Prolific Actresses
Last night one of the NYC PBS stations ran episode one of a six-part Brit drama from 2017, River, starring Stellan Skarsgård in the title role as a detective seemingly losing his mind. He sees and communicates not only with his recently murdered partner but other dead folks as well. I chuckled at the presence of two ubiquitous, brilliant actresses: Nicola Walker as the dead partner, and Lesley Manville as a superior officer. Born in London in 1970, Walker is currently doing another crime series, Annika, set in Glasgow. In that her character constantly breaks the so-called fourth wall to address the audience. Her career began in 1994 with a small part in Four Weddings and a Funeral. I first became acquainted with her work in Spooks, one of my all-time favorite shows, known as MI5 stateside for obvious PC reasons. She was in 57 episodes from 2003–2011. Although there are only 51 titles under her name at IMDb, she has appeared in multiple episodes of series, seven of Dr. Who, and 24 each of Last Tango in Halifax and Unforgotten, to name a few. She has also done classics, BBC productions of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, Dicken’s Oliver Twist, and Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. On stage she won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and has been nominated twice in the same category for a BAFTA for her work in TV. She is one of those rare plain females whom the camera loves. She is a mom of one, naming her son Harry after the lead character of MI5… There are 114 titles under Manville’s name. Born in Brighton in 1956, a trained soprano, she has received five Bafta and one Oscar nominations, the latter for Phantom Thread (2017). She won the 2014 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance for Ibsen’s Ghosts. Her career began in 1974. On screen she has appeared in Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Romeo & Juliet (2013) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). On TV she has appeared in 79 episodes of Emmerdale Farm from -74-’76, 19 of The Crown, playing Princess Margaret, and five of Dangerous Liaisons, to name just three. She has appeared in BBC productions of Dickens’ David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol, and The Queen, playing Margaret Thatcher. Married briefly twice, she is a mom of a son, the father Gary Oldman. Here are Walker & Manville in a publicity still from River:
I’ve completed round four of my latest work of fiction, Coincidence, a novella. It will come in at just over 23,000 words. I found that Google Docs allows one to email a PDF copy. Unfortunately, it’s not correctible. Still, I may be able to submit a later, proofed version to Amazon, which might eliminate the need to rent Microsoft Word for a month or two. The next step is another proofreading. The creative part is 99% done. As I’ve learned, no book is ever completely finished.
Looks like I gave up on the book shop too soon today. I assumed the flurries at ten AM were the start of the storm. Hours later it still hasn’t begun. Given the lack of sun, I would have had to have found a spot where I would have been able to set up a display right beside the car so that I could sit in it while I waited for customers to show interest. It was too cold to stand outside for more than minutes at a time. It feels like a lost opportunity.
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