The League of Obscure British Actors

Daily Express 9 November 2002
Dr Zhivago is too poor for Ioan.
Ioan Gruffudd, the Welsh-born star who shot to fame as frilly shirted Horatio Hornblower, is a valuable commodity these days. The handsome actor, we learn turned down the role of Dr Zhivago in the forthcoming ITV remake of the 1965 classic because the pay packet wasn't enough.
TV makers Granada were hoping to cash in on Ioan's popularity after his TV roles in Hornblower and Man and Boy (for which he was paid Ł150,000 by the BBC, but were unable to strike a deal with the actor who has starred in Hollywood films 102 Dalmatians and Titanic.
"It is true that Ioan was offered the role but we were unable to make a deal". admits Ioan's agent Christian Hoddell.
The role made famous by Omar Sharif in the 1965 movie. instead went to unknown Hans Mattheson, 27 who will work alongside Bend it Like Beckham star Kiera Knightley in the 3 part series. She will star as Lara, originally played by Julie Christie. Ioan, 28, currently riding high from his acting successes and tipped as a potential future James Bond, is also soon to appear in The Gathering with Christina Ricci. In the past, he has admitted that money is a major concern in his life.
"To peosay who may sau money will make you miserable, I say rubbish," the actor revealed in an interview earlier this year. "As long as you understand that you find happiness in real terms through family, friends and love, then money is just a nice bonus."

NYTimes.com
It's the Forsytes, Reduxing Again
October 4, 2002
By CARYN JAMES
Oh, the English and their wacky sense of humor! Mark Thompson, the chief executive of Channel 4 in Britain, recently gave a lecture about the state of television and said, "When you're looking for ambitious, complex and above all modern TV, you find yourself watching not British, but American pieces." To American viewers that idea rings with a Monty Pythonesque absurdity that could keep us howling with laughter all season. If American television represents the avant-garde, we're all in very deep trouble (even though Mr. Thompson was right in citing the anomalous "Six Feet Under" and "24" as models of innovation).
His provocative remark is especially resonant as a new version of "The Forsyte Saga" arrives, revealing how global and how topsy-turvy the television world has become. In the dark ages before cable, about 30 years ago, British television was routinely, if wrongly, considered the standard Americans could scarcely hope to achieve. All that started with the once-and-future "Forsyte Saga."
With its new eight-hour version of the Forsytes (beginning with a two-hour episode Sunday and continuing for the next six weeks), "Masterpiece Theater" on PBS literally goes back to its roots. In 1969 a 26-part black-and-white series imported from the BBC was such a smash that it led directly to the creation of "Masterpiece Theater," which carried on the tradition "The Forsyte Saga" had inaugurated: that of the refined soap opera, in which British class and money give an intellectual veneer to costume dramas about lives run amok. Now "Masterpiece Theater" is a catchphrase, both scorned and beloved, for reliable, entertaining escapes into a cozy, prettily designed past, the middle-brow version of a guilty pleasure.
Today's "Forsyte Saga" (jointly produced by Granada TV of England and WGBH in Boston; the BBC had nothing to do with it) fits comfortably in that tradition, sometimes too comfortably for its own good. Based on "The Man of Property" and "In Chancery," the first two books of John Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga" trilogy, it has the soothing appeal of sinking into a distant world, this one about an upper-middle-class family fraught with infighting and facing social changes as Victorian England gives way to the modern age.
Those familiar themes seem fresh, thanks to three stunning performances. Damian Lewis is Soames Forsyte, a man of property and of excruciating propriety; with his red hair, cool blue eyes and pinched mouth, the actor's very presence suggests the complex, deeply buried passion that destroys Soames. Rupert Graves is his bohemian cousin, an artist known in the family as Young Jolyon; Mr. Graves gives life and substance to a character who, as written, could easily have become a caricature. And Corin Redgrave, wearing huge mutton chops, is endearing as Young Jolyon's father, Old Jolyon, who at first cuts off his disreputable son but in old age becomes open-minded enough to embrace him.
There is a major casting problem in the center, though. As Irene (pronounced eye-REE-nee), the woman who entrances all three of these Forsyte men, Gina McKee's enervated performance makes the character's supposedly irresistible allure hard to accept.
The streamlined, lucid script introduces the complicated Forsyte family at an engagement party in 1874. Soames's sister, Winifred, is about to marry Montague Dartie, who will prove himself a ne'er-do-well many times during the quarter-century the story covers. As the steadfast and sometimes mischievous Winifred, Amanda Root is one of many actors who charmingly fill the secondary roles of aunts, uncles and cousins.
"Soames, you're such a stick!" Winifred tells her oh-so-proper brother, an irrefutable comment that makes Soames an unlikely character to hold a series together. And the tension between the old and new social orders, which had so obvious a contemporary echo in 1969, seems more remote today. But Mr. Lewis (who was also powerfully subdued as Dick Winters, the laconic hero of "Band of Brothers") overcomes these obstacles, suggesting a passion so profound and repressed that Soames himself cannot fathom it. When he meets Irene, who is living in genteel near-poverty with her stepmother, he goes after her with the single-minded determination of a man who assumes his wealth can buy him anything. Irene gives in, but by Episode 2 the entire family knows she has a separate bedroom.
As Irene, Ms. McKee (best known as Hugh Grant's wheelchair-bound friend in "Notting Hill") is dramatic looking, with pale skin, dark hair and strong features. But she relies on those looks almost exclusively. "I am not a cold person," Irene says in a monotone when her mother-in-law, Emily (Barbara Flynn), stops by for tea and to offer advice on wifely duties. We're meant to find Irene sympathetic, but she seems as big a stick as her husband.
Soames and Irene's misbegotten marriage provides some of the most dynamic scenes, as Soames's frustration eventually explodes and he rapes his wife, an act that is full of drunken violence but is also informed by his legalistic sense of what was considered his right in Victorian England. Soames is a self-righteous prig, but in Mr. Lewis's nuanced performance he is also incredibly sad. When Soames despairingly takes to his bed and his mother says, "You feel things too much, you always have," we know she is right, though no one else in the world would guess it.
Young Jolyon follows a different path from the start, when he leaves his wife and young daughter, June, because he is in love with his daughter's governess. Cut off by his family, he trades in his slicked-back hair for longer bohemian locks and a hardscrabble life as a painter. He also begins wearing a wide-brimmed hat, just in case we didn't notice the difference between the freely loving Jolyon and his rigid, top-hatted cousin Soames.
The script and direction, generally so fluid, at times become excruciating in their bluntness, setting up the simple-minded equation that artists are good and passionate, while the money men are bad and cold. As a young woman, June (Gillian Kearney) falls for a penniless but brilliant architect, Philip Bosinney (Ioan Gruffudd, the star of the "Horatio Hornblower" series). When Bosinney designs a country house for Soames and Irene (he's such a genius that he anticipates Frank Lloyd Wright by years), he falls in love with Irene, in scenes that telegraph their desire with every blatant glance.
The other actors handle their romances with Irene more believably. Mr. Redgrave is especially deft in revealing how Old Jolyon's heart softens as he ages. His scenes with Irene are deeply moving as he displays the enduring life and passion in an old man's infatuation with a younger woman, rather than its potential foolishness. By the end of the series, the social rules have changed, the country is mourning Queen Victoria and the youngest generation of Forsytes marches off to be soldiers and nurses in the Boer War.
This story goes on and on, though. A second series, based on the final book in the "Forsyte Saga" trilogy, has just begun filming. And a third, based on Galsworthy's subsequent novels about the family, has been planned. Together, these three series will eventually cover the same ground as the old BBC version. And that old version itself, rarely seen now, will be released on DVD early next year.
Although the new "Forsyte Saga" cannot recreate the story's historic role in television, its revitalized characters offer a delightful escape. And if there is little innovation involved, at least part of the blame belongs to the homogenized, global reach of television. When Mr. Thompson of Channel 4 discusses the economic model that makes British television so fearful of taking risks, he could just as well be talking about American networks. We share the same discouraging prospects; no wonder it's soothing to turn to the past.
MASTERPIECE THEATER
The Forsyte Saga
On most PBS stations Sunday night
(Check local listings)
Directed by Christopher Menaul and David Moore; written by Stephen Mallatratt and Jan McVerry; based on the novels by John Galsworthy; Sita Williams, producer; produced by Granada and WGBH, Boston; executive producers, Rebecca Eaton for WGBH and Andy Harries for Granada.
WITH: Damian Lewis (Soames Forsyte), Gina McKee (Irene Forsyte), Ioan Gruffudd (Philip Bosinney), Rupert Graves (Young Jolyon), Corin Redgrave (Old Jolyon), Gillian Kearney (June Forsyte), Amanda Root (Winifred) and Barbara Flynn (Emily Forsyte).

TV Times 12 - 18 October
"Who will be the next James Bond"
Colin Firth 6-1
Clive Owen 7-1
Ioan Gruffudd 10-1
Christian Bale 12-1
Steven Hartley 25-1
Graham Norton 1000-1
Agent : Ioan Gruffudd
Age: 29
Previous missions: Posh in The Forsyte Saga, brave in Hornblower.
He says: 'I would love to be Bond one day, but at the moment I feel I am too young'
Good 007: because...he's a bit of a smoothy
Bad 007: because...after an Irishman, Scotsman, etc could we have a Welshman?
Odds: 10-1

Daily Express
Celtic heart-throb Ioan Gruffudd is staying faithful to his roots by playing the Welsh-speaking lead in an animated feature film, Otherworld. Based on four medieval tales - one of which bilingual Ioan studied at school - the Hornblower actor, tipped to become the next James Bond, has provided the voice of a giant named Bendigeidfran, for the film made by Welsh broadcaster S4C. "I know the story of Bendigeidfran particularly well as I studied it for A level," boasts Ioan, 28, who is dating his 102 Dalmatians co-star Alice Evans. "I have really enjoyed the process." As for non-Welsh speaking fans, an English version of the film is due to be released before the end of the year, is also being made.

Saturday, 11 May, 2002, 16:59 GMT 17:59 UK
Gruffudd 'too young' for Bond
Welsh screen heart-throb Ioan Gruffudd has declared "My name's not Bond - James Bond" - at least not for a few years.
The star of Hornblower and the recent BBC film adaptation of Man and Boy quashed persistent rumours that he may step into the famous 007 role in the near future.
Gruffudd, 28, told BBC Radio Cymru: "I would love to be Bond one day but at the moment I feel I'm too young, and Pierce Brosnan has said he has two or three films in him again," he explained.
"I did go for an audition for a baddie part in the next film though."
He was unsuccessful on that occasion but there are more than enough offers of work around to keep him in Bond videos for a good while.
He is starting to become an almost permanent fixture on British television screens, with his most recent appearance as the unlucky Bosinney in the new version of The Forsyte Saga.
He played the dashing young lover of the married Irene Forsyte who meet his end under the wheels of a horse-drawn carriage.
Gruffudd carried out his own death-scene stunt for the programme which meant he took an early exit from the six-month filming schedule.
He said: "It was a great challenge for us as actors and producers to follow the previous series.
"We had a great three months in Liverpool and Manchester. It was a change being outside London."
Before the Forsyte Saga, he tried out being an on-screen parent in the BBC film Man and Boy.
"I loved the novel and was glad to get the part. It was great working with my fellow actors and the boy was lovely.
"The critics didn't seem to enjoy it but I think the public have.
"Generally though, I think we squashed too much into an hour and a half," he suggested.
With both productions airing so close together, Gruffudd's recognition factor has rocketed and he gets regularly spotted on the streets.
His legions of fans will be pleased to know that he will return to the small screen after filming another two-part Hornblower this summer.
While British viewers have been enjoying the fruits of his labour, the young Welshman has been making his mark further afield in the bright lights of Hollywood.
He said: "The last year has been absolutely great - unbelieveable. I've been very lucky to do different roles in different parts of the world.
"I quite like Hollywood. I didn't think I'd ever say this but I wouldn't mind living there for some time."
He worked alongside British director Ridley Scott on the war movie Black Hawk Down, describing him as "an unbelieveably cool person".
His most recent US project is The Gathering with the "absolutely stunning" Christina Ricci, which has not been released yet.
On the personal front, Gruffudd's relationship with 102 Dalmatians co-star Alice Evans is blooming.
The actress broke off her engagement to Olivier Picasso, the French grandson of the Cubist artist Pablo Picasso, to go out with Ioan.
He said of his partner: "She's a lovely girl. We don't get spotted that much as we don't tend to go to the places to be spotted.
"We're not much in the newspapers as we've been open about the relationship.
"But if I do something I shouldn't then I'm certain I'll be in the paper!"

http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_568127.html
Welsh stars set to team up in Atlantis movie
Rhys Ifans is set to team up with Ioan Gruffudd to make the epic action fantasy Queen Of The Sea.
They will play two soldiers who stumble on the lost city of Atlantis and fall under the hypnotic spell of its queen.
Denise Richards and Catherine Zeta Jones are understood to be in the running to play the title role.
South Seas locations are being scouted for the film. It will also use the giant water tank situated off the island of Malta.
A senior source told Ananova: "It would be a lovely touch if they could get Catherine to join Ioan and Rhys and make it a complete Welsh line-up.
"They are all great patriots and speak and are fluent Welsh language speakers. Nobody else would understand a word they were saying to each other."
The film, due to be made in the autumn, is loosely based on the 1932 German drama L'Atlantide, which starred Brigitte Helm.
Story filed: 13:49 Tuesday 16th April 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/wales/newsid_1950000/1950391.stm
Thursday, 25 April, 2002, 11:05 GMT 12:05 UK
Gruffudd backs teachers' stress line
Ioan Gruffudd supports those at the "chalk face" Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd has taken on a new screen role that would make his parents proud.
He is to star in a promotional video highlighting a helpline for Wales's 29,000 secondary and primary school teachers.
It is a subject close to the heart of the Cardiff-born actor who stars in the seafaring epic Hornblower - both his parents are teachers.
Gruffudd is backing a new telephone support line to help teachers in Wales cope with the daily pressures of work.
The Teacher Support Line Cymru, being launched on Thursday, is a 24-hour bilingual counselling service, which hopes to reduce the amount of stress and depression felt by the those at the "chalk face".
The free and confidential service aims to give advice to a profession that has witnessed record levels of sickness and resignations.
The Welsh Assembly is providing Ł85,000, half of the running cost, for the first two years.
Teachers who are facing problems in the classroom will be able to seek the advice of fully-qualified counsellors with a background in education.
A similar scheme is already in place in England, and since its launch in 1999, it has helped more than 30,000 teachers to develop a more positive attitude to their job.
The service has been welcomed by Marjorie Evans, the head teacher of St Mary's Junior's in Caldicot, who was cleared of pupil mistreatment allegations last year.
Mrs Evans hit the headlines for more than 18 months while she fought to clear her name and remembers the case put her under considerable stress.
"I had times of anger, very deep depression, especially at the time of the sentencing," she said.
"It was emotional but I adopted a motto to be positive, to be cool and to be calm."
She believes a helpline might have made a difference to her when she was facing some of the most stressful periods of her fight.
"That would have been very nice to have someone who understood the Welsh perspective."
National Union of Teacher Cymru spokesman, Dyfan Jones, said teachers in Wales faced particular problems if they worked in small, rural schools where there might not be many people they could turn to.
"Sticking plaster"
He said: "It's obvious that there problems in schools.
"Quite often it's difficult for teachers to turn to their colleagues to discuss these issues.
"So we welcome this launch but it is only sticking-plaster solution."
On Tuesday another teachers union, the NASUWT Cymru, revealed a poll it commissioned which showed that four in five teachers in Wales had considered quitting the profession due to stress.

A&E ANNOUCEMENT ABOUT HH3
Dear Hornblower Fans,
A&E is proud and happy to announce the return of Ioan Gruffudd as HORATIO HORNBLOWER in a brand new, third installment of our Emmy-award winning miniseries. Returning with Ioan to recreate their original roles are Paul McGann as Lt. Bush, Paul Copley as Matthews, and Sean Gilder as Styles. Further good news will be forthcoming as additional cast members are confirmed. The 4-hour miniseries goes into production in the UK this June, and is drawn from and based upon the third book in C.S. Forster's Hornblower series, HORNBLOWER AND THE HOTSPUR. Most of the original production team are returning as well, including Director Andrew Grieve, Producer Andrew Benson, Production Designer Rob Harris, Costume Designer John Mollo, Editor Keith Palmer, and Executive Producers Michele Buck and myself.
We know many of you have been wondering about the status of a third HORNBLOWER series, and wondering why we had made no announcement. We felt it was important to wait until our key cast members had been set, and we appreciate your understanding and patience. Even more, we are most grateful for the lively support you have given the series over the years, and we look forward to giving you more to talk about over the next year!
Sincerely,
Delia Fine
Executive Producer, Horatio Hornblower
pg124 Teletext 22/4/02 George Wood
Evil Soames brutally raped his cheating wife Irene as the temperature rose in ITV1's production of The Forsyte Saga. Damien Lewis and Gina McKee handled the sickening scene with great conviction and Ioan Gruffud (sic) gave an even more powerful performance as her outraged lover. But he was tragically killed and Irene's grief was total and heart-rending. The great story is lovingly brought to the screen in a top-quality production that lights up Sunday night.

The Telegraph
... Besides, it certainly provided a far more realistic portrait of the vulnerability of the male psyche than Man and Boy (BBC1, Sat), the feature-length adaptation of Tony Parsons's best selling novel, which survived in the schedules despite the rejigging caused by the Queen Mother's death all around it.
This one-dimensional mess looked like a washing-up liquid advert, sounded like an after-school drama group, felt like a carpet warehouse and smelt like a lie. Ioan Gruffudd lacked credibility as the adulterous / abandoned single father, left holding his five-year-old son when his wife runs off (utterly implausibly) to Tokyo.
Not only did Gruffudd hold his screen son as if the kid were a rugby ball that someone had just unexpectedly thrown into his arms, he lacked the specific, writhing kind of male emotion that the role required.
Still, it seems pointless to single out individual performances in Man and Boy. It would take superhuman acting ability to make lines like "What do I want? I want my life back!" sound credible, or to make you want to believe in two central characters who only get around to having their first one-on-one, man-to-son conversation an hour and 20 minutes into the narrative. The one redeeming factor was the pace, which was quick, in a clunky kind of way, like a journey in an executive sports car where you stop and linger at every signpost.
The Independent
A new generation is invited to join the feuding Forsytes The series that shocked viewers in the '60s is back.
ANDREW WILSON reports
When The Forsyte Saga, a classic tale of one family's sexual jealousy, greed and passion, was dramatised for television in the late 1960s an incredible 160 million viewers tuned in around the world and in Britain, it was blamed for emptying both churches and pubs on Sunday evenings.
The episode in which Soames, played by Eric Porter, forced himself on to his wife, Irene (Nyree Dawn Porter), by ripping open her bodice and raping her, caused a sensation and established itself as one of the most hotly debated scenes in the history of television.
Now, 35 years after its original BBC broadcast, a new version, starring Rupert Graves, Damian Lewis, Corin Redgrave, Ioan Gruffudd and Gina McKee, has been made by ITV, which hopes that it will prove equally compulsive.
The challenge facing the ITV producers was how to make the material fresh for a new generation, while at the same time creating a series that would appeal to those who remember the original.
Although the 1967 version covered six of the nine novels, which added up to an astonishing 21 hours of television, ITV decided to confine itself to adapting the first two books.
The drama is set in Victorian England, but the saga is extraordinarily modern in its exploration of themes such as love, lust, power and revenge. Although the narrative is interlinked with dozens of interlined characters and jumps across the generations, at its most basic level the story centres on the lives of two cousins, Soames Forsyte (Damian Lewis) and Young Jolyon (Rupert Graves) who loathe one another.
Soames, who is the embodiment of the Forsyte spirit industrious, resourceful, ambitious, cold-hearted falls in love with a poor pianist, Irene Heron (Gina McKee).
Although she feels nothing for him, Irene agrees to marry Soames on condition that if the union fails she will be granted her freedom.
However, her entanglement with Soames's architect Bosinne (Ioan Gruffudd), who is engaged to young Jolyon's estranged daughter, June has far-reaching and tragic consequences.
Young Jolyon, played by Kenneth More in the original, is the opposite of Soames. This is a man ruled by his heart rather than his head. When Young Jolyon realises he has fallen in love with Helene, his daughter's governess, he leaves his wife, Frances, and child to set up home with his mistress, cutting himself off from his family.
Then, after the death of Helene, he eventually finds love with Irene.
"The Forsytes look so respectable on the surface, with all those gleaming white shirt fronts, immaculate hairdos and elegant dresses," says series producer Sita Williams, "but underneath there are the same passions, intrigues and venal impulses that are no respecters of class."
The Forsytes bear a striking similarity to Galsworthy's own family, which made its fortune in property, investment and the law; Young Jolyon can be seen as a thinly disguised self-portrait; while Irene was inspired by his cousin's wife, Ada Cooper, whom he took as his mistress before their eventual marriage.
Born in 1867, in Coombe, Surrey, Galsworthy was educated at Harrow and Oxford, where he distinguished himself more as a footballer than an intellectual.
Although he trained as a lawyer, he harboured a secret ambition to write. His life changed when, in 1891, he met the woman whom he would re-cast as his enigmatic heroine, Irene.
"His cousin Arthur had married a charming 27-year-old woman, Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper, who was presented to the wider family at a series of parties," says Rupert Smith, author of the book about the series. "At one of these she met John.
"Neither thought much of the meeting at the time, but within two years they were meeting often, and within four years had become lovers.
"Their relationship remained passionate and secret for 10 years, and this gave Galsworthy the decisive push towards writing."
Ada's marriage to Major Arthur Galsworthy was an unhappy one, and she would confess details of her passionless union to her new female cousins, gossip they would pass on to their brother, John.
Although Ada and John were lovers, she continued to live with her husband until 1902. Certain members of his family knew of the liaison, but the news of the affair was kept secret from Galsworthy's father.
The impact of the scandal on Galsworthy's social and professional life was devastating.
"Galsworthy lived in a social and professional limbo," says Smith, "and bore the social stigma of being a known adulterer.
"After seven years, it was too much Ada left her husband and set up home with John, far from the disapproving eyes of society, in Dartmoor."
It was only after the death of Galsworthy's father in 1904 that the couple felt able to make their relationship public, marrying in 1905. Spurred on by a renewed sense of freedom, Galsworthy enjoyed a frenzied burst of writing, completing what would be the first novel in the Forsyte Saga sequence A Man of Property, published in 1906.
Those close to him were shocked at the writer's detailed description of the passionless marriage of Ada and Arthur.
Galsworthy's sister, Lilian, was so upset after reading the manuscript that she advised him not to publish the racy novel.
After settling down together, sex played little part in their relationship Ada was, apparently, rather cold, formal and perhaps frigid and Galsworthy recorded their rare sessions of lovemaking with a capital 'A' in his diary.
In 1910, aged 44, Galsworthy let himself be seduced by the charms of a vivacious 19-year-old dancer, Margaret Morris, who later wrote how the writer channelled his experiences into fiction.
"I was startled by the accuracy with which he quoted almost word for word whole passages of dialogue that took place between us," she wrote of one of his novels.
After two years of tormented self-analysis the novelist couldn't bear the pain he was inflicting on his wife he broke off the liaison and fled with Ada to France.
'After the Margaret Morris affair, Galsworthy schooled himself in a reticence of which Soames Forsyte would have been proud," says Smith.
His niece later said of him: "Books we could discuss, feelings, no."
Writing provided the perfect outlet and 14 years after the publication of A Man of Property, he settled down to pen the rest of the novels which would form The Forsyte Saga The final and ninth novel, Over the River, was completed just before his death, aged 66, in 1933.
So can the story that riveted millions in the '60s repeat its magic in the cynical, seen-it-all noughties?
The ultimate test will be whether the filmmakers can make us care about the characters to the extent that they could almost be members of one's own extended family. "Characters who you don't like at first, seem like old friends as you learn to understand them," says Sita Williams.
"There would be no point in boiling these stories down and doing them quickly because the whole point is the complexity of the relationships, and the way in which people and families change over time.
"You have to get inside these characters, to become almost a member of the Forsyte family yourself."
Heat magazine
What drew you to Man and Boy?
It's a brilliant novel, but on a personal note, the character is 28, as I am. I've been associated with a lot of juvenile leads, and recently I've felt that I've been in a bit of a no-man's land; not young enough to play the 21- year olds any more, not old enough to play over 30's. So, it's an opportunity to fill the boots of a 30 year old. I've left those juvenile leads behind.
Tony Parsons has said he's glad someone better looking than him is playing the role.
That's right. I was at a nerve racking read through with him there, and he said, "When I heard you got cast I thought, `Yes, they've got it right.'" That meant a lot.
And you get to work with Ian McShane.
Yeah, Lovejoy! He doesn't have the mullet any more.
Neither do you.
Yeah, the Hornblower one. We bonded over mullets. He's great, he became the character.
Are you single at the moment?
No, I'm seeing somebody, but it's very early days. I'll let you know.
Is [fellow Welsh actor] Matthew Rhys still your flatmate?
Yeah, we bought a flat together in Kilburn about three years ago now. It's still brilliant. Everybody thought we were mad, or that we must be lovers.
Is it more Ant and Dec or Baddiel and Skinner round your place?
Er…I'd say a bit of both. Some occasions would be more Baddiel and Skinner…
Such as?
Um, drunken rugby weekends, having the boys round…waking up on the floor, that kind of thing. But most of the time it's very Ant and Dec, clean cut. Having been brought up well, we keep a clean house and are a bit anal about stupid things like tidiness.
Is it true you met during a snowball fight?
Yes, when I was nine. We had this famous snowball fight between the sixth and seventh years. We built barricades, but they broke ranks and came flooding over. Matthew chased after me and started pelting me with bits of ice, and made me cry.
A younger boy made you cry.
Exactly. It was very embarrassing for me and he said he felt terribly guilty about it.
Do you party much?
I do. Parties for me - not to sound boring - have developed from when I first came to London and went to places like Heaven and G-A-Y and Turnmills, to meeting in the pub and going somewhere like Teatro or the Met Bar. I don't hang out there because I'm trying to be trendy, I just happen to be in an industry where a lot of people do hang out there. I'm not seeking any sort of attention.
But do you get attention when you're in the pub?
Occasionally it gets a bit heated. Especially in Cardiff. I get more recognition in local pubs round there, because people get a bit pissed and come on with, "Oh you think yer bigger than me." The usual. It puts a real dampener on the evening. You suddenly become streetwise, because you are in the public eye and you can't always blend in. You are going to get grief. Weird, that.
The Scotsman.
"Ralph Howard, writer and director, was looking for a rugged strong man to play the romantic lead in his film Lover's Leap. An insider explains: "Ioan Gruffudd is our first choice. We needed someone who was on the verge of making it big to be the romantic, Clark Gable type and we want this movie to be big with him. He's got the kind of looks - dark, brooding, and yet elegant, that are very of the moment."
Stardust from the valleys
Not long ago I was backstage at a Pavarotti concert in Modena. The big joke was that Catherine Zeta Jones was presenting an award, Tom Jones, and Cerys Matthews from Catatonia, were performing, and we only needed Anthony Hopkins for all the famous Welsh people that ever existed to be in one room.
Welshness has always been a bit of a joke, hasn't it? When Sunday Times writer AA Gill made some derisive comments about Welsh people (he called them trolls), the nation got caught up in the hilarity of ridiculing them. But not here in Hollywood, not any more. The Welsh mafia have all but taken over.
I was first made aware of the Welsh thing when actress Christy Jones arrived for a Hollywood sojourn, seizing the moment after being in the West End hit Popcorn to see how Hollywood would take to her. "I really thought I would just have the LA experience, a bit of an adventure, but everything so far has well surpassed my expectations. I couldn't believe I got a manager in the first week. [Some American actresses come to Los Angeles and spend months, if not years, seeking representation.] "I was sent out on a few auditions and was told straight away that they liked my Welsh accent and that it must stay."
When Minnie Driver first arrived in LA, she was careful to make sure no-one even knew she was English. She honed an American accent because she knew Englishness would stand against her, limit her parts - that was the way things were then. Zeta Jones has taken things to a different level. She is one of the most bankable Hollywood stars. Her name attached to your project can, as they say, get the movie greenlit - and she did nothing to disguise her Welshness. In fact, she was always standing proud with it. Didn't she have a Welsh accent in Traffic? Didn't she have Welsh lamb on her wedding menu? She has opened doors for Welsh actresses' bankability.
This month's American Vogue lists the results of a recent survey conducted by the American Academy of Facial, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The black-haired, porcelain skinned, big-eyed beauty represents "the ideal face of femininity, the face of the new decade". I'm sure it's making the people at Elizabeth Arden very happy, as they recently signed Zeta Jones as their supermodel.
It's making a lot of other Welsh actresses happy, too. Shelly Miranda Barrett, who has that same Snow White appeal, has also been in demand since she arrived here fresh from winning her Bafta Cymru for Satellite City, a Welsh TV series.
Christy Jones, who has an air of a happier, healthier RenĂ©e Zellweger about her, doesn't see herself competing for the femme fatale superstar roles, but still feels that Zeta Jones might have opened some doors. "It's the fact that she's so proud of her Welshness and very vocal about it. I always say I'm more Carmarthen than Californian, but I have fitted in here a lot better than I thought I would. When people start hearing the Welsh accent, their ears prick up and it sets you apart."
Producer Antonia Roeller says: "Traditionally, America has always had strong links with the Celts. There's so many Irish-Americans. And there was a big Scottish movement just after Trainspotting and Ewan McGregor was embraced as a leading man, but there's definitely a feeling that the new wave could be coming from Wales. We're used to the Emma Thompsons and the Kate Winslets. They're kind of stuffy and traditional. The Welsh are more versatile and Americans find them easier to identify with, but they come from a strong tradition of good acting. (Richard Burton was, of course, the first Welshman to break Hollywood.) There's a lot of stuff about the English that the Americans just don't understand. They feel more welcoming towards the Scottish and the Irish, and now the Welsh are coming through with the talent."
Ralph Howard, writer and director, was looking for a rugged strong man to play the romantic lead in his film Lover's Leap. An insider explains: "Ioan Gruffudd is our first choice. We needed someone who was on the verge of making it big to be the romantic, Clark Gable type and we want this movie to be big with him. He's got the kind of looks - dark, brooding, and yet elegant, that are very of the moment."
The more Welsh people there are in Hollywood, the more you notice Welsh things. There I am, having brunch in an extremely high-end hotel in Santa Monica, and along with the de rigueur egg-white omelettes and steamed vegetables and the non-fat, non-wheat bagels, we find Welsh rarebit. But that's not all, says Christy Jones. Welsh lamb has been a very edgy dish to serve at dinner parties since Zeta Jones served it; you can get Welsh cakes, and one trendy cafe is even doing Cawl (a Welsh broth, very wholesome and healthy). A Welsh movie that opened and shut in the same minute last year in the UK, Very Annie Mary, has opened to rave reviews here and Tom Jones's Green Green Grass of Home is a huge karaoke favourite.
Rachel Himbury was nicknamed Welsh Thing by her Glaswegian former boyfriend. The name stuck and Welsh Thing is now directing documentaries about female comedians for Comedy Central. She has always preferred to describe herself as Welsh and never British, partly because of the "cool Cymru" factor after Catatonia hit the music circuit, and partly because Welsh people have a natural pride and a natural desire not to be mistaken for those uncool English people. Anyway, she really felt the Welsh mafia was moving in when she heard a Welsh accent at a Pamela DeBarr party and realised it belonged to a boy in a band "whose house in Cardiff contains the very room in which I lost my virginity, long before he lived there".
And then there's always the name of that very long railway station, which has become a very good name to drop,
"Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch". It's nearly impossible to spell it and even more impossible to say it, but it's become a password that's a better name to drop at parties than the name of Joan Collins's dermatologist. Himbury says, "It's about time that people appreciated the Welsh state of mind. We've had enough of always being the sidekick and the scapegoat."
It seems the time for the Welsh Things has finally arrived.
BBC
William Gallagher
We do not watch television channels, we watch TV programmes and yet The Forsyte Saga has felt such a BBC triumph that ITV1 seems audacious remaking it.
It is as if the BBC remade the early years of Coronation Street or Channel 5 produced a new version of Brideshead Revisited.
There is even a sense that ITV1 is trying to slap the BBC's reputation for great costume drama.
And this seems as much a series to show what ITV1 can do as it is to make something for us to watch.
It may be a demonstration and it may be audacious, but it works extremely well.
Deceptive
The first episode is deceptively gentle as it smartly introduces a lot of characters without you feeling you are being given a cast list.
Soames does little but means business
It also slips in many budding storylines that you feel sure will combine to become an increasingly more complex family saga.
And it does all this with a tale spanning a dozen years in 90 minutes.
Right at the heart of this version of John Galsworthy's books is a set of twin relationships.
First, there is Soames Forsyte - played by Damian Lewis - and his wife Irene Heron - played by Gina McKee.
Then there is the less socially acceptable affair between Young Jolyon - played by Rupert Graves - and Helene Hilmer - played by Amanda Ooms.
All are extremely good and the supporting cast is peopled with fine actors such as Barbara Flynn and Amanda Root.
But your eyes zoom straight to Lewis, formerly of Band of Brothers, Hearts and Bones and Warriors.
Smouldering
Funnily, Lewis does very little indeed. One scene has him manipulating events to his way of thinking without actually saying a word.
But there is a smouldering power to him and you correctly fear for anyone who tries to confront him.
The first programme is gentle but promises future fireworks
He is the cornerstone of the piece but the story makes a dig at him by starting back at the beginnings of Young Jolyon and Helene's relationship.
It then runs their illicit true love in parallel with Soames and Irene's cold and unloving marriage.
It is a deft trick to play each story off against the other.
Once the series has done that, it then heightens problems as they appear in each relationship.
You therefore know that those who are happy now will not be for much longer.
Irresistible
The dialogue seems at times a little repetitive. However, in places this is clearly deliberate in order to mock the formal and stuffy style of some characters.
The feel of the opening episode is of a deep undertow pulling people and events into dangerous, passionate areas.
It is irresistible and if it remains as good as the opener, the BBC's 1960s version may be all but forgotten. The Forsyte Saga starts on Sunday 7 April at 2100 BST on ITV1.
Teletext
Sunday, April 7
Forsyte Saga is a costume classic
If ever an actor is needed to play a wet haddock on television then Damian Lewis will surely land the role.
So itąs not surprising he makes a huge success of playing the cold and calculating Soames Forsyte in ITV1's sumptuous revival of that historic BBC hit The Forsyte Saga.
You can see there's something fishy about cynical Soames as soon as he reels in the beautiful, penniless Irene to be his wife. It's a superbly scripted costume classic that simply sparkles with fine performances.
The Sun
By FIONA WHITTY
ACTOR Ioan Gruffudd is fast becoming one of the most recognisable faces on the screen.
His profile is now set to get even higher following the start last night of the lavish ITV1remake of the classic series The Forsyte Saga.
Ioan also plays Hornblower on TV, starred in the recent telly special Man And Boy and was in the Hollywood blockbuster Black Hawk Down.
You might think that Ioan, 28, spends all his time working. Yet he has also found time to start a romance with gorgeous actress Alice Evans and they are fast becoming the Posh and Becks of the luvvie set.
She is mad about her man, saying: "Ioan and I were friends for a long time before anything happened.
"But now that we are in love I would be pretty silly to let this one go."
Dashing ... Ioan in The Forsyte Saga
Ioan reckons it could be serious too. He says: "I think I might have met the right woman for me."
The heart-throb's personal life was very different just a few months ago.
Then single, Ioan came third in a poll by America's People Magazine to find the planet's most eligible fellas.
He moaned at the time he would never find the right girl. Little did he know that she was already right under his nose.
Ioan was 30-year-old Alice's on-screen lover two years ago in 102 Dalmatians.
They didn't hit it off at first but the ice broke when she offered him a warming glass of vodka during a late-night shoot and they became friends.
Love ... with Alice in 102 Dalmations
At the time she was in a long-term relationship with Frenchman Olivier Picasso, the millionaire grandson of artist Pablo and was living a life of luxury in Paris.
When she and Olivier broke up Ioan and Alice's friendship slowly turned to romance.
At first they kept their love under wraps. But they used the London premiere of movie Black Hawk Down in January to unveil it as they hugged and kissed.
Speculation is rife that they will tie the knot but in a touchingly old-fashioned gesture, they are resisting moving in together.
Ioan, from Cardiff, still shares a North London flat with fellow actor and old schoolmate Matthew Rhys, who starred in ITV drama Metropolis and the stage play The Graduate.
Ioan has never shared a home with a girlfriend. Until he fell for Alice his most serious relationship was with actress Charlotte Haywars, who he met at drama school and dated for five years.
Off screen ... pair at showbiz party
He has revealed he did not lose his virginity until he was 22, adding: "I think there's so much pressure on teenagers these days to jump into bed.
"I'm not embarrassed about not doing it until I was 22 - I've certainly made up for it since."
The seriousness with which he views relationships is no doubt down to his strong Christian beliefs and upbringing.
He says: "I come from the old-fashioned school of wanting to be married before having a family. For me, marriage is for life.
"I'm very excited about it. I've always known that I've wanted to be a father. It's the way I was brought up."
RADA-trained Ioan's dad Peter was a church deacon and a headmaster. His mum Gill a teacher.
Brooding ... Ioan in Hornblower
Ioan's sister Siwan is at medical school in London and his younger brother Alun works for the Welsh National Assembly. Alice grew up just 36 miles away in Bristol.
But the lifestyle she later settled into was a million miles away from Ioan' s.
She spent eight years living with 39-year-old Olivier in Paris, enjoying fancy parties, fine restaurants and shopping expeditions to Gucci and Prada.
She was nicknamed La Belle Anglaise in the French Press and she and Olivier attracted the same sort of attention across the Channel that Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant did in Britain before they split up.
Alice shot to international fame in December 2000 with Disney's 102 Dalmatians. She played the parole officer of Glenn Close's Cruella de Vil.
She was also a female bigamist in the BBC drama series Best Of Both Worlds last year.
Alice's life in Paris was opulent. Yet you are more likely to find Ioan in his local or watching rugby than at a swanky do.
But that is just what Alice likes about him. She says: "That lifestyle with Olivier really wasn't for me. I love dressing up but I also like slobbing out in jeans over a pint. I could never do that with Olivier."
Ioan once said: "It's hard meeting the right sort of girl because of the stardom thing. It sounds old-fashioned but I'd like to find somebody to fall in love with and start a family."
As the pair's relationship is on the up, so is Ioan's profile thanks to an impressive list of movie and TV roles.
His career started in the Welsh soap Pobol Y Cwm at the age of 13. But he now happily crosses between top mainstream TV and Hollywood, such as the sweet but naive dogs' home owner he played in 102 Dalmatians.
He returned in the starring role of ITV1's Hornblower for a two-parter a fortnight ago.
But it is his appearance in The Forsyte Saga that has been one of the most eagerly awaited.
The series, following the greed, jealousies and passion in an upper-crust Victorian family, is the sexiest costume drama since Pride And Prejudice and Tom Jones.
Ioan is used to dressing up for roles. In addition to swashbuckling sea captain Horatio Hornblower, he has donned britches as Pip in Great Expectations and in Poldark.
The original Forsyte Saga caused a stir when it was first shown in 1967.
Eighteen million people tuned in to the Sunday evening series starring Kenneth More, Susan Hampshire, Nyree Dawn Porter and Michael York.
It was so popular, pubs and churches were left empty. TV clean-up campaigners also had a field day, branding a domestic rape scene disgusting.
Ioan plays handsome, charming architect Philip Bosinney.
He is hired by arrogant and hugely wealthy lawyer Soames Forsyte (Damian Lewis) to build him a country mansion - then has an affair with his beautiful wife Irene (Gina McKee).
It is the second time Ioan has worked with his screen love rival Damian - they starred in Warriors, the award-winning drama about peacekeepers in Bosnia.
Ioan has admitted he is frightened but that is not likely to trouble him as he is sure to spend a lot more time in the spotlight.

Teletext
Ioan's back on the high seas
By Derek Robins

It will be difficult to avoid the handsome visage of film and TV star Ioan Gruffudd in the coming weeks.
As well as returning as midshipman Horatio Hornblower in two new ITV1 adventures, the Welsh actor, 28, is in two major TV dramas.
On March 30, he stars as a doting dad in BBC1's adaptation of Tony Parsons's bestseller Man And Boy, and from April 7 he plays sexy architect Bosinney in ITV1's six-part revival of The Forsyte Saga.
The in-demand actor has come a long way since he began playing CS Forester's hero Hornblower three years ago.
Since then he's starred opposite Glenn Close in 102 Dalmatians, acted alongside Christina Ricci in The Gathering, been tipped as the next James Bond and starred in the award-winning BBC drama Warriors.
But despite this success, and being the subject of dozens of hero-worshipping websites, he insists fame has not changed him. "I prefer the pub with pals to showbiz parties," he says.
The new episodes of Hornblower were actually shot two years ago but have only just reached ITV1 screens.
An ITV1 spokeswoman says: "Filming starts on two new Hornblower films in May for 12 weeks. Ioan Gruffudd is very keen to make more episodes."
The dramas are made by Granada and US network A&E, and have been sold around the world. The first drama cost at least Ł4m and it is believed the new episodes are only being made thanks to money from US TV.
Ioan says he has a lot in common with the seafaring hero.
"We hold the same moral values. I was brought up as a Christian and being loyal, honourable and gentlemanly is very important to me.
"And I like the action scenes. It is fantastic climbing ropes and rigging, swimming underwater, running round firing pistols and brandishing swords - it's like being a kid again!"
While back on dry land...
Ioan Gruffudd is delighted that there has been so much global interest in Hornblower.
It is a big hit in America and has sold to dozens of countries. He says: "The interest is great and I have been knocked out by all the Hornblower websites."
In the two new stories, starring Robert Lindsay, David Warner and Paul McGann, Hornblower contemplates mutiny and faces death when he is court-martialled.
Back on dry land, playing a cheating husband who becomes a doting dad in BBC1's Man And Boy is a new departure for Ioan.
In the production, his character loses his job as a TV producer and becomes a full-time dad when his wife leaves him.
He is full of praise for his screen son Dominic Howell, seven. "The way he responded to me made me feel great as he trusted me."
Elsewhere, Ioan is back in period costume in ITV1's remake of 1960s BBC hit The Forsyte Saga, alongside Damian Lewis and Gina McKee.
He plays Bosinney, who has an affair with Irene Forsyte, leading up to her rape by her furious husband Soames.
Ioan says: "He is a rebel, he stirs people up and that's always an attractive part to play. He is quite selfish and capable of trampling over people to get what he wants."
In his own private life, Ioan has hinted that he may be ready to settle down with girlfriend Alice Evans.
The couple met in 2000 while making 102 Dalmatians and Ioan says: "I think I may have met the right woman for me. We will see what happens.
"I come from the old-fashioned school of wanting to be married before having a family and I take the vows of marriage very seriously. For me it is for life. I have always known I wanted to be a father."
23/03/02
BBC
Wednesday, 20 March, 2002, 17:11 GMT
Gruffudd's mother stars in BBC soap
The mother of heart-throb Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd has joined the BBC soap opera which first made her son a star. Gill Griffiths is the latest addition to the cast of the Welsh-language domestic drama, Pobol y Cwm (Valley People).
It is the series in which Gruffudd appeared for five years from age 14 before achieving stardom in blockbusters such as Titanic and 102 Dalmatians.
Now his mum is following in his footsteps, playing the part of church committee member Mrs Price in the fictional Welsh village of Cwmderi.
Mrs Griffiths - her son's surname is spelt in the Welsh form - has long pursued her own acting ambitions.
But perhaps more importantly for Gruffudd fans, she has always encouraged her son to forge a career in television and films.
The two even starred alongside each other in the Oscar-nominated Welsh-language film, Solomon a Gaenor.
In the film Mrs Griffiths played Ioan's mother and the two are seen together in the opening minutes of the love story set in a 1911 Welsh valleys mining village.
In Pobol y Cwm, Gruffudd played teenager Gareth Wyn Harries.
He started the role while still a pupil at the Welsh-language secondary school where his father, Peter, is still head teacher.
One of his storylines included him falling in love with a fellow patient while in hospital.
Since then, he has won the adulation of millions of female fans with his heroic roles in television and on film.
He was hailed for his looks in the swashbuckling naval drama, Hornblower - which starts a new series this weekend - as well as his role in the Hollywood smash, Titanic.
And in 2001, readers of a US magazine taking part in an online poll voted the native Welsh language speaker their third most-eligible bachelor.
His mother's inclusion on the cast list of Pobol y Cwm is nothing new, she has appeared in the series a number of times in recent years.
But her current role as the religious Mrs Price has pleased her son who went on to RADA after the experience he gained from the series.
Gruffudd's agent, Christian Hodell, said: "Ioan is delighted that his mother is appearing on Pobol y Cwm.
"He had a great time doing it himself and knows the cast will make her welcome."
A spokeswoman for Pobol y Cwm said: "Gill has been a regular non-speaking part for ages.
"We are very pleased that she is a regular."
Gruffudd next appears on the BBC on Easter Saturday, 30 March, in Man And Boy, BBC One's adaptation of Tony Parson's novel.
He plays Harry Silver who is left to bring up his four-year-old son, Pat, when his wife walks out of him after he has a one-night stand.
GEORGE WOOD ON LAST NIGHT'S TV
Sunday, March 24
Hooray for Hornblower
Hornblower sailed back into wonderful, swashbuckling action at last on ITV1 with Ioan Gruffudd in captivating form as heroic young Horatio.
CS Forester's stirring stories are brilliantly brought to life in this lavish and action-packed adventure and David Warner was in scintillating form as the deranged, drug-taking Captain Sawyer.
Our hero saves the day and has Sawyer confined to a straight-jacket. The same sort of treatment should be given to the ITV schedulers who have left us waiting for years to see this gem.
Welsh star back on TV Mar 23 2002
The Western Mail
IOAN Gruffudd returns to TV screens as Horatio Hornblower tomorrow - two years after the first series was screened.Two new two-hour films, adapted from the book Lieutenant Hornblower, follow C S Forester's famous maritime hero on his adventures aboard the 74-gun ship HMS Renown, en route to the West Indies.
Hornblower is just one of three TV dramas featuring Cardiff-born Gruffudd during the next few weeks - he will also be appearing in Man And Boy and the remake of The Forsyte Saga.
The Hornblower scenes were shot on location in Menorca and at Pinewood Studios in the UK, and have been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy awards.In the first film tomorrow, mutiny seems the only option for Hornblower and his fellow lieutenants as their captain's increasingly erratic behaviour convinces them that he is unfit for command.
The story continues on Monday as Hornblower and his shipmates capture a Spanish fort in Santo Domingo after a fierce battle at sea.
As The Renown sails towards Kingston, however, Hornblower faces a court martial for mutiny, the sentence for which is death.Robert Lindsay makes a guest appearance as Sir Edward Pellew and David Warner plays the dangerously unpredictable Captain Sawyer.Gruffudd said the new series was more about the psychology of life on board ship than about battles and adventures.
* Hornblower will be screened on ITV tomorrow at 8.30pm and on Monday at 9pm.
MAN AND BOY THE BEEB'S DONE ME PROUD Mar 25 2002
IF you are near a television at nine o'clock on Easter Saturday, then you might like to know that ITV are showing Denis Norden's Seventh Laughter File.
That should be, well, pretty awful.
So you could always change channels and watch BBC1's superb production of my novel Man And Boy.
The one-off film has all the qualities that I like to think are in the book, namely the very human qualities of laughter and tears. It's the story of your family and mine.
And if you think my book is a pile of sentimental rubbish then you might enjoy it anyway. Yesterday one paper said the BBC's film was a vast improvement on my lousy work, and "spikes the book's mawkishness".
Personally, I love the BBC's film. Ioan Gruffudd is of course a bit too ugly to play a character based on me but women seem to like him. I can't help noticing that Ioan is young enough to be the son of elderly British heart-throbs like Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Ioan's son, played by seven-year-old Dominic Howell - who bears a remarkable resemblance to my own boy at that age - gives a heartbreaking performance of a child whose parents are coming apart. Dominic is a real kid, not some spoilt stage-school brat, and terrific fun to be around. He is also fiercely competitive.
"I only got my lines wrong twice," he says. "But Ioan had his words wrong about 27 times."
It's a very sexy production. Natasha Little, as Harry's betrayed wife, gives a performance that deserves an Oscar. American Elizabeth Mitchell, of ER fame, is wonderful as the girl who helps Harry to love again, and looks great with her clothes off.
And incredible newcomer Shelley Conn is simply the best-looking actress you will see on your TV all year. The BBC's Man And Boy is terrific entertainment for all the family. It's about how love gets passed down between generations. Directed by Simon Curtis, it's touching, sad, funny and incredibly sexy.
Watch it with a lump in your throat or a lump in your trousers. But please watch it. BBC1, Easter Saturday, nine o'clock. Although, of course, Denis Norden is always incredibly entertaining
MAN AND BOY THE BEEB'S DONE ME PROUD Mar 25 2002
IF you are near a television at nine o'clock on Easter Saturday, then you might like to know that ITV are showing Denis Norden's Seventh Laughter File.
That should be, well, pretty awful. So you could always change channels and watch BBC1's superb production of my novel Man And Boy. The one-off film has all the qualities that I like to think are in the book, namely the very human qualities of laughter and tears. It's the story of your family and mine.
And if you think my book is a pile of sentimental rubbish then you might enjoy it anyway. Yesterday one paper said the BBC's film was a vast improvement on my lousy work, and "spikes the book's mawkishness".
Personally, I love the BBC's film. Ioan Gruffudd is of course a bit too ugly to play a character based on me but women seem to like him. I can't help noticing that Ioan is young enough to be the son of elderly British heart-throbs like Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Ioan's son, played by seven-year-old Dominic Howell - who bears a remarkable resemblance to my own boy at that age - gives a heartbreaking performance of a child whose parents are coming apart. Dominic is a real kid, not some spoilt stage-school brat, and terrific fun to be around. He is also fiercely competitive.
"I only got my lines wrong twice," he says. "But Ioan had his words wrong about 27 times."
It's a very sexy production. Natasha Little, as Harry's betrayed wife, gives a performance that deserves an Oscar. American Elizabeth Mitchell, of ER fame, is wonderful as the girl who helps Harry to love again, and looks great with her clothes off.
And incredible newcomer Shelley Conn is simply the best-looking actress you will see on your TV all year. The BBC's Man And Boy is terrific entertainment for all the family. It's about how love gets passed down between generations. Directed by Simon Curtis, it's touching, sad, funny and incredibly sexy.
Watch it with a lump in your throat or a lump in your trousers. But please watch it. BBC1, Easter Saturday, nine o'clock. Although, of course, Denis Norden is always incredibly entertaining
The Guardian
The little matter of infidelity
Natasha leaves the scheming roles behind as the wronged woman in Tony Parsons drama, writes Cathy Mayer
"You can never see how you're going to respond, but I think if your husband or partner is unfaithful, it's a terrible betrayal and it must be very difficult to move forward"
SHARP OPERATOR: Natasha Little as devious Becky Sharp, centre, in Vanity Fair
LITTLE WONDER: In her latest TV role Natasha Little plays Gina, the wife of a successful media man whom she leaves after his one-night stand, along with her young son, and heads for Japan. The drama is based on the semi-auto- biographical novel Man And Boy by Tony Parsons
CHARMING, polite and with a little-girl voice that belies her 32 years, it is hard to believe that Natasha Little made her name playing manipulative schemers.
Her big break came as conniving lawyer Rachel in This Life, who was memorably punched by Milly at the climax of the final series, and as Becky Sharp, one of literature's most devious minxes, in Vanity Fair.
But Little gets a chance to show a more sympathetic side with her latest role as Gina Silver in the BBC1 adaptation of Tony Parsons' best-selling novel, Man And Boy.
Gina has given up her career to look after the house, her six-year-old son Pat and workaholic husband Harry, played by Ioan Gruffudd. When she discovers he has had a one-night stand, she walks out, abandoning father and son to take up a job in Japan.
While some might criticise Gina for leaving her child behind, Little says she believes her character is a good mother. "When I first read it, it seemed very important to me that she's a good mother, that seemed really clear.
"She's been the one who's been largely responsible for the parenting. Harry has been quite an absent father, really. Gina has this difficult decision about leaving her son, and that's something that I felt she didn't take lightly at all.
"It's something that nowadays I think if a man did it, it still wouldn't be judged so harshly as if a woman did. I think for most of the time in Japan she is absolutely miserable.
"Her son starts school while she's away and I would think for any mum that's a big deal, isn't it. Children of that age change so quickly. She's away four months and every day they're learning something new."
While the actress has no children of her own, she can sympathise with women who have to make the choice between continuing a career and staying at home.
"A lot of my friends have children, some have chosen to stay at home and bring them up and I know they love it. In some ways bringing up children is the most creative job in the world, it's really wonderful, but there's no denying that parts of it are boring and mundane. I think it must be difficult for women doing that. It's also still rather under-appreciated.
"Women nowadays have the choice when they've had a family - whether to work or stay at home and that's something which hasn't always been the case. I think there's a lot of balancing and juggling that needs to go on. I'm not sure one can have it all."
And while she hasn't had to make a decision whether to leave an unfaithful partner, she agrees with Gina's "uncompromising" reaction to her discovery of Harry's infidelity.
"Hopefully I'll never ever be in that situation, it must be terrible. You can never see how you're going to respond, but I think if your husband or partner is unfaithful, it's a terrible betrayal and it must be very difficult to move forward."
As the story follows Harry learning how to be a father, becoming closer to his son and to his own parents - whose marriage is the only enduring one we see - and the new relationships he and Gina form, Little believes it also reflects today's changing families.
"The idea of new families and family units changing is so much part of how we live now. Men of this generation, of my generation, are taking a much more active role in parenting than I think they ever have before.
"The idea of a family unit has changed so much and I find it interesting the way the whole family is affected as well when a couple separate, including the grandparents and I think that's shown in the story as well."
Little's own parents divorced when she was 15. Very protective of her private life, she won't reveal much, saying only that she was protected from any upset and was more preoccupied with her own teenage interests.
While she has a boyfriend (who she won't name), a cat called Sylvia, a fish called Red and a canary called Sweetie, she is reticent about discussing anything other than work.
But she opens up when she talks about her co-star Ioan Gruffudd, who she worked with for the third time on Man And Boy.
"We get on well and I love working with him," she says of the Hornblower star. "He's great, very relaxed and great fun to be with. It just takes the whole worry about working with somebody new, it's something you don't have to think about, it makes it much easier."
And she thinks the friendship between Gruffudd and newcomer seven-year-old Dominic Howell, who plays Pat, also added to their on-screen family relationship.
"Dominic's just a really lovely little boy and he absolutely adored Ioan. They got on brilliantly, it was great to see them together. At times Ioan would seem about the same age as Dominic and at times Dominic seemed so grown up.
"Everyone was very enthusiastic about doing the project and I think that just made for a very happy working environment."
As for the future, Little is already looking forward to playing yet another kind of character.
"I'm starting a one-off drama for ITV in a couple of weeks, called The Crooked Man, which is a sort of modern thriller. It's a really interesting character, completely different from Gina. She's a woman who's on the fringes of the secret service, circumstances spiral out of her control, and she becomes involved in a much deeper way than she can cope with."
The actress says she prefers to pick her roles on the strength of the scripts, rather than having a particular plan, although Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen, as well as more theatre work, are among her ambitions for the future.
"There are all those fabulous roles there and stuff that hasn't been written yet as well. I think I've been incredibly lucky. I've worked with some really talented people and I've had some fantastic roles, so I think my ambition is to carry on doing work that really interests me."
Ioan Gruffudd started the week smouldering swashingly in Hornblower (ITV) but finished up looking both uncomfortable and unconvincing in last night's BBC adaptation of Tony Parsons's novel, Man and Boy. Mind you, who wouldn't have? Neither a romantic comedy nor a heartrending drama, the film was as confused in its intentions as the book. Though presented as a fluffy bit of light-ent for Easter, it was almost possible to overlook the fact that the original novel was, underneath its New Bloke veneer, a tub-thumping testosterone-fuelled tract with a notably low opinion of women.
'I can't love a man who doesn't love me. Only me. Ever. If you don't know that about me, Harry, then you don't know me at all,' bellowed Natasha Little (far, far better than she needed to be, as Gina) to Ioan Gruffudd's Harry as she walked out on both him and their five-year-old son after Harry's one-night stand with a colleague. Cue big collective 'aaah' for Harry and the winsome poppet - obviously both far better off without her, eh?
As an almost entirely implausible dramatic premise, much less a real-life dilemma (unless, of course, your wife is Julie Burchill), Gina's spontaneous exit in order to go and find herself in Tokyo had effectively spoilt the novel for me. But in the context of a TV drama, the only reasonable viewer response to this behaviour - the only intended response - was to shout: 'No, obviously he didn't know that about you; ergo, he doesn't know you; which is probably just as well because you're quite clearly a first-degree, barking loon of a nutcase.'
' I can't love a man who doesn't love me. Only me. Ever '. I doubt there's a real woman alive (even in north London) capable of talking such utter rubbish.
Nope - and sorry, Tony - but these are words that could only be put into the mouth of a female character by a man who prefers his (fictional?) women to be seen and not heard. Though watching the ever-excellent Ms Little having to say this stuff was one of the week's low points, so was the revelation that Grufudd is very much better off striding around in breeches splicing his mainbraces than he is slouching around in chinos and standing at airport departure gates shouting tooth-grinding lines such as: 'You can't give up on happy endings just because it didn't happen once... '
Gruffudd may have been less than convincing, then, but there was some (pointlessly) fine acting elsewhere - from Pauline Collins and Jack Shepherd as Harry's mum and dad, and from little Dominic Howell as his son, Patrick. Oh, and hands up who spotted Parsons's auteur-style cameo in the restau rant scene with Gruffudd and Ian McShane?
Man and Boy review from the Times
Television
Wrong man for the job
by Caitlin Moran
Tony Parsons is no Nick Hornby, and the BBC should know better
Given that we've all noticed, by now, that the Oscars aren't about films or movie stars, and are, instead, America's coded way of telling us how America feels today, the 74th Academy Awards (Sunday and Monday, BBC One) felt like a mammoth session on the couch.
Obviously, America feels like it would like to be a fairer and more inclusive place post-September 11, where one recognises Sidney Poitier as a great guy, and is as happy to ogle Denzel Washington as Brad Pitt. And A Beautiful Mind getting Best Film was America's way of saying 'I know I may seem a bit nuts sometimes but, hey, you gotta love me.'
There were other aspects of the Oscars, however, that America would have to be put into full regressive hypnotherapy to decode. Why were Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland doing links from what appeared to be a corner-shop full of Oscars? Was it a metaphor for impecunious merchandising? Will anyone ever give Whoopi Goldberg her eyebrows back? And, as one is always left asking after seeing mime artists, what was the deal with the mime artists? I felt they were an act of aggression.
It was a reminder of how rubbish entertainment was before America invented movies. The art of playing a great screen monster, actors inform us, is in making them human. Kevin Spacey saw in The Usual Suspects' Verbal Kint an element of game player, 'like we were in a gigantic chess game in which Verbal had all the moves'. Gary Oldman, meanwhile, found Dracula to be 'not out and out evil " there's this delicious cocktail of good and evil paralleling inside him'.
So all pity to Hornblower star Ioan Gruffudd, charged with playing Mirror columnist Tony Parsons in tomorrow night's single dad saga Man and Boy on BBC One. For whilst there may be a traumatised childhood to humanise a Kaiser Soze, how to bring depth to a man who once wrote a column about fancying Connie, the AOL-advert girl ('She can double-click on my mouse-button any day!')? There aren't many places for an actor to turn in a psychological landscape whose peaks are a fetishisation of the SAS and a belief that pop died in 1993, the year before Britpop kicked off.
Unsurprisingly, given the magnitude of the task, Gruffudd appears to have made some mental calculations on the first day of shooting and then abandoned the task, simply using Man and Boy as more Handsome Practice on his way to Hollywood. With this method, Gruffudd indicates falling in love with someone by staring at them and smiling, whilst a long dark night of the soul is conveyed by sitting down and putting his hands over his ears.
Helpfully, all the lines Gruffudd must have found most embarrassing to say " 'This is the real world.' 'I have to succeed. For my little boy.' 'Is it my fault I can't use tools like you? I'm not some brave ex-commando!' " are shouted, so you won't miss them if you, too, should be having a long, dark night of the soul with your hands over your ears.
Of course Harry Silver, hero of Man and Boy, isn't supposed to be Tony Parsons, hero of many columns on being abandoned by Julie Burchill and left with their child. The fact that Harry is a slightly flash Essex boy who gets left holding the baby, when his ambitious wife leaves him for the twin, barely sublimated metaphors of sushi and a man called Dick, are neither here nor there. Harry's rants about benefit fraud, the SAS and how even the bravest of talents can be made to look foolish by television are far distant from Tony Parsons, former presenter of the critically derided series Bigmouth. This is just as well, as I suspect most flesh and blood creatures would be driven to red-eyed madness by Man and Boy 's world of inconsistently drawn characters.
Harry apparently worships his wife, yet wakes the morning after his dumping free of any trademark symptoms, like lying on the floor so prostrate from desolation you can't even put your clothes on. Barely a week later, Harry is in love with leggy Texan Cyd, who, although Parsons is careful to make all the right pro-feminist noises, is a handily unambitious waitress, happily free of all the unpleasant insecurities Harry's wife had. Even though his wife's insecurities were brought about by Harry's infidelity in the first place.
Most bafflingly, given that the prĂ©cis of Man and Boy is 'Man love child, too', is that Harry surrenders custody of his child to his insecure ex-wife in the dying moments of the film, prompted by his mother's gnomic musings. 'Loving someone is about knowing when to let go,' she says, pointing to Harry's dead father in his coffin. Rather than quibbling that death is one of the few times being clingy isn't an option, Harry gives the kid the old heave-ho, and moves in with the Texan. Logic-wise, there are Bobby Ewings jumping out of the shower all over the place. And I haven't even got on to the cliches, which include a red sports car indicating a mid-life crisis, and a courtroom scene where someone shouts 'Stop!' Sadly, none of this is done with the joyous trash-thrill of, say, Footballer's Wives.
Man and Boy has the cold eyes of a battery-powered Mekon pressing the Drama button on his writing podule. Why the BBC got involved in such glove-fingered hackery is a mystery.
Maybe they thought they were bidding for Nick Hornby's superior About a Boy, which was published at the same time, and also dealt with fatherhood and responsibility, but without anyone running across Terminal 4 at Heathrow shouting 'Stop! I've realised it's you! I'll never love anyone else!'
Parsons seems to have regretted the venture. 'With the benefit of hindsight, I was too greedy selling the rights to the BBC,' he admitted in an interview earlier this year. Miramax had been interested in making a Hollywood version of Man and Boy, but now thought that the BBC might steal their thunder. 'Still, 'SHarvey Weinstein eats problems like that for breakfast,' Parsons said.
However, with Man and Boy absent from Miramax's schedules, it seems that Weinstein has passed on having Tony for breakfast. It's hardly surprising when, as you'll see tomorrow, there isn't enough milk of human kindness here to make a cup of tea.
New York Times
March 29, 2002
Trading a Scholarship for the Cozy Comforts of Home
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Very Annie Mary" is yet another entry in the sentimental oh-those-wacky-Brits genre that was ushered in by "The Full Monty" and is still straining to produce another smash hit. Alternately mushy and farcical, the genre trumpets the reassuring notion that traditional British reserve really conceals a lust to be in show business. If we all unleashed our hidden talents in the goofy variety show of life, it preaches, our differences would magically evaporate in the euphoria of the chorus line.
The movie's would-be vaudevillians are the residents of Ogw, a cozy village in the Garw Valley in South Wales. They include Hinge, Minge and Bracket, a trio of middle-aged women who dress up as the Village People and do awful karaoke renditions of songs like "Y.M.C.A."; and Hob and Nob, the perky gay proprietors of the local cafe who burst into show tunes at the tiniest provocation.
What keeps the movie, written and directed by Sara Sugarman, from choking on its own cuteness is an undertone of satire that looks askance at the jolly villagers' bad taste and sentimentality. For Ogw is the kind of place where the smirking local minister proudly flourishes a scratch-and-sniff Bible.
The movie's other asset is Rachel Griffiths's sturdy portrayal of the title character, the gawky, oppressed daughter of the local baker, Jack Pugh (Jonathan Pryce). Because Annie Mary couldn't be more different from Brenda, the neurotic, hyperarticulate shiatsu practitioner Ms. Griffiths plays on the HBO series "Six Feet Under," the film role is quite a stretch.
Hopelessly klutzy, dressed in hideous thrift-shop throwaways, Annie Mary squirms under the disapproving eye of her tyrannical, womanizing father. A local singing legend nicknamed the Voice of the Valleys, Jack drives his van around wearing a plastic Luciano Pavarotti mask and belting Puccini arias through loudspeakers. When Annie Mary was a teenager, we learn, she won a singing contest with first prize being a scholarship to study opera in Milan. She turned it down to stay in the village and care for her dying mother. She hasn't sung a note since.
Annie Mary longs to escape her father and live on her own. But when Jack has a stroke that leaves him speechless and immobilized, her nascent dreams are dashed. She endeavors to keep the bakery open, but her loaves emerge from the oven blackened and misshapen, and she resorts to repackaging supermarket bread and trying to sell it at inflated prices.
The movie's plot (and Annie Mary's future) ultimately hinges on the outcome of a contest - a karaoke competition in Cardiff, the Welsh capital - which she enters after joining forces with Hinge, Minge and Bracket. The proceeds of any winnings will be donated to a village fund to send Annie Mary's friend Bethan Bevan (Joanna Page), an angelic teenager dying of leukemia, to Disneyland. All Bethan really wants is for Annie Mary to sing for her. (Did I mention that the movie is shameless?)
As it lurches between mush and farce, "Very Annie Mary" churns up a few genuinely funny bits. At the climactic contest, Hinge, Minge, Bracket and Annie Mary execute a spectacularly zany program change that is almost worth waiting for.
Directed by Sara Sugarman Not rated, 105 minutes

Telegraph (UK)
3/9/02
"Man and Boy"
A modern Kramer vs Kramer
(Filed: 09/03/2002)
Mark Monahan reports on the film adaptation of Tony Parsons' marital break-up tale Man and Boy
FILM sets are notoriously stressful places, and it's not hard to work out why. A despotic director, a sprinkling of brittle actorly egos and a producer waiting to pounce on the slightest money-sapping delay is not an ideal recipe for harmony. All too often, tempers are frayed and bad vibes are bouncing off the walls.
Not so on stages two and three of Twickenham Studios, Middlesex, on a chilly December day last year. This is the set of Man and Boy, the BBC's new film adaptation of Tony Parsons' 1999 bestseller (to be broadcast at the end of this month), written by Kevin Hood, directed by Simon Curtis and starring the winsome trio of Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced "Yo-an Griffith"), Natasha Little and six-year-old Dominic Howell. Four weeks into the five-week shoot, budgets are intact, schedules are being met, and so palpable is the sense of goodwill among cast and crew that you begin to wonder what the BBC is putting in its corporate tea-bags.
The consensus is that everyone is delighted to be involved in fleshing out Parsons' novel (which, incidentally, is not to be confused with Nick Hornby's About a Boy, also being turned into a movie). In case you are not one of the 1.5 million who have bought a copy, Man and Boy is the unapologetically sentimental, semi-autobiographical story of north Londoner Harry (Gruffudd).
Approaching 30, he has what you might call an early-life crisis: he buys a sports car, has a fleeting tumble with a girl at work, and, as a result, is promptly left by his wife, Gina (Little). She heads to Japan for a few months to pursue her career, leaving Harry to rear their four-year-old son, Pat (Howell). But, when she returns and demands custody (or "residency", as it is now called), Harry is reluctant to hand him back.
"I was doing David Copperfield a couple of years ago for the BBC," says director Simon Curtis, in a brief break between takes. "At the end of that I went away for a weekend and read Man and Boy, and I thought it would work very well as a film. Obviously the story has echoes of things in the past, Kramer vs. Kramer and so on, but it was also very inventive, and very relevant for thirtysomething men now."
The similarities to Robert Benton's Oscar-winning film are indeed striking (wife walks out; only son is left with inept father; only son bangs head in playground; wife uses playground yarn in custody battle). But, as Curtis says, there is another, vital thread to Man and Boy that is absent from Kramer - namely the relationship between Harry and his parents.
"It's a comparison of what fathering and parenting means to Harry now, as compared to Harry's own father a generation before," says Curtis. "And it's no accident that the book has become such a sensation, because after an avalanche of single-women books it was time for a book about the agony of being a new man. When a marriage breaks up, the men are often the ones who lose the kids, and it's a subject that means a lot to a lot of people: what is the current shape of families?"
Gruffudd clearly shares Curtis's passion for the book, and for the business of bringing it to the screen. "I think it's one of my favourite-ever jobs," says the charming Welshman, taking a 10-minute break in his dressing room, while Dominic restlessly watches snooker on television. "It's been wonderful. It's such a lovely novel, and mine is a great part. There's so much to it." Had he, I ask, read the novel when he heard that the role was up for grabs? "No, I hadn't," he replies, his next words cut short by Dominic, who chimes in "My dad had!", before bounding over the sofa like a squirrel. "Had he?" replies Gruffudd. "Brilliant! Well," he continues, "after the part came up, I went off and read it and I loved it, I was overwhelmed. So, from then on, I really wanted to get it." As every member of cast and crew testify, Gruffudd and Howell get on famously. Not only is this rather touching, it is also likely to be of no small benefit to the finished product. Harry and Pat's relationship is central to the film (even more so than in the book, says Curtis) and, as Gruffudd puts it, the fact that they're so relaxed together "will inevitably show on camera".
Unlike Gruffudd, a television actor since 14 and a veteran of Titanic and the BBC's Great Expectations (among many other things), Dominic had no previous acting experience. Plucked from obscurity last year when a casting agent visited his west London school, he is mercifully un-stagey and by all accounts a natural in front of the camera - even if he cheerfully describes the best aspect of making the Ł2 million film as "being off school".
When the novel came out, there was speculation about how much of it was based on fact. Parsons' separation from his wife, newspaper columnist Julie Burchill, is as well documented as it was bitter, and the main narrative of the novel was widely believed to be a direct echo of this episode. You might, therefore, expect Gruffudd to have pored over countless cuttings for inspiration - but not a bit of it.
"I don't know the details of Tony Parsons' life," he says, "and I don't think there was any 'research' to do. Somebody told me the other day that they had put the book down after the first 10 pages, saying, 'I didn't believe that Gina is a beautiful, gorgeous woman with lovely legs, because I know Julie Burchill isn't that.' And I thought, you've totally missed the point, which is that, whatever inspired it, this is a lovely piece of fiction."
A few months later, it becomes clear that Gruffudd's chum was, in fact, even wider of the mark than the actor thought. It is now March, post-production is winding down, and Tony Parsons is talking about the genesis of his novel.
"Gina," he says, "is based on a real woman. But it's not Julie. There's nothing of Julie in the book. And I tried to write Gina as a sympathetic character. It's based on a woman that I lived with, and betrayed and got caught, and, like Gina, her dad had walked when she was four. "Like her, Gina's attitude is, I'm with you because you're special, because you're not like other men, because, most of all, you're not like my father."
Natasha Little's approach to her character squares perfectly with this. Back in December, I suggested that, compared to the beautiful-but-cold roles she has played as Rachel in This Life and Becky Sharp in the BBC's Vanity Fair, Gina is rather more sympathetic.
"I'm glad you said that," she replied sweetly, "because a lot of people have very little sympathy for my character. But Gina is not just a terrible mother who deserts her child. She does go to Tokyo, but she has her reasons, and the story deals with these sorts of intricacies."
So how have these intricacies translated to the screen? Although the film is not quite finished, and is being kept under wraps for the moment, Parsons has seen an early cut and is in rapture."It's incredible," he says. "The cast are all great, Kevin's screenplay is great, and Simon has done a fantastic job."
Most striking, perhaps, for Parsons is seeing the inimitable Pauline Collins play Harry's mother. Although Man and Boy looks back 10 years, to a period when Parsons' father was taken ill, his mother died just a month before the book was published and, as a result, he associates it very strongly with her.
"Watching the film," he says, his voice almost imperceptibly catching, "I can see bits of my mother in Pauline. It's less the dialogue than the way she carries herself. She's got the warmth that my mum had, and the humour that my mum had, and that old-fashioned stoicism. And that's where I see echoes of my own mum, and that's what I find most moving - almost between the lines, you know?"

Ioan: `Fame went to my head'
Mar 17 2002
Wales On Sunday
IOAN Gruffudd has admitted he let fame go to his head after he starred in Hollywood movie 102 Dalmatians. But the Cardiff-born pin-up, 28, says friends like fellow Welsh actor Matthew Rhys brought him down to earth again. "I started getting invited to celebrity parties last year and they were exciting," he said. "It's easy to be seduced by all that and I was for a while - friends started to tell me that I was getting above myself. "But I learnt very quickly that it's not for me. After a while these parties become very boring because there are a lot of egos flying about the room. "I still go to them, but I don't want to be a celebrity - I hate the word - and I try to keep the novelty value by not going to too many. "I don't want fame to possess me and to be known for who I'm out with on a Saturday night. "I'd rather be known simply for my acting."

Scotland on Sunday
On the crest of a wave
IOAN Gruffudd sleeps with the sword from his starring role as Hornblower by the side of the bed. It is there as a last line of protection, should he ever become another violent crime victim in his area of London. It also reminds him how far he has come in a few years, from a close-knit, Welsh-speaking family home to the brink of something big. When there's a welcome in the hillsides of Hollywood, Gruffudd is set to enjoy it to the hilt.
His biggest calling card so far is Hornblower, the four two-hour films in which he plays CS Forester's famous maritime hero from the turn of the 18th century, Horatio Hornblower. It earned him a devoted following across America, where the polished mixture of historical action and adventure was appreciated even more than in Britain, and won two prestigious Emmy awards - the TV Oscars - in 1999. But if that was the advance landing party to his career, then Gruffudd has an arsenal now ready at his disposal. There is a chilling new movie, The Gathering, with Christina Ricci; a starring role as handsome architect Phillip Bosinney, who has a passionate affair with Irene Forsyte in the remake of The Forsyte Saga; the part of Harry Silver in the BBC's new film of Tony Parson's bestseller, Man and Boy and, just for good measure, two new Hornblower films. With other lead film roles already to his credit, whether as murderer Freddy Bywaters in Another Life, which was a box office disappointment despite good reviews, or as a kindly dog's home owner in 102 Dalmatians - a box office smash, following a tepid reaction from critics - Gruffudd is cutting a dash.
"My proudest moment so far was when I saw the credits rolling after 102 Dalmatians and it said: 'Glenn Close, Ioan Gruffudd', he says. "I was under so much pressure to change my name. One agent told me, right at the start, that I would be pigeon-holed as a Welsh actor and would not have a chance in hell. An American agent also asked if I'd change when I went over there for the first time. But I would never forgive myself if I did. It is part of me and what I'm about."
That's certainly true. Gruffudd (pronounced Griffith) is a strikingly handsome 28-year-old, with thick dark hair and brown eyes. But he comes packed with old-fashioned manners and morals. Think chapel, afternoon tea with the family, courtesy, opening doors for women and what he regards as decent behaviour rather than many star actors who are ruled by their ego. It has worked like a charm, of course. Gruffudd's girlfriend is his former 102 Dalmatians co-star, the stunning Alice Evans.
We met twice over a period of a couple of weeks, the first time on the set of The Gathering at Elstree Studios, the second to talk about the new Hornblower at a hotel bar in Covent Garden, London. Since the film crew were full of enthusiasm for how good Gruffudd and Evans looked together, I assumed this was public knowledge. At the first mention of it, he pleads: "I have not spoken about that and I would be grateful if you would not talk about it." Evans, it seemed, had recently ended a relationship in Paris and he wanted to check with her when and if it was all right to announce they were an item.
Sure enough, a call came through a few weeks later: "It is OK to go ahead," he reported. "I wanted to be careful and we had not reached a stage in our relationship where we wanted it to be official. But, I can tell you, she's amazing. Fantastic. It was all a bit complicated before, but now it is all right." Such complications were more fully explained by Evans herself, who for eight years had shared a life with Olivier Picasso, grandson of the famous artist. "I wanted Olivier to be the first to know, which is why we've kept it a secret," she said. "We reached a point where I realised it was not just a fling. We've had a big chat about how serious we are, so I owe it to Olivier and Ioan to be honest about the whole thing."
She also added: "Ioan and I come from similar backgrounds and our families are alike. I am so lucky to have found someone who has so many matching personality traits and interests. I've never had a one night stand in my life, which is why Ioan and I were friends for so long before anything happened. But now we are in love, I'd be pretty silly to let this one go." Gruffudd, whose parents Peter and Gill are teachers - he also has a brother, Alun, and younger sister, Siwan, who is a medical student - is about the most gallant actor you could find. When we talk about a very frank sex scene with the doll-like 21-year-old Christina Ricci in The Gathering, he says: "I was a bit apprehensive, because she's the same age as my sister and I could not get that image out of my head."
Gruffudd's rich baritone voice, which once won him a prize at Eisteddfod, the annual festival of Welsh culture, drops an octave with embarrassment as he admits: "But once we started it became obvious that she was very much a woman. It was lovely and not awkward at all. She's a fantastic kisser."
But he leaves little doubt that she, and others, can't hold a candle to Evans. They had gone their separate ways after 102 Dalmatians but met up again, by chance, when she co-starred with actor Matthew Rhys - a fellow Welshman and co-owner of Gruffudd's London house - in the forthcoming film The Abduction Club. Gruffudd had gone to visit his friend in Ireland and found that he and Evans' interest in each other was rekindled. "I feel uncomfortable when I see various confessions of love which will only hurt other parties," says Gruffudd. "I do like things to be done properly."
He and Rhys have been friends from the days they met at Melin Gruffud (no relation) junior school in Cardiff and attended non-conformist chapel, known in Welsh as 'Annivywyr'. They transferred to the Welsh-speaking co-ed comprehensive, Glantaf, and after appearing in school productions - Gruffudd even had an occasional role in a Welsh-language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm (BBC's longest running soap, at 25 years) - were both accepted for RADA in London. Gruffudd was first; Rhys was accepted a year later, the only student to receive a free grant after being successfully auditioned by Dame Diana Rigg and director Richard Eyre.
Since leaving, it has been like watching a couple of starving dogs let off the leash. As fast as one has gorged on some tasty roles, the other then has his fill. But for Gruffudd there was an early lesson: Poldark, the re-make. "I had the lead role of Jeremy and thought I was made," he says. "There was even talk among the cast about getting shares in a house in Cornwall, where we filmed, for the second and third series. But, after the first, which failed, all plans were off. I realised, right at the start, I can't bank on anything."
His first big screen appearance was in Titanic, as the crew member who, in one of the lifeboats, saves Kate Winslet. Even though he had little dialogue, it was a daunting experience at the hands of Oscar-winning director, James Cameron. "I have to be careful about what I say here," he cautions. "I must admit, I was crying in the make-up chair every night for a week. Not because he had a go at me directly - well, only a few times - but because of the atmosphere that had been created. They had been there for about a month and there were already people who were desperate. I was a fresh-faced college kid, thinking: "Is this what Hollywood is about?" "I felt I had landed in hell on the film set in Mexico, away from family and everything that was dear to me." Even his key scene, searching among frozen bodies for sign of life, had an unexpected twist: "The only line in the script was "Oh, my God," he says. "James Cameron turned up and told me: 'Improvise.' So I just shouted all day and made it up." But he was full of admiration for the task-master director: "He demanded such detail, that even things on the set you would never see had to look authentic," he says. "I would have paid to see that film."
Gruffudd was soon back on the water, as Hornblower, and watched as it acted as a giant inflatable lifeboat for his career. "I loved doing them," he says. "My adventures on Titanic helped me get the role. The director, Andrew Grieve, was in the merchant navy and wanted realism. He told me at the audition: "Talk about something that has happened in the last three months - but don't talk about work." But I couldn't ignore what had happened on Titanic, so I told him all about it."
It was also his first test in America: production companies interested in buying the series had to approve his screen tests, as did the Hornblower Society. He sailed through both. The new series sees Hornblower as Third Lieutenant on board the HMS Renown, bound for the West Indies. The story, told in flashback form, opens with him being reunited with his mentor, Sir Edward Pellew (Robert Lindsay), with the revelation that he faces trial for mutiny. He had been forced to organise opposition to the captain (played with powerful eccentricity by David Warner), because he was risking the lives of all on board. "The emphasis this time is more on intrigue and suspense, but there is plenty of swashbuckling too," says Gruffudd. "I love filming the action sequences. To climb ropes and rigging, swim underwater, run around firing pistols and brandishing swords, is like being paid to be a child again."
He is also full of admiration for Warner, a top star in the 1960s with a succession of starring roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company - his 1965 performance as Hamlet opposite Glenda Jackson's Ophelia is widely regarded as the best on-stage version of the 20th Century - and films like Morgan, A Suitable Case for Treatment. "I met David when he played the guy who locked up Leonardo Di Caprio in Titanic," he says. "He is as enthusiastic now as I was when I stepped out of drama college. It is a lesson for survival and I hope I can keep up that level of energy."
Gruffudd, who hopes to be filming more Hornblowers by the end of the year - each has the research and detailed production values of a film - is clearly proud to be linked to the character. "I feel an affinity to him, because we hold the same moral values," he says. "I was brought up as a Christian and being loyal and honourable is important to me. Hornblower uses his intuition, but does not let his heart rule his head. He is also the perfect gentleman."
And has Gruffudd ever had to put Hornblower's sword to use, in his distinctly dodgy neighbourhood in London? "I did have a couple of strangers knocking on my door once," he reports. "They were girls from America - they had somehow got hold of my address - who were in town for a Hornblower Society convention. I left the sword where it was. I invited them in for a cup of tea."
The four Hornblower films are repeated on ITV throughout the month, with the first of the new Hornblower programmes screened on March 29

Guardian
Mad about the boyo
Ioan Gruffudd spent two years at acting school losing his confidence. Next, know-all professionals wanted him, a committed Welsh nationalist, to take on a more Hollywood-friendly name. The very idea
Emma Brockes
Guardian
Saturday March 16, 2002
Shortly after leaving drama college, Ioan Gruffudd received his first piece of professional advice: change your name. If English casting agents couldn't pronounce it, he was warned, how were the Americans to cope? Did he want to be pigeon-holed as a bumpkin Welsh character actor? He had the perfect looks for a Hollywood sweetheart; all he needed now was a snappy appellation. Wise-up, they said, and choose one. Yo-wan Griffith (it's easy when you know how) wasn't sniffy about the idea of working in Hollywood; quite the opposite. Never mind what Rada said about acting being its own reward; being rich and adored by women didn't sound bad, either. But at the same time, here was a boy who, when he went abroad, took a Welsh flag with him and taped it up in his hotel window. "I believe in things," he says vaguely. "I'm not sure where I stand on the politics, but I know I have this feeling. I have this passion in my blood that I've inherited from centuries and centuries ago. I'm incredibly patriotic about Wales." His eyes almost cross in the effort to articulate. So he decided to keep his name.
Gruffudd is 27, and the looks everyone goes on about are of the Caramel bunny sort: soft and dreamy, rather than sharp and chiselled. Later this month, he'll play the lead in the BBC's adaptation of Tony Parson's novel Man And Boy, but before that he spent much of his career in uniform - as Horatio Hornblower in the ITV adaptation of the CS Forester novels, as Lieutenant John Feeley in the award-winning BBC series Warriors, as second lieutenant John Beales in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, and as fifth officer Harold Lowe on the Titanic. Recalling the latter, his eyes widen: "God, Titanic! It was a reminder of drama college; that's how bad it was. We were in this place, Santa Rosalita on the Baja California peninsula, where there's nothing. The main characters were there for seven months, and it was horrendous for them, six days a week, working with a very obsessed director who found it hard to... delegate. I was crying in the make-up chair every night for a week when I arrived. Not because I'd been shouted at, but because of the atmosphere. It was awful. I thought, 'I've landed in hell here'.
Everyone else had been through this and was very held together and would say, 'We've all been there, now come on.' A lot handed in their resignations, then decided to see it through." It might have put him off Hollywood for life, but Gruffudd is bouncy and ambitious. "Even though it was miserable and took so much time, the pay-off is so incredible. I was only playing a very small part - I wanted to be Leonardo DiCaprio, you know, in my own blockbuster. That's the quest I'm on. It made me more hungry. I hope that everything is a means to that. I'm not embarrassed to admit that that is an ambition. And why not? Twenty million a shot? Yeah, thank you very much." He has no time for actors who say wealth and integrity don't mix. They are self-deceived, he thinks. "People say, 'Oooh, money, it doesn't make you happy.' But because I feel quite happy at the moment, money would be a nice little bonus. To people who say it'll make you miserable, I say 'bollocks'. As long as you understand that you find happiness in real terms through family, friends and love, then money is just a nice bonus."
In Man And Boy, Gruffudd plays a young father struggling for custody of his son after his wife leaves him. It's a role that should bring him to the attention of a wider audience. The plot follows Gruffudd (Harry) as he learns to be a full-time father to his five-year-old son, Pat. While Parsons' bestseller was a tad mawkish ("I've learnt to be a real parent, you can't just come back and take that away from me") and peppered with fortune-cookie aphorisms ("love means knowing when to let go"; "only Walt Disney can guarantee you a happy ending"), the television version gives Gruffudd scope for Kramer vs Kramer-style tear-jerking. "I was very impressed by the book," he says, and blushes. "I'm not a great reader, but I found it easy to read and incredibly touching, and I think that's why it touched so many people, the fact that it's so accessible; it's very real and everyday on a simple level. I know it's an old cliche, but life is like that."
Mention of Parsons makes him go even redder. In a recent newspaper column, Parsons marvelled at how strange it was to see Harry, who he had imagined in his own image, being played by someone as beautiful as Gruffudd. "Mmmm," says Gruffudd, uncomfortably. "I don't know why he said that. You know, it was nice, but there was no need. Being attractive, it's not something that I do consciously. It's something that people project on to you. It's incredibly flattering that people think that I appeal to women. But that was a gift from my parents. My acting and my personality - that's what it's about."
The hardest thing about the role, he says, was its ordinariness. No uniform, no elaborate props, just a bloke with marital problems in London. "The award winners are the actors playing drug addicts, the big dramatic roles, but Dustin Hoffman playing the Graduate must have been harder than Ratzo in Midnight Cowboy. And the neutral English accent is one of the hardest to do. To put a bit of estuary on top was a massive struggle. I think I've achieved it. But, more importantly, I think I've achieved the character. If the accent slips a bit in an emotional scene, the fact that I'm believable will overide that."
When he went to Rada at 18, he was full of confidence. He had more acting experience than most other first years; between 13 and 20, he'd acted in the Welsh-language TV soap, Pobol y Cwm. His mother, a schoolteacher, came from a theatrical family who ran the local community theatre and would have liked to have been an actress herself. His father is the headmaster of a comprehensive. "Being academics, they could have said, 'Go to university first', but they were really cool. They said, 'If that's your dream, then we'll support you financially and emotionally.' " So Gruffudd went to Rada, a year after his boyhood friend, the actor Matthew Rhys, feeling unworldly and a bit of an outsider, but convinced that he was just as good as the kids filing in from the London stage schools. "It was a funny old place, Rada. I went full of enthusiasm and confidence. And it vanished, disappeared over two years. I've taken on board maybe 50% of what they said and discarded the other 50%. A lot of it was very critical, and they'd tell me that I was wrong. And I couldn't understand how it could possibly be wrong. I mean, it's acting, it's opinion. But I'm glad I went. It's made me a better actor. And I'll be grateful for the experience, even if it was miserable."
Several times, he nearly dropped out. "At the end of every holiday, I didn't want to go back. My parents would say, 'You've got to go back. Just finish the course, and you'll have achieved something, even if you don't continue with acting.' That's the best advice I've ever had. And because I was 18, that excitement and curiosity got me through. Had I come in now, maybe I wouldn't have survived. A lot of people don't get that confidence back. I don't agree with the ethos of knocking them down and building them up again. It is so destructive. They'd argue that it's not fun and games, that you have to feel pain every time, and I totally disagree. You don't have to feel pain every time."
The turning point came in the final year, when, after three years of being given only the smallest parts, Gruffudd was cast as George Tesman in an end-of-term production of Hedda Gabler. "For the first time, I started to feel confident - they've asked me to do this part, so they must think I'm all right, right? The confidence came back out of nowhere."
He was spotted by an agent (one who didn't require him to change his name), and soon after graduation landed the lead in a remake of the TV series Poldark. There was talk of a three-part series, of the cast buying a house together on location in Cornwall. But, in what he calls a "swift and harsh lesson", it was axed after the first series, only to be seen again in a Reeves and Mortimer piss-take, Poldark On Motorbikes.
Even without the grounding influence of this early career gaffe, Gruffudd is sure that he'll never get too actorly and full of himself. Speaking Welsh, his mother-tongue, gives him somewhere to escape to. He speaks it with his parents, and with Rhys, star of the BBC's Christmas extravaganza, The Lost World, and now his flatmate. The future of Wales is something Gruffudd has many earnest thoughts about; his brother works for the Welsh assembly, and his parents brought him up to show an interest in politics. An obedient son, he does just that. "I'd love Wales to be an independent country. Whether that's economically possible is another matter. Only 50% of people turned out for that referendum for the Welsh assembly, and we only got the yes vote by less than 1%. With Scotland, you sense that, across the board, there's collectively more support. Our culture and heritage hasn't survived as much as in Scotland. I have this argument with friends: when I'm in London, I put up my Welsh flag, or if I'm abroad. I don't do it in any fascist way. It just reminds me of who I am and where I'm from. But if somebody put the George Cross up, it immediately seems like a fascist statement. Why has that come about? I mean, I enjoy the fact that I have an identity."
"In America," he adds, "most of them don't have a clue. 'Wales, England?' they say. I say, 'No, Wales, Britain.' America is the scariest place I've been on earth. I went to Ukraine when I was in Hornblower, and that was pretty scary. It's that stupid, very western fear of lack of comfort. But I went to LA and was really freaked out. The first people you meet are these incredible fascists on immigration. Ugh."
It made Gruffudd glad to be Welsh and, more than that, European. "I was quite embarrassed that day when the euro launched across Europe and we were on the sidelines. That was a massive turning point in our history, and I wanted to be proud of it. Now when we do step in, we'll be on the periphery. We should have been there from the beginning." He offers these thoughts a little tentatively, and bashfully admits that he can't always argue his point through to conclusion. But where he'll happily admit ignorance in politics, when it comes to acting, he thinks he is growing subtly more substantial - that he is finally losing his boyishness. "At drama school, the director would ask you to empathise into the part of someone whose girlfriend was pregnant and going to have an abortion. And I hadn't even slept with anyone yet! There's no way I could do it. But I'm getting better now. And I think that the reason I am getting better is that I'm growing up."

IG Wales
Man and boy role is perfect for Ioan
IT was the book that broke the mould in modern-day fiction. For the first time a man really poured his heart out about love and infidelity.
Now Tony Parsons's best-seller Man And Boy has been turned into a drama for the small screen.
Ioan Gruffudd plays the lead character Harry Silver who is going through emotional turmoil after his wife Gina (Natasha Little) walks out on him following his one-night stand.
It changes his relationship with his four-year-old son Pat forever and also causes him to re-examine his relationship with his own father.
Cardiff-born Gruffudd was attracted to the role in Man And Boy, which will be screened by the BBC at Easter, after reading the book.
"It's an absolutely fantastic role and he wanted to play it very badly," said his agent Christian Hoddell.
"He read the book and liked the fact that it was about a young man of his age."
Gruffudd particularly enjoyed working with seven-year-old Dominic Howell, who plays his son.
"I love children and I love being around them but perhaps the most surprising thing was how Dominic responded to me," said Gruffudd.
"That made me feel fantastic." When novelist and journalist Parsons wrote Man And Boy in 1999, he had no idea it would become a best-selling novel in more than 30 countries.
It has sold more than a million copies and held its position in the best-seller list for more than two years. Parsons, who was once married to writer Julie Burchill, has admitted that everyone in the book is based on a real character. So why does the book have universal appeal? One of the reasons is that it deals with many emotional issues that touch us all: infidelity, separation, divorce, death, love and family.
"The two things that people say about Man And Boy is that it makes them laugh and makes them cry," said Parsons.
"It sounds quite simple but if you can do that then you are really going to capture people's hearts."
Unlike many writers, Parsons is not worried that his work will be ruined by television.
"I believe the BBC's adaptation has remained true to the book by fully embracing its emotion.
"Kevin Hood really deserves a lot of credit for his adaptation."
Parsons makes a cameo appearance in the TV drama. "I liked the idea of doing a Hitch-cock," he said. "I was actually quite keen to be in it but after I'd spent all that time on a freezing set in London doing the scenes endlessly I became less enthusiastic about getting my Equity card. But I'm glad I'm in there."
Man And Boy is one of several TV projects that Gruffudd will appear in in coming weeks.
The second series of Hornblower will be broadcast on March 24 and 25 and the remake of The Forsyte Saga will start on April 7.

Character is a dream for Ioan
CARDIFF boy Ioan Gruffudd is set to become a man in his latest starring role. Ioan, 28, who grew up in Whitchurch in the Welsh capital, takes the central role of messed-up father Harry Silver in the new BBC film Man and Boy which is due to hit the small screen on Easter Saturday, March 30.
Adapted from journalistturnednovelist Tony Parsons' best-selling book of the same name, the 100-minute production tells the story of Harry, whose life starts to crumble when he hits the big 30.
After a one-night stand with his assistant, wife Gina, played by This Life star Natasha Little, leaves him to cope as a single father to their fouryearold son Pat, played by youngster Dominic Howell, while she goes to "rekindle" her career in Japan. Adapted for television by Simon Curtis and Kate Harwood, the director and producer team who discovered Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, Man and Boy promises to be huge after already striking a chord with critics. Former Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf pupil Ioan, who shares a flat with best friend and fellow Cardiff actor Matthew Rhys in London, says despite not being a father himself he felt comfortable playing Harry.
"I found myself in the position of not being old enough to play 30 to 35-yearolds and not still young enough to play the 21-year-olds, so Harry was a stepping stone for me to arrive at 30 with confidence," he said.
"For an actor the part had everything. A relationship with his boy and father, a relationship with two women, and an opportunity to run the whole gamut of emotion. It had everything in one character - an actor's dream."
Ioan, who is currently dating 102 Dalmatians co-star Alice Evans, says he is very close to his family and returns to Cardiff whenever he has the time.
His mother Gill has recently returned to acting in Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm and he and Matthew share a passion for rugby. He said: "(With Alice) I think I might have met the right woman for me. I come from the old-fashioned school of wanting to be married before having a family and I take the vows of marriage very seriously.
"Hopefully family will be a big part of my life. It's just the way I was brought up and I have an instinct towards it."

This is London
The Forsytes return
by Andrew Billen
Read Andrew Billen every Wednesday in the Evening StandardLike the movie of L Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, the BBC's Forsyte Saga was an achievement so monumental that it not merely obliterated its source from view, but almost replaced it. Now, 35 years on, Granada has made its own Forsyte Saga, an entirely new adaptation of a Victorian epic written, as we very probably do need reminding, by John Galsworthy. If you want to irritate an ITV executive, ask why they thought a remake was necessary. As the new Forsyte Saga's producer, Sita Williams, told a rapturous preview audience at Bafta in Piccadilly this week, no one is ever accused of "remaking" Pride and Prejudice.
When it airs next month, ITV1 will doubtless sell the story of Victorian England's least attractive family as a tale of hypocrisy and money, adultery and revenge, sex and power. As Soames Forsyte, the brother with, in Galsworthy's words, a "habitual sniff on his face", Damian Lewis will be the guy we love to hate. Gina McKee, as his unfortunate wife Irene, will become a pin-up. Rupert Graves, as the reckless Jolyon Forsyte, will compete as chief hunk with Ioan Gruffudd, who plays the impetuous, penniless Bosinney. Think Dallas with top hats, not stetsons. Think EastEnders with the dropped aitches restored. Yet viewers are not daft. It will be obvious that this is television drama of a different order from the crime doubles, comedy- dramas and Robson Green vehicles that dumb us down so far that our bums feel the springs in our sofas. Lovingly directed, wittily scripted, subtly acted, the ITV Forsyte Saga is a throwback to the aspirations of Donald Wilson's BBC adaptation: to make a classic text live. And how it lived! In 1967, when it was transmitted, most of Britain got by on two channels. Only eight million had the third, BBC2. Of those, however, six million stayed in every Saturday night for six months to view it. The next year, 18 million followed the repeats on BBC1. This was an age before water coolers and water-cooler conversations, but the Monday after Soames raped Irene there was only one discussion in the line before the nation's tea trolleys. Eric Porter's name was mud. Kenneth More's career revived. Nyree Dawn Porter's name - or names - were made. At a time when Alf Garnett and the Wednesday Play were infuriating the moral majority, the serial was the licence fee's very justification.
As importantly, the classic serial became a BBC franchise, its superiority remaining unchallenged until Granada delivered Brideshead Revisited 14 years later. At the screening, Granada was not slow to make the Brideshead comparison. The audience, an old-fashioned assembly of classical actors and Oxbridge arts graduates of a certain vintage, must have wanted to pinch itself. That very day the BBC chairman had been scolding its "southern, white, middle-class, middle-aged and welleducated" bedrock audience. ITV had suddenly fallen in love with it. Of course, ITV's Forsyte Saga is not really to be compared to the BBC's. It dramatises only the first three novels in the series and Galsworthy wrote nine: no Fleur, no Susan Hampshire. The BBC's adaptation ran for 21 hours. ITV has made only six 75-minute episodes so far, although more will be filmed later this year. Yet, and let me stick my neck out: this is a better Forsyte Saga than the BBC's (and even I almost wrote, "the original"). Watching the early episodes now, one wonders how the 49-year-old More was ever accepted as the 32-year-old Jolyon, or who thought it a good idea that for the first four minutes More should read us the story in voiceover. The sets, remarkably detailed for the time, now look cramped and studiobound. Technical flaws proliferate. During one intense conversation a studio hand can be heard coughing off-screen. Before Soames opens the door and views for the first time the love of hi