#John Normington

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A Private Function (1984) Malcolm Mowbray

October 28th 2024

[themarvellousmichaelbryant]

After joining the RSC in 1964, the following year Michael Bryant appeared in the premiere of Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming, directed by Peter Hall.

[mariocki]

New Scotland Yard: Shock Tactics (1.6, LWT, 1972)

"Nobody's hurt. I went down to get the truth and I got it."

"The truth? Or a conviction?"

"Both. Well, alright, we already knew the truth, but this way we get our conviction too."

"Not 'our' conviction. And the Crown only gets it if this stands up."

"Well, why shouldn't it, it was voluntary. No duress, no threats, no promises."

"That's what you say."

[thesarahshay]

Tonight I watched Poirot Season 1, Episode 7: "Problem at Sea," and almost immediately recognized Colin Higgins, who I know as Mr. Morecambe from the 1987 miniseries adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers' Have His Carcase. I immediately made the connection that the episode also contained two characters named Mr. and Mrs. Tolliver, and of course "Tilly Tolliver" was Mrs. Morecambe's stage name in HHC. I thought the actor playing Mr. Tolliver also looked familiar, so I looked him up as well....and found out he was played by Geoffrey Beevers, who I was recognizing because he played Ryland Vaughn in the 1987 Strong Poison. I also noticed that Mrs. Tolliver was played by Caroline John, his real-life wife...who also played Miss Burrows in Gaudy Night.

England really do be a small island, sometimes.

[robynsassenmyview]

Little house in the garden

"Little house in the garden", a review of 'The Promise' directed by Sylvaine Strike, at the Market Theatre until 5 November 2023.

WHERE there’s a will, there’s a will: From left Anton (Rob Van Vuuren), Salome (Chuma Sopotela), Tannie Marina (Cintaine Schutte), the lawyer Cherise Coutts (Kate Normington) and Astrid (Jenny Stead). Photograph by Claude Barnardo, courtesy The Market Theatre. TAKE THE GENRE of the South African farm novel, throw it in the air with all its idiosyncrasies and hypocrisies, violence and violation,…

[kwebtv]

The Caesars - ITV - September 20, 1968 - October 28, 1968

Historical Drama (6 episodes)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Stars:

Roland Culver as Augustus

Eric Flynn as Germanicus

André Morell as Tiberius

Barrie Ingham as Sejanus

Ralph Bates as Caligula

Freddie Jones as Claudius

Sonia Dresdel as Livia

Nicola Pagett as Messalina

Suzan Farmer as Livilla

William Corderoy as Drusus Julius Caesar

Derek Newark as Agrippa Postumus

Caroline Blakiston as Agrippina the Elder

Martin Potter as Nero Julius Caesar

Jonathan Collins as Tiberius Gemellus

Pollyanna Williams as Julia Drusilla

Jenny White as Julia Livilla

Karol Keyes as Agrippina the Younger

Barbara Murray as Milonia Caesonia

Jerome Willis as Naevius Sutorius Macro

Kevin Stoney as Thrasyllus of Mendes

Donald Eccles as Marcus Cocceius Nerva

John Phillips as Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso

John Paul as Cassius Chaerea

Joan Heath as Munatia Plancina

Wanda Ventham as Ennia Thrasylla

Sean Arnold as Marcus Aemlius Lepidus

John Normington as Gaius Julius Callistus

John Woodvine as Publius Vitellius the Younger

Gerald Harper as Lucius Vitellius the Elder

Mark Hawkins as Mnester

Roger Rowland as Quintus Veranius

Charles Lloyd-Pack as Crispus

George Sewell as Ennius

[cleowho]

“Have we met?”

The Happiness Patrol - season 25 - 1988

[clemsfilmdiary]

A Private Function (1984, Malcolm Mowbray)

3/3/21

[yourdailyqueer]

John Normington (deceased)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 28 January 1937  

RIP: 26 July 2007

Ethnicity: White - English

Occupation: Actor

[ludojudoposts]

The Frighteners - Miss Mouse (1973)

"It's all right, I know that you call me Miss Mouse, but you don't think about me like that do you?"

[his-quietus-make]

Lear is mentioned in Shakespeare's favourite history book, Holinshed's 'Chronicles', and Shakespeare may have acted in 'The True Chronicle History of King Lear and his Three Daughters' - which has a happy ending - more than ten years before he wrote King Lear. Ten years nerving himself up to kill Cordelia? That's what I can premeditation.

‘Lear’s Fool’ by John Normington in ‘Performing Shakespeare’s Tragedies Today: An Actor’s Perspective’ (ed. Michael Dobson)

[themarvellousmichaelbryant]

In 1965, the ITV arts series 'Tempo' screened a profile on Harold Pinter featuring his new play 'The Homecoming' which was performed for the first time that year by the RSC. Michael Bryant played Teddy, the son who had escaped the claustrophobic family home and made a new life for himself in America a a professor of philosophy. In the play, Teddy was retuning to the London family home with his wife for the first time, a decision which was to have dramatic consequences...

Set 2 of 2

[mariocki]

Six Plays by Alan Bennett: Afternoon Off (1.4, LWT, 1979)

"We have a black vicar comes here. He's black, yet he's Church of England. Beautifully spoken. And he's got lovely hands. Course, it's all in the melting pot now, isn't it? Foreign doctors, black vicars, the physio's Hungarian, and Muriel over there, she has a home help that comes from Poland!"

"Not every week?"

[weedle-testaburger]

Maybe, I don’t know. I also liked how Morgus kept breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience. It was weird as hell and quite unexpected. But in a funny and intriguing sort of way. Of course his actor (John Normington) returned in the Happiness Patrol as the guy doing the census. Not sure if you knew.

Yeah, it's pretty neat. I forgot he's in Happiness Patrol somehow actually!

[thedoctorwhocompanion]

The Importance of The Caves of Androzani

The Importance of The Caves of Androzani

It won’t come as a great shock that many of us at the DWC are big fans of Robert Holmes; we’ve talked about him a lot in the past, and no doubt will again in the future. Although not his final Doctor Who story, The Caves of Androzani is certainly one of his best, and the circumstances that surround it, the development of the Doctor and Peri that had to take place within it, and the overall…

[johnnymundano]

The Medusa Touch (1978)

Directed by Jack Gold

Written by John Briley

Based on “The Medusa Touch” by Peter Van Greenaway

Music by Michael J. Lewis

Country: United Kingdom, France

Language: English

Running Time: 105 minutes CAST

Richard Burton as John Morlar

Lino Ventura as Brunel

Lee Remick as Doctor Zonfeld

Harry Andrews as Assistant Commissioner

Alan Badel as Barrister

Marie-Christine Barrault as Patricia

Jeremy Brett as Edward Parrish

Michael Hordern as Atropos - Fortune Teller

Gordon Jackson as Doctor Johnson

Michael Byrne as Duff

Derek Jacobi as Townley - Publisher

Robert Lang as Pennington

Avril Elgar as Mrs. Pennington

John Normington as Schoolmaster

Robert Flemyng as Judge McKinley

Philip Stone as Dean

Malcolm Tierney as Deacon

Norman Bird as Father

Jennifer Jayne as Mother

James Hazeldine as Lovelass

Gordon Honeycombe as Himself (Newsreader)

The first reason to watch The Medusa Touch is the presence of the acting colossus Richard Burton practically breathing fire in one of his great ‘70s roles (NB: Many of Burton’s great ‘70s roles occurred in movies which were themselves rather less than great). It’s to The Medusa Touch’s credit then that this isn’t the only reason to watch it.

The mighty Burton is enormous value in this as a misanthropic author with the titular touch; each of his scenes is a little set-piece wherein he gets to vent his considerable spleen at some aspect of “civilised” society. (Burton is so thunderingly awesome in his disdain that those implied speech marks seem to hang in the air undulating like heat off Texas tar at high noon.) Be in no doubt, the sheer venom with which Burton intermittently spits his vindictive bile is impressive enough to be worth the price of admission. As indeed is the sight of his megastar frame clad in cardigan and slacks like a surly granddad. Always remember - fashion is an uncredited character in all 1970s movies. A turn as gloweringly potent as the one Burton delivers here would threaten to overturn many a more demure movie but, luckily, The Medusa Touch is nothing if not audaciously fantastical.

Initially setting itself up as a murder mystery before launching itself into the realm of the delightfully outlandish, The Medusa Touch opens with John Morlar’s (Richard Burton’s) craggy Welsh head being beaten to a craggy Welsh pulp with a statuette of Napoleon by an unidentified intruder. Inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura) has to discover the motive and the culprit, while also convincing the audience that it is perfectly natural to have a French policeman working in London as part of some breezily suggested exchange programme. Clearly there only as a sop to the French investors Ventura nevertheless delivers a thoroughly committed performance, at first all business and rationality but swiftly forced to shade into credulousness as evidence of the supernatural mounts. 

Brunel soon discovers Morlar was consulting a psychiatrist, Dr Zonfeld (Lee Remick), as the bloviating malcontent feared a disturbing correlation between his wishing ill on people and ill suddenly thereafter being visited upon said people. Could it be possible that he, John Morlar, noted author of rancorous fiction might possess some unearthly power, a kind of…medusa touch? Or is he just losing his malicious mind over a series of mere coincidences? Perhaps this is the crux of the matter and the solution holds the key to the identity of his assailant? Only a series of flashbacks acted with two fisted panache by beloved 1970s British thespians can provide the answer.    

The Medusa Touch pulls that trick beloved of British ‘70s cinema whereby it promises a starry cast, but can only fulfil that promise and come in on budget by having each star onscreen for a minimal amount of time. Thus we have Derek Jacobi doing a camp literary agent for one scene, Gordon Jackson drily one-lining in a number of scenes (all obviously shot on the same day), and so on. Worthy of particular note is crumple faced acting treasure Michael Hordern’s turn as a fortune teller. His transformation from the breezily unctuous to the witlessly terrified, as he realises the nature of what is sat before him, is pure performing gold. Even Lee Remick is good value, occasionally sloughing off her usual perpetually dazed expression to actually inhabit the moment. Her role is also a refreshing departure from the typical ‘70s female role; she doesn’t start falling in love with Morlar and she is a far from a passive presence. It’s probably nothing to do with equality and more to do with the character being male in the source novel; but it’s an accidental step up anyway.

The Medusa Touch’s peculiarly British thrift even extends to its monolithic star, Richard Burton. In fact so terribly disfiguring are Burton’s wounds from the opening scene, that it looks like someone altogether less expensive spends most of the movie wrapped in bandages on the hospital bed in Morlar’s stead.  In retrospect its surprising to realise that Burton himself is a scarce presence in the movie, yet it feels like his acerbic presence saturates every scene, like brandy in a particularly rich Christmas pudding. This is mostly because he (obviously) dominates the few scenes he’s in, but also because he provides reliably rumbly narration for many scenes he’s not actually in; all of which were probably recorded in the snug of a pub in-between a couple of pints and a fistful of fags. It’s an incredibly economical use of such a gigantic star.  Burton gives you your money’s worth and no mistake.

As a story The Medusa Touch is tons of wittily scripted  pulptastic fun, building from a bashed in head to catastrophes of truly monumental proportions. While it does carry the stamp of a certain 1970s strain of campy naffness it is amazing how thrillingly convincing the magnificent cast make the delirious nonsense seem, right up the diabolical cliffhanger of an ending. Also, Burton’s giant face looming at you, intoning “I have a gift. A gift…for disaster!” in HD makes you glad you bought a TV you’ll be paying off for the next 12 months. But that could just be me.