl ...... Georgina Rich
Rachel Morris ...... Flora Montgomery
Jonty ...... Benedict Cumberbatch
Henrietta ...... Fiona Button
Jack ...... Nicholas Chambers
David ...... Simon Greenall
Denis Porson ...... Nigel Havers
Jill ...... Harriet Walters
Giancarlo ...... Jon Glover

The play is available for listening online for 7 days after the broadcast:
The Saturday Play

Dombey and Son

The BBC will be broadcasting an radio adaptation of Dombey and Son late November. The details:

"Woman's Hour Drama – Dombey And Son Ep 1/20 - Monday 19 to Friday 23 November
10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

Alex Jennings stars as Charles Dickens, with Robert Glenister (Hustle) as Paul Dombey in a radio dramatisation of Charles Dickens's novel depicting the spectacular fall of a major London trading house, dramatised by Mike Walker.

Dombey's hopes for the family firm are centred on his infant son, Paul, and Florence, his devoted daughter. However, Paul dies, Dombey's second marriage ends in disaster and the firm is ruined, and only Florence has the strength and humanity to save her father.

The cast also includes Fenella Fielding, Geraldine James, Pam Ferris, Nicky Henson, Trevor Peacock, Helen Schlesinger, Adrian Lukis, Claire Rushbrook, Katy Cavanagh and Abigail Hollick."

Baldi Repeat

Alex will appear in a (repeat) episode of the radio detective drama "Baldi" on BBC 7 next Wednesday, October 31. The episode will be available online for a week after the broadcast.

"Shelter: The murder of a homeless man links a Dublin squat with the history of art. Starring David Threlfall. Episode 6 of 6."

BBC7 - What's On

Alchemist Promotion

From our correspondent in Florida:

The promotional trailer for The Alchemist is available on
YouTube

Lori's Review

As many of the critics note, the success of a production of Present Laughter depends on the strength of its Garry, and Alex is more than up to the challenge. At Friday night's performance (the stalls nearly full), everyone around me was thoroughly enjoying the show and Alex's performance, and signaled it with loud and enthusiastic laughter. In addition, a couple of women next to me were waxing poetic over his clarity of diction -- rightly so, I think!

Everyone else has touched on the greatnesses of Alex's performance, so I'll just include three more. I really enjoyed the subtlety and variety he brought to Garry, a part which could be tiresome in the wrong hands. The righteous anger with Roland Maule (or rather, the anger with the kind of bad theatre Maule stood for); the Act Two loneliness, listening to potent 'cheap music'; the emotional intimacy with Liz and (in a different way) Monica: all of these things anchored and humanised the character.

I appreciated a few touches which seemed like Noel Coward to me, even though Alex wasn't doing an impersonation at all -- for example, his habit of throwing his arms wide to make a point reminded me of one of Coward's characteristic stances in cabaret performances (or at least the clips I've seen).

However, I also appreciated that he wasn't playing Noel Coward -- something which some of the critics seemed to want -- but instead was playing Garry. The seduction scene at the end of Act One was all the more powerful because it wasn't the more effete Coward but a Garry set up by the text. (And it was very powerful indeed!)

A great evening for Alex fans and for fans of Coward's work who don't require the baggage of the great man as well. (I say this, by the way, as a woman who proudly displays three small portraits of Noel in her study and who plays her boxed set of Coward CDs all the time.)
Fabulous stuff, wonderful Alex!

And More Reviews

David Benedict in Variety is full of praise for Alex:

Although not all the cast members are up to their sublime level, the frankly glorious Alex Jennings and Sarah Woodward sweep aside doubts about the play.

...

In a role he was born to play, Jennings makes ease look, well, easy. Despite peacocking about in a series of dressing gowns, Jennings never confuses charm and smarm; he sweeps about the stage like a cross between Rex Harrison and a well-bred wolf.

Exaggeration isn't Garry's mode of expression, it's his way of life. Leaping on top of the grand to observe himself in one of the full length mirrors lining Tim Hatley's boldly turquoise, sharply angled set, he cries "Oh God, I look 98." In fact, he's bordering on 42. Jennings, however, reveals both Garry's boyish bravado and, in the nighttime seduction scene, the mature intelligence usually hidden beneath his entertaining bombast.

Jennings' timing is so flawless he even finds space to stretch punctuation to delicious comic effect. Attempting to extricate himself from last night's love-struck ingenue, he trots out the line, "Don't love me too much, Daphne." But he halts momentarily on the comma to search for her name, indicating just how common an occurrence this is.

Full review:Variety



And Matt Wolf in the International Herald Tribune doesn't much like the play or the production:

But any "Present Laughter" stands or falls on its Garry, a role Jennings bats out of the park. Self-aware but never overly self-adoring, his aspish wit never so astringent so as to turn us off, Jennings gives us a Garry who exists within the confines of farce (Tim Hatley's set contains the requisite doors) only to realize, Feste-like, that life isn't necessarily a laughing matter.

Full review: IHT

Official Pictures

The National Theatre has put some pictures of the production up on the website:


See for more pictures: National Theatre

Live at the National

Yesterday I got to see Present Laughter for myself. After reading all the reviews a chance to make up my own mind. I had a wonderful time, laughed a great deal, and really enjoyed Alex's performance. After some of the slightly mixed reviews I was getting doubtful, but there was absolutely no need. Alex did take a slight fall towards the end of the performance and fell down the stairs. He hurt his foot in the process.

I got to meet him for a few minutes after the show and he was very friendly, taking time to talk to us in spite of his injury. It was very good to see him again! More news later.

The Stage - Review

The Stage has a favourable review of both the production and Alex:

"The part of Garry Essendine - a successful romantic comedy actor who attracts adoring young women and men in Noel Cowards’ 1942 play - could have been written for Alex Jennings. He gets the over-acting, outrage and moodiness, underpinned by the usual artistic angst, insecurity and querulousness, perfectly. The masterly Jennings can also get a laugh merely by lifting an eyebrow and turns quizzicality into an art form. Essendine is a huge Hamlet-sized role, rarely off-stage but, apparently inexhaustible, Jennings is as riveting in the final minutes as at his first appearance."

Full review: The Stage

BBC Radio Interview

There was an interview with Alex on BBC radio 4's front row on Monday, you can listen again for 1 week through the Front Row Homepage. Alex talks about "Present Laughter", "The Queen", "Stuff Happens", and about being the voice of BBC2's "The Restaurant".

Thanks Penny!

More Reviews

Michael Billington in the Guardian isnt very happy with the production, but is full of praise for Alex:

Ever since Coward played him in 1942, Garry has been seen as the ultimate matinee idol, whose impenetrable charm compensates for his narcissistic vanity. Alex Jennings, however, offers a superbly executed re-interpretation. Wrapping himself in a new dressing gown as if he were a Roman emperor, Jennings does not stint on Garry's self-esteem; at the same time he suggests he is the only truth-teller in a world of lies. He rounds on a talentless playwright, Roland Maule, with the moral fervour of Molière's Alceste. And, harassed by amorous intrigue on the eve of a tour to Africa, Jennings brutally exposes the sexual hypocrisy of his inner circle. It is a richly funny performance that confirms Coward's innate puritanism.

Full review: The Guardian



Nicolas de Jongh in the Evening Standard is less enthusiastic:

"Howard Davies, not a director whose productions have ever revealed himself to be on close terms with a sense of humour, and Alex Jennings, who clearly adores flouncing around in one dressing gown and several piques, take too old-fashioned, heterosexist and superficial a line.

The interpolation of news bulletins about war manoeuvres makes Present Laughter seem preposterously selfabsorbed. There are interesting psychological and sexual nuances that need exploring rather than concealing as Davies and Jennings contrive: Garry proves randomly bisexual rather than faithfully heterosexual, manifests dread of middle-age and loneliness.

He does break out in genuine erotic desire and anger when his business partner's adulterous wife, Lisa Dillon's vamping Joanna, attempts to seduce him and threatens his cocooned existence. He turns rattled when his male admirer, Pip Carter's unsuitably weird rather than gay Roland Maule, arrives to harass him.

Jennings, a bit mature to play Coward's forty-ish heartthrob, registers no such complexities. His comically pointed performance, like Tim Hatley's set, is sedately grand and imposing. The thin slither of the creaky plot,which shows up like an overdue limousine, does not reach climactic pandemonium."

Full review: Evening Standard



In The Times Benedict Nightingale has some doubts:

"Garry is Coward’s half-mocking, half-admiring portrait of his own sophisticated self, and we’re not in doubt of his narcissism from the moment Alex Jennings, who plays him at the National, leaps on to his piano to preen himself in the giant mirrors that line the odd, tapering, turquoise drawing room that Tim Hatley has designed for him. Nothing finally matters to him but his ego, his career and his impending African tour.

Jennings’s Garry is interestingly different from those we’ve seen in recent years: Ian McKellen, who emphasised the actor’s fear of ageing and self-regarding infantilism; Simon Callow, who suggested a surprising seriousness beneath the thespian extravagance and fruity vox; Peter Bowles, who caught a steely aloofness and an inner melancholy as well as a suave exterior; Tom Conti, who was, well, Tom Conti. For Jennings, Garry is a defensive, harassed man who comes alive when he decides it’s necessary to perform the role of the stricken lover saying farewell, or the much-abused victim of others’ cruelty, or anything that’s not the near-vacuum of himself.

Since the plot has Feydeauesque twists, with Garry using his spare room as a hiding-place for his lays – one a gurgling deb, the others respectively the wife and the lover of his two closest friends – Jennings gets plenty of opportunity to be the man who never knows when, or if, he’s acting.

Some of this is decidedly funny, but doubts intrude. For all the self-criticism, isn’t the portrait fundamentally self-serving, especially when this crypto-Coward is caricaturing and mocking Pip Carter’s Maule, a would-be dramatist of the kind the real Coward was to assail in the kitchen-sink era?"

Full review: Times


David Benedict in Variety is full of praise for Alex:

"In a role he was born to play, Jennings makes ease look, well, easy. Despite peacocking about in a series of dressing gowns, Jennings never confuses charm and smarm; he sweeps about the stage like a cross between Rex Harrison and a well-bred wolf.

Exaggeration isn't Garry's mode of expression, it's his way of life. Leaping on top of the grand to observe himself in one of the full length mirrors lining Tim Hatley's boldly turquoise, sharply angled set, he cries "Oh God, I look 98." In fact, he's bordering on 42. Jennings, however, reveals both Garry's boyish bravado and, in the nighttime seduction scene, the mature intelligence usually hidden beneath his entertaining bombast.

Jennings' timing is so flawless he even finds space to stretch punctuation to delicious comic effect. Attempting to extricate himself from last night's love-struck ingenue, he trots out the line, "Don't love me too much, Daphne." But he halts momentarily on the comma to search for her name, indicating just how common an occurrence this is."

Full review: Variety

"Present Laughter" video

The What's On Stage website has some footage shot after the opening night, with some short Alex interviews:

What's On Stage

Linda's Review

I went to see a preview of Present Laughter last night and it was wonderful. Alex Jennings was born to play this role--he was an absolute triumph. The Noel Coward play had a terrific cast--the story is that he's famous actor and a serial philanderer whose wife left him years ago, but with whom he still works along with his agent and business manager. He is unable to say no to any of the beautiful woman who parade through his life and his ex-wife and colleagues think it is time for him to change. There are always people coming and going through his studio (wonderful set) at all hours.

Liz, the wife, is gorgeous, very witty and deadpan which makes her even more funny. He has a wonderful Miss Moneypenny-type secretary who manages every bit of his life with firm efficiency--she was excellent. Women and men desire him and fall in love with him all the time, and he's actually quite a bit in love with himself but despairing that his looks are going as he reaches middle age (40). He wears wonderful clothes including the most fabulous flowing silk shawl-collared dressing gowns, worn over regular clothes (like long smoking jackets, I guess). He was droll, pouting, selfish, debonair, witty, angry, despairing, howling, laughing--he was on the stage almost the entire time in the best role of his life. His comic timing was impeccable and there were so many subtle moments of understated comedy that you would miss if you weren't watching him so closely (as I was), because the rest of the cast was also so good. He commanded the stage with the ease of a man in his prime as an actor and had the audience in the palm of his hand. It is un-missable--his best role to date.

What a treat is in store for those of you who will be seeing this play. I hope he wins an Olivier for it--I don't see how he could not!

The First Review: The Telegraph - "Impossible to like – or laugh at"

Charles Spencer doesn't like "Present Laughter", the play or the production, but he likes Alex's performance:

"Alex Jennings undoubtedly gives a virtuoso performance, delivering Essendine's great arias of self-pity with aplomb, climbing on top of the grand piano the better to examine how he looks in the mirror, and launching into testy tirades of disapproval and unearned grandeur with palpable relish. Because he is such an attractive and charismatic actor, Jennings almost pulls off the trick of making you like the character, as Coward intended, but even this actor's prodigious charm isn't quite up to that impossible task."

"Too many of the performances lack the precision and panache that Coward demands, and a couple of them are so poor that it is hard to believe this is a National Theatre production rather than the work of a struggling regional rep.

Sarah Woodward shows how it should be done, with her superbly comic performance as the actor's gruff, disapproving secretary, finding laughs that don't seem to exist on the page, and Sara Stewart has exactly the right steely glamour as the wife who finally reclaims the errant Essendine.

Despite their endeavours, the impression remains that this is a botched shot at an overrated play."


For the full review

Olivier

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Laurence Olivier a statue of him as Hamlet was unveiled on the South Bank just outside the National Theatre on 23 September. Alex took part in the celebration as one of the actors narrating the life of Olivier.

'I wanted to be Fred Astaire'

The Guardian has published an interview with Alex online, before the opening of "Present Laughter". Just a few bits and pieces:

Everything about him, from his buoyant curls to his crisp jeans, exudes youthfulness. No wonder, turning 50, he went into "a big sulk. I just don't feel it - none of us do. My kids are doing GCSEs and A-levels this year. Where did it go?"
...

Even so, Hytner is unstinting in his praise. "There are actors," says the director, "who are immediately accessible and attractive because they show you everything, and actors who are fascinating because they have secrets. Alex can do both." That's what Jennings is like in interview, too: charming, amusing, yet a touch evasive. There always seems to be something more, hidden behind his penetrating blue eyes.

...

Unfortunately, the thing he covets more than anything is a world that no longer exists: the debonair glamour of cinema's romantic/screwball comedy heyday. "Growing up, I loved golden-age Hollywood. British films of that period, too. Those are my desert island movies. You can still learn from those actors: James Stewart, the passion of his acting, never stops astonishing me. I wanted that. I wanted to be Fred Astaire, that's what I wanted."

...

Jennings recognises that he can be "a bit of a nightmare" when he's building up to a press night or chasing screen work, though his family are no longer so willing to humour him. They won't help with learning lines, for instance: "They're bored to sobs." And they won't tolerate any hint of false modesty. Flicking channels on TV recently, he came across The Queen and "put my head in my hands - and my family just
thought that was pathetic".

...


The full interview in the Guardian

The Disappeared

Alex plays Adrian Ballan in a film called "The Disappeared", due to be released in the UK in 2008. Johnny Kevorkian and Neil Murphy's low-budget film is an edgy horror-chiller shot in London. The film, recently wrapped and just gone into post-production, tells the tale of a missing boy and a father/son relationship, and is described by Murphy as compelling drama with the power of classic horror. The film also stars Greg Wise and Harry Treadaway.

Thanks to Lori!

Stolen

And Alex will be appearing on BBC 7 again next Friday, 24 August:

"When Buddhist treasures from ancient lost towns along the Silk Road are discovered, a German archaeologist becomes involved in deception and intrigue. Starring Siobhan Redmond, Alex Jennings, Sean Baker, David Tse, Ioan Meredith and Stephen Critchlow, and first heard in 1999, the play is written by Ray Jenkins and directed by Janet Whitaker."
Friday at 10.15am, 9.15pm and 2.15am

The Old Curiosity Shop

Alex is the narrator in The Old Curiosity Shop on BBC7. The first five episodes can be listened to again in the Sunday omnibus edition until Sunday 19 August. The following episodes are in the schedule.

bbc7

Double Take

The Daily Mail has some more picture of Alex meeting Prince Charles last June.

Daily Mail

Noel Coward Society AGM

The Noel Coward Society have announced that their Annual General Meeting will be held this year on Saturday 15th December. The event includes a flower-laying ceremony at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and a lunch. From their announcement:

"Alex Jennings, who will be starring in ‘Present Laughter’, has agreed, in principle, to perform the flower-laying ceremony for us this year, at 12 noon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Lunch will be held at The Ivy, attended by Alex Jennings and his wife, and will be followed by a special Coward cabaret performance by Guest of Honour, Steve Ross."

Thanks to Lori in Maine.

Bristol Old Vic

Alex was one of a group of well-known theatre actors to sign a letter to the Times expressing concern for the future of the Bristol Old Vic Company. Other actors to sign are Roger Allam, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Nicholas Farrell, Deborah Findlay, Edward Fox, Stella Gonet, Jeremy Irons, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Martin Shaw, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Stewart and many more.

The letter to the Times

Perelandra

Alex is reading Perelandra on BBC 7 at the moment. The series started last Monday 23 July and there are 18 episodes. Each episode can be listened to for a week after initial broadcast.


Perelandra on BBC7

Thanks again to Penny!

Present Laughter

The National Theatre has announced more details of "Present Laughter". It begins previewing in the Lyttelton on 25 September before opening on 2 October. Howard Davies is to direct, the cast includes Lisa Dillon, Sara Stewart and Sarah Woodward.

Priority Members booking opens 27 July, Advance Members booking opens 4 August, Public booking opens 15 August

National Theatre Website

Rapunzel

Alex is to appear in BBC One's modern version of Rapunzel later this year. The adaptation is to be set in the competitive world of tennis, and Alex will play an ex-tennis player turned pundit.

For more information: Easier

Doubles?

Alex met Prince Charles yesterday during a lunch reception at Clarence House. Charles hosted the event for the Actors' Benevolent Fund, of which Alex is a trustee.

For a full report:
Metro

Thanks to Lori in Maine!

Ideal Husband

"An Ideal Husband" will be broadcast Sunday 17 June 2007 from 20:15-22:15 on BBC Radio 3. Alex will play Sir Robert Chiltern.

Radio 3

The play will be available for a week after initial broadcast.

Thanks again to Penny!

Baldi

Alex appeared in a (repeat) episode of the radio detective drama "Baldi" on BBC 7 last Tuesday. The episode is available online until Tuesday 29 May:

Shelter: The murder of a homeless man links a Dublin squat with the history of art. Starring David Threlfall. Episode 6 of 6.

BBC 7 Listen Again

Death at the Bar

In 1993 Alex appeared in an episode of the Inspector Alleyn mysteries called "Death at the Bar". I just received some pictures from that episode from Lori in Maine. So, some early Alex today.

Happy Birthday!

Alex turns 50 today. So, Happy Birthday, Alex!

An Ideal Husband

According to The Stage Alex is to appear in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband on BBC Radio 3. The production will be part of the summer season of drama and will also star Geoffrey Palmer.

Cranford Chronicles - Continued

Filming on the Cranford Chronicles started last April. David H. Betteridge took photographs when outdoor scenes were filmed in Lacock from 23 April. Alex doesn't seem to be there, he isn't in any of the pictures, but other actors, like Greg Wise, Jim Carter, Imelda Staunton, Barbare Flynn and Deborah Findlay are. The many pictures here do give a good first impression of the series. Lacock is a village in Wiltshire, which has been used for films and tv series before. Filming in Lacock has finished now.

See:   David H. Betteridge

The BBC itself also has some pictures of filming in Lacock on its Wiltshire site. This site also has a short video fragment of filming.

See:   BBC Wiltshire

Filming will also take place at the Shepperton studios in London until September.

And the series apparently already has an "Unofficial Fan Site" at Cranford Chronicles

Cranford Chronicles

Alex is to play the Rev Hutton in a new five-part period drama created for BBC 1 called Cranford Chronicles. The cast includes Francesca Annis, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Philip Glenister, Lesley Manville, Julia McKenzie, Imelda Staunton, Greg Wise and Judi Dench. The drama is based on three Elizabeth Gaskell novels: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow and Mr Harrison's Confessions.

The BBC press release doesn't give a broadcast date yet.

See:   BBC Press Release

Thanks again to Penny!

Nicholas Nickleby

Alex is taking part in a radio adaptation of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby on BBC 7 at the moment. He plays the narrator, or Charles Dickens, in the dramatization. The first episode was broadcast on Monday 23 April, the episodes can be heard on the website for a week after initial broadcast. There are 30 episodes.

BBC7

Thanks again to Penny.

On Chesil Beach

Alex is reading "On Chesil Beach" By Ian McEwan, the Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 this week Mon-Fri at 10.45pm. Episodes are availabe on the website for a week.

Book at Bedtime: On Chesil Beach

Thanks to Penny.

Expand This

Alex played the lead in Mark Lawson's play "Expand This" on BBC Radio 4 Last Monday. The broadcast is available on the Radio 4 website for a week, so that is until April 2.

Expand This

Radio 3

Alex recently appeared on two Radio 3 shows. On Private Passions, Sunday 4 March 2007 12:00-13:00, he chose his own music:

Sig M. Berkeley: The Wakeful Poet (from Music from Chaucer) (pub. OUP) - Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet

Bart Howard: Fly me to the moon - Frank Sinatra/Count Basie Orchestra

Bach: Schlummert ein (from Ich habe genug, BWV 82) (opening) - Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (mezzo)/The Orchestra of Emmanuel Music/Craig Smith

Marvin Gaye: Mercy, Mercy Me - Marvin Gaye

Walton: This Day is called the Feast of Crispian (from Henry V) - Sir Laurence Olivier/Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir William Walton (rec. 1946)

Britten: The Piano (from The Turn of the Screw, Act II) - Jennifer Vyvyan (Governess)/Joan Cross (Mrs Grose)/Olive Dyer (Flora)/English Opera Group Orchestra/Benjamin Britten

Stravinsky: Contento forse vivere - Con queste paroline (from Pulcinella) - Anna Caterina Antonacci (soprano)/

William Shimell (baritone)/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly

Ellington: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue (exc.) - Duke Ellington Orchestra (rec. live at Newport, 1956)

Arnold: Concerto for two pianos (2nd mvt - Andante con moto) - Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick (pianos)/CBSO/Sir Malcolm Arnold

The full list of Alex's choices can be found at:
Private Passions

And Alex appeared as one of the readers on: By the Sea on Sunday 18 March 2007 22:30-0:00. Fiona Shaw and Alex read a selection of poetry and prose on a sea theme from Elizabeth Bishop, Michael Longley, Charles Dickens, John Masefield and Hugo Williams, with music inspired by the sea by Charles Trenet, Benjamin Britten, Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Alex read the following pieces:

HUGO WILLIAMS The Sea
OGDEN NASH Pretty Halcyon Days
JOHN KEATS On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer
CHARLES CAUSLEY Morwenstow
TOM PAULIN Sea Wind
CHARLES DICKENS David Copperfield
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Tempest (with Fiona Shaw)
JOHN MASEFIELD Sea Fever
MATTHEW ARNOLD Dover Beach

The broadcast is available for seven days after the original broadcast on:
Words and Music

Thanks to Lori!

Present Laughter

Alex is to appear at the National Theatre again in October in Noël Coward’s "Present Laughter", playing Garry Essendine. Howard Davies will direct the play on the Lyttelton stage. The announcement was part of the National's presentation of their new season. No further details of dates or other actors were given.

The State Within in the US

"The State Within" will be shown on BBC America starting this weekend, Saturday night at 9 p.m. For more details see:
BBC America

Jennings and Hytner

From our correspondent in the US the following link to a short interview with Alex and Nick Hytner on their working together:

Hytner on Alex:

The actors I like - and Alex is this actor more than anybody else I work with - have a speed of thought that matches a willingness to dig deep. There are a lot of actors who can access a deep well of feeling, but it is hard to do that and also keep on top of the lightning-quick changes from image to image and idea to idea that the best plays, particularly Shakespeare's, require of an actor.

The fact that we've worked together so often, and that we're very good friends, means there's nothing we wouldn't say to each other. We can get quite grumpy. But some of the most valuable things to have as a director are relationships
that last for the long term: people with whom you grow up and develop your ideas and your approach.

Alex on Hytner:

And he has given me such varied opportunities - although he rarely gives me parts that let me wear jeans on stage.

Our closeness does come into the rehearsal room. But there's also a lot we don't bring in: the gossip, our shared knowledge about each other's families, our views on other people. I used to think he was harder on me in rehearsals than anyone else. If he is tough with me, it's with good reason: I can be a bit lazy.

Full interview:
The Guardian

Kenneth Tynan

On February 13 Alex will be taking part in a National Theatre Platform dedicated to Kenneth Tynan's theatre writings. The evening will be chaired by Dan Rebellato and introduced by Dominic Shellard, Tynan's biographer. Alex will do the readings. The performance starts at 6 p.m.

For more information see:
National Theatre

Into 2007

After a break down south the Alex Jennings news service is back on the road. The (old) news I've been able to gather so far:

Alex plays the part of Peer Gynt on a recently released recording of the play. The Guardian's Tim Ashley has the following review to offer:
"2007 marks the centenary of Grieg's death, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better tribute than this new recording of his most popular work. Unusually, it presents the incidental music in its entirety within the context of an abridgement of Ibsen's play, and throughout, you're acutely conscious not only of Grieg's astonishing inventiveness, but also of how Ibsen - finicky about the details of the score - understood exactly when to use music to enhance the drama and when to let it fall silent before the often shocking power of speech.

You have to put up with a few idiosyncrasies: the play comes in English, the vocal numbers in Norwegian; the songs are consequently delivered in an over-operatic manner by classically trained singers rather than allotted to actors as Ibsen and Grieg intended. But it's blazingly conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire. The first-rate cast includes Alex Jennings (an endearing, Irish-accented Peer), Haydn Gwynne (the women in his life) and Derek Jacobi (the various manifestations of the forces that mould his destiny). Funny, exhilarating and at times also unbearably sad, it's a remarkable achievement and very highly recommended."
Reference and review at:
The Guardian

Alex also appeared in a radio 3 play called "Two Men from Delft" on Sunday 4 February. The play was written by Stephen Wakelam. Alex played the part of Christiaan Huygens in a play about Antony Van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of bacteria. Stephen Tompkinson played the part of Van Leeuwenhoek. If you've missed it you can listen to the broadcast until 11 February on:
Radio 3



And on 14 and 15 January Alex appeared on "Waking the Dead", the BBC series, in the story called "Deus Ex Machina". He played the part of James Andrews. More information on this episode on the official BBC-website: Episode Guide Waking the Dead

The State Within - Episode 5 and 6

Well, not great episodes for Alex fans. It did all, more or less, make sense in the end.

After a season of Alex appearances on stage, film and television it looks like it's getting a little quieter now. No announcements for new appearances yet, has anyone else has any idea where we will see Alex next?

The Queen, At Last

Well, I finally got to see "The Queen". I enjoyed the film, Mirren's performance and Alex. It must have been tough for him playing a man people know so well, and not really looking like him. The voice was good, though, and he sometimes had me taken in. The expression was pretty good too. Oh well, he is a pretty good actor, really.

The State Within, Episode 4

I'm still not sure I understand anything about what is going on, but I like Alex's performance, as well as some of the others. Two more episodes to go.

Second State Within

The reviewer at The Stage is a fan of "The State Within" and mentions a possible second series:
The Stage

Murray and Sinclair

There is an unusual new angle on the character of James Sinclair. On the "Atlantic Free Press" website there is a piece by former British ambassador Craig Murray who claims that the character of James Sinclair was based on him.

See: Atlantic Free Press

State Within, Episode 3

The third episode of "The State Within" had more Alex, and Alex, or James Sinclair in trouble. I don't want to go into the series too much or post any spoilers for people who will watch it later.

More State Within

A little more Alex in the second episode, just wondering in how many more he will be.

Sound of Alex

Apparently, the new production of "The Sound of Music" has lost its leading man. "The Stage" has a suggestion for a possible replacement:

"Intriguingly, Alexander Hanson who has now gone into the role of Captain von Trapp appeared in a workshop of the show earlier this year. So he was obviously always in the frame, but didn’t quite have the telly credits that Shepherd has. Pity, of course, that another Alex – Jennings – is otherwise engaged at the National, since he too might make an ideal von Trapp….."

see: The Stage

The State Within, Episode 1

The first reviews of "The State Within" that I've been able to find so far are pretty favourable. Not much about Alex in there though. He did appear in a few scenes in the first episode but I have a feeling there is much more to come. The pace of the piece does seem to get some people confused. Contrary to what Julia said on the reviews page of the official BBC website, it wasn't Alex having "a gay snog", but two other characters, neither of whom looked remotely like Alex.

The BBC has updated the official website to include the viewers review page and a synopsis of episode one. There also are interviews with some of the actors, but Alex isn't in there (yet). For anyone hoping to catch the series later, reading the reviews might not be a good idea, there are a few spoilers in there.

Babel

The IMDb credits Alex with a part in "Babel", and he mentions the film himself in the "Time Out" interview (see 29 October). The film opened in the Netherlands on November 2, and got very good reviews.

I went to see it and liked it very much. The announcement said the film lasts 143 minutes, but it was over before I realised. You get to live through four different stories, more or less related, and you need to keep your concentration, but it is worth it. The film is beautifully made, you can relate to the characters and even though it moves through continents, histories, languages and generations it all seems part of the same story, somehow.

As for Alex, I am glad he mentioned in the interview he would be in the helicopter scene, because the tiny bit turned out to be very tiny. I got a glimpse of him twice, just a few frames and not a single line. What a waste to use a wonderful actor as an extra. But that is my only criticism of the film.

Or maybe just one more, maybe I wasn't concentrated enough, but didn't the bullet come from the wrong
side?

Interviews

There are two fairly recent interviews with Alex on-line.

Theatre.com has an interview with both Alex and Simon Russell Beale talking about their careers. They talk about being associate artists at the National Theatre:

Alex: "And then you can do script meetings as well, which is really good to do, but it’s hard. I can’t judge a script for love or money. I quite like to go, though, because I think it’s good to have an actor’s take on things represented sometimes, but having said that, I’ve not been for ages."

Simon Russell Beale on Alex and Nick Hytner working together:
"There was a very funny moment when Alex did something and said, ‘That feels a bit…’ And Nick went, ‘Yeah!’ And I had no idea what they were talking about, but they knew exactly what each other meant."

On being an expert:
Simon: "You know, Alex is an expert as well."
Alex: "Yes, on theatre history. I write pieces for the Dictionary of National Biography."

On musicals:
Alex: "I would love to have done The Music Man, but I’m too old for it now. But I love to think I could do Sweeney Todd one day, but I don’t know—I keep thinking I have to start work now."

The full interview: Theatre.com



In a Time Out interview he talks to Jane Edwardes about the Alchemist, working with Simon Russell Beale and a year away from the stage:

"He used to say that he was too noisy for the box and he didn’t know how to do it, but after appearing as a surprisingly inscrutable George Bush in ‘Stuff Happens’ at the National, he decided to turn down all theatre offers for a while and waited to see what would happen.
‘For the first few months I thought: Oh God, what have I done? Why didn’t I stay where I’m wanted? But then things did get better, perceived blacklists didn’t exist, and I did some episode television and a thing about the Ballets Russes in which I played Diaghilev. Then a tiny bit in “Babel” in which I got to go in a helicopter with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and Prince Charles in “The Queen” [he gets a definite thumbs-up for this from our own Film section]. I do feel I’ve made advances over the last year and I’ve been quite pleased with some of the things I’ve done. Some of it’s been very seductive and hasn’t really felt like proper work.’

What he hasn’t missed away from the theatre is the build-up to the press night, particularly acute in this instance when anything short of a triumph will be seen as a failure. He and Beale have tried to cope by writing their own reviews: ‘How disappointing to see…’; ‘We were looking forward to this so much, what a shame…’; ‘Expectations were not realised…’"

Full interview: Time Out

Soon On BBC1

The first episode of "The State Within" will be broadcast on 2 November at 9pm. The latest information can be found on the BBC's "State Within" website: BBC Official Website

Babel

Alex appears in the new film "Babel" starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, playing the part of Ken Clifford. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this spring and will be on general release in the US on 10 November, in the UK on 5 January.

James Sinclair

The BBC have created a website for their new series "The State Within". The site now has character files, with photographs, including one on James Sinclair, the character played by Alex:
James Sinclair

James Sinclair is the ex-ambassador to Tyrgyztan and he is given the following profile:

An out-spoken critic of President Usman and the human rights abuse he encountered in Tyrgyztan. After his wife Saida's death, became even more vociferously opposed to Usman. As a result he was recalled and subsequently fired from the job of ambassador. Seen an embarrassment to the UK Government, who support Usman and have many strategic and commercial interests in the country. Now determined to turn Western public opinion against Usman. And to force both the UK and US administrations into withdrawing their support for him.

"The State Within" is a six-part series to be shown this November on BBC One.

The Queen in Canada

The Queen has opened in Canada and the review of Canadian press is good to Alex:

"And another: a constantly wincing Prince Charles, played brilliantly by Alex Jennings, reminding the Queen as she continues to dig in her heels that Diana was a magnificent mother unafraid to show love and affection to her boys, a clear rebuke of Elizabeth's own mothering skills. Perhaps a flight of fancy in a film that is otherwise said to be remarkably factual - Frears says the Queen's best friend saw the movie and gave it the thumbs-up - it's a painful scene to watch as Elizabeth is clearly stung by the comment."

Full review:
CTV.ca

Spooks

Alex played a part in the 4th episode of the 5th season of "Spooks", broadcast on 2 October. He played the part of James Allan. More information, and a small clip, can be found on the official BBC website:
Spooks

More Queen and Alchemist

The reviews for "The Queen" still keep coming in:

From the Washington Post:
"And as Prince Charles, Alex Jennings may not be a dead ringer but he's memorable as a benevolent manipulator, moved by Diana's death yet resolved to use it to curry favor with his future subjects."

Full review: Washington Post

From the Villager:
"The royal family, except for the ineffectual, sly, and emotionally vulnerable Prince Charles (Alex Jennings in an understated, nuanced performance), is unwilling to defer to the people’s treatment of Diana as a popular icon, and refuses to hold a public funeral."

Full review: The Villager

And one more for the Alchemist from London SE1:
"Both Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale speak their somewhat grandiose lines with obvious delight and play their con-man roles as broadly as possible. However, Beale's 'cor blimey' accent, interspersed with the 'feigned' speaking voice of his alter ego, the Captain tends to waver. An air of artificiality may have made the Captain's lines even more amusing and after a time, Beale's exaggerated mockney accent tended to grate. In some of his more ridiculous scenes, it almost seemed as though he'd escaped from an Igor (you rang?) audition. Such over the top posturing was highly comical, especially from a renowned actor like Beale, and gave strong indications of his comedic prowess, but nonetheless seemed out of place here.

Jennings' fares better with his attempt at the notoriously difficult London working class accent. However, his 'stereotypes on parade,' characterizations, which range from a California hippy dippy queen, through a ranting and raving Scotsman to all knowing, new age alchemist lose their novelty somewhat as the performance goes on. Only Lesley Manville, in her role as prostitute Dol Common acts with real conviction within the context of her role, right down to her ostrich featured heels and the ladders in her tarty black stockings. Manville somehow manages to keep the feel of her lines referenced with the time they were written, whilst dressed in the sixties toned fashions assigned to her character, and assuming contemporary mannerisms to good comic effect. Despite all the modern trappings, the only thing missing is a strategically placed beauty spot. It is as if the actress had been swept into the present day from the seventeenth century unflinching, whilst batting her long eyelashes.

However, despite the overall unevenness of their performances, it is still great fun to watch Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale, who've never acted together before, savour their ferocious bantering, like a couple of great cats hissing at one another across the stage."

Full review: London SE1

State Within

Alex will appear in a new BBC conspiracy thriller this autumn. He will play the part of James Sinclair. From the BBC press release:

"State Within" is due to broadcast on BBC ONE later this year. The new six-part series takes place over 17 days in the life of the British Ambassador to the USA. Ambassador to Washington is the pinnacle of success in the Foreign Office and only the brightest and best succeed to this post. However, Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs) soon finds he is tested to the limits of his foreign diplomacy skills as he grapples with a world of tangled relationships and conflicting interests following a major diplomatic incident."

The IMDb gives the release date as 1 November 2006. The series was filmed in Canada earlier this year.

And There's More

"Jennings' performance is superb, stretching beyond caricature. No matter that Charles' ex-wife had infuriated and frustrated him: The guarded pain he shows upon learning of her death envelops all of those complicated feelings, as well as the reality that she's the mother of his children."

Full review: salon.com

"The most interesting characterization is Prince Charles. Seen here as a deviously manipulative wimp, fearful of his mother and beholden to his own selfish concerns, Charles superficially cares about the death of his ex, but is more paranoid that others will want to shoot him as an act of retaliation for his martial woes. Actor Alex Jennings really has his work cut out for him with this iconic role, yet he digs in there bravely to portray Charles's less than noble intentions, along with inhabiting his pressed speaking style and tightly wound face."

Full review: axcessnews

Mixed Messages

Matt Wolf at The International Herald Tribune prefers Russell Beale to Alex in "The Alchemist", and isn't that keen:

"But painful though it is say, the show turns out to be a triumph for Russell Beale rather more than it is for Jennings, who perhaps has the disadvantage of not having acted Jonson's tricky language on the imposing Olivier stage."

"In T-shirt and suspenders one minute, Russell Beale's Face is all slicked-back officiousness the next, at another point appearing in goggles only to be cradled by Jennings's Subtle (note the character names) as if he were an untamed dog. Jennings's accents - a cringemaking American one included - somewhat hamper a play about artifice that, paradoxically, has to look easefully managed. Betray the effort involved, as is the case here, and you have a momentous pairing that isn't quite the expected exercise in mirth."

Review: International Herald Tribune


And more reviews for "The Queen":

"Along with the imperiously indignant Cromwell, the supporting cast is brilliantly rounded out by Alex Jennings as a skittish Prince Charles, Helen McCrory as Blair’s wily wife, Roger Allam as the queen’s diligent aide and Sylvia Syms as the queen mother, who is often hilarious in her regal dismissiveness of the outside world." (David Germain)
Review: NBC

But the film also has some wonderful performances from Alex Jennings (who's Prince Charles is surprisingly weak and sympathetic -- who knew the man was fearing for his life that week?) (Erik Davis)
Review: Cinematical

Andrew Stuttaford in the New York Sun describes Alex's performances as "splendidly twitchy".
Review: New York Sun

USA today doesn't have a review but a different story:

Prince's pals perturbed by portrayal
The Queen screenwriter Peter Morgan says friends of Prince Charles are not pleased with his portrayal in the movie. In it, Charles (Alex Jennings) is portrayed as trying to please his mother, Queen Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), after the death of his ex-wife, Diana, while working behind the scenes with Prime Minister Tony Blair to urge the queen to publicly express her grief. Queen opens the New York Film Festival Friday and expands in October.
USA Today

Body Language

David Benedict in Variety likes the production and is full of praise for Alex's performance:

"The prize, however, goes to Jennings, constantly switching between a plethora of superbly sustained characters. One minute he's a dour, suited Scotsman, the next a pious, white-robed mystic. Best of all is his default position as a New Age guru in beads and a fluting voice not a million miles from Rufus Wainwright."

Full review: Variety


And New York Magazine has the most to say about Alex's performance in "The Queen" so far:

"Even Charles (Alex Jennings) is a figure more to be pitied than censured. He’s always piping up about changing times and the need to be flexible—and you see him through his mother’s eyes, not so much flexible as boneless. I’ve rarely seen body language more amusing than Jennings’s when he directs his chief of staff to make overtures to Blair behind his mother’s back (“The prince feels that you and he are modern men”); he leans away from the phone as if afraid it will turn into Mummy and whack off his head."

Full review: New York Magazine

One More Review and Something Else

The Guardian Leader on 21 September is all about the play and its relevance today:

The National Theatre's revival of The Alchemist - a truly great English play about
confidence tricksters - is as relevant in today's age of supposedly health-giving bottled waters as it was during the South Sea Bubble. The play is not about alchemy but about criminals who cash in on it by inducing the gullible to part with money.


Full leader: Guardian










Rosie Millard in the New Statesman writes another good review of the Alchemist:

"It's difficult to know who the star of The Alchemist is, but Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale, as Subtle and Face, respectively, have huge command of the stage and pass the baton generously between each other. Russell Beale grabs the tricky Jacobean text (there have been only a few minor rewrites) and wrestles it into comprehension. Meanwhile, Jennings dives into a dizzying array of amusing personages: a white-robed mystic, an American feng shui expert, a Scotsman in tweed, each more convincing than the last. As Subtle and Face take more and more money from an ever-growing queue of fools and the action begins to whirl, Jennings and Russell Beale chop and change accent, costume and style without resorting to cliché."

Full review: New Statesman

All Sorts

The Alex Jennings Picture Gallery has been updated to include Alex's work over the past couple of years. Details on "The Queen", "The Alchemist", but also on "Riot at the Rite" and other recent appearances.
See: Alex Jennings Picture Gallery



Ashenden
The British Film Institute has an online film and television archive with cast lists, synopses, pictures and video. They have a page on Ashenden, the 1991 series in which Alex played the lead. The page has a full episode and several short fragments on video, but the video is only accessible to UK students, professors, and archivists, unfortunately.
See: British Film Institute



RSC picture archive
The RSC has an online picture archive where you can find some 20 pictures of Alex in various RSC productions, including the early ones (Hyde Park, Taming of the Shrew):
See: RSC

More Alchemists

In The Stage, review by John Thaxter:

"Simon Russell Beale, following triumph as Galileo, gives a superbly inventive performance as Face, house-sitting while his landlord is in the country, teamed up for villainy with Alex Jennings, master of accents and disguises, as the charlatan alchemist Subtle, together with their high-class tart Dol, played for stylish glamour by Lesley Manville."

Full review: The Stage

Philip Fisher for the British Theatre Guide has some reservations about Alex's performance:

"Alex Jennings is Subtle (anything but), The Alchemist, a conman who sports the Michael Gambon drawl amongst friends but constantly reinvents himself for his public. This requires quick changes of both clothing and persona as he switches from Californian hippie to beguiling Scot or posh Englishman. Eventually, there is a feeling that at times he is sending up his roles to a rather greater extent than is entirely necessary."

Full review: British Theatre Guide

And so does Michael Coveney in What's On Stage:

And the much anticipated performances of Alex Jennings as the spurious alchemist, Subtle, and Simon Russell Beale as the chameleon housekeeper Face, are brilliant, but strenuous, exercises in “character.”

Full review: What's On Stage

Sunday and Other Reviews For the Alchemist

In the Evening Standard Nicholas de Jongh turns to the contemporary and political content of the play. He has some comments on Alex's performance:

"What's more The Alchemist's hopeful deceivers - Simon Russell Beale's endearing butler-turned-housekeeper, who goes by the name of Face and convincingly puts on three different ones, Alex Jennings's deliciously amusing freelance pimp, Subtle, with his little repertoire of false identities, and Lesley Manville's Dol Common, who comes packed with sexual promise and promises - are all involved in the defunct art of alchemy."

And:

"An artful brand of deception and role-play rises initially in a comic spiral of complexity. The modern-dress performances brim with vitality. Jennings's estuary-accented wide boy Subtle sets the deceptions going in a comedy classic performance. Hilariously got up as an American hippie, with headscarf, beads and a voice of glazed, camp affectation, or white-gowned and tranquil, he oozes a grave, misleading sincerity."

Full review: Evening Standard

Kate Bassett in the Independent isn't that keen:

"This production will, I suspect, get funnier. At the final preview which I attended, Ian Richardson's Sir Epicure Mammon, luxuriating in wanton fantasies, kept falling disappointingly flat and Jennings's gamut of accents (from American to Scots) isn't all that hilarious. Nonetheless, Tim McMullan is splendidly silly as a swishing mock-Spaniard and Russell Beale is, as always, outstanding, with dry comic timing and moments of terrific flamboyance - staggering like Frankenstein's Igor out of an exploding laboratory. He also imbues Face with disturbing psychological depths, almost Iago-like festering jealousy and unloved misery."

Full review: Independent

Christopher Hart, in the sunday Times, is impressed though:

"The two leads — Alex Jennings as Subtle and Simon Russell Beale as Face — are excellent, but so are their satellites, not one of them ever threatened with eclipse. And how hard they all work, not only delivering complex verse at full pelt, but managing a dazzling array of daft accents and silly costumes. Sometimes the accents obscure the verse, but it seems a fair exchange. Jennings is one moment a camp hippie guru, then a tweed-suited Scotsman with a ludicrously strangulated accent."

Full review: The Times

The London Theatre Guide, like most reviews comments on the way Alex and Simon Russell Beale work together:

"It is the colour and character of this pair in particular that give Jonson’s comedy the flair that it demands, though all members of the large cast contribute to the sense of craziness in Hytner’s fast-paced production."

Full review: London Theatre Guide

Susannah Clapp in the Observer has only praise for both actors:

"There is Subtle, the chancer who will impersonate (if it's possible to impersonate a fiction) a wizard who can convert the base into the precious, and make people's fortunes: Alex Jennings, lolling in his dressing-gown, packs dandified scorn and low-life shrewdness into one lift of an eyebrow."

"But it is of course the double-act at the centre which makes or breaks the play. It's unlikely that this one will be bettered for the next two decades. The range is tremendous. Jennings turns himself in seconds from a cross-legged, beaded Californian hippie to a furrowed squint-eyed dominie. Russell Beale plums it out as a moustachioed blazer, and scuttles around limping like a broken tripod. Forget Marks & Spencer, Ant and Dec, Posh and Becks: it's Russell Beale and Jennings - working together for the first time - who are the essential new combo."

Full review: Observer


On its website the National Theatre has added a reviews page:
National Theatre

And some pictures of the production:
National Theatre

and one more for The Queen:

Cosmo Landesman in the Sunday Times:
"Alex Jennings looks nothing like Prince Charles, but conveys the man and the mummy’s boy perfectly."

Full review: The Times

The Alchemist Exposed

To accompany the new production of the Alchemist the National Theatre has published a book called "The Alchemist Exposed" by Robert Butler.

"An essential guide to Ben Jonson, the play and its background, The Alchemist Exposed follows the company and creative team of Nicholas Hytner’s new NT production as they strip back the years to reveal the true nature of The Alchemist. In this new book in the ‘National Theatre at Work’ series, Robert Butler explores Jonson’s world and everything that makes his play bang up-to-date. Published by the NT with Oberon Books. Priced £10"

More Queen Reviews

There are new reviews for "The Queen":

Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman has a less favourable review than most:

"There is no shortage here of crowd-pleasing impersonations. Alex Jennings makes an anguished Prince Charles, with his characteristic lockjawed grimace."

Full review: New Statesman

The Independent is more enthusiastic, Robert Hanks starts with a general statement:

There's a grand journalistic tradition of bragging, whenever a British film or a British star snags a gong or a statuette, about the "strength in depth" of British acting. Helen Mirren's Golden Lion at Venice for playing Queen Elizabeth II offers a perfect opportunity to start the celebrations; but watching the parade of talent in The Queen - Michael Sheen, Roger Allam, Alex Jennings - I felt a surge of glum anger at the terminal crumminess of the British film industry. "Strength in depth" is a nice way of saying that actors who by rights ought to be international stars are stuck in secondary roles.

And on Alex:
"And they are human beings. After McCrory's performance, the boldest here may be Alex Jennings' Prince Charles who, on hearing of the death of his former wife, the mother of his children, lets out an involuntary cry of agony - as any man would."

Independent


James Christopher in the Times Online:

"The Prince of Wales (Alex Jennings), a Blair supporter, wrings his hands and fumbles around in his kilt, willing his stubborn mother to do the decent thing."

Full review: The Times

First Alchemist Reviews

Last night was the press night for "The Alchemist" and the first reviews are out.

Michael Billington in the Guardian gives a very favourable review. He says about Alex:

"Alex Jennings's masterly Subtle is a Blackfriars bamboozler who can turn himself at the drop of a coin into a camp American guru, a white-robed saint or a canny Scottish accountant; he gives you the feeling that Subtle gets even higher on role-playing than he does on daylight robbery."

FUll review at: Guardian




Paul Taylor also gives a favourable judgment in the Independent:

"Quick-change artistry is the kind of transformation at which the charlatans are genuinely adept. Playing together for the first time in their distinguished careers, Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale are a joy as Subtle and Face, the mutually resentful duo who, with sidekick-whore Dol Common (excellent Lesley Manville), turn the house that Face is looking after in his master's absence into a crazy dream factory. Tailoring his act to each victim, Jennings dazzlingly shuffles identities that range from a Haight-Asbury-style hippy to a pious New Age guru and a fluting Scot."

Full review at: The Independent


Benedict Nightingale in the Times Online is equally enthusiastic about the production and Alex's performance:

"Each appearance gives Russell Beale and Jennings the chance to prove not only that they are slick collaborators in crime but that there is no funnier or more adroit double-act on the London stage.

In a series of twinklings Jennings is a beaded Californian guru manipulating dupes in a singsong bleat, then a grave Indian mystic in virginal white, then a crabby, rumpled Presbyterian."

All three praise the way Alex and Simon Russell Beale work together.

Full review at: Times

First Queen Reviews

The Moviefone review by Kirk Honeycutt states:
"Prince Charles (Alex Jennings, stiff but correctly so) comes off as the voice of modernity in the family, but also a bit wimpy as he fears assassination in the days following his ex-wife's death."

Peter Whittle in the Sunday Times of 2 September describes Alex's performance as: "Jennings’s all-at-sea Prince of Wales".

Quentin Blake

Alex will be one of the readers at the Royal National Theatre's platform "Quentin Blake and Friends" on Friday 22 September. The other readers will be Simon Russell Beale and Lesley Manville.

From the RNT's announcement:

"Roald Dahl Day

In celebration of the inaugural Roald Dahl Day, a special appearance by Quentin Blake, Dahl’s principal illustrator and the first Children’s Laureate. He presents a unique insight, through talk and live drawing, into working with Dahl.

Alex Jennings, Lesley Manville and Simon Russell Beale perform a selection of some of the much-loved work that Dahl and Blake created together."

The talk will start at 6 o'clock.

More information: National Theatre

First Glimpse Of the Alchemist

Alex has just started previews for "The Alchemist" at the National Theatre in London. The play opens on September 14. There is an intriguing short film advertising the play on the National Theatre website:
National Theatre

The Queen in Venice

"The Queen" got a good reception at the Venice Film Festival. Alex plays Prince Charles in this drama about the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. Helen Mirren won the best actress award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth.

The Telegraph has a review of the film by David Gritten and a picture gallery, with some pictures of Alex:

"The obvious temptation to caricature, say, Prince Philip or Prince Charles (painfully troubled, in Alex Jennings's portrayal) is admirably resisted."

Full review: Telegraph



Variety has a review by Derek Elley and another picture, just a short mention of Alex here:

"Supports are all on the button, with often creepily accurate body language -- from Yank Cromwell's blithe Prince Philip, through McCrory's snide Cherie, to Baze-ley's cocky Campbell and Jennings' contrite Prince Charles."

Full review: Variety

First Alchemist Interview

The Independent (7 September) has a short interview with Alex and Simon Russell Beale on the upcoming production of "The Alchemist".


The interviewer is Paul Taylor, who describes Alex as tall and debonair. In the piece Jennings states that: "my career has been based entirely on seeing Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines at an impressionable age."

On The Alchemist:
Yes, you're about to get my nearly-50-year-old Eminem," threatens Jennings. There are dizzying changes of tack. "We've played around with the idea of getting muddled and suddenly swapping performances", he explains.

On his absence from the theatre for a while:
"Nowadays, I suggest, the clients would all long to be made famous. "Yes, fame is the modern drug of choice," agrees Russell Beale. And fame (in the sense of becoming a household name) is something that has managed to elude these two superb actors. "Well, we've been slogging away in the theatre, I suppose," says Jennings. After Stuff Happens (the David Hare drama in which he portrayed George W Bush), Jennings decided to have a break from the stage and get in front of a camera again. He has played Diaghilev in a television drama about The Rite of Spring, and he is Prince Charles to Helen Mirren's monarch in the forthcoming The Queen."

Riot pictures

Some pictures of Alex playing Sergei Diaghilev can be found at Rachael Stirling's website. Rachael Stirling played Marie Rambert in the tv film "Riot at the Rite".



An interesting background article on the production can be found at:Ballet Magazine.

No real mention of Alex, but information about a production and a good picture of Alex as Diaghilev.

Welcome

These are the Alex Jennings diaries. Just a way to keep up with what Alex is doing, where he can be seen, and what news there is on the internet. He appears in the new Stephen Frears film "The Queen" as prince Charles. This film is all about the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, with Helen Mirren playing the queen. And Alex is rehearsing at the National Theatre for the new production of "The Alchemist" with Simon Russell Beale and Lesley Manville.