Timothy Spall | ChicanePictures

The Caretaker

When it premiered in 1960, Harold Pinter’s first big hit, THE CARETAKER changed the face of modern theatre. The psychological study of the confluence of power, allegiance, innocence and corruption among two brothers, Aston and Mick and the homeless hobo Davis. The Old Vic’s latest revival, directed by Matthew Warchus stars Timothy Spall, who specialises in characters outside the social norms He plays Davis, the classic Pinter outsider,disruptive, insistent, menacing yet pathetic. Daniel Mays is the kindly Aston and George MacKay portrays the brutal brother Mick, who exposes Davis as an ‘Artful Dodger.’

I caught up with Daniel and George during a passing shower, under the protection of a cheap umbrella at the stage door and Timothy a week later in drier conditions. All three were happy to sign this sketch.

Timothy Spall

Timothy Spall won a number of International awards including Best Actor at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, for his performance as the eccentric landscape painter J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s celebrated biographical drama MR. TURNER. Inexplicably, he missed out on Oscar and BAFTA noms.

When I saw the images from The film and Timothy’s performance I just had to capture that face and his portrayal with my trusty 4B lead. The controversial British Romanticist was renowned for his work in oils, but he was one of the greatest masters of British watercolour painting, elevating the landscape genre to an eminence rivalling history painting.

Known as ‘the painter of light’, Turner was considered a Romantic preface to Impressionism, my favourite period. As homage to this I have taken the rare turn of added a ‘dusting’ of sunset hues with my less trusty coloured pencils to my usual monochromatic studies.

After appearing over the past two decades in film roles such as ‘Wormtail’ in the HARRY POTTER series and Winston Churchill in THE KING’S SPEECH, Timothy returned to the stage as the rugged tramp Davies in Harold Pinter’s THE CARETAKER at London’s Old Vic. I meet one of Britain’s best-loved and most-talented character actors at the stage door on Saturday prior to the matinee and he happily signed this sketch for me.