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Ian Holm asks Nico about how he got on with his brothers, which leads into a discussion about Jack, and Nico's feeling that I've been too cruel to him in the script. Rodney Bennett joins in, and although Nico seems to think I cut the objectionable lines, I have a feeling I left them in...

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ss7220

Can I ask a very impersonal or perhaps personal question? Were you very close to your brothers? Oh yes. All five. Your family? All five. Your family altogether? All five. Of course. I had pretty good rows with Michael, the nearest one to me. In fact the last time we met we had an absolutely flaming row. I leaned out the flat window and threw something into the bottom of the street. But if we had met the next time it would have all blown over. We went through different phases. Jack for quite a long time. In a strange sort of way now, Jack is becoming a favorite all over again. This is a sort of difficult thing to describe. This relates to the photographs in my album. Which of course Andrew has seen all of them. Andrew does what the hell he does, I don't know, blows them up. Wonderful pictures. Now. Only for the last 6 months there are pictures of these people around the walls, these old things. The chap that catches my eye the whole time is Jack, as a baby, as a small boy. And later on. Of course I was absolutely devoted to him. But he - he - he was treated rather cruelly. But it makes good dramatic sense. Yes. But there is one unkind thing in this last passage, to scrub these two lines. Whether he does or doesn't is up to him. In the scene with Mary Hodgson, well of course, the actual scene is more or less alright. But before that, when he is talking to Michael, yes, and then Mary bursts in, and says what are you doing? That is so completely unlike her, and so completely unfair on Jack. Unlike her? To do that? Well no, see she would have opened the door, I think she would've probably said don't talk to me like that, or said get out of the room, or something like that. She would never never say anything like bollocks, that didn't exist in those days. From Jack's point of view. I don't want him to turn out too hard. It's only taking out 2 lines. Can one use it this way -- that because, we can play those lines in two ways. Either on their face value. Or we can play them in terms of Jack's agitation. Or nervousness with what is about to happen with his fiancé. With Mary. In other words, that shock arises out of his nervousness about -- so that it sort of takes Michael by surprise. The way that we can show it is very untypical of Jack. The way that Michael looks at him. Yes. I don't think that's a problem. I think he's agreed, two lines take them out, which was, Michael says something like she's not a servant. Jack says she's a servant. Michael says she's one of us. She's not to me. That's right. That was about it. Yes. You see he would be-- he would never say, she's a servant. No never. Michael would say, I'm in a bad mood. That was about it. But he would never have said, she's a servant. Inconceivable. It would never happen again. It's a television play. It can. Well yes but one always looks somehow for treating dramatic moments in an unexpected way to give them meaning beyond what is on the page. So that's very helpful to know.

Post Date - 14 Mar 2023 23:41 | Report
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