Literary Britten in Cambridge

from the Cambridge News Website:

"A recital of music and readings by Benjamin Britten and WH Auden will be taking place in Girton College Gardens, under the heading Literary Britten: A Recital. Actor Alex Jennings, tenor Andrew Kennedy and pianist Iain Burnside will help bring the words and sounds of these two greats alive in this pleasingly academic setting, before the programme is taken on a European tour. September 4, 2pm, Girton College, Cambridge. Tickets are £15 (£10 concessions). Contact (01223) 338992."

Collaborators - NT Live

The new play Alex will be in with Simon Russell Beale at the National, Collaborators, will be part of the next NT Live Season. The broadcast has been announced for 1 December 2011.

For more information check the NT Live website: Collaboratos

Stream, River, Sea

The play by Peter Souter will be broadcast again this Thursday, 4 August, at 14.15 on BBC Radio 4. It stars Alex and Juliet Stevenson.

For more information: BBC Radio 4

Margaret Tyzack

Alex has written a lovely letter to The Guardian to commemorate Margaret Tyzack. It reads:

"My friend Margaret Tyzack (obituary, 28 June) gave her final stage performance last Christmas, in Paris, at the Théâtre du Chatelet, in Robert Carsen's sumptuous production of My Fair Lady. Maggie played Mrs Higgins, and I was her son, Henry. Maggie looked resplendent in Anthony Powell's Dufy-inspired frocks, and delivered a characteristically sensitive, no-nonsense, witty, masterclass of a performance. Every Shavian line landed like a depth charge in that vast and beautiful theatre. I had worked with Maggie twice before then – in The Importance of Being Earnest and in His Girl Friday. Maggie was a magnificent actor, a magnificent person, and a true friend – loyal, supportive, generous, forthright, and a prolific sender of wonderful postcards."

The original: The Guardian

Ashenden

The radio recordings of Ashenden, Gentleman Spy will be broadcast again this week on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The five episodes will be broadcast Monday to Friday at 6am, 1am, 8pm and 1am.

Twenty Minutes

Alex is the reader for this week's episode of Twenty Minutes. The programme will be broadcast on Monday night at 20.25 on BBC Radio 3. The story is called 'A Warning to the Curious', and was written by M.R. James.

For more information check: BBC Radio 3.

Thanks to Jen!

Many Happy Returns!

Happy Birthday, Alex!

That's Mine, This Is Yours

This BBC Radio 4 play starred Alex and Tamsin Greig, and it was broadcast last week. The website gives the following description: "Sam and Juliet are divorcing. They arrange to meet to divide up their remaining possessions. In Peter Souter's romantic comedy, this proves less easy than they might have envisaged." This week it is play of the week and can be downloaded as a podcast from:

Play of the Week Podcast.

The play stays up until Friday 13 May.

Hymn

Alex will appear at the Salisbury Festival on Sunday 29 May in the production Hymn. The festival's website gives the following description of the production:

"Best known for his film scores, Fenton writes extensively for the theatre. In this
work he draws on musical references including Elgar, Delius and several well known hymns. Alex Jennings will present the role of Alan Bennett in this performance, following on from his recent appearance in Alan Bennett's play The Habit of Art at the National Theatre, where he played Benjamin Britten. The evening is completed with a performance of Ravel's String Quartet, followed by a Q&A."

The music will be performed by the Medici Quartet.

For more information see the Salisbury Festival Website.

Small Gods

"Small Gods" will be repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra from this Friday. For times of broadcasts see BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Thanks to Jen.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Alex will play the part of Caractacus Potts in a new production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" to be broadcast on Radio 4 Extra, tomorrow Sunday 3 April.

This is Ian Fleming's classic tale of a car saved from the scrapyard, which takes the Potts family on a magical adventure. Also stars Imogen Stubbs, and it was directed by Charlotte Riches from BBC Drama, Manchester.

The play will be broadcast at 9am, 4pm and 5am and will then be available on the iPlayer.

BBC Radio 4 Extra is the newly relaunched BBC Radio 7.

Thanks to Jen!

Silk

Alex will appear in an episode of the BBC series "Silk" this Tuesday. He plays the part of Alan Cowdrey QC in this final episode. Silk will be shown on Tuesday 29 March on BBC One at 21.00.

Thanks to Penny!

More Offies

A few more pictures of the Offies are on their own website: OffWestEnd.

Words and Music

Alex will be a reader on Words and Music on two consecutive Sundays on BBC Radio 3. The programmes are called Fire and Ice and were inspired by Robert Frost's poem. The first programme, Fire, starts 23.00 on Sunday 6 March, the second programme, Ice, starts 22.30 on Sunday 13 March.

Thanks to Jennifer.

Offies

Alex was one of the presenters at the Offies, the award ceremony for London fringe theatre productions. The ceremony took place on 27 February at Wilton's Music Hall. Mark Shenton writes about the event in The Stage.

At the awards Alex commented on the Oscars, which took place the same evening. “I certainly wouldn’t say no to one,” he said to Tim Walker of The Telegraph.

Pictures of the event can be found at londonist.

Dickens' London

Alex is one of four actors to portray Charles Dickens at different stages of his life in a series of short plays bases on his journalistic essays on BBC Radio 4. The other actors are Antony Sher, Samuel Barnett and Hugo Docking, the plays are written by Michael Eaton and the series is called "Dicken's London". The plays will be broadcast at the end of they year.

See: The Stage News

Nocturne

Alex continues his collaboration with Lucy Parham on the Chopin programme Nocturne this year. Two dates have been announced:

6 May - Loughborough
20 May - Bury St. Edmunds

Harriet Walter is the other actor for these two performances.

For more information check Lucy Parhams Website.

Dinner

Alex attended a formal dinner last night, and is pictured here with the host: Zimbio

And a second picture, with Alfie Boe joining in: the wire

Alex performed at Buckingham Palace with the Medici Quartet for supporters of the Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts.

Collaborators

Playbill adds a title to the new NT play, to open in the Cottesloe in October:

Playbill

Back to the NT

Some news from Whatsonstage:

"Finally, John Hodge’s stage debut will be directed by Nicholas Hytner and will open in October. Another offering that doesn’t yet have a title, the play centres on an imaginary encounter between Joseph Stalin and the playwright Mikhail Bulgakov, with Alex Jennings playing Bulgakov opposite Whatsonstage.com Award nominee Simon Russell Beale as Stalin. Hodge’s screenwriting credits include Shallow Grave and A Life Less Ordinary as well as Trainspotting."

My Year Off

Another chance to hear Robert McCrum's searingly honest account of his devastating stroke at the age of 42, "My Year Off". With Alex Jennings and Madeline Potter. BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 26 January 2.15-3.00pm, and for a week after on BBC iPlayer.

Thanks to Jen!

Ashenden

There is a small piece from the elusive Ashenden series up on YouTube now:

With Harrington on the train

My Fair Lady on Facebook

The Théâtre du Châtelet has created a facebook page for the production of "My Fair Lady". They've put up some very nice pictures. See:
Facebook

People's Princess

Broadcast this Thursday, 9 December at 14.15, BBC Radio 4:

Facing financial ruin, George, Prince of Wales was 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 had 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

Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan, written by Shelagh Stephenson.

My Fair Lady - Chatelet

The website of the Chatelet Theatre in Paris has a short video on the new production, which includes some snippets of rehearsal footage. Some dancing going on here...

Théâtre Châtelet de Paris

Electric Ink

This Friday a new series of "Electric Ink" starts on BBC Radio 4. The comedy drama was writeen by Alistair Beaton and Tom Mitchelson with Alex playing the role of Oliver. Journalists attempt to cover major news stories at the same time as grappling with the demands of working in a multi-platform environment, watching circulation figures plummet and the recession causing half the workforce to be laid off. First episode to be broadcast 3 December from 11.30-12.00.

For more information: BBC Radio 4

An Ideal Husband

BBC Radio 7 will broadcast Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" tomorrow, Saturday 27 November at 12.30 pm and 1 am. When Sir Robert and Lady Gertrude Chiltern give a party, an unwelcome guest makes an equally unwelcome request to her host. If it is not met, she will reveal an unsavoury secret from his past. Alex stars along with Janet McTeer, Emma Field, Geoffrey Palmer and Sarah Kestelman.

The Making of ...

This Saturday Channel 4 will show a documentary on "The Habit of Art" in the series "The Making of...". The programme will be shown at 7.55 pm, and will focus on Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hytner.

Strange Meeting - Remembrance Sunday

Alex can be heard this Remembrance Sunday in Peter Wolf's Play "Strange Meeting". It was inspired by Wilfred Owen's First World War poem, and dramatises events leading up to Owen's death on the eve of the Armistice. Alex plays the Captain and Paul Rhys is Wilfred Owen. Sunday at 10.15am and 9.15pm on BBC Radio 7.

Evening Standard Longlist

Alex is on the longlist for this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his performance in "The Habit of Art". The longlist will become a shortlist on 21 November with the winners being announced at a ceremony on 28 November.

The complete longlist for best actor:
Roger Allam – Henry IV Parts One and Two (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Bertie Carvel – Rope (Almeida Theatre)
Benedict Cumberbatch – After The Dance (National Theatre)
Martin Freeman – Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Alex Jennings – The Habit Of Art (National Theatre)
Rory Kinnear – Measure For Measure (Almeida Theatre) and Hamlet (National Theatre)
Adrian Lester – Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Novello Theatre)
Alfred Molina – Red (Donmar Warehouse)
Jonathan Pryce – The Caretaker (Trafalgar Studios)
Simon Russell Beale – London Assurance (National Theatre) and Deathtrap (Nöel Coward Theatre)
Adrian Scarborough – After The Dance (National Theatre)
David Suchet – All My Sons (Apollo Theatre)

Whitechapel II

ITV is showing the second series of Whitechapel at the moment, with Alex resuming the part of Commander Anderson. The second episode will be shown on Monday 18 October at 9 p.m.

For more information check: ITV Whitechapel

Words of the Blitz

Alex is one of the actors appearing in "Words of the Blitz" on ITV1 tonight, reading diaries and letters written during the Blitz. Alex will be reading from George Orwell's diary.

The programme will be broadcast on 8 September at 10.35 pm on ITV1.


ITV Press Centre

White Chameleon

The Saturday play to be broadcast on the 24th of July on Radio 4 at 2.30pm is written by Christopher Hampton and is a witty and sad memory play set in Alexandria in the years up to and during the Suez invasion. (Edit: iplayer link available until Saturday 31st here.)

It is about his father, played by Alex, in Egypt working for Cable and Wireless, his mother, also from a Cable and Wireless family, and Ibrahim, the Egyptian servant who has been running the house for 20 years and who helps 10-year-old Chris, the future playwright, make up dramas for homework.

A Guardian article that touches on the recording of this play and the parlous state of radio drama budgets can be found here.

Narrator ... Christopher Hampton

Father ... Alex Jennings
Ibrahim ... Mido Hamada
Mother ... Amanda Root
Chris ... Harvey O'Neil
Guard/Fouad/Basso/Stockman/Shoes-shine man/Egyptian boy ... Ayman Hamdouchi
Albert ... David Annen
Edward ... Harrison Charles
Paul ... Harry Manton
Schoolboy ... Josef Lindsay

Egyptian singers:
Tony Kandel
Yazid Eid
Robert Hannouch

Pianist: Michael Webborn

Director: Polly Thomas
Producer: Ann Scott
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.

In other radio news, you can listen to "Speaking for Themselves" The letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill, on Radio 7 at 9.00pm every night this week and then for a week on the iPlayer.

The Idiot

BBC radio 7 will broadcast the adaptation of "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyesky. The novel is dramatised in four parts and will be broadcast Tuesday to Friday at 10am and 3am. The adaptation also stars Paul Rhys, Roger Allam, Lia Williams, David Swift and Stephen Moore and it was first heard in 2002.

The broadcast can be heard for seven days after initial broadcast on the BBC IPlayer.

Scarlet on Black

The radio drama "Scarlet on Black" will be rerun on BBC Radio 7 this Sunday at 02.30, 13.00 and Monday at 01.00. As usual the play will be available for seven days after the broadcast on the BBC IPlayer. Alex stars with David Calder, Peter Jeffrey, Charles Kay, and Natasha Pyne. The play was written by Roger Danes and was originally broadcast in 1992.

Thanks to Penny!

Happy Birthday,

Alex. He turns 53 today.

Stratford Upon Avon Fringe

Alex will be taking part int the Rudolph Kempe Centenary Memorial Concert at the Stratford Upon Avon Fringe Festival on Sunday 13 June at 7,30 Alex will be reading a biographical narrative devised by Cordula Kempe together with Jeffery Dench.

For tickets and more information check the festival website: Stratford Fringe

An Actor's Life for Me

Alex is to take part in a midsummer musical gala at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School on 20 June. The musical, "An Actor's Life for me will be hosted by Jeremy Irons, and will include songs written about the theatre by by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Noël Coward, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and many more. The cast will consist of final year students. Others taking part will be Samantha Bond, Tim Pigott-Smith, Joanna Riding, Greta Scacchi, members of the Cast of The Archers, though the announcement does say "subject to availability" for all actors.

For more informationBristol Old Vic Theatre School

In Conversation at the Lyttelton Theatre

Last Friday Alex talked to Al Senter in the series "In Conversation With..." at the Lyttelton Theatre. The conversation took place in the set of "The Habit of Art", with a small tea table placed just in front where the men had their tea. The talk started with Al Senter asking most of the questions, but later on the audience got to ask their own. I took notes and will try to give an idea of the various topics that came up.

Alex was recently heard reading the part of Oliver Lacon in the new BBC radio adaptations of the Smiley books. This brought him back to the start of his career, because his first television appearance was as PC Hall in "Smiley's People". He had to turn a body over and be sick. The job did give him the chance to work with Alec Guinness. "He taught me what a mark is", according to Alex. His appearance in the tv series was short, but he later met Alec Guinness again and had lunch with him a couple of times.

Alex is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and has already written some ten pieces. He says he got involved in this in an "anoraky way". He got in touch with them, pointing out certain omissions in the dictionary, for example Kenneth More and Kay Kendall, and he was then asked to be a contributor. "You have to be dead to be in it". He has written pieces on, for example, Kay Kendall, Maurice Denham and Michael Bryant, and he will write on Ian Richardson, Elizabeth Spriggs and Paul Scofield.

Alex went to the theatre more often in the past, when he was at school, university and drama school, than he does now, and he used to go to see particular performers rather than directors. He doesn't prefer a specific type of acting but "a raft of different approaches". Favourites were Ralph Richardson, who "dazzled and intrigued", Cyril Cusack, Paul Scofield in anything, John Wood and Angela Lansbury in "Gypsy".

The creation of "The Habit of Art" was an odd process, it went from a rehearsal room to a rehearsal room. It was a little like rehearsing in front of an audience, which was quite relaxing. Alex does feel that rehearsing is a private process, which should not be seen by the audience. He finds the presence of cameras for a programme like the South Bank Show quite unsettling. There was some talk of installing a viewing gallery in one of the rehearsal rooms at the National Theatre, but that idea horrifies him. There was such a gallery in the Archers studio when he worked there a couple of years ago, but there is a curtain there now. "It's our business", he says.

Alex is passionate about Britten and his music, and he wanted to be in a play by Alan Bennett. He is always happy to get the laughs, though they don't always happen at the same moment. "Prince Charles loved it, he was laughing when other people weren't."Alex had another actor in mind as a model for Henry, but he won't say who. There was some debate during rehearsals about Britten and that sometimes got heated. Alex about Britten: "He sat on the edge of the bath, but didn't get in". If something had happened with the boys that would have come out by now. The boys had all enjoyed working with Britten, and were hurt to be turned away when their voices broke and they were no longer useful for the music. Alex now feels "slightly fed up with playing real people". He thought he played a sympathetic Charles, but not everybody agreed. He feels the same about Britten.

Alex does a lot of readings and audiobooks. He reads the books beforehand, but he is not a fast reader and doesn't always manage to finish the book on time. He was once almost caught out when, after the first day of a four day reading, it turned out that the four characters he had been playing were in fact one character, and he didn't know. He knows this kind of thing happens to other actors too. Alex usually casts the books in his mind so he can attach another actor's face and voice to a character. He has just finished recording a series of children's books, The Edge Chronicles, where he gave the different kinds of creatures different regional accents. He likes to do radio and is sometimes disappointed to find other actors take the parts he has done for radio into film. That happened, for example, with Graham Greene's "THe End of the Affair", which he recorded with Emma Fielding and which he was particularly happy with. Ralph Fiennes played the part in the film.

Alex will be appearing in "Candide" in Japan in August, and then in a new production of "My Fair Lady" in Paris in December. Both will be directed by Robert Carson. Margaret Tyzack will play Higgins' mother in Paris, with Nicholas le Prevost playing Pickering. The piece will be performed in English. Emma Thompson has written the screenplay for a film version, but Alex doesn't consider playing Higgins in that one a real possibility.

He likes to play both comedy and straight plays, and he enjoys getting the laughs. He has no cause to complain about the way his career has turned out so far, though at the moment he has some nostalgia for the ages 35 to 45. He gets to play more fathers now, often to pretty daughters as in Cranford. A few years ago he decided to try to get more work in television, to get some bigger parts. He very much enjoyed being in Cranford. There was a cake day every week during the shooting, with cakes spread out on a big table in the reverend Hutton's church. Julia McKenzie made the best merengues.

He would like to do more audiobooks, more Dickens, but the market seems saturated. Everything seems to be available now. He enjoys doing unabridged readings. "So you can do all the parts". There will be more Woman's Hour drama, the next Dickens will probably be "A Tale of Two Cities". Alex: "I have asked if Dickens can play the part of Sydney Carton".

The question if "The Habit of Art" gives a truthful insight into the presence of the writer in the theatre and the rehearsal process, leads Alex to say that "Alan is completely open and unprecious about his writing". Alex goes into Alan Bennett mode, when asked to illuminate on the text he goes "Ooh, I don't know". He seems well able to impersonate Bennett, but says he will not play him. Working with David Hare on "stuff Happens" meant changes to the script every day, whith an author who was much better informed than the actors. For Speer, David Edgar and Gitta Sereny were both present, and Sereny had know Speer. But Alex continues: "I'd like to have done more new work than I've done, I've done mainly dead writers". And about the actors in relation to the authors: "We have to be adaptable, we're just here to serve", with a little smile.

Comedians he grew up with were Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd. The comedy he loved, however, was that of Hollywood's Golden Age, the screwball comedies made by Cary Grant and William Powell, who "got to be suave and wear tuxedos". The greatest influence was the film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines", bits of which he used throughout his career. "His Girl Friday" was a dream to do for Alex, playing the Cary Grant character. "I'd love to work with Zoe (Wanamaker) again", he says.

Part of his career was determined by the need to pay the mortgage. He has had to turn down parts with theatres that could not afford to pay very much. "There were some fairly rocky moments" (financially). With his partner Lesley he has raised two children. His partner also works, "my career was enabled by her", he says. The present financial crisis isn't doing actors much good. There are fewer parts in film and tv, and actors get paid less for the work than they did ten years ago.

He did some directing at university, but now he has "no desire whatsoever to direct".

The most challenging and satisfying part he has played was Hamlet. He thought he'd left it too late, but he did get to play it. He was very much on the same wavelength as director Matthew Warchus, so it worked very well. It took him a long time to let go of the part and he didn't see the play again until Simon Russell Beale played the role. Even then he had trouble hearing some lines, wondering why he didn't say that line like that.

He loves working at the National Theatre, also because he doesn't live too far away. Another favourite theatre is Stratford, partly because of the way he got to develop his career there. He loved playing Higgins at the huge stage of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He also likes the huge stage at the Coliseum. His partner said of this: "Finally, darling, you've found the right theatre for you".

As for future plans and parts he would like to play. He has given up on MacBeth, but he would love to have a go at Sweeney Todd. He is aware of the limitations of his voice, but he will try the part with his singing teacher.

After the session in the Lyttelton Alex signed autographs in the foyer of the theatre. There was quite a queue, but he took time to talk to all people interested.

More Nocturne

The Chopin reading Nocturne can be heard at St George's Bristol on 22 June as well as the Kew Festival on June 25. The readings are part of a series of performances by pianist Lucy Parham, featuring different actors. For a full list of performances see Lucy Parham's website.

For tickets to the Bristol performance see St George's Bristol.

Thanks to Jen!

Alexander

The dramatisation of the life of Alexander the Great will be broadcast again on BBC Radio 7 this week. Alex stars with Barry Foster, Brian Cox, Geraldine James, Simon Ward, Sam Crane and Geraldine Fitzgerald. The drama will be broadcast Monday to Friday at 10 am and 3 pm, and will conclude the following Monday. Episodes can be heard for a week after the broadcast on the BBC IPlayer.

In Conversation With ....

Alex Jennings this Friday, 30 April, at the Lyttelton Theatre, 3 pm. Some tickets still available from the National Theatre. So who's going?

Nocturne

Alex is due to appear at the Kew Music Festival on 25 June in a reading called "The Romantic Life of Frédéric Chopin". Lucy Parham will play the piano, reading by Alex Jennings and Juliet Stevenson, from letters and diaries. The reading will take place at the Musical Museum and will start at 19.30 hrs.

For more information and for tickets check the Kew Music Festival website.

Candide and My Fair Lady

After "The Habit of Art" finishes in London, Alex is off to Japan for a series of performances of "Candide" in Tokyo and Kobe in July and August.

In December Alex will resume the role of Professor Higgins in a new production of "My Fair Lady" at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.

Whitechapel II

Alex will appear in the second series of Whitechapel, an ITV production. It is not yet known when the series will be broadcast.

Finishing the Hat

This Sunday Alex and Carolyn Pickles are the readers on BBC Radio 3's "Words and Music". This week's theme is painting and artists. The programme will be broadcast on Sunday 18 April at 22.20.

Words and Music

Smiley's People

BBC Radio 4 will broadcast the dramatization of "Smiley's People" starring Simon Russell Beale. Alex plays the part of Oliver Lacon. The adaptation starts on April 11 at 15.00. Episodes can be heard for a week after the broadcast on the iPlayer. This is the third part of the Karla trilogy. Alex also appeared in the first book, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy".

Smiley's People

Thanks to Jennifer!

No Place Like Home

Alex will appear on the afternoon play "No Place Like Home" on Friday 26 March from
2.15 to 3.00pm BBC RADIO 4. He starts with Toby Stephens in this play written by Robert Rigby and Nick Russell-Pavier.

From the BBC website: "Jonathan confronts intruder Steve with his legally owned shotgun. A violent struggle ensues and the gun goes off, shattering a window. Steve grabs the gun and gains control. A neighbour reports hearing gunfire and a full-scale, armed police siege unfolds. A bizarre and precarious relationship develops between Steve, Jonathan and the authorities."

The cast also includes Victoria Carling, Ben Crowe, Jonathan Oliver and Zoe King.

Thanks again to Penny!

NT Live Trailer

The National Theatre have a trailer for NT Live up on their website now, announcing the broadcast on 22 april.

See: NT Live

Thanks to Penny! And thanks also to Penny for looking after the diaries while I was off to the ice again!

On Expenses - Pictures

On Expenses is available until Tuesday 2nd March on the iPlayer.

I've grabbed a few pictures from it below. Alex played the Head of the Fees Office Andrew Walker; a man who won't look through his glasses if he can possibly look over them.




The trailer for the show can be found on Youtube here.

On Expenses - Preview

There were a few clips of 'On Expenses' shown during the interview this morning, on BBC Breakfast, with Heather Brooke and Anna Maxwell Martin.

The video of the interview can be found here.

Front Row

Front Row on BBC radio 4 on Friday evening had a short discussion about 'On Expenses'. There is a short audio clip of the production at the start of the programme.

You can listen to this edition of Front Row here until Friday the 26th.

Vortigern and Rowena

It's 1796 and a young antiquarian claims to have discovered a lost play by Shakespeare. He takes the play to Richard Sheridan, who agrees to produce it. By the second act, the audience are gleefully aware the play is a fake...

Vortigern and Rowena will be broadcast on Wednesday the 3rd March at 2.15pm on Radio 4.

Lorcan Cranitch plays Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Alex Jennings plays John Philip Kemble and Rufus Wright plays William Henry Ireland. The play was written by Melissa Murray.

On Expenses

On Expenses, which has been renamed from Bringing Down The House, will be broadcast on BBC 4 at 9pm on Tuesday the 23rd February.

The 60 minute drama is a humorous take on the recent furore over MP's expenses. Alex plays the head of the Fees Office, Andrew Walker; other actors include: Brian Cox, Anna Maxwell Martin and Neil Pearson. The drama was written by Tony Saint.

The BBC Press Pack can be found here.

An Ideal Husband

There's another chance to hear the radio production of 'An Ideal Husband' this Sunday 14th at 8pm on Radio 3. It will be available on the iPlayer for one week after transmission.

Thanks to Jen.

Edit: iPlayer link (available until 21st February).

In Conversation With Alex Jennings

Alex will be talking about his career and current role in a platform at the National Theatre, chaired by Al Senter, on the 30th April 2010 at 3pm. Tickets are available here.

This platform was originally scheduled for December 2009, but was canceled due to Alex's unavailability.

Goldfish Girl

The beautiful short play "Goldfish Girl" will be broadcast again this Friday on BBC Radio 7 at 11.15 and 21.15 and will then be available on the IPlayer for seven weeks. Alex stars with Juliet Stevenson.

Thanks to Jen!

Broadway?

The Mail Online reports that "The Habit of Art" might transfer to Broadway in the spring of 2011, if possible with the current cast. Read the full report at:
Mail Online

Thanks to the other Lori, now also from Florida....

Personal Reviews

Two of our "regulars" went to see Alex at the end of November, beginning of December and both have written a review. So thanks to Lori and Penny for the following:

29 November matinee

The play is very good, with plenty of funny lines and superb performances from everyone. Frances de la Tour was marvellous as the stage manager; getting laughs from terse repetitions of 'Go on!' to simply a look. She's fantastic in the play, if underused during the second act.

Richard Griffiths Auden/Fitz is the main role of the play and he's very good as a slightly irascible, forgetful Fitz and is just as good as the punctuality obsessed, forgetful Auden, who is inclined to pee in the basin.

Adrian Scarborough's Donald is a bit sensitive, a bit neurotic and makes an unforgettable second act entrance! His Humphrey Carpenter is a competent fellow, at first alarmed by Auden mistaking him for a rent boy, but then calming down to interview the poet.

Alex's Henry is a confident, proficient actor, with hints of a slightly seedy youth. He's occasionally exasperated by Fitz and like Frances de la Tour can get a laugh with just a sharp look, discontented sigh or reluctance to shake hands goodbye with a just returned from the lavatory Auden. His Britten is reserved and anxious. Britten's desire for Auden's appreciation of 'Death in Venice' is a bit childlike, but eloquent and passionate.

The balance of rehearsal room and play is perfect, we see enough of the rehearsal to engage with the actors and the learn about the play and then we see what would be the heart of 'Caliban's Day', the meeting between Auden and Britten. All the actors are equally fantastic and seem to relish their roles.

Penny



Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art is a frame-story, a play about rehearsing – and making -- a play. In it, then, Alex plays Henry, an actor who takes two parts in the rehearsal of the play-within-the-play, the major role of Benjamin Britten and the role of Auden's servant Mr Boyle. Of these three parts, none is entirely what he might seem to be.

Alex, of course, delineates each character beautifully – watch the way in which body language alone can convey a shift from Benjamin Britten to Henry – and Act II is in some ways his act. He's onstage all of Act I, but often wandering around the margins or simply watching from the side; that act belongs more to Richard Griffiths as the actor Fitz who plays W.H. Auden. The play is structured around the withholding of Henry and Britten, because the character(s) Alex plays reveal themselves behind their masks in Act II, but I confess I wanted him to have more to do earlier on!

It's an interesting, overstuffed play, full of wit and sharpness as well as a few melancholic touches. Frances de la Tour, Adrian Scarborough, and Richard Griffiths are wonderful in the piece. But Alex is a real anchor for the complications of the work – Henry and Benjamin Britten need an actor of his theatrical weight-- and he does a marvelous, perfectly pitched job.

Lori

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.