Perfect Nonsense: The Argus Interview with Mangan and Macfadyen

The Argus has posted an interview with Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen talking about their roles in the play Perfect Nonsense based on PD Wodehouse.

Macfadyen, to many people still best known for stony-faced MI5 officer Tom Quinn in Spooks, plays Jeeves. With only three actors playing eight characters, plus numerous sets and costume changes, he says it is the most technical show he’s done.

“Not only are Jeeves and Bertie coping with telling the story, they are also coping with putting on a play to tell the story. They are making the sets, wheeling the sets, changing characters, trying to improvise the story with what’s to hand,” says Macfadyen.

It’s a play within a play, which begins with Bertie regaling a tale to his pals at The Drones Club. When they suggest he put on a play to tell his story, he hires a theatre.

Things get in a muddle when there is no one to play legendary literary heroes Gussie Fink-Nottle, Stiffy Byng and Roderick Spode. Naturally, in comes Jeeves – and for this show, his valeting colleague Seppings – to help.

Also

As for the pair’s relationship, Macfadyen quotes Wodehouse.

“There is a sense of them being married. Bertie says it is two men of iron will living in close proximity to each other.”

Read the full interview on The Argus

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Ripper Street S2: Official sites

Follow the official websites for the second series of Ripper Street!

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Ripper Street S2: The Trailer is Here!

Ripper Street Series 2 premieres on BBC One on Wednesday 28 Oct at 9 pm and December 1st on BBC America.

See video
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Perfect Nonsense: By Jingo Jeeves!

By jingo Jeeves, Bertie’s in a jam!

JEEVES and Wooster have got themselves into a bit of a pickle in the pre-West End run of their play. At the last minute, the technical chaps at Richmond Theatre, Surrey, had to raise the level of the stage to stop the scenery falling over.

It means audience members who booked seats in the first few rows of the stalls can barely see the top half of acting duo Matthew Macfadyen and Stephen Mangan as they gamely bring P.G. Wodehouse’s most famous creations to life.

‘Some even resorted to leaping to their feet when they fear they are missing something, which is dashed disconcerting for all concerned,’ says a theatregoer. During one performance, a mortified Mangan, who plays bumbling Bertie Wooster to Macfadyen’s fastidious valet Jeeves, departed from the script and inquired of a lady in the front row: ‘Can you see ANYTHING? You are sitting in front of a wall.’

But he is keen to make amends. Those affected find a gold envelope on their seats with a personal note from Bertie informing them: ‘If you telephone the nice people at the box office they will be happy to arrange complimentary tickets for my play when it moves to The Duke Of York’s Theatre, where you will be able to see me properly.’

17 Oct 2013 Daily Mail (thanks to Lorna)

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Ripper Street S2: New Images

RTE has posted several new images from Ripper Street including the one above.  You can view all of the new images on RTE.

In addition, TV Wise has posted a synopsis of the first episode, which airs on BBC One on 28 Oct at 9 pm

In the opening episode of show’s second season, the memory of Jack The Ripper may be fading but East London has found no peace; H Division’s beat is more chaotic and lawless than ever. So when a sergeant from Limehouse’s neighbouring K Division is found, hurled from a Whitechapel tenement window on to the iron railings below, Reid is quick to act. If the police are to be so publicly assaulted on his streets, what hope for law-abiding civilian life? Investigations into the man’s activities lead them to the newly emergent Chinatown of the Limehouse dockside; and there into the orbit of K-Division’s Inspector Jedediah Shine. Shine’s conviction is that his sergeant has fallen victim to a Triad turf war in this new market, but Jackson discovers evidence of a newly synthesised and devastatingly powerful opiate that leads Reid to different conclusions. And a dread fear that a new kind of hell is to be released on to his streets.

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