From The London Times, November 2000
Submitted by Doris
Choice Cuts: Charles Dance
The actor loves music - listening to it and playing instruments
I know that the Hollywood movie, Charlie's Angels, opens next week (Nov 24)
but they're not my angels! I have my own Charlie's Angels. Hundreds of
them, I believe, and they're a fantastic bunch - incredibly loyal.
They meet and chat on the Internet every Sunday at 7PM (actually, 6pm fortnightly on Sunday! -- contact) on a home page set up
by a lady called Mary from Milton Keynes. I guess you could call it my fan
club because they organize trips to see me in the theatre and for my
birthday this year they gave me a first edition of LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO
NIGHT and a programme from the original Broadway production.
I probably go to the cinema more than I do the theatre, perhaps because you
can leave the cinema quietly if you don't want to stay. I have just seen
THE CAR MAN at the Old Vic (London SE1) which was fantastic. I love to see
dancers strut their stuff. I recently saw STONES IN HIS POCKETS at the
Duke of York's (London WC2), which was so funny cou could feel the rows in
the stalls rocking with people falling about laughing.
I have seen Billy Elliot twice and cried twice. It has had its detractors. I
heard of one the other night, the wife of a film-maker who shall remain
nameless. She apparently dismissed it by saying that there wasn't an
original thing in it. I thought,"you silly woman": there isn't an original
thing in the cinema any more unless you are talking about how sophisticated
you can make your special effects. Just about everything's been covered,
but that doesn't mean to say a really good film can't suck you in, which is
what Billy Elliot does, constantly tugging at your emotions.
There is something about watching television all evening that I find really
energy-sapping, but I do get locked in to some of the story-lines in
CORONATION STREET (ITV, Mon,Wed,Fri & Sun, 7:30pm) because it is so well
written. I love Roy and Hayley (David Neilson and Julie Hesmondhalgh). Roy
is such a fabulous actor that I want Alan Bennett to write a TALKING HEADS
for him. All those little nuances, all that insecurity - he is divine. And
now he is married to this transsexual.
I love music: from Wagner to rock'n'roll and everything in between. I sort
of play the guitar and rather late in life I've started to learn bluegrass
banjo because I love that sound and it is very uplifting stuff. I went to a
recital at the Wigmore Hall given by Tim Pigott-Smith's son, Tom, who's a
really mean fiddler! He started with modern music and finished with
Debussy, and if I could lose myself in a part the way he can lose himself in
his music, I'd be happy.
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