shrishyam

[kraviolis]

one of these days im gonna be incredibly self indulgent and draw an entire fix-it comic about cleo shaw bcus shes one of my all time favorite characters and i fucking miss her so much bro

[away-ward]

I think the reason why i love willemmy the most in dn series is because will's not an alpha, hayhahha! Ive read so many books with this dynamic and still am not personally liking extreme alphas MMCs very much, especially alpha (ass)-holes. Might be because of my own personal lack of tolerance to being controlled be it irl or through the fictional characters i read, especially relating to any kind of relationships in general really, so i love will's character a TONNE. In fact, in the royal elite series by rina kent, i love ronan & teal the most, and i believe its for the same reason. It goes the same with non-dark romances, i love jacob & eve brown from act your age eve brown & the first book's couple: get a life chloe brown, fox & hannah from hook, line and sinker, esme & khai from the bride test, pippa & ravi from a good girls guide to murder, and literally every book by abby jimenez except for the friend zone (because i hated that one), especially daniel from part of your world and jason from happily ever after playlist. Adding to that, my top fav characters from the shadowhunter chronicles (simon, alex, jem, raphael, henry) had very similar character traits too. Theyre not the popular guys of the series, also maybe because theyre pretty chill, but theyre always IT for me. I found these kind of characters's personalities and attributes so attractive. They make me giggling screaming kicking my feet and shit, haha! Like idk, theres something appealing about a man (.especially with some golden retriever traits) who can offer me something and makes me want to have him by my side anyway without them having to control my own narrative or personal choices almost all the time, is just so appealing to me.

Other than that, if you have read even some of these books, you would know that a lot of these books have another similar thing (except for raphael and alec): the MMCs know theyre being loved, desired and cared for AND their feelings were all written ON THE PAGE, not just in passing etc., and i think that was what seals the deal for me. The vulnerability and intimacy of the MMCs' thoughts and feelings of being loved by their significant others. My issue with corrupt (and even hideaway and kill switch) was that, unlike the fandom's hate towards rika's love for michael, i love that rika was showing us how much michael meant to her and how much she desires him; i love it when FMCs go after men that they want to be with. But its always about rika rika rika, but never really about how michael FEELS about it / after he received that amount of love and care, especially after he get out of his angsty head. We saw rika so happy with how michael made her feel; cherished, desired etc. but what about michael's in depth POV? I wanna see how michael feels about it too! We were always told he was happy in the extras, but cant pd actually just take some time and show us on page or wrote even a page or two about how these MMCs actually feel on page in the book, for once? Im begging for crumbs! Im always frustrated with this trope (?) because to me, what was exactly personally lacking for the execution of this trope about alpha MMCs like in corrupt, hideaway and kill switch most of the time, was it was usually not written on page in their povs, about how loved and desired these MMCs feel now. They were usually just dismissed with some context clues, others' povs or a side note about their life with their women. Its also always about how amazing and loved they made the FMCs feel, not the other way around. And thats the thing, I KNOW theyre loved, like everyday michael, kai, damon woke up feeling loved by their women, but i wanna see them acknowledging the love they had and how much that made their day and life!!! Im nosy, feed me more, and please give me the flufffffff haha!

--And Idk if thats on the writer for not portraying the trope well, or it's just how the trope is written because romance are usually written not only for the enjoyment of the author and the audience, but for a heavily targeted audience (women) where they want to self project themselves into the story, so they always want to know more about how the MMC treats and reacts to the FMC, rather than a pov of how the FMC impacted the MMC in his lens in a deeper way (this is a well known fact among romance authors i believe, even pd ackowledged this in one of their goodreads questions when someone asked them about their story crafting and how that relates to the advertising side of selling their stories. If you noticed, pd didnt really write characters like banks and emory a lot, even in their other series or stand-alones, because i think its probably because banks and emory's characters are almost everything of what WOULDNT sell in this industry, sadly--also because pd just might not want to write something they dont want to but who knows? Not me. Anyway, Its the double standards and misogyny tbh, because a lot romance readers, funnily enough even when being female presented themselves, still cant put aside their own internalised misogyny, double standards and purity culture ideologies that they have for real and fictional women, and projected those mary sue traits to women around them, as if women or fictional women have to adhere to a different sets of morality and standards as compared to fictional men who did worse, and can do whatever they want, but still be loved by many of these women. Thats why, romance's bad reviews are usually "i cant relate to her" or "i couldnt connect to emory". Understandable, but it still sounds weird to me, idk, maybe just me. But this is a whole 'nother topic).--

Coming back to the topic, I noticed this pattern within the alpha MMCs trope (most of the time), and it took away my enjoyment from fully loving books like that. I just wanna see couples fighting with/for each other, and BOTH the FMC and MMC (at least for non-queer couples) to love and be shown on page, how loved they felt by the other you know. All we get usually is an indication that the FMC was interested in the MMC and then it's done. I just wanna see all the gushy feelings of Michael, Kai and damon when they realised how loved they are, how they noticed all the little and big things rika, banks and winter had done or shown to them etc. but we never really got to see it. The most feelings i get from them are in their extras or novellas, but even then, it's not enough!!! Like please, continue to gush about your happy life and how happy your women make you feel!!! Like put aside your pride and show us more loving things!! Its not embarrassing because how can loving someone so wholeheartedly like that be embarrassing? Thats why i'll never stand with people shaming rika or any women tbh for showing how much they want to love their men. Its not embarrassing to want someone that badly, but I also wished she had more self preservation (which she did later on in the series), without having to tone down her desire of wanting to love michael either, so basically a good balance between these two points would be great. Like I just wanna see you two happy individually, and together!!! Please!

So thats why willemmy's book was appealing to me, because not only we saw them pining for each other in their heads, and when they couldnt control it, it always, AWLAYS!! show through their facial expressions and body languages. Like they just cannot help themselves because they were just so in love!!!! And then we got more pining, and the cycle repeats, even after 10 years, they were pining non-stop!! Yes, please! This level of appreciation shown for and by each other is so delicious! Hahahaha! We also saw how loved they felt by the other CONSTANTLY on page (on page!!!) even in the weirdest moments when others kept on interrupting them, or when they were in denial about their feelings, or even in the epilogue with their extended families. Like emmy's pining for will? Top tier. Emmy acknowledging how good and wholesome will makes her feel? Then we saw how much he chershes her? Fucking amazing! Even better than Top tier. Will acknowledging his feelings for emmy? Top tier. Will shown on page about how amazing and fulfilling it felt like to be loved by her? Then we saw will acknowledging how she indulges him? Fucking amazing! Even better than Top tier! Hahahaha! Yes! Show me how happy you are with each other!!! Moreee! Thats why I was so sad that we only usually get these kind of crumbs from michaelrika, kaibanks and winterdamon in the extras, novellas or near the epilogues. Like Its not enough!!!!! Gimme moreeeeeee!!!

Now, end of my ranting and sharing, what about you, what do you like most about willemmy?

It sounds like you like a guy who can be vulnerable. I get that. I think more than anything, a romance should be obvious from both sides?

There’s definitely a double-standard in fiction (and the real world) with expecting a FMC to be vulnerable and open from the get go while expecting a MMC to strong and stoic, almost to the point of emotionless, until the relationship stable and then he can be openly happy. However, once the relationship is stable, the story ends, so we don’t get to read that part. Because no one wants to read their 9 to 5 every day boring life when they came to see the couple fight and smash.

But stoic is not emotionless, so there should be a way to show the depth of MMC’s feelings without taking away their broodiness. I’m not sure if it’s because the general audience only wants the broody type character or that it’s a struggle to portray, but I agree with your analysis that there is an issue in the genre.

((But I’ve never been in love or a man, so far be it for me to accuse anyone of writing a man-in-love wrong.))

I have read or started some of those books (mostly started and didn’t finish). Personally, I don’t mind if the MMC is a little bit of an alpha-hole, as long as there’s a balance and an explanation, not just because. And I don’t mind if the FMC is a little submissive or shy if it’s done well. It’s not my go-to, but not something I avoid (I’ll point to the Crown Point series by Mary Catherine Gebherd as one I didn't mind reading (specifically Gray and Story, but I really enjoyed the first one. It’s just Abigail is not that submissive). I’ve only finished the first two and probably won’t continue (unless we get Gemma and Grim’s story) but they’re not bad. Can I just divert another second to say…the Horsemen of Crown Point seem so much more intense than the Horsemen of Thunder Bay, and I’ve only read two scenes with Grim… so that says a lot… ).

But that’s the point, right? We want characters that are done well. Characters who have traits that make sense, not just to have them because they fit the mold. There should be reasons why a character behaves a certain way. Sure, personalities develop individually and sometimes the character doesn’t know why they act a certain way, but as a reader who is getting the narrative, we should be able to identify why.

Even if a MMC doesn’t know what he’s feeling or why he’s feeling it, we as the reader should know it’s because ohhhhh they got it bad. They got hit so hard with the Simp Stick. Instead, we get them manically mumbling, “That’s mine. I don’t know why she’s mine but I can’t imagine her with anyone else, so she’s mine,” like some psychos.

And because of that, that it’s refreshing when a MMC can realize “It’s because I love her that I’m doing this. What? Did you think I was going to deny it? Have you seen her? Of course, I love her. I’ve never loved anything more.”

It hard to find a balance between those two extremes.

You’re probably right about characters like Emory and Banks not selling, for all those reasons you mentioned. It’s discussed often enough that people want strong FMC but – not like that. We don’t want characters who can be… mean. We want characters who can fight! And be soft for the people they care about! And not be a doormat, but still submissive with their man. (Please note my heavy use of sarcasm)

Emory and Banks fall into that "but they're so mean" category because they do what they say they're going to do and sometimes that means hurting the other characters (*gasp* even their *gulp* love interest). There are a lot of FMC who I would consider strong, but not the industry standard of strong. I’ve rb a lot of leverage stuff, but Parker and Sophie are good examples of strong FCs who don’t fit the mold (Parker also occupies a close space in my head to Emory, so there could be some overlap in how I'm processing them).

It is weird, however, when a reader is faced with a character who makes decisions they don’t agree with and reasons “I couldn’t relate to her”. Well, she’s not you! Do you think every MC should be you? Every MC should make the decision you would make? How did we get to this point? And it does seem to be something I've seen happening exclusively in the romance genre. I don't see other series/genre where the FMC are being critiqued to such a degree for not performing as a damsel for the MMC to save every second they're on the page together. But I could just not be aware the conversation is happening. A lot of things do fly over my head.

Anyway, back to DN.

I can laugh at Rika for a lot of things, but wanting Michael is not one of them (actually sometimes it is. He's fun to make fun of. but it’s all in good fun, right? Like they’re just characters. People shouldn’t get so angry. Just laugh). But like you, I would have liked to see some of the softer, tender moments between them. I think one of the softest moments we got from Corrupt was the end flashback when Rika’s 13 and Michael listens to her and then thinks “She corrupted me.” I don’t know why, but Michael acknowledging that Rika was part of why he started Devil’s Night is really… "awwww" for me. But I think for the most part, that’s the softest thing we get from him?

I think part of the problem with Michael is that he doesn’t have a good tolerance for expressing emotions in public spaces. He’s had to deal with his father feeding off his every reaction since childhood, trying to find ways to manipulate him, and then with Trevor doing the same, so he’s learned how to shut it down. From an outside perspective, an observer probably wouldn’t see much from him.

That being said…our other narrators are supposed to be his closest friends, so they should be able to also catch his little tells with Rika. I haven’t read the series to pick out Rika/Michael moments, so I couldn’t tell you if they do, but I don’t remember any sticking out.

So, for those moments we'd have to rely on bonus material. Personally, I wouldn’t mind those little moments. Seeing the characters outside the tension-filled plot would help me to understand them and their dynamics better. For example, I loved the moments in the past scenes when we got to see the boys just being friends because. Well, I love friendships in media, but also because it was just nice to see them being them as they were before things went sideways. I would eat up the boring, 9-to-5, day-to-day moments of these characters if it meant we get to see them being in love and a family, and not just told yeah, they’re doing fine.

To answer you’re questions, I have no idea what it is that hooked me on Willemmy exactly. It does check some of my trope boxes.

Isolated/Quiet Nerd Girl + Popular/Jock boy

GrumpyxSunshine

Mutual Pining

One fell first but the other fell harder.

I read the first three books for the plot outside the romance, but I do enjoy romance quite a bit, so the fact that NF’s past scenes romance felt more like a romantic drama than a high-speed/suspense plot might have seal the deal for me. There was just so many cute moments that had me smiling and there were moments that had me all the way in my deepest feels for both of these characters, whereas the other books had me leaning towards one character or the other.

I know readers talk a lot of trash about the series, Banks and Emory, and NF (and I’m not excluding myself, but I do try to be respectful), but the past scenes in NF was a well-rounded story and NF does have some really solid stuff in there. With NF, I honestly feel that you could take the past scenes, clean them up a bit and give it a small time-skip conclusion and you’d have good novel all on its own. Which doesn't work the other books in the series! NF weakest part is that it’s the conclusion of a large story that wasn’t originally planned when the first novel was published. Everything besides that is, as you said, Top Tier.

Thanks for the comment. I hope I answered everything. Let me know what you think!

*bolded not for emphasis but to help with reading a long post*

[aion-rsa]

The Ghosts Christmas Special Will Warm The Very Cockles Of Your Heart

https://ift.tt/39sUkKn

Kiell Smith-Bynoe isn’t much of a Christmas person. “I don’t like the whole build-up and I despise the idea of people putting up their Christmas trees on the 1st of November. I’m horribly against it!” he tells Den of Geek over the phone. “If that makes some people happy then fine, but no, I’m not really a Christmas guy at all.”

That didn’t stop him from feeling a touch of the Christmas spirit when filming the Ghosts special in February this year. “That actually felt very festive. It really had that Christmas feel. As well as the decorations, they added in some scents that made the set smell really Christmassy.” Even the most tinsel-averse can be turned by a cinnamon and gingerbread candle.

It won’t have just been about the fragrance. The Ghosts Christmas special, which follows the goings-on in a haunted manor house populated by a gang of comedy spectres from across the centuries, is evocative of Christmas in so many ways. The frenzied dinner preparations, the family bickering, everybody wanting to follow their own personal tradition… and the warmth of celebrating together. In a year where many of us won’t be able to bundle under the same roof, it’s a soothing reminder of what usually makes this time of year special.

Smith-Bynoe plays Mike, one of two living leads who, along with his wife Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) inherited the ghosts along with Button House. Only Alison is able to see and hear their housemates, while Mike has to rely on her explanations of who they are and what they’re doing. He also uses his imagination, which is what’s led him to wrongly believe the ghosts are all floating around in the air and not – as they are – walking on the ground. “That was something I added in when we started, I don’t know if Tom [Kingsley, director] actually found it funny or was more just resigned to it. Like, ‘Oh, he’s doing that thing, we’ll just let him’. They eventually started writing it in.”

Just how funny Smith-Bynoe was simply reacting to thin air was a pleasant surprise for the show’s creators, who moulded the role around him, particularly in a couple of Mike-centric stories in series two. Stand-out episode ‘Bump in the Night’ found Mike alone with the ghosts, trying to fend off a couple of burglars. It’s Smith-Bynoe’s favourite episode so far. “I’d had a lot of practice at ignoring the ghosts, but usually Alison was around to navigate that conversation to make it a bit easier for Mike. This time, she wasn’t there at all. I watched that episode just beaming all the way through because I was enjoying it so much, I really loved filming that.” 

One aspect he didn’t much love was the moment that Mike, in his attempt to scare away the burglars, dons a suit of armour. Of all the costumes Smith-Bynoe has worn in his career, that was the worst. “I’ve worn bulletproof vest, a fat suit. I’ve been a camel! Nothing was as heavy as that. It was really quite uncomfortable and cold, especially when Mike falls down on the floor and I just had to lay there in this metal thing wriggling around.”

Another Mike highlight from series two came in series two’s ‘Redding Weddy’, when, after reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Martha Howe-Douglas’s uptight Edwardian snob Lady Button found herself flustered by Mike’s masculine energy. Smith-Bynoe laughs remembering. “Me and Martha get on really well and that was so much fun to do. My Diet Coke ad that was changed into a generic cola ad for copyright purposes! The water in the fountain at the end was freezing cold – apparently for some reason it had to be – I still don’t get that.”

If Mike could see and hear the ghosts, Smith-Bynoe thinks he’d get on well with Pat, Jim Howick’s upbeat 1980s scoutmaster killed accidentally by a stray arrow on an archery away day. “They’re both chilled, laidback, pretty happy-go-lucky guys. Mary too [Katy Wix’s 17th century witch, burned at the stake], I think Mary’s quite low maintenance in a similar way to Mike.” One ghost he definitely wouldn’t get along with is Thomas (Mat Baynton), a 19th century Romantic poet who’s forever trying to steal his wife away from him. “Big time tension! I don’t even know if Mike knows that Thomas is in love with Alison…”

Read more

TV

UK Christmas TV 2020: Your Guide to This Year’s Festive Specials

By Louisa Mellor

TV

Ghosts Series 2: ‘They’re stuck in an existence they didn’t ask for… like all of us’

By Louisa Mellor

It’s bound to come up in a future series. The series three scripts were pretty much finished in mid-November, he was told by co-creator Ben Willbond. “I think we’re starting in March or April next year, but I think most of the scripts are done.” In terms of his hopes for the new episodes, “I’m sure there are a few more backstories for the ghosts that we haven’t seen yet…” 

The Christmas Special delves into the personal life of Simon Farnaby’s 1990s Tory MP with a Scrooge-tinged storyline. Julian Fawcett is forced to re-evaluate what Christmas is really all about when Mike’s family comes to stay at Button House. 

“It’s a great new dynamic for Mike. His family treat him the same way they would have when he was at home, despite the fact that he’s now a grown-up who’s responsible for a massive house, with a wife of his own and his own other family in the ghosts. But he’s still treated like the baby, and he reverts back. Mike’s quite a go-with-the-flow guy, we’ve never seen him have a tantrum or a meltdown before now.” 

Mike’s meltdown is provoked by an overstuffed Christmas whiteboard agenda detailing a mammoth list of tasks. Does the actor take a similar approach? What would be on Kiell Smith-Bynoe’s Christmas whiteboard?

“There would be one thing and one thing only and it would be: eat. Usually, Christmas is me and my aunts and my mum and all my cousins – just me and all the girls – and we have a lovely time eating a massive dinner. We sit on the kids’ table, even though we’re all 31 years old. There’s probably about five meats. We get macaroni cheese in there, we’ve got parsnips going, pigs in blankets, sweet potato. It’s getting me hungry thinking about it!”

After all the eating, there might be a bit of film-watching. “Last year we ended up watching a terrible film. It was with Danny Glover, it was on Netflix and it was basically Home Alone but set in a school. [Ed – Christmas Break-In.] It was very very bad. The year before that we watched Bird Box, which was great. 

“Do you know what I used to love? Robbie the Reindeer. Get that back on the TV! That was a fantastic bit of television. We’ll watch EastEnders too even though I haven’t watched it all year and I don’t have a clue who any of the people are.” 

Whatever happens in this year’s EastEnders Christmas misery-special, there’s bound to be at least call to 999. Smith-Bynoe’s next roles include a paramedic in upcoming Sky comedy Bloods and a police officer in another comedy. “I’ve completed two of three of the emergency services, I just need a job on London’s Burning and I’ll be done, then I can retire!”

Before he does that, he has a self-written comedy in development, and the third series of acclaimed Channel 4 comedy Stath Lets Flats, which is pencilled in to film in summer 2021.  Smith-Bynoe plays reluctant estate agent Dean, the grumpiest member of Michael and Eagle Lettings. “Where we finished series two, our boss has just died! Oops, spoiler! So I don’t know what’s next for Michael and Eagle. Looking at the chain of command, I’d say that Carol [Katy Wix] would be in charge but of course, she’s pregnant now. The nightmare for Dean would be if he had to become the manager…” 

He’s keen to see the American remake of Ghosts, which is in development starring iZombie’s Rose McIver and Pitch Perfect’s Utkarsh Ambudkar as the US equivalents of Alison and Mike. “I hope it’s good as ours,” he says, “but not better. What I’d really love though, is for our one to be a big success over there and everyone just to love” he laughs “…me!”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The Ghosts Christmas Special airs on Wednesday the 23rd of December on BBC One at 8.30pm.

The post The Ghosts Christmas Special Will Warm The Very Cockles Of Your Heart appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/34uhzAc

[superrichlads]

about Niall: the solo era

HITS DAILY DOUBLE, SEPTEMBER 2016: ″Niall Horan is indeed inking with Steve Barnett's Capitol following another fierce signing derby… The word from people who’ve heard Niall’s record is that it’s outstanding.”

HITS DAILY DOUBLE, SEPTEMBER 2016: “Coming just after UMG’s A&R meetings in Hampshire, UK, Horan’s release is the first offering from a very important worldwide signing for the company and one of the top records of the meetings, according to many of the attendees.”

AMY WADGE, NOVEMBER 2016: “Niall’s a cracking writer, he’s got a great voice, he’s kind of got a Paul Simon thing going on, so I think there’ll be elements of country within [his album], because that’s what he likes, but at the moment he’s recording, and he’s smashing it, he’s doing so well.”

DON WAS, BLUE NOTE PRESIDENT & RECORD PRODUCER, DECEMBER 2016: "He showed up with a bunch of really great songs he wrote, he sings really well… He was thoroughly professional, humble and sweet. He spent time talking with all the musicians, hung out -- everybody loved him… He's the real deal, man. I'm so impressed with this guy."

CHRIS MARTIN, (COLDPLAY), DECEMBER 2016: “I really honestly feel that everything is a touchstone. Whether it’s Chopin or Niall from One Direction, if it’s good I’ll listen to it, and I’ll love it.”

JOE RAINEY, CAPITOL RECORDS VP PROMOTION, MARCH 2017: “I’m excited for what he’s gonna be creating, because in the few times I’ve met with him, that’s a remarkably talented man.”

GARY TRUST, BILLBOARD CO-DIRECTOR OF CHARTS, MARCH 2017: “Even if This Town is not a number one record at Top 40, it sound like to me, because it’s so intimate, I have a feeling that it’s a lot of people’s favourite song… it seems like it could really hit people on a really deep level.”

GOLF DIGEST, MARCH 2017: “One of the music industry's biggest stars—the first artist to debut at No. 1 on Billboard's Social 50 Chart with his single This Town late last year.”

LINE OF BEST FIT, MAY 2017:  “Niall Horan's new track ‘Slow Hands’ wipes the floor with all the other solo sounds that have emerged since the demise of One Direction. It's one of the year's first proper Song Of The Summer contenders and sees Horan ditch balladeering for slinky riffs and proper raunch. He's shed his squeaky clean onesie and donned a crooner coat, giving us one of the coolest, catchiest choruses of 2017 in the process.”

BILLBOARD, MAY 2017: “Slow Hands doesn’t just put his voice in a bit of a new light, the grittier, funkier tune also presents Horan’s versatility as a solo artist."

ELVIS DURAN, Z100 MORNING SHOW, MAY 2017: “When we saw you, way back at - was it Jingle Ball, in New York City? And of all the people I talked to that night and interviewed, you were the nicest, you were the nicest guy. And I just wanted - I’ve been waiting all these months to say thank you.”

RYAN SEACREST, MAY 2017: “Niall, when he comes in, to me he has the most charisma of all of them… he’s got that, he’s super-nice, and super-normal for being in One Direction and having the solo thing.”

DON HENLEY, MAY 2017: “Niall is a solid guy whose focus is right where it ought to be: on songwriting. He’s got the Irish charm and a healthy, self-effacing sense of humor, which is an essential ­survival tool in this business. I think that Niall will evolve into a resonant, thoughtful voice for his generation.”

DON WAS, MAY 2017: “Niall’s got the stuff… He drove himself to the studio, carried his own guitar, stepped up to the microphone and was great every take. If they do the Desert Trip festival in 50 years, he’ll be headlining.”

STEVE BARNETT, CAPITOL RECORDS CHAIRMAN & CEO, MAY 2017: “The absolute top in terms of professionalism, thoughtfulness, work ethic and appreciating what he’s got. You’d be proud if he was your son.”

SHAWN MENDES, MAY 2017: “I’m pretty nervous in front of other celebrities still, but he’s so calm and chill… We just started jamming out, and it didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be good in front of him.’ It was complete fun, no ego, like the reason you play music in the first place.”

ELVIS DURAN, MAY 2017: “I’ll never forget this moment, when This Town - when you first released This Town… this was the first time I’d seen you perform solo, and you came out on stage - Madison Square Garden, not a bad room… you came out on stage by yourself, you and your guitar, it was just you, your guitar, and one little light shining on you, in this huge, huge arena, and you sang that song, and I was thinking: this is probably the most pure, wonderful performance we’re going to hear in a long time. I still, I still - look, I get goosebumps. When you sung the song earlier today, it took me back to that performance… you came out and sang that song and I was thinking: this guy is it, that was it, and that was the perfect song to launch with… that song, it speaks volumes about you, because it’s such a gentle, wonderful song.”

ELVIS DURAN, MAY 2017: “You sound so fantastic that no one believes that it’s live, they think we’re playing a track.”

CLARA AMFO, BBC RADIO 1, JUNE 2017: “I’ve been saying to the listeners, I do appreciate the approach you’ve taken with your solo stuff. No shade to the other guys, but you didn’t really make a big fuss, there wasn’t like these big teasers, you just kind of slyly did it, just casual, you were just chilled with it, I rate that.”

TMRW, JUNE 2017: “For a man so adored and so blindingly good at what he does, he’s modest as anything. Except for golf, he knows he’s good at golf.”

TANYA KIM, ENTERTAINMENT NOW, JUNE 2017: “This Town is one of my favourite songs of all time. Ever. In the existence of music. I have to say it’s so beautiful.”

NOTION, JUNE 2017: “Having travelled around Asia and relocated to LA, Niall is more than ready to re-enter the world of pop, and he’s doing it with surprising finesse. When he released his second single, ‘Slow Hands’, at the beginning of May, the world was taken aback. It wasn’t some radical departure from his work in 1D, it was a more mature, nuanced version of that same guitar music meets pop sound they’d come to specialise in, and more importantly it was great.”

SHANIA TWAIN, JULY 2017: “He's really wonderful. He's very organic and natural... He's a sweetheart and we get along really well. We need to write together. I think that would be a really successful, creative time.”

JULIA MICHAELS, JULY 2017:  “He actually told me he was going to cover [Issues] when we did a show together in Minneapolis and I was so flattered, and then when I heard his kind of organic approach to it I was like: oh, this is so magical. Plus, his voice is everything.”

STEVE BRAUNIAS, SPINOFF, JULY 2017: “Is Niall the best solo artist to come out of One Direction? Yes, yes he is... Life after 1D has seen Harry playing Jesus to the lepers in his head, walking on water in that endless video to his endless ballad, looking all profound and troubled and beautiful. ZZZZZZZZZZ! But good old Niall packed up his 1D bag containing a bottle of peroxide remover and got on with the business of making simple, awesome pop. ‘This Town’ was Niall as the sensitive singer-songwriter picking on his guitar. Follow-up ‘Slow Hands’ is Niall laying down a sexy falsetto to a sexy lyric, although it does include the weird line, “like sweat dripping down our dirty laundry”. There’s a raunchy version on Ellen featuring a cat on wah-wah guitar, and the one on One Love Manchester is even better – it shows Niall in his element, a  relaxed cat in a hat, in total control of his art. If it wasn’t for ‘Bad Liar’, this would have been the best song of 2017 so far.”

RAISA BRUNER, TIME MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 2017: “For a small country, Ireland is on a roll lately bringing out talented, moody male solo artists. First there was Hozier. Then there was the grown-up Niall Horan.”

DAVE FAWBERT, SHORTLIST, OCTOBER 2017:  “Niall, all round top lad who, in every single interview that I’ve read, has never failed to come across as anything other than a nice bloke. Having somewhat been in the shadow of Harry and Zayn in the band, his solo career has seen him move from unfancied outsider to the man most likely to be the biggest of all of them. ‘This Town’? Delicate, beautiful track. ‘Slow Hands’? Legit brilliant song. And the rest of Flicker, his debut album? Genuinely really really good.”

ZOE GILLESPIE, CAPITOL RECORDS SENIOR MANAGER, DIGITAL MARKETING, OCTOBER 2017: “talent hard work integrity respect patience hard work talent.”

CHARLES KELLEY, (LADY ANTEBELLUM), NOVEMBER 2017: “I think I may have to head up the Niall Horan fan club after tonight! Killed it at the Ryman... One of the best concerts I’ve seen in a long time, Niall Horan. Thank god for good musicians in this world.”

DAVE FAWBERT, SHORTLIST, DECEMBER 2017: “[Slow Hands] is an absolutely bloody brilliant song. Great groove, great chorus, an absolute giant earworm and no mistaking. And the rest of the album’s great too.”

KATIE LOUISE SMITH, POPBUZZ, DECEMBER 2017: [Flicker] is fucking brilliant and dare I say it, the BEST One Direction solo album so far... it was a bold move to dive head first into this ‘not-quite-pop, not-quite-rock, little-bit-country, little-bit-folk’ genre and many wondered if his fans would follow along with him. (Spoiler alert: They did. In their millions.) While you can clearly hear the influences on the album, it doesn’t sound like a who’s who of Niall paying tribute to his favourite bands… it sounds like a Niall Horan album. He’s not trying too hard. It’s cohesive. It feels genuine. It feels authentic. And you know what, it just feels right. ‘Slow Hands’ is without a doubt one of the best songs the year, he puts Ed Sheeran’s penchant for an Irish folk bop to shame on ‘On My Own’. Even his foray into country music with Maren Morris on ‘Seeing Blind’ had the entire population of Nashville inviting the Irish Prince round for Thanksgiving.”

CHRISTOPHER BUSCHER, ARTMAG, DECEMBER 2017: “[Niall] doesn’t waste time trying to be so edgy and so raunchy and just concentrates on making properly good folk-pop music.”

ANDY CUSH, SPIN, DECEMBER 2017:  “No one expected the blonde and boyish Niall Horan to emerge as the breakout artist after the breakup of One Direction last year, not from a band that also included two ridiculously good-looking born stars in Zayn Malik and Harry Styles... but neither has released anything quite as good as “Slow Hands,” Horan’s sexy and soulful second single. He brings convincing grit to a track that bends the industry’s current fetish for the sounds of the ‘70s a little further from Studio 54 and closer to Muscle Shoals, with a simple but swaggering rhythm section and infectious blues guitar line.”

DAN JACKSON, THRILLIST, DECEMBER 2017:  “Who will be the biggest star to emerge from One Direction? It's still too early to say -- post-break-up careers are a marathon, not a race -- but Niall Horan makes a convincing play for the grownup John Mayer zone on "Slow Hands," an acoustic guitar-driven R&B track about his skills as a lover.”

TAYLOR WEATHERBY, BILLBOARD, DECEMBER 2017:  “Bringing out his sexy side with daring lyrics, sultry vocals and a thumping, bluesy guitar hook was definitely worth the risk, as [Slow Hands] landed Horan his first No. 1 Pop Songs hit as a solo artist, and set the scene for his debut LP Flicker to arrive atop the Billboard 200 in October.”

STEVE BARNETT, CAPITOL RECORDS CHAIRMAN & CEO, JANUARY 2018: “We had the support of [Niall’s manager] Richard Griffiths in buying into the idea that we’re going to be three singles deep before we release the album, and he’s going to go around the world three times and try to touch those fans. Niall is really a unique young man, who’s developed a great relationship with the whole company. He’s beloved at this label. There’s a vulnerability and an authenticity about [Niall’s music]. The band’s fans could relate to that. Those transitions [from boy band to solo star] aren’t easy.”

JOHN BIRD, FEBRUARY 2018: “[One Direction] was obviously an incredible experience for him, he got to see the world… I think he really embraced it, you know, his personality allowed him to enjoy it, and yeah, he just seems very, very happy that it all happened. I don’t feel any negativity towards it at all, and like I said, we’re just lucky to get a little part of that experience, you know.”

RON HART, BILLBOARD, APRIL 2018:  "There’s no denying the Knopfler-isms of ‘On the Loose’, perhaps the strongest single off Niall Horan’s thoroughly impressive and organic solo debut Flicker."

LEWIS CAPALDI, JULY 2018:  "I say this in a few interviews, but Niall Horan is the nicest guy I’ve met in music, just the way that he carries himself is ridiculous. He’s just so nice."

JOSEPH BRYANT, OUT & ABOUT NASHVILLE, JULY 2018: “Heartfelt and honest, Horan shows a soft, sentimental side. His maturity as a musician really comes through [on So Long]. Reminiscent of those best parts of John Mayer, Horan is making his mark as the smooth charmer the soft rock/pop genre this generation is lacking. He has a fantastic career ahead of him.”

GERRY MORGAN, 180 DRUMS PODCAST, SEPTEMBER 2018: “The first time I heard one of his tracks I was driving – a car, believe it or not, and it came on the radio – it was called This Town, and I pulled over on the side of the road and I remember listening to it and I went – that is a beautiful song. And I kept on listening and at the end the DJ went, in usual DJ fashion, ‘and that was a little song by Niall Horan’, and I just texted him and said, ’This Town, I didn’t realise that was you, that’s a beautiful song and singing’. And yeah, it was a very innocent – not innocent, that’s the wrong word, there was a very pure and authentic style of writing there that I really loved from a songwriter that kind of really ticked all of the boxes for me. So yeah, I met him, we did a lot of stuff just the two of us, went out and did a lot of shows, a lot of promo runs and such, some studio stuff, and we had a really great time I’d jump at doing [anything with him again…] I was just really super-excited to represent him – I was excited because he was coming from such a pop background, like boy band vocal group pop to becoming a legit singer-songwriter, standing up there fronting his own band, with a guitar and a great voice, and he’s Irish as well, and I was just really proud and excited for people to hear what he was going to come out with – because I knew what he was going to come out with, and it was legit, and I just thought that people – other musicians and friends of mine were dubious because of maybe where he had come from, but I was like – nah, wait until you hear this. And the record has done so well, and I’m super proud of him.”

MUST MUSIC, DECEMBER 2018:  “At the start of this year, Irish singer Niall Horan scored another success with Too Much To Ask, third single from his album Flicker. A remix of this ballad topped the dance club chart, and Niall also charted on Pop & AC radio. Many doubted Niall as a solo artist, but in the end he has proven to be the strongest – commercially speaking – of the members of boy band One Direction.”

RUTHANNE CUNNINGHAM, DEEP DIVING WITH EOGHAN MCDERMOTT PODCAST, MAY 2019:  “I remember when they played me what they had started [Slow Hands], I was like: this is different from the rest of the record, not too far away. I knew it was something good, but I don't think any of us thought it would be number 1 on American radio or anything like that. But Julian was smart, he was like: OK, we have all these songs, but we need that one. And a lot of people have asked me about the production, about the way the vocals sound, and the way the instruments sound, and I really feel like Niall nailed it in the way of just taking that risk, knowing that it was a great sound for him, and not being afraid of that edgier sound, because he had done a lot of more acoustic-folksy stuff for the album. For me, whenever now I see it live and everyone's singing it, I'm like: oh, that's his song. And it's so hard, when you've been in One Direction, you know, you're like, are the fans going to be wanting to hear Best Song Ever or Story of My Life, but they're not, they want to hear Slow Hands. That's what you aim to do when you work with an artist, is to have that moment.”

JULIA MICHAELS, AMERICAN EXPRESS 5 DAY WEEKEND SHOWCASE, MAY 2019:  “This next song [What A Time] I did with an incredibly talented human being from Ireland. He's the most amazing dreamboat of a person and I love him to death."

RUTHANNE CUNNINGHAM, MAY 2019: “I wrote with Niall in February, can I just say the new music is sounding amazing, I got to hear what he’s been doing with Julian and Tobias and stuff, it sounds amazing, and I think we wrote two really great songs... I love the songs that we did.”

THOMAS RHETT, IHEARTRADIO, MAY 2019: “We’ve written a couple of songs together, I wrote with him about a month ago when he was in Nashville. Niall is such a sweet dude. I met Niall through my producer, Julian, I got to meet Niall through him, and it’s such a cool friendship.” 

MAREN MORRIS, ET, JUNE 2019: “Niall and I became such great friends. Our bands became friends on the road last year. I would love to write with him and do something in the future. He's such a great guy. He's a badass."

RUTHANNE CUNNINGHAM, SONGWRITER UNIVERSE, JUNE 2019:  "Niall had such a vision for his album—he knew what he wanted the album to sound like, and he had this book of ideas. So as a writer, it was a dream collaboration because it was so easy for me to fill in the blanks for him. And we’ve been writing together for his next album.”

JULIA MICHAELS, UMUSIC, JUNE 2019: "The first time I heard Niall sing 'we didn't end it like we were supposed to' I remember just breaking down in the studio and he coming out and giving me a hug, the minute he sung it I knew he was perfect for [What A Time] and it had to be him."

CARA CROKE, THE WHISP, JULY 2019:  “We appreciate Niall Horan for more reasons than one. He was the dark horse of One Direction, his solo album was a banger, he’s Irish (duh), and he’s absolutely hilarious on Twitter. Niall isn’t afraid to speak his mind online."

RUTHANNE CUNNINGHAM, JULY 2019: “Niall is one of my faves to write with because he’s very involved; he knows who he is as an artist – and he’s Irish, so we always have a laugh as well. It never feels like work when I’m writing with him."

JULIA MICHAELS, LADY GANG PODCAST, JULY 2019: “Niall's one of my best friends... we have such similar personalities, we're super stupid and goofy. If I had to be stranded on a desert island with someone, I'd want it to be someone I could be super silly with.”

BEATA MURPHY (KIIS FM ASSISTANT PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR & MUISCDIRECTOR) & CONNOR HATCHEY (IHEARTRADIO LA DIGITAL PRODUCER), ADD THIS PODCAST, JULY 2019: “'You know who might be in the studio that we'll hear stuff from soon? Niall.' 'Really? Oh, awesome! He was the 1D member that I— it wasn't that I didn't think he was going to put out music, but he seemed perfectly fine golfing & just chillin after they split. But then he ended up putting out This Town which was an amazing song and following it up with Flicker —and he's been like the most successful— ahaha yes! out of all of them. It's not that no one expected it— it's just that everyone put all their eggs into the Harry basket.’” 

[rocknutsvibe]

2016: On The Cusp Of A Rock Awakening

OK, so we lost a lot of great musicians in 2016, and world events were unsettling to say the least. But all things considered, it was a pretty good year for music, with some older artists hitting late-inning home runs and some newer acts seemingly approaching greatness. I really get the sense that Rock is in an exciting period of transition, with so many artists both young and old willing to take risks in the search for new sounds and new approaches. I honestly believe that we are on the cusp of a new Rock awakening. Here are my selections for Top 10 Albums of 2016.

  10. The Claypool Lennon Delirium – Monolith Of Phobos

People sometimes forget that Sean Lennon inherited artistic genes from his mother too, one of the most famous avant-garde musicians who ever lived. With this in mind his musical partnership with mad genius Les Claypool seems like such a perfect fit. This album won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — it’s way out there sometimes — but to me it felt fresh and wild and unique. Lennon and Claypool seem to bring out the very best in each other’s oddly twisted personalities, flavoring their distinctly original take on classic proggy sounds with wit and whimsy. Claypool’s jaw-dropping virtuosity on the bass was no surprise, but Lennon’s lambent talents on guitar and vocals certainly were, and I really hope these guys keep making music together.

  9. Rolling Stones – Blue And Lonesome

This is like one of those albums that NASA would put into a Voyager satellite to introduce extraterrestrial civilizations to human culture, except in this case it landed back on Earth in 2016. The album captures — for a new generation on this planet — the electrifying intensity of those early-sixties blues and R&B recordings, recorded live and hot and off the floor. But this ain’t the 1964 Stones cheekily imitating the old bluesmen, this is a band with the chops and the savvy to actually be the old bluesmen. Sometimes Jagger sounds like an old man and sometimes he sounds like he’s 25, but either way he and his mates are as authentic as it gets, and god knows there’s a hunger for authenticity out there.

  8. case / lang / veirs – case / lang / veirs

Take three fiercely independent singer-songwriters who don’t know each other very well, put them in a room and tell them to write songs together, and you’ve got a prescription not only for bruised egos but quite possibly broken bones as well. Unless of course the singer-songwriters are women, in which case you’ve got a much better chance of co-operation and a successful collaboration. k.d. lang admired the work of Neko Case and Laura Veirs and suggested the three get together and create some new songs, not as a three-point harmony trio but more like a real band where each member’s individual strengths are given a chance to shine. The end result is one of the finest collections of songs released this year, where even the production and arrangements are well-conceived and beautifully implemented. See what a little co-operation can accomplish?

  7. Bon Iver – 22, A Million

Up to this point Bon Iver was widely considered a balladeer, a singer-songwriter of deeply personal, atmospheric songs who used electronica mostly as a way to process his distinctive falsetto vocals. Folk electronica, if you will. But on this, his third album, Bon Iver takes folk electronica to new horizons with beats and kinetic energy, a huge and I think welcome departure from his drony balladeer thing. The album contains some beautiful acoustic guitar, piano and horns, but it also includes tracks like “10 (Deathbreast)” which has him spitting out spoken lyrics over a driving cascade of electronic beats, sounding more like Kanye West than a folk artist. In fact, West had sought out Bon Iver’s recording expertise for one of the rapper’s earlier albums, so I guess what goes around comes around. Rock happens when different musical genres come together, and this album sounds like something new being born.

  6. The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect

Alex Turner has talent, charisma, and a willingness to take artistic chances, a great combination for any musician. As swaggering front man for the Arctic Monkeys, Turner gained fame for his wickedly clever power pop, but as a partner in The Last Shadow Puppets he takes that wicked cleverness on a completely different tack. The Rock elements are still there, but the defining sound on this album is a standout orchestra section arranged by the brilliant Canadian violinist and producer Owen Pallett. It gives the album a very Euro feel as the band pays discreet homage to the various pop styles that make use of strings – ‘50s doo-wop, ‘60s soul, ‘70s disco, ‘80s spy movies – as well as some really original arrangements that can easily stand on their own. I don’t understand why this album wasn’t a huge hit.

  5. The Tragically Hip – Man Machine Poem

With this album The Hip completes their transformation from literate, edgy roadhouse Rockers to literate, mature Rock gurus, comfortable in their wisdom yet searching for truth more rigorously than ever. After 30 years together the Hip keeps growing as a band, boldly adding new textures and instrumentation and themes and emotions to their kit bag, while at the same time keeping their kick-ass edge as sharp as it ever was. If, as seems likely, this is to be the band’s last album due to Gord Downie’s serious health issues, then by god what a way to go, and what an inspiring lesson in personal and artistic growth for the rest of us.

  4. Warpaint – Heads Up

There are some pretty sophisticated Rock sensibilities at work here on the L.A. quartet’s third album. Originally an atmospheric/chill type outfit, Warpaint displays a subtle but still striking versatility on this album, skillfully and seamlessly weaving analog and electronic instrumentation together as well as anybody has ever done it. One minute bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa are laying down big fat beats, the next minute guitarist Theresa Wayman is serving up soaring or spiky licks over an electronic bed. Emily Kokal’s plaintive lead vocals may not be the strongest, but the band’s three-point harmonies are outstanding and lay at the heart of Warpaint’s sonic signature. This is definitely a band to watch.

  3. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

So the story goes that Iggy Pop finally had enough of the rat race and wanted to drop out after recording one last album. Ever the showman, Iggy decides that if he’s going out, he’s going out in style, so he turns to Josh Homme for help. How could this not be a recipe for a great album? These are two Rock giants coming together. Homme, one of a handful of artists destined to carry the torch for Rock & Roll deep into the new century, brought his unique gifts of edgy songcraft together with Iggy’s brutally frank street truths, sprinkled it with a little anti-materialist populism, and helped create a bold and original statement, not just for Iggy, but I really think for the ages. Homme deserves a co-credit on the album, but he’s too generous a soul to want it. Meanwhile Iggy keeps dreaming “about getting away to a new life / where there’s not so much fucking knowledge”, and I have to admit that does sound appealing.

  2. Esperanza Spalding – Emily’s D+Evolution

I’ve always subscribed to the theory that the greatest artists are the ones that push the envelope so far until they discover new territory. Well Esperanza Spalding is one brilliant artist and with this album she has found musical ground where nobody has stood before, and that is saying something. Sure, the lithe vocals, explosive bass lines and complicated jazz time signatures are all still there, but this time around she brings thundering and soaring guitars into the mix, making the album sound at times more like prog than jazz. Think Joni Mitchell meets Frank Zappa and Shuggie Otis, or maybe St. Vincent with the angular corners rounded out. On top of all this, Emily’s D+Evolution is a concept album where Spalding’s alter ego wrestles wordily with powerful thoughts on love, gender, race and class in the 21st Century. This is a dense, rich album that delivers increasing rewards with every listen.

  1. David Bowie – Blackstar

There will never be another album like this one, just as sure as there will never be another David Bowie. It’s an album about Bowie’s life and about his death, and it is loaded with riches. I was never all that big on droning medieval melodies, but I now love the five minutes of it on the title track because “at the center of it all” lies the shimmering beauty of the middle section. Kudos to my colleague Jordan for pointing out the “whore” of the raucous second track is quite likely Bowie’s cancer. “Lazarus” still makes me weep sometimes because I can’t get the haunting video out of my head, but it has sure given me some insights into death that were never quite available to me before. “Sue” is cinema verite in modern jazz wrapping, while “Dollar Days” and “I Can’t Give Everything Away” are as beautiful as anything Bowie has ever made. How long will it be before this album starts showing up on greatest of all-time lists?

  Honorable Mentions

Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger Wilco – Schmilco Charles Bradley – Changes Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate Andrew Bird – Are You Serious Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial Anderson Paak – Malibu

Photo- Esperanza Spalding; credit: By JBreeschoten (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://ift.tt/HKkdTz)], via Wikimedia Commons

from Rocknuts http://ift.tt/2hP4HcQ via IFTTT

[heyho-simonrussellbeale]

“I’ve played some pretty malevolent characters in my time,” says Simon Russell Beale. Hasn’t he just. There was his Richard III for the RSC (1992), his Iago in Othello at the National (1997) and his Macbeth at the Almeida (2005), nuanced studies in evil that helped to build his reputation as perhaps the greatest stage actor of his generation. Yet the 56-year-old may just have created his most loathsome baddie yet, and it’s in a big-screen comedy. 

The Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci’s chilling and hilarious farce about the jostling for power in the Politburo after Uncle Joe’s demise in 1953, has an excellent, startlingly diverse cast: Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin, Jeffrey Tambor, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Paul Whitehouse. Russell Beale, however, eclipses them all as Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the Soviet secret police, whom Stalin introduced as “our Himmler”. Torture, rape, murder, paedophilia — Beria was arguably the most horrible figure in the postwar Kremlin, and that’s saying something.

“He’s not a very comic character,” says Russell Beale, clutching a cushion to his chest on a sofa in a hotel in central London. “I found the scenes in which he tortured people a bit . . .” He makes a face.

No, at first glance Beria isn’t a bundle of laughs, but Russell Beale is an actor whose stage CV, including Much Ado About Nothing and King Arthur in Spamalot, shows him to be as adept at comedy as he is at villainy. 

He finds humour in Beria just as Peter Capaldi found it in the ostensibly terrifying Malcolm Tucker in Iannucci’s TV series The Thick of It. Not in terms of baroque profanity, but he lurks like Tucker, and there are deep, grim laughs in the way he instils fear in others: underlings, guards, even (perhaps especially) his rivals for the top job. The real Beria, Russell Beale says, “liked looking in people’s eyes and seeing them terrified”.

In the film he’s a dead ringer for the real Beria: his head is shaved and he’s kitted out in full Soviet regalia. (“The hat pulled down and the big coat and the pince-nez — so difficult to control, the pince-nez.”) When Iannucci showed him a photograph of Beria, he was delighted at the resemblance.

Today, Russell Beale is a cannonball of charm in black baseball jacket, black T-shirt and jeans, his silver hair cropped short. He’s fine company, deploying an impressive repertoire of self-effacement, stage whispers, conspiratorial puffs on his e-cigarette and nonchalant name-drops, referring to “Ralph” (Fiennes), “Mark” (Rylance), “Sam” (Mendes) and, of course, “Armando”. A question about his relationship status is met with a grin. “Yes I’m currently single — and yes I’m homosexual.

”Movie junkets are a novelty for Russell Beale. “I haven’t done this before,” he says, looking around the suite. “It’s a very strange procedure.” This is his biggest screen role, isn’t it? “It’s about my only screen role!” That’s an exaggeration: he has had parts in Into the Woods, My Week With Marilyn and more. Nothing as meaty as this, though, which is finally a film triumph to rank with his stage and television ones (two Oliviers, two Baftas).

Fear is at the centre of The Death of Stalin. “They’re all so f***ing frightened,” Russell Beale says. This was a time of lists: if your name was on one, you’d get a knock on the door in the middle of the night, then the gulag if you were lucky, the firing squad if you weren’t.

Yet, as the boom in Soviet-era joke books demonstrated, there is plenty of scope for gallows humour in all of this. Beria is the rotten heart of a squirmingly funny ensemble piece that’s given comedic distance by the non-Russian accents (pure New York for Buscemi’s Khrushchev, bullish Yorkshire for Isaacs’s General Zhukov and Russell Beale’s own middle-class English for Beria) and an anarchic twist by Iannucci’s yen for improvisation.

To a creature of the text such as Russell Beale, improv was a terrifying prospect. Iannucci “laughed at me because I learnt the whole script”, he says; that was pointless because it would go through so many iterations between writing and shooting. “I rather panicked, but by the time we got to the scenes I had about seven versions in my head. It at least gives you options.”

The Americans, Buscemi and Tambor, were “absolutely superb on the improvisations”, he says. “What they do brilliantly is locate something small, like the hardness of a chair or the shit coffee. Whereas I would be thinking, ‘I don’t know anything about the 1953 Soviet transport system.’ ” To make matters worse Iannucci is “quite strict; he knows what he thinks is funny”. Well, he liked what he saw with Russell Beale — that terror probably helped.

The actor has history with Stalin, having played him on stage in Collaborators in 2011. There’s a contrast, he thinks, with his Shakespearean villains. “Iago is stupid. Stalin and Beria I think are genuinely clever. All they wanted was power — no yachts. I don’t think Richard III is like that; he wants power because of all the jewellery.”

In the film Beria is the first man to see Stalin’s body and there is a brilliant scene where he is alone with it for several minutes, the fate of a vast nation in his hands. He wastes no time in unlocking Stalin’s desk and disposing of some incriminating papers. Having learnt his trade on the stage, where props need to be accounted for, Russell Beale obsessed over which pocket Beria would put the key to the desk in. “Armando said, ‘It’s not the theatre, you don’t have to worry about where you put the f***ing key.’ ”

Has such freedom whetted his appetite for more? Does he cast envious glances at Rylance, his main challenger for the title of world’s greatest stage actor, who has become Steven Spielberg’s go-to guy? “Oh, I’d love to do more. I’m not desperate for it, but I’d love to follow Mark.” A pause. “I feel I need to learn a bit more.”

Russell Beale is big on learning: he still takes piano lessons and recently taught himself ancient Greek. He was born in Malaysia, where his father was an army doctor, and after boarding school at Clifton College in Bristol he was set to be a doctor like his parents, three of his siblings (and now three nephews and nieces). Instead he took a first-class degree in English at Cambridge. Music also looms large in his life: as a boy he was a chorister at St Paul’s, he has presented a BBC Four documentary series, Sacred Music, and he is due to play JS Bach in a play by Nina Raine.

Riseborough, who plays Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana, in The Death of Stalin, has said that her main memory of the shoot is of Russell Beale listening to classical music. “The reason I was doing that is Armando has said he doesn’t like Mozart. And I said, ‘I’m going to spend this shoot listening entirely to Mozart because I am sort of with you. I know he’s a genius, but I always preferred to listen to Beethoven or Schubert.’ ” What was the conclusion? “We are wrong. Don Giovanni is a masterpiece.”

Pop music he’s less hot on. When he’s in make-up for his present job, playing Becky Sharp’s father in a forthcoming ITV production of Vanity Fair, “every morning we have some music that I don’t understand”. In true Russell Beale style, he has resolved to do something about that gap in his knowledge, persuading his make-up artist to teach him about hip-hop and R&B. “There’s so much in the world that we don’t understand. You just think, ‘Come on, I’m going to be dead soon.’ ”

Perhaps with an eye on his burgeoning screen career, he recently bought a heap of film books and watched a string of classics at home in London, including The Godfather (“fantastic”) and Fanny and Alexander (“a miracle”). So there’s no longer a snobbishness about film in the theatre world? “Noooo. Most theatre people would love to work in film. They’re all gagging for it. People used to get knighthoods if they were stage actors, but not if they were screen actors, but that’s disappeared, thank God, and there’s a great deal of respect for people who can do both, like Sam [Mendes].”

He has another movie out next year, Museo, a Mexican heist flick in which he co-stars with Gael García Bernal. “He’s complete heaven! Gorgeous. Quite small, but he has that magical thing on film where his face just goes ping! Was is that? Miranda Richardson has it, and I’ve seen Emily Mortimer do it. Anyway, he was gorgeous and I had a lovely week filming in John Wayne’s house in Acapulco. My dressing room was in the house, with three sides of glass looking out on to the Pacific.”

The movie-star life, you feel, might suit him rather well. This is a man who can also go ping.