Actors Wogan: The Best Of

It was a show that went out three nights a week live...

-Mr Wogan, you're on. You're on.

-..with a live audience.

And everyone who was anyone dropping in,

the great and the good, the bad and the ugly.

And they called it Wogan.

-TERRY LAUGHS

-I never knew why.

So, if you're sitting comfortably,

I'll show you something I made earlier.

God knows what they'll make of us in 25 years' time.

WOGAN THEME MUSIC PLAYS

And we're acting up on today's wander back

through the wonderful world of Wogan -

I said that without a laugh - with a line-up featuring

some of the nation's best-loved mummers and thesps,

including Helen Mirren,

Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins,

Pierce Brosnan and Julie Walters.

Let's meet a true giant of the British cinema,

figuratively and metaphorically.

I am the proud first TV host in this country

to risk an interview with Christopher Lee.

Mind you, I admit to wearing a garlic necklace under my shirt.

APPLAUSE

Now, you may hate it,

but people still see you as the Prince of Darkness.

-Does this bother you?

-Well, it's a fairly high rank.

LAUGHTER I'm not one to complain too much.

You've got to be recognised for something, you know,

at some stage of your career.

It wasn't quite the way I dreamed when I started as an actor in '47

that I would make my name, let's put it that way.

Yes, you're always cast as the fella in the black hat, aren't you?

-Are we ever...?

-They're the best parts, you know?

Will we ever see you in the white hat?

Oh, yes, I've done a bit of that.

Particularly in the last nine years,

I've done a lot of comedy in the States.

-Erm...

-You did Saturday Night Live, didn't you?

Yes, I hosted it.

Cos we had Pamela Sue Martin who did that as well.

Yes, I hosted with the late John Belushi

and Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray.

All of them, understandably, have gone on to become very big stars.

And also the girls, of course,

Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin and so on.

It was the most fantastic experience I think I've ever had in my life

and I don't think I've ever been so terrified as I was before I went on.

It's an hour-and-a-half.

But they recognised your ability to do comedy,

which not too many people have, have they?

Well, I think if you're going to be a real actor, or professional,

whatever you like to call it, you must possess a degree of versatility,

otherwise you're not going to last very long, are you?

Obviously, after some of the characters

that I've played over the years,

people found it a little difficult to believe that I could play comedy.

But in America, at Paramount, for instance,

I did a picture called Serial

in which I played an American businessman,

a head-hunter, a very hard man,

and at the weekends, he was the head of a gay Hells Angels gang.

LAUGHTER

And I did that and it...became quite a memorable experience

for everyone, I think.

Do people ever confuse you

with these threatening roles that you play?

I mean, has anybody ever confused the real Christopher Lee

with the kind of threatening cadaverous person?

Well, it did happen once. Yes, it did.

Quite a long time ago, actually - about 20 years ago, maybe more.

My wife and I were driving back to Switzerland from Italy

and we blew a tyre on the car.

And so I drove up to the side of the road and I said to my wife,

"Now, you stay there. We'll put down the red triangle behind the car

"and I will go off in the distance to those houses where I see the lights

"and I will get a telephone..."

LAUGHTER "..somehow, I hope.

"And I will call the breakdown people and everything'll be fine."

So, I got out of the car, walked behind the car...

And disappeared, that was the first thing.

Because there was a huge cutting that I couldn't see in the dark.

LAUGHTER They were building for a sort of motorway.

So I vanished. And my wife was a little bit surprised, perhaps -

she might even have been quite relieved,

but any rate, I vanished.

And I clawed my way across this thing and up the other side,

through acres of mud and dust and sand and everything,

and charged across these fields, falling over every five feet,

until I got to the first house.

And I banged on the door and a voice from within, in Italian,

said "Chi e la?" Which is, "Who is there?"

And I then delivered myself a spate of Italian,

saying that I was in great distress

and the car had broken down, could I use his telephone?

He said yes. And he opened the door.

He had a large Alsatian with him, I may say.

They both of them took one look at me -

I was standing in the doorway, covered in mud from head to foot,

white as a sheet,

looking a little strange for a change,

and the dog started barking

and the man fainted.

LAUGHTER

And he made the most terrible noises, gave a terrific howl,

and said in Italian, "E lui!" - "It's him!"

And, boom!

Someone else who had a reputation

for making men feel a little on the faint side -

she's never lost it - Helen Mirren.

At the time, she'd just won

the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress award

for the 1984 film Cal

and reminded me that this wasn't our first encounter.

Do you know we've been on a chat show before?

-In...?

-I knew you wouldn't remember.

-No, I do remember. For radio?

-For radio.

-You remember, do you? You, me and Nigel Dempster.

-It was for Radio 4.

And I couldn't get a word in edgeways.

And I thought you wouldn't remember,

because you are Nigel Dempster rabbitted for about...

-We...!

-I mean, honestly, it was so difficult to get a word in edgeways.

Nige was only about the height then, do you remember?

Neither of you were as rich and famous as you are now.

He was a boy gossip columnist then, I was a boy broadcaster.

-A boy broadcaster, that's right.

-And you were a girl actress.

I was a girl. Well, yes, I was.

Yes, you were, you were younger than both of us.

I can't actually remember when it was -

I just remember the two of you going on and on.

-Oh, stop going...!

-LAUGHTER

I think it was just before the Napoleonic Wars.

What about this Best Actress Award at Cannes for Cal?

Well, it was a great surprise - to all concerned, I might add -

including the people who produced the film

or distributed the film or whatever.

No-one believed it was going to happen

and I certainly had no idea at all.

-Did you go down to Cannes to all that glamour?

-No, I didn't.

I always miss out on these glorious occasions for some reason.

-Do you not like dos like that?

-I love them. Excuse my outfit.

-Excuse me.

-I...

-I thought, "Well, I'll just go and chat to Terry,

-"don't have to get dressed up for that."

-Well, no.

LAUGHTER

Nobody does, do they?

You've been cast from time to time in overtly sexy roles

-and people do think of you as a sexy actress.

-Like what?

-Well, Caligula, for instance.

-Oh, yes, Caligula, right.

-Yeah.

-True.

I mean, do you think it's the part that gives you that or...?

-Or my natural erotic charge?

-Exactly.

LAUGHTER

-What do you think?

-I think it's your natural erotic charge.

LAUGHTER

I think it's probably good acting.

But they... Hello!

LAUGHTER

-"More! More!", they cried!

-LAUGHTER

-That's as far as I'm prepared to go.

-What about the Shakespeare?

I mean, you started on the Shakespeare early, didn't you?

-19, Cleopatra.

-Yes, in the Youth Theatre.

I was in the Youth Theatre then, the National Youth Theatre,

a great organisation that gave people like me a chance.

Like Jimmy Boyle talking about, you know, people...

It's not remotely connected, but I think that it's...

-Oh!

-Oh!

-LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

You see, I shall never be a member of the A Group, shall I? LAUGHTER

You did that deliberately.

-A little bit of the actorish business there.

-I swear...

These are my best pearls. They were given to me...

-Very nice, too.

-They're very classy.

Age shall not wither her. In fact, she's got better-looking.

And here's another one, Julie Walters.

We were more used to seeing her on the telly back then,

but she came and told us how the phenomenally successful film,

Educating Rita,

meant Hollywood was now beating a path to her door.

I've had scripts, Terry.

-I've heard about them.

-You've heard about the scripts?

-Oh!

-Didn't old Uncle Burt Reynolds offer you a part?

-Yeah, he did.

-Yeah?

-I don't want to get sued though,

I don't know if I should talk about it.

-He did. He did, yeah.

-Try it -

-I'll fight it in every court in the land.

-OK, then.

Be it on your shoulders.

-I'll deny everything of course.

-SHE LAUGHS

All right. Yes, I did,

I did get offered a Burt...

-Burt, as I call him.

-Old Burt, yes.

I did get a script,

but, to put it mildly, it wasn't my cup of tea really.

But I remember thinking, "I must meet him cos me mother will love it."

Then I rang up later to say...

I told her. I said, "I'm going to meet Burt Reynolds!"

And there was a great silence - she didn't know who he was. LAUGHTER

-You didn't tell him that, did you?

-No, I didn't him.

-Good God, no!

-Some blow that would've been.

-It would've been a blow.

But you turned down a chance

to appear with Burt Reynolds in a movie?

You're hardly in a position to pick and choose.

SHE GASPS

What do you mean I'm hardly in a position?!

Well, I mean you've just arrived...

You make this movie, Educating Rita, and you could get an Oscar for it.

-Who said that?

-I did.

LAUGHTER

You're beginning to make me doubt meself now. Are you hearing voices?

-No, no.

-You make this movie and you arrive in Hollywood.

And you have been feted and people are saying

what a marvellous discovery you are.

And Burt Reynolds offers you a part.

Now, Burt Reynolds movies are very popular,

they make an awful lot of money,

and it could be an avenue to further fame, couldn't it?

-But you've turned it down?

-Yeah. Well, yeah!

Well, yes, I did turn it down.

LAUGHTER And part of me didn't want it because they offer you lots of money.

And a girl could have been set up for life, as they say,

but the thing was it was an action movie,

do you know what I mean?

Burt was having everybody and...

LAUGHTER Well, he was.

Well, in the script, I don't know what happened in the film.

Every five minutes, four or five girls,

you know, in and out.

-It's a family show?

-Of course it is.

-I shouldn't have said it.

Anyway, so it was all that.

And it was all kind of action and fighting and it wasn't...

And just a suggestion of sex?

-And a suggestion of it.

-Yeah.

-That's what "having" means.

-Yes, thank you

LAUGHTER

-Was it because...?

-LAUGHTER

It was nothing to do with the fact

that there was nothing in the script about you having any?

There...

No, excuse me, but there was...

-Yeah.

-..a suggestion of it towards the end, yeah.

-You wanted it closer to the beginning?

-No!

LAUGHTER No, I didn't.

Don't be so rude. No, I wanted it without the toupee.

AUDIENCE GASPING DROWNS OUT DIALOGUE

But I went to meet him, you see.

But I went to meet Burt, because even though I said I didn't want to do it,

he said, "Oh, come down anyway, I'd like to meet you."

Talking about toupees - this is why I'm bringing this up -

I remember going in the car to his place for dinner.

We went for dinner, me and my friend. I remember saying...

-You brought a friend with you?

-What's that got to do with it?

Well, because that's the real boring thing, isn't it?

-"Can me friend come as well?"

-LAUGHTER

-Was that it?

-Yeah, well, a girl needs a bit of support.

Do you know what I mean? No, she does.

Oh, what a bust you must have been in Hollywood,

bringing your friend with you everywhere.

-I did, yeah.

-You brought your friend to see Burt - what happened?

Well, yeah, I was only going to...

Because I mentioned toupee, I thought I may as well tell you.

I said to her, "Don't mention wig. Don't mention wig."

This will never be shown in America, will it?

LAUGHTER

Well, we'll be very lucky if it's shown in Britain.

LAUGHTER

Anyway, I said to her, "Don't mention wig."

So, the first three minutes, "Wig!" It kind of came out.

-Oh, God. Just appalling.

-So, you turned Burt down.

-Yeah.

Any other interesting offers come up?

Yeah, but this is a family show, isn't it?

-I mean from Hollywood.

-No.

Following on the success from Educating Rita.

But Michael Caine said that...

He is on record saying that he thought Educating Rita

would do for you what Alfie did for him.

Yeah. I've been offered the remake of Zulu!

But I'm not tall enough and I don't wear glasses.

As always, a little burst of music.

A remarkable and theatrical performer whose talent is

enjoying another surge of acclaim, and rightly so.

Here's Kate Bush with her biggest single from the 1980s,

Running Up That Hill.

# It doesn't hurt me

# Do you want to feel how it feels?

# Do you want to know

# Know that it doesn't hurt me?

# Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?

# You-hoo

# It's you and me

# And if I only could

# I'd make a deal with God

# And I'd get him to swap our places

# Be running up that road

# Be running up that hill

# Be running up that building

# Say, if I only could, oh...

# You don't want to hurt me

# But see how deep the bullet lies

# Unaware I'm tearing you asunder

# Ooh, there is thunder in our hearts

# Is there so much hate for the ones we love?

# Tell me, we both matter, don't we?

# You-hoo

# It's you and me

# It's you and me won't be unhappy

# And if I only could

# I'd make a deal with God

# And I'd get him to swap our places

# Be running up that road

# Be running up that hill

# Be running up that building

# Say, if I only could, oh...

# You-hoo

# It's you and me

# It's you and me won't be unhappy

# C'mon, baby

# C'mon darling

# Let me steal this moment from you now

# C'mon, angel

# C'mon, c'mon, darling

# Let's exchange the experience, oh

# And if I only could

# I'd make a deal with God

# And I'd get him to swap our places

# Be running up that road

# Be running up that hill

# With no problems

# Say if I only could

# I'd make a deal with God

# And I'd get him to swap our places

# Be running up that road

# Be running up that hill

# With no problems

# So if I only could

# I'd make a deal with God

# And I'd get him to swap our places

# Be running up that road

# Be running up that hill

# With no problems

# So if I only could

# Be running up that hill

# With no problems

# If I only could

# I'd be running up that hill

# If I only could

# I'd be running up that hill. #

APPLAUSE

One of our most successful actors next - director, producer.

Kenneth Branagh was just 24 years old

when he came to talk about playing Henry V.

A young, talented man. That wasn't all we had in common, of course.

Now, you're Irish, I am very pleased to say.

-Yes.

-Playing Henry V. That's a bit of miscasting, isn't it?

It's a bit worrying, yes,

because they keep saying he's a Monmouth lad from Wales,

especially as one of the most famous Henry Vs was Richard Burton,

who was the real McCoy, but having a bit of Celtic blood...

Do you play him as a Welshman?

I do, actually - at one stage, in the night-time scene

when Henry goes into disguise, I use a Welsh accent

because I think that's what he would use,

which was spotted by one of the critics, who said,

"Mr Branagh in the night-time scene is effortlessly a Geordie."

LAUGHTER

-Some of these critics are as sharp as a sausage, aren't they?

-Yes, yes.

You are very young to play a Shakespearean king, though,

because one would think Henry V was about 30 or so.

-But you are older than you look, of course.

-Well... Um...

But I can play down! He was actually about 26, 27 and it's quite good.

There were lots of references in the play to him being

in the May-morn of his youth

so I look quite fresh-faced from out there, you see.

Yeah, but after several seasons playing it,

the old fresh-faced looks can go, can't they?

It's a tough part, physically.

Oh, yes. It is, yes.

Because when you have to win the battle of Agincourt

twice in a day, it can take it out of you!

You are the stuff on which empires were built.

-How long is it since you have been out of RADA?

-Um, three years.

-And look at you!

-Ha-ha!

Some would say you're pretty close

to the top of the profession already.

Yeah. Some would - some would say I've got lots to learn.

What would you say?

I would probably be one of those, yeah.

Having a lot of experience in a short space of time makes you aware,

because the more you do, I suppose,

the more potentially frightened you can get

and the most frightening thing is other people's expectations of you,

especially if you've been doing something big

and people say you might become terribly good,

then you have that riding on every performance of Henry V,

so you have to dismiss it and get on with the job.

At your age, how do you react to criticism,

whether adverse or complimentary?

Well, I wish I could say I never read them and it doesn't bother me,

but I read them and it bothers me!

-I know the feeling, yes.

-Yes, I'm sure you do.

LAUGHTER

There's no need to be quite so unfair.

APPLAUSE

Will you pack it in, for goodness' sake?!

Any time anybody shoots a barb into me, they are into applause.

"Good ol' Tel, he's been knocked for six again. Hurray!"

Now, I first saw you playing the part of Billy

-in that TV series with a Northern Ireland accent.

-Oh, yes.

At the same time, you were playing in the West End in Another Country

with a public school accent.

Yes, well, I mean I'm lucky - proud to be from Belfast

and although I left when I was nine,

which is why I suppose I end up talking like this,

it has given me quite a good ear for accents

and picking it up for that show was relatively easy.

For Another Country, you are not a public schoolboy,

what sort of an accent do you take on for that?

That was terribly intimidating to begin with,

because having been to a comprehensive school

and not a public school,

and because it is set in the '30s, I went to the first audition

and started talking like that.

CLIPPED ENGLISH: Everything far back.

You couldn't understand a word I said, actually.

Until they said, "What are you doing? Can't you talk properly?"

They thought there was something wrong with me.

So, I just dropped it and decided to, you know, be myself.

They still didn't understand me but I was completely natural!

You are now in the Shakespearean mode, do you intend to stay...?

Is that your main aim, to achieve greatness as a Shakespearean actor?

Or will you be drawn to the tinsel of Hollywood?

-The glamour of the films.

-I would like to be drawn to it!

-Yes, I'm waiting for the phone to ring.

-The money?

No, in an ideal world, it would be nice to balance things up.

One of my plans is to form a company

and go back and do some theatre in Belfast and elsewhere

and bring it to England and I would like to balance that up,

if possible, doing some film and television,

and...in an ideal world, to do a bit of both,

but whether that's possible remains to be seen.

Of course, it turned out to be very possible indeed.

Now we turn our attentions to the much-missed Bob Hoskins -

a fantastic actor who loved his craft

and everything that came with it.

You are very hot property now, aren't you?

You're what's called, "hot property" in the movies, aren't you, Bob?

Yeah, it's great. I love it.

-You love being a movie star, don't you?

-Yeah. Terrific.

A fly has just landed on my nose. Get out of here!

I mean, you love it. You're not one of those people

who say, "No, I don't like being a star."

No, it actually comes...

I can see how people back off from it

but it comes to the first time you walk into a public place

and everybody in that place knows who you are and you don't know a soul.

Now, I can imagine for a lot of people thinking, "Ooh, hold up!

"Back off and that is never going to happen to me again."

And they isolate themselves.

With me, it was a question of... I've always liked people

and because I didn't know anybody, it didn't mean to say

I didn't WANT to know anybody so I was in there like a flash.

"Hold up, how you going?"

You know, that was sort of...yeah. It's great.

Tell me, what fascinated me

is that you made the transition with extraordinary ease

to American movies

and notwithstanding you have a Cockney accent,

you're one of the few British actors

who can do a convincing American accent.

How did it come about that they picked you for The Cotton Club,

and then they picked you for Roger Rabbit and all those.

How did they know you could do an American accent?

I don't think the accent is that good.

Nobody notices because of the shape.

You're shaped like an American?

Well, no, if you're 5'6", cubic and walk on the screen,

everybody is, "Who's that?"

-"Who's that fella?"

-So, they don't hear what you're saying?

-No, swept through.

-Get out of here!

Keep mumbling, you're all right.

You were once paid an awful lot of money

for not appearing in a movie, weren't you?

Oh, with Brian De Palma.

Well, he...

He phoned me up and sent me this script of The Untouchables

and he said, "Read Al Capone."

I thought, "Al Capone, yeah, I'll have some of this."

And...I read it and he said, "Meet me in the Beverly Wilshire,"

in the hotel, in the bar.

We met and he said, "Listen, I want De Niro to do this.

I thought, "Great. Terrific."

He said, "But I don't think he's going to do it,

"but if he doesn't, will you do it?"

I says, "Yeah. If I'm free, yeah. I will. Terrific. Fine."

And I went off and I forgot about it.

And then I saw in the paper that De Niro was doing Al Capone.

"Oh, he's got him. Terrific."

And then I was sitting having my cornflakes in the morning

and Linda is opening the mail and she went, "Hold up!"

"We have a cheque here for 200,000."

"Hold up..."

And it said, "Thank you, Bob, for being my standby, love Brian."

And I thought, "If Hollywood is like this..."

I phoned him up a couple of times, "Brian,

"have you got any more films you don't want me to be in?!"

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

Now, last year's big movie which starred you

was Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

You didn't do much promotion for that.

-Did Roger Rabbit have a bad effect on you?

-I was loopy.

I was totally loopy at the end of it.

The point was that to do it, to keep your eyes...

If you put your hand in front of your eyes and lock off your eyes

and take your hand away, your eyes immediately open up

and you can see that on camera.

So you have to learn to hallucinate.

And Rosa, my daughter, who has this friend called Geoffrey

who I have sat on a couple of times...

LAUGHTER

She...

We used to play these games and she taught me how to...

When we're a kid, our imagination is right there.

You know, you can take it out and look at it, but as we get older,

we push it further and further back to survive, you know what I mean?

And, um...

I learned to do this and having to hallucinate for eight months,

you know, very intensely - I lost control of it.

There were some very rude things happening to people

and I was trying to hold it together.

Get out!

I started doing that type of thing.

Do you know what I mean? It was a bit weird.

-Are you all right now?

-Oh, yeah.

Linda took me to the West Indies

and even Rosa said, "You're over the top, Dad.

"You've gone too far."

Rosa debriefed me, you know what I mean?

Harvey was the white rabbit, as well.

Yeah, Harvey, but I had loads of weasels and all sorts doing...

-And you weren't even drinking.

-..rude things.

Well, I can't say that!

No pink elephants. Did your kids like the film?

Yeah. Yeah, they did. Jack was a bit funny.

How old is Jack?

Jack was about just two, three.

Just on the verge of being three, maybe he was just three.

And he saw it. And afterwards, he was really funny with me.

You know, it took me two weeks to work out what it was.

What it was was the fact that...

"Here is my old man, he has mates like Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny

"and he don't bring them home."

He really had the needle with me. "Hold up!

"What sort of old man are you?

"You've got friends like this and all I meet is your boring lot!"

Moving right along from the merry chatter,

it's the food of love and one of the most enduring singers who has

also done a bit of the old acting in his time.

Sting.

# Free, free, set them free

# Free, free, set them free

# Free, free, set them free

# Free, free, set them free

-# If you need somebody, call my name

-Free, free, set them free

# If you want someone you can do the same

# Free, free, set them free

# If you want to keep something precious

# You got to lock it up and throw away the key

# If you want to hold on to your possession

# Don't even think about me

# If you love somebody

# If you love someone

# If you love somebody

# If you love someone

# Set them free

# Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

# If it's a mirror you want just look into my eyes

# Or a whipping boy someone to despise

# Or a prisoner in the dark

# Tied up in chains you just can't see

# Or a beast in a gilded cage

# It's all some people ever want to be

# If you love somebody

# If you love someone

# # If you love somebody

# If you love someone

# Set them free

# Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

# You can't control an independent heart

# Can't tear the one you love apart

# Can't love what you can't keep

# Forever conditioned to believe that we can't live

# We can't live here and be happy with less

# So many riches, so many souls

# Everything we see we want to possess

# If you need somebody, call my name

# If you want someone

# You can do, you can do, you can do the same

# If you want to keep something precious

# You got to lock it up and throw away the key

# If you want to hold on to your possession

# Don't even think about me

# If you love somebody

# If you love someone

# If you love somebody

# If you love someone

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

-# Set them free

-Free free, set them free

# Set them free... #

APPLAUSE

Now, when Judi Dench popped up on the show,

she was probably most widely known at the time for a sitcom,

A Fine Romance, which co-starred her late husband Michael Williams.

She came in for a chat in 1985 and, fearless as ever,

I began with the burning question that everyone was then asking.

Why Judi with an I instead of with a Y?

Because it is Judith and when I went to a drama school, there was

another Judy as well so they decided they would knock the -th off

so I became Judi and she was J-U-D-Y.

And you call your daughter... Findy.

-Finty.

-Finty.

Yes, that's just a nickname. She is really called Tara.

Yes - it's a logical conclusion. Quite.

And so we call her Finty.

We thought it would be a boy and we'd call him Finn

but it turned out to be a girl so she was nicknamed Finty

and it's stuck now.

So, you're married to that fine actor Michael Williams

and you worked together in A Fine Romance.

Is it that you can't bear to be away from each other?

Well, you see... We do like working together.

I do know where he is in the evening, too, that means!

We like working together and I think that for a lot of actors

and actresses, maybe they don't work so well, but we seem to and we knew

each other nine years before we were married so we're really old friends.

It is the cliche question, when you fall out on the set

or fall out at home, you carry it on to the set?

We have had a couple of tricky times, yes!

Yes, a couple of tricky times when...

We had a terrible row just before Christmas last year

and it lasted a whole day, the row,

and went on towards evening and we were both

going to the theatre together to play in a play together, Pack Of Lies.

And we got into the taxi and it was ice everywhere in the taxi,

ice on the seats, ice from the ceilings

and we looked out of the various windows -

he looked out that side, I looked at this side.

I thought, "This is going to make a very tricky evening."

And we came to a traffic jam in Shaftesbury Avenue -

still sitting there and not saying a word.

A woman, through the window, saw us and suddenly went,

# A Fine Romance... #

And we took it in turns to go, "Thank you very much, indeed!"

-It didn't break until the next morning.

-The strain.

-The strain is terrible.

-Emotional and thespian.

When you're playing a comedy,

people say comedy is harder to play than serious stuff.

Do you find that so?

Well, I laugh more doing serious stuff than I do during the comedy.

-Really?

-Yes.

The serious stuff, when you have to actually be very serious

and something goes wrong...

I have got myself into serious trouble for that.

Many, many things.

In Mother Courage, which is near three-and-a-half hours

of dragging a cart around the station, not many laughs.

On the last afternoon, two of the boys who were playing soldiers,

I had to give a drink to and they used to give me money.

On the last afternoon, because they thought it was so funny,

instead of giving me the money, they'd given me an American card...

-Express.

-Express, yes.

So, I didn't bat an eyelid about it,

but between the shows, I doctored the drink so that when they came

and asked for the drink and threw it back,

they had half water, half vinegar - cider vinegar.

And then what was wonderful about it and why it rebounded on me

was they had to come back and say, "We would like another drink."

They have to say, "We want another drink."

And I thought, by all means.

What about films? You don't seem to have done too many.

-I am not asked to do many.

-Why not?

Because I'm not what they want to look at. They just...

AUDIENCE: Aw!

They're not sympathising with you, they are saying, "Shame, shame!"

Well, I think that sometimes about films

if you don't go in looking like the person

you are meant to look like in the film,

people perhaps don't cast you in that part.

Whereas in the theatre, you can fool a lot of people, a lot of the time.

You can look taller in theatre

and you can do amazing things to yourself

that makes you not look like yourself at all.

And I don't think they like to do that so much in films.

Our final encounter today is with the man who worked for Judi

when she was M.

Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan. I think he's Irish.

This is years before he was cast as 007.

Then, he was hugely famous for the TV series Remington Steele

which did really well in America

but, for some slightly awkward reasons,

did a bit less well over here.

As I say, enormous in the States - we do show Remington Steele here.

It tends to go out at strange times

so maybe that would be the reason why it hasn't grabbed

the imagination of the public here in the same way as America,

do you think?

I don't think it is going out, actually, is it?

I think the BBC took it off! As far as I know, they did.

That's what I heard. I heard it was on again and off again.

They put it on on Tuesday night at 7pm and then Wednesday night at 11pm.

Pierce, there's no need for you to turn nasty with me.

I don't make these decisions!

I don't tell them to take the things off.

I know you don't but that's what I heard the other day.

-It's no longer on.

-Oh, you're still making it, though.

We're still making it, yes.

Hence this growth here.

We've just finished our third season back in the States.

That's not a growth. That's designer stubble you have there.

Designer stubble?!

The jacket has got it as well.

-You don't wear that out in the street, do you, that jacket?

-No, no.

-Only on certain occasions.

-There's a class of the old Western about that.

Any ambitions to turn into John Wayne?

No, none whatsoever, although I was going to do a movie this year,

but that never got off the ground and that was going to be a Western.

-What happened to the Irish accent?

-The Irish accent?

-Yeah.

-Er...

That comes and goes. It depends who I'm talking to.

By the end of this interview I might be back into the brogue.

But would you have had to change

to a slightly recognisable American accent

to work in Remington Steele?

Well, when I was working here, people thought I was mid-Atlantic anyway,

so I was halfway there.

Do you have any of the old Irish left?

-How old were you when you left?

-Well, there's a little bit there.

-I left now in '64.

-It's coming back!

A bit cod, as they would say, but I left in '64.

Do you remember any of the old Irish, the Gaelic?

-Do you remember your name in Irish?

-No, I don't.

I can just about remember it in English, actually!

Pierce O'Brosnanall!

All I remember is "sui sios" and "dul abhaile".

"Sui sios" means "sit down" and "dul abhaile" means "go home".

Do you not remember in class,

"An bhfuil cead agam dul amach?"

No.

I very rarely put my hand up!

No, you were educated by the Christian Brothers.

Christian Brothers. They were first fellows.

You put your hand up, you were lucky to get it back!

Yes, but I survived anyway.

You certainly have survived it.

By way of Wimbledon and now the Hollywood Hills in LA.

That's a strange place.

We have had various reports of the Hollywood Hills and life there.

-You enjoy it, don't you?

-I enjoy it, yes. I struck a vein of gold.

I was very fortunate. I was really lucky.

You made a couple of small films.

You had small parts in a couple of films here before you went.

I know the one you are going to pick up.

Yes, I was in...

It was a slow week that week, actually, and I got into two films.

The Long Good Friday and another one was called The Mirror Crack'd

with Elizabeth, Elizabeth Taylor.

I don't remember you in The Long Good Friday. Was that a quick part?

I was the gentleman killer. I was the killer.

I picked the fellow up in the swimming baths and then I stab him

and I pop at the end of the movie and point at Mr Hoskins' head.

Yeah. You had to bend down to point at Mr Hoskins' head.

And the other one, I was being cradled on Liz Taylor's bosoms.

It's very...

AUDIENCE: Ooh!

It's very brief. I mean, not her bosoms... It's just...

She looks into my eyes and says, "Jamie, Jamie..."

And that was it.

Anyway, since then...

-You are breaking out in a sweat at the very thought of it.

-I know.

-It's very warm on here.

-Yes, that's cos it's live.

You've been careful about the arms and everything?

One has to be careful these days. It does get a little close in here.

That's the roar of the greasepaint

and the smell of the crowd, you know.

Did you always have ambitions to do the acting?

Not really, no. It came out of the blue.

I left school and was a commercial artist

and I went into the studio one day

and was talking to a fellow colleague about acting and he said,

"I go to this place called the Oval House Theatre club",

and that was back in the late '60s.

At that time, experimental theatre was really blooming.

You weren't one of those eejits who walked around the street

acting in the street or anything?

-Yes, I did that.

-Pierce, no! Don't say that.

I was a fire eater for two weeks in the Hoffman Circus.

You wouldn't try that now with the beard, I'd say.

No, I did it on the show.

I did it on Remington Steele and nearly blew myself up!

So, that's how I got smitten by acting.

I used to go down to the theatre club every Tuesday and Wednesday night

and eventually, it became every night

and eventually I gave up commercial art

and joined a theatre company.

We got an Arts Council grant

and went up and down the country and I decided

I wanted to go legitimate and then I trained at a great drama school...

What happened to the ambition to go legitimate? Never mind that.

The final question is a rather worrying one for me

because I've made it perfectly clear to old Cubby - Hi, Cubbs! -

that I am available for the James Bond thing.

Now I understand that you are the front runner.

-I don't know anything about that.

-Don't start all that!

It's a wicked rumour, really. I mean, it is quite something.

It is fabrication by the press back there in the US.

Has Cubby not sidled up to you at a party and said, "Hey, kid...

"Would you like to be James Bond?"

-Cubby hasn't done anything of the sort.

-No?

-No.

Well, I shall peruse and pursue the matter further because we hope

to have the present incumbent Roger Moore along with us shortly

and I shall find out and we'll get a picture of you

-and throw darts into it.

-Good!

-In the meantime, it's great to see you.

-Nice to meet you.

And there, as they say, you have it.

Some of our finest thespians in the sunrise of their careers,

little thinking of the accolades that lay ahead.

I hope you've enjoyed our little adventure through time and space.

Join me again for more next time.