The League of Obscure British Actors

April/May 2002 "The Lord of the Rings Fan Club Official Movie Magazine":
"Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom had decided to rent a car and they were driving down the west coast of New Zealand through the storm. There is only one road that runs hundreds of miles down the coast - it's a very remote part of the country. They came around a corner, and the mountainside in front of them had given way in the storm and the road was blocked by a landslide. There are no towns in this part of the country. You can drive for hundreds of miles without a hotel or a major town. They couldn't go any farther. The landslide had only happened minutes before - thank God they weren't actually under it. They turned their car around and the only thing they could do was to head back north for hundreds of miles and take a different route down the east coast. They drove for miles to find that another slip had occurred behind them since they had passed. Now they were blocked between two landslides. There were only one or two farmhouses in that area. They knocked on the door of a farmhouse, and it was an old lady. She was about 80 years old and living by herself. It took about three or four days to clear away the debris. We couldn't fly a helicopter in to grab these guys because the storm was raging, and it was too dangerous to fly through the mountains.
So Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom stayed with this nice old lady who looked after them. She fed them breakfast and put them up in her spare bedroom. They had to live there for three or four days until we could get them out of there!"
Sean Bean
Sean Bean, Boromir incarnate, walked slowly and quietly into the suite and sat down with us. Dressed in casual clothes, he spoke softly, his accent easy to pick out. He was asked about playing a good guy in such a big movie.
"I played bad guys when I started off in England," Bean said. "Then I started to get more sensitive [Laughs]. When I played my first bad guy in America, I'd reached [the] stage [of] being quite a good guy in the U.K. So now I'm a good guy in the U.K. and getting to play more good-guy roles in America."
Bean has worked for action directors such as John Frankenheimer and Phillip Noyce, so Jackson's direction was a little different.
"He would give you an indication of what he wanted, and you sensed what he wanted, but he left it up to you," Bean said. "You knew what he wanted to get out of you. He was so well-researched and knowledgeable; he could tell you what any character was thinking at any given time.
"I think we all played our parts as truthfully and as totally as possible," Bean said. "We just threw ourselves into that world. There was no question what we were doing was fantasy, but it was real to us, and that's how you had to play the characters. I think if you try and play an Elf as an Elf and stop to prance about [laughs] then I think there'd be a problem!"

World Cup party on ITV1
By Jonathan Donald
Stars Sir Elton John, Ant and Dec, the Spice Girls and the England squad will be among the 400 guests at the Japanese-themed bash in the garden of the Beckhams' Hertfordshire home.
ITV1's payment will go to the NSPCC children's charity. The network's entertainment controller Claudia Rosencrantz said: "It promises to be a fantastic event.
"This will be the garden party of the summer and ITV1 viewers will get the exclusive inside track on the event.
"There will be no better way to kick off the start of the World Cup finals."
The programme will also chart the build-up to the do and feature interviews with the Beckhams.
No expense has been spared by the Beckhams over the World Cup bash, to be screened at 9pm on May 19.
A Japanese garden is being created in the grounds of the mansion, and 60,000 orchids have been ordered.
The dress code is white tie and diamonds, and guests will gorge on sushi and champagne.

The Hollywood Reporter
March 26-April 1, 2002
New Line Cinema got a jump on Oscar partying Saturday ..... The following night, NL celebrated its four Oscar wins for "The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring" with a viewing party where "Rings" stars Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean socialized with company execs at Beverly Hills' Maple Drive restaurant. Guests cheered gleefully with each win, and while the best picture trophy proved elusive for the studio, the mood was still buoyant as the crowd remained optimistic about the fate of the forthcoming installments of the "Rings" franchise. As they say, there's always next year.

Ripe UK 2001 http://www.ripeuk.com/001/int_bean.html

SEAN BEAN
FROM SHEFFIELD TO MIDDLE- EARTH

Call me crazy but when I walked into the room to interview Sean Bean, I expected to find a serious, imposing man sitting in front of me. Obviously, I've been brainwashed by his convincing baddie roles in box office blockbusters like 'Patriot Games' and 'GoldenEye.' I could not have been further off the mark. Washed out in a sea of hot lights, Bean looked quite relaxed even a bit worn out from doing publicity for his most recent release 'Don't Say a Word' co-starring Michael Douglas. Comfortably dressed down in a pair of khaki trousers and a trekking shirt, Sean had done several interviews before I got to him. There's no doubt the poor soul had been asked and had answered the same questions repeatedly as one does during a press junket. Ah, but such is the life of an actor. Being caught in the publicity mill is just one of the liabilities that comes with success in show business.
That aside, the soft spoken, unassuming father of three from Sheffield was on good form. After all, he's come a long way from his days as an aspiring artist, to a possible welder in his dad's steel fabrication company up north, to movie stardom, fame and fortune. He's grateful for the opportunities he's had to play unforgettable parts like 'Richard Sharpe,' in the British TV series set during the Napoleonic Wars...and, of course there is this Christmas' release of "The Fellowship of the Ring," the first installment of Peter Jackson's trilogy in which Bean appears as 'Boromir' the warrior.
Off screen Bean is the kind of guy that doesn't like to take his work home. He says it's enough to give 100% on the set and too exhausting to bring excess baggage home. In fact, when he's with his family in north London, Sean's obsessions are gardening and watching his home boys, Sheffield United, play footie.
On screen Mr. Bean seems to be obsessed with playing villains. In Gary Fleder's "Don't Say a Word," Bean plays a man on a mission. He's a criminal who feels he's been cheated out of his rightful bounty. He's waited 10 years in prison for the big payback and he's willing to be as ruthless as he wants to be to get his prize. All right already! Will Sean ever give up his nasty characters?
RIPE: I must say you do make a brilliant villain but is it fun playing the bad guy?
BEAN: Yeah, it's good! I suppose you can go a little further sometimes than you would be able to do with other roles. They're very rewarding; you can sink your teeth into them. I've always found it good playing villains but I try to balance it out with the things I've done more recently. It was great to work with Gary Fleder, the director who gave "Don't Say a Word" such an edgy quality. And with Michael you know, he was a really nice guy to work with.
RIPE: How do you get into the head space of a criminal?
BEAN: I like to read the script a few times so I can find out what I'm doing and get into the sequence of events. And then I just start talking to the director, he's got ideas then I bring my ideas on board discussing his mannerism, how he may dress, how he might confront certain situations...just fleshing it out really and giving it some life. Then when you're working with other actors their reactions determines your response. It all really evolves that way. I don't try to impress things on a character that don't feel right.
RIPE: Tell me about your character 'Patrick Koster'. Was he a different kind of challenge for you?
BEAN: I suppose the circumstances were different. "Don't Say a Word" is a very good thriller. It's quite conventional in that it's a thriller but it's all in how people approach it like myself, Mike and Gary and all the other actors. I just think Gary lights it very well. He sets the tone with this dark golden feel and he makes it very edgy, very creepy. And you feel when it's lit like you're on stage because it's very theatrically lit in some ways. I guess all those things add up to what a thriller is.
RIPE: You've got children of your own don't you?
BEAN: Yeah, I've got three girls.
RIPE: Obviously, this movie revolves around the kidnapping of a child. But, did it make you think about the some of the perils and pitfalls that can accompany stardom?
BEAN: I do my work and I don't really associate my kids with my work. I try and keep some kind of separation between my work and my private life. So, they're not overly impressed with what I do. They have sort of come to terms with it over the years, what it entails, what sort of job it is and that I have to go away to do certain things. But, you do think about those sort of things and the prospect of that happening is horrific. This man I play is horrendous and I don't have any sympathy for him. I have an understanding of what he does but I wouldn't justify what he does. Like you said it's your own worst nightmare.
RIPE: I must say I was happy to see him bite the dust! Now you're coming up in one of the most anticipated films in recent history, "The Fellowship of the Rings", the first of director Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. And, you're playing a very different kind of character - "Boromir" the warrior.
BEAN: Yes! I suppose a much more sympathetic character, a very different world. That was very special. That was a fantastic piece of work to work on with all the people involved. It was just a very unusual project to be in New Zealand and part of this small world that had been created literally on the sets in Wellington. To be there for a year, I was there for about a year. Some people were there for a year and a half shooting three films back to back and everybody made good friends and supported each other. It was very much like what we were doing in the film. We were going on an adventure. We didn't know where we were going.
RIPE: That's exciting!
BEAN: It was a bit like that when we got to New Zealand. It's 36 hours of travel to get there and when you arrive you don't know where you're going! You get there at 5am in the morning and you stand there in the hotel room not knowing what to do with yourself, go out for a drink or go to bed! But, it was the start of a big adventure for me. It was very special.
Well, bring it on mate! We're ready and waiting. "The Fellowship of the Rings" is now playing nationwide. "Don't Say A Word" opens in the UK February 22, 2002. Also, stay tuned "Tom & Thomas" a children's story where Sean Bean plays a struggling artist who's a stepfather to a 10 year old boy.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/02/08/203.html
Peter Jackson on filming the movie:
"We have suffered some setbacks, the weather has stuffed the schedule. Two of the actors, Sean Bean (Boromir, steward of Gondor) and Orlando Bloom (the elf prince Legolas), have been caught between landslides and are now trapped in a tiny island town. They have been taken in by a kindly woman who has offered them food and a bed. They were last reported to be cooking spaghetti and cracking into a bottle of red wine."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020201/4/crdet.htmlhttp://uk.news.yahoo.com/020201/4/crdet.html

Friday February 1, 08:26 AM

Sean Bean 'to join football club board'
Sean Bean is reported to be joining the board of directors at Sheffield United Football Club.
The Lord Of The Rings actor will be one of four new board members, according to the Sheffield Star.
United haven't confirmed the 43-year-old fan will be joining the board. The paper's website, thisissheffield.net, claims Bean, estate agent Mike Blundell, industrial cleaning boss Steve Slinn and one other are expected to put six figure sums into the club, and a new share issue is expected to bring in more than Ł1m for new players.
The club have issued a statement saying: "Sheffield United plc has been considering a variety of proposals aimed at building and advancing the business to satisfy supporters and shareholders.
"Positive actions have been undertaken to seek new directors for the football club board. The company hopes to make an announcement in due course concerning these matters.
"All directors will help develop the vision of the company, including the plans to build the north of England's best academy for young players, who are the long-term future of the club."
Bean is a lifelong Blades fan and starred in the movie When Saturday Comes as a Sheffield lad who makes the grade as a player with United. He famously has a "100 per cent Blade" tattoo.
Details of the new-look board will be discussed at a directors meeting at Bramall Lane on February 4, when at least two of the new men are expected to be present.

IMDB

Sean Bean's Artistic Ambitions
Lord Of The Rings star Sean Bean only became an actor by accident - he planned a career as an artist. Bean - who plays warrior Boromir in the fantasy trilogy - started his working life in the steelworks of Sheffield in the North of England, while trying to make it as an part-time painter. He says, "I wanted to try be an artist. I actually sold a few pieces of art. I was trying, but realized that it was hard. I was in Sheffield and it wasn't really the place to try and be a starving artist. I was interested in many other things, and I stumbled across acting. I felt very comfortable (acting). I felt that It encompassed everything that was going on in my head."

Ananova
Sean Bean will appear in second Lord Of The Rings film Sean Bean says he will be in the second Lord Of The Rings film. Bean's character Boromir died at the end of The Fellowship Of The Ring. But he says he will still appear in the sequel, The Two Towers. "I don't know what I'll look like, probably not very well, but Boromir's brother Faramir has a vision of me. So I suppose, technically, you could say that I'm in The Two Towers," he tells Xpose magazine. The Two Towers will be released later this year. Story filed: 11:18 Friday 18th January 2002

The Express - 17 Oct 2000
Bean and Lost a Big Battle
Swashbuckling actor Sean Bean, 41, and his Hampstead neighbours have lost their battle to prevent a magnificent 70ft 100-year-old ash tree which overlooks his Ł1.6 million home, from being felled by his local council. The star of Sharpe wrote three letters opposing the felling order after a resident, in whose garden the ash grows, claimed it was damaging the extension of his nearby home. However, Camden Council has rejected Bean and his neighbours' pleas. Bean's neighbour David Jordan says: "We are greatly saddened by the news. In every conversation I've had with Camden, all talk of the tree's beauty has been dismissed."
http://thisissheffield.net/scripts/editorial.cgi?cid=0&sid=1&aid=003&pg=&apg=1&date=200010194
Sean Bean - the shy lad destined for stardom
HOW did a lad from the Sheffield suburbs, the son of a steel plater and secretary, get to become one of Britain’s hottest movie stars? In the first of three extracts from Laura Jackson’s new biography, we discover how Sean Bean discovered a love of acting when he should have been preparing for a career in industry.
Branded as ‘undeniably Britain’s greatest living sex bomb’, at the beginning of the 21st century Sean Bean tops the list of many casting directors on the lookout for hot British talent.
His success could never have been signposted. There was no theatrical blood in his working class background, no desperate craving to seek the limelight.
One indelible hallmark, however, is his enduring pride in holding fast to his northern roots. And those rock-solid foundations were laid in Sheffield.
One of Sean’s teachers, Ted Danson, recalls: “He was a very quiet, shy little boy who avoided the spotlight at all times.
“Sean’s one ambition in life then was to play football for Sheffield United and that is all he dreamt about, night and day.
Maureen Oakes, a Bean family friend, recalls: “He was a lovely little boy, so keen on football and I think what stands out most about those years was how knowledgeable Sean was about football and Sheffield United.”
Although mainly a happy childhood, he had a wilful side that could erupt angrily if he felt thwarted.
On one spectacular occasion, a tantrum landed him in hospital with serious injury. It happened one day at home when, having spent hours outside playing with a cousin, the pair were in the lounge making paper shapes. When Sean, tired and a little fractious, anted the scissors and was not immediately given them, his rage exploded.
He began thumping his hand hard on a nearby glazed door, shattering the pane and showering himself with broken glass. A particularly vicious shard dug deep into one of his legs near a main artery with the result that blood spurted alarmingly everywhere.
Recalling this drama years later, Sean said: “I don’t remember the pain. My uncle wrapped me in towels and took me to hospital.”
His leg was saved but the injury seriously incapacitated his ability to walk for a long time afterwards and left him with a permanent scar that he will sometimes jokingly claim is a shark bite.
When Sean left Brook Comprehensive at 16 in 1975 he was armed with just two O Levels, one in English and the other in art.
Although he has long since become close to them Sean has admitted: “As a teenager there was a bit of distance between me and my family.”
That said, the tension did not prevent Sean from accepting his father’s invitation to join his company and learn a trade. But in his heart he knew that this would never satisfy him. He could not take an interest, either when, through his work, he was put on a day-release welding course at the nearby Rotherham College of Arts and Technology.
Whilst at college, he came across an art class in progress and old urge to pursue his artistic craving surged to the fore. Only this time the craving would not be suppressed and he now thought he knew what he wanted to do - go to art school.
He tried Granville College but left at the lunch break on the first day, having decided that it wasn’t for him.
His sights then returned to Rotherham College and by September 1979, having dropped clean out of the welding course, he signed up for a Fine Art foundation course.
Almost immediately, he discovered a class of drama students at work and suddenly his attention was engaged in a way that he had never previously known. Sean recalled: “My family thought the fascination with acting was just another fad.”
His mates baited him too to some extent over what they saw as an unusually effeminate preference for such a bloke’s bloke. But it all slid off Sean’s back.
Tutor Paul Daniels recalls: “As soon as Sean was performing he absolutely shone! He had intuitive stage presence. That look of his. He knew instinctively how to link with an audience, to hook them in. I was astounded at the quality and pace of his development.”
From Sean Bean by Laura Jackson, published by Piatkus Books at Ł16.99. To order a copy at a special price of Ł14.99, including postage and packing, please telephone 01476 541001.
Sheffield Star - 21 Oct 2000
http://thisissheffield.net/scripts/editorial.cgi?cid=0&sid=1&aid=005&date=200010205
Confessions of Bean the Besotted Blade
Sheffield Star - 21 October 2000
Growing up on a working class city estate is not for the faint hearted.
From indulging in harmless high jinks such as crashing through neighbours’ orderly gardens after dark when the curtains were closed -- pranks Sean and his friends called hedge-hopping or cat creeping -- the future screen leader of men became the head of a gang called The Union, whose traditional rival was another local gang dubbed The Firm.
Sean was not a thug nor did he become embroiled in any serious trouble. But to the teenager it was an essential part of his adolescence, that in a toughish environment he had to be prepared to assert himself.
He once recalled: “It was hard and sometimes violent but not with knives and things you get now.”
Irrefutably the one constant thread running through Sean’s life remained football.
Although a dyed-in-the-wool supporter and spectator of the game, he realised in his early teens that he was not so fanatical about actually playing.
He had played inside-right for his school team but when he discovered the dedication that was required to get down to serious training his interest, in typical fashion, petered out.
Amid the jostle of the Kop, loudly cheering on his beloved Sheffield United and healthily barracking the opposition, here too passion sometimes spilled over into territorial skirmishes with pockets of visiting fans.
Sean was never arrested but he has owned up to occasionally having been among fans who were separated from a brawl by policemen on match duty and made to back off and cool down.
He once said dismissively: “It were all just kicking and booting and punching and then it got sorted out.” His consuming interest in football, however, did not blind him to other sports and at 15 he picked up on another family tradition.
His father, Brian, had won awards for boxing whilst serving in the army and now Sean joined a local boxing club called Croft House. It spurred him into adopting, for the two years he kept up the noble art, a healthier lifestyle in that he drank only milkshakes and temporarily gave up smoking.
Apart from honing his fitness, Sean felt that he benefited from acquiring self-discipline. Boxing gave him the perfect lightning rod to channel any aggression in a controlled situation.
But an indication that he saw boxing as being more than just another sport came when he once proudly declared that it was: “the pinnacle of masculinity and that’s something to be proud of.”
Sean’s temper could still be as volatile as a tinder box. It’s not something he is proud of or enjoys but he once confessed: “If I go off, I really can’t stop then.”
On one occasion that short fuse landed Bean in trouble with the law. Along with a mate, he had tried to gatecrash a party and when someone refused entry to the two uninvited students by attempting to shut the door in their faces, Sean lost his temper.
He has since owned up publicly to the incident and to his violent reaction thus: “I ended up whacking the guy a couple of times.”
The police became involved and Sean was charged with and subsequently convicted of the offence of Actual Bodily Harm, for which he was fined Ł50. Bean concedes that the depth of his devotion to football and to one team in particular is difficult for some people to get their head around. But he simply describes it as a ‘genuine love affair.’
That his support for Sheffield United was a serious business was not in doubt but a momentary spasm of elation led him to nail his colours permanently to the wall, so to speak. The date was 5 May 1990 and in the 1989/90 season when Sheffield United played Leicester City they needed to win the game to secure promotion.
The Blades not only won, they scored five goals.
On a gigantic high Bean, with a mate called Farquhar, bowled out of the stadium and headed into town where, at a cost of Ł2, they got themselves appropriately branded for life.
Sean chose ‘100% Blade’ which he had etched into the skin high on his left arm. From Sean Bean by Laura Jackson, published by Piatkus Books.
Sheffield Star
Women go for sexy Sean
By Jo Davison
THOSE steely eyes, those rugged features... home-grown sex symbol Sean Bean is the epitome of the thinking woman’s bit of rough.
And, according to the thoughts of more than 100,000 around the globe, the former Sheffield welder is officially one of the 100 sexiest men in the world.
He may be 42 with three failed marriages behind him, and that hunky jawline may soon be giving way to a double chin, but Sheffield’s man of steel is still stealing hearts.
Of all the heart-throbs in all the world, Bean still sends pulses racing.
In an international poll to define the world’s top male totty, Sean commanded a respectable 54th place... ahead of more conventional sex symbols Hugh Grant (Number 61) and George Michael (63).
Top of the New Woman Magazine poll is pop’s ‘naughty but nice’ charmer Robbie Williams.
America’s dream guys Brad Pitt, Gorgeous George Clooney and Tom Cruise follow closely behind the singer Sean is in illustrious company.
The only other Yorkshire beefcake to make the grade is Hugo Speer, who stripped off in the Full Monty. Women voters rated him 93rd.
So does Bean deserve his rating? Well, though I must confess I’m George’s girl to the end, I can definitely see Sean’s appeal.
Casting my mind back to his starring role in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I’d say that’s when his charms were most apparent.
And although he was at his most dashing playing the heroic British officer fighting the Napoleonic Wars in Sharpe, it’s his mean streak and almost handsome, rough around the edges features that makes female temperatures rise.
All women love a bad boy; we just can’t help it. And Bean, arch-baddie in the Bond film Golden Eye and a terrorist in Patriot Games, has been a fair few villains in his time.
As for coming in at 54th, Bean shouldn’t fret.
“Ultimately, there are no losers in this poll,” says New Woman’s editor, Sara Cremer. “To be included in the 100 Sexiest Men In The World has to be every man’s dream. It’s the choice of women across the world.”
Metro July 12th
Sean's Struggle To Be An Essex Boy.
Yorkshire lad Sean Bean has talked about the difficulties of turning himself into an Essex boy for his latest film.
The Sheffield-born actor said the Essex accent was one of the hardest he had been asked to master during his film career.
He was speaking at the gala preview of the film, called Essex Boys, held appropriately in Southend, Essex.
"I've done lots of accents before but I think this was perhaps the most difficult. Some of the inflections and so on were tricky. It required a lot of hard work and research. But I've lived in this part of the world for about 20 years now and it was really just a matter of putting the time in.
"Fortunately I've got a good voice-coach and I'm pleased with the result" he said.
The film, co-written by the director Terry Winsor and producer Jeff Pope, is the story of a group of Essex gangsters fighting to gain control of the drugs trade and nightclub security contracts.
It was inspired by the real life murders of three gangsters at Rettendon, Esex, about 15 miles from Southend, in the mid 1990's. Bean would not be the first actor to admit to having trouble mastering an accent. Onr reviewer described Dick Van Dyke's Cockney voice in the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins as 'sounding almost, but not quite like, Bugs Bunny'.
Mel Gibson's stab at speaking Scottish in Braveheart was likened to 'a Monica - Bondi brogue vibrating with patriotic integrity'.
And Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's attempts to sound Irish in Far and Away were dismissed as 'beyond awful'.
The last word was with the critic who said Brad Pitt's own effort at sounding Irish in The Devil's Own was 'laughable'.
Now magazine 19th July
"Sean is quite a shy person in real life, so our relationship wasn't really one of going down the pub. But when it comes to acting, he's sensational."
The Mirror Online July 19
http://www.mirror.co.uk/shtml/FEATURES/P9S3.shtml SUE CARROLL COLUMN: SEAN'S BEAN THERE
"I PUT work in a compartment of life and just get on with it," says Sean Bean, who is currently filming an epic trilogy based on The Lord Of The Rings. "Whenever I feel like complaining I think of how hard some of my mates work, and the days when I was a welder." Next time some luvvie actress throws a "Paltrow" and starts weeping about the pressure of working on two blockbuster movies in succession or whingeing because she's chipped a toenail I suggest the director sticks straight-talking Sean's words on her dressing room door.
Sunday Times - 16 July
Sean Bean is gambling on a blockbusting new Lord of the Rings trilogy. Could it prove the touch of magic his career deserves, asks GARTH PEARCE
Left, in Essex Boys; left, in Lord of the Rings. Right, the Black Rider from LOTR
Do you believe in fairy tales?
Ring pull: how the hype has hotted up Sean Bean has always been a risk-taker. He's been in a Bond film and a Harrison Ford hit but, to the public, he's TV's Sharpe. He could be aiming for Hollywood, but he's allowed himself to be anchored down by television and small-budget movies so he can remain living in Britain. It's a constant tightrope walk, from which he's toppled more than once as the years have taken him from twentysomething sex symbol to a thrice-married 41-year-old father of three daughters. But nothing quite sums up his bumpy career path more than his latest role as Boromir in the $300m epic trilogy based on The Lord of the Rings.
From being out of work for more than a year, Bean is now locked into filming the three instalments concurrently in New Zealand. Shooting started last October and will span 18 non-stop months. The opening film is not released until Christmas 2001. It's the biggest, longest, most expensive piece of Hollywood risk-taking and one kept highly secret by its backers, New Line. It has also sent fans, and the rumour mill, into overdrive.
The whispers have portrayed the film as a Titanic in the making, full of tensions on the set. Like James Cameron, the director Peter Jackson is a perfectionist who has been consumed by the project for the past 10 years. Having launched Kate Winslet's film career in Heavenly Creatures, he co-wrote the LOTR screenplay and has stubbornly hung on as a succession of film companies took an interest and then became unnerved by the scale of the enterprise. "It is," says Bean, "totally unbelievable. I am dipping from one script to another, all printed in different colours, because all the films are being done at the same time. The whole thing was cast very late, and I think it was touch and go right up to starting. It is a bigger investment than Titanic and a lot of careers are sitting on this right to the end."
That includes Bean's. He admits he never got around to reading The Lord of the Rings, by J R R Tolkien, the former Oxford university professor who delivered the bestseller in the mid-1950s. The novels are set in the Third Age of Middle-Earth, an invented prehistoric era populated with hobbits, elves, trolls, orcs and humans. "To me, it is a grown-up fairy tale that is dark and sinister," says Bean. "But it is an incredible fantasy that is quite wonderful and leaves you full of hope."
His 39-year-old director will be sharing that hope. At a point a few years ago when it looked as if the trilogy would finally be made with European film fund cash, Sean Connery was pencilled in as wise wizard Gandalf; Nicol Williamson as Saruman, chief of all wizards; Isabelle Adjani as Arwen, the young elf warrior, and Greta Scacchi as the elf Galadriel, wise and visionary queen of Lorien. The new line-up features Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Christopher Lee (Saruman), Liv Tyler (Arwen) and Cate Blanchett (Galadriel). Elijah Wood plays the young hobbit Frodo, who inherits a seemingly innocent ring from an elderly cousin, Bilbo, played by Ian Holm. Viggo Mortensen comes in as Aragorn, a human raised by elves and the rightful king of Gondor. Mortensen was a replacement for the Irish-born actor Stuart Townsend, currently on stage at London's Donmar Warehouse in Orpheus Descending. With Townsend's departure, rumours began of uneasy working relationships on-set. The actor, whose credits now make no mention of The Lord of the Rings, said through his agent that he would sooner not comment.
There is no doubt Jackson is demanding much from his cast, who are working at an exacting pace in far-flung locations in the South Island's snow-capped Southern Alps and the North Island's volcanic plateaus. Toes have been trodden on, egos hurt. But Bean, who worked for months in fairly basic conditions in the Crimea while making five series of Sharpe, is dismissive. "Peter Jackson has been waiting to go on this for years, so what do you expect?" he asks. "He is demanding and incredibly talented. He has had the models, the graphics, the costumes in his head for years and can finally see the reality of it. He is creating something that has never been seen before.
"I put work in a compartment of life and just get on with it," he says. "Whenever I feel like complaining, I think of how hard some of my mates work, and the days when I was a welder. If they could see the ancient forests and old ivy twisting around trees on the locations for this, a lot of people would pay to have a chance of doing it."
We meet during a fleeting visit to London to publicise his latest film, Essex Boys (see review), in which he plays a vicious criminal, Jason Locke. If Boromir is set to save his people in the kingdom of Gondor from dark forces, then Jason would be first on the list to be put down. "He's a nasty character," he agrees. "He has been locked away for five years, because he took the rap for his mates. They have got rich and done well. He feels bitter and vengeful." Bean has to do a disturbing scene in which he attacks his wife, played by Alex Kingston. "We had talked about it and she was up for a real physical attack," he says. "We did the scene at 1am in just one take. She's a very gutsy lady."
Kingston, of course, has done with the slender international success of Moll Flanders something Bean has so far failed to do with his strong portfolio: use it as a springboard for solid Hollywood recognition. She has been enjoying rich pickings as Dr Elizabeth Corday in ER. Bean, on the other hand, has nearly made it several times. He swept Melanie Griffith into bed and out-acted Tommy Lee Jones in his 1988 debut, Stormy Monday; saw Richard Harris get an Oscar nomination when co-starring in The Field in 1990; played an Irish terrorist in pursuit of Harrison Ford in 1992's Patriot Games; delivered a creditable villain as double agent 006 in GoldenEye, in 1995; more than held his own two years ago with Robert De Niro in Ronin.
It does not seem to bother him. "The Hollywood life has never really appealed," he says. "I do not go to too many dos or premieres. It seems such a palaver, you know. I could be doing other things. I went to the premiere for Ronin at the Venice Film Festival. It was an extraordinary experience, but then it's back to the hotel room and you think, 'What was all that about?' "Whichever accent Bean uses on screen - Irish, Geordie, clipped English, Essex - away from it, he delivers in broad, no-nonsense Sheffield steel. It's straight, call-a-spade-a-shovel stuff. "I can do accents, no problem," he says. "I don't know what anyone makes of them, though, particularly in America. It is difficult for some people to accept you unless you're playing a decent guy with a decent accent. I'm doing Boromir in RP [received pronunciation], and he's a bit of a hero, so that might make a difference."
For a man who wears his heart on his shoulder - a tattoo, declaring "100 per cent Blade", the nickname for his beloved Sheffield United - he could just be in the best place. He's proud of what he is: a one-time welder who at 20 made it to Rada and progressed, through theatre - he played Romeo for Michael Bogdanov at the RSC - to being a big-earning, well-known actor. "It has been a volatile life, some good times and bad times," he shrugs. "My twenties were full of excitement, my thirties were all about consolidating, and now I have to look at things in a new light. Before Essex Boys and The Lord of the Rings, the stuff I was offered was not good and I suddenly realised I had to be careful." It will be another 18 months before Bean finds out, along with everyone involved, whether the biggest gamble in film history has paid dividends. In the meantime, he insists: "It's definitely worth the risk."

From The Birmingham Post Arts and Entertainment section - Friday July 21st 2000
ESSEX BOYS - Cert 18, 102 mins
With a proliferation of British gangster movies that look to either copy "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" or pass themselves off as a home-grown "Reservoir Dogs", it's nice to find the occasional entry that harks back to the hard-boiled gritty days of "Get Carter" and "The Long Good Friday".
Most recently there was "Gangster No 1". And now comes this determinedly, indeed regionally specific, throwback to the old school that refreshingly refuses to polish its characters with a sheen of glamour. Unfortunately, that and Sean Bean's resolutely unpleasant, narcissistic thug are about as good as it gets.
Taking the real-life discovery in 1995 of a bullet-riddled Range Rover and three dead criminals in an Essex lane as its inspiration, this, for all its twists and turns (and there are a few surprises) takes a predictable saunter through the old thieves' fall-out territory, throwing in the naive wannabe who finds he's in too deep as the audience tag through-line.
Charlie Creed-Miles provides the latter function as the cabbie who's recruited to be Bean's driver while Tom Wilkinson's the landed gent who imports the drugs that Bean and his cronies deal. When a shipment proves to be dodgy, Bean decides he wants his money back.
There's some nasty moments (murder, torture, rape, domestic violence) and director Terry Winsor happily resists the trend to lay on black humour, but the surfeit of muddied double crosses becomes confusing - while the script's lack of any psychological depth fails to engage or offer any insights.
And disposing of your main character mid-way in, leaving things to wind a listlessly anti-climactic way to a contrived femme fatale ending, is probably not the best way to keep an audience's attention. - Mike Davies
Variety. July 17-23. 2000.
Essex Boys. (UK) by Derek Elley.
A gritty and atmospheric gangland drama, with some smart twists, Essex Boys purrs along nicely for the first 75 minutes then suffers a dramatic loss of balance from which it only belatedly recovers. Though roundly dismissed by local crix as a blah entry in the seemingly endless stream of British gangster pics, it's a movie of quiet menace with a definite character of it's own, recalling '70's items like Michael Tuchner's "Villain" in it's evocation of a peculiarly English criminal nastiness. On current trends, however, only lukewarm biz looks likely.
Fictional story is inspired by the so-called 'Rettendin Range Rover Murders', in which 3 men were found shot dead on a snowy night in Essex, a county due east of London. Essex carries a host of connotations that are almost impossible to convey to non-Brit audiences. The butt of jokes about its street-smart men and loose women, defiantly grounded and working-class, and home to many wealthy entrepreneurs with more money than taste, the county prides itself on a seperate identity to London. Closest Yank equivalent to the difference in sensibilities would be New Jersey vs. New York City.
Picture is shown through the eyes of Billy (Charlie C-M), a young cabbie hire by gentleman drug smuggler Dyke (Tom Wilkinson) to be a driver for Jason Locke (Sean Bean), just out of stir after 5 years. Locke is an embittered time bomb who can throw acid in a man's face or chuck a nightclub owner out a window without a second thought.
However, Locke takes a shine to young billy, and the admiring Billy likes the fast money on offer in his new job, despite the reservations of his g.f., Nicole (Amelia Lowdell). Locke, meanwhile, is encouraged by his clever wife, Lisa (Alex Kingston), to call in the favour Dyke owes him from going to prison.
Unwillingly, Dyke arranges a shipment of Ecstasy tablets for Locke, but the drugs are rogue, hospitalizing scores of clubbers and almost killing Locke himself. His reputation ruined, Locke plans his revenge on Dyke who, unknown to him, has become Lisa's lover, and is also planning Locke's terminal demise.
Grainily shot, sparingly dialogued, and largely set in the bleak, wintry Essex landscape, the movie has a very different feel to London gangland pics, with a clammy menace which sticks to the ribs. However, as the yarn becomes progressively labyrinthine, with everyone double-crossing everyone else, the impressive atmosphere of the first half recedes in the face of sheer plot mechanics. and though things recover with a final twist, the movie as a whole never fully rights itself from the loss of one of the main thesps three-quarters of the way through.
Bean, one of Blighty's most under-valued actors, is excellent as the psychopathic Locke, bringing a physical and pyschological charge to his role that anchors the movie. Wilkinson takes a while to establish a presence but matures slowly as a villain of disarming ruthlessness.
Perfs in general are spot-on, with Kingston well-cast as an Essex villain's wife who's as tough and smart as the boys. Creed-Miles, as the lad first enamoured, then disillusioned by criminal celebrity, holds his own among the experienced cast. Overall, pic has a somewhat TV look - but in this case it's not detrimental to the subject matter.
The A-list (Mirror mag. July 21-27. 2000)
Essex Boys (18. 102 mins)
A crime thriller loosely based on the Rettendon murders of 1995, when 3 men were found shot dead in a Range Rover on the outskirts of a village. Director Terry Windsor and co-writer Jeff Pope use the slayings as the bare bones of their story, adding various fictional twists and colourful characters to try escape the film's all too obvious small screen origins. Stereotypes and predictable plot contivances pile up almost as quickly as dead bodies, and the only actor to really shine is Bean who chills the blood as the psychotic hard man. How many more substandard British films have to jump on and fall off the Lock, Stock bandwagon before enough is enough?
http://www.edinburghnews.com/pages/arts.taf_function_detail_Evening_uid1_EN0 0089997_desk_cl_cat_arts_sec_11.html
TROUBLE AND STRIFE: Sean Bean as evil thug Jason Locke with Alex Kingston, who plays his battered wife in Essex Boys Crime lord of the Essex underworld
Sean Bean on his very bad guy role in a new film
HE’S played a few baddies in his time - but none of them compares with the drug-dealing, wife-beating character Sean Bean has to portray in his new movie.
The Sheffield-born star plays the relentlessly evil Jason Locke in Essex Boys, which opens this weekend and is based on a real-life 1995 drug-related murder in which three men were shot dead in a Range Rover in rural Essex.
When Bean’s character isn’t doling out ecstasy pills or blowing away the Essex underworld, he’s beating up his wife, played by ER actress Alex Kingston.
But despite the brutality, both stars pulled out all the stops to make it as realistic as possible.
"We knew vaguely what actions we were going to take and where we were going to go, but on the actual take it was a case of ‘good luck’ and, thankfully, it went really well," he explains.
"We agreed in going for it whole-heartedly, which I think it needed if we were going to show two people going for it hammer and tongs," he adds.
The part not only called for Bean to unleash his darker side but also to immerse himself in the seedy Essex underworld.
"We went to certain bars and talked to a few people," he says, "I also read quite a bit about the actual incident. To be able to play this part you can’t keep yourself at too much of a distance, otherwise you’re never going to get to know these people.
"Surprisingly some of them are very charming and very interesting characters. It’s certainly not all walking around with guns and gnashing of teeth."
But however much he knew it was just a part, the 40-year-old was aware that it wasn’t one he’d like his young daughters to see.
"Hopefully, I think they know me for who I am and that they can distinguish between reality and fantasy," he ponders.
By contrast, Bean hopes his next movie, Lord Of The Rings, will be something his girls will be proud to see him in.
"I did have them in mind when I took the part," says Bean, who has two daughters by his first wife actress Melanie Hill and a third with new wife Abigail Cruttenden. "It’s a big step from Essex Boys. I was really pleased to get the part in order to make a change from one extreme to the other."
But the Lord Of The Rings shoot, in New Zealand, meant long periods away from home.
"I do miss my family," he says. "I tend to focus on what I’m doing but sometimes, when it gets over three months, you start noticing the fact that you want to come back."
Bean says he’s more than happy making British-based movies, despite stints in Hollywood working alongside A-list stars such as Robert De Niro.
"I do prefer British movies because you tend to get lost in a big blockbuster and your part tends to get diluted," he explains.
That’s not to say, however, that he’s not a little starstruck by some of his Hollywood co-stars.
"Usually, once you get to know these people you sit down, have a cup of tea and a cigarette and you realise you’re all in it together, but Robert De Niro, he was different," he laughs. "He had an air of individuality. He’s such a hero of mine and a fantastic actor."
Even now Bean, who lives in London, can’t quite believe how far he’s come since his days as an apprentice welder in Sheffield.
"I do take stock of my life," he says. "It’s always great to work with people you’ve been to see in films, like De Niro, you hear names and you just think ‘fantastic’ and on the whole they do live up to
expectations." But Bean still regrets that he didn’t fulfil one ambition - to make it as a professional footballer.
"I wish I could have done both acting and football like Vinnie Jones," says the ardent Sheffield United fan. "He’s done it right, but I don’t think I would have been good enough."
Essex Boys opens this Friday.
Sunday's Express (09 July) (UK):

http://www.lineone.net/express/

Below is the text:

Soccer-mad Sean follows Vinnie Jones to gangland
By Henry Fitzherbert
There's something of Alan Shearer about Sean Bean. Like the England football captain, the actor's quietly-spoken manner disguises a fierce determination and self-belief. They are both robustly masculine yet demure, assertive but courteous. There is even a close physical resemblance in their square-jawed good looks. Should the England captain ever be immortalised on celluloid, then football-mad Bean would be perfect casting.
But it's another footballer who pops up in conversation. Vinnie Jones. In Bean's eyes, the former player has the ideal career, first as a top-rank footballer, including a stint as captain of Bean's favourite team, Sheffield United, then as a movie star playing the hard-man roles which should surely be the preserve of Bean. "He's been a professional footballer and now's he's a professional film star. What more could you ask for?" While Jones is riding high in the US with a scene-stealing role alongside Nicolas Cage and Robert Duvall in Gone In 60 Seconds, a big-budget gangster film which is set to travel the world, Bean - who came to Hollywood's attention playing the villains in Patriot Games and Goldeneye - will soon be seen in Essex Boys. It's another British gangster film that might be a hit over here. But beyond that, who knows?
Yet there is no trace of envy in Bean and he lavishes praise on Jones. "All credit to him. He's done extraordinarily well. He's got great presence and charisma and a fantastic face for film. When you come to the end of your career as a footballer it's great to go into film like he's done. He's really done it right."
To show such pleasure at Vinnie's success suggests that Bean is content with his own. The son of a Sheffield steelmaker, he grew up on a council estate, won a place at RADA and was catapulted to fame as TV's Sharpe. He is one of the few actors in Britain equally at home on television or in films, switching between TV dramas such as Bravo Two Zero and Lady Chatterley's Lover to movies like Ronin, in which he appeared with Robert De Niro. He's currently shooting a major part in one of the most sought-after film projects, the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
More importantly, Bean has a strong sense of his priorities. The down-to-earth star is not prepared to make the sort of sacrifices necessary to pursue the highest reaches of stardom. He prefers to stay in England rather than embrace Hollywood and steers clear of the celebrity parties that would generate column inches.
"There's a case for going to LA and I've been advised to do that many times," he admits, "but I like living here and I couldn't face the thought of living in LA - unless it was just to work for a while and get back home."
He lives in a plush new house in North London with third wife, actress Abigail Cruttenden, whom he met filming Sharpe, and their now 8-month-old daughter, Evie Natasha.
Although he loves living in London, domestic pleasures are much higher up his list than carousing about the West End. "It's not a matter of snubbing anything, I just don't go out that much. I spend a lot of time reading or watching TV or working on the house and garden. I've got another life which I enjoy - my private life."
It wasn't so private three years ago when his second marriage, to actress Melanie Hill, fell apart. They had been together for 16 years, and married for six, when it ended amid accusations that Bean spent too much time in the pub and left his clothes lying around. While his private grievances were made very public, the actor firmly bit his tongue.
Asked whether he is tempted to respond when his character is attacked in this way, he says: "I think it's best to let things lie and let them die down. If it was a very vitriolic attack on my character, then lawyers obviously would be involved but most times I just think, 'Forget about it, get on with your life'. I don't read much stuff anyway. It's only because people might mention it to me that I know about things."
Anyway, Bean says that he and Melanie are now on good terms and he often spends time with their daughters, Lorna and Molly. Now with another daughter, it's going to be some time before Bean can raise his own football team. "You never know," he laughs. "There's ladies' soccer and Lorna plays a lot. She's really quite good."
Should Lorna aspire to make a living on the pitch, the star certainly won't stand in her way, As an aspiring actor in a working-class community, Bean was something of a pioneer himself, giving up a job as a welder to go to art school where he discovered drama.
"There was an attitude that you just don't go into stuff like that, which made me all the more determined to do it. It's only in the past five years that it's become totally acceptable. Nobody blinks an eye now. Friends of mine in Sheffield are doing parts as extras. It's all become very fashionable and it's become a possibility to many people, not just a select few."
Despite the different circles Bean aspired to mix with, his self-assurance means that he never felt compelled to lose his northern accent, even though it has cost him jobs. "I know I've lost out on parts because people don't spend enough time to realise what you might be able to do. They might just hear how you speak and say you're no good. I think a certain amount of snobbery still exists but I wouldn't say it's been a big problem for me."
There is a straightforwardness and lack of guile about Bean that is rare and refreshing but I wonder if it is to the detriment of the career. Judging by the film roles he has chosen of late, he could benefit from a bit more vanity and cunning.
His minor supporting role in Ronin was as a semi-delinquent hitman and in Essex Boys - inspired by the gangland killing of three drug dealers found dead in their Range Rover - he plays a repellent ex-con who beats up his wife (played by ER's Alex Kingston). Although he gives a strong performance, such parts will hardly endear him to audiences.
"I want people to like my work and what I portray rather than me myself," he says. "I'm not bothered about trying to make people like Sean Bean, the person, through films. I don't want to come out of it smelling of roses every time. I can't start making him into a good guy." It's a noble sentiment - and one Vinnie Jones would surely share. Essex Boys goes on general release on July 14

Matthew Wright
The Mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/shtml/MATTHEW_WRIGHT/P19S2.shtml
ESSEX APPEAL
GOT a sneak preview yesterday of Essex Boys - an astonishingly good new British movie - and I'm confidently predicting it's going to be huge.
Starring Sean Bean with an authentic-sounding Essex accent, Full Monty star Tom Wilkinson and gorgeous Alex Kingston, it's a fictional account of the real-life shooting of three Essex men in a Range Rover a few years ago.
It's violent, sexy, tense and features endless shots of Alex in her birthday suit - and a sterling performance from young Charlie Creed-Miles.
Essential viewing when it's released in summer.
Evening Standard
Londoner's Diary
'Full of Bean'
Apart from putting the boot into Jane Root, controller of BBC2, for her savage carve up of the Late Review, Tony Parsons was full of beans at Waterstone's Piccadilly last night. Basking in the glory of having a number three best seller with his novel 'Man and Boy', a book which has reduced men as hard as Jeremy Paxman to tears no less, he mused on the casting of his protagonist Harry.
"I think Sean Bean would be good. I met him the other day, the girls obviously love him. Otherwise Ewan McGregor. It's traditional to choose an actor who is more good looking than you, isn't it?"
Daily Mail, February 16, 2000
Talented Holly
With her sister Sadie Frost basking in the limelight of husband Jude Law - whose role in The Talented Mr Ripley has landed him an Oscar nomination - there is stardom just around the corner for Holly Davidson.
At just 19, the hitherto unknown actress has won a part opposite former Bond star Sean Bean in his latest flick Essex Boys and will be inviting her family along to the May premiere - but strictly as guests.
'Sadie and Jude always ask me along to showbizzy; parties, so it will be a pleasant change to return the gesture,' says Holly. 'I'm naturally brown-haired, but in the film I wear a long blonde wig, short skirt and white stilettos - typical Essex girl gear. I play Sean's bit on the side, so quite what they will make of it is anyone's guess.'
So far Holly has been in small-budget movies, but with Ralph Fiennes' former wife Alex Kingston also in the film, Essex Boys has all the ingredients of a hit. 'It's my big break,' says Holly 'Sadie and Jude have always been very encouraging and watched everything I've done.'
Ronin
an opinion on: Ronin
by: apresbash ( Thu Oct 28 '99)
product rating: This opinion is unrated
Ronin
Review: Oct. 2, 1998
Directed by John Frankenheimer. Starring: Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Natascha McElhon, Jonathon Pryce
Ok. DeNiro probably couldn't do all that running in real-life, and we kind of see that in the movie, however I hear (from Ashley Judd's E! interview) that you never run as fast as you can when filming movies. So, maybe the slow pedestrial pacing was a directorial issue. Regardless, DeNiro is DeNiro, and he gives us another excuse to want to wear black leather jackets and maybe even smoke those cool yellow cigarettes. His character never develops much, but that's actually effective here. Ronin is a thinly veiled blockbuster as far as its marketing is concerned, but on screen, it makes good without the Hollywood orchestra playing the whole time. The understatement in character development (across the board) is a testimony to the shady lifestyles and the poker faces which come with the territory of theives and killers. Kudos to understatement and action. Cheesy abdomen bullet removal scenes are much better that way.
Ronin is one for the movie fans who need a refreshing change from Hollywood effects (see "Blade"'s ending for how NOT to do it) but still want to see some familiar faces and action ("Out of Sight" is an example of another job well-done). The ending is noticably un-Hollywood, as interpersonal resolve is abandoned in order to provide verisimilitude to Robert DeNiro's secret operative lifestyle, which we just have to know cannot accomodate traditional friendships. Taking a hint from "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," we are left in the dark as to the contents of the not-so-mysterious case, which propels the action of the story. The cast is superb, with DeNiro running in the lead, and Jean Reno filling in the supporting role with his usual mixture of compassion and cold dirty business.
Typecast or not, Reno is always the perfect "European guy for the job" of lending credibility to an action movie. If you need a convincing and likable assassin or a thief who doesn't say much but has underlying intellect and emotional depth.... Jean is your man. Hopefully though, Reno is not becoming stock material. Luckily and purposefully, I never saw Godzilla, so am not sure exactly how he is faring in Tinsletown. Collective memories of Victor "the cleaner" from Le Femme Nikita, and Leon, The Professional, drive Reno's newest weaker supporting role. My first guess was that Reno changed his name from Renault to make it easier for US audiences to pronounce his name, but it turns out (thanks IMDB) that his real name is Juan Moreno? Huh? John Brown....maybe he is a spy after all.
Like in Heat, we get the famous-actor buddy movie propelled by the underlying angst that buddies just can't exist in this world. Nonetheless, statements of mutual respect are wrought through subtle action, and DeNiro and Reno forge a friendship out of nothing...only to return to nothing at the end of the film. These transcient relations are echoed throughout the film, so the goal therefore becomes to try and convince the audience that there might be an underlying bond behind the men's stoicism. The viewer is placed in the position of the men, as neither we nor they, can truly understand each character's motives or trustworthiness. It is this ambiguity that serves well for today's twenty-something's cop-out existentialist "mask- dilemma" of individual worth and personae, even if it is really just a bastard cousin of the relationships from the film-noire days of the Big Sleep, etc... The plot doesn't create much tension between Reno and DeNiro, but I think the viewer will assume some exists anyway, given the territory of the movie's devious assignment. As the two leads prove their street-cred and loyalty to each other, we begin to believe their bond and "integrity", and when DeNiro goes so far as to flat out tell a man, "Don't worry I won't hurt you," we actually believe him.
Jonathon Pryce is miscast once again as the thug tough-guy villian-type, and even if he was in "Brasil," "Glengarry Glen Ross," and a few other classics, he is quickly becoming one of those faces I hope not to see when I meet the thug (oh, if only Tomorrow Never Dies hadn't happened...). However, I overcame this intial reaction as he reminded me that bad guys don't always look like bad guys (right they look like Bill Gates). I have to admit that Pryce's unassuming nature was alright during most of the movie, and Pryce indeed served sufficient in beating up a guy when he had to...it's just when he tries to talk tough, it ain't working.
Speaking of bad guys not looking like bad guys, Sean Bean in fact DOES look like a bad guy but makes a nice career move by playing an incompentent member of the team who leaves the movie after about fifteen minutes of screentime (taking a cue in tact perhaps from Drew Barrymore in "Scream"). That's why I liked the casting. My first impression was, "There's the psycho from "Patriot Games." He's gonna sell out everyone and chase DeNiro around for the rest of the movie." After his nice move in "Ronin" though, Bean might be able to find work outside of the IRA rebel role. He dulls his accent (compared to "Patriot Games") and makes a nice inside joke to Natascha McElhone about her thick Irish inflection. I hope to see him again in a larger role in such a strong cast. Nice sacrifce bunt Sean, but next time get in there with the rest of 'em.
Natascha McElhone takes a little of her "Truman Show," "Devil's Own" mixed aestetic appeal and allows the weak dialogue given to her by the script to be somewhat covered by her looks and accent. I don't know much about her as a result, but I could see her and DeNiro hovering around the creation of a Micheal Douglas/Deborah Unger impossible attraction scenario (a la "The Game"). However, with the exception of two subtle scenes, the script keeps Natascha at more than arm's length and does not let us experience the attraction that we are looking for. Whether it be villianous or romatic, she needed to talk more. She got the job done, however why show a speck of DeNiro's compassion (DeNiro offers McElhone a chance to leave the biz once, and briefly plays her as his wife), without some sort of solid response from her in either direction?
Stellan Skarsgard gets a new hairdo and is convincingly removed both in looks and in attitude from any notions of his "Good Will Hunting" pompous math teacher persona. He doesn't do too much in this movie, but his presence in the cast and his ability to move to this new character was good enough for me. He is yet another example of how this movie juggled a lot of new and old A-list faces yet stayed within its own little world.
Car chases, car chases, car chases! Best parts of the movie. Crazy road antics supply most of the action sequences in Ronin, and add up to one of the most effective sequences of driving ever caught on film. I saw DeNiro in a CNN interview where he explained that Formula 1 drivers, not stunt drivers, were responsible for most of the car chases' incredible feats. The choreography was subtle, and I felt as if normal people could actually pull off the stunts (given they had the guts and the luck). Images of approaching cars zooming into grill close-ups and then cutting to a driver's concentrating face were uniquely shot and a nice touch. The maneuvers cut things extremely close, and I would like to see some of the outakes. Although some cringe at the sacreligous thought of hollywood sedans tearing up the cobblestoned streets of Nice, the high-speeds through alleys and tunnels were intense and fast. Rather than lots of explosions, these chases had lots of guts (see especially the scene in which drivers plow the wrong way through oncoming traffic). Certainly, there were some extra wrecked cars and knocked-over fruit stands (in this case, fish stands) for good measure, but "Blues Brothers" in the mall it was not. For the most part, I bought the entire concept. If you like car chases...see this movie. Wow.
The bad parts of the movie were few, but still stunk strongly enough to kill some of the movie's buzz and momentum. The stock scene of the car blowing up "right" after the body is removed was needless. It would have been fine to let the car sit there smoking, as the car fell far enough to catch my attention and injure the passengers. The computer noises when streetmaps were being generated were just plain silly. Attention "Ronin" people, it's 1998. Computers just don't make those kind of noises (even Macintoshes, which I always am happy to see represented on film).
Lastly, the idea that an ad for the Russian Ice Show just happened to be outside of the garage where DeNiro and Reno were brainstorming over how to find Russians in France was just stupid. But the writers did kill the ice skater (Katerina Witt enjoyed a fun role I am sure). So, while I try to let the few bad parts slide, they took away what otherwise would have been an incredibly well done subtle action movie.
OK. That's that. I liked Ronin mostly cause of the understatements, the lack of resolve, and the great cast. Additionally, the wardrobe was the best since Kevin Spacey in "The Negotiator." Yes, Euro-style and secret missions! The stupid parts were unforgivable though. This could have been an A.
Grade: B+
Pros: pleasantly subtle characters, top notch car chases
Cons: some will feel it's too restrained
Viewing format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a rainy day
Plot Details: This epinion reveals major details about the movie's plot
Action Factor: Well done action flick
Overall rating: 4

Recommends to friends? Yes
BOXOFFICE Goes On Location and Undercover on the Set of the New Bond Flick, "Tomorrow Never Dies"
by Bridget Byrne
at http://www.boxoff.com/nov97story1.html
None of these actors are present this day, but Sean Bean, the British actor who was the villain of "GoldenEye," stops by for a lunchtime visit. A nice, rather shy, ordinary bloke, he is a far cry from the sleek, self-assured, double-dealing Cossack he played opposite Brosnan in the hit film -- which grossed more than $350 million worldwide, twice that for any previous Bond. He is greeted warmly by Brosnan and those in the crew who worked with him, but out of character to casual observers he lacks the head-turning appeal that Brosnan has off camera as well as on.
News of the World:
STARS are queuing up to be hit for Ł500 by boxing bad boy Mike Tyson.
Big names like Robbie Williams and Pierce Brosnan have had to cough up after the former jailbird banned the usual free ringside seats for celebrities at his fight in Britain this month. Noel and Liam Gallagher will also join thousands of fans to watch the world's most notorious sportsman take on British champ Julius Francis on the 29th at Manchester's MEN arena.
The fight is Tyson's first on foreign soil and demand for tickets is so high that Ł50 seats are fetching Ł200-plus among touts in Manchester.
Other stars going include the Manic Street Preachers, Sharpe star Sean Bean, Tyson's former girlfriend Naomi Campbell, plus players from Manchester United, Chelsea, West Ham and Arsenal.
A source with organisers said: "I've never known so many VIPs, pop groups, sport stars and celebrities want to be at a promotion.
"But they're being treated like all the other punters. If they don't buy the ticket someone else will. I'm sure we could have got rid of more than 40,000 tickets if we'd had the capacity."
Police chiefs are this weekend running through plans to protect Tyson and the celebrities. They have devised decoy runs to protect the boxer from the crowds at his hotel and the 21,000-seater arena.
He flies into London next Sunday to finalise his training in Mayfair - and he could be a Gunners fan by the time he goes back to the States. Promoter Frank Warren, an Arsenal nut, has a box at Highbury and wants to take Tyson for a game. Additional reporting: FRED BURCOMBE
The Times , Friday Dec.3rd.
Review of last night's TV by Paul Hoggart.
Farewell to double crossing and double parking.
Two of ITV's more ambitious series ended last night, one with a bang, the other with a bit of a whimper. Extremely Dangerous was the kind of thriller described as 'dark' and 'chilling' because it hinges around vicious and excessive crimes, in this case the murder and mutilation of a woman and her young daughter with a butcher's boning knife. This four-parter also played on our lurking JFK-type paranoia.
Ruthless government agencies and organised crime collude, we suspect, to exercise a corrupt, amoral control of public life.
Ranged against the forces of darkness were an honest plod (Alex Norton), short, stout, and balding in the manner of The Fast Show's "Fat, sweaty coppers", an Asian mini-cab controller with a heart of gold and Sean Bean as the tough but basically decent killing machine Sean Bean usually plays.
The series began as an homage to The Fugative, with Bean's hero, Neil Byrne, escaping from a moving train in order to clear himself of the double murder. By the end, however, it had turned into a convoluted three-way hunt, with Byrne after the real killers, the police after him and the villains hoping to mix him into the foundations of a new motorway extension.
Everything hinged on which way Annie (Juliet Aubrey), the nastiest gangster's moll and Byrne's lover, would turn. Discovering that he has double-crossed him, Annie's gangster boyfriend Joe (Ralph Brown) kills her father. He and Annie met over the coffin. "What should I do with a woman who shares my bed, but betrays me to my enemies?" he whispers in her ear, in a scene reminiscent of a Jacobean revenge tragedy.
As in revenge tragedy, the stage ended up strewn with corpses, except that this time they were all villains. (You have to make some concessions to modern audiences.) Otherwise Extremely Dangerous was extremely slick and extremely violent.
From Daily Mail, Sat. 27th Nov
A moving and somewhat gruesome conclusion to this Sean Bean four-parter which came up late on the rails to become one of the thriller highlights of the year. It was wilfully battling to begin with,and Bean's character Neil Byrne had too an uncanny sixth-sense for being in the right place at the right time, but, above all,it was fast, glossy, sexy and tense, with a cleverly incongruous humour in parts. Nor were there any of those script clicés that can dog these guns-and-gangster dramas. Even the minor characters diverted the sympathies. How you will root for cab controller Ali (Nitin Ganatre), a man drier than drought, in this finalinstalment. So Byrne will discover who killed his family, and the identity of the bigwig who ordered the butchery. Not all of the baddies will make it to jail. And Mr Bean might just end up in a nude-lovers scene. Well, it was probbaly written into his contract.
From The Sun. (as above)
The end is nigh for Neil Byrne and we're still not sure if he murdered his wife and child. In fact, we're still not sure of anything. Is Annie helping him or setting him up as a target for the crime syndicates? Does the Patagonia code hold the answers to Byrne's question? How many more violent scenes are there going to be before the end of this series? Quite a few actually, but they're such an important part of this complicated story, we can't complain. Gory but well worth watching.
The Express Saturday magazine, 27 Nov - 3 Dec., Pick of the Day for Thursday.
"Apart from being extremely long, extremely complicated and, at times, extremely violent, this four-part thriller has been rather good value. While we all like thrillers (which is why Hollywood makes so many of them) British TV seems to have lost the habit - and certainly the habit of making them this well. Sean Bean is easily one of our most effective popular actors and one of the few who looks credible in action roles, and if we don't give him regular work on the telly, he'll just go off and play more Hollywood villains for more money. So, as we get to the final episode, will he find a way to clear his name of the awful murder of his wife and daughter and figure out who is the man who set him up?"
TV Times 27 Nov- 3 Dec
It's about time we had some answers here. There's a limit to how much mystery we can take before reading a newspaper or defrosting the fridge looks a more rewarding, less frustrating prospect. Before this last episode of four, we're still not sure exactly who was Neil Byrne's original employer, who killed his wife and child, or what the big deal is about a book called Patagonia. there's so much tension that at one point rock-hard Byrne has a little weep. But it's not long before he's back to his bodily-harming best. Without spoiling it, we can tell you the ending's not tidy and that the door's open for another series (no decision on that yet), if only because the many main characters and various sub-plots have yet to be fully explained. It makes the whole thing feel like someone trying to quickly pack a suitcase with too many items.
Heat magazine, 25 Nov- 1 Dec
Episode three and, following last week's violence in the cab office there are hints of a twist in the tail. Is Byrne (Sean Bean) really a pyscho or is he being framed? Add in the violent murder of his landlady Edith and his bloody flashbacks and it's all going a bit Angel Heart. We'll be astonished if Byrne isn't being fitted up but it's proving highly enjoyable finding out. This week sees Byrne hunted for the murder of randy old Edith, gangster's moll Annie coming under pressure to wheel him in, and token cerebral copper Wallace beginning to wonder if our escaped convict isn't quite all he seems. It also features the best line of the series when the cab controller, faced with a barrage of weaponry, deadpans, "If I get this right, you don't want a mini-cab."
(Dominic Smith. ****)
EVENING STANDARD, November 16, 1999

REMEMBERING THOSE BODICE-HEAVING MOMENTS

Emily Sheffield
EMILY SHEFFIELD recalls the scenes that made us sigh and those that created a few cries of despair among TV drama departments
Pride and Prejudice: the Oscar goes to the wet-shirt scene, when Colin Firth rises dripping from the river, white shirt clinging to his manly chest - with his eyeliner intact.
Tom Jones: Max Beesley's naked bottom - need we say more?
Mansfield Park: (BBC film to be screened in the New Year) look out for Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor) and Edmund Bertram (Jonny Lee Miller) holding hands in a horse-drawn carriage; Miller later drops his sleeping head onto her heaving cleavage.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: when Gilbert Markham (Toby Stephens) strides across the Yorkshire moors, hammers on the door of Wildfell Hall, and declares his love for the tenant played by Tara Fitzgerald.
Emma: when Knightley (Jeremy Northam) proposes - on a walk, of course - having loved Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow) from afar for 21 years.
Aristocrats: when Emily Lennox (Geraldine Somerville) finally snogs the tutor Ogilvy (George Anton) in the garden.
Sense and Sensibility: the rain-lashed rescue scene when Willoughby (Greg Wise) steams in on horseback and sweeps up the panting, injured Marianne (Kate Winslet).
Hornblower: Ioan Gruffudd emerging half-naked from the sea; girlie tendrils of wet hair combined with a muscled chest and macho behaviour guaranteeing classic heart-fluttering.
Costume Flops Rhodes: the 1996 Ł10 million biopic on Cecil Rhodes, the adventurer and founder of Rhodesia. Viewing figures slumped from seven million viewers for the first episode to below five million for the second.
Nostromo: the 1997 Ł9 million adaptation of the Joseph Conrad classic about the corrupting influence of money.
Viewers turned away in their droves. Only 2.8 million switched on to the second episode.
Vanity Fair: the 1998 BBC adaptation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair.
Even Natasha Little as the scheming Becky Sharp was less appealing (6.9 million viewers) than the Taggart repeat on ITV at the same time (watched by 10 million).
Costume Hits The Forsyte Saga: the 1966 BBC drama following the fortunes of the Victorian Forsyte family. Though never repeated, it attracted more than 160 million viewers worldwide.
Pride and Prejudice: the 1995 BBC version of Jane Austen's familiar tale of a middle-class father's struggle to marry off his five daughters starring Colin Firth as Darcy (how could we ever forget) and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth.
Viewing figures were regularly over 11 million for its Sunday night screening on BBC1 and for its midweek BBC2 repeat.
Sharpe: Sean Bean's macho renegade soldier (first shown on ITV in 1994) regularly attracted more than 10 million viewers.
Potted History: Oliver Twist 1837: Charles Dickens was 25 when he wrote Oliver Twist, the powerful story of a workhouse orphan fighting to stay alive among the most criminal and degraded of London's population. It was a huge success in its own time.
1948: David Lean's movie classic with John Howard Davies as Oliver, Anthony Newley as the Artful Dodger and Sir Alec Guinness as Fagin.
1960: Dickens's tale hits the stage as Lionel Bart's glittering musical Oliver!
It's a West End sell-out and Bart is hailed as a genius.
1968: the movie of the musical, starring Mark Lester as Oliver and Ron Moody as Fagin. It made Ł210 million worldwide and won six Oscars.
1994: Cameron Mackintosh relaunches Oliver! at the London Palladium.
1999: Alan Bleasdale's gritty epic eight-hour version of Oliver Twist is filmed for ITV.
Potted History: Wives and Daughters 1865: writer Elizabeth Gaskell dies, leaving her last novel Wives and Daughters uncompleted.
Born in London in 1810, she spent her married life with her clergyman husband and their four daughters in Manchester. Mary Barton (1948) was her first success; her most popular work was Cranford (1853). Her biography of her close friend Charlotte Bront' (1857) later gained classic standing.
1971: early BBC version of Wives and Daughters.
1999: the BBC's second attempt at adapting Gaskell's unfinished masterpiece.
From the Radio Times for next week, 20-26 November, page 61.
TV Alison Graham finds ITV's Sean Bean drama Extremely Dangerous all a bit of a mystery

A FUGITIVE FROM CREDIBILITY

It is cold out here, very cold and very lonely. I've used the last of my distress flares and am down to the "I'm rather upset" flares. I am awaiting rescue.
There is nothing left to do but to sit and think. Perhaps by episode three of Extremely Dangerous (Thursdays ITV), things will be clearer and there will be hope that I can be saved. But, after watching the first in this four-part series, I am completely lost.
Maybe it is just me. I sent the others on ahead to episode two without me. I was only holding them back, with my constant questions: 'Who is he? Who is she? Why are they doing that? What on earth is this series about?" Perhaps they will return to find me and explain everything. Or perhaps not. Maybe I'll be left here for ever, wrapped in Bacofoil and rubbing Kit Kats together in an attempt to start a fire.
The journey had started so simply. Extremely Dangerous looked like a cross between The Fugitive and The 39 Steps. It looked fast and exciting - Sean Bean, a man convicted of killing his wife and daughter, was being transferred between prisons on a train. His guards let him out of the handcuffs and he was rolling down an embankment quicker than you could say, "That was a silly thing to do."
Sean Bean went off on the run and we weren't sure if he was guilty of these crimes or not. He wasn't sympathetic, or appealing, which added a certain frisson to the action. And there were nice snapshots of disenfranchised urban life, in particular some great scenes in the minicab office where Sean Bean went to find a job.
But by halfway through, things were going badly. I was losing hope, and despair was sapping my strength. Even my SAS Guide to Surviving Television Programmes You Don't Understand was no help. The others were striding ahead; they'd made it through the first two commercial breaks and had reached the final stretch. But I was way, way behind, gulping down small plot developments in a desperate effort to keep myself conscious.
Bean visited an old man who was breathing his last in a nursing home, Juliet Aubrey was wandering around in her bra and knickers, and a bald man looked menacing in good suits.
Occasionally the bald-headed man and Juliet Aubrey (now fully clothed) got involved in discussions with other people. But who were they? And what were they talking about? Once they were talking in a football club directors' box. Sean Bean was in the stands. They all ran after him. And I felt my tenuous grip on reality slipping away.
The days are long when you are marooned in a drama series. There is nothing to do but wait for the Land Rovers. Perhaps they will bring supplies - blankets, a synopsis of the plot. Extremely Dangerous? Extremely Baffling, more like.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
James Walton
One way and another, last night's television was a pretty macho affair - and I don't just mean the return of 'They Think It's All Over. Take Neil Byrne (Sean Bean), the protagonist of Extremely Dangerous, a new four-part thriller from ITV. When we first saw him, he was smoking and winning at cards with the two guards transferring him by rail to a Scottish prison to continue his life sentence for murder. Not for long, though. Within minutes of nipping to the toilet, Byrne had doffed his handcuffs and chains with a speed that would have impressed Houdini, silently removed a large section of the carriage wall and leapt from the speeding train. He then got up, shook his head and walked to freedom.
For a while, he concentrated on stealing clothes wherever he went, thereby ensuring we knew: a) that Neil Byrne is a master of disguise; and b) that Sean Bean looks cool in anything. Eventually, he pitched up in Manchester where he had a score or two to settle - and where Extremely Dangerous really began to take off. Its portrait of the city's low-life is, I suspect, intended to be no more literally true than Minder's was of Eighties London or Damon Runyon's of prohibition New York. (Byrne's new pseudonym, tellingly, is Spanish John - also that of a Runyon character.) Nonetheless, if contemporary Manchester isn't the way we saw it last night, it somehow should be. The landlady of Byrne's suitably seedy digs, for example, introduced herself as "Mrs Edith Ramsay, once a barmaid, a plaything of actors and travelling salesmen - now a traffic warden's widow". His boss at the taxi firm is a young Asian man who reads The Oxford Book of English Humour and effortlessly steals every scene he's in with his deadpan one-liners.
The more standard thriller elements, meanwhile, are less inspired - but still efficient. Byrne, we've learned, was an undercover MI5 agent who infiltrated the local organised-crime scene. He now wants to find out who killed his wife and and daughter and then set him up for the crime. Presumably we already know more or less what will happen over the next three weeks (he will succeed, exposing corruption on both sides of the law) - but an encouraging first episode suggested we'll have a classy ride getting there.
MIRROR>BR> Tony Purnell
Sean Bean makes a great action man. He is just right for the role of undercover agent and convicted killer Neil Byrne in Extremely Dangerous (ITV).
He escaped from a speeding train in the opening minutes of the four-part thriller.
"There is always a hint of danger with Byrne" said one of the two prison officers who had been guarding him on the London to Glasgow express.
He was speaking after the horse, or rather the pony-tailed prisoner, had bolted. Both screws must have done their training with Officer McKay at Slade Prison since they failed to smell a rat when he kept asking to go to the toilet.
On the fourth visit he not only managed to remove the restraining chain he was attached to but also his handcuffs and the window of the WC.
Byrne went on the run to prove his innocence and find out who really killed his wife and daughter, but the programme makers insist any similarity to Dr Richard Kimble in the Fugitive is purely coincidental. Within hours, resourceful Byrne had changed his appearance, gone on a thieving spree and got himself digs and a job as a minicab driver.
He visited gangland pals and broke into his old MI5 office where he discovered his file was marked 'Permanently Abandoned'.
I won't abandon him. It's exciting stuff. But I don't care what they say, I'm going to keep an eye open for a one-armed man.
THE EXPRESS
Simon Edge
Cherie Booth's dad, Tony, is a mischievous old leftie, and if a programme includes him in its cast, you can bet your bottom euro there will be a crack about the PM in the script. In Extremely Dangerous (ITV), a passenger wanted to know why the London to Glasgow express was closed off. "Is it someone important like the Prime Minister", he asked. "No," replied the guard, "it's just the most dangerous man in Britain," which could have meant the same thing but didn't.
Sean Bean, as top security prisoner Neil Byrne, wasn't on the train for long. Saying he needed the lav (yes, that old trick), he managed to unscrew an entire window panel, which I bet you never realised was possible. He then tumbled out into the Scottish Borders and grabbed a change of clothes from an unsuspecting farmer who had rashly left his door unlocked. It could have been the very farmhouse where Robert Donat ran into Flora Robson in The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Extremely Dangerous is more Edge of Darkness than Hitchcock, though. With another three episodes to go, it is too early to know what really led to the brutal slaughter of Byrne's wife and daughter, for which he received two life sentences. We have a fair idea he didn't do it - someone who can give himself such an immaculate haircut in a public toilet, with the door jammed with a Durex machine, is clearly too sensitive to be a murderer.
We have also learned that Byrne was some kind of undercover agent who has been 'permanently abandoned' according to his computer file, by his government employers. But surprise twists are all the rage these days, so you never can tell. Even Byrne didn't seem sure he was innocent by the closing credits.
There was plenty of 'cough and you'll miss it' dialogue, and the plot steamed along faster than the Glasgow night train. But writer Murray Smith punctuated the opening episode with lighter moments and with generously outfitted incidental characters.
"Does this mean you're not going to take me to Sainsbury's?" asked the prison governor's wife when the phone rang with the news of Byrne's escape. The cab operator, who whiled away the night reading what appeared to be the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, was a nice touch, as was the landlady with a heart of granite. "They call me a heartless Hannah round 'ere, but if yer ever want to borrow a cup of sugar I'm just downstairs," she barked. "Thanks," said Byrne. "You've got four minutes left on yer meter before it runs out, and no cooking in t'room," she added.
We didn't get much of Tony Booth last night. The man we will always remember as Alf Garnett's 'Scouse Git' now plays a gangster godfather. Teddy-bear features notwithstanding, you get the impression that 'till death us do part' might be sooner than you expected if you upset him. Let's hope we see more of the First Father-in-Law as the gang, which seemed to have more factions than a New Labour cabinet, decides what to do about Byrne.
Ultimately, the success or failure of Extremely Dangerous depends on Mr Bean (no, not that one). He needs to provide enough menace to make us think he is at least slightly dangerous, while looking confused and human enough for us to care. Fortunately, tough 'n' tender is right up Sean's street, and he gives us just the right amount of vulnerability with a touch of pyschosis. I'm hooked.
THE GUARDIAN
Adam Sweeting
Mr Bean's big adventure
How much tougher can Sean "Rockfist" Bean get? Bean attacks every role like a human canonball and splatters its guts over the furniture. He hisses out his dialogue as if he were sliding a knife between its ribs. Even if he does something as mundane as reading a newspaper, he does it as if he were hiding a bazooka under his raincoat.
Who better, then, to head the cast of Extremely Dangerous, ITV's new four-part thriller. Bean plays Neil Byrne, a convicted murderer serving two life-sentences for slaughtering his wife and four year-old daughter. In the opening sequence, Byrne escaped from the train which was transferring him to a prison in Peterhead by diving through the lavatory window and hurling himself down an embankment when the train had slowed to a negligible 40 mph. Then he stomped off into the night, leaving the embankment to nurse its bruises.
Byrne is on a mission to prove his innocence and hunt down the people who framed him. We haven't been told what Byrne used to do for a living yet, but he's adept at changing his appearance and his identity, skilled in unarmed combat and handy at hacking into computers. Implausibly, while the police and teams of ruthless gangsters combed Greater Manchester looking for him, Byrne stole a car and took a job as a cab-driver with the world's most squalid minicab company. As the laconic Pakistani cab-operator warned him, "don't tell me any secrets, pal - then you might have to kill me".
The other characters were mere ciphers, lining up in front of Byrne like ducks in a fairground shooting gallery. Is it poppycock? Of course, but now that the vengeful Bean has been turned loose, you want to see where he ends up. He's like a clock-work killing machine, coated with granite and teflon.
The Mirror
The TV success of Richard Sharpe, hero of Cornwell's Napoleonic War series, has brought the author a well-deserved reputation as the king of the cannonballs and crinolines genre, and proves he has few equals in portraying men in battle. But his latest epic novel travels much further back in time, focusing on the building of Stonehenge. Using scant archaeological evidence (and his own fertile imagination) Cornwell presents his own fictional explanation of how and why this great Bronze Age monument was raised. As usual there's action aplenty, but the book's hero, Saban, is a bit of a softie, the plotting is hackneyed and the love interest is totally unbelievable (more Neighbours than neolithic). Fascinating, but not Bernie's best. (Three stars)
Jaci Stephen
The Mail on Sunday
'It's a problem I always encounter when women swoon over Sean Bean. Sometimes, it's all that humping against a tree he performed in Lady Chatterley's Lover, that turns them on; sometimes it's that interminable nonsense that has been running since what seems like the invention of television- men in uniform, lots of swashbuckling and smoke; oh what on earth was it called? Anyway, Sean really turned the ladies on in it.
I keep trying but I just don't see it. I like bigger eyes, shorter hair, bigger smiles; I just don't go for that rough'n'ready, three Shredded Wheat kind of guy. Sean always looks so - well, grubby. But I keep trying. Which is why I tried again this week when he turned up in a new ITV drama called Extremely Dangerous.
Now, if there is one thing Mr Bean never looks, it is extremely dangerous. He can look slightly menacing in that 'Come over here and I'll nick your ice-cream' sort of way, but extremely dangerous, no. Like I said, his eyes are not big enough.' She then gives a sort of synopsis of the story so far and finishes with
'There are a couple of girlies thrown in for good measure, but, so far, they haven't done much apart from kiss the guys. Maybe that's all some women want from men. Doubtless the kind of women who like Sean Bean.'
The Sunday Telegraph Review Section.
Among the Headhunters - John Preston
The third brute of the week was Sean Bean, the star of Extremely Dangerous (Thursday, ITV), a daft four-part thriller. As usual, Bean played a hard man, here imprisoned for the brutal murder of his wife and four-year old daughter. The twist being that he hadn't actually killed them at all; he'd been "stitched up".
As if in recognition that Bean is not the most expressive of actors, efforts had been made to make this into part of his character. "He's like a sphinx," said one of his guards to another. "A relaxed sphinx," countered his partner. "Mmm....," agreed Guard Number One, "with a hint of danger." This is dialogue straight from the instant-coffee jar and needs to be played with a lot more elan than it was here if it's to come off.
Much of the plot was incomprehensible. Indeed, I found myself hanging gratefully on the many blatant implausibilities as evidence that there was a plot at all. The only thing that piqued my interest was the fact that the two main baddies slept in a bed with black satin sheets. Once all baddies had similarly depraved tastes in bedlinen, and in the interests of dramatic shorthand there's still a lot to be said for it.
Some years ago I also slept in a bed with black satin sheets. Sadly, it proved to be a big disappointment. Instead of being suffused with wickedness, as I had hoped, the effect was like being inside a giant liquorice allsort.
The Independent on Sunday
Television, Culture
Brian Viner
Sean Bean looked similarly comfortable playing an escaped convict in Extremely Dangerous (ITV). For once, he does not have to conceal the tattoo on his shoulder, which pledges his undying devotion to Sheffield United and was deemed superfluous when he played Mellors in Lady Chatterley, not to mention Esau in Sky's serialisation of the Old Testament. Anyway, in this four-part thriller, Bean plays a man convicted of killing his wife and daughter. Needless to say, he didn't dunnit. And has just three episodes to prove his innocence. This is a pretty tall order, seeing as it took David Janssen four years in The Fugitive, which had an eerily similar plot.
In the opening sequence, while being transferred by train from one prison to another, Bean escaped, becoming a runner Bean. He was duly described on the news as one of Britain's most dangerous criminals, which made it hard to understand why he was sent the length of the country in the custody of two warders as intimidating as Little and Large. But it doesn't do to scrutinise events too carefully in thrillers like Extremely Dangerous. You can drive yourself potty. For instance, Bean pinched a waxed jacket and a flat cap from a farmhouse, then nipped into a public lavatory to hack his long hair off with a pair of nail scissors. As if by magic, he emerged seconds later with a beautifully layered haircut, looking not unlike Nigel Havers. In fact my wife entered the room at this point and asked whether Dangerfield had moved to Thursdays.
Anyway, Bean wound up in Manchester (which was also, incidentally, the setting for Queer as Folk and Cold Feet, and is evidently turning into the new London), needing employment. In our house we were baying for him to exploit his uncommon talent and become a hairdresser. But in an awful slab of publicity for minicab firms, he sailed through a four-second interview. Mind you, when I think of some of the minicab drivers I have encountered, four seconds may count as an unusually intensive grilling. Whatever, the situation was now set up for an exciting Bean stalk, as he tracked down his old gangland associates to discover who set him up.
Extremely Dangerous is pacy and well-acted, so there are things to admire as well as ridicule, with Juliet Aubrey, playing a smouldering gangster's moll partial to lacy lingerie, falling into both categories.
http://www.the-times.co.uk/ Features Section
November 12/99
Neil Byrne (Sean Bean) had a similar problem in Extremely Dangerous, ITV's new four-part thriller. Wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife and daughter, he escapes and confronts the detective who put him away. The crime was so appalling that he has blotted it out, he is told. Like many violent criminals, he is "in denial". Aaargh!
Extremely Dangerous is like one of those dishes where they throw in a bit of everything, but still end up with something tasty. It started with a chunk of escape from a speeding train. This was like a spicy sausage in a Moroccan couscous, not the main interest, but an exciting extra titbit.
The dominant flavour, the chicken in the paella, as it were, came from the fact that our hero has been falsely accused of murdering his wife. If that sounds like The Fugitive, it is. Perhaps it is an homage, if not an homard.
Then we tasted the homely carrots of organised criminals infiltrating local authority planning departments. An obstinate city surveyor "accidentally" falling off the roof of a high-rise building provided a dash of Worcester sauce.
Familiar seasoning was provided by the fact that Byrne has been disowned by the shadowy government agency for whom he was working undercover, the whole stew laced with the Tabasco of a mysterious codebook. Doubtless Byrne is the "fallguy" for some high-level corruption and must expose the truth.
But what the heck. There's no such thing as a new story. This may have been a pot-au-feu, but it was very well prepared. The direction was tense, spare and menacing and avoided the pretentious stylisation which is so fashionable these days. The dialogue felt convincing and the script was gritty without actually trying to rub grit in your face. Sean Bean had the same air of resentfully moral machismo which he has in everything, which was perfect for the part. Tony Booth was surprisingly compelling as a gangster, and very menacing. I certainly wouldn't want to mess with his daughter, for example.
Bean's character is the kind of guy who knows how to remove handcuffs, dismantle a lavatory window on a speeding train and jump out unhurt. But would he be resourceful enough to survive if the train was speeding through the Costa Rican rainforest?

Heat magazine for 11-17 November
Neil Byrne (Sean Bean) is a feared psychopath, jailed for the brutal murders of his wife and baby daughter and with links to organised crime. So when he slips his guards the security forces are on red alert, as are a leading Manchester crime family who have reasons of their own to fear him. Gradually it emerges that Byrne was, in fact, a government agent who infiltrated the family, making enemies on all sides. Byrne believes his family was murdered by someone out to destroy him and wants revenge; the authorities believe he's a dangerous psycho who refuses to acknowledge his crimes. While the portrayal of gangland Manchester is just a little OTT - the taxi controller acts as if he's in war-torn Beirut - Bean is as moodily engaging as ever with an air of subdued menace that bodes well for the weeks to come. Four star rating

TV Times:
Britain's most wanted, Ed Byrne, is on the verge of getting himself caught at the start of this second of four parts. Hanging around near a playground thinking of his murdered daughter is not the best move when you're trying to avoid attention... Everyone's after Ed, police and gangsters, including crime boss' daughter Annie Fleming (Juliet Aubrey) and her goons. The plot of this old-style thriller gets another layer or three tonight. The episode's key links are the Government, a book called Patagonia and Byrne's randy landlady. Add to this heady brew the dour Scots cop DCS Wallace, who turns up in Manchester to knock some heads together, drink whiskey and catch his man. Sean Bean is always good value in these hard-but-decent-man roles, and while the plot lacks originality the script and cast make it watchable.

Radio Times:
Sean Bean continues to glower fetchingly in this conspiracy theory drama, playing Neil Byrne, a prisoner on the run after being convicted of killing his wife and small child. Of course, none of us believes that he is capable of such a crime. We have already realised that he was an MI5 agent, as well as being heavily involved in Manchester's criminal underworld, but where exactly do his loyalties lie? Byrne has more enemies than you can shake a stick at, which leads to a series of entertaining chase sequences, but it's difficult to work out exactly what is going on. You do care about him, though, which is more than half the battle. Juliet Aubrey's presence as gangster's moll Annie Fleming, however - along with her northern accent - is unconvincing.

The Sun, The TV Mag, page 9
Get ready for a real roller-coaster ride in this fast-paced new thriller. Sean Bean stars as MI5 spy Neil Byrne, a man convicted of brutally murdering his wife and little girl. Did he do it? The plot is so complicated even Byrne isn't sure, but he has to find out the truth to save his own sanity. Although this starts off looking a bit like The Fugitive, stick with it - there's more to this story than meets the eye.
Daily Mail, Weekend magazine, page 56, pick of the day, four stars, description as follows :
A cleverly scripted, tightly acted, actually dramatic new drama. And on ITV. There must be something pre-millenial in the airwaves. Sean Bean plays Neil Byrne, convict, who escapes during a prison transfer while serving two life sentences for butchering his wife and daughter. Resourcefully, he pinches new clothes, money and then a car, to secure a job on the Manchester cabs. He's a man on a mission - but what mission? This first episode provides purely questions. Who are the dodgy geezers with cash, armed with sneers and pump-action shotguns? They don't like Neil. Where did he get the keys to the prison handcuffs? Why is he such an electronics whizz? Where does the book on Patagonia fit in? Come to think of it, who is Neil Byrne? By the middle of the episode - a little too swiftly - he seems to have switched from villain to hero. Where does he come from and what does he do? You will want to find out. NICK GRIFFITHS

Teletext - Pick of the week Nov 11
http://www.teletext.co.uk/tvplus/
Extremely Dangerous
Sean Bean is back, and on the run in the first of this new four-part thriller series. He plays Neil, a man convicted of the murder of his wife and child, who escapes armed guards and goes underground in Manchester. Watch out for Tony Booth as a baddie for once in his career. Fans of The Fugitive will feel well at home with this action-packed show.
ITV, 9pm
The Times - Review for November 11th
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?999

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
ITV, 9pm
Sean Bean leads in Murray Smith's four-part crime drama, principally set in contemporary Manchester. We begin, however, on a London to Scotland train, carrying Neil Byrne (Bean), serving two life sentences for butchering his wife and daughter, to a maximum security prison. He escapes from the train and quickly makes his way to Manchester where he had been part of the local criminal Mafia, an undercover agent for the intelligence services. Suffering flashbacks to the double murder scene, he is convinced that he is innocent and determined to catch whoever was responsible. The story is full of holes, but the pace is furious and the directing slick.

Extremely Dangerous review - Kentish Gazette TV Guide.5-11 Nov.99.
Sean Bean, action man and thinking woman's pin-up, stars in this complex psychological drama that layers deception and honour over a fast-moving narrative, involving gangland Manchester and the nation's security forces. For added interest, the four part thriller also stars Prime Minister's father-in-law, Tony Booth.
Sean's character, Neil Byrne, is an innocent man on society's edge, convicted of murdering his wife and young daughter. He escapes from a train at the Scottish borders - shades of The 39 Steps - and returns to Manchester where he had been an undercover agent investigating a crime syndicate, to discover the truth about the murder of his family.

WHAT A ROMEO FOR JULIET. (Woman's Own mag. Nov.8th)
In ITV's Extremely Dangerous, Juliet Aubrey plays Annie, a glamorous gangster who has to choose between shooting Sean Bean, seducing him or doing both - Interview by Neil Bonner.
With a film career that's gone into overdrive, award-winning British actress Juliet Aubrey can afford to be very choosy about TV work, which is why we haven't seen her on our screens for the best part of two years.
But now, the woman who has won rave reviews in the lead role of the BBC's acclaimed period drama Middlemarch, is about to return in a part that couldn't be more different.
She accepted her starring role in the upcoming 4-part drama Extremely Dangerous because she liked the idea of playing a glamouress gangster. She loved the story, was taken with the script - and she wasn't exactly put off when she discovered she'd have to share some steamy bedroom romps with Sean Bean!
"All in all, it was something I really enjoyed making" beams Juliet, who was last seen nursing Peak Practice star Gary Mavers in the First World War drama The Unknown Soldier, early last year.
Despite the stream of TV offers that followed, Juliet preferred to work in films and she has now 3 movies all due for release in quick succession and each, coincidentally, contains the word'love'. There's Food for Love, a comedy with Richard E Grant and Joe McGann, Time to Love, a sweeping romantic tale spanning 100 years and three countries, and The Lost Lover, with Ciaran Hinds.
But Juliet, 28, hasn't always known where she wanted her career to go - hence her confused state of mind when she collected her Best Actress Bafta for her portrayal of Dorothea in Middlemarch, five years ago. Suddenly, she was the centre of media attention.
"I've never courted fame" she says firmly. "No one prepares you for that sort of thing. It was too much and I had to get away. I went with a girl friend and did some back-packing in the foothills of the Himalayas and rural India. When I first left Britain, I wasn't sure if acting was really for me. I needed time to clear my head and take stock of my life. I had a fantastic time and I realised that acting was the only thing I wanted to do".
Juliet, who's softly spoken tones are interrupted from time to time by sudden gales of laughter, as if seeing for the first time the funny side of what she's telling you, had no qualms about stripping off for the between-the sheets action in Extremely Dangerous.
"There are some quite raunchy scenes with my character, Annie Fleming, and her crime boss lover Joe, played by Ralph Brown.
"Sean's character, Neil, an escaped convict and the central figure, is a friend of Annie's from way back and their path's are destined to cross again.
"When they do, she doesn't know whether to shoot him, take him to bed and then shoot him. Or just take him to bed!
"Annie's relationship with Joe is loveless but there's real passion when she bed's Neil. Sean and I filmed some pretty steamy stuff - although, having not yet seen the final version, I don't know how much of the sexy shots they've left in"
Juliet's always chosen to do as much research for her roles as possible and preparing for Extremely Dangerous was no exception.
"I decided that if I was going to play a gangster, I ought to find out how they behave. So I got the TV people to organise a get-together for me with some real-life villains. I spent time with a group of them in bars and clubs in Manchester. I found it very helpful, just observing them".
She didn't meet anyone quite like Annie though. "Annie was such fun to portray because she's so far from other women I've played. She's the daughter of a crime boss so she was born to a life of crime and, from a very early age, has been using her looks and her charms to get what she wants".
But in TV gangland it can take more than physical attributes to get your way, which is why Juliet found herself blasting a man to death.
"I'd never fired a gun before" she says "I found it quite scary to see someone covered in blood as a result of pulling a trigger, even though it was make believe".
Juliet's busy schedule has meant that marriage has been put on the back-burner, despite having been engaged to art director Steve Ritchie. He proposed on the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.
"We will get married" insists Juliet. "We just haven't set a date".

ON THE RUN (TV &Satellite Week)
When the producers of the new ITV thriller Extremely Dangerous were casting the lead role - that of brooding MI5 agent Neil Byrne, a man on the run after being jailed for killing his wife and daughter - there was only one name that topped everyone's cast lists: Sean Bean.
Since he first hit the big time as Napoleonic hero Richard Sharpe, Bean has become synonomous with all-action roles -including IRA terrorist in Patriot Games, rogue agent Alex Trevelyan in the Bond movie, GoldenEye, and captured SAS man Andy McNab in Bravo Two Zero.
But although Extremely Dangerous includes a daring escape from a speeding train and the obligatory fist-fights and shoot-outs, Bean says the series also gives viewers a rare glimpse of his sensitive side.
"Because of the nature of the piece, there is a fair amount of violence and lots of stunts, which I quite enjoy" admits the handsome 40 year old actor. "But Extremely Dangerous is a psychological drama as opposed to a purely action-based show - and my role was to make it as real as possible."
Beginning with Byrne's dramatic escape from custody, the drama follows his attempt to clear his name. Returning to Manchester and working under an assumed name as a mini-cab driver, Byrne infiltrates the gangland syndicates he had previously investigated as an undercover agent. Persued by criminals and police alike, and abandoned by his former MI5 colleagues, Byrne's only hope lies in breaking a secret code contained in a paperback novel called Patagonia.
"It's not a take-off of the Fugative - it's on a completely different level to that" says Bean. "Byrne has a definite aim - to regain his freedom, to discover who the killers were and kill them. The only thing that keeps him going is the fact that he knows he didn't do it. He has nothing to lose. He's lost his family and his freedom. It's relentless all the way to the end".
Co-starring Ralph Brown as gang boss Joe Connor and Juliet Aubrey as Connor's lover, Annie, Extremely Dangerous costŁ5 million to shoot and included some scenes filmed on the same prison set as the ITV drama Bad Girls.
"The cast were very focused and passionate and that's what shows at the end of the day" says Bean, whose hard-man image is all set to continue with his next two projects on the big screen - playing a psychotic real-life gangster in the underworld drama Essex Boys, and the warrior Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first movie of a proposed trilogy based on JRR Tolkein's classic fantasy adventure story Lord of the Rings.
Playing more tough-guy roles may not be new territory, but the Sheffield born actor says he'll never tire of performing his own stunts and punch-ups.
"It's what you did at school - pretend you were soldiers, or cowboys and Indians, pretend you had guns, or run around having sword fights with sticks" smiles Bean "That's what I'm still doing now - and it's great fun".

I'M NEVER THE REGULAR GUY (TV Choice)
Sean Bean plays both villains and heroes brilliantly, and this week he stars in a tense new drama.
Sean Bean is known for his tough-guy roles such as SAS hero Andy McNab in Bravo Two Zero and the swashbuckling soldier Sharpe - but he doesn't act macho off screen.
"It's exciting to ride horses or drive fast cars for films but I don't have an urge to do it in real life" he says "Apart from anything else, it's dangerous!"
Sean is back on the small screen this week in a four-part drama playing convicted murderer Neil Byrne, jailed for the brutal slaughter of his wife and young daughter - a crime he insists he did not commit.
He escapes while being transferred to a new prison and goes on the run, vowing to clear his name. But his struggle for justice brings him to ruthless mobsters and criminal godfather Palmer, played by Tony Blair's father-in-law Tony Booth.
"This is a psychological drama" says Sean, who lives in London with his second wife, actress Abigail Cruttenden, and their baby daughter.
"Byrne's been through this awful tragedy and has suffered an intense trauma. There are moments when even he is not sure that he hasn't committed the crimes he's been convicted of".
Sean loves the fact that he is cast as both hero and villain in a whole range of productions, including James Bond's friend-turned -enemy Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye , and he's about to start work on the film version of The Lord Of The Rings in which he'll play Boromir.
"There's always a good side to a villain and that's what you've got to look for first" says the Sheffield-born welder's son, who turned 40 earlier this year.
There aren't many 'regular guys' in Sean's credits. "I think it's incredibly difficult to play a likeable good guy with no side" he says "Harrison Ford is the best I can think of at playing the regular guy."

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS (Radio Times)
The roughly hewn yet lovely Sean Bean returns to our TV screens in a new 4-part thriller; he plays Neil Byrne, a convicted murderer who escapes while being transported from London to Glasgow via train.
Anyone who uses that west coast line can surely sympathise with his desperate desire to disembark.
In a plot that owes more than a nod to The Fugative, it emerges that Byrne escaped in order to find out who really killed his wife and child. As the drama progresses, we realise he is caught up not just with villains, but also with shadowy establishment forces.
Juliet Aubrey lends the female glamour, and Tony Booth plays against type as a gangster.

PICK OF THE WEEK (TV Quick)
Neil Byrne (Sean Bean) is a man on a mission - to find the truth behind the murder of his wife and child. He's an ex-government agent who's been wrongfully convicted of the crime, and embarks on a desperate Fugative - style journey to escape the police, criminals and spycatchers.
Byrne gets away from his guards by jumping off a speeding train, leaving behind only a paperback novel. He goes undercover, where he infiltrates a ruthless gang that he had investigated previously. There he meets up again with the boss's daughter, Annie (J.Aubrey). Annie is torn between her feelings for for him and her gangland lover, Joe Connor (Ralph Brown).
The detective who put him away, begs Neil to seek psychiatric help - and even his old colleagues at the agency think he's a murderer, while denying he never existed.
Neil must use every ounce of skill and cunning to escape capture, keep himself alive and to prove that he is an innocent man.

THE DANGEROUS MR BEAN
Women swoon over him, men envy him. Sean Bean, the working-class lad from Sheffield who became a star, would seem to have it made. But there has been a price to pay, as WENDY LEIGH discovered when she finally met him. Main photograph by PETER ROSENBAUM.
The Sean Bean we see on our television screens seems as tough and resilient as the steel city which forged him. As he struts about in his period uniform as Sharpe or in his modern fatigues in Bravo Two Zero he seems well cast as the courageous yet unemotional military man.
In his private life, too, he might be seen as cold and hard as steel; for how else could he find himself, at the age of just 40, on his third wife? Some who have followed the lurid tales of his love life might be tempted to think of him as the sort of upwardly-mobile cad who trades in wives as his career progresses. But Sean isn't so easily pigeonholed. If he really was ruthless in love, how could it be that his first wife, his teenage sweetheart, Debra (with whom he lost his virginity), won't say a word against him and still enjoys calling on his mother for a friendly chat in their home town of Sheffield? And how come he is so obviously devoted to his third wife, Abigail Cruttenden, and their baby Evie, now almost a year old? The wife in the middle, Bread actress Melanie Hill, is a more painful subject, for they broke up amid much acrimony about their manifold separations and talk of his supposedly laddish lifestyle.
He won't dwell on the subject, the wounds seemingly still raw. "I think you have to get over it, otherwise you can be worrying about what should have been for the rest of your life. You have to look back and remember the good times, the good qualities, the happy times."
But Sean does have regrets, and one in particular which does little to dispel the image of him as a soccer-obsessed bloke in the pub. "I would like to be 20 years younger and play football professionally," he tells me earnestly. "It's a great, lucrative time for players like Beckham and Ginola."
The fact that he has a Ł2 tattoo on his shoulder with the words "100 per cent Blade" - the nickname of his team, Sheffield United - merely adds to the feeling that here is a man who hasn't quite adapted to the sophisticated fast lane of Hollywood superstardom in which he finds himself. "I'm as passionate as ever about the game. But sometimes you get a bit disillusioned by the money that is being bandied about in various directions by the clubs, I think it takes the edge off the game. You get smaller clubs who don't have the money and go out of businesss and people can get very greedy."
His accent gets stronger as he pronounces the word "greed-day" with great contempt. "So I'm disappointed in the way it's progressed. I'm very passionate about who I support and always will be, but I hope in years to come that the big clubs are more gracious to the smaller clubs and help them out more."
It would seem ungracious to point out that for Sean the hard truth is that he could never have made it as a professinal footballer. As his old PE teacher has said, "He played for the school football team, but he wasn't outstanding." Yet Mr Bean - the name is unfortunate, for there are very few laughs in Sean - already has the world at his feet. He doesn't need to prove himself against the likes of Beckham on some muddy football pitch when he has already proved himself among the finest British actors of his generation at the Royal Shakespeare Company and made his mark in big Hollywood movies, such as Stormy Monday, Patriot Games and Ronin.
Could it be that he's a tad embarrassed by what he does for a living when he drives back to Sheffield to see his old mates, all of them plumbers, welders and carpenters? Is there a part of his soul that cries out for the life of a working-class man?
As he sits opposite, leaning forward to answer my questions in a low voice, this seems the clue to Sean Bean. He is in costume for a new TV series, wearing a Cable and Wireless technician's uniform, and his appearance is so entirely convincing, the workman's overalls so suited to him, that I am reminded he became an actor partly by accident, having never done any drama at school and leaving at 16 with a miserly two O levels.
After school, he spent three years drifting, worked at a supermarket counter selling cheese, but only lasted a day, and ended up becoming a welder at his father Brian's steel-making shop, producing gear wheels and plant machinery. Had fate not intervened, he might well have stayed there in Sheffield, working as a welder, along with the pals whose company he still enjoys so much. But fate, assisted by a huge dolop of talent, came along and changed everything. First he quit welding and went to art college. There, he chanced to read Macbeth, was mesmerised by the play and decided to become an actor, applying to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), merely because he believed it was England's only drama college. Against all odds, he was accepted - one of only 30 out of 11,000 applicants. Even now, Ian Footitt, his old teacher at Brooke School, Sheffield, can hardly believe his meteoric rise to fame. "I am still stunned as to how this lad in my class got to be a famous actor. He never did plays. He was popular with the girls, he loved to chase a ball, but he didn't work."
Along the way, Sean met his first love, Debra, a hairdresser, and they married when he was 20. "Debra and I had a very strong relationship," he says, "We were very young and drifted apart. But Debra still goes around to my mum's for a cuppa."
His mum, Rita, has always been a powerful influence on Sean. She was a secretary until he and his sister, Lorraine, came along, but gave up her job so that she could devote her time to them. He, in turn, is fiercely loyal to her. "She is a good woman who has a good heart, a sense of fairness, the ability to laugh at herself, compassion and love."
It is when the subject turns to his father that one begins to wonder whether Sean is certain he took the right route in life. "In some ways, I wish I'd followed him," he says. "It would have been good to have carried on working with him, but I always felt I wanted to do something else..."
That something else has brought him to his new starring television role as Neil Byrne in ITV's four-part thriller Extremely Dangerous. He plays a former MI5 man accused of murdering his wife and children. Despite the title, it is a curiously emotional role for such a macho actor, and he is called upon to burst into tears. "It was easier to do that scene because it was near the end of the shoot and I had become involved with the role. He has been through a hell of a trauma and finally breaks down."
But Sean Bean, the tough guy crying? "Everybody does, don't they? It's just a natural emotion. People laugh, people cry. It is part of my make-up."
Off-screen, though, he initially redressed the balance with an unfortunate display of machismo. I planned to meet him on the set of Extremely Dangerous, but he flatly refused to see me because he "didn't know" me. He declared that he would rather be interviewed by a male colleague of mine whom he had met before. I suspected that his refusal to talk to me might stem from him having problems communicating with women when they are vertical. Nonetheless, I entered into negotiations which reached the absurd point where I offered him the opportunity to interview me to see if I could interview him.
When we finally meet, his handshake is diffident and almost apologetic. I wonder if, in an attempt to disarm me by confounding expectations, he is acting a part, pretending to be a gentle, retiring soul. Later, one of his closest colleages tells me, "Sean really is very shy. But he is also very difficult, and extremely clever."
His cleverness is immediately evident in the sardonic way in which he handles our conversation. He wears a wedding ring and I ask, "Have you worn one during all your marriages?"
"Yes," he says, "through all of them. All of them." Then he laughs, a self-deprecating laugh. The subtext clearly implied is, "Yes, I know you think I'm Bluebeard, that I trade-up wives from Sheffield girl-next-door Debra to actress Melanie from Sunderland to Abigail, the posh Londoner, but I'm not going to let you stick labels on me."
We enter a battleground as lethal as any of those he's trodden on TV, of dodging questions and avoiding areas which he