Drawing: The Inbetweeners

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The boys are back for their final instalment. The Inbetweeners 2 movie had its London Premiere at the Vue Cinema yesterday and the Rudge Park Comprehensive quartet of Will, Simon, Jay and Neil all attended masquerading as actors Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison. After the award winning TV series and the first movie in 2011 the lads have reached cult status.

The quickest of quick sketches just to capture their likeness. It was a last minute decision to attend with half and hour to draw, race to the train, (which was cancelled), get the re-scheduled service which chugged into town. Made it to a public pen near the drop off point, six rows deep, thinking this is not a good idea. Getting one siggy, let alone four, looked like mission impossible. Minutes later a big black car arrives and all four slip out, doing the obligatory group photo, then move around the line. Blake slipped past first, and if it wasn’t for Robert (a fellow grapher) grabbing my sketch and hurtling himself to the front, accompanied by a shrill, “Blake Blake Blake!” I would have missed. A young guy in front of me wanted to high five them, so I said to him, “As you do that could you also point to this sketch,” which I conveniently held up next to him. It worked and I got all four – Simon even dedicated. Mission accomplished.

Drawing: Nigel Havers in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The quintessential English charmer, Nigel Havers is 62, and returns to a role he played at 26 in Oscar Wilde’s classic farce The Importance of Being Earnest at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. Wilde’s masterpiece has some additional material added by Simon Brett as a framing device to enable older actors to play younger roles.

Nigel originally player Algernon Moncrieff in Peter Hall’s 1982 production at the National alongside Martin Jarvis, who also reprises his role as Jack Worthing.

The latest re-imagining revolves around The Bunbury Company of Players, an amateur troupe of veteran thesps performing a dress rehearsal. In one of the added lines, someone suggests that the ageing roué is not really an actor, Nigel’s character quips, “that’s true of so many who make a living at it.” And he has made a good fist of it over a 30 year career playing smoothies, gentlemen and cads, in such films as A Passage to India, Empire of the Sun and Chariots of Fire, plus a string of small screen roles – his latest being the charismatic con-artist Lewis Archer in Corrie.

Nigel is always on the go. On the number of occasions our paths have crossed he has definitely taken the fast lane. But, he always has time to sign. Just as well he has a swift siggy to complement his famous charm.

Drawing: Jonathan Pryce in The Caretaker at Trafalgar Studios

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce is equally at home on screen and stage. Critically lauded for his versatility, Jonathan’s breakthrough film performance was in Terry Gilliam’s 1985 cult film Brazil. Five years earlier he won the Olivier Award for his title role in the Royal Court’s production of Hamlet. In his Broadway debut he won the Tony for Comedians in 1997. He collected his second Olivier and Tony for playing the engineer in Miss Saigon.

Jonathan’s filmography includes The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, Evita, Glengarry Glen Ross, Tomorrow Never Dies and Carrington, for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes. Jonathan was also nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role as Henry Kravis in the 1993 television film Barbarians At The Gate.

While starring in the National’s My Fair Lady his co-star Martine McCutcheon was so frequently absent that he made an appeal form the stage for any member of the audience who fancied playing Eliza to make themselves known.

In 2010 he played Davies, the loquacious tramp in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker at the Trafalgar Studios in London. It transferred from an initial run at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre. He had previously appeared in the National Theatre’s 1981 production of the play in the role of Mick, the dangerous young hustler. “It’s one of those plays you graduate through in the course of your life,” Jonathan was quoted.

Drawing: Bryan Cranston in All The Way on Broadway

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Bryan Cranston won this year’s Tony award for his portrayal of the former US president Lyndon B Johnson in the play All The Way at the Neil SImon Theatre on Broadway. The title of the play takes its name from Johnson’s 1964 campaign slogan ‘All The Way With LBJ’.

It was a good year for winning awards. His role as Walter White in Breaking Bad earned him a Golden Globe, after five nominations. It was a role he had previously won three consecutive Emmys for.

Bryan attended the May premiere of Godzilla at the Odeon in Leicester Square. I had hoped to get him to sign it in person. Alas, I missed, so sent i tot him at the theatre in New York, where he kindly signed and returned it.

Drawing: Penn and Teller

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Two of my favourite entertainers – in fact, the world’s favourite entertainers – are the magical and comical duo of Penn and Teller. The American illusionists Penn Jillette and Raymond Teller celebrated 40 years in the business with a five night gig this month at London’s Eventim Apollo.

They have been the resident headliners at the Rio in Las Vegas since 2001, and appear regularly on the small screen, including a show called ‘Bullshit!’. The 2,494th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to them in April 2013.

Drawing: Neil Morrissey as Fagin in Oliver!

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Best known for playing the role of Tony in Men Behaving Badly, British actor Neil Morrissey took on one of the all time crims as Fagin, my dears, in the sell-out UK touring production of Lionel Barts classic musical Oliver! He steals the show, leading his gang of young thieves thorugh memorable numbers such as ‘You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two’.

At 12, Neil was placed under a care order and legally separated from his parents, spending most of his time in a children’s home. He apparently has numerous tattoos. on his left arm is his first name and a blob which was intended to be his initials, but got infected and required an anti-tetanus shot on. A squiggle, meant to be the reversed version of “The Saint” logo is on the other arm. Legend has it that the inkings were done by other boys at the home, who in a sense of camaraderie, seeing he had no tats, offered him a choice – tattoos or a beating. He is quoted as saying he should have taken the other option.

Oh yes, and until recently he was the voice of Bob the Builder. For the last month of its West End run, Neil reunited with fellow Men Behaving Badly star Caroline Quentin, in Noël Coward’s Relative Values at the Pinter in London. It finished last week, but I caught up with Neil after at the stage door. He signed the sketch I did of him and Caroline, then I showed him this one, he said, “Blimey!” which I think is Midlander for Wow! Either way, he signed it. I also told him the result of one of the World Cup Games played earlier, whcih he was about to go and watch the replay of… oops.

Drawing: Ian McDiarmid and Kathleen Turner in Bakersfield Mist at the Duchess Theatre

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Bakersfield Mist marks the return to the London stage of multi award winner Kathleen Turner for the first time since her tour-deforce performance in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She plays opposite Olivier and Tony winner Ian McDiarmid.

Inspired by true events, Stephen Sachs new play debates the nature of authenticity. Kathleen plays Maude, a boozy ex-bartender living in a Bakersfield trailer park who picks up what she claims is a Jackson Pollock for five bucks while trawling through a junk shop.

Ian is Lionel, a lecturer in Abstract Expressionism at Princeton University who is asked to verify the painting or declare it a fake. The play goes beyond the painting. It’s a culture clash between a woman desperately seeking validation for her life and a snobbish connoisseur of fine art. Which one is real?

While I was drawing the sketch I was reminded of Kathleen’s infamous line as the uncredited voice of Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit’s flirtatious toon wife in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? In an interview she said it was just fun to do and that line was too good to pass up. Apparently half her autograph requests are to sign Jessica photos.

I met Kathleen and Ian after Wednesday’s (18 June) evening performance at the Duchess Theatre. They both liked the sketch and were happy to sign it. I was tempted to ask Kathleen to write her Jessica line, but maybe I’ll keel that request for another sketch. I think The Graduate would be more appropriate.

Drawing: Stephen Daldry

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Stephen Daldry is one of the greatest contemporary directors for both stage and screen. On the few occasions I have met him, he has always been charming and generous with his time. He’s been spending most of that time recently at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre directing the revival of David Hare’s Skylight.

On screen his four films Billy Elliot (2000), The Hours (2002), The Reader (2008) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) have all been nominated for Best Picture Oscars and his first three films garnered him Best Director nods.

His stage credits include Billy Elliot, The Musical, An Inspector Calls, Machinal and this year’s sell out at the Gielgud, The Audience with Helen Mirren – acknowledged with two Olivier Awards and a Tony.

Stephen likes a ciggy or two so he spent some time outside the theatre during Wednesday night’s Skylight opening.

“You’re a sweet man, Mark,” he said to me when I asked him to sign this sketch and told him I really liked his work, momentarily replacing the cigarette with a sharpie to complete the request.

Drawing: Patricia Hodge in Relative Values at Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

“I always wanted to perform, but I was terribly nervous, which creates a barrier between you and the audience” British actress Patricia Hodge said of when she first tread the boards at the Bush Theatre in the mid-seventies. She obviously broke that barrier at the small, intimate theatre and went on to a stellar stage and screen career.

Best known to TV viewers as Phyllida (Trant) Erskine-Brown, the “Portia of our Chambers” in John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey, who usually sided with Rumpole, eventually becoming a QC and then a judge. She also featured in BBCs Miranda from 2009-2013.

After earlier nominations, she eventually won the Olivier Award in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress in Money.

Patricia is currently at the Harold Pinter Theatre in Noel Coward’s Relative Values directed by Trevor Nunn until this weekend (21 June). She signed my sketch after last night’s performance.

Drawing: Anne Hathaway “a-y”

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Anne Hathaway is the same height as me, so theoretically that should be a perfect symmetry to get a siggy – no adjusting up or down, straight forward. However, add in the Westfield shopping complex , a gazillion dealers and collectors, and the symmetry plus a few bones can be broken.

For a split second I was in the perfect position at the One Day premiere at the Vue Cinema in August 2011. The 28 year old (as she was then) was happily signing everything – as she does – moving quickly down the line. A moment of symmetry in front of me, but it was no ordered structure. No harmony, no proportion and certainly no balance! She did see the sketch, albeit briefly as a cascade of virgins items arrived waiting for her mark, covering my artwork.

However, a fraction of my A4 paper was exposed and she quickly initialed the sketch. Whether she connected the paper with the drawing is a matter of conjecture. It’s certainly an ‘autograph’ (self writing) but not a common signature (the usual way people sign their name).

I got an ‘A’ and a ‘y’ in the most abbreviated graph I’ve ever seen. Still, it’s the beginning and the end of her name and I was in the middle. Perfect symmetry. As I always say to disappointed collectors who get a hurried scrawl, you need to get variations of the person’s signature to have a balanced collection.

PS – at the Les Misérables premiere I did get a beautiful graph and dedicated in much more convivial surrounds.