Exclusive: Tobias Menzies was hiding in plain sight at a rally held by UK actors union Equity in support of its sister union SAG-AFTRA.
Cameras and microphones were being shoved in front of the likes of Brian Cox, Imelda Staunton, Jim Carter, Hayley Atwell, David Oyelowo, Naomie Harris and many others, but Menzies was just out of shot.
Had Menzies been wearing a bespoke suit, shirt, tie and nice polished shoes, the penny might have dropped for some in the media scrum.
He won an Emmy for his portrayal of Prince Philip in Seasons 3 and 4 of Netflix and Left Bank Pictures’ The Crown.
Then there’s Nicole Holofcener’s sharply observed — satisfyingly so — arch comedy You Hurt My Feelings, which is available on digital platforms in the U.S. and streaming on Prime Video in the U.K. from August 8.
Menzies sports an impressive American accent in Holofcener’s movie...
Cameras and microphones were being shoved in front of the likes of Brian Cox, Imelda Staunton, Jim Carter, Hayley Atwell, David Oyelowo, Naomie Harris and many others, but Menzies was just out of shot.
Had Menzies been wearing a bespoke suit, shirt, tie and nice polished shoes, the penny might have dropped for some in the media scrum.
He won an Emmy for his portrayal of Prince Philip in Seasons 3 and 4 of Netflix and Left Bank Pictures’ The Crown.
Then there’s Nicole Holofcener’s sharply observed — satisfyingly so — arch comedy You Hurt My Feelings, which is available on digital platforms in the U.S. and streaming on Prime Video in the U.K. from August 8.
Menzies sports an impressive American accent in Holofcener’s movie...
- 7/22/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
There’s an interview with Alan Rickman from 1991; you can find it on YouTube. At the time, he was best known for his roles as criminal mastermind Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the tyrannous Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The journalist – American – asks him, “Do you like playing villains?” The actor’s lip begins to curl. “Sure… it was fun.” He explains, patiently, that he’s done other things. The journalist ploughs on: “You don’t intend to keep playing these hyperbolic Hollywood villains?” Rickman, presumably now saying swear words in his head, replies, “Prrrrobably not”; he doesn’t think, as an actor, there’s anywhere else to go. The exchange only becomes more enjoyable once you’ve read his diaries, published today and covering his life and career from 1993 up to his death in 2016. Few things irritated Rickman quite so much as a journalist’s inane questions.
- 10/4/2022
- by Jessie Thompson
- The Independent - Film
Many Americans probably think they know all there is to know about Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, which is what makes PBS The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden so fascinating.
Debuting on Tuesday, The Frontline special presents the lives of Biden and Trump in ways that may surprise people. The focus is on moments from their lives that would shape how they responded to future challenges.
Michael Kirk, the director of The Choice, said that they approached the documentary with the question, “Could we find eight crisis points in their lives, where we could find them confronting something that they would then learn from, adopt a kind of life method from?”
A few examples: Biden’s childhood stutter forced him to become more resilient, and shed light on his ability to persevere through life tragedy and career mistakes, such as a plagiarism scandal that ended his first presidential campaign...
Debuting on Tuesday, The Frontline special presents the lives of Biden and Trump in ways that may surprise people. The focus is on moments from their lives that would shape how they responded to future challenges.
Michael Kirk, the director of The Choice, said that they approached the documentary with the question, “Could we find eight crisis points in their lives, where we could find them confronting something that they would then learn from, adopt a kind of life method from?”
A few examples: Biden’s childhood stutter forced him to become more resilient, and shed light on his ability to persevere through life tragedy and career mistakes, such as a plagiarism scandal that ended his first presidential campaign...
- 9/22/2020
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Ian Aitken’s Tribune generosity | #MeToo or #ManetToo | Armed teachers | Trigonometric mnemonics
I remember Ian Aitken (Obituary, 23 February) from Tribune rallies in the 70s. Neil Kinnock’s appeal for money at these events was compelling, but a great help to him was Aitken’s response, raising his hand with, if memory serves me, a £20 note in it, a huge sum to most of the audience. They could scarcely be mean after that. A wonderful, loyal supporter.
Dilys Carter
Alnwick, Northumberland
• Re the photo of Jennifer Lawrence and her Red Sparrow co-stars (Eyewitnessed, 23 February), is it #MeToo (a black dress) or is it Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (fully clothed men and one female exposing an expanse of flesh)? Have we moved on or haven’t we? I’m confused.
Hazel Sutcliffe
Holmes Chapel, Cheshire...
I remember Ian Aitken (Obituary, 23 February) from Tribune rallies in the 70s. Neil Kinnock’s appeal for money at these events was compelling, but a great help to him was Aitken’s response, raising his hand with, if memory serves me, a £20 note in it, a huge sum to most of the audience. They could scarcely be mean after that. A wonderful, loyal supporter.
Dilys Carter
Alnwick, Northumberland
• Re the photo of Jennifer Lawrence and her Red Sparrow co-stars (Eyewitnessed, 23 February), is it #MeToo (a black dress) or is it Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (fully clothed men and one female exposing an expanse of flesh)? Have we moved on or haven’t we? I’m confused.
Hazel Sutcliffe
Holmes Chapel, Cheshire...
- 2/25/2018
- by Letters
- The Guardian - Film News
Paul Merton has said that former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe and ex-Labour Party leader Lord Neil Kinnock were his least favourite Have I Got News for You guest hosts.
Merton has been a contributor to the BBC panel show since 1990, along with satirist Ian Hislop.
The comedian was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Friday (October 3), when he named Widdecombe and Lord Kinnock as the "two worst hosts" since the show adopted a guest presenter format.
"[Lord Kinnock] was very mistrustful of every word he saw, he potentially thought it was a trip up," Merton said, according to The Radio Times.
Merton also spoke about a notorious November 2007 episode, which saw guest host Widdecombe end up in an on-air spat with comedian Jimmy Carr.
"The first time she was on, it wasn't too bad... and everyone benefits from good editing," he explained. "But I don't think she realised how much help she was getting.
Merton has been a contributor to the BBC panel show since 1990, along with satirist Ian Hislop.
The comedian was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Friday (October 3), when he named Widdecombe and Lord Kinnock as the "two worst hosts" since the show adopted a guest presenter format.
"[Lord Kinnock] was very mistrustful of every word he saw, he potentially thought it was a trip up," Merton said, according to The Radio Times.
Merton also spoke about a notorious November 2007 episode, which saw guest host Widdecombe end up in an on-air spat with comedian Jimmy Carr.
"The first time she was on, it wasn't too bad... and everyone benefits from good editing," he explained. "But I don't think she realised how much help she was getting.
- 10/5/2014
- Digital Spy
First image released of Rhys Ifans in the new film adaptation of the iconic work by poet Dylan Thomas.
Principal photography on a feature film version of Dylan Thomas’s iconic work Under Milk Wood has wrapped in West Wales, it has been announced by Ffatti Ffilms, S4C, Goldfinch Pictures and Ffilm Cymru Wales.
Based on Thomas’s classic radio drama, the film stars Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as First Voice/Captain Cat, an old sea captain who dreams of his deceased crew members and lost love.
Directed by Kevin Allen, who made Ifans’ breakthrough film Twin Town, the six-week shoot took place in the tiny harbour village of Solva, in Pembrokeshire.
Singer Charlotte Church co-stars as Polly Garter, a woman pining for her lost lover. Other roles are taken by a host of Welsh actors with guest appearances from rugby legend Gareth Edwards and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock.
Allen and Ifans...
Principal photography on a feature film version of Dylan Thomas’s iconic work Under Milk Wood has wrapped in West Wales, it has been announced by Ffatti Ffilms, S4C, Goldfinch Pictures and Ffilm Cymru Wales.
Based on Thomas’s classic radio drama, the film stars Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as First Voice/Captain Cat, an old sea captain who dreams of his deceased crew members and lost love.
Directed by Kevin Allen, who made Ifans’ breakthrough film Twin Town, the six-week shoot took place in the tiny harbour village of Solva, in Pembrokeshire.
Singer Charlotte Church co-stars as Polly Garter, a woman pining for her lost lover. Other roles are taken by a host of Welsh actors with guest appearances from rugby legend Gareth Edwards and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock.
Allen and Ifans...
- 8/29/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
New films on Screenbase this week include thriller Long Time Coming and a new adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood.
UK thriller Long Time Coming – North vs South recently, from writer-director Steven Nesbit and producers Benjamin Foottit and Mark Foligno, recently wrapped shooting.
Cast on the feature includes Bernard Hill, Steven Berkoff, Greta Scacchi, Keith Allen, Steve Evets, Elliot Tittensor, Charlotte Hope, Geoff Bell, Oliver Cotton, Brad Moore, Freema Agyeman and Sydney Wade.
The film focusses on the battle between a group of brutal northern hard men and their southern criminal enemies, during which two star-crossed young lovers from the rival families carry out an illicit affair.
Dylan Thomas adaptation
Principal photography on an adaptation of Under Milk Wood, starring Rhys Ifans, has begun in Wales.
Based on Dylan Thomas’s classic radio drama, the film stars Ifans as First Voice/Captain Cat, an old sea captain who dreams of his deceased crew members and lost...
UK thriller Long Time Coming – North vs South recently, from writer-director Steven Nesbit and producers Benjamin Foottit and Mark Foligno, recently wrapped shooting.
Cast on the feature includes Bernard Hill, Steven Berkoff, Greta Scacchi, Keith Allen, Steve Evets, Elliot Tittensor, Charlotte Hope, Geoff Bell, Oliver Cotton, Brad Moore, Freema Agyeman and Sydney Wade.
The film focusses on the battle between a group of brutal northern hard men and their southern criminal enemies, during which two star-crossed young lovers from the rival families carry out an illicit affair.
Dylan Thomas adaptation
Principal photography on an adaptation of Under Milk Wood, starring Rhys Ifans, has begun in Wales.
Based on Dylan Thomas’s classic radio drama, the film stars Ifans as First Voice/Captain Cat, an old sea captain who dreams of his deceased crew members and lost...
- 7/2/2014
- ScreenDaily
Charlotte Church has joined the cast of an upcoming Dylan Thomas film.
Rhys Ifans leads the cast of Welsh stars in a movie version of Thomas's Under Milk Wood.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and rugby star Gareth Thomas have also joined the cast in guest roles.
Ifans will play the narrator in the film, previously played by Richard Burton in the original radio play and the 1972 version.
Church is to appear as Polly Garter, who is pining for her deceased lover.
The project is being filmed over six weeks in Solva, Pembrokeshire, with villagers to appear as extras.
Director Kevin Allen told BBC News: "We want to veer away from delivering a dull, literal reflection of Thomas's original work, intending instead to explore some of the more erotic, visceral elements of the richly funny, filthily fluid, magical dreamscape - whilst not stooping to mess with Thomas's original text.
Rhys Ifans leads the cast of Welsh stars in a movie version of Thomas's Under Milk Wood.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and rugby star Gareth Thomas have also joined the cast in guest roles.
Ifans will play the narrator in the film, previously played by Richard Burton in the original radio play and the 1972 version.
Church is to appear as Polly Garter, who is pining for her deceased lover.
The project is being filmed over six weeks in Solva, Pembrokeshire, with villagers to appear as extras.
Director Kevin Allen told BBC News: "We want to veer away from delivering a dull, literal reflection of Thomas's original work, intending instead to explore some of the more erotic, visceral elements of the richly funny, filthily fluid, magical dreamscape - whilst not stooping to mess with Thomas's original text.
- 6/26/2014
- Digital Spy
Principal photography on an adaptation of Under Milk Wood, starring Rhys Ifans, has begun in Wales.
Based on Dylan Thomas’s classic radio drama, Under Milk Wood stars Ifans as First Voice/Captain Cat, an old sea captain who dreams of his deceased crew members and lost love.
Directed by Kevin Allen, who made Ifans’ breakthrough film Twin Town, the shoot in the tiny harbour village of Solva, in Pembrokeshire, will last six weeks.
Singer Charlotte Church will co-star as Polly Garter, a woman pining for her lost lover. Other roles are taken by a host of Welsh actors with guest appearances from rugby legend Gareth Edwards and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock.
Allen and Ifans are producers of the film, along with Stephen Malit, producer of Julien Temple’s London – The Modern Babylon. Allen also contributed to the screenplay, written by Murray Lachlan Young with Michael Breen.
DoP is Andy Hollis, production designer...
Based on Dylan Thomas’s classic radio drama, Under Milk Wood stars Ifans as First Voice/Captain Cat, an old sea captain who dreams of his deceased crew members and lost love.
Directed by Kevin Allen, who made Ifans’ breakthrough film Twin Town, the shoot in the tiny harbour village of Solva, in Pembrokeshire, will last six weeks.
Singer Charlotte Church will co-star as Polly Garter, a woman pining for her lost lover. Other roles are taken by a host of Welsh actors with guest appearances from rugby legend Gareth Edwards and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock.
Allen and Ifans are producers of the film, along with Stephen Malit, producer of Julien Temple’s London – The Modern Babylon. Allen also contributed to the screenplay, written by Murray Lachlan Young with Michael Breen.
DoP is Andy Hollis, production designer...
- 6/25/2014
- ScreenDaily
He's the tabloid whipping boy turned angel of vengeance; the TV comedian who's gone serious with his new film Philomena. At 48, Steve Coogan's career is going full tilt. So why does he have a massive chip on his shoulder, with 'mushy peas and a boat of gravy on the side'? Xan Brooks finds out
One rainy Friday in October, Steve Coogan takes a trip from the Lake District to an expensive part of London. He rolls into town a man in transit, still half-dressed for the country with a yellow tweed cap pulled down round his ears. The car ferries us through sodden streets to a private members club, where a table is booked in an upstairs room. But the hostess is stricken; the place has standards. She won't let him in until he takes off the cap.
It's fitting that Coogan doesn't pass for clubhouse material. His...
One rainy Friday in October, Steve Coogan takes a trip from the Lake District to an expensive part of London. He rolls into town a man in transit, still half-dressed for the country with a yellow tweed cap pulled down round his ears. The car ferries us through sodden streets to a private members club, where a table is booked in an upstairs room. But the hostess is stricken; the place has standards. She won't let him in until he takes off the cap.
It's fitting that Coogan doesn't pass for clubhouse material. His...
- 10/26/2013
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
The latest attempt to bring Alfred Hitchcock's life to the screen paints the Master as a crafty hoodwinker triumphing over drab studio execs
F Scott Fitzgerald claimed that, back in 1920, he'd tried to persuade Dw Griffith that the film industry was a wonderful subject for the cinema. Griffith laughed at the idea, but not for the first time Fitzgerald was proved right. He went on to write a series of stories and a great unfinished novel on Hollywood, and since the silent era there has been no end to the making of movies about movie-making. Particular interest has recently been shown in Alfred Hitchcock, one of only two movie directors whose faces are immediately recognisable to popular audiences the world over. The other, of course, is Hitchcock's fellow working-class Londoner, Charlie Chaplin.
Last summer, Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo was voted the greatest film of all time in Sight...
F Scott Fitzgerald claimed that, back in 1920, he'd tried to persuade Dw Griffith that the film industry was a wonderful subject for the cinema. Griffith laughed at the idea, but not for the first time Fitzgerald was proved right. He went on to write a series of stories and a great unfinished novel on Hollywood, and since the silent era there has been no end to the making of movies about movie-making. Particular interest has recently been shown in Alfred Hitchcock, one of only two movie directors whose faces are immediately recognisable to popular audiences the world over. The other, of course, is Hitchcock's fellow working-class Londoner, Charlie Chaplin.
Last summer, Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo was voted the greatest film of all time in Sight...
- 2/10/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Throughout his illustrious and celebrated career, Sir Anthony Hopkins has stepped into the skins of many real life figures, bringing historical people back to life as he brings their stories to the screen, and it is for good reason that those performances tend to be among his most critically acclaimed. That bodes well for Hopkins, who has both Hitchcock and Hemingway & Fuentes on his upcoming schedule of work, both of which will require him to tackle iconic characters that many of the audience will be more than familiar with.
Unfortunately for Hopkins though, his track record of actually managing to look anything like his subjects is shaky at best, and worryingly poor at worst: he has one of the most recognisable faces and voices in Hollywood, and rather unfortunately for his other roles used both to perfection to embody the role of Dr Hannibal Lecter. That role was so pronounced and so decidedly physical,...
Unfortunately for Hopkins though, his track record of actually managing to look anything like his subjects is shaky at best, and worryingly poor at worst: he has one of the most recognisable faces and voices in Hollywood, and rather unfortunately for his other roles used both to perfection to embody the role of Dr Hannibal Lecter. That role was so pronounced and so decidedly physical,...
- 11/24/2012
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
Check out the latest batch of pictures from the forthcoming biopic starring Anthony Hopkins as legendary Hollywood director Alfred Hitchcock. He's joined by an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson (who plays Janet Leigh), Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Jessica Biel, Michael Stuhlbarg and James D'Arcy for the movie based on Stephen Rebello's book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. We still can't help thinking he looks more like former Labour leader Neil Kinnock.
- 11/7/2012
- Sky Movies
Russell Brand, former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and others have filed civil claims against the News International arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in the latest batch of phone hacking lawsuits. Gallery: News of the World's Top 10 Scandals The final round of legal filings made before a Friday deadline, which were made public early this week, takes the number of new civil claims to 174, the Guardian reported. News International, which used to manage the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid, is expected to see the cases go to trial next year if they are not settled. Story: Phone
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- 9/18/2012
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Awards ceremonies highlight the amateurism of modern public speeches – most are an exercise in tedium and torture
Adele's finger is not the issue. Nor is it the tyrannical "suits" who cut off the Brit Award winner's speech in full flow on Tuesday. Nor is it the power of money over human discourse or of Blur's music over Adele's oratory. The issue is that speeches go on too long. They all do. Damon Albarn rambled on interminably, leaving no time for Adele to do likewise. The rudeness was Albarn's, not the suits.
No power on earth seems able to curb the urge to speak too long. Most mature adults can, if ordered, drive more slowly, cut down on alcohol, eat less fat and try to love cats. But put them before an audience with a microphone in their hand and, however nervous, they end up speaking too long. Their audience may...
Adele's finger is not the issue. Nor is it the tyrannical "suits" who cut off the Brit Award winner's speech in full flow on Tuesday. Nor is it the power of money over human discourse or of Blur's music over Adele's oratory. The issue is that speeches go on too long. They all do. Damon Albarn rambled on interminably, leaving no time for Adele to do likewise. The rudeness was Albarn's, not the suits.
No power on earth seems able to curb the urge to speak too long. Most mature adults can, if ordered, drive more slowly, cut down on alcohol, eat less fat and try to love cats. But put them before an audience with a microphone in their hand and, however nervous, they end up speaking too long. Their audience may...
- 2/24/2012
- by Simon Jenkins
- The Guardian - Film News
Wishy-washy and unfocused, Phyllida Lloyd's Margaret Thatcher biopic fails to embody the indomitable spirit of its subject
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: C
Margaret Thatcher was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
Structure
The Iron Lady tells its story as a series of flashbacks experienced by the ageing Thatcher (Meryl Streep), suffering from dementia and haunted by the imagined ghost of her late husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent). Streep is terrific, carrying off Thatcher in her prime and Thatcher in her dotage with equal aplomb. Regrettably, however, so much of the film's screentime has been devoted to the dotage – and so many of the flashbacks are, unlike Thatcher herself, preoccupied with her role as a wife and mother – that little time is left for the interesting stuff. A few of those who are relegated to blink-and-you'll-miss-'em status, or don't appear at all: Cecil Parkinson, Nigel Lawson,...
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: C
Margaret Thatcher was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
Structure
The Iron Lady tells its story as a series of flashbacks experienced by the ageing Thatcher (Meryl Streep), suffering from dementia and haunted by the imagined ghost of her late husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent). Streep is terrific, carrying off Thatcher in her prime and Thatcher in her dotage with equal aplomb. Regrettably, however, so much of the film's screentime has been devoted to the dotage – and so many of the flashbacks are, unlike Thatcher herself, preoccupied with her role as a wife and mother – that little time is left for the interesting stuff. A few of those who are relegated to blink-and-you'll-miss-'em status, or don't appear at all: Cecil Parkinson, Nigel Lawson,...
- 12/29/2011
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
Hour-long film made for Save the Children in 1969 will be shown as part of major retrospective at the British Film Institute
The veteran film director Ken Loach is used to having his works banned, but none have previously had to wait more than 40 years for a public showing.
His television documentaries on trade unions in the 1980s were pulled from broadcasting and his film Hidden Agenda found few cinemas willing to show it. In September, however, an hour-long documentary film that he made for the Save the Children charity in 1969 is finally to get an airing as part of a major retrospective at the British Film Institute (BFI).
The reasons for the ban remain obscure. It seems to have had something to do with the director's pugnacious take on race, class and charity in a capitalist society, or perhaps the quotation from Engels that prefaced what was supposed to be...
The veteran film director Ken Loach is used to having his works banned, but none have previously had to wait more than 40 years for a public showing.
His television documentaries on trade unions in the 1980s were pulled from broadcasting and his film Hidden Agenda found few cinemas willing to show it. In September, however, an hour-long documentary film that he made for the Save the Children charity in 1969 is finally to get an airing as part of a major retrospective at the British Film Institute (BFI).
The reasons for the ban remain obscure. It seems to have had something to do with the director's pugnacious take on race, class and charity in a capitalist society, or perhaps the quotation from Engels that prefaced what was supposed to be...
- 7/21/2011
- by Stephen Bates
- The Guardian - Film News
Like his characters, Robert Harris has often found himself close to news in the making. As his 'Tony Blair' novel hits the cinema, he reveals why his friendship with Roman Polanski has lasted, but his affair with New Labour has not
Tony Blair is not on record as having read Robert Harris's 2007 novel The Ghost, a rip-snorting thriller about an ostentatiously groovy ex-prime minister accused of war crimes after secretly approving the transfer of British al-Qaida suspects to Guantánamo Bay, and the ghostwriter hired to write his memoirs. Perhaps Blair got the book out on John Prescott's library card, or happened upon a copy in Silvio Berlusconi's downstairs loo. All that really matters is that he knows of the novel's existence. It was in regard to The Ghost, after all, that he described its author as "a cheeky fuck". The 53-year-old Harris chuckles so warmly...
Tony Blair is not on record as having read Robert Harris's 2007 novel The Ghost, a rip-snorting thriller about an ostentatiously groovy ex-prime minister accused of war crimes after secretly approving the transfer of British al-Qaida suspects to Guantánamo Bay, and the ghostwriter hired to write his memoirs. Perhaps Blair got the book out on John Prescott's library card, or happened upon a copy in Silvio Berlusconi's downstairs loo. All that really matters is that he knows of the novel's existence. It was in regard to The Ghost, after all, that he described its author as "a cheeky fuck". The 53-year-old Harris chuckles so warmly...
- 4/4/2010
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Film stars Alan Rickman, Jeremy Irons and Emilia Fox came together in London to pay tribute to the late Sir John Mortimer on Tuesday.
The trio were among hundreds of mourners, including actors, politicians and members of British royalty, who gathered at Southwark Cathedral for the beloved author's memorial service.
Mortimer's actress daughter Emily, who lives in New York, was forced to miss the ceremony - because she is heavily pregnant with her second child.
Lord Kinnock, one of Mortimer's closest friends, paid tribute to his pal, describing him as an "illuminating" star.
He told the assembled crowd, "He illuminated our lives, he lit up our times. Rejoice in him and be thankful."
Mortimer died in January following a long illness.
The trio were among hundreds of mourners, including actors, politicians and members of British royalty, who gathered at Southwark Cathedral for the beloved author's memorial service.
Mortimer's actress daughter Emily, who lives in New York, was forced to miss the ceremony - because she is heavily pregnant with her second child.
Lord Kinnock, one of Mortimer's closest friends, paid tribute to his pal, describing him as an "illuminating" star.
He told the assembled crowd, "He illuminated our lives, he lit up our times. Rejoice in him and be thankful."
Mortimer died in January following a long illness.
- 11/18/2009
- WENN
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