West Side Story star goes Oop North by way of Cardiff........!

And here's another of my irregular old interviews from my journalist days....This time it's from 1996 when I met up with Hollywood star George Chakiris backstage in Cardiff's New Theatre...

'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’; Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend' as a distinguished looking man holds out a string of diamonds to her.

A trio of young Puerto Ricans pick their way through the decaying back streets of 50's New York. Their speed picks up as the music builds and their leader, a tall, handsome guy, better tailored than the rest, explodes into a balletic mix of dance and street machismo that leads into the opening titles of ‘West Side Story’.

Jane Eyre looks out of a window across the wind-blasted grounds of Thornfield Hall, trembling as she remembers the manic laughter that drifted down from the forbidden upper floor.

Then she stiffens; the shadow of her employer, the mysterious and taciturn Mr. Rochester has fallen across her.

Three very different roles, one actor. Then again, Oscar winner (for ‘West Side Story’) George Chakiris is one of those talented players who refuses to be pigeon-holed and is equally at home in any of the theatrical disciplines.

With all this experience behind him it's perhaps not that surprising that his very first professional engagement was as a boy soprano.

"Oh yes,' he smiles. “I grew up in Arizona where I attended a local church. But when I was 12 my family moved to Long Beach, California, and my Arizona choir-master absolutely demanded that I should go to the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and audition for them. I did, was accepted, and was thrilled to discover that the choir regularly featured in movies.

My first film was called 'Song Of love' (l947) and starred a young Katherine Hepburn."

Movies

Growing up in Arizona and then Florida, George`s whole world was movies.

"When I was a kid I never heard of the theatre or even ballet. Los Angeles then and now, was and is a cultural desert for live entertainment. So movies were the whole world to me.  I used to walk home singing the songs and trying to remember the dance steps."

Surprisingly, George hadn`t envisioned dance as playing so large a part in his career.

“I had gone along after school on the off-chance, and I saw this wonderful, wonderful, dance school. I was hooked and so I got a job downtown in an ad agency as a messenger and attended class by night."

This led him back before the cameras.

"I had always intended to be an actor, but my first professional job was in the chorus of 'Brigadoon', and from there I went on to about a dozen others including 'Meet Me In Las Vegas' and 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' with Marilyn Monroe - I danced with her again in 'There's No Business Like Show Business' - a movie with Debbie Reynolds called ‘Give A Girl A Break`, and a little film called ‘White Christmas."

Was Marilyn as difficult to work with as they say?

"I personally never had any problems with her, shall we say. The thing to remember is that in those days she wasn't the legend she is today. She was a major star, yes, but she wasn`t MARILYN MONROE. She seemed to be thoroughly professional, and thoroughly together in her head. Poor Marilyn."

Then of course came ‘West Side Story`. Even though this was the role that would make his name, George didn't actually want to play the part of 'Bernardo', leader of the Sharks, in the movie.

"That`s right, I wanted to play the part that I played on stage - in London, if you can believe that - of Riff, leader of the Jets.  Really, I hadn`t expected movie dancing to be a large part in my life anymore as I had moved to New York by then hoping to find work on the Broadway stage.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. West Side Story had been running on Broadway for a year, I was sleeping on a friends couch, and the chance came to audition for the London stage production.

Now theatre casting can be far more adventurous than film or television casting, and I ended up as Riff even though I'm dark haired."

And yet George didn't decide to capitalise on his Oscar-winning theatrical success, but instead went off in other directions.

"l decided to concentrate on my acting and started this roller-coaster ride that is my career and is still not slowing down.

What would he say were the highlights of his career?

“A musical ironically, ‘The Young Ladies of Rochefort`, that I made in France in |967 with one of my heroes, the late, great Gene Kelly. Also I played ‘Dracula' on stage, again in London, and that was something I would never have been considered for in the US.

I must say that, ultimately I prefer stage to screen. Some of the best moments of my life have been on stage, like last year where I played the French diplomat in the British National Tour of 'M. Butterfly' - I always seem to come back to England don`t I? - or in one of the many theatre shows I played at home like `Guys and Dolls`, ‘Camelot,' or ‘The King And l’."

Ambitions

After all that he’s done, has he any ambitions left?

“Well, I do have one. I love the Merchant - Ivory productions - what I call those classic English movies. I would love to be in one of those, but as an American, it`s unlikely."

Many people would have thought it unlikely for him to have played Mr. Rochester.

How did it feel to be offered the part?

"Scared, amazed, originally, then scared, I mean, here I was, an American about to step into the shoes of one of the great British romantic heroes."

One last question, and it`s the one that has to be asked, cliché though it is. Does he still dance?

"Oh yes. I still attend class every day. it`s a part of my life now. It keeps me limber, and I feel all the better for it."

It obviously works. As you can see by looking at his youthful appearance. Amazingly, George will be 63 next birthday.

Pen: John Sinclair

The day Craig Charles pulled a gun on me...... with 700 witnesses....

In 1996 I took my life in my hands and went along to Cardiff's Student Union building to do a sit-down interview with Red Dwarf's Lister himself ....

 A laughable showdown with Craig Charles

It`s not often that someone pulls a gun on me. Even less often does it happen in front of 700 people. And never has the other end of the gun, the bit that does the horrible `hammer-smacking-percussion-cap` bit been in the rock-steady hand of a famous comedian: Craig Charles, poet, comedian, star of `Red Dwarf', top radio jock. Who smiles. And says the magic words; "I hate the ****ing press." The audience thought it was hysterical. And it had all started so well.....

I had turned up on time, caught up with the crew in their dressing room, checked everything was going to be okay for later, and had double-checked that the security guards out front knew that I was going to be taking pictures for the first five minutes.

Unfortunately this meant that Craig knew I was going to be out there; an easy target...

Dead on time, Craig bounded out on stage; an ebullient, wide-grinned character with exactly the same haircut he always wears. Carrying a gun.

He aimed it at the audience, fired off a few pretend shots, then saw me..... He pointed it at me, said those magic words. Then.... Bang!

It's amazing how loud a blank can be.

Luckily he ran off around the stage then, launching into his stand-up routine while I frantically shot off more pictures. His routine is a dazzling blend of off-the-wall comedy, weird reminiscences about growing up in Liverpool with a psychopathic older brother who used to cry if no-one would have a knife-fight with him on the way home from kindergarten (he`s a police Inspector now), speculations on life, (why don`t people who believe in reincarnation leave their money to themselves?) and surprisingly sad, vulnerable poetry about women and his childhood.

He pulled a girl out of the audience, (Babe alert! Babe alert!) then delivered an unexpectedly tender poem about how he would love to explore the inner, as well as the outer, contours of her being...

After the show he did a signing session, and he kept up his good humour all the way through it, cracking up when a girl pulled tip her shirt and said ‘sign this` (‘I never thought l`d envy a pen ....’ he murmured) and putting his moniker on the various bits of paper, video covers, books, bus tickets, pound of flesh, etc., put before him.

We spoke later in his dressing room where he cracked open a can of beer and inhaled it in one motion.

Smaller than you`d expect, but as they say, perfectly formed. He`s a rarity; a genuinely nice guy, one of those types that are happier performing in front of 1000 students than sitting around a table talking to one, er, journo.... He fiddled slightly with his cuffs and looked all around the room as we talked but then quickly relaxed. I asked him how he considered himself; poet, comedian, actor, what?

“A jammy ******* I reckon,’ laughed, leaning back against the scabby wall and gratefully throwing his heavy crombie into the arms of a surprised roadie.

“No seriously, an entertainer. I started out as a poet, got dragged sideways into stand-up, fetched up as an actor and then got into presenting. But entertainer is what I see myself as.

“One of the problems with this business is that you tend to get pigeon-holed and then they can’t see you in anything else (NOTE: this was many years before Coronation Street). I spread myself around a bit.”

Mention was made of a friend who had come along because she loved his poetry.

“That’s great, because, like I said, that was my first love. Thing is, I started using it as a vehicle for my humour, then that took over, and the poetry got sidelined, and now I'm back trying to get people laugh through my poetry; y’know, trying to get 360 degrees of life in my poetry.’

The audience loved you and it was a surprise the way you worked your rape case into your act.

“Aye, well, the public, bless ‘em, knew it was all rubbish, and they've been behind me all the way. If they thought otherwise. I wouldn't be here now talking to you. It was the same with the convicts; they were fine about it. A rape charge normally means that you`re in big trouble, but no, they were great. Even if one big guy l thought was going to flatten me only came over and said. `‘ey;  ain't you that Gary Wilmot!` I think I would have preferred the beating!”

You definitely have reasons to hate the press.

"The tabloids. certainly. I mean, the stuff they wrote about me! One headline, `Craig Charles slept with forty strippers!` I thought, yeah, in your dreams mate! I've just had my first holiday in two years, two weeks in the Caribbean, and the swines followed me everywhere!"

Ahem. yes. Time to change the subject. How did the acting come along?

“It all comes back to comedy; I was doing ‘Saturday Live’ with Ben Elton, and the producer Paul Jackson came up to me and said that there was this character he thought I could play in this sitcom called ‘Red Dwarf’. Now, I’d never done any acting in my life, but I went along, and because of that I've got lots more work, so people tend to see me more as an actor now. Like I said; pigeon-holing you in what you did last."

What is next in the Craig Charles itinerary?

"Oh, I`ve got the next two years pretty well bottled up. We finish this tour then it`s right into the next eight episodes of ‘Red Dwarf`, followed by a sitcom of my own called ‘Captain Butler’ where I play a pirate. Then it`s into a few months more of ‘The Governor`, and back into eight more `Dwarf's`; I've a chat-show to do called ‘Craig’s Funky Bunker’, and I intend to shoe-horn 120 live dates in there for sometime next year, so... After that, I think I’ll have a breakdown as way of a rest."

So that was that. As we left a pair of security guards stopped him and timidly asked for his autograph. He grinned wickedly and went into a little routine for them about the run-ins he used to have with their kind as a kid. When he finally left they were weak with laughter.

That’s Craig Charles for you.

He`ll talk to anyone.

Even the Press.

The Odd Couple.. plus one!

Some new old interviews from over the years..

Over the last more than twenty-odd (often very odd) years of working as a journalist I have met and interviewed a lot of big names ranging from TV and Movie stars to rock stars to authors and producers, etc.. etc....

Anyway, every week I'm going to publish here on my Blog some of the best or more interesting ones of them.

I won't run some of my least favourite interviews...no names, no pack drill, but...there was the one where a very well known male singer tried very hard to get off with me... I won't post another where a big name actor with a lovable, friendly image was one of the most objectionable, rude oafs I ever met,  and can't run one (as it never happened) where the very big name comedian/actor reckoned that even though I'm mixed race I wasn't Black enough to do an interview with him....! 
....and I definitely won't include the one where a fading sex-goddess asked me back for a drink at her place and I chickened out. Something to do with the fact my girlfriend was waiting for me outside....



Anyhow, this first one from 1996 is one of my favourites, prompted by the imminent arrival of a new TV update of the show starring Matthew Perry from Friends....

ODDFELLAS

They started playing the parts on Broadway thirty years ago, went with it to television where it ran for five years in the early 70's and now they’re on the London stage reprising their roles as slobbish sports writer Oscar who takes in his best friend, the prissy and neurotic Felix, who has just been thrown out by his long suffering wife.

John Sinclair chats to that older Odd Couple Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

            Mention the hit play/ film/ TV series The Odd Couple to people and they automatically start whistling that irritatingly catchy theme tune. And so it was that I found myself walking through London's Whitehall on my way to interview the neurotic half of the twosome, whistling that damn tune and wishing it would go away.

            Probably best known for his many major film roles with everyone from Jayne Mansfield to Doris Day to Marilyn Monroe, Tony Randall has also starred on Broadway and on TV where he had his own show as long ago as 1953.

            They say that life seldom imitates art but if there was ever an actor destined to play the odder of the Odd Couple, Tony Randall is that man. His rented flat was a marvel of taste and restraint with everything just so, and Tony himself dapper in cravat, loafers and slacks.

            We began by talking about how the show was being received.

            “Oh,’ he laughed, “all the reviews were great, but all of them said how Jack and I were too old to play the characters! Seriously though, I think that Neil Simon’s play is so sharply written, so deep, that it’s universal. It doesn't matter how old we are or how decrepit; if anything maturity brings a new depth to the parts.”

            On the subject of growing up gracefully – or not, as the case may be, somehow Marilyn Monroe cropped up in the conversation.

            “Marilyn? She was a pain in the ass! You know, I don`t think anyone who ever worked with her could be tortured into saying a good word about her. You’d show up for make-up at 8.30 and she’d show up at five. Let me put it like this, the shine went off the situation very quickly.”

            Tony had worked with another great 50’s sex symbol; Jayne Mansfield in Will Success spoil Rock Hunter.

            “Dear old Jayne, what a woman! It’s sad, but she was really a take-off of Marilyn, but then Marilyn was a take-off of Marilyn! When Marilyn died, so did Jaynes’ career. The funny thing about that film is it reminds me of Groucho Marx. The closing line of the film is "You Bet Your life”, his TV catch phrase at the time.

            "Now, about 20 years later they started to re-run his old game show You Bet Your Life, and America went crazy over him again - and he was a very old man by then. Anyway, my 12 year old nephew Ben was besotted with him, and one day I ended up having dinner with Groucho. I took along a little tape recorder, and asked him to say a few words for my nephew. Well, he leaned forward, picked up the machine and said. ‘Hello Ben .... you son of a bitch!”

            “The boy took the cassette to school and played it to everyone.”

            Later, as we were leaving the building when he discovered I was Welsh he burst into song. In Welsh....! Everyone in the crowded lobby stopped to listen and applaud, and he told me that he had learnt that more than thirty years ago for the Broadway production of The Corn Is Green.

            On discovering that I didn't speak the language he shrugged and said, “Darn, I've been waiting all these years to find out what I was singing about!”

            What was that about ideal casting? Where Tony’s apartment was light, airy and neat, Jack’s dressing room was untidy, poky and eerily like Oscar’s apartment in the play.

            After he finally found somewhere for me to sit we talked about his amazing career.

            The list of people he has worked with is incredible; everyone from Rod Steiger to Jack Lemmon, but mention Henry Fonda and his eyes light up.

            He sat back in his chair and chuckled, a deep throaty gurgle, unaffected by the surgery he had for cancer a few years ago. “If it wasn't for him, maybe I wouldn't be where I am today. After l did a play with him in ‘52, he asked me what I was going to do. I said I’d had some Hollywood offers and he stopped me right there and said to go back to New York and work at it. I was good, he said, but Hollywood would ruin me.”

            Jack came out with a surprising titbit; he had actually acted with Humphrey Bogart!

            “Yeah, we did The Petrified Forest for TV in 1954, and Betty Bacall played the Bette Davis part and I was one of the hoodlums. Let me tell you, Bogey was short, bald, scarred, but he was the sexiest man who ever lived. You couldn't keep your eyes off him!

             “He gave me the second best piece of advice I ever had. He said he was about to do ten guaranteed weeks at re-shoots on The Left Hand Of God, and I said ‘so they guarantee you ten weeks?'. And he grabs my arm, really hurting me, pulls my face to his and growls in that Bogart voice. 'No kid, I'm guaranteeing them ten weeks!'

            Despite everything he is still best remembered for and as Quincy the medical pathologist of the mid-seventies.

            “I loved that show! And you know, we managed to get laws passed because of that show. We got Congress to allow pharmaceutical companies tax breaks to research rare diseases. Man, that was fun. Hard work though – I ended up producing as well as starring, but man, the rewards were huge.”

            The show that evening was as fresh today as the day it premièred in 1967. The pairing of Randall and Klugman was a classic example of opposites attract; their different persona's fairly crackled off each other.

            Despite their ages, despite their familiarity with the play, these two consummate professionals gave the packed audience a night they’ll never forget.

And there’s nothing odd about that.

Pen: John Sinclair

Just published!

Here's a link and the cover to my new book available from Amazon today

Merve, The Druid's Boy is the first volume in Roma Cymru, my new series featuring Merve's remarkable adventures in Roman Britain - and other historical places and times...!

Oh; and as it's for the youth market it's under my pen name of Jacky Sinclair (see My Bio column on right)...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Merve-Druids-Roma-Cymru-Book-ebook/dp/B00RY3EHBY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1420721223&sr=1-1&keywords=Jacky+sinclair 

It’s the Third Century AD, and at the settled and mostly peaceful Romano-British fort of Cae’r Dydd, Merve, the son of the Roman Animal Doctor and a Druid Princess is free to get on with his usual chores: tending to his own growing menagerie, swotting up on his homework and on Imperial culture ... and keeping out of the way of his eccentric but powerful Druid teacher and mentor, Caradoc.

But when mad Senator Virilius arrives from Rome intending to take over control of an abandoned outpost up in Caledonia and create his own kingdom north of the frontier – intending on killing his old enemy Paul, Merve’s Pa, in the process – Caradoc has to bring his own plans forward, and initiate the boy early into his destiny as Holder of the Grimoire, the sacred depository of all the hidden knowledge of the Druids...

And so begins an epic adventure that will take the boy right across the face of the Empire, make him discover his amazing affinity with animals – especially his white tiger Shadow (rescued from the arena....), and then  forward in time as far as the 20^th Century and the World War Two Blitzkrieg of the huge town that grows from his humble settlement.....

The Boy Of Two Worlds - and Two Times!

Final Art!

Early Notice!

At left is the final art for my new book 'Merve, the Druid's Boy' which will be available through Amazon Wednesday, January 7th.

Aimed at a younger / teen audience, this is the story of a boy born in second century Britain to a Roman father and a Druid mother, but his tale really begins when he discovers that he is heir to a mystical tome that contains all the secret knowledge of the Druids, and that a rogue member of his own faith intends to steal that arcane information to make himself a God!

Add in a crazy Senator who has come to murder Merve's father and proclaim himself dictator of his own kingdom beyond the reaches of the Roman Empire and you have the makings of an exciting adventure that starts in the ancient past and then jumps forward to the World War Two blitz.....

Coming Soon .... Again!

NOT FINAL ART!

Hello all!

Here is the nearly-finished art* for the cover of my new children's / young adult novel, Merv The Druid Boy.

It will be available in mid-December on Kindle and in paperback in the new year.

It’s the Third Century AD at the Britannic settlement of Cae’r Dydd, and Merv, the son of the Roman fort’s animal doctor and a native Princess is free to get on with his usual chores: tending to his own menagerie of animals, swotting up on Imperial culture ... and keeping out of the way of his Druid teacher and mentor, Caradoc.

But when mad Senator Virilius** arrives from Rome intending to take over control of an abandoned outpost up in Caledonia and create his own kingdom north of the frontier – intending on killing his old enemy Paulus, Merv’s Pa, in the process – Merv’s teacher has to bring his own plans forward, and initiate the boy early into his destiny as Holder of the Grimoire, the sacred depository of all the hidden knowledge of the Druids...

And so begins an epic adventure that will take the boy right across the face of the Empire, make him discover his amazing affinity with animals – especially his white tiger Shadow (rescued from the arena....), and then  backwards and forwards in time as far as the 20^th Century and the devastating aerial bombing of the huge town that grew from his small fort.....

*with special thanks to Aled Hughes for his modelling skills...

** ..and Virilius is a genuine Roman cognomen, or surname. Honest!

'Look into my eyes!' An eye-opening conversation with the real man behind 'Pepper's Ghost'...

‘It’s all Dr Who and Johnny Ball’s fault. I wanted to be the Master and take over the world and Johnny Ball showed me how to do it......’

 An open-minded conversation with hypnotist and actor Paul Dawkins, the real-life inspiration behind the character ‘Mr Millennium’ in my book ‘Pepper’s Ghost’....

Paul is a man of many parts – a professional hypnotist, hypnotherapist, actor and martial arts instructor who somehow still finds time to run five day training courses in hypnosis - but how does he see himself?

‘I see myself as an edu-tainer,’ he laughs down the line from his Swindon home. ‘A mixture of educator and entertainer.’

.....Perhaps we’d better start at the beginning. How did his interest in hypnotism start?

‘It’s that Dr Who’s fault,’ he reminisces. ‘I was about 11 and therefore smaller than most people about me so I suppose I felt helpless. And then this marvellous character turned up on the show.

‘His name was the Master and through his hypnotic powers and malevolent stare –

(Actor’s note: A  digression; the show I saw, Logopolis, featured the third actor to play the part, Anthony Ainley. But then I discovered videotape and the original and arguably best portrayer of the role, Roger Delgado, who had a superb stare...)

.....he was able to turn people into his helpless puppets for his schemes to take over the world. That was it. I was hooked. I was going to be a hypnotist and take over the world.’

 Didn’t the fact that the Dr’s arch enemy was always beaten by the forces of good put him off a little?

‘Not at all. He always bounced back. I had found my calling. I was going to be a hypnotist.’

And how did he begin his diabolical scheme?

 ‘....I went to the library,’ he confesses. ‘And then to every second-hand bookshop and jumble sale I could find and soon amassed probably the best library on hypnotism to be found in the whole of Swindon.’

And what did Paul do with his new-found abilities?

‘After a lot of research and looking in the mirror,’ another laugh, ‘I was finally able at the age of 12 to find someone who was willing to let me experiment on him. He was a school pal and it worked. Of course, the flaw in my method quickly became apparent.’

Which was..?

‘I had done the classic pilot’s mistake. I had learned how to take off – but hadn’t learned how to land.’

Oh dear...

‘Luckily, when I told him to wake up he did. And after my heart started beating again I decided there and then I needed to really study my chosen craft...’

Was that the beginning of your own educational leanings?

‘That and Johnny Ball,’ he laughs winningly. ‘More BBC. Dr Who got me hooked and then Johnny Ball made things that I found difficult – like maths and that – interesting by making them entertaining. He showed tricks with numbers that I still use today. That’s what we’re trying to do with our courses. Educate through fun.

But there is a serious side to this, naturally. With our course we teach the basics of hypnosis and top of that list is safety. We make sure that our students go out there as fully trained hypnotists and able to handle all eventualities.’

Hmm. This might be the right time to ask Paul what he thinks hypnotism actually is?

He goes silent for a while, then, ‘Hypnotism is a means of changing your belief system.  Adapting your core beliefs, shall we say. For instance, in my stage act often I will do things like putting a twenty pound note in your hand – and then telling you that you can’t close it. If you can close it the money is yours.’

Paul specialises in treating phobias – and pushing people to their limits....

‘Ah! Now we are talking some of my major interests. I specialisise in peak performance.’

Pardon? I didn’t know Mr. D was into cra...., er, cult 1990’s TV shows?

‘Ha.  Peak Performance in our parlance is taking what you have and making you awesome at it. Let’s take stage fright. It’s a common problem that often stops good actors reaching the heights of their abilities. It’s a psychological thing. We sit down and I would gently talk their core beliefs around and remove the mental barriers that are causing the trouble. Basically, people get in their own way a lot and I help them around it.’

Are we on to phobias now?

‘Exactly! In many ways phobias are learned – don’t go near that edge, watch out for that dog, it’ll bite you, etc. What I do is go in and change your mind. I engage your imagination and make you look at your fear differently, rationalise it.’

So he could help my chronic fear of heights then?

‘Oh yes. I would take you to the core of why and when you started being scared and then work from there. The commonest thing I treat is smoking. I help you lose your emotional – it’s a combination of physical, but mostly emotional - reliance on the weed.’

Is there any truth to the old saw that there are certain people that can’t be hypnotised?

He shakes his head, which is a bit silly as I can’t see him. He tells me what he’s done then goes on...

‘My personal conviction is that anyone can be hypnotised but not every hypnotist can hypnotise everyone. But hopefully with the number of students passing through my course there will be someone out there for everyone....’

And speaking of something for everyone, how was Paul infected by the acting bug?

‘Actually it goes back to school again and being talked into a school play, at which I discovered that a, I could actually do it, and b, there was something at last I was actually good at! Drama club, here I come!’

And from there onward and upward?

‘You might say that! I ended up in the lead of a school play, the eponymous Gregory in ‘Gregory’s Girl.’ And from there to various local drama groups, but still no formal training.’

So back to the first question, how does our multi-talented Thesp./Mesmerist see himself in the er, final analysis? As a hypnotist or as an actor?

‘An entertainer. Hypnotism is just part of me now. I don’t even think about it anymore, I just am. Acting I’m still learning, martial arts is on-going, so entertainer is good enough for me.’

And  one last question. Why the sinister-looking beard? Is it the Master's diabolical influence again?

‘For a show, for a show, I don’t normally look this scruffy! I'm currently understudying Fagin in the current SALOS ( that's Swindon’s premier musical theatre company) production of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver. Seats at all prices!

Oh, and there’re some film roles I can’t discuss,’ he suddenly remembers with a twinkle in his eye.

You know, some people can just be too darn talented....

.....

If you want more information on Paul or his courses, his website is

www.pauldawkins.com

....and tell them sinner not saint sent you!

Photographs by Lisa Coleman @ www.puttyfoot.com