News

By Howard Hughes

(The following review is of the UK release of the film on Region 2 format.)

In Roy Ward Baker’s 1960s comedy-drama Two Left Feet, Michael Crawford plays Alan Crabbe, a clumsy and unlucky-in-love 19-year-old who begins dating ‘Eileen, the Teacup Queen’, a waitress at his local cafe. She lives in Camden Town and there are rumours that she’s married, but that doesn’t seem to alter her behavior. Alan and Eileen travel into London’s ‘Floride Club’, where the Storyville Jazzmen play trad for the groovers and shakers. Eileen turns out to be a ‘right little madam’, who is really just stringing Alan along. She’s the kind of girl who only dates to get into places and then starts chatting to randoms once inside. She takes up with ruffian Ronnie, while Alan meets a nice girl, Beth Crowley. But Eileen holds a strange hold over...

The First Churchills.

Kieran Kinsella

We’re all familiar with Winston but how many of us know much about The First Churchills? Well for those who don’t know, Britain’s war-time Pm traced his lineage back to the court of King Charles II, and the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough Aka The First Churchills. The cigar smoking nemesis of the Nazis wrote a biography of his aristocratic ancestors and in 1969 the BBC dramatized the story. The 12 part series was an instant success. Drama starved executives on the other side of the pond soon snapped it up and began airing it on PBS in a new time slot called Masterpiece Theatre. Yes British TV watchers, The First Churchills isn’t just about English history it is also a landmark series in the British invasion of American networks. On 4 June, Acorn Media are reviving this lost classic on DVD.

Three-time Emmy...

Actress Dame Maggie Smith and playwright Alan Bennett were among the mourners who gathered in London on Saturday to pay tribute to late British star Margaret Tyzack.

The revered actress, best known for her role as Winifred on U.K. TV's The Forsyte Saga, passed away on 25 June following a short illness, and a memorial service was held in her honour at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Blackheath.

Friends and former colleagues joined Tyzack's grieving family at the ceremony, where Sir Nicholas Hytner, the artistic director of the National Theatre, and actress Frances De La Tour both addressed the crowd.

"Ah, the pungent odor, the fermented esprit, the sulfurous insanity of the New York Asian Film Fest!" exclaims Michael Atkinson, introducing his overview of the lineup in the Voice. "It's a new year for the city's favorite attack of the imported-irrational, and as always, the jejune state of the late-spring/early-summer box office gets a shot in the ass. The pulp is especially ripe this year, particularly from Japan, where manga-ness seems to have gone from a national pastime to a mass psychosis."

For R Emmet Sweeney, writing for TCM, "most of the revelations in this year's slate came in the Nyaff sidebar, Sea of Revenge: New Korean Thrillers, so I'll focus there." Michael J Anderson splits the difference, concentrating on Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!! and Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (image above). Time Out New York's got a slide of "titles worth cutting class for." Cinespect's Ryan Wells picks...

One of Britain's most distinguished actors, known for her roles on stage and screen

Margaret Tyzack, who has died aged 79, was one of Britain's greatest and most popular actors, working on stage, television and film for more than half a century. Sometimes described as being in the mould of Edith Evans and Flora Robson, she will be remembered particularly for performances in the golden age of BBC TV drama – Winifred in The Forsyte Saga (1967), Antonia in I, Claudius (1976) – as well as for stage performances such as Martha in the National Theatre's revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1981), for which she won an Olivier award for best actress, and Lottie with Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage (1987 and 1990), which earned her both Tony and Variety Club stage actress of the year awards. In 2008, well into her 70s, she scored perhaps one of her finest triumphs on stage as the wily,...

Revered British actress Margaret Tyzack has passed away following a short illness. She was 79.

The star, who is believed to have had cancer, died "peacefully at home" on Saturday, according to her agent.

Tyzack was an established classical stage actress and won two Olivier awards and a Tony award for her work. She is best known for her role as Winifred on U.K. TV's The Forsyte Saga.

She played Sir Derek Jacobi's mother Antonia in I, Claudius and starred in two Stanley Kubrick films, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange.

Tyzack appeared in Britain's long-running soap Eastenders in April, but had to drop out due to health reasons.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1970 and became Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Cbe) in the 2010 New Year Honours.

Margaret Tyzack has died at the age of 79. The veteran actress of the stage and screen passed away peacefully surrounded by family at her home on Saturday. She was believed to be suffering from cancer, reports BBC News. Tyzack's agent said in a statement that the actress would be remembered for "her outstanding contribution to the world of theatre, film and television and for the support and inspiration she gave to young actors". "Maggie faced her illness with the strength, courage, dignity and even humour with which she lived her life," her agent added. Tyzack made her name playing Winifred in the 1967 BBC adaptation of Victorian drama The Forsyte Saga and (more)...

Supporting actor in works from Harry Potter to Shakespeare

In St Paul's church, Covent Garden, amid the memorials to the theatrical stars of their day, is a modest plaque dedicated to an actor described as "a much-respected player of supporting parts". Such a one was Jimmy Gardner, who has died aged 85.

In his acting career, stretching over half a century, he played the gamut of character roles, ranging from the statutory drunken old man in the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage version of A Clockwork Orange (1990) to Peter in Romeo and Juliet (a role first created by Shakespeare's clown, Will Kempe), to the bus driver Ernie Prang in the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). No popular TV series could be counted as having truly arrived until he had played a cameo role in it, whether it be The Forsyte Saga, Z Cars, Doctor Who, EastEnders, Casualty, The Bill,...

The actor Jimmy Gardner has died at the age of 85.

Jimmy Gardner had two roles in Doctor Who. In 1964 he played the role of Chenchu, the manager of the way station at Tun-Huang, in the fourth story of the series Marco Polo. He returned to the series in 1978 to play the role of Idmon in the fourth Doctor story Underworld. Idmon was a Trog on the planet formed around the P7E, and the father of Idas. He tried to encourage the other Trogs to rebel, but was arrested by the Guards and selected for sacrifice. He was rescued by the Doctor and escaped his planet's destruction on board the R1C.

Gardner had a long eventful life. He was a war hero, a survivor of two shipwrecks and numerous escapades on land. After the war he trained as an actor at The Central School and had a long career in television,...